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The Central Highlands of Sri Lanka and Papahānaumokuākea in Hawai’i were added to the list of World Heritage sites by UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, currently meeting in Brasilia. The Committee continues its consideration of natural sites for inscription.
Originally submitted for inscription as a mixed cultural and natural site, only the outstanding natural values of the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka were recognized by the Committee.
Sri Lanka’s Central Highlands are of prime importance for biodiversity conservation. Its largely undisturbed forests are home to the unique Sri Lanka Leopard, and the only habitats of many threatened plants and animals.
“This new inscription recognises and strengthens the conservation efforts of the Sri Lankan government,” says Tim Badman, Head of IUCN’s World Heritage Programme. “IUCN supports the request of the World Heritage Committee for a new management plan of the site to be established by Sri Lanka within a year”.
Papahānaumokuākea was added to the World Heritage List as a mixed natural and cultural site. One of the largest marine protected areas on the world, the site exemplifies both the critical importance of our seas for world heritage and the inextricable link between culture and nature.
Papahānaumokuākea comprises a major portion of the world’s longest and oldest volcanic chain, and is a unique testimony of hotspot volcanism. Many endangered or threatened species live in Papahānaumokuākea, and some depend solely on its habitats for survival. They include the critically endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal, four endemic bird species, and six species of endangered plants such as the Fan Palm.
Because of its isolation and high degree of protection, Papahānaumokuākea provides unrivalled examples of reef ecosystems which are still dominated by top predators such as sharks,” says Tim Badman. “This feature has been lost from most other island environments due to human activity.”
As the advisory body on natural sites to UNESCO, IUCN conducted thorough expert evaluation missions to candidate sites throughout the year, and presented its recommendations to the World Heritage Committee, currently meeting in Brasilia, Brazil.
For more information or to set up interviews, please contact:
Pia Drzewinski IUCN Media Relations, m +41 79 857 4072, e [email protected]
Brian Thomson IUCN Media Manager m +41 79 721 8326, e [email protected]
Photos, audio and video material are available at/from: | <urn:uuid:52b77ef4-3413-46f3-8d90-aeb97c9f0368> | {
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As ICs began to incorporate hundreds of gates and thousands of transistors, the computers they enabled were harnessed to speed the design task and eliminate errors. This process is called CAD (Computer Aided Design) or EDA (Electronic Design Automation). IBM pioneered EDA in the late 1950s with documentation of the 700 series computers. By 1966 James Koford and his colleagues at IBM Fishkill were capturing SLT hybrid circuit module (1964 Milestone) designs on graphical displays, checking them for errors and automatically converting the information into mask patterns. After Koford joined Fairchild R&D he worked with Hugh Mays, Ed Jones, and others to apply this process to monolithic ICs. Their efforts created logic simulators (FAIRSIM), test program generators, and place and route software for gate arrays and standard cells (1967 Milestone) that laid the ground work for generations of EDA tools.
Two important EDA projects originated outside the mainstream of the industry. Larry Nagel and Donald Pederson, with later contributions by Richard Newton, at U.C. Berkeley developed the SPICE (Simulation Program with IC Emphasis) circuit simulation program in the 1960s. A new methodology described in the 1979 Introduction to VLSI Systems by Lynn Conway of Xerox, PARC and Carver Mead of California Institute of Technology demystified the process of chip design for system designers.
Commercial logic synthesis packages from Cadence and Synopsys in the 1980s were stimulated by research at U.C. Berkeley (SIS), U.C.L.A. (RASP), and University of Colorado, Boulder (BOLD). These, together with advancements in place and route, logic simulation, and design rule verification from other vendors, allowed IC design productivity to keep pace with increasing device complexity.
Koford, J. S., Sporzynski, G. A., and Strickland, P. R. "Using a Graphic Data Processing System to Design Artwork for Manufacturing Hybrid Integrated Circuits," Proceedings of the Fall Joint Computer Conference, San Francisco, CA, 1966, pp. 229-246.
Frohman-Bentchkowsky, D., Vadasz, L. "Computer-aided design and characterization of MOS integrated circuits," Solid-State Circuits Conference. Digest of Technical Papers. 1968 IEEE International, Vol. XI (Feb 1968) pp. 68-69.
Zucker, J., Crawford, B. "Graphical Layout System for IC Mask Design," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, Vol.18, Issue 1 (Jan 1971) pp. 163-173.
Nagel, L. W, and Pederson, D. O. SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis), Memorandum No. ERL-M382, University of California, Berkeley, Apr. 1973.
Mead, Carver and Conway, Lynn. Introduction to VLSI Systems (Addison-Wesley, December 1979).
Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, Alberto (Cadence and Synopsys), an oral history (2008-10-29) Transcript in process
Hailey, Shawn & Kim (Meta Software) The Silicon Genesis Interviews (10.29.1997). Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California.
Hon, Robert W. and Sequin, Carlo H. (Editors). A Guide to LSI Implementation (Second Edition) (Palo Alto, CA: Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, January 1980).
Hiltzik, Michael. Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age (HarperCollins Publishers, 1999) pp. 302-341.
Scheffer, Louis ; Lavagno, Luciano; Martin, Grant. (Editors) Electronic Design Automation for Integrated Circuits Handbook. (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2005). | <urn:uuid:04b92b3f-054c-4458-82b9-dd3601eb8aeb> | {
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Found in Lindow Moss, Cheshire
Height: 1.690 m (when he was alive)
P&EE 1984 10-2 1
From: Lindow Moss, Cheshire (found in 1985)
Date: mid-1st century AD
This young man from the north of Britain met a horrific death. Archaeologists think that he was probably a human sacrifice .
Before he was killed, it is thought that he was given some special bread and a drink containing mistletoe. He was then taken to the marsh. First a couple of blows from something heavy smashed his skull, then he was strangled with a thin length of cord. By now he was probably dead, but even so his throat was cut, then finally he was placed face down in the bog. | <urn:uuid:8338e06b-36a6-4630-89b4-03625d61ae02> | {
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The best and smartest uses for energy are a perennial hot topic on a global scale. Looking for sustainable models of energy use is an industry in and of itself, fueled by consumer demand for better options beyond traditional fossil fuels.
The cost of that energy impacts the world. From gas costs to home prices, from deforestation for paper manufacturing to the cost of shipping, from environmental quality to our own health – energy production and cost impacts lifestyles worldwide.
As the planet moves to a more sustainable model, an interesting pivot is taking place. Instead of such a steadfast focus on conservation, as there has been for the past 50+ years, there’s more of a push for smarter energy use. This is possible with modern technology and more access to energy sources like wind and solar power. People are searching for smarter ways to obtain energy in the first place, and not just how to use less of it.
The uber-connected world has done wonders for renewable energy. For one thing, people can see examples of alternative forms of energy at work in other parts of the world. For another, organizations that are interested in better energy use can have a better outreach approach. People know more about renewable and sustainable energy than ever before, and much of that is due to communication technology. With heightened awareness comes more of a worldwide determination to do better when it comes to energy consumption.
Better Use, Not Less
Conservation is an important concept but not the answer to the world’s energy crisis. While using less energy will make it last longer, using the exact same kind of energy does not solve a huge problem: eventually fossil fuels WILL run out. Even as people use less of these fossil fuels for individual uses, the global usage rate overall is at an all-time high. We are still burning through fossil fuels and at an alarmingly high rate.
This is why renewable energy technology is so important. When energy sources are never-ending or at least replaceable, conservation is not as important. Humans should still be good stewards of energy use but much of that improved responsibility comes from sourcing – not volume of use.
The demand for renewable energy is making them more affordable too. In some areas of the world, solar energy is forecast to cost less than gasoline in the near future. People will be able to shift to better, alternative forms of energy and it will mean higher sustainability. Combine alternate forms of energy with the technological revolution and we have a solution. More and more people around the world use online businesses rather than traditional brick and mortar. Companies continue to invest in technology to give customers an immersive online experience without them physically having to be there which creates an overall decrease in carbon footprint of that consumer.
The Bottom Line
A shift to smarter energy sourcing from a strictly conservation model benefits everyone. Renewable energy has the potential to power the world for much longer than fossil fuels alone, leading to higher sustainability of life and less of a negative environmental impact. | <urn:uuid:3c6f0ec6-652d-4894-b603-f5e38bdebc6a> | {
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The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity mission officially ended last week, as we accepted the reality that Oppy had gone silent forever.
Engineered to last only three months, Oppy persevered for nearly 15 years and traveled over 28 miles, working longer and traveling farther on an extraterrestial surface than any other lander.
Oppy’s last transmission, translated into plain-speak, is almost heartbreaking, if we allow ourselves the indulgence that rovers, like humans, can feel: “My battery is low and it’s getting dark."
Repeated efforts to revive Oppy failed. Even the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” didn’t help. Sometimes, love isn’t all you need.
And, so, as if speaking to a departed friend, NASA sent one final transmission: Billy Holiday’s crooning, “I’ll Be Seeing You.” Good-bye, Oppy. And thank you.
Oppy taught us much. Among its many scientific achievements was finding evidence that Mars once had flowing water, and hence may have been able to sustain life. Oppy discovered hematite pebbles, nicknamed “blueberries,” littering the Martian landscape. As realized by University of Utah geology professor Marjorie Chan, these were strikingly analogous to rocks formed by groundwater in southern Utah.
These discoveries may yield no immediate translational benefits. But what Oppy also helped teach us is arguably even deeper: The STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and math — do more than provide us with practical advances, as important as those are. They also help shape ideas. Key ideas about our universe. And hence about ourselves.
Ideas so important that people have been willing to die for them, and to kill for them — as history repeatedly shows. In 1600, the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned alive for promoting what was then heresy, but is now standard cosmology — that stars are suns with their own planets. He repeatedly refused to recant.
One of Bruno’s inquisitors, the theologian Robert Bellarmine, subsequently also confronted Galileo Galilei about another heretical cosmological idea: That the earth moved, and was not the center of the universe. Galileo was found suspect of heresy, and remained under house arrest for life. The Catholic Church ultimately apologized — in 1992. Yet still today, roughly one-quarter of Americans believe that the sun revolves around the earth, rather than the other way round.
Like the earth, comets orbit the sun, but this too wasn’t understood in earlier times. The accurate prediction of the arrival of Halley’s comet was of deep conceptual importance, as Neil de Grasse Tyson’s remake of “Cosmos” helped inform us. The prediction indicated that comets were not omens of disaster — etymologically, “bad stars” — or signs of an angry god seeking revenge, but were instead subject to natural, discoverable laws.
Science education matters. Because knowledge matters. Because understanding matters. Because truth matters.
Science requires imagination to create new ideas and find connections between old ones. But science also requires an empirical reality check. It’s not just imagination; it’s “imagination, in a tight straightjacket,” as Richard Feynman notably proclaimed.
Science isn’t always right, particularly in early stages when evidence remains incomplete. But its ability to undergo correction is its strength.
A Catholic priest, Georges Lemaître, proposed an expanding universe and the “Big Bang” theory — against then-prevailing scientific wisdom. But he resented Pope Pius XII’s proclamation that such findings provided scientific validation for Catholicism. Lemaître’s work became scientifically accepted because of confirming observations, not because of a papal fiat regarding Genesis.
Many Genesis claims are demonstrably false. Night and day were not upon the earth, and fruit trees didn’t grow on earth (day three), before the sun and stars were created (day four).
Such myths obscure a more astonishing truth, unavailable to the peoples of millennia ago. As Carl Sagan and Tyson have helped us understand, we are star stuff. The atoms that make the earth, and the fruit trees and our very selves were forged in the nuclear crucibles of the stars.
We are not the center of the universe. Yet we can find awe and beauty and inspiration in being connected to our universe in a literal as well as metaphorical sense.
Oppy’s journey has ended. But our larger journey, “to follow knowledge like a sinking star, beyond the utmost bound of human thought” (Alfred, Lord Tennyson), has just begun.
Gregory A. Clark, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Utah, acknowledges and appreciates his personal connections with multiple persons involved with these missions. He remains optimistic about the eventual discovery of extraterrestrial life— although not, as Brigham Young proclaimed, on the sun. | <urn:uuid:405ce0d0-3b50-4fc9-8f37-f0f4178c2cae> | {
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Three panels of the Safe Motherhood Quilt Project will be on display in the atrium of the Selby Public Library during the last week of October. The Safe Motherhood Quilt is a national effort developed to draw public attention to the current maternal death rates in the United States, as well as to the gross underreporting of maternal deaths. The Quilt is made up of individually designed squares. Each one is devoted to a woman in the US who died of pregnancy-related causes since 1982, the year after which no improvement has been made in American maternal mortality. The panels on display will include sixty squares; more than three hundred that have been made for the project to date. Ina May Gaskin, the project’s originator, will present the three panels in the Geldbart Auditorium of the Selby Public Library on Saturday, October 31st at 11:00 am.
“In order to reduce the rising U.S. maternal death rate, we're first going to have to put together a national structure for ascertaining, counting and analyzing every single maternal death,” says Ina May Gaskin, CPM, originator of the Safe Motherhood Quilt Project. “I know of no other wealthy country with a more underfunded, haphazard, secretive, and flawed way of reporting maternal deaths than ours has right now. How can we discuss health care reform and ignore this issue?”
In 2005, the United States reported 15.1 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, up from 7.5 per 100,000 in 1982. According to the World Health Organization, the U.S. ranks lower than at least 34 other nations in maternal mortality. Many maternal deaths are closely related to caesarean sections—bowel obstruction, anesthesia accident, pulmonary embolism, cut uterine arteries, placental abnormalities, ectopic pregnancy, and post-surgical infection. Some causes of maternal mortality, such as toxemia, amniotic fluid embolism, hemorrhage, heart attack and uterine rupture are not related to cesarean section. Only 21 states include a question on the death certificate asking if the deceased woman had been pregnant in the weeks or months before her death. The U.S. maternal death rate is actually 1.3 to 3 times more than what is reported in vital statistics records, due to under-reporting of such deaths (estimate by Centers for Disease Control, 1998).
The Safe Motherhood Quilt Project is the vision of Ina May Gaskin, midwifery pioneer and author of Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth and the classic Spiritual Midwifery, who has been instrumental in bringing this issue to the public light. Ina May Gaskin is internationally recognized as the mother of modern midwifery, and has been credited with the re-emergence of direct-entry midwifery in the United States since the early 1970's. Ms. Gaskin is founder and director of the Farm Midwifery Center, founded in 1971 and located near Summertown, Tennessee. By 1996, the Farm Midwifery Center had handled more than 2200 births, with remarkably good outcomes, noted for low rates of intervention, morbidity and mortality. Ms. Gaskin herself has attended more than 1200 births.
In addition to presenting the Safe Motherhood Quilt Project, Ms. Gaskin will be participating in the panel discussion Maternal Health Care in the 21st Century: Sarasota and Beyond, a progrom sponsored by the Sarasota-Manatee Chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW), Florida Friends of Midwives (FFOM), and the Sarasota Commission on the Status of Women (SCSW), to be held at the Hyatt Regency Sarasota on November 1st at 3:00 pm.
For more information about these events, please contact Laura Gilkey at [email protected] / (941) 915-8115. For more information about the Safe Motherhood Quilt Project, please visit www.rememberthemothers.org. | <urn:uuid:a420ed3b-d097-47d5-8cf8-fe4f19f423b0> | {
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One of the most influential justices of all time, William Joseph Brennan, Jr., engineered many of the Supreme Court's landmark civil rights rulings. He championed the rights of individuals, particularly women and minorities, and his support of First Amendment freedoms was unwavering.
Brennan was born in 1906 and raised in Newark, New Jersey, the second of eight children of Irish immigrants. His blue-collar upbringing and public school education gave way to academic excellence and he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and then Harvard Law School.
Brennan established his career at a Newark law firm and after a brief stint in the U.S. Army, he returned to the firm, specializing in labor law. The rising star was named to New Jersey's Superior Court in 1949 and then to the New Jersey Supreme Court three years later.
Though Brennan was considered a progressive jurist, President Eisenhower, a Republican, appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1956. Appointing a relatively young Roman Catholic from the Northeast likely was a shrewd political move by Eisenhower, who was facing re-election at the time.
However, Eisenhower's appointment would prove to have profound and lasting impact on U.S. public policy.
Brennan's appointment came in the aftermath of the landmark school desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education. Brennan wrote several opinions upholding the principles of the Brown ruling, including Cooper v. Aaron, which forced school officials to accelerate classroom integration, and Keyes v. School District No. 1, which applied Brown to a Northern school district for the first time.
However, Brennan is best-known for two rulings: Baker v. Carr and New York Times v. Sullivan. Baker v. Carr gave federal courts - not elected officials - the power to ensure the fairness of voting districts, thus the "one person, one vote" doctrine. New York Times v. Sullivan reshaped libel law, making it more difficult for public officials to sue the media for libel.
Brennan was known as an articulate, persistent, and strategic consensus-builder who always kept his eye on the big picture. He earned the respect and affection of his conservative colleagues and often served as a bridge between the high court's two ideological factions. Warm, friendly, and charismatic, he eschewed formal titles and preferred to be called, simply, "Bill."
By the time Brennan retired in 1990, his 34-year tenure had spanned eight presidencies, during which he authored 1,360 opinions. Only five justices have served longer, and only one has authored more opinions.
Brennan died in 1997 at the age of 91. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery next to his first wife, Marjorie, the mother of his three children, and his second wife, Mary, who he married after the death of his first wife.
Sources: Brennan Center for Justice, New York Times, Washington Post, Britannica Online Encyclopedia | <urn:uuid:7e91914e-619b-48fa-b32d-ee981f49caf5> | {
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This week, demographers from around the world are gathering in San Francisco at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America (PAA), to discuss their research findings on issues related to migration, health, and population wellbeing. Princeton University’s Center for Research on Child Wellbeing is presenting three main initiatives at the conference: The Future of Children, The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, and the Princeton Global Network and Child Migration. The Future of Children published a volume on Fragile Families in fall 2010 and researchers continue to build on these findings using the Fragile Families Study data. One example of such work being presented at PAA is the investigation of the role of genes in explaining child behavior outcomes.
In the Future of Children volume on Fragile Families, Jane Waldfogel, Terry-Ann Craigie, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn suggest that several factors play important roles in explaining why children in families with unmarried parents may have poorer outcomes than those of two married parents. These likely include parental resources, parent relationship quality, parenting quality, parental mental health, and father involvement. Another key element that should be considered is family instability, which refers to whether children grow up with the same parent(s) that were present at birth and tends to be higher among unmarried parents. It is assumed that children will have more positive behavioral outcomes when there are fewer disruptions or new partners entering and exiting the household, but researchers continue to investigate this hypothesis.
One element that has recently gained attention regarding its influence on family stability and child outcomes is genes. To examine the role of genes in child behavior and wellbeing, the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, an ongoing birth cohort study of about 5,000 children and their parents, the majority of whom are unmarried, collected DNA samples from the children and their mothers around the time of the child’s ninth birthday. These genetic data, which will made available through a contract process this fall, are being analyzed with respect to their role in the relationship between family stability and child behavioral outcomes. Early analyses find evidence that genes moderate the relationship between family instability and children’s prosocial behavior. As presented at the Population Association of America, authors Colter Mitchell, Sara McLanahan, Daniel Notterman, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn find evidence that for some genotypes, larger increases in prosocial behavior occur among cases in which a non-resident biological father enters the household and larger decreases in prosocial behavior in cases in which the biological father exits the household.
As indicated in the Future of Children, there are several observable factors that likely explain why children with unmarried parents often fare worse than those of two-parent families, and the link between family instability and genes is only one component of this complex issue. Future research should provide further insight into the role of these and other elements. More literature on the impact of family structure and instability can be found in the Future of Children volumes on Fragile Families and Marriage and Child Wellbeing. Visit the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing website or email [email protected] for information on the Study and updates on the new genetic data. Also, check out www.futureofchildren.org for more publications on child wellbeing. | <urn:uuid:5befdd41-9564-434b-b6e1-d0617fb7a683> | {
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During this period the moon will reach its new phase on Wednesday September 20th. At this time the moon will be located near the sun and will be invisible at night. This weekend the waning crescent moon will rise just before dawn and will not pose any problems to those trying to view meteor activity. The estimated total hourly meteor rates for evening observers this week is near 4 for those viewing from the northern hemisphere and 3 for those located south of the equator. For morning observers the estimated total hourly rates should be near 14 as seen from mid-northern latitudes and 10 from the southern tropics. The actual rates will also depend on factors such as personal light and motion perception, local weather conditions, alertness and experience in watching meteor activity. Note that the hourly rates listed below are estimates as viewed from dark sky sites away from urban light sources. Observers viewing from urban areas will see less activity as only the brighter meteors will be visible from such locations.
The radiant (the area of the sky where meteors appear to shoot from) positions and rates listed below are exact for Saturday night/Sunday morning September 16/17. These positions do not change greatly day to day so the listed coordinates may be used during this entire period. Most star atlases (available at science stores and planetariums) will provide maps with grid lines of the celestial coordinates so that you may find out exactly where these positions are located in the sky. A planisphere or computer planetarium program is also useful in showing the sky at any time of night on any date of the year. Activity from each radiant is best seen when it is positioned highest in the sky, either due north or south along the meridian, depending on your latitude. It must be remembered that meteor activity is rarely seen at the radiant position. Rather they shoot outwards from the radiant so it is best to center your field of view so that the radiant lies at the edge and not the center. Viewing there will allow you to easily trace the path of each meteor back to the radiant (if it is a shower member) or in another direction if it is a sporadic. Meteor activity is not seen from radiants that are located far below the horizon. The positions below are listed in a west to east manner in order of right ascension (celestial longitude). The positions listed first are located further west therefore are accessible earlier in the night while those listed further down the list rise later in the night.
These sources of meteoric activity are expected to be active this week.
The chi Cygnids (CCY) are a new discovery due to an outburst observed on September 15, 2015. These meteors are expected to be active from September 8-17, with maximum occurring on September 13-14. The radiant currently lies at 20:08 (302) +32 which places it in southern Cygnus, 4 degrees southeast of the 4th magnitude star known as eta Cygni. Rates are expected to be less than 1 per hour no matter your location. This radiant lies highest in the sky near 22:00 Local Summer Time (LST) . With an entry velocity of 15 km/sec., the average chi Cygnid meteor would be very slow.
The center of the large Anthelion (ANT) radiant is currently located at 00:28 (007) +04. This position lies in southern Pisces, 5 degrees southwest of the 4th magnitude star known as delta Piscium. Due to the large size of this radiant, Anthelion activity may also appear from northwestern Cetus as well as Pisces. This radiant is best placed near 0200 LST, when it lies on the meridian and is located highest in the sky. Hourly rates at this time should be near 2 no matter your location. With an entry velocity of 30 km/sec., the average Anthelion meteor would be of medium-slow velocity.
The September Epsilon Perseids (SPE) are active from September 3 through October 3 with the peak occurring on the night of September 9/10. The radiant is currently located at 03:44 (056) +40. This position lies in southern Perseus, 3 degrees southwest of the 3rd magnitude star known as epsilon Persei. The radiant is best placed near 0500 LST, when it lies highest above the horizon. Rates are expected to be near 1 per hour as seen from the northern hemisphere and less than 1 as seen from the southern hemisphere. With an entry velocity of 65 km/sec., most activity from this radiant would be swift.
The nu Eridanids (NUE) were co-discovered by Japanese observers using SonotoCo and Juergen Rendtel and Sirko Molau of the IMO. Activity from this long-period stream stretches from August 24 all the way to November 16. Maximum activity occurs on September 24. The radiant currently lies at 04:44 (071) +05, which places near the Taurus/Orion border, 3 degrees southwest of the 4th magnitude star known as Pi4 Orionis. This area of the sky is best seen during the last dark hour before dawn when the radiant lies highest in a dark sky. Current rates are expected to be near 1 per hour during this period no matter your location. With an entry velocity of 67 km/sec., the average meteor from this source would be of swift velocity. Some experts feel that these meteors are early members of the Orionid shower, which peaks on October 22.
The Daytime Sextantids (DSX) are not well known due to the fact that the radiant lies close to the sun and these meteors are only visible during the last couple of hours before dawn. The radiant is currently located at 09:32 (143) +03. This position lies in western Hydra, 3 degrees east of the 4th magnitude star known as theta Hydrae. This area of the sky is best placed in the sky during the last hour before dawn, when it lies highest above the horizon in a dark sky. Since the maximum is not until September 29, current rates would be most likely less than 1 per hour no matter your location. Spotting any of this activity would be a notable accomplishment. With an entry velocity of 33km/sec., most activity from this radiant would be of medium-slow speed.
As seen from the mid-northern hemisphere (45N) one would expect to see approximately 10 sporadic meteors per hour during the last hour before dawn as seen from rural observing sites. Evening rates would be near 3 per hour. As seen from the tropical southern latitudes (25S), morning rates would be near 7 per hour as seen from rural observing sites and 2 per hour during the evening hours. Locations between these two extremes would see activity between the listed figures.
The list below offers the information from above in tabular form. Rates and positions are exact for Saturday night/Sunday morning except where noted in the shower descriptions.
|SHOWER||DATE OF MAXIMUM ACTIVITY||CELESTIAL POSITION||ENTRY VELOCITY||CULMINATION||HOURLY RATE||CLASS|
|RA (RA in Deg.) DEC||Km/Sec||Local Summer Time||North-South|
|chi Cygnids (CCY)||Sept 13-14||20:08 (302) +32||15||22:00||<1 – <1||IV|
|Anthelions (ANT)||–||00:28 (007) +04||30||02:00||2 – 2||II|
|September Epsilon Perseids (SPE)||Sep 10||03:44 (056) +40||65||06:00||1 – <1||II|
|nu Eridanids (NUE)||Sep 24||04:44 (071) +05||67||07:00||1 – 1||IV|
|Daytime Sextantids (DSX)||Sep 29||09:32 (143) +03||33||12:00||<1 – <1||IV| | <urn:uuid:4166df17-21d5-4e06-8500-a015eea37ddc> | {
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For this week’s column we are going to let you in on a secret on how we train and look after one of the taller residents here at Flamingo Land.
The zoo is lucky to have 11 giraffes in two separate enclosures and houses at the zoo and as you can imagine that is a lot of work!
In one of our houses we have three females called Charlotte, Amber and Zara as well as a male called Shingo. Their welfare includes giving them a balanced diet. As giraffes reahc heights of nearly 16 foot, their food is placed high up to match how they would eat in the wild.
Zoo keepers have a special method of training giraffes which take many months and also looking after their hooves. At the zoo we often get asked how do we look after their feet?
The aim of the training is to be able to apply hoof oil as well as trimming and filing as necessary to improve hoof shape and maintain shape over time. This will be done through protected contact, meaning there will still be a barrier between the keeper and the giraffe but still gives us access to their feet and lower legs.
To get to this point target training is undertake with involves using a target stick for them to follow and become comfortable with.
Vocal commands such as ‘hold’ and ‘touch’ are then introduced. As they grow in confidence we can hopefully guide the giraffes to step onto a block which will be the hoof care station.
During the spring and summer season willow will be the best reward for all the giraffes, however during the winter months rewards will probably be vegetable based, such as parsnip, carrot and squash.
It can take between three and four months for a giraffe to learn to place their foot on a block, have it brushed then lift it up to be trimmed.
Charlotte (being the greediest and most confident) is progressing rapidly but with patience the others will soon follow.
Sadly the reason we have giraffes and dedicate so much to their care is because their numbers in the wild are going down.
Two giraffes calves have been born at the zoo this year as part of an international breeding programme. | <urn:uuid:5a6f284e-5149-4248-b241-8851128b4d52> | {
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BY the time you read this, workmen will have begun ripping up the track and putting aside for the museum and as a plaything for the kids, carriages from one of Australia's great tourism icons – the near-70 year old Scenic Railway at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
Not that it's the end of the line for this internationally-renowned attraction, which descends at a jaw-dropping 52 degrees for some 415 metres into the picturesque Jamison Valley, and is officially recognised as the world's steepest railway.
For come the end of March a new $30m Swiss-designed Scenic Railway will follow the same plunging route, complete with new stations at top and bottom of the line.
And it will continue a legacy that's seen the Railway since it opened in 1945 carry over 25 million passengers into the ancient rainforest of the once coal mining valleys below Katoomba.
Although tourists have, in fact, been carried down into the Jamison Valley and back up again from well before 1945 – as early as 1928 they kneeled on folded chaff bags in the open wagons of a narrow-gauge coal tramway that was the actual forerunner of the Scenic Railway.
It was in 1945 that Harry Hammond and his sister Isobel Fahey opened the Scenic Railway as we know it today, having bought the lease of one of a cobweb of "tram lines" built in the late 1800s to haul coal and kerosene shale out from the Jamison and Megalong Valleys.
Harry and Isobel's line was the steep 52-degree track from the valley floor to a junction of the Western Railway at Katoomba, and which had gone into liquidation during World War II. But knowing its history for carrying adventurous tourists in a purpose-built carriage named The Mountain Devil during the 1930s after the demise of the coal mines, the siblings bought the 52-degree line's lease to reinvigorate the tourism boom the Mountains had enjoyed before the interruption of World War II.
They registered their venture Scenic World, and as well as the Scenic Railway the company later opened Australia's first cable-car called the Scenic Skyway that traverses the Katoomba Falls gorge, and built our first revolving restaurant (at Katoomba,) a 2.4km Scenic Walkway through the canopy of the Jamison Valley's rainforest, and the Scenic Cableway into the Jamison.
But it's the Scenic Railway that's the gem as both an historic and ageless attraction… and rather than just finding themselves on the Jamison Valley floor, tourists have a choice of varying length bush tracks and boardwalks to discover the captivating world of the Valley before ascending back up to Katoomba.
Explorers as early as 1824 had noticed coal seams in fractured cliff walls in the valleys below Katoomba, but it was not until the 1860s that the first coal and kerosene shale mines opened.
Early pioneers gave landmarks and tracks interesting descriptors: Ruined Castle, the Golden Stairs, Dixon's Ladder, Narrow Neck, solitary Orphan Rock, and of course Echo Point and The Three Sisters. And when a little community sprang up in the Valley it was named Nellie's Glen after the daughter of pioneer miner, John Britty North.
Nellie's Glen soon boasted a sizeable hotel, general store, bakery, butchery, post office, public hall and a school, but when mines began to fizzle out in the late 1890s, most of the settlement was pulled down and rebuilt in Katoomba, including the hotel that was re-born as the Maldwin Guest House. The remainder was engulfed by the rainforest.
And in 1928 when the supervisor of one of the few remaining mines was asked by a group of aching bushwalkers if they could get a lift from the Jamison Valley back up to cliff- top in an empty tramway coal wagon, he readily agreed – not realising what he had started.
For soon more and more bushwalkers were making similar requests, and with declining demand for coal coupled with the recession, the coal company realised the tourism potential and built The Mountain Devil carriage with seats rather than chaff bags to kneel on, charging sixpence (5 cents) a ride until going belly-up as a result of the Second War.
In 1945 its track lease was taken-over by Harry Hammond and Isobel Fahey and, well, you know the rest…
GOING DOWN – these Scenic Railway carriages will soon be replaced with a new $30m Swiss-designed set.
PLUNGING: an idea of just how steep is this "world's steepest railway."
PIONEER Mountain Devil was innovative 1930s forerunner of today's Scenic Railway.
ONE of the first rides in the 1940s.
ORIGINAL 1878 Katoomba mine whose "trams" carried coal from the Jamison Valley up the 52 degree incline, and later passengers as well.
HISTORIC photo of Nellie's Glen that became Katoomba's short-lived first mining settlement.
(Photos courtesy Scenic Railway, Information Blue Mountains, Powerhouse Museum, Sebastian Bergmann on FlickR.) | <urn:uuid:1bf56c4c-3af7-47ae-a759-26baea7004de> | {
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In third grade we began our talk about the STAAR test. Each year students come in with many false rumors about STAAR that often catastrophize the situation. I like to take time to explain the reality of STAAR, answer all of their questions and dispel any myths they've heard. After our discussion, I like to read Hooray for Diffendoofer Day written by Dr. Seuss, with help by Lane Smith and Jack Prelutsky. What's great about this book is that it puts a silly spin on standardized testing and it also commemorates the legacy of Dr. Seuss, who was unable to finish the book before his passing. There is a second part in the back of the book that explains how this story came to be, showing his original rough drafts and drawings.
In the story students love their school, their teachers and all of the quirky things they are learning. But one day their principal informs them that they will have to take a test in 10 minutes and if they do not perform well their school will close down. Agh! Worst case scenario! I won't ruin the story, but there is a positive message that comes from it and our students always sigh in relief that our testing is nothing like theirs.
After the story we make test-taking foldables that students can use to remind them how to put their best foot forward. I downloaded the template from Savvy School Counselor on TeachersPayTeachers and let the students be creative with the title for each tab. Here are some of their completed tips: | <urn:uuid:43cf028a-8f60-4217-9259-fafb4ddd0840> | {
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The book deals with the global flows of energy and materials, and changes caused by human activities. Based on these facts, the limitations of anthropogenic energy and material flows and the resulting consequences for the development of human societies are discussed. Different scenarios for lifestyle patterns are correlated with the world´s future development of energy supply and climate. The book provides a process engineering approach to the Earth system and global development. It requires basic understanding of mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology, and provides an insight into the complex matter for readers ranging from undergraduate students to experts. | <urn:uuid:ac41f5cc-f24b-4bb9-8782-8bd7c8faf373> | {
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- a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel; recess or holiday: Schoolchildren are on vacation now.
- a part of the year, regularly set aside, when normal activities of law courts, legislatures, etc., are suspended.
- freedom or release from duty, business, or activity.
- an act or instance of vacating.
- to take or have a vacation: to vacation in the Caribbean.
Origin of vacation
Examples from the Web for vacationer
If it was, it would reveal instantly that he was an officer, and not the vacationer that the sheriff had pictured him to be.Agent Nine and the Jewel Mystery
Graham M. Dean
- US and Canadian a person taking a vacationAlso called: (esp Brit) holiday-maker
- mainly British a period of the year when the law courts or universities are closed
- mainly US and Canadian a period in which a break is taken from work or studies for rest, travel, or recreationAlso called (in Britain and certain other countries) holiday
- the act of departing from or abandoning property, etc
- (intr) US and Canadian to take a vacation; holiday
Word Origin and History for vacationer
1876, from vacation (n.). Related: Vacationed; vacationing.
late 14c., "freedom from obligations, leisure, release" (from some activity or occupation), from Old French vacation, from Latin vacationem (nominative vacatio) "leisure, a being free from duty," noun of state from past participle stem of vacare "be empty, free, or at leisure" (see vain).
Meanings "state of being unoccupied; process of vacating" are early 15c. Meaning "formal suspension of activity" (in reference to schools, courts, etc.) is recorded from mid-15c. As the U.S. equivalent of what in Britain is called a holiday, it is attested from 1878. | <urn:uuid:7cdf74d3-be2e-43c8-a8c8-7b0c79be5ed6> | {
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What is Wood Badge?
Simply stated, Wood Badge is advanced leadership training for adult scout leaders.
Baden-Powell took the first steps in training Scouting’s adult leaders by organizing a series of lectures. The first Wood Badge training was held in 1919 at Gilwell Park, near London. Since then, Wood Badge has continued to evolve to meet Scouting’s needs. Wood Badge focuses on preparing adults to deliver the mission of Scouting.
As a result of attending Wood Badge training you will:
- Learn contemporary leadership concepts and discover how these apply to our value-based program
- Understand Scouting as a family of interrelated programs providing age appropriate activities for youth
Revitalize your commitment to Scouting, sharing in an inspirational experience | <urn:uuid:5a594f2a-3355-4ec9-9b5c-8728b2fadc4d> | {
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Pollution resulting from chemical agents applied to crops, rights of way, lawns, or residences to control weeds, insects, fungi, nematodes, rodents or other pests (pesticides) or kill undesirable plants (herbicides).
Data warehouse for national water quality program with links to chemical, biological, and physical data for water, sediment and animal tissues, nutrient, pesticide, and VOC levels, streamflow, and ground water levels from national study units.
We identified six compounds at concentrations less than human-health benchmarks, but within a factor of 10 of those limits. Those compounds might warrant further study to understand their transport and fate within the watershed.
Sampling for pesticide contamination in four major rivers in in the Bighorn and North Platte River Basins, begun in 2006 and resampled in 2009 and 2010 revealed concentration at levels below the standards for drinking water.
Overview of studies of marine sediment on the continental shelf south of Los Angeles contaminated with DDT and PCBs from past sewage effluent discharges with links to research on Santa Monica Bay, Los Angeles Shelf and Palos Verdes Peninsula. | <urn:uuid:da45e9f4-048a-42dd-a8cd-d4dd99e4d40a> | {
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The economic recovery of Japan may be disrupted this year. This is what many economic observers commented because of the impending increase in sales taxes this April. The lethargic growth and mounting deficit has muddled the expected growth which was supposed to take place late last year.
Japan’s economy is considered the third largest in the globe according to minimal Gross Domestic Product and the second-biggest developed economy in the world. It is also the fourth largest economy in terms of purchasing power equality. Based on the figures of the International Monetary Fund, the country’s per capita GDP of $35. 855. It is in the top 25 rankings worldwide.
Chiharu Eniwa, if you look at the urbanization
or percentage living in urban areas
graphs under the People category, you’ll see that 65 to 79 percent of Japanese people live in cities.
Other graphs you might be interested in include the one which list the largest cities of over 100 countries, and the graph of the largest city population, in which Japan ranks first, and the largest city population per capita, to give you an idea of what percentage of Japanese people live in Tokyo.
Related graphs include ones on population density, average size of households, households with more than five people, size of houses and persons per room.
For a historical perspective, check out the graph on urbanization in 1975. For a look at what the future may hold, see urbanization in 2015.
Hi Annju, Japan
is very prone to earthquakes and cyclones. It is reported to have an average 1,500 seismic tremors
every year. (Sorry, we can't respond in German). For more, see: http://www.unisdr.org/
Response to Kong Ju-dea -- the total land area of North Korea
is 120,410.00,410 sq km in a total area of 120,540.00,540 sq km. The total land area of South Korea
is 98,190.00,190 sq km in a total area of 98,480.00,480 sq km.
Hi Ricky, Japan has pledged aid to the people of Darfur through the UNHCR
. In addition, it has also contributed through non-government agencies such as Oxfam Japan
i cant belive that In 1603, a Tokugawa shogunate (military dictatorship) ushered in a long period of isolation from foreign influence in order to secure its power. For more than two centuries this policy enabled Japan to enjoy stability and a flowering of its indigenous culture. Following the Treaty of Kanagawa with the US in 1854, Japan opened its ports and began to intensively modernize and industrialize. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Japan became a regional power that was able to defeat the forces of both China and Russia. It occupied Korea, Formosa (Taiwan), and southern Sakhalin Island. In 1931-32 Japan occupied Manchuria, and in 1937 it launched a full-scale invasion of China. Japan attacked US forces in 1941 - triggering America's entry into World War II - and soon occupied much of East and Southeast Asia. After its defeat in World War II, Japan recovered to become an economic power and a staunch ally of the US. While the emperor retains his throne as a symbol of national unity, elected politicians - with heavy input from bureaucrats and business executives - wield actual decisionmaking power. The economy experienced a major slowdown starting in the 1990s following three decades of unprecedented growth, but Japan still remains a major economic power, both in Asia and globally.
If you want to buy a car, you would have to receive the personal loans
. Furthermore, my brother all the time uses a bank loan, which seems to be the most firm.
I'm an American and I've visited Japan many times. My wife is Japanese and I speak a little of their language.
I'd like to take the opportunity to correct some inaccuracies in the commentary question & answer that is posted here about Japan.
First, someone said the only places worth visiting are Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima. This is dead wrong. While Kyoto is very historical and is definitely THE place to go if you had to choose just one place, it is still a relatively big city. Tokyo is a modern city and if you're from the West, you won't find it all that "Japanese". It has it's differences and quirks, but it's pretty much like every other city...just with 12M people. I can't imagine what there would be to see in Hiroshima except the dome. As for other places to see...go climb Mt. Fuji. Go to Matsumoto where they have one of the few remaining original wooden Japanese castles from the Samurai days (most were destroyed in the "old days" or during WWII). Takayama is another worthwhile place that's "off the beaten path" and worht seeing. The structure of the homes there is unique in all of Japan because of the heavy snowfall. Nagano is another great place to visit. They have "onsen" (hot springs) that are just fantastic. And, don't forget Okinawa!!
Secondly, someone else said that Japanese can't speak any other language than Japanese. This is not true at all. All people born after WWII have studied at least basic English. Young people are very likely to have a rudimentary English-speaking skill. If you go to the touristy places like Kyoto's "kinkakuji" (Golden Pavilion), students will approach you to practice English by asking questions about your country. They will probably ask for your autograph and to take a photo together as well. You'll also be surprised how many old people speak English. It is popular for retired folks to study English. Certainly, there will be people who can't speak English at all...but I have never been in a situation where I couldn't find someone who could. The Japanese are very modest...if you ask them if they speak English, they will say "no" even if they can speak it.
Third, someone asked about the ethinic/racial breakdown. Basically, Japan is 99% Japanese. The 1% non-Japanese is mainly Koreans and Chinese.
Forth, as for Japan being a "whore" country...I don't know if that post was even serious. Japanese are, on the whole, extremely moral people. I have not found that Japanese women are any more willing to sleep around than the average American woman...in fact, they are probably far less likely. However, let there be no doubt, prostitution is a serious problem in Japan. Many young girls are lured to Japan by promises of acting or modelling careers only to have their passports confiscated by the "yakuza" (Japanese mafia). They're then pressed into sexual slavery. Most of these girls come from China, Korea, and the Philippines. Even in small country towns, you're likely to find girls selling themselves on the street. Although prostitution is certainly illegal in Japan, it does not seem that enforcement is a very high priority.
Fifth, the poster who mentioned that Japan imports rice is completely correct. There are producers of Japanese-style rice in the United States (mainly California) that make their living serving the Japanese market almost exclusively.
Thanks for reading. If I've made any mistake or omission or if anything I've said needs clarification, I hope someone will mention it.
In 1603, a Tokugawa shogunate (military dictatorship) ushered in a long period of isolation from foreign influence in order to secure its power. For 250 years this policy enabled Japan to enjoy stability and a flowering of its indigenous culture. Following the Treaty of Kanagawa with the United States in 1854, Japan opened its ports and began to intensively modernize and industrialize. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Japan became a regional power that was able to defeat the forces of both China and Russia. It occupied Korea, Formosa (Taiwan), and southern Sakhalin Island. In 1933 Manchuria was occupied and in 1937 a full-scale invasion of China was launched. Japan attacked US forces in 1941 - triggering America\'s entry into World War II - and soon occupied much of East and Southeast Asia. After its defeat in World War II, Japan recovered to become an economic power and a staunch ally of the US. While the emperor retains his throne as a symbol of national unity, actual power rests in networks of powerful politicians, bureaucrats, and business executives. The economy experienced a major slowdown starting in the 1990s following three decades of unprecedented growth. | <urn:uuid:dc36719e-db8c-43d4-a3d2-309c13940633> | {
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(d)Undecane is the unbranched alkane with 11 carbon atoms, undecanoic acid is the correspond-ing carboxylic acid, andundecenoic acidis an 11-carbon carboxylic acid that contains adouble bond. Because the carbon chain is numbered beginning with the carboxyl group,10-undecenoic acid has its double bond at the opposite end of the chain from the carboxyl group.(e)Mevalonic acid has a fve-carbon chain with hydroxyl groups at C-3 and C-5, along with amethyl group at C-3.(f)The constitution represented by the systematic name 2-methyl-2-butenoic acid gives rise totwo stereoisomers.Tiglic acid is the Eisomer, and the Zisomer is known as angelic acid.The higher ranked sub-stituents, methyl and carboxyl, are placed on opposite sides of the double bond in tiglic acidand on the same side in angelic acid.(g)Butanedioic acid is a four-carbon chain in which both terminal carbons are carboxylic acid
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This note was uploaded on 09/30/2011 for the course CHM 2210 taught by Professor Reynolds during the Fall '01 term at University of Florida. | <urn:uuid:43bc620d-2341-4f19-8d86-3cdd051ec252> | {
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An insight into the events of a Peace Week held at Oldham in March 1938 is given by an account written in a school magazine by two pupils who were members of the local Hulme Grammar School for Girls’ League of Nations Union (LNU) Society. They explained that the Week’s purpose was to persuade people to ‘consider what war really meant and to think seriously what individuals could do to prevent it.’ The Week began and ended with mass meetings addressed by local MPs and special services were held in many churches. There were two exhibitions, one for adults and one for children. The latter had a collection of pictures and photographs about life in other countries. The student account commented that by exhibiting toys, comics, photos etc that the exhibition showed how in many ways ‘all children are alike.’
A shop provided literature on the League of Nations and the International Peace Campaign. Anti-war plays were performed by the Oldham Repertory Theatre Company and by amateurs, including pupils of Hulme Grammar School for Girls who performed ‘X=O,’ by Drinkwater at their school for both pupils and parents. Mr Crossman repeated a lecture he gave as part of Manchester University Extension lectures. It was entitled ‘Can Democracy Survive?’ A special women’s meeting was addressed by Mrs Israel Zangwill (Edith Zangwill), a suffragette and author who believed in women’s rights. Senior girls from the school attended both these meetings.
The Chronicle of the Hulme Grammar School for Girls, Oldham, July 1938. Oldham Hulme Grammar School Archive.
Spartacus Educational. Edith Zangwill | <urn:uuid:a3021ee3-80d3-4305-9529-b5f831c66316> | {
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This Tiny Russian Enclave In Europe Could Explode
Kaliningrad, long a staging area for the Soviet Army, faces isolation and poverty and should not be ignored
IN the recent media focus on Russia's many difficulties, little has been said about a potential time bomb - Kaliningrad. A major problem exists with this small, overwhelmingly Russian ethnic enclave located between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic coast. That problem is bound to grow, and it could explode.
Moscow's ``near abroad'' policy will be tested in Kaliningrad. The region and its capital Konigsberg, formerly the northern third of East Prussia, was occupied by the Red Army in 1945. Though it became a province of Russia in 1946, Kaliningrad's territory is separated from that country by two independent states.
At present, virtually all of Kaliningrad's overland communications go through Lithuania. Shipping by sea from St. Petersburg can be problematic in the winter.
The reason the issue of Kaliningrad is ignored is political. As in the case of the four insignificant Kurile Islands that continue to sour Russo-Japanese relations, discussion of the Kaliningrad issue may aggravate the already unstable political climate in Russia. Kaliningrad could easily fuel the nationalist and fascist moods among a significant portion of the Russian population.
Several underlying questions on the legal status of the region, however, cannot be forever ignored. In view of the consensus in the world community against border changes, no neighbor has yet openly questioned Kaliningrad's status as a province of the Russian Federation. But such questions lurk just below the surface.
The exact status of the enclave in terms of international law is murky. The Potsdam Agreements of 1945 include the territory in a Soviet zone of occupation in Germany, and there is a statement of intent by the Allies to support Kaliningrad's eventual incorporation into the USSR during a peace conference.
That conference was never held. In 1946, the Soviet Union turned the region over to the Russian Federation and renamed the city of Konigsberg ``Kaliningrad,'' after the then figurehead president of the USSR, Mikhail Kalinin. It now remains the last place in the erstwhile empire that has not shed itself of such Stalinist nomenclature.
The territory is today probably the most militarized entity on the globe. The Soviets transformed the area into an armed camp during the cold war. Along with adjoining Lithuania, the region was built into one of the principal reserve areas in the event of a battle in Germany. For decades, a large percentage of its population consisted of military transients - troops, dependents of military personnel, or employees of enterprises in the Soviet military-industrial complex.
Lately, its high military concentration has been swelled by absorption of very large numbers of troops withdrawn from Germany, Poland, and Lithuania. Exact figures are unavailable but likely exceed 300,000. The total population of the province is estimated to be between 900,000 and 1 million. A significant proportion, perhaps 200,000, are military pensioners and their families. However, even a half-century later, the still heavily ruined and decrepit region remains underpopulated in comparison with prewar times.
The new international situation, which replaced the former East-West confrontation, has made this isolated concentration of Russian military on the flank of NATO seem anachronistic. Yet the possibility of withdrawing significant numbers of these troops to Russia proper is unrealistic in view of Russia's limited logistical capacity.
Such a massive military and naval establishment is perceived as a threat throughout the region. The creation of any system of security in Europe cannot ignore the question of what should or can be done about this bloated garrison.
The practical conditions under which most of the troops have to exist in the region present special problems and threats to security. The crumbling Nazi Wehrmacht barracks cannot adequately house the increased numbers of military personnel. Conditions, especially for newly transferred units, are appalling. Even simple interruptions in supplies could trigger disturbances. It is not inconceivable that ill-fed, highly armed bands of Russian troops could begin to forage in neighboring countries for no reason beyond survival. It is not surprising that both of Kaliningrad's immediate neighbors by land - Lithuania and Poland - have requested membership in NATO.
Futhermore, the legacy of the dysfunctional Soviet economy is acute here. Kaliningrad's productive potential was geared in an unusually high degree to the Soviet military-industrial complex. While this problem affects virtually all parts of the former USSR, it is overwhelming in Kaliningrad. Such a condition significantly complicates privatization and the introduction of a market economy.
Russian leadership in the region has come out on more than one occasion for some sort of special status, be it a free-trade zone or an autonomous region independent of Moscow, that would be able to enter into commercial and political arrangements with its neighbors. Some efforts in this direction are under way. But they may not be enough.
Were the potential disarray in Moscow to lead to a fragmentation of Russia (not an impossible scenario), independence would, by virtue of its situation, devolve on Kaliningrad. A tiny state dominated by a giant hungry garrison would then emerge as the latest European nation. Is the world prepared for this possibility? The Opinion/Essay Page welcomes manuscripts. Authors of articles we accept will be notified by telephone. Authors of articles not accepted will be notified by postcard. Send manuscripts to Opinions/Essays, One Norway Street, Boston, MA 02115, by fax to 617 -450-2317, or by Internet E-mail to [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:2466c0c0-b3ef-4313-a2c4-a54518fb6922> | {
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Consider the technological advances of the early 1900s. The era introduced refrigerators, radios and the first electric washing machines, just to name a few. It also ushered in one of the most widespread — and simplest — technologies to change communication: the barbed wire.
While barbed wire may seem like an unlikely "tech," at the time it was an ingenious way for farmers and ranchers to encircle their territory. But that's not all! Barbed wire also let people communicate with each other from isolated houses and far-flung pasture corners — all it required was hooking a store-bought telephone to wire fencing.
There were already miles of barbed wire fences strung as property lines and pasture dividers throughout the expanse of the United States, from the Great Plains to the Midwest and Southwest. Turning them into telephone lines turned out to be a relatively straightforward process.
Typically, a smooth wire was strung from a telephone in a house or barn to a barbed wire fence. From there, it hooked into the top strand of barbed wire (most fences had at least three strands) and the telephone signal would follow the length of the wire to a second telephone that was connected to the barbed wire down the line. Sometimes as many as 20 or more telephones at various rural homes were connected onto a single barbed-wire system.
The system, while workable, was imperfect. Barbed wire fences didn't run seamlessly throughout the countryside, so overhead or buried wires were used to bridge communication over roads, ditches and other gaps in fencing. And there were frequent outages brought on by cattle breaking through fences, or by rain that grounded the signal. And insulators, which ranged from porcelain knobs to broken bottles, were used to keep the barbed wire from touching the fence posts, but those weren't always effective.
For the most part, however, this low-cost telephone system kept people connected. Most of these telephone systems were a “party line,” which meant that all the telephones connected to the same phone network all rang at the same time. To combat confusion, people developed specific rings. To reach one family, a caller might give a combination of one long and one short ring. To call another family, the signal might be two short rings. In general, a long and continuous ring signaled an emergency, such as a fire or injury, causing everyone to pick up to hear the message.
The ability of everyone to listen in, at any time, was another feature (or hazard) of the “party line.” There was no guarantee, and little expectation, of having private conversations. In fact, some people would read the newspaper or play music over the party line so everyone could communally listen in. Occasionally, these rural telephone systems would develop into a system with a central party-line operator who ran a limited-hour switchboard from one of the connected homes.
At one time, farm and ranch households were the most well-networked in the nation. In 1912, for example, more rural farm homes had telephones than did urban homes. Although those numbers began to fall significantly after World War II, there are reports that several homes in Texas continued to use barbed wire telephones well into the 1970s. | <urn:uuid:be3ed80d-f0d6-40b6-ac11-2536ceccb197> | {
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This course is designed to train employees who assist pasture based dairies in natural resource planning and application. It provides instruction in basic understating of the dairy animals nutritional requirements, and pasture feeding systems. This course discusses farm management trade-off, and cost-benefit analysis of going back to pasture feeding lactating cows and their offspring. It examines nutritional and physiological requirements of dairy animals, pasturing, natural resource constraints and how they affect dairy farming. Participants design a dairy farm plan which integrates pasture, stored forage producing crops, hay acreage, dairy production targets, and conservation objectives.
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
Understand nutrition and health issues faced by dairy farmers using pasture as a feed source;
Understand how to provide standing forage in concert with stored feeds to meet dairy animal performance goals;
Understanding principles of setting up a pasture system to feed the dairy animal while protecting resources of ecological value; and
Develop conservation plans that coordinate pasture and stored forage production to meet dairy producers’ production and conservation objectives.
Those who provide direct assistance or technical support to pasture based dairies | <urn:uuid:f8a131c2-76dc-4e1d-8a7e-df9046e8180c> | {
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By Robert E. Aliasso Jr. and Tom Bishop
On Earth Day 2009, New York Power Authority (NYPA) President Richie Kessel unveiled plans to industrialize Lake Ontario and Lake Erie with near shore wind turbines clustered in 120MW to 500MW arrays in waters 150 feet deep, or less.
Some arrays would consist of 500 turbines towering 450’from the lake levels. NYPAs proposal was unveiled without input from the shoreline communities or businesses that will be the victims. Currently, Jefferson, Oswego, Cayuga and Wayne Counties are working towards unilateral opposition to this NYPA project in Lake Ontario.
The reasons of objection to NYPA’s plans for citing 1000-plus turbines in the Great Lakes are thus:
1. Offshore turbines require huge foundations. Sediments that have collected years of pollution and are now buried under cleaner sediments will be disturbed and pollution will be redistributed via the natural currents around the lake. Over the summer, the thermocline, in particular, is where the majority of sediments are transported and this is where the majority of trout and salmon reside. During the winter, the lake currents are much stronger. Sediments will also be disrupted during the laying of transmission lines.
2. Climate change advocates say that in addition to reducing carbon emissions that the world’s freshwater supply is dwindling and must be protected. The Great Lakes are a national treasure and are 95 percent of the U.S. fresh water supply. We can’t risk pollution accidents like occurred at Maple Ridge, where turbine oil contaminated the ground water, or like Fenner this last November when a turbine collapsed “for no apparent reason.”
The placement of industrial wind turbines in the Great Lakes seems to be in conflict with the water quality initiative contained in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Our state and federal governments do not seem in harmony about environmentally sensitive areas to protect.
3. The RFP calls for nearly a thousand turbines. It is very likely that state and federal security forces will not allow anyone near these industrial wind farms. Thus a great portion of our lake will become out of bounds for fishermen and pleasure boaters. Vestas, a major turbine manufacturer, recommends a minimum of 1200 feet from any operational turbine for safety reasons.
4. Every year people and boats are hurt/damaged by navigation hazards out on the lake. The sheer numbers of these turbines will greatly increase the number of navigation hazards. Each turbine contains over 400 gallons of lubricant oils and liquids that can be extremely damaging to wildlife and fresh water supplies that our lakeshore communities use for a potable water source.
5. Transmission lines will interconnect the turbines and be run to various places along the shore. The lines operate at approx 0.5 HZ and 33 kilovolts. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is trying to stop the Asian carp in the Chicago sanitary canal with very similar electrical fields. This may have negative effects on the sport fish in the lake. Effects of decreases in fish populations adjacent to industrial wind turbine farms have been confirmed in Europe, where ocean wind farms have been constructed.
6. The location of the turbine farms will affect the fish. Salmon and trout make east-west traverses of the lake throughout the year prior to their annual run up their home rivers. Natural-born salmon were netted this past year off of Rochester. The DEC’s Lake Ontario unit confirmed that these small shakers could easily travel from the Salmon River to Rochester in much less than a day. University studies have found that salmon are affected by magnetic fields in that they become sluggish and align themselves with the fields. These swimming/migration patterns will definitely be disrupted.
7. OSHA prohibits a worker from coming within 27 feet of a transmission line unless properly attired – properly clothed and grounded.) The area where transmission lines come ashore may present a hazardous area for any boater, fisherman and swimmer.
The United States signed an international treaty with Canada to restore the Great Lakes, and this has been reinforced with the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. For many years, agencies including New York State have put forth great effort and money into this. Sport fishing on the Great Lakes has blossomed into an industry that pays into local economies year after year. Offshore wind farms in Lake Ontario will do much more damage to the frail ecology and lakeshore economies of Lake Ontario than benefit the “green energy” movement.
Wind energy actually creates more costs for society because of its 30 percent efficiency. Highly subsidized wind generation requires expensive fossil fuel backup generation to stabilize energy demands to our transmission system. The ratepayer ultimately pays for new transmission being fed at 30 percent efficiency by a wind farm, plus both the wind and fossil energy generation infrastructure.
The projects are bad community planning, especially in the water. People choose to live in and visit waterfront communities for the view and relaxation. These projects destroy the view, create noise and other pollution and devalue property.
The projects create a net loss in tax base when put in developed areas or areas of tourism. For all of the reasons stated above, communities stand to lose much more than they could ever gain – beginning with the traditional tax base.
Robert E. Aliasso Jr. of Henderson is co-chair of the Coalition for the Preservation of the Golden Crescent and 1000 Islands Region. Tom Bishop of Rochester is a recreational fisherman. | <urn:uuid:fe011739-447d-4e4a-8b31-22af038009aa> | {
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In the first of a two-part series, David Joyce explains how injury causes lumbopelvic instability
For the spine and legs to work efficiently, the body needs a stable base. It is estimated that the sacral base has to bear 60% of the body’s weight in standing(1). The body therefore requires an efficient system to absorb and transfer this load across the mobile joints of the pelvis, ie the two sacroiliac joints (SIJs) and the symphysis pubis.
The need for stable shock absorption is even greater among athletes, where shearing loads are much bigger: just think of the vertical forces shooting up the leg and across the sacroiliac joint (SIJ) as the fast bowler hits the popping crease, or the massive vertical loads involved in tasks such as serving in tennis, hurdling or landing from a vault.
The sacroiliac joint (SIJ) derives the necessary stability for these formidable loads through ‘form closure’ and ‘force closure’. Form closure refers to the ‘anatomical fit’ of the unfused joints in the pelvis; force closure is the sum of the compression provided by gravity, muscular and connective tissue systems.
The sacroiliac joint is formed by the wedgeshaped sacrum articulating with its neighbouring pelvic bones (the ‘innominate’). Its relatively flat joint surfaces are optimally adapted for the transfer of large loads. The joint surface alignment, however, is close to vertical, a precarious position under vertical shearing load. The joint therefore needs specialised adaptations in order to properly transfer load without damage. These come by way of a series of ridges and complimentary depressions, plus thick and coarse articular cartilage, which increase joint friction to augment form closure.
Perfect form closure would mean that the sacroiliac joints (SIJs) were incapable of movement. Yet the pelvis needs to be able to make small degrees of movement, so supplementary stability is provided where necessary through active compression: force closure.
The muscular elements of force closure can be divided into the inner and outer muscular units(2). The inner unit is made up of transversus abdominis, multifidus and the pelvic floor. The outer unit is comprised of four muscular slings:
* posterior oblique
* deep longitudinal
* anterior oblique
The muscles contribute to force closure, and thereby the safe transfer of load through the pelvis, in two ways:
1. They augment the compressive forces across the symphysis pubis and sacroiliac joints (SIJs) to reduce the amount of unrestrained joint movement (ie the joint’s neutral zone)
2. They change the position of the joint, producing increased tension in the surrounding ligamentous structures.
The third unit of force closure is provided by connective tissue. Ligaments restrict pelvic mobility to those positions in which the joint can bear weight. For this purpose the most important are thought to be the sacrotuberous, sacrospinous, interosseous, long dorsal sacroiliac and iliolumbar ligaments. Beyond this it is thought that the thoracodorsal fascia (TDF), a connective tissue bridge between the inner and outer muscle units, increases joint compression by transferring muscular contraction forces to the rear part of the pelvis(3).
Motor control is the term used to describe the pattern of timing of muscle contraction and release coordinated by the nervous system. Good dynamic stability is dependent on effective feedback and feed-forward loop interaction between the afferent input and efferent output motor neurons, the aim of which is to control the path of movement (4,5). The body deploys precise muscle-firing sequences in the pelvis to help it transfer load, particularly in tasks that have high vertical shear forces, such as jumping and running.
Injury and load transfer
It is now accepted that active control of vertebral movement at individual intervertebral levels (for example L4/5) is affected by lumbopelvic pain. There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that muscular interplay is also disrupted in people with pelvic dysfunction.
O’Sullivan et al (2002)(6) showed that when patients with sacroiliac joint (SIJ) dysfunction performed an active leg loading test, they had altered breathing patterns and increased downward excursion of the pelvic floor muscles. The corollary is that pelvic injury reduces the amount of load the local stability systems can transfer effectively, causing the body to find aberrant, compensatory motor control strategies to augment force closure.
Hungerford et al (2003)(1) provided further evidence of alterations in muscle recruitment in the presence of sacroiliac joint (SIJ) dysfunction, in particular delayed firing of the internal obliques, lumbar multifidus and gluteus maximus, and premature activation of biceps femoris. The delay in obliques and multifidus activity occurred on the stance limb during hip flexion on both the symptomatic and asymptomatic sides. The authors suggest that the earlier onset of biceps femoris activity may be a compensatory mechanism to augment force closure through its connections on to the sacrotuberous ligament and TDF.
Vogt et al (2003)(7) found a similar delay in gluteus maximus activation during locomotion in subjects with lumbopelvic pain. An aberrant motor control pattern, with the tonic pelvic stabilisers becoming phasic, is thought to be a major reason why the vertical shear forces in activities such as walking, lunging and landing from a jump are commonly seen as aggravating activities in people with pelvic pain.
While there is a paucity of evidence-based diagnostic tests for pelvic dysfunction overall, several features of a disrupted ability to transfer load can be assessed clinically, the most widely reported test being the active straight leg raise (ASLR).
The ASLR examines for a reduced ability to provide enough force closure to raise a leg against gravity, and whether this deficiency can be overcome by means of manual compression. The patient lies supine and they are asked to raise one leg (with knee straight) about 20cm off the bed. They are asked about the effort required to lift the leg compared to the other side. The assessor should pay attention to discrepancies in movement strategies or neuromuscular compensations between sides. If there is a difference (commonly reported as feeling heavier or harder to lift), the assessor can provide some manual compression through the pelvis and the patient is asked to lift their leg again.
A positive test indicates a loss of ability to perform compressive closure. If the patient then ‘braces’ their abdominals (eg by doing a half sit-up) before lifting their leg, and it feels easier or lighter, it indicates that there is a force closure problem and this provides the clinician with the direction for treatment, ie improve lumbopelvic stability and strength.
A second test of the ability of the pelvis to safely withstand vertical loading is the stork (aka Gillet) test. The patient stands on one leg and flexes the knee and hip on the other side. The posterior superior iliac spine (PSIS) of the support leg should remain level with the second sacral spinous process. If the PSIS migrates upwards, this is thought to be attributable to a failure in load transfer. The clinician should also pay attention to the motor strategy used when the client performs this test, by examining the timing and holding capacity of internal obliques, multifidus and gluteus maximus.
The clinician can also make use of other indirect clues to determine a loss of motor control in load transfer. A reduced ability to stand on the affected leg and a positive Trendelenburg sign may indicate inefficient lumbopelvic and hip stabilising strategies; reduced hamstring and hip adductor muscle length and trigger points throughout these muscle groups may point to their excessive use as compensatory pelvic stabilisers(1).
Load transfer is a key role of the pelvis. It is achieved through a combination of form and force closure, conducted by an efficient motor control programme. The neural pattern is altered in patients with pelvic injuries resulting in a decreased ability to transfer loads. This can be assessed using the ASLR test, the stork test and a variety of indirect clinical signs.
Next month: sacroiliac joint (SIJ) dysfunction treatment strategies
1. Hungerford B, Gilleard W and Hodges P (2003) ‘Evidence of altered lumbopelvic muscle recruitment in the presence of sacroiliac joint pain’ Spine 28, 1593-1600
2. Lee D and Vleeming A (2000) ‘Current concepts on pelvic impairment’ In Singer KP (Ed) Proceedings of the 7th Scientific Conference of the IFOMPT (pp118-123) The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
3. Vleeming A, Pool-Goudzwaard AL, Stoeckart R, van Wingerden JP and Snijders CJ (1996) ‘The posterior layer of the thoracolumbar fascia. Its function in load transfer from spine to legs’ Spine 20, 753-758
4. Hodges P and Richardson C (1997a) ‘Feedforward contraction of transversus abdominis is not influenced by the direction of arm movement’ Experimental Brain Research 114, 362-370
5. Hodges P and Richardson C (1997b) ‘Contraction of the abdominal muscles associated with movement of the lower limb’ Physical Therapy 77, 1132-1144
6. O’Sullivan PB, Beales DJ, Beetham JA, Cripps J, Graf F, Lin IB et al (2002) ‘Altered motor control strategies in subjects with sacroiliac joint pain during the active straightleg- raise test’ Spine 27, E1-E8
7. Vogt L, Pfeifer K and Banzer W (2003) ‘Neuromuscular control of walking with chronic low-back pain’ Manual Therapy 8, 21-28 | <urn:uuid:a73e0561-3a91-4635-b2ff-d73cb73b30fc> | {
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context, context, context.
clothing, labor, expert, sock, price,demand,cost, clothes, money, holiday
context, context, context.
Socks are always countable, aren't they? Hopefully by twos.
From: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Oxford dictionaries.
Use clothing to talk about a particular type of clothes or when talking about making or selling clothes
Special protective clothing is worn.
a clothing manufacturer
!! This word is not used much in ordinary spoken language
I went shopping for summer clothes (NOT clothing).
In formal English, you can use a piece/item/article of clothing to refer to one thing you wear:
a discarded article of clothing
I enjoy shopping for new clothes.
What sort of clothes was he wearing?
clothes are things that you wear, for example shirts and dresses
I need some new clothes.
Do you ever wear your sister's clothes?
!! clothes is always plural and has no singular form
He was wearing nice clothes (NOT a nice clothe/clothes).
[U] Cloth is the material that clothes are made from
a suit made from fine woollen cloth
[C] a piece of cloth used for a particular purpose
She mopped her face with a wet cloth.
Is there a clean cloth for the table?
Don't spend all your money on the first day of your holiday!
Could you lend me some money?
Teaching can be very rewarding, but there's no money in it.
monies, moneys [plural]
If we are no longer able to provide the holiday you booked, we will return to you all monies paid.
LABOR/ LABOUR (BrE) [U]
a shortage of skilled labor
Wages for unskilled labour are very low.
small commercial farmers who depend on a casual labour supply
These countries are a source of cheap labour.
somebody's labours (formal) - a period of hard work
After several hours gardening we sat down to admire the results of our labours.
He's a world expert on marine mammals.
Tests should be administered by a medical expert.
He cast his expert eye on the gardener's work (here expert is an adjective, NOT experts).
I've lost my sock.
a pair of socks
white ankle socks
If they want promotion, United have got to pull their socks up (to make an effort to improve your behaviour or your work).
PRICE [C, U]
People are prepared to pay high prices for designer clothes.
The price of fuel keeps going up.
Tesco is selling two bottles of champagne for the price of one!
I bought these jeans at half price in the sale.
He's never at home, but that's the price of success. [singular]
!! Use price to mean the amount of money that you must pay for something in a place such as a shop or restaurant
We are cutting all our prices (NOT costs) by 50% for one day only!
We were shocked by the price of a cup of coffee in London.
COST [C, U]
The funds will just cover the museum's running costs.
A cassette/radio is included at no extra cost.
reduce/cut costs [plural]
court costs [plural]
He's determined to win, whatever the cost (=no matter how much work, money, risk etc is needed).
We must avoid a scandal at all costs (=whatever happens).
His uncle's a car dealer and let him buy the car at cost (=without making a profit). [singular] especially AmE
!! Use cost to talk about paying for services and activities, rather than objects
The total cost of the trip was under $500.
I worked out the cost of the repairs.
Your costs are the amount of money you have to spend in order to run a business or to do a particular activity
The shop was not making enough money to cover its costs.
Production is still increasing faster than demand.
There is a huge demand for new cars.
demonstrations in support of the nationalists' demands
their demand for higher salaries
the demands of modern life
The curriculum makes great demands on the teacher.
There areheavy demands on people's time these days.
HOLIDAY [uncountable and countable] BrE also holidays
The school holidays start tomorrow.
I'm away on holiday until the 1st of June.
Won't your business suffer if you take a holiday?
go on holiday also go on your holidays
British English speakers say holiday, not 'holidays' in the structures be on holiday, go on holiday and return/come back from holiday
something to read when you are on holiday (NOT when you are on holidays)
When you come back from holiday, it's hard to work (NOT When you come back from holidays).
Holidays is usually used after the, my, your etc.
Soon it will be the holidays.
Where do you want to go for your holidays?
!! Do not say 'be in (your) holidays' or 'go in (your) holidays'. Say go on holiday or go on your holidays or be on holiday or be on your holidays.
!! Do not say 'make a holiday'. Say have a holiday
Last edited by nyota; 05-Mar-2011 at 10:52.
Nyota, can you give the reference when quoting things, please. Thanks a lot. Also, this looks a bit like a homework question.
Thanks a lot. | <urn:uuid:a0654673-0580-4205-89bd-d42253a1c636> | {
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National Audubon Society
Courtesy of Boylan and RVC Professor Larry McPheron
Vice President of Sinnissippi Audubon Society
News of a recent bird kill of blackpoll warblers and other species at a wind facility in West Virginia spread quickly through birding lists and caught the attention of the birding community in the region. Audubon staff learned of this unfortunate event and contacted the facility owner, AES Wind Generation, to investigate the causes of the incident and to work toward developing solutions that will help ensure such an incident doesn’t happen again. From all indications, a combination of lighting and poor weather conditions were the primary causes of the bird kill.
AES representatives told Audubon they have taken immediate corrective actions to curtail excessive night lighting, replace equipment with preferable downward-shielded lighting fixtures, and will modify other site specifications. They will increase monitoring and take additional steps to reduce or eliminate lighting the facility during migration seasons to avert future bird kills of this type.
Now, actions need to be taken to minimize the likelihood of similar events in the future at other wind power facilities. Audubon is in discussions with AES and others about sharing the lessons from this event with the broader wind industry and emphasizing the importance of the lighting practices in the forthcoming federal wind guidelines. We hope that, as a result, new facilities will be written to specs that incorporate lighting practices that have been shown to minimize bird mortality during migration. This is a straightforward corrective action that will significantly lessen the negative consequences to birds, while delivering carbon-limited sources of renewable energy. We will be working to help make this a standard practice across the industry.
Read more about this incident and the actions taken: www.audubon.org/documents/audubon-summary-aes-bird-kill-incident. Contact Connie Mahan in Audubon’s Policy Office if you have any questions or concerns: [email protected].
From the Nov. 23-29, 2011, issue | <urn:uuid:cd8fd120-40a2-401f-ad29-550da3131f94> | {
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Seventy ways to start a novel
Neil Donnelly's treatment of the opening page of Great Expectations evokes the layout of a tabloid newspaper
In GraphicDesign&'s first book, Page 1: Great Expectations, 70 designers reinterpret the opening page of the Charles Dickens classic. The results reveal much about the decisions designer's face in setting any text, and what effect these choices have on reader experience...
Perhaps one of the more unlikely, certainly more experimental, tie-ins with this year's Dickens bicentenary, the decision to dissect the opening of his 1861 novel came about because of the references to lettering on its first page. At the beginning of the story, Pip Pirrip's search for clues towards his own identity has led him to imagine how his parents might have looked, based on the shapes of the letterforms on their tombstones. ("The shape of the letters on my father's, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair.")
So in Page 1: Great Expectations, what may at first seem like rather a repetitive read, the opening page of the novel really serves as the sample material from which the designers work from, with each interpretation of the page offering up a different approach and affect.
Using Caslon, A Practice For Everyday Life built on the symbolism contained within the opening; the obelisk glyphs standing for the five gravestones of Pip's siblings
While there are, perhaps understandably, a number of examples that take a conventional approach to the typography – set in a range of faces from Caslon (above) and Arnhem Pro Blond, to Fabiol and Miller – there is also a range of more outlandish and conceptual approaches, which occasionally push the boundaries of legibility, let alone a sense of linear narrative. But more often these experiments explore the wider notions of reader interaction and even challenge the preconceptions we bring to the experience of reading.
Julian Morey (abc-xyz) used Helvetica Neue 65 Medium to reimagine Dickens for tablet devices
In Aaron Merrigan and Fred North's concept, for example, the text is set over both halves of the page, but readers have to read along with a friend sat opposite, in order to read each alternate word of the sentences. Jon Barnbrook meanwhile, tongue firmly in cheek, has reorganised the words of the opening page in terms of their frequency, the grammar structure, and the use of sentiment which might manipulate the reader's emotions.
Susanne Dechant has detached the words from the page and rearranged them in alphabetical order, so the opening line runs as "a a a a a a a Above all Also am an and and and and and". Vivóeusébio studio, however, reduced the page to its initial word, "My", apparently as a way of "emphasising Pip's great expectations and delaying the readers'."
Ian Noble set his text in Mrs Eaves and used symbols to convey a second level of information about the relationships in the novel
Individually, many of these unconventional approaches could appear just a touch indulgent, but as part of a collection of treatments they work as another (esoteric) voice in the larger mix, and as an interesting counterpoint to the more straightforward and accessible versions of the text.
Workshop's approach was to create a 'tipped in' version of All The Year Round, the weekly journal in which Dickens' novel was first serialised
And some approaches tell us more about the life of the text itself. Alexander Cooper and Rose Gridneff of Workshop, for example, reference the genesis of Dickens' novel, which first appeared in the weekly publication, All The Year Round. When the story came to be published in book form, the first edition didn't sell particularly well so publishers Chapman and Hill 'tipped in' replacement title pages stating that these were new editions, when in fact they were actually from the existing print run. By the end of 1861, Workshop explain, five of these so called 'new' editions of Great Expectations had been published.
In looking at the novel's movement from an ephemeral state (a weekly magazine) to a more permanent one (a bound book), Workshop address how the format of a text, let alone how that text is displayed, informs a reading. As with the other 69 versions that tell of Pip's first reading of the gravestone letterforms, context is everything.
Page 1: Great Expectations is published by GraphicDesign& and is currently available for the offer price of £12.50 from graphicdesignand.com. After May 26 the book will be £15. The CR iPad app will also be showing a selection of different treatments from the book very soon.
CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here
CR in Print
The May issue of Creative Review is the biggest in our 32-year history, with over 200 pages of great content. This speial double issue contains all the selected work for this year's Annual, our juried showcase of the finest work of the past 12 months. In addition, the May issue contains features on the enduring appeal of John Berger's Ways of Seeing, a fantastic interview with the irrepressible George Lois, Rick Poynor on the V&A's British Design show, a preview of the controversial new Stedelijk Museum identity and a report from Flatstock, the US gig poster festival. Plus, in Monograph this month, TwoPoints.net show our subcribers around the pick of Barcelona's creative scene.
If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.
|Lovely set of product demo ads for Sony Xperia Z3 phone (5)|
|Astronomy Photographer of the Year winners 2014 (5)|
|Faber launches Modern Classics imprint (3)|
|Lagom magazine (1)|
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From Middle English verray, verrai (“true”), from Old French verai (“true”) (Modern French: vrai), from assumed Vulgar Latin *vērācus, alteration of Latin vērāx (“truthful”), from Latin vērus (“true”), from Proto-Indo-European *wēr- (“true, benevolent”). Cognate with Old English wǣr (“true, correct”), Dutch waar (“true”), German wahr (“true”), Icelandic alvöru (“earnest”). Displaced native Middle English sore, sār (“very”) (from Old English sār (“grievous, extreme”) (Compare German: sehr, Dutch: zeer), Middle English wel (“very”) (from Old English wel (“well, very”)), and Middle English swith (“quickly; very”) (from Old English swīþe (“very”). More at warlock.
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈvɛɹɪ/
- (UK, US) IPA(key): /ˈvɛɹi/
Audio (US) (file)
Audio (US) (file)
Audio (UK) (file)
- Rhymes: -ɛri
- True, real, actual.
- The fierce hatred of a very woman.
- The very blood and bone of our grammar.
- He tried his very best.
- Bible, Genesis xxvii. 21
- whether thou be my very son Esau or not
- John Milton (1608-1674)
- The very essence of truth is plainness and brightness.
- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
- I looked on the consideration of public service or public ornament to be real and very justice.
2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, New York Times:
- The country’s first black president, and its first president to reach adulthood after the Vietnam War and Watergate, Mr. Obama seemed like a digital-age leader who could at last dislodge the stalemate between those who clung to the government of the Great Society, on the one hand, and those who disdained the very idea of government, on the other.
- The same; identical.
- He proposed marriage in the same restaurant, at the very table where they first met.
- That's the very tool that I need.
- With limiting effect: mere.
very (not comparable)
- To a great extent or degree; extremely; exceedingly.
1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 13, The Mirror and the Lamp:
- “[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.
- You’re very tall.
- True, truly.
- He was the very best runner there.
- When used in their senses as degree adverbs, "very" and "too" never modify verbs.
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
very (comparative verier)
For usage examples of this term, see the citations page. | <urn:uuid:15635743-a004-4da2-88ff-a61fc6ef616f> | {
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A pun is loosely defined as a play on the sound of words to achieve a certain effect. In other words, a pun can:
Many puns rely on simple homophones (words that sound alike); for instance, “atheism is a non-prophet [non-profit] organization.” Other puns have much deeper meaning.
Puns throughout works of literature add so much to the way the text may be interpreted, and underscore the cleverness of the characters and those who wrote the characters. Brilliant minds from Jesus Christ to Shakespeare used puns to great effect, and these puns continue to resonate with new readers.
An ancient treasure-trove of puns is included in many religious texts, but the Christian Bible takes the cake. From the Old Testament to the New, biblical heroes and villains (and the authors of biblical texts) have used puns.
thirty sons, who “rode around on thirty burros and lived in thirty boroughs.”
While these words rhyme in English, they were also very similar in the original Hebrew: ayirim for and ‘ayarim for boroughs.
Both halves of the Bible use puns, some of which do not translate to English, but all of which were clever in their own language.
Perhaps no writer is greater known for his use of the pun than William Shakespeare. Some people even believe he, as a translator of the King James Version of the Bible, inserted a pun on his name into a Psalm!
Some of his puns were relatively simple plays on words, such as
However, some of his puns were more complicated. For example, in Romeo and Juliet:
Great poetic works of literature have included puns as well.
Poet John Donne, whose name rhymed with “done,” often punned his name in his own poetry. In one of his hymns, he even puns the name of his wife Anne More, with the line
“Thou hast not done, For I have more.”
Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter asked how a raven is like a writing desk, and answered with
“it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!” Obviously, the word “never” here is misspelled in order to appear as “raven” written backwards.
In his book Ulysses, the great Irish writer James Joyce included the brief poem,
If you see kay
Tell him he may
See you in tea
Tell him from me.
The words to the poem, when spoken phonetically, spell out some rather obvious swear words that would have been readily apparent to a sharp observer.
In modern literature, from the James Bond series to the Harry Potter books, authors have used puns to entertain some of the more perceptive, clever readers.
Create and save customized word lists. Sign up today and start improving your vocabulary!
Please set a username for yourself.
People will see it as Author Name with your public word lists. | <urn:uuid:6b363f59-9407-48a0-81b5-28ae143d62a0> | {
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Principal Proposed Uses
Vitamin B1, also called thiamin, was the first B vitamin discovered. Every cell in your body needs thiamin to make adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, the body's main energy-carrying molecule. The heart, in particular, has considerable need for thiamin in order to keep up its constant work. Severe deficiency of thiamin results in beriberi, a disease common in the 19th century, but rare today. Many of the principal symptoms of beriberi involve impaired heart function.
Your need for vitamin B 1 varies with age. The official US and Canadian recommendations for daily intake are as follows:
- 0-6 months: 0.2 mg
- 7-12 months: 0.3 mg
- 1-3 years: 0.5 mg
- 4-8 years: 0.6 mg
- 9-13 years: 0.9 mg
- 14 years and older: 1.2 mg
- 14-18 years: 1.0 mg
- 19 years and older: 1.1 mg
- Pregnant or Nursing Women : 1.4 mg
Although vitamin B 1 deficiency is rare in the developed world, it may occur in certain medical conditions, such as alcoholism , anorexia , Crohn's disease , and folate deficiency. People undergoing kidney dialysis or taking loop diuretics may also become deficient in vitamin B 1 . Certain foods may impair your body's absorption of B 1 as well, including fish, shrimp, clams, mussels, and the herb horsetail .
Brewer's and nutritional yeast are the richest sources of B 1 . Peas, beans, nuts, seeds, and whole grains also provide fairly good amounts.
A typical dose of vitamin B1 for therapeutic purposes is 200 mg daily, although much higher dosages have also been tried.
Some nutritional experts recommend taking B 1 with other B vitamins in the form of a B-complex supplement. However, there is no meaningful evidence that this offers any advantage.
Interactions You Should Know About
If you are taking:
- Reviewer: EBSCO CAM Review Board
- Review Date: 08/2013 -
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Improved access to cell phones has resulted in great changes through the entire cycle of farming life and along every link of the value chain.
What kind of information do farmers need to participate in value chains?
At the start of the farming year, they need information about fertilisers, seed types, prices, and weather information. When harvesting and marketing what they grow, their need for information is even stronger. Farmers need to collect information about preservative chemicals from agricultural extension officers, crop stocks and prices from the markets, and even road situation and transport costs from local contacts and transport suppliers.
How can farmers use the information to improve the efficiency of the value chain?
Rural farmers in Tanzania, where we conducted our research, mainly use their cell phones for simple one-to-one communication. Very few mentioned using other media, like radio. They simply do not rely on these methods in the same way that they rely on cell phones. Cell phones save farmers money and time because they no longer have to travel to look for the best seeds and to get advice from extension officers.
Cell phones have also helped farmers organise extra labour from distant farms and villages for the planting and harvesting periods, and they make voice calls to local transport owners to negotiate cost and availability. Sometimes, groups of farmers will get together and negotiate tractor prices to get a better deal. The phones also play a role when farmers are hiring and borrowing farm implements. Farmers borrow oxen, ploughs and harrows from each other because it is not possible for any one farmer to own all the equipment.
How have these improvements changed the way farmers work?
Farmers can now communicate with extension officers and agrovets in real time. They are able to make decisions about which seeds and species of crops to plant depending on weather conditions and soil types. This has often doubled yields and improved the quality of their produce. Owning and using cell phones has also boosted farmers’ confidence because it brings them into contact with agricultural experts and gives them direct access to market information.
How do farmers benefit from being part of a value chain?
Our data show that improved communications and access to information via cell phones has resulted in great changes through the entire cycle of farming life and along every link of the value chain; because of this, it has helped farmers to take control of their businesses. Farmers are able to reduce some of the risks associated with their businesses, and many are more proactive in taking care of their businesses. Better access to market information via cell phones has increased opportunities for farmers. These positive changes have led to higher incomes and improved livelihoods.
Are those advantages great enough to justify the cost of buying and using a cell phone?
For sure. Even if people in rural Tanzania in general are very poor, they are willing to spend a remarkably large amount of money on running a cell phone, which shows that they feel they gain many benefits from it. It is not a luxury item – most of the calls made relate to investments, information seeking and crisis handling rather than leisure. And, they are not buying expensive handsets but cheap, user-friendly and simple phones, often with a torch that they use at night.
What needs to be done to improve information services?
Some information providers send updated market information to farmers’ cell phones. But this effort is not effective, and our observations show that most farmers are not aware of these services. We recommend that cell phone companies establish a wider, affordable and effective service offering instant market prices and additional, relevant market information.
We also suggest developing the existing money transfer systems using cell phones in order to make the service more reliable and affordable in rural areas where banking services are limited. Farmers have emphasised that mobile money transfers will considerably reduce the risk of being robbed. Currently money transfer services have been a great success in neighbouring Kenya, and have revolutionised the way financial services are accessed there.
Are cell phones likely to remain the principle method of connecting farmers to information services in the coming years?
The overwhelming majority of people living in ACP countries do not have the technological resources to connect to the internet. Even those who can connect – through telecentres or cybercafés, for example – do not know what information is available or how to access it. The advent and spread of mobile technology can ease this concern.
More than any other technology, cell phones have spread at a breathtaking rate in developing countries. The immense potential that mobile technology has for development cannot be over-emphasised. Our educated guess is that mobile technology will quickly grow to make the internet affordable even for poor people in rural Africa, helping them to become citizens of the Global Village in the near future. | <urn:uuid:b5aac2d8-a654-4d89-9f26-c76df80f8a82> | {
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The Large Hadron Collider is the world’s largest particle collider. At the bottom of a huge shaft dug into a mountain, two beams of subatomic particles, dubbed “hadrons”, shoot around an enclosed racetrack accelerating with every lap until they collide. The idea is to recreate on a small scale the conditions in the universe immediately after the Big Bang.
I actually saw the LHC under construction. I was visiting another accelerator used to generate antimatter, escorted by a physicist with spiky hair who looked like he played in a band. The question of why the universe is composed of matter versus antimatter could give humans a glimpse of “God’s big toe” according to this recent NYTimes interview http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/science/space/18cosmos.html , and points to a fundamental asymmetry in the universe. The accelerator was wrapped in tinfoil and duct tape as a sort of low-tech insulation.
It is not such a bad way to spend one’s career figuring out how the universe got started. Here at ESnet, we are helping. ESnet is part of the network that carries the data from the LHC in Switzerland to groups of physicists in the U.S.
The Large Hadron Collider is projected to generate 15 petabytes of data yearly from six different detector experiments. The data, too massive to handle internally, is sent to 12 tier 1 sites around the world. CERN data from the ATLAS and CMS detectors travels the Atlantic on USLHCNet http://lhcnet.caltech.edu/ ESnet then carries data to Brookhaven National Laboratory and Fermilab, US tier 1 sites, for processing and archiving. The data is then distributed to tier 2 facilities, mainly of universities and research institutions around the U.S., including the Berkeley Lab’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Division (NERSC).–Wendy Tsabba | <urn:uuid:2ba84182-d7a5-4c92-ba6f-7d8d3225dbb2> | {
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Select Video Clip...
Biographical Details of Leadership
Contemporary Lens on Black Leadership
Historical Focus on Race
Influence of Civil Rights Movement
BOND: Now -- I'm trying to wrap up a lot of things in a very, very few minutes. You’ve talked about yourself as the beneficiary of civil rights activists, and you’ve expressed concern that young people don’t seem to appreciate this legacy. How can we make them, or should we even make them? Some people say, "You know it’s great that young people don’t remember the segregation era. They shouldn’t, they didn’t live through it. They shouldn’t have to worry about these things, let them go forward in this different world."
FUTRELL: Well, let me give you two examples. About three years ago, George Washington University celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the march on Washington. And we had a number of the civil rights people come back and we invited students to come. And one of the things that really surprised me was, number one, a lot of the students didn’t come. But those who did said, in the end, "Why have you not done these kinds of things before? What you are telling us here -- this is the first we’ve heard of it. And if you don’t tell us about what it was like and what the struggle has been and what we have achieved, we just assume this is the way it’s been." And these were like high school and undergraduate students telling us these things. And so, part of the problem is ours. We have not been vigilant about making sure that future generations understand what it was like and what the struggle was and how much we’ve achieved.
BOND: But you know, I’ve also heard people of this younger generation, and not quite so young, say twenties and thirties say, "Look, I’m tired of this."
FUTRELL: Right. You’re absolutely right.
BOND: "I’m tired of this stuff."
FUTRELL: Right. And you hear them say that about, "this is the way it’s always been," "I don’t care about the struggle", etc., etc. And what I try to say to them, "If you don’t care, you’ll lose it. If you don’t continue the struggle, and the struggle isn’t over, then you can’t complain when all of a sudden what you thought you had isn’t there." You know, a good way to look at it is what’s happening with the election. If you don’t go out and vote, then when somebody takes the vote away from you, you’ve lost. You can’t go back now. If you look at jobs, you look at opportunities to live where you want to live. All of these things, did not just simply happen, somebody had to fight for them to happen, and if you don’t continue to fight, they won’t stay there. And it’s not just with minorities. I hear the same thing with women. "Well, I’m tired of people talking about the women’s movement." As if we have always been able to be in these different positions. But not lecture, but involve.
You know, my kids, when I go – and I still demonstrate – when I go, I take them with me. So they can see what it’s like. They can understand what it’s like. They can be there and they can be part of it. And that’s part of what I think we have to do. But the fight is not necessarily one that’s in the streets. It has to be in the school house, it has to be in the courthouse, it has to be in the political -- it has to be everywhere. Now, you know that better than I do.
BOND: How did you learn that it had to be everywhere? Because some people don’t learn. Some people think, you know, "If we can just file lawsuits, that’ll be okay. If we can just do this, that’ll be okay."
FUTRELL: I learned it from Virginia State College, which now is Virginia State University. Because, when I went to Virginia State, we had not had a lot of demonstrations in Lynchburg. I mean, it was -- it was almost unheard of for blacks to stand up and demonstrate in any kind of mass way. But at Virginia State, we did. At Virginia State we marched, and we sat in, and we paraded, and we had rallies on the campus, and we brought people in. And all of a sudden, here was this world that I didn’t know existed, and I was part of it. And so, you know, a lot of us in those days made commitments. And those commitments meant as long as there was a need, we would be there. And so that’s where we are. | <urn:uuid:3e27f782-34b6-4c87-a102-d7f7db2665ad> | {
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Clean energy in Iowa
For decades, Iowans have primarily relied on coal-fired power plants to meet many of our energy needs. In recent years, however, Iowa has begun a transition to clean energy, such as increasing wind power, solar power, and energy efficiency. The Council is working to make this transition happen, to ensure it happens quickly, and to make sure it improves our quality of life.
Clean energy benefits Iowa’s environment and economy
Replacing coal power with wind, solar, and other clean sources of energy will significantly reduce sources of pollution in Iowa. Coal-fired power plants are leading sources of toxics like mercury and arsenic, soot and smog, and greenhouse gas emissions. This pollution causes local air to be unhealthy to breathe, fish unsafe to eat, and long-term change in our climate.
Renewable energy including wind and solar creates jobs for Iowans. Compared to fossil fuels or nuclear, renewable energy creates more jobs per unit of energy installed (e.g., per megawatt). The American Wind Energy Association estimates that Iowa supports between 4,000 and 5,000 jobs in the wind industry alone, and the job creation potential from wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources is substantial.
Renewable energy and energy efficiency keep energy dollars in Iowa instead of exporting them to other states or countries. This improves local economies across the state and keeps more money in every energy consumer’s pocket.
THE COUNCIL’S APPROACH
Using energy efficiently: Energy efficiency is often the fastest and cheapest strategy to support a transition to clean energy. Using energy more efficiently means getting the same or better results we want – e.g., lighting, heating and cooling our homes, etc. – but doing so by using less energy.
Developing renewable energy: Iowa has enormous potential for renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, and achieving this potential will provide benefits for Iowa’s environment and economy. This potential extends to large-scale renewable energy systems, like the large wind farms found across Iowa, as well as smaller-scale projects, such as farmer or community-owned wind turbines and solar panels on homes, farms, and small businesses.
Retiring existing coal: Iowa uses far too much electricity from dirty and polluting coal-fired power plants. Coal power accounts for roughly 70% of all electricity generated in Iowa. Coal is a leading source of mercury, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, and particulate matter. Many of Iowa’s coal-fired power plants are old, outdated, and have little or no pollution control equipment. The Council supports retiring or finding cleaner fuel sources for existing coal plants as we transition to clean sources of energy, and cleaning up the plants that will need to continue to operate in the near future. | <urn:uuid:586b76bb-c82a-4dbe-8af8-1e46accb9a91> | {
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Viewpoint: A day to celebrate the pale blue dot
- 19 June 2013
- From the section Science & Environment
More than 50 years of travelling invisible interplanetary highways around our Solar System, and nearly a decade of orbiting Saturn, have brought us to a keen awareness of the celestial bodies in motion around the Sun, and the series of events responsible for their birth and development.
We could hardly claim to know the complexity of the planetary systems that lie beyond the asteroid belt, the chronology of the early Solar System, or the wide range of extraterrestrial environments where biological processes might be at work, were it not for the many exploratory expeditions that we have mounted to these far-flung worlds.
But perhaps, above all, the greatest, most profound legacy of the quest we have undertaken to understand our origins is perspective... that crystalline, uncorrupted view of our cosmic place that erodes all delusion and confronts us with a powerful recognition of ourselves - a recognition that never fails to move us.
It is surely for this reason that of all the millions of images taken of the worlds in our Solar System since the beginning of the space age, those that reach deeper into the human heart than any other, are those of our own home, as it might be seen in the skies of other worlds: small, alone in the blackness of never-ending space and awash in the blue of its blue, blue oceans.
Cassini's first offering to this collection, taken in September 2006 when the spacecraft was placed, for scientific purposes, at significant remove in the shadow of Saturn, has become one of our most beloved images.
This is an image that draws gasps from anyone seeing it for the first time. Small wonder: in it, we behold something human eyes had never before seen - a backlit view of the full resplendent glory of Saturn's rings during an eclipse of the Sun, the smoky blue ring created by the exhalations of the small moon, Enceladus, and - best of all - a sight of our planet, Earth, a billion miles in the distance.
This is an image without peer, an image that can make one weep with joy, love, concern, an abiding sense of fellowship, and unspeakable awe.
As I have contemplated the inevitable and approaching end of our history-making travels through the Saturn system, I have longed to repeat that remarkable image, make it even better, and turn it into something very special.
I imagined making it an opportunity for all of us to appreciate how far we have come in the exploration of our cosmic neighbourhood and to celebrate the uniqueness of our lush, life-sustaining world and the preciousness of the life on it.
I wanted to repeat that image, only this time, tell all the world about it in advance. Proclaim it to everyone everywhere: "On this day, at this time, you, the Earth and everybody on it will have their picture taken ... from a billion miles away!"
This could be a day, I thought, when all the inhabitants of Earth, in unison, could issue a full-throated, cosmic shout-out and smile a big one for the cameras far, far away.
And so it will be.
On 19 July 2013, the Cassini cameras will be turned to image Saturn and its entire ring system during the planet's eclipse of the Sun.
In the lower right, among the outer diffuse rings that encircle Saturn, will be a small speck of blue light with all of us on it.
A mosaic of images covering the rings from one end to the other, some taken in those filters that are used to make a natural colour scene - that looks like what human eyes would see - will be taken at this time.
Also to be recorded: an image of the highest resolution that we are capable of taking, in which we will find Earth and its Moon. One will be a colourless, star-like point of light. The other, of course, will be a pale blue dot.
So, at the appointed time, straighten up, brush your hair, go outside, gather with friends and family, think a thought or two about the starkness of our whereabouts, the beauty of our home planet, the marvel of our existence, and the magnificence of our accomplishments. And then, look up and smile.
For updates on the activities taking place on 19 July, follow @carolynporco on Twitter and visit http://www.ciclops.org/view_event/193/
Carolyn Porco is the leader of the imaging team on the Cassini mission at Saturn and a veteran imaging scientist on the 1980s Voyager mission. She participated in the taking of the famous 1990 Pale Blue Dot image of Earth taken from beyond the orbit of Neptune by Nasa's Voyager 1 spacecraft. | <urn:uuid:b61be539-540f-4e25-81db-6a29f60c9ce4> | {
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Know how to use "fewer" and "less"? Find out.
early 15c., from Latin attractus, past participle of attrahere "to draw, pull; to attract," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + trahere "draw" (see tract (n.1)).
Originally a medical term for the body's tendency to absorb fluids, nourishment, etc., or for a poultice treatment to "draw out" diseased matter (1560s). Of the ability of people or animals to draw others to them, it is attested from 1560s; of physical forces (magnetism, etc.), from c.1600 (implied in attraction). Related: Attracted; attracting.
To steal: attracted some lumber and built a garage (1891+) | <urn:uuid:e584fd23-0377-49f8-adec-271fb803de23> | {
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The fighting words doctrine, in United States constitutional law, is a limitation to freedom of speech as protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In its 9-0 decision, Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942), the U.S. Supreme Court established the doctrine and held that “insulting or ‘fighting words,’ those that by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace” are among the “well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech [that] the prevention and punishment of...have never been thought to raise any constitutional problem.”
so the court essentially says we can joke at airports,, make assassination jokes, etc now,,,, If its ok to dance and celebrate in front of the parents at their childs funeral. Anyone can say anything, anywhere, anytime,,,
And I wonder if they maintained their prohibition of groups demonstrating on the steps of the spend court? You already know the answer,,,
Indiana Code 35-42-2-3. Provocation.
A person who recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally engages in conduct that is likely to provoke a reasonable man to commit battery commits provocation, a Class C infraction.
A class C Infraction is the same as a speeding ticket; $500 maximum fine, not subject to any jail time. | <urn:uuid:0364ad06-ffa8-42d2-ab5c-a83d6ac420f6> | {
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Please also see our project on the New Wiring and Cable Colours.
Warning: To complete electrical works you must comply with Electrical Regulations - Click here for more information.
A radial circuit is a mains power circuit found in some homes to feed sockets and lighting points. It is simply a length of appropriately rated cable feeding one power point then going on to the next. The circuit terminates with the last point on it. It does not return to the consumer unit or fuse box as does the more popular circuit, the ring main. To see the wiring at the back of the socket please go to the ring main project.
The descriptions below apply only to a circuit for power sockets. Lighting circuits are dealt with in a separate project.
There is no limit to the number of sockets used on a radial circuit providing the circuit is contained within an area not exceeding 50 square m, and, just like a ring main, spurs, or extra sockets, can be added. The number of spurs must not exceed the number of existing sockets. | <urn:uuid:32e2fa91-9077-4833-9b14-8648d804fa47> | {
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20th 六月 1819
5th 十月 1880
Jacques Offenbach (20 June 1819 – 5 October 1880) was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr. and Arthur Sullivan. His best-known works were continually revived during the 20th century, and many of his operettas continue to be staged in the 21st. The Tales of Hoffman remains part of the standard opera repertory. | <urn:uuid:efa098a0-4f1d-4eda-a20b-7077251d161b> | {
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Posted July 31, 2013
In June, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced the agency was awarding grants totaling $950,694 to 28 states for white-nose syndrome projects.
State natural resource agencies will use the funds to support research, monitor bat populations, and detect and respond to white-nose syndrome, a disease that afflicts bats.
“White-nose syndrome has spread rapidly from one state in 2007 to 22 states and five Canadian provinces this year,” said Dr. Jeremy Coleman, the service’s national WNS coordinator. “These grants provide essential support to our state partners in responding to this disease. The research, monitoring, and actions made possible by these grants have yielded valuable results and insights for our national response to white-nose syndrome.”
First discovered in New York in the winter of 2006-2007, white-nose syndrome has spread rapidly through bat populations native to the eastern United States and parts of Canada, and continues to move westward.
“This is one of the most devastating diseases affecting wildlife in eastern North America,” said Wendi Weber, co-chair of the White-Nose Syndrome Executive Committee and USFWS Northeast regional director. “Best estimates indicate that it has killed more than 5.7 million bats.”
The USFWS is leading a cooperative effort with federal and state agencies, tribes, researchers, universities, and other nongovernmental organizations to research and manage the spread of the disease. In addition to developing science-based protocols and guidance for land management agencies and other partners to minimize the spread of WNS, the agency has funded numerous research projects to support and assess management recommendations and improve basic understanding of the dynamics of the disease.
Additional information about WNS, the international disease investigation, and research can be found on the national WNS website. The site carries up-to-date information and resources from partners in the WNS response, current news, and links to social media. | <urn:uuid:6842b207-69fe-49f1-8255-264db378f6f5> | {
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One of the features of Russian communication environment is the widespread use of wire broadcasting, which appeared in 1925 and for a long time was the singular format of the radio. Due to the specific of the state policy of strict control over spreading information, by the 1980s it not only did not give way to wireless radio and television, but, on the contrary, it received maximum audience coverage.
Initially, wire radio sockets were installed mainly in dwelling houses, but then they began to be installed everywhere, including shops, schools, kindergartens, institutes, hospitals and so on under the guise of using them for mass notification for the civil defense. The wide spreading of wire radio receivers and their presence in almost all public spaces led to the appearance of myths of total eavesdropping by government through the radio speakers, whose membranes could indeed be used as microphones, and these myths were never approved or disproved.
Technological progress then replace the myths about total eavesdropping by myths about total surveillance through CCTV cameras that have long become part of the common urban landscape.
The installation combines the developments within the “infra” project and modern technologies and based on the work of the “Videovox” device, which is the three-channel radio receiver, that converts the signal from the CCTV camera to the sound. “Videovox” installed in darkened room lit only by means of a source of infrared radiation, which reacts to the sound in the room like people conversations and steps. Thus, the installation space is enclosed surveillance system that collects information about conversations, movements and location of visitors and encodes it in sound. | <urn:uuid:8c5ea1a7-a061-40cd-a7f3-ee8d5b7ff459> | {
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New space technologies developed by private companies will bring about transformational change that will influence business and our personal lives. A massive drop in the cost of space launches will not only make space more accessible for regular people, but also lead to a tremendous increase in space technology applications on Earth, says Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides.
Remote sensing satellites, for instance, will be able to monitor everything that is visible on earth on a daily and even hourly basis, he told delegates at the Cayman Alternative Investment Summit last week.
One of the key trends enabling this development is miniaturization. Satellites, sensors and other payloads sent into space are becoming ever smaller. “What used to require a bus can now be done by a satellite the size of a small refrigerator,” he said.
Other satellites are no larger than a shoe box.
Last week San Francisco-based Earth imaging company Planet Labs launched the largest constellation of satellites in history. The 88 Dove nanosatellites enable the startup to “image all of Earth’s landmass every day.” Since the launch and the acquisition of Google’s Terra Bella satellite business earlier this month, Planet operates 144 satellites. The image data can be used to measure agricultural yields, monitor natural resources or aid first responders after natural disasters.
High precision navigation, environmental monitoring and high-bandwidth satellite communication networks are other immediate applications of smaller satellite networks.
“Combining this with big data is going to drive amazing things, something we can only begin to get our heads around,” Mr. Whitesides said.
In addition, space companies are building the fundamentals that will allow faster jet travel, an industry that has been stuck at a top speed of Mach 0.8 for the last 40 years.
Going from continent to continent in one hour rather than 10 to 18 hours is going to have a big impact, Mr. Whitesides said. “It will knit our planet together more closely.”
The reduction in the cost of launching a vehicle into space will be the main driver of this development.
NASA’s Space Shuttle was tremendously expensive, hard to service and required several hundred people to launch. When a private company sent the first non-astronaut into space in 2004, no more than a few dozen people were involved in the launch. It was the first time that space travel was taken out of the realm of government actors and opened up the industry to smaller teams and companies.
Working on the reusability of spacecraft will drive down costs even more, the Virgin Galactic CEO said.
“The big space launch vehicle and a Boeing 747 are about the same size, about the same mass, and roughly the same cost. But it costs about $100 million to go into space with one of them and it costs $1,000 to go across the Atlantic. Why is that? It’s because you can reuse the Boeing 747 10,000 times.”
Today, Virgin Galactic, SpaceX and Blue Origin are three private companies that have integrated reusability into their operating model. Once the price of space launches fall, the number of applications will increase dramatically, sparking “a renaissance of usage of space” reminiscent of the early days of biotechnology, he forecast.
The most obvious application will be the accessibility of space travel to a much larger group of people.
Currently, only 558 people have been to space since Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made his first trip in 1961.
Mr. Whitesides, who before becoming chief executive was a customer of Virgin Galactic, said: “It is a journey we aspire to do regularly and it will be an affordable trip.
“I am a big believer in this as a large market and something that will change the world.”
Virgin Galactic 2, the company’s latest space vehicle, has room for six passengers in addition to the two pilots.
“People will be able to get out of their seats and move around in the cabin. We are excited about this. Not only is it opening up space to real people and giving them the opportunity to experience the wonder and joy of weightlessness and looking down on their home planet but also for science and research, which will be a huge part of our future business.”
Mr. Whitesides believes helping many more people to see earth from space will create a new point of view. “That planetary perspective is going to be really crucial in taking care of our home spaceship.” | <urn:uuid:8953298a-024f-4df6-8609-15d1fe3c56df> | {
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New nonfiction books for young readers are written to help children understand their world and explore their interests. Look for history, science, biographies, and much more on the New Book shelves in the children’s areas at all public libraries.
“Animal Encyclopedia,” by Dr. Lucy Spelman.
If you love all kinds of animals, want to see amazing photos, and learn more about them, this is the book for you. Beautifully organized on a grand scale, it has tons of full-color photos, color-coded sections for mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates, two-page spreads of each animal group, and colored insets with information about individual animals. Great for browsing or as a springboard to more in-depth research, this cannot help but entice even the most reluctantly-reading animal lover and will more than satisfy those who love the DK book style but want more organization. (Want more animals? See Steve Jenkins’ book, “The Animal Book,” for vast numbers of facts about animals grouped by characteristic, accompanied by Jenkins’ award-winning paper collage illustrations.)
“Unusual Creatures,” by Michael Hearst, illustrations by Arjen Noordeman, Christie Wright, and Jelmer Noordeman.
This doesn’t have the same immediate visual appeal of “Animal Encyclopedia,” but once you start reading, you’ll be hooked. Arranged from Axolotl to Yeti Crab, each one or two-page spread features a different amazing creature. Look for dangerous creatures like Komodo Dragons and Saddleback Caterpillars, tiny creatures like the Pea Frog and the Pygmy Marmoset, and really tough creatures, like the Tardigrade and the Bar-Headed Goose. Alongside the conversationally-written text that highlights extraordinary facts about each animal are line drawings, poems, quizzes, and maps showing where they live. There is also a discussion about ways animals go extinct and how we can “live green”. The lack of photos may disappoint some, but the charming detailed drawings make up for that, and, taken as a whole, this is a highly satisfying offering.
“Universe: Journey into deep space,” by Dr. Mike Goldsmith, illustrated by Dr. Mark A. Garlick.
The universe is brought to life through gorgeous photorealistic illustrations (photographs are noted when they appear) and scientifically accurate but not overly-wordy text. The authors first explain the measure of distances used for measuring space: light-minutes, light-hours, and light-years. And then, we’re speeding off through the cold dust, past the planets and out of the solar system to where brown dwarfs, red giants, and star nurseries spread across space, speeding towards the massive black hole at the heart of our galaxy. The authors let readers feel our place in the universe by reminding them that our galaxy is merely one of an unknown number of galaxies in our universe. One of the more striking illustrations is a diagram showing our solar system collapsed into the Milky Way Galaxy, collapsed into our local group of galaxies, collapsed into a greater group of galaxies – mindblowing!
“Castle,” written and illustrated by David Macaulay and Sheila Keenan.
Part of a new series for beginning readers, this is an invitation to visit a castle, meet its inhabitants, and take a look around. After explaining that castles are designed to keep enemies out, Macaulay, master of the friendly exploded diagram, illustrates how a friend of the castle might enter by climbing up the steeply-sloping ramp to the gatehouse in the outer curtain. After showing readers around the castle from top to bottom (including toilets), Macaulay discusses the kinds of attacks that an uninvited enemy might try, including using a battering ram and catapulting diseased animals over the walls. Happily for the residents, Macaulay’s castle is sturdily built and its foes are thwarted, trapped in “murder holes,” shot at by archers, and locked in the dungeon. Carefully written to be factual, friendly, and not too difficult (2nd graders ought to be able to handle it), this is a treat for any reader who wants a look inside a castle. (Want more Macaulay? Check out Jet Plane, another title in this new series, all about how planes work.)
Interested in getting a tablet computer or an e-reader but aren’t sure which one would suit you best? Come to the Douglas Library any Sunday this month between 2-4 p.m. and test out the library’s new Nook, Kindle, iPad, and Android at the Tech Petting Zoo. Or, bring your own device and library staff will show you how to use it to download free ebooks and audiobooks.
Story and Toddler Times are on a break until Jan. 6 at all branches.
All public libraries will close at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve and will be closed on Christmas Day. They will be open normal hours on Thursday, Dec. 26. Merry Christmas!
For information about upcoming programs, or to place a hold, visit www.juneau.org/library or call 586-5249. | <urn:uuid:d198779f-748a-4601-9329-e549f1b39ea3> | {
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William Shakespeare – The Complete Literary Works of William Shakespeare, 42 plays, poems and The Sonnets from the bard himself. You will also find 11 Plays attributed in part to William Shakespeare and 19 of Shakespeare’s plays/books translated to German.
Known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Jane Austen’s plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security.
Her works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism.
With the publications of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815) all worthy additions to the Classic Literature Library. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818, and began another, eventually titled Sanditon, but died before its completion.
Her novels have rarely been out of print, although they were published anonymously and brought her little fame during her lifetime. A significant transition in her posthumous reputation occurred in 1869, fifty-two years after her death, when her nephew’s publication of A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced her to a wider audience.
Edgar Allan Poe
Poe was born into poverty at Boston, January 19, 1809, dying under painful circumstances at Baltimore, October 7, 1849, his whole literary career of scarcely fifteen years a pitiful struggle for mere subsistence, his memory malignantly misrepresented by his earliest biographer, Griswold, how completely has truth at last routed falsehood and how magnificently has Poe come into his own.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Some of the best known of the Holmes stories are The Sign of The Four (1890), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), and His Last Bow (1917). They made Conan Doyle internationally famous and served to popularize the detective-story genre (Detective Story; Mystery Story)
Sir James Matthew Barrie
Dramatist and novelist who is best known as the creator of Peter Pan the boy who refused to grow up. The Peter Pan series includes Peter Pan Play (staged 1904), Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906), and Peter and Wendy (novel) (1911).
Bram Stoker was an Irish author, best known today for his Gothic adventure novel Dracula (1897), spawning the infamous Count Dracula vampire legend from Transylvania.
During his lifetime, Stoker was better known as the personal assistant to the actor Henry Irving and the business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London (owned by Henry Irving).
In 1890 Stoker visited the English coastal town of Whitby, and that visit is said to be part of the inspiration for Dracula. He began writing novels while manager for Henry Irving and secretary and director of London’s Lyceum Theatre, beginning with The Snake’s Pass in 1890 and Dracula in 1897.
During this period, Stoker was part of the literary staff of the The Daily Telegraph in London, and he wrote other fiction, including the horror novels The Lady of the Shroud (1909) and The Lair of the White Worm (1911).
Jules Verne – The Complete Literary Works of Jules Verne. This French Author is best known for such classics as Around the World in 80 Days and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The Jules Verne site includes most of Verne’s books in both the original French and English translations and we even found a few Dutch translations!
Charles Darwin – The Complete Works of Charles Darwin’s classic scientific literature, including this British Authors most famous and controversial work in the field of Evolution: The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection.
Mark Twain – The Complete Literary Works of Mark Twain. This classic American Author AKA Samuel Langhorne Clemens is best known for the sequel to Tom Sawyer: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).
Fairy Tales and Children’s Literature – The works of L. Frank Baum, including The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the entire Oz series (over 20 books). You will also find the works of Lewis Carroll, including the classic children’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. | <urn:uuid:26633769-c827-4215-abfa-84ce278c7168> | {
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Maintaining your mouth’s health is extremely important, especially if you want to prevent future problems as you age. Many people neglect their mouth and fail to follow all the rules and guidelines that their dentist sets in place for them. But having a healthy mouth is important for multiple reasons. The most relevant reasons being that it is how we as humans eat, chew, and taste our food, it is our smile, which is a representation of who we are. It is important to take care of your mouth, your teeth, gums, tongue, and lips. And you should be consistently visiting your dentist for a bi-annual checkup and dental cleaning in Irving. Maybe you are wondering whether or not you have a healthy mouth, in which, if you do, you will likely have the following signifiers…
#1 Gums that do not bleed when flossing or brushing
If your gums easily bleed when flossing or brushing, this is a sign of under cared for, weak gums that may have an unhealthy amount of oral bacteria. If gums are not properly taken care of, it is more likely that you will experience gum disease or other oral-related issues in the near future. If your gums are not quick to bleed when flossing and brushing, this means they are likely healthy.
#2 Gums that are pink in color
Another thing to look out for when it comes to the gums is the color. Healthy gums should be pink in color, not bright red or pale. If your gums are bright red this is likely an indication of an overgrowth of bacteria and you are at a much higher risk for gum disease. If your gums are pale or white in color, it could be a sign of anemia. In either case, you will want to make sure to see a doctor.
#3 Strong, White Teeth
If you have strong teeth, then it is a sign of a healthy mouth. If your teeth are free from cavities and other dental problems or diseases and aligned properly, then they are strong and this is a sign of great mouth health. Strong, healthy teeth will also not appear dark yellow or brown in color, but in a natural looking white shade. They will not be sensitive, and they will have a smooth texture.
#4 Pleasant Breath
Having bad breath is an important indicator of an unhealthy mouth. If your breath is consistently unpleasant it could be a sign of overgrowth of bacteria and plaque in the mouth. If you regularly brush and floss your teeth as well as consistently see your dentist for checkups and cleanings then you will likely have healthy, neutral, and pleasant breath.
#5 Healthy Oral Tissues
Our mouths are made up of oral tissues. When these tissues are healthy, they are pink in color and moist. If you have any painful sores, sensitivity or tenderness, this could be an indicator of unhealthy tissues
When looking for an Irving dentist, you want someone you can trust. Here at Cosmetic and Family Dentistry, we are a reliable and trustworthy group of dental experts that are here and happy to help you keep your mouth in top health. Contact us today, and let us help you keep smiling. | <urn:uuid:d6c040ef-8161-4179-be85-5bbed67c95a8> | {
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Good news, folks. Microsoft founder Bill Gates has turned his attention to controlling the weather.
Five U.S. Patent and Trade Office patent applications, made public on July 9, propose slowing hurricanes by pumping cold, deep-ocean water in their paths from barges. If issued, the patents offer 18 years of legal rights to the idea for Gates and co-inventors, including climate scientist Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Hurricanes, most famously demonstrated by the deadly intensification of Hurricane Katrina before its landfall in 2005, draw strength from warm waters on the ocean's surface. The patents describe a system for strategically placing turbine-equipped barges in the path of storms to chill sea surfaces with cold water pumped from the depths.
USA TODAY GRAPHIC: Hurricane tracking, science, and history
First requested by Gates and colleagues last year, the patents describe methods "not limited to atmospheric management, weather management, hurricane suppression, hurricane prevention, hurricane intensity modulation, hurricane deflection" to manage storms.
Given the scope of the applications, "I suspect these will have a lengthy stay in the examiner's office. They are talking about some interesting issues here," says patent expert Gene Quinn of IPWatchdog.com.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Caldeira declined to comment on the patents.
"The bottom line here is that if enough pumps are deployed, it is reasonable to expect some diminution of hurricane power," says hurricane expert Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is not part of the patent effort. Cutting sea surface temperature by 4.5 degrees under the eye of a hurricane would actually kill a storm, he adds. "This would have to be done on a massive scale, but is still probably within the realm of feasibility."
Says climate scientist Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University in State College: "Needless to say, there is a whole lot of skepticism about this among tropical meteorologists. But it's not so ridiculous that I would actually dismiss it out of hand. There is certainly an important role of upper ocean mixing on tropical cyclone behavior."
CLIMATE TROUBLEMAKER: New El Nino could fuel more Atlantic hurricanes
Ocean water quickly grows colder with depth, reaching temperatures of 28 to 37 degrees (salty ocean water doesn't freeze at 32 degrees) about 500 feet down. The patents envision sail-maneuvered barges, with conduits 500 feet long, pumping warm water down to the depths and bringing cold water up. The average depth of the Gulf of Mexico is 5,300 feet.
"By cooling a region in the path of a hurricane (over 60 square miles), models suggest we could knock a half-a-category in wind speed out," says Philip Kithil of Atmocean in Santa Fe, an ocean-pumping firm mentioned in Gates' applications. "All the models indicate the path of the storm would be unaffected."
In the average year, six hurricanes develop in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico in a season that officially extends from June 1 to Nov. 30. Over the past century, the annual cost of hurricanes to the USA has averaged about $10 billion, according to a 2008 Natural Hazards Review study. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina killed at least 1,800 people and caused at least $81 billion in damage.
"From a scientific and political standpoint, (the Gates plan) looks fanciful," Quinn says. "But the physics is real and like a lot of things, the question is whether the damage you prevent is worth the money you would spend to develop something so massive." | <urn:uuid:ef8948b7-7d30-4d88-a5a2-f1cbf7c5f624> | {
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COLIFORM BACTERIA FACT SHEET
Contaminant: Total Coliform Bacteria
MCL: 0 or Absent
Source: Fecal matter, surface and runoff water
Effect: Intestinal disorders, cholera, typhoid fever
Followup: Total Coliform and E. coli enumeration and Enterococci; Well Inspection
Treatment: UV Purifier, Chlorinator, (boil water, temporarily)
Coliform bacteria occurs throughout the environment. They are found in human and animal fecal matter, surface water (lakes, streams, etc.) and water that contacts soil. Coliform bacteria enters a water supply from the direct disposal of waste into streams and lakes or runoff from wooded areas, pastures, feedlots, septic tanks and sewage plants into streams or groundwater. Some ways that coliform can enter an individual house are backflow of water from a contaminated source, contaminated filtration equipment, a broken or missing well cap that allows dirt and dead organisms to fall into the water, breaks in underground pipes or well casing, malfunctioning septic systems or broken sewer lines and poor well construction or inadequate grouting of the well.
Coliform bacteria analysis is used to determine the sanitary condition of a well or spring. Coliform bacteria are often referred to as “indicator organisms” because they indicate the potential of disease-causing bacteria to be present in water. The presence of coliform bacteria in water does not guarantee that drinking the water will cause an illness. Rather, their presence indicates that a contamination pathway exists between a source of bacteria (surface water, septic system, animal waste, etc.) and the water supply. Disease-causing bacteria may use this pathway to enter the water supply.
Coliforms are not a single type of bacteria, but a grouping of bacteria that includes many strains. They are ubiquitous in nature, and many types are harmless. Therefore, it is not definitive that coliform bacteria will cause sickness. Many variables such as the specific type of bacteria present, and your own immune system’s effectiveness will determine if you will become ill.
It is not recommended to consume any water that contains any colonies of coliform bacteria. The only way to determine if a water supply contains bacteria is to have the water tested, bacterial contamination cannot be detected by sight, smell or taste.
When total coliform is found within a water system it is recommended to perform a follow-up test for total coliform and E. coli enumeration and Enterococci (another indicator of fecal matter) to determine if the contamination is from a surface water source (run-off, stream, etc.) or from a fecal source (septic system, sewer line, barnyard, etc.).
Also, it is recommended that a well inspection be performed in an attempt to identify and eliminate the source of contamination. A well inspection will reveal any physical defects that may be present (i.e. defective casing and/or well cap, leaking pit-less well adaptor, insect or animal entry, etc.).
When bacteria is found in the drinking water, we recommend contacting a water treatment professional. Boiling water for one minute at a rolling boil can be used as a temporary measure. The most commonly installed treatment equipment is an Ultraviolet (UV) purifier or a chlorinator. Well (or shock) chlorination is a temporary measure that is NOT recommended when you are selling your home unless you are absolutely certain that the source of contamination has been eliminated. | <urn:uuid:c2be667e-b870-4d8a-a8b3-3bff8469c400> | {
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Facts about Seat Belt Safety that You Probably Knew, but Forgot
Everyone already knows that seat belt safety is important. Seat belts save lives.
Click it or Ticket.
We’ve all heard it before. Yet for some reason, far too many people still choose to cruise around un-buckled. If one of those people happens to be you, here is a friendly reminder why you should buckle up next time you hop in a car.
You could die
This is not a scare tactic – it’s a fact. No one ever thinks that they will get in a car accident, let alone die in one. But 2.3 million adults that were treated in an emergency room last year because of a car accident can testify that it certainly could be you. Or talk to the families of the more than 4,000 car crash victims that didn’t make it.
If these stats still don’t connect with you, just ask around – no doubt someone you know has recently been injured in a car accident. Maybe they can convince you of the reality of the situation.
It’s the law
The government does care about your well-being. That’s why it’s the law to wear a seat belt in the car. While the specific details of each seat belt law differ from state to state, all you really need to know is that if you get caught unbuckled – you’ll get a ticket.
There are better ways to be cool
If drivers don’t care about their own safety, they’d better care about the safety of their passengers – especially kids. As “uncool” as it is to sit in the back seat when “shotgun” is open, kids ages 12 and under are much safer in the back, bucked up, and in car-seats or boosters (if needed). There are other ways to become a cool parent than letting your kids risk their safety by either not wearing a seat belt or wearing one improperly.
Really, seat belt safety is easy, effective, and smart. There is NO excuse for not wearing one. So buckle up today and cruise safely! | <urn:uuid:7f772090-ed63-4186-9047-f91cb6137897> | {
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(CNN) -- The number of North Koreans who have defected to South Korea has passed 20,000, the Yonhap news agency said Monday.
A 41-year-old woman identified only by the last name Kim arrived in South Korea on Thursday, becoming the 20,000th defector, Yonhap said, citing South Korea's Unification Ministry.
The woman fled with her sons, ages 12 and 17, because of economic hardships in the North, Yonhap said.
The family arrived in South Korea via China, but no further details were available, the agency said.
An average of 200 North Koreans arrive in the South monthly, according to the Unification Ministry.
North Koreans also escape to neighboring China, but their numbers are unknown, because they go underground. Beijing sends North Korean defectors back to the hermetic North, where they face punishment.
Many North Koreans also are caught while trying to escape their impoverished country.
Millions of families were separated by the Korean War, which ended in 1953 with a ceasefire, but without a formal peace treaty.
South Korea turned itself into an economic tiger in the decades after the war. It overtook the communist North, which was industrially superior at one point.
North Koreans have gone hungry as their leaders have poured money into the country's nuclear arms and missile programs, analysts say. The arms buildup has prompted harsh economic sanctions from the international community.
Weather-driven food shortages have compounded the hardships faced by North Koreans. | <urn:uuid:ba4ef45f-f0e8-485a-aacf-be6f05038045> | {
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HOME & GARDEN
Hula plants’ steward
Isabella Abbott studies the uses and meaning of Hawaii flora
Native plants in relation to hula have religious connotations -- often representing the physical embodiment of gods and goddesses of hula such as Laka and other hula deities such as sisters Pele and Hi'iaka.
More than 40 plants also have symbolic or decorative uses, or are the basis for instruments, according to ethnobotanist Isabella Aiona Abbott.
Traditions of the Pacific
Lectures and workshops on hula continue through Nov. 8. Reservations recommended; call 848-4187 or e-mail [email protected].
» Feb. 16: "Kahiko to Auana," workshop with Noelani Mahoe and Kumu Kaanohi Aipa; 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. at Bishop Museum; $30 per session
» Feb. 23: "Hula Plants Walking Tour," workshop, 9 a.m. at Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden, Big Island; free
» Hula Film Festival: "Ka Poe Hula Hawaii Kahiko (The Hula People of Old)" and "The Hula of Old Hawaii" show at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Atherton Halau; $5. Films will be presented monthly through Nov. 18, usually on the second Tuesday.
» Full schedule: Visit www.bishopmuseum.org.
A packed audience filled Atherton Halau at Bishop Museum last week to hear Abbott speak on the subject of hula plants. Seventy-five additional people filled the waiting list, hoping to hear the first lecture in "Traditions of the Pacific 2008," given by Abbott, a Bishop Museum board member.
Many in attendance had a particular interest in the subject as teachers and students of hula.
As in "Laau Hawaii: Traditional Uses of Plants," one of several books by the premier ethnobotanist, Abbott explored in depth the link between plants and their symbolism in serious forms of hula.
She asserts that endemic plants, many of them on the endangered list, must be protected in order to perpetuate knowledge of hula as an art form and form of prayer. Plants such as kauila, used for hula sticks, and hanapepe, the embodiment of Laka, are both in short supply.
"The plants might help in the future because they might have some genetic material that is a cure for disease such as heart trouble, such as digitalis," Abbott said. "Digitalis, or foxglove, is one of the oldest drugs, and it is still used to control heartbeat and heart rate. Hawaiians have a lot of weedy species, and they brought those weeds with them before they got here."
Abbott, a professor emeritus in botany at the University of Hawaii-Manoa and in biological sciences at Stanford University, is a Kamehameha Schools graduate and the first woman of Hawaiian descent to earn a doctorate in biology from the University of California-Berkeley, in 1950. She has made the study of Polynesian ethnobotany an area of personal academic interest and research.
"Anybody knows more about hula than I do," said Abbott, "but I am a botanist who knows plants."
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / [email protected]
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Geotimes - October 2007 - Mineral Resource of the Month: SeleniumNEWS NOTES
Energy and Resources Mineral Resource of the Month: Selenium
U.S. Geological Survey mineral commodity specialist Micheal W. George compiled the following information on selenium.
Selenium is a trace mineral needed in small amounts for good health; however, in any significant amount, it is toxic. As a relatively rare metallic element, selenium has a surprising diversity of uses.
In humans, selenium is important for the immune system, and its antioxidant and curative properties have been demonstrated to assist with a number of health problems, including AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, asthma, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, pancreatitis, reproductive problems, thyroid dysfunction and viral infections. Too much selenium, however, can kill a person. It causes hair and fingernail changes, damage to the nervous and circulatory systems, the liver and the kidneys.
In glass containers, the mineral is used to decolorize the green tint caused by iron impurities. It is also used in art and other glass, such as that used in traffic lights, to produce a ruby red color, and in architectural plate glass to reduce solar heat transmission through the glass. Because it has good heat stability, reacts well to moisture and is resistant to ultraviolet or chemical exposure, selenium, such as that in cadmium sulfoselenide compounds, is used as pigments in ceramics, glazes, paints and plastics.
Selenium is now widely used in alloys with bismuth as a substitute for lead in plumbing, in response to requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996, which restrict the use of lead in any fixtures, fluxes, pipes and solders used for the installation or repair of facilities that provide water for human consumption.
In China, selenium dioxide is substituted for sulfur dioxide to increase yields in the electrolytic production of manganese. By using selenium dioxide instead of sulfur dioxide, the plant reduces the power required to operate the electrolytic cells.
Although selenium is widely distributed within Earth’s crust, it does not occur in concentrations high enough to justify mining solely for the selenium content. It is recovered as a byproduct of nonferrous metal mining and processing, principally from the anode slimes associated with electrolytic refining of copper. Slimes from primary copper refining can average up to 10 percent selenium, but are generally much lower. U.S. copper reserves contain about 10,000 metric tons of selenium — about 12 percent of the selenium contained in world copper reserves.
Global selenium output cannot be accurately determined because not all companies report production and because the trade in anode slimes and semi-refined products is not easily tracked. As selenium is a byproduct of copper, its rate of production may not be directly influenced by its industrial demand. Owing to a large increase in consumption of selenium in China and the relatively unchanged global production of selenium, there has been a supply shortfall in recent years. Consequently, the price of selenium increased from $4 per pound at the beginning of 2003, to a peak of $55 per pound in the middle of 2005 and fell to $34 per pound at the beginning of 2007. Even though global copper production has increased over the past five years, the production of selenium is believed to have remained essentially unchanged, as the increased copper output has come from low selenium content ores and from ores processed through leaching, which precludes the recovery of selenium. Unless alternative sources of selenium are found, selenium’s future use will likely be restricted to the more specialized, high-value-added applications. | <urn:uuid:7b208314-2712-4236-922d-648114deee2c> | {
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A new study on Climate Change Impact and Adaptation in the Lower Mekong Basin released on March 29 has revealed that the effects of climate change in the basin is worse than the global average.
Final results of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded study, that were released at a regional workshop in Bangkok, indicate that changes in climate will likely trigger decreases in yields and in the suitability of key commercial and staple crops of the region.
The basic staple crop of the region – the rain-fed rice – would see a significant decrease in yield in seven out of eight provinces across the region that had been identified by the study as “hot spots.”
These included two provinces of Viet Nam in Gia Lai in the Central Highlands and Kien Giang in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta.
Click here to read the full story.
Thanks for reading to the end of this story!
We would be grateful if you would consider joining as a member of The EB Circle. This helps to keep our stories and resources free for all, and it also supports independent journalism dedicated to sustainable development. For a small donation of S$60 a year, your help would make such a big difference. | <urn:uuid:fe2cbdd3-6e6c-41ea-8c16-9893f126c082> | {
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The middle ear contains air. The air pressure needs to be the same as the pressure outside the body for you to hear well.
The Eustachian tube is a tube that runs from the back of the nose to the middle ear. The tube opens to allow air to pass into or out of the middle ear to equalise the middle ear pressure to the air pressure outside the body. Sometimes you will feel this happening, with a “pop” in the ear.
As the plane ascends, the air pressure reduces. The eustachian tube needs to work to allow movement of air from the middle ear, to reduce the middle ear pressure to match the pressure outside the body. As the plane descends, the reverse happens; air moves into the middle ear through the eustachian tube.
If the eustachian tube is not working well and pressure in the middle ear is suddenly much higher or much lower than the air pressure outside the body, you will have ear pain and a blocked ear feeling. This is called eustachian tube dysfunction with barotrauma (pressure trauma).
If the pressure is not relieved, you can develop:
- Bleeding into the middle ear with temporary hearing loss;
- A hole in the ear drum with bleeding from the ear and hearing loss. This may all improve as the ear drum heals itself over a month or so. Sometimes the hole in the ear drum and hearing loss are permanent;
- Rarely, a hole in the inner ear membranes causing sudden loss of hearing and balance with vertigo. Vertigo usually improves over a week or so but hearing loss is usually permanent.
Eustachian tube dysfunction can be permanent or temporary. The commonest cause of temporary dysfunction is having a cold or viral upper respiratory tract infection or hayfever. It’s best not to fly when you have a cold. Don’t fly for 3 months after major ear surgery. You can fly 24 hours after having middle ear ventilation tubes inserted
What helps the ears to equalise pressure during flights?
- Actively equalise the middle pressure every few minutes during ascent and descent by:
- Swallowing, chewing, yawning;
- Trying to breathe out with mouth closed and nose pinched with fingers, to increase pressure in the nose and throat;
- Using an Otovent device.
- Improve nasal and eustachian tube congestion with:
- One week of intranasal steroid spray before the flight;
- Nasal decongestant spray or decongestant tablet one hour before ascent and one hour before descent. Check with your doctor or pharmacist if these are safe for you or your child;
- Waiting til your cold or hayfever has improved before flying.
- Slow down the pressure changes using Ear Plane Ear plugs. You can purchase these from pharmacies;
- For severe and permanent eustachian tube dysfunction, have middle ear ventilation tubes inserted before the flight.
If you expect ear pain during a flight, it may be helpful to take paracetamol or ibuprofen one hour before take-off (and one hour before descent if flight is more than 6 hours). | <urn:uuid:613e05de-0921-40c7-a0eb-730cc2f43839> | {
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There’s more to food store choice than proximity: a questionnaire development study
© Krukowski et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013
Received: 4 February 2013
Accepted: 4 June 2013
Published: 17 June 2013
Proximity of food stores is associated with dietary intake and obesity; however, individuals frequently shop at stores that are not the most proximal. Little is known about other factors that influence food store choice. The current research describes the development of the Food Store Selection Questionnaire (FSSQ) and describes preliminary results of field testing the questionnaire.
Development of the FSSQ involved a multidisciplinary literature review, qualitative analysis of focus group transcripts, and expert and community reviews. Field testing consisted of 100 primary household food shoppers (93% female, 64% African American), in rural and urban Arkansas communities, rating FSSQ items as to their importance in store choice and indicating their top two reasons. After eliminating 14 items due to low mean importance scores and high correlations with other items, the final FSSQ questionnaire consists of 49 items.
Items rated highest in importance were: meat freshness; store maintenance; store cleanliness; meat varieties; and store safety. Items most commonly rated as top reasons were: low prices; proximity to home; fruit/vegetable freshness; fruit/vegetable variety; and store cleanliness.
The FSSQ is a comprehensive questionnaire for detailing key reasons in food store choice. Although proximity to home was a consideration for participants, there were clearly other key factors in their choice of a food store. Understanding the relative importance of these different dimensions driving food store choice in specific communities may be beneficial in informing policies and programs designed to support healthy dietary intake and obesity prevention.
KeywordsFood store Health promotion Obesity Diet Questionnaire
Obesity is one of the most pressing public health problems, largely because it is a risk factor for a wide range of chronic diseases . In recent years, efforts to understand the obesity epidemic have focused attention on understanding the role of the “built environment” (i.e., the physical surroundings that can impact dietary intake or energy expenditure, including food stores) . Many experts now agree that the built environment must be considered in efforts to address obesity .
In some research, proximity of food stores, specifically supermarkets, has been positively linked with healthful dietary intake [4, 5], and obesity [6–8], yet in other research, no association or negative associations have been found between the proximity of food stores and dietary intake [9–12] or obesity [11, 13–15]. Perhaps helping to explain these inconsistent findings related to food store proximity and diet/ obesity, recent research has found that individuals frequently shop at stores that are not the most proximal [15–17] and little is known about the reasons which do guide selection of a food store. With the underlying assumptions that food store preferences influence food store choice, and that food store choice then proximally impacts dietary intake and more distally impacts weight status, it is important to understand how individuals select the stores at which they shop in order to design food store interventions that could alter dietary intake and weight status. There have been a few studies in the United States that have utilized short (i.e., five to seven item) measures to understand reasons for food store choice among low-income residents [18, 19] or among Latinas ; however, a more comprehensive description of the factors influencing food store choice in a broader sample of individuals has not yet been conducted. In addition, the degree to which the questionnaires used in these studies were developed based on community input is uncertain, so it is unclear as to whether these questionnaires accurately represent the diversity of community perceptions and capture the full range of factors relevant to food store selection.
Obtaining a clear picture of the reasons associated with food store choice has been difficult up to this point because of the lack of a comprehensive measure which gathers information on all of the potentially relevant factors. Thus, the first phase of this study was to develop a descriptive questionnaire regarding the importance of key factors on food store selection which would be appropriate for use in a range of communities. A second phase was to field-test the questionnaire to gather initial information about the relative importance of various factors in food store choice in a diverse group with significant representation of populations at high risk for obesity.
Development of the food store selection questionnaire
Development of the Food Store Selection Questionnaire (FSSQ) involved a multi-step process including: multidisciplinary literature review of previous research examining food store choice, qualitative analysis of key themes emerging in community-engaged focus groups , review by a panel of experts, and review by community members. The questionnaire was developed with the goal that it could be used in a broad range of communities (e.g., urban/rural) to identify and compare the key factors in community members’ food store choice.
First, in March-May 2010, we reviewed current multidisciplinary literature using the PubMed database with the search terms of “food store,” “grocery store,” and “supermarket,” each combined with “choice,” “selection,” and “reason” to identify potential factors associated with food store choice in previous research. The references were then examined in the relevant articles, in order discover other potentially relevant articles. Based on the literature review, a list was created of factors that were previously cited as important in food store choice or were hypothesized to affect food store choice. This list was supplemented by items generated from key themes that emerged in 5 focus groups (in four communities) conducted in June-November 2010, in both rural and more urban settings with Caucasian and African American shoppers (n = 48), as described in detail elsewhere . Participants were recruited through established networks of community organizations, assisted by a community liaison. The investigators employed the qualitative techniques of content analysis and constant comparison in interpreting the data [22, 23]. Code words were assigned to relevant sections of data; related coded segments were combined into larger blocks of data and then into themes. These four main themes included proximity, financial considerations, food availability/quality, and store characteristics and had some, but not total, overlap with items reported in the literature. From this list of possible reasons for choosing a food store, a draft questionnaire was created.
An expert panel of individuals (n = 8) who work in the academic setting in the area of community-based research, in the fields of food environment assessment, survey methods, and health disparity research, reviewed the draft questionnaire. Three of the experts work in major metropolitan areas, and five conduct research in more rural areas. They reviewed the questionnaire to identify any missing key factors that may impact store choice, discern whether any items were redundant, and to nominate items for deletion. They were asked whether the questionnaire could be improved to enhance clarity of the items, instruction, or response scale. Experts’ feedback mostly related to addition of specific items and clarification of questionnaire instructions and items. The draft questionnaire was revised based on this feedback.
Next, the research team piloted the questionnaire with community members from across Arkansas using cognitive interviewing methods. Individuals (n = 12) who indicated that they were 18 years of age or older, the primary food shopper for a household of at least two individuals and not following a particular diet that requires shopping at only one store were asked to complete the questionnaire and then comment on the content and structure of the questionnaire instructions, items, and the response scale. They were asked to indicate whether the questionnaire was missing any key aspects of food store choice or whether items should be excluded. Instructions, items, and response scales that were identified as problematic or not well understood were reworded to improve comprehension and items were added and deleted. Saturation was reached (i.e., no new information was emerging) with twelve participants and interviews were discontinued. These community members were given a $20 gift card to offset the time and expense associated with participating in the cognitive interviewing. After verifying that the reading level of the revised questionnaire was below the eighth grade level, a final version of the questionnaire was created.
Questionnaire administration sample
Participants for the questionnaire administration were recruited from seven communities (range: 10–19 participants from each community) across Arkansas through established networks of community organizations and agencies, facilitated by the participation of a community liaison from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, College of Public Health’s Office of Community-Based Public Health in every stage of this research. We employed a multi-component recruitment approach that incorporated several methods, including: 1) direct, community-based efforts using small media (e.g., posters in local businesses, talks to local community groups, notices in churches, local newsletters); and 2) targeted invitations to known community gatekeepers likely to have access for dissemination to potentially eligible participants. To participate, an individual had to be: a) at least 18 years old, b) the primary food shopper for a household with a minimum of two individuals, and c) not following a particular diet that requires shopping at only one store due to specific availability of food items (e.g., gluten intolerance). Only one member of a household could participate. Communities were selected to reflect a range of constituencies, including urban and rural communities and racial diversity.
Questionnaire field testing occurred in groups at times identified as convenient for participants (i.e., evenings and weekends) in community locations (e.g., community centers, libraries, private rooms in restaurants, churches). After written informed consent was obtained, participants completed the FSSQ and questionnaires regarding sociodemographic data (i.e., age, gender, education level, employment status, racial and ethnic identification, marital status, receipt of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Women, Infant, and Child benefits), and food shopping behavior (e.g., typical number of stores visited each food shopping trip; form of transportation to the store). The FSSQ consisted of 63 items. Participants provided their perspectives on the importance of these items using two methods: first, they rated each item as to its importance in their choice of a food store on a five-point scale from 1 (not at all important) to 5 (very important); and then, on the same questionnaire, they were asked “Which of the previous reasons are the two most important reasons for you in choosing in a food store (briefly indicate item and item number)?” Measured body weight and self-reported height were then collected for all participants, and body mass index (BMI; weight [kg] / height [m]2) was calculated. Home ZIP codes were used to classify participants as living in a metropolitan area core (> 50,000 population) or a non-metropolitan area core (< 49,999 population) using the Rural Health Research Center’s ZIP code-level rural–urban commuting area codes 2.0 . All participants received a $20 gift card for completion of the questionnaire.
The study was approved by the institutional review board at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
Descriptive statistics (frequencies, means and standard deviations) were calculated for participant characteristics and for each questionnaire item. Frequencies were utilized to characterize the number of times each item was chosen as one of the top two reasons for choosing a food store. Inter-item correlations were computed to identify items that may have high intercorrelations and were reviewed for redundancy. When the intercorrelations were suggestive of redundancies, we examined the items to determine which items, if any, were the best candidates for removal. Data were analyzed using SPSS 17.0 (2008, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL).
Questionnaire field test sample
Of the 139 individuals screened, 100 participated in the questionnaire field test. Reasons for non-participation included ineligibility (n = 6), a scheduling conflict (n = 8), no longer interested (n = 2) and scheduled but failed to attend (n = 23).
Participants’ (n = 100) sociodemographic characteristics and food shopping behaviors
Gender (% female)
Ethnicity (% Hispanic)
Education (% completed)
Less than high school
Rurality of residence (% non-metropolitan ZIP codes)
Number of stores visited on a typical shopping trip
Four or more
Location from which one departs for the food store
Transportation to store
Ride with other
Participate in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Participate in Women, Infants, and Children program
Decision maker for food store choice
Satisfaction with food store
In considering items for the final version of the questionnaire, individual items were examined for their mean score and correlation with other items. As detailed in the List of Omitted Items, 13 items were omitted with a mean score less than 3 (i.e., “somewhat important” on the rating scale) and which were not identified as important by the literature review, focus group participants, or expert reviewers. Three items (i.e., proximity to public transportation, internet ordering, home delivery) with low mean scores were retained because investigators were concerned that the insufficient availability of these options in the relatively rural region in which the questionnaire was administered precluded determination that these factors were unrelated to selection of food store for other locations in which these options are available. One other item (i.e., food for religious reasons) was retained because of the concern that the largely Christian communities in which the questionnaire was administered in this study may not have had the religion-based dietary considerations (e.g., kosher, halal) that other communities may have. Finally, in examining the correlations between items, one item was omitted because of a high correlation with all of the other items related to location/proximity. All of the items included in the 49-item final version are listed in Table 2, and the final questionnaire is available in Additional file 1.
List of omitted items
Omitted for Low Mean Score
I like the music at the store.
It’s close to a school that family members attend.
I like that the store contains an ATM (that is, a cash machine) or bank.
The store has free samples of food available when I shop.
I see people I know when I go shopping there.
Other people who are like me shop there.
I like the architecture (that is, the building design) of the store.
The store has precooked or “ready to eat” foods that I like.
I like that the store is locally owned.
The employees at the store know me.
I like that the store is a national chain supermarket/grocery store.
My family prefers the store to others.
The store accepts WIC or food stamps as payment.
Omitted Based on High Correlation with Other Items
Ratings of importance for items food store selection questionnaire: final version
Item number (final version)
Frequency as top two factors
I think the meat is fresh.
The store is well-maintained.
I can buy the kinds of meat that I want.
I think the store is clean.
I feel safe when I go there.
I am able to easily find the items on my shopping list.
I think the fruits and vegetables are fresh and not bruised.
I can choose from a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.
The store is open when I like to go shopping.
The store has a payment option that works for me (that is, personal check, type of debit/credit card, purchase account).
I think the store has good sales.
I think the store has low prices.
The store generally has enough cashiers open when I am shopping.
I can find the brands that I like.
I am familiar with the store and its layout.
The store has foods that are not going to quickly expire.
The employees at the store quickly respond to my needs.
The store has a good variety of healthy foods.
The store is kept at a good temperature.
I can buy lower cost items like store brand items.
The store accepts coupons.
I can always get a shopping cart/basket.
I can complete my shopping quickly.
I can easily find parking.
It’s close to my home.
The store has disinfecting wipes for the grocery cart available.
The aisles of the store are wide enough.
The store sends out a sale paper or advertisement that helps me plan what I will buy.
I can get a discount by using the store’s shopper’s card.
I like the size of the store.
The store generally has someone available to bag my groceries.
The store treats their employees well (for example, pay and benefits).
The store has foods that I know how to prepare.
The store is environmentally-conscious.
I can buy the foods that my family needs for medical reasons (for example, low-salt or gluten-free foods).
I can buy locally grown/raised foods.
I like that the store has a bakery.
The store has foods that I grew up eating.
I like that the store has a butcher.
I can buy other non-food items I need (for example, clothing).
I can buy foods in bulk or large volumes.
I like that the store contains a pharmacy.
It’s close to my work.
It’s close to other stores where I shop.
I can buy organic/chemical-free foods.
I can buy the foods that I eat for religious reasons (for example, kosher).
It’s close to public transportation such as a bus, train, or subway.
I am able to order my groceries from this store on the Internet.
The store delivers to my home.
Results from the field-testing of the FSSQ
Data from the finalized version of the FSSQ were examined. The importance of each item in driving food store choice for the individuals in the sample as a whole was examined by item mean and standard deviation as well as the frequency that the item was cited as one of the two top factors (Table 2). The items with the highest mean scores were also often frequently cited as a top factor, indicating consistency between these two approaches to characterize the salient factors driving food store selection.
Although there are many measures of the store food environment, one thing that has been missing from the food environment literature has been a comprehensive questionnaire that details the reasons for choosing one’s primary food store. The initial findings from the newly developed and field-tested FSSQ clearly indicate that there are several key factors related to food store choice and the data shed light on the relative importance of various reasons for choosing a food store among participants from diverse backgrounds.
These findings demonstrate important similarities and differences with previous research as to the key factors in food store choice. Several previous studies have demonstrated that isolated factors were relevant to store selection (i.e., safety, food quality, variety of foods, ability to complete shopping quickly, prices, proximity to home/work, store cleanliness, customer service, and store hours) [18–20]; however, none of the previous studies included all of these key items simultaneously and often distinct items were grouped together in a single question (e.g., “cleanliness and good service” or “it is cheap, has bulk items, and double coupons”). The emergence of some of these factors as among the most important ones identified as driving store choice, on a measure which included all these factors, is one of the main contributions of this research to the field because it demonstrates relative prioritization of the factors. In addition, while there was not an item in the current study specifically focused on cultural or ethnic foods that is directly comparable to the items used by Wang and Ayala , the FSSQ has several items including “the store has foods that I grew up eating,” “the store has foods that I know how to prepare,” and “I can buy foods that I eat for religious reasons” that likely tap into a similar construct. In contrast to Wang and Ayala‘s research, none of these items were among the items indicated as most important in the current sample when provided with an extended listing of reasons for selecting a food store.
Because this questionnaire was developed through a multi-stage process that included considerable community involvement, the FSSQ is a more comprehensive measure than previously available. Specifically, several reasons that were cited as among the most important reasons for food store choice (e.g., brands, payment options) have not previously been included in research in this area [18–20]. In addition, it is a strength of this questionnaire that two different methods (i.e., 1–5 rating of importance, rating of top two reasons) for evaluating factors most important in food store choice are possible because one method may be more appropriate for a particular study than the other method. For example, for a community level-intervention, it may be considered to be more helpful to calculate mean importance of various factors across many individuals and for an individual level-intervention, it may be considered more important to know the reasons perceived by each individual as “top”. Further research to elucidate which approach to asking how food stores are selected is most informative for which populations and which purposes, and to consider whether there is something about incorporating both of the vantage points which can enrich understanding about the decision making processes surround food store selection.
It is important to note that, while proximity to home was an important reason for selecting one’s primary food store, there were several other reasons that were rated as important, if not more important, than proximity to home. Therefore, research that presumes that residents living near a food store will be likely shopping at this location [4–6] may be problematic. Future research may wish to directly assess the primary food store at which individuals shop and the amount of time that they have shopped at this store when examining the impact of primary food store on dietary intake and obesity, instead of assuming that the most proximal store is the one at which individuals shop.
This study had several strengths and limitations that should be considered when interpreting the results. First, the researchers were successful in recruiting a sample that was diverse in many ways, including race, age, educational background, and rurality. Although the majority of participants were female, it is likely that our sample is representative of primary household food shoppers; however, all of the participants belonged to households with at least two individuals, who did not follow a special diet requiring shopping at one store, and were available and interested in completing the questionnaire. Thus, the findings might not generalize to individuals who only shop for themselves, those with severe dietary restrictions, and those who did not have the time or interest in completing a questionnaire. In addition, despite achieving a sample diverse on several sociodemographic characteristics, all participants for the development and field testing of the questionnaire were from one relatively rural state; thus, the results are likely most generalizable to other rural states. However, the questionnaire was developed with the input of experts living in more urban areas and demonstrated some consistency with previous research in larger metropolitan areas [19, 20] and could well be relevant for populations in more urban areas. Nonetheless, it will be important to examine the factors that are most important in food store choice in other communities (rural and urban). Furthermore, it is important to acknowledge the relatively small sample size in this study. In future research with a larger sample size, it will be interesting to examine whether reasons for choosing a store differ based on sociodemographic characteristics; with this information, it may be possible to tailor a food store intervention to reasons that are important for particular communities or sociodemographic groups. With a larger sample, it would also be possible examine the clustering of items among subgroups of individuals as well as the potential underlying domains of reasons for choosing a food store. Finally, it will be crucial to examine the reliability of the questionnaire in future research.
Upon confirmation of these findings in other communities, knowing the primary reasons why individuals choose a food store may be beneficial in guiding policies and programs in making food environmental changes crafted to support dietary change and obesity prevention. In particular, based on the findings in the current study, future food store interventions may wish to focus on the availability, quality, variety, and prices of fruits, vegetable and meats, rather than a more global focus on more healthful food items (e.g., diet beverages, baked/low-fat chips) as has been done in many food store interventions [25–28]. Furthermore, our findings indicate that store characteristics including payment options, cleanliness, maintenance, safety, and opening hours of the store will be crucial factors in the potential success of such an intervention. Nonetheless, the sustainability of a healthy store environment will likely be greatly impacted by other factors including macro-level influences (e.g., food and agriculture policies) [29, 30].
RK conceived of the study and obtained funding, and participated in its design and coordination, drafted the manuscript, and performed the quantitative analyses. CS and MD participated in the study’s design and coordination. JM participated in the design of the study. DW conceived of the study and obtained funding, and participated in its design and coordination. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the time and assistance of the research participants in this study. We also appreciate the contributions of the expert panelists. The project described was supported by Award Number P20MD002329 from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Center On Minority Health and Health Disparities or the National Institutes of Health.
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- The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/13/586/prepub
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. | <urn:uuid:04824ce8-2c36-4c58-a2ad-2acf4154cbea> | {
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What is Terrace's living wage? Students to find out
A GROUP of University of Northern B.C. social work students is appearing at a City of Terrace council commitee of the whole meeting to give a presentation on a living wage for the city.
Here is a statement about that presentation as prepared by one of the students, Devin Pollitt.
Most people understand what it feels like to not have enough money to pay for the basic costs of living, let alone get ahead financially.
Frustration, anxiety, hopelessness, despair, and even mental illness are just some of the effects of not having enough to pay for those basic living costs.
The result is often either acute or chronic poverty, followed by reliance on social service programs and funding to provide relief.
In B.C, we are all familiar with what is called the minimum wage.
So what does it mean to be a minimum wage earner in B.C? Well, it means earning $10.25 per hour. It also means earning, at most, $1600 per month, less Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) premiums, Employment Insurance (EI) premiums, and income tax.
What this leaves for the worker is not much at all, especially for two- parent families with children.
For many, this has raised an important question: if the monthly income that a full-time minimum wage worker earns is not enough to pay for basic living costs, how then can the minimum wage be justified?
For many, the minimum wage in B.C is simply not enough and the issue has evolved into what is known as the living wage movement.
Recently, a number of students have been doing research in Terrace to determine what the basic costs of living are for a two-parent family with children.
They have been following the literature and research produced by The Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, along with other living wage campaigns within the province, including communities like The Sunshine Coast, Greater Victoria, Kamloops, Regional District of Central Okanagan, Fraser Valley, Qualicum, Williams Lake, and Cranbrook.
From this research, they will calculate what the hourly living wage is for Terrace, and this wage will be based upon basic living costs.
In other words, what it actually costs a two parent family with two children to pay for food, clothing, shelter, transportation, child care, medical service plan premiums, non-medical service plan expenses, parent education, and a contingency fund.
Once this research is complete, these students will be lobbying Terrace city council to vote on the adoption of a living wage policy for city employees, and for the city to encourage their contractors to pay their employees no less than a living wage.
This is not the first time the issue has come across the city council agenda; in 2010 city council made a decision to research what is involved in the city’s adopting of a living wage policy.
Since then, the issue has not been formally addressed.
For many in the community, especially low-income earners, the idea of increased wages is not problematic.
However, many reading this article may be capitalist skeptics who do not see the social and economic utility in paying their employees a living wage, or there may be small business owners who view cheap labour as essential to their bottom line, and there may also be those who reject the idea simply because they do not understand its benefits.
To all three, I would ask that you consider the following points in your decision.
The Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives has being doing research on the benefits of paying employees a living wage for years.
Their research has shown that by paying employees living wages, employers, employees, and the community at large benefit in a variety of ways.
For both capitalist skeptics, and small business employers, the first benefit is that of showing a greater degree of ethical (even moral) corporate social responsibility.
Living wage employers also benefit from higher employee loyalty and productivity, lower levels of absenteeism due to illness and mental illness, decreased employee turnover, and cost savings in staff hiring, training, and retraining.
Employees who are paid wages that do not meet those basic living costs are more likely to live in poverty, and those living in poverty are at greater risk of experiencing stress related forms of mental illness (depression and anxiety).
In Canada alone, 25 per cent of disease and injury is due to mental and behavioral disorders, with four per cent to 12 per cent of payroll costs (illness claims) being due to depression and anxiety.
According to the Center for Workplace Strategies for Mental Health, “Mental illness-related disability claims (short-term and long-term) account for up to one third of the workplace claims, equaling approximately 70 per cent of workplace costs and translating to 33 billion dollars to the Canadian economy on an annual basis, while an employee with a previous disability claim that is related to mental illness/disability is almost seven times more likely to have another disability claim related to that illness than someone with no previous disability episode related to mental illness.”
Paying wages that meet those basic living costs fundamentally reduces the likelihood that workers will live in poverty, which helps in the reduction of stress related mental illnesses and lost time at work, which, for the employer, translates as money saved.
Another employer benefit is that by paying employees a living wage, employees are more likely to spend that money in the local economy, which benefits both corporate and small business owners.
These are just some of the ways employers benefit by paying their employees a living wage. The employees themselves benefit by, obviously, getting paid more money, which leads to greater access to benefits and workplace support, reduced stress over unpaid bills and an empty fridge, improved health, greater self-sufficiency, and reduced reliance on social programs (which, may I remind you, are paid for by individual and business tax dollars).
The community benefits by having greater levels of social participation: those who earn more can afford to take their kids to swimming lessons, community events, and social outings.
The community also benefits by having a larger taxpayer base, increased consumer purchasing power, reduced costs of healthcare and social services, and increased local investment.
It must be noted here that in no way am I suggesting that a living wage will eliminate poverty. What I am suggesting is that living wages are one step in the right direction of a poverty reduction strategy.
Considering the above, you may be persuaded that a living wage creates a win-win for the community as a whole, local businesses, and families, or you may be one of the skeptics who are opposed for reasons of your own.
For those of you who are not convinced, I invite you to challenge the idea by looking at the evidence and providing your arguments as to why a living wage is not part of the solution in reducing poverty, increasing the local economy, and creating a healthier community/worker.
If you are one of those persuaded by, or curious about, the arguments for living wages, I urge you to become part of the living wage campaign by continuing to educate yourself about the issue, and to engage/lobby your local Terrace city counselors to adopt a living wage policy. | <urn:uuid:6242a6d9-ae42-4b1d-8d17-cf771586cc24> | {
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Macbeth Act 5, Scene 2
In the countryside near Dunsinane the Scottish lords who have joined against Macbeth are waiting for Malcolm, Macduff, and the English support that they will bring. Menteith, Caithness, Angus, and Lennox discuss what they know of Macbeth's preparations for battle. The king has fortified the Dunsinane castle, and they have heard word from those who hate Macbeth that he behaves madly. The lords decide amongst themselves that Macbeth's guilt has finally driven him crazy, and rightfully so because he has committed crimes so horrible that his own senses are reviled by his actions. The lords vow to fight for the rightful king, Malcolm, and to use all of their strength and ability to remove Macbeth from the throne. The lords and their soldiers march off to meet Malcolm and Macduff. | <urn:uuid:0acd19cc-b64d-4107-894c-f52a2b103451> | {
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January 3, 2013
With every aspect of life—from following news to finding love—now governed by algorithms, learning the fundamentals of coding is essential to developing true digital literacy.
In an effort to prepare its students to navigate this landscape, the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication recently embarked on an initiative with Codecademy, a New York-based startup that offers online programming classes, to teach NYU students how to code.
“This pilot will give our students an excellent introduction to the intricate information systems underlying so much of today’s networked culture,” says department chair Marita Sturken. “It is increasingly clear that a basic understanding of computer programming has now become essential knowledge that all college graduates should have.”
Sessions run through Dec. 7 and are co-taught by NYU visiting assistant professor Liel Leibovitz and coding instructor David Hu. The partnership with Codecademy is a project spearheaded by the NYU Steinhardt Initiative for Internet and Network Culture, which aims to generate new knowledge about the ways in which the Internet and networked media are reshaping social life, culture, and commerce. | <urn:uuid:5c3452c6-006d-4736-9213-388618419ac1> | {
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In the skill of cooking of China, it is nearly reach the limit that Chinese seek the delicious food, the delicious Chinese food is well known in the world. The Chinese food has its unique glamour, the key lies in its flavor. Chinese have been seeking the supreme state of the cooking all the time. The Chinese food can be said to be “The color, fragrance, flavor, shape, tableware” perfect unify. The Chinese food pays attention to the nutrition matching of the vegetable with meat. According to investigation of the plant scholar of America and Europe, there are more than 600 kinds of vegetables that Chinese eat.
The Chinese food habits has unique characteristic. Because Chinese like all people sharing the cooked food, most dining-table of China are round, but isn’t Occident’s rectangle dining-table. In China, any feast, no matter what purpose it is, only have a kind of form, everybody sit around the round dining-table. This dietetic habit causes a kind of solidarity and jollification atmosphere. The delicious food is put in the centre of dining-table. People through taste the delicious food and chat, thus promote friendship. People propose a toast each other, this reflect mutual respect and comity. This accord with Chinese people “happy reunion” general psychology.
The biggest characteristic of Chinese food habits is: use the chopsticks, besides soup, Chinese take the food using the chopsticks. Different from Occident, Chinese like eating dishes first, and then eat soup. It has a characteristic too that Chinese treat, because of Chinese use the round dining table, the host’s identity isn’t recognized through his seat. Guests should wait for host’s invitation, and then sit down. The host must notice that can’t let guests sit close to the seat that serve food, or else is impolite. The host must propose a toast to guests first, the host should add the wine to the wine cup for guests first, and then add the wine to the wine cup for oneself, and must add to the almost full of wine cup, thus conform the Chinese etiquette, in order to express that respect the guest and each other’s friendship (Generally speaking, Chinese drink white liquor, do not drink the grape wine, so use flat cup, don’t use the grape wine cup. In addition, Chinese white liquor was made by the grain, the alcohol degree of Chinese white liquor is between 38 to 65 degree generally, it is much higher than the grape wine). If you do not want to drink, should make clear while beginning in banquet, avoid the embarrassed scene. This is very big difference between China and Occident.
Through the Chinese food habits characteristic, everybody can find out the Chinese personality characteristic: Hospitable, solidarity, attach importance to the friendship, like making friends, etc. So, if Chinese feast you, you must know these Chinese food habits, avoid the embarrassed scene. In addition, the thing that you should to do is to enjoy the delicious Chinese food. | <urn:uuid:2555a734-663f-4f52-8adf-8388b2e89b8b> | {
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By Max Holland and Tara Marie Egan
Writing in August 2007 about the major candidates’ credentials, Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum concluded that it’s questionable whether foreign policy experience is essential for anyone aspiring to the presidency. Exhibit A in her argument was Harry Truman, and Exhibit B was Lyndon Johnson.
. . . it’s far from obvious that any specific kind of experience has ever helped a president make good calls. . . . Lyndon B. Johnson had held national office for years before becoming president, but he still couldn’t cope with Vietnam.
Applebaum’s implication was that Johnson did not absorb the right lessons while serving as John F. Kennedy’s vice president, even though one of the greatest teaching tools of the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis, occurred during President Kennedy’s watch 45 years ago.
But what if Johnson was not permitted to learn the right lessons, which would have had to begin with an accurate understanding of what had happened? What if Johnson was purposely denied important knowledge? What if Johnson thought he had drawn the right lessons, but actually was trying to replicate a manufactured illusion?
The most reliable guide to Johnson’s innermost thoughts is the secret tape recordings that he made as president. While sketchy on the subject of the missile crisis—there are only a few references on the tapes over a period of years—enough can be gleaned from them to confirm that Johnson was never privy to the true history of the missile crisis. False history led to mistaken lessons, including a belief in the efficacy of calibrated force, which helped prevent Johnson from seriously entertaining the concessions necessary for a negotiated political solution to the Vietnam War, the supreme crisis of his presidency.
The conscious exclusion of Johnson from the truth goes far beyond the superficially parallel situation that occurred when Harry Truman succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt. In that case, Truman’s ignorance of the Manhattan Project, and of the mounting problems with the Soviet Union, was not at all purposeful. Roosevelt’s conduct of foreign policy was shambolic by nature, and excluding Truman from important knowledge was not calculated. Anyone who had been vice president under FDR would have been excluded.
By contrast—and what is especially striking about Johnson’s case—is that not only was LBJ
deliberately shut out as vice president, but the tape recordings show that he was still in
the dark years after he became president, when he was presumably entitled, and urgently
needed, to understand the knowable truth behind Kennedy’s spectacular success. Top presidential advisers, of course, are generally loath to share the secrets of one
administration with another administration, even of the same political party. But in this
case, an additional and powerful reason for keeping Johnson ignorant was the shadow cast by
Robert F. Kennedy over the entire Johnson presidency. Men who had stayed on to serve LBJ as
they had served JFK—Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara, McGeorge Bundy—were already regarded, by the
late president’s brother, as insufficiently loyal. Had one of them shared JFK’s biggest
secret with Johnson, the leaker surely would have been fingered and his indiscretion
regarded as unpardonable.
Circles within Circles
Out of the 12 regular members of the fabled ExComm, four were not privy to the secret codicil that helped end the October 1962 missile crisis, namely, the explicit guarantee that America’s Jupiter missiles in Turkey would be quietly removed following a Soviet withdrawal of offensive missiles from Cuba. The ExComm members denied this knowledge were General Maxwell Taylor, C. Douglas Dillon, John McCone, and Lyndon Johnson.
President Kennedy presumably excluded Taylor, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, because the chiefs had expressed unwavering opposition to any linkage between the missiles, surreptitiously emplaced in Cuba, and the Jupiters, openly sited in Turkey. Treasury Secretary Dillon was also denied knowledge of the settlement terms, probably because he was a prominent Republican (Dillon had served as under secretary of state in the Eisenhower administration) who had argued vigorously against a deal involving the Jupiters.
John McCone was a Republican, too. But not even the fact that he was director of central intelligence (DCI) and energetically supported withdrawal of the obsolete Jupiters, if it facilitated getting the Soviet missiles out of Cuba, was sufficient for his admittance into the president’s inner circle. McCone’s exclusion was the height of irony. Yet since President Kennedy was intent on keeping every Republican, from Dwight Eisenhower on down, in the dark about the true terms of the missile crisis settlement, he could hardly confide in McCone, who regularly briefed the former president on national security matters.
Finally, John Kennedy also decided, quite deliberately, to shut out Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat and the second-highest officeholder in the land. There was a tinge of irony in Johnson’s exclusion, too. Like any consummate politician, Johnson valued one quality—loyalty—above all else, and since he expected it, he gave it in return. Though bitterly disappointed at the meager responsibilities given him by the Kennedy White House, Johnson had been a team player since January 1961. In word, deed, and appearance, he had been completely loyal, airing all of his private differences over policy (and he had some) with the president alone, and dutifully following the president’s lead in any group larger than the two of them.
Hardened Washington columnists, some of whom had known Johnson for decades, were keenly aware of the indignities and humiliations he suffered as vice president. Johnson was the uncouth Texan who simply didn’t fit, ridiculed behind his back as “Uncle Cornpone” for his accent and manner. Yet LBJ amazed these columnists with his self-discipline, for he refused to be a source of political dirt or information about the administration’s internal machinations. Still, not even LBJ’s repeated demonstrations of fidelity had been sufficient to overcome the Kennedys’ distrust of Johnson, and in Robert Kennedy’s case, intense and ineradicable dislike.
In the days following the discovery of the Soviet missiles on October 15, Johnson had played an ambiguous, even contradictory, role at the ExComm meetings—that is, when he chose to speak at all, which was not often. When JFK specifically solicited Johnson’s opinion on October 16, the first day of deliberations, the vice president expressed the view that the offensive elements of the Soviet buildup were intolerable for domestic political reasons. The administration simply had to remove the threat, by force if necessary, and regardless of whether America’s allies approved.
As the ExComm’s discussions turned to the crucial question of whether to impose a blockade or take more violent action, however, LBJ went missing in action, albeit through no fault of his own. The impending off-year election meant Johnson had been booked to make a long campaign swing. Because the administration did not want to signal Moscow that its missiles had been sighted in Cuba, it was decided to keep LBJ on the political hustings as if nothing were untoward.
On the evening of Sunday, October 21, when Johnson finally made it back to Washington, the president directed DCI McCone to brief the vice president on everything that had transpired, including the controversial decision to impose a blockade. Johnson initially expressed disagreement with the policy that had been developed in his absence. As McCone recorded in his memo of their conversation,
The thrust of the vice president’s thinking was that he favored an unannounced strike rather than the agreed plan which involved blockade . . . . He expressed displeasure at “telegraphing our punch” and also commented the blockade would be ineffective because we in effect are “locking the barn after the horse was gone.”
But McCone had also briefed Dwight Eisenhower that morning, and when the DCI informed Johnson that the former president opposed a surprise attack, and was willing to accept the military handicap that came with imposition of a blockade, Johnson reluctantly changed his position to favor the quarantine. Few people exercised as much influence on Johnson’s judgment as Eisenhower did when it came to matters of national security.
Once the crisis became public on October 22, Johnson attended every ExComm session thereafter, though his return hardly seemed to matter. Johnson may have been sticking to his “general policy of never speaking unless the president asked [him],” and behaving as he thought a vice president should—which was to agree in public with whatever the president decided, or at least mimic his leanings. Still, when JFK specifically asked Johnson for his opinion, LBJ chose to remain silent and withdrawn. Befitting his shrunken status, and discomfort with all the “Harvards” in JFK’s inner circle, LBJ repeatedly declined to offer a strong opinion during several meetings, particularly when the president was in attendance. As one ExComm participant later noted, “I attended two of those ExComm meetings when Johnson was there, and, to tell you the truth, I can’t even remember what he said, or if he spoke at all.”
Johnson only began to assert himself during the critical ExComm meeting on Saturday, October 27, which began at 4 PM and lasted for more than three hours. Just after the ExComm heard the unsettling news that a U-2 had been downed by a Soviet surface-to-air missile, Johnson insinuated that unless there was a firm response, the public would soon perceive the administration as backing away from the strong position enunciated in President Kennedy’s October 22 speech to the nation. (This observation instantly evoked a testy response from Johnson’s nemesis, Robert Kennedy). Moments later, however, Johnson gently chided those who immediately wanted to take out a SAM site in retaliation, calling them “war hawks.”
Overall, LBJ seemed to favor a negotiated solution to the crisis, though he also came down on both sides of the key issue of linkage. At one point he criticized Robert McNamara’s stiff opposition to a missile swap, arguing that the Jupiter missiles were “not worth a damn” anyway. Minutes later, LBJ likened an outright trade to appeasement, asserting that it would be tantamount to dismantling the containment edifice Washington had painstakingly built over the past 15 years.
There was every reason to believe, from the totality of what Johnson said, that he would have genuinely supported Kennedy’s gambit: to make the trade, so long as the Soviets agreed to keep it secret. But when the president convened a rump ExComm session on October 27, after the regular one broke up and just before RFK’s evening meeting with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, Johnson was purposefully excluded from the trusted inner circle. Only those present were to know about the explicit assurance and “no one else.” Thus, Johnson was left unaware of the genuine settlement terms which were offered that Saturday night, and hastily accepted by Nikita Khrushchev the next day.
At the time, of course, keeping Johnson at arm’s length was a trifling consideration, one that mostly reflected the White House’s lack of esteem and trust in LBJ. Perhaps it was feared that because Johnson was still very close to Richard B. Russell, his Senate mentor, he might be incapable of “disinforming” the Georgian, who was highly critical of the administration’s handling of Castro’s Cuba. The notion that Johnson would have to contend with the legacy of the missile crisis appeared very unlikely, for LBJ seemed like a relic from a by-gone political age. Johnson himself was practically the only person who believed he might be a viable candidate for the 1968 Democratic nomination. In two months’ time, when The Saturday Evening Post would publish an “exclusive” account of the missile crisis—one that was widely (and correctly) viewed as the administration’s preferred version—LBJ would not be mentioned in the article at all, the only regular member of the ExComm to be so slighted. He had ceased being a person it was important to notice.
In little more than a year, though, LBJ became the first president forced to grapple with JFK’s storied handling of the missile crisis. Because of the ostensibly authoritative Saturday Evening Post article published in December 1962, the crisis had become quickly encrusted with legend and lore, an “eyeball to eyeball” confrontation with Moscow that abruptly ended when Khrushchev blinked. According to this Hollywoodized version, Kennedy’s resoluteness, restraint, and controlled escalation of force prompted Moscow to capitulate, and no one demonstrated more wisdom and foresight (aside from the president) than Robert F. Kennedy. Meanwhile, the standard-bearer of liberal Democrats, Adlai Stevenson, was depicted as an appeaser, and Lyndon Johnson, of course, was nowhere to be found. This vigorously propagated image, of “wonderfully coordinated and error-free ‘crisis management,’” was generally swallowed by the media. The president’s 1963 assassination subsequently added the luster of martyrdom to the narrative, making it all the more difficult, if not almost blasphemous, to try to discern the truth.
Learning the Wrong Lessons
As Stanford Professor Barton Bernstein, a leading missile crisis scholar (and member of Washington Decoded’s editorial board), was the first to point out in 1992, the myth of the missile crisis settlement created an enormous burden of expectation for Lyndon Johnson, one that could never be actually met.
What influence, analysts may profitably speculate, did the widespread belief in Kennedy’s great victory in the missile crisis play as President Johnson struggled on, even against the counsel of advisers, for his own triumph in Southeast Asia in 1966-1968? Might he have felt psychologically, and even politically, more free to change policy if he had known, along with his fellow Americans, the truth of the October 1962 secret settlement?
This burden, it must be pointed out, was also one that Johnson was peculiarly—almost uniquely—ill-suited to shoulder, given his deep-seated insecurity and the barely concealed attitude of many Kennedy loyalists, most notably the attorney general. Their view was that Johnson was an undeserving successor, even a usurper, who occupied the White House temporarily, and only because of a terrible accident.
Of course, as he succeeded Kennedy in office, Johnson knew that several elements of Kennedy’s “finest hour” were sheer puffery, if not downright wrong. Having participated in the ExComm meetings, LBJ well knew (as the Kennedy tape recordings underscore) that the deliberations had not been coolly analytical, closely argued, and rational at all times, but rather, “desultory, spastic, and often inchoate,” in Bernstein’s words. LBJ also recognized, undoubtedly, that Adlai Stevenson had been unfairly and maliciously depicted as advocating a “Munich,” when his only sin was that he had dared to be the first adviser to suggest a missile swap. Johnson, lastly, was also cognizant of Operation MONGOOSE, and surely realized the instrumental role that provocative covert action had played in precipitating the crisis. (Under Johnson, in fact, CIA-led efforts to subvert Castro would be all but terminated even as Castro’s efforts to subvert other countries in the hemisphere were ratcheted up).
Yet unbeknownst to Johnson, other elements that he believed were true were, in fact, false. The most critical fact about the missile crisis settlement—the reality that Kennedy had claimed toughness, but cut a private deal—was not beyond Johnson’s ken, because such deal-making was hardly foreign to him. Still, he did not know such subterfuge had been employed here. Instead, LBJ labored under the false impression that American power, when expertly applied, could force a Communist leader bent on “nuclear blackmail” to back down and become pragmatic.
What made this false narrative doubly crippling for Johnson were some of his own tendencies. LBJ was an overbearing, controlling personality in the first place, prone to micro-managing a war if he had the misfortune of getting involved in one. The ExComm experience, even though LBJ knew it had not been seamless, probably encouraged President Johnson’s worst instincts (and here, he was undoubtedly aided by McNamara’s technocratic bent). The fact that Johnson kept intact the national security team assembled by Kennedy, so as to prove continuity with JFK’s policies, also exacerbated matters. It has long been known that Johnson was unduly awed by Kennedy’s brainy advisers. LBJ’s unspoken presumption was that the same men who were at Kennedy’s side in October 1962 would surely see Johnson through to a similar, unmitigated victory, regardless of the differences. And if they could not, conversely, that suggested something LBJ did not want to countenance: that the only real difference was in the president who led this assemblage of the best and the brightest. In a similar vein, Johnson may have been too reluctant to buck the counsel of the holdovers even when his gut instinct told him to do so. After all, these were the same men who had guided Kennedy to his spectacular victory.
Of course, had Johnson had a more accurate understanding of the missile crisis’ true history, he still would have had to contend with the false analogies and “lessons” that were rife in public. The explicit and implicit comparisons with his predecessor’s success in Cuba began with the Gulf of Tonkin incidents in the late summer of 1964, and grew in intensity as Vietnam began to overshadow everything else. The inevitable juxtaposition was seldom put as crudely, however, as it was in December 1964. With the situation in Vietnam rapidly deteriorating following President Ngo Dinh Diem’s violent ouster, Washington Post columnist Joseph Alsop, a leading hawk, directly raised the missile crisis analogy. For Lyndon B. Johnson, Alsop wrote,
Vietnam is what the second Cuban crisis was for John F. Kennedy. If Mr. Johnson ducks the challenge, we shall learn by experience about what [it] would have been like if Kennedy had ducked the challenge in October, 1962.
Alsop’s remark sparked outrage in Johnson, whereas if he had been privy to the truth, the column might have been received with a shrug, or a caustic remark about Alsop’s ignorance.
In February 1965, when LBJ stood at the first crossroads with respect to Vietnam—whether to send in ground forces or not—at least one aide, Bill Moyers, suggested to the president that he reconstitute ExComm, or something very much like it. Probably no realization about the missile crisis would have been sufficient, at this juncture, to overcome Johnson’s sense that like all Cold War presidents, his mettle and resolve were being tested by the Communist powers. Occasionally, Johnson articulated his reluctance to commit U.S. troops to a Southeast Asian sinkhole. But he knew what happened to presidents when a country was “lost” to communism—indeed, he feared the person leading the charge against him would be Robert Kennedy, claiming that LBJ had “betrayed John Kennedy’s commitment to South Vietnam.” Moreover, because of the way Washington had connived in Diem’s overthrow in November 1963, a decision with which Vice President Johnson had vehemently disagreed, LBJ apparently felt a deep obligation to re-stabilize South Vietnam.
Yet by early 1966, once it was apparent that U.S. power was not having the desired affect, accurate knowledge of the missile crisis end-game might have persuaded Johnson to be more ruthless or cynical in his efforts to achieve a face-saving settlement. The literature on Johnson’s peace feelers suggests that he was not really prepared to concede South Vietnam after a decent interval, unlike his successor in the White House—or as LBJ’s predecessor might have done, had he lived to deal with the consequences of his policy.
Excerpts from the Four Telephone Conversations
The taped conversations in which President Johnson alluded to the missile crisis are few in number, though many recordings remain to be released. While the references below are brief, they are a sobering reminder about the pitfalls of drawing the wrong lessons from history—or more precisely, the wrong lessons from the wrong history.
With just weeks to go in the campaign that would elect Johnson president in his own right, LBJ discussed stump strategy with his long-time chief of staff, Walter Jenkins. A key plank in Barry Goldwater’s platform was that the Democrats were failing to hold the line against Moscow and its Communist allies. The morning this conversation occurred, Goldwater was quoted in the major newspapers as criticizing Kennedy’s handling of Cuba. During a campaign stop in Los Angeles, Goldwater asserted the assassinated president had “stopped short” in 1962, thereby allowing the Communist menace in Cuba to grow. Johnson’s powerful rebuttal was to frame his GOP opponent as an unsuitable choice for a nation that had to be poised for war at a moment’s notice. Indeed, there was some criticism that Johnson was going overboard in that regard, because of some of the imagery used to suggest that Goldwater was dangerously unstable.
Part and parcel of Johnson’s strategy was to remind Americans that he had sat alongside John Kennedy when the danger of nuclear war was palpable in October 1962—indeed, some of the remarks to Jenkins below were identical to LBJ’s stump speech. The implication, of course, was that Johnson was the only candidate with the experience and wisdom to carry on Kennedy’s unique blend of restraint and resolve—not the genuine version, but the one deemed suitable for Johnson and public consumption.
JOHNSON: What I want [pollster Louis Harris] to do is to say, well, if you’ve got three 5-minute speeches and five 15-minute speeches, what would you make ‘em on? And then I want [pollster Oliver] Quayle to do the same thing, and submit ‘em and have ‘em ready for me on Monday.
And I know we oughta have one on foreign policy, and I know we oughta have one on the waste in government, cuttin’ taxes, and stuff like that. I know we oughta have ‘nother one on peace.
When I came in 11 months ago . . . when I started off, and I said to ‘em, “God help me,” and they would pray for me . . . why, I’d just do the best I could, that’s all I could promise. I’ve done the best I could. I’ve met with 85 leaders of foreign nations, and I’ve faced up to problems in Guantánamo, and . . . Cuba, Panama, Cyprus, and Vietnam. And they’ve stayed with me and they’ve supported me. Ah . . . now if they wanna throw me out after 11 months, they can do it. They want a change in government, they can do it. But, ah . . . I picked up and tried to carry on for ‘em as best I could.
And I . . . I sat there in that [National] Security Council for 37 days and I had 37 meetin’s. And, ah . . . I never left in the mornin’ knowin’ whether I’d see my family that night or not. The coolest man at the table was [President] Kennedy. He had a eyeball to eyeball with Khrushchev, and [they] had a confrontation and both of ‘em decided we couldn’t destroy the world. Khrushchev pulled his missiles out. For anybody now to say, at this late date, that there’s somethin’ wrong with that – one of the greatest, courageous acts any leader ever performed—I say shame on you. Now we oughta have a 15 minute speech like it—that’s the only thing that really makes ‘em pee in their britches.
We can say, “Now I’m not goin’ say anything about my opponent, and I want you to know that he’s served as a senator from a great state.”
And I’m not gonna recommend him [or] not recommend him – you . . . you be your own judge, whose . . . who do you want to answer that phone, and who do you want to put that thumb on the . . . who’ll have that thumb there on the table close to that button. That’s a question for you to decide, and you decide on your own judgment, and you decide without emotion, and you decide without fear. I’m not sayin’ there’s anything wrong with him.
They build up a straw man . . . try to get me to say that my opponent does this or that – I’m just not gonna do it – that’s a matter for you to decide. And that’s the way I’m handlin’ these things, and it goes over.
JENKINS: Sure does.
JOHNSON: I handled it in New Orleans last night that way. And the [news]paper doesn’t use it, but it sure does go over with the crowd.
2. With McGeorge Bundy, 3 December 1965, Monday, 1:15 PM
Barely four months after U.S. forces had begun streaming into South Vietnam on a massive scale, there was increasing discomfort in Washington about the marked lack of progress—so stark that it raised basic questions about U.S. assumptions and expectations. Disturbing indicators suggested Communist forces were adapting to the influx of troops, and even taking advantage of U.S. weaknesses and constraints. As Defense Secretary Robert McNamara reported to the president on November 30, after a two-day visit to Saigon, despite the U.S. buildup “the Communists were increasing the scale and intensity of their military operations.” Previously overflowing with confidence, McNamara had returned from Vietnam with “grave doubts,” convinced that it would be “a long war” and that as many as 600,000 American ground troops might be needed.
This grim reality led to a series of meetings that involved Johnson’s top advisers on national security, many of them unchanged from Kennedy’s storied ExComm. As the deliberations over escalation began, there was already a consensus among LBJ’s advisers that because the United States could not withdraw, a massive infusion of troops was the only choice which might result in an acceptable outcome. Johnson balked at accepting a foregone conclusion. In this conversation with Bundy, Johnson, who was at his Texas ranch while his advisers were meeting daily in Washington, harked back to his first-hand knowledge of how policy had been hammered out during the missile crisis. In effect, Johnson was asking the men who had served Kennedy so well to do the same for him.
JOHNSON: . . . I think the weakness of the government at this stage is that you ought to get [Dean] Rusk and [George] Ball . . . and [Robert] McNamara, and maybe [Clark] Clifford . . . [and] yourself in a room and pick all the proposals to pieces. I thought your . . . reference in there last night, that you just . . . [JCS chairman General Earle] Wheeler—
JOHNSON: —that you just can’t take it through Wheeler’s glasses, or McNamara’s glasses, or my glasses . . . that our strength is gonna be based on [a] general, overall viewpoint. And we observed, from the past, that . . . our original judgment on [the] Cuban missile crisis was—what we wanted to do the first hour, and what ultimately was done—was quite different. The same thing—
BUNDY: [No plans survive]—
JOHNSON: —the same thing with Vietnam, so . . . I would much prefer, ‘stead of chasin’ Rusk around the room as I did yesterday—
BUNDY: Did you get anywhere?
JOHNSON: Yes, I got his thinking, which I think was very good, but—on a good many things.
But what I would like to have—if I could, when I come back, before the series of meetings—I would like for you to come to my bedroom and say to me, “We’ve talked this over, and here’s . . . . The preponderant weight of the evidence is here as I see it—as we see it—and here are the objections to it.”
Then we go into the meeting and you take the agenda, as we used to, and say, “These are the things on it, now let’s everybody speak frankly.” And then summarize it, and say, “Now, here are the pros, and here are the cons. And you can take the red candy or the vanilla, whichever you want, Mr. President. Here I would take this if you’re askin’ me.”
And then I think we get down to the nut cuttin’, so to speak . . . .
Faced with General William Westmoreland’s call for still more troops, President Johnson had declared a temporary lull in the bombing of North Vietnam on December 22, hoping the gesture would lure Hanoi to the negotiating table on Washington’s terms before he had no choice but to order an escalation in the U.S. presence. The pause was then extended repeatedly in January, to see if the administration’s “peace offensive” elicited a response.
By January 27, Johnson was resigned to ending the bombing pause, and in a series of intensive sessions not unlike the ExComm meetings, was consulting with his key advisers on how to apply additional force. Shortly after the end of one such session on January 28, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who was out of town, called the president. Johnson had concluded the session 45 minutes earlier with the observation that, “I am not happy about Vietnam but we cannot run out—we have to resume bombing.” But in the conversation with Humphrey, Johnson revealed that he was still hoping against hope for some slight movement on Hanoi’s part, anything that might give him a pretext to extend the peace offensive.
According to Johnson, there was a basis for his continuing to have a sliver of hope. Having been left out of the loop with respect to the Cuba-Turkey linkage, Johnson had manufactured his own speculative understanding of what, at that final moment, made Khrushchev retreat. LBJ apparently believed that word of an imminent U.S. attack on Cuba had leaked to Khrushchev in October 1962, and that it was this intelligence that prompted the Soviet premier to accept the U.S. offer with alacrity.
JOHNSON: [To] just be perfectly frank with you, I’ve been sayin’ things [the] last three or four days in conferences, ah . . . in a hope that I would get a little feeler, and I think they been gettin’ back over there. I don’t know whether you know it or not—[cause] you haven’t been in on ‘em, but—
JOHNSON: —you can’t have a conference with two people here without it gettin’ back.
JOHNSON: The Joint Chiefs of Staff wrote a letter to [President] Kennedy recommending that he bomb . . . ah, the missile bases in Cuba, and that he—he let ‘em have it. And the letter had been signed, and went to [General Maxwell] Taylor’s office. And before Taylor could get it over here to Kennedy, why Khrushchev got his [indistinct].
HUMPHREY: Good lord.
HUMPHREY: God almighty! Well . . . .
By early 1966, public criticism of the Johnson administration’s conduct of the war was increasingly under attack, exacerbated by his decision to resume bombing North Vietnam on January 31. The early consensus in Congress over the war was breaking down, and, still worse, members of Johnson’s own party were leading the charge.
One of the most substantive and controversial challenges was being mounted by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by J. William Fulbright (D-Arkansas). Beginning on January 28, Fulbright had initiated a series of hearings, some of which would be televised “gavel-to-gavel” over the three national networks. These sessions exposed the administration’s leading figures, namely Secretaries Rusk and McNamara, to withering and sustained criticism, mostly from moderate and liberal Democrats. In effect, the Fulbright hearings were making dissent as legitimate and mainstream as support for the war.
The elephant in the room, insofar as Johnson was concerned, was one particular Democrat not even among the “problem senators” on the Foreign Relations committee. That man was Robert F. Kennedy, the former attorney general who was now a New York senator. Dissent from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party was one thing, but if RFK noticeably criticized Johnson’s handling of the war, it augured a challenge from Kennedy for the 1968 Democratic nomination.
Two days before this conversation, and under great pressure from those seeking a restoration of Camelot, Kennedy had issued a statement that cautiously, but unmistakably, distanced himself from the administration’s prosecution of the war. RFK argued for a third way—a negotiated political settlement, which would invite the Viet Cong to share power—rather than outright withdrawal, or the simple military victory he insinuated Johnson was bent on achieving. Just as Johnson feared, the statement on the war from New York’s junior senator was not buried in a small paragraph on page 33 of the major newspapers, but was a front page story. Both The Washington Post and New York Times published verbatim excerpts from the statement, which was a treatment normally reserved for a president or, at least, a secretary of state.
During this conversation with Bundy, the president summarized his position on negotiating with Hanoi, and in the process made several allusions to the missile crisis. He recalled how Fulbright, a dove with respect to the Vietnam War, had been a leading hawk in October 1962. Johnson suggested that bombing North Vietnam was simply a way of pressing Ho Chi Minh to negotiate, just as John Kennedy’s supposedly unyielding stance had forced Khrushchev to bargain.
The parallel Johnson drew between the bombing resumption, and President Kennedy’s resolve, was not apt. It again betrayed a lack of understanding about what had happened in October 1962, specifically, and a lack of appreciation for the lengths JFK did and was prepared to go to avoid a conflict that might spiral out of control. Johnson also repeated the striking claim made during his February conversation with Humphrey, namely, that a leak about imminent military action had galvanized Khrushchev into action. In other words, a Kennedy twist on Eisenhower’s 1950s policy of brinkmanship had caused the Soviets to beat a hasty retreat.
Bundy did nothing to correct Johnson’s understanding, content to leave the president in his state of his mistaken belief.
JOHNSON: . . . We don’t ask you [North Vietnam] to give up your pride. We don’t ask you to crawl on your stomach. All we ask you to do is just proudly—if you want to—walk into a meeting hall with us, and to reason, and talk, and be prepared to give and take, and we’ll try to do the same thing.
I don’t know . . . you just got to know, that we’re not goin’ get out, and, ah, we . . . we don’t think that you goin’ take it over, and we think if you’re willin’ to let them decide it, that that oughta be fair to everybody.
JOHNSON: I think you’ve pretty well answered Bobby [Kennedy] that way, and I think you‘ve pretty well—
BUNDY: Your answer is logic [sic], but the psychology—you notice three times today, he came back to the casualties and the Chinese. And these, I think, are the places where the needle goes in . . . in terms of people’s fears. And this—
JOHNSON: Yes, I think everything we’ve ever had . . . we have . . . we’ve had that. But gosh, he’s real inconsistent—
BUNDY: No, I know that.
JOHNSON: —followin’ Fulbright’s theory, and talkin’ about how careful [and] measured they were. Fulbright was droppin’ bombs on Cuba, as I remember it—
JOHNSON: —and sayin’ let’s do it right now.
JOHNSON: And his [Kennedy’s] Joint Chiefs of Staff, as I understood it, signed a letter. And [Maxwell] Taylor first agreed with it and then backed off of it [a] little bit that day . . . the day before—isn’t that correct?
BUNDY: [I] don’t remember Max’s position.
JOHNSON: Well, didn’t they recommend . . . didn’t they recommend takin’ ‘em out?
BUNDY: They were certainly . . . they certainly were air strike plus invasion, really.
JOHNSON: I was told by my military aide that he was told that they had signed it . . . that Taylor was on board, that he signed it. That he [Taylor] was going to take it over . . . that he . . . he talked to somebody, and then called them [the Joint Chiefs] back in, and said that he wanted to interpret it a little differently, and he [Taylor] backed away from it . . . at that very moment.
JOHNSON: And a good many people over there—who were gossipers and who are still gossipers—were of the opinion that, ah . . . the Commies knew about that, and that’s why Khrushchev came in . . . when he did. They . . . they knew that we were gettin’ ready to do this, and they had their leaks—
JOHNSON: —and that it’s kind of like [President] Eisenhower’s leak that—
BUNDY: I’ve always thought that the prospect of invasion had more to do with the solution than any other one thing. I couldn’t prove it, but I just think that it looked awful imminent. . . .
Being privy to the truth about the missile crisis settlement might not have altered materially Johnson’s decisions about Vietnam. But more knowledge would
have indisputably served him better than what he was allowed to know.
Max Holland is the editor of Washington Decoded, and Tara Marie Egan is the editorial assistant.
Following the end of the Cold War, information from the Soviet Union surfaced to suggest that Khrushchev was so shaken by the unauthorized downing of a U-2 aircraft on October 27, and Castro’s endorsement of a conflict involving nuclear weapons, that the explicit assurance involving the Jupiter missiles was unnecessary and perhaps superfluous. That may have been true, but administration officials in 1962 would have had no way of knowing this was the case, or for decades afterwards. Thus, it was natural to assume the secret trade clinched the settlement.
Following the 1989 disclosure that the trade had been explicit, missile crisis scholar Barton Bernstein, a history professor at Stanford University, specifically asked Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara, George Ball, and McGeorge Bundy in separate interviews whether they had ever filled Johnson in after he became president. “No one said, ‘Yes, we told him,” Bernstein found. Bundy was even more precise, telling Bernstein that Johnson did not know. Interview with Bernstein, 10 October 2007.
It may also have been the case that apart from being under the watchful eye of President Kennedy’s brother, Johnson’s advisers did not tell him about the secret assurance because they themselves did not want to give LBJ any reason for departing from a hawkish policy. In November 1964, for example, Rusk directly juxtaposed the deteriorating situation in Vietnam with the missile crisis, although he knew better than anyone that it was a misleading comparison. David Kaiser, American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson and the Origins of the Vietnam War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), 370.
President Kennedy was the chairman of ExComm, and the 12 regular members were Lyndon Johnson, vice president; Dean Rusk, secretary of state; Robert McNamara, secretary of defense; C. Douglas Dillon, secretary of treasury; Robert Kennedy, attorney general; John McCone, director of central intelligence; George Ball, under secretary of state; Roswell Gilpatric, deputy secretary of defense; General Maxwell Taylor, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Llewellyn Thompson, ambassador-at-large; Theodore Sorensen, special counsel; and McGeorge Bundy, special assistant to the president for national security affairs. The ExComm was formally constituted on October 22, but effectively the group existed as of October 16. Document 18, “Transcript of a Meeting at the White House,” 16 October 1962, and Document 42, “National Security Action Memorandum 196,” 22 October 1962, in Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963: Cuban Missile Crisis and Aftermath (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1996), 49, 157.
The only explanation for the exclusion of Dillon and McCone was party affiliation, since other ExComm members opposed to linkage (like Llewellyn Thompson) were allowed into the inner circle.
It was largely because of McCone, a notorious and stubborn hard-liner, that the ExComm had the luxury of several days to ponder and debate a U.S. response in the first place. McCone had been the only senior adviser who consistently warned the Soviets were bound to include offensive nuclear weapons as part of their military build-up in Cuba. He then pressed the White House into keeping up U-2 surveillance of Cuba at a time when virtually everyone in the administration believed that Khrushchev wouldn’t dare. On October 15, McCone had been proven right and everyone else wrong; but more importantly, since the missiles were still discovered before they were operational (albeit nearly a month late), it gave the administration precious time to collect itself. See Max Holland, “Politics and Intelligence: The ‘Photo Gap’ that Delayed Discovery of Missiles in Cuba,” Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 49, No. 4, (Winter 2005).
Sheldon M. Stern, Averting ‘The Final Failure’: John F. Kennedy and the Secret Cuban
Missile Crisis Meetings (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003), 388. McCone had
served as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission during Eisenhower’s second term, and was
close to the former president.
Indeed, McCone was considered a likely candidate for secretary of defense had Richard Nixon, Eisenhower’s vice president, won the 1960 election.
Robert Dallek, Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961-1973 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 19.
In all, Johnson attended 37 of the 42 ExComm meetings, although those sums are somewhat misleading. For one, they do not count the important, October 16-22 meetings of what was essentially the ExComm, because that body was not officially formed until October 22. In addition, they include the sessions that stretched until March 1963, long after critical phase of the missile crisis was over. If one counts only the number of formal ExComm or ExComm-like meetings during the crucial period October 16-28 (the fabled 13 days), Johnson attended 13 out of 20 meetings, missing only those that occurred while he was out politicking in the western states. Egan analysis of Department of State, Cuban Missile Crisis and Aftermath; Stern, Averting ‘The Final Failure’; Memorandum for the President from Rostow, “Participation in Cuban Missile Crisis Meetings, October 1962,” 5 October 1968, NSF, Memos to the President, Box 40, Vol. 98, October 5-9, 1968 [dated], LBJ Library; and Daily Diary, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, 15-29 October 1962, LBJ Library.
It is worth noting Johnson’s attendance is not accurately rendered in the relevant Miller Center of Public Affairs volume of Kennedy tapes. The third volume from that series fails to note that Johnson was indeed present at ExComm meetings on October 22 (3 PM) , 23 (6 PM), 24 (10 AM), 25 (5:25 PM), and 27 (9 PM). Philip Zelikow and Ernest May, eds., The Presidential Recordings, John F. Kennedy: The Great Crises, October 22-28, 1962 (New York: W.W. Norton, 2001), 40, 151, 183, 269-270, 488-489.
Stern, Averting ‘The Final Failure, 72. “The country’s blood pressure is up,
and they are fearful, and they’re insecure, and we’re gettin’ divided,” said Johnson.
Leonard Baker, The Johnson Eclipse: A President’s Vice Presidency (New York: Macmillan, 1966), 121. President Kennedy also had political speaking engagements lined up, but they were not as distant from Washington and the president was often able to return to the capital on the same day. Johnson had been scheduled to speak in eight Western states during October 17-20.
According to Baker, Johnson was called back from his campaign tour, but this claim could not be confirmed by us. Ibid., 122.
McCone Memorandum for the File, “Meeting with the Vice President on 21 October 1962,” 22 October 1962, in Mary S. McAuliffe, ed., CIA Documents on the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 (Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 1992), 245. Dallek suggested in his LBJ biography that since Johnson’s first impulse was to launch an attack against the sites rather than impose a blockade, that his confidence in his own judgment was subsequently undermined. This ignores the fact that after McCone told Johnson about Eisenhower’s reaction, the vice president assented to the blockade. Ibid., and Dallek, Flawed Giant, 87. Moreover, if the standard were one’s initial thoughts, virtually every member of ExComm would have had reason to doubt their own judgment. Johnson was hardly alone in switching positions, and strongly supported a compromise involving the Jupiters on October 27, when it mattered.
Quoted in Dallek, Flawed Giant, 19.
George Reedy, who served as LBJ’s press secretary in the Senate and the White House, once told historian Sheldon Stern that Johnson and Kennedy were the two most charismatic men he had ever known. But while LBJ was vice president, Reedy observed, he seemed to turn off his own charisma in JFK’s presence. For an incisive discussion of the LBJ-JFK relationship, see Reedy’s Lyndon B. Johnson: A Memoir (New York: Andrews & McMeel, 1982).
Baker, Johnson Eclipse, 121.
One possible explanation for why Johnson suddenly seemed to find his voice on October 27 was that he feared the administration was about to take a step that would be as disastrous for it as the Bay of Pigs had been. In that case, Johnson’s ambition to run in 1968 as the natural successor to a successful president would be severely damaged.
Stern, Averting ‘The Final Failure’, 358-359, 362.
Ibid., 319-320; 352-354, 360-361, 363-364, 366-367.
The precise details of how four regular ExComm members were disinvited from the gathering in the Oval Office remain murky. Bundy, who was the first to reveal the inner circle meeting, described it in a passive manner, as if it were an organic development. It is just conceivable, given RFK’s animus toward Lyndon Johnson, that the attorney general was instrumental in the vice president’s exclusion. McGeorge Bundy, Danger and Survival: Choices About the Bomb in the First Fifty Years (New York: Random House, 1988), 432.
When the Congressional leadership was briefed on October 22, Senator Russell was easily the most vocal critic of the president’s decision to impose a blockade, almost incredulous that Kennedy had not already ordered up an invasion. Stern, Averting ‘The Final Failure’, 164-171.
Baker, Johnson Eclipse, 123; Stewart Alsop and Charles Bartlett, “In Time of Crisis,” Saturday Evening Post, 8 December 1962. The article was thought to reflect the administration’s preferred account because Bartlett was JFK’s personal friend, dating back to the 1950s, and Alsop was known for having top sources of information. In addition, the article openly claimed to have privileged access to unimpeachable sources.
As Baker points out, in the uproar over the unfair depiction of Stevenson, the fact that Johnson was omitted altogether from the article escaped notice, although LBJ surely realized it. The insult was perpetuated in Robert F. Kennedy’s edited memoir, Thirteen Days, which suggested that Johnson was an intermittent ExComm attendee, though in fact he had been designated a regular member in the memo officially establishing the ad hoc group, and missed meetings only because the White House desired to project an image of normalcy prior to October 22. Robert F. Kennedy, Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis (New York: W.W. Norton, 1969), 30; Document 42, “National Security Action Memorandum 196,” 22 October 1962, in Department of State, Cuban Missile Crisis and Aftermath, 157.
A joke making the rounds in Washington in 1962, which must have gotten back to LBJ himself, briefly but brutally summed up Johnson’s status in the Kennedy administration: “Lyndon who?” Private Remark, Wilbur Cohen to Sheldon M. Stern, 7 April 1981.
Bundy, Danger and Survival, 459.
Barton J. Bernstein, “Reconsidering the Missile Crisis: Dealing with the Problems of the American Jupiters in Turkey,” in James A. Nathan, ed., The Cuban Missile Crisis Revisited (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992), 106. After Bernstein raised the issue, many scholars have weighed in on the question of how the missile crisis influenced LBJ’s decision-making on Vietnam. See Brian VanDeMark, Into the Quagmire: Lyndon Johnson and the Escalation of the Vietnam War (New York: Oxford, 1991), 48; Dallek, Flawed Giant, 100; Eric Alterman, When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences (New York: Viking, 2004), 147-159.
On Johnson as a usurper, see Garry Wills, The Kennedy Imprisonment: A Meditation on Power (Boston, MA: Back Bay, 1994), 188-189, and Max Holland, The Kennedy Assassination Tapes: The White House Conversations of Lyndon B. Johnson Regarding the Assassination, the Warren Commission, and the Aftermath (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 67-68, 297-299, 422-424. Wills actually notes that “The true wound inflicted on Johnson was not that the Kennedys considered him a usurper but that they came, in time, to make him feel like one himself.”
Interview with Bernstein, 10 October 2007.
Lyndon B. Johnson, The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency, 1963-1969 (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971), 470.
By the late 1960s, the “eyeball-to-eyeball” mythology had burgeoned to a point where even Theodore Sorensen, one of the chief myth-makers, began to have reservations about its impact. In 1969, he criticized the “’Cuban Missile Crisis Syndrome,’ which calls for a repetition in some other conflict of Jack Kennedy’s tough stand of October 1962 when he told the Russians with their missiles either to pull out or look out!” Theodore C. Sorensen, The Kennedy Legacy (New York: Macmillan, 1969), 208.
Document 280, “Notes of the Leadership Meeting,” 4 August 1964, in Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968: Vietnam, 1964 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1992), 616, 619.
Joseph Alsop, “Johnson’s Cuba II,” Washington Post, 30 December 1964.
“The suggestion that he lacked Kennedy’s guts and strength outraged Johnson.” Dallek, Flawed Giant, 244.
David M. Barrett, ed., Lyndon B. Johnson’s Vietnam Papers: A Documentary Collection (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1997), 103.
Writing to author Eric Alterman in June 1998, Theodore Sorensen asserted “Very possibly . . . an earlier disclosure of JFK’s assurance to Khrushchev regarding the missiles in Turkey would have slowed down LBJ’s . . . plunge into Vietnam, but I doubt it.” Of course, Sorensen, as one of the secret-keepers of the explicit deal, would not be inclined to admit to another outcome. Alterman, When Presidents Lie, 376.
Doris Kearns, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 253.
On Johnson’s views of Diem’s ouster, see Holland, Kennedy Assassination Tapes, 235-239.
McNamara, writing in 1995, argued that JFK’s willingness to trade the Jupiters meant it was “highly probable” he would have reversed course in Vietnam. Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam (New York: Times Books, 1995), 96-97.
On 9 October 2007, the Johnson Library released an additional tranche of recordings covering 1967. Only the recordings from January 1968 to January 1969 remain to be processed.
Robert E. Thompson, “Goldwater Hits U.S. ‘Retreat’ Before Reds,” Los Angeles Times, 10 October 1964.
Theodore H. White, The Making of the President 1964 (New York: Atheneum, 1965), 393-394.
See footnote 9.
No doubt LBJ was referring to news reports about Goldwater’s October 9 luncheon address in Los Angeles. In earlier campaign remarks, Goldwater had also impugned Kennedy by suggesting he timed the missile crisis for political gain in the 1962 elections. E.W. Kenworthy, “Johnson Exhorts South on Rights,” New York Times, 10 October 1964.
Johnson was justifiably defensive about the instantly infamous “daisy petal” TV advertisement, which depicted a young girl picking daisies in a field. After she counted up to five daisies, a voice counted down from five, followed by footage of an atomic explosion and a narrator urging voters to support LBJ. When the ad first aired in September, the GOP had vehemently denounced it as perpetrating “a violent political lie” for insinuating that Goldwater was likely to set off a nuclear holocaust on a whim. Susanna McBee, “Chairman Clash Over Fairness Pledge,” Washington Post, 12 September 1964.
William C. Gibbons, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War: Part IV, July 1965-January 1968 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1994), 107-108.
At this juncture, Clifford, the archetypal Washington lawyer and Democratic fixer, had no official position in the government, apart from being chairman of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. He would later succeed McNamara as secretary of defense.
Gibbons, U.S. Government and the Vietnam War, 161.
According to Taylor’s memoir, the Joint Chiefs urged Kennedy to order an air strike against the missile sites no later than October 29 “unless clear evidence of dismantling the missiles was received in the interim.” Maxwell D. Taylor, Swords and Ploughshares (New York: W.W. Norton, 1972), 276.
Gibbons, U.S. Government and the Vietnam War, 222-230.
Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, “Inside Report: Kennedy and Vietnam,” Washington Post, 23 February 1966.
Robert E. Thompson, “Bob Kennedy Urges Share for Reds in Saigon Regime,” Los Angeles Times, 20 February 1966; “Excerpts From R. Kennedy’s Statement,” Washington Post, 20 February 1966.
Johnson, of course, was also in the dark about the “Cordier ploy,” a gambit which President Kennedy intended to put into motion if Moscow turned down his initial October 27 offer. On Washington’s behalf, Andrew Cordier, a former UN official, was to approach Secretary General U Thant and get him to propose an exchange of the Jupiter missiles in Turkey for the Soviet missiles in Cuba. A public proposal from the secretary general, it was thought, would presumably allow Moscow to save face. In this instance, however, Johnson was not alone in his ignorance. The only other administration official who knew about the Cordier ploy was Secretary of State Rusk. Eric Pace, “Rusk Tells a Kennedy Secret: Fallback Plan in Cuba Crisis,” New York Times, 28 August 1987.
Johnson was referring to abiding by the results of a free election in South Vietnam under international supervision, a position both Hanoi and Washington claimed to espouse.
The day after Kennedy’s statement, Bundy had appeared on “Meet the Press,” a Sunday interview program on the NBC television network. Bundy had attempted to rebut Senator Kennedy by quoting President Kennedy on the dangers of a coalition government that shared power with Communists. Richard Eder, “Ball and Bundy Score Idea,” New York Times, 21 February 1966.
In his statement on the war, RFK had specifically mentioned the possibility of a wider war that would involve China. To every American who remembered the price paid after the Chinese intervened in the Korean War, this was a worrisome thought. “Excerpts From R. Kennedy’s Statement,” Washington Post, 20 February 1966.
When the Congressional leadership was briefed on October 22, just before Kennedy’s nationwide address, Senator Fulbright (somewhat to everyone’s surprise) had denounced the blockade as the “worst alternative” and advocated an immediate invasion. Stern, Averting ‘The Final Failure’, 171.
See footnote 48.
Here Johnson seemed to be referring to the so-called “madman theory,” a tactic first attributed to the Eisenhower administration. The idea was to leak the notion that Washington was willing to use excessive force
unless a Communist power cooperated. Supposedly, such coercive brinkmanship had persuaded
North Korea to agree to an armistice in 1953.
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HUBER Screenings Treatment Systems
- Optimal systems for any application
- High dewatering efficiency
- Maximum washout degree
- Reduced disposal costs
The first step in wastewater treatment is normally the removal of solids from the wastewater flow by means of screens. The removed screenings contain household waste, faecal matter, toilet paper and mineral solids. The screenings volume depends, not only on the separation size of the screen, but also on the type of sewer system.
The solids content of municipal screenings varies between 10 % and 25 %, depending on the type of screen. Approximately 90 % of the solids are volatile (organic).
Due to their very high water content, their heterogenous composition and unaesthetic appearance screenings must be treated before they can be disposed of.
The best method of screenings treatment is washing and compaction with a wash press. Fecal matter and other organic materials are removed and returned into the wastewater flow. As a result, a good wash press increases the BOD5 load to the biological treatment process by about 6 %.
After washing, the screenings are compacted to reduce the water content and increase the solids concentration. Dewatering is improved by the removal of organic materials during washing. A good wash press can achieve a weight and volume reduction of up to 80 %.
A wash press reduces the mass and volume of the screenings and consequently the disposal costs. | <urn:uuid:ecc6e2e8-9a9f-4299-ae97-45dfcabd7650> | {
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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Ayurvedic Treatment
Chronic fatigue syndrome, do you have it? Fatigue can happen to anyone at some point in their life. However, if it persists, it is a cause of worry. Fatigue can happen if someone works continuously for long hours without taking enough food and water. This can be a temporary issue that can be sorted out by just drinking a glass full of orange juice that will give instant energy.
Some people suffer from chronic fatigue. If you are one among them, then you should find out the exact cause by visiting a doctor. Chronic fatigue syndrome can cause due to certain health disorders which should be treated first to stop the fatigue problem. Ayurveda believes that fatigue is caused by mental stress, physical stress, or by both.
Fatigue need not happen always due to excess physical work. It can also be caused due to mental stress, depression, less physical activity, and boredom. In such case, an Ayurvedic doctor recommends the patient to involve in small physical exercises to overcome the fatigue caused due to mental stress.
Chronic fatigue syndrome is an Ayurveda Pitta disorder. It can be treated by eliminating toxins and improving digestion. Chronic fatigue syndrome can also cause by certain health disorders such as immune system impairment, nervous system dysfunction, low iron deficiency, low blood pressure, pregnancy, and menopause. There are some natural herbs that are useful in treating chronic fatigue syndrome.
Shatavari: This herb is an immune booster. Immune system impairment can also cause chronic fatigue syndrome.
Shilajit: This herb also helps in stimulating the immune system and therefore it helps in treating chronic fatigue syndrome.
Ginger: If you are suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome due to Ayurveda Pitta disorder, then ginger is a good remedy to balance the Pitta dosha. Crush a small piece of ginger and add a few drops of lime juice and a pinch of salt and eat it before each meal. This will take care of all the digestive disorders.
Poor indigestion causes fatigue and therefore making you feel tired and weak. To have proper digestion, enough gastric fire should be present in your digestive system. When the gastric fire is low, the process of digestion becomes slow. As a result, the nourishment from the food is absorbed less and therefore, your energy becomes low. Avoid cool food and drinks to maintain gastric fire in order to have proper digestion.
If your body is affected by infection and virus, herbs such as turmeric, Bhringaraja, Manjistha, and Yellow Dock, are useful in purifying the blood, spleen, and gall bladder. If you have Chronic fatigue syndrome or other fatigue problems Ayurveda recommends breathing exercise and gentle stretching exercise to improve digestion and reducing fatigue problems.
Copyright © AyurvedaHealthTips.com | <urn:uuid:ac055d33-67f8-422f-8802-5a0133f2a6e7> | {
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Chronic Gastritis causes
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Pernicious anemia occurs when your body can't absorb enough vitamin B-12 to function properly. Learn about the signs and symptoms of pernicious anemia.
Behcet's disease is a rare disorder that causes blood vessels to become inflamed. Also known as Behcet's syndrome, this condition has several symptoms that may not otherwise seem related.
An autoimmune disease develops when the immune system, which defends the body against disease, attacks healthy body cells. | <urn:uuid:28433a25-ef08-4748-99d2-b63d0b13084a> | {
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(place of rest), a city of Ephraim. In (Judges 21:19) it is said that Shiloh is "on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem and on the south of Lebonah." In agreement with this the traveller of our own city, going north from Jerusalem, lodges the first night at Beitin, the ancient Bethel; the next day, at the distance of a few hours, turns aside to the right, in order to visit Seilun, the Arabic for Shiloh; and then passing through the narrow wady which brings him to the main road, leaves el-Lebban, the Lebonah of Scripture, on the left, as he pursues "the highway" to Nublus, the ancient Shechem. [Shechem] Shiloh was one of the earliest and most sacred of the Hebrew sanctuaries. The ark of the covenant, which had been kept at Gilgal during the progress of the conquest, (Joshua 17:1) seq., was removed thence on the subjugation of the country, and kept at Shiloh from the last days of Joshua to the time of Samuel. (Joshua 18:10; Judges 18:31; 1 Samuel 4:3) It was here the Hebrew conqueror divided among the tribes the portion of the west Jordan region which had not been already allotted. (Joshua 18:10; 19:51) In this distribution, or an earlier one, Shiloh fell within the limits of Ephraim. (Joshua 16:5) The ungodly conduct of the sons of Eli occasioned the loss of the ark of the covenant, which had been carried into battle against the Philistines, and Shiloh from that time sank into insignificance. It stands forth in the Jewish history as a striking example of the divine indignation. (Jeremiah 7:12)
In the Authorized Version of the Bible Shiloh is once used as the name of a person, in a very difficult passage, in (Genesis 49:10) "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." Supposing that the translation is correct, the meaning of the word is peaceable or pacific, and the allusion is either to Solomon, whose name has a similar signification, or to the expected Messiah, who in (Isaiah 9:6) is expressly called the Prince of Peace. [Messiah #S###] Other interpretations, however, of the passage are given, one of which makes it refer to the city of this name. [See the following article] It might be translated "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, till he shall go to Shiloh." In this case the allusion would be to the primacy of Judah in war, (Judges 1:1,2; 20:18; Numbers 2:3; 10:14) which was to continue until the promised land was conquered and the ark of the covenant was solemnly deposited at Shiloh. | <urn:uuid:41a1abc4-2cc9-40ff-9dc2-82245e454a80> | {
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Is the transmitting and storing of CCTV images using the IP protocol widely used on computer networks. This technology brings integration and infrastructure advantages over legacy analogue networks using dedicated coaxial cabling systems.
When combined with video management systems, along with an array of applications for processing and analysing video images, IP CCTV provides an entire new arena of surveillance capabilities that didn’t previously exist.
FEATURES & BENEFITS OF IP CCTV
While IP CCTV isn’t necessarily the answer to every problem, it provides real benefits over traditional analogue CCTV technology. Some of these benefits can be quantified and deliver measurable cost benefits, while others are more difficult to measure but are convincing nonetheless.
While traditional analogue CCTV systems typically require a dedicated fibre-optic or copper cable for each camera with additional cables required for power and camera control, IP cameras can use standard Cat-5/6 structured network cabling. With PoE (Power over Ethernet) the same cable can be used for video, audio, data, camera control and power, and the network infrastructure can be shared with other network services to achieve IP network convergence.
The use of a standard network infrastructure means that it is relatively easy to add additional devices to the system – cameras, workstations, storage, etc. Adding a new camera just requires connecting the camera to the network, configuring the network settings on the camera, and configuring the NVR or NVMS so that it knows about the new camera. The camera or other device may be on the same physical site, or may be on the other side of the world.
Whereas in the past recorded video has been stored in specialist video recorders, the use of IP CCTV means that we can take advantage of standard IT storage systems. Storing large amounts of data is nothing new in IT systems, and we can now use high-capacity Storage Area Networks (SAN) to reliably store huge amounts of recorded video and provide instant access to this data.
IP CCTV is based on international IT standards so that there is a clear evolution path from current technology to future developments. As new technology is developed for PC hardware, operating systems, data storage, network transmission and video encoding then IP CCTV will be able to ride on the crest of the wave and take advantage of these developments.
Another advantage of using standard IT technology is that it makes it easier to integrate IP CCTV with other applications. CCTV is no longer a separate application, but can be integrated with standard IT systems to provide centralised control and monitoring. Data from other security devices and from business systems can be associated with IP CCTV images and recordings to provide full ‘situational awareness’.
While early video analytics systems were server based with each camera routed back to a central analytics server, the advent of IP video and video encoders has led to edge-based architectures where the analytics is performed in a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) on the video encoder or camera. This distributed architecture has the advantage that high-resolution video does not necessarily have to be transmitted to a central server for processing.
The exponential growth of the Internet has fuelled enormous development in IP transmission technology, and IP video data can be easily and securely transmitted between two devices within the same building or between continents, using any combination of wired and wireless networks. Unlike traditional analogue video signals which lost some quality during transmission, IP video data can be re-transmitted and re-recorded as often as required without any change in quality.
While traditional CCTV systems have always been restricted to a maximum 4CIF interlaced picture resolution, IP CCTV has allowed us to move beyond this limitation and develop megapixel cameras with much higher resolution than traditional cameras.
IP Access Control
E-BIS Ltd partner with many of the industry leading manufacturers for IP Access Control Systems.
The purpose of an access control system is to protect people and assets, as well as to control and record movement of those people and any alarms or events that occur.
Access control systems must perform these tasks reliably, predictably and in a timely manner.
The implementation of these systems must minimize vulnerability to achieve the highest level of reliability and performance.
In a traditional deployment of an access control system to a door, a door controller is connected back to a network (non-IP) or building controller (different manufacturers use different names for these devices). The door controller typically handles two card readers so it can handle one or two doors depending on whether one door is using a card reader for both entrance and exit.
The control frame is a junction box with power that controls each of the devices. The power supply for the controller is providing DC power along with a battery back-up.
In the IP-based systems there is a direct network connection to either the door controller or the card reader and key fobs, card swipes, fingerprint recognition and simple keypad entry are all available depending upon the complexity of your security requirements | <urn:uuid:56d9bda1-a94f-4c8d-9aa4-162063a836ec> | {
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The world is an ever changing place, and through this lesson students will have a chance to send a call out for change. Using Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ as an inspiration and a model, students will brainstorm change, people who can and should make this change, as well as tools which can be used for initiating change. Their final product will be either a poem that models Dylan’s call for change or a prose piece which persuades someone to heed the call of this changing world. Teachers: Click here to see the entire lesson plan.
6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:
The focus trait for this lesson is idea development; after hearing the song and analyzing the lyrics, students will be inspired to create either a poem or a persuasive piece that writes with a clear, central concept regarding a need for change. The support trait for this lesson is voice; because students are focusing on what they personally feel needs to be changed in the world, their poems and persuasive pieces will convey this passion for change to the reader. | <urn:uuid:ced9bfff-a467-4652-a9e9-0ced7b3d0f4c> | {
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Travelling abroad can present certain health risks. You can protect yourself by taking a few precautions and simple steps.
Safe eating and drinking
Even food that looks fresh and tastes delicious can carry germs. Follow these guidelines to ensure you remain well while away:
- Wash hands with soap and water before handling any food.
- Be sure that crockery and cutlery is clean.
- Try to eat well-cooked food that is hot all the way through.
- Food eaten immediately after cooking is the safest. Food that is left to stand after cooking and food from street stalls is more likely to be contaminated.
- Stick to bottled or canned drinks rather than drinks such as fresh juices that may be diluted with tap water.
- Do not use ice in drinks as this is usually made from tap water which may be contaminated in some destinations.
- Salads and fruit if washed in tap water may also carry contamination. It is generally best to eat only food that is thoroughly cooked, or peeled.
Insects and animal bites
Insect and animal bites can be painful, set off allergic reactions, or become infected. Some also spread diseases such as malaria and rabies. Avoid insect and animal bites while you travel by obeying a few simple rules:
- Choose accommodation with screens in the windows.
- Use insect repellents on exposed skin.
- Use knock-down / residual insecticides in your room before going to bed.
- Avoid outdoor activities between dusk and dawn.
- In areas where scorpions, snakes, spiders etc are found, check your shoes before putting them on your feet.
- Do not go near or play with animals.
When travelling to destinations several time zones away, the delay between the new time and the body’s own internal circadian clock may result in a condition called jet lag. The body however is able to reset itself at a rate of about one day for every time zone travelled. Most people have fewer problems with westward travel (lengthening day) than eastward travel (shortening day). Jet lag can be worsened by insufficient sleep before the journey.
The most common signs of jet lag are tiredness, headaches, difficulty in falling asleep, and appetite problems. There is no cure for jet lag, but its effects can be reduced by avoiding caffeinated beverages for at least 4 hours before bedtime to avoid interrupted sleep.
To reset your internal clock when you travel across time zones, try to rest the first day after you arrive and do what the locals are doing:
- Take a walk in the sunshine on the morning after your arrival if you have travelled eastwards as sunlight can help reset your body clock more quickly.
- Eat at the new meal times and avoid caffeine after 4pm.
- Try to sleep at the new times and only have short naps during the day if you are very tired.
- Eat light regular meals. Also, some foods may promote sleep better such as carbohydrates and milk, whilst high protein foods will improve alertness.
- It is best to avoid alcohol as although this can promote sleep it can disturb the normal sleep patterns by reducing REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.
The aircraft cabin equivalent altitude is generally 6000 to 8000 feet and this increases your risk of decompression sickness compared to being at sea level.
- Be generous with safety margins on the dive tables.
- Do not dive when you are feeling unwell.
- Leave at least 12 hours between your last dive and your flight home. If you have had more than one dive per day, you will require even more time before flying in order to avoid decompression sickness. | <urn:uuid:1c637db9-be6d-493d-9315-ea638dccd634> | {
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OTTERS are making a comeback in East Lancashire after a series of sightings this year.
Brockholes Nature Reserve, in Samlesbury, had its first sighting in its history last month, to join a raft of other recordings up and down the River Ribble.
The semi-aquatic mammal has been endangered since the 1950s in many areas of the UK due to the use of chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides, habitat loss, and water pollution.
The Wildlife Trust, Canal and River Trust and The Ribble Rivers Trust have been working over the last few years to help improve the otter’s natural habitats in East Lancashire.
The sighting at Brockholes coincides with an increase in otter numbers across the country.
The reserve, owned by the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside, opened in April 2011, and otters have been seen swimming in the lake.
The Ribble Rivers Trust has also reported an increase in sightings, as well as an increase in the number being hit by cars.
The group has been planting trees and erecting fences to help protect their natural environment.
It has also been cleaning the water, and trying to remove any harmful chemicals.
Alan Wright, from the Wildlife Trust said: “We have been waiting on tenter-hooks since we learned that there were otters further up the River Ribble.
“This is the first time in our history that otters have been seen here and it’s fantastic news.
“The number of otters has been increasing across the country over the last few years, and this is the first time that they have been recorded in this area of East Lancashire.
“It’s a massive boost for the reserve, and there is no reason to think that more are not on their way.
“Recent work by other groups, including the Canal and River Trust, has helped to clean their natural habitat and help them grow in numbers, and we are now starting to see the benefits.”
A spokesman for the Ribble Rivers Trust said: “We certainly have noticed an increase in otter sightings recently. We have been planting trees and fences along the river, which help to protect the banks and stop wildlife from accessing the river.
“We have also been trying to protect the water and make sure it’s as clean as possible.
“The number of otters being hit by cars on the road has also increased, which indicates that more are moving into the area.
“It’s really positive that more are being sighted.”
Some of the locations in the North West where people can go to try and catch a glimpse of an otter include Hockenhull Platts, in Waverton, and Aughton Woods near Lancaster. | <urn:uuid:416b5e13-d212-4758-a40b-a33f2a45f1f4> | {
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Understanding why isn’t easy. A 2012 paper by the Commonwealth Fund found that among 13 industrialized countries studied, the U.S. has the highest rate of obesity, which is usually a factor in higher health care costs.
Yet, the U.S. ranks far behind many other countries in our rates of citizens who smoke or are over 55, two other strong indicators of increased spending.
So why is our health care spending more than 17% of our gross domestic product, far more than any other country?
In the recent debate over health care reform, two often cited culprits were fear of malpractice lawsuits and our complex health care payment structure. Doctors and hospitals practice “defensive medicine,” critics charge, ordering extraneous tests and procedures to protect themselves in the event of malpractice claims. This leads to overuse of the health care system.
Likewise, “fee-for-service” medicine, in which hospitals and doctors are paid separately for every treatment, procedure or test they perform, also encourages overuse. And yet, the same Commonwealth Fund study found that while we may be consuming more health care than we need, we aren’t nearly as guilty of this as, for example, Japan. There, patients consult with doctors, on average, more than 13 times a year, compared with the U.S., where patients have about four doctor consultations annually. Or how about Canada, where patients receiving acute care stay in the hospital an average of 7.7 days, compared with our 5.4?
A central reason U.S. health care spending is so high is that hospitals and doctors charge more for their services and there’s little transparency about why. There is no uniformity to the system, in which public and private insurers have separate, unrelated contracts with hospitals and doctors. The result is a tangled, confusing and largely secretive collection of forces driving health care prices higher and higher.
This isn’t possible in many other countries either because governments set prices for health care services or broker negotiations between coalitions of insurers and providers. Known as “all-payer rate setting,” insurers in these systems band together to negotiate as groups. In contrast, U.S. insurers closely guard the secrecy of their contracted prices with health care providers and negotiate individually. This is why a hospital hosting five patients for knee replacements might get paid five different amounts for the surgeries.
In Japan, where private insurers cover most of the nonelderly and nonpoor, prices for health care services are the same no matter the provider or payer. Other countries, like Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany and France, also have rates set or brokered by the government.
Per capita health care spending in all five countries is lower and grew more slowly than in the U.S. between 2000 and 2009, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recently cited by Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post.
Yet, you don’t have to go to Europe to find rate setting. The state of Maryland has been setting rates for health care services since 1971, which has helped control the rate of cost increases for patients and public and private insurers. According to a 2009 study published in the journal Health Affairs, if the entire country’s health care costs had grown at the same rate as Maryland’s between 1976 and 2007, we would have spent nearly $2 trillion less on health care.
But Maryland’s system, however economical, isn’t likely to be replicated across the country mainly because providers who now receive uneven, but high, payments from insurers don’t want pay cuts. A study published in Health Affairs in April comparing the health care cost-containment strategies in the U.S., U.K., Canada, France and Germany concluded that “it seems unlikely … that the U.S. system will move toward the types of volume and price controls used in the countries examined.”
During the debate that preceded passage of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, rate setting was mentioned by some policy experts but never gained traction. In the charged political environment surrounding health reform, end-of-life counseling was unfairly maligned as death panels. It’s easy to imagine that a rate-setting system could have been portrayed as giving the government total control over health care, even though most other countries that use rate setting also have robust private health care industries.
The Affordable Care Act, which fully takes effect in 2014, uses some other techniques to curb the growth in health care spending — like phasing down some fee-for-service payment structures — but even if these strategies work to save money, it’s unlikely the price transparency that comes with rate setting will become a reality in the U.S. | <urn:uuid:5e4e2b89-6c32-44c9-b3b3-5f3b55cd3c24> | {
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Jack London’s short story is an example of Naturalism, a literary movement that focuses on the realism of human experiences, and often engages with the broad theme of “man versus nature.” London’s unique take on this larger literary idea is through the topic of knowledge. Two types of knowledge are discussed throughout the short story: instinctual knowledge and scientific knowledge. The first is associated with the dog and the second with the man. These two figures represent a larger distinction between nature and humans. The dog cannot understand or reason, but his instincts direct his survival throughout the story. The man, on the other hand, relies on information gained from others, on logic, and on tools and technologies (matches and a knife). This scientific or rational knowledge clouds the man’s instinctual knowledge, and gives him confidence in his ability to protect himself from the natural elements with the resource of fire. Because of this confidence, he ignores the dog’s instinctual knowledge that the weather is too cold to safely travel. In this way, the man is presented as separate from nature, and distant from his biological instinct for survival, because he understands the world scientifically rather than instinctually. Ultimately, the conclusion of the story shows a triumph of instinctual knowledge and trust in one’s nature over confidence in logic and reason, as do other Naturalist texts.
Instinctual Knowledge vs. Scientific Knowledge ThemeTracker
Instinctual Knowledge vs. Scientific Knowledge Quotes in To Build a Fire
The animal was depressed by the tremendous cold. It knew that it was no time for travelling. Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man's judgment.
The creek he knew was frozen clear to the bottom,—no creek could contain water in that arctic winter,—but he knew also that there were springs that bubbled out from the hillsides and ran along under the snow and on top the ice of the creek. He knew that the coldest snaps never froze these springs, and he knew likewise their danger.
It made quick efforts to lick the ice off its legs, then dropped down in the snow and began to bite out the ice that had formed between the toes. This was a matter of instinct. To permit the ice to remain would mean sore feet. It did not know this. It merely obeyed the mysterious prompting that arose from the deep crypts of its being.
On the other hand, there was no keen intimacy between the dog and the man. The one was the toil-slave of the other, and the only caresses it had ever received were the caresses of the whip-lash and of harsh and menacing throat-sounds that threatened the whip-lash. So the dog made no effort to communicate its apprehension to the man. It was not concerned in the welfare of the man; it was for its own sake that it yearned back toward the fire.
He knew there must be no failure. When it is seventy-five below zero, a man must not fail in his first attempt to build a fire—that is, if his feet are wet. If his feet are dry, and he fails, he can run along the trail for half a mile and restore his circulation. But the circulation of wet and freezing feet cannot be restored by running when it is seventy-five below. No matter how fast he runs, the wet feet will freeze the harder.
He remembered the advice of the old-timer on Sulphur Creek, and smiled. The old-timer had been very serious in laying down the law that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below. Well, here he was; he had had the accident; he was alone; and he had saved himself. Those old-timers were rather womanish, some of them, he thought. All a man had to do was to keep his head, and he was all right. Any man who was a man could travel alone.
Later, the dog whined loudly. And still later it crept close to the man and caught the scent of death. This made the animal bristle and back away. A little longer it delayed, howling under the stars that leaped and danced and shone brightly in the cold sky. Then it turned and trotted up the trail in the direction of the camp it knew, where were the other food-providers and fire-providers. | <urn:uuid:0ad4b970-cf02-4882-b3c3-e3389622acc3> | {
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The night Jas returned from an extended business trip, Cookie wanted him to read a new book before bed. “Jas,” I said poking my head out of the kitchen “the moose is a she.” He rolled his eyes.
Changing the gender of characters in books started for our family with Little Blue Truck Leads the Way. Our girl, 18 months at the time had loved the first Little Blue Truck so much that we naturally picked up the second one in which Little Blue Truck goes to the city and encounters the mayor, who incidentally, is a man. The first time I read it to her I stumbled over the line, “His Honor, the mayor….” Why is the mayor a man? I wondered. Gender had no relevance to the story, no relevance to the mayor’s title, position, or character. (Really, does it ever?)
I began to pay closer and closer attention to the literature we read our girl looking mainly at gender. Children’s literature overall is more inclusive of females today … there are delightful, strong female characters such as Lady Bug Girl and The Paper Bag Princess. But males continue to dominate particularly in books for the toddler set. Lady Bug Girl and its ilk are written for girls specifically. Other books deemed “gender-neutral” continue to focus on and emphasize boys. Indeed, if gender is not central to the story, the default is to turn the bear, cat, moose, crocodile or bunny, male. If a female does show up (as Katha Pollitt points out in “The Smurfette Principle”), she is lone or a woeful minority.
The amount of female authors that take part in this male-centered writing is alarming. It’s as though they’ve forgotten what it’s like to be a little girl wondering about her place in the world, bombarded with stories of boys and their heroics.
My daughter learns much from books and stories. They helped me to potty train her, to introduce sibling relationships when I was pregnant with Bean, even to teach lessons about positive behavior–what manners are, what sharing means. If the books we read to our girls predominately feature males, what else are they learning? Nothing good.
Adventure is for boys, not girls. Girls are never the center of a story and therefore they are not the center of life but rather accessories, there to help boys achieve greatness and glory. They also take away the idea that there is no space for them or if there is space, it is limited. This creates enmity in girls not only towards themselves, but towards other females as well. If there is only space for one, then all other females are a threat, competition, a rival to be taken down. Rather than encouraging a band of sisters, the literature we are reading to our girls, subliminally sends the message that they must be the one or the few. The competitive, jealous “nature” that women are stereotypically labeled with is planted and nourished in many ways, not least of which can be found in the literature read in most American nurseries.
And it’s for these reasons, that I will continue to change the genders in my daughters’ books, wielding a black marker to the pages to ensure they’re read with a female bend. Jas can roll his eyes all he wants. I won’t let our girls grow up thinking the world is his. | <urn:uuid:111b0227-bec9-403c-9f8a-9b3c203e62ba> | {
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These LED 10-packs are an easy way to add colorful and complex lighting effects to a project. Each RGB LED contains an integrated WS2811 driver that allows it to be controlled with a high-speed one-wire interface (see the bottom of this page for sample code, including an Arduino library for controlling these LEDs). Multiple LEDs can be connected together to form a chain of RGB LEDs, and the entire chain can be controlled from a single microcontroller pin. These are very similar to the LEDs in Pololu's addressable RGB LED strips, but with these discrete LEDs you have far more flexibility in how they are arranged. The picture on the right shows a chain of 10 LEDs in a breadboard controlled by an A-Star 32U4 Micro.
Features and specifications
- One-wire digital control interface
- Can form a chain of individually-addressable RGB LEDs
- 24-bit color control (8-bit PWM per channel); 16.8 million colors per pixel
- 5 V operating voltage
- Draws approximately 50 mA at 5 V with red, green, and blue at full brightness
- Color ordering: red, green, blue
- Example code available for Arduino, AVR, and mbed
Using the LED
The LED has 4 pins, as shown in the diagram below:
The pins can be identified by the length of the leads or by looking for the flat side of the LED.
Connecting the LEDs
The DIN pin is the input signal pin. The DIN pin of the first LED in the chain should be connected to an I/O line of a microcontroller.
The 5V pin supplies power to the LED, and should be connected to a suitable 5 V power supply. The power supply should be capable of supplying enough current for all the LEDs it is powering. Each LED draws approximately 50 mA with all three channels at full brightness.
The GND pin should be connected to the ground pin of the microcontroller that is controlling the LEDs and also the negative terminal of the power supply.
The DOUT pin is optional and allows you to chain multiple LEDs together. It can be connected directly to the DIN pin of the next LED in the chain.
Pololu recommend taking several precautions to protect these LEDs from damage:
- Never supply more than 5 V to the LED.
- Connect a capacitor of at least 10 μF between the ground and power lines.
- Avoid making or changing connections while the circuit is powered.
- Minimize the length of the wires connecting your microcontroller to the LED.
- Follow generally good engineering practices, such as taking precautions against electrostatic discharge (ESD).
- Consider adding a 100 Ω to 1000 Ω resistor between your microcontroller’s data output and the LED to reduce the noise on that line and to avoid accidentally powering the LED through its data input.
Warning: These LEDs can explode if they are pushed beyond their limits. For example, Pololu were able to make an 8 mm LED explode by powering at 6 V and setting it to full brightness for about a minute (though Pololu could not subsequently replicate that result). Pololu strongly recommend you avoid powering these LEDs at voltages over 5 V.
After power is applied to these LEDs, they will emit bright blue light until the first color command is received.
These LEDs can be chained with each other and also with other LED products that have a similar protocol. In particular, they can be chained with any of our WS281x-Based Addressable RGB LEDs. Even though these LEDs use a different color ordering than the WS2812B (RGB instead of GRB), they can still be chained to WS2812B-based products.
These LEDs are controlled by a simple, high-speed one-wire protocol on the input signal line. The protocol is documented below.
The default, idle state of the signal line is low. To update the LED colors, you need to transmit a series of high pulses on the signal line. Each high pulse encodes one bit: a short pulse (0.35 μs) represents a zero, while a long pulse (0.9 μs) represents a one. The time between consecutive rising edges should be 1.25μs. After the bits are sent, the signal line should be held low for 50 μs to send a reset command, which makes the new color data take effect.
|WS281x RGB data timing diagram.|
The color of each LED is encoded as three LED brightness values, which must be sent in RGB (red-green-blue) order. Each brightness value is encoded as a series of 8 bits, with the most significant bit being transmitted first, so each LED color takes 24 bits. The first color transmitted applies to the LED that is closest to the control source, while the second color transmitted applies to the next LED in the chain, and so on.
|24 bits in RGB order represent the color of one LED.|
To update all the LEDs in the chain, you should send all the colors at once with no pauses. If you send fewer colors than the number of LEDs in the chain, then some LEDs near the end will not be updated. For example, to update 10 LEDs wired in a chain, you would send 240 bits encoded as high pulses and then hold the signal line low for 50 μs.
The high-speed protocol of the driver allows for fast updates; Pololu's library for the Arduino below takes about 1.1 ms to update 30 LEDs. However, constant updates are not necessary; the LED can hold its state indefinitely as long as power remains connected.
Documentation and Resources:
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Please checkout our customer service page if you have other frequently asked questions such as "do we do purchase orders" (yes!) or "are prices GST inclusive" (yes they are!). We're here to help - get in touch with us to talk shop. | <urn:uuid:0d4a1cf7-b19e-43d5-a53d-8f0a26e71e5d> | {
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Hernando cortes history essay
Writework is the biggest source online where you can find thousands of free school & college essays, research & term papers hernando cortes: history. History: european term papers (paper 1313) on hernando cortes: hernando cortes was born in 1485 has accomplished a lot of things during his time sailing during the. Hernan cortes, government, mexico, - hernan cortes and the governorship of mexico. Free college essay hernando cortes hernando cortes was born in 1485, and died on december 2, 1547 in seville, spain hernando was born in medlin.
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Download thesis statement on hernan cortes in our database or order an original thesis paper that will be written by one of our staff writers and delivered according. Hernan cortes strategically defeated the aztec empire modern history exploration & imperialism q: why is hernan cortes important a. Hernando cortes free essays, term papers and book reports thousands of papers to select from all free. | <urn:uuid:245cceeb-cc95-40eb-a4e3-754a912431d0> | {
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Video: Walking monsters
Monsters and aliens that move more realistically than ever before are coming soon to a screen near you.
Thanks to "artificial evolution", computer-generated humans in a number of recent Hollywood epics and video games have been able to interact with each other and their environments in a more life-like way.
Now NaturalMotion, whose animation technique was used in the films Troy and Poseidon, has shown its method can equally be applied to non-human body shapes – for instance, bipedal monsters (see video, above).
"A monster might have a completely different overall body mass distribution," or different limb proportions to a human, says Torsten Reil, the firm's CEO. "It's equivalent to me waking up in a child's body and being able to balance and look natural straightaway."
State-of-the-art animation for non-human film characters usually involves filming real actors wearing fluorescent motion capture sensors from several angles. Still art work of, say a monster, is mapped onto the footage and made to move using the movement of these sensors at key points such as elbows and knees as a guide.
Computer games use this technique but realism is limited because a number of set sequences must be applied in a virtually limitless range of situations.
NaturalMotion, whose origins are in the zoology department at the University of Oxford, UK, took a radically different approach.
Reil and colleagues began with 100 identical virtual skeletons, complete with muscles controlled by a simulated network of a few hundred motor nerves.
They then attributed random values to the strength of connections between key nerves involved in movement in each skeleton and made each perform a task – for instance, walking.
The five that managed to walk furthest without falling were labelled the "most fit" and used to spawn the next generation.
These were each copied 20 times to create another population of 100, and in each individual, a subset of the connections between nerves were altered to mimic the natural variation that might be found in the next generation of a biological species.
The new population then repeats the walking task, with the best performers going on to create the next generation.
Over several generations, a skeleton with all the grace of a shambolic drunkard will ultimately give rise to a nimble walker.
On the fly
"We've used concepts from biology and physics to unshackle games," says Reil. By "evolving" algorithms that can animate characters entirely on the fly rather than relying on a handful of pre-recorded sequences, he says game worlds will become more realistic.
Since 2001, the animated humans NaturalMotion produces have evolved to perform a range of tasks such as balancing, walking, and interacting with their environment – for instance, by anticipating a collision and bracing themselves in readiness. Those skills are put to use in the firm's American football Backbreaker computer game, due for release in June.
The company's latest discovery is an evolutionary shortcut of sorts – a behaviour "evolved" to fit a given skeleton can be applied to radically different body shapes.
"We can add additional joints – we might give a leg two knees," adds Reil. "And recently I've been looking at how a three-legged stool walks and balances. It looks odd, and makes you realise why biology doesn't go for three legs."
NaturalMotion's approach could help to animate alien bodies in computer games, but Reil says it's also possible the approach could have an impact for biological research – for instance, by animating in a range of extinct animals.
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to. | <urn:uuid:12491feb-e4d7-42e6-9fbd-ff3df1f0a80f> | {
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News, Decades Later
All of the family’s inquiries about the whereabouts of Miquel Obradors Mas during World War II had come to naught. In the summer of 2018, however, the ITS succeeded in turning his personal belongings over to his three granddaughters.
They had long given up hope of ever hearing anything about their grandfather again. Then they received his wallet, full of family photos. And more than twenty years after their last research endeavors, the granddaughters now also finally learned why so few traces of him were to be found in the archives. Their grandfather was on file under a different name and with a different place of birth.
“We didn’t get to ask or talk about this matter in the family,” explains Montse Blanco. “My mother and my grandmother died when we were little girls. And no other members of the family, especially his niece—who received the letters from France—, had more information either.” Miquel Obradors Mas was born in Navàs, Spain on September 13, 1900. He became a bricklayer, married and had one daughter. In several of the photos in the wallet, his daughter Margarida as well as his niece and some friends are portrayed.
Like several hundreds of thousands of Spaniards, Miquel left his homeland and went into exile for political reasons. He presumably went to France in 1939, when the Spanish Civil War came to an end. Between then and 1943, he sent several letters to his niece; after that, there was no further trace of him for a very long time. When the family didn’t hear anything from him, they sent a letter to the municipal administration of the town where he had last lived. Miquel had evidently left the city in 1944 to join the French Resistance. All further research was in vain.
Between 1993 and 1996, his three granddaughters made another attempt. “The results were negative, so after that we stopped searching,” Montse remembers. The information in his letters already indicated it, but it wasn’t until 2018 that it turned out to be true—his name had been slightly changed. Irma Bousquet of the Amicale de Neuengamme et de ses Kommandos inmates’ association helped the ITS with its research and found Miquel’s family.
The records reveal that he was in the police prison in Compiègne and in the convoy that left Compiègne on July 15, 1944. The National Socialists deported him to Germany, and on July 18, 1944 the Neuengamme concentration camp security service registered him as a “political inmate.” That was something his relatives hadn’t known before: “My family was never informed about the fact that my grandfather was deported to the Neuengamme camp. He had disappeared without a trace in France,” Montse wrote. “I thank the ITS for its interest in the research, and I appreciate its work.” | <urn:uuid:87b315e6-08c0-4256-885d-782db33be87c> | {
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Puerto Rico’s Unofficial Mascot – The Coqui Frog
“Coquí is the popular name given to a genus of frogs (Eleutherodactylus) endemic to the island of Puerto Rico. They are a genus of frog that do not go through metamorphosis or have webbed feet.
In our island, 17 different species of Eleutherodactylus (coqui), live in the island, and only the males of the Common Coqui and the Mountain Coqui species, sing co-qui!” – says Melissa Rosario of Luquillo Puerto Rico.
A Coquí is a tiny tree frog native to Puerto Rico and its surrounding islands. It is extremely common and produces a very distinctive mating call – a loud, high-pitched “Ko-Kee” – that can be heard from a long distance away. The Coquí song (call) can be heard all around the island beginning at dusk and well into the night hours. Listen to the Coquí sounds here.
Puerto Ricans love their Coquís and have written songs and poems about them, in fact, this tiny frog has become a mascot, of sorts, for the island of Puerto Rico. You can, even, find Coquís in native Taino art, i.e. petroglyphs, and native myths.
Unlike other species of frogs, Coquís do not depend on water to reproduce and do not go through a tadpole stage, instead they lay eggs under leaves or damp moss and the young hatch into fully developed (although teeny) frogs. The male Coquí broods the eggs and provides moisture for them until they hatch.
Adult Coquís are only about one inch long and are brown in color (they can be different shades and even yellow or green). They are generally a nocturnal species, quite active at night and returning to their nests at dawn.
The male Coquís serenade loudly to attract females and to scare away competing males. The song is quite beautiful and unique, which contributes to their beloved status with the island natives.
The Coquí has special pads at the tips of its toes and fingers, these pads allow it to climb vertical structures and trees and cling to barks and leaves – in fact, the genus name Eleutherodactylus means “free toes”. Unlike other types of frogs, the Coquí’s feet are not webbed.
The Common Coquí diet varies but is usually composed of insects, spiders, and crustaceans. Young Coquís consume smaller prey, like ants, while larger adults have been observed eating snails and even other, smaller frogs.
Around Puerto Rico, the Coquís can be found anywhere from sea level to a maximum of 3,900 feet altitude. They live in all sorts of habitats including forests, mountains and even urban areas. They like to live in moist areas within bromeliad plants, holes in trees, and under rocks.
Coquís have been accidently introduced to Hawaii where they are considered an invasive species because of their voracious appetite that puts Hawaii’s unique insects and spiders at risk. In Hawaii, they are also considered a noise menace and, unlike in Puerto Rico, are not loved and appreciated for their song.
The next time you’re visiting us in Luquillo, be sure to listen at night for the Coquís. You will most certainly hear them, especially in and around the rainforest areas. | <urn:uuid:76b90e30-0e21-4d6d-8355-f2e0adbeece2> | {
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Coastal and Tropical South
Even the hardiest ferns, such as southern shield, can suffer in the thunderstorms and dry spells of midsummer. But they can be rejuvenated for the second half of the season. Snip off shriveled or broken fronds at ground level with scissors or flower snips to bring on new greens for fall.
Plant for Fall
It's time to plant seeds and seedlings to enjoy and harvest this fall. Parsley, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower may need shade for their first weeks in the vegetable garden, but they will soon settle in and grow well. Zinnias, marigolds, and celosia come easily from seed now.
Improve Poorly Draining Soil
Soggy potting soil can bring on root problems. The first thing you notice may be tip burn on leaves. Clip off the damaged parts of the leaves and take steps to improve drainage, such as ditching around the beds. Repot container plants, if necessary, with freely draining potting soil.
It's "off with their heads" for tired or leggy annual flowers, followed by a dose fertilizer to get them blooming again. Impatiens, angelonia, and salvia recover rapidly from summer pruning. If caladiums send up flower shoots, they will go dormant. Cut off the spikes and fertilize with fish emulsion or another source of nitrogen.
Shear evergreen hedges at midsummer to spur new growth, especially inside the shrub's network of branchs. Boxwood, yaupon, and other little-leaved hollies too easily become nearly naked except for their outer stems. Prune so the base of the shrub is slightly wider than its top to let in sunlight and encourage more growth. | <urn:uuid:c685133d-1da0-4831-a0a3-8fc27a989f33> | {
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Host a Station for Earthquake Early Warning
About Earthquake Early Warning Stations
Today, the technology exists to detect earthquakes so quickly that an alert can reach people before strong shaking arrives. The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at the University of Washington and University of Oregon, the USGS and its partners operating California's seismic network are developing and implementing the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning (EEW) system to identify and characterize an earthquake within few seconds after it begins. We quickly calculate the expected intensity of ground shaking, and can send warnings to people and infrastructure in harm’s way.
To reliably distribute warnings for all parts of the region with high earthquake hazard, it is important to have a robustly operating, dense network of seismic stations capable of providing data that can be used in ShakeAlert. We are looking for locations where we can install new earthquake monitoring stations. In addition to contributing to ShakeAlert, the new stations will also support the mission of the PNSN, to operate a reliable, modern, system for producing earthquake information for the benefit of public safety, emergency response, and loss mitigation.
Don't live in the Pacific Northwest? Our partners in California are also looking for station hosts.
Looking for the sign up page to host a temporary station in the Puget Sound for a few weeks. Go here.
Potential Host Information
Hosting a Station
The green triangles on the map are the stations currently contributing to ShakeAlert. A new station site is needed within 5 miles of each of the orange circles.
Rural station sites (preferred): should have little civilization noise from nearby sources (vehicles, pumps, farm animals) and ideally be at least 300 yards from the nearest road. These sites typically consist of an instrument vault in the ground the size of a trash can and a refrigerator sized equipment box with solar panels.
Urban station sites: We are also interested in sites such as fire stations, infrequently used storage sites and garages not near a busy road that have a small patch of concrete slab floor (often in a closet or corner) where we can place a small instrument package the size of a cooler.
Typical rural station.
Typical urban station. | <urn:uuid:b1ab6b83-9e1e-43f1-9480-501eb31fb582> | {
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|Trifid Nebula NGC6514 [Courtesy NASA]||Spires on west facade of La Sagrada Familia cathedral, Barcelona, Spain [Photo by DHB, (c) 2011]|
Scientists acknowledge that methodological naturalism underlies their research, but point out that they have little choice in the matter. Scientists must assume, when they perform an experiment or make some measurements, that no supernatural entity is disturbing the experimental setup while they perform the experiment, for otherwise no repeatable empirical study could rationally be performed. After all, making controlled experiments, where the "variables" are fixed one by one, is a key foundation stone of the scientific method. Yet by definition, a scientist cannot vary, rule out or "control" in any way the actions of an omnipotent Being who exists beyond the realm of the natural universe and acts beyond its natural laws. Thus supernatural effects lie, one way or the other, lie outside the realm of scientific investigation [Scott2009, pg. 19, 56].
Scientific philosopher Robert Pennock explains this issue in these terms [Pennock2001, pg. 89-90]:
Once such supernatural explanations are permitted they could be used in chemistry and physics as easily as Creationists have used them in biology and geology. Indeed, all empirical investigation beyond the purely descriptive could cease. ... Methodological Naturalism is not a dogmatic ideology that simply is tacked on to the principles of the scientific method; it is essential for the basic standards of empirical evidence.
Perhaps a better question is the extent to which some scientists assume a full-fledged "scientific naturalism", or even a more extreme form known as "philosophical naturalism" (or "scientism") -- the notion that the only truths that deserve the name "truth," and the only truths worth believing or investigating, are those that are derived from the process of scientific research. Several of the "new atheists," for example, presume this stronger worldview in their writings -- see Atheists.
But the "scientific naturalism" (or "philosophical naturalism" or "scientism") worldview is not one that can itself be established within the methodology of science. No "experiment" can be devised to conclusively affirm that scientific truth encompasses all truth, any more than an "experiment" can establish the existence of God. As Catholic philosopher John Haught writes [Haught2008, pg. 11]:
[Scientism] is a belief for which there can be no "sufficient" scientific or empirical "evidence" either. There is no way, without circular thinking, to set up a scientific experiment to demonstrate that every true proposition must be based in empirical evidence rather than faith. The censuring of every instance of faith, in the narrow new atheist sense of the term, would have to include the suppression of scientism also. ... Moreover, the claim that truth can be attained only by reason and science functioning independently of any faith is itself a faith claim. Complete consistency would require that the new atheists' world of thought be cleansed of scientism and scientific naturalism as well.
See also the articles
Natural law and | <urn:uuid:1e450723-b9f7-4989-a13b-11c381817e57> | {
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The Salmonella Outbreak: Are free-range, organic eggs safer?
When humane methods are used in raising poultry, the risk of salmonella outbreak is much lower.Posted Sep 16, 2010
As the government oversees a recall of over 500 million eggs due to a salmonella scare, consumers are wondering which eggs are safe and which are best to avoid. Eggs marketed as “free range”, “cage free” and “organic” may provide a safer alternative, but understanding these terms will help the consumer make a more informed choice when buying eggs.
Free range eggs
Loosely defined, “free range” chickens are from flocks which have access to the outdoors. Chickens which can exercise in open spaces, and forage for insects and available wild foods, are likely to be healthier birds. Following this logic, eggs from free range chickens should be healthier for the consumer. However, US egg producers may claim that their eggs are “free range” if they can demonstrate to the USDA that the poultry has been allowed “access to the outside.” This does not assure that the chickens actually go outside, only that they have access. Unfortunately, this significant loophole makes it difficult to know if you’re truly getting pastured eggs.
According to Karen Davis, president of United Poultry Concerns, a Maryland-based animal advocacy organization, there is no commercial or legal definition for free-range eggs in the United States. Neither is there an association of free-range egg producers to set and maintain standards.
Outside the United States, according to the Egg Safety Board, free-range “denotes a method of farming husbandry where the animals are allowed to roam freely instead of being contained in any manner.” This definition closes the loopholes which favor egg producers.
The best way to determine if your eggs came from chickens raised in actual free range conditions is to find a local egg producer, and visit their operation. This can be an interesting outing for the family which may lead to a local source for other farm products such as produce and dairy items. To find an egg producer near you, check LocalHarvest.org.
Battery cages are wire cages for egg-laying hens, usually about 18 by 20 inches, each with up to 11 birds inside. Large commercial egg producers raise chickens in these cages, where the hens live their entire lives never being able to spread their wings. “Cage free” eggs come from chickens raised outside of cages.
Advocates contend that cage-free eggs taste better and are healthier. However, critics say that cage-free doesn’t mean comfortable: In some operations, many thousands of hens can be packed together in a crowded indoor space, flapping their clipped wings, fluttering on top of one another—not really an improvement over being constrained in a cage. They may still be pumped with antibiotics and hormones. Currently, the term “cage-free” appears to have no legal definition. And cage-free operations are not well regulated.
European egg producers are currently phasing cages out of egg production.
Hens must be fed a 100 percent organic diet containing no hormones or animal by-products to be certified USDA “organic” eggs. The feed must be free of genetically modified organisms (GMO’s).
In organic egg production, the flock must live cage-free with access to the outdoors. Organic egg layers are still raised in confinement like industrial egg layers are. The birds are raised to live free-roaming throughout the barn. The number of birds that live in a barn is calculated using the amount of square footage in the barn and the square footage birds need. In an organic operation, nesting boxes are placed above a belted system. This allows for the free roaming birds to lay their eggs on the belts instead of on the ground. Eggs laid on the ground are not allowed to be sold for human consumption. The belted system then collects the eggs so that farmers don’t have to on a regular basis, which could upset the birds and affect egg production levels. The birds must also be allowed to have access to the outdoors “if they so choose”.
Many consumers believe that certified organic eggs are tastier and more healthful than non-organic eggs. The price for USDA Certified Organic eggs, however, can be 20 – 50% higher.
When humane methods are used in raising poultry, the risk of salmonella outbreak is much lower. A recent British survey found that about a quarter of caged hen populations tested positive for salmonella, versus less than 5% of organic flocks and 6.5% of free-range flocks. In fact, the amount of salmonella contamination was directly parallel to the size of the flocks.
It is important to note that while free-range, cage-free and organic eggs may be healthier and better tasting, these labels are no guarantee that the eggs are not tainted with salmonella. While organic or free-range eggs and poultry may have reduced risk of salmonella contamination, a consumer’s best defense is to wash all egg shells, store eggs at 40F or below, in the interior of the refrigerator, rather than the door, which is subject to variable temperatures, and cook eggs – yolks and all – to a temperature of 160F.
The source of the current salmonella outbreak has been traced to two producers in Galt, Iowa, and sold in retail stores as a variety of different brand names. The Egg Safety Center has a complete list of recalled eggs, their expiration dates, and brands. | <urn:uuid:8fbe72b4-2f71-4e30-be3c-503db4d714e2> | {
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Concord, NH – The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services announced today that funding has been made temporarily available for the purpose of recycling and replacement of agricultural equipment containing mercury. Although most farmers have replaced their mercury manometers and other equipment with digital devices, the fate of the older mercury containing devices as well as other instruments is unknown. Like manometers, older candy thermometers used by maple producers contain mercury and their large size means they hold considerably more of the toxic element than a standard fever thermometer. Proper disposal and recycling of these instruments is imperative to the health of New Hampshire’s environment and its residents.
Mercury is frequently found in a variety of agricultural equipment- primarily in gauges and switches used to measure temperature, adjust air pressure, or turn electrical devices on and off. Examples include thermometers, milk line vacuum gauges, florescent lighting, and switches for refrigeration units, boilers, automatic fans, and even tractors and cars. Older manometers (the U-shaped devices used to monitor air pressure in automatic milk lines) and candy thermometers (used in maple syrup production) contain the largest amount of mercury found on farms. That is why the NH Department of Environmental Services has started programs to remove these instruments from agricultural areas.
Mercury is a naturally occurring element that has been useful because of its unique property of being a liquid metal at room temperature. Unfortunately mercury is toxic to living organisms. Like other heavy metals it stays in toxic form, continuously building up in our bodies and those of other animals. When disposed of improperly, common devices containing mercury such as those listed above as well as fluorescent lighting and switches and standard fever thermometers, pose a threat to public health and the environment.
Please contact DES for recycling assistance or to exchange your older, mercury-containing device: (603) 271-2047 or (800) 273-9469 or e-mail [email protected] | <urn:uuid:eb289c79-78c0-45c5-8be4-82e30a79443a> | {
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Today, Maha shares suggestions for writing a picture book. Her tips are intended for self-publishing. Keep in mind that traditional publishers usually don't require illustration notes or page breaks.
First thing I learned is that picture books are 500-1000 words, 30 pages long. Remember that the 30 pages include the title, dedication, and the copyright pages, which leaves you with only 28 pages.
Illustrations and description
When you write a story, you would think you need to describe your scene in detail. Not so in picture books. The illustrations describe the scene. I deleted a lot of description before the illustrations, but when the illustrations arrived, I found out that I could delete even more. When I wrote my second and third stories (not published yet), I took that into account from the very beginning. What I did was to keep the description between brackets for the illustrator's benefit. This will give the illustrator an idea of how I want the scene to appear. I made another copy without the descriptions to keep count of the words.
Make a dummy
I made a dummy of my book, When Monsters Get Lonely, by adding the illustrations to the text, exactly where I wanted them to appear in a word document. I then clicked on view > full screen reading to render it in book form. I made sure the page turns left the reader wondering what’s coming next. This is the way I sent my book to the publisher to show them exactly where I wanted the text in relation to the illustrations.
I struggled with word choice because I’m not used to writing for kids. I tried to make my words as simple as I could. This was not easy, because the idea I was trying to convey in When Monsters Get Lonely is not simple. In the end, I felt that my words were descriptive and sensory enough to engage a child. Parents will read a book if they like its theme.
Read it out loud
One of the tips I read when I was writing my book was to read it aloud, and I did do that not only to myself, but to my husband and my sister-in-law. It helps you get an idea of how it will sound to the kids.
Plot and theme
All good books must have a climax and resolution. I’m afraid that my editor gave me a really poor critique, which was an education to me. I rewrote my story and revised my plot to include the all important climax and resolution. It didn’t change what Grams wanted to teach Hannah, but it handed Hannah a way to find the solution herself. Hence, Grams didn’t sound like she was preaching and it made for a much more interesting story.
The main character must have strong traits and resolve the problem. By resolving her own problems, Hannah’s character naturally developed and emerged as a strong and intelligent child despite her fear.
Maha Huneidi says she learned quite a lot when she wrote and self-published When Monsters Get Lonely. She thinks you can learn from the mistakes she made and corrected along the way.
1. Follow the Top link of the hop! Hop Host: Families Matter
2. Grab the button for the hop and place it in a post, sidebar, or on a blog hop
page and let us know where it is in the comments section below.
This will help the hop grow and gain us all new followers. It's a Win-Win for everyone!
3. Grab the button for the World of Ink Tours and place it in a post or side bar.
Make sure you let us know where it is in the comments section below.
Book Giveaway Rules:
· Join the Book Lovers Blog Hop. (One entry)
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Make sure to include your safe email so we can contact you if you are the winner.
Example: vsgrenier AT storiesforchildrenpublishing DOT com. (One bonus entry per blog stop)
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Please play nice and follow our simple rules! Make sure to FOLLOW AT LEAST ONE PERSON and as many other blogs as you'd like to have more follow back. This is what makes Book Lovers Blog Hop work, so if you're not willing to follow, please don't link up.
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October 2, 2011 at 12am MST and closes October 31, 2011 at 11pm MST! | <urn:uuid:da862a57-d0a2-42da-bc4e-6c5dc1faa296> | {
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This poster was presented at the 2016 annual ASHA Connect Convention, Poster Session #PS02.
Presentation explores 1) traditional versus phonological therapy, 2) the sensory-motor system as it relates to speech, 3) the importance of tactile and proprioception in articulation therapy, 4) shaping placement of the articulators to improve speech clarity.
1. Participants will be able to differentiate phonological versus traditional articulation therapy.
2. Participants will be able to define the three stages of Van Riper’s Phonetic Placement Approach.
3. Participants will be able to use at least three oral placement cues in order to facilitate speech movements.
Two widely used models of articulation therapy include the traditional and phonological models (Bowen, 2005). While studies suggest that the phonological model may prove more positive results than the traditional model (Klein, 1996), Van Riper’s Phonetic Placement Approach (PPA) may be more useful for individuals who are not be able to achieve placement cues (Van Riper, 1978). In 1958, Van Riper stated:
"Every available device should be used to make the student understand clearly the positions of the tongue, jaw, and lips to be assumed."
Placement cues are based on the more traditional models of therapy, and rely on the concept that an individual can copy the motor plan suggested by the therapist, such as “place your tongue tip to the spot.” Therapists, however, often struggle with a population of individuals who do not respond well to “look at me and say what I say,” and those who require a tactile-kinesthetic approach to treatment (Bahr & Rosenfeld-Johnson, 2010). Individuals with dysarthria, dyspraxia and/or myofunctional disorders may make slow progress, or no progress at all, without the assistance of tactile cues. Even though therapists have heard the debate on oral motor therapy (Bowen, 2006; Lof, 2006; Lof, 2007; Lof, 2009), clinicians are still widely using the techniques because they yield positive treatment outcomes (Bahr, 2008).
Clinicians, who represent the Board of Directors for the Oral Motor Institute, have struggled with distinguishing “oral motor therapy” from the form of “Non Speech Oral Motor Exercises” (NSOME) presented by Gregory Lof (Lof, 2008). The term “Oral Placement Disorder” (OPD) was coined by Diane Bahr and Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson in 2010 (Bahr & Rosenfeld-Johnson, 2010). Children with OPD cannot imitate targeted speech sounds using auditory and visual stimuli (i.e., “Look, listen, and say what I say”). They also cannot follow specific instructions to produce targeted speech sounds (e.g., “Put your lips together and say m”). Although the term OPD is new, the concepts surrounding the term have been discussed by a number of authors and clinicians (Bahr, 2010; Hodge, 2012; Marshalla, 2007).
There has been question, and ongoing confusion, as to what is a NSOME, versus what is an oral placement technique (OPT) (Bahr & Rosenfeld-Johnson, 2010). Oral Placement Therapy (OPT) is a tactile teaching technique used for children and adults with Oral Placement Disorders (e.g., dysarthria), who cannot learn standard speech sound production using auditory and visual teaching methods alone. OPT facilitates the pre-requisite skills in muscle control to develop dissociation and grading in the muscles of the abdomen, velum, jaw, lips and tongue for clients who cannot approximate the standard speech sounds using the instructions. If the client can produce standard speech using adequate placement and duration using only auditory and visual cueing, OPT would not be included in that client’s program plan.
Gregory Lof’s research has even stated that the methods used in Van Riper’s Phonetic Placement Approach are not in fact considered NSOME (Lof, 2009). This is why it is important to explore current clinical techniques to determine what activities are considered unrelated to speech production, as opposed to those activities that in fact are an extension of Phonetic Placement Therapy (Marshalla, 2007).
OPT IS A MODERN EXTENSION OF PHONETIC PLACEMENT THERAPY
(Van Riper, 1954) and The Feedback Model (Mysak, 1971).
It is based on a very common sequence (Bahr, 2001; Green, Moore & Reilly, 2000; Marshalla, 2007; Young and Hawk, 1955):
1. Facilitate speech movement with the assistance of a therapy tool (ex. horn, tongue depressor) or a tactile-kinesthetic facilitation technique (ex. PROMPT facial cue); use every available device (Marshalla, 2012);
2. Facilitate speech movement without the therapy tool and/or tactile-kinesthetic technique (cue fading);
3. Immediately transition movement into speech with and without therapy tools and/or tactile kinesthetic techniques.
PHONETIC PLACEMENT THERAPY TOOLS
MODERN ORAL PLACEMENT THERAPY TOOLS
Bahr, D. (2008). The oral motor debate: Where do we go from here? Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Chicago, IL. (Full handout at http://convention.asha.org/handouts.cfm)
Bahr, D. (2001). Oral motor assessment and treatment: Ages and stages. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Bahr, D. & Rosenfeld-Johnson, S. (2010). Treatment of Children With Speech Oral Placement Disorders (OPDs): A Paradigm Emerges. Communication Disorders Quarterly, XX(X), 108.
Bowen, C. (2005). What is the evidence for oral motor therapy? ACQuiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing, Speech Pathology Australia, 7, 3, 144-147.
Green, R., Moore, C. A., & Reilly, K. J. (2000). The sequential development of jaw and lip control for speech. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 45, 66-79.
Hodge, M. M. (2002). Non-speech oral motor treatment approaches for dysarthria: Perspectives on a controversial clinical practices. Perspectives in Neurophysiology and Neurogenic Speech Disorders, 12 (4), 22-28.
Klein, E. S. (1996). Phonological/traditional approaches to articulation therapy. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, Vol. 27, 314-323.
Lof, G. L. (2007). Reasons why non-speech oral motor exercises should not be used for speech sound disorders. Presentation at the ASHA Annual Convention, Boston, MA, Nov. 17.
Lof, G. L. (2009). Nonspeech oral motor exercises: an update on the controversy. Presentation at ASHA Annual Convention, New Orleans, LA.
Lof, G. L. (2006). Logic, theory and evidence against the use of non-speech oral-motor exercises to change speech sound productions. Invited presentation at the ASHA Annual Convention, Miami, FL, Nov. 17.
Lof, G. L. & Watson, M. (2005). Survey of universities’ teaching: oral motor exercises and other procedures. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, San Diego, CA.
Lof, G. L. (2004). Ask the Expert: A response by Gregory L. Lof, PhD., CCC-SLP. The Apraxia-Kids Monthly, 5 (1).
Lof, G. L. & Watson, M. (2004). Speech-language pathologist’s use of non-speech oral-motor drills: National survey results. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Philadelphia, PA.
Lof, G. L. (2003). Oral motor exercises and treatment outcomes. Perspectives on Language Learning and Education, 10 (1), 7-11.
Marshalla, P. (2007). Oral motor techniques are not new. Oral Motor Institute, 1(1). Available at www.oralmotorinstitute.org.
Marshalla, P. (2012). Horns, whistles, bite blocks, and straws: A review of tools/objects used in articulation therapy by Van Riper and other traditional therapists. Oral Motor Institute, 4 (2). Available at www.oralmotorinstitute.org.
Mysak, E. (1971). Speech pathology and feedback therapy. Charles C. Thompson Publisher.
Van Riper, C. (1958, 1954, 1947). Speech Correction: Principles and Methods. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Young, E. H. & Hawk, S. S. (1955). Moto-kinesthetic speech training. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. | <urn:uuid:48d6d5f2-351f-4b0c-82f2-5281f2bb156a> | {
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Companies are finding themselves embroiled in a power crisis as they struggle to find ways to rein in soaring energy costs -- as well as do their part to address global climate change. However, how can you be certain that the power-saving strategies your company has adopted are, in fact, the best ones? After all, there are plenty of myths out there about saving energy that are patently false. In this report, we examine 10 such myths and bring the truth to light.
Myth No. 1: Powering a computer or server up and down limits its life span. The extreme temperature and current swings of power cycling can stress electronic components (especially capacitors and diodes) in a machine.
Fact: Power cycling healthy electronics is not a source of stress. The same electrical components that are used in IT equipment are used in complex devices that are routinely subjected to power cycles and temperature extremes, such as factory-floor automation, medical devices, and your car.
There is a kernel of truth in this myth, however: Cycling power on a sick system is going to bring attention to latent component weaknesses that go unnoticed in operation. Power-on diagnostics are brief yet rigorous and can be performed remotely on servers with dedicated management controllers. Power cycling doesn't just save energy. It's a zero-cost aid to maximizing server availability.
Myth No. 2: It takes too long to cold-start servers to react to spikes in demand. If customers are made to wait, they'll go elsewhere.
Fact: Idling servers at zero workload as hot spares is an egregious waste of energy and an administrative burden. If customers need to wait while you spin up cold spares to handle rising workload, brag about it. For a Web site, put up a static page asking users to wait while additional resources are brought online. As for the wait, people will stay on hold if they know their call will be answered. Build power management into your services architecture and make it part of the message that you send to users and customers.
You can also select systems that cold-boot rapidly. Model to model and brand to brand, servers exhibit wide variances in power-up delay. This metric isn't usually measured, but it becomes relevant when you control power consumption by switching off system power. It needn't take long. Servers or blades that boot from a snapshot, a copy of RAM loaded from disk or a SAN can go from power-down mode to work-ready in less than a minute. The most efficient members of a reserve/disaster farm can quiesce in a suspend-to-RAM state rather than be powered down fully so that wake-up does not require BIOS self-test or device querying and cataloging, two major sources of boot delay.
Myth No. 3: The power rating (in watts) of a CPU is a simple measurement of the system's efficiency.
Fact: Efficiency is measured in percentage of power converted, which can range from 50 to 90 percent or more. The AC power not converted to DC is lost as heat, which increases the cooling burden of the system, adding even more to the overall energy loss. Unfortunately, it's often difficult to tell the efficiency of a power supply, and many manufacturers don't publish the number. You can either look for systems with published efficiency numbers or measure the actual power draw of various systems at idle and full load, then make your decisions based on that. | <urn:uuid:d7b8c876-abb1-432b-8962-ac81848df08a> | {
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Use these home remedies as adjuvant Patients and their family may have a history of asthma, atopic dermatitis, and allergic rhinitis. In fact, a number of studies have shown that a majority of children who develop asthma have allergies as a trigger for the asthma. Often a child develops eczema, and then develops allergic nasal symptoms "hay fever" and then asthma.
Asthma in children is an obstructive respiratory condition characterized by recurring attacks of wheezing, shortness of breath, prolonged expiration, and an irritated cough that is a common, chronic illness in childhood. Although the disease can begin in infancy, it is often difficult to diagnose asthma in young children. Nevertheless, these children require treatment.
The lung is the main organ of the respiratory system and its main function is respiration (exchange of gases between the environment and the body). Air enters the nose where it is filtered, warmed and humidified. After passing through the trachea (windpipe), the air travels into the lungs through the bronchi, bronchi are a system of branching airway tubes that become smaller as they reach deeper into the lung. The smallest of the bronchi, the bronchioles, open into balloon-like sacs called alveoli. An asthma attack occurs when these airways narrow and the muscles around them tightly contract, this condition is called bronchospasm. The membranes lining the inner walls of the airways become swollen and inflamed, and the glands within these walls produce excessive mucus.
A strong hereditary factor associated with the disease. Patients and their family may have a history of asthma, atopic dermatitis, and allergic rhinitis. In fact, a number of studies have shown that a majority of children who develop asthma have allergies as a trigger for the asthma. Often a child develops eczema, and then develops allergic nasal symptoms "hay fever" and then asthma. This progression has been termed the "allergic march". Allergens such as pollens, foods, dust, mold, feathers or animal dander irritants in the air, such as dirt, cigarette smoke, gases and air pollution odors in the household, such as household cleaners, perfumes, paints, varnishes, fabric softeners, laundry detergents and cooking fumes irritants in the workplace, such as fumes and vapors from wood products and metals, metabisulfite - a food preservative found in dried fruits, fruit juices, beer, wine, salad bars and vegetables, respiratory infections, such as colds, flu, sore throat and bronchitis.
Features of asthma in children are cough, recurrent cold, wheezing, shortness of breath, interrupted talking, agitation, flaring of the nostrils when breathing in.
For the diagnosis physician relies heavily on the observations of the parent for diagnostic clues, especially in young children. Recurrent or constant coughing spells, sometimes at night, may be the only sign of an asthmatic state. Diagnosis is made by the medical history, including family history and symptoms, physical examination, and measurements of expiratory function with a peak flow meter. Sometimes a chest X-ray is necessary. In children six years and older, pulmonary function tests are very helpful if the child is cooperative.
Since a large number of children with asthma have allergic triggers for the asthma, allergy testing for inhalants (such as pollen, animal dander and dust mite) or foods should be considered.
Prevention of Asthma in Children: Allergic responses to perennial environmental allergens, such as dust, mold, or indoor pets, can worsen asthma and can be unrecognized because of the mistaken idea that children cannot develop allergy until they are several years old. It is essential that the child be protected from irritants, most importantly tobacco smoke. Chronic irritation of the airway of an asthmatic child exposed to secondary smoke may make asthma difficult to control.
Periodic assessments and ongoing monitoring of asthma are essential to determine if therapy is adequate. Children and their parents need to understand how to use a peak flow meter and to understand the symptoms and signs of an asthma exacerbation. Regular follow-up visits (at least every 3 to 6 months) are important to maintain asthma control and to reassess medication requirements.
Home Remedies for asthma
Honey (Madhu): Honey is one of the most effective home remedies for asthma. It is said that if a jug of honey is held under the nose of the asthmatic patient and he inhales the air that comes into contact with honey, he starts breathing easier and deeper. The effect lasts for about an hour or so. Honey usually brings relief, whether the air flowing over it is inhaled or whether it is eaten or taken either in milk or water. It thins out accumulated mucus and helps its elimination from the respiratory passage.
Garlic (Lahsoon): Garlic is another effective home remedy for asthma. Ten cloves of garlic should be boiled in 30 ml of milk. This makes an excellent medicine for the early stages of asthma. The patient should take this mixture once daily. Steaming ginger tea with minced garlic pods in it, can also help to keep the problem under control and should be taken both, in the morning and evening.
Turmeric (Haldi): Turmeric is valuable in asthma. The patient should be given a teaspoon of turmeric powder with a glass of milk, two or three times daily. It acts best when taken on an empty stomach.
Bitter Gourd (Karela) Root: The roots of the bitter gourd plant have been used in folk medicine since ancient times. A teaspoon of the root paste, mixed with an equal amount of honey or juice of the holy basil, is an excellent expectorant, and is a remedy for asthma. It should be taken once every night for a month.
Figs (Anjeer) dry: Dry figs help clear mucus from bronchial tubes and are therefore a valuable food remedy for asthma. Phlegmatic cases of cough and asthma can be treated with success. It gives comfort to the patient by draining off the phlegm. Three or four dry figs should be cleaned thoroughly with warm water and soaked overnight. They should be taken during morning time in an empty stomach, along with the water in which they are soaked. This treatment may be continued for about two months.
Indian Gooseberry (Amla): This fruit has proved valuable in asthma. Five grams of gooseberry mixed with one tablespoon of honey, forms an effective medicinal expectorant and tonic for the treatment of this disease. It should be taken every morning. When fresh fruit is not available, dry gooseberry powder can be used, mixed with honey.
Mustard (Rye) Oil: During the attack, mustard oil mixed with little camphor should be massaged over the chest. This will loosen up phlegm and ease breathing. The patient should also inhale steam from boiling water mixed with caraway seeds (siyha jeera). It will dilate the bronchial passage.
Lemon: Lemon is one more fruit found useful in the treatment of asthma. The juice of one lemon, diluted in a glass of water and taken with meals, will bring good quality results. One of the well liked home remedies for asthma.
Dietary considerations: The patient should avoid the common dietic errors. Ideally, it should contain a limited quantity of carbohydrates, fats and proteins which are acid-forming foods, and a liberal quantity of alkaline foods consisting of fresh fruits, green vegetables and germinated gram. Foods which tend to produce phlegm such as rice, sugar, lentils and curds as well as fried and other difficult-to-digest foods should be avoided. Asthmatics should always eat less than their capacity.
Other measures: The patient should take enema in the beginning of the treatment to clean and colon and prevent autointoxication. Other helpful measures include application of mud-pack to the abdomen, wet chest packs and steam bath. Fresh air, breathing exercises, dry climate, mild physical exercises and correct posture help in treating the ailment.
The patient must also pursue the other laws of nature. Air, sun, and water are great remedial agents. Normal fasting once a week, an infrequent enema, breathing exercises, fresh air, a dry climate, light exercises, and right posture go a long way in treating the disease.
During the attack, mustard oil mixed with little camphor should be massaged over the back of the chest. This will loosen up phelgm and ease breathing. The patient should also inhale steam from the boiling water mixed with caraway seeds. It will dilate the bronchial passage. The patient should also follow the other laws of Nature. Air, sun and water are great healing agents. Regular fasting once a week, an occasional enema, breathing exercises, fresh air, dry climate, light exercises and correct posture go a long way in treating the disease.
1.Sr. Lecturer, P.G. Deptt. of Samhita & Siddhant
Rajiv Gandhi Govt. P.G. Ayu College, Paprola
2. Lecturer, Deptt. of Basic Principles,
Dayanand Ayurvedic College, | <urn:uuid:02c662bf-a914-4331-b6f8-14672318e7f5> | {
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On Feb. 12-15, birders all across the country will participate in the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society.
This popular citizen science project is an opportunity for families, students, and people of all ages to discover the world of wild birds in backyards, schoolyards, parks, and refuges.
The beginning. Begun in 1998, the GBBC enlists birders of all skill levels in an effort to keep common birds common. Originally the idea was to take a snapshot of winter bird populations in backyards across America. But birders quickly expanded the annual census to include their favorite parks, refuges, and natural areas.
Last year, GBBC “citizen scientists” turned in a record 94,165 checklists reporting a total of 620 species consisting of more than 11 million individual birds.
“Taking part in the Great Backyard Bird Count is a great way to get outside with family and friends, have fun, and help birds — all at the same time,” said Audubon Education Vice President Judy Braus. “Even if you can only identify a few species, you can provide important information that enables scientists to learn more about how the environment is changing and how that affects our conservation priorities.
Intensive monitoring. “The GBBC is a perfect first step towards the sort of intensive monitoring needed to discover how birds are responding to environmental change,” said Janis Dickinson, the director of Citizen Science at the Cornell Lab. “Winter is such a vulnerable period for birds, so winter bird distributions are likely to be very sensitive to change.
“There is only one way — citizen science — to gather data on private lands where people live. GBBC has enormous potential both as an early warning system and in capturing and engaging people in more intensive sampling of birds across the landscape.”
Bird populations are dynamic; they fluctuate from year to year, so long term population data is invaluable.
For example, 2009 GBBC data highlighted a huge southern invasion of pine siskins across much of the eastern United States. Participants counted 279,469 pine siskins on 18,528 checklists, as compared to the previous high of 38,977 birds on 4,069 checklists in 2005. Failure of seed crops farther north caused the siskins to move south to find their favorite food.
Answering questions. The GBBC also helps answer basic questions such as: How do winter conditions influence bird populations? Where are the winter finches and other irruptive species? Is global climate change affecting winter bird populations?
On the www.birdcount.org Web site, participants can explore real-time maps and charts that show what others are reporting during the count. The site has tips to help identify birds and special materials for educators.
Participants may also enter the GBBC photo contest by uploading images taken during the count. Many images will be featured in the GBBC Web site’s photo gallery. All participants are entered in a drawing for prizes that include bird feeders, binoculars, books, CDs, and many other great birding products.
Participation. To participate in the GBBC, log on to the GBBC web site, www.birdcount.org, and follow the instructions.
Counters simply tally the highest number of each bird species seen at one time (to ensure birds are not counted more than once), and keep track of the time spent counting. The time invested can be as little as 15 minutes. Or you can devote the entire long weekend to counting birds.
To simplify the process, you can click on your state for a checklist of the most frequently reported birds in your area. There is no fee to participate.
Anyone can take part in the GBBC, from novice birdwatchers to expert birders. Participants count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the event and report their sightings online at www.birdcount.org.
Results are updated hourly on animated maps and colorful graphs for all to view. This near-instant feedback allows participants to see almost immediately how their observations fit into the continental perspective. Results from previous GBBCs are also available online.
Information. For more information about the GBBC or the Lab of Ornithology, visit www.birdcount.org, or call 800-843-2473. | <urn:uuid:32966999-0995-43f1-91f4-5507cfb01b1e> | {
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Obedience to God: Man's Ending Destination
By Jason Paul Jones
Obedience is the act of dutiful and
submissive compliance. To reach the crux of this concept, it helps to examine
obedience in three different forms: to men, to parents, and to God. Today, the
concept of obedience to men can have a negative connotation, as it conjures
images of submissive slaves bowing to and heeding the every beck and call of
their masters. Similarly, prior to the Civil Rights Movement, the Jim Crow Laws
of the American South forced Blacks to remain inferior to whites, and an
obedient black at this time was derided as an "Uncle Tom." The word
is ominous for others because it is associated with totalitarianism.
Psychiatrist James A. C. Brown asserts that "communism and fascism or Nazism,
although poles apart in their intellectual content, are similar in this, that
both have emotional appeal to the type of personality that takes pleasure...in
submitting to superior authority." Along the same line, men hesitate to
view obedience favorably because the concept implies that an obedient man is
lacking inner strength. Â F. Scott Fitzgerald argues that "either you
thinkâor else others have to think for you and take power from you.
The world does agree, however, that obedience has at least one
positive side. The texts of the three Abrahamic religions demand that children
obey their parents. The Fifth Commandment states that children should
"honor their father and mother." Ephesians 6:1 takes the commandment
a step further by saying that children should "obey their parents in the
Lord: for it is right." Similarly, Surah 29:8 asserts that obedience to
one's parents is ideal, but "if they [parents] strive to make thee join
with Me that of which thou hast no knowledge, then obey them not." In
these latter two verses then, a child's obedience to his or her parents is
required provided the parents' commands are not repugnant to God's Word.
The aforementioned descriptions of obedience to men and to
parents, whether they portray the concepts positively or negatively, share one
thing; each depicts obedience as a means by which you reach an end. They show
that men do see obedience as a way to get somewhere or to attain something. For
example, slaves in the Southern states and Germans who lived under the Nazi
regime willingly submitted to the authority of a superior party. Also, even the
most disgruntled worker obeys his boss so that he can keep his job. Finally, a
son initially does not touch the fire because he is obeying his father. With
age, he understands that if he touches the fire, the heat will burn his flesh.
While obedience in his younger years has the immediate effect of preventing
injury, heeding his father's word helps him to develop the virtue of self
control, which then lays the foundation for his maturity.
While obedience to God can bring material blessings, worldly
prosperity, and eternal reward, men obey because disobedience can equal death;
a discussion of the Fall of Adam can extend this message. His fall from the
grace of God has many implications for mankind. A careful study of the
narrative reveals three interrelated ways that obedience to God is different
than it is to man. First, it is God's will that one is able to disobey so that
men are able to not only know the true implications of their disobedience but also
of their obedience. Second, Adam disobeyed and became mortal, and for this
reason, disobedience can mean death. Third, Adam and Eve's determination to
live again and thus to return to obedience indicates that obeying God is something
for which all men must strive regardless of their circumstances. This is
perhaps the most important theme of the narrative, for while they were the
first humans, their message to today's man is not how to begin living, but how
to begin living again. A combination of the previous three points presents
obedience to God as a destination rather than a means to an end. The wisdom
that Adam and Eve acquired after disobeying reveals that disobedience is
perhaps a means to understanding the value of obedience. Finally, from Adam and
Eve the lesson was transmitted to Cain and Abel and then to all of mankind, as
it is a dominant theme of both the Qur'an and the New Testament.
The Bible devotes only four chapters to describing Adam's
life, which consist of a few facts, a few encounters with God, an adventure
with Eve, and then exile. By Genesis 2:15, God has granted the Garden of Eden
to Adam. The human is not native to the land, but God puts him there to serve
him in the garden and to keep it. God tells him to prosper, to reproduce and
fill the earth, and to take charge. He gives man responsibility for "the
fish in the sea and the birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on
the face of the earth" (Genesis 1:27-28). Then God says, "I've given
you every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth and every fruit-bearing tree,
given them to you for food. To all animals and all birds, everything that moves
and breathes, I give whatever grows out of the ground for you (Genesis
Later, God returns with a command, but His command is
different from what normally constitutes a command in that His language implies
freedom, not only restriction. God commands the man, "You can eat from any
tree in the garden, except from the Tree-of-Knowledge of Good-and-Evil. Do not
eat from it" (Genesis 2:16). In regard to this passage, theologians
Kessler and Deurloo refer readers to the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy
5:6-21, in which God says "I am YHWH, your God, who led you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." In other words "you are free and (now after
receiving my commandments) you may live in that freedom" (Kessler 45).
Kessler and Deurloo assert that the following negatively formulated Ten
Commandments only exist to protect humankind in the freedom that He granted.
Coming back to the Adam and Eve narrative, the commandment that Adam is given
in Genesis is a gracious grant, which implies "you may!" Â The
prohibition is given to protect all that the human is allowed to do (Kessler
To illustrate the significance of the commandment, Kessler
and Deurloo use a familiar verse from Deuteronomy: "See I place before you
today life and the good, death and evil...choose life that you may live...to love
YHWH, your God, to hear his voice and cleave to him, for that is your life..."
(Deuteronomy 30:11-20). "Life and the good" are the fruits from all
the trees that Adam is allowed to eat. "Death and evil" is the fruit
from the Tree-of-Knowledge of Good-and-Evil. God's command that Adam "eat
from any tree in the garden" means that he is completely free. Obeying
God's command and not eating from the Tree ("to hear his voice and cleave
to him") ensures the continuance of this complete freedom. Adam lives
under the protection of this commandment (Kessler 46).
Commenting on Genesis, John Calvin provides further
elaboration and helps to explain why the Tree-of-knowledge was prohibited.
Concerning the Tree of Good and Evil, Calvin holds that it is prohibited to man
not because God would "have him stray like a sheep, without judgment and
without choice." Instead the prohibition serves to prevent man from
relying on his own understanding, casting off the yoke of God, and constituting
himself judge of good and evil. God alone, in His infiniteness, is capable of
totally grasping the concept of good and evil. In abstaining from the tree of
knowledge of good and evil, Adam is free to live because he is not burdened by
the limitations of his finite mind. He does not rely on his own prudence but
instead cleaves to God alone (Calvin 118).
As the narrative continues, readers can grasp the
implications of Adam and Eve's disobedience to God. By linking his nakedness
with his fear, Adam's response to God's questioning indicates that his exposure
raises a barrier between himself and God (Gelander 30). Â In his book Messengers
of God, Elie Wiesel uses midrash to show that God chases them from
paradise, and at first, the consequences of their disobedience are merely
physical. Later, the spiritual ramifications become apparent. They no longer
radiate light, and they discover the meaning of anguish and fear. Before, Adam
stands proudly erect as he listens to God, but now he tries to escape His
voice. In his midrash, Wiesel asserts that Adam and Eve see death everywhere.
They fear the sunrise because it had the potential to burn and cause pain. The
sunset is feared too because they interpret it as a sign that the end is
drawing near. So, from the beginning of the day to the end, the two live in
fear (Wiesel 25, 26).
Shamai Gelander argues that despite the break between
man and the Deity, God continued to play the role of the "good creator."
God's response to Adam should not be understood as a pronouncement of divine
punishment but as representing God's guidance. Here God foretells of a woman's
pain at childbirth and condemns a man to hard work against the forces of
nature. Gelander, however, says that God's response "bespeaks
reconciliation rather than anger or disappointment," and points to the
portrayal of God clothing Adam and his wife with garments that He makes
(Gelander 30, 31). In other words, God is saying "yes, all these things are
a result of your disobedience, but I will provide in spite of them."
Thus far, the Adam and Eve narrative shows that the ultimate
implication for Adam's disobedience is that there is now a barrier between man
and God. Â Also, it shows how God manifests divine goodness by demonstrating His
preference for free will with regard to man's obedience to Him (Gelander 30,
31). Adam benefits from his ability to disobey: only through the consequences
of disobedience can Adam comprehend that obedience equals life. Accordingly,
men have the freedom to choose between good and bad. While there is no longer
a perfect bond between God and man, God's clothing the couple can be seen as an
indication that He will continue to care for mankind despite any disobedience.
Fortunately, the Genesis narrative does not end with
the exile. While one is permitted to see only a tiny glimpse of what Adam and
Eve experienced outside of the Garden, this perspective is crucial. Â Wiesel
argues that Adam and Eve show the world the meaning of starting anew. His
interpretation of Adam's story is "The Mystery of the Beginning."
Wiesel begins by pointing to a Talmudic passage that tells us that no man
resembles another, yet all men at every age resemble Adam. However, we possess
one thing that Adam does notâmemories torn from yesterday's world. To correct for
this unfairness, God allows Adam to see mankind in its totality. Accordingly
mankind is destined to imitate him, and he is destined to teach mankind. Wiesel
says "we are as he was," and "we behave according to his example."
Adam's image will be in men to the last of his descendents (Wiesel 5, 6).
In his life outside of Eden, he becomes real, and because he
is rejected by God, he draws closer to Eve. The couple grows intimate with each
other and has children. Suddenly, they discover a purpose to their existence:
to perfect the world. They find an ideal location to raise their family and
build a house on their shattered existence (Wiesel 28). Eve is responsible for
tending to the house and the food while Adam toils to cultivate the fields and fends off the wild animals. Both, remembering the joy in Eden that came in
their complete obedience to God, condition their children to live life in
complete submission to Him.
In the book of Genesis, however, one learns of the feud
between Adam's sons, in which Cain, in a rage of jealousy, kills Abel. God
punish Cain severely for his disobedience. Still, Genesis 4:15 once again shows
God as the "good creator" when He puts a mark on Cain's head so that
no one who meets him will kill him. God is once again providing for the
disobedient. Cain then is able to follow his parents' example. Having received
his parents' love and affection and having heard their stories of the
perfection in the Garden of Eden, Cain understands that obedience is essential.
And while man will inevitably stray, perfecting the world requires
communicating not only the ramifications of disobedience but also revealing
that God's guidance can help him start anew.
Disobedience is inherent in man's fate. Adam and
Eve are able to use their experience to communicate the lesson of starting anew
to their children. They communicate by deed and word. The Qur'an says
"I have not created the ginn and the men but that they should know Me and
worship Me" (LI: 56). Mirza Ghulam Ahmad interprets this to mean that the
essence of man's life is to acquire a true knowledge of God and to become
obedient and resigned to His will so that whatever is said and done is for His
sake only. Ahmad interprets that man has no choice in this matter, and he
accomplishes total obedience and resignation by seven means; first, in the
recognition of God a man should tread upon the right path and have his faith in
the true and living God (Ahmad 149). A man should also be informed of the
perfect beauty that the Divine Being possesses. In addition, one should strive
to realize the great goodness of God. One should additionally call upon Allah
in prayer, and Allah will assist him. One should seek God by spending one's
riches, exerting one's whole power, sacrificing one's life, and applying one's
wisdom in the way of God. A man should be indefatigable and untiring in the way
that he walks. He should not be deterred even in the hardest trials. Finally, a
man should imitate the righteous (Ahmad 152, 153, 156).
Altogether, these concepts demand that a man give over
his entire self to the path of God. The necessity of being undeterred in even
the hardest trial acknowledges that our inherent tendency to disobey is a part
of everyday life. Perhaps Adam is the righteous example for men to look to in
starting again after succumbing to this tendency. It is only after being
disobedient that Adam and Eve realize that obedience to God is the right path.
Before then, they do not know that other paths exist. Moreover, Adam could not
have appreciated the beauty of the Divine Being without seeing the ugliness of
something that is separated from that beauty.
The second passage
is John 7:17. Here Jesus is teaching in the temple courts, and the religious
scholars ask him how he knows so much without having a proper theological
training. Jesus responds to them, "My teaching is not of my own. It comes
from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out
whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own." Though
Christ taught before the Qur'an, their message is similar. The scholars are
shocked at the truth found in Jesus's teachings; Jesus is saying that the
essence of true life comes through obedience. If anyone comes from disobedience
to a life of obedience, he will discover for himself what it means to live in
It is evident then that obedience to God is the essence
of living; it is the end that men struggle to reach. Adam and Eve discover this
only after eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and only because
of God's gift of free will. Wiesel's Midrash helps one to understand the Adam
and Eve's actions after the fall. They do not wallow in self-denial. They have
courage and began anew with the help of God. Their lesson is transmitted to
their sons. Cain disobeys and starts over under Godâs protecting hand. This
theme resonates in both the New Testament and the Qur'an, as the authors of
these texts recognize the life that comes only through obedience. These
scriptures show that obedience is not easy. If it were, there would be no need
for so much emphasis in scripture. However, it is the end for which one must
Ahmad, Mirza G. The
Teachings of Islam. Delhi: M. C. Mittal, 1978.
Gelander, Shamai. The Good
Creator: Literature and Theology in Genesis 1-11. Atlanta: Scholars
John King M.A. Calvin, John.
Genesis. The Banner of Truth Trust. Carlisle     Pennsylvania.
Kessler, Martin and Karel
Deurloo. A Commentary on Genesis. New York: Paulist Press,2004.
Wiesel, Elie. Messengers of God: Biblical Portraits and Legends. Simon and Schuster Paperbacks: New York, 1976. | <urn:uuid:4d34c454-1286-416f-ba84-a095b9c11856> | {
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Your eyes are as an essential part of you just like any other part of the body. Thus, you should note you need to give proper care to the eyes. It is for this reason that regular visits to the eye doctor are advisable. You will find many people will take this venture as something that is optional, but this is not true. Note that your eye doctor is an essential person in your life just like your physician. Some of the things you should note is that the quality of the image and the underlying health to your eyes is an essential part of the quality of life. Some of the things you should understand is that if any of those things were to improve or to deteriorate then it means that your lifestyle will dramatically change too. It is therefore vital to warrant you have reviewed with the eye doctor on a routine basis.
Most people wonder how long they should take before their eyes are checked. This depends on many factors like your age and the condition you have. Some of the things you should note is that the eyes should be checked after every few years until you reach 40. When you reach 40 it should be at least two years after that. For the people who have a preexisting condition, they should have the check annually.
Some of the things you should note is that when you do this, then the doctor will aid you with any conditions you might be getting. Some of the issues you might get are glaucoma that will comprise the conditions that attack the eyes and the optic nerve, and they will end up causing loss in vision. Some of the things you should put in mind is that it will take place when normal fluid pressure inside the eyes increases. When you do this, then you should note that this is something which will end up shielding your eyes against long-term vision loss.
The other thing you should note is the amblyopia. You should note that this is a condition that takes place when the eyes are not well aligned. It can also take place when one eye has a different dramatic prescription to another. As a way of getting the visual balance, the brain will shut off the image in the blurry eye. If this condition is identified early then you should note that it will be easily deltaa with by patching the stringer eye.
There are many conditions that might attack your eye if you are not careful. This is the reason you should get the best optician to assist you. | <urn:uuid:bc254b01-1b6f-4f4f-ad86-8550b4c60322> | {
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This series of posts highlights families descended from 18th-century Mennonite immigrants to eastern Pennsylvania, in connection with the MHC’s exhibit Opportunity & Conscience: Mennonite Immigration to Pennsylvania, on display through March 31, 2018. The stories reflect the enrichment brought to communities over centuries by the descendants of immigrants.
The old Clemens family of Lower Salford
Immigrant Gerhart (or Garret) Clemens (b. 1680) was among the first settlers of Lower Salford Township. A vinedresser and weaver from Nieder Flörsheim, Germany (just up the road from the Kriegsheim home of the Cassel family), he came to Pennsylvania in 1709 with wife Anna Reiff and sons Jacob and John, settling at Skippack. By 1726 they had moved to Salford and purchased 300 acres on the East Branch of the Perkiomen Creek, where Gerhart built a gristmill. The mill would prove quite successful through succeeding generations. Today, it is remembered in the name of a road and park — Groff’s Mill. The Groff family were the last to operate a mill at this location, closer down to the road.
When the immigrant divided his land to his children, he owned close to a thousand acres. The farm that went to his eldest son Jacob (1703-1782) became significant to the Salford Mennonite congregation, which for a time was known as “Clemens’ Meeting”. As a young man, Jacob Clemens likely helped to build the meetinghouse, and in later life he served as a deacon there. His nearby stone farmhouse, expanded over the years, was also the home of his great-grandson, Salford minister Isaac K. Clemens (1813-1895), and of another Salford minister Elias N. Landis (1897-1957).
It was in the attic of this house that the account and dowry book of the Clemens family was preserved, containing records and valuable information about family life and inheritance patterns from 1749 to 1857. The book resides today in the Mennonite Heritage Center collection. In 1975, it was transcribed and translated by local historians Raymond Hollenbach and Alan Keyser and published by the Pennsylvania German Society, granting a rare window into 18th century local history. For instance, on December 1, 1753, Jacob Clemens wrote “my brother-in-law, Feldie Klemmer, who lives in Great Swamp, borrowed 10 pounds from me, to be repaid next May fair (or fare),” providing us with the identity of Jacob Clemens’ wife and the residence location of Valentine (Felty) Clemmer. The word “fähr” is a German phonetic spelling of an English word (either “fare” or “fair”) that meant either payment upon invoicing or possibly a calendar event — a “May fair” of some kind (perhaps May Day).
19th-century rural art
A couple interesting pieces of fraktur from the Clemens family have survived to puzzle and delight us. The first is a Vorschrift (writing model) made for John (Johannes) P. Clemens (1802-1884), a grandson of deacon Jacob, by schoolmaster Jacob Hummel in 1816 at the Salford Mennonite meetinghouse school. The green color included in some of the large letters is unusual, and even more unusual is the large heron-like figure with a human face and crown beneath the capital D. Such a magical-looking creature might not be expected in the art of pious country farmers, but teacher Hummel — himself probably of Lutheran background — effectively used the image to inspire young John to meditate on a text about guardian Engel (angels).
More on the puzzling side — but equally beautiful — is a drawing (below left) by Abraham Clemens (1790-1867) for his niece Catherine Hunsberger of Hilltown Township in 1825. In that year, Abraham moved with his family from Bucks County to Ontario. The text of the fraktur reads: “This beautiful picture, a gift of honor from my cousin Jacob Klemens, belongs to me, Catharina Hunsberger, in Hilltaun, 1825.” The puzzle is that Abraham’s son Jacob is thought to have died as an infant in 1818. And the style of drawing suggests creation by the father, Abraham Clemens, who made similar fraktur in Ontario. The drawing was likely given to Catherine to remember Jacob, either because the baby had died or because a cousin whom she loved was moving hundreds of miles away to Canada. Mennonite Heritage Center Collection; gift of Vernon & Blanche Godshalk Althouse (1988.38.1).
A modern fraktur by artist Roma Ruth (below right) for a descendant of the Clemens family bears similarity — a heart and tulip design, though beautifully different and incorporating grapes, ferns and cedar trees to further illustrate the theme of planting. This fraktur was made for Ernest Clemens, a founding supporter of the Mennonite Historians of Eastern Pennsylvania, in 1995.
Marcus Clemens and Ridge Hosiery Co.
Most local people know of the large corporations built by the Clemens family in the 20th century — Hatfield Quality Meats and various spin-offs under the umbrella of the Clemens Family Corporation; and Clemens Markets Inc., which until 2006 operated 20 supermarkets across southeastern Pennsylvania. But you may not have heard the story of Marcus Clemens and the Ridge Hosiery Company that he operated with a few partners near Quakertown from 1948 to 1955.
in his twenties, Marcus A. Clemens (1916-2008) succeeded his father-in-law, Clayton Gotwals, as a Director of Granite Hosiery Mills in Souderton, though he did not work there until years later. He was drafted and served a year of alternative service as a conscientious objector.
After his service, Marcus set out to organize his own hosiery company above “the Ridge”, near Quakertown, where he and wife Helen were involved in the Rocky Ridge Mission of Franconia Mennonite Conference. The reason was two-fold. Granite Mills did not have the equipment or interest to produce seamless stockings, which by the late 1940s were beginning to overtake seamed stockings in popularity. Marcus and his partners saw this opportunity for business growth, but they also hoped to provide non-Union employment and support for members of the Rocky Ridge Mission.
Both goals were achieved, and within a few years the business was off to a booming start. So much so that it attracted purchase inquiries from a New York firm, the Van Raalte Company. Not wishing to sell, but impressed by the big city interest, Clemens and partners agreed to name a price they thought would be excessive. It was accepted, however, and Clemens felt obligated to sell. Not surprisingly, Van Raalte closed the factory and shipped the machinery south. But for a few years, this unique industry/mission symbiosis had flourished under the vision of Marcus Clemens, contributing (alongside other Mennonite businesses like Moyer’s Chicks) to solid footing for a Mennonite congregation in the Quakertown hills that continues to this day.
Henning’s Market, Harleysville
Returning to Lower Salford, a prominent grocery store tells a Clemens family story.
Henning’s Market — large, independent, and family-run (a rare find these days) — began as a humble general store operated by the daughters and sons-in-law of Henry Clemens Delp. Located at the corner of Main and Broad Streets in Harleysville, the store was managed by Garret and Jane Delp Nice from 1899-1909, and then by Menno and Ella Delp Clemens. Their daughter Ella Mae married Warren Henning, and they expanded the store into a supermarket across the street in 1952, and after 1974 in a large shopping center east of town.
The current store, and Clemens’ original sign on display in the store offices.
Image courtesy of John Ruth.
The photos below show retired store owners Menno and Ella Clemens (seated) with her sisters and their husbands circa 1940. Each person is in the same position as their spouse: (left to right) Garret & Jane Nice, Menno & Ella Clemens, Isaiah & Kate Cassel. All were members of Franconia Mennonite Conference congregations, at the height of dress discipline in the conference; yet one can see the subtle diversity that was present at the time.
Garret and Jane, the oldest, are dressed most conservatively (he was treasurer of the conference Mission Board). Menno makes a nod to tradition with a bow tie rather than modern long necktie; Ella’s covering strings are completely untied. Kate wears a continuous covering string (though not tied tightly under her chin), while her husband (a Harleysville businessman) wears a long tie. These slight differences, almost imperceptible to outsiders, meant something in the Mennonite community, where strings and ties represented levels of commitment to tradition and separation from the world.
Sources on the Clemens family
The Account Book of the Clemens Family of Lower Salford Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 1749-1857. Translated by Raymond E. Hollenbach; edited by Alan G. Keyser. Breinigsville, PA: Pennsylvania German Society. 1975.
Alderfer, Joel D. Peace Be Unto This House: A History of the Salford Mennonite Congregation, 1717-1988. Harleysville, PA: Salford Mennonite Church. 1988.
Clemens, Jacob Cassel. Genealogical History of the Clemens Family and Descendants of the Pioneer, Gerhart Clemens. Lansdale, PA: Clemens Family. 1948.
Clemens, James R. “Clemens (Clemons, Clemmens, Cleman, Clementz) family.” Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1953. Web. 8 Jun 2017. http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Clemens_(Clemons,_Clemmens,_Cleman,_Clementz)_family&stableid=119463
Gross, Bud. Clemens Kin. Database of descendants of immigrant Gerhart Clemens. Web. 24 May 2017. http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=budgross&id=I1
Lichty, Richard J. Stewards & Entrepreneurs: The Life & Times of a Franconia Mennonite Family, Clemens and Gotwals. Souderton, PA: privately published. 2013. Family history and biography of Marcus & Helen Gotwals Clemens. | <urn:uuid:04b74453-9ffa-4656-849d-de0f47c6ef08> | {
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Roman History, Coins, and Technology Back Pages
The Roman History, Coins, and Technology Back Pages site was created with a primary mission of providing resource and enrichment material for K - 12 students and their teachers who are studying Roman history. It was later determined that history enthusiasts and coin collectors were two other groups that formed a significant proportion of the site's users, judging from the content of email responses received by the author. The site is constructed with twenty-three topical areas accessible via links at the bottom of each page, although some of the topical areas are still awaiting the addition of content.
A series of biographical sketches of almost all the known Roman emperors and important noblewomen form the core of the site's content while there are concentrations of material under the topics of the Late Roman Empire, The Roman Army, Roman Coins, and Roman Engineering.
Two areas have been added that are not directly accessible via the links at the bottom of each page. These are the pages devoted to LEGIO X FRETENSIS, a Roman military reenactment group, and a timeline of mini-articles dealing with the history of Rome up until the fall of the Republic.
The images, mostly of coins, are carefully chosen to reinforce the meaning of the written articles. Also, the author attempts to provide, as closely to life as is possible, a hands-on tour of several extensive Roman coin collections.
Copyright 1998 Jay King. Used with permission.
About the images above:
This site is a rather ambitious project, and the author does not have unlimited time and resources to devote to it. Additionally, he recognizes that articles written from the perspective of other history enthusiasts would bring a welcome balance to the site. He encourages history enthusiasts who are willing to write on a favorite specialty or subject related to Roman history to contribute articles, for which they will be given credit as the source. This invitation is extended to K - 12 students working on class related Roman history projects as well. History should be a participating, cooperative effort, drawing on the talents of not only scholars, but interested amateurs as well.
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The Positive Theory of Capital
Book I, Chapter I
5. If we were to carry our analysis of what man does in production a step further, we might appropriately distinguish three fundamental ways in which the producing man "moves things." The first is what, for want of a better name, we may call simple movements or changes of place—where men transport entire objects from one locality to another. Thus the miner brings the ore from the depths of the shaft to the upper air; the merchant takes his goods from the place where they are produced to the place where they are demanded and used. The second embraces those movements of parts of one and the same object whereby it experiences a change of form, as when nails are made from iron, statues from marble, pipes from clay, dials from ivory, combs from caoutchouc, tumblers from glass, furniture from wood. The third, and much the most common way, is where different objects are brought together in space to form combinations of matter. These combinations may be merely temporary, or they may be lasting. Instances of the one are where the stamp falls on the coin, the chisel chips at the marble, the carving tool is applied to the wood, the ore put into the furnace, the yarn into the loom, the paper under the printing press, the stuff under the shears, the plough through the clods. Instances of the other are where we build a house out of wood, stone, lime, iron, etc.; where we put together a watch out of wheels, springs, pendula, weights, stop-action and many other things; in fact in manufacture generally. I must warn the reader that this division into three fundamental forms neither has, nor is meant to have, the character of strict scientific classification. Indeed, these forms merge in many instances into one another. Temporary combinations, for instance, are very often half-way to changes of form, and what I have called a simple change of place is at the same time, in a certain point of view, a material combination, a bringing together of the thing moved and the object (personal or impersonal) to which it is moved. This division, however, will make it easier to find our reckoning, and will prove too, if necessary, the correctness of the general characteristics which I have ascribed in the text to productive processes. I mean to say that it is easy to see that every productive activity which one can think of ranges itself under some one of these three fundamental forms, and to that extent it is proved that such an activity must, a fortiori, range itself also under the general formula given in the text, where we have described the nature and method of the production of material goods as the mastery of natural powers by means of putting objects in motion.
Book I, Chapter II
6. Menger has suggestively called these Goods of the First Rank, classing all goods which go to their production as Goods of Higher Rank. It is unfortunate that we cannot use the literal English equivalent of the "Genussgüter," but, as next to it in convenience, I propose to use the expression Consumption Goods for what otherwise we should have to translate as Goods for Immediate Consumption. See Manger's Grundsätze, p. 8, and Böhm-Bawerk's Rechte and Verhältnisse, p. 101.—W. S.
7. The expression Capitalist Production is generally used in one of two senses. It designates either a production which avails itself of the assistance of concrete capital (raw materials, tools, machinery, etc.), or a production carried on for the behoof and under the control of private capitalist undertakers. The one is not by any means coincident with the other. I always use the expression in the former of these two meanings.
8. Looking back over the last few years only, I can recall, as coming in quick succession, the researches of Knies (Das Geld, Berlin, 1873, pp. 1-56); of Cossa (La Nozione del Capitale, 1874, published in the Saggi di Economia Politica, Milan, 1878); of Ricca-Salerno (Sulla Teoria del Capitale, Milan, 1877); of Umpfenbach (Das Kapital in seiner Kulturbedeutung, Würzburg, 1879); of Kühnast (Ueber den rechtlichen Begriff des Kapitales in Beiträge zur Erläuterung des Deutschen Rechtes, 1884); of Supino (Il Capitale nell' Organismo Economico e nell' Economia Politica, Milan, 1886). Meanwhile we have the well-known works of Rodbertus and Marx, both bearing the title Das Capital, and again the elaborate statements in the more comprehensive systems, particularly those of Wagner (Grundlegung, second edition, 1879, p. 36); of Kleinwächter (Schönberg's Handbuch, first edition, p. 170; second edition, p. 206); and of Cohn (Grundlegung der Nationalökonomie, Stuttgart, 1885, § 145-147).
Book I, Chapter III
9. See on this subject Knies, Das Geld, Berlin, 1873, p. 6 (second edition, p. 24); Ricca-Salerno, Sulla Teoria del Capitale, 1877, chap. ii.; and Schönberg's Handbuch, second edition, vol. i. p. 206.
22. Das Geld, first edition, p. 47. In the second edition (1885) the same conception is on the whole retained, but often formulated in a less exact manner. Accordingly, where I do not explicitly mention the contrary, I quote from the more distinct formulation of the first edition.
28. Thus Canard: "The fundamental wealth of one who pursues an art or a handicraft is his own person"; and later, M'Culloch (Principles of Political Economy, 1825, p. 319): "A labourer is himself a part of the national capital." Elsewhere he explains the wage of labour as an interest on capital of the "machine called man."
Book I, Chapter IV
31. See above, p. 24. [Book I, Chapter III, par. I.III.2.—Econlib. Ed.]
32. Cosec (La Nozione del Capitale), Saggi di Ec. Pol., p. 157, has the definition: "Capitals è un prodotto impiegato nella produzione." Ricca-Salerno (Sulla Teoria del Capitale, 1877, p. 51) says: "Il capitale è ricchezza prodotta applicata alla produzione." Rodbertus, whose opinion I am inclined to put particularly high, because, although not altogether happy in his solution of the problems of capital, he had an insight into its essence such as scarcely any one before him had, explains (Das Kapital, p. 234, also Zur Beleuchtung der soz. Frage, p. 98) that "Capital (materials and tools) is product which serves for still further production." A. Wagner, also, who has done good service in the theory of capital (Grundlegung, second edition, p. 38), calls capital a "Stock of economical goods, which serve as instruments to the making or acquiring of new economical goods." In the most recent Italian monograph on capital, Supino (Il Capitale nell' Organismo Economico e nell' Economia Politica, 1886, pp. 9 and 17) defines capital again as "Il prodotto del lavoro passato che serve a produzione successivea," or as "ricchezza impiegata produttivamente allo scopo di ricavarne un profitto." Of other prominent modern writers may be mentioned Pierson (Leerboek der Staathuishoudkunde, Haarlem, 1884, p. 157); Schönberg (Handbuch, second edition, p. 209), "Capital is a material means of production obtained by human labour, which, employed as such, is destined to give a return to its owner"; E. Sax (Grundlegung der theoretischen Staatswirthshaft, pp. 115, 315, 323, etc.) Of recent French writers on the subject Gide (Principes d'Économie Politique, Paris, 1884) recognises the two varieties in the conception of capital with a clearness rare even in French literature, and distinguishes them an "capitaux simplement lucratifs" and "capitaux productifs." "Les premiers," he says, "sont ceux qua rapportent an revenu à une personne; les seconds sont ceux qui produisent une richesse nouvelle dan le pays" (p. 148). His only failure is that he would recognise productive capitals alone as "true" capitals.
In English literature our conception of capital (without, of course, any clear distinction being kept between its two varieties) is almost exclusively the prevailing one; this is so well known that I may spare quotations. Generally speaking, it is very significant of the state of "public opinion" in the matter that not long ago Kleinwächter (Schönberg's Handbuch, second edition, p. 210) could explain "Common usage in political economy to-day considers it an essential characteristic of capital that it is a material means of production." The only difference of opinion is as to whether land should be reckoned as capital or not. Finally, I think I may venture to express the opinion that even the foremost representative of a rival definition, Knies, is in opposition to us more in form than in matter. It is he at any rate who has, in a masterly manner, developed the idea—the really important one in our statement of the conception—that, in defining capital, we must define that which is the object of those problems that "have appeared on the scene under the name of capital" (Das Geld, p. 19).
Book I, Chapter V
33. I do not care to waste more words than necessary here on things which will become clear of themselves se we go on, but I may make one remark. For reasons that Rodbertus (Das Kapital, p. 301) has seen through tolerably correctly, and which will be fully explained later, it is by no means my meaning to emphasise only the subsistence advanced to productive labourers, and reckon it capital. Either the conception of capital is limited to goods which serve immediately in production, and therefore to productive goods proper,—in which case means of subsistence in general, and also the means of subsistence of labourers, have no share. Or, besides "intermediate products," such finished consumption goods are taken into the conception as serve indirectly by their existence to production,—in which case, as will be shown in the proper place, certain advances of subsistence given to landowners and capitalists must be included. But then we are at once met with the difficulty suggested in the text of fixing definitely, when the advances of subsistence, given to people who do not themselves produce, are of indirect assistance to production, and when they occupy no relation to it.
37. In latest editions Reacher, evidently under the influence of what Knies has said on the subject, formally widens his definition of capital to some extent by an addition. It now runs: "Every product which is destined to further economical production (even to systematic later use) we call capital." This addition, however, does not materially widen the conception, as Roscher, independent of this, has already included every use—therefore every "systematic later use"—in the production of (material or personal) goods.
42. Among others Ricca-Salerno (Sulla Teoria del Capitale, Milan, 1877, p. 58) and lately Emil Sax (Grundlegung der theoretischen Staatswirthschaft, p. 310) have criticised Knies on this point. Sax's criticism of the weaknesses of Knies's conception is both trenchant and substantially correct, but he does not recognise the kernel of truth that is in it, and ends by a judgment which, on the whole, is rather rudely expressed.
46. Fr. Albert Maria Weiss, Ord.-Priester, Die Gesetze der Berechnung von Kapitalzins und Arbeitslohn, Freiburg, 1883. Quoted by Schäffle in Tübinger Zeitschrift, vol. xli. p. 225. Dargun, Arbeitskal und Normalerwerb, Tübinger Zeitschrift, vol. xl. p. 514, and specially pp. 530-535. Ofner, Ueber das Rechtsprinicip des Arbeitslohnes nach herrschendem System, Juristische Blätter, 1884, Nos. 3 and 4. Engel, Der Werth des Menschen, 1883.
47. It is very significant that none of the authors who explain wage by interest makes any attempt to explain interest itself. They simply accept it as a given fact—with the exception of M'Culloch, who, with amazing naïveté, repeats the trick again in the opposite way, and explains interest by wage. It is very gratifying to me to note that Schäffle holds himself aloof from the theories just criticised, although his social and political tendencies must certainly lie in their direction (Tübinger Zeitschrift, vol. xli. p. 225).
48. See also Schmoller, whose conclusions agree with mine (Lehre vom Einkommen in ihrem Zusammenhang mit den Grundprincipien der Steurlehre, Tübinger Zeitschrift, 1863, p. 24); Knies, Das Geld, pp. 15-22; Ricca-Salerno, as before, p. 28; and Cossa, La Nozione dal Capitale, in the Saggi di Ec. Pol., 1878, p. 163. What Coen says against the passion for immoderately widening the conception of capital is well worth noting. He is remarking that one very often feels the want of an expression which would indicate without ambiguity just those products which serve immediately for production, and he continues:—"Se il concetto del capitale at allarga di troppo, comprendendovi altri prodotti, o altri fattori della produzione, esso o sfuma del tutto, o non ha pił la sua ragione di essere. Si contruisce, per dir la cosa in altro modo, ono strumento od imperfetto o superfluo, il quale o non serve punto, o non serve bene. E tali categorie debbonsi senz' altro espellere, e non già moltiplicare nelle investigazioni economiche, se non vogliamo che la scienza si isterilisca in polemiche oziose a puramente nominali," p. 168.
54. Cours Complet, part i. chap. viii. It may be added that Say, in this and other passages formerly quoted, gives no less than four contradictory readings of the conception of capital. In one place, chapter viii., he explains it as products of labour which serve towards production; and in the same chapter he speaks of it as the value of these products. In chapter x. (see above, p. 50) be makes it the talents and skill of the labourers; and in chapter xiii., again, the persons of the labourers!
55. That theories of such doubtful value should commend themselves to the recognition of eminent jurists like Kühnast may, perhaps, be explained by pointing out that jurists, as having to deal in their systems, to a very great extent, with abstract persons and objects, have, generally, a strong tendency to hypostatize conceptions; a practice which may be quite suitable for their special field of investigation, but is certainly misapplied in political economy.
Book I, Chapter VI
56. As I have already remarked on p. 38 I consider the terms in brackets, Productive and Acquisitive Capital, as essentially the more appropriate. But since Rodbertus and Wagner the terms National and Private capital have been used almost universally, and as I consider it conducive to the final settlement of this jumble of terminology not to disturb names that are fast rooted in common usage, unless there is some quite overwhelming reason for doing so, I content myself with making the one change—which seems to me in any case indispensable—of the term "National" into the term "Social capital.
57. See particularly Zur Erklärung und Abhilfe der heutigen Kreditnoth des Grundbesitzes, second edition, vol. i. p. 90, vol. ii. p. 286, where das reale Kapital, as consisting of the natural objects of capital, is sharply opposed to Kapitalbesitz, or property in capital. Similarly Das Kapital, pp. 304, 313, and passim.
60. I may be accused of want of logic here on the ground that such improvements are always products which serve towards further production, and therefore come under our definition of capital. The criticism is correct as to the letter, but wrong as to the spirit. A stay propped up against a tree is certainly not the tree itself but an outside body. But who would still call it an outside body if after some years it had grown inseparable from the tree?
65. The case is exactly the same with the notorious Wage Fund theory. In it also I see a misbegotten fruit of an idea which is quite right in itself. It is, as we shall see later, a very unsuccessful attempt to express certain relations that really do exist between the national subsistence fund on the one hand, and the height of wage and interest on the other. Against the inclusion of the labourers' means of subsistence in national capital Rodbertus has expressed himself in a quite classical style, Das Kapital, p. 294, and before that in his Zur Erkenntniss unser, staasw. Zustände, theorem i. Very clear and convincing, too, is Gide, Principes d'Économie Politique, Paris, 1884, p. 150. See also Sax, Grundlegung, p. 324, note.
66. Rechte und Verhältnisse vom Standpunkte der volks. Güterlehre, 1881, passim. Since then, see H. Dietzel (Der Ausgangspunkt der Socialwirthschaftslehre und irh Grundbegriff, in the Tübinger Zeitschrift, 1883, p. 78), and Sax (Grundlegung, pp. 39, 199), who surely goes too far in excluding personal service from the conception of goods. Neumann, on the other hand (Schönberg's Handbuch, second edition, p. 151), remains firm in recognising rights and relations as real goods on grounds which do not commend themselves to me as at all convincing. On one single a point I feel myself bound to reply. In my definition of the conception of goods, Neumann "does not find" the lines sufficiently distinctly drawn, and quotes, in a tone of irony, a number of expressions which, taken by themselves, certainly do not draw any distinct line (ibid. note 41). But Neumann can only have read portions of the work he objects to, or read it very hurriedly. Otherwise it would not have escaped him that the expressions he quotes stand at the end of a chapter Rechte, p. 29), and that the beginning and middle of that chapter (p. 13 onwards) are devoted to what he "does not find," and that, obviously, the later expressions are to be taken and understood along with what goes immediately before.
70. The careful reader will, without doubt, have remarked that the statement as to the nature of capital given in the second chapter, relates solely to Social economic capital. For obvious reasons I did not wish to mix up the dogmatic statement with the terminological and critical discussion which, I am afraid, has been terribly prolix. And, for reasons as obvious, I did not wish to commence this discussion without having, at least partially, put before my readers the object to which the discussion refers. I therefore made use, for the time being, of the word Capital without any of the clauses and additions which would at once have necessitated the tedious terminological discussions I wished at the time to avoid. The more exact explanations which follow will prevent any misunderstanding to which this may, perhaps, have given rise.
Book II, Chapter I
6. In economic literature the clearest views as to the nature of capitalist production are, in my opinion, to be found in Rodbertus, Jevons, and Carl Menger. The works of Rodbertus, where they are not directly disfigured by the influences of his one-sided Socialist standpoint, are of quite classical accuracy and clearness. Unfortunately there are certain features which very sensibly mar what he has said. This is true in particular of his omission to notice the share which the valuable natural powers take in production, and the influence of time—two things which, obviously, could not easily be fitted into the "exploitation" theory he maintained so vigorously, and so were suppressed. We shall see this more fully later on. Carl Merger, again, by his arrangement of goods according to "rank" (Grundsätze, p. 7), and his statement of the laws which connect together goods of various ranks, has given at once a brilliant proof of his clear insight into the developed phenomena of production, and an invaluable tool to the hands of succeeding investigators.
Book II, Chapter II
8. Where population is scanty, of course, it is possible that land, or at least certain of the uses of land, such as the growing of timber, may be free goods, as obtainable in any quantity. But in modern communities, to which naturally I refer by preference in this statement, the uses of land—with the exception of waste land or desert—are entirely economic goods.
9. On the common experience that "as labour is prolonged the effort becomes, as a general rule, more and more painful;" see Jevons, Theory of Political Economy, second edition, p. 185; and Gossen, Entwicklung der Gesetze des menschlichen, Verkehrs, 1854.
10. This is the state of the case, as I believe, expressed with perfect clearness in the facts, and this is what Rodbertus profoundly misunderstood when he maintained, and repeated with emphasis, that labour is the sole original power with which human economy has anything to do, and drew from that the conclusion that all goods, economically, are to be conceived of as products of labour alone (Zur Erkenntniss unserer staats. Zustände, theorem i.; Zur Erklärung, second edition, p. 160; Zur Beleuchtung, p. 69). If to-day we allow a fruitful field to lie fallow, or a mine or water power to remain unexploited; if, in short, we do not act economically with valuable uses of land, we act as directly against our economic wellbeing as when we throw away labour uneconomically.
11. "Primary productive powers" is the more correct expression, which we must now employ instead of the partial expression "labour" used by me in the second chapter of Book I. in order to avoid tedious explanations.
12. It is very characteristic that Rodbertus, when describing the economical effects of adopting roundabout ways of production, chooses his illustration just out of that minority of cases where the roundabout way is the quicker (Das Kapital, p. 236). The consequence is that, on this and other occasions, he leaves in the shade all the economical elements which form the basis of the phenomenon of interest—and of these the most notable is the loss of time connected with the carrying through of productive methods—and, taking a very one-sided view, lays the origin of rent at the door of the existing circumstances of private right (e.g. p. 310). But private rights in capital would not, by themselves, do any harm to the labourers, and it would be very easy for them to avoid the toll-bars which the capitalists have erected, if the fatal lapse of time between beginning and end of the lengthy capitalist process did not make it impossible for labourers to adopt similar processes on their own account.
13. Inventions, so-called, generally mean the discovery of a new and more productive method of production. Frequently—probably in most cases—the new way is longer than the old, and in this case to utilise the invention requires the making of a great number of intermediate products, or, as it is usually expressed, a large investment of capital: e.g. in machinery, building of railways, and the like. But often a happy invention may lead to a better, and at the same time shorter, way of production, such as the manufacture of certain dye-stuffs from chemical instead of plant bodies. However elaborate the former may be, it is still certainly far more direct and speedy than a manufacture which has to wait on tedious processes of growth.
14. It may be asked here, by way of objection, why man does not fully utilise the chances offered him of increasing the technical result by the technical knowledge he has at the moment. The common explanation runs—from want of capital. With the limited amount of capital at his disposal man can only utilise those chances of employment, among the infinite number of remunerative ones, which are most remunerative, and a great number of less, but still remunerative, employments must be passed over. This explanation is not quite exact, but it is at least right in the main contention. We may therefore be content with it until, in another connection, we can examine the matter with perfect accuracy.
16. For instance by Roscher, Grundlagen, § 183; by Mangoldt, Volkswirthschaftslehre, 1868, p. 432; by Mithoff in Schönberg's Handbuch, second edition, p. 663, and by many others. Jevons independently adopted quite similar views, Theory of Political Economy, second edition, p. 277.
17. In particular the "physical" or "technical productivity," which is founded on these facts (that is, the circumstance that by the assistance of capital more products can be produced than without it), was confused with a "value productivity" (that is, a pretended power of capital to produce more value than it itself possesses). See my Capital and Interest, pp. 112, 131.
19. The first of the above schemes corresponds to the case of a production where one single tool is employed, and where the total process extends over ten years—for instance, the making and using of an axe of Bessemer steel. The second scheme, again, corresponds to a production where, besides the axe, a number of other capitalistic tools, auxiliary mechanism, and materials, are employed, the existence of which, however, does not date from farther back than ten years. This comparison clearly shows how, without increasing the absolute length of the production period, the degree of capitalism may be very considerably increased; all that is necessary is to alter the proportion between the number of early workers and that of the finishing ones. Whether it is ten workers employed in the final stage against one worker employed ten years before, or one worker in the final stage against ten workers ten years before, in either case the total production process extends over a period of ten years. But in the former case the finishing workers would be very sparingly provided with tools, machines, etc.; in the latter case they would be very amply provided. The latter, of course, would be far and away the more capitalistic of the two.
Book II, Chapter III
21. It would be somewhat different if we were to adopt the other conception of capital, and understand by it, not intermediate products only, but the entire national subsistence fund, which would therefore include the labourers' subsistence. In that case, but only in that case, one might say that capital was the cause of these profitable roundabout ways of production being adopted.
22. Schäffle very finely speaks of capital as "Consumption wealth as it were in the stalk, when it is still only swelling bud and ripening fruit" (Schönberg's Handbuch, second edition, vol. i. p. 208).
24. Of older writers, e.g. B. Fulda, Grundsätze der Oek. pol. or Kameralwissenschaften, second edition, 1820, p. 135; Schön, Neue Untersuchung der National-Oekonomie, 1835, p. 47. Of later writers Cossa himself, Elementi, eighth edition, p. 34; and Gide, Principes d'Éc. Pol. 1884, pp. 101, 145.
Book II, Chapter IV
28. The dispute as to the share which Saving plays in the formation of capital is almost old as economic science. The theory which ascribed it the prominent place was the first to appear. Already suggested by the Physiocrats, it was formulated by Adam Smith in the often-quoted proposition, "Parsimony and not industry is the immediate cause of the increase of capital" (Wealth of Nations, book ii. chap. iii.) Supported by his authority it was for a long time almost the only one that held the field, and, although in later times it has suffered many reverses, it still finds some notable apostles: thus, among others, Mill—"Capital is the result of saving" (book i. chap. v. § 4); Roscher—"Capital is mainly the result of saving" (Grundlagen, § 45); Francis Walker—"It arises solely out of saving. It stands always for self-denial and abstinence" (Political Economy, p. 67). But from a very early period there was sharp opposition to the theory, first from Lauderdale (Inquiry, 1804, chap. iv.); then, after some time, from the socialist theorists, Rodbertus (Das Kapital, pp. 240, 267—"Just as the capital of the isolated individual originates and increases, so does the national capital,—only through labour and not through saving"); Lassalle (Kapital und Arbeit, p. 64); Marx (Das Kapital, i. second edition, p. 619). To these opinions a great many recent writers of other schools more or less incline; thus, very clearly and decidedly, Gide (Principes, p. 167); less decidedly, Kleinwächter (in Schönberg's Handbuch, second edition, p. 213), and R. Meyer (Das Wesen des Einkommens, 1887, p. 213); more by way of reconciliation, Wagner (Grundlegung, second edition, § 298); and, a little obscurely and confusedly, Cohn (Grundlegung, 1885, § 257). Although, however, this tendency to ascribe capital to labour is unmistakably rapidly gaining ground, that view which ascribes to saving a share in the formation of capital is still the view of the majority. But the later representatives of this view are in the habit of rightly limiting it, and expressly emphasising the fact that saving alone is not sufficient, and that there must also be "labour," or "devotion to productive purposes," or such like—which, indeed, may very well have been the true meaning of many of the older adherents of the Saving theory, and only not expressed by them because of its assumed obviousness. See, e.g., Rau (Volkswirthschaftslehre, eighth edition, i. § 133), Ricca-Salerno (Sulla Teoria del Capitale, chap. iv. p. 118—"Il capitale deve la sua origins all' industria e al risparmio"), Cossa (Elementi, eighth edition, p. 39), and many others.
29. On the many divergent and contradictory readings of the conception of Income, see R. Meyer's Das Wesen des Einkommens, 1887, particularly pp. 1-27. I purposely avoid going into the controversy as to this conception, which Meyer's work, notwithstanding its many merits, seems to me to have by no means adequately settled. Where I use the word Income in the sequel it is to be understood, not in Meyer's sense, but in a sense very much in agreement with popular usage.
30. Adam Smith's celebrated proposition therefore—"Parsimony and not industry is the immediate cause of the increase of capital"—is, strictly speaking, to be turned just the other way about. The immediate cause of the origin of capital is production; the mediate cause is a previous saving.
31. It is only in cases where, in the meanwhile, the technique of the particular production has improved, that the transference of a less amount of productive powers to the service of the future is sufficient. If, for instance Crusoe learns how to make in fifteen days those weapons which formerly had taken thirty days, it is, of course, sufficient for the upkeep of the capital if he works only half an hour daily at the repair of his weapons, and nine and a half hours can now be spent in directly obtaining a more plentiful maintenance without prejudice to his economical position
Book II, Chapter V
32. Durable productive goods, which give off their use gradually in the course of several years, belong naturally (in various parts of their content as useful goods, or in various annual circles of their activity) to several circles simultaneously.
33. Under this name (Gegenwartsproduktion) I mean to group, for the sake of shortness, all those acts of production which agree in this, that the original productive powers which are put forth in these acts reach their goal, and turn out consumption goods, within the same economic period. This applies to two kinds of productive acts; partly and principally to those of the final stages, the labour required to transform the first circle of capital into consumption goods (e.g. agricultural labour, the labour of the miller, baker, shoemaker, tailor, etc.), partly to industries where the production process is short, and can be carried through from beginning to end within a single economic period.
34. If, during the current year, there should be introduced such improvements in the technique of production that the capital, which had taken six million labour-years to produce, could be fully replaced by an expenditure of five million labour-years, there would be a change in the figures of our illustration, but the principle would remain the same. It would now be possible to preserve the capital already in existence, even if five million labour-years were spent in present production, and if the produce of eleven million labour-years in all were spent in immediate consumption (see above, note to p. 109). But in any case the formation of new capital would require the renunciation of some portion of that immediate consumption which would be possible if it were only wished to preserve capital at the same level; in other words, would require that a portion of the "income," which might be consumed without diminishing the stock of capital, be not consumed but saved. Moreover, if technical improvements did not continue to be made, then, after some years—that is to say, when the capital produced according to the old methods of production was quite used up,—the old figures would come true again; capital would be kept at the same level if in any period the produce immediately consumed just corresponded to the productive powers which came forward anew in the same period.
35. I have neither time nor desire to go into subtle distinctions here, although there is material enough for them. Interesting investigations into the relation between national product and national income—although I cannot altogether agree with them—may be found in R. Meyer's book, pp. 5, 84. See also the investigations of Loris (which appeared while the present volume was passing through the press), entitled Ueber gewisse Werthgesammtheiten und deren Beziehungen zum Geldwerth (Tubinger Zeitschrift, forty-fourth year, part ii. p. 221), where also the yearly "consumption sum," "production sum," and "primary income sum" are treated as "quantitatively, approximately equal" amounts.
38. The stock originally embraced the return of thirty million labour-years; it now gives seven millions to the consumption of the correct year, and it receives only five millions to replace them, whereby it falls from thirty to twenty-eight million labour-years.
Book II, Chapter VI
39. This is very strongly put by the Socialist writers, as, e.g., Lassalle (Kapital und Albeit, p. 69); Rodbertus (Das Kapital, p. 271). In a somewhat diluted form the same doctrine appears in Wagner (Grundlegung, second edition, p. 600), who makes a distinction between goods in which the peculiarities of capital are inherent, and those in which they are not. The former are not, at least "directly," objects of saving. Similarly Kleinwächter (Schönberg's Handbuch, first edition, p. 173).
41. In the second edition of Schönberg's Handbuch (p. 214) Kleinwächter comes a long way nearer our conception in assenting to it, as regards at least one of the chief forms of capital—tools of production. He allows that the making of such tools "always involves, to a certain extent, the renunciation of an immediate enjoyment," because the materials which are made use of in making the tools of production might have been employed in making some kind of consumption goods; and thus there is no reason for objecting to call such a renunciation of enjoyment by the name of Saving. But it is different, he says, with the materials of production. Such things as raw wool, stone, and lime, etc., could not in any way be objects of direct consumption, and so could not be saved; they must be looked on, therefore, economically as products of labour only, and not as the result of saving. In this Kleinwächter is not logical. As regards the tools of production he, quite correctly, does not consider whether the finished tools themselves might have been consumed, but whether, by the instruments from which the tools were made, any consumption good might have been made; and because this is the case he answers the question as to saving in the affirmative. But if he had kept to this line of thought as regards the materials of production, he must have seen that, by means of the same productive powers as man uses to quarry stone, to build a house, or obtain lime for mortar, he might have made himself goods for immediate consumption,—e.g. hunted wild animals or caught fish,—and that here, consequently, on exactly the same grounds and in exactly the same way as in the case of tools, saving does come into the question.
46. A very striking illustration of these words may be found in the already-mentioned utterances of Rodbertus on the subject. On p. 242, from the fact that, if the productivity of capital is too small, there can be no saving and no formation of capital, he contents himself with drawing the quite correct conclusion that "necessarily some other element besides saving must intervene." Thus he ascribes to saving its proper place, as not sufficient by itself, but, all the same, as a factor of the formation of capital. It is only on p. 243 that the fact of a certain degree of productivity of labour being indispensable is dialectically changed into the statement that only the increase of productivity, and not saving, makes the formation of capital possible.
49. Marx, Das Kapital, second edition, i. p. 619, in note (English translation, p. 608): "It has never occurred to the vulgar economist to make the simple reflection, that every human action may be viewed as 'abstinence' from its opposite. Eating is abstinence from fasting, walking abstinence from standing still, working abstinence from idling, idling abstinence from working, etc. These gentlemen would do well to ponder, once in a way, over Spinoza's Determinatio est Negatio." Gide, Principes d'Éc. Pol. p. 168: "Un act purement négatif, une abstention ne saurait produire quoi quo ce soit.... Sans doute on peut dire que si ces richesses avaient été consommées au fur, et à mésure qu'elles ont pris naissance, elles n'éxisteraient pas à cette heure, et qu'en conséquence l'épargne les a fait naître une seconde fois. Mais à ce compte, il faudrait dire qu'on produit une chose toutes les fois qu'on s'abstient d'y toucher et la non destruction devrait être classée parmi les causes de la production, ce qui serait une singulière logique."
50. I will not, a priori, deny that possibly one might contrive to hunt up some subtle examples where capital (particularly social capital) comes into existence without saving properly so called. But all the more strongly do I hold by my proposition that, as regards the great mass of the economic formation of capital, saving, in the way I have indicated, has its place. | <urn:uuid:1a4bc84d-0b8a-4f66-8aec-44f64edafce5> | {
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3-D printing is not only changing how things are made, but also broadening the range of materials manufacturers can make things with – from chocolate to human tissue. Here we look at some of the inventive and unusual ways to employ 3-D printing techniques.
3-D printers work much like inkjet printers. Instead of ink, though, the machines deposit successive layers of different materials, including silver, plastic and titanium to form an actual object. (For a primer on 3-D printing, see the TED Talk with Lisa Harouni, cofounder of Digital Forming.) Once primarily the domain of hobbyists and do-it-yourself enthusiasts who enjoyed experimenting with new designs and materials, the technology has grown and its applications have garnered commercial interest.
Below are five wild examples of 3-D printing put to use.
The 3-D Chocolate Printer
Engineers at Britain’s Exeter University have created a desktop chocolate factory that squirts molten chocolate into precise layers according to computer-modeled designs. Managed by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the 3-D printer allows users to create their own designs on a computer and reproduce them physically in three-dimensional form using chocolate in lieu of the standard plastic or resin.
“Using a process that creates the product by building up layer upon layer of material, the research team, led by Dr. Liang Hao, chose to experiment with chocolate,” according to sustainable-design blog Inhabitat. “Being inexpensive, easily malleable and, not to mention, delicious, chocolate was perfect to play with, as it yields no waste (excess can be melted down or eaten!).”
“The researchers have a loftier goal than consuming lots of chocolate. They hope to involve mainstream consumers in the act of ‘co-creation,’” Fast Company’s Co.Design notes. “Currently, most 3-D printing services are geared toward those familiar with the software used to design products for 3-D printers.”
The 3-D Bioprinter
One San Diego startup is hoping to use 3-D printing to revolutionize the way new medications are developed and tested, focusing on bioprinting technology to create tissue on demand. The company’s bioprinter uses human cells to print functional human tissue.
Since 2008, Organovo has worked with a company called Invetech to create a commercial bioprinter called the NovoGen MMX. Organovo scientists have successfully created a number of different tissue samples in their work, including cardiac muscle, lungs and blood vessels.
Organovo executives believe that if they can continue to use 3-D printing in the development of artificial tissues, their research could help companies and large biotechnology firms avoid costly clinical trials that could eventually yield disappointing results. The end goal is to print human organs that can be used in transplants.
Here Dr. Gabor Forgacs, the chief scientific officer of Organovo, discusses the possibilities of organ printing:
The 3-D Plane Printer
Engineers at the University of Southampton, which launched an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) master’s course last fall, have designed, printed and launched the world’s first aircraft manufactured almost entirely using 3-D printing technology.
Printed on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering machine, the UAV’s wings, access hatches and integral control surfaces were custom printed to snap together; it required no fasteners and no tools to assemble. The UAV, with a 2-meter wingspan and a top speed of nearly 100 miles per hour, is powered by an electric motor, which is pretty much the only part of the aircraft not created via additive manufacturing methods.
The plane parts took just two days to design and another five days to print, according to New Scientist.
“Using conventional materials and manufacturing techniques, such as composites, this would normally take months,” a press announcement notes. “Furthermore, because no tooling is required for manufacture, radical changes to the shape and scale of the aircraft can be made with no extra cost.”
The 3-D Moon Base Printer
Italian inventor Enrico Dini says his massive d_shape 3-D printer can create entire buildings four times faster than could they could be built by conventional means, while also reducing the cost to half or less – with almost no human intervention beyond the design phase. According to science and sci-fi blog io9, the process uses little more than sand and an inorganic bonding material.
The printer works by spraying a thin layer of sand followed by a layer of magnesium-based binder from hundreds of nozzles on its underside, PhysOrg explains. The glue turns the sand to solid stone, which is built layer by layer from the bottom up to form a sculpture, or a sandstone building.
Although it currently uses sand, the device could someday use moon dust as well.
“Having proven the technology, Dini’s eyeing a remote building site: the surface of the moon, which has an abundance of both space and raw building material — lunar dust,” according to io9.
As part of the European Space Agency’s Aurora program, he’s been in talks with La Scuola Normale Superiore, architecture firm Norman Foster and Alta Space to modify d_shape to build with moon dust — which means the possibility of an instant moon base.
Although the following video is in Italian, it shows off d_shape in action:
The 3-D Printer Printer
And we’ve come full circle: “Webca” at digital design community Thingverse has used a 3-D printer to print another printer. The Thingverse champion’s creation has linear bearings and a custom-heated build platform. It used more than 15 lbs. of plastic, cost around $3,000 and took approximately eight months to build. | <urn:uuid:ef80a924-92db-43bf-96f4-246e19c08d6f> | {
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Each young man will better understand the plan of salvation, which Heavenly Father has instituted for the glory and exaltation of man.
Copies of the scriptures (each young man should bring his own).
Pencil for each young man.
Pencils for marking scriptures.
Make each young man a copy of the chart “The Plan of Salvation” from the handout at the end of the lesson.
Show the videocassette Our Heavenly Father’s Plan (53031) if it is available in your area.
You may need more than one week to present this lesson.
Suggested Lesson Development
Planning Is Essential for Success
If you wanted to build a house, what would be the most important item you would need before you could begin construction? (A blueprint or plan for the construction.)
What would probably happen if you had no blueprint or plan?
Explain that just as we must have a plan for building a house, so we need a plan for our own lives. Planning is so important that Heavenly Father presented a specific plan for our lives before the earth was created.
What is the name of the plan our Heavenly Father presented to us? (The plan of salvation, or plan of redemption.)
Read the following statement from President Spencer W. Kimball:
“Before this earth was created the Lord made a blueprint, as any great contractor will do before constructing. He drew up the plans, wrote the specifications, and presented them. He outlined it and we were associated with him. … That assemblage included us all” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982], p. 29).
Elements of the Plan of Salvation
Distribute a copy of “The Plan of Salvation” chart and a pencil to each young man. Explain that the blueprint for our Heavenly Father’s plan probably looked something like this. As you proceed with the discussion, have the young men give the correct names for the various parts of the plan and write their answers next to the correct number on the chart.
Following is a key for the chart:
Resurrection and Judgment
Sons of perdition
Scripture, discussion, and quotation
Refer to the appropriate part of the chart as you progress through the following discussion.
Have the young men read and mark Job 38:7. Point out that we are told that in our pre-earth life we shouted for joy when our Father presented this plan.
Why do you suppose we were so happy?
What was our next step? (Birth, which brought the loss of our pre-earth memory.)
Read the following statement from President Spencer W. Kimball, and have the young men listen for the purposes of our earth life:
“We understood well before we came to this vale of tears that there would be sorrows, disappointments, hard work, blood, sweat, and tears; but in spite of all, we looked down and saw this earth being made ready for us, and we said in effect, Yes, Father, in spite of all those things I can see great blessings that could come to me; … in taking a body I can see that I will eventually become immortal like thee, that I might overcome the effects of sin and be perfected, and so I am anxious to go to the earth at the first opportunity. And so we came. There is a purpose in the building of this earth and in the creation of man, that he might have a place in which to live, to perfect himself, that he might become perfect and … raise himself, with the help of his Father, to godhood” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p. 31).
Scriptures and discussion
Read and discuss Abraham 3:24–28.
Why did we come to earth? (To obtain a physical body, partake of necessary ordinances, learn, strive for perfection, keep the commandments, and be tried and tested.)
What happens to a person when he or she dies? (The physical body is buried in the earth, and the spirit goes to the spirit world.)
Have a young man read Doctrine and Covenants 138:12–14.
Which spirits go to paradise after death?
Have a young man read Doctrine and Covenants 138:20–22.
Which spirits go to prison?
Do the spirits in prison have a chance to receive the gospel?
After everyone has had an opportunity to accept and obey the gospel, what will happen? (We will be resurrected and judged.)
Read the following statement from President Spencer W. Kimball, and have the young men listen and define the terms resurrection and judgment.
“After a period of time there will be a literal resurrection, when this live and conscious spirit will return to the earth to take up its reconstructed and resurrected body, raised in the bloom of its greatest earthly perfection; and the soul, composed of the resurrected body and the eternal spirit, will be ready for its next experience and every soul will come before the great judge to receive its final assignment for the eternity. Every soul that has been born will also be redeemed in the flesh and come forth in the resurrection before his maker for judgment ‘to be judged out of the records according to their works’ of life” (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p. 46).
What will happen in the Resurrection? (The spirit and body will be reunited, never again to be separated.)
What is meant by judgment? (We receive our final assignment for eternity according to the records of our works.)
Group scripture reports
In order to discuss the aspects of life after the judgment, divide the young men into four groups. Refer them to the scriptures listed at the bottom of the “Plan of Salvation” chart, and assign each group one of the four sets of scriptures. Allow enough time for the young men to read the scriptures and prepare a brief oral report on the characteristics of those of the different glories. Have the groups report to the other young men in the following order: (1) the sons of perdition, (2) telestial glory, (3) terrestrial glory, and (4) celestial glory. Encourage the young men to mark meaningful scriptures.
The Plan of Salvation Is for Our Glory and Exaltation
Scripture, quotation, and discussion
What is the purpose of the plan of salvation?
Have a young man read Moses 1:39.
What do immortality and eternal life mean? (Immortality means living forever, and eternal life means becoming like Heavenly Father and living with him forever.)
Share the following statement from President Spencer W. Kimball. As the young men listen, have each one think about his own potential.
“You have the great powers of thinking and the ability to plan and organize and love. All these powers that were given to you were given for the purpose that you someday might become like your Father in Heaven. That is the possibility, and if you do not become that, it is your fault totally.
“You could be the queen of Holland, the czar of Russia, or the emperor of Japan. You could be any great person in this world, but you would be a pygmy compared to what you can be in this Church. Every one of you can be … a king who will not lose his sceptre when he dies. Every one of you! Not just the smartest of you, but every one of you can become a queen or a king and have princes and princesses of your own. It all depends on what you do.
“If you can think of the greatest real joys that have ever come to you in this life, then think of the next life as a projection of this one with all the purposeful things multiplied, enlarged, and even more desirable. All in these associations of our lives here have brought to you development and joy and growth and happiness. Now, when life ends, we shall return to a situation patterned after our life here, only less limited, more glorious, more increased joys” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p. 52).
Scriptures and discussion
Read and discuss Doctrine and Covenants 14:7.
What must we do to gain eternal life?
What are some of the things we have been commanded to do?
Read and discuss Doctrine and Covenants 27:15–18.
What can we do to obey the commandments and resist temptations?
What blessings do we receive now when we obey the commandments? (Emphasize that the Lord wants to bless us now as well as in the eternities.)
Testimony and challenge
Bear testimony of the purpose of the plan of salvation and the blessings of exaltation. Challenge each young man to live so that he can partake of all that Heavenly Father has and become like Him. | <urn:uuid:a115d1a4-dc40-409c-9495-39e94e5ed7a5> | {
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1. A packet whose destination is outside the local TCP/IP network segment is sent to the
2. Why was the OSI model developed?
3. Which piece of information is not vital for a computer in a TCP/IP network?
4. The physical layer is concerned with the movement of _______ over the physical medium.
5. Which protocol below operates at the network layer in the OSI model?
6. In the OSI model, as a data packet moves from the lower to the upper layers, headers are _______.
7. Session layer of the OSI model provides
8. IPv6 has _______ -bit addresses.
9. Which one of the following functionalities isn\'t provided by TCP?
10. Which of the following can be an Ethernet physical address?
11. An IP address contains________ bits ?
12. Which routing protocol below is used by exterior routers between the autonomous systems?
13. Which of the IP headers decides when the packet should be discarded?
14. Which IP address is reserved for software loop-back?
15. What is the network ID for a computer whose IP address is 220.127.116.11?
16. Which port is reserved for use of the SMTP protocol?
17. Which one of the folowings is a connectionless protocol?
18. Which application below uses the UDP protocol?
19. Howmany IP addresses can be assigned to hosts in a C-class network segment with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.192?
20. Which of the folowings is not a direct implication of subnet masks in TCP/IP networks?
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Increasing urbanization and development are bringing more people in areas where fire is a natural and essential part of the ecosystem. So communities are having to learn how to balance the environmental need for fire against the needs of the human population.
Sources of Data and Information
Wildland fires in Yellowstone (more info) This Yellowstone National Park website is the home page for wildland fire information. Fire information is presented as links, a map, and a table. Links include information to fire ecology, the 1988 fires, the wildland fire management plan, and numerous other topics. The table provides yearly information on each fire's cause, start date, status, and acres burned. Important fires have links to additional information.
Natural Hazards: Wildfires (more info) This portal provides access to information on the threats and impacts of wildfires in the United States. There is a link to a fact sheet that describes the impacts of wildfires and the United States Geological Survey's (USGS) science priorities in researching them, and a link to a map that shows locations of wildfires larger than 250 acres occurring from 1980 to 2003. There are also links to news articles and to selected additional resources from the USGS and other government agencies.
Fire Events (more info) This webpage includes satellite imagery of significant wildfires and controlled burn efforts in both color and greyscale. Images of wildfires around the world are featured on the site, and new images are featured as they are added. The images are presented as false-color and black and white JPEGs.
International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) (more info) This non-profit, professional association represents members of the global wildland fire community. The purpose of the association is to facilitate communication and provide leadership for the wildland fire community. The site provides information about membership, periodicals (Wildfire Magazine and the Journal of Wildland Fire), documents and reports from safety and fire summit meetings, upcoming events, and a comprehensive list of related links.
Active Fire Mapping Program (more info) This site includes a number of maps displaying active fires in the United States and Canada. Aside from a straightforward and informative fire map on the main page, there are also regional maps, web-GIS maps, downloadable GIS data, up-to-date satellite imagery, and maps of ground cover, forecasted fire danger, and much more. | <urn:uuid:e3d8179c-088e-4dd3-b7f3-c4f342d6b9a4> | {
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The integration of technology in education grows every single day. With many resources available at one’s fingertips, educators and school counselors are able to access free online resources from remote and rural areas through the use of the Internet. Even pursuing an accredited school counseling education from an accredited university can be completed online. The online master’s in school counseling from New York University-Steinhardt, our partner, offers students the option of pursuing bilingual school counseling to address common issues experienced by English as a second language students.
In meeting the diverse needs of students from all backgrounds, the use of technology develops and becomes more of an integral part of the professional school counseling occupation, some counselors may turn to the internet through searches, social media, and electronic communications as ways to increase their effectiveness in working with students, parents/guardians, teachers, and administrators.
From school counseling education programs to professional school counseling offices, graduate students and school counselors alike use the internet to search for lesson plans, character development checklists, school counseling programs, or continuing education credits. Instead of scouring webpages for all of these different types of information, the School Counselor Toolkit is provided to school counselors, graduate students, and other educational stakeholders with the resources that they search for often; all in a one place.
Through categories on professional development, student progress, school counseling programs, collaborations and resources, the toolkit provides information for the professional school counselor, teachers, administrators, and other educational stakeholders in every level of education. | <urn:uuid:3106a0c5-3ee3-4a5a-831b-5882a57bda70> | {
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Athens and Rome experimented with democracy and republic forms of government respectively. Why did both of these city-states fail to maintain these systems? What was gained and lost in the process of these experiments?
Hi and thank you for your patience. In this particular task, you are asking for help in discussing the failure of the systems of government in Athens and Rome. I am supposing that what you need is a straightforward reply as the question asks for a discussion on the failure of the systems of government. I suggest using this simple outline:
1. Overview - 100 words
2. Athens - 150 words
3. Rome - 150 words
4. Lessons - 100 words
This outline should yield 500 words which should cover what you need. Just let me know via the feedback if you need further clarification. You can use the listed resources to further explore the topic. All the best with your studies.
AE 105878/Xenia Jones
Fall of Athens & Rome: Government
One of the remarkable achievements that the Athenians and the Romans innovated in their civilizations in the Classical Ages was their forms of government - democracy and republic. Athenian democracy developed from 500 BC and declined around 338 BC during the Macedonian annexation of the Greek States as part of the establishment of the Greek Empire by Alexander the Great. The Roman Republic meanwhile began in 509 BC after the fall of the ancient Roman Kingdom under Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last Roman King. The decline of the Republic is marked to be 27 BC which marked the years of the civil war and the fall of the triumvirate of Consuls towards the establishment of a Roman Empire under one powerful dictatorial ruler - the Emperor or Caesars.
Athenian democracy (Blackwell, 2003), "rested on three main institutions, and a few others of lesser importance. The three pillars of democracy were: the Assembly of the Demos, the Council of 500, and the People's Court. These were supplemented by the Council of the Areopagus, the Archons, and the Generals. Actual legislation involved both the Assembly and the Council, and ad hoc boards of 'Lawmakers'." The Assembly is known as the Ekklesia are the male citizens of Athens. Women also had ...
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When Can I Fit Agility Training into My Program
By: Terry Weyman, D.C., C.C.S.P.
Have you ever “bonked” or felt “flat” during your training or competition? There is a lot of hype and theories about pre-event meals but little scientific evidence to support them. This is probably because there are too many individual differences and other variables such as stress, age, time of day, exercise intensity, and duration to make across-the-board recommendations.
With intense exercise your body shifts 80 percent of its blood supply to the muscles in use. This shift deprives the stomach of the blood needed to digest food. This slows digestion and may cause an uncomfortable feeling in the stomach because of undigested food that is still present. A meal that is high in calories will take longer to digest than a lighter snack. It is suggested a three to four hour delay between high calorie meals and intense exercise.
During moderate exercise, the stomach is still deprived 60-70% of its normal blood supply due to muscle exertion. Athletes are recommended to wait 2-3 hours after a small meal and 1-2 hours after a blended or liquid meal. There are energy “boost” supplements such as PowerGel by PowerBar that are consumed by the athlete immediately before and during exercise. They can be easily digested and they provide energy during long-term events.
Tournament day is not the time to experiment with foods that are unfamiliar to your stomach. Eat foods that are familiar to you.
Eat meals that are reasonably high in carbohydrate and low in fat (avoid high fat sauces on pasta and fast food). Carbohydrates will help keep the energy level high, while fatty foods delay digestion.
Drink adequate amounts of fluid (avoid dairy). The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 17 ounces of fluid two hours before exercise, as well as enough fluid during exercise to replace the water lost through perspiration. A rule of thumb is to drink enough water to urinate clear prior to performance. For the first hour of aerobic exercise use water only. Use electro-light replacement drinks after the first hour of exercising.
Use caution with food that have a high sugar content (such as soft drinks and candy). Since athletes metabolism is higher than the average person they may experience a drop in blood sugar following consumption which can result in light headedness or fatigue and loss in performance.
Eat well the day before an event, especially if you tend to be jittery or unable to tolerate food on the day of competition.
About the Author:
Dr. Terry Weyman is the clinic Director of the Chiropractic Sports Institute (CSI) in Westlake Village and focuses his practice on the active person. He currently continues to be a competitive athlete and is sponsored by PowerBar, Dragon SunGlasses, Self Grip tape, and Synergy Therapeutic systems. His office, Chiropractic Sports Institute, is in Westlake Village, CA
Recommended Athletes' Acceleration Products | <urn:uuid:5a666069-8645-4d24-a884-a464898b570e> | {
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Everybody knows the most famous vacation destination in Europe. But Rimini, or better ancient Ariminum, is also a city of art with over 22 centuries of history.
Rimini is a Roman city and certainly not just any old city, but one of the most important of ancient Rome. The official date of its founding is 268 BC when the Senate of Rome sent 6000 colonists to establish a new settlement there which took the name of the river Marecchia (Ariminus).
In the beginning it was a strategic settlement. Then (90 BC) it became a “municipium”, and finally a blossoming city of the Roman empire, with a grand forum (piazza Tre Martiri), two central streets - the cardo maximus (via Garibaldi and IV Novembre) and the decumanus maximus (corso d’Augusto) – and triumphal monuments: the Tiberus Bridge and Augustus’s Arch. And let’s not forget a rarity: the Surgeon’s Domus, a unique medical clinic from the ancient Roman world, miraculously still intact in 2011 AD.
Among the great works decided upon by the Senate of Rome, there are the two Roman roads: the via Flaminia and the via Emilia. The first connects Rome to Rimini and ends at Augustus’s Arch. The via Emilia starts at the Tiberus Bridge and runs 100 km to Piacenza.
It is a delight to walk among these historic places where cars are not allowed and every five minutes you run into a monument. To begin to get to know Roman Rimini, you must begin at Augustus’s Arch, the most ancient of the surviving Roman arches. Located in a strategic position – marking the end of the via Flaminia – it was commissioned by Emperor Augustus in 27 BC.
The tour continues with the Tiberus Bridge. One of the most noteworthy Roman bridges still around, began by Augustus in 14 AD and completed by Tiberus in 21 AD, it is impressive because of its architectonic design, the size of its structures and the building technique used.
Not many people know it, but this city also had a large amphitheater – only the Coliseum was larger – that was always crowded and held more than 12,000 spectators, with only 1800 seats not covered. Here a convent and other buildings were built. Today, only the ruins of the amphitheater on the side nearest the sea are visible. Guided tours of the site are organized by the City Museum.
The grand finale of the tour must not be missed: a stop in piazza Ferrari at the little Rimini Pompei, the archeological site called the Surgeon’s Domus. This exceptional archeological find was discovered right here: it held the most complete surgical toolset from the Roman era found to date.
First visitors will be astonished by the 700 square meter archeological area in which the working instruments of a surgeon who worked inside a house of Ariminum in the 3rd century, used in part for practicing medicine and as a pharmacy, were found.
An excavation that the architectonic work protects and emphasizes available for all passersby to see. The structure is set into the urban space around it, integrating itself into the garden of piazza Ferrari. On the inside there is a system of transparent walkways, suspended over the ancient structures, making it easier to visit them.
Luck would have it that the Domus is located right next to the Museum, which makes up an important part of the tour of this site. The City Museum houses, in fact, the exceptional surgical instruments found in the domus.
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Copernicus: Language comes through culture
“The mantra of ‘consistent reward’ has often been popular amongst educators, but neuroscience suggests we may need to turn that on its head.” So says Paul Howard-Jones, a professor of neuroscience and education at the University of Bristol. In one of his studies, participants could choose their reward for answering a question correctly: a guaranteed one point, or a 50/50 chance to win either zero or two points. “Using such a strategy,”reports Dr Howard-Jones, “we (along with other research groups) have shown that uncertain reward can boost emotional response, motivation and learning.”
Unfortunately, the educational benefits of chance-based uncertainty weren’t much of a consolation prize for a group of students at Kobe Shinwa Women’s University in Japan on the morning of March 9th. They were taking part in a cross-border collaboration with students at the University of Mahajanga in Madagascar. Separated by latitude, longitude and culture, there were two threads that connected the two groups.
The first thread was science, specifically, solar eclipses. On September 1st, Mahajanga will witness an annular eclipse, where the sun becomes a ‘ring of fire’ surrounding the moon. On March 9th, meanwhile, Kobe had a partial eclipse, where the moon took a mid-morning ‘bite’ out of the sun’s disk. There is, however, a critical element of uncertainty linked to observing eclipses: the weather. For the Japanese students, it was not much of an experience to share with their colleagues in Madagascar, since thick clouds hung over Kobe all morning…
The second thread was language, specifically, the English language. The students met and got to know each other by doing a cross-border read-through of “Europa Report”, a science-fiction movie, on Skype. (You can read more about this part of the project here.) They continued their collaboration in an English-language Facebook group, with the discussion ranging from the principle of women-only universities, to typical breakfasts in Madagascar and Japan.
This Copernicus column focusses on the different sounds of non-native English around the world. So how did the students find their experience of using English as a common foreign language…?
“The vowel sounds are very different,” notes Keisuke Tabata, who teaches at Kobe Shinwa. “Also, the Madagascar students speak much faster, and use many more contractions. We need more time and more opportunity to practise listening to these differences.” He thought the exercise also highlighted gaps in culture, and students’ knowledge about other places. “Our countries are far apart, and we never focus on Madagascar. Japanese TV, for example, tends to focus on Asia.”
Eriky Haritsarartiaray, a postgraduate student in Mahajanga, agrees that culture was as much of a factor as language. “Language comes through culture,” he says. “And culture comes through language. Either way, there were real differences in how people thought about what they wanted to express, and how they expressed it.”
One of the key steps to improving communication, thinks Eriky, is getting people engaged. “It’s difficult to get people really involved in English here in Madagascar, but this is a successful way to do it. The acting part of this project made it a new and exciting experience, especially for young people.”
Back in Kobe, Keisuke also points out the benefits of an interdisciplinary approach to developing communication skills. “In this project we learned about space, language, culture and the many differences in our lifestyles,” he says. “It’s an opportunity for participants to engage closely in global society with a broad perspective.”
Some of the students involved in the project are shown below, in full flow. At the top, from left to right: Yasuna Teshima, Keisuke Tabata, Rika Sato, Eriky Haritsaratiaray, Nomenjanahary Larissa Soavinarivo and Johnson William Clovis Ratsimanadino. Bottom: Graham Jones.
The annular eclipse of September 1st will cross parts of Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar and Réunion. The whole of Africa (apart from the Mediterranean coastal area) will experience a partial eclipse. The next partial eclipse visible from Japan will be on January 6th 2019.
Information about our Global Communication and Science programme – which uses solar eclipses as ‘teachable moments’ to connect students around the world – can be found here. | <urn:uuid:715560ef-4789-499c-9fed-c781e166b6d9> | {
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Guide to Hepatitis C for People Living With HIV
Testing, Coinfection, Treatment and Support
HCV testing is recommended for all HIV-positive people. Even if you've already been diagnosed with HIV and HCV, it's important to know how HCV is diagnosed and monitored. Unlike with HIV, a positive HCV antibody test result does not always mean that someone is chronically infected.
HCV testing is a two-stage process. The first test is usually an HCV antibody test. If the result is positive, it means that you have been infected with hepatitis C in the past, and that you may still be infected. People who have spontaneously cleared hepatitis C without treatment remain antibody-positive for years afterwards. On the other hand, antibody test results are sometimes negative even when someone does have chronic hepatitis C. This may occur if:
An HCV RNA (viral load) test is necessary to confirm whether you have chronic infection (that you have HCV). The viral load test looks for genetic material of the HCV virus in the same way as an HIV viral load test detects HIV. If you have detectable HCV RNA in your bloodstream, it means that you are currently infected with HCV. If your hepatitis C viral load is undetectable, a second test should be done six months later. If two successive test results are undetectable, then you have cleared HCV.
Table 1: Diagnostics: Acute, Cleared or Chronic HCV
Hepatitis C Viral Load (RNA Testing)
The hepatitis C virus is much smaller than HIV, and it reproduces at a much greater rate (trillions versus millions of copies per day).
People with hepatitis C often have very high viral loads -- in the tens of millions -- a very different scale than HIV.
Coinfected people usually have higher hepatitis C viral loads than people with HCV alone.
Unlike HIV, the hepatitis C viral load does not indicate or predict the degree of liver damage, nor is it used to decide when to start treatment. This is sometimes confusing, especially for people who are used to using HIV viral load as a barometer for risk of disease progression and a factor in treatment decisions.
However, the pretreatment hepatitis C viral load is one of the predictors of response to treatment. HCV treatment is less effective for people with HCV RNA greater than 400,000 IU/mL.
About HCV RNA Testing
There are two types of viral load tests. Both measure the amount of hepatitis C virus in a blood sample, using a standard measurement, international units per milliliter (written as IU/mL).
Quantitative testing is usually used to obtain a pretreatment viral load count. Qualitative testing is often used during diagnosis and to monitor response to treatment during HCV therapy.
After a confirmed HCV diagnosis, your clinic should run a series of additional blood tests.
These include HCV viral load (for people who were diagnosed with a qualitative viral load test) and HCV genotype; tests for hepatitis A and B; full blood count (FBC) and clotting studies; liver enzyme tests (including ALT/AST, albumin, and GGT); thyroid function test (TFT); serum iron; liver autoantibodies; and liver ultrasound.
Information about these tests is included below.
There are at least six different viral strains of hepatitis C, known as genotypes, numbered from 1 to 6 in order of their discovery. Each genotype has some variations called subtypes. Subtypes are designated by alphabetical letter, also in order of their discovery. One genotype cannot change into another, but it is possible to be infected with more than one genotype at the same time, or to become reinfected with a different genotype.
It is essential to know your HCV genotype in order to plan when to use treatment and how long to stay on treatment. If your clinic hasn't done this, be more insistent. This is clearly stated as a strong recommendation in various recognized sets of guidelines for treating HCV/HIV coinfection.
Table 2: HCV Genotype by Region
Liver Enzyme Tests: ALT and AST
Liver enzymes are proteins that have specific functions. When the liver is injured, some of these enzymes leave the liver and enter the bloodstream.
Several things can cause liver enzyme levels to increase to abnormal levels, such as liver toxicity from prescription and over-the-counter medications, herbs, vitamins, and supplements; exposure to toxic fumes; heavy alcohol consumption; acute or chronic viral hepatitis; and detoxifying from drugs and/or alcohol. Many HIV medications cause liver enzyme elevations -- usually not to dangerous levels. In some cases, people may need to switch or discontinue certain drugs. Keep in mind that liver enzyme levels often fluctuate or are persistently elevated in people with chronic HCV. It's really very high levels or dramatic changes that doctors are concerned about.
It's especially important for coinfected people who are taking antiretrovirals (ARVs) -- or any other drugs known to be hard on the liver -- to have liver enzyme levels measured routinely. Liver enzymes are measured through a group of blood tests, often called Liver Function Tests (LFTs).
Although they are often referred to as Liver Function Tests (LFTs), these tests do not actually measure how well the liver is working. Results from each test should be evaluated in relation to other information.
Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) are two important liver enzymes. ALT is produced by the liver.
Increases in ALT are usually a signal of liver inflammation or damage; however, ALT is not a reliable marker for predicting whether your HCV will progress, or for indicating the severity of liver disease, since liver enzyme levels often fluctuate in people with chronic HCV. Up to a third of all people with chronic HCV have persistently normal ALT, even though some of these people have serious liver damage. ALT should be monitored routinely, since persistently increasing levels may suggest HCV progression.
AST is made in the heart, intestines, and muscles, so it is not a sensitive marker for liver injury. AST is often used to monitor liver inflammation and damage in combination with other tests.
Table 3: Track Your Lab Work
Screening for Liver Cancer
People with HCV-related cirrhosis are at risk for liver cancer. Regular screening can detect early-stage liver cancer in people with HCV. Usually, screening consists of liver imaging by methods such as ultrasound or computed tomography (CT), and a blood test measuring alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels. Screening is recommended every six months.
A liver biopsy is considered the diagnostic gold standard for assessing liver disease because it is the most reliable way to learn both the stage (amount of scarring that has already occurred) and the grade (amount of inflammation, which drives future scarring) of liver disease. It can also identify other causes of liver disease that are not hepatitis C-related.
During liver biopsy, a needle is inserted between the ribs and into the liver to remove a small sample of liver tissue. The procedure is uncomfortable, occasionally painful, and carries a small risk of complications (1-3%), such as puncturing adjoining organs or hemorrhage, and a much, much smaller risk of death.
Biopsy is not perfect; it is subject to errors in sampling and in reviewing. Results may be inaccurate when a sample is either too small or comes from a part of the liver that is more or less damaged than the rest. Samples need to be studied by a pathologist with expertise in evaluating liver disease. In addition, biopsy is an expensive procedure, though it is covered by Medicaid.
Biopsies are not pleasant, and many people with HCV are reluctant to have one. Still, a biopsy remains the best and most reliable way to know the level of liver damage. Luckily, reliance on biopsy as a requirement for HCV treatment is an area that is changing: some experts recognize that people with a high chance of response to treatment (those with genotype 2 or 3, or lower HCV viral load) do not need a biopsy before HCV treatment. Biopsy may be most useful for informing treatment decisions in people with harder-to-treat genotypes (1 and 4) who may be able to wait for newer therapies if they do not have serious liver damage.
A biopsy should only be performed by an experienced doctor with a good record of successful biopsies. Preferably, liver biopsy should be guided by ultrasound to reduce the chance of puncturing an adjoining organ, and to pinpoint areas of damaged liver tissue for sampling. If you are concerned about the pain, ask your doctor about your options for pain management during and after the procedure. Ask around -- it may be easier to find a good doctor by talking with people who have had a biopsy.
Researchers are looking at less invasive alternatives to biopsy (see below).
When Should You Get a Biopsy?
Having a biopsy can help you make a treatment decision by identifying how much liver damage you have. Despite the discomfort and risk of complications it involves, biopsy is still an important test for assessing the need for treatment and for monitoring HCV progression over time. It is therefore recommended periodically during chronic infection (more frequently for coinfected people compared to HIV-negative people), and especially recommended before deciding to start treatment. In untreated people, a follow-up biopsy is recommended every five years for persons with HCV alone, and every two to three years for coinfected people.
Alternatives to a Biopsy: Noninvasive Markers of Liver Disease
Measuring Liver Stiffness ("FibroScan")
The FibroScan is a non-invasive approach that is already showing promising results. FibroScan measures the stiffness or elasticity of the liver using an ultrasound probe on a vibrating apparatus to create waves and measure their speed. Wave speed reflects liver stiffness; the harder the liver tissue, the more rapidly the waves will pass though it. Although this scan is much less sensitive in detecting mild or moderate liver damage, it is very sensitive to severe damage and can identify people who may urgently need HCV treatment.
FibroScan is not painful or invasive. In the US, some clinics are using FibroScan to monitor people with HCV/HIV coinfection.
Non-invasive Biomarkers of Liver Disease (Blood Tests)
Combinations of blood tests are being used to assess liver damage, in both HCV-monoinfected and HCV/HIV-coinfected people. These tests are most useful for identifying or ruling out cirrhosis rather than mild-to-moderate liver damage.
Tests that have shown promising results in people with coinfection who are taking ARVs include:
This article was provided by Treatment Action Group. It is a part of the publication Guide to Hepatitis C for People Living With HIV. | <urn:uuid:70f2a464-fae0-40e8-bddb-ecfb02275ad0> | {
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