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New guidelines could help improve research into vascular cognitive impairment
Press release issued: 16 January 2017
New guidelines have been developed that it is hoped will help to progress research into vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) following a study led by academics at the University of Bristol that brought together the views of over 150 researchers in 27 countries.
VCI refers to a decline in mental abilities, such as memory, thinking and planning, caused by problems with the blood supply to the brain. Vascular dementia, which is perhaps a more familiar term to most people, is recognised as a severe form of VCI. VCI is the second most common cause of dementia and gradual memory loss after Alzheimer’s disease. Like Alzheimer’s disease it does not have a cure and together both conditions contribute to the largest cause of death in England and Wales according to recent reports.
The Bristol team, led by Pat Kehoe, Gestetner Professor of Translational Dementia Research and Joint Head of the Dementia Research Group in the School of Clinical Sciences, invited researchers from around the world to participate in a project called the Vascular Impairment of Cognition Classification Consensus Study (VICCCS), which is funded by the Alzheimer’s Society.
The international consortium has published their findings on what was agreed as a revised conceptual model of VCI and what should be considered to be its various subtypes. This new concept has built upon some key elements from sets of criteria that have been previously proposed but adopted to varying degrees. This lack of widespread adoption of any single criteria before now has proved to be a major stumbling block towards any progress in VCI research.
Professor Pat Kehoe, Chief Investigator for the study, said: “It may seem somewhat simplistic to some people that this study has been to get people to agree on how to view and name conditions that affects as many as 100,000 people in the UK alone.
“However, more than 20 years of research has been significantly hampered because numerous studies looked at this complicated group of related conditions in a large number of ways and under numerous different names. This has made the interpretation of any findings with other studies extremely difficult. For the field to move forward, and for us to successfully test potential therapies, there is a need for much greater clarity so that studies can be designed appropriately and meet with the latest requirements from regulatory bodies.”
The project made use of an online consensus-building technique that uses recurring surveys, known as the Delphi method. The study was conducted in two parts and identified and addressed issues from the last two decades that have obstructed the progression of VCI research, which lags noticeably behind that of Alzheimer’s disease.
Firstly, the surveys addressed what should be the guiding principles in defining a modern and workable concept of VCI and secondly, how the diagnosis of these conditions can be made in a more standardised way across the world. These surveys addressed issues and came up with consensus agreements in a step-by-step repetitive method that involved six phases of surveys over approximately two years.
Dr Olivia Skrobot, Research Associate in the School of Clinical Sciences, who coordinated the study, added: “This study was designed as a means to overcome the historical barriers to advance this area of research. The involvement of so many international researchers will, we hope, promote a new level of collaboration and togetherness and encourage significant progress for VCI research.”
Dr Doug Brown, Director of Research and Development at Alzheimer’s Society said: “Alzheimer’s Society is thrilled to have funded this research as these guidelines will provide essential help to streamline research into vascular dementia. Historically, research in this area has lagged behind researchers’ knowledge of Alzheimer’s disease, despite vascular dementia being the second most common cause of the condition.”
“Research relies on collaboration between experts in order to pool knowledge to further our understanding of the causes of health conditions and how to treat them. This research will allow us to work from the same understanding and criteria which will significantly speed up research in this vital area. As dementia is now the biggest killer in the UK, we need to bring researchers closer together to bring much-needed help to people with this condition as quickly as possible.”
The paper, published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, describes the results of the first part of VICCCS, and the researchers hope the revised model of VCI will be widely adopted by the field. The team is currently preparing the second part of their findings from the study for publication, where challenges around diagnostic approaches and lack of standardisation have been addressed.
The aim of this part of the study is to provide guidelines to enable clearer diagnosis and also to simplify the eligibility for people to take part in specific research studies on VCI that have been relatively less common than other types of dementia and cognitive impairment.
‘The Vascular Impairment of Cognition Classification Consensus Study (VICCCS)’ by Olivia A Skrobot et al in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.
About the Dementia Research Group
The Dementia Research Group conducts pre-clinical and clinical research in dementia. We use molecular genetic, biochemical, cell culture-based and neuropathological approaches, as well as cognitive and neuroimaging studies in patients. Our aim is to translate our preclinical findings into applications that benefit patients with dementia. At the heart of this is our focus on the molecular epidemiology and pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
About Alzheimer’s Society
- 225,000 will develop dementia this year, that’s one every three minutes
- Alzheimer’s Society research shows that 850,000 people in the UK have a form of dementia. In less than ten years a million people will be living with dementia. This will soar to two million people by 2051
- Dementia costs the UK economy over £26 billion per year. This is the equivalent of more than £30,000 per person with dementia.
- Alzheimer’s Society champions the rights of people living with dementia and the millions of people who care for them
- Alzheimer’s Society works in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
- Alzheimer’s Society supports people to live well with dementia today and funds research to find a cure for tomorrow. We rely on voluntary donations to continue our vital work. You can donate now by calling 0845 306 0898 or visiting alzheimers.org.uk
- Alzheimer’s Society provides a National Dementia Helpline, the number is 0300 222 11 22 or visit alzheimers.org.uk | <urn:uuid:ad0feeda-43cc-449d-8788-9ce7b6d87eb0> | {
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Antacids for Peptic Ulcer Disease
Antacids are available without a prescription in liquid, chewable tablet, chewing gum, and dissolving tablet forms to be taken by mouth.
How It Works
Antacids—aluminum hydroxide, calcium carbonate, and magnesium hydroxide or magnesium carbonate—make stomach juices less acidic. Simethicone may help relieve gas symptoms.
Why It Is Used
Because acid reducers (H2 blockers and PPIs) do not start to work right away, antacids may be used to relieve ulcer symptoms during the first few days after a person begins taking an acid reducer. The antacid may be used until the acid reducer is able to control the symptoms.
How Well It Works
Antacids do not work as well as H2 blockers and PPIs to help ulcers heal. But they can help with ulcer symptoms, and in some cases they may help small ulcers heal.
All medicines have side effects. But many people don't feel the side effects, or they are able to deal with them. Ask your pharmacist about the side effects of each medicine you take. Side effects are also listed in the information that comes with your medicine.
Here are some important things to think about:
Call your doctor if you have:
Common side effects of this medicine include:
See Drug Reference for a full list of side effects. (Drug Reference is not available in all systems.)
What To Think About
Antacids and acid reducers should not be taken within 1 hour of each another, because the antacid will slow down the effect of the acid reducer.
If you are on a low-salt diet, talk with your doctor or pharmacist before choosing an antacid. Some antacids have a high salt (sodium) content.
Medicine is one of the many tools your doctor has to treat a health problem. Taking medicine as your doctor suggests will improve your health and may prevent future problems. If you don't take your medicines properly, you may be putting your health (and perhaps your life) at risk.
There are many reasons why people have trouble taking their medicine. But in most cases, there is something you can do. For suggestions on how to work around common problems, see the topic Taking Medicines as Prescribed.
Advice for women
If you are pregnant, breast-feeding, or planning to get pregnant, do not use any medicines unless your doctor tells you to. Some medicines can harm your baby. This includes prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, herbs, and supplements. And make sure that all your doctors know that you are pregnant, breast-feeding, or planning to get pregnant.
Women who are pregnant may also be told to avoid antacids that contain sodium. Those antacids can cause extra swelling.
Follow-up care is a key part of your treatment and safety. Be sure to make and go to all appointments, and call your doctor if you are having problems. It's also a good idea to know your test results and keep a list of the medicines you take.
eMedicineHealth Medical Reference from Healthwise
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2014 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. | <urn:uuid:27bf99ee-ccee-4e38-8d4e-5a96610915a2> | {
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Everybody knows that California is one of the biggest producers of agricultural products in North America. In fact, despite having been in a drought situation for five years in a row, the agriculture industry generated record revenues in 2014, and employments levels reached a record high.
But that’s short-term stuff. Experts and concerned voices of the general public have been asking what are the long-term effects of such a long drought? Despite the crisis having been officially declared at an end on April 7th, the legacy of California’s water crisis can already be felt across industries, from the agricultural sector to the state’s symbolic golf courses, as well as in both urban and rural areas. As a result, water conservation practices continue to play an important role in the state, as there is no doubt that there will be more droughts in store. It’s just a matter of when.
Despite the drought being declared “over”, the state’s ecological and economic future continue to remain at risk. Sustainability is a particular issue at hand. Record agricultural revenues and employment records invariably come at a cost when a region happens to be suffering from long-term drought. If the state has fared relatively well thus far, it is only because farmers have resorted to pumping up astounding amounts of groundwater – a practice that most certainly has a deadline drawn by Mother Nature.
Pumping groundwater has already caused visible effects across the state. Rural areas in particular have been hit hard as households that are dependent on wells have been left without water. Meanwhile, parts of the state have begun to sink at increasingly rapid rates from over pumping. Up to 18 native fish species and water-bird populations are also at risk of total extinction or decline.
All in all, it is clear that the agricultural sector’s attempt to thrive despite a drought has wreaked havoc on the environment. Unfortunately, a lack of data makes it difficult to propose regulations that could deal with disastrous over-pumping. Though the latest drought is technically over, if harmful watering practices continue, there may not even be a habitable California in the future for there to be a legacy left behind at all.
A culture of conservation
The frequency and duration of California’s droughts has led to the development of a culture of conservation in recent years. Regulations developed since the last disastrous drought have resulted in water conservation practices becoming the default behaviour of many Californians. Studies have conducted in order to identify how much energy is saved as a result of water conservation practices, in addition to evaluating the impact of conservation culture on municipal water treatment plant operations.
This water conservation culture is extremely important given that rural and urban areas are often at risk of destruction due to wildfires. A disproportionately large number of wildfires have occurred in California over the drought years, permanently damaging the ecosystem and destroying lives in the process.
As such, conservation strategies also involve advocating for better forest management practices, which could potentially save lives and the ecosystem with proper execution. This includes both suppressing existing fires and preparing for potential fires in the off-season. That said, recent cuts to the Department of the Interior amount to $1.5 billion. Vaguely worded promises to responsibly budget the wildfire suppression program make it difficult to say just how this already underfunded initiative will be able to contribute to safeguarding California in a meaningful manner in the years to come.
Golfing goes green
The negative effect of droughts on California’s legacy can also be seen on the state’s iconic golfing greens. While dead grass is perhaps less important than a raging wildfire, the fact remains that golf courses have been an important part of the state’s identity. Continued droughts could do lasting harm to this particular aspect of Californian culture.
With Californian golf courses using close to 300 million gallons of water a year, there is no question as to why Governor Jerry Brown issued an executive 25 percent water reduction order across the state, with special attention given to golf courses. However, up to three-quarters of the state’s golf courses have been using high-tech, responsive sprinklers that are water-efficient for many years. Another one-third of golf courses are watered specifically only using reclaimed, non-potable water.
Unfortunately, a certain number of regions have been lackluster in their efforts to champion conservation culture. Some regions have implemented far more aggressive water-reduction measures than others, meaning that conservation efforts vary from golf course to golf course and that the burden is not shared equally.
Ultimately, golf greens will matter very little to California if the state continues to suffer from serious long-term droughts as it has over the past five years. No amount of water reduction orders or last-ditch efforts to pump out groundwater will be able to save the region if widespread agricultural practices don’t change and conservation efforts aren’t stepped up a notch. An increase in wildfires during drought periods will also continue to pose another major risk to Californian homes and businesses. It remains to be seen how President Trump’s new budgets will affect the current state of affairs – and just what will become of California’s legacy. | <urn:uuid:e036c3b3-424b-46c3-98e9-1039357608c4> | {
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DOES THE “INTERSTATE COMMERCE” CLAUSE AUTHORIZE CONGRESS TO FORCE US TO BUY HEALTH INSURANCE?
By Publius Huldah
Bill O’Reilly of Fox News recently asked attorneys Megyn Kelly and Lis Wiehl whether Congress has authority under The Constitution to require us to buy health insurance. Wiehl said Congress has the power under the “interstate commerce” clause; but Kelly said it would take “days and weeks of research” to answer the question.
Let us see if we can walk through this question to the answer in five minutes. Article I, §8, clause 3, U.S. Constitution, says,
The Congress shall have Power…To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
What does “regulate Commerce among the several States” mean?
First: What is “commerce”? Because words change meaning throughout time ["gay" once meant "jovial & lighthearted"], we must consult an old dictionary. Webster’s American Dictionary (1828) defines commerce as:
an interchange or mutual change of goods, wares, productions, or property of any kind, between nations or individuals… by barter, or by purchase and sale; trade; traffick… inland commerce…is the trade in the exchange of commodities between citizens of the same nation or state.
So! “Commerce” is the buying and selling of goods.
Now, we must find out what “regulate Commerce among the several States” means. Two readily available authorities tell us: The Federalist Papers, written during 1787-1788 by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, in order to explain the Constitution to the People and induce them to ratify it; and The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 kept by James Madison.
These authorities prove that the purposes of the “interstate commerce” clause are (1) to prohibit the States from imposing tolls and tariffs on articles of import and export – goods & commodities – merchandize – as they are transported through the States for purposes of buying and selling; and (2) to permit the federal government to impose duties on imports and exports, both inland and abroad.
In Federalist No. 22 (4th Para), Hamilton said:
The interfering…regulations of some States…have… given just cause of…complaint to others, and…if not restrained by a national control, would be multiplied… till they became… serious sources of animosity and… impediments to the intercourse between the different parts of the Confederacy. “The commerce of the German empire…is in continual trammels from the multiplicity of…duties which the several princes and states exact upon the merchandises passing through their territories, by means of which the…navigable rivers [of]…Germany…are rendered almost useless.” Though the…people of this country might never permit this…to be… applicable to us, yet we may…expect, from the…conflicts of State regulations, that the citizens of each would…come to be…treated by the others in no better light…
In Federalist No. 42 (9th Para), Madison said
…A very material object of this power [to regulate commerce] was the relief of the States which import and export through other States, from the improper contributions levied on them by the latter. Were these at liberty to regulate the trade between State and State…ways would be found out to load the articles of import and export, during the passage through their jurisdiction, with duties which would fall on the makers of the latter and the consumers of the former…
Madison’s Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 show:
…Mr. Madison. 1. the power of taxing exports is proper in itself, and as the States cannot with propriety exercise it separately, it ought to be vested in them collectively…3. it would be unjust to the States whose produce was exported by their neighbours, to leave it subject to be taxed by the latter. This was a grievance which had already filled [New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, and N. Carolina] with loud complaints, as it related to imports, and they would be equally authorized by taxes by the States on exports….
See also Tuesday, August 21 for Mr. Ellsworth’s comment that the power of regulating trade between the States will protect them against each other, and Tuesday, August 28 for Gouverneur Morris’ comment that the power to regulate trade between the States was necessary to prevent the Atlantic States from taxing the Western States.
So! The evidence is ample, clear and unambiguous! Furthermore, five clauses in the Constitution: Art. I, §8, cl.1; Art. I, § 9, cl.5; Art. I, § 9, cl.6; Art. I, §10, cl.2; & Art. I, §10, cl.3, give express effect to these two purposes of the “interstate commerce” clause.
The clause is not a blank check for Congress to fill out any way it wants! In Federalist No. 45 (last Para), Madison said the regulation of commerce was a power not held under the Articles of Confederation, but was an addition “from which no apprehensions are entertained”. Ours is a Constitution of enumerated powers only!
But today, the clause is cited as authority for federal takeover of medical care! This redefinition of the clause resulted from a radical transformation in judicial philosophy. Two cases illustrate this transformation:
In Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co. (1922), the Supreme Court reviewed a federal excise tax on profits from sales of child-made products. The Court said “the so-called tax is a penalty to coerce people of a State to act as Congress wishes them to act in respect of a matter completely the business of the state government under the Federal Constitution” (p 39), and:
…Grant the validity of this law, and all that Congress would need to do, hereafter, in seeking to take over to its control any one of the great number of subjects of public interest, jurisdiction of which the States have never parted with, and which are reserved to them by the Tenth Amendment, would be to enact a detailed measure of complete regulation of the subject and enforce it by a so-called tax upon departures from it. …such…would…break down all constitutional limitation of the powers of Congress and completely wipe out the sovereignty of the States. (p 38)
But in Wickard v. Filburn (1942), the Court said the “commerce clause” extends to local intrastate activities which “affect” interstate commerce, even if the activities aren’t “commerce”! The Court also asserted that Congress has power to regulate prices of commodities and the practices which affect such prices!
Thus, if you have tomato plants in your back yard for use solely in your own kitchen, you are “affecting” “interstate commerce” and are subject to regulation by Congress. The court’s reasoning is this: If you weren’t growing tomatoes in your back yard, you’d be buying them on the market. If you were buying them on the market, some of what you bought might come from another State. So! By not buying them on the market, you are “affecting” “interstate commerce” because you didn’t buy something you otherwise would have bought. See? And we have to stand up when these people walk into a room!
This is how the concept of a Constitution with an objective meaning easily learned from an old American dictionary, The Federalist Papers, & Madison’s Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, was taken away from us; and replaced with the judges’ claim that the Constitution is an evolutionary document which means whatever they say it means.
The reason it would take Megyn Kelly “days and weeks of research” to answer the question – instead of the five minutes it took us, is because she would search Supreme Court opinions to analyze the evolution of their “commerce clause jurisprudence” to try to figure out how they would answer the question.
They have taken our Constitution away from us. Let us demand its Restoration. | <urn:uuid:4be6ad63-67b7-4b9b-a7f0-d97d4cf010a3> | {
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Everyone seems to be looking for the fountain of youth, a way to live longer without looking — or feeling — like we’re getting older. Now scientists think they just might have discovered a potential anti-aging secret that has nothing to do with injections, pills or surgery, and doesn’t require peculiar regimens or bizarre foods.
In fact, it has more to do with what you don’t eat — namely, high glycemic carbohydrates, the carbs that our bodies quickly break down into glucose and cause a rapid rise in our blood sugar levels.
We’ve known for years that most high-glycemic carbs — which are often refined, white or sugary — generally aren’t very good for us. They tend to be calorie dense with very little nutritional value, and they don’t do much of anything to curb our hunger. Not to mention that diets high in processed carbs and sugars are linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Now there might be even more reason to limit the white stuff: We may live longer, and better, without it.
Researchers have found that significantly reducing calories and carbs can suppress an age-accelerating gene (which they dubbed "The Grim Reaper") and can activate a life-extending gene (nicknamed "The Sweet Sixteen") that also had the effect of boosting certain compounds that improved overall health and vitality.
Adding even a small amount of sugar to the diet inhibited this "Sweet Sixteen" gene, and shortened the life span by about 20 percent.
Here’s the catch: These studies were conducted on tiny roundworms, which raises the obvious question: Can we really expect the same results in humans?
I posed that question this week to Cynthia Kenyon, professor of biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco, and one of the lead researchers for these studies. She explained that many aspects of these aging pathways have been shown to hold true in mammals, including mice, and probably dogs as well.
"There are also strong suggestions that these genes and pathways have a similar effect in humans," she said, "but at this point it’s still just suggestion."
Consistently reducing calories so drastically — to about 75 percent of normal requirements — isn’t realistic for most people. But the researchers say that cutting back on carbs, particularly high glycemic carbs that spike our blood sugar quickly, may have a similar life-extending impact, since insulin levels affect the regulation of these genes.
Kenyon says she has personally lowered her intake of high glycemic carbohydrates since making this discovery, limiting potatoes, rice, bread and pasta, and staying away from sweets except for chocolate that’s made with 80 percent cocoa.
"I prefer to make the tradeoff and get my small amount of sugars from extra dark chocolate, rather than starchy carbohydrates," she said. "And I do have bread every now and then, maybe every few weeks or so."
I’m a firm believer that most people consume way too many carbs, far more than many of us need to fuel our level of activity (or inactivity). I admire Kenyon’s discipline, and I especially like her approach of negotiating a few indulgences into her diet. Likewise, my diet tends to be relatively low in starchy carbs, though I do really enjoy good crusty bread or homemade cookies from time to time — and I have to think that many of you reading this do, too. So how can we reap some of these potential life-extending benefits without sacrificing the food and drink that bring us such happiness today?
For starters, think in terms of "most of the time." Build the foundation of your diet around lean proteins, nonstarchy vegetables, low-fat dairy that’s also low in sugar (think Greek yogurt, reduced-fat cheese and cottage cheese) and fruits with the lowest impact on blood sugar levels (such as apples, pears, strawberries, blueberries).
Skip the starch when possible. Go for a lean burger patty without the bun; or shrimp creole, hold the rice. (Just try it!) Find lower-carb alternatives for your starchy favorites. Spaghetti squash and zucchini ribbons can stand in for pasta with a fraction of the carbs and calories. Cauliflower, parsnips or turnips can take the place of potatoes in stews, potato salad, mashed potatoes and oven-baked fries.
Then on the less frequent occasions that you choose to enjoy pasta, potatoes, rice — those times when it’s really worth it — it’s not such a big deal since it’s the exception, not the rule.
We know we should limit our intake of white and sugary carbohydrates, and these studies give us just one more reason to do it. So if reducing your waistline and improving your overall health isn’t motivation enough, perhaps knowing that these foods could shave days off your life will give you the willpower you need to avoid them.
Molly Kimball is a registered dietitian in New Orleans. She can be reached at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:09b28686-3b0c-44fd-ace4-f897dfad530d> | {
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In the hills of Ireland’s County Tipperary, a laborer harvesting peat from a dried-up bog spots the remnants of a corpse — a headless torso almost perfectly preserved and stained dark brown by the bog. Archaeologists recognize it as one of Europe’s rare bog bodies: prehistoric corpses flung into the marshes. The corpse eventually will be dated to the Bronze Age, more than 4,000 years ago. Forensic evidence reveals a shockingly violent death. NOVA follows archaeologists and forensic experts in their hunt for clues to the identity and the circumstances of this and other violent deaths of bog body victims. A new theory emerges that they are ritually murdered kings, slain to assure the fertility of land and people. NOVA’s ancient detective story opens a tantalizing window on the beliefs of Europe’s long-vanished prehistoric peoples.
"Ghost of Murdered Kings on NOVA airs on Wednesday, July 2nd at 8 pm on channels 3 and 3-1. | <urn:uuid:c0d88c3d-6844-4715-b66c-1175d0fdaa18> | {
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Supernovae are way cooler than milk mustaches
Yawn. Yes, yes, dietary calcium is important. Got it. But how about a new message to this effect? Maybe one that uses splashy images of supernovae and that offers a few lessons on the origins of the universe and its elements?
Now's the time. As Los Angeles Times staff writer Eryn Brown notes in this article, Supernova is rich in calcium:
"Scientists have identified a type of supernova, or exploding star, that produces unusually large amounts of calcium — enough perhaps to explain the abundance of that element in the universe and in our bones."
Here's an explanation, a very thorough explanation, of bone development and structure from, appropriately, the National Space Biomedical Research Institute.
And more from the supernovae story:
Scientists have known for decades that supernovae created the stuff our universe is made of, including the carbon in our cells, the iron in our blood and — yes — the calcium in our bones. This is part of the reason researchers study supernovae.
Now that's interesting. Maybe even reassess-your-diet inspirational. Isn't that the goal? (Besides, those thick milk mustaches are beginning to seem tired and, by now, a bit gross. What? Famous people don't have napkins?)
Here's an explainer of bone structure and function (part of a larger primer), from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research:
In addition to its mechanical functions, the bone is a reservoir for minerals. The bone stores 99% of the body's calcium and 85% of the phosphorus. It is very important to keep the blood level of calcium within a narrow range. If blood calcium gets too high or too low, the muscles and nerves will not function. In times of need, for example, during pregnancy, calcium can be removed from the bones.
And more on dietary calcium -- how much, from which foods, etc. -- from Medline Plus. (No lofty references to supernovae though. Pity.)
-- Tami Dennis
Photo: Want to be as one with the universe? Get your calcium. (This is an artist's impression, released by NASA, of how the very early universe might have looked.)
Credit: AFP / Adolf Schaller for STScI | <urn:uuid:3ea7ff17-0a1c-4ed0-a651-7ea0085aeb02> | {
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The SHURLEY family of Earl Ferrers are said to be descended from a certain Sewallis (died 1129) holder of the manor of Shirley in Derbyshire. His grandfather, Sewallis who died in 1085, had held lands in Northants, Lincoln and Derbyshire. It was a locational name 'of Shirley', a place name in the Counties of Derbyshire and Surrey. Local surnames, by far the largest group, derived from a place name where the man held land or from the place from which he had come, or where he actually lived. These local surnames were originally preceded by a preposition such as "de", "atte", "by" or "in". The names may derive from a manor held, from working in a religious dwelling or from literally living by a wood or marsh or by a stream. Other records of the name mention William de Schirle of the County of Yorkshire in 1219. Johannes de Scherlay, of Yorkshire listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. George Sherlye of the County of Leicestershire, was registered at Oxford University in 1573. The earliest hereditary surnames in England are found shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066 and are of Norman French origin rather than native English. On the arrival of the Normans they identified themselves by references to the estates from which they came from in northern France. These names moved rapidly on with their bearers into Scotland and Ireland. Others of the Norman Invaders took names from the estates in England which they had newly acquired. The associated arms are recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884. There is Shirley Rectory in Croydon, England, where the shirley poppy was cultivated and first produced. Over the centuries, most people in Europe have accepted their surname as a fact of life, as irrevocable as an act of God. However much the individual may have liked or disliked the surname, they were stuck with it, and people rarely changed them by personal choice. A more common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error.
Orders over $85 qualify for Free Shipping within the U.S. (Use coupon code: FREESHIP). | <urn:uuid:612d80f8-ef10-43fa-8128-7e6973404a63> | {
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Type 2 diabetes
usually develops in adulthood, but the number of children being diagnosed with
the disease is rising. Children with type 2 diabetes are usually diagnosed
during the early teen years. During this time, their bodies are growing and
developing rapidly, placing a demand on the
pancreas to produce additional
The hormones released during
puberty can make it harder than usual for the body to use insulin correctly
(insulin resistance). Also, children with type 2
diabetes are usually overweight, which also contributes to insulin resistance.
If the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to overcome the resistance,
diabetes can develop.
Diabetes experts believe the disease progresses as it
does in adults. The main risk factors for complications from diabetes are the length of time a person
has diabetes and the degree of blood sugar control. A child who develops type 2
diabetes may have an increased risk of complications, because he or she will
have the disease for a long time. Some complications that children and teens may develop include:
If a child's blood sugar levels remain high for a long
time, he or she may grow at an abnormal rate—faster than normal for a while,
then slower than normal later. If blood sugar levels stay high during puberty,
normal changes and the start of menstruation may be delayed.
The way to prevent complications is to always keep blood sugar levels in a target range. This requires that your child follow his or her treatment plan
daily and monitor blood sugar levels often. Your child also will need ongoing
diabetes education and regular checkups. Other medical conditions, such as high
blood pressure and high cholesterol, need adequate medical care also, because
they raise the risk for diabetes complications.
Children with type
2 diabetes have to modify their lifestyles. Your child will be more successful
if your whole family is involved. These lifestyle changes benefit everyone by
reducing the risk for diabetes and heart | <urn:uuid:6b35a17a-8b77-4b2c-9ca0-d7280f2fb28d> | {
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Problem: A baseball player travels from his home city, Jasonville, to Giambi City for a baseball game. He drives at m miles an hour. After the game, he flies home instead, traveling at p miles an hour. If the distance from jasonville to Giambi City is v miles, and it took him j hours longer to drive than to fly, what is j?
The answer is vm-vp. I set up a rate distance time chart for the first leg there and the second leg home. Then I made x+j=v/m (rate formula) and x=v/p Then I subsituted v/p for x and set j = to v/m-v/p. That was the answer I got. What did I do wrongly? | <urn:uuid:612f841c-b522-4df2-8332-3d92362347be> | {
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Flowers are all around us, growing in all kinds of conditions and producing an endless array of blossoms. Have you ever wondered how a flower grows? Flowers go through growth stages or a life cycle, just like other plants do.
Fully mature flower
image by "Flower " is Copyrighted by Flickr user: bbjee (B Balaji) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
When all needs are met, the seed will germinate, producing roots growing downward. A stem will soon begin growing up through the surface.
About this Author
Diane Dilov-Schultheis has been writing professionally since 2000. She is a food and travel writer who also specializes in gaming, satellites, RV repair, gardening, finances and electronics. She is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and has been published online at the Travel Channel and Intel. | <urn:uuid:0e0ca36f-8fe8-4e45-9ac4-f8ba61275b32> | {
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Babylonian diviners were famous worldwide in the Ancient World, though the Greeks did not value their activities very much. According to them, Mesopotamian divination was nothing more than a jumble of superstitious beliefs.
But for the Mesopotamians, the world is ruled by a complex system of correspondences between signs and human life, that relates all events to one another. The omens, the signs were understood as messages from the gods.
I want to be a
diviner when I grow up. I
already know many omens:
my fatherhas tablets where
the signs andtheir meanings
are written down.
Mesopotamian divination is a lot more than telling the future:
- It is a mean to understand and explain the world
- It is a mean to communicate with the god and obtain inaccessible information
Divination is thus essential in Ancient Mesopotamia: information sought through divination touches all aspects of life and everybody, the king as well as the commoners. People would turn to divination for the conduct of the war as well as for the building of a house.
Yet there is no fatality in Mesopotamian divination: all bad signs can be averted with incantations and appropriate rituals. Omens were only warnings.
There are two main categories of divination in ancient Mesopotamia, the provoked and unprovoked omens.
- For the first ones, a specific question is asked to the gods, often a very detailed one. Extispicy, inspection of the entrails of sacrificial animals (mainly sheep), is the most widespread form of the provoked omens.
- The unprovoked omens were a way to interpret the messages from the gods by paying attention to all signs, not only spectacular or extraordinary phenomena, but also ordinary ones.
I don’t like
much the idea to kill a sheep to
read its liver. I don’t want to be
a bārû, I want to be a ṭupšarru
to understand all the signs! | <urn:uuid:0babc0fa-4993-489c-8621-3d015f64cd83> | {
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(Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
From this verse, the sole reference to a new moon in the New Testament, it appears as though the early church observed them in some way, and they were castigated by their neighbors for doing so. Exactly how they kept them is not clear. Surely they did not observe them as Israel did, that is, with the assigned sacrifices and the blowing of trumpets. Hebrews 5 through 10 make abundantly clear that those sacrifices typify Christ's many-sided work and are no longer required as part of the worship of God.
If it were not for their link to God's festivals, the new moons could almost be taken as an anachronism today. But since the festivals are still to be kept and dating them is tied to the new moons, and in the absence of a direct command to celebrate or convene on them, it seems right to mark them by paying attention to their coming and going, at the very least.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The New Moons | <urn:uuid:9e7a1695-0e21-44a6-af21-89afe8fda3e2> | {
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Global carbon dioxide emissions climbed to a record high in 2018, setting the world on a path toward the most catastrophic effects of climate change. That’s the stark warning of the Global Carbon Project in a new report that found global CO2 emissions are on track to grow by 2.7 percent this year. Under goals set out in the United Nations Paris Agreement in 2015, the world needs to rapidly cut its emissions to keep average global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius—or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. The report came as the United Nations climate summit got underway in Katowice, Poland. This is renowned broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough speaking at the opening ceremony.
David Attenborough: “Right now, we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale. Outrageous threat in thousands of years. Climate change. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.” | <urn:uuid:5086c70d-3060-4927-81d4-055f1f35bceb> | {
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Mongolia -- Country Profile
The country of Mongolia covers more than 600,000 square miles of land in Central Asia (almost three times the size of France), but is sparsely populated with about 2.6 million people -- less than the population of Mongols living in China. One third of Mongolians live in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar, and half of the population herds livestock for a living. The predominant religion is Tibetan Buddhism. Bordered by Russia in the north and China in the south, Mongolia's average altitude is above 5,000 feet, and Ulaanbaatar is often described as the coldest capital in the world. The country's largest trading partner is China and the central Asian plateau is believed to be rich in largely untapped mineral resources, such as iron, copper, and gold.
In the 13th century, after the unification of Mongolian tribes under the legendary warrior Genghis Khan, a vast Mongolian empire was created. At its height, the empire stretched from the eastern seaboard of China to Central Europe in the West. Only the British Empire, at its peak, covered a larger geographical area. After the Mongol empire declined, Mongolia was ruled by the Chinese Qing Dynasty from the 17th century to the early 20th century.
In 1911, with the backing of Russia, Mongolia was granted autonomy, eventually gaining full independence in 1921. Heavily influenced by Russia, the communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) ruled the country for most of the 20th century. In 1990, the MPRP was forced out when political opposition parties were allowed to form; and by 1992 the country was officially recognized as a democracy. The MPRP (which is no longer communist) was defeated by the Democratic Union Coalition in the 1996 parliamentary election, but went on to regain power in 2000 and is the current ruling party. In 2005, President Bush became the first serving leader in the United States to visit Mongolia.
Mongolia's climate is extreme, with long, bitter winters and severe wind chills. Summers are short but warm, followed by a rapid return to winter in October. January is the coldest month, during which temperatures can drop to -50 Degrees Celsius. Droughts compounded by harsh winters (a phenomenom known as the "zud") have continued to threaten the nomadic herding culture and many families have given up this way of life and moved to the capital to seek work. In 2001, 13 out of 21 provinces faced disaster when a particularly devastating deep-freeze wiped out 7 percent of the country's livestock.
Permanent Mission of Mongolia to the United Nations
The site details economic and cultural information about the country and lists comprehensive links to government departments and international trading partners.
U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
The Web site of the United States embassy in Mongolia highlights partnerships and trade initiatives between the two countries, including community development programs run by the United States Peace Corps.
Transcript of President Bush's 2005 address in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
In his speech to the Mongolian people during a visit to Mongolia in November 2005, President Bush talks about the country's transition from communism to democracy and the economic and political reforms the government has adopted.
The Lonely Planet
For more information about visiting Mongolia, the Lonely Planet site provides fast facts on the history and culture of the country and the latest photo galleries and tips from travelers to the region.
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(by Chris Corkan)
Globalisation is a phrase regularly used by media organisations, politicians and across general society. It is also a phrase used even more regularly when discussing the current nature football in geographical or social science debate. Globalisation is a concept first introduced by Peter Taylor and defined by himself as ‘society having experienced immense change, as a result of the growing increasing interconnectedness at all scales, across cultural, economic and social characteristics making the world an increasingly similar place’ (Johnston et al, 2002). Sport and football is one of the most important cultural drivers of this process since the 19th century acting as both a driver and a measure. This is reflected in the global nature of football being one of the world’s largest sports, increasingly incorporating international sporting bodies, continental tournaments, migratory flows and globally extensive forms of media in the form of television and internet.
Clubs and leagues operate in more than one country as supporters, players, competitions and corporate operations function beyond the domestic countries. The pivotal moment in this development was the Bosman ruling in 1995 which created a growing flow of migratory players. The ruling eliminated fees for players out of contract with their teams within the EU and made quotas regarding foreign players illegal leading to more international player mobility and decreasing the percentage of players in domestic leagues.
A result of globalisation in general society, is the creation of a consumer society, we are part of a society that constantly consumes things whether that be watching, eating, purchasing and listening to products developed for us, the consumer. Sporting practice has become an act of consumption with incomes from football progressively commercial. The commercial generation of capital is used to purchase players made more available by the Bosman ruling which enables the formation of better and ‘global’ teams. As the graph below indicates, the revenue generation of clubs at the elite level of football has hugely increased over the last 10 years.
Clubs Economic Revenues in both 2006/7 and 2014/15 (Deloitte, 2007 and 2015)
The major way in which clubs attract supporter or consumer spend is the creation of global brands. Clubs remain ethnocentric entities sustaining vital symbolic and strategic ties to their home cities and regions whilst attempting to differentiate themselves in a growingly similar world and competitive market, providing consumption spaces of cultural and geographical difference. This is a geographical process known as ‘Glocalisation’, the practice of conducting business according to both local and global considerations. Supporters have an affinity with this differentiation through branding, due to the assumption that they favour specific clubs and wish to display this allegiance through a consumption-dependant display of club products. The club brand must reach the demands of supporters at the local to global level in order to retain consumers and create a global brand.
Most clubs invest and adopt a global recruitment strategy and therefore the players are a significant tool in the building of a global brand. Local players aid in projection of the local club values across the world and the international players project globality on the local or national club level. Supporters are likely to consume products created by the clubs if they can associate themselves with the club and its players, for example fans tend to have an affinity with interesting characters, successful players or players of their national team.
Players from local area of the club gain particular prominence in that domestic nation from both the fans and media. Clubs in attempt to balance the number of local and global origin of its playing staff. With global players attracting attention from their home country and the market they were previously engaged with, acting as a type of foreign direct investment. The most prominent example being the purchase of David Beckham Real Madrid generating ε560 million over their four-year association which would have stemmed largely from England as an international and former Manchester United player. Player recruitment can also provide sufficient revitalising measures of a club in addition to changing kits to sustain the club brand.
Supporter have become consumers following the commercialisation and has empowered the global brand building ability to greatly enhance the commercial revenue of clubs. Broadcast revenues have become one of the most important aspects of club and league operation within the last decade. Clubs and their leagues are now focused upon the global and the building of global brands. Only three clubs can claim to have established global brands, in Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona which shall be explored in part 2. Additionally, the only global brand league is the English Premier League which will be highlighted in part 3. The creation of which, away from sporting success, is based upon strong identities being balanced across the authentic local and the wide ranging global. The most significant technique in which to form the brand is player recruitment due to associations simply created, based upon the origin of the player transferred in the process of glocalisation. Players are required to reflect locality form local players and globality from the international players. This has a strong influence upon the relationship a consumer may or may not partake in by following clubs on social media. Which in turn can drive up the value of broadcast rights deals and thus revenues as the football product becomes more desirable away from the domestic nation-state.
How clubs use players to build Global Brands
Football players are used for commercial gain in brand building in addition to their sporting abilities. As introduced in part 1 clubs aim to create a global brand to increase their commercial revenues and players can aid in the projection of locality on the global and the globality onto the local, glocalisation, that facilitates the building of such brands. This means players can be largely split into three categories of local, national and global. Transfers of players are firstly based upon sporting ability but the role of them commercially based upon their origin is encompassed in decisions.
International players are recruited in addition to their sporting ability for fans to identify with and boost brands across countries globally facilitating the growing proportion of global players. Red Bull have taken this idea even further than just purchasing players to have people identify with their products, by the takeover of Markranstädt, now known as Red Bull Leipzig who have been one of the stories of this seasons Bundesliga, having been newly promoted and finishing second, the ‘German Leicester’. However, are now one of the most hated clubs within Germany, reflecting the need to balance the locality with the globality of club operations. Additionally, international players are replacing local players due to foreign coaches, short-termism and the failure of academy systems. At the highest level of football there is a growing ‘A’ list at which to compete comprising of coaches, agents and significantly the players. Resulting in most western European clubs in continental competition to feature a small proportion of local or national born players.
Even with the globalisation and commercialisation of football, local player proportion of leagues and clubs have not been fully depleted. Players are still sourced from both local, regional and global disaggregation. Local players still having an important role to play in integrating the international players into the distinctive occupational subcultures of players and into the competitive ethics and rule of interpretation of the host club and nation. Local players providing the local aspect of the club worldwide still draw a significant minority of players, often defensively talented players, as local players can be identified with a symbolic status at clubs usually in possession of the captaincy. During the time period of data collected (2007-2017) John Terry and Francesco Totti for Chelsea and AS Roma respectively have retained the captaincy even with diminishing footballing ability. Although both of which shall be sadly leaving at the end of the current season. These local players form the ’heart’ of the team that can be identified with by local supporters, but also renowned worldwide by personifying the clubs local or national identity. Never more demonstrated than that of Totti who bows out nicknamed ‘The King of Rome’ and members of the Curva Sud stating ‘Totti is Roma’.
The three clubs that can competently claim global brand status are Real Madrid, Manchester United and Barcelona. A measure of this is their social media profiles on Twitter (see below) being followed more greatly than the other clubs. Few teams possess the capacity to construct and sustain global brand status but these three do, projecting a simple and easily identifiable brand that appeals worldwide. United initiated their brand in the 1990’s dominating English football and changing the ways they generated revenue. Being among the first to exploit Asian markets, corporate hospitality and setup their own TV channel. Barcelona aim to polish their global reputation and break the 1 billion revenue barrier as their president has stated, the revenues ‘must come from the international market’ and thus has produced offices and soccer schools worldwide. Real Madrid became truly global following the inauguration of their famous president Florentino Perez from 2000 onwards creating the Galacticos. Madrid and Barcelona have far greater followers than any other club even though their leagues isn’t as widely followed on Twitter as others. This could be explained by the recent success of these two clubs winning the Champions League in recent years resulting in high UEFA coefficient. However, likely only a contributing factors as teams like AC Milan have far fewer problems and yet won the Champions league in recent memory in 2007.
The most likely explanation for their global brand and mass Twitter followings are the players they have recruited. Western European leagues have the puling power of the world’s best players and thus importing the most. Perez introducing the Galacticos strategy meant they’ve embarked on utilising this pulling power with stunning acquisition policy since 2000 having signed Zidane, Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and James Rodriguez in recent years. These players are amongst the most followed followed athletes in the world. Manchester United and Barcelona have done similarly in the last decade having signed global stars such as United breaking the world transfer record for Paul Pogba summer 2016. The table below shows these three mega clubs have the most players that constitute the top 100 followed sporting athletes in the world also having had many former players forming part of this contingent. There is a clear link between player recruitment the building of global brand.
Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Juventus provide respectable followings on twitter, likely because of their domestic dominations. Most football identities continue to be based on more restricted spatial identities but can still create strong regional brands as they can only manage identities that remain strongly rooted in social and cultural makeup of immediate supporters. These sides have been domestically dominant with Juventus and AC Milan having now won the last 7 league titles and Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund winning the last 8 between them. Hence making the creation of strong dominating national brands more plausible. In stark contrast to the EPL because Liverpool and Arsenal have more followers but haven’t even won the league for 27 and 13 years respectively. If the Bundesliga and Serie A clubs are to create fully global brands their strategies must be more global in alignment and recruit globally recognised stars whilst projecting the unique identity of club geography. Of the German and Italian clubs most likely to do this are Bayern Munich due to the internationalisation strategy and new broadcast revenues. Also, Juventus have the capability with their new stadium and easily printable logo providing them with the tools to do so, whilst also being required to be successful on field in the Champions League.
Leagues Brand and role of players
Clubs are not the only ones in football aiming to be a global brand, leagues also aim to build global for the same reasons, to create global exposure of a global brand that attracts consumer spend and increase their consumer revenues. Continuing to use Twitter as a proxy for consumer popularity, the Premier League is the only league, that can call itself a truly global brand. The other top four leagues in Europe have left much to be desired in regard to the creation of a global brand. As the Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga have commercialised far slower than the Premier League and remain still very much domestic leagues and not global leagues. However, each league faces the modern footballing trend of decreasing local players and the increase of international players as teams become more unrecognisable to domestic supporters. Again, the balance of players in these leagues remains important to the building of the league brand due to the glocalisation process explained in part one.
League Followings on Social Media:
League Proportion of Local, National and International players of the Top Four Leagues:
- Sample size is the top five clubs based on Revenues in 2006/7 and 2016/17
The greatest factor of the English Premier League’s brand success is that it’s the most globalised. Having some desirable factors of non-footballing nature such as GMT allowing business operations to constantly continue and daylight hours of matches globally and easily accessible to 1.75 billion English speaking people, millions studied it as a second language and 565 million using it on the internet. Richard Scudamore the EPL executive chairman has expressed awareness of these factors but also places the marketable success on ‘heritage, culture, history and authenticity’ using British landmarks, stadiums and crests that date back to the 19th century as examples. Consequently, the EPL receives the largest commercial revenues and the largest economic revenues per club, but more importantly has the largest proportion of international players of the top four European divisions. As the pioneering league of football commercialisation, the EPL raised revenues far beyond the rest and has lubricated the mass purchase of internationals. Making the league identifiable for overseas consumers due to player recruitment acting as foreign direct investment. The declining number of local players would suggest a failure to project the local on the global. However, local players still project a proportion enough to project national and local values with icons such as Wayne Rooney and John Terry remaining important. Instead the EPL uses the authenticity of the clubs and the club brands themselves in collaboration with local players to project local values, hence Scudamore’s highlighting of crests and history instead of players. Although ignorance of player importance in football branding would be detrimental to the growth of a global brand.
Compared to the other leagues, the Bundesliga player proportions presents little change. This is attributable to the league being less globalised and being the most resistant to commercialisation. German ownership rules keeping the supporter majorities of at least 51% has kept priorities on local match attending fans. The biggest resistance being the unaffected ticket prices and preservation of matchday atmospheres.
Local players have not diminished as the most catered for local fans are the ones with which they associate with and gain support or expectation of use in the first team. German football has remained intrinsically ‘German’ with many native players in addition to the native media, supporter groups and fan ownership showing the attitude of their football. Players are still heavily derived from their youth systems following wide-scale reform after failures at the 1998 WC and 2000 Euros international competitions.
Bundesliga and Serie A are being left behind and are the less globalised leagues and less followed on social media. As previously suggested the German league remains very German and Italian football has some more challenging problems as Serie A struggles to create a wanted product. Facing issues of low match day revenues other than Juventus, playing in outdated stadiums that they don’t own in front of low attendances, Chelsea makes six times more match-day revenues than Roma. The Calciopoli corruption scandal 2006 also tarnished the leagues reputation presenting issues of national governance and degrading the brand in addition to the departure of big name players. There is hope for Italian football economically with the recent foreign investments as Inter-Milan, Roma and AC Milan all being taken over recently by Asian or US investor groups. The crucial factor in failure to create global brands in these divisions is the absence of international player transfers renowned worldwide. Only Bayern Munich and Juventus from these leagues have any players from the top 100 athletes on twitter. This coupled with a lower proportion of international players also makes it hard for overseas fans to associate due to lowering levels of globalisation by these leagues. For instance the only insight into Italian football for the ordinary fan into Italian football right now is Joe Hart’s loan move to Torino as there are no other links.
For leagues to be commercially successful they must build these global brands to attract as many consumers in the global markets as possible. However, the on-field success cannot be ignored, clubs of each league must be successful In the Europa and Champions League for brand exposure and to of course achieve the primary objective of any sport, to win. For leagues to catch up with the Premier League they must allow themselves to globalise its player composition like the Premier League has, to allow consumers to build associations with clubs in these leagues. However, this does bring into question the authenticity of the leagues if they no longer represent their country of origin and will have detrimental effects on their national teams. At what point does the Premier League blur the lines of its roots to England and that product may no longer be desirable. That is the sacrifice that the Premier League has made in order to be the most successful league commercially. | <urn:uuid:da823d99-10cd-470a-b941-141d4035e79e> | {
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Coppers for Potlatching
Coppers were a means of representing wealth. They were necessitated by the exponential
nature of potlatch interest, and were usually valued at their equivalent in 'blankets'.
(Hudsons Bay Company blankets were worth fifty cents each and were a common currency
for post-contact First Nations.) Each copper had a name, and its potlatch history
determined its value. The copper held by the chief (left) was named "takes everything
out of the house" and was worth 5000 blankets. Other examples of valuable coppers
were "All other coppers are ashamed to look at it" worth 7500 blankets, "Making
the house empty of wealth" worth 5000 blankets and "Steel-head salmon, ie it glides
out of ones hand like a salmon" worth 6000 blankets.[Rohner
1970 p98; McFeat
They were made of placer copper beaten into a plaque roughly a metre in length,
the upper portion resembling in outline the keystone of an arch, the lower portion
a rectangle. The two forms were set apart by the horizontal element of a T-shaped
ridge, the vertical stem of which bisected the rectangle.[Drucker
1965 p65] They were displayed boastfully before being given away or ceremoniously
destroyed at a potlatch.
Source (above left): Rohner
Source (right): Drucker
1967 inside front cover.
Source (below left): Royal Ontario Museum, reproduced in Drucker
1965 at colour plate 33 following p108; Haida copper (Nass River) 69cm wide
by 110cm long.
Source (below right): Royal Ontario Museum, reproduced in Drucker
1965 at colour plate 34 following p108; Copper 53cm wide by 75cm long.
Source (below): Codere
1972 inside front cover; Kwakiutl Copper.
© 31 October 1997 [email protected] | <urn:uuid:ed1e272e-dc09-4b5e-b294-f4fec5230c60> | {
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What is a Charter School?
Charter schools are non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations that have a contract or charter to provide the same educational services to students as district public schools. They are tuition-free public schools that operate with freedom from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools.
Who can sponsor charter schools?
In Florida, district school boards are authorized to sponsor charter schools in the county over which the school board has jurisdiction. In addition, a multiple sponsoring state entity, the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission (FSE), was created in 2006 to allow other organizations, including cities, universities, community colleges and regional educational consortia, to co-sponsor charter schools with the FSE.
Do charter schools charge tuition?
No, charter schools are public schools that receive public funds. They cannot charge tuition for the regular school day. They may charge fees for before and/or after school care.
What types of students are eligible to attend charter schools?
What are charter schools?
Charter schools are non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations that have a contract or charter to provide the same educational services to students as district public schools. They are nonsectarian public schools that operate with freedom from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools.
Charter schools are accountable to their sponsor, usually a state or local school board, to produce positive academic results and adhere to the charter contract. The basic concept of charter schools is that they exercise increased autonomy in return for this accountability. They are accountable for both academic results and fiscal practices to several groups: the sponsor that grants them, the parents who choose them, and the public that funds them.
What is the purpose of charter schools?
How many charter schools are currently operating in Florida?
In 1996, the initial year in which charter schools were authorized, five charter schools were operating in Florida. In the 2006-2007 school year,there were 355 operating charter schools serving more than 99,000 students. In 2007-08, the number has grown to 362 charter schools serving 104,257 students.
How are charter schools formed?
According to the Florida statutes, charter schools can be formed by creating a new school or by converting an existing public school to a charter school. An individual, teachers, parents, a group of individuals, a municipality, or a legal entity may create a charter school.
The concept behind the Florida charter school movement is that community-based organizations, colleges and universities create charters schools to serve students in those communities, with a focus on meeting the needs of under served students.
Are charter schools required to employ certified teachers?
Yes. Statutory provisions require teachers employed by or under contract with a charter school to be certified as required by current law.
How are charter schools evaluated and assessed?
Every charter school must be evaluated on academic progress and the outcomes agreed upon in the school’s binding contract. In addition, individual schools are evaluated and assigned a school grade using the same standards and criteria as traditional public schools. | <urn:uuid:a185e347-bd5b-4a86-b0ad-972446a31ebd> | {
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Q&A: X-ray Astronomy
How does Chandra and Rossi compare or differ from one
The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), as the name suggests,
is designed to study the time variations of cosmic X-ray
sources on time scales ranging from microseconds to months.
Its instruments cover an energy range from 2 to 250
kilovolts, compared to the 0.2 to 10 kilovolt range of
Chandra. A major difference is that RXTE has no focusing
X-ray mirrors, so it cannot make X-ray images. It is best
used to study the time variations in bright X-ray sources in
binary stars systems containing black holes and neutrons
stars, for which it has provided a wealth of valuable
information. In addition, RXTE carries an All-Sky Monitor
that scans about 80% of the sky every orbit, allowing
monitoring at time scales of 90 minutes or longer.
For more information see: | <urn:uuid:2620b121-a577-43de-8b5d-c38313498399> | {
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The Study Of Physics Using Virtual Reality Technology
AbstractPhysics is considered the basis of future in the economic development of any civilized country. Regarding education and research as a whole, at world level, there are three factors that influence education directly with profound implications, respectively the economical factor, the political one and the military one. On the one hand , these factors created a state of intensity that stimulate through massive financial investments the evolution of specialists and, on the other hand, they led to the founding of a few elite education centres (post-universitary), where the pedagogic methodology of teaching physics is avant-garde. Particular roles have computers, by creating virtual reality (V.R.), in training their own scholars and specialists of financial giants, being the highest form of the human-computer system. Nowadays, the study of physics assisted by V.R. is at an informal level, which means studying physics outside of an organized group, without objectives and without established operational behaviour.
Download InfoIf you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Bibliographic InfoPaper provided by Faculty of Economic Cybernetics, Statistics and Informatics, Academy of Economic Studies and National Defence University "Carol I", Department for Management of the Defence Resources and Education in its series Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Knowledge Management: Projects, Systems and Technologies,Bucharest, November 12-13 2010 with number 48.
Length: 5 pages
Date of creation: Aug 2010
Date of revision:
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If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form. | <urn:uuid:51f6b37e-f22c-41be-aa6c-5ef2357eaae6> | {
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- Freedom of movement
- Opportunities for participation in daily life-- in time, space, and tools
- Provide necessary and sufficient help (and only what is necessary!)
According to Maria Montessori, the specific powers of the First Plane of Development were the absorbent mind and the sensitive periods. The role of movement in life satisfies certain spiritual needs, like the aesthetic need for music or ritual. Language itself is a form of movement within the vocal chords. All life is movement, within the universe, on earth, and on a cellular level. The whole of the universe is the harmony of movement, and harmony of movement exists in each thing. In Montessori's words, "Movement is a system of relationship."
Movement manifests as an action, as a change in relation to the environment. Purposeful human movement is produced by the harmony of the intelligence and the will. Montessori calls the relationship between the brain, senses, and muscles which generate movement the system of relationship. To develop any aspect of the system, there must be a coordination of the body. She was passionate in her belief that thought cannot be separated from movements. She said, "Thought and action are two parts of the same occurrence," and again, "It is through movement that higher life expresses itself."
Therefore, we must break down the call for no movement in the classroom, as if the intellect were separated from the body. By treating the body and brain separately, we cannot develop independence.
Initially, the child is inert but taking in information. All of their movements are reflexive. Eventually, they will respond purposefully to their environment. The intelligence of the newborn child grows at a higher rate than at any other time to prepare the muscles for movement. And, with more capacity for movement, the infant's world expands, providing more avenues for the expansion of intelligence. As a rule, movement yields more sensory perception, increasing intelligence. [See Dr. Montessori's chart, The Development of Movement].
There are two aspects of motion in human beings:
(1) Locomotion - the gross motor skills of the lower body, and
(2) The hands - the fine motor skills of the upper body.
The focus of the development of the lower limbs is equilibrium, and balance. By 5-6 months, the control of the upper body is enough that the child can finally sit. At crawling, the child can chose between motion and being able to touch objects. Then they move to cruising, standing alone, and finally, when the child begins to walk, she has her hands free to explore the world while moving. The child who wants to pick up the biggest and heaviest objects in the environment are in the stage of maximum effort. They have a tremendous capacity for walking distances at this time, even a mile at the age of 18 months, but they do it much more slowly than adults. This is because they are in the stage of consolidating their development.
Beginning with prehensile grasping, the child soon moves on to purposeful grasping. Then, around one year, one can observe a desire to help with the tools at hand. Around 1 1/2, the child's focus becomes strengthening the arms and climbing with the hands. As they get closer to two, more of the child's effort is directed toward independence. After age two, the controlled actions of the hands are now used in the context of daily life. For adults, it is utilitarian, but for the child, it is the consolidation of thought, will, and action.
We always know what a child will do with their feet when they grow up, to a degree of certainty, but we never know what the child will do with their hands, whose work creates culture. The more the mind of ancient humans developed, through the course of their actions, we can observe finer and finer work from their hands, according to each time and place. Writing on the capacity of the humans hands, Dr. Montessori wrote, "Nothing is ordained, but everything is possible." Knowing that the brain develops through the acquisition of specific skills, we know that it is through movement that the brain develops. By age 3-4, we find that all organs of life are ready of exercise-- once the degree of independence is ready.
Jeannot Jonte Boucher is a Montessori educator and parent in Dallas, Texas. | <urn:uuid:e14eee15-feeb-454d-920c-ab7fce08cd83> | {
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Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
Biological: Behavioural genetics · Evolutionary psychology · Neuroanatomy · Neurochemistry · Neuroendocrinology · Neuroscience · Psychoneuroimmunology · Physiological Psychology · Psychopharmacology (Index, Outline)
Homeotic genes cause the development of specific structures in plants and animals. They include many of the Hox and ParaHox genes which are important for segmentation, They also include the MADS-box-containing genes involved the ABC model of flower development. It is important to note that not all homeotic genes are Hox genes; the MADS- box genes are homeotic but not Hox genes. Equally not all hox genes are homeotic.
Homeotic genes are genes involved in developmental patterns and sequences. For example, homeotic genes are involved in determining where, when, and how body segments develop in flies. Alterations in these genes cause changes in patterns of body parts, sometimes causing dramatic effects such as legs growing in place of antennae or an extra set of wings or, in the case of plants, flowers with abnormal numbers of parts. An individual carrying an altered (mutant) version of a homeotic gene is known as a homeotic mutant.
Rather surprisingly, it has been found that the sequence of homeotic genes in fruit flies, known as the Hox genes, are lined up in exactly the same order as the part of the fly they affect. That is to say, the first gene affects the mouth, the second the face, the third the top of the head and so on up until the eighth and final gene that affects the abdomen.
- ↑ Young T, Rowland JE, van de Ven C, et al. (October 2009). Cdx and Hox genes differentially regulate posterior axial growth in mammalian embryos. Dev. Cell 17 (4): 516–26.
- ↑ Theissen G (2001). Development of floral organ identity: stories from the MADS house. Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 4 (1): 75–85.
- ↑ Nusslein-Volhard, C. and Wieschaus, E. (1980) Mutations affecting segment order and polarity in Drosophila, Nature 287: 795-801 | <urn:uuid:f70c37d1-e136-4f51-a2f9-d9a9109bd470> | {
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Ferdinand, Catholic Habsburg King of Bohemia suppresses Protestants.
Roman Catholic officials in Bohemia close Protestant chapels in Czech towns of Broumov and Hrob. This violated the “Letter of Majesty” (made in 1609) which granted religious freedom
This was sparked by the Defenestration of Prague
Protestant noblemen meet, judge royal Catholic officials guilty of violating the “Letter of Majesty” and throw them out of a castle window. This sparks the 30 Years War.
A series of treaties that are drawn up and accepted by the combatants of the 30 Years War. It was meant to create general European Peace.
He forges new armies and creates one of the most formidable armies of that time.
Caused by Frederick II seizing the Austrian province of Silesia
Through the reign of Frederick I, Prussia has become a power to rival that of Austria. Frederick II seizes the Habsburg province Silesia
Prussian king Frederick the Great goes against Austria
Russia, Prussia, and Austria divide up Poland (1701, 1772, 1795 being the last partition, wiping Poland off of the world maps for the next 123 years) | <urn:uuid:13a661a0-3777-44b8-86c8-ec6e056c846a> | {
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Build Engineers need to know a lot about different tools. You might think that having a strong understanding of Ant or Make will suffice, but the fact is that every now and then you may have to work with legacy build systems written using Makefiles. Make has been around a long time and used on many platforms. Now don't get the idea that GNU Make is a legacy tool itself. GNU Make has been and continues to be a modern and robust build tool.GNU Make has been and continues to be a modern and robust build tool.
If you want to be a qualified build engineer then this excellent tool must be in your skillset.
You can download a copy of GNU Make from the GNU website.
Makefiles contain directives that are generally of the form:
> target: dependency
> commands
Let's start with a simple C++ program to print out hello world.
(If you are blind and trying to read this code via a reader then drop me an email and I will send it to you -
. I used to be blind and glad to network with other blinks :-)
This code simply prints out the message "Hello World!".
Both Ant and Maven use XML, while Make uses directives in a slightly different format.
The Makefile to build this simple program looks like
(Hey if you are blind looking at this through a reader just send me an email and I will send you the code directly -
Running the Makefile and viewing the results
You will notice that Make created the hello executable (shown in green). The hello.o is a binary object file derived as an intermediate step from the hello.cpp (which is the source code shown above).
Here is an example of a Makefile with two dependencies. In this example, we will compile a C Language program .
In this example, Make first creates util.o from util.c and main.o from main.c. Next, Make links main.o and util.o to create the main executable.
Managing Projects with GNU Make by Robert Mecklenburg, O'Reilly Media Inc., p. 4
The C Programming Language by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. 1988
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Induced pluripotent stem cells are made from adult cells by means of genetic engineering techniques that introduce into the cells a combination for four different genes that drive the cells to de-differentiate into a cell that has many of the characteristics of embryonic stem cells without the destruction of embryos.
A new study from the laboratory of Juergen Knoblich at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Vienna has mixed induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to form structures of the human brain. He largely left the cells alone to allow them to form the brain tissue, but he also placed them in a spinning bioreactor that constantly circulates the culture medium and provides nutrients and oxygen to the cells. One other growth factor he supplied to the cells was retinoic acid, which is made by the meninges that surround our brains. All of this and the cells not only divided, differentiated and assembled, but they formed brain structures that had all the connections of a normal brain. These brain-like chunks of tissue are called “mini-brains” and the recent edition of the journal Nature reports their creation.
“It’s a seminal study to making a brain in a dish,” says Clive Svendsen, a neurobiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Svendsen was not involved in this study, but wishes he was. Of this study, Svendsen exclaimed, “That’s phenomenal” A fully formed artificial brain is still years and years away, but the pea-sized neural clumps developed in Knoblich’s laboratory could prove useful for researching human neurological diseases.
Researchers have previously used pluripotent human stem cells to grow structures that resemble the developing eye (Eiraku, M. et al. Nature 472, 51–56 (2011), and even tissue layers similar to the cerebral cortex of the brain (Eiraku, M. et al. Cell Stem Cell 3, 519–532 (2008). However, this latest advance has seen bigger and more complex neural-tissue clumps by first growing the stem cells on a synthetic gel that resembled natural connective tissues found in the brain and elsewhere in the body. After growing them on the synthetic gel, Knoblich and his colleagues transferred the cells to a spinning bioreactor that infuses the cells with nutrients and oxygen.
“The big surprise was that it worked,” said Knoblich. The clump formed structures that resembled the brains of fetuses in the ninth week of development.
Under a microscope, the blobs contained discrete brain regions that seemed to interact with one another. However, the overall arrangement of the different proto-brain areas varied randomly across tissue samples. These structures were not recognizable physiological structures.
“The entire structure is not like one brain,” says Knoblich, who added that normal brain maturation in an intact embryo is probably guided by growth signals from other parts of the body. The tissue balls also lacked blood vessels, which could be one reason that their size was limited to 3–4 millimeters in diameter, even after growing for 10 months or more.
Despite these limitations, Knoblich and his collaborators used this system to model key aspects of microcephaly, which is a condition that causes extremely stunted brain growth and cognitive impairment. Microcephaly and other neurodevelopmental disorders are difficult to replicate in rodents because the brains of rodents develop differently than those of humans.
Knoblich and others found that tissue chunks cultured from stem cells derived from the skin of a single human with microcephaly did not grow as large as clumps grown from stem cells derived from a healthy person. When they traced this effect, they discovered that it was due to the premature differentiation of neural stem cells inside the microcephalic tissue chunks, which depleted the population of progenitor cells that fuels normal brain growth.
The findings largely confirm prevailing theories about microcephaly, says Arnold Kriegstein, a developmental neurobiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. But, he adds, the study also demonstrates the potential for using human-stem-cell-derived tissues to model other disorders, if cell growth can be controlled more reliably.
“This whole approach is really in its early stages,” says Kriegstein. “The jury may still be out in terms of how robust this is.” | <urn:uuid:11716e38-8edb-45be-812d-f9b3411f1fb9> | {
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Involving, done, or operated by only one person: a one-man show
More example sentences
- Why else would a bus stop be built out other than to stop traffic flow while it piles up behind the buses, which are one-man operated?
- What was once a one-man operation now has four employees and several sub-contractors.
- He was a one-man operation and so it was easier for him to evade scrutiny.
Definition of one-man in:
- The US English dictionary | <urn:uuid:dcf5761a-e3cc-497c-946a-a9d6432cb756> | {
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CFD 7 – 1 David Apsley
7. TURBULENCE SPRING 2012
7.1 What is turbulence?
7.2 Momentum transfer in laminar and turbulent flow
7.3 Turbulence notation
7.4 Effect of turbulence on the mean flow
7.5 Turbulence generation and transport
7.6 Important shear flows
PART (a) – THE NATURE OF TURBULENCE
7.1 What is Turbulence?
• A “random”, 3-d, time-dependent eddying motion with many scales, superposed on an
often drastically simpler mean flow.
• A solution of the Navier-Stokes equations.
• The natural state at high Reynolds numbers.
• An efficient transporter and mixer ... of momentum, energy, constituents.
• A major source of energy loss.
• A significant influence on drag and boundary-layer separation.
• “The last great unsolved problem of classical physics.” (variously attributed to
Sommerfeld, Einstein and Feynman)
CFD 7 – 2 David Apsley
7.2 Momentum Transfer in Laminar and Turbulent Flow
In laminar flow adjacent layers of fluid slide past each other
without mixing. Transfer of momentum occurs between
layers moving at different speeds because of viscous stresses.
In turbulent flow adjacent layers continually mix. A net
transfer of momentum occurs because of the mixing of fluid
elements from layers with different mean velocity. This
mixing is a far more effective means of transferring
momentum than viscous stresses. Consequently, the mean-
velocity profile tends to be more uniform in turbulent flow.
7.3 Turbulence Notation
The instantaneous value of any flow variable can be decomposed into mean + fluctuation.
is decomposed into
mean + fluctuation
Mean and fluctuating parts are denoted by either:
• an overbar and prime: uuu
• upper case and lower case: uU
The first is useful in deriving theoretical results but becomes cumbersome in general use. The
notation being used is, hopefully, obvious from the context.
By definition, the average fluctuation is zero:
In experimental work and in steady flow the “mean” is usually a time mean, whilst in
theoretical work it is the probabilistic (or “ensemble”) mean. The process of taking the mean
of a turbulent quantity or a product of turbulent quantities is called Reynolds averaging.
The normal averaging rules for products apply:
222 uuu ′
Thus, in turbulent flow the “mean of a product” is not equal to the “product of the means” but
includes an (often significant) contribution from the net effect of turbulent fluctuations.
CFD 7 – 3 David Apsley
7.4 Effect of Turbulence on the Mean Flow
Engineers are usually only interested in the mean flow. However, turbulence must still be
considered because, although the averages of individual fluctuations (e.g. u
) are zero,
the average of a product (e.g. vu
) is not and may lead to a significant net flux.
Consider mass and momentum fluxes in the y direction across surface A. For simplicity,
assume constant density.
Mass flux: vA
Average mass flux: Av
The only change is that the instantaneous velocity is replaced by the mean velocity.
The mean velocity satisfies the same continuity equation as the instantaneous velocity.
x-momentum flux: AuvuvA )(
Average x-momentum flux: AvuvuuvA )()( ′′
The average momentum flux has the same form as the instantaneous momentum flux …
except for additional fluxes Avu ′′ due to the net effect of turbulent fluctuations. These
additional terms arise because of the averaging of a product of fluctuating quantities.
A net rate of transport of momentum Avu ′′ from lower to upper side of an interface ...
• is equivalent to a net rate of transport of momentum Avu ′′
− from upper to lower;
• has the same dynamic effect (i.e. same rate of transfer of momentum) as a stress (i.e.
force per unit area) vu ′′
This apparent stress is called a Reynolds stress. In a fully-turbulent flow it is usually much
larger than the viscous stress.
Other Reynolds stresses ( uu ′′
−, vv ′′
−, etc.) emerge when considering the average flux of
the different momentum components in different directions.
The mean velocity satisfies the same momentum equation as the instantaneous velocity,
except for additional apparent stresses: the Reynolds stresses jiuu ′′
CFD 7 – 4 David Apsley
In a simple shear flow the total stress is
In fully-turbulent flow turbulent stress is usually substantially bigger than viscous stress.
can be interpreted as either:
• the apparent force (per unit area) exerted by the upper fluid on the lower,
• the rate of transport of momentum (per unit area) from upper fluid to lower.
The dynamic effect – a transfer of momentum – is the same.
The nature of the turbulent stress can be illustrated by considering the motion of particles
whose fluctuating velocities allow them to cross an interface.
If particle A migrates upward (v′ > 0) then it tends to retain its original
momentum, which is now lower than its surrounds (u′ < 0).
If particle B migrates downward (v′ < 0) it tends to retain its original
momentum which is now higher than its surrounds (u′ > 0).
In both cases, vu
is positive and, on average, tends to reduce the
momentum in the upper fluid or increase the momentum in the lower
fluid. Hence there is a net transfer of momentum from upper to lower
fluid, equivalent to the effect of an additional mean stress.
Normal stresses: 222 ,, wvu ′′′
Shear stresses: vuuwwv ′′′′′′ ,,
(In slightly careless, but extremely common, usage both vu ′′
− and vu ′′ are referred to as
Most turbulent flows are anisotropic; i.e. 222 ,, wvu ′′′ are different.
Turbulent kinetic energy: )( 222
Turbulence intensity: U
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Walk on Water, Walk for Water
Soon, we begin the third of our River Water Walks. The Ohio River Water Walk begins April 22 in Pittsburgh. The Ohio is the most polluted river in the United States. Once it ran pure and clean and at times the water level was so low, our ancestors could walk across it. Now, over 41 dams control the water levels so barges can move up and down the river carrying goods, oil and coal. Recent chemical spills at Elk River, and the Dan River coal ash dump are contributing to the already besieged waterway. There can be no doubt that we are damaging our fresh water faster than it can be replenished. How did we get to this point? What do we do?
According to Indigenous prophecies, we may be in the time of the 7th fire. The teachings of the Seven Fires prophecy were given to the Indigenous peoples prior to contact with the Europeans. It was through these prophesies that the People of the Three Fires, Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomi began a westward migration to avoid contact with the “light-skinned people” coming from across the ocean. Each fire represents a period of time and events. So far all the proceeding prophesies have come to pass. The 7th fire signifies a time when a new people emerge—a people who lift us up and move us forward, or continue the disharmony and destruction. This movement to lift us up is created only if there is peace and harmony between the Indigenous people of this land and the light-skinned people—indeed among all the people who inhabit the Americas.
Up until now the light-skinned people have brought death to the Indigenous People’s through genocide. Over 50 million people inhabited North and South America, the Caribbean Islands, and Central America. Today, a few million survive. Many of us have lost our language and ceremonial ways as we were forced to speak English or Spanish and our ceremonial ways were outlawed and forbidden as predicted in the prophecies. Missionaries forced our ancestors to convert to Christianity. These tragedies were foretold to us by prophets and occurred during the first six fires. However this is history; what of the future?
There can be no doubt we are at a crossroads. If one were to view the earth the way the astronauts have, one would see how fragile our atmosphere is. We must repair the holes in the ozone layer and diminish the damage we are doing to our planet Earth, ni mama akii. We must stop poisoning the very water that we need to live. All the water on the Earth now is all there is; all the water we will ever have. We must learn to conserve, learn to be resourceful without continuing the rape of the earth’s precious fuels and minerals. If we do not, the elemental resources we share and need to survive will be gone forever. The prophesies state that when the world has been befouled and the waters turned bitter by disrespect, human beings will have two options to choose from, materialism or spirituality. If we chose spirituality, we will survive, but if we chose materialism, it will be the end for us all.
This is also a time of promise. The lighting of the 8th fire will occur only if we move toward peace and harmony. The 8th fire will be one of spiritual growth among all. It is only through peace and harmony among all people, those of us who originated here and those who have sought refuge here and are currently living on Turtle Island/ North America that we will survive.
We are invisible in our own lands. And yet our people, ways and traditions may be one of the best hopes for our shared survival.
I invite you to know us. I invite you to walk with me as I walk the Ohio River. Every step will be a prayer. It will be led by Indigenous women. It is our responsibility to take care of the water. And we will. With you or without you. I desire it to be with you, all of you. Those who’s ancestors came from across an ocean but who live here today on this beautiful land. Help us save our lands for my grandchildren and for yours. If you cannot walk, I invite you to make an offering every morning for the water. Say migwetch/ thank you to this water that gives you life and sustains you each and every day. Love, gratitude and kindness are the key to changing the world.
In this time of the 7th fire, reconciliations must occur, in order for the 8th fire to be lit; and that can only happen if you know us, and learn to know how to live with generosity, kindness and love as your guiding values. This means giving up some materialism and learning to live in a way in which the spirit is at the center of all that we do. Racism, prejudice, sexism, and greed must become a thing of the past. They are tools that do not serve any of us. I know it is hard, it’s hard for me to let go of the past hurts and the pain that I encounter almost every day. But I try. And I will do it. So come along with me. I invite you to.
The Ohio River Walk will begin April 22 in Pittsburgh. This river is the most polluted river in the United States and the largest tributary to the Mississippi river by volume. If you cannot join me in Ohio, then walk a river or lake where you are. Give thanks and peace will come to you. Migwetch. Thank you.
Sharon M. Day is the executive director of the Indigenous Peoples Task Force. Ms. Day is an artist and activist who has been involved in public policy work for several decades.
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Please use the log in option at the bottom of this page | <urn:uuid:b57f2bbb-a29f-4b7f-912c-430311b5ce39> | {
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You may have heard of isotonic exercise in passing, but when it comes to the specific benefits of this type of power workout, many of us might be stumped. Looking at how isotonic exercise helps athletes is part of an overall survey of the best and most useful fitness practices that are common in gyms and health clubs.
What Is Isotonic Exercise?
Many athletes who work out regularly are not familiar with the technical term, but most of them are familiar with the actual practice of isotonic exercise. Isotonic exercise is when the muscle carries a static weight limit over a specific range of motion. In common terms, this means moving a free weight or fixed weight as part of common weight training. A bicep curl is a classic example of isotonic exercise, where the muscle has to work against a set resistance through the entire curl, which is the range of motion.
Benefits of Isotonic Exercise
Isotonic exercise is very useful, not only in helping participants bulk up, but in providing specific muscle responses that will be useful in a range of athletic and recreational activities.
One of the main benefits of isotonic exercise is that it doesn't require extensive equipment. Portable items like dumbbells, kettlebells, medicine balls and other similar tools are all ways to fit isotonic exercise into any space or environment.
How Resistance Helps in Training
More of the benefits of isotonic exercise are related to the use of resistance. The weight of the above fitness tools provides resistance that the body has to work against. This helps strengthen muscles in several ways.
Those who have access to a range of free weights or fixed weights can pursue progressive resistance. This can provide assistance with a range of fitness goals. Working out with lighter weights through more isotonic repetitions will make muscles stronger and more able to handle challenges across their entire range of motion (such as an arm or leg extension). When users work out with much heavier weights, it causes a specific increase in muscle size, because the high weight load leads to tiny tears in the muscle tissue. This causes enlarging of the muscle when they're repaired by the body.
More about the Science of Isotonic Exercise
Fitness experts point out that isotonic exercise often includes two specific kinds of training. In scientific terms, these are called concentric and eccentric muscle contraction. Concentric contraction is when the muscle is moving weights upward and actively manipulating the resistance. Eccentric contraction is when the muscles are working passively, for example, when lowering weight along with gravity, or simply holding onto a resistance load and managing it, rather than pushing it or pulling it through a range of motion.
Scientists have found that a combination of concentric and eccentric contractions, found in most popular forms of isotonic exercise like weight lifting, stair climbing and elliptical training, are able to provide diverse beneficial results for the body. Good isotonic exercise will prepare the muscles for different kinds of activities that they may encounter in a normal day.
Think about all of the above when crafting your perfect power workout routine that will be likely to include some isotonic exercise activities. | <urn:uuid:a8c9927d-a3e9-4301-9bfe-9fb7d45c16c0> | {
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NCU scientists name areas with ‘poisoned’ soil
But RADA official counters claim
MANDEVILLE, Manchester — ONE year after revealing that sections of the soil in some farming communities in St Elizabeth and Manchester were contaminated with poisonous metals, Northern Caribbean University (NCU) scientists have revealed the names of the affected crops and the communities from which they came.
Two Manchester communities — Grove Place and Green Vale — were the most alarming, showing high levels of the deadly chemical arsenic, the cancer-causing cadmium, and the brain-altering metals lead and mercury, in a number of popular Jamaican staples. Sweet potatoes, yellow yam, cassava, coco and pumpkin were the crops most affected, with sweet potatoes having the highest levels of arsenic, lead and mercury, while yellow yams had the highest levels of cadmium, and coco was most vulnerable to lead.
All the crop samples from Grove Place — yellow yam, cassava, coco, sweet potato and pumpkin, had levels of arsenic way above the world- recommended standards, while the same crops grown in both Grove Place and Greenvale had cadmium levels above the acceptable international standards.
Leading scientist and Dean of the College of Natural and Applied Sciences at NCU, Dr Vincent Wright, who brought the issue to public attention last March, told the Jamaica Observer that the details of the study have been published in the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, an international academic journal.
The article, which was authored by Wright and another NCU scientist, Stephen Jones, said soil and crop samples were taken from 10 farms in Comfort Hall and Balaclava in St Elizabeth, and Mile Gully, Grove Place, Maidstone, Williamsfield, Green Vale, Hatfield and Christiana in Manchester. The samples were collected and tested over a 10-month period.
Arsenic, a known poison, is a silver-grey substance which develops naturally in the earth's crust, as well as in plants and animals. It can also be released into the environment through natural activities, such as rock erosion and forest fires, or through human actions, including copper smelting, mining and coal burning. It is also used in paints, dyes, metals, drugs and soaps.
Arsenic attacks the body's vital organs, cripples the body's immune system and can cause cancer of the bladder, lungs, skin, kidney, nasal passages, liver, and prostate. Depending on the severity of exposure, affected persons may suffer from head and stomach aches, convulsions, severe diarrhoea and change in pigmentation, especially in the fingernails, and drowsiness.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), "long-term human exposure, through drinking of contaminated water, is an important public health problem in some regions and countries". The United States Centre for Disease Control says high levels of arsenic can also come from certain fertilisers and animal feeding operations.
Cadmium, the lesser known, but equally harmful substance, is a known cancer-causing heavy metal, which can lead to softening of the bones, severe kidney problems and spontaneous abortions. It is found in electronics, including batteries. A diet high in zinc is said to be able to combat cadmium symptoms.
Lead, another toxin found in the study, is no stranger to Jamaica. In 2004, environmental scientists at the University of the West Indies (UWI) found a large concentration of lead in sections of Mona Commons and Kintyre, communities close to the UWI. A number of children were affected, and residents in the two communities were evacuated. The NCU study found that sweet potato from Grove Place had the highest concentration of lead.
Mercury, which is found mostly in fish products, has similar effects to lead, and has been found to affect children in particular. Long-term exposure can affect the nervous system and cause brain and kidney damage. High-level exposure can affect the reproductive health of both men and women and the growth and learning ability in children. The study showed that mercury was at its highest in all crops in Grove Place and Williamsfield.
Mikael Phillips, who is Member for Parliament for North West Manchester, in which both communities fall, told the Sunday Observer, that he was not aware of the problem. "North West Manchester solely depends on agriculture. It's the largest producer of sweet potato and irish potato, so when I hear about sweet potato, it's a concern," he said, pointing out that he would readily take money from his Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to help deal with the problem. "We would have to get constituency sensitised, get the agencies involved ... I'd want to be at the forefront of the fight," he told the Sunday Observer.
But Head of the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) in Manchester Samuel Harris, scoffed at the NCU study, referring to it as 'stale news'. He said that the University of the West Indies (UWI) had done a study in 2005, which had revealed that "the whole northern belt... from Mandeville, to bits of Trelawny and a little part of St Elizabeth" had cadmium. He said that at the time, the UWI had said that, "it wouldn't affect human beings. They even did autopsies on humans and found that people were living to a hundred and odd," he stated.
Harris said since then, RADA had done nothing to deal with the problem and he insisted that he was "comfortable with the conclusion of the UWI study that it wasn't affecting humans, besides what could we do? move the soil?" He said at the time, the UWI study had indicated that the levels of cadmium were higher than acceptable world standards
But in the NCU study, both scientists expressed concern that the high levels of lead and cadmium found in some crops, "may be of great concern since exposure to those toxic metals has been shown to negatively impact human health globally", especially since "we also noted a strong co-relation between soil and agriculture produce cadmium concentrations". This means the crops were more susceptible to be affected by this metal once the soil was contaminated.
The study suggested that more attention must be paid to selecting land and food crops "with suitable sustainable agriculture practices" to "mitigate the metal content.
"This is important because chronic consumption of these crops with high levels of toxic metals, especially cadmium, lead, arsenic and mercury, may be deleterious to human and animal health," he said.
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Despite the ubiquity of digital technology and increased physical and virtual mobility, entrepreneurship remains very place-based. Many people start up and practice where they live, drawing from whatever resources exist within their local area. Others choose location with intent, based on a place’s entrepreneurial reputation or its feel.
We can draw a circle around the interactions of people, organizations, and infrastructure and look at how they combine to heighten or diminish entrepreneurial activity. In any particular place, there might be several of these circles or ecosystems.
By nature, ecosystems are place-based. In ecosystem development, the focus is often on institutions and resources. The less tangible notion of culture is equally, if not more, important. A place’s entrepreneurial culture is defined by its ecosystem. To nurture an entrepreneurial culture, the ecosystem needs to be local, visible, and accessible in the day-to-day interactions of entrepreneurs.
Around the country, entrepreneurs cited numerous examples of what makes for a great environment. Along with networks, capital, and mentorship, all mention cultural aspects of the place where they’re building their ventures.
People need to see what’s possible. In places such as Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and Austin, the culture of entrepreneurship is visible in the environment. In Mountain View, California, the fast food and retail signs you’d expect to see on the strip are replaced with startup names. In Austin, coffee shops cater to entrepreneurs by setting up communal conference rooms with self-service sign-up sheets.
In Omaha, co-working spaces advertise on the street to those looking for a place to join others as they work outside of the established system of jobs and employment. Entrepreneurs like a place with a density and proximity of entrepreneurial communities. In some locations, entrepreneurs literally bump into each other in the street. In other locations, the event scene provides multiple opportunities to meet and network with other entrepreneurs.
A sense of affiliation is important. Places where starting a business is the norm create a strong sense of community, identity, and purpose. Entrepreneurs are very aware that building the appropriate culture can take generations who succeed and fail, and who reinvest in their local ecosystem.
The Multiplicity of Ecosystems
Entrepreneurs form communities organized around sectors or knowledge areas that have different needs and behaviors. For instance, in a particular region there might be entrepreneurs working in life science, gaming, and food. Developing a strong gaming ecosystem, a life-science ecosystem, and a food ecosystem creates a density of entrepreneurs within a place.
While different communities do have different needs, there is value placed in some degree of cross-pollination. The strongest ecosystems support healthy connections across a variety of communities.
Entrepreneurs often move between cities and regions. Ecosystems that provide seamless entrepreneurial services and support at city, region, and state levels are tremendously helpful. Laura, a social media entrepreneur, found this out when she moved her startup to Cambridge, Massachusetts, from Boston because public transportation issues were making it impossible for her employees to get to work. Rather than the cities working together to support her and her company, she found they competed with each other.
Look at What You’ve Got
Working within a system that’s short on people, organizations, infrastructure, and culture, can make entrepreneurship a very isolating experience. Early on, Mark, a founder of two e-commerce startups turned VC, felt that others around him in Omaha were immersed in a culture of success through employment. The norm was securing a high-level position in a big corporation. Others found his entrepreneurial behavior to be highly risky, if not borderline crazy.
Entrepreneurs and other stakeholders can provide a clear picture of the local entrepreneurship ecosystem. Assessing, cataloging, and disseminating information on the existing organizations and resources within a place enables people to easily see and access these myriad resources. In the process, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in the system learn to be collaborative, transparent, and proactive in growing their unique ecosystem.
When Hall launched the Austin Entrepreneur Network, his goal was not to create an entrepreneurial network from scratch but rather to catalog and connect the existing organizations and resources within Austin. Another stakeholder in the Austin community, Bijoy, visually mapped the scene and used this map to link particular resources to components of the entrepreneurial process. And, in Nebraska, the founder of a fan analytics application recalls how the entrepreneur community in Omaha was galvanized by a single person taking the initiative to connect isolated elements within the ecosystem. What has been your experience with ecosystems?
About This Research
The Babson Entrepreneur Experience Lab is a partnership between Babson College and the Business Innovation Factory. It is a research platform that puts the voice and experience of real-world entrepreneurs at the center of an ongoing effort to design, develop, and experiment with new education and support solutions that will help shape future generations of entrepreneurs.
More than 250 entrepreneurs launching ventures in the United States were interviewed, offering a glimpse into their everyday lives. We hope their experiences will begin to evolve our understanding of entrepreneurship—to tell new stories that can shape new realities for entrepreneurs of all kinds.
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The factorial on n, written n!, is defined by n! = 1 x 2 x 3 x ... x (n-2) x (n-1) x n.
For how many positive integer values of k less than 50 is it possible to find a value of n such that n! ends in exactly k zeros?
If you have an idea for puzzle of the month, then please do let me know.
Don't forget to check out 'Teach Further Maths' - PowerPoints for Teachers and Students of A-Level Further Maths
...and the brilliant NEW educational card game 'Maths Trumps' | <urn:uuid:7ffb2e71-8dba-43c1-8864-bc7d66b73ed7> | {
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A fracture is a break in the bone that occurs when extreme force is applied. Treatment of fractures involves the joining of the broken bones either by immobilizing the area and allowing the bone to heal on its own, or surgically aligning the broken bones and stabilizing it with metal pins, rods or plates. Sometimes, the broken bone fails to re-join and heal even after treatment. This is called non-union. Non-union occurs when the broken bones do not get sufficient nutrition, blood supply or adequate stability (not immobilized enough) to heal. Non-union can be identified by pain after the initial fracture pain is relieved, swelling, tenderness, deformity and difficulty bearing weight.
When you present with these symptoms, your doctor may order imaging tests like X-rays, CT scans and MRI to confirm a diagnosis of non-union. The treatment of non-union fractures can be achieved by non-surgical or surgical procedures.
Non-surgical treatment: This method involves the use of a bone stimulator, a small device that produces ultrasonic or pulsed electromagnetic waves, which stimulates the healing process. You will be instructed to place the stimulator over the region of non-union for 20 minutes to a few hours every day.
Surgical treatment: The surgical method of treatment for non-union is aimed at:
- Establishing stability: Metal rods, plates or screws are implanted to hold the broken bones above and below the fracture site. Support may be provided internally or externally.
- Providing a healthy blood supply and soft tissue at the fracture site: Your doctor removes dead bone along with any poorly vascularized or scarred tissue from the site of fracture to encourage healing. Sometimes, healthy soft tissue along with its underlying blood vessels may be removed from another part of your body and transplanted at the fracture site to promote healing.
- Stimulating a new healing response: Bone grafts may be used to provide fresh bone-forming cells and supportive cells to stimulate bone healing. | <urn:uuid:a0a37f1c-7c58-4fe2-bfac-ccb2639eddb1> | {
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vitamin c (ascorbic acid) Overview Information
Vitamin C is a vitamin. Some animals can make their own vitamin C, but people must get this vitamin from food and other sources. Good sources of vitamin C are fresh fruits and vegetables, especially citrus fruits. Vitamin C can also be made in a laboratory.
Most experts recommend getting vitamin C from a diet high in fruits and vegetables rather than taking supplements. Fresh-squeezed orange juice or fresh-frozen concentrate is a better pick than ready-to-drink orange juice. The fresh juice contains more active vitamin C. Drink fresh-frozen orange juice within one week after reconstituting it for the most benefit. It you prefer ready-to-drink orange juice, buy it 3 to 4 weeks before the expiration date, and drink it within one week of opening.
Historically, vitamin C was used for preventing and treating scurvy. Scurvy is now relatively rare, but it was once common among sailors, pirates, and others who spent long periods of time onboard ships. When the voyages lasted longer than the supply of fruits and vegetables, the sailors began to suffer from vitamin C deficiency, which led to scurvy.
These days, vitamin C is used most often for preventing and treating the common cold. Some people use it for other infections including gum disease, acne and other skin infections, bronchitis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease, stomach ulcers caused by bacteria called Helicobacter pylori, tuberculosis, dysentery (an infection of the lower intestine), and skin infections that produce boils (furunculosis). It is also used for infections of the bladder and prostate.
Some people use vitamin C for depression, thinking problems, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, physical and mental stress, fatigue, and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Other uses include increasing the absorption of iron from foods and correcting a protein imbalance in certain newborns (tyrosinemia).
There is some thought that vitamin C might help the heart and blood vessels. It is used for hardening of the arteries, preventing clots in veins and arteries, heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
Vitamin C is also used for glaucoma, preventing cataracts, preventing gallbladder disease, dental cavities (caries), constipation, Lyme disease, boosting the immune system, heat stroke, hay fever, asthma, bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, infertility, diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), autism, collagen disorders, arthritis and bursitis, back pain and disc swelling, cancer, and osteoporosis.
Additional uses include improving physical endurance and slowing aging, as well as counteracting the side effects of cortisone and related drugs, and aiding drug withdrawal in addiction.
Sometimes, people put vitamin C on their skin to protect it against the sun, pollutants, and other environmental hazards. Vitamin C is also applied to the skin to help with damage from radiation therapy.
How does it work?
Vitamin C is required for the proper development and function of many parts of the body. It also plays an important role in maintaining proper immune function.
- Treatment and prevention of vitamin C deficiency, including a condition called “scurvy.”
Likely Effective for:
- Improving the way the body absorbs iron.
- Treating a disease called tyrosinemia in newborns when given as an injection.
Possibly Effective for:
- Wrinkled skin. Skin creams containing vitamin C or vitamin C in combination with acetyl tyrosine, zinc sulfate, sodium hyaluronate, and bioflavonoids (Cellex-C High Potency Serum) seem to improve wrinkles in facial skin aged by sun exposure.
- Reducing the risk of certain cancers of the mouth and breast. This only works when fresh fruits and vegetables high in vitamin C are eaten, not with vitamin C supplements.
- Treating the common cold. There is a lot of controversy about the effectiveness of vitamin C for treating the common cold. However, the majority of evidence shows that taking high doses of vitamin C might shorten the course of the cold by 1 to 1.5 days in some patients. But it is not effective for preventing the common cold.
- Lowering high blood pressure. Taking vitamin C along with conventional high blood pressure medications appears to decrease systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) by a small amount, but does not seem to decrease diastolic pressure (the bottom number). Taking vitamin C supplements alone, though, doesn’t seem to affect blood pressure.
- Preventing sunburn. Taking vitamin C along with vitamin E seems to prevent sunburn. But taking vitamin C alone doesn’t prevent sunburn.
- Reducing the risk of gallbladder disease. There is some evidence that taking vitamin C might help to prevent gallbladder disease in women. But vitamin C doesn’t seem to have this effect in men.
- Slowing the worsening of osteoarthritis. Obtaining vitamin C from dietary sources seems to prevent cartilage loss and worsening of symptoms in people with osteoarthritis.
- Treating an eye disease called AMD (age-related macular degeneration) when used with other medicines. Taking vitamin C in combination with zinc, vitamin E, and beta-carotene daily seems to help prevent vision loss or slow worsening of AMD in patients with advanced AMD. There isn't enough evidence to know if this combination helps people with less advanced macular disease or prevents AMD. Using vitamin C with other antioxidants, but without zinc, doesn't seem to have any effect on AMD.
- Decreasing protein in the urine of people with type 2 diabetes (albuminuria). This might help to lower the risk of developing serious kidney disease.
- Redness (erythema) after cosmetic skin procedures. There is some evidence that a particular vitamin C skin cream can decrease the amount of redness and the time it lasts following laser resurfacing for scar and wrinkle removal.
- Decreasing lung infections caused by heavy exercise. Using vitamin C in amounts of 600 mg to 1 gram per day before heavy physical exercise, such as a marathon, might prevent upper respiratory infections that sometimes follow heavy exercise.
- Treating ulcers in the stomach caused by bacteria called H. pylori. Taking vitamin C seems to decrease some of the side effects caused by treatment. After H. pylori bacteria are killed, vitamin C appears to decrease the occurrence of precancerous changes in stomach tissue.
- Helping medicines used for chest pain, such as nitroglycerin, to work longer.
- Reducing the risk in women of a circulatory system disorder called peripheral arterial disease.
- Preventing “hardening of the arteries” (atherosclerosis).
- Preventing kidney problems related to contrast media used during a diagnostic test called angiography.
- Reducing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission by mothers to their newborns when taken with vitamins B and E.
- Reducing complications after a broken wrist called complex regional pain syndrome, or reflex sympathetic dystrophy.
- Reducing lead in the blood by eating foods high in vitamin C.
- Reducing complications of a high-risk pregnancy (pre-eclampsia).
- Improving physical performance and strength in the elderly.
Possibly Ineffective for:
- Preventing the common cold.
- Reducing the risk of stroke.
- Reducing the risk for Alzheimer's disease and other brain diseases that may cause intellectual loss.
- Preventing eye disease associated with a medicine called interferon.
- Treating bronchitis.
- Reducing skin problems in people being treated for cancer with radiation.
- Preventing pancreatic cancer.
- Preventing prostate cancer.
- Preventing type 2 diabetes.
- Hay fever (Allergic rhinitis). There is conflicting evidence about the effects of vitamin C on symptoms of hay fever. Taking vitamin C doesn’t seem to prevent hay fever.
- Cataracts. There is conflicting information about the use of vitamin C to prevent cataracts. Vitamin C plus vitamin E and beta-carotene doesn't seem to have any significant effect on age-related loss of vision due to cataracts in well-nourished people who take the supplement long-term (for an average of 6.3 years). On the other hand, other research suggests that taking multivitamins that contain vitamin C for 10 years seems to prevent cataracts. Use of supplements for shorter periods doesn't appear to work.
- Bladder cancer. Taking vitamin C does not seem to affect survival.
- Lowering cholesterol. Taking vitamin C daily doesn’t seem to lower cholesterol in people whose cholesterol is not too high to start with. The effect of vitamin C on cholesterol levels in patients with high cholesterol is not known.
- Cancer (Esophageal cancer, and colorectal cancer). Taking vitamin C in combination with beta-carotene plus vitamin E doesn't seem to prevent these types of cancer.
- Stomach cancer. Not all research agrees on whether or not taking vitamin C supplements or getting extra vitamin C in the diet can prevent stomach cancer. Taking vitamin C supplements in combination with beta-carotene or beta-carotene plus vitamin E does not seem to reduce the risk of stomach cancer. But some evidence suggests that taking vitamin C alone might keep precancerous sores in the stomach from progressing to cancer in people at high risk for stomach cancer.
- Mental stress. Limited evidence suggests that vitamin C might reduce blood pressure and symptoms during times of mental distress.
- Ovarian cancer. Dietary vitamin C does not seem to affect the risk of getting ovarian cancer.
- Kidney disease.
- Liver disease.
- Cystic fibrosis.
- Heart disease.
- Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
- Lyme disease.
- Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
- Treating and preventing sun-damaged skin when vitamin C is put on the skin.
- Pressure sores.
- Dental cavities.
- Other conditions.
vitamin c (ascorbic acid) Side Effects & Safety
Vitamin C is LIKELY SAFE for most people when taken by mouth in recommended doses or when applied to the skin. In some people, vitamin C might cause nausea, vomiting, heartburn, stomach cramps, headache, and other side effects. The chance of getting these side effects increases the more vitamin C you take. Amounts higher than 2000 mg per day are POSSIBLY UNSAFE and may cause a lot of side effects, including kidney stones and severe diarrhea. In people who have had a kidney stone, amounts greater than 1000 mg per day greatly increase the risk of kidney stone recurrence.
Special Precautions & Warnings:Pregnancy and breast-feeding: Vitamin C is LIKELY SAFE for pregnant or breast-feeding women when taken in the recommended amount of 120 mg per day. Taking too much vitamin C during pregnancy can cause problems for the newborn baby.
Angioplasty, a heart procedure: Avoid taking supplements containing vitamin C or other antioxidant vitamins (beta-carotene, vitamin E) immediately before and following angioplasty without the supervision of a health care professional. These vitamins seem to interfere with proper healing.
Cancer: Cancerous cells collect high concentrations of vitamin C. Until more is known, only use high doses of vitamin C under the direction of your oncologist.
Diabetes: Vitamin C might raise blood sugar. In older women with diabetes, vitamin C in amounts greater than 300 mg per day increases the risk of death from heart disease. Do not take vitamin C in doses greater than those found in basic multivitamins.
Blood-iron disorders, including conditions called “thalassemia” and “hemochromatosis”: Vitamin C can increase iron absorption, which might make these conditions worse. Avoid large amounts of vitamin C.
Kidney stones, or a history of kidney stones: Large amounts of vitamin C can increase the chance of getting kidney stones. Do not take vitamin C in amounts greater than those found in basic multivitamins.
A metabolic deficiency called “glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency” (G6PDD): Large amounts of vitamin C can cause red blood cells to break in people with this condition. Avoid excessive amounts of vitamin C.
Sickle cell disease: Vitamin C might make this condition worse. Avoid using large amounts of vitamin C.
Moderate Interaction Be cautious with this combination
- Aluminum interacts with VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID)
Aluminum is found in most antacids. Vitamin C can increase how much aluminum the body absorbs. But it isn't clear if this interaction is a big concern. Take vitamin C two hours before or four hours after antacids.
- Estrogens interacts with VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID)
The body breaks down estrogens to get rid of them. Vitamin C might decrease how quickly the body gets rid of estrogens. Taking vitamin C along with estrogens might increase the effects and side effects of estrogens.
- Fluphenazine (Prolixin) interacts with VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID)
Large amounts of vitamin C might decrease how much fluphenazine (Prolixin) is in the body. Taking vitamin C along with fluphenazine (Prolixin) might decrease the effectiveness of fluphenazine (Prolixin).
- Medications for cancer (Chemotherapy) interacts with VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID)
Vitamin C is an antioxidant. There is some concern that antioxidants might decrease the effectiveness of some medications used for cancers. But it is too soon to know if this interaction occurs.
- Medications used for HIV/AIDS (Protease Inhibitors) interacts with VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID)
Taking large doses of vitamin C might reduce how much of some medications used for HIV/AIDS stays in the body. This could decrease the effectiveness of some medications used for HIV/AIDS.
Some of these medications used for HIV/AIDS include amprenavir (Agenerase), nelfinavir (Viracept), ritonavir (Norvir), and saquinavir (Fortovase, Invirase).
- Medications used for lowering cholesterol (Statins) interacts with VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID)
Taking vitamin C, beta-carotene, selenium, and vitamin E together might decrease the effectiveness of some medications used for lowering cholesterol. It is not known if vitamin C alone decreases the effectiveness of some medications used for lowering cholesterol. Some medications used for lowering cholesterol include atorvastatin (Lipitor), fluvastatin (Lescol), lovastatin (Mevacor), and pravastatin (Pravachol).
- Niacin interacts with VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID)
Taking vitamin C along with vitamin E, beta-carotene, and selenium might decrease some of the helpful effects of niacin. Niacin can increase the good cholesterol. Taking vitamin C along with these other vitamins might decrease the effectiveness of niacin for increasing good cholesterol.
- Warfarin (Coumadin) interacts with VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID)
Warfarin (Coumadin) is used to slow blood clotting. Large amounts of vitamin C might decrease the effectiveness of warfarin (Coumadin). Decreasing the effectiveness of warfarin (Coumadin) might increase the risk of clotting. Be sure to have your blood checked regularly. The dose of your warfarin (Coumadin) might need to be changed.
Minor Interaction Be watchful with this combination
- Acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) interacts with VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID)
The body breaks down acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) to get rid of it. Large amounts of vitamin C can decrease how quickly the body breaks down acetaminophen. It is not clear exactly when or if this interaction is a big concern.
- Aspirin interacts with VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID)
The body breaks down aspirin to get rid of it. Large amounts of vitamin C might decrease the breakdown of aspirin. Decreasing the breakdown of aspirin might increase the effects and side effects of aspirin. Do not take large amounts of vitamin C if you take large amounts of aspirin.
- Choline Magnesium Trisalicylate (Trilisate) interacts with VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID)
Vitamin C might decrease how quickly the body gets rid of choline magnesium trisalicylate (Trilisate). But it is not clear if this interaction is a big concern.
- Nicardipine (Cardene) interacts with VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID)
Vitamin C is taken up by cells. Taking nicardipine (Cardene) along with vitamin C might decrease how much vitamin C is taken in by cells. The significance of this interaction is not clear.
- Nifedipine interacts with VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID)
Vitamin C is taken up by cells. Taking nifedipine (Adalat, Procardia) along with vitamin C might decrease how much vitamin C is taken in by cells. The significance of this interaction is not clear.
- Salsalate (Disalcid) interacts with VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID)
Vitamin C might decrease how quickly the body gets rid of salsalate (Disalcid). Taking vitamin C along with salsalate (Disalcid) might cause too much salsalate (Disalcid) in the body, and increase the effects and side effects of salsalate.
vitamin c (ascorbic acid) Dosing
The following doses have been studied in scientific research:
- For scurvy: 100-250 mg once or twice daily for several days.
- For treating the common cold: 1-3 grams daily.
- For preventing kidney damage related to contrast media used during diagnostic tests: vitamin C 3 grams is given before coronary angiography and then 2 grams is given after the procedure in the evening and again the following morning.
- For slowing progression of hardening of the arteries: slow-release vitamin C 250 mg in combination with 91 mg (136 IU) of vitamin E twice daily for up to 6 years.
- For tyrosinemia in premature infants on high protein diets: 100 mg of vitamin C.
- For reducing protein in the urine of patients with type 2 diabetes: vitamin C 1250 mg with vitamin E 680 IU daily for 4 weeks.
- For preventing complex regional pain syndrome in patients with wrist fractures, vitamin C 500 mg daily for 50 days.
Do not take more than the following amounts of vitamin C: 400 mg per day for children ages 1 to 3 years, 650 mg per day for children 4 to 8 years, 1200 mg per day for children 9 to 13 years, and 1800 mg per day for adolescents and pregnant and breast-feeding women 14 to 18 years, and 2000 mg per day for adults and pregnant and lactating women.
APPLIED TO THE SKIN:
- Most topical preparations used for aged or wrinkled skin are applied daily. Studies have used creams containing 5% to 10% vitamin C. In one study a specific vitamin C formulation (Cellex-C High Potency Serum) used 3 drops applied daily to areas of facial skin. Don’t apply vitamin C preparations to the eye or eyelids. Also avoid contact with hair or clothes. It can cause discoloration. | <urn:uuid:1b9e61ad-f19c-4e55-b3e2-c8e281e59605> | {
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Traditionally, economists talk about things being produced using some combinations of land, labor, and capital, where capital is taken to mean tools, machines, buildings, and so on. Productivity— productive efficiency—improves when the same output can be obtained with less of at least one of these inputs. Some economists include “money” in the production function as a factor of production that is in addition to land, labor, and capital. As such, the quantity of money appears to be an alternative to (or maybe in addition to) lumber, copper, workers, or other factors. This unfortunate way of thinking about the role of money in the economy tends to be derived from—and maybe to reinforce—notions that there is “not enough money” in circulation.
Such a false diagnosis is dangerous because it usually is accompanied by a prescription that the monetary authorities can make people better off by creating money units at a faster rate. That is certainly wrong.
It is easy to imagine, and probably common, for the lending officer of a bank to respond to a customer’s request to borrow more funds by saying, “I would like very much to lend you some (more) money but the central bank is making credit very tight and I have no more to lend…how about golf on Sunday?” The would-be borrower is left with the impression that the currently available stock of money is already being “used” by somebody else and that the central bank is preventing him from expanding his business by failing to increase the total availability of money. A popular (but wrong) conclusion is that the output of the economy is being restrained by the inadequacy of money growth.
The alternative way to think about the role of money is that improving the quality of money reduces the use of other real productive resources employed in the task of gathering information about relative values and conducting transactions and, therefore, increases the productive potential of the economy. That is, instead of being a supplement to other productive resources, money that is more stable liberates such resources from being employed in activities associated with uncertainties that exist when the purchasing power of money is unstable. When the form of money available in the economy is not reliable—that is, its purchasing power over time is not stable—some of other resources will be employed in dealing with the uncertainties. As monetary policies to stabilize the currency start to become effective and credible, other resources can be redeployed in more productive ways.
In the end, the productive potential of the economy is greatest when the fewest of other resources are utilized in performing tasks for which money is intended— gathering information about relative values and conducting transactions.
From this analysis it should be clear that a monetary shock—an unanticipated change in the availability of money—would reduce the potential output of the economy. That is because the actions taken by businesses and households to readjust their actual money balances to desired levels will cause unavoidable changes in relative prices and the average level of all prices and, thus, introduce uncertainty into the economy. Naturally, such increased uncertainty causes resources to be committed to hedging, arbitrage, and speculation. Furthermore, since the quality of price information is diminished, mistakes will be made in interpreting signals about real demands for, and supplies of, goods and services. Overproduction of some things and underproduction of other things will mean that society’s well-being is less than it could be.
Resources flow to their highest-valued uses only when the changing prices of things reflect shifts in fundamental real demands for, and supplies of, goods, services, and productive resources. Monetary disturbances introduce price changes that mask these fundamental forces. Consequently, excess production of some things and shortages of other things can occur simultaneously. In a world with stable population and a given set of goods and services where no new products are invented, one would expect the money prices of final goods to gradually decline at the same pace as the improving productive efficiency of the economy’s resources. The gains in wealth to the society from the higher productivity would be distributed to inhabitants in the form of “higher real incomes.” That is, their unchanged money incomes would gradually command a larger basket of goods as increased availability of goods and services pressed down on money prices. This “productivity norm” for the average of money prices can be thought of as a static baseline for the purchasing power of money: It would tend to rise in an expanding economy. It neglects population growth, labor force participation rates, introduction of new products, external trade, and distortions arising from tax structures and regulation. Nevertheless, it describes how people in an economy benefit from a stable currency.
It is important to note that a condition of “rising purchasing power of money” is most commonly described by the pejorative “deflation.” This unfortunate custom has caused most observers to believe that a gradually falling “price level” is as bad, or even worse than, a gradually rising “price level.” Our analysis concludes there can be—and historical experience has demonstrated—“virtuous deflations” during periods of rapidly rising productivity.
“An increase in the quantity of goods produced…must bring about an improvement in people’s conditions. Its consequence is a fall in the money prices of the goods…But such a fall in money prices does not in the least impair the benefits derived from the additional wealth produced…But one must not say that a fall in prices caused by an increase in the production of the goods concerned is the proof of some disequilibrium which cannot be eliminated otherwise than by increasing the quantity of money” (Ludwig von Mises, 1949, p. 431). | <urn:uuid:aae95dfb-e783-4f76-8a34-33f6f92a205b> | {
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|Succeeding Year||10 E 50|
- "In fact, all life is extinct."
- ―Professor Farnsworth
- "Hah hah hah!"
- End of all known life on the Earth.
Minor Speculation Edit
While the Professors scanning device tells him that no life signs remain on or even possibly within the Earth as well, that may not truly mean that any or all forms of life had truly died on Earth. Since space travel and colonization were already possible in the 31st Century any remnants of either Humanity or evolved animal life may have simply moved to another more habitable planet(s) and had taken all the animals/plants/material goods/usable resources with them.
However the Forwards Time Machine does not appear to be a machine that can travel through space (even though it is depicted as passing by Berlin), meaning that without any resources the Professor cannot possibly leave Earth to search for another civilisation that has invented backwards time travel, or even another civilisation to settle down in. | <urn:uuid:43e3a7bb-832b-481b-b5af-150c15540310> | {
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Promote Reading for All Children
Here are proven techniques you can use to teach your child that reading is valuable and enjoyable, and that promote reading for all children:
- Set a good example as a reader - let kids see you reading every day.
- Get a subscription in his or her name to an age-appropriate magazine for your child. When relatives and others ask for gift ideas, suggest magazine subscriptions, books, or a book store gift certificate.
- Make reading fun - a time that you and your children look forward to spending together.
- Check out The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease (New York: Penguin Books, 1995). It's loaded with fun tips and reading recommendations.
- Keep lots of books, magazines, and newspapers around the house. Visit the library often and shop for books at garage and yard sales, swap meets, and used bookstores.
- Don't fret if "Captain Underpants" has captivated your child rather than Robinson Crusoe. The important thing: he's reading! Encourage it and he's likely to move on to more sophisticated titles as he gets older. | <urn:uuid:f576c98c-3704-48a4-9265-caceee82ce9e> | {
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Before explaining what constructions are and how a language student uses them to speak English fluently, we need to define “fluent.” A few things that fluency is NOT:
* Speaking fluently does NOT mean you speak without an accent. Everyone speaks with some kind of accent, including native speakers. If you speak, then by definition you are doing so with an accent.
* Speaking fluently does NOT mean you speak like a native speaker. Many native speakers speak quickly, but their word choices might be incorrect, their grammar might not be standard, and their vocabulary very limited.
* Instead, fluency is the ability to say what you want on a broad range of common topics without much hesitation.
* Fluency comes in degrees: The less hesitation a speaker has, and the more topics he can speak about, the more fluent he is.
* Your goal should be fluency right from the start. This is true for anyone learning any language. There is no special level you need to get to before developing fluency.
Now that you know what fluency in speech is, let’s look at what constructions are and how they help develop fluency.
What Is A Construction?
A construction is a fill-in-the-blank phrase which features a target word or expression. For example: Yesterday, I went to the _____ . (bank, store, mall, library, doctor)
The student then says each version out loud like this:
Yesterday, I went to the bank.
Yesterday, I went to the store.
Yesterday, I went to the mall.
Yesterday, I went to the library.
Yesterday, I went to the doctor.
You should try to have at least 5 different substitute words in each construction. Some language experts say as many as 15 are needed.
Why Use Constructions?
* Constructions help remove hesitation in speech, which is the key characteristic of fluency. Also…
* Constructions mimic how the brain organizes language. For further reading on how the brain organizes language, look to the works of Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker.
* Each time you master a construction, you’re developing what’s known as localized fluency. This means you’re becoming fluent with that particular phrase. If you continue to do this with all the main constructions of the language, eventually you will develop general fluency.
How To Apply Constructions to Your Language Studies
Any time you learn a new word or expression, you should quickly create a construction that features it. Let’s look at some examples:
Example 1. The suffix “ish” in English denotes the idea of “approximately.” As in, “How old is that kid?” – “I don’t know. Fifteen-ish?”
To practice it, here’s a construction you could make:
The movie started at _____-ish. (six, seven, eight, nine)
Example 2. Let’s say you’ve just learned the expression, “to make money hand over fist” (which means, “to make a lot of money”). Here’s a construction you could use to quickly master it:
_______ was making money hand over fist. (Starbucks, Google, The guy selling soft drinks, Bill Gates, Apple)
Example 3. Sometimes the construction will require two blanks, instead of just one. For example: Let’s say you just learned the expression “a rip-off” (which means, “an unfair deal”). The ideal construction will require two blanks:
_____ for ______ is a rip-off!
$7 … a cup of coffee
$500 … the new i-Phone
$25 … a haircut
$40 … this T-shirt
$20,000 … a used Camry
What Is Construction Branching?
To further master a construction, it’s recommended you use construction branching. Construction branching is the process of creating a new construction by adding a word or two to the original. For example, if this is your original construction:
I really like _____ . (pizza, dancing, to travel, this TV show, the Beatles)
A possible construction branch might be:
I really like ____ pizza. (mom’s, this, their, Antonio’s, New York)
I really like ______ dancing. (ballroom, Latin, hip-hop, square)
By creating your own branches from a core construction, you’re forcing yourself to make it a part of your vocabulary.
BOTTOM LINE: Constructions are the most efficient way to become fluent in a language. If your goal is to become fluent in your target language, then practicing with constructions should become something you do automatically, every time you encounter a new word or phrase. | <urn:uuid:d583cf99-26b6-4719-9b24-631b88eefbb8> | {
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What is the difference between
More generally, what meaning does the
.d suffix convey to a directory?
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/etc/init.d contains scripts used by the System V init tools (SysVinit). This is the traditional service management package for Linux, containing the
init program (the first process that is run when the kernel has finished initializing¹) as well as some infrastructure to start and stop services and configure them. Specifically, files in
/etc/init.d are shell scripts that respond to
restart, and (when supported)
reload commands to manage a particular service. These scripts can be invoked directly or (most commonly) via some other trigger (typically the presence of a symbolic link in
/etc/init contains configuration files used by Upstart. Upstart is a young service management package championed by Ubuntu. Files in
/etc/init are configuration files telling Upstart how and when to
reload the configuration, or query the
status of a service. As of lucid, Ubuntu is transitioning from SysVinit to Upstart, which explains why many services come with SysVinit scripts even though Upstart configuration files are preferred. In fact, the SysVinit scripts are processed by a compatibility layer in Upstart.
.d in directory names typically indicates a directory containing many configuration files or scripts for a particular situation (e.g.
/etc/apt/sources.list.d contains files that are concatenated to make a virtual
/etc/network/if-up.d contains scripts that are executed when a network interface is activated). This structure is usually used when each entry in the directory is provided by a different source, so that each package can deposit its own plug-in without having to parse a single configuration file to reference itself. In this case, it just happens that “init” is a logical name for the directory, SysVinit came first and used
init.d, and Upstart used plain
init for a directory with a similar purpose (it would have been more “mainstream”, and perhaps less arrogant, if they'd used
¹ not counting initrd
The ".d" is usually appended to a directory name to indicate that what used to be (or what could have been) handled by a single script or a single configuration file has been split into multiple files for the sake of convenience, but which should be included, or executed, together.
In cases where it's important which order they should be included/executed, the files in these directories sometimes start with a number, like "00-default" or "80-user" so that they execute in the right order.
In the case of
/etc/init.d/ it sort of indicates that the scripts in "init.d" should all be executed. Nowadays, however, the init system of modern operating systems is a bit more involved than that, but the directory name is still there.
As you point out, the ".d" nomenclature is puzzling and strange, and doesn't really have any place in any modern system -- you'll notice that most modern services have tended to drop it.
The reason the directory is
/etc/init and not
/etc/upstart is because Upstart is the project name, the actual installed binary is still
/sbin/init thus it would not make sense for its configuration to have a name that didn't match the binary. | <urn:uuid:c73dc027-73e5-4c34-bcc2-4a2aa1ca150b> | {
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New Inscribed Properties (2013)
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The following cultural properties have been inscribed on the World Heritage List
The walled coastal town of Al Zubarah in the Gulf flourished as a pearling and trading centre in the late 18th century and early 19th centuries, before it was destroyed in 1811 and abandoned in the early 1900s. Founded by merchants from Kuwait, Al Zubarah had trading links across the Indian Ocean, Arabia and Western Asia. A layer of sand blown from the desert has protected the remains of the site’s palaces, mosques, streets, courtyard houses, and fishermen’s huts; its harbour and double defensive walls, a canal, walls, and cemeteries. Excavation has only taken place over a small part of the site, which offers an outstanding testimony to an urban trading and pearl-diving tradition which sustained the region’s major coastal towns and led to the development of small independent states that flourished outside the control of the Ottoman, European, and Persian empires and eventually led to the emergence of modern day Gulf States.
The site features the remains of a city founded by Dorian Greeks in the 5th century BC on the northern shores of the Black Sea. It encompasses six component sites with urban remains and agricultural lands divided into several hundreds of chora, rectangular plots of equal size. The plots supported vineyards whose production was exported by the city which thrived until the 15th century. The site features several public building complexes and residential neighbourhoods, as well as early Christian monuments alongside remains from Stone and Bronze Age settlements; Roman and medieval tower fortifications and water supply systems; and exceptionally well-preserved examples of vineyard planting and dividing walls. In the 3rd century AD, the site was known as the most productive wine centre of the Black Sea and remained a hub of exchange between the Greek, Roman and Byzantine Empires and populations north of the Black Sea. It is an outstanding example of democratic land organization linked to an ancient polis, reflecting the city’s social organization.
Descending a long hill dominated by a giant statue of Hercules, the monumental water displays of Wilhelmshöhe were begun by Landgrave Carl of Hesse-Kassel in 1689 around an east-west axis and were developed further into the 19th century. Reservoirs and channels behind the Hercules Monument supply water to a complex system of hydro-pneumatic devices that supply the site’s large Baroque water theatre, grotto, fountains and 350-metre long Grand Cascade. Beyond this, channels and waterways wind across the axis, feeding a series of dramatic waterfalls and wild rapids, the geyser-like Grand Fountain which leaps 50m high, the lake and secluded ponds that enliven the Romantic garden created in the 18th century by Carl’s great-grandson, Elector Wilhelm I. The great size of the park and its waterworks along with the towering Hercules statue constitute an expression of the ideals of absolutist Monarchy while the ensemble is a remarkable testimony to the aesthetics of the Baroque and Romantic periods.
The Cultural Landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces, China covers 16,603-hectares in Southern Yunnan. It is marked by spectacular terraces that cascade down the slopes of the towering Ailao Mountains to the banks of the Hong River. Over the past 1,300 years, the Hani people have developed a complex system of channels to bring water from the forested mountaintops to the terraces. They have also created an integrated farming system that involves buffalos, cattle, ducks, fish and eel and supports the production of red rice, the area’s primary crop. The inhabitants worship the sun, moon, mountains, rivers, forests and other natural phenomena including fire. They live in 82 villages situated between the mountaintop forests and the terraces. The villages feature traditional thatched “mushroom” houses. The resilient land management system of the rice terraces demonstrates extraordinary harmony between people and their environment, both visually and ecologically, based on exceptional and long-standing social and religious structures.
The beauty of the solitary, often snow-capped, stratovolcano, known around the world as Mount Fuji, rising above villages and tree-fringed sea and lakes has long been the object of pilgrimages and inspired artists and poets. The inscribed property consists of 25 sites which reflect the essence of Fujisan’s sacred and artistic landscape. In the 12th century, Fujisan became the centre of training for ascetic Buddhism, which included Shinto elements. On the upper 1,500-metre tier of the 3,776m mountain, pilgrim routes and crater shrines have been inscribed alongside sites around the base of the mountain including Sengen-jinja shrines, Oshi lodging houses, and natural volcanic features such as lava tree moulds, lakes, springs and waterfalls, which are revered as sacred. Its representation in Japanese art goes back to the 11th century, but 19th century woodblock prints of views, including those from sand beaches with pine tree groves have made Fujisan an internationally recognized icon of Japan and have had a deep impact on the development of Western art.
The lavish Golestan Palace is a masterpiece of the Qajar era, embodying the successful integration of earlier Persian crafts and architecture with Western influences. The walled Palace, one of the oldest groups of buildings in Teheran, became the seat of government of the Qajar family, which came into power in 1779 and made Teheran the capital of the country. Built around a garden featuring pools as well as planted areas, the Palace’s most characteristic features and rich ornaments date from the 19th century. It became a centre of Qajari arts and architecture of which it is an outstanding example and has remained a source of inspiration for Iranian artists and architects to this day. It represents a new style incorporating traditional Persian arts and crafts and elements of 18th century architecture and technology.
The serial site, situated in the state of Rajastahan, includes six majestic forts in Chittorgarh; Kumbhalgarh; Sawai Madhopur; Jhalawar; Jaipur, and Jaisalmer. The ecclectic architecture of the forts, some up to 20 kilometres in circumference, bears testimony to the power of the Rajput princely states that flourished in the region from the 8th to the 18th centuries. Enclosed within defensive walls are major urban centres, palaces, trading centres and other buildings including temples that often predate the fortifications within which developed an elaborate courtly culture that supported learning, music and the arts. Some of the urban centres enclosed in the fortifications have survived, as have many of the site's temples and other sacred buildings. The forts use the natural defenses offered by the landscape: hills, deserts, rivers, and dense forests. They also feature extensive water harvesting structures, largely still in use today.
Known as the gateway to the desert, Agadez, on the southern edge of the Sahara desert, developed in the 15th and 16th centuries when the Sultanate of Aïr was established and Touareg tribes were sedentarized in the city, respecting the boundaries of old encampments, which gave rise to a street pattern still in place today. The historic centre of the city, an important crossroads of the caravan trade, is divided into 11 quarters with irregular shapes. They contain numerous earthen dwellings and a well-preserved group of palatial and religious buildings including a 27m high minaret made entirely of mud brick, the highest such structure in the world. The site is marked by ancestral cultural, commercial and handicraft traditions still practiced today and presents exceptional and sophisticated examples of earthen architecture.
Situated in Kaesong city, in the south of the country, the site consists of 12 separate components, which together testify to the history and culture of the Koryo Dynasty from the 10th to 14th centuries. The geomantic layout of the former capital city of Kaesong, its palaces, institutions and tomb complex, defensive walls and gates embody the political, cultural, philosophical and spiritual values of a crucial era in the region’s history. The monuments inscribed also include an astronomical and meteorological observatory, two schools (including one dedicated to educating national officials) and commemorative steles. The site testifies to the transition from Buddhism to neo-Confucianism in East Asia and to the assimilation of the cultural spiritual and political values of the states that existed prior to Korea’s unification under the Koryo Dynasty. The integration of Buddhist, Confucian, Taoist and geomantic concepts is manifest in the planning of the site and the architecture of its monuments.
The town and its low line of buildings set among coconut and mango trees along the beach front was the first colonial capital of Fiji, ceded to the British in 1874. It developed from the early 19th century as a centre of commercial activity by Americans and Europeans who built warehouses, stores, port facilities, residences, and religious, educational and social institutions around the villages of the South Pacific island’s indigenous population. It is a rare example of a late colonial port town that was influenced in its development by the indigenous community which continued to outnumber the European settlers. Thus the town, an outstanding example of late 19th century Pacific port settlements, reflects the integration of local building traditions by a supreme naval power, leading to the emergence of a unique landscape.
Twelve villas and two gardens spread across the Tuscan landscape make up this site which bears testimony to the influence the Medici family exerted over modern European culture through its patronage of the arts. Built between the 15th and 17th centuries, they represent an innovative system of construction in harmony with nature and dedicated to leisure, the arts and knowledge. The villas embody an innovative form and function, a new type of princely residence that differed from both the farms owned by rich Florentines of the period and from the military might of baronial castles. The Medici villas form the first example of the connection between architecture, gardens, and the environment and became an enduring reference for princely residences throughout Italy and Europe. Their gardens and integration into the natural environment helped develop the appreciation of landscape characteristic Humanism and the Renaissance.
Red Bay, established by Basque mariners in the 16th century at the north-eastern tip of Canada on the shore of the Strait of Belle Isle is an archaeological site that provides the earliest, most complete and best preserved testimony of the European whaling tradition. Gran Baya, as it was called by those who founded the station in 1530s, was used as a base for coastal hunting, butchering, rendering of whale fat by heading to produce oil and storage. It became a major source of whale oil which was shipped to Europe where it was used for lighting. The site, which was used in the summer months, includes remains of rendering ovens, cooperages, wharves, temporary living quarters and a cemetery, together with underwater remains of vessels and whale bone deposits. The station was used for some 70 years, before the local whale population was depleted.
Situated on a hill overlooking the city, the University of Coimbra with its colleges grew and evolved over more than seven centuries within the old town. Notable university buildings include the 12th century Cathedral of Santa Cruz and a number of 16th century colleges, the Royal Palace of Alcáçova, which has housed the University since 1537, the Joanine Library with its rich baroque decor, the 18th century Botanical Garden and University Press, as well as the large “University City” created during the 1940s. The University’s edifices became a reference in the development of other institutions of higher education in the Portuguese-speaking world where it also exerted a major influence on learning and literature. Coimbra offers an outstanding example of an integrated university city with a specific urban typology as well as its own ceremonial and cultural traditions that have been kept alive through the ages.
Situated in the eastern fringe of Central Europe, the transnational property numbers a selection of sixteen tserkvas (churches). They were built of horizontal wooden logs between the 16th and 19th centuries by communities of Orthodox and Greek Catholic faiths. The tserkvas bear testimony to a distinct building tradition rooted in Orthodox ecclesiastic design interwoven with elements of local tradition, and symbolic references to their communities’ cosmogony. The tserkvas are built on a tri-partite plan surmounted by open quadrilateral or octagonal domes and cupolas. Integral to tserkvas are iconostasis screens, interior polychrome decorations, and other historic furnishings. Important elements of some tserkvas include wooden bell towers, churchyards, gatehouses and graveyards.
The following natural properties have been inscribed on the World Heritage List
The 714,566 hectare site comprises two distinct parts: the dormant volcanic Pinacate Shield of black and red lava flows and desert pavements to the east, and, in the west, the Gran Altar Desert with its ever changing and varied sand dunes that can reach a height of 200 metres. This landscape of dramatic contrast notably features linear, star and dome dunes as well as several arid granite massifs, some as high as 650 metres. The dunes emerge like islands from the sea of sand and harbour distinct and highly diverse plant and wildlife communities, including endemic freshwater fish species and the endemic Sonoran Pronghorn, which is only to be found in northwestern Sonora and in southwestern Arizona (USA). Ten enormous, deep and almost perfectly circular craters, believed to have been formed by a combination of eruptions and collapses, also contribute to the dramatic beauty of the site whose exceptional combination of features are of great scientific interest. The site is also a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
Mount Etna is an iconic site encompassing 19,237 uninhabited hectares on the highest part of Mount Etna, on the eastern coast of Sicily. Mount Etna is the highest Mediterranean island mountain and the most active stratovolcano in the world. The eruptive history of the volcano can be traced back 500,000 years and at least 2,700 years of this activity has been documented. The almost continuous eruptive activity of Mount Etna continues to influence volcanology, geophysics and other Earth science disciplines. The volcano also supports important terrestrial ecosystems including endemic flora and fauna and its activity makes it a natural laboratory for the study of ecological and biological processes. The diverse and accessible range of volcanic features such as summit craters, cinder cones, lava flows and the Valle de Bove depression have made the site a prime destination for research and education.
Namib Sand Sea is the only coastal desert in the world that includes extensive dune fields influenced by fog. Covering an area of over three million hectares and a buffer zone of 899,500 hectares, the site is composed of two dune systems, an ancient semi-consolidated one overlain by a younger active one. The desert dunes are formed by the transportation of materials thousands of kilometres from the hinterland, that are carried by river, ocean current and wind. It features gravel plains, coastal flats, rocky hills, inselbergs within the sand sea, a coastal lagoon and ephemeral rivers, resulting in a landscape of exceptional beauty. Fog is the primary source of water in the site, accounting for a unique environment in which endemic invertebrates, reptiles and mammals adapt to an ever-changing variety of microhabitats and ecological niches.
Tajikistan National Park covers more than 2.5 million hectares in the east of the country, at the centre of the so-called “Pamir Knot”, a meeting point of the highest mountain ranges on the Eurasian continent. It consists of high plateaux in the east and, to the west, rugged peaks, some of them over 7,000 meters high, and features extreme seasonal variations of temperature. The longest valley glacier outside the Polar region is located among the 1,085 glaciers inventoried in the site, which also numbers 170 rivers and more than 400 lakes. Rich flora species of both the south-western and central Asian floristic regions grow in the Park which shelters nationally rare and threatened birds and mammals (Marco Polo Argali sheep, Snow Leopards and Siberian Ibex and more). Subject to frequent strong earthquakes, the Park is sparsely inhabited, and virtually unaffected by agriculture and permanent human settlements. It offers a unique opportunity for the study of plate tectonics and subduction phenomena.
Xinjiang Tianshan comprises four components—Tomur, Kalajun-Kuerdening, Bayinbukuke and Bogda— that total 606,833 hectares. They are part of the Tianshan mountain system of Central Asia, one of the largest mountain ranges in the world. Xinjiang Tianshan presents unique physical geographic features and scenically beautiful areas including spectacular snow and snowy mountains glacier-capped peaks, undisturbed forests and meadows, clear rivers and lakes and red bed canyons. These landscapes contrast with the vast adjacent desert landscapes, creating a striking visual contrast between hot and cold environments, dry and wet, desolate and luxuriant. The landforms and ecosystems of the site have been preserved since the Pliocene epoch and present an outstanding example of ongoing biological and ecological evolutionary processes. The site also extends into the Taklimakan Desert, one of the world’s largest and highest deserts, known for its large dune forms and great dust storms. Xinjiang Tianshan is moreover an important habitat for endemic and relic flora species, some rare and endangered.
The Committee also approved extensions for the following sites
The deposit of rock salt in Wieliczka and Bochnia has been mined since the 13th century. This major industrial undertaking has royal status and is the oldest of its type in Europe. The site is a serial property consisting of Wieliczka and Bochnia salt mines and Wieliczka Saltworks Castle. The Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines illustrate the historic stages of the development of mining techniques in Europe from the 13th to the 20th centuries: both mines have hundreds of kilometers of galleries with works of art, underground chapels and statues sculpted in the salt, making a fascinating pilgrimage into the past. The mines were administratively and technically run by Wieliczka Saltworks Castle, which dates from the medieval period and has been rebuilt several times in the course of its history.
At 5,199 m, Mount Kenya is the second highest peak in Africa. It is an ancient extinct volcano, which during its period of activity (3.1-2.6 million years ago) is thought to have risen to 6,500 m. There are 12 remnant glaciers on the mountain, all receding rapidly, and four secondary peaks that sit at the head of the U-shaped glacial valleys. With its rugged glacier-clad summits and forested middle slopes, Mount Kenya is one of the most impressive landscapes in East Africa. The evolution and ecology of its afro-alpine flora provide an outstanding example of ecological and biological processes. Through the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Ngare Ndare Forest Reserve, the property also incorporates lower lying scenic foothills and arid habitats of high biodiversity, situated in the ecological transition zone between the mountain ecosystem and the semi-arid savanna grasslands. The area also lies within the traditional migrating route of the African elephant population.
The Maloti-Drakensberg Park is a transboundary site composed of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg National Park in South Africa and the Sehlathebe National Park in Lesotho. The site has exceptional natural beauty in its soaring basaltic buttresses, incisive dramatic cutbacks, and golden sandstone ramparts as well as visually spectacular sculptured arches, caves, cliffs, pillars and rock pools. The site's diversity of habitats protects a high level of endemic and globally important plants. The site harbors endangered species such as the Cape vulture (Gyps coprotheres) and the bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus). Lesotho’s Sehlabathebe National Park also harbors the Maloti minnow (Pseudobarbus quathlambae), a critically endangered fish species only found in this park. This spectacular natural site contains many caves and rock-shelters with the largest and most concentrated group of paintings in Africa south of the Sahara. They represent the spiritual life of the San people, who lived in this area over a period of 4,000 years.
In 2013, the World Heritage Committee added sites to the World Heritage List.
New in 2013
- Al Zubarah Archaeological Site
- Ancient City of Tauric Chersonese and its Chora
- Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe
- Cultural Landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces
- Fujisan, sacred place and source of artistic inspiration
- Golestan Palace
- Hill Forts of Rajasthan
- Historic Centre of Agadez
- Historic Monuments and Sites in Kaesong
- Levuka Historical Port Town
- Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany
- Red Bay Basque Whaling Station
- University of Coimbra – Alta and Sofia
- Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region in Poland and Ukraine
- El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve
- Mount Etna
- Namib Sand Sea
- Tajik National Park (Mountains of the Pamirs)
- Xinjiang Tianshan
- Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines
- Mount Kenya National Park/Natural Forest
- Maloti-Drakensberg Park | <urn:uuid:947da444-c37a-4b3a-80c2-b5f5c5a430ad> | {
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affidavit(redirected from The Affiant)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Financial, Encyclopedia.
A written statement of facts voluntarily made by an affiant under an oath or affirmation administered by a person authorized to do so by law.
An affidavit is voluntarily made without any cross-examination of the affiant and, therefore, is not the same as a deposition, a record of an examination of a witness or a party made either voluntarily or pursuant to a subpoena, as if the party were testifying in court under cross-examination. A pleading—a request to a court to exercise its judicial power in favor of a party that contains allegations or conclusions of facts that are not necessarily verified—differs from an affidavit, which states facts under oath.
An affidavit is based upon either the personal knowledge of the affiant or his or her information and belief. Personal knowledge is the recognition of particular facts by either direct observation or experience. Information and belief is what the affiant feels he or she can state as true, although not based on firsthand knowledge.
Any person having the intellectual capacity to take an oath or make an affirmation and who has knowledge of the facts that are in dispute may make an affidavit. There is no age requirement for an affiant. As long as a person is old enough to understand the facts and the significance of the oath or affirmation he or she makes, the affidavit is valid. A criminal conviction does not make a person incapable of making an affidavit, but an adjudication of Incompetency does.
Someone familiar with the matters in question may make an affidavit on behalf of another, but that person's authority to do so must be clear. A guardian may make an affidavit for a minor or insane person incapable of doing so. An attorney may make an affidavit for a client if it is impossible for the client to do so. When necessary to the performance of duties, a Personal Representative, agent, or corporate officer or partner may execute an affidavit that indicates the capacity in which the affiant acts.
A court cannot force a person to make an affidavit, since, by definition, an affidavit is a voluntary statement.
The Taker of the Affidavit
Any public officer authorized by law to administer oaths and affirmations—such as city recorders, court clerks, notaries, county clerks, commissioners of deeds, and court commissioners—may take affidavits. Justices of the peace and magistrates are sometimes authorized to take affidavits. Unless restricted by state law, judges may take affidavits involving controversies before them.
An officer cannot take affidavits outside of the particular jurisdiction in which he or she exercises authority. The source of this authority must appear at the bottom of the affidavit. A notary, for example, would indicate the county in which he or she is commissioned and the expiration date of the commission.
An official seal is not essential to the validity of the affidavit but may be placed on it by the proper official.
The Oath or Affirmation
Unless otherwise provided by statute, an oath is essential to an affidavit. The statement of the affiant does not become an affidavit unless the proper official administers the oath.
When religious convictions prevent the affiant from taking an oath, he or she may affirm that the statements in the affidavit are true.
There is no standard form or language to be used in an affidavit as long as the facts contained within it are stated clearly and definitely. Unnecessary language or legal arguments should not appear. Clerical and grammatical errors, while to be avoided, are inconsequential.
The affidavit usually must contain the address of the affiant and the date that the statement was made, in addition to the affiant's signature or mark. Where the affidavit has been made is also noted. When an affidavit is based on the affiant's information and belief, it must state the source of the affiant's information and the grounds for the affiant's belief in the accuracy of such information. This permits the court to draw its own conclusions about the information in the affidavit.
An affiant is strictly responsible for the truth and accuracy of the contents of the affidavit. If false statements are made, the affiant can be prosecuted for perjury.
Affidavits are used in business and in judicial and administrative proceedings.
Business Generally affidavits are used in business whenever an official statement that others might rely upon is needed. Statements of the financial stability of a corporation, the pedigree of animals, and the financial conditions of a person applying for credit are examples of affidavits used in the commercial world.
Judicial Proceedings Affidavits serve as evidence in civil actions and criminal prosecutions in certain instances. They are considered a very weak type of evidence because they are not taken in court, and the affiant is not subject to cross-examination. Their use is usually restricted to times when no better evidence can be offered. If a witness who has made an affidavit is not available to testify at a trial, his or her affidavit may be admitted as evidence. If the witness is present, his or her affidavit is inadmissible except when used to impeach the witness's testimony, or to help the witness with past recollection of facts.
Affidavits are also used as evidence in ex parte proceedings such as a hearing for the issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order or an order to show cause. The expeditious nature of such proceedings is considered to substantially outweigh the weak Probative value of the affidavits. In addition, there is normally a subsequent opportunity in the course of litigation for the opposing party to refute the affidavits or cross-examine the affiants.
An affidavit based on the knowledge of the affiant is accorded more weight than one based on information and belief. When admissible, affidavits are not conclusive evidence of the facts stated therein.
Administrative Proceedings Affidavits are frequently used in administrative and Quasi-Judicial proceedings as evidence when no objection is made to their admission and there is an opportunity for cross-examination.
n. 1) any written document in which the signer swears under oath before a Notary Public or someone authorized to take oaths (like a County Clerk), that the statements in the document are true. 2) in many states a declaration under penalty of perjury, which does not require the oath-taking before a Notary is the equivalent of an affidavit. (See: declaration)
affidavitnoun affirmation under oath, assertory oath, attested statement, averment, avouchment, avowal, avowance, confirmation under oath, declaration under oath, evidence on oath, instrument in proof, solemn affirration, statement, statement under oath, sworn evidence, sworn statement, testification under oath, testimonium per tabulas datum, voluntary attestment under oath, written declaration upon oath, written statement under oath
Associated concepts: affidavit of defense, affidavit of demand, affidavit of judicial power, affidavit of merit, affidavit of service, affidavit to advise the court of a right or on an issue, affidavit to hold to bail, affirmation, verified deposiiion, verified pleading
See also: certificate, confirmation, record, statement, testimony
affidavita written statement sworn or affirmed before a commissioner for oaths (or notary public in Scotland), used in some circumstances as evidence in court.
AFFIDAVIT, practice. An oath or affirmation reduced to writing, sworn or
affirmed to before some officer who has authority to administer it. It
differs from a deposition in this, that in the latter the opposite party has
had an opportunity to cross-examine the witness, whereas an affidavit is
always taken ex parte. Gresl. Eq. Ev. 413. Vide Harr. Dig. h.t.
2. Affidavit to hold to bail, is in many cases required before the defendant can be arrested; such affidavit must be made by a person who is acquainted with the fact, and must state, 1st, an indebtedness from the defendant to the plaintiff; 2dly, show a distinct cause of action; 3dly, the whole must be clearly and certainly, expressed. Sell. Pr. 104; 1 Chit. R. 165; S. C. 18 Com. Law, R. 59 note; Id. 99.
3. An affidavit of defence, is made by a defendant or a person knowing the facts, in which must be stated a positive ground of defence on the merits. 1 Ashm. R. 4, 19, n. It has been decided that when a writ of summons has been served upon three defendants, and only one appears, a judgment for want of an affidavit of defence may be rendered against au. 8 Watts, R. 367. Vide Bac. Ab. h.t. | <urn:uuid:be984805-7702-4280-92a0-6313fbee06ce> | {
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Basal Metabolic Rate Calculator
Read the NOTES below before filling out the form.
This formula is the Harris-Benedict equation for calculating basal metabolic rate (BMR).
Enter your height and weight (in either metric - centimetres/kilograms or english - inches/pounds),
your age in years, miles run per day (decimals allowed) and activity factor if applicable. The activity
factor compensates for additional physical activity during the day beyond running, such as
walking, gardening, mowing the lawn, vacuuming, etc. ADD 100 calories for each 15 minutes
of the afore-mentioned activity. | <urn:uuid:917b1f1b-75f0-4be7-b5a5-269593b56000> | {
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BOSTON, MA--According to the United States Census Bureau, approximately one in seven American adults live alone. Social isolation and lack of social support have been linked to poor health outcomes. Now a new study at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) shows that living alone may be a risk factor for death, especially death due to cardiovascular problems, such as heart attack and stroke.
The study is the first to prospectively compare the cardiovascular risk of living alone in an international outpatient population. It will be published online in Archives of Internal Medicine on June 18, 2012.
Jacob A. Udell MD
Researchers analyzed data from 44,573 participants in the international Reduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health (REACH) Registry. Participants at risk for or with atherosclerosis (hardening of blood vessels) were followed for up to four years for cardiovascular events.
Of the 44,573 participants, 19 percent (8,594) lived alone. The researchers found that those with atherosclerosis who lived alone had a higher rate of death over four years compared to those who did not live alone, 14.1 percent vs. 11.1 percent, respectively. Death specifically caused by cardiovascular problems was also higher among those living alone, 8.6 percent vs. 6.8 percent, respectively.
Moreover, a person's age influenced mortality risk among those living alone. When looking at participants 45 to 80 years old, those living alone had higher mortality and risk of cardiovascular death compared to those who did not live alone. However, after age 80, living arrangement did not appear to play a role in mortality risk.
"Living alone may be a marker of a stressful situation, such as social isolation due to work or personal reasons, which can influence biological effects on the cardiovascular system," said Jacob Udell, MD, Cardiovascular Division, BWH Department of Medicine, and lead study investigator. "Also, patients who live alone may delay seeking medical attention for concerning symptoms, which can increase their risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke."
The study serves to encourage doctors to ask patients with cardiovascular disease if they live alone. It also emphasizes the need for people to seek immediate medical attention for concerning symptoms.
This research was supported by Sanofi Aventis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Waksman Foundation (Tokyo, Japan), Canadian Institutes for Health Research, and Canadian Foundation for Women's Health. | <urn:uuid:024d265c-5716-4480-990f-72ae7d0e62aa> | {
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USGS reports small earthquake in western North Carolina
MARION, N.C. — A small earthquake was reported near Marion, North Carolina shortly before 8 a.m. Monday.
The 2.9 earthquake was reported 6 miles southeast of West Marion, according to the USGS.
According to the USGS, since at least 1776, people living inland in North and South Carolina, and in adjacent parts of Georgia and Tennessee, have felt small earthquakes and suffered damage from infrequent larger ones. The largest earthquake in the area (magnitude 5.1) occurred in 1916. Moderately damaging earthquakes strike the inland Carolinas every few decades, and smaller earthquakes are felt about once each year or two. | <urn:uuid:c483b46a-409e-4cf0-9637-c0b5fc719c9f> | {
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It used to be accepted practice to cut down most perennials in autumn. Fortunately, as our appreciation for the winter forms and our awareness of the habits of birds and butterflies advances, we no longer mindlessly go out and cut everything back at once, leaving the garden naked of any sign of dormant plants.
Generally speaking, plants that are not pruned in the autumn need to be cut back, or possibly deadleafed, in the spring. Perennials like species of Asarum, Bergenia, Helleborus, and Heuchera need to have their dead leaves removed, particularly if they have been exposed to windburn or sunscald. Epimedium and helleborus need to be cut back early in spring so that the new flowers and leaves are not masked by the previous season’s tattered remains. Rotary mowers can be used on large plantings of epimedium. The groundcover Liriope spicata also can be mown down in the spring. Moss phlox (Phlox subulata) may incur dead branches over the winter, or portions of the plant may die out, and these should be removed at this time. Evergreens may not need any additional pruning in the spring in some years, as their foliage can stay fresh over the winter. Phlox stolonifera and Dianthus gratianopolitanus are a couple that usually fair well. Most often, evergreen basal foliage doesn’t need any additional pruning in the spring.
Certain subshrubs have their overwintering buds aboveground, which classifies them botanically as woody plants, but horticulturally they are classified with herbaceous perennials. They benefit from snow cover for protection and may experience tip dieback on the part of the plant above the snow line. Spring is the time to prune off those dead tips. This group includes evergreen candytuft (Iberis sempervirens), lavender, germander, and thyme. They may also need a hard cutting back in the spring if they start to grow leggy. Lavender normally only needs its dead tips cut off in late spring or early summer, once all the woody growth has had a chance to break. Often the beginning gardener will prune back lavender hard before winter, only to be disappointed that it doesn’t return at all the following spring. Lavender may need a hard cutting back (down to 4–6 in.) in spring every 2–3 years to hold a decent habit if it has become open and leggy, or if it’s being used as a hedge. It can be cut back hard annually for hedging. Perovskia can be cut to the ground to encourage sturdier plants; I prefer to cut mine down to live buds, which can be 6 in. or more above ground.
Electric hedge shears work best for ornamental grasses on large jobs. First tie the grasses together, which keeps excessive debris to a minimum, and then cut it down. It helps to have two people working together on this. Handheld hedge shears do the trick on small quantities. A weed whacker with a rigid plastic blade can also be used. I’ve even heard of people using chain saws, but I’ve never needed such heavy machinery, even for very large grasses. Do wear gloves, as the grass blades can cut like razors. Festuca glauca ‘Elijah Blue’ normally only needs dead blades pulled from within the clump by hand. After severe winters I have had to cut ‘Elijah Blue’ fescue back because of excessive tip burn on the blades.
I do most spring pruning early on, before new growth begins, usually sometime in late March or early April. Gardeners in milder climates may need to get an earlier start. You don’t want a lot of new growth in the way while you are trying to clean up the old stems and leaves. If some new growth is hit during spring cleanup, no harm done—perennials are very forgiving and will be quick to fill in, but if you cut too late you may be altering the plant’s ultimate height, and even flowering time on early-blooming species.
Tracy DiSabato-Aust has earned international acclaim as one of America’s most entertaining and knowledgeable garden writers and professional speakers. She has extensive experience in the United States and abroad with more than 35 years in the industry and is a gifted and award-winning designer who combines artistic vision with practical horticultural strategies.
Click the image below for a look inside this book. | <urn:uuid:0c73d422-5314-4346-9f13-3f2a4faae4a6> | {
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Last month, the chōchin (提灯, a Japanese traditional lantern) at Kaminarimon (雷門, the gate of Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, in Tokyo’s Taito Ward) was replaced with a new one, the first time it has been renewed since 2003.
The Kaminarimon chōchin is 3.9 meters high, 3.3 meters in diameter and 700 kg in weight. It has the kanji 雷門 written in black on a red background.
A shinise gyōsha (老舗業者, a respected company with long standing) in Kyoto made the new chōchin lantern.
The original chōchin lantern burned down along with the Kaminarimon itself in the late Edo Period, but was rebuilt in 1960 with the help of Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic Corp.
Consumer-electronics maker Panasonic is, of course, a major manufacturer of light bulbs, but the history of chōchin lanterns, which were used by ordinary people in Japan before the invention of electricity, goes back at least 1,000 years.
The oldest record indicating Japanese used chōchin lanterns is in a book written in 1085. The oldest drawing of one is from 1536.
Chōchin are usually near-cylinder in shape, with a honegumi (骨組み, skeleton) of thin takehigo (竹ひご, bamboo sticks) wrapped in shōjigami (障子紙, paper used in shōji Japanese traditional sliding door). Rōsoku (ローソク or 蝋燭, candles) are placed inside chōchin and in the past people would hang the lantern from a large bamboo stick in the dark.
Chōchin lanterns can be collapsed for easy storage when not in use.
A typical use for chōchin lanterns these days is to hang them at jinja (神社, shrines), other traditional places or in front of ippai nomiya (一杯飲み屋, small bars).
Euphemistically, middle-aged sarariiman (サラリーマン, salarymen) or older people call such bars aka-chōchin (赤提灯, lit: red chōchin lantern). “Aka-chōchin de ippai hikkakemashō” (「赤提灯で一杯引っ掛けましょう」, “Let’s have a drink at a small bar”) is an expression you may hear around 6 p.m. at work, or later in the evening among a group of drunk people looking for a venue for a sanjikai (三次会, the third drinking party of the night).
Chōchin have spawned a whole variety of spinoffs and expressions. For example, restaurants that use Japanese ingredients for more than half their ingredients hang midori-chōchin (緑提灯, green chōchin lantern), according to the website of Midori Chochin Jimukyoku office.
Hana-chōchin (鼻提灯, lit: nose chōchin, but actually means a snot bubble) is what you get when you are in a deep sleep, although you don’t actually get to see a snot balloon unless you read manga. Hana-chōchin wo tsukeru (鼻提灯を付ける, Making a snot bubble) means taking a nap, typically in an inappropriate place and occasion such as a classroom.
Chōchin-mochi (提灯持ち, a person holding a chōchin lantern for someone else) can be used in a literary meaning as well as in a connoted meaning of a person sucking up to someone bigger.
A word derived from chōchin-mochi is chōchin-kiji (提灯記事, puff piece i.e., a newspaper article overly supporting a particular company or product).
Fugu-chōchin (ふぐ提灯, fugu blowfish chōchin lanterns) are made of fugu instead of bamboo sticks and paper. Fugu-chōchin are popular souvenirs in Japan at the moment, with people buying them as decorations rather than actual lanterns
Andon (行灯, another kind of traditional Japanese lantern) were also used for lighting in premodern Japan. Andon lanterns also use bamboo sticks for the skeleton and paper to cover.
There are several differences between chōchin and andon. Andon are typically a rectangular prism rather than a cylinder. Chōchin lanterns also can be portable while andon lanterns are not.
The lighting source for chōchin is typically a candle, andon usually use oil on a hizara (火皿, fire plate.) In the Edo Period, people used fish oil or natane (菜種, colza). An old Japanese myth says that “bakeneko (化け猫, monster cats) lick the oil in andon lanterns at night.” The myth is said to stem from the fact that the oil that was used was fish oil, which was cheap but billows smoke and releases an unpleasant odor.
You may find andon lanterns in a ryokan (旅館, Japanese traditional hotel). They may also be used as signs in front of luxury Japanese restaurants.
Also, lamps showing where exits are in a building, box-shape signs with light bulbs in them at bus stops that illuminate the timetable and other types of glowing signs are also called andon.
Derived from andon, hiru-andon (昼行灯, daytime andon) is a phrase meaning useless people, i.e., as useless as a lantern in daylight.
Salarymen who have hana-chōchin (鼻提灯）at work may be hiru-andon (昼行灯). They can go to midori-chōchin restaurants to be environmentally friendly, but later go to aka-chōchin for their sanjikai. When drunk they may see an illusion of bakeneko licking the oil from an andon. | <urn:uuid:53bc91b8-70ce-45cd-b3a4-3f8e6f763a26> | {
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The goat will bear upon itself all their iniquities ... (Leviticus 16:22)
One of the most perplexing topics that we encounter in the Torah concerns the "scapegoat" -- the goat that was offered on Yom Kippur carrying on its back all the sins of the Jewish people.
Maimonides tells us that the "scapegoat":
...brings atonement on all the sins in the Torah, whether they be light or grave, whether the transgression was committed unintentionally or with deliberation, whether the sin is known to the perpetrator or whether it is not... (Laws of Teshuva 1:2)And the Talmud adds:
This goat (sair) refers to Esau, as it is written: but my brother Esau is a hairy (soir) man. (Genesis 27:11) [The Hebrew words sair, "goat," and soir, "hairy" are spelled identically.]
[It is further written]: The goat will bear upon itself all their inequities (avonotam). In Hebrew this word avonotam can be split into two words: avonot tam, meaning "the inequities of the innocent." This is a reference to Jacob about whom it is written: Jacob was a wholesome (tam) man (Genesis 25:27). The word wholesome in Hebrew also being tam. (Midrash - Bereishit Raba 65:15)
Thus the goat represents Esau, and somehow he is made to carry the sins of the Jewish people, the descendants of Jacob. Is there any way we can bring this strange idea a bit closer?
THE WAYS OF ATONEMENT
At the very beginning of the Laws of Teshuva, Maimonides explains that teshuva requires confession, and he describes this confession as consisting of three elements:
- An enumeration of the actual sin.
- An expression of regret for having done the sin.
- An expression of firm resolve never to do it again.
He then goes on to discuss Yom Kippur:
Yom Kippur, is a time of teshuva for everyone -- for the individual as well as the congregation. It marks the final stage of forgiveness and pardon for Israel, therefore, everyone is commanded to repent and confess on Yom Kippur... The confession that Israel has adopted to say on Yom Kippur is: "But we have sinned," and this is the essence of confession. (Laws of Teshuva 2:7-8)
It is perplexing to note that two of the three elements Maimonides himself earlier stated as essential requirements of confession are missing from the confession recited on Yom Kippur -- regret, and the undertaking never to repeat the sin. If this confession is the final act of teshuva adopted by Israel, how is it that the most important parts of this act of contrition are absent from it?
To be able to answer this question, it is important to understand the role that confession plays in teshuva. Jews do not confess to a priest who gives them absolution. The confession is done in private and is made directly to God. As teshuva is an act of the heart, what possible role does such a confession play in it?
The rationale of teshuva is change. A person's actions reflect his beliefs, his character and his personality. When he repents, he is making a statement: "I am not the same person today as the one who committed the sin. I have changed and such an act no longer expresses the person I am today. I look back at the person who committed the sin, and I no longer see myself in him or identify with that act."
When this is a sincere process, God accepts it and takes note of the change. Since the person has changed, and the sin no longer reflects his character and personality as they are today, it is impossible to hold the person of today morally responsible and liable for the acts of a person who no longer exists, and God duly pardons the sin.
A PROCESS OF CHANGE
As we humans are unable to see into a person's heart, and we can only see each other's deeds, we cannot take note of teshuva in human justice systems. Nevertheless we are able to relate to the principle -- if the sinner becomes a genuinely different person we can recognize the justice of excusing him from having to suffer the consequences of actions that do not reflect the character of the person he has become and who does not deserve to be punished.
In effect then, teshuva involves the shedding of old character. We are unable to alter our height, our IQ, or our age, but we can alter our character. When we repent we are changing our inner furniture, leaving only the outer shell intact.
The shedding of character is in effect externalizing what was, until then, the innermost core of our beings, our old operating system, the primary source of our past behavior and motivation. We shed these like a snake sloughs off his old skin and emerges with a brand new one.
To externalize the inner man requires speech. It is through speech that what is inside the heart and mind of a person becomes a part of the outer world. The verbalizing of teshuva in the form of confession is the act of shedding old thoughts and attitudes, rejecting them and making them part of the external world instead of our inner environment.
Change is difficult. We often regret our actions as soon as they are finished, but rarely do we succeed in really changing ourselves. Most often we repeat our mistakes and suffer the regret all over again each time we repeat the mistake. The resolution never to do this again is what generally defeats our sincere desire to be better than we are at present. This is where Yom Kippur comes in.
On Yom Kippur, the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies. This is a special environment, and enetering at the wrong time caused the deaths of Aaron's two sons:
And God said to Moses: "Speak to Aaron your brother - he shall not come at all times into the Sanctuary (the Holy of Holies) within the curtain, in front of the cover that is on the Ark, so that he should not die; for in a cloud will I appear on the Ark-cover. (Leviticus 16:2)
HOLY OF HOLIES
In order to understand the significance of entering the Holy of Holies, we have to understand how we ourselves are put together.
The human soul has five levels, of which the lower three are connected to our physical realities. At the core of our being we have a neshama which is always connected to God, to an extent that it is difficult to tell where the divine presence ends and the person begins. This neshama is connected to our ruach, our spiritual selves, which in turn is connected to our nefesh, the life force that burns within us and is the engine that drives us.
As the Holy of Holies in the Temple is the place that the Shechinah inhabits, the High Priest who enters this sanctuary on Yom Kippur, enters it on the level of neshama.
The point of life is self-definition. Were we aware of ourselves on the level of neshama, and were we conscious of our connection to God, the point of our lives would be quite clear to us. We wouldn't be at all confused as to why we exist and what we are supposed to do with our lives. But the point of life is to live with free will, and therefore such soul-consciousness is ordinarily withheld.
Instead, we are torn between our raging life force, our nefesh, and the awareness of our spirituality, our ruach, and this conflict creates within us a confusion as to who and what we are. This confusion is the source of our transgressions, and is the dilemma that forms the backdrop against which we exercise our free will.
Of the neshama, we are ordinarily totally oblivious. Thus, we are always engaged in the battle of self-definition, and we can never attain total resolution.
Stepping into the Holy of Holies eliminates the confusion and provides total clarity of vision as to the source of our being. But to enjoy such clarity runs contrary to the purpose of life in this world, and thus to enter the Holy of Holies is to step out of life as it must be lived in this world. When Aaron's two sons took this step, they terminated the point of their existence here.
And yet, such clarity is a necessary part of the existence of every Jew. We must be able to obtain an occasional glimpse at our origins, otherwise the accumulation of the errors of existence will move us steadily further and further away from our origins until the way back is so unclear that it is impossible to attain. That would also serve to eliminate the point of our existence, because when we totally lose the ability to find our way back to our origins we also lose our free will.
THE GIFT OF YOM KIPPUR
That is why God gave us Yom Kippur. On this one special day, God allowed us to step out of our ordinary selves and gave us a glimpse of our true connection to Him, and allowed our representative, the High Priest, to become self aware on the level of neshama. This allowed us to return to our origins, to temporarily resolve our conflicts, and to be able to push out the things separating us from God.
Now we can easily comprehend the difference between the confession of the penitent, and the confession we utter on Yom Kippur. In the confusion of ordinary life, when we are not self aware on the level of neshama, changing of character and self-definition is an extremely difficult process. To attain the levels of sincere regret and firm resolution never to return to past misdeeds -- the necessary concomitants of all character change -- are extremely arduous tasks. Therefore, teshuva is extremely difficult to attain, and the penitent must reach very lofty spiritual levels on the basis of his own efforts.
On Yom Kippur -- when we are offered a glimpse of our origins and the confusion of self-definition is largely eliminated -- the rejection of all our negatives becomes a matter of course. We are able to push out all our sinful activities as being truly unreflective of our true selves, because we are provided a glimpse of who we really are. Thus the confession of Yom Kippur is simply that we have sinned. We regret our inequities and can truly resolve never to return to them not through our own efforts, but through the clear vision of ourselves that the holiness of the day provides.
Isaac's twins, Jacob and Esau, attained this total clarity of self-definition on their own, through freedom of choice. Jacob defined himself as a neshama -- a wholesome man, totally consistent and whole and free of contradictions. Esau declared, "Look I am going to die," thus openly defining himself as a creature of this world only, a man of the field.
During the rest of the year we lose the clarity of vision that allows such sharp definition, but on Yom Kippur, this original distinction between Jacob and Esau reestablishes itself. This then is the secret behind the idea of the "scapegoat."
The loss of the Temple and the sacrifice of the "scapegoat" does not mean that we have entirely lost Yom Kippur. But as we inhabit a world of action rather than spirit, we are always hampered by an inability to translate our thoughts into deeds. Today, Yom Kippur still helps us to attain the spiritual level of true teshuva. | <urn:uuid:e44591f9-0c70-4280-a6f6-44d9668fa139> | {
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Did you know?
During the 1900s, British soldiers played long-distance chess in this area, using a heliograph to transmit their moves.
The Mountain Zebra National Park is situated on the northern slopes of the Bankberg mountain range near Cradock, in the Eastern Cape Midlands.
The park was first proclaimed in 1937, when the former National Parks Board, the fore-runner of the South African National Parks, realised that Cape mountain zebra numbers had plummetted.
A 1 712ha park was hurriedly proclaimed, but the remaining six zebra failed to breed, and by 1940, these handsome beasts existed in name only. A decade later, local land owners bordering the park stepped in, and donated animals from dwindling herds still in existence on their farms. Foal by foal, the Cape mountain zebra fought its way back from extinction.
Today, population numbers are healthy enough for zebras to be relocated to re-establish herds elsewhere.
In keeping with the park's conservation legacy, small numbers of plains zebras, bearing a strong genetic resemblance to the quagga, an extinct subspecies of plains zebra, have been reintroduced.
The park's size has increased to nearly 29 000ha, thanks in part to money raised by British artist David Shepherd. As a result of this initiative, endangered black rhinos are also thriving in the thorny plains and Cape buffalo and cheetah have also been reintroduced.
There are two main routes to explore. Along the Kranskop loop, spy tiny klipspringer antelope, mountain reedbuck and grey rhebok in the uplands; then descend into the territory of Cape buffalo, black rhino and eland.
The Rooiplaat loop traverses the grasslands that sustain springbok, Cape mountain zebra, blesbok, black wildebeest, red hartebeest and gemsbok. Predators in the park include caracal, omnivorous brown hyena, and more recently cheetah, the first to roam this area in a century.
Around 216 bird species have been recorded here, including ostrich, secretary bird, blue crane and Ludwig’s bustard, which make for interesting sightings, as do Verreaux’s (black) and martial eagles, and jackal buzzards.
Besides its uncommon wildlife, the park is notable for its threatened vegetation biomes (grassland, Nama Karoo, thicket and savannah), which all contribute to the biodiversity and wild, elemental beauty of the park.
Whether you escape to the craggy peaks, so typical of this landscape, for a secluded picnic, or braai (barbeque) beside the pool before a late afternoon game drive, you’ll find the Mountain Zebra National Park a rare, rewarding wildlife experience.
Travel tips & Planning info
Who to contact
Mountain Zebra National Park
Tel: +27 (0)48 881 2427/3434
How to get here
The Mountain Zebra National Park is 12km from Cradock on the road to Graaff-Reinet, and just under three hours from Port Elizabeth. From Port Elizabeth take the N10 north to Cradock then take the R61. The road to the park is well signposted.
Best time to visit
The park is open all year round. Visitors are advised to check with the park in advance if they plan to stay over on a national public holiday as accommodation might be full. Summer opening hours are 7am to 7pm (October to March), and winter are from 7am to 6pm (April to September).
Around the area
In Cradock, you could visit the house of renowned local author Olive Schreiner, now a museum. Have a light meal in famous Market Street where about 30 historic houses have been restored. Historic Graaff-Reinet is also worth exploring.
Tours to do
Go on a guided tour to see evidence of San habitation in the park at three different shelters; hike the three-day, two-night Impofu hiking trail; or take it easy on the Imbila, Black Eagle and Idwala day trails.
Unless travelling with a tour operator, you will need a car to visit this park. Some sections are only for 4x4 vehicles, but most roads are suitable for all vehicles.
What will it cost
Camping starts at R200 and chalets cost around R800 for two.
What to pack
Summers in the Eastern Cape are warm to hot. December to February is when annual rainfall is experienced. Pack a hat, walking shoes, sun block, camera, binoculars and sufficient water if you plan to hike. This mountainous park occasionally receives snowfall, so pack a warm jacket, woolly hat, scarf and gloves if you plan to visit in winter time (May to August).
Where to stay
In the park, stay at Doornhoek Guest House, a self-catering, restored Victorian homestead; or a four-bed family cottage. Two family units specially accommodate disabled visitors; and there are 20 caravan and camp sites with communal ablution facilities.
What to eat
An a la carte restaurant serves light refreshments, and there is a shop selling basic commodities. There are two picnic sites with braai facilities for day visitors.
All the roads in the park have recently been upgraded, as have the hiking huts on the Impofu Trail. A swimming pool for day visitors is available.
This is mohair country, and you can buy hats, scarves or blankets made from this luxuriously warm fibre. | <urn:uuid:48978905-eb9f-46f4-b64f-26ef4d7f6ecf> | {
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Polar remote sensing using an unpiloted aerial vehicle (UAV)
Aerosonde UAV. 2.9-m wingspan. 13-15 kg weight. The first unmanned aircraft to cross the North Atlantic.
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
1680 East-West Rd., POST-815C
Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Seminar by Dr. James Maslanik, Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR), University of Colorado at Boulder, November 20, 2002. Overview by John Maurer for ATOC 7500, Remote Sensing Seminar (Prof. William J. Emery), University of Colorado at Boulder. Many of the images in this presentation are pulled directly from Dr. Maslanik's PowerPoint presentation.
Introduction • Specifications • Advantages • Disadvantages • Applications
Due to the high cost and effort to staff traditional aircraft remote sensing expeditionscoupled with the high risk associated hazardous flying conditionssome scientists are beginning to turn to unpiloted aerial vehicles (UAV) such as the Aerosonde pictured above as a low-cost, low-risk alternative. Thanks to GPS technology, these UAVs can be programmed to make very detailed flight patterns that can be flown automatically and in very extreme weather conditions. Specifications for the Aerosonde are provided below, as well as a discussion of its applications and its advantages and disadvantages compared to traditional (i.e. piloted) aircraft. Aerosonde is a private, commercial company based out of Melbourne, Australia. They manage a Global Reconnaissance Facility in Melbourne from which Aerosondes anywhere on the planet can be remotely controlled and monitored. Users can also choose to run Aerosonde Virtual Field Environment software on their own personal computer, thereby defining, controlling and monitoring their own flights. Aerosonde has been around since about 1995. The first UAV to fly across the Atlantic was an Aerosonde in 1997.
Click here for a design drawing of an Aerosonde.
- Wingspan: 2.9 m
- Weight: 13 -15 kg (29-33 lbs.)
- Engine: 24cc fuel injected, premium unleaded gasoline
- Battery: 20 W-hr
- Fuel tank: 5 kg when full
- Speed: 80-150 kilometers/hour (50-93 miles/hour) cruise; 9 kilometers/hour (6 miles/hour) climb
- Range: > 3,000 km distance, > 30 hours, 0.1-6 km altitude (depending on payload)
- Payload: up to 2 kg (4.4 lbs.) with full fuel load
- Navigation: GPS
- Communications: UHF radio or LEO satellite
- Material: carbon fiber
- Propeller: rear propeller, allows for atmospheric measurements before air is disturbed by propeller
- Whereas traditional aircraft used for research like the NASA C130 and NASA P3 aircraft typically require a staff of 2-4 pilots along with a field crew of about 15, a UAV usually only requires a staff of 2-3 people. Thus, the cost and effort is dramatically lower for a field campaign using UAVs. This low cost also makes it practical to fly multiple Aerosondes at a time, which may be useful to many applications.
- The Aerosonde UAV is a "science platform": it was designed specifically with scientific research applications in mind. Data is high in quality as a result and all parameters related to the UAV are under control by the user. Typically, aircraft need to be "rigged" to accommodate various scientific applications, and a lot of times data quality suffers as a result.
- Due to the GPS navigation and control capabilities of the Aerosonde, coupled with its small size compared to an aircraft, very detailed flight patterns can be flown and with high precision.
- Having no human passengers, the Aerosonde is ideal for flying in dangerous weather conditions. And since it does not need human eyes to navigate, it is also ideal for flying in conditions of poor visibility.
- The Aerosonde can fly for an astounding 30 hours on only one gas of tank, allowing it to go long distances without having to refuel (>3,000 km). This is way better gas mileage than any aircraft has.
- The relatively slow speed of the Aerosonde (80-150 kph, 50-93 mph) allows instruments onboard to collect data at a much greater sampling rate than is possible on aircraft.
- Ability to fly very close to the surface allows for collection of very high resolution data.
- Having its propeller in the rear allows the Aerosonde to collect atmospheric measurements before disturbing the air.
- The Aerosonde control software allows the user to monitor vital signals and the course of the Aerosonde during flight. Operators can also alter the path of the Aerosonde via UAH radio or LEO satellite communications.
- The Aerosonde Global Reconnaissance Facility in Melbourne, Australia allows flights anywhere on the planet to be controlled remotely via communication satellites.
- To avoid the extra payload of adding landing gear to the body of the Aerosonde, it is designed to do a belly landing. Although this keeps the body lighter, it requires a smooth surface to land on, such as snow or sand.
- The total payload when fully fueled is only 2 kg (4.4 lbs.), limiting the weight of instruments the Aerosonde can carry. In short, many scientific instruments may be too heavy.
- The Aerosonde does not have the capability to detect other UAVs, aircraft, or other obstructions in order to avoid them.
- Due primarily to the above reason, the FAA (U.S. Federal Aviation Administration) has very tight restrictions on where and when UAVs such as the Aerosonde can be used.
- The Aerosonde equipment and flight operations staff at the Global Reconnaissance Facility in Melbourne, Australia is currently being stretched to the limits.
- The satellite communications with the Aerosonde are not totally reliable yet.
Sea surface temp.
Detailed flight paths over sea ice.
- Instruments currently available: digital camera, infrared thermometer, air pressure, temperature & humidity sensors.
- Instruments being developed: micro-SAR with ~1- to 2-meter resolution and a laser altimeter.
- Validation of satellite-derived products: e.g. passive microwave sea ice concentrations and sea surface temperatures.
- Support of in situ data collection efforts.
- Flying over polar regions where conditions are hazardous taking digital photos of sea ice.
- Studying conditions leading to icing of an aircraft body during ~0°-C temperatures and high humidity. Help develop technologies to prevent these conditions on aircraft carrying and being flown by humans. Icing can potentially cause an airplane to stop functioning while in flight.
- Do atmospheric profiling and flux studies, similar to how a radiosonde would.
- Use an infrared thermometer to map sea surface temperature (SST) at high resolutions.
- Micro-SAR will have the advantage of being able to see through clouds and in the dark. Will be a good tool for mapping sea ice in polar regions at very a high resolution (~1-2 meters).
- The laser altimeter will be used for producing highly detailed digital elevation models (DEM), which can be applied, for example, to studies of the mass balance of Greenland.
- Meteorological data can be collected for weather prediction and weather studies. Heavy storms can be flown into for these purposes as well, even into hurricanes.
Top of page • Introduction • Specifications • Advantages • Disadvantages • Applications
© 2002, John Maurer <> | <urn:uuid:8679250f-2318-44ee-b3a5-6e9f4746e9bd> | {
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Most people have seen a war souvenir. They take many forms from a postcard mailed from ‘the front,’ to a pillow with a sentimental message for a sweetheart. Today they are sought as collectibles.
Trench Art is a specific subgroup of these war souvenirs. John M. Ford, a photographer with a strong interest in the military, has some eye-candy photographs of trench art on his web site, along with detailed definitions of what professional collectors consider it to be. I paint the trench art category with a broader brush.
WWI soldiers sometimes had free time and little entertainment, so they took to creating and carving. Some soldiers engraved their names or designs on their mess kits. Others created letter openers, rifle shell desk lamps, altar pieces, candle sticks, match box covers, cups, ash trays, umbrella stands, vases, water bottles, book ends, cigarette lighters, “piggy” banks, pitchers and jugs, spittoons, toys, and vehicle models (to name just a few).
The first incidence that I can find of the term, “trench art,” (that is not a typo of ‘French art’) is in an article in the Chicago Tribune of 28 March 1917 on page 15, published prior to the United States entering the war. The article describes an Easter sale by the Band Box and French Wounded Relief selling “quantities of lace and peculiar and unique objects were sent here from France….made by French convalescents, Russians and Belgians mostly….bonbon boxes, cigar boxes and ash trays in a curious sort of gray metal, wrought roughly in fruit and flower designs….” The prices asked “seem a bit high for trench art….however these varied trench objects have been remarked….”
Generally trench art is a term used to describe handcrafted souvenirs, especially by soldiers of the First World War (but not limited to them). It was during and just after WWI that this form of art mostly thrived. It was called trench art because initially much of it was created ‘in the trenches’ by the military during down or quiet time. A few of the soldiers were good enough at it to make a bit of money selling them. Most brought them home as personal souvenirs.
It wasn’t just the military on the front lines who created the art. Recuperating soldiers in hospitals needed something to do, and it was considered therapeutic to keep busy. When people saw that it was a potential source of income, civilians collected detritus, (metal objects, and other debris of wartime) created objects they thought would sell quickly and marketed them.
Though most of the objects were made from metal, trench art included military throwaways such as cigarette boxes, barrels and cloth (anything with military markings). These too were transformed into art. The carvings, sketches and paintings that were created (especially by the soldiers) during this time could also be considered trench art. It’s difficult to set a time-frame or even an era for this type of art, since technically it is still being created.
A woman named Jane A. Kimball from Santa Fe, New Mexico, up until recently had the largest collection of trench art. Her pieces were included in several art shows and exhibitions. She wrote a book about her collection in 2004 and was considered one of the experts in that media until her death in 2016.
I rarely see articles about, or pieces of New Hampshire trench art, and yet I am sure that hundreds of them exist, mostly in attics, trunks and dusty basements. Now that you have an idea of what trench art is, you might want to dust off and treasure that strange old metal vase or ash tray. If you don’t want to use it as a collectable, you might consider donating it to your local historical society or museum.
Photo Example of Trench Art: Royal Alberta Museum, Canada
Story of Trench Art: Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
Beauty From the Battlefield, 10 Pieces of Trench Art: Imperial War Museums
[Editor’s Note: this story is part of an on-going series about heroic New Hampshire men and women of World War I. Look here for the entire listing]. | <urn:uuid:1814b043-ad55-4c99-b844-03f14ec22b7f> | {
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An article this week in the Los Angeles Times reminded me that children's programs in our libraries help keep their skills sharp, especially during the summer when they are not in school. According to the article ("Keeping pupils' skills sharp," LAT Extra, July 7), a new study by the Rand Corporation has documented that children lose two to three months of reading and math skills while on break, and that the problem is particularly acute for lower-income children with limited access to travel, museums, libraries and other enriching experiences. Though people often think that this refers only to children in the lower grades, it in fact applies to some extent to all young students.
To help combat this problem, summer programs are sometimes held in schools and museums, often funded by grants from various foundations. Most public libraries have yearly summer programs for children, ranging in age from toddlers to teens. Costa Mesa's two full-service libraries have regularly had outstanding children's programs, funded by the Friends of the Costa Mesa Libraries. | <urn:uuid:5220e116-e67f-4644-b1f4-11ddfaa5a1a0> | {
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Callianax biplicata (Sowerby, 1825)
Common name(s): Purple olive shell, Purple olivella
|Synonyms: Olivella biplicata|
|Callianax biplicata, Dana Point, CA 2001|
|(Photo by: Dave Cowles, 2001)|
How to Distinguish from Similar Species: Callianax baetica is more narrow and is usually brown, plus is mostly subtidal and is rarely found on exposed beaches. C. biplicata generally has purple coloration on it, even when worn (picture). C. pycna typically has wavy longitudinal lines on the shell.
Geographical Range: Vancouver Island to Bahia Magdalena, Baja California
Depth Range: Low intertidal to 50 m
Habitat: Sandy bottoms, lagoons, bays.
Biology/Natural History: Burrows in sand,
leaving a plowed trail behind it (photo).
The foot is wedge shaped to facilitate plowing (photo).
While burrowing it raises its long siphon up through the sand as a snorkel.
Found nearshore on fairly quiet, protected beaches and farther offshore
on more exposed beaches. Predators include the seastars Pisaster
brevispinus and Astropecten armatus, octopus, moon snails,
and gulls. The snail digs or crawls rapidly or somersaults if touched
brevispinus tube feet. Primarily found along the open coast
rather than in protected waters such as Puget Sound. Most active
at night, often move up and down the beach with the tide. Larger
animals live higher on the beach than smaller ones do. May congregate
in large clusters (photo).
Probably omnivorous. Will eat kelp blades and live and dead animal
material. May eat small detritus. Males find females by following
their tracks, then glues himself temporarily to her shell. Mating
takes up to 3 days. Egg capsules are about 0.5 mm, are deposited
individually on small stones, shells, etc. Grow to 1.6 cm first year,
1-5 mm/year thereafter. Live 8-15 years. May be parasitized
by trematode larvae (in the gonads--may castrate host). May contain
high levels of heavy metals such as copper, lead, silver, cadmium, and
|Main Page||Alphabetic Index||Systematic Index||Glossary|
Morris et al., 1980 (as Olivella biplicata)
Kozloff, 1993 (as Olivella biplicata)
Lamb and Hanby, 2005 (as Olivella biplicata)
Niesen, 1994 (as Olivella biplicata)
This species is of special value to the Makah indian tribe at Neah Bay.
This individual (above and below) was found at Toleak Point, on the open Washington coast. The scale in millimeters, with centimeters marked.
Note that there are two folds on the columella, and that the white callus on the anterior (right) end is about 1/3 the total length of the shell.
|The following photos show Callianax biplicata actvity on sandy regions of Shi Shi Beach. All the photos can be enlarged for a closer look by clicking on them.|
|Ths is an aggregation of Callianax
biplicata seen in late July. There was a wide sandy area the
individuals could have occupied but nearly all the individuals were aggregated
in a this and a few other small areas near the zero tide line. The
photo was taken at daybreak in late July, 2008 by Dave Cowles.
||Most of the individuals in the aggregation at left were completely
buried in the sand as can be seen on the left and right in this photo.
A number of them, however, were incompletely buried as seen in the center.
The center individual is burying itself posterior end-first in the sand,
and is extending its inhalant siphon up toward the surface.
|This individual is crawling across the beach. Unlike the other
photos in this set, this one was taken in 2007, of an individual not in
an aggregation. The individual was buried in the sand at the end
of the trail but I popped it out for the photo. Photo by Dave Cowles
at Shi Shi beach, near dawn in early August 2007.
||This individual appears to have previously been in or at the burrow
at the right which is still occupied by another individual. Now it
is crawling around among the burrows on the left. This was not the
only individual in the aggregation that appeared to have been visiting
other burrows. Because of the tight aggregation of individuals and
the evidence of visiting burrows, I assume that this is a mating aggregation.
|This member of the aggregation is crawling across the sand. Note
the plowlike configuration of the anterior foot, which would help the snail
to burrow through sand. Note also the white incurrent
siphon, which is extended forward, and the dark tentacle-like extension
of the mantle which is held across the top of the shell.
||This individual member of the aggregation appears to be lying on its left side with its foot and mantle extended around the anterior and ventral end. Note how the inhalant siphon is extending back toward the nearby burrow. I wonder if this individual is preparing to dig into the sand next to the individual in the burrow.|
This photo shows a 1.7 cm-long individual crawling along underwater
in the lab. Notice the raised incurrent
siphon and the extended mantle.
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(Medical Xpress)—In 2010, a polio outbreak in the Republic of Congo (ROC) resulted in 445 confirmed cases, of which 47% were fatal. Originally, researchers thought low levels of immunization were responsible for the severity of the outbreak. However, Christian Drosten of the University of Bonn Medical Center and colleagues have discovered that a vaccine-resistant mutation of poliovirus caused the outbreak in ROC. The research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Since the World Health Organization's Global Polio Eradication Initiative was passed in 1988, the number of countries in which poliomyelitis is endemic has decreased from 125 to 3 - Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, in recent years, there have been outbreaks in nonendemic countries, including ROC, Tajikistan and China. The ROC outbreak, which centered around the city of Pointe Noire, was exceptional because of its high fatality rate. In addition, it affected an unusually large number of adults. The median age of patients who developed acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) was 20. In comparison, during a 2010 outbreak in Tajikistan, 44 percent of AFP cases involved children under five. The fatality rate during that outbreak was only six percent.
Previous researchers attributed the severity of the ROC outbreak to low levels of vaccination in adults. However, further investigation showed that many adult patients had received oral polio vaccine.
To understand why the vaccine had not protected these patients, Drosten's team sequenced the virus involved in the outbreak. They found it had two mutations that made it difficult for antibodies to stick to it. The closest relative of the ROC virus was an Angolan strain isolated in 2009, which had one of the mutations. Both of these strains descended from a strain that originated in Asia, where the virus is still endemic in some places.
When the researchers tested the virus on blood from Gabonese volunteers, German outpatients and German medical students already vaccinated against polio, they found that antibodies in the blood were less effectiveness against the ROC strain than against the strain used to make the vaccine. Between 15 and 29 percent of the students would have had no protection against the ROC virus.
Drosten's team found that unhygienic conditions, including overcrowding and the use of covered well water, could have exacerbated the spread of the disease in ROC. The researchers warn that the ability of poliomyelitis to mutate means that populations with robust immunity to an older version of the virus could become victims of new outbreaks. Continued revaccination and surveillance of environmental conditions would prevent more outbreaks from occurring.
Explore further: Experts warn that Syria polio outbreak may threaten Europe
More information: Robustness against serum neutralization of a poliovirus type 1 from a lethal epidemic of poliomyelitis in the Republic of Congo in 2010 , Jan Felix Drexler, PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1323502111
In 2010, a large outbreak of poliomyelitis with unusual 47% lethality occurred in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo. Vaccine-mediated immunity against the outbreak virus was never investigated. A wild poliovirus 1 (WPV1) isolated from a fatal case (termed PV1-RC2010) showed a previously unknown combination of amino acid exchanges in critical antigenic site 2 (AgS2, VP1 capsid protein positions 221SAAL→221PADL). These exchanges were also detected in an additional 11 WPV1 strains from fatal cases. PV1-RC2010 escaped neutralization by three different mAbs relevant for AgS2. Virus neutralization was tested in sera from fatal cases, who died before supplementary immunization (n = 24), Gabonese recipients of recent oral polio vaccination (n = 12), routinely vaccinated German medical students (n = 34), and German outpatients tested for antipoliovirus immunity (n = 17) on Vero, human rhabdomyosarcoma, and human epidermoid carcinoma 2 cells. Fatal poliomyelitis cases gave laboratory evidence of previous trivalent vaccination. Neutralizing antibody titers against PV1-RC2010 were significantly lower than those against the vaccine strain Sabin-1, two genetically distinct WPV1s isolated in 1965 and 2010 and two genetically distinct vaccine-derived PV strains. Of German vaccinees tested according to World Health Organization protocols, 15–29% were unprotected according to their neutralization titers (<1:8 serum dilution), even though all were protected against Sabin-1. Phylogenetic analysis of the WPV1 outbreak strains suggested a recent introduction of virus progenitors from Asia with formation of separate Angolan and Congolese lineages. Only the latter carried both critical AgS2 mutations. Antigenetically variant PVs may become relevant during the final phase of poliomyelitis eradication in populations with predominantly vaccine-derived immunity. Sustained vaccination coverage and clinical and environmental surveillance will be necessary. | <urn:uuid:48adcd05-ccb0-4fc8-b658-fa6403713d18> | {
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Led by Sir John Franklin (1786-1847), an expedition to discover a viable North-West Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific left the port of London in May, 1845. Franklin, who joined the British Navy at the age of fourteen, had participated in the battles of Copenhagen (1801) and Trafalgar (1805) during the Napoleonic Warsand later served as Governor of Tasmania from 1834 to 1845. He is chiefly remembered, however, for his journeys of arctic exploration in 1818 and 1845. During this second expedition Franklin commanded the Royal Navy vessels Erebus and Terror, and the last communication with Franklin's fleet took place in July 1845. After his ships became locked in the ice of a frozen Victoria Strait in 1846, Franklin froze to death, leaving 105 survivors to attempt a lengthy journey with sledges overland to a Hudson's Bay fort at Back's River.
For three years, nothing further was heard from the lost Franklin expedition. In 1848 searches began in earnest when a reward of £10,000 was posted. In 1848, Dr. John Rae (1813-98), an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company, accompanied Sir John Richardson of the Royal Navy in search of either news, the survivors, or the remains of the polar expedition. In 1853-54, Rae searched King William's Land. In October, 1854, Dr. Rae encountered Inuit hunters, from whom he acquired artifacts from the Franklin expedition from Inuit hunters, who recounted a strange tale of dementia and cannibalism in the Canadian arctic. Rae, concluding that the expedition's members had perished from scurvy and hunger, and had resorted to cannibalism, conveyed the Eskimos' report to the British Admiralty.
Since young Charles Dickens was fascinated by stories of South Sea exploration in general and the Bounty mutiny in particular, probably through his favourite juvenile reading, the Terrific Register, it is likely that Dickens had thoroughly immersed himself in the literature of exploration long before he came to write his two-part article on the Franklin expedition. While he did not accuse of Rae of lying, he totally rejected the notion that these emissaries of European civilisation would have stooped to so barbaric an act, even to preserve themselves. Rather, Dickens attacked the veracity of the Eskimo witnesses, who, he suspected, were embellishing their account to suit their European auditors.
The notion that the Arctic wastes had been so cold as to freeze the capability of someone like Franklin to feel and express his moral sentiments was unacceptable. Attracted in his fiction to embodiments of evil, to destroyers and engorgers, Dickens often located the sources of such depravity in social pressures and deformation. Other times he admitted the insufficiency of such an explanation. He preferred, though, to explain human nature in the terms of eighteenth-century moral philosophy: Human beings are innately good; their goodness resides in their natural moral sentiments (Kaplan, p. 353).
In Frozen in Time: Unlocking the Secrets of the Franklin Expedition (1988), Owen Beattie and John Geiger conclude that knife marks on some of the bones provide physical evidence to support the tales of cannibalism which the Inuit told to Dr. John Rae in the spring of 1854:
Fracture lines also indicated that the skull [found at Booth Point, King William's Land] had been forcibly broken; the face, including both jaws and all the teeth, was missing. Evidence that the body had been intentionally dismembered was further supported by the selective parts of the skeleton found: the head, arms, and legs. Besides the face, most of the skeleton was missing, including the twenty-four ribs, sternum (breastbone), all twenty-four vertebrae of the back, the two clavicles (collar bones) and two scapulas (shoulder blades). [p. 59]
Beattie and Geiger believe that the last survivors in the summer of 1848 were attempting to make the 1,500 kilometre trip from the mouth of the Back River to a Hudson's Bay fort on the eastern shore of Great Slave Lake. Exhausted, suffering from lead poisoning in varying degrees, falling prey to symptoms of advanced scurvy, and with few natural food sources available, they hit upon the plan of cannibalizing the trunk of a body, consuming the meatier parts immediately, and carrying the head, arms, and legs as they traveled south across the still ice-covered Simpson Strait.
- The Text of Dickens's "The Lost Arctic Voyagers"
- The Franklin Expedition: 1845-1859
- The Search for the North-West Passage: 1497-1845
- Reading and Discussion Questions
Beattie, Owen, and John Geiger. Frozen in Time: Unlocking the Secrets of the Franklin Expedition. Place?: 1988.
Dikens, Charles. "The Lost Arctic Voyagers." Household Words. (2 and 9 December 1854): -393.
Kaplan, Fred. Dickens, A Biography. New York: William Morrow, 1988.
Last modified 8 July 2004
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British History Research Paper
For your first semester paper, choose a topic from one we've discussed or read about, or something that interests you. Here is a massive list of many topic ideas from the time period we'll be covering in our first semester. Define a specific research question to guide your study. Find three sources of information, one of which must include a physical document, either a book or article, that you acquire from a library. Create research notecards, an outline, and then a first draft. Using peer review and instructor comments, revise your rough draft into a 2000 word paper with a clear question in the introduction and a clear answer in the conclusion.
Due Dates Timeline:
Sept 26: Choose topic
Oct 3: Narrow topic and submit a 200 word essay defining your research question.
Oct 17: Identify at least two online sources and at least one physical source.
You may use the internet to identify sources to search for at the library, so that you're prepared with some ideas when you go. However, you must then travel to a library, moving your actual physical body through the doors and speaking to a live person who answers to the title, "Librarian." Think of what you will ask the librarian when you get there. Something like. "I'm a geography student, and I am researching the Panama Canal. I'm trying to find out why the Americans succeeded when the French failed. Do you have any advice for me, doing research in the library?"
Your paper will use parenthetical notation to cite sources. Each time you use information from a source, either in a direct quote or a paraphrase, or reporting a fact you learned, you'll use parentheses, the author's last name, and the page number if applicable. Here's more on how to do parenthetical notation. Then you'll write a page of Works Cited to come at the end of your paper, identifying the sources you referenced in the parentheses. This Works Cited page will be written in MLA format, which you can learn about here. When you submit your sources, you must use MLA format also. More on writing a Works Cited page.
Oct 31: Create research note cards
Take notes on each one of your sources using a note card system. Buy a pack of index cards. On each card, you'll write the specific topic, the source, the page number (if applicable) and the information or quote you're noting down. So if you're writing about the Panama canal, you might find a quote about mosquito infestations. The topic of the card would be maybe "Obstacles to Building."
You'll group facts and quotes about similar topics together when you make your outline. Here's a page that tells more about using note cards for research. Bring your research cards to class, bound with a rubber band, to be graded.
Nov 7: Outline First Draft
Turn in your first draft of an outline. This outline should have three levels: Roman numerals, capital letters, and Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc). Turn this in on paper, printed out, for class on the 7th.
Nov 14: Half First Draft
Your entire first draft will be due on November 29, but you must turn in at least 1000 words of it on April 4, for a grade.
Nov 29: Full First Draft
Bring two copies of your draft, printed out, including parenthetical notations and a Works Cited page, to class on Tuesday. You will exchange with another student and take home a peer review form to complete.
Dec 5: Peer Review Due
Follow the instructions on your peer review worksheet to mark up your partner's draft, and provide suggestions and comments on the sheet. This is the day you'll receive a marked up copy of your draft back from your instructor.
Dec 12: Final Draft Due
Turn everything in class on Tuesday:
Half draft with my notes
First draft with my notes
Peer editing sheet
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Did you wonder this morning whether you should pack an umbrella before leaving home? Or whether ultraviolet rays or air quality issues might pose particular problems, if you had to be outside all afternoon? For some, these questions might have been more serious - whether wildfires or floods were going to spread to your town, for example.
The information to answer questions like these comes from above. And researchers are expecting big things from NASA's newest Earth-observing satellite. A bus-sized box of instruments that will orbit some 800 kilometers above the Earth is expected to help everyday people and scientists make some important decisions. NASA's newest environmental satellite is known as the NPP (National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project), launched from California on Friday, October 28.
Ken Schwer is the NPP project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
"With climate studies, enhanced weather forecasting, and monitoring of critical events, NPP's bumper sticker could read 'NPP - Our Planet's Lifeguard,'" he told reporters at a pre-launch briefing.
NASA says the NPP will orbit the Earth about 14 times a day, and it will observe almost the entire surface of the planet. The 2,100 kilogram spacecraft carries five key instruments that will monitor atmospheric moisture and air pressure, Earth's ozone levels and radiation, and collect visible and infrared views of wildfires, land changes and ice sheet movement.
Weather vs climate
Jim Gleason is the NPP project scientist based at Goddard. Gleason says the NPP is the first mission designed to provide observations for weather forecasters and climate researchers.
Gleason notes that weather is about conditions in the near future, while climate is about weather patterns over long periods of time.
"It's incredibly valuable to try to understand what the future environment may bring, and the future environment is as much about tomorrow's weather as it is long-term climate change," said Gleason.
Gleason is particularly interested in the Earth's ozone layer. He says new data will help scientists evaluate the effectiveness of policies that were adopted in the 1980s to reduce the levels of ozone-depleting substances in the atmosphere.
Mitch Goldberg, a scientist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, says his agency's last weather satellite was launched in 2009 and has a three-year life expectancy.
"The launch of NPP is critical for NOAA and NASA, for the United States and for the international community," Goldberg said. "NPP represents a bridge from current NOAA operational and NASA research satellites to the future operational platforms known as the Joint Polar Satellite System, JPSS. And it will provide essential and improved atmospheric, oceanic and terrestrial observations for many different applications."
NPP has a five-year mission life, and it will bridge the gap until the JPSS is launched in 2015.
Scientists say NPP will improve forecasting of extreme events five to seven days in advance and its instruments will become the foundations of a global observing system.
Mitch Goldberg works as a JPSS program scientist.
"Forecasts are used to make decisions in order to save lives, mitigate property loss, and make millions of day-to-day and longer term decisions across all economic sectors affected by weather, such as transportation, agriculture, construction, energy and tourism," explained Goldberg. "In 2011 alone [in the United States], there have been 10 separate weather events, each inflicting at least $1 billion in damages, including tornado outbreaks, fires, hurricanes, floods and blizzards. NPP will provide improved information to forecasters and emergency managers to better warn and prepare the public for severe weather events."
Goldberg says the satellite will also be used to track ash plumes from volcanic eruptions to help ensure aviation safety. It will monitor fire- and drought-risk conditions, and map vegetation - all of which are important to food security. It will measure variations in land ice, sea ice and glaciers to quantify changes in the global climate. And it will detect harmful algae blooms that could threaten fisheries, coastal eco-systems and people's respiratory health. | <urn:uuid:ca807859-6ef9-4cb9-b232-b30712022a0c> | {
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The Worlds Famous Orations. Greece (432 B.C.324 B.C.). 1906.
II. On Being Declared Guilty
Socrates (469399 B.C.)
Born about 470 B.C., died in 399; for a time followed his fathers art as a sculptor; served in three campaigns; President of the Pyrtanes in 406 and opposed the Thirty Tyrants; his philosophical precepts, as those of the wisest man of his time, known to us only in the writings of his disciple, Plato.
THAT1 I should not be grieved, O Athenians, at what has happened, namely, that you have condemned me, as well as many other circumstances concur in bringing to pass, and moreover this, that what has happened has not happened contrary to my expectations; but I much rather wonder at the number of votes on either side. For I did not expect that I should be condemned by so small a number, but by a large majority; but now, as it seems, if only three more votes had changed sides I should have been acquitted. As far as Miletus is concerned, as it appears to me, I have been already acquitted, and not only have I been acquitted, but it is clear to every one that had not Anytus and Lycon come forward to accuse me, he would have been fined a thousand drachmas, for not having obtained a fifth part of the votes.
The man then awards me the penalty of death. Well. But what shall I, on my part, O Athenians, award myself? Is it not clear that it will be such as I deserve? What then is that? Do I deserve to suffer or to pay a fine, for that I have purposely during my life not remained quiet, but, neglecting what most men seek after,money-making, domestic concerns, military command, popular oratory, and moreover all the magistracies, conspiracies and cabals that are met with in the city,thinking that I was in reality too upright a man to be safe if I took part in such things, I therefore did not apply myself to those pursuits, by attending to which I should have been of no service either to you or to myself; but in order to confer the greatest benefit on each of you privately, as I affirm, I thereupon applied myself to that object, endeavoring to persuade every one of you not to take any care of his own affairs, before he had taken care of himself, in what way he may become the best and wisest, nor of the affairs of the city before he took care of the city itself, and that he should attend to other things in the same manner.
What treatment then do I deserve, seeing I am such a man? Some reward, O Athenians, if at least I am to be estimated according to my real deserts; and moreover such a reward as would be suitable to me. What then is suitable to a poor man, a benefactor, and who has need of leisure in order to give you good advice? There is nothing so suitable, O Athenians, as that such a man should be maintained in the Prytaneum, and this much more than if one of you had been victorious at the Olympic games in a horse race, or in the two or four-horsed chariot race; for such a one makes you appear to be happy, but I, to be so: and he does not need support, but I do. If, therefore, I must award a sentence according to my just deserts, I award this, maintenance in the Prytaneum.
Perhaps, however, in speaking to you thus, I appear to you to speak in the same presumptuous manner as I did respecting commiseration and entreaties: but such is not the ease, O Athenians, it is rather this. I am persuaded that I never designedly injured any man, tho I can not persuade you of this, for we have conversed with each other but for a short time. For if there was the same law with you as with other men, that in capital cases the trial should last not only one day but many, I think you would be persuaded; but it is not easy in a short time to do away with great calumnies.
Being persuaded then that I have injured no one, I am far from intending to injure myself, and of pronouncing against myself that I am deserving of punishment, and from awarding myself anything of the kind. Through fear of what? lest I should suffer that which Miletus awards me, of which I say I know not whether it be good or evil? instead of this, shall I choose what I well know to be evil, and award that? Shall I choose imprisonment? And why should I live in prison, a slave to the established magistracy, the Eleven? Shall I choose a fine, and to be imprisoned until I have paid it? But this is the same as that which I just now mentioned, for I have not money to pay it. Shall I then award myself exile? For perhaps you would consent to this award. I should indeed be very fond of life, O Athenians, if I were so devoid of reason as not to be able to reflect that you, who are my fellow citizens, have been unable to endure my manner of life and discourses, but they have become so burdensome and odious to you, that you now seek to be rid of them; others, however, will easily bear them; far from it, O Athenians. A fine life it would be for me at my age to go out wandering and driven from city to city, and so to live. For I well know that, wherever I may go, the youth will listen to me when I speak, as they do here. And if I repulse them they will themselves drive me out, persuading the elders; and if I do not repulse them, their fathers and kindred will banish me on their account.
Perhaps, however, some one will say, Can you not, Socrates, when you have gone from us, live a silent and quiet life? This is the most difficult thing of all to persuade some of you. For if I say that that would be to disobey the deity, and that therefore it is impossible for me to live quietly, you would not believe me, thinking I spoke ironically. If, on the other hand, I say that this is the greatest good to man, to discourse daily on virtue, and other things which you have heard me discussing, examining both myself and others, but that a life without investigation is not worth living for, still less would you believe me if I said this. Such, however, is the case, as I affirm, O Athenians, tho it is not easy to persuade you. And at the same time I am not accustomed to think myself deserving of any ill.
If, indeed I were rich, I would amerce myself in such a sum as I should be able to pay; for then I should have suffered no harm, but nowfor I can not, unless you are willing to amerce me in such a sum as I am able to pay. But perhaps I could pay you a mina of silver; in that sum then I amerce myself. But Plato here, O Athenians, and Crito, Critobulus, and Apollodorus bid me amerce myself in thirty minæ, and they offer to be sureties. I amerce myself then to you in that sum; and they will be sufficient sureties for the money. | <urn:uuid:cbe45270-c87f-47c7-8c6f-04eca5a637f0> | {
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Maritain, Raïssa (1883–1960)
Maritain, Raïssa (1883–1960)
Russian-born French writer, wife and collaborator of the philosopher Jacques Maritain, who played a key role with her husband in the revival of Catholic intellectual life and advocated for a modern rekindling of the thoughts of the medieval philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas . Name variations: Raissa Maritain; Raïssa Oumancoff, Oumançoff, Oumansov, or Oumansoff. Born Raïssa Oumansov in Rostov on the Don, Russia, on September 12, 1883; died in Paris, France, on November 4, 1960; daughter of Ilia Oumansoff and Issia Oumansoffa; sister of Véra Oumansoff (spelled VeraOumancoff in entry on Gwen John ; also seen as Oumançoff, d. 1959); married Jacques Maritain (1882–1973), on November 26, 1904.
In tsarist Russia during 1883, Raïssa Oumansoff was the first daughter born to a moderately successful Jewish tailor named Ilia Oumansoff. She lived in the river port of Rostov on the Don until age three, when her family moved to the Ukrainian port of Maripol. There, in a fiercely anti-Semitic Russian Empire, she met with an unusual opportunity for a Jewish girl of her day, namely the chance to study in a state school. In 1893, Raïssa, along with her mother Issia Oumansoffa and younger sister Véra Oumansoff , emigrated to Paris; Ilia had moved there some time before to find a refuge for his family from the hatred and pogroms of the tsar's realm. The highly intelligent Raïssa quickly mastered the French language, developed a familiarity with French cultural values and traditions, and became an ardent Francophile. In a family which prized educational achievement, she easily earned her baccalaureate degree and at age 17 began her studies at the Sorbonne.
A serious young woman, she embarked upon her higher education hoping to find nothing less than convincing answers to the question of why she and other mortals were alive, "a justification for existence." Convinced that the answer was to be found in the natural sciences, she endeavored to master them. It quickly became apparent to Raïssa, however, that for all of the facts that the modern scientific disciplines had assembled, deeper truths that might illuminate the purpose of life continued to elude the great minds of science. In 1900, she met a fellow student at the Sorbonne who was engaged in a similar quest. Equally obsessed in his search for truth, Jacques Maritain came from a distinguished Protestant family of liberal and secular views. Jacques, the son of a prosperous lawyer, was the grandson on his mother's side of Jules Favre, one of the founders of the French Third Republic (created in 1870). By the time he began studying at the Sorbonne, Jacques no longer found a convincing explanation of the meaning of life in the rationalism of his parents.
Raïssa and Jacques fell in love soon after they met, but their mutual affection did not solve the problem that plagued them. Science and reason no longer provided answers, and religious doctrines too brought no solace. For Raïssa, the Judaism of her parents was outmoded and irrelevant in regard to representing either a coherent religious or cultural tradition. For Jacques, liberal Protestantism failed to answer any of the big questions that plagued him. Living in a state of profound spiritual disarray, for a time the couple contemplated suicide, making a pact in the Jardin des Plantes to end their lives. They were prevented from carrying out this act by attending, and being inspired by, the public lectures of College de France professor Henri Bergson. A highly influential philosopher, Bergson was in the vanguard of the full-blown attack on scientific positivism that was well underway by the last decades of the 19th century. By pointing to a world in which higher metaphysical truths could in fact be discovered by humanity, his subtle and persuasive ideas gave hope to Raïssa and Jacques.
They married on November 26, 1904, and continued their search for a way out of a world they regarded as obsessed with material success and power. By the time of her marriage, it appears likely that Raïssa had already altered her plans of preparing herself for university degree examinations. Whereas Jacques continued to pursue a course of study leading to the agrégation degree (which he would be awarded in 1905), Raïssa would earn no university degree despite the strong encouragement of her parents, her obvious abilities as a student, and a love of learning that had been central to her nature since childhood. Her biographer Judith D. Suther has argued that already at this stage in her life, she had "[i]mperceptibly and without conscious design … cast herself into the traditional ancillary role that until very recently in Western culture has been taken for granted." In a world that Suther has described as being organized around "the encoded misogyny of patriarchal culture," Raïssa Maritain, though intellectually gifted, would remain largely hidden behind the spotlight on her husband.
Raïssa's fragile state of health also played an important role in her life. An illness in the summer of 1904, only months before she married Jacques, had compelled her to abandon all regular work, academic or otherwise, and began a regular pattern of illness and recovery that was to continue for the rest of her life. A number of her statements give credence to the notion that she almost enjoyed these illnesses. She commented on one occasion, "I am ill because illness is salutary for me," and, on another, "I feel the debility of recovery, not of illness." For her entire married life, Raïssa appears to have suffered from lethargy and a general sense of being unwell. In 1906, one of these unidentifiable illnesses left her semi-comatose and prompted a desperate Jacques to pray (for the first time in his adult life) for his wife's recovery. It was not his prayers but rather a medal of Mary the Virgin placed around Raïssa's neck by Jeanne Bloy —the wife of their close friend, the pious and eccentric Catholic novelist and pamphleteer Léon Bloy (1846–1917)—that seems to have revived her. Soon after this incident, encouraged by their spiritual mentor Bloy, Raïssa and Jacques were secretly baptized, along with Raïssa's sister Véra, into the Roman Catholic faith on June 11, 1906, at Saint-Jean-l'Evangéliste in Montmartre. The eccentric Léon Bloy served as godfather to all three converts.
For the next two years after her conversion, Raïssa's vocation as a Catholic contemplative emerged as she spent her days in study and prayer. Her sister Véra, who moved in permanently with the couple starting in December 1906, made it possible for Raïssa to avoid virtually all contact with the outside world. Apparently without resentment, Véra took on most of the daily household chores. From this time until her death in 1959, Véra would be a member of a "small flock of three." Jacques, who took considerable time off from his own studies and prayers to attend to household tasks, also took on the psychological burden of consoling both sets of parents on the "loss" of their children to the demands of the Roman Catholic faith. In January 1907, Raïssa was seriously ill, possibly from amoebic enteritis, and received the last rites of the Catholic Church, ecstatically experiencing the sacrament as "a new baptism." She would describe the experience as having flooded her with "grace and peace" and bringing her "the joy of suffering." She soon had what she called a "sudden and undeniable" physical recovery. As a consequence of this event, she offered to God "the total gift of herself" and shortly after began attending daily Mass.
Over the next several years, Raïssa sought ways to deepen her religious devotion, and discussions on this issue took place between her, Jacques, and Véra. In time, the triumvirate discerned a clear path. On September 29, 1912, in the presence of the Dominican priest Humbert Clerissac, who now served as their charismatic spiritual father, the three took vows of celibacy, becoming oblates on that day at St. Paul's Abbey in Oosterhout. Several days later, Jacques and Raïssa offered their marriage to God as a pledge of their future celibate life together. These decisions, as well as Raïssa's recurring mysterious illnesses and mystical spirituality, confounded both the Oumansoff and Maritain families. The estrangement between Jacques and his mother Genevieve Favre (whose marriage to Jacques' father had all but collapsed before her husband committed suicide) was only slowly—and never totally—bridged over the next years. Both Ilia and Issia Oumansoff, however, not only became reconciled to the decisions their daughters had made, but over time became converts themselves to Roman Catholicism.
In 1918, a substantial legacy to Jacques from a dead soldier, Pierre Villard, made it possible for the trio to attain a state close to financial independence. In 1923, Jacques purchased a house in Meudon, a suburb south of Paris, where he would write the many books that would eventually make his name known throughout the world, not only to Roman Catholics and other believing Christians but also to many of the non-religious intellectually engaged citizens of the 20th century.
At around the same time, first Raïssa and then Jacques discovered the vast body of work left behind by St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274), the "Prince of Scholastic Philosophers" and "Doctor Angelicus" whose Summa Theologica was intended by its author to be the sum of all known learning. Both Maritains regarded the teachings of Aquinas not as part of a dead medieval world but rather as a living doctrine, the essence of which could be made viable once again for the contemporary world. Known as Thomism, these teachings formed a complex intellectual structure which proclaimed that faith and knowledge could be made totally compatible with one another by use of reason. Aquinas was the thinker who would become the central passion of the couple's lives. They were convinced that the 20th century could learn much from Thomism, a modernized version of which Jacques tirelessly spread to bring the modern age back to spirituality and moral truth. In her own, less philosophical and more personal, fashion, Raïssa also spread the same message.
Although Raïssa was usually ailing and self-absorbed, Jacques admired her and regarded her as both a poet and a mystic. Over the years, while he would describe her as a person who was "in the world but not of it," she wrote a number of books including four volumes of poetry, two volumes of memoirs (We Have Been Friends Together , and Adventures in Grace ), and the posthumously published Notes on the Lord's Prayer (1964) and Raïssa's Journal (1974). One of her books, The Situation of Poetry (1955), was co-authored with her husband. Unlike the many French Catholics who, attracted to Fascism and Nazism, were willing to grant Adolf Hitler the benefit of the doubt because he had been able to destroy Marxism and "restore order" in Germany, Jacques Maritain fully recognized the dangers of authoritarian racism. At least in part, this was based on his realization that a Nazified Europe would gravely endanger the two persons with whom he had shared virtually all of his adult life, Raïssa and Véra. Although both women had been devout Catholics since they were in their 20s, according to Nazi Germany's Nuremberg Laws they remained Jews.
The three arrived in the United States in late December 1939. During World War II, they lived in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, and Jacques was active in Free French politics while also lecturing and writing. In the evenings, the Maritains often gave parties at which philosophical ideas, frequently of a Thomist nature, flowed easily along with the ginger ale. In November 1944, Jacques was appointed France's ambassador to the Vatican, a post he held until 1948. At that point, he resumed his teaching at Princeton University, where the trio continued to live after he achieved emeritus status in 1952. The Maritains maintained their residence at 26 Linden Lane in Princeton, with Jacques, Raïssa, and Véra carrying on in their accustomed patterns for a number of years. Then in 1956, Véra's health began to decline dramatically. She died in December 1959 after enduring much pain and suffering. In a letter dated February 8, 1960, to Anne Green (a writer and sister of the writer Julien Green), Raïssa noted: "There was a special bond, a naive playfulness, a perpetual game between Véra and me. Although she was younger than I, in the game she was my little mother and I was her little child."
Raïssa was deeply shaken by her sister's death and the many months of suffering that preceded it. Robert Speaight, who had written of Raïssa as being frail but also in many ways ageless ("a queen in a fairy tale who had kept the secret of eternal youth"), now noted that within weeks of Véra's death she took on the appearance of "a little old lady with greying hair." It was decided that, to lift her spirits, Jacques and Raïssa would take a trip to France in the summer of 1960. Departing from New York on June 30, they arrived in Paris on July 7. They checked into the Hôtel de Bourgogne, where they had stayed on previous visits. As soon as the couple entered their room, Raïssa collapsed. A stroke was diagnosed, and, after a period of aphasia, her condition began to improve markedly. With therapy, Raïssa regained the ability to speak intelligibly. Brief visits from friends seemed to cheer her up, but in mid-September her condition deteriorated quickly, and she received the last rites of the Catholic Church. She was taken by ambulance to the apartment of close friends, Alexandre and Antoinette Grunelius . Throughout October and early November, no longer being able to eat, she became progressively weaker and died on November 4, 1960. After the funeral Mass, held at St. Clotilde in Paris, her body was taken to the village of Kolbsheim, where she was buried in the local cemetery. After living the last decades of her life in a foreign land which she never fully understood, in death Raïssa Maritain returned to the "terre aimée," the beloved soil of France.
After a brief return to the United States, Jacques was soon back in France. In March 1961, he began to live with Les Petits Freres de Jésus (the Little Brothers of Jesus), a Dominican community in Toulouse, on the banks of the Garonne river in southern France. During the extended sessions of the Second Vatican Council, which took place between October 1962 and December 1965, Jacques Maritain's ideas—and indirectly, those of Raïssa—were often cited during the deliberations. In October 1970, Jacques donned the habit of the Little Brothers of Jesus and in 1971 took his vows. He died in Toulouse on April 28, 1973, and on May 2 was buried at Kolbsheim next to his beloved Raïssa. The intellectual partnership they had shared created a body of ideas that helped to bring the Roman Catholic Church into the world of the 20th century.
Barre, Jean-Luc. Jacques et Raïssa Maritain: Les Mendiants du Ciel. Paris: Stock, 1997.
Bloy, Léon. Pilgrim of the Absolute. Selected by Raïssa Maritain. Translated by John Coleman and Harry Lorin Binsse. NY: Pantheon Books, 1947.
Castori, Michael T. "Jacques Maritain and the Jews," in America. Vol. 168, no. 19. May 29, 1993, pp. 18–21.
Dunaway, John M. Jacques Maritain. Boston, MA: Twayne, 1978.
Gardet, Louis, and James V. Zeitz, S.J. "Poetry and Mystical Experience: Contribution of Jacques and Raïssa Maritain," in Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature. Vol. 34, no. 4, 1982, pp. 215–227.
Hudson, Deal W., and Matthew J. Mancini, eds. Understanding Maritain: Philosopher and Friend. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1987.
Kernan, Julie. Our Friend, Jacques Maritain: A Personal Memoir. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975.
Maritain, Jacques, and Raïssa Maritain. Liturgy and Contemplation. NY: P.J. Kenedy, 1960.
Maritain, Raïssa. Patriarch Tree: Thirty Poems. Translated by a Benedictine of Stanbrook. Worcester, England: Stanbrook Abbey Press, 1965.
——. Raïssa's Journal presented by Jacques Maritain. Albany, NY: Magi Books, 1974.
——. We Have Been Friends Together and Adventures in Grace: Memoirs. Translated by Julie Kernan. Garden City, NY: Image Books, 1961.
"The Maritains Honored," in America. Vol. 99, no. 10. June 7, 1958, pp. 306–307.
O'Brien, Astrid M. "Raïssa's Hasidic-Catholic Spirituality," in Robert Royal, ed., Jacques Maritain and the Jews. Mishawaka, IN: American Maritain Association-University of Notre Dame Press, 1994, pp. 168–178.
Schall, James V. Jacques Maritain: The Philosopher in Society. Oxford: Rowan & Littlefield, 1998.
Suther, Judith D. "Marc Chagall, by Raïssa Maritain: A Translation," in The French-American Review. Vol. 1, 1976, pp. 54–64.
——. Raïssa Maritain: Pilgrim, Poet, Exile. NY: Fordham University Press, 1990.
——. "Raïssa Maritain in America, 1940–1960," in Research Studies. Vol. 45, 1977, pp. 61–72.
——. "Thomas Merton Translates Raïssa Maritain," in Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature. Vol. 28, 1976, pp. 181–190.
——. "The Tree Motif in Raïssa Maritain's Poetry," in Research Studies. Vol. 44, 1976, pp. 165–174.
Whitman, Alden. "Jacques Maritain Dies at 90," in The New York Times Biographical Edition. April 1973, pp. 657–658.
John Haag , Associate Professor of History, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
"Maritain, Raïssa (1883–1960)." Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. . Encyclopedia.com. (April 18, 2019). https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/maritain-raissa-1883-1960
"Maritain, Raïssa (1883–1960)." Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. . Retrieved April 18, 2019 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/maritain-raissa-1883-1960 | <urn:uuid:94edac78-fb31-4f18-b2f5-b1b0ea050ab7> | {
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Last week I attended a discussion group chaired by the Observer's health correspondent Denis Campbell where one of the other experts, a public health doctor, asserted that alcohol should be treated differently from tobacco (and by inference other drugs) because there is no safe dose of tobacco whereas alcohol is safe until a person's drinking gets to "unsafe" levels. Its health benefits for the cardiovascular system are also often used to support the claim that in low doses alcohol is safe, for how else could it be health-promoting?
The myth of a safe level of drinking is a powerful claim. It is one that many health professionals appear to believe in and that the alcohol industry uses to defend its strategy of making the drug readily available at low prices. However, the claim is wrong and the supporting evidence flawed.
There is no safe dose of alcohol for these reasons:
• Alcohol is a toxin that kills cells such as microorganisms, which is why we use it to preserve food and sterilise skin, needles etc. Alcohol kills humans too. A dose only four times as high as the amount that would make blood levels exceed drink-driving limits in the UK can kill. The toxicity of alcohol is worsened because in order for it to be cleared from the body it has to be metabolised to acetaldehyde, an even more toxic substance. Any food or drink contaminated with the amount of acetaldehyde that a unit of alcohol produces would be immediately banned as having an unacceptable health risk.
• Although most people do not become addicted to alcohol on their first drink, a small proportion do. As a clinical psychiatrist who has worked with alcoholics for more than 30 years, I have seen many people who have experienced a strong liking of alcohol from their very first exposure and then gone on to become addicted to it. We cannot at present predict who these people will be, so any exposure to alcohol runs the risk of producing addiction in some users.
• The supposed cardiovascular benefits of a low level of alcohol intake in some middle-aged men cannot be taken as proof that alcohol is beneficial. To do that one would need a randomised trial where part of this group drink no alcohol, others drink in small amounts and others more heavily. Until this experiment has been done we don't have proof that alcohol has health benefits. A recent example of where an epidemiological association was found not to be true when tested properly was hormone replacement therapy. Population observations suggested that HRT was beneficial for post-menopausal women, but when controlled trials were conducted it was found to cause more harm than good.
• For all other diseases associated with alcohol there is no evidence of any benefit of low alcohol intake – the risks of accidents, cancer, ulcers etc rise inexorably with intake.
We must not allow apologists for this toxic industry to pull the wool over our eyes with their myth of a safe alcohol dose, however appealing it might be to all us so-called "safe" drinkers. Remember these words of a man whose great family wealth and influence was built on illegal alcohol:
"The great enemy of the truth, is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." John F Kennedy
David Nutt is professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London and chairs the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs | <urn:uuid:13981b30-1564-4249-8add-d885358b61e3> | {
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Meaning of CLASSICAL in English
1. A playing style based on the formation of a full pawn centre. The strategic concepts involved are seen as ultimate laws, and therefore rather dogmatic.
2. An era where all players used this style and those that did not were considered irregular.
English glossary of chess terms. Английский глоссарий шахматных терминов. 2012 | <urn:uuid:f9fa218f-caa7-40cd-8f2b-b1efa6ba74b5> | {
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Alphabet Fun Explorer
A new interactive way for children to discover and explore the Alphabet.
1-2-3 Learning Levels
Powerful technology wrapped in an interactive interface creates a 3-tier learning experience.
Discover each letter, every sound, and plenty of engaging animals in this introductory mode to the english alphabet.
Interactive tracing beads guide children through the correct writing formation of each letter.
Practice writing letters and words with state-of-the-art intelligent handwriting recognition.
A is for Animals
Alphabet Fun Explorer includes a beautiful unique design aesthetic with 50+ engaging animals. | <urn:uuid:6b4545a9-25c5-459a-8181-447594930156> | {
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Salic Law of Succession, the rule by which, in certain sovereign dynasties, persons descended from a previous sovereign only through a woman were excluded from succession to the throne. Gradually formulated in France, the rule takes its name from the code of the Salian Franks, the Lex Salica (Salic Law).
Because each French king from the late 10th century to the early 14th century had a son who could succeed him, the Capetian dynasty was not faced with any controversy over succession to the throne. After the Capetian king Louis X died in 1316 leaving no male heir and a pregnant widow, who gave birth to a son who died after five days, Philip V, a brother of Louis X, convened the Estates-General (1317), which established the principle that women would be excluded from succession to the French throne. During the same period the corollary principle also came to be accepted—i.e., that descent from a daughter of a French king could not constitute a claim to royal succession.
During the 14th and 15th centuries, attempts were made to provide juridical grounds for the exclusion of women from the royal succession. The main reason adduced in each case was custom, though Roman law and the priestly character of kingship were also used as justifications. The Salic Law was first mentioned in 1410 in a treatise against the claims to the French throne by Henry IV of England.
In the 16th century the text of the Salic Law was taken up by expositors of the theory of royal power, who advanced it as a fundamental law of the kingdom. In 1593 the authority of the Salic Law was expressly invoked to deny the candidature for the French throne of the Spanish infanta Isabella, the granddaughter of Henry II of France by his daughter’s marriage to Philip II of Spain, despite the strongly pro-Spanish attitude of the dominant faction in Paris at the time. Thereafter, the Salic Law was invariably accepted as fundamental, though it was not always the explicit reason given for excluding women from the throne. Napoleon also adopted the Salic Law, which was applied in France as late as 1883.
There was no principle against succession by daughters in default of sons in England, Scandinavia, and Angevin Naples (1265–1442). Likewise, Spain had no such principle until Philip V, the first Spanish king to come from the French house of Bourbon, introduced a less-stringent variation of the Salic Law by his Auto Acordado of 1713, which was later repealed. The Salic Law of Succession was applied when Victoria, who was from the house of Hanover, became queen of England in 1837 but was barred from succession to the Hanover crown, which went to her uncle. | <urn:uuid:94e46295-0817-4eaa-b7e0-8c93f0a3347b> | {
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There is a growing problem in the US and many other economies - markets becoming more concentrated, with the biggest companies growing their market share. Two thirds of US economic sectors have become more consolidated between 1997 and 2012. The rate of firm creation has declined, to the extent that there are now roughly as many firms being created as are closing.
The problem is especially bad in the tech sector, where the markets often operate with a "winner takes it all” logic through a “network effect”. For example, people are more likely to join a social media site that already has the most users, making it harder for competitors. Some argue that this is not an unreasonable obstacle for competitors - for example, Facebook replaced MySpace that used to dominate social media. However, unlike their predecessors, Facebook, Google and Amazon have maintained their dominance for a decade or more.
Alongside this development, there is a revival of an old American political tradition - trust busting. The Republican president Teddy Roosevelt is often cited as the most aggressive trust buster in US history. Indeed it is hard to top his flagship achievement in this area - he broke the largest company in the world at the time, The Standard Oil, into 34 separate companies. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have made many bold plans for modern anti-trust legislation and even Donald Trump attempted to block the AT&T/Time Warner merger.
Cooperatives have played a key part in addressing the problem of monopolies and monopsonies (a reverse monopoly of having only one or few buyers). The problem with a monopoly is based on the monopoly being able to rip off consumers because there is nowhere else for them to go. However, if the consumers own the monopoly as is the case in a consumer cooperative, there is no incentive for the consumers to rip themselves off. If there is only one buyer, producers can join together in a producer cooperative and refuse to sell their goods or services below a certain price.
The massive agricultural cooperative sector is a testimony of this; typically producer cooperatives were set up to fix monopsonies. When many grain producers join together, they can bargain a better price for their grain from a monopsony buyer than when they each individually try to do so by simply refusing to sell below a certain price. Research also shows that the more strictly the cooperatives adhere to the cooperative principles, the better they are at fixing this market failure. This is very similar to a trade union that goes on strike unless the workers get paid a certain amount for their work.
Sandeep Vaheesan and Nathan Schneider have published a brilliant paper on the US anti-trust and coop movements. The anti-trust legislation is especially a problem for producer cooperatives and collective bargaining. It has been used to crack down on various attempts at collective bargaining; home health aides and many other low-income working people trying to organise themselves and bargain for better conditions have all been victim to anti-trust legislation. The legislation makes an exception for agricultural producer cooperatives and recognises their role in fixing the monopsony problem in agriculture. However, it stops small businesses and the self-employed in other industries from organising similar cooperatives.
The paper states:
“prevailing antitrust policy represents an existential threat to the core mission of bargaining co-ops (also known as producer cooperatives) to aggregate, permitting them to exist so long as they do not exercise the collective power of their individual members. In other words, antitrust law tolerates bargaining cooperatives that do not bargain cooperatively… For an economy in which independent workers represent a growing share of the workforce, these workers’ ability to build collective enterprises and engage in collective bargaining is essential.”
This is perverse, as this would make it easier for small businesses and the self-employed to compete against big companies and therefore help with the original intent of the anti-trust legislation - the prevention of unhealthy market concentration. This is why Vaheesan and Schneider propose extending the cooperative exception from agricultural to other producer cooperatives and have the anti-trust enforcement focus on the big players instead of bullying home care aides.
Cooperatives already play an important role in helping small businesses through purchasing cooperatives In a purchasing cooperative small businesses pool their money together to make purchases at bulk prices. When you have 100 businesses buying their office papers together, they can bargain a cheaper price than if all of the businesses buy their paper individually. Purchasing cooperatives have been shown to be an effective way for small businesses to band together and compete against the industry goliaths. Each business owns one share of the purchasing cooperative, so the ownership is democratic. It is different from most commonly known forms of cooperatives in that its members are not individual people (such as customers in a coop shop or drivers in a worker cooperative of taxi drivers), but individual businesses. The examples below demonstrate the power of purchasing cooperatives.
The state reaction in the aftermath of the financial crisis was similarly perverse. The taxpayer bailouts combined with increased regulation that were put in place due to the “Too Big To Fail” problem only made the matter worse in two ways:
1. By giving the big banks an advantage of the implicit assumption that they, unlike their smaller competitors, would be saved by the taxpayers if they were to fail
2. By implementing regulation that burdened the small banks most, although they were the least responsible for the crisis. Had the market forces taken their course the cooperative banking sectors market share would have grown substantially. For example, Rabobank, a cooperative, would have been the only major bank in Netherlands that survived.
One way to address this would make regulation more proportional, so that regulations would burden banks of different sizes more equally. This is a direction that EU has been moving towards recently. Below are just few examples of why the cooperative financial sector survived and kept the economy afloat during the global financial crisis and how it contributes to preventing market concentration by helping small and medium sized businesses.
Market concentration and the low rate of new cooperatives being established is also a problem that the cooperative sector is facing, especially in the financial sector. Between 1945 to 1970 the number of credit unions in the US increased from 9 000 to 24 000. However, since then, the number has declined to 5 475, although the share of the population who are members of credit unions has increased ten-fold since 1960, from around 3% to around 30%. Between 2008 - 2017, just 28 new credit unions were created. Between 2017 to 2018 the number of credit unions declined by 175. Compare this to the fact that between 1946 and 1969, the year with the slowest growth in the number of credit unions was 1946, with the number of credit unions growing by 121. The record breaking year was 1953, with 1410 more credit unions established than had disappeared. The trend began immediately reversing as the Federal Credit Union Administration, a federal body responsible for regulating credit unions was started in 1970. After that, the number of credit unions has declined every year. Similar trends are found across Europe, where cooperative banks are merging, driven mainly by regulatory burden.
A tragic example of this was the Internet Archive Credit Union, founded by the founder of the Internet Archive and Alexa, Brewster Kahle in 2012. With top tech talent and an abundance of energy and ideas, such as enabling low commission international money transfers for migrant workers, the credit union failed. It was not due to lack of capital or experience. In the words of the founder, “with abundant capital… and experience from Jordan Modell, a banker of over 20 years, we built a great team, board, and partnerships, we gave it a whirl. We were encouraged by how generous the other credit unions and community members were.” The credit union founders had to spend around three times more time dealing with regulation than serving their customers and were allowed to offer few services. The credit union had to close down in 2015.
Jim Blaine, the former CEO of the second largest credit union in the world is critical of mergers, centralisation of decision making, lack of credit unions distinguishing themselves from banks and the difficulty of setting up a new credit union. One solution he offers is to make it easier for people who want to set up new credit unions to take over old ones, instead of them merging with existing ones. I could imagine that both voters of both the Republican and the Democratic party, from libertarians to socialists, would support reducing the advantage the regulatory system gives to big banks and make it easier to set up new credit unions.
Stay informed and up to date with new blog articles. | <urn:uuid:ac6ec68c-c183-4770-81a2-80955d88bd80> | {
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Protein Explains Increased Asthma Severity In Children Exposed To Diesel Exhaust From Traffic
A new study shows that exposure to diesel exhaust particles from traffic pollution leads to increased asthma severity in children. Moreover, the study finds that this is due to increased blood levels of IL-17A, a protein associated with several chronic inflammatory diseases, in children with high diesel exposure.
The study by researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center is published online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
The research, conducted in mice and in humans, showed that neutralizing IL-17A prevented airway inflammation. Neutralization of IL-17A “may be a useful potential therapeutic strategy to counteract the asthma-promoting effects of traffic-related air pollution, especially in highly exposed, severe allergic asthmatics,” says Gurjit Khurana Hershey, MD, PhD, director of asthma research at Cincinnati Children’s and senior author of the study.
Dr. Hershey and her colleagues studied 235 children and teens with asthma. The researchers plotted each person’s primary address and estimated their diesel exposure attributable to traffic based on where they lived. The researchers also studied mice exposed to diesel particles and dust mites, a common household allergen.
In children with asthma, diesel exposure was associated with more frequent asthma symptoms and increased IL-17A blood levels. Similarly, exposure to both diesel and dust mites resulted in more severe asthma in mice compared to dust mite exposure alone. When IL-17A was neutralized in mice, it alleviated airway inflammation induced by diesel exposure.
“Blocking IL-17A may be a useful strategy to counteract the effects of traffic-related air pollution, especially in highly exposed allergic asthmatic children,” says Dr. Hershey.
On the Net: | <urn:uuid:548c7000-dd52-476f-9a82-a269cf7728e1> | {
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Good Reasons for Mulching
You can do your garden good by mulching. You put mulch around your plants and over bare soil. Mulch is made up of different organic materials that are decomposing. Straw, pine needles, bark or wood chips from various tree species, and cocoa bean shells make up organic mulch. Mulch can also be made up of inorganic materials such as recycled tires, black plastic, pebbles, river rock, and landscaping fabric. Here are some of the benefits of mulching.
One of the benefits of mulching is that it helps control weeds. Mulching prevents the growth of weeds in your garden. Sunlight is prevented from reaching weeds with mulching. The absences of sunlight will prevent weeds from growing.
When there is water, your organic mulch will retain it Evaporation is limited by both mulches covering the soil. Plants will have moisture on a hot day since mulch absorbs water and moisture and it helps your water bill as well.
Another benefit of mulching is the prevention of soil erosion. When your mulch, it does not only retain water in the soil, it also stops rainwater from washing away your soil.
Nurtients will be retained by the mulch because it prevents the rainwater from washing it way. Much nutrients are released into the soil with organic mulch. This will happen when the organic mulch slowly decomposes on top of the soil.
Mulch like cedar bark can help repel insects or pests. The oil in cedar bark acts as an insect repellant. Fragrant mulch helps repel insects.
Organic mulch encourages earthworms to live in your garden soil. When there are earthworms in your soil, it greatly improves your soil structure and nutrient cycling.
Mulch can fill up the empty spaces in your garden. Extensive care is needed if you use grass and other fillers. Grass need to be mowed and watered and will compete with your other garden plants for resources. It is a lot easier to care for mulch and they will not compete with other plants.
Mulch also helps moderate soil temperature. The soil is kept warm on cold nights, and cool on hot days.
During winter plants are protected from the cycle of freezing and thawing with mulch
Mulch also prevents soil compaction and crusting.
Mulch also keeps plants off the ground to avoid plant disease.
Plants are kept clean because of mulch since rain is prevented from splashing soil that could carry diseases onto the plants.
Your garden become attractive with mulch.
There are also ways when mulch can be detrimental to your garden. Overmulching can suffocate plants since they will get buried. Pests can hide in the mulch. If done incorrectly your plants can be baked because of excess heat. | <urn:uuid:e2c8952b-5e13-4307-8bfb-ced2516dc817> | {
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Over a week ago, I had the opportunity to attend an event featuring Dickson Despommier, the grandfather of vertical farming. As Green Prophet editor Karin explains in an interview with a vertical farming expert, vertical farming is where crops are grown in buildings and on various levels to save not only space but water. Despommier explains that in today’s world, 80% of the earth’s available land is already farmed and so we need to come up with better ways to grow food for our increasingly urban and populated world.
Here at Green Prophet, we have already looked the potential of green roofs in the Middle East, growing food without soil as well as sprouting urban agriculture groups. Now I take another look at one development in urban food growing – vertical farming – and the potential it has to solve food problems in the Middle East.
Uses 70% Less Water Than Traditional Farming
Some of the advantages of vertical farming, which incorporates growing techniques such as hydroponics (growing without soil), is that there is no crop loss from severe weather events and you can grow crops all year. However, the big advantage for places such as the Middle East, is that vertical farming uses around 70% less water than traditional farming. As the growing conditions are a lot more controlled, water isn’t lost due to inefficiencies such as leaks and evaporation.
This is a huge advantage for those considering adopting the technique in the water-scare Middle East as it means that it could potentially make growing a lot more commercially viable. Indeed, Despommier revealed that countries such Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar have already show interest in the technique. According to Despommier, there was a meeting in 2009 with the Jordan mayor office to discuss the farming technique and there were also a pyramid-shaped vertical farm designed for Dubai.
End The African Land Grab
Whilst in its tentative stages, vertical farming in the Middle East could be a great solution to the regions current water problems and its huge reliance on food imports. This novel way of farming could also end the African land grab by countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to secure food supplies.
Since the Arab Spring riots, which were in part sparked by food shortages and rising prices, food security has climbed up the agenda of many Middle Eastern governments. Let’s hope that they consider improving their own food self-sufficiency through green techniques such as vertical farming and not just buying up tracts of fertile land from drought-stricken and troubled nations in Africa such as Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia.
:: Image via kris krug/flickr.
For more information on urban agriculture in the Middle East see: | <urn:uuid:767294fd-b92a-49a6-a4b2-bd551bccb694> | {
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Although conditions have recently begun to moderate, the Coast has been warm and very dry, with Vancouver receiving its first-ever rain-free month in July. Early crops (e.g., berries) are now finished, fresh veggies abound and later crops, such as corn, are ripening fast. The first cover crops for wintering waterfowl will be in the ground soon, though the dry weather may hinder their establishment. Despite the lack of rainfall, habitat conditions remain good due to their strong start this spring. Local broods are maturing, and prospects for the fall flight look average.
In the northern Interior, dry conditions have prevailed since late June — even breaking records in many areas. Environment Canada's seasonal forecast calls for warmer-than-normal temperatures through the remainder of the summer. Wetlands and uplands are starting to show the effects of six weeks of limited rain. Some waterfowl are staging, and the fall flight is expected to be average.
Rainfall has also been limited in the southern Interior since June. Habitat conditions are starting to decline, but still remain good due to a robust spring. Prospects for the fall flight are average.
The southeast Interior has escaped the dry conditions of the rest of the Interior, and precipitation continues to be above normal.
Since April 1, the Peace region has experienced 115-150 percent of normal precipitation, and the past month has been particularly wet. Wetlands have maintained above-normal levels, and wet conditions have delayed the harvest of many food crops. Prospects for the fall flight are very good due to presumed high brood production, retention of high wetland/lake levels and abundant upland crop availability. | <urn:uuid:d5ae9d86-9026-40cc-b952-34ba6c69f3c3> | {
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If someone at a park is feeding bread to ducks, chances are there are Mallards in the fray. Perhaps the most familiar of all ducks, Mallards occur throughout North America and Eurasia in ponds and parks as well as wilder wetlands and estuaries. The male’s gleaming green head, gray flanks, and black tail-curl arguably make it the most easily identified duck. Mallards have long been hunted for the table, and almost all domestic ducks come from this species.
All Rights Reserved Worldwide. All photographs are owned and copyright by Michael Cummings. Do not use, edit or in anyway alter without written permission. Please contact me if you have an interest in using any image in my collection.
Taken in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | <urn:uuid:7a4fae8a-276b-4e5d-a397-92de1282c126> | {
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Gum diggers digging in swamps, ca 1910. Northwood brothers :Photographs of Northland. #Maori
Gum diggers digging in swamps, ca 1910. Northwood brothers :Photographs of Northland. #Maori | New Zealand | New Zealand, New zealand houses, Maori
Northwood, Arthur James, 1880-1949. Digging for gum, Northland. Northwood
Gum diggers pumping water out of gum hole [ca.1910]. Northwood brothers
Gum diggers playing cards in camp. Northwood brothers: Photographs of Northland. Ref:
There was little wood, so diggers built chimneys out of sods and used sacking for roofing and .
Long hours were spent in water-filled potholes and trenches. Gum diggers working swamps also used a tool called a gum hook, which could be .
Māori digging kauri gum. Northwood brothers: Photographs of Northland. Ref: 1/
Date Taken: c 1900 | Collection: Upper Hutt Public Library | Read the full
Woman with shovel and gum spear . Northwood brothers: Photographs of Northland
Moriori are the indigenous people of the Chatham Islands (Rēkohu in Moriori, Wharekauri in Māori), east of the New Zealand archipelago in the Pacific Ocean.
Group watching a boxing match on a gum field. Northwood brothers: Photographs of Northland
Nugget of kauri gum. Northwood brothers :Photographs of Northland. Ref: 1/
Group outside a timber camp hut, circa Shows two women peeling potatoes, a man, a dog and chickens. Photograph taken by the Northwood Brothers.
C - Plastica con una hoja de papel
Gum diggers. Northwood brothers [ca.1910]: Photographs of Northland. Ref
Arraste para reposicionar
9 ~ ABOVE: VIEW UP HARBOUR FROM THE SOUTH HOKIANGA HEAD, OVERLOOKING OMAPERE. NORTHWOOD BROTHERS ...
A imagem pode conter: céu, atividades ao ar livre e natureza
Member's Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church around 1910 at "Christmans," Penn Forest, just past where "Skirmish" is today. Below, three frames of the church ...
Dalmatian gumdigger, Anton Bakulic, on A E Harding's lease, Auroa Block, Northern Wairoa
5 ~ INTRODUCTION As we look THROUGH THE WINDOW OF TIME every picture or photo
1910 McComb Ave._ NB Lutheran Church faces south.jpg
A imagem pode conter: 21 pessoas, pessoas sorrindo, atividades ao ar livre
Larry Digger Munn's grave at El Alamein War Cemetery, Egypt, plot I. F. 20. Find out more about this cemetery, including images and cemetery plans (CWGC) ...
Boy seated by a large nugget of Kauri gum. Northwood brothers: Photographs of Northland
Subritzkys General Store.jpg
This is Abraham Ahner, son of Amos Ahner of Franklin Township. He was a brother to Herman Ahner. This photo certainly harkens to the Bonnie and Clyde days.
73 ~ 7 WAIMAMAKU VALLEY INCLUDING WAIWHATAWHATA, WHENUAHOU AND WAIOTEMARAMA Waimamaku: Tree fern
1910 McComb Ave._ NB Lutheran Church faces south.jpg
25 John Francis Harris d.2003
SS Elingamite - Image: A survivor from the 'Elingamite' onboard HMS 'Penguin
Award-winning designer Julie Kleski specializes in wreaths, garlands, and swags.
A imagem pode conter: uma ou mais pessoas, multidão e atividades ao ar livre
Image result for domestic work women historic images nz
Man digging for gum. Northwood brothers: Photographs of Northland. Ref: 1/
One of several locations the water supply pipe is still visible along the plane. Up to three times per year, Reds and his father James would tote shovel and
The Soldier Brothers of Susanna
“Home” and “housekeeping,” the love of it, or the horror of it, is the subject matter of these four books.
The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on August 3, 1960 · Page 23
21 Herbert William Wass d.1986
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China asked foreign diplomats in Beijing to help “weave a cooperative network against corruption,” state media reported on Friday, as Beijing seeks greater ...
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10275-P. c. 1920 McComb Ave.
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Conservation and Restoration of glass / Sandra Davison | la la - Academia.edu
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Māori gum diggers. See more. Akaroa near Christchurch, N.Z. Postcard dated 8th May 1909 by Buckland. Kiwi, New
Seamus Heaney has been described as 'the best Irish poet since Yeats'.
Northwood, Arthur James, 1880-1949. Bullock team hauling logs through the bush
maori children in a hot thermal pool at whakarewarewa ca
Donald Kennedy and William Clark both wrote articles in regard to the concept of lifeboat ethics
to shape your essays A strong application essay makes for a Suny oswego admissions essay editing
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I believe that the name Eudora Welty gives our main character is very symbolic.
Some photos from near that age of Rockport which was certainly too effected by the Great Fire of 1875.
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makereti papakura hongi whakarewarewa rotorua 1910
12108, 29 OCTOBER 1902, PAGE 5 OMAPERE
05 Markham Monument - Generations later
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Source: THE WORKBOOK Date: Fall 1995; “Where Is Nuclear Waste Going-Or Staying?” Author: Don Hancock
SYNOPSIS: After years of effort and millions of dollars spent on campaign contributions and highly paid lobbyists, the nuclear power industry expects Congress to pass legislation that will free the industry of its responsibility for storing commercial spent nuclear waste. The proposed legislation, H.R. 1020—also known as the “industry bill”—will require that all accumulated wastes—estimated to be about 36,000 metric tons by the end of 1997—be moved to Nevada, beginning in 1998.
The problem is that for the past three administrations, the Department of Energy (DOE) has consistently maintained that a nuclear waste repository cannot be opened until at least 2010. That is the projected date to open Yucca Mountain, Nevada, the only site being investigated. In 1995, DOE issued a formal decision that there is no legal requirement that the federal government begin accepting spent fuel in 1998 because a repository will not be available and because the federal government does not currently have authority to provide an interim storage facility.
This has not deterred the nuclear power industry from pushing H.R. 1020. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), would require the federal government to open a spent fuel storage facility in Nevada by the 1998 date. And it would impose fines and penalties for missing that deadline. More than 15 utilities filed a lawsuit in 1994, asking the court to require DOE to begin taking their wastes in 1998. The fines and penalties would be a new federal government cost, never included in any previous budget and would, in essence, be a new tax.
The utilities do not seem to be concerned that such a storage facility could not be sited and constructed by the 1998 date if it were to meet existing health, safety, and environmental protection laws and probably not even if all environmental laws were waived.
But the impossible deadline is not the only onerous aspect of H.R. 1020: Provisions of H.R. 1020 would also require Congress—rather than the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—to establish radiation protection requirements for a potential site at about 25 times higher than that allowed by current EPA disposal standards.
It would require DOE to develop—without full public participation and judicial review—a “multi-purpose cask” to be used for storage, transport, and disposal of radioactive spent fuel. It would force construction of a new railroad line from throughout the country to the Nevada Site at a cost of more than $1 billion and would eliminate existing environmental restrictions on such a railroad.
The bill would also guarantee that the fee for spent fuel generation would not be raised without an act of Congress, no matter how much the waste program would cost.
The nuclear industry insists that whatever form the final legislation takes, it must require the opening of a storage facility in Nevada by 1998; the development of a transportation system; continuing work on the Yucca Mountain repository; and protection against any large fee increases.
Not mentioned anywhere are the risks to millions of people along highways and railroads in 43 states carrying the highly radioactive spent fuel. Possibly most important, beyond the unknown financial costs of the project, fundamental principles of constitutional rights will be compromised if the rush to meet the 1998 date proceeds.
SSU Censored Researcher: Kristi Hogue
COMMENTS: Investigative author Don Hancock reported there was very little coverage of this issue, in part because it’s a seemingly never-ending story. “Also, the nuclear power industry, which is promoting a quick-fix bailout, has no interest in the mainstream media covering its plans because they would not be well-received by much of the public. The story is complicated and includes governments, corporations, as well as affected citizens.
The nuclear waste will be with us for literally thousands of generations, so there is not an apparent solution.”
Nonetheless, Hancock feels it is important for people to know about the issue since, “They would gain a better understanding of the importance of nuclear waste to present and future generations. They would gain a better understanding of the current congressional discussion about the issue and how any decisions can have a significant effect on taxpayers and the general public, not just on citizens of the currently targeted states—Nevada and New Mexico. As a result, they could become more involved in decisions, whether they live close to nuclear power plants, along transportation routes to waste sites, or in the targeted states.”
Benefiting from the lack of coverage of the issue, Hancock said, are “the nuclear industry executives and the public officials who support them, since their plans are not exposed to public scrutiny.”
Hancock added, “Citizen activists in various states have banded together in the Nuclear Waste Citizens Coalition to become a more effective force in Washington, D.C. and to educate and involve citizens nationally regarding the important issues being decided, including the risks of transportation of spent fuel throughout the nation.” | <urn:uuid:45d44ddb-00f1-479c-b0c9-d25204d0f201> | {
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Question Words And Exclamation Words Poster Set
Support Writing Skills With This Eye-Catching Resource
Wow! Have you ever seen a poster set like this? One poster features 16 question starters students can use in their writing or during book discussions. The other highlights 12 exclamation words to enliven sentences and dialogue. The Activity Guide includes supporting reproducibles.
In the U.S alone, nearly 30% of educational standards are overhauled, revised or edited each year. Tracking these changes demands the full-time expertise and we have the tool to manage those standards, so you can trust us as the leader in standards alignment. Correlations are made for all State, National, and Common Core Standards. In addition, we have Head Start standards for early childhood. And most recently, we’ve added both National STEM Standards and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).Learn More
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- Four diecut pieces, 5 1/4" to 13 1/4"W; 5 1/4" to 17"H, laminated
- Really Good Stuff® Activity Guide | <urn:uuid:406686c8-9a4e-4b5a-a326-ce17b92d39f5> | {
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Several years ago after discussing research practices with a colleague in nursing, I was intrigued with associating the processes of medical research into that of education and viewing technology as an intervention and measuring the impact.
Yang Zhoa brilliantly takes associating medical research methodology even further, in a recent article in the Journal of Education Change, by considering that pedagogy can have unintended side effects. Examining direct instruction, performance versus confidence, and test-based accountability Zhoa offers:
“These examples suggest that educational programs, approaches, and policies are not unlike medical products: when they cure, they can hurt. They also suggest that considering both main and side effects can help resolve artificially divisive issues in education and help advance the field.”
Many offer that over-valuing standardized tests have produced many of the problems within our current education system. Zhoa points out that opposing sides unwilling to properly acknowledge these side effects lead to no real improvement.
“…when side effects in education are occasionally reported, they often come from opponents and critics of certain products. But the opponents and critics often do not consider impartially the effects of the product or policy, nor do they have access to or resources to conduct original studies concerning the product or policy. As a result, the reported side effects are often brushed aside as lacking objectivity or scientific rigor, or motivated by ideology. This is one of the reasons behind the long lasting ‘‘wars’’ in education—with two bodies of opposing literature co-existing in parallel places without much genuine interactions.”
High school math teachers have also argued short-term gains with programs like Saxon come back to haunt students in later grades. I often wonder if Accelerated Reader programs with external rewards really might lead to students, later in life, less likely to pick up a book on their own than if they had never been exposed to the program.
You can preview the article for a short time on Zhoa’s site here. | <urn:uuid:fb1a4345-e3ab-4237-be53-ea5a4877910a> | {
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By J. Bishop Grewell
Tiny microbes living in the mud-pots and geysers of Yellowstone National Park have sparked a mammoth controversy.
Scientists think the genetic materials of these microbes could lead to medical breakthroughs or, at the very least, improve consumer products. In 1997, park officials signed an agreement with a corporation that had previously been prospecting the microbes for free--Diversa Corp. of San Diego. Diversa promised to pay the park $175,000 over five years, as well as future royalties from any discoveries.
Up to twenty other biotech companies showed interest in signing similar deals. It looked as though backlogged repairs at the United States' oldest national park had found an untapped money tree. But then U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled from Washington D.C. that while bioprospecting in Yellowstone is not illegal, compensating the park for it is.
Lamberth argued that parkgoers might allow trespass into Yellowstone for science or education, but "commercial exploitation of that same parkland may reasonably be perceived as injurious." Even though Diversa--which has patented more than 500 enzymes since 1994--had a permit to bioprospect, the instant its managers wanted to compensate the park, Justice Lamberth ruled, they needed to consider the environmental impact and solicit public input. "Commercialization" had made the bioprospecting illegal without further review.
Biotech companies have prospected in the park for years. One Swiss company earns more than $100 million per year from a Yellowstone thermophile that helps in DNA fingerprinting, and the park hasn't seen a dime of it. But with the 1997 Diversa agreement, park officials realized that the commercially valuable microbes might aid Yellowstone's cash flow. Diversa's CEO Terrance Bruggeman estimated that products derived from Yellowstone microbes could be worth between $12-17 billion dollars on the world market. The royalty could have been quite healthy.
Then in rode a small band of environmental groups and Justice Lamberth brandishing guns of enviro-morality.
Realistically, any Yellowstone visitor who has bought a moose-head hat, paid a lobster-dinner price for a scoop of ice cream at Old Faithful, or simply paid the park's entry fee has commercialized Yellowstone. Dan Janzen is a scientific adviser to Costa Rica's Guanacaste Conservation Area and a University of Pennsylvania biology professor. He observes that nature-oriented tourism "has been conducting commercial development of biodiversity and ecosystems in, and downstream from, national parks since the first train tracks were laid to Yellowstone's front door more than 100 years ago." Yet, somehow we don't find tourism as evil as biotech. Why?
The traditional ballyhoo for tourism's benevolence is that it doesn't extract any resources. But this is a myth. Tourists take up space and time. The difference between four people at a lake and forty degrades an experience. And people transport microbes. Says Park Service's chief of public affairs David Barna: "You and I as tourists on the boardwalks probably carry more of these thermophiles home on our sneakers than the researchers take out."
The environment is not sullied when a dollar exchanges hands. In fact, the environment benefits from the funds that commercialization can bring. Thanks to programs like its fee demonstration program, the Park Service is learning what free-market environmentalists have always known: When it is allowed to function, the market preserves the environment. Someone needs to let a small band of misguided environmentalists and one federal justice in on the secret.
J. Bishop Grewell is a Research Associate with PERC and a regular columnist for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. | <urn:uuid:53102d59-b6f5-440d-ae84-5dfff98af58e> | {
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The main lesson history teaches us is to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them. There’s also an old saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Perhaps the two notions have something in common because we continually prove that history does indeed repeat itself.
I bring up these axioms because of our recently purchased book, “Those Angry Days,” by Lynne Olson. As an integral addition to our World War II collection it offers a remarkable and unappreciated look at American history in the two years prior to our entry into that historic conflict.
A huge battle raged between interventionists and isolationists, and the book focuses on the leading protagonists, Franklin Roosevelt and Charles Lindbergh. Most people do not recall the two sides’ vicious clash of ideas because any decision to enter the war became moot after Pearl Harbor.
Lindbergh was a national hero when he became the first man to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic in 1927. He and his wife Anne were constantly in the news afterwards, most notably for the tragic kidnapping and murder of their son, Charles, Jr., in 1932.
The Lindberghs lived much of the 1930s in Europe and Charles became enamored with Germany and its military aviation program. One thing led to another and he stumbled into being the chief spokesperson for the isolationist movement after war broke out in Europe in 1939. It’s been debated whether he was a Nazi sympathizer, anti-Semitic, or simply naïve but he was unapologetic for anything he ever said or did in his life.
On the other side was the interventionist Roosevelt who understood the Nazi menace and all the evil that went with it. However, the assumption that he was gung-ho for war and doing everything possible to get us into the conflict is a myth. FDR was actually a very cautious and reluctant advocate for war. | <urn:uuid:1292a910-c367-4c01-abf1-1e778e4157f5> | {
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Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?
Although Thailand endorses Buddhism as the national religion, there is a Muslim minority population of an estimated four to seven million people. Most Muslims today live in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces, originally land of the Patani Kingdom, before the Thai government ceased control with support of British colonial power in 1909. In the three southernmost provinces, also known as Thailand’s Deep South, Muslims are the majority population. However, as with all of Thailand’s provincial governments, most public administration is controlled by central authorities who are mostly non-Muslim. Government officials are assigned from the capital city, with little understanding of local Muslim culture and identity.
Armed groups have fought to restore political sovereignty in the Deep South for more than 50 years, targeting symbolic figures of the Thai national state such as attacks on police officers and teachers at the secular public schools. Violence has escalated in the past decade due to renewed efforts of the central government to suppress the conflict by using severe military force and by overlooking the political ideology at the heart of this dispute.
In 2002, the Thai prime minister gave a press interview where he denied the existence of a separatist movement and belittled the violence to an act of “sparrow bandits” without political ideology. In October 2004, during a public demonstration for the release of six men charged with supplying weapons to insurgents, the army arrested hundreds of people in the town of Tak Bai in Narathiwat province. In the arrest, soldiers tied people’s hands behind their backs and stacked them into trucks, five to six people deep. Five hours later, the trucks arrived at an army base and 78 men died of suffocation. The prime minister’s initial response was that the men were weak from fasting during the month of Ramadan.
In 2004, the central government issued a state of martial law in the Deep South, permitting officials to arrest suspects and conduct searches without a warrant. In 2005, the government increased military power by issuing an Emergency Decree, permitting “preventive detention” of anyone – including those who are not criminal suspects – at undefined sites for up to 30 days. This Emergency Decree also declared state officials exempt from charges of human rights violations. In response to the government crackdown, violent attacks have become more severe and widespread, extending to commercial areas and causing civilian casualties. Over the past eight years, violence continues in the Deep South with more than 5,000 deaths and almost 10,000 injuries, both Buddhists and Muslims.
Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!
Muhammad-Ayub Pathan is creating a bottom-up peace process in Thailand’s Deep South, the three southernmost provinces mired in long-lasting violence between the Malay-Muslim movements and national military forces. Ayub believes that peace can be achieved and sustained only if local communities have a collective voice and can put pressure on all conflicting parties. Instead of waiting for outside experts to propose conflict solutions which often do not match the local context, he builds a bottom-up movement to engage local communities in promoting and sustaining peace. Ayub is facilitating dialogue among local residents, previously silenced by fear of the ongoing violence and by discrimination from central authorities as supporters of terrorism. He has initiated a journalism movement to equip local residents – particularly women and youth – to report their own stories and broadcast them in local media, in both the national Thai language and local Patani Yawi dialect. This is the first time in decades that newspapers and radio stations are available in Patani-Malay Yawi, perceived by central authorities as the language of terrorists, but promoted by Ayub as the native tongue spoken by three million Muslims in the Deep South. He is creating a variety of mutually supporting mechanisms to provoke dialogue and develop consensus among citizens at three levels: leaders of conflicting factions, local citizen organizations, and diverse communities at the grassroots level.
As a result of Ayub’s efforts, local citizens have spoken against both conflicting factions and civilian attacks have reduced. Local citizens are more engaged and their perspectives are gaining more media coverage as the Thai government and militant groups are beginning negotiations toward a peaceful resolution.
Ayub is expanding his collaborations to media and citizen sector networks in other conflict zones in Asia. In 2011, he set up a training program for Deep South Journalism School students in collaboration with a major newspaper, university and citizen sector organizations in Aceh, Indonesia. | <urn:uuid:44dac748-92bb-4a1d-aa48-49cf9bb7cf88> | {
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In 1898, Fernand Khnopff, a Belgium symbolist, was one of the guests of honour at the first Viennese Secession. He submitted sixteen paintings and four sculptures, including this Young Englishwoman, which the critic Ludwig Hevesi described as: "the ideal woman in white marble, tight-lipped... [...] highlighted with traces of colour of exquisite finesse. [...] The evanescent form harmonises perfectly with this colour treatment. There, too, we sense the sensuality, but Khnopff's sensuality has something vampirish about it."
As for certain martyrs, the statue's skull is sliced across the forehead. Could visitors to the 1898 exhibition see this detail? Hevesi talks about a scarf sprinkled with little blue stars. Some shots show the marble bust wearing a crown of leaves, while the oldest photograph shows the young Englishwoman with neither a scarf nor a crown. These days her forehead is adorned with a laurel wreath.
Although Khnopff gave the bust the features of his sister, Marguerite, to whom he was very close, the marble has the artist's own pale blue eyes. It may be the expression of a myth which fascinated the symbolist artists: that of the original hermaphrodite mentioned by Plato in The Banquet, a double being whom Zeus sliced in half in a moment of fury. The yearning for love and the desire for fusion were believed to have arisen from this mutilation. Under its misleading title, A Young Englishwoman perhaps expresses Khnopff's dream to be joined to Marguerite, his adored sister. | <urn:uuid:ae50c3ea-c43b-4860-bc82-ed74edde7318> | {
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Image: David Schroeter
Bigger, better, heavier – that seems to be the motto of Asia’s amazing Buddha statues. Our list features actual statues as well as destroyed and planned ones but all have to be taller than 50 m (165 ft). Where does that leave the most famous and sadly destroyed ones, the Buddhas of Bamyan? At 180 ft, they are some of the shortest! Read on to discover which one tops the list. A hint: it’s a good 500 ft!
Have you ever wondered why some Buddhas are depicted standing, some seated and some even lying down? And why they all pose their hands in unique gestures? Not to forget the sheer number of gigantic statues. Well, according to tradition, Buddha images must be high enough so that their feet are above people’s eye level to avoid any accidental soiling.
The elevation is also meant as a reminder for devotees to refrain from pride and ego. While attaining enlightenment, Buddha was in a seated position, therefore this is a favourite position. The hand postures are called mudras and have different meanings, for example fearlessness, instruction, meditation, wish granting and others. Regardless of which giant Buddha you may visit, they are all great tourist attractions that easily take a whole day to explore. Following is the countdown.
17. Buddha Dordenma, Thimphu, Bhutan 51.5 m (169 ft) – under construction
The 12 m clay model of the Buddha statue.
The Buddha Dordenma project is dedicated to erecting a 169-ft Shakyamuni Buddha statue on a hill slope 100 m above the Wangchu River, overlooking Thimphu, Bhutan’s capital. According to the Dordenma website, the Buddha statue is supposed to “radiate auspicious energy over the country and to all parts of the world, fulfilling the prophecy of bestowing blessings, universal peace and happiness to the whole world.”
An eye of the Buddha, already resting in Bhutan.
The statue will be made of bronze and then gilded and house 100,000 similar, yet much smaller Buddha statues. Planning started in 2004 and a 12-m-tall clay model was finished the same year. In 2008, the first parts of the actual statue reached Bhutan where they are waiting to be assembled. Once completed, the site is expected to draw pilgrims from all over the world.
Image: Tracy Hunter
16. Buddhas of Bamyan, Afghanistan – 55 m (180 ft) and 37 m (121 ft) – destroyed
An absence that has clearly marked the landscape.
The Buddhas of Bamyan demonstrate how the absence or loss of a piece of art can be almost greater than its presence. Standing tall for almost 1,500 years, the destruction of the Buddhas as a deliberate act of intolerance by the Taliban in 2001 shook the whole world.
All were Standing Buddhas carved into a cliff in central Afghanistan’s Bamyan valley, about 230 km (143 miles) northwest of Kabul. The two tallest statues were 55 m (180 ft) and 37 m (121 ft), respectively, and built during the sixth century at an altitude of 2,500 m (8,202 ft).
Image: Marco Bonavoglia
One of the Buddhas of Bamyan in 1976.
The statues were originally painted and their details modeled and pasted on with a mixture of mud and water coated with stucco that was lost over the centuries. Their destruction took several weeks and lots of dynamite. Unexpectedly, it uncovered about 50 caves, some of them with wall paintings probably stemming from the sixth to eighth century.
Image: Carl Montgomery
… a gaping hole where once a Buddha statue stood.
The destruction of the Buddha statues inspired the construction of smaller ones or parks elsewhere as a tribute, and even numerous films and other artworks. Plans to rebuild at least the two tallest statues are underway, with Japan, Switzerland and a host of other countries having pledged support.
15. Tokyo Wan Kannon of Futtsu, Chiba, Japan – 56 m (184 ft)
The top of the standing Tokyo Wan Kannon.
Futtsu in Japan’s south western Chiba Prefecture houses the Tokyo Wan Kannon, a 56-m-tall Buddha statue. Kannon in Japanese or Guan Yin in Chinese is the term for a bodhisattva associated with compassion as worshipped by East Asian Buddhists, usually as a female form. We’ll see other representations below. The one in Futtsu was built in 1961.
14. Jibo Dai Kannon of Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima, Japan – 57 m (187 ft)
Visitors can go inside the 57 m-tall statue or enjoy the enormous Japanese garden with a 14-m Reclining Buddha.
Jibo literally means “loving mother” and therefore the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy is depicted with a child in her arms. In Japan, the Kannon’s three female forms are meant to depict child giving, mothering in general and being a loving mother. She is the patron saint of motherhood, easy delivery and child-rearing.
13. Guan Yin at Mount Xiqiao, Guangdong, China – 62 m (203 ft)
The statue of Guan Yin is a popular tourist attraction.
The 62-m statue is located in the city of Foshan, in China’s south eastern Nanhai district. It stands on a 15 m pedestal, bringing the total height up to 77 m (252 ft).
It is generally believed that the concept of Guan Yin, known in the west as the Goddess of Mercy, originated as the Sanskrit Avalokitesvara, her male form.
Image: Tim Vickerman
12. Jibo Kannon at Naritasan Temple, Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan – 62 m (203 ft)
Not Mother Mary and the infant Jesus.
Another Jibo Kannon with child in her arms that bears a striking resemblance to the Virgin Mary. These Japanese images of the Kannon nursing a baby are not considered of Buddhist origin but influenced by Christianity, most likely during the Edo Era, when Christianity was banned and converts were persecuted.
Image: David Schroeter
11. Leshan Giant Buddha, Leshan, China – 71 m (233 ft)
Taking it all in stride for centuries – the Leshan Buddha with tourists.
The Leshan Giant Buddha was carved out of the cliff face overlooking the confluence of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers in China’s Sichuan province. The statue depicts a sitting Matreyia Buddha, hands resting on his knees, who is so tall that a person can sit comfortably even on his smallest toenail. The statue took 90 years to finish – a testament to ancient building techniques and skill.
Construction was started by a Chinese monk named Haithong in 713 CE who hoped that the Buddha would guide shipping vessels along the rivers’ currents. After Haithong’s death, the project came to a halt for almost 70 years due to a lack of funds, then was restarted and finally completed in 803 CE. The area today is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Image: Wm Jas
10. Great Standing Maitreya Buddha, Taiwan – 72 m (236 ft)
Long earlobes and the world in his right hand – the Laughing Buddha.
The Maitreya or Buddha of the Future is also called the Laughing Buddha because of the large smile that seems to shake even his protruding belly. Maitreya worship is not particularly widespread in China or Taiwan and was even forbidden during the Qing period from 1644-1911.
Only four Maitreya Buddhas can be found in Taiwan of which the Great Standing Maitreya Buddha near Beipu at Emei Lake in Xinzhu County is the tallest at 72 m.
Image: Takaaki Nishioka
9. Awaji Kannon, Awaji Island, Hyago, Japan – 80 m (262 ft)
Stern-looking in front of a grey sky.
The Awaji statue might not win a prize for being the most beautiful one portrayed here but it is located on Awaji Island, one of Japan’s oldest settlements. The statue stands on a 20 m (66 ft) pedestal, bringing the total height up to 100 m (328 ft).
8. Ling Shan Great Buddha, Mashan, China – 88 m (289 ft)
Visitors need to do a bit of climbing.
Exactly 99 steps lead to the Grand Buddha, an impressive, 88 m bronze statue in Ling Shan, south of China’s Longshan Mountains. The statue weighs over 700 tons and was completed in 1996.
Image: Holger Naether
Here’s a frontal view of the Ling Shan Buddha.
Since 2008, visitors can also wander around the new Five Signet or Brahma Palace that were built close by.
7. Dai Kannon at Kita no Miyako Park, Hokkaido, Japan – 88 m (289 ft)
Gracefully looking down upon the world.
This particular Kannon is another depiction of Avalokitesvara, literally “the Lord who looks down”. Like a Goddess of Mercy, the female form means to embody the compassion of all Buddhas. This Kannon in Ashibetsu, located in the Kita no Miyako Park in Hokkaido, was completed in 1989. Visitors can climb up the statue to enjoy the panoramic views or use one of the eight places dedicated to prayers between the 6th and 20th floor.
6. Great Reclining Buddha and Standing Buddha near Monywa, Myanmar – 90 m & 116 m
The Reclining Buddha with another huge one behind, under construction in 2006.
In Monywa, close to the Po Khaung Taung mountain range, visitors are in for a treat as not one but two gigantic Buddha statues wait to be explored. The Monywa Buddha is the largest Reclining Buddha statue in the world.
Dimension check – the Buddha is a building!
Don’t be fooled by the length – the statue is also 60 ft tall! It was constructed in 1991 and is like a building inside that visitors enter through the Buddha’s, er, rear. They can then walk from the Buddha’s head to his toes, guided by 9,000 metal images of the Buddha, events in his life and his disciples.
Monywa’s Giant Standing Buddha in early 2008.
But there’s more; the complex also boasts of one of the tallest standing Buddha statues, called Laykyun Setkyar. Though it is often billed at 132 m (433 ft), the height of the statue is 116 m (380 ft). Since its opening in February 2008, the statue has become one of Myanmar’s main tourist attractions.
5. Guanyin Buddha, Sanya, Hainan province, China – 108 m (354 ft)
As mentioned earlier, guanyin statues depict the bodhisattva Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy. The one in Sanya is located on the tropical island of Hainan, a popular seaside resort. Not unlike the Statue of Liberty, it rests on a specially designed island platform, this one surrounded by the South China Sea. Also noteworthy are the statue’s three sides – one facing inland and two facing the sea so that blessings and protection can be directed everywhere.
Image: C. Ling Fan
A close-up does justice to the Guanyin Buddha’s details but not its size.
Another remarkable fact is that more than a hundred Buddhist monks from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and Mainland China and tens of thousands of pilgrims participated in the construction that took six years. The statue was inaugurated in April 2005.
4. Dai Kannon of Sendai, Japan – 100 m (328 ft)
Is that a smile?
Here’s another depiction of Avalokitesvara in Sendai, the capital of the Miyagi prefecture. It was built by a once flush and now defunct company in the 1980s to avoid taxes rather than show devotion, a reason why it is loathed by many locals. Visitors enjoy the elevator ride to the top though and admire the spectacular views of the city.
3. Ushiku Daibutsu, Japan – 120 m (394 ft)
Three times taller than the Statue of Liberty.
At 120 m, the huge Buddha statue in Ushiku, Japan is one of the world’s tallest. But that’s not all; the gently smiling Buddha with the upward facing right palm and downward facing left palm has a secret – a four-level museum related to Buddhism inside and an observation platform at 85 m.
A landmark greeting visitors from afar.
The statue was completed in 1993 and stands on a 10 m high base and another 10 m high lotus platform. Just to get a vague idea of the dimensions: the Buddha’s hands are each 18 m long, each ear 10 m and the mouth 4 m.
2. Spring Temple Buddha, Henan, China – 128 m (420 ft)
Serene – the Henan Buddha
The Spring Temple Buddha, named after the nearby Tianrui hot spring, was built in response to the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan, an act the Chinese government condemned. The project was completed in 2002 and tops the Ushiku Daibutsu by 8 m, making it the tallest completed statue in the world.
Part of the statue is a 20 m high lotus throne but it also stands on a 25 m high building, raising its height to 153 m if taken into account. Since 2008, the hill the Buddha is placed upon is also being reshaped into two pedestals, really letting the statue reach for the sky with an expected height of 208 m. Bigger is better? We don’t know yet.
Image: Maitreya Project
1. Maitreya Buddha, Uttar Pradesh, India – 152 m (500 ft) – planned
A computer-generated image of the proposed statue.
Finally, speaking of ambitious projects, the Maitreya Project is an international organisation that aims to build the world’s tallest Buddha statue in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India. Planned is a steel-truss construction covered by around 6,000 aluminium-bronze panels.
Part of the project will be education and healthcare facilities for the local population. One aim is also to develop the area for tourism, which is why an accompanying park, cathedral, monastery, convent, guesthouse, library and food facilities are also planned.
If all those tall Buddha statues remind you of the Tower of Babel or you think that the astronomical building costs could better be used for housing for a nation’s poor, here what His Eminence Trizin Tsering Rinpoche, chairman of the Buddha Dordenma project, has to say:
“By building Buddha statues limitless people can pray and offer for thousands of years, thus by receiving blessings, clearing negativities and building virtues, this life will be happy, next life will be better at a higher level then finally everybody will be enlightened. The well being of future generations is dependent on the kindness and compassion of the present sponsors, Buddha makers and those who participate in this activity. This project brings benefit to self and all beings.”
Especially in view of the latest Buddha building craze, this list claims by no means to be complete, so if you know of any tall Buddha statues we have missed, let us know! | <urn:uuid:f749f6d6-53f3-4ef7-900c-4ea5278584db> | {
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S1 Heart Sound Page
Welcome to the S1 heart sound page. On this page we provide a definition, sample heart sounds and links to the training lessons available on this site.
What is an S1 Heart Sound?
S1 heart sound is a low frequency sound, occurring at the beginning of systole. S1 can be best heard over the apex, using a stethoscope's bell or diaphragm. The first heart sound is caused by turbulence created when the mitral and tricuspid values close. S1 and S2 heart sounds are often described as lub - dub.
S1 & S2 Heart Sounds Audio
S1 and S2 Normal
Click to play.
S1 Heart Sound Caused By
The S1 heart sound is caused by blood flow turbulence when mitral and tricuspid valves close at the start of systole.
Best Heart Position During Ausucultation
Because S1 heart sounds occur when the mitral and tricuspid valve close, the best heart is locations for the stethoscope chestpiece are at the tricuspid (left lower sternal border) and mitral (cardiac apex) locations. | <urn:uuid:9b5caebd-dc1f-4a1b-9c10-b42ca66d902b> | {
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National Assembly leader Juan Guaidó, who declared himself Venezuela’s interim president two weeks ago, urged Beijing this weekend to abandon China’s support for incumbent President Nicolás Maduro. The United States, Canada and Australia, along with several of Venezuela’s Latin American neighbors and now a number of European countries, have recognized Guaidó as the legitimate democratic representative of Venezuela.
But two countries — China and Russia — stand out for their opposition to outside interference in Venezuela and their support for the status quo under Maduro.
China and Venezuela have a troubled relationship
Beijing has long been concerned about its exposure to Venezuela’s slow-motion descent into crisis. The standoff between Maduro and Guaidó as to who is the country’s legitimate leader has once again prompted questions about how China got involved in such a dysfunctional relationship with Venezuela. There’s also a broader story here about China’s efforts to promote itself as a leader of international development and South-South ties.
The short answer is that the troubled China-Venezuela relationship is the outcome of misplaced Chinese assumptions about the economic and political risks of engaging in massive loans-for-oil deals — and a subsequent unwillingness to acknowledge and learn from those original miscalculations.
Here’s what you need to know about China’s proclaimed hopes for stability and support for Venezuelan sovereignty:
1. China rapidly expanded its commodity trading in Latin America
The boom in commercial relations between China and Latin America began in the early 2000s. Buoyed by rapidly expanding Chinese demand for abundant South American mineral, agricultural and energy commodities, China quickly became the top or No. 2 trading partner of many countries across the continent. Iron ore, copper and soy products dominated trade between China and countries such as Brazil, Chile and Argentina. For China and Venezuela, oil was at the heart of the burgeoning bilateral relationship.
By the early 2000s, China was already one of the world’s top oil importers and was looking to expand and diversify its supply sources. After Hugo Chávez became president in 1999, Venezuela increasingly declared its intentions to diversify its own oil trade relationships away from overdependence on the United States and specifically toward partners in Asia such as China and India. Venezuela was South America’s top oil producer, and industry analysts by 2011 came to believe Venezuela had the world’s largest oil reserves, ahead of even Saudi Arabia.
China and Venezuela increasingly pursued a state-to-state, loans-for-oil structure for their partnership. On the Chinese side, the key institution was the China Development Bank (CDB), which lent more than $55 billion to Venezuela from 2007 to 2016. On the Venezuelan side, the key partners were Chávez and the state-owned oil firm, PDVSA, which agreed to service the loans through guaranteed oil sales to China.
Chávez died of cancer in 2013, and the price of oil crashed the following year, but there were already signs that all was not well in the China-Venezuela relationship. For example, annual flows of Venezuelan oil exports to China rarely came close to the amounts promised by politicians on both sides. China’s national oil companies were also frustrated in their efforts to gain preferential access to upstream investment opportunities in Venezuela’s oil-rich Orinoco Belt.
2. Beijing miscalculated the political risk
In the wake of Chávez’s death and the dramatic drop in oil prices beginning in 2014, questions mounted. Could Venezuela continue to service its debts to China? And why, despite those concerns, has China persisted in its support of the Maduro government? The answers lie in a combination of misplaced assumptions about the stability of China-Venezuela relations — and a gamble that supporting the status quo in Venezuela is less risky than any public backing of economic or political change there.
As I explained in a 2011 article, Chinese diplomats and researchers consistently portrayed Beijing’s expanding commodity-based ties with South America as “complementary” and “mutually beneficial” — and, therefore, as naturally self-reinforcing and stable. In the case of China-Venezuela relations, Chinese officials and think tank scholars have consistently relied on the purported virtuous circle between development and stability to explain the built-in soundness of the relationship.
3. Chinese officials held fast to the belief in complementary development
Specifically, they argued that because of China’s vast oil import needs and because of Venezuela’s abundant supplies of oil, the relationship was based on a rock-solid commercial complementarity that could outlast the challenges presented by Venezuela’s deepening economic crisis. China continues to tout this comparative-advantage argument even amid growing Venezuelan turmoil.
In the case of Venezuela, such Chinese assumptions were bolstered by confidence that the relationship was on a sound political footing. Chávez’s popularity and command of Venezuelan politics, and his direct support for the “comprehensive strategic partnership,” reassured Beijing that all was in order.
When Chavez died — and the country was hit by oil price and production woes shortly thereafter — the country’s descent into crisis accelerated. Yet China refused to acknowledge that anything was amiss. Granted, starting around 2016, China scaled back its lending to Venezuela, but at every step of the deepening crisis, the official Chinese response has been to repeat its hopes for Venezuelan “stability” and “development.”
4. Beijing is now taking a gamble
Even as Venezuela’s political crisis entered its latest stage last month, a combination of calculations continued to drive China’s reluctance to join calls for political change — or even to openly acknowledge that the China-Venezuela relationship is in troubled waters. China’s official response to U.S. and other international recognition of Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate leader has emphasized China’s long-standing noninterference foreign policy principle.
And it’s likely that China continues to hope its financial and diplomatic support for Venezuela ultimately will pave the way for future oil-based trade and investment opportunities. By sitting on the fence as the United States and Russia trade barbs over the future of Venezuela’s political leadership, China may be hoping that its efforts to appear a pragmatic partner to Caracas will pay off with greater future access to Venezuela’s oil reserves. For China to portray its long financial and political support for Chávez and Maduro as purely practical rather than also ideological will probably be easier said than done in a country as polarized as Venezuela.
Originally published as Why did China Stand by Maduro in Venezuela? at The Monkey Cage at The Washington Post on February 5. Reprinted here with permission. | <urn:uuid:bfc6030b-ec8a-4dda-af4f-eb851f0fd747> | {
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Since 2010, Somalia’s airspace has been an issue between the successive governments of Somalia and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which currently manages the airspace on behalf of Somalia. The subject was and still is a controversial topic for discussion among Somalians in Somalia and diaspora alike.
The Somali state has made several unsuccessful attempts to regain control and management of its airspace. ICAO is thus reluctant to hand responsibility of the airspace over to Somalia. It seems that ICAO has no confidence in the ability and capability of Somalia to safely manage its own airspace. Outside of the Somali government and ICAO, the Somali citizens may not necessarily know the details of the conflict because the situation is difficult to understand and not much information available to the public. But they are certainly frustrated with the way that foreign parties are managing the country’s airspace and collecting its revenues.
Firstly, I should make clear what international aviation law is and how it works. Somalia, as a sovereign state, has exclusive sovereign right to its airspace. The issue of airspace sovereignty can be traced back to the early years of air transport industry developments. Immediately after World War I, the majority of military aircrafts were been converted into civilian ones, and as a result, the international air transportation grew rapidly. There was a need to regulate aircraft movements, as they began flying into other states. Therefore, the recognition of states’ sovereignty over their airspace was discussed for the first time at the Paris Convention in 1919. The Convention laid down states’ principal rights in terms of the sovereignty of their airspace.
However, at the Chicago Convention in 1944, the most famous aviation conference in history, the principles of absolute sovereignty were reinstated and reinforced. According to articles 1, 2, and 3 of the convention, the contracting states recognise that every state has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the air space above its territory. To clarify further, the territory of the state is the land area and territorial waters adjacent thereto under sovereignty, protection, or mandate of that state. So, no state aircraft of a contracting state shall fly over the territory of another state or its land without authorisation.
Therefore, in order to enable aircrafts registered in one state to fly into other states, permission must be granted by the relevant state. The Convention agreed on what became known as the “freedoms of the air” or “traffic rights”, which are set of privilege rights that grant airlines permission to overfly or land in other state. Following the Chicago convention, each state has controlled and regulated its airspace according to these international air transport laws.
Each country has the right to limit and control the number of airlines, size of aircrafts, cities to be served, and how many flights per day (frequency) may fly into their territory. This right is granted through what is known as the Bilateral Air Services Agreement, which an agreement between two governments in regards to air transport services.
Somalia did not exist as an independent country at the time of the Chicago convention. However, after gaining its independence, the country has ratified the Chicago Convention treaty and is obliged to comply with all ICAO annexes in relation to safety, security, operational, and environmental aspects of its air transport industry. Following independence, Somalia has signed a number of bilateral air services agreements with other states. For example, in 1963 Somalia signed bilateral agreements with the former the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Sultanate of Oman. These agreements enabled airlines registered in these countries to fly into Somalia’s airspace and land at its airports.
Somalia as a sovereign state has exclusive sovereignty over its airspace, but what is the vertical boundary of the airspace? How high into the airspace Somalia can claim as its sovereign? The airspace boundary tends to be between 50 km and 100 km above the sea level, and more accurately up to 66,000 ft. This limit means that Somalia cannot claim territorial authority over outer space, which is the zone beyond the airspace surrounding the earth. Somalia, as well as all other states, has no control or sovereignty over the space beyond the boundary where satellites tend to orbit.
What about Somalia`s territorial water boundary? Somalia’s territorial water, along with those of other states, is 22 km from the coastline, and so the space over these areas is subject to Somalia’s national sovereignty, but not the space over international water. So what happens if unauthorised airplanes enter Somalia’s airspace? The answer to that question is complicated. In the early years of the aviation industry’s development, the protection of states’ national security was one of the major reasons for the establishment of complete and exclusive sovereignty over airspace. In the last century, a number of aircrafts have been shot down because they were considered as a threat to national security of sovereign states when they entered other states’ airspace without authorisation. One example of this measure is the shooting down of the South Korean aircraft in the airspace of the former USSR on 1st September 1983. The aircraft B747-200, which departed from J. F. Kennedy Airport in New York, United States with destination of Seoul, South Korea, was shot down by a Soviet Union Fighter jet as the aircraft drifted from its original route and mistakenly entered the airspace of the former Soviet Union. The shooting was unnecessary, as the plane was clearly visible and recognisable as a civilian aircraft, though the USSR argued that it was protecting its national security from a potential threat.
The UN has reported that, in 2011 alone 64 foreign fighter jets, helicopters, and drones were operating in the Somalia`s airspace (without permission from Somali government), and most violations were committed by the US and neighbouring countries. So, is Somalia entitled to shoot down any unauthorised aircraft that violates its sovereignty? Indeed, as any country has the right to do so. However, is Somalia able militarily to take such action at the moment? I doubt it, though the country can make complaints to the United Nations (UN).
Written by Abdikarim Ali Elmi-Wais
MSc Air Transport Planning and Management
Bristol, United Kingdom. | <urn:uuid:31a059a8-82aa-4566-a3d5-ae94f5348c17> | {
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How to power the beamforming processor, video
processor, HV transducer, AFE, and miscellaneous analog
Medical ultrasound imaging can be used to
visualize internal organs without puncturing the skin or
introducing radiation as some other imaging systems like endoscope,
computed tomography (CT), or X-ray imaging. Additionally,
ultrasound is less expensive and more portable than non-invasive
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The growth of ultrasound usage
appears to be a strong trend for years to come.
Ultrasound block diagram
An ultrasound system (see Fig. 1) typically comprises several key
building blocks that add to the power requirements. The ultrasound
probe contains up to several hundred piezo-electric transducers
which can covert outbound electrical signals into acoustic waves or
inbound acoustic waves into electrical signals.
To create the electrical signals that will be
input to the transducer, a transmit beamformer unit is used. The
transmit beamformer typically is implemented in a field
programmable gate array (FPGA) or digital signal processor (DSP).
The transmit beamformer generates electrical pulses that are timed
and scaled to illuminate specific areas within the body.
Fig. 1: Key components of an ultrasound
These electrical signals from the transmit
beamformer pass through a high-voltage pulser or high-voltage D/A
converter (DAC) to create energy that excites the transducer
element. A transmit / receive switch is placed between the pulser
or DAC. During the transmission, it ensures that the low-voltage
receive circuitry is protected from high voltages, since the
receive path also needs connection to the transducer.
A piezoelectric transducer element converts
these electric signals into acoustic waves that penetrate the body.
These acoustic waves are reflected off the boundaries of various
internal organs and return to the transducer.
Once these returning acoustic waves pass through
the transducer, they become electric signals. These lower voltage
receive signals need to be amplified, filtered, and converted to a
digital format so an image can be created. Thanks to advancements
in semiconductors, this all can be done in one device: the analog
The digital output is loaded into a receive
beamformer that reconstructs the data. After the image is
reconstructed it may have some video post-processing performed and
put into a format that can be outputted to a display so the
technician can view the result.
Many voltage levels need to be considered for an
ultrasound imaging system, and understanding the power requirements
early in the design phase can save time constructing the power
architecture. When determining the system bus voltage, it is best
to know the highest voltage level needed. The ultrasound transmit
pulser may require the highest voltage level in the system with a
peak current of several amperes to drive the transducer.
The most popular choice for an intermediate bus
voltage is 12 V. A separate power supply may need to be implemented
to generate a higher positive and negative voltage to provide power
to the pulser. If the ultrasound has a battery-backup feature that
may require a higher voltage to charge lead acid or a
series/parallel combination of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, then
a 28 to 30-V intermediate bus voltage is a good choice.
There are many easy-to-use dc/dc switching
regulators on the market that can accept this voltage level to
provide point-of-load (POL) power for the display, digital
processors, and analog circuits. Additionally, ultrasound imaging
systems can be very susceptible to noise due to sensitive precision
analog circuitry and the need of a clear display image. Dc/dc
switching regulators with a frequency synchronization feature can
be driven from a master clock frequency to eliminate beat
frequencies that disturb analog and video signals.
An ultrasound imaging system employs a
combination of FPGA, DSP, and a microcontroller to implement the
beamforming transmit and receive function, Doppler processing, and
image processing. Powering the processors is straightforward, and
manufacaturers such as TI have tools available to suggest suitable
power devices, such as the power and analog for processors and
FPGA’s tool located at www.ti.com/processorpower.
However, a few important factors must be
considered when powering performance processors. Processor
manufacturers may specify a minimum and maximum voltage ramp time,
and many dc/dc regulators feature an adjustable soft-start pin to
program the voltage ramp time. If a soft-start pin is unavailable,
choose a dc/dc regulator with a suitable preset soft-start
Processor datasheets may also provide
recommended timing guidelines for core, I/O, phased-lock loop
(PLL), and auxiliary power-up sequencing in their datasheets. While
several distinct methods to power up-and-down voltage rails are
available, sequential sequencing is most popular. This can be
easily implemented by connecting the voltage regulator’s
POWERGOOD pin to the ENABLE pin of another.
Sequential sequencing also allows multiple
voltage rails to be staggered during turn-on to minimize inrush
current as opposed to turning on all rails simultaneously. Some
low-dropout regulators (LDOs) and switching regulators have a
special sequencing or tracking pin that can accommodate almost any
Lower processor-core voltages are driving the
need for higher-accuracy dc/dc converters. New voltage regulators
claim ±1% or better reference accuracy over temperature.
Lower-cost voltage regulators may specify ±2% or
±3% reference voltage accuracy. Check the
manufacturer’s datasheet for guarantees to ensure
regulation accuracy meets processor requirements. Older dc/dc
converters that have been reused for many years may not meet the
voltage-accuracy needs of today’s latest processors.
Analog circuitry power
The ultrasound system’s main analog
components are the AFE, ultrasound transmit pulser, and the
ultrasound transmit/receive switch. These analog circuits, such as
DACs, analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), and operational
amplifiers (op amps) in high-precision instrumentation applications
are very sensitive to noise and ripple.
Noise is characterized by spectral noise density
(nV/√Hz) and output noise voltage (µVRMS).
Power supply ripple rejection (PSRR) refers to the amount of ripple
on the output coming from ripple on the input. Most designers choose a linear
regulator to provide a clean voltage rail to maximize system
performance. Linear regulators that advertise the PSRR and noise
performance specifications on the front page of the datasheet are
optimized to power noise-sensitive analog-integrated circuits.
An AFE, such as the AFE5808A, consists of an
eight-channel voltage controller amplifier with a low-noise
amplifier, a programmable gain amplifier, a CW mixer, an ADC, and
other analog circuitry. The device requires several voltages, such
as 1.8, 3.3, and 5 V, to power the various circuitry blocks.
LDO regulators are suitable to power these AFE
voltage rails since the current levels are low. To further improve
efficiency and save board, a switching regulator and an LDO are
combined in one package that can power sensitive analog circuitry.
For example, the TPS54120, a low-noise, power supply with
integrated dc/dc converter and LDO supports up to 1A and can
provide the high efficiency of a switching regulator and the high
PSRR of an LDO from a 5- or 12-V bus with a low-noise output of 17
The ultrasound transmit pulser, such as the
LM96550, contains eight high-voltage pulsers with integrated diodes
generating up to ±50-V bipolar pulses with peak currents
of up to 2 A, and pulse rates of up to 15 MHz. Since the transmit
pulser also implements digital-to-analog conversion, separate
voltage rails are required to power a level-shifter and low-voltage
A split-rail power supply is required, and a
step-down converter like the TPS54060 in an inverting buck/boost
configuration easily generates the plus and minus voltage rails
from the intermediate bus voltage. It is a good design practice to
employ a low-current LDO on each rail to help remove any switching
noise from the inverting buck/boost converter.
The ultrasound transmit/receive switch protects
the AFE inputs of the low-noise amplifier (LNA) from the transmit
channel’s high-voltage pulses. The input voltage is
delivered from the transmit pulser’s output, and the
output voltage to the LNA is ±0.7 V with the current
clamped to 1 mA. Similar to the transmit pulser, the switch
requires a split-rail power supply for the analog supply as well as
a negative high-voltage bias supply. The bias supply needs to be
the most negative power supply connected to the switch.
Ultrasound imaging systems comprise analog and
digital integrated circuits that have different power
considerations. Linear regulators can provide the low-noise
performance for analog circuits. Switching regulators deliver
higher efficiency and generally are more suitable for powering
higher current, high-performance DSPs. Power solutions from Texas
Instruments are available to combine the benefits of both switching
and linear regulation to design a complete ultrasound imaging
“Understanding Noise in Linear
Regulators,” John C. Teel, TI Analog Applications
“TPS54060EVM-590 100-mA, Split
Rail SWIFT™ Regulator” (SLVU374), Texas
Instruments, May 2010.
Access the latest ultrasound system block | <urn:uuid:20a79686-36a4-4cb9-aa06-96fff320916b> | {
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If it’s well known that animals have a heightened perception of developing weather patterns, this would be no exception, via motherboard.tv:
Japan is bracing itself for bad times after scores of the usually rare, giant Oarfish have washed ashore and been caught in coastal fisherman’s nets.The sightings started after the ‘quake in Chile and the 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan. The rash of tectonic shifting around the Pacific “Ring of Fire” is causing concern that Japan is next, and these gigantor fish aren’t helping.
The Oarfish is traditionally known as a messenger fish from the sea gods, and it’s tidings are usually grim. The fish can grow up to five metres in length and usually found at depths of 1, 000 ft. Long and slender with a dorsal fin that runs the length of it’s body, the fish resembles a kind of steam-rolled snake.
According to folklore, the fish will come ashore and beach itself to warn of an impending earthquake and there are scientific theories that bottom-dwelling fish may very well be susceptible to movements in seismic fault lines and act in uncharacteristic ways in advance of an earthquake – but experts here are placing more faith in their constant high-tech monitoring of the tectonic plates beneath the surface.
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A Process to Produce High-Purity Encapsulated Particulates in Large Quantities
Agency / Branch:
DOD / ARMY
This is a proposal to research new methods of coating small particles using a water-based electroplating process. These methods would build upon existing technology, in which small particulates are placed into a metallic-ion-containing electrolyte solution inside an electroplating device. The particulates are repeatedly stirred, allowing sedimentation to occur by gravity until a sedimentation layer of loosely contacted particles is formed on the cathode plate. An electric current is created from the electromotive potential that exists across the anode and cathode plates. The stirring, sedimentation and electroplating processes are performed in sequence. Electroplating is interrupted during the stirring and seminentation steps, and stirring immediately follows electroplating.
Small Business Information at Submission:
FEDERAL TECHNOLOGY GROUP, INC.
Enterprise Professional Center, 235 S. Enterprise Bozeman, MT 59718
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CHANDONNET (Chandonnais), THOMAS-AIMÉ, priest, educator, and writer; b. 26 Dec. 1834 at Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets (Les Becquets), Lower Canada, fifteenth child of Joseph Chandonnais, a farmer, and Angèle Bibeau; d. 5 June 1881 in Montreal, Que.
In 1848 Thomas-Aimé Chandonnet entered the Séminaire de Québec where he took his first baccalaureate examination in 1853. He then taught there while studying theology and was ordained priest on 23 Feb. 1861. His courses in philosophy from 1859 to 1865 became progressively firmer in structure but developed little in content; his pupils no doubt derived a philosophical and moral justification of the supremacy of heaven over earth, faith over reason, the spiritual over the temporal, the church over the state, and the “eternal kingdom” over the “earthly kingdom.” Chandonnet also made use of these themes in a speech on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day (24 June) in 1865.
As a graduate of the Séminaire de Québec, Chandonnet took part in the Gaumist controversy [see Charles-François Baillargeon*] over the use of pagan or Christian authors for teaching purposes; he was chiefly opposed to the intransigence displayed by those defending censorship on the basis of Christian principles. While in Rome from August 1865 to September 1867 to study for the doctorates he received in theology, canon law, and philosophy, Abbé Chandonnet continued to collaborate with Bishop Baillargeon, the agent and procurator of the Canadian bishops in Rome, in attempts to settle the Gaumist controversy.
Appointed principal of the École Normale Laval in Quebec City in 1867, the learned abbé delivered a number of lectures there between 10 Dec. 1867 and 30 March 1868 in which he again tackled the “Thomist” question of the connections between faith and reason. In a second series he defended the supremacy of the church and the thesis of the “free state in the free church,” and took a stand against Charles Forbes, Comte de Montalembert. By 1868 he was preoccupied with founding a Catholic journal and also took up again the Gaumist quarrel through his opposition to George Saint-Aimé [Alexis Pelletier*], professor at the Collège de Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière and a leading Gaumist. But in 1871, shortly after the death of Bishop Baillargeon, Chandonnet left his position at Quebec to serve as a priest in New England. There he concerned himself with the French Canadian emigrants who had made their homes at Worcester and New Bedford, Mass. He returned to Canada in 1874 and spent the next two years at the Séminaire de Sainte-Thérèse. In Montreal from 1877, he founded that year and directed until 1881 La Revue de Montréal, a scholarly publication with a religious tone which promoted moderate ultramontane studies while at the same time supporting the diocese of Quebec in a new ecclesiastical wrangle over the establishment of a branch of the Université Laval in Montreal [see Joseph Desautels].
After a sojourn in Ottawa, Thomas-Aimé Chandonnet died on 5 June 1881 in Montreal, at the age of 46. For reasons which are not indicated in archival records he was buried in the Côte-des-Neiges Cemetery “in unconsecrated ground and without religious rites.”
[Thomas-Aimé Chandonnet was the author of a number of works including Discours prononcés à Notre-Dame de Québec au triduum de la Société St-Vincent-de-Paul les 21, 22 et 23 décembre 1863 (Québec, 1864); La Saint-Jean-Baptiste à Québec en 1865 (Québec, 1865); Notre-Dame-des-Canadiens et les Canadiens aux États-Unis (Montréal, 1872); L’Abbé Joseph Aubry (Montréal, 1875); L’Université Laval à Montréal (Montréal, 1878). He also contributed articles to the Rev. de Montréal in the years 1877 to 1881, in some instances under the pseudonym of T.-A. de Saint-Claude. The journal is held by the library of the Dominican monastery of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, in Montreal. y.l.]
AP, Notre-Dame de Montréal, Reg. des baptêmes, mariages et sépultures, 6 juin 1881. ASQ, Fonds Viger-Verreau, Cartons 23, nos.344, 348; 24, no.181; 26, no.360; Sér. O, 0136-0138; mss, 34, I, 30 août, 5 oct. 1853, 23 févr. 1861; mss-m, 183; 220; 222; 230; 586; 775; 1112; Univ., Carton 84, no.88. Alexis Pelletier wrote an article and two books under pseudonyms: L. S. J., “Nouveaux documents sur la question de l’enseignement des classiques chrétiens et païens au Canada, lettre à M. Bonnetti,” Annales de philosophie chrétienne (Paris), 5e sér., 19 (1869): 7–32; George Saint-Aimé, Résponses aux dernières attaques dirigées par M. l’abbé Chandonnet contre les partisans de la méthode chrétienne . . . (Québec, 1868); and La question des classiques en présence des rectifications et des critiques de M. l’abbé Chandonnet par un “Chrétien” (Québec, 1865). L’Abeille (Québec), 10 juin 1860. Le Courrier de Saint-Hyacinthe, 6 août 1868. Le Courrier du Canada, 16, 18, 19, 23, 25, 28, 30 nov., 2, 5, 7, 14, 16, 19 déc. 1864; 22 févr. 1869. L’Écho du cabinet de lecture paroissial (Montréal), 1er, 15 août, 1er sept. 1865. L’Événement (Québec), déc. 1867–avril 1868, 28 juill., 1er, 4 août 1868. L’Opinion publique, 16 juin 1881. Le Journal de Québec, 6, 13 juin, 4 juill. 1865. L.-A. Fortier, L’université Laval affiliée au Collège royal des chirurgiens de Londres (Ang.) contre l’école de Médecine et de Chirurgie de Montréal affiliée à l’université du collège Victoria (Cobourg, Ontario), affiliée au Collège royal des chirurgiens de Londres et l’abbé T. A. Chandonnet (Montréal, 1879). M.-A. Lavigne, L’abbé T.-A. Chandonnet, docteur en philosophie, théologie et droit canon (Montréal, 1950). Thomas Charland, “Un gaumiste canadien; l’abbé Alexis Pelletier,” RHAF, 1 (1947–48): 195–236. É.-Z. Massicotte, “Quelques librairies montréalaises d’autrefois,” BRH, 50 (1944): 171. Pierre Trudel, “La protection des Anglo-Québécois et la presse conservatrice,” Rev. de l’univ. d’Ottawa, 44 (1974): 137–57.
Cite This Article
Yvan Lamonde, “CHANDONNET, THOMAS-AIMÉ,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed July 26, 2014, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/chandonnet_thomas_aime_11E.html.
The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:Permalink: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/chandonnet_thomas_aime_11E.html
|Author of Article:||Yvan Lamonde|
|Title of Article:||CHANDONNET, THOMAS-AIMÉ|
|Publication Name:||Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11|
|Publisher:||University of Toronto/Université Laval|
|Year of publication:||1982|
|Year of revision:||1982|
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The success of the Jews. (1-19) The feast of Purim in remembrance of this. (20-32)
Verses 1-19 The enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them by the former edict. If they had attempted nothing against the people of God, they would not themselves have suffered. The Jews, acting together, strengthened one another. Let us learn to stand fast in one spirit, and with one mind, striving together against the enemies of our souls, who endeavour to rob us of our faith, which is more precious than our lives. The Jews, to the honour of their religion, showed contempt of wordly wealth, that they might make it appear they desired nothing except their own preservation. In every case the people of God should manifest humanity and disinterestedness, frequently refusing advantages which might lawfully be obtained. The Jews celebrated their festival the day after they had finished their work. When we have received great mercies from God, we ought to be speedy in making thankful returns to him.
Verses 20-32 The observance of the Jewish feasts, is a public declaration of the truth of the Old Testament Scriptures. And as the Old Testament Scriptures are true, the Messiah expected by the Jews is come long ago; and none but Jesus of Nazareth can be that Messiah. The festival was appointed by authority, yet under the direction of the Spirit of God. It was called the feast of Purim, from a Persian word, which signifies a lot. The name of this festival would remind them of the almighty power of the God of Israel, who served his own purposes by the superstitions of the heathen. In reviewing our mercies, we should advert to former fears and distresses. When our mercies are personal, we should not by forgetfulness lose the comfort of them, or withhold from the Lord the glory due to his name. May the Lord teach us to rejoice, with that holy joy which anticipates and prepares for the blessedness of heaven. Every instance of Divine goodness to ourselves, is a new obligation laid on us to do good, to those especially who most need our bounty. Above all, ( 2 Corinthians. 8:9 )
Esther 9:1-19 . THE JEWS SLAY THEIR ENEMIES WITH THE TEN SONS OF HAMAN.
1. in the twelfth month, . . . on the thirteenth day of the same--This was the day which Haman's superstitious advisers had led him to select as the most fortunate for the execution of his exterminating scheme against the Jews [ Esther 3:7 ].
2. The Jews gathered themselves . . . no man could withstand them--The tables were now turned in their favor; and though their enemies made their long meditated attack, the Jews were not only at liberty to act on the defensive, but through the powerful influence enlisted on their side at court together with the blessing of God, they were everywhere victorious.
the fear of them fell upon all people--This impression arose not alone from the consciousness of the all-powerful vizier being their countryman, but from the hand of God appearing so visibly interposed to effect their strange and unexpected deliverance.
5-16. Thus the Jews smote all their enemies--The effect of the two antagonistic decrees was, in the meantime, to raise a fierce and bloody war between the Jews and their enemies throughout the Persian empire; but through the dread of Esther and Mordecai, the provincial governors universally favored their cause, so that their enemies fell in great numbers.
13. let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to-morrow also according unto this day's decree--Their enemies adroitly concealing themselves for the first day might have returned on the next, when they imagined that the privilege of the Jews was expired; so that that people would have been surprised and slain. The extension of the decree to another day at the queen's special desire has exposed her to the charge of being actuated by a cruel and vindictive disposition. But her conduct in making this request is capable of full vindication, on the ground (1) that Haman's sons having taken a prominent part in avenging their father's fall, and having been previously slain in the melee, the order for the exposure of their dead bodies on the gallows was only intended to brand them with public infamy for their malice and hatred to the Jews; and (2) the anti-Jewish party having, in all probability, been instigated through the arts or influence of Haman to acts of spiteful and wanton oppression, the existing state of feeling among the natives required some vigorous and decisive measure to prevent the outbreak of future aggressions. To order an extension, therefore, of the permissive edict to the Jews to defend themselves, was perhaps no more than affording an opportunity for their enemies to be publicly known. Though it led to so awful a slaughter of seventy-five thousand of their enemies, there is reason to believe that these were chiefly Amalekites, in the fall of whom on this occasion, the prophecies ( Exodus 17:14 Exodus 17:16 , Deuteronomy 25:19 ) against that doomed race were accomplished.
19. a day of . . . feasting . . . of sending portions one to another--The princes and people of the East not only invite their friends to feasts, but it is their custom to send a portion of the banquet to those who cannot well come to it, especially their relations, and those who are detained at home in a state of sorrow or distress.
Esther 9:20-32 . THE TWO DAYS OF PURIM MADE FESTIVAL.
20. Mordecai wrote these things--Commentators are not agreed what is particularly meant by "these things"; whether the letters following, or an account of these marvellous events to be preserved in the families of the Jewish people, and transmitted from one generation to another.
26. they called these days Purim after the name of Pur--"Pur," in the Persian language, signifies "lot"; and the feast of Purim, or lots, has a reference to the time having been pitched upon by Haman through the decision of the lot. In consequence of the signal national deliverance which divine providence gave them from the infamous machinations of Haman, Mordecai ordered the Jews to commemorate that event by an anniversary festival, which was to last for two days, in accordance with the two days' war of defense they had to maintain. There was a slight difference in the time of this festival; for the Jews in the provinces, having defended themselves against their enemies on the thirteenth, devoted the fourteenth to festivity; whereas their brethren in Shushan, having extended that work over two days, did not observe their thanksgiving feast till the fifteenth. But this was remedied by authority, which fixed the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar. It became a season of sunny memories to the universal body of the Jews; and, by the letters of Mordecai, dispersed through all parts of the Persian empire, it was established as an annual feast, the celebration of which is kept up still. On both days of the feast, the modern Jews read over the Megillah or Book of Esther in their synagogues. The copy read must not be printed, but written on vellum in the form of a roll; and the names of the ten sons of Haman are written on it a peculiar manner, being ranged, they say, like so many bodies on a gibbet. The reader must pronounce all these names in one breath. Whenever Haman's name is pronounced, they make a terrible noise in the synagogue. Some drum with their feet on the floor, and the boys have mallets with which they knock and make a noise. They prepare themselves for their carnival by a previous fast, which should continue three days, in imitation of Esther's; but they have mostly reduced it to one day [JENNING, Jewish Antiquities]. | <urn:uuid:88015d49-cc1f-4d6a-8b3f-0db5a65e5278> | {
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Human Rights Ebooks
Comfort Women in Search for Understanding
Book Description HTML | Report this book
The Gender and Peace Studies course at the University for Peace focuses on how gender is intricately intertwined in every aspect of our lives. Throughout the course we have discussed the complex definition of “gender” and its relationship with family, science, war, human trafficking and prostitution, as well as religion. In entering this course, I had little understanding of the large role gender played in our lives. However, as I found myself seeking understanding on different global issues involving women, I realized that the only way for me to have a true understanding of how and why these acts of violence and oppression continue to happen in today’s society was to seek out the underlying premise of these issues, which was gender. One is the “comfort women” . | <urn:uuid:cab75c28-e750-49fc-b91e-90db1a10bcbc> | {
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Males are 45 - 50 cm (18 - 20 inches) in height at the withers, while females are 42 - 47 cm (17 - 19 inches). The body is not square, but rectangular; the ratio of the height to the body length should be 9:10 (a 45 cm tall dog should have a body 50 cm long). The tail is either very short or docked. Some undocked dogs have tails that curl over the back.
Kazimierz Grabski, a Polish merchant, traded a shipment of grain for sheep in Scotland in 1514, and brought six PONs to move the sheep. A Scottish shepherd was so impressed with the herding ability of the dogs that he traded a ram and two ewes for a dog and two bitches. These dogs were bred with the local Scottish dogs to produce the Scottish herding dogs, most obviously the Bearded Collie.
Almost driven to extinction in World War II, the PON was restored mainly through the work of Dr. Danuta Hryeniewicz and her dog, Smok (en:Dragon), the ancestor of all PONs in the world today, who sired the first ten litters of PONs in the 1950s. The breed standard was written with Smok as the model, and accepted by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale in 1959.
In general, PONs are a very healthy breed. Animals should be checked for hip dysplasia and progressive retinal atrophy before being used for breeding. PONs require a low protein diet. The life expectancy of a PON is 12 to 15 years.
http://www.dogsindepth.com/herding_dog_breeds/polish_lowland_sheepdog.html <----- For more info | <urn:uuid:ac86c6cb-e607-4bfa-84d3-be30d7f1b694> | {
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Addiction & REDUNDANCY IN THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
& REDUNDANCY IN THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
Redundancy and the existence of alternative pathways are common in the nervous system created so that the person gets quick feedback for addictive behaviors. Redundancy, or over determination, occurs throughout vital biological systems. Humans can function well with only one kidney, one eye, or without a majority of their liver cells. The brain is no exception.
The simplest form of redundancy is involvement of more neurons in a
particular function than is absolutely necessary (I.E. Addiction).
As a result, destruction of some of the cells, or moderate damage to
all of them as might happen with small wounds produced by bullets, or small
strokes may not produce any observable symptoms.
For example, even though there is a steady degeneration
(without replacement) of the cells that respond to odors,
most people in their seventies, although many of their original receptor cells are
gone, are still able to detect and identify odors fairly well, and some remain professional
wine tasters or perfumers. All systems do not show this type of redundancy,
however, as small lesions sometimes do produce clear symptoms
depending on the amount of redundancy and the precise location of
Another type of redundancy is produced by the presence of alternative
pathways that can accomplish the same end (addiction). Thus, although
movement of the right side of the body is primarily handled by neurons
originating in the left brain, there is a smaller pathway leading from the
right brain that allows people with split brains, or people with left hemisphere
damage, to exert some control over most of the right side of their body
(but not fine finger movements).
Also, some functions (such as the control of eating or other
basic bodily responses) are represented in equivalent form on both sides of
the brain, so that damage to one side may not have a substantial effect.
The availability of alternative strategies also has the effect of reducing the
symptoms resulting from tissue damage.
For example, a person who has damage to the right hemisphere which
affects his ability to recognize faces, might be able to recognize faces by
relying more on explicit, verbally described features of the face
(such as wears glasses, has thin lips), rather than the more holistic
representation that one normally gets from the right hemisphere.
Alternative strategies can also be facilitated by cultural inventions.
For a person who is unable to walk, crutches make the arms into organs of
Finally, because of redundancy, it is common to see normal function in
partially damaged systems when conditions are optimal. But as the environmental
challenges become greater (e.g., under stress), or as the person becomes fatigued,
performance falls apart. Fatigue often brings on latent
symptoms of diseases as varied as multiple sclerosis and senile dementia.
Similarly, demented people often function better intellectually in the morning
than later in the day.
For the Addiction Treatment I recommend click this link: | <urn:uuid:60d89f75-c8a3-42e7-99c3-646a0dc42491> | {
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The Power of Babel is a book about the natural history of language that I read recently while getting over my Christmas cold. (As you have probably noticed from the lack of website updates, I’m still recovering and not doing much besides sleeping and reading.) The book is rather inexpensive at Amazon though it is not available for Kindle, which unfortunately seems to be the case for many language and linguistics books.
Since I found the book to be rather entertaining and insightful, here are some interesting factoids from a few chapters.
- The future tense in Romance languages derives from combining the main verb plus the conjugated forms of have in Latin. I will love was amare habeo in Latin and it transformed into amerò in Italian. So having to learn various endings for all six person and tense combinations in Italian, French, Spanish, etc? Thanks Latin! Inflections are transformed this way in many languages, but thankfully English had a simpler process with fewer endings overall (did became -ed for all six, for example.)
- Much like inflections, tones developed over time from sound changes to distinguish meaning between words. In Vietnamese, for example, tones did not originally exist but then final consonants wore off of many words, changing the sound of the preceding vowel. Now it is these tones that distinguish the differences in meanings instead of the final consonant. Inflections and tones were not present in the earliest forms of language and they are not necessary to human communication. They are merely accidental changes of words and sounds that produced a more complicated form of the language.
- The Normans who invaded England in 1066 did not speak a standardized or Parisian French that many people think of, but rather the Norman dialect. The “French” words borrowed at that time were actually the Norman pronunciations, where Norman had k and ei but Parisian had sh and oi (compare carbon/aveir and charbon/avoir). This is also why Montréal is not Montroyal – it was settled by people from Northwestern France rather than Paris.
- Most people know that double negatives used to be grammatically correct in English, but there are other features of contemporary non-standard dialects that are in fact closer to early modern English than today’s English. Even though thou went out of fashion by 1700, the singular you did not and its corresponding verb conjugation for be in the past tense was, in fact, was. Letters written by educated people in the 1800’s indicate that “you was” was the standard and it was only because prescriptive grammarians decided that it didn’t sound correct that they stamped it out of modern English by rewriting grammar books.
- One of the few examples of Scots that still exists, or at least is recognizable, in modern-day English is auld lang syne, literally old long since or “days of yore.”
- The human proto-language (if you believe that there was one) was very similar to today’s creoles in that the grammar was much simpler – no inflections or tones, or even relative clauses, because these complex features developed due to sound changes and the fact that most language became written instead of only spoken.
- And of course, my favorite part: the acknowledgement that French is actually two languages: written and spoken. McWhorter mentions a few of the parallels (nous vs. on, ne…pas vs. pas, est vs. c’est) and how textbooks do not do a very good job of informing the learner that the gap between these two is wider than for most other languages. Written French was codified centuries ago and rarely changes, but the spoken form is highly dynamic, even for non-colloquial speech by the educated. It should be no wonder that c’est was the basis for is instead of est in French-based creoles – se in Haitian creole – because that is what the people always heard in everyday speech. | <urn:uuid:69d7ae18-dd66-4106-a965-31533dc69c80> | {
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Kings of Westeros
Hold up, buddy.
The Kings of Westeros
The first king of Westeros was Aegon the Conqueror who, riding with his sisters Visenya and Rhaenys on their three dragons from their seat, Dragonstone, won the War of Conquest. This memorable war marks the beginning of the timeline (AL for Aegon's Landing) and the Targaryen Dynasty that ruled Westeros for more than 250 years.
Aegon established the Targaryen tradition of marrying siblings and other close relatives by marrying both of his sisters and having a child by each. It is interesting to note that Valyria, like Egypt, has pyramids and sand, and also that Egypt's ruling dynasties were founded by Greeks descended from Alexander's retinue.
After Aegon came Aenys, Then Maegor, Jaehaerys, Viserys, Aegon II,
Although Rhaenyra Targaryen was declared heir presumptive by her father, Viserys I, her half brother Aegon II seized the throne upon his death. Nevertheless, she claimed the title Queen of Westeros. The "Dance of the Dragons" followed, wherein Rhaenyra was eaten by Aegon's dragon. Her brother held the throne for less than two years and was succeeded by her son (and his nephew).
Then came Aegon III, Daeron, Baelor, Viserys II, Aegon IV, Daeron II, Maekar, and finally Aegon V.
Following the Death of Aegon IV, his oldest son by Naerys, Daeron II, claimed the throne by right of primogeniture. Daeron II's half brother, Daemon Blackfyre, disputed this claim, based on his symbolic inheritance of the ancestral sword of House Taragryen, Blackfyre. Civil war broke out between them, resulting in the Blackfyre Rebellions and the War of the Ninepenny King. Martin's historical inspiration was the Wars of the Roses.
After that, there was Jaehaerys II, and the psychotic Aerys II... The Mad King.
After the tyrannical rule of Aerys II led to the deaths of Rickard Stark and Brandon Stark, as well as the abuduction of Lyanna Stark by the king's son, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. The new Lord of Winterfell, Eddard Stark, Lyanna's fiance, Robert Baratheon of Storm's End, and their guardian, Jon Arryn of The Eyrie raised their banners in revolt during a period known as Robert's Rebellion/War of the Usurper. After the deaths of Aerys and Rhaegar, Robert took the throne through his descent from Aegon V.
Current technical Targaryen heirs to the Iron Throne are Aegon VI, Viserys III, and Daenerys.
Following Robert I's death, the throne was taken by his eldest son, Joffrey I. But soon it was discovered that Joffrey and his siblings were not Robert's, but Cersei Lannister's twin brother, Ser Jaime Lannister. But they ruled as House Baratheon-Lannister or as House Baratheon at King's Landing during the War of the Five Kings.
Top Wiki Contributors
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President Obama: Steward of the Environment or Steward of the Oil and Gas Industry?
We live in an era of heightened environmental consciousness and concern, and our world leaders are just starting to catch on. President Obama said it loud and clear during his 2014 State of the Union Address: “Climate change is a fact…When our children’s children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say yes, we did.” But are words enough?
On this President’s day, we should recognize those who have done well for our country and those who have done well for our planet. But we should also consider how our current president’s environmental legacy would be written. It is certain that President Obama’s legacy will be defined not only by what he did for the people, but by what he did for the environment – the air, water and land that we all depend upon. Yet, a president’s legacy is characterized by momentous feats and also failures. The question is: which side of the spectrum will he be on?
Will President Obama be remembered as an environmental steward or supporter of fossil fuels? Will he stick true to his word and take “bold action now” to combat climate change and drive us toward a sustainable future? Or, will his administration’s commitment to oil and natural gas, relationship with the industry representatives and reluctance to meet with the very people who have been affected by oil and gas development leave a legacy defined by contaminated water, polluted air, unsafe communities and a climate catastrophe? While he would like us to believe in a climate change feat, his dedication to oil and gas development makes us fear impending failure.
Some of our greatest presidential leaders not only spoke of environmental stewardship, they implemented policies and instilled in our society values that our present and future leaders should strive to improve upon.
Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909), considered the father of conservation, spearheaded the conservationist movement and popularized ideas of good resource management and respect for nature. Roosevelt created the U.S. Forest Service and established five national parks.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1935) responded to the Dust Bowl, a major environmental catastrophe of the era, by creating programs to prevent further environmental degradation such as soil erosion. As part of the New Deal he established the Civil Conservation Corps (CCC) where Americans planted millions of trees, improved parks and trails and built wind breaks on farms to protect the long-term productivity of soil.
Richard Nixon (1969-1974), despite certain criticisms, bowed to public pressure and established the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, signing into law landmark environmental safeguards such as the Clean Air Act, the Ocean Dumping Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and more.
Despite the works of these leaders, President Obama has certainly been handed a mess to clean up. The Bush Administration (champion of the oil and gas industry) amended the Energy Policy Act in 2005 to grant hydraulic fracturing exceptions from the rules of the Safe Drinking Water Act, a move that stimulated America’s recent fracking boom. But, by no means has President Obama taken the action needed to halt this kind of irresponsible fossil fuel development. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 35,000 wells are fracked each year. Water is being contaminated, pipelines and processing facilities are exploding, and potent methane is leaking into the atmosphere.
Fracking for oil and natural gas is not the road to a clean, sustainable future – it paves the way for greater reliance on a form of energy that is dangerous, not renewable, exacerbates climate change and will not make the United States energy independent. If President Obama wishes to be remembered as a clean energy champion, he should not be leasing pristine federal land, heritage sites and reclamation areas to oil and gas companies. He should not watch the oil and gas industry use or contaminate precious water supplies (especially in regions with severe drought). If President Obama wants to be remembered as a leader who truly combatted climate change, he will take real action to ban fracking now and instead invest in renewables.
You can help make a change. Take action by urging the Obama administration to meet with the victims of fracking-related water contamination and re-open the water contamination investigations that the Environmental Protection Agency abandoned. | <urn:uuid:96b0235e-60de-40d8-87c5-5036a013750a> | {
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Knee problems are not an uncommon issue, especially for adults and in particular the elderly. Apart from knee injuries that can occur at any age, the wear and tear of daily life leads to chronic knee problems in the senior years. The knee is a hard working joint that has to content with stresses and strains on a daily basis. Despite its strength and stability, there is a limit to the knee’s ability to withstand injuries and various diseases that can affect this joint.
What is a bad knee?
A bad knee is a broad term that is often used to describe any type of chronic knee problem that results in pain, instability, limited range of motion or other symptoms with or without physical activity. The knee is a joint that is constantly under strain but has developed to contend with a wide range of forces. However, with severe injury and prolonged stresses and strains, the knee joint can be compromised.
The type of “bad knee” condition can vary drastically. Some conditions may be due to inflammation or degeneration of the structures of the knee joint. In other conditions, there may be inflammation or damage like tears of surrounding structures such as muscle tendons or ligaments. Collectively these conditions can compromise knee structure, stability and function to varying degrees.
Bad Knee Symptoms
The signs and symptoms of a “bad knee” may differ depending on the underlying condition and even the mechanism of injury or disease. However, there is a large degree of overlap of these “bad knee” symptoms. Some of these signs and symptoms may include:
- Knee pain (arthralgia)
- Swelling of the knee
- Heat and redness of the knee
- Limited range of motion at the knee joint
- Clicking, grating or popping sounds with knee movement
In some severe acute and chronic knee problems there may also be deformity of the knee joint with abnormal lesions such as lumps.
Causes of Bad Knee
Although the term “bad knee” refers to chronic knee problems, some acute knee conditions have been discussed. These acute conditions can recur or cause the knee to be more prone to other knee conditions. It is important to note that most of these knee conditions can present with similar signs and symptoms. Therefore a professional diagnosis is necessary by a medical doctor to confirm the exact cause. This may require diagnostic investigations.
Read more on low impact knee exercises.
Arthritis is inflammation of a joint and this may involve any joint, not only the knee. However, the knee is commonly affected in most types of arthritis. It is important to understand the different types of arthritis.
- Osteoarthritis is a condition where the joint cartilage degenerates due to wear and tear during the course of life. It can start earlier in life but symptoms become most prominent after the age of 60 years.
- Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition where the immune system malfunctions and targets the joint lining. The immune activity causes the joint lining to become inflamed.
- Post traumatic arthritis is a problem that arises after a physical injury to the knee which causes it the knee structures to wear out. It is considered as a form of osteoarthritis.
- Septic arthritis is a type of arthritis that arises with an infection. Most of these infections are bacterial in nature and occurs when bacteria are able to gain entry into the joint.
- Gouty arthritis is where uric acid crystals form in the joint spaces usually due to a problem with maintain the uric acid balance in the bloodstream.
- Pseudogout is similar to gout but occurs due to calcium pyrophosphate crystals in the joints. It tends to occur with advancing age, mineral imbalances, genetic factors and previous joint injury.
Read more on knee arthritis.
Fractures are a common type of injury where there is a break in a bone as a result of force. The patellar is particularly prone to fractures with knee injuries as compared to the thigh bone or shin bone. This is more likely to arise with falls or during motor vehicle collisions.
A loose body is where a portion of cartilage or even bone breaks off and remains in the joint space. It may not cause any problems unless the loose body affects joint movement. This type of bad knee problem is more likely to occur with injury or degeneration of the joint cartilage.
This is where the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is injured as a result of sudden change in direction or twisting of the knee. The ligament is responsible for providing stability to the knee joint. ACL injuries are more common when playing sports that requires running, such as with soccer, football or basketball.
A torn meniscus occurs when the wedge-shaped cartilage in the knee tears with sudden twisting at the knee. This cartilage works both as a shock absorber and joint stabilizer. Most of the time this type of tear occurs when playing sports. The elderly may experience a tear with any twisting of the knee, even if it is not during a high impact activity.
Read more on torn meniscus.
Bursae are small fluid-filled pockets that help reduce friction for ligaments and tendons during movement. There are several bursae located throughout the body. Inflammation of these bursae is known as bursitis. It is more likely to occur with repetitive movements but even sudden force can cause inflammation.
Patellar tendinitis is inflammation of the patellar tendon. This tendon is a continuation of the tendon that attaches a few thigh muscles to the patella. The patellar tendon continues to attach to the shinbone. Patellar tendinitis is also known as jumper’s knee. It tends to occur with repetitive actions and jumping is one possible cause.
Read more on jumper’s knee.
Like any bone, the patella (kneecap) can become dislocated. This is where the patella shifts out of its normal position. This may be a partial or complete displacement and is more likely to occur with a fall or hard blow to the knee. The dislocated kneecap can slip back into place on its own. | <urn:uuid:f05fcdca-49d8-4e78-8232-248ee420515a> | {
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PLAN® is designed to provide tenth-graders with measures of their attainment of knowledge and complex critical thinking skills acquired in the early years of high school. Assessment results assist students/parents/educators in decision-making about educational career plans, interest, and high school course work plans. The test covers four content areas: English, mathematics, reading, and science reasoning. The composite score is the average of the scale scores from the four areas. Sample questions may be found on the ACT PLAN website.
The parent/guardian will receive a student report that indicates levels of performance in each of the content areas. Student performance is a comparison to the performance of the national sample population of students. In addition, information about the student’s educational career plans, interests, high school course work plans and self-identified needs for assistance is gathered and reported.
West Virginia PLAN trend data is provided by county and subgroup beginning with 2000 and by school beginning with 2009. English, mathematics, reading, science and composite mean scale scores are provided.
PLAN® results provide tenth grade students with an indication of their educational progress within the context of their post-high educational and career plans. The results from PLAN® can be used by tenth graders to make selections in their coursework to help ensure that they are prepared for what they want to do after high school. West Virginia Board of Education Policy 2510: Assuring the Quality of Education – Regulations for Education Programs requires students to choose career majors and to create the second part of their individual student transition plans establishing a career major by the end of the tenth grade. Results from PLAN can be used by tenth graders to develop their individual transition plans for grades eleven through post-secondary.
ACT researchers found that PLAN test scores are good predictors of success on related AP courses. Schools and counties receive rosters identifying the students who have potential to be selected in AP courses based upon their PLAN results. | <urn:uuid:ae921964-c99b-47a2-98a8-9150f84c5e00> | {
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Introduction to Maternity & Pediatric Nursing - Elsevier eBook on Intel Education Study (Retail Access Card), 6th Edition
Part of the popular LPN Threads series, Introduction to Maternity & Pediatric Nursing provides a solid foundation in obstetrics and pediatric nursing. An easy-to-follow organization by developmental stages, discussion of disorders by body system from simple-to-complex and health-to-illness, and a focus on family health make it a complete guide to caring for maternity and pediatric patients. Written in a clear, concise style by Gloria Leifer, MA, RN, this edition reflects the current NCLEX® test plan with additional material on safety, health promotion, nutrition, and related psychosocial care.
- Cultural Considerations boxes and a Cultural Assessment Data Collection Tool help in developing individualized plans of care.
- Updated health promotion content includes Health Promotion boxes focusing on preventive strategies for achieving prenatal wellness, health during pregnancy, postnatal health, and pediatric illness prevention and wellness -- including the complete immunization schedules for all ages.
- Nursing Tips provide information applying to the clinical setting.
- Objectives are listed in each chapter opener.
- Key terms include phonetic pronunciations and text page references at the beginning of each chapter.
- Nursing Care Plans with critical thinking questions help you understand how a care plan is developed, how to evaluate care of a patient, and how to apply critical thinking skills.
- A companion Evolve website includes animations, videos, answers to review questions and answer guidelines for critical thinking questions, an English/Spanish audio glossary, critical thinking case studies, and additional review questions for the NCLEX examination.
- Get Ready for the NCLEX®Examination! sections at the end of each chapter help you prepare for classroom tests and the NCLEX examination.
- Increased focus on safety helps you prepare for safe nursing practice, with:
- Safety Alert! boxes based on The Joint Commission's 2009/2010 National Patient Safety Goals
- Medication Safety Alert! boxes highlighting serious and potentially fatal medication errors in infants and children
- New information on determining pediatric dosages and a discussion of the Pedislide system
- New skills include step-by-step instructions for:
- Bathing the Newborn
- Assessing the Length and Height of Infants and Children
- Calculating BMI
- Removal of a Peripheral Intravenous Catheter
- Using the Peak Flowmeter
- Using a Metered-Dose Inhaler
- Updated, vibrant full-color design highlights key information and enhances your understanding of important concepts.
- Updated nutrition content compares commercially available infant formulas and discusses organic, natural, and dietetic foods.
- Nutrition Considerations boxes cover prenatal care, nutritional issues during infancy, and the crisis in childhood obesity.
- Memory Jogger boxes help you remember important material with mnemonics, tips, and tricks.
- An updated glossary is available in the textbook, as well as on the companion Evolve website.
UNIT ONE: An Overview of Maternity and Pediatric Nursing 1. The Past, Present, and Future UNIT TWO: Maternal-Newborn Nursing and Women's Health 2. Human Reproductive Anatomy and Physiology 3. Prenatal Development 4. Prenatal Care and Adaptations to Pregnancy 5. Nursing Care of Women with Complications During Pregnancy 6. Nursing Care of Mother and Infant During Labor and Birth 7. Nursing Management of Pain During Labor and Birth 8. Nursing Care of Women with Complications During Labor and Birth 9. The Family After Birth 10. Nursing Care of Women with Complications Following Birth 11. The Nurse's Role in Women's Health Care 12. The Term Newborn 13. Preterm and Postterm Newborns 14. The Newborn with a Congenital Malformation UNIT THREE: The Growing Child and Family 15. An Overview of Growth, Development, and Nutrition 16. The Infant 17. The Toddler 18. The Preschool Child 19. The School-Age Child 20. The Adolescent UNIT FOUR: Adapting Care to the Pediatric Patient 21. The Child's Experience of Hospitalization 22. Health Care Adaptations for the Child and Family UNIT FIVE: The Child Needing Nursing Care 23. The Child with a Sensory or Neurological Condition 24. The Child with a Musculoskeletal Condition 25. The Child with a Respiratory Disorder NEW! 26. The Childe with a Cardiovascular Disorder NEW! 27. The Child with a Condition of the Blood, Blood-Forming Organs or Lymphatic System 28. The Child with a Gastrointestinal Condition 29. The Child with a Genitourinary Condition 30. The Child with a Skin Disorder 31. The Child with a Metabolic Condition 32. The Child with a Communicable Disease 33. The Child with an Emotional or Behavioral Condition UNIT SIX: The Changing Health Care Environment 34. Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Maternity and Pediatric Nursing Appendixes: A. Standard Precautions and Transmission-Based Isolation Precautions B. Sequence for Donning and Removing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) C. The Joint Commission's Lists of Dangerous Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Symbols D. Commonly Used Abbreviations in Maternity and Pediatric Nursing E. Common Spanish Phrases for Maternity and Pediatric Nursing F. Multilingual Glossary of Symptoms G. NANDA International Nursing Diagnoses 2009-2011 H. Conversion of Pounds and Ounces to Grams for Newborn Weights I. Normal Vital Signs and Temperature Equivalents of Infants and Children J. Normal Blood Values During Infancy and Childhood K. Blood Pressure Classifications in Children L. Answers to Review Questions for the NCLEX® Examination
Gloria Leifer, MA, RN, CNE, Professor, Obstetric and Pediatric Nursing, Riverside City College, Riverside, CA | <urn:uuid:8dc9ef00-f70e-43c6-a363-ef5d12ff67cb> | {
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There’s little question that green building is on the rise. Now, as all indicators point to a promising 2013 for commercial and residential construction alike, here are a few green trends likely to hit your radar sometime this year.
1. Greening Existing Workspaces
The U.S. Green Building Council spent most of 2012 working with individual states to expand their portfolio of sustainable projects. For 2013, the USGBC continues this push with a new framework for companies and cities that applies to both new projects and renovations.
2. It’s All in the Cloud
2012 introduced cloud computing to the general public. Apple and Google led the way, creating remotely stored systems and data for customers to access via the Internet, instead of a local hard drive. This year, builders and facility managers will see countless new cloud-based solutions for big data crunching such as building energy management. The trend is prevalent enough that Sustainable Industries has already termed 2013 “The Year of the Cloud.”
3. More Energy Efficient
Increased emphasis on building green and reducing operating costs is prompting higher expectations for energy efficiency. ENERGY STAR and LEED are becoming common place. The new goal will be zero-net energy buildings, or buildings that produce as much energy as they consume.
4. The Global Green Building Movement
According to the USGBC, there are now 90 nations with organizations dedicated to green building and 40 percent of all LEED-recognized projects are located overseas, with many of them using American innovations to facilitate their move toward a more sustainable future. Modular building is a critical component of this movement, as prefabricated construction can eliminate up to 90 percent of the waste seen in traditional construction. | <urn:uuid:cf1959fa-b537-441c-becd-af96c256038f> | {
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SYDNEY – A huge cane toad the size of a small dog has been captured in the Australian tropical city of Darwin, startling environmentalists who are fighting to stop the poisonous amphibians spread across the country.
“It’s a monster toad,” said Paul Cowdy from FrogWatch which captured the cane toad on Monday night.
“We’ve never seen a cane toad this big,” he said on Tuesday. “It’s a male and normally females are bigger.”
The cane toad, regarded as a major pest in Australia, was one of 39 caught by a group from FrogWatch near Lee Point in Darwin. It measures 20.5 cm (8 inches) in length and weighs 840 grams (1.8 pounds) — twice the normal weight.
Cane toads are one of Australia’s worst environmental mistakes. The spread of the toads, whose skin is poisonous, has led to dramatic declines in populations of native snakes, goanna lizards and quolls, which are cat-sized marsupials.
“We capture them, put them in plastic bags, freeze them and turn them into liquid fertilizer,” Cowdy said of the cane toads.
Cane toads were introduced from Hawaii in 1935 in a failed bid to control native cane beetles. There are now more than 200 million. | <urn:uuid:bbb6324d-a4b4-4d46-9584-447f99a86cc1> | {
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Inflammation is not supposed to be a health hazard. In fact, your immune system uses inflammation to protect you from foreign substances, like infection, viruses or bacteria. When these outside influences threaten your health, the immune system kicks in by dispatching white blood cells to surround and protect the affected area, returning everything to as it should be. This helpful response is known as acute inflammation.
However, sometimes your immune system triggers this response inappropriately. Either the inflammation lasts too long, or there is no foreign substance to fight off and it targets healthy tissue. The immune system sees this normal tissue as a threat and attacks, causing damage and other negative side effects.
This type of chronic inflammation is often caused by an autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis or Crohn’s disease. Inflammation is a major symptom connected to other serious disorders, from heart disease to obesity.
Many environmental factors can play a role in the development of chronic inflammation. Struggling with this condition produces many different symptoms, such as:
One of the most recognized medicinal benefits of marijuana, and especially the cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD), is its ability to act as an anti-inflammatory. This is an exciting option for patients stuck in a cycle of medications that are either ineffective or cause severe and unpleasant side effects.
The endocannabinoid system plays a key role in keeping us healthy and our body well balanced. It is essential in the function of many physiological systems and helps the body maintain homeostasis. The endocannabinoid system affects numerous bodily processes, including pain sensations, appetite, mood and even the immune system.
One of the jobs of the endocannabinoid system is to suppress or limit the body’s inflammatory response. When immune cells are activated, our body produces endocannabinoids to bring balance. In the case of chronic inflammation and autoimmune diseases, there are not enough naturally occurring endocannabinoids to limit the excessive inflammatory response — that’s where CBD treatments come into play.
Many researchers and medical experts are excited by CBD’s ability to act as an anti-inflammatory. CBD is one of marijuana’s more than 85 cannabinoids, which are naturally occurring molecules that mimic the endocannabinoids our bodies naturally produce.
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), another cannabinoid, also receives attention because it produces marijuana’s high and is one of the most commonly found compounds. Since CBD has no psychoactive properties but still maintains many healthful benefits, it could be the perfect medication for patients with chronic inflammation.
Introducing CBD treatments can help the endocannabinoid system regain balance in the fight against chronic inflammation. CBD works with the body to naturally stop the inflammatory response in several different ways, such as by:
Aside from treating the inflammation itself, CBD medications can also help other associated symptoms, like pain, and the effects chronic inflammation can have on a patient’s mental well-being. Despite being non-psychoactive, the federal government still bans CBD because it’s derived from the cannabis plant. That’s why those who wish to receive CBD medications need to join their state’s medical marijuana program.
Most physicians suggest patients treat their chronic inflammation with certain lifestyle changes and some type of medication. Recommended changes include a proper diet and regular exercise, which are positive habits to develop but sometimes don’t work to help treat inflammation. Some medications, like Corticosteroids or NSAIDs, can be effective, but they have the potential to cause adverse reactions.
In comparison to these, CBD medications are very safe, with relatively few negative side effects. Plus, many different forms of CBD products are available on the market today, including:
The fastest form of relief is vaporizing the CBD oil or strain. This produces infused steam that can be inhaled, and the medication brought directly into the bloodstream. However, this is not a good option for patients who struggle with respiratory issues like asthma or lung disease.
Taking CBD orally with a tincture is another excellent option because it’s fast, effective and delivers the medication directly to endocannabinoid receptors. Doctors like this method, along with capsules, because they allow patients to watch their dosage and follow a prescribed recommended allowance of CBD. This keeps individuals safe under the watchful eye of their healthcare provider.
CBD topicals are another excellent option, especially for those experiencing inflammation in their joints. It allows the medication to be applied directly to the affected area without having to travel through the bloodstream first. Topicals can be used wherever and whenever at the patient’s discretion. However, you may want to speak to your physician to get their recommendation on this form of treatment.
Don’t live one more day with chronic inflammation. Make an appointment with a marijuana doctor in your state to speak to them about how CBD treatments can help you. | <urn:uuid:a326e4a2-5b3b-4446-936d-855ea57ff7cc> | {
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After writing about small impacts being more common than we previously thought, I have some good news: The chance of an impact from the newly-discovered asteroid 2013 TV135 have dropped to essentially zero.
Yay! But this is hardly surprising.
This rock was discovered in October 2013 by astronomers at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, and was quickly determined to have an orbit that might bring it uncomfortably close to Earth in 2032. However, that was based on a small number of observations, making it difficult to make a prediction of its precise location so far in the future. As we got more observations, I noted, the chance of an impact was likely to drop to zero — after actually increasing temporarily.
And that’s exactly what’s happened. The initial 1 in 63,000 chance of impact, calculated using those first few observations, went up as high as 1 in 10,000 after a few more. But now, with well over 600 observations spanning three weeks of time, the chance of an impact has dropped to about 1 in 28 million. In other words, there is a 99.999996% chance it will safely glide on past the Earth in 2032. Once the chance drops like this, it usually stays pretty low. Of course, astronomers will continue to observe this asteroid, because honestly that’s what astronomers do. It's still an interesting object, worth studying.
[UPDATE (Nov. 7, 2013 at 16:00 UTC): I just learned from JPL engineer Ron Baalke that since I wrote this post last night, the chance of an impact has dropped even more, to 1 in — get this — 169 million. Ha! That's a 99.9999994% chance of a miss. I'd bet quite a bit of money on a safe pass.]
I’ll add that this good news comes on the heels of some slightly more iffy news: Three new near-Earth asteroids have been discovered, one of which can actually get pretty close to Earth, close enough to categorize it as “potentially hazardous”.
Now, don’t flip out about that. That’s a pretty wide bucket to put asteroids in; for example, this new one, called 2013 UP8, only gets to about 5.5 million kilometers (3.4 million miles) form Earth. That’s almost 15 times farther away than the Moon, so in real-world terms, this rock isn’t too big a worry. Which is nice, because it’s about two kilometers across, so we really don’t want it hitting us!
It’s avoided detection for so long because it hasn’t passed near Earth for a while; its orbit takes it out past Mars, and it hasn’t been well-positioned for viewing when it’s been closer. Its orbit is also highly inclined to the Earth’s, tipped by 48°! So even when it looks like it’s near us in a diagram like the one above, that’s only because the third dimension has been flattened; it’s a perspective effect.
The other two asteroids never get near the Earth, which really is good news, since they’re both roughly 20 km (12 miles) across! That’s pretty dang big; so big I was initially surprised they escaped detection this long. One, 2013 UQ4, is on a highly elliptical orbit and also goes around the Sun in the opposite direction of the planets. That is a sure sign it’s a burned-out comet. Its orbital period is over 500 years long, which may explain why we haven’t seen it before! It hasn’t been around this neck of the woods for a few centuries.
The other one, 2013 US10, is a bit of a surprise, because it is big enough to be seen in surveys. It has an orbit that takes it out past Jupiter, but is again inclined to the Earth’s orbit. It never gets closer than about 80 million km to us, which may be why it hasn’t been spotted before now. Like UQ4, there’s no chance of it ever hitting us.
[UPDATE 2 (Nov. 7, 2013 at 16:10 UTC): Well, this is interesting: 2013 US10 was initially classified as an asteroid, but now that's been changed to a comet! The new name for this object is C/2013 US10 (Catalina). It turns out that two new observations were added, and an earlier one was removed (it was mixed up with another object, apparently). When all the new data were crunched, it turns out the comet is on a very long, hyperbolic orbit, meaning this may be its first pass into the inner solar system. It's also showing a bit of cometary activity, meaning ice on the comet is turning into a gas and leaving the surface. This makes the comet brighter than an asteroid, so it may in fact be smaller than first thought (the size of an asteroid is based on how bright it is).]
So really, none of these three new asteroids is a threat. However they underscore the need for more survey observatories to go sniffing around the sky. I don’t like that objects that big can still hide from us.
These new rocks are a reminder that there are still quite a few out there, and we need to be ever-vigilant looking for them. It’s always good to know more about the Universe — science is pretty cool that way — but in this case it just might save the world.
Tip o’ the Whipple Shield to Asteroid Watch on Twitter.
TODAY IN SLATE
The Irritating Confidante
John Dickerson on Ben Bradlee’s fascinating relationship with John F. Kennedy.
My Father Invented Social Networking at a Girls’ Reform School in the 1930s
Renée Zellweger’s New Face Is Too Real
Sleater-Kinney Was Once America’s Best Rock Band
Can it be again?
The All The President’s Men Scene That Captured Ben Bradlee
The Simpsons World App Is Finally Here
I feel like a kid in some kind of store.
Driving in Circles
The autonomous Google car may never actually happen. | <urn:uuid:dd6fdacb-4ff9-42e5-af72-b20cca639d4c> | {
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Submitted to: Transactions of the ASAE
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: June 3, 1997
Publication Date: N/A
Interpretive Summary: The Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model is used to predict erosion on hillslopes and small watersheds. It is used to help land users understand and evaluate the impacts of land management practices on soil loss and sediment yields from their land. It is also used by scientists and others to inventory the amount of erosion which is occurring across agricultural regions, which provides information for developing national and regional soil conservation policy. In order to use the model, one must divide a land area into units of hillslopes and channels. That is called ¿watershed discretization¿. This study was made to evaluate how the discretization should be done. In this study we also analyzed the model¿s calculations of erosion to determine which pieces of information about the land area are most important to measure. These results help users decide how to spend limited time and money in collecting information for the land area to obtain the best possible soil erosion information.
Technical Abstract: The Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model is a continuous simulation tool for predicting erosion and deposition due to rainfall, snowmelt and irrigation. It can be used on a hillslope or on a watershed defined by several hillslopes and impoundments connected by channels. To verify that the watershed model behaves rationally and consistently over a wide range of input we analyzed the sensitivity of the model to watershed discretization and channel input parameters. Effects of watershed discretization were evaluated for selected events within a one- year continuous simulation by comparing results for two watersheds under various discretization schemes. Impacts of channel input parameters were assessed by comparing the value of a linear sensitivity coefficient for all user-specified parameters (slope, Manning coefficient...) and for the same selected events as well as for annual averages. We found the hillslope length to be a key parameter in the prediction of watershed sediment yields. Estimates of total sediment yield at the watershed outlet were highly sensitive to the total Manning coefficient and the Manning coefficient for bare soil as well as the channel slope. They were less sensitive to the channel bank slope. Erodibility and critical shear stress were found to be important for events causing channel erosion. The results were sensitive to the hydraulic conductivity for events with small runoff and small sediment contributions from hillslopes. Results provide guidance to the model users for the discretization of the watershed and for the estimation of channel parameters. | <urn:uuid:4de1077f-5613-4bae-a7de-23a7809843e0> | {
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|Premier of the People's Republic of China|
1 October 1949 – 8 January 1976
|President||Mao Zedong (until 1959)
Liu Shaoqi (until 1968)
vacant and abolished
|Leader||Mao Zedong (Chairman of the Communist Party of China)|
|1st vice-premier||Dong Biwu
|Succeeded by||Hua Guofeng|
|Vice Chairman of the Communist Party of China|
28 September 1956 – 1 August 1966
30 August 1973 – 8 January 1976
|2nd Chairman of the National Committee Of the CPPCC|
December 1954 – 8 January 1976
|Honorary Chairman||Mao Zedong|
|Preceded by||Mao Zedong|
|Succeeded by||vacant (1976–1978)
|1st Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China|
|Succeeded by||Chen Yi|
5 March 1898|
Huai'an, Jiangsu, Qing China
|Died||8 January 1976
Beijing, People's Republic of China
|Political party||Communist Party of China|
|Spouse(s)||Deng Yingchao (m. 1925–76)|
|Children||Sun Weishi, Wang Shu (both adopted)|
|Alma mater||Nankai University|
"Zhou Enlai" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese characters
Zhou Enlai (Chinese: 周恩来; Wade–Giles: Chou En-lai; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman Mao Zedong and was instrumental in the Communist Party's rise to power, and later in consolidating its control, forming foreign policy, and developing the Chinese economy.
A skilled and able diplomat, Zhou served as the Chinese foreign minister from 1949 to 1958. Advocating peaceful coexistence with the West after the stalemated Korean War, he participated in the 1954 Geneva Conference and the 1955 Bandung Conference, and helped orchestrate Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China. He helped devise policies regarding the bitter disputes with the U.S., Taiwan, the Soviet Union (after 1960), India and Vietnam.
Zhou survived the purges of other top officials during the Cultural Revolution. While Mao dedicated most of his later years to political struggle and ideological work, Zhou was the main driving force behind the affairs of state during much of the Cultural Revolution. His attempts at mitigating the Red Guards' damage and his efforts to protect others from their wrath made him immensely popular in the Cultural Revolution's later stages.
As Mao Zedong's health began to decline in 1971 and 1972, Zhou struggled against the Gang of Four internally over leadership of China. Zhou's health was also failing, however, and he died eight months before Mao on 8 January 1976. The massive public outpouring of grief in Beijing turned to anger towards the Gang of Four, leading to the Tiananmen Incident. Although succeeded by Hua Guofeng, it was Deng Xiaoping, Zhou's ally, who was able to outmaneuver the Gang of Four politically and eventually take Mao's place as paramount leader by 1978.
- 1 Early life
- 2 Political and military work in Whampoa
- 3 Nationalist-Communist split
- 4 Activities during the Chinese Civil War
- 5 Activities during World War II
- 6 Diplomatic efforts with the United States
- 7 Resumption of Civil War
- 8 PRC diplomat and statesman
- 9 The Great Leap Forward
- 10 The Cultural Revolution
- 11 Death and reactions
- 12 Legacy
- 13 See also
- 14 Footnotes
- 15 References
- 16 External links
Zhou Enlai was born in Huai'an, Jiangsu province on 5 March 1898, the first son of his branch of the Zhou family. The Zhou family was originally from Shaoxing in Zhejiang province. During the late Qing dynasty, Shaoxing was famous as the home of families such as Zhou's, whose members worked as government "clerks" (師爷, shiye) generation after generation. To move up the ladder in civil service, the men in these families often had to be transferred, and in the late years of the Qing dynasty, Zhou Enlai's branch of the family moved to Huai'an. Even after the move, however, the family continued to view Shaoxing as its ancestral home.
Zhou's grandfather, Zhou Panlong, and his granduncle, Zhou Jun'ang, were the first members of the family to move to Huai'an. Panlong apparently passed the provincial examinations, and Zhou Enlai later claimed that Panlong served as magistrate governing Huai'an county. Zhou's father, Zhou Yineng, was the second of Zhou Panlong's four sons. Zhou's birth mother, surnamed Wan, was the daughter of a prominent Jiangsu official.
Like many others, the economic fortunes of Zhou's large family of scholar-officials were decimated by a great economic recession that China suffered in the late 19th century. Zhou Yineng had a reputation for honesty, gentleness, intelligence and concern for others, but was also considered "weak" and "lacking in discipline and determination". He was unsuccessful in his personal life, and drifted across China doing various occupations, working in Beijing, Shandong, Anhui, Shenyang, Inner Mongolia and Sichuan. Zhou Enlai later remembered his father as being always away from home and generally unable to support his family.
Soon after birth, Zhou Enlai was adopted by his father's youngest brother, Zhou Yigan, who was ill with tuberculosis. Apparently the adoption was arranged because the family feared Yigan would die without an heir. Zhou Yigan died soon after the adoption, and Zhou Enlai was raised by Yigan's widow, whose surname was Chen. Madame Chen was also from a scholarly family and received a traditional literary education. According to Zhou's own account, he was very close to his adoptive mother and acquired his lasting interest in Chinese literature and opera from her. Madame Chen taught Zhou to read and write at an early age, and Zhou later claimed to have read the famous vernacular novel Journey to the West at the age of six. By the age of eight, he was reading other traditional Chinese novels, including the Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Dream of the Red Chamber.
Zhou's birth mother Wan died in 1907 when Zhou was 9, and his adoptive mother Chen in 1908 when Zhou was 10. Zhou's father was working in Hubei, far from Jiangsu, so Zhou and his two younger brothers returned to Huai'an and lived with his father's remaining younger brother Yikui for the next two years. In 1910, Zhou's uncle Yigeng, his father's older brother, offered to care for Zhou. The family in Huai'an agreed, and Zhou was sent to stay with his uncle in Manchuria at Shenyang, where Zhou Yigeng worked in a government office.
In Shenyang, Zhou attended the Dongguan Model Academy, a modern-style school. His previous education consisted entirely of homeschooling. In addition to new subjects such as English and science, Zhou was also exposed to the writings of reformers and radicals such as Liang Qichao, Kang Youwei, Chen Tianhua, Zou Rong and Zhang Binglin. At the age of fourteen, Zhou declared that his motivation for pursuing education was to "become a great man who will take up the heavy responsibilities of the country in the future." In 1913, Zhou's uncle was transferred to Tianjin, where Zhou entered the famous Nankai Middle School.
Nankai Middle School was founded by Yan Xiu, a prominent scholar and philanthropist, and headed by Zhang Boling, one of the most important Chinese educators of the 20th century. Nankai's teaching methods were unusual by contemporary Chinese standards. By the time Zhou began attending, it had adopted the educational model used at the Phillips Academy in the United States. The school's reputation, with its "highly disciplined" daily routine and "strict moral code", attracted many students who later became prominent in public life. Zhou's friends and classmates there ranged from Ma Jun (an early communist leader executed in 1927) to K. C. Wu (later mayor of Shanghai and governor of Taiwan under the Nationalist party). Zhou's talents also attracted the attention of Yan Xiu and Zhang Boling. Yan in particular thought highly of Zhou, helping to pay for his studies in Japan and later France.
Yan was so impressed with Zhou that he encouraged Zhou to marry his daughter, but Zhou declined. Zhou later expressed the reasons for his decision not to marry Yan's daughter to his classmate, Zhang Honghao. Zhou said that he declined the marriage because he feared that his financial prospects would not be promising, and that Yan would, as his father-in-law, later dominate his life.
Zhou did well in his studies at Nankai; he excelled in Chinese, won several awards in the school speech club, and became editor of the school newspaper in his final year. Zhou was also very active in acting and producing dramas and plays at Nankai; many students who were not otherwise acquainted with him knew of him through his acting. Nankai preserves a number of essays and articles written by Zhou at this time, and these reflect the discipline, training, and concern for country that Nankai's founders attempted to instill in their students. At the school's tenth commencement in June 1917, Zhou was one of five graduating students honored at the ceremony, and one of the two valedictorians.
By the time that he graduated from Nankai, Zhang Boling's teachings of gong (public spirit) and neng (ability) had made a great impression on him. His participation in debates and stage performances contributed to his eloquence and skills of persuasion. Zhou left Nankai with a great desire to pursue public service, and to acquire the skills required to do so.
Following many of his classmates, Zhou went to Japan in July 1917 for further studies. During his two years in Japan, Zhou spent most of his time in the East Asian Higher Preparatory School, a language school for Chinese students. Zhou's studies were supported by his uncles, and apparently Nankai founder Yan Xiu as well, but their funds were limited and during this period Japan suffered from severe inflation. Zhou originally planned on winning one of the scholarships offered by the Chinese government; these scholarships, however, required Chinese students to pass entrance examinations in Japanese universities. Zhou took entrance examinations for at least two schools, but failed to gain admission. Zhou's reported anxieties were compounded by the death of his uncle, Zhou Yikui, his inability to master Japanese, and the acute Japanese cultural chauvinism that discriminated against Chinese. By the time that Zhou returned to China in the spring of 1919, he had become deeply disenchanted with Japanese culture, rejecting the idea that the Japanese political model was relevant to China and disdaining the values of elitism and militarism that he observed.
Zhou's diaries and letters from his time in Tokyo show a deep interest in politics and current events, in particular, the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Bolsheviks' new policies. He began to read avidly Chen Duxiu's progressive and left-leaning magazine, New Youth. He probably read some early Japanese works on Marx, and it has been claimed that he even attended Kawakami Hajime's lectures at Kyoto University. Kawakami was an important figure in the early history of Japanese Marxism, and his translations and articles influenced a generation of Chinese communists. However, it now seems unlikely that Zhou met him or heard any of his lectures. Zhou's diaries also show his concern over Chinese student strikes in Japan in May 1918, when the Chinese government failed to send the students' scholarships, but he apparently was not deeply involved in the protest. His active role in political movements began after his return to China.
Early political activities
Zhou returned to Tianjin sometime in the spring of 1919. Historians disagree over his participation in the May Fourth Movement (May to June 1919). Zhou's "official" Chinese biography states that he was a leader of the Tianjin student protests in the May Fourth movement, but many modern scholars believe that it is highly unlikely that Zhou participated at all, based on the total lack of direct evidence among the surviving records from the period. In July 1919, however, Zhou became editor of the Tianjin Student Union Bulletin, apparently at the request of his Nankai classmate, Ma Jun, a founder of the Union. During its brief existence from July 1919 to early 1920, the Bulletin was widely read by student groups around the country and suppressed on at least one occasion by the national government as "harmful to public safety and social order."
When Nankai became a university in August 1919, Zhou was in the first class, but was an activist full-time. His political activities continued to expand, and in September, he and several other students agreed to establish the "Awakening Society", a small group, never numbering more than 25. In explaining the goals and purpose of the Awakening Society, Zhou declared that "anything that is incompatible with progress in current times, such as militarism, the bourgeoisie, partylords, bureaucrats, inequality between men and women, obstinate ideas, obsolete morals, old ethics... should be abolished or reformed", and affirmed that it was the purpose of the Society to spread this awareness among the Chinese people. It was in this society that Zhou first met his future wife, Deng Yingchao. In some ways, the Awakening Society resembled the clandestine Marxist study group at Peking University headed by Li Dazhao, with the group members using numbers instead of names for "secrecy". (Zhou was "Number Five", a pseudonym which he continued to use in later years.) Indeed, immediately after the group was established, it invited Li Dazhao to give a lecture on Marxism.
Zhou assumed more prominent active role in political activities over the next few months. The largest of these activities were rallies in support of a nationwide boycott of Japanese goods. As the boycott became more effective, the national government, under pressure from Japan, attempted to suppress it. On 23 January 1920, a confrontation over boycott activities in Tianjin led to the arrest of a number of people, including several Awakening Society members, and on 29 January Zhou led a march on the Governor's Office in Tianjin to present a petition calling for the arrestees' release. Zhou and three other leaders were themselves arrested. The arrestees were held for over six months; during their detention, Zhou supposedly organized discussions on Marxism. At their trial in July, Zhou and six others were sentenced to two months; the rest were found not guilty. All were immediately released since they had already been held over six months.
After Zhou's release, he and the Awakening Society met with several Beijing organizations and agreed to form a "Reform Federation"; during these activities Zhou became more familiar with Li Dazhao and met Zhang Shenfu, who was the contact between Li in Beijing and Chen Duxiu in Shanghai. Both men were organizing underground Communist cells in cooperation with Grigori Voitinsky, a Comintern agent, but Zhou apparently did not meet Voitinsky at this point.
Soon after his release, Zhou decided to go to Europe to study. (He was expelled from Nankai University during his detention.) Although money was a problem, he received a scholarship from Yan Xiu. In order to gain greater funding, he successfully approached a Tianjin newspaper, Yishi bao, for work as a "special correspondent" in Europe. Zhou left Shanghai for Europe on 7 November 1920 with a group of 196 work study students, including friends from Nankai and Tianjin.
Zhou's experiences after the May Fourth incident seem to have been crucial in his radicalization. Zhou's friends in the Awakening Society were similarly affected. 15 of the group's members became Communists for at least some time, and the group remained close later on. Zhou and six other group members wound up going to Europe in the next two years, and Zhou eventually married the group's youngest member, Deng Yingchao.
Zhou's group arrived in Marseille on 13 December 1920. Unlike most other Chinese students, who traveled to Europe on work-study programs, Zhou's scholarship and position with Yishi bao meant that he was well provided for and did not have to do any work during his stay. Because of his financial position, he was able to devote himself full-time to revolutionary activities. In a letter to his cousin on 30 January 1921, Zhou said that his goals in Europe were to discover the social conditions in foreign countries and their methods of resolving social issues, for the purpose of later applying these lessons to China after his return. In the same letter he told his cousin that, regarding his adoption of a specific ideology, "I still have to make up my mind."
While in Europe, Zhou, also named as John Knight, studied the differing approaches to resolving class conflict adopted by various European nations. In London in January 1921, Zhou witnessed a large miners' strike and wrote a series of articles for the Yishi bao (generally sympathetic to the miners) examining the conflict between workers and employers, and the conflict's resolution. After five weeks in London he moved to Paris, where interest in Russia's 1917 October Revolution was high. In a letter to his cousin, Zhou identified two broad paths of reform for China: "gradual reform" (as in England) or "violent means" (as in Russia). Zhou wrote that "I do not have a preference for either the Russian or the British way... I would prefer something in-between, rather than one of these two extremes".
Still interested in academic programs, Zhou traveled to Britain in January 1921 to visit Edinburgh University. Concerned by financial problems and language requirements, he did not enroll, returning to France at the end of January. There are no records of Zhou entering any academic program in France. In spring 1921, he joined a Chinese Communist cell. Zhou was recruited by Zhang Shenfu, whom he had met in August of the previous year in connection with Li Dazhao. He also knew Zhang through Zhang's wife, Liu Qingyang, a member of the Awakening Society. Zhou has sometimes been portrayed at this time as uncertain in his politics, but his swift move to Communism suggests otherwise.
The cell Zhou belonged to was based in Paris; in addition to Zhou, Zhang, and Liu it included two other students, Zhao Shiyan and Chen Gongpei. Over the next several months, this group eventually formed a united organization with a group of Chinese radicals from Hunan, who were living in Montargis south of Paris. This group included such later prominent figures as Cai Hesen, Li Lisan, Chen Yi, Nie Rongzhen, Deng Xiaoping and also Guo Longzhen, another member of the Awakening Society. Unlike Zhou, most of the students in this group were participants in the work-study program. A series of conflicts with the Chinese administrators of the program over low pay and poor working conditions resulted in over a hundred students occupying the program's offices at the Sino-French Institute in Lyon in September 1921. The students, including several people from the Montargis group, were arrested and deported. Zhou was apparently not one of the occupying students and remained in France until February or March 1922, when he moved with Zhang and Liu from Paris to Berlin. Zhou's move to Berlin was perhaps because the relatively "lenient" political atmosphere in Berlin made it more favorable as a base for overall European organizing. In addition, the Western European Secretariat of the Comintern was located in Berlin and it is clear that Zhou had important Comintern connections, though the nature of these is disputed. After moving operations to Germany, Zhou regularly shuttled between Paris and Berlin.
Zhou returned to Paris by June 1922, where he was one of the twenty two participants present at the organization of the Chinese Youth Communist Party, established as the European Branch of the Chinese Communist Party. Zhou helped draft the party's charter and was elected to the three member executive committee as director of propaganda. He also wrote for and helped edit the party magazine, Shaonian (Youth), later renamed Chiguang (Red Light). It was in Zhou's capacity as general editor of this magazine that Zhou first met Deng Xiaoping, only seventeen years old, whom Zhou hired to operate a mimeograph (copy) machine. The party went through several reorganizations and name changes, but Zhou remained a key member of the group throughout his stay in Europe. Other important activities Zhou undertook included recruiting and transporting students for the University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow, and the establishment of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) European branch.
In June 1923, the Third Congress of the Chinese Communist Party accepted the Comintern's instructions to ally with the KMT, led at the time by Sun Yat-sen. These instructions called for CCP members to join the Nationalist Party as "individuals", while still retaining their association with the CCP. After joining the CCP, they would work to lead and direct it, transforming it into a vehicle of revolution. Within several years, this strategy would become the source of serious conflict between the KMT and the CCP.
Zhou not only joined the KMT, but actually helped organize the founding of the Nationalist Party European branch in November 1923. Under Zhou's influence, most of the European branch's officers were in fact communists. Zhou's wide-ranging contacts and personal relationships formed during this period were central to his career. Important party leaders, such as Zhu De and Nie Rongzhen, were first admitted to the party by Zhou.
By 1924, the Soviet-Nationalist alliance was expanding rapidly and Zhou was summoned back to China for further work. He left Europe probably in late July 1924, returning to China as one of the most senior Chinese Communist Party members in Europe.
Political and military work in Whampoa
Establishment in Guangzhou
Zhou returned to China in late August or early September 1924 to join the Political Department of the Whampoa Military Academy, probably through the influence of Zhang Shenfu, who had previously worked there. The exact positions Zhou held at Whampoa and the dates he held them are not clear. A few months after his arrival, possibly October 1924, he became deputy director of the Academy's Political Department, and later, possibly November 1924, director of the department. Even though it was technically responsible to the central government, Zhou's political department operated under a direct mandate to indoctrinate Whampoa's cadets in the ideology of the KMT for the purpose of improving loyalty and morale. While he was serving in Whampoa, Zhou was also made the secretary of the Communist Party of Guandong-Guanxi, and served as the CCP representative with the rank of major-general.
The island of Whampoa, ten miles downriver from Guangzhou, was at the heart of the Soviet-Nationalist Party alliance. Conceived as the training center of the Nationalist Party Army, it was to provide the military base from which the Nationalists would launch their campaign to unify China, which was split into dozens of military satrapies. From its beginning, the school was funded, armed, and partly staffed by the Soviets.
The Political Department, where Zhou worked, was responsible for political indoctrination and control. As a result, Zhou was a prominent figure at most Academy meetings, often addressing the school immediately after commandant Chiang Kai-shek. He was extremely influential in establishing the political department/party representative (commissar) system which was adopted in Nationalist armed forces in 1925.
Concurrent with his Whampoa appointment, Zhou became secretary of the Communist Party's Guangdong Provincial Committee, and at some point a member of the Provincial Committee's Military Section. Zhou vigorously extended Communist influence at the Academy. He soon arranged for a number of other prominent Communists to join the Political Department, including Chen Yi, Nie Rongzhen, Yun Daiying and Xiong Xiong. Zhou played an important role in establishing the Young Soldiers Association, a youth group which was dominated by the Communists, and Sparks, a short-lived Communist front group. He thus recruited numerous new Communist party members from cadet ranks, and eventually set up a covert Communist Party branch at the academy to direct the new members. When Nationalists concerned with the increasing number of Communist members and organizations at Whampoa set up a "Society for Sun Yat-senism", Zhou attempted to squelch it; the conflict between these student groups set the background for Zhou's removal from the academy.
Zhou participated in two military operations conducted by the Nationalist regime in 1925, later known as the first and second Eastern Expeditions. The first was in January 1925 when Chen Jiongming, an important Cantonese military leader previously driven out of Guangzhou by Sun Yat-sen, attempted to retake Guangzhou. The Nationalist regime's campaign against Chen consisted of forces from the Guangdong Army under Xu Chongzhi, and two training regiments of the Nationalist Party Army, led by Chiang Kai-shek and staffed by Academy officers and cadets. The fighting lasted through May 1925, with the defeat, but not destruction, of Chen's forces. Zhou accompanied the Whampoa cadets on the expedition as a political officer.
When Chen regrouped and attacked Guangzhou again in September 1925, the Nationalists launched a second expedition. Nationalist forces by this time had been reorganized into five corps (or armies), and adopted the commissar system with Political Departments and Nationalist party representatives in most divisions. The First Corps, made up of the Nationalist Party Army, was led by Whampoa graduates and commanded by Chiang Kai-shek, who personally appointed Zhou director of the First Corps Political Department. Soon after, the Nationalist Party's Central Executive Committee appointed Zhou Nationalist Party party representative, making Zhou chief commissar of the First Corps. The first major battle of expedition saw the capture of Chen's base in Huizhou on 15 October. Shantou was taken on 6 November, and by the end of 1925, the Nationalists controlled all of Guangdong province.
Zhou's appointment as chief commissar of the First Corps allowed him to appoint Communists as commissars in four of the Corps' five divisions. Following the conclusion of the Expedition, Zhou was appointed special commissioner for the East River District, which placed him in temporary administrative control of several counties; he apparently used this opportunity to establish a Communist party branch in Shantou and strengthen the CPC's control of local unions. This marked the high point of Zhou's time at Whampoa.
In personal terms, 1925 was also an important year for Zhou. Zhou had kept in touch with Deng Yingchao, whom he had met in the Awakening Society while in Tianjin; and, in January 1925, Zhou asked for and received permission from CPC authorities to marry Deng. The two married in Guangzhou on 8 August 1925.
Zhou's work at Whampoa came to an end with the Zhongshan Warship Incident of 20 March 1926, in which a gunboat with a mostly Communist crew moved from Whampoa to Guangzhou without Chiang's knowledge or approval. This event led to Chiang's exclusion of Communists from the Academy by May 1926, and the removal of numerous Communists from high positions in the Nationalist Party. In his memoirs, Nie Rongzhen suggested that the gunboat had moved in protest of Zhou Enlai's (brief) arrest.
Zhou's time in Whampoa was a significant period in his career. His pioneering work as a political officer in the military made him an important Communist Party expert in this key area; much of his later career centered on the military. Zhou's work in the CCP Guangdong Regional Committee Military Section was typical of his covert activities in the period. The Section was a secret group consisting of three members of the Provincial Central Committee, and was first responsible for organizing and directing CCP nuclei in the army itself. These nuclei, organized at the regimental level and above, were "illegal", meaning they were formed without Nationalist knowledge or authorization. The Section was also responsible for organizing similar nuclei in other armed groups, including secret societies and key services such as railroads and waterways. Zhou did extensive work in these areas until the final separation of the Nationalist and Communist parties and the end of the Soviet-Nationalist alliance in 1927.
Extent of cooperation
Zhou's activities immediately after his removal from his positions at Whampoa are uncertain. An earlier biographer claims that Chiang Kai-shek put Zhou in charge of "an advanced training center for the CCP members and commissars withdrawn from the army". More recent Chinese Communist sources claim that Zhou had an important role at this time in securing Communist control of Ye Ting's Independent Regiment. The regiment and Ye Ting later played a leading role in the Communists' first major military action, the Nanchang Revolt.
In July 1926, the Nationalists began the Northern Expedition, a massive military attempt to unify China. The Expedition was led by Chiang Kai-shek and the National Revolutionary Army (NRA), an amalgam of earlier military forces with significant guidance from Russian military advisors and numerous Communists as both commanding and political officers. With the early successes of the Expedition, there was soon a race between Chiang Kai-shek leading the "right-wing" of the Nationalist Party and the Communists, running inside the "left-wing" of the Nationalists, for control of major southern cities such as Nanjing and Shanghai. At this point the Chinese portion of Shanghai was controlled by Sun Chuanfang, one of the militarists targeted by the North Expedition. Distracted by fighting with the NRA and defections from his army, Sun reduced his forces in Shanghai, and the Communists, whose party headquarters was located in Shanghai, made three attempts to seize control of the city, later called "the three Shanghai Uprisings", in October 1926, February 1927, and March 1927.
Activities in Shanghai
Zhou was transferred to Shanghai to assist in these activities, probably in late 1926. It seems he was not present for the first uprising on 23–24 October, but he was certainly in Shanghai by December 1926. Early accounts credit Zhou with labor organizing activities in Shanghai after his arrival, or, more credibly, working to "strengthen the indoctrination of political workers in labor unions and smuggle arms for the strikers." Reports that Zhou "organized" or "ordered" the second and third uprisings on 20 February and 21 March exaggerate his role. Major decisions during this period were made by the Communist head in Shanghai, Chen Duxiu, the Party's general secretary, with a special committee of eight party officials coordinating Communist actions. The committee also consulted closely on decisions with the Comintern representatives in Shanghai, headed by Grigori Voitinsky. The partial documentation available for this period shows that Zhou headed the Communist Party Central Committee's Military Commission in Shanghai. He participated in both the February and March actions, but was not the guiding hand in either event, instead working with A. P. Appen, the Soviet military advisor to the Central Committee, training the pickets of the General Labor Union, the Communist controlled labor organization in Shanghai. He also worked to make union strong arm squads more effective when the Communists declared a "Red Terror" after the failed February uprising; this action resulted in the murder of twenty "anti-union" figures, and the kidnapping, beating, and intimidation of others associated with anti-union activities.
The third Communist uprising in Shanghai took place from 20–21 March. 600,000 rioting workers cut power and telephone lines and seized the city's post office, police headquarters, and railway stations, often after heavy fighting. During this uprising, the insurrectionists were under strict orders not to harm foreigners, which they obeyed. The forces of Sun Chuanfang withdrew and uprising was successful, despite the small number of armed forces available. The first Nationalist troops entered the city the next day.
As the Communists attempted to install a soviet municipal government, conflict began between the Nationalists and Communists, and on 12 April Nationalist forces, including both members of the Green Gang and soldiers under the command of Nationalist general Bai Chongxi attacked the Communists and quickly overcame them. On the eve of the Nationalist attack, Wang Shouhua, who was both the head of the CCP Labour Committee and the Chairman of the General Labour Committee, accepted a dinner invitation from "Big-eared Du" (a Shanghai gangster) and was strangled after he arrived. Zhou himself was nearly killed in a similar trap, when he was arrested after arriving at a dinner held at the headquarters of Si Lie, a Nationalist commander of Chiang's Twenty-sixth Army. Despite rumors that Chiang had put a high price on Zhou's head, he was quickly released by Bai Chongxi's forces. The reasons for Zhou's sudden release may have been that Zhou was then the most senior Communist in Shanghai, that Chiang's efforts to exterminate the Shanghai Communists were highly secretive at the time, and that his execution would have been noticed as a violation of the cooperation agreement between the CCP and the KMT (which was technically still in effect). Zhou was finally only released after the intervention of a representative of the Twenty-sixth Army, Zhao Shu, who was able to convince his commanders that the arrest of Zhou had been a mistake.
Flight from Shanghai
Fleeing Shanghai, Zhou made his way to Hankou (now part of Wuhan), and was a participant at the CCP's 5th National Congress there from 27 April to 9 May. At the end of the Congress, Zhou was elected to the Party's Central Committee, again heading the military department. After Chiang Kai-shek's suppression of the Communists, the Nationalist Party split in two, with the Nationalist Party's "left-wing" (led by Wang Jingwei) controlling the government in Hankou, and Chiang and the party "right-wing" (led by Chiang Kai-shek) establishing a rival government in Nanjing. Still following Comintern instructions, the Communists remained as a "bloc inside" the Nationalist Party, hoping to continue expanding their influence through the Nationalists. After being attacked by a warlord friendly to Chiang, Wang's leftist government disintegrated later in May 1927, and Chiang's troops began an organized purge of Communists in territories formerly controlled by Wang. In mid-July Zhou was forced to go underground.
Pressured by their Comintern advisors, and themselves convinced that the "revolutionary high tide" had arrived, the Communists decided to launch a series of military revolts. The first of these was the Nanchang Revolt. Zhou was sent to oversee the event, but the moving figures seem to have been Tan Pingshan and Li Lisan, while the main military figures were Ye Ting and He Long. In military terms, the revolt was a disaster, with the Communists' forces decimated and scattered.
Zhou himself contracted malaria during the campaign, and was secretly sent to Hong Kong for medical treatment by Nie Rongzhen and Ye Ting. After reaching Hong Kong, Zhou was disguised as a businessman named "Li", and entrusted to the care of local Communists. In a subsequent meeting of the CCP Central Committee, Zhou was blamed for the failure of the Nanchang campaign and temporarily demoted to being an alternate member of the Politburo.
Activities during the Chinese Civil War
The Sixth Party Congress
After the failure of the Nanchang Uprising, Zhou left China for the Soviet Union to attend the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Sixth National Party Congress in Moscow, in June–July 1928. The Sixth Congress had to be held in Moscow because conditions in China were considered dangerous. KMT control was so tight that many Chinese delegates attending the Sixth Congress were forced to travel in disguise: Zhou himself was disguised as an antiquarian.
At the Sixth Congress, Zhou delivered a long speech insisting that conditions in China were not favorable for immediate revolution, and that the main task of the CCP should be to develop revolutionary momentum by winning over the support of the masses in the countryside and establishing a Soviet regime in southern China, similar to the one that Mao Zedong and Zhu De were already establishing around Jiangxi. The Congress generally accepted Zhou's assessment as accurate. Xiang Zhongfa was made secretary general of the Party, but was soon found incapable of fulfilling his role, so Zhou emerged as the de facto leader of the CCP. Zhou was only thirty years old.
During the Sixth Congress, Zhou was elected Director of the Central Committee Organization Department. His ally, Li Lisan, took over propaganda work. Zhou finally returned to China, after more than a year abroad, in 1929. At the Sixth Congress in Moscow, Zhou had given figures indicating that, by 1928, fewer than 32,000 union members remained who were loyal to the Communists, and that only ten percent of Party members were proletarians. By 1929, only three percent of the Party were proletarians.
In early 1930, Zhou began to disagree with the timing of Li Lisan's strategy of favoring rich peasants and concentrating military forces for attacks on urban centers. Zhou did not openly break with these more orthodox notions, and even tried to implement them later, in 1931, in Jiangxi. When the Soviet agent Pavel Mif arrived in Shanghai to lead the Comintern in China in December 1930, Mif criticized Li's strategy as "left adventurism", and criticized Zhou for compromising with Li. Zhou "acknowledged" his mistakes in compromising with Li in January 1931 and offered to resign from the Politburo, but was retained while other senior CCP leaders, including Li Lisan and Qu Qiubai, were removed. Like Mao later recognized, Mif understood that Zhou's services as Party leader were indispensable, and that Zhou would willingly cooperate with whoever was holding power.
Underground work: establishment
After arriving back in Shanghai in 1929, Zhou began to work underground, establishing and overseeing a network of independent Communist cells. Zhou's greatest danger in his underground work was the threat of being discovered by the KMT secret police, which had been established in 1928 with the specific mission of identifying and eliminating Communists. In order to avoid detection, Zhou and his wife changed residences at least once a month, and used a variety of aliases. Zhou often disguised himself as a businessman, sometimes wearing a beard. Zhou was careful that only two or three people ever knew his whereabouts. Zhou disguised all urban Party offices, made sure that CCP offices never shared the same buildings when in the same city, and required all Party members to use passwords to identify one another. Zhou restricted all of his meetings to either before 7AM or after 7PM. Zhou never used public transportation, and avoided being seen in public places.
In November 1928, the CCP also established its own intelligence agency (the "Special Service section of the Central Committee", or "Zhongyang Teke" (Chinese:中央特科), often abbreviated as "Teke"), which Zhou subsequently came to control. Zhou's chief lieutenants were Gu Shunzhang, who had strong ties to Chinese secret societies and became an alternate member of the Politburo, and Xiang Zhongfa. Teke had four operational sections: one for the protection and safety of Party members; one for intelligence gathering; one for facilitating internal communications; and, one to conduct assassinations, a team that became known as the "Red Squad" (红队).
Zhou's main concern in running Teke was to establish an effective anti-espionage network within the KMT secret police. Within a short amount of time the head of Teke's intelligence section, Chen Geng, succeeded in planting a large network of moles inside the Investigation Section of the Central Operations Department in Nanjing, which was the center of KMT intelligence. The three most successful agents used by Zhou to infiltrate the KMT secret police were Qian Zhuangfei, Li Kenong, and Hu Di, who Zhou referred to as "the three most distinguished intelligence workers of the Party" in the 1930s. Agents planted within various KMT offices were later critical in the survival of the CCP, helping the Party escape Chiang's Encirclement Campaigns.
KMT response to Zhou's intelligence work
In late April 1931 Zhou's chief aide in security affairs, Gu Shunzhang, was arrested by the KMT in Wuhan. Gu was a former labour organizer with strong mafia connections and weak commitments to the CCP. Under threat of heavy torture, Gu gave the KMT secret police detailed accounts of underground CCP organizations in Wuhan, leading to the arrest and executions of over ten senior CCP leaders in the city. Gu offered to provide the KMT with details of CCP activities in Shanghai, but only if he could give the information directly to Chiang Kai-shek.
One of Zhou's agents working in Nanjing, Qian Zhuangfei, intercepted a telegram requesting further instructions from Nanjing on how to proceed, and abandoned his cover to personally warn Zhou of the impending crackdown. The two days before Gu arrived in Nanjing to meet with Chiang gave Zhou time to evacuate Party members and to change the communication codes used by Teke, all of which were known to Gu. After meeting briefly with Chiang in Nanjing, Gu arrived in Shanghai and assisted the KMT secret police in raiding CCP offices and residences, capturing members who could not be evacuated in time. The summary executions of those suspected of Communist sympathies resulted in the largest death-toll since the Shanghai massacre of 1927.
Zhou's reaction to Gu's betrayal was extreme. More than fifteen members of Gu's family, some of whom worked for Teke, were murdered by the Red Squad and buried in quiet residential areas of Shanghai. The Red Squad then assassinated Wang Bing, a leading member of the KMT secret police who was known for moving around Shanghai in rickshaws, without the protection of bodyguards. Most surviving CCP members were relocated to the Communist base in Jiangxi. Because most senior staff had become exposed by Gu, most of its best agents were also relocated. Zhou's most senior aide not yet under suspicion, Pan Hannian, became Teke's director.
The night before he was scheduled to leave Shanghai in June 1931, Xiang Zhongfa, who was one of Zhou's most senior agents, decided to spend the night in a hotel with his mistress, ignoring Zhou's warnings about the danger. In the morning, a KMT informant who had been trailing Xiang spotted him as he was leaving the hotel. Xiang was immediately arrested and imprisoned within the French Concession. Zhou attempted to prevent Xiang's expected extradition to KMT-controlled China by having his agents bribe the chief of police in the French Concession, but the KMT authorities appealed directly to the authorities of the French Concession, ensuring that the chief of police could not intervene. Zhou's hopes that Xiang would be transferred to Nanjing, giving him an opportunity to kidnap Xiang, also came to naught. The French agreed to transfer Xiang to the Shanghai Garrison Headquarters, under the command of General Xiong Shihui, who subjected Xiang to relentless torture and interrogation. Once he became convinced that Xiang had given his torturers all the information that they requested, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Xiang to be executed.
Zhou Enlai later succeeded in secretly purchasing a copy of Xiang's interrogation records. The records showed that Xiang had disclosed everything to the KMT authorities before his execution, including the location of Zhou's residence. Another round of arrests and executions followed Xiang's capture, but Zhou and his wife were able to escape capture because they had abandoned their apartment on the morning of Xiang's arrest. After establishing a new Politburo Standing Committee in Shanghai, Zhou and his wife relocated to the Communist base in Jiangxi near the end of 1931. By the time Zhou left Shanghai, he was one of the most wanted men in China.
The Jiangxi Soviet
Following the failed Nanchang and Autumn Harvest Uprisings of 1927, the Communists began to focus on establishing a series of rural bases of operation in southern China. Even before moving to Jiangxi, Zhou had become involved in the politics of these bases. Mao, claiming the need to eliminate counterrevolutionaries and Anti-Bolsheviks operating within the CCP, began an ideological purge of the populace inside the Jiangxi Soviet. Zhou, perhaps due to his own success planting moles within various levels of the KMT, agreed that an organized campaign to uncover subversion was justified, and supported the campaign as de facto leader of the CCP.
Mao's efforts soon developed into a ruthless campaign driven by paranoia and aimed not only at KMT spies, but at anyone with an ideological outlook different from Mao's. Suspects were commonly tortured until they confessed to their crimes and accused others of crimes, and wives and relatives who inquired of those being tortured were themselves arrested and tortured even more severely. Mao's attempts to purge the Red Army of those who might potentially oppose him led Mao to accuse Chen Yi, the commander and political commissar of the Jiangxi Military Region, as a counterrevolutionary, provoking a violent reaction against Mao's persecutions that became known as the "Futian Incident" in January 1931. Mao was eventually successful in subduing the Red Army, reducing its numbers from forty thousand to less than ten thousand. The campaign continued throughout 1930 and 1931. Historians estimate the total number who died due to Mao's persecution in all base areas to be approximately one hundred thousand.
The entire campaign occurred while Zhou was still in Shanghai. Although he had supported the elimination of counterrevolutionaries, Zhou actively suppressed the campaign when he arrived in Jiangxi in December 1931, criticizing the "excess, the panic, and the oversimplification" practiced by local officials. After investigating those accused of Anti-Bolshevism, and those persecuting them, Zhou submitted a report criticizing the campaign for focusing on the narrow persecution of anti-Maoists as anti-Bolshevists, exaggerating the threat to the Party, and condemning the use of torture as an investigative technique. Zhou's resolution was passed and adopted on 7 January 1932, and the campaign gradually subsided.
Zhou moved to the Jiangxi base area and shook up the propaganda-oriented approach to revolution by demanding that the armed forces under Communist control actually be used to expand the base, rather than just to control and defend it. In December 1931, Zhou replaced Mao Zedong as Secretary of the First Front Army with Xiang Ying, and made himself political commissar of the Red Army, in place of Mao. Liu Bocheng, Lin Biao and Peng Dehuai all criticized Mao's tactics at the October 1932 Ningdu Conference.
After moving to Jiangxi, Zhou met Mao for the first time since 1927, and began his long relationship with Mao as his superior. In the Ningdu conference, Mao was demoted to being a figurehead in the Soviet government. Zhou, who had come to appreciate Mao's strategies after the series of military failures waged by other Party leaders since 1927, defended Mao, but was unsuccessful. After achieving power, Mao later purged or demoted those who had opposed him in 1932, but remembered Zhou's defense of his policies.
Chiang's Encirclement Campaigns
In early 1933, Bo Gu arrived with the German Comintern adviser Otto Braun and took control of party affairs. Zhou at this time, apparently with strong support from Party and military colleagues, reorganized and standardized the Red Army. Under Zhou, Bo, and Braun, the Red Army defeated four attacks by Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist troops. The military structure that led the Communists to victory was:
Leaders Unit Designation Lin Biao, Nie Rongzhen 1st Corps Peng Dehuai, Yang Shangkun 3rd Corps Xiao Jinguang 7th Corps Xiao Ke 8th Corps Luo Binghui 9th Corps Fang Zhimin 10th Corps
Chiang's fifth campaign, launched in September 1933, was much more difficult to contain. Chiang's new use of "blockhouse tactics" and larger numbers of troops allowed his army to advance steadily into Communist territory, and they succeeded in seizing several major Communist strongholds. Bo Gu and Otto Braun adopted orthodox tactics to respond to Chiang, and Zhou, although personally opposed to them, directed these. Following their subsequent defeat, he and other military leaders were blamed.
Although Zhou's subsequently cautious military approach was distrusted by hardliners, he was again appointed to the position of vice chairman of the Military Commission. Zhou was accepted as leader largely because of his organizational talent and devotion to work, and because he had never shown any overt ambition to pursue supreme power within the Party. Within months, the continuing orthodox tactics of Bo and Braun led to a serious defeat for the Red Army, and forced the leaders of the CCP to seriously consider abandoning their bases in Jiangxi.
The Long March
After the decision to abandon Jiangxi was announced, Zhou was placed in charge of organizing and supervising the logistics of the Communist withdrawal. Making his plans in absolute secrecy and waiting till the last moment to inform even senior leaders of the group's movements, Zhou's objective was to break through the enemy encirclement with as few casualties as possible, and before Chiang's forces were able to completely occupy all Communist bases. It is not known what criteria were used to determine who would stay and who would go, but 16,000 troops and some of the Communists' most notable commanders at the time (including Xiang Ying, Chen Yi, Tan Zhenlin, and Qu Qiubai) were left to form a rear guard to divert the main force of Nationalist troops from noticing the Communists' general withdrawal.
The withdrawal of 84,000 soldiers and civilians began in early October, 1934. Zhou's intelligence agents were successful in identifying a large section of Chiang's blockhouse lines that were manned by troops under General Chen Jitang, a Guangdong warlord who Zhou identified as being likely to prefer preserving the strength of his troops over fighting. Zhou sent Pan Hannian to negotiate for safe passage with General Chen, who subsequently allowed the Red Army to pass through the territory that he controlled without fighting.
After passing through three of the four blockhouse fortifications needed to escape Chiang's encirclement, the Red Army was finally intercepted by regular Nationalist troops, and suffered heavy casualties. Of the 86,000 Communists who attempted to break out of Jiangxi, only 36,000 successfully escaped. This loss demoralized some Communist leaders (particularly Bo Gu and Otto Braun), but Zhou remained calm and retained his command.
During the Communists' subsequent Long March, there were numerous high-level disputes over the direction that the Communists should take, and on the causes of the Red Army's defeats. During the power struggles that ensued, Zhou consistently backed Mao Zedong against the interests of Bo Gu and Otto Braun. Bo and Braun were later blamed for the Red Army's defeats, and were eventually removed from their positions of leadership. The Communists eventually succeeded in re-establishing a base in northern Shaanxi on 20 October 1935, arriving with only 8,000–9,000 remaining members.
Zhou's position within the CCP changed numerous times throughout the Long March. By the early 1930s, Zhou was recognized as the de facto leader of the CCP, and exercised superior influence over other members of the CCP even when sharing power with Bo and Braun. In the months following the January 1935 Zunyi Conference, in which Bo and Braun were removed from senior positions, Zhou mostly retained his position because he displayed a willingness to display responsibility, because his tactics in defeating Chiang's Fourth Encirclement Campaign were recognized as being successful, and because he supported Mao Zedong, who was gaining influence inside the Party: after the Zunyi Conference, Mao became Zhou's assistant. After the Communists reached Shaanxi and completed the Long March, Mao officially took over Zhou Enlai's leading position in the CCP, while Zhou took a secondary position as vice-Chairman. Mao and Zhou would retain their positions within the CCP until their deaths in 1976.
The Xi'an Incident
During the seventh congress of the Comintern, held in August 1936, Wang Ming issued an anti-Fascist manifesto, indicating that the CCP's previous policy of "opposing Chiang Kai-shek and resisting Japan" was to be replaced by a policy of "uniting with Chiang Kai-shek to resist Japan". Zhou was instrumental in carrying out this policy. Zhou made contact with one of the most senior KMT commanders in the northwest, Zhang Xueliang. By 1935, Zhang was well known for his anti-Japanese sentiments and his doubts about Chiang's willingness to oppose the Japanese. Zhang's disposition made him easily influenced by Zhou's indications that the CCP would cooperate to fight against the Japanese.
Zhou established a "northeast working committee" for the purpose of promoting cooperation with Zhang. The committee worked to persuade Zhang's Northeast Army to unite with the Red Army to fight Japan and retake Manchuria. The committee also created new patriotic slogans, including "Chinese must not fight Chinese", to promote Zhou's goals. Using his network of secret contacts, Zhou arranged a meeting with Zhang in Yan'an, then controlled by Zhang's "Northeast Army".
The first meeting between Zhou and Zhang occurred inside a church on 7 April 1936. Zhang showed a great interest in ending the civil war, uniting the country, and fighting the Japanese, but warned that Chiang was firmly in control of the national government, and that these goals would be difficult to pursue without Chiang's cooperation. Both parties ended their meeting with an agreement to find a way to secretly work together. At the same time that Zhou was establishing secret contacts with Zhang, Chiang was growing suspicious of Zhang, and became increasingly dissatisfied with Zhang's inaction against the Communists. In order to deceive Chiang, Zhou and Zhang deployed mock military units in order to give the impression that the Northeast Army and the Red Army were engaged in battle.
In December 1936, Chiang Kai-shek flew to the Nationalist headquarters in Xi'an in order to test the loyalty of local KMT military forces under Marshal Zhang Xueliang, and to personally lead these forces in a final attack on Communist bases in Shaanxi, which Zhang had been ordered to destroy. Determined to force Chiang to direct China's forces against the Japanese (who had taken Zhang's territory of Manchuria and were preparing a broader invasion), on 12 December Zhang and his followers stormed Chiang's headquarters, killed most of his bodyguards, and seized the Generalissimo in what became known as the Xi'an Incident.
Reactions to Chiang's kidnapping in Yan'an were mixed. Some, including Mao Zedong and Zhu De, viewed it as an opportunity to have Chiang killed. Others, including Zhou Enlai and Zhang Wentian, saw it as an opportunity to achieve a united-front policy against the Japanese, which would strengthen the overall position of the CCP. Debate within Yan'an ended when a long telegram from Joseph Stalin arrived, urging the CCP to work towards Chiang's release, explaining that a united-front was the best position from which to resist the Japanese, and that only Chiang had the prestige and authority to carry out such a plan.
After initial communications with Zhang on the fate of Chiang, Zhou Enlai reached Xi'an on 16 December, on a plane specifically sent for him by Zhang Xueliang, as the chief Communist negotiator. From then until Christmas Day of 1936, Zhou attempted to negotiate with Chiang and Zhang, proposing a national united-front government with Chiang as leader, a demarcation line between KMT and CPP territories, a national conference including a CCP delegation, and a series of future negotiations in Nanjing. Through days of intense negotiation, exercising extreme caution and courtesy, Zhou was largely successful in reconciling their positions.
On 20 December, T. V. Soong arrived in Xi'an, and Soong Mei-ling arrived two days later, in order to negotiate Chiang's release. At first, Chiang was opposed to negotiating with a CCP delegate, but withdrew his opposition when it became clear that his life and freedom were largely dependent on Communist goodwill towards him. On 24 December, Chiang received Zhou for a meeting, the first time that the two had seen each other since Zhou had left Whampoa over ten years earlier. Zhou began the conversation by saying: "In the ten years since we have met, you seem to have aged very little." Chiang nodded and said: "Enlai, you were my subordinate. You should do what I say." Zhou replied that, if Chiang would halt the civil war and resist the Japanese instead, the Red Army would willingly accept Chiang's command. By the end of this meeting, Chiang promised to end the civil war, to resist the Japanese together, and to invite Zhou to Nanjing for further talks.
On 25 December 1936, Zhang released Chiang and accompanied him to Nanjing. Subsequently, Zhang was court-martialed and sentenced to house arrest, and most of the officers who participated in the Xi'an Incident were executed. Although the KMT formally rejected collaboration with the CCP, Chiang ended active military activity against Communist bases in Yan'nan, implying that he had implicitly given his word to change the direction of his policies. Following the end of KMT attacks, the CCP was able to consolidate its territories and to prepare to resist the Japanese.
After news arrived that Zhang had been betrayed and arrested by Chiang, Zhang's old officer corps became very agitated, and some of them murdered a Nationalist general, Wang Yizhe, who was seen as largely responsible for the military's lack of response. While Zhou was still in Xi'an, he himself was surrounded in his office by a number of Zhang's officers, who accused the Communists of instigating the Xi'an Incident and of betraying Zhang by convincing the general to travel to Nanjing. At gunpoint, they threatened to kill Zhou. Zhou maintained his composure and eloquently defended his position. In the end, Zhou succeeded in calming the officers, and they departed, leaving him unharmed. In a series of negotiations with the KMT that lasted until June 1937 (when the Marco Polo Bridge Incident occurred), Zhou attempted to gain Zhang's release, but failed.
Activities during World War II
Propaganda and intelligence in Wuhan
When the capital of Nanjing fell to the Japanese on 13 December 1937, Zhou accompanied the Nationalist government to its temporary capital of Wuhan. As the chief representative of the CCP in the nominal KMT-CCP cooperation agreement, Zhou established and headed the official KMT-CCP liaison office. While running the liaison office, Zhou established the Yangtze Bureau of the Central Committee. Under cover of its association with the Eighth Route Army, Zhou used the Yangtze Bureau to conduct clandestine operations within southern China, secretly recruiting Communist operatives and establishing Party structures throughout KMT-controlled areas.
In August 1937, the CCP secretly issued orders to Zhou that his united front work was to focus on Communist infiltration and organization at all levels of the government and society. Zhou agreed to these orders, and applied his considerable organizational talents to completing them. Shortly after Zhou's arrival in Wuhan, he convinced the Nationalist government to approve and fund a Communist newspaper, Xinhua ribao ("New China Daily"), justifying it as a tool to spread anti-Japanese propaganda. This newspaper became a major tool for spreading Communist propaganda, and the Nationalists later viewed its approval and funding as one of their "biggest mistakes".
Zhou was successful in organizing large numbers of Chinese intellectuals and artists to promote resistance against the Japanese. The largest propaganda event that Zhou staged was a week-long celebration in 1938, following the successful defense of Taierzhuang. In this event, between 400,000–500,000 people took part in parades, and a chorus of over 10,000 people sung songs of resistance. Fundraising efforts during the week raised over a million yuan. Zhou himself donated 240 yuan, his monthly salary as deputy director of the Political Department.
While he was working in Wuhan, Zhou was the CCP's main contact person with the outside world, and worked hard to reverse the public perception of the Communists as a "bandit organization". Zhou established and maintained contacts with over forty foreign journalists and writers, including Edgar Snow, Agnes Smedley, Anna Louise Strong and Rewi Alley, many of whom became sympathetic to the Communist cause and wrote about their sympathies in foreign publications. In sympathy with his efforts to promote the CCP to the outside world, Zhou arranged for a Canadian medical team, headed by Norman Bethune, to travel to Yan'an, and assisted the Dutch film director Joris Ivens in producing a documentary, 400 Million People.
Zhou was unsuccessful in averting the public defection of Zhang Guotao, one of the founders of the CCP, to the KMT. Zhang was prepared to defect due to a disagreement with Mao Zedong over the implementation of the united front policy, and because he resented Mao's authoritarian leadership style. Zhou, with the aid of Wang Ming, Bo Gu and Li Kenong, intercepted Zhang after he arrived in Wuhan, and engaged in extensive negotiations through April 1938, in order to convince Zhang not to defect, but these negotiations were unsuccessful. In the end, Zhang refused to compromise and placed himself under the protection of the KMT secret police. On 18 April, the CCP Central Committee expelled Zhang from the Party, and Zhang himself issued a statement accusing the CCP of sabotaging efforts to resist the Japanese. The entire episode was a serious setback for Zhou's attempts to improve the prestige of the Party.
Military strategy in Wuhan
In January 1938, the Nationalist government appointed Zhou as the deputy director to the Political Department of the Military Committee, working directly under General Cheng Cheng. As a senior Communist statesman holding the rank of lieutenant-general, Zhou was the only Communist to hold a high-level position within the Nationalist government. Zhou used his influence within the Military Committee to promote Nationalist generals that he believed were capable, and to promote cooperation with the Red Army.
In the Tai'erzhuang campaign, Zhou used his influence to ensure that the most capable Nationalist general available, Li Zongren be appointed overall commander, despite Chiang's reservations about Li's loyalty. When Chiang was hesitant to commit troops to the defense of Tai'erzhuang, Zhou convinced Chiang to do so by promising that the Communist Eighth Route Army would simultaneously attack the Japanese from the north, and that the New Fourth Army would sabotage the Tianjin-Pukou railroad, cutting off Japanese supplies. In the end, the defense of Tai'erzhuang was a major victory for the Nationalists, killing 20,000 Japanese soldiers and capturing a large amount of supplies and equipment.
Adoption of orphans
While serving as the CCP ambassador to the KMT, the childless Zhou met and befriended numerous orphans. While in Wuhan Zhou adopted a young girl, Sun Weishi, in 1937. Sun's mother had taken her to Wuhan after Sun's father was executed by the KMT in 1927, during the White Terror. Zhou came upon the sixteen-year-old Sun crying outside of the Eighth Route Army Liaison Office because she had been refused permission to travel to Yan'an, due to her youth and lack of political connections. After Zhou befriended and adopted her as his daughter, Sun was able to travel to Yan'an. She pursued a career in acting and direction, and later became the first female director of spoken drama (huaju) in the PRC.
Zhou also adopted Sun's brother, Sun Yang. After accompanying Zhou to Yan'an, Sun Yang became Zhou's personal assistant. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Sun Yang became the president of Renmin University.
In 1938 Zhou met and befriended another orphan, Li Peng. Li was only three when, in 1931, his father was also killed by the Kuomintang. Zhou subsequently looked after him in Yan'an. After the war, Zhou systematically groomed Li for leadership and sent him to be educated in energy-related engineering in Moscow. Zhou's placement of Li within the powerful energy bureaucracy shielded Li from Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, and Li's eventual rise to the level of Premier surprised no one.
Flight to Chongqing
When the Japanese army approached Wuhan in the fall of 1938, the Nationalist Army engaged the Japanese in the surrounding regions for over four months, allowing the KMT to withdraw farther inland, to Chongqing, bringing with them important supplies, assets, and many refugees. While he was en route to Chongqing, Zhou was nearly killed in the "fire of Changsha", which lasted for three days, destroyed two thirds of the city, killed twenty thousand civilians, and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. This fire was deliberately caused by the retreating Nationalist army in order to prevent the city from falling to the Japanese. Due to an organizational error (it was claimed), the fire was begun without any warning to the residents of the city.
After escaping from Changsha, Zhou took refuge in a Buddhist temple in a nearby village and organized the evacuation of the city. Zhou demanded that the causes of the fire be thoroughly investigated by authorities, that those responsible by punished, that reparations be given to the victims, that the city be thoroughly cleaned up, and that accommodations be provided for the homeless. In the end, the Nationalists blamed three local commanders for the fire and executed them. Newspapers across China blamed the fire on (non-KMT) arsonists, but the blaze contributed to a nationwide loss of support for the KMT.
Early activities in Chongqing
Zhou Enlai reached Chongqing in December 1938, and resumed the official and unofficial operations that he had been conducting in Wuhan in January 1938. Zhou's activities included those required by his formal positions within the Nationalist government, his running of two pro-Communist newspapers, and his covert efforts to form reliable intelligence networks and increase the popularity and organization of CCP organizations in southern China. At its peak, the staff working under him in both official and covert roles totaled several hundred people. After finding that his father, Zhou Shaogang, was unable to support himself, Zhou looked after his father in Chongqing until his father's death in 1942.
Soon after arriving in Chongqing, Zhou successfully lobbied the Nationalist government to release Communist political prisoners. After their release, Zhou often assigned these former prisoners as agents to organize and lead Party organizations throughout southern China. The efforts of Zhou's covert activities were extremely successful, increasing CCP membership across southern China tenfold within months. Chiang was somewhat aware of these activities and introduced efforts to suppress them, but was generally unsuccessful.
In July 1939, while in Yan'an to attend a series of Politburo meetings, Zhou had an accident horseback riding in which he fell and fractured his right elbow. Because there was little medical care available in Yan'an, Zhou traveled to Moscow for medical treatment, using the occasion to brief the Comintern on the status of the united front. Zhou arrived in Moscow too late to mend the fracture, and his right arm remained bent for the rest of his life. Joseph Stalin was so displeased with the CCP's refusal to work more closely with the Nationalists that he refused to see Zhou during his stay. Zhou's adopted daughter, Sun Weishi, accompanied Zhou to Moscow. She remained in Moscow after Zhou left in order to study for a career in theatre.
Intelligence work in Chongqing
On 4 May 1939, the Politburo accepted Zhou's assessment that Zhou should focus his efforts on creating a network of secret CCP agents working covertly and for long periods. Communists were directed to join the KMT, if doing so would increase the ability of agents to infiltrate the KMT administrative, educational, economic, and military establishments. Under the cover of the Office of the Eighth Route Army (moved to a stately building on the outskirts of Chongqing), Zhou adopted a series of measures to expand the CCP intelligence network.
By the time that Zhou returned to Chongqing in May 1940, a serious rift had formed between the KMT and the CCP. Over the course of the next year, the relationship between the two parties degenerated into arrests and executions of Party members, covert attempts by agents of both sides to eliminate each other, propaganda efforts attacking each other, and major military clashes. The united front was officially abolished after the Anhui Incident in January 1941, when 9,000 Communist soldiers of the New Fourth Army were ambushed, and their commanders either killed or imprisoned by government troops.
Zhou responded to the rift between the KMT and CCP by directing Party leaders to conduct their operations more secretly. He maintained propaganda efforts via the newspapers that he directed and kept in close contact with foreign journalists and ambassadors. Zhou increased and improved CCP intelligence efforts within the KMT, Wang Jingwei's Nanjing government, and the Empire of Japan, recruiting, training, and organizing a large network of Communist spies. Yan Baohang, a secret Party member active in Chongqing diplomatic circles, informed Zhou that Hitler was planning to attack the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Under Zhou's signature, this information reached Stalin on 20 June, two days before Hitler attacked.
Economic and diplomatic activities
Despite worsening relations with Chiang Kai-shek, Zhou operated openly in Chongqing, befriending Chinese and foreign visitors and staging public cultural activities, especially Chinese theater. Zhou cultivated a close personal friendship with General Feng Yuxiang, making it possible for Zhou to circulate freely among the officers of the Nationalist Army. Zhou befriended the General He Jifeng, and convinced He to secretly become a member of the CCP during an official visit to Yan'an. Zhou's intelligence agents penetrated the Sichuanese army of General Deng Xihou, resulting in Deng's secret agreement to supply ammunition to the Communist New Fourth Army. Zhou convinced another Sichuanese general, Li Wenhui, to covertly install a radio transmitter that facilitated secret communication between Yan'an and Chongqing. Zhou befriended Zhang Chong and Nong Yun, commanders in the Yunnan armed forces, who became secret CCP members, agreed to cooperate with the CCP against Chiang Kai-shek, and established a clandestine radio station that broadcast Communist propaganda from the provincial government building in Kunming.
Zhou remained the primary CCP representative to the outside world during his time in Chongqing. Zhou and his aide Gong Peng enjoyed receiving foreign visitors and reportedly made a favorable impression among American, British, Canadian, Russian, and other foreign diplomats, despite Chiang's attempts to isolate him from the international community. Zhou was variously described by visitors as being charming, urbane, hard-working, and living a very simple lifestyle. In 1941, Zhou received a visit from Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Martha. Martha later wrote that she and Ernest were extremely impressed with Zhou (and extremely unimpressed with Chiang), and they became convinced that the Communists would take over China after meeting him.
Because Yan'an was incapable of funding Zhou's activities, Zhou attempted to fund himself through various means. Zhou partially funded his efforts though donations from sympathetic foreigners, overseas Chinese, and the China Defense League (supported by Sun Yat-sen's widow, Soong Ching-ling). Because Zhou was not able to fund his operations solely through donations, Zhou also undertook efforts to start and run a number of businesses throughout KMT- and Japanese- controlled China. Zhou's businesses grew to include several trading companies operating in a variety of Chinese cities (primarily Chongqing and Hong Kong), a silk and satin store in Chongqing, an oil refinery, and numerous factories for producing industrial materials, various cloths, Western medicines, and other commodities.
Under Zhou, Communist businessmen made great profits engaging in currency trading and commodity speculation, especially in the international markets for American dollars and gold. Zhou's most lucrative business was generated by several opium plantations that Zhou established in remote areas. Although the CCP had been engaged in the eradication of opium smoking since its establishment, Zhou justified opium production and distribution in KMT-controlled areas by the huge profits generated for the CCP, and by the debilitating effects that opium addiction might have on KMT soldiers and government officials.
Relationship with Mao Zedong
In 1943, Zhou's relationship with Chiang Kai-shek deteriorated, and he returned permanently to Yan'an. By then, Mao Zedong had emerged as the Chairman of the Communist Party of China, and was attempting to have his political theories (literally "Mao Zedong Thought") accepted as the Party's dogma. Following his ascent to power, Mao organized a campaign to indoctrinate the members of the CCP. This campaign became the foundation of the Maoist personality cult that later dominated Chinese politics until the end of the Cultural Revolution.
After returning to Yan'an, Zhou Enlai was strongly and excessively criticized in this campaign. Zhou was labelled, along with the generals Peng Dehuai, Liu Bocheng, Ye Jianying, and Nie Rongzhen, as an "empiricist" because he had a history of cooperating with the Comintern and with Mao's enemy, Wang Ming. Mao publicly attacked Zhou as "a collaborator and assistant of dogmatism... who belittled the study of Marxism-Leninism". Mao and his allies then claimed that the CCP organizations that Zhou had established in southern China were in fact led by KMT secret agents, a charge which Zhou firmly denied, and which was only withdrawn after Mao became convinced of Zhou's subservience in the latest period of the campaign.
Zhou defended himself by engaging in a long series of public reflections and self-criticisms, and he gave a number of speeches praising Mao and Mao Zedong Thought and giving his unconditional acceptance of Mao's leadership. He also joined Mao's allies in attacking Peng Shuzhi, Chen Duxiu, and Wang Ming, who Mao viewed as enemies. The persecution of Zhou Enlai distressed Moscow, and Georgi Dimitrov wrote a personal letter to Mao indicating that "Zhou Enlai... must not be severed from the Party." In the end, Zhou's enthusiastic acknowledgement of his own faults, his praise for Mao's leadership, and his attacks on Mao's enemies eventually convinced Mao that Zhou's conversion to Maoism was genuine, a precondition for Zhou's political survival. By the seventh congress of the CCP in 1945, Mao was acknowledged as the overall leader of the CCP, and the dogma of Mao Zedong Thought was firmly entrenched among the Party's leadership.
Diplomatic efforts with the United States
The Dixie mission
After the United States joined the war against Japan in 1941, American politicians and military advisors became increasingly interested in making contact with the Communists in order to coordinate attacks on the Japanese. In June 1944, Chiang Kai-shek agreed to allow an American military observation group, known as the "Dixie mission", to travel to Yan'an. Mao and Zhou welcomed this mission and held numerous talks in the interest of gaining access to American aid. They pledged support for any future American military actions on Chinese soil, and attempted to convince the Americans that the CCP was committed to a united KMT-CCP government. In a gesture of goodwill, People's Liberation Army (PLA) guerrilla units were instructed to rescue Allied soldiers (who were mostly American airmen) held prisoner in China. By the time that the Americans left Yan'an, many had become convinced that the CCP was "a party seeking orderly democratic growth towards socialism", and the mission formally suggested greater cooperation between the CCP and the American military.
In 1944, Zhou wrote to General Joseph Stillwell, the American commander of the China Burma India war theater, attempting to convince Stillwell of the need for the Americans to supply the Communists, and of the Communist's desire for a united Chinese government after the war. Stillwell's open disenchantment with the Nationalist government in general, and with Chiang Kai-shek specifically, motivated President Franklin D. Roosevelt to remove him that same year, before Zhou's diplomacy could be effective. Stillwell's replacement, Patrick J. Hurley, was receptive to Zhou's appeals, but ultimately refused to align the American military with the CCP unless the Party made concessions to the KMT, which Mao and Zhou found unacceptable. Soon after Japan surrendered in 1945, Chiang invited Mao and Zhou to Chongqing to take part in an American-endorsed peace conference.
The Chongqing negotiations
There was widespread apprehension in Yan'an that the invitation from Chiang was a trap, and that the Nationalists were planning to assassinate or imprison the two instead. Zhou took control over Mao's security detail, and his subsequent inspections of their plane and lodgings found nothing. Throughout the trip to Chongqing, Mao refused to enter his accommodations until they had been personally inspected by Zhou. Mao and Zhou traveled together to receptions, banquets, and other public gatherings, and Zhou introduced him to numerous local celebrities and statesmen that he had befriended during his earlier stay in Chongqing.
During the forty-three days of negotiations, Mao and Chiang met eleven times to discuss the conditions of post-war China, while Zhou worked on confirming the details of the negotiations. In the end, the negotiations resolved nothing. Zhou's offer to withdraw the Red Army from southern China was ignored, and P.J. Hurley's ultimatum to incorporate the CCP into the KMT insulted Mao. After Mao returned to Yan'an on 10 October 1945, Zhou stayed behind to sort out the details of the conference's resolution. Zhou returned to Yan'an on 27 November 1945, when major skirmishes between the Communists and Nationalists made future negotiations pointless. Hurley himself subsequently announced his resignation, accusing members of the US embassy of undermining him and favoring the Communists.
The Marshall negotiations
After Harry S. Truman became President of the United States, he nominated General George C. Marshall as his special envoy to China on 15 December 1945. Marshall was charged with brokering a ceasefire between the CCP and KMT, and to influence both Mao and Chiang to abide by the Chongqing agreement, which both had signed. The top leadership within the CCP, including Zhou, viewed Marshall's nomination as a positive development, and hoped that Marshall would be a more flexible negotiator than Hurley had been. Zhou arrived in Chongqing to negotiate with Marshall on 22 December.
The first phase of talks went smoothly. Zhou represented the Communists, Marshall represented the Americans, and Zhang Qun (later replaced by Zhang Zhizhong) represented the KMT. In January 1946 both sides agreed to cease hostilities, and to reorganize their armies on the principle of separating the army from political parties. Zhou signed these agreements in the knowledge that neither side would be able to implement these changes. Chiang delivered a speech promising political freedom, local autonomy, free elections, and the release of political prisoners. Zhou welcomed Chiang's statements and expressed his opposition to civil war.
The leadership of the CCP viewed these agreements optimistically. On 27 January 1946 the CCP Secretariat appointed Zhou as one of eight leaders to participate in a future coalition government (other leaders included Mao, Liu Shaoqi, and Zhu De). It was suggested that Zhou be nominated as China's vice president. Mao expressed a desire to visit the United States, and Zhou received orders to manipulate Marshall in order to advance the peace process.
Marshall's negotiations soon deteriorated, as neither the KMT nor the CCP were willing to sacrifice any of the advantages that they had gained, to de-politicize their armies, or to sacrifice any degree of autonomy in areas their side controlled. Military clashes in Manchuria became increasingly frequent in the spring and summer of 1946, eventually forcing Communist forces to retreat after a few major battles. Government armies increased their attacks in other parts of China.
On 3 May 1946, Zhou and his wife left Chongqing for Nanjing, where the Nationalist capital returned. Negotiations deteriorated, and on 9 October Zhou informed Marshall that he no longer had the confidence of the CCP. On 11 October Nationalist troops seized the Communist city of Zhangjiakou in northern China. Chiang, confident in his ability to defeat the Communists, called the National Assembly into session without the participation of the CCP and ordered it to draft a constitution on 15 November. On 16 November Zhou held a press conference, in which he condemned the KMT for "tearing up the agreements from the political consultative conference". On 19 November Zhou and the entire CCP delegation left Nanjing for Yan'an.
Resumption of Civil War
Military strategist and intelligence chief
Following the failure of negotiations, the Chinese Civil War resumed in earnest. Zhou turned his focus from diplomatic to military affairs, while retaining a senior interest in intelligence work. Zhou worked directly under Mao as his chief aide, as the vice chairman of the Military Commission of the Central Committee, and as the general chief of staff. As the head of the Urban Work Committee of the Central Committee, an agency established to coordinate work inside KMT-controlled areas, Zhou continued to direct underground activities.
A superior force of Nationalist troops captured Yan'an in March 1947, but Zhou's intelligence agents (primarily Xiong Xianghui) were able to provide Yan'an's commanding general, Peng Dehuai, with details of the KMT army's troop strength, distribution, positions, air cover, and dates of deployment. This intelligence allowed Communist forces to avoid major battles and to engage Nationalist forces in a protracted campaign of guerrilla warfare that eventually led to Peng achieving a series of major victories. By February 1948 over half the KMT troops in the northwest were either defeated or exhausted. On 4 May 1948 Peng captured 40,000 army uniforms and over a million pieces of artillery. By January 1949 Communist forces seized Beijing and Tianjin, and were firmly in control of north China.
On 21 January 1949 Chiang stepped down as president of the Nationalist government and was succeeded by General Li Zongren. On 1 April 1949 Li began a series of peace negotiations with a six-member CCP delegation. The CCP delegates were led by Zhou Enlai, and the KMT delegates were led by Zhang Zhizhong.
Zhou began the negotiations by asking: "Why did you go to Xikou (where Chiang had retired) to see Chiang Kai-shek before leaving Nanjing?" Zhang responded that Chiang still had power, even though he had technically retired, and that his consent would be needed to finalize any agreement. Zhou responded that the CCP would not accept a bogus peace dictated by Chiang, and asked whether Zhang had come with the necessary credentials to implement the terms desired by the CCP. Negotiations continued until 15 April, when Zhou produced a "final version" of a "draft agreement for internal peace", which was essentially an ultimatum to accept CCP demands. The KMT government did not respond after five days, signaling that it was not prepared to accept Zhou's demands.
On 21 April Mao and Zhou issued an "order to the army for country-wide advance". PLA troops captured Nanjing on 23 April, and captured Li's stronghold of Guangdong in October, forcing Li to go into exile in America. In December 1949 PLA troops captured Chengdu, the last KMT-controlled city on mainland China, forcing Chiang to evacuate to Taiwan.
PRC diplomat and statesman
Diplomatic situation of the PRC in 1949
By the early 1950s, China's international influence was extremely low. By the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, China's pretentions of universalism had been shattered by a string of military defeats and incursions by Europeans and Japanese. By the end of Yuan Shikai's reign and the subsequent Warlord Era, China's international prestige had declined to "almost nothing". In World War II, China's effective role was sometimes questioned by other Allied leaders. The 1950–1953 Korean War greatly exacerbated China's international position by fixing the United States in a position of animosity, ensuring that Taiwan would remain outside of PRC control and that the PRC would remain outside of the United Nations for the foreseeable future.
Following the establishment of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949, Zhou was appointed both Premier of the Government Administration Council (later replaced by the State Council) and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Through the coordination of these two offices and his position as a member of the five-man standing committee of the Politburo, Zhou became the architect of early PRC foreign policy, presenting China as a new, yet responsible member of the international community. By the early 1950s, Zhou was an experienced negotiator and was respected as a senior revolutionary within China.
Zhou's earliest efforts to improve the prestige of the PRC involved recruiting prominent Chinese politicians, capitalists, intellectuals, and military leaders who were not technically affiliated with the CCP. Zhou was able to convince Zhang Zhizhong to accept a position inside the PRC in 1949, after Zhou's underground network successfully escorted Zhang's family to Beijing. All of the other members of the KMT delegation that Zhou had negotiated with in 1949 accepted similar terms.
Sun Yat-sen's widow, Soong Ching-ling, who was estranged from her family and who had opposed the KMT for many years, readily joined the PRC in 1949. Huang Yuanpei, a prominent industrialist who had refused offers of a government post for many years, was persuaded to accept a position as vice premier in the new government. Fu Zuoyi, the KMT commander who had surrendered the Beijing garrison in 1948, was persuaded to join the PLA, and to accept a position as the minister of water conservation.
Diplomacy with India
Zhou's first diplomatic successes came as the result of successfully pursuing a warm relationship, based on mutual respect, with India's first post-independence prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Through his diplomacy, Zhou managed to persuade India to accept China's occupation of Tibet in 1950 and 1951. India was later persuaded to act as a neutral mediator between China and the United States during the many difficult phases of the negotiations settling the Korean War.
The Korean War
When the Korean War broke out on 25 June 1950, Zhou was in the process of demobilizing half of the PLA's 5.6 million soldiers, under the direction of the Central Committee. Zhou and Mao discussed the possibility of American intervention with Kim Il-sung in May, and urged Kim to be cautious if he was to invade and conquer South Korea, but Kim refused to take these warnings seriously. On 28 June 1950, after the United States pushed through a UN resolution condemning North Korean aggression and sent the Seventh Fleet to "neutralize" the Taiwan Strait, Zhou criticized both the UN and US initiatives as "armed aggression on Chinese territory."
Although Kim's early success led him to predict that he would win the war by August, Chinese leaders were more pessimistic. Zhou did not share Kim's confidence that the war would end quickly, and became increasingly apprehensive that the United States would intervene. To counter the possibility of an American invasion into North Korea or China, Zhou secured a Soviet commitment to have the USSR support Chinese forces with air cover, and deployed 260,000 Chinese soldiers along the North Korean border, under the command of Gao Gang, but they were strictly ordered not to move into North Korea or engage UN or USA forces unless they engaged themselves. Zhou commanded Chai Chengwen to conduct a topographical survey of Korea, and directed Lei Yingfu, Zhou's military advisor in North Korea, to analyze the military situation there. Lei concluded that MacArthur would most likely attempt a landing at Incheon.
On 15 September 1950 MacArthur landed at Incheon, met little resistance, and captured Seoul on 25 September. Bombing raids destroyed most North Korean tanks and much of its artillery. North Korean troops, instead of withdrawing north, rapidly disintegrated. On 30 September, Zhou warned the United States that "the Chinese people will not tolerate foreign aggression, nor will they supinely tolerate seeing their neighbors being savagely invaded by imperialists."
On 1 October, on the first anniversary of the PRC, South Korean troops crossed the Thirty-Eighth Parallel into North Korea. Stalin refused to become directly involved in the war, and Kim sent a frantic appeal to Mao to reinforce his army. On 2 October, the Chinese leadership continued an emergency meeting at Zhongnanhai to discuss whether China should send military aid, and these talks continued until 6 October. At the meeting, Zhou was one of the few firm supporters of Mao's position that China should send military aid, regardless of the strength of American forces. With the endorsement of Peng Dehuai, the meeting concluded with a resolution to send military forces to Korea.
In order to enlist Stalin's support, Zhou traveled to Stalin's summer resort on the Black Sea on 10 October. Stalin initially agreed to send military equipment and ammunition, but warned Zhou that the USSR's air force would need two or three months to prepare any operations and no ground troops were to be sent. In a subsequent meeting, Stalin told Zhou that he would only provide China with equipment on a credit basis, and that the Soviet air force would only operate over Chinese airspace after an undisclosed period of time. Stalin did not agree to send either military equipment or air support until March 1951.
Immediately on his return to Beijing on 18 October 1950, Zhou met with Mao Zedong, Peng Dehuai, and Gao Gang, and the group ordered the 200,000 Chinese troops along the border to enter North Korea, which they did on 25 October. After consulting with Stalin, on 13 November, Mao appointed Zhou the overall commander of the People's Volunteer Army, a special unit of the People's Liberation Army, China's armed forces that would intervene in the Korean conflict and coordinator of the war effort, with Peng as field commander of the PVA. Orders given by Zhou to the PVA were delivered in the name of the Central Military Commission.
By June 1951, the war had reached a stalemate around the Thirty-eighth Parallel, and the two sides agreed to negotiate an armistice. Zhou directed the truce talks, which began on 10 July. Zhou chose Li Kenong and Qiao Guanhua to head the Chinese negotiating team. The negotiations proceeded for two years before reaching a ceasefire agreement in July 1953, formally signed at Panmunjom.
The Korean War was Zhou's last military assignment. In 1952, Peng Dehuai succeeded Zhou in managing the Central Military Commission (which Zhou had headed since 1947). In 1956, after the eighth Party Congress, Zhou formally relinquished his post in the Military Commission and focused on his work in the Standing Committee, the State Council, and on foreign affairs.
Diplomacy with China's communist neighbors
After Stalin died on 5 March 1953, Zhou left for Moscow and attended Stalin's funeral four days later. Mao, curiously, decided not to travel to Moscow, possibly because no senior Soviet politician had yet travelled to Beijing, or because Stalin had rejected an offer to meet with Mao in 1948 (nevertheless, a huge memorial service in honor of Stalin was held in Beijing's Tiananmen Square with Mao and hundreds of thousands more in attendance). While in Moscow, Zhou was notably received with considerable respect by Soviet officials, being permitted to stand with the USSR's new leaders—Vyacheslav Molotov, Nikita Khrushchev, Georgi Malenkov, and Lavrentiy Beria—instead of with the other "foreign" dignitaries who attended. With these four leaders, Zhou walked directly behind the gun carriage bearing Stalin's coffin. Zhou's diplomatic efforts on his travel to Moscow were rewarded shortly after when, in 1954, Khrushchev himself visited Beijing to take part in the fifth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic.
Throughout the 1950s, Zhou worked to tighten economic and political relations between China and other Communist states, coordinating China's foreign policy with Soviet policies promoting solidarity among political allies. In 1952, Zhou signed an economic and cultural agreement with the Mongolian People's Republic, giving de facto recognition of the independence of what had been known as "Outer Mongolia" in Qing times. Zhou also worked to conclude an agreement with Kim Il-sung in order to help the postwar reconstruction of North Korea's economy. Pursuing the goals of peaceful diplomacy with China's neighbors, Zhou held amicable talks with Burma's prime minister, U Nu, and promoted China's efforts to send supplies to Ho Chi Minh's Vietnamese rebels known as the Vietminh.
The Geneva Conference
In April 1954, Zhou traveled to Switzerland to attended the Geneva Conference, convened to settle the ongoing Franco-Vietnamese War. His patience and shrewdness were credited with assisting the major powers involved (the Soviets, French, Americans, and North Vietnamese) to iron out the agreement ending the conflict. According to the negotiated peace, French Indochina was to be partitioned into Laos, Cambodia, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. Elections were agreed to be called within two years to create a coalition government in a united Vietnam, and the Vietminh agreed to end their guerilla activities in South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
During one early meeting in Geneva, Zhou found himself in the same room with the staunchly anti-Communist American secretary of state, John Foster Dulles. After Zhou politely offered to shake his hand, Dulles rudely turned his back and walked out of the room, saying "I cannot". Zhou was interpreted by onlookers as turning this moment of possible humiliation into a small victory by giving only a small, "Gallic-style" shrug to this behaviour. Zhou was equally effective in countering Dulles' insistence that China not be given a seat at the sessions. Furthering the impression of Chinese urbanity and civility, Zhou had lunch with British actor Charlie Chaplin, who had been living in Switzerland since being blacklisted in the United States for his radical politics.
The Asian–African Conference
In 1955, Zhou was a prominent participant in the Asian–African Conference held in Indonesia. The conference in Bandung was a meeting of twenty-nine African and Asian states, organized by Indonesia, Burma (Myanmar), Pakistan, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and India, and was called largely to promote Afro-Asian economic and cultural cooperation and to oppose colonialism or neocolonialism by either the United States or the Soviet Union in the Cold War. At the conference, Zhou skillfully gave the conference a neutral stance that made the United States appear as a serious threat to the peace and stability of the region. Zhou complained that, while China was working towards "world peace and the progress of mankind", "aggressive circles" within the United States were actively aiding the Nationalists in Taiwan and planning to rearm the Japanese. He was widely quoted for his remark that "the population of Asia will never forget that the first atom bomb was exploded on Asian soil." With the support of its most prestigious participants, the conference produced a strong declaration in favour of peace, the abolition of nuclear arms, general arms reduction, and the principle of universal representation at the United Nations.
On his way to the Bandung conference, an assassination attempt was made against Zhou when a bomb was planted on the Air India plane Kashmir Princess, chartered for Zhou's trip from Hong Kong to Jakarta. Zhou avoided the attempt when he changed planes at the last minute, but all 11 of the flight's other passengers were killed, with only three crew members surviving the crash. A recent study has blamed the attempt on "one of the intelligence agencies of the KMT." Journalist Joseph Trento has also alleged that there was a second attempt on Zhou's life at the Bandung conference involving "a bowl of rice poisoned with a slow-acting toxin."
According to one account based on recent research, Zhou found out about the bomb on the Kashmir Princess after being warned of the plot by his own intelligence officers and did not attempt to stop it because he viewed those that died as disposable: low-level cadres and international journalists. After the crash, Zhou used the incident to warn the British about the KMT intelligence operatives active in Hong Kong and pressured Great Britain to disable the Nationalist intelligence network operating there (with himself playing a support role). He hoped that the incident would improve Britain's relationship with the PRC, and damage Britain's relationship with the ROC. The official explanation for Zhou's absence on the flight, however, remains that Zhou was forced to change his schedule due to having had surgery for appendicitis.
After the Bandung conference, China's international political situation began to gradually improve. With the help of many of the nonaligned powers who had taken part in the conference, the US-backed position economically and politically boycotting the PRC began to erode, despite continuing American pressure to follow its direction. In 1971 the PRC gained China's seat at the United Nations.
Position on Taiwan
When the PRC was founded on 1 October 1949, Zhou notified all governments that any countries wishing to have diplomatic contact with the PRC must end their relationship with the leaders of the former regime on Taiwan, and support the PRC's claim to China's seat in the United Nations. This was the first foreign policy document issued by the new government. By 1950 the PRC was able to gain diplomatic relationships with other communist countries and with thirteen non-communist countries, but talks with most Western governments were unsuccessful.
Zhou emerged from the Bandung conference with a reputation as a flexible and open-minded negotiator. Recognizing that the United States would back the de facto independence of ROC-controlled Taiwan with military force, Zhou persuaded his government to end the shelling of Quemoy and Matsu, and to search for a diplomatic alternative to the confrontation instead. In a formal announcement in May 1955, Zhou declared that the PRC would "strive for the liberation of Taiwan by peaceful means so far as it is possible." Whenever the question of Taiwan was raised with foreign statesmen, Zhou argued that Taiwan was part of China, and that the resolution of the conflict with the Taiwan authorities was an internal matter.
In 1958 the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs was passed to Chen Yi, a general with little prior diplomatic experience. After Zhou resigned his office in Foreign Affairs, the PRC diplomatic corps was reduced dramatically. Some were transferred to various cultural and educational departments to replace leading cadres who had been labelled "rightists" and sent to work in labour camps.
The Shanghai communique
By the early 1970s, Sino-American relations had begun to improve. Mao's workers in the petroleum industry, one of China's few growing economic sectors at the time, advised the Chairman that, in order to consider growth at levels desired by the Party's leadership, large imports of American technology and technical expertise were essential. In January 1970, the Chinese invited the American ping-pong team to tour China, initiating an era of "ping-pong diplomacy".
In 1971, Zhou Enlai met secretly with President Nixon's security advisor, Henry Kissinger, who had flown to China to prepare for a meeting between Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong. During the course of these meetings, the United States agreed to allow the transfer of American money to China (presumably from relatives in the United States), to allow American-owned ships to conduct trade with China (under foreign flags), and to allow Chinese exports into the United States for the first time since the Korean War. At the time, these negotiations were considered so sensitive that they were concealed from the American public, the State Department, the American secretary of state, and all foreign governments.
On the morning of 21 February 1972, Richard Nixon arrived in Beijing, where he was greeted by Zhou, and later met with Mao Zedong. The diplomatic substance of Nixon's visit was resolved on 28 February, in the Shanghai Communique, which summarized both sides' positions without attempting to resolve them. The "US side" reaffirmed the American position that America's involvement in the ongoing Vietnam War did not constitute "outside intervention" in Vietnam's affairs, and restated its commitment to "individual freedom", and pledged continued support for South Korea. The "Chinese Side" stated that "wherever there is oppression, there is resistance", that "all foreign troops should be withdrawn to their own countries", and that Korea should be unified according to the demands of North Korea. Both sides agreed to disagree on the status of Taiwan. The closing sections of the Shanghai Communique encouraged further diplomatic, cultural, economic, journalistic, and scientific exchanges, and endorsed both sides' intentions to work towards "the relaxation of tensions in Asia and the world." The resolutions of the Shanghai Communique represented a major policy shift for both the United States and China.
The Great Leap Forward
In 1958, Mao Zedong began the Great Leap Forward, aimed at increasing China's production levels in industry and agriculture with unrealistic targets. As a popular and practical administrator, Zhou maintained his position through the Leap. Zhou has been described by at least one historian as the "midwife" of the Great Leap Forward, turning Mao's theory into reality and in the process causing a "minimum of 45 million" deaths.
By the early 1960s, Mao's prestige was not as high as it had once been. Mao's economic policies in the 1950s had failed, and he had developed a lifestyle that was increasingly out of touch with many of his oldest colleagues. Among the activities that seemed contrary to his popular image were the swims in his private pool in Zhongnanhai, his many villas around China that he would travel to on a private train, his private, book-lined study, and the companionship of an ever-changing succession of enthusiastic young women whom he met either on weekly dances in Zhongnanhai or on his journeys by train. The combination of his personal eccentricities and public policy failures produced criticism from such veteran revolutionaries as Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun, and Zhou Enlai, who seemed less and less to share an enthusiasm for his presence or his vision of continuous revolutionary struggle.
The Cultural Revolution
Initial efforts of Mao and Lin
To improve his image and power, Mao, with the help of Lin Biao, undertook a number of public propaganda efforts. Among the efforts of Mao and Lin to improve Mao's image in the early 1960s were Lin's publication of the forged Diary of Lei Feng and his compilation of Quotations from Chairman Mao. The last and most successful of these efforts was the Cultural Revolution.
Whatever its other causes, the Cultural Revolution, declared in 1966, was overtly pro-Maoist, and gave Mao the power and influence to purge the Party of his political enemies at the highest levels of government. Along with closing China's schools and universities, its exhortations of young Chinese to destroy old buildings, temples, and art, and to attack their "revisionist" teachers, school administrators, party leaders, and parents. After the Cultural Revolution was announced, many of the most senior members of the CCP who had shared Zhou's hesitation in following Mao's direction, including President Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, were removed from their posts almost immediately; and, with their families, subjected to mass criticism and humiliation.
Soon after they had been removed, Zhou argued that President Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping "should be allowed to come back to work", but this was opposed by Mao, Lin Biao, Kang Sheng and Chen Boda. Chen Boda even suggested that Zhou himself might be "considered counter-revolutionary" if he did not toe the Maoist line. Following the threats that he would share in the fate of his comrades if he did not support Mao, Zhou ceased his criticisms and began to work more closely with the Chairman and his clique.
Zhou gave his backing to the establishment of radical Red Guard organizations in October, 1966 and joined Chen Boda and Jiang Qing against what they considered "leftist" and "rightist" Red Guard factions. This opened the way for attacks on Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, and Tao Zhu in December 1966 and January 1967. By September 1968, Zhou candidly described his strategy for political survival to Japanese LDP parliamentarians visiting Beijing: "one’s personal opinions should advance or beat a retreat according to the direction of the majority." When he was accused of being less than enthusiastic in following Mao's leadership, he accused himself of "poor understanding" of Mao's theories, giving the appearance of compromising with forces that he secretly loathed and referred to in private as his "inferno". Following the logic of political survival, Zhou worked to aid Mao, and restricted his criticisms to private conversations.
Although Zhou escaped being directly persecuted, he was not able to save many of those closest to him from having their lives destroyed by the Cultural Revolution. Sun Weishi, Zhou's adopted daughter, died in 1968 after seven months of torture and imprisonment by Maoist Red Guards. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Sun's plays were re-staged as a way of criticizing the Gang of Four, whom many thought were responsible for her death.
Throughout the next decade, Mao largely developed policies while Zhou carried them out, attempting to moderate some of the excesses of the Cultural Revolution (such as preventing Beijing from being renamed "East Is Red City" and the Chinese guardian lions in front of Tian'anmen Square from being replaced with statues of Mao). Despite his best efforts, the inability to prevent many of the events of the Cultural Revolution were a great blow to Zhou. Over the last decade of his life, Zhou's ability to implement Mao's policies and keep the nation afloat during periods of adversity was so great that his practical importance alone was sufficient to save him (with Mao's assistance) whenever Zhou became politically threatened. At the latest stages of the Cultural Revolution, in 1975, Zhou pushed for the "Four Modernizations" in order to undo the damage caused by the Mao's policies.
During the later stages of the Cultural Revolution, Zhou became a target of political campaigns orchestrated by Chairman Mao and the Gang of Four. The "Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius" campaign of 1973 and 1974 was directed at Premier Zhou because he was viewed as one of the Gang's primary political opponents. In 1975, Zhou's enemies initiated a campaign named "Criticizing Song Jiang, Evaluating the Water Margin", which encouraged the use of Zhou as an example of a political loser.
Death and reactions
Illness and death
According to the recent biography of Zhou by Gao Wenqian, Zhou was first diagnosed with bladder cancer in November 1972. Zhou's medical team reported that with treatment he had an 80 to 90 percent chance of recovery, but medical treatment for the highest ranking party members had to be approved by Mao. Mao ordered that Zhou and his wife should not be told of the diagnosis, no surgery should be performed, and no further examinations should be given. By 1974, Zhou was experiencing significant bleeding in his urine. After pressure by other Chinese leaders who had learned of Zhou's condition, Mao finally ordered a surgical operation to be performed in June 1974, but the bleeding returned a few months later, indicating metastasis of the cancer into other organs. A series of operations over the next year and a half failed to check the progress of the cancer. Zhou continued to conduct work during his stays in the hospital, with Deng Xiaoping, as the First Deputy Premier, handling most of the important State Council matters. His last major public appearance was at the first meeting of the 4th National People's Congress on 13 January 1975, where he presented the government's work report. He then fell out of the public eye for more medical treatment. Zhou Enlai died from cancer at 09:57 on 8 January 1976, aged 77.
After Zhou's death, Mao issued no statements acknowledging Zhou's achievements or contributions and sent no condolences to Zhou's widow, herself a senior Party leader. Mao forbade his staff from wearing black mourning armbands. Whether or not Mao would have attended Zhou's funeral, which was held in the Great Hall of the People, Mao himself was in very poor health to do so in any event. Mao did however send a wreath to the funeral.
Instead, Mao attacked a proposal to have Zhou publicly declared a great Marxist, and rejected a request that he make a brief appearance at Zhou's funeral, instructing his nephew, Mao Yuanxin, to explain that he could not attend because doing so would be seen as a public admission that he was being forced to "rethink the Cultural Revolution", as Zhou's later years had been closely associated with reversing and moderating its excesses. Mao worried that public expressions of mourning would later be directed against him and his policies, and backed the "five no's" campaign to suppress public expressions of mourning for Zhou after the late Premier's death.
Whatever Mao's opinion of Zhou may have been, there was general mourning among the public. Foreign correspondents reported that Beijing, shortly after Zhou's death, looked like a ghost town. There was no burial ceremony, as Zhou had willed his ashes to be scattered across the hills and rivers of his hometown, rather than stored in a ceremonial mausoleum. With Zhou gone, it became clear how the Chinese people had revered him, and how they had viewed him as a symbol of stability in an otherwise chaotic period of history. Zhou's death also brought condolences from nations around the world.
Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping delivered the eulogy at Zhou's state funeral on 15 January 1976. Although much of his speech echoed the wording of an official statement by the Central Committee immediately following Zhou's death or consisted of a meticulous description of Zhou's remarkable political career, near the end of the eulogy he offered a personal tribute to Zhou's character, speaking from the heart while observing the rhetoric demanded of ceremonial state occasions. Referring to Zhou, Deng stated that:
He was open and aboveboard, paid attention to the interests of the whole, observed Party discipline, was strict in "dissecting" himself and good at uniting the mass of cadres, and upheld the unity and solidarity of the Party. He maintained broad and close ties with the masses and showed boundless warmheartedness towards all comrades and the people.... We should learn from his fine style – being modest and prudent, unassuming and approachable, setting an example by his conduct, and living in a plain and hard-working way. We should follow his example of adhering to the proletarian style and opposing the bourgeois style of life
Spence believed this statement was interpreted at the time as a subtle criticism of Mao and the other leaders of the Cultural Revolution, who could not possibly be viewed or praised as being "open and aboveboard", "good at uniting the mass of cadres", for displaying "warmheartedness", or for modesty, prudence, or approachability. Regardless of Deng's intentions, the Gang of Four, and later Hua Guofeng, increased the persecution of Deng shortly after he delivered this eulogy.
Suppression of public mourning
After Zhou's single official memorial ceremony on 15 January, Zhou's political enemies within the Party officially prohibited any further displays of public mourning. The most notorious regulations prohibiting Zhou from being honoured were the poorly observed and poorly enforced "five nos": no wearing black armbands, no mourning wreaths, no mourning halls, no memorial activities, and no handing out photos of Zhou. Years of resentment over the Cultural Revolution, the public persecution of Deng Xiaoping (who was strongly associated with Zhou in public perception), and the prohibition against publicly mourning Zhou became associated with each other shortly after Zhou's death, leading to popular discontent against Mao and his apparent successors (notably Hua Guofeng and the Gang of Four).
Official attempts to enforce the "five nos" included removing public memorials and tearing down posters commemorating his achievements. On 25 March 1976, a leading Shanghai newspaper, Wenhui Bao, published an article stating that Zhou was "the capitalist roader inside the Party [who] wanted to help the unrepentant capitalist roader [Deng] regain his power". This and other propaganda efforts to attack Zhou's image only strengthened the public's attachment to Zhou's memory. Between March and April 1976, a forged document circulated in Nanjing that claimed itself to be Zhou Enlai's last will. It attacked Jiang Qing and praised Deng Xiaoping, and was met with increased propaganda efforts by the government.
The Tiananmen incident
Within several months after the death of Zhou, one of the most extraordinary spontaneous events in the history of the PRC occurred. On 4 April 1976, at the eve of China's annual Qingming Festival, in which Chinese traditionally pay homage to their deceased ancestors, thousands of people gathered around the Monument to the People's Heroes in Tiananmen Square to commemorate the life and death of Zhou Enlai. On this occasion, the people of Beijing honoured Zhou by laying wreaths, banners, poems, placards, and flowers at the foot of the Monument. The most obvious purpose of this memorial was to eulogize Zhou, but Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, and Yao Wenyuan were also attacked for their alleged evil actions against the Premier. A small number of slogans left at Tiananmen even attacked Mao himself, and his Cultural Revolution.
Up to two million people may have visited Tiananmen Square on 4 April. First-hand observations of the events in Tiananmen Square on 4 April report that all levels of society, from the poorest peasants to high-ranking PLA officers and the children of high-ranking cadres, were represented in the activities. Those who participated were motivated by a mixture of anger over the treatment of Zhou, revolt against Mao and his policies, apprehension for China's future, and defiance of those who would seek to punish the public for commemorating Zhou's memory. There is nothing to suggest that events were coordinated from any position of leadership: it was a spontaneous demonstration reflecting widespread public sentiment. Deng Xiaoping was notably absent, and he instructed his children to avoid being seen at the square.
On the morning of 5 April, crowds gathering around the memorial arrived to discover that it had been completely removed by the police during the night, angering them. Attempts to suppress the mourners led to a violent riot, in which police cars were set on fire and a crowd of over 100,000 people forced its way into several government buildings surrounding the square.
By 6:00 pm, most of the crowd had dispersed, but a small group remained until 10:00 pm, when a security force entered Tiananmen Square and arrested them. (The reported figure of those arrested was 388 people, but was rumored to be far higher.) Many of those arrested were later sentenced to "people's trial" at Peking University, or were sentenced to prison work camps. Incidents similar to those which occurred in Beijing on 4 and 5 April occurred in Zhengzhou, Kunming, Taiyuan, Changchun, Shanghai, Wuhan, and Guangzhou. Possibly because of his close association with Zhou, Deng Xiaoping was formally stripped of all positions "inside and outside the Party" on 7 April, following this "Tiananmen Incident".
After ousting Hua Guofeng and assuming control of China in 1980, Deng Xiaoping released those arrested in the Tiananmen Incident as part of a broader effort to reverse the effects of the Cultural Revolution.
By the end of his lifetime, Zhou was widely viewed as representing moderation and justice in Chinese popular culture. Since his death, Zhou Enlai has been regarded as a skilled negotiator, a master of policy implementation, a devoted revolutionary, and a pragmatic statesman with an unusual attentiveness to detail and nuance. He was also known for his tireless and dedicated work ethic, and his unusual charm and poise in public. He was reputedly the last Mandarin bureaucrat in the Confucian tradition. Zhou's political behaviour should be viewed in light of his political philosophy as well as his personality. To a large extent, Zhou epitomized the paradox inherent in a Communist politician with traditional Chinese upbringing: at once conservative and radical, pragmatic and ideological, possessed by a belief in order and harmony as well as a faith, which he developed very gradually over time, in the progressive power of rebellion and revolution.
Though a firm believer in the Communist ideal on which the People's Republic was founded, Zhou is widely believed to have moderated the excesses of Mao's radical policies within the limits of his power. It has been assumed that he protected imperial and religious sites of cultural significance (such as the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet) from the Red Guards, and shielded many top-level leaders, including Deng Xiaoping, as well as many officials, academics and artists from purges. Deng Xiaoping was quoted as saying Zhou was "'sometimes forced to act against his conscience in order to minimize the damage" stemming from Mao's policies.
While many earlier Chinese leaders today have been subjected to criticism inside China, Zhou's image has remained positive among contemporary Chinese. Many Chinese continue to venerate Zhou as possibly the most humane leader of the 20th century, and the CCP today promotes Zhou as a dedicated and self-sacrificing leader who remains a symbol of the Communist Party. Even historians who list Mao's faults generally attribute the opposite qualities to Zhou: Zhou was cultured where Mao was crude; consistent where Mao was unstable; stoic where Mao was paranoid.
However, recent academic criticism of Zhou has focused on his late relationship with Mao, and his political activities during the Cultural Revolution, arguing that the relationship between Zhou and Mao may have been more complex than is commonly portrayed. Zhou has been depicted as unconditionally submissive and loyal to Mao and his allies, going out of his way to support or permit the persecution of friends and relatives in order to avoid facing political condemnation himself. After the founding of the PRC, Zhou was unable or unwilling to protect the former spies that he had employed in the Chinese Civil War and the Second World War, who were persecuted for their wartime contacts with the enemies of the CCP. Early in the Cultural Revolution, he told Jiang Qing "From now on you make all the decisions, and I'll make sure they're carried out," and publicly declared that his old colleague, Liu Shaoqi, "deserved to die" for opposing Mao. In the effort to avoid being persecuted for opposing Mao, Zhou passively accepted the political persecution of many others, including his own brother.
A popular saying within China once compared Zhou to a budaoweng (a tumbler), which can imply that he was a political opportunist. Some observers have criticized him as being too diplomatic: avoiding clear stands in complex political situations and instead becoming ideologically elusive, ambiguous, and enigmatic. Several explanations have been offered to explain his elusiveness. Dick Wilson, the former chief editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review, writes that Zhou's only option "was to go on pretending to support the [Cultural Revolution] movement, while endeavoring to deflect its successes, blunt its mischief and stanch the wounds it was inflicting." This explanation for Zhou's elusiveness was also widely accepted by many Chinese after his death. Wilson also writes that Zhou "would have been hounded out of his position of influence, removed from control of the Government" were he to "make a stand and demand that Mao call off the campaign or bring the Red Guards to heel."
Zhou's involvement in the Cultural Revolution is thus defended by many on the grounds that he had no choice other than political martyrdom. Due to his influence and political ability, the entire government may have collapsed without his cooperation. Given the political circumstances of the last decade of Zhou's life, it is unlikely that he would have survived a purge without cultivating the support of Mao through active assistance. Tsoi Wing-Mui, a magazine editor in Hong Kong, speculated in her 2015 book The Secret Emotional Life of Zhou Enlai that Zhou may have been homosexual and feared "being ruined" if this was publicly revealed. Tsoi's claim is based on an entry in Zhou's diary of 1918 in which he said he suffered "terribly" thinking of a male friend.
Zhou received a great deal of praise from American statesmen who met him in 1971. Henry Kissinger wrote that he had been extremely impressed with Zhou's intelligence and character, describing him as "equally at home in philosophy, reminiscence, historical analysis, tactical probes, humorous repartee... [and] could display an extraordinary personal graciousness." Kissinger called Zhou "one of the two or three most impressive men I have ever met," stating that "his commands of facts, in particular his knowledge of American events and, for that matter, of my own background, was stunning." In his memoirs, Richard Nixon stated that he was impressed with Zhou's exceptional "brilliance and dynamism".
After coming to power, Deng Xiaoping may have overemphasized Zhou Enlai's achievements to distance the Communist Party from Mao's Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, both of which had seriously weakened the Party's prestige. Deng observed that Mao's disastrous policies could no longer represent the Party's finest hour, but that the legacy and character of Zhou Enlai could. Furthermore, Deng received credit for enacting successful economic policies that Zhou initially proposed. By actively associating itself with an already popular Zhou Enlai, Zhou's legacy may have been used (and possibly distorted) as a political tool of the Party after his death.
Zhou remains a widely commemorated figure in China today. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhou ordered his hometown of Huai'an not to transform his house into a memorial and not to keep up the Zhou family tombs. These orders were respected within Zhou's lifetime, but today his family home and traditional family school have been restored, and are visited by a large number of tourists every year. In 1998, Huai'an, in order to commemorate Zhou's one hundredth birthday, opened a vast commemorative park with a museum dedicated to his life. The park includes a reproduction of Xihuating, Zhou's living and working quarters in Beijing.
The city of Tianjin has established a museum to Zhou and his wife, and the city of Nanjing has erected a memorial commemorating Communist negotiations in 1946 with the Nationalist government which features a bronze statue of Zhou. Stamps commemorating the first anniversary of Zhou's death were issued in 1977, and in 1998 to commemorate his 100th birthday.
- History of the People's Republic of China
- Republic of China
- Chinese Civil War
- Second Sino-Japanese War
- Chiang Kai-shek
- Whampoa Military Academy
- Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary by Gao Wenqian
- Long March
- Mao Zedong
- Xian Incident
- Bandung Conference
- Geneva Conference
- Shanghai Communique
- Great Leap Forward
- Cultural Revolution
- Tiananmen Incident
- Former Residence of Zhou Enlai in Huai'an
- Former Residence of Zhou Enlai in Shanghai
- Kashmir Princess
- Lee 7
- Lee 6
- Lee (180 n7) cites a recent study that claims Zhou Panlong did not actually serve as county magistrate.
- During the Cultural Revolution, when "red" (poor) family background became essential for everything from college admission to government service, Zhou had to go back to his mother's mother whom he claimed was a farmer's daughter, to find a family member who qualified as "red" (Barnouin and Yu 11).
- Barnouin and Yu 9
- This is the reason for the adoption given in Gao (23). Lee (11) suggests that it was due to the belief that having a son could cure a father's illness.
- Lee 17, 21
- Barnouin and Yu 11
- Lee 16–17
- Zhou's father may have also been in Manchuria at this time, and Zhou may have lived with him for a while. Afterwards Zhou's contacts with his father diminished. He died in 1941. See Lee 19–21 for a discussion of Zhou's relationship with his father.
- Lee 25–26
- Barnouin and Yu 13–14
- Barnouin and Yu 14
- Boorman "Chang Po-ling" (101) calls him "one of the founders of modern education in China".
- Lee 39, 46
- Lee 43
- Lee 55 and 44
- Lee 77 and 152
- Barnouin and Yu 16
- Lee 64–66
- Lee 74
- Barnouin and Yu 18
- Lee 86 103
- Lee 89
- Barnouin and Yu 29–30
- Barnouin and Yu 21
- Boorman (332) makes the claim that Zhou attended Kawakami's lectures
- Lee 104
- Barnouin and Yu 22
- Lee 118–119
- Lee 125
- Lee 127–8
- Lee 133.
- Barnouin and Yu 23
- Lee 137
- Lee 138
- Lee 139
- Lee 152
- Barnouin and Yu 25
- Barnouin and Yu 26
- The date of this has been controversial. Most writers, such as Gao (41), now accept March 1921. Several of these cells were established in late 1920 and early 1921. The cells were organized before the Chinese Communist Party was established in July 1921, so there is some controversy over the membership status of cell members.
- Gao 40, Levine 150
- In addition to noting the uncertain status of cell members versus party members, Levine (151 n47) questions whether Zhou was at this point a "stalwart" Communist in his beliefs.
- Goebel, Anti-Imperial Metropolis, pp. 1-2.
- Lee 159
- Levine 169–172
- This description is based on Lee 161. Other sources give varying dates, places, and numbers of people.
- Barnouin and Yu 27
- Barnouin and Yu 28
- Barnouin and Yu 31
- Lee cites Zhou's last public activity in Europe as a Nationalist party farewell dinner on 24 July.
- Lee 165
- The conflicting evidence on Zhou's positions at Whampoa is summarized in Wilbur, Missionaries 196 n7. Another point of confusion is that Chou was later head of the Political Training Department. This was technically not part of Whampoa, but was a unit of the central government, responsible directly to the National Government Military Council (Wilbur, Revolution 33).
- Barnouin and Yu 32
- Wilbur, Nationalist 13–14
- Wilbur, Missionaries 238
- "Secretary of provincial committee" is according to Barnouin and Yu, 32. Other works give different dates and positions. His work in the Provincial Military Section probably came a little later, see Barnouin and Yu 35.
- For Chen Yi, see Boorman, "Chen Yi", 255. For the rest, see Weidenbaum 212–213
- Barnouin and Yu 35
- Hsu 47–48
- Wilbur Nationalist 20. As Wilbur notes, Russian advisors played important roles in these early campaigns.
- Boorman "Ch'en Chiung-ming" 179
- Wilbur Missionaries 203 n92
- Wilbur Missionaries 175
- Wilbur Missionaries 222
- Weidenbaum 233–235
- Barnouin and Yu, 33–34
- Wilbur Missionaries 244 has a detailed discussion of the section.
- Hsu 53
- Hsu 55–56
- Hsu 56
- Smith 228
- Smith 226
- Smith 227
- Spence 335
- Barnouin and Yu 37
- Hsu 58
- Hsu 61–64
- Barnoun and Yu 38
- Hsu 64
- Barnouin and Yu 40–41
- Whitson and Huang 39–40
- Barnouin and Yu 42
- Spence 386
- Whitson and Huang 40
- Barnouin and Yu 44
- Barnouin and Yu 44–45
- Barnouin and Yu 45
- Barnouin and Yu 45–46
- Barnouin and Yu 46
- Barnouin and Yu 47
- Barnouin and Yu 47–48
- Barnouin and Yu 48
- Barnouin and Yu 52
- Barnouin and Yu 49
- Barnouin and Yu 49–51
- Barnouin and Yu 51–52
- Whitson and Huang 57–58
- Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese Military History.
- Barnouin and Yu 52–55
- Wilson 51
- Barnouin and Yu 56
- Barnouin and Yu 57
- Barnouin and Yu 57–58
- Barnouin and Yu 58
- Barnouin and Yu 59
- Spence 402
- Barnouin and Yu 49–52
- Barnouin and Yu 59–60
- Barnouin and Yu 62
- Barnouin and Yu 64–65)
- Barnouin and Yu 65
- Spence 407
- Barnouin and Yu 67
- Spence 408
- Spence 409
- Barnouin and Yu 68
- Barnouin and Yu 71
- Barnouin and Yu 72
- Barnouin and Yu 72–73
- Barnouin and Yu 73–74
- Lee and Stephanowska 497
- Zhang 3
- Spence 688
- Barnouin and Yu 74
- Barnouin and Yu 74–75
- Barnouin and Yu 75–76
- Barnouin and Yu 124-124
- Barnouin and Yu 76–77
- Barnouin and Yu 77
- Barnouin and Yu 78
- Barnouin and Yu 77, 82–83
- Barnouin and Yu 82–87
- Barnouin and Yu 88
- Barnouin and Yu 89
- Barnouin and Yu 79–80
- Barnouin and Yu 91–95
- Barnouin and Yu 95–97
- Barnouin and Yu 97–100
- Barnouin and Yu 97–101
- Barnouin and Yu 101–104
- Barnouin and Yu 104–105
- Barnouin and Yu 105
- Barnouin and Yu 106
- Barnouin and Yu 106–107
- Barnouin and Yu 107–108
- Barnouin and Yu 108
- Barnouin and Yu 110–116
- Barnouin and Yu 117
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|Wikimedia Commons has media related to:|
|Wikiquote has quotations related to: Zhou Enlai|
- Zhou Enlai at the Internet Movie Database
- Works by or about Zhou Enlai in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Zhou Enlai Biography From Spartacus Educational
- Zhou Enlai, Stephan Landserger's Chinese Propaganda Pages
- The Mystery of Zhou Enlai by Jonathan Spence from The New York Review of Books
- The short film Interview with Zhou En Lai (1965) is available for free download at the Internet Archive
|New title||Premier of the People's Republic of China
|Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China
|Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
Vacant until 1978
|Party political offices|
|Head of the CPC Central United Front Department
|New title||Vice Chairman of the Communist Party of China
Served alongside: Chen Yun, Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Lin Biao
Vacant since 1971
|Vice Chairman of the Communist Party of China
Served alongside: Kang Sheng, Li Desheng, Wang Hongwen, Ye Jianying, Deng Xiaoping | <urn:uuid:dd79f2a9-df26-49de-9ef9-d1b342a22d18> | {
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