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After completing this chapter, students will be able to:
- Search for, request, and download weather station data from NCDC/NOAA.
- Manipulate data in a spreadsheet to produce graphs.
- Analyze graphs to interpret differences in climate temperatures in at least two locations.
- Compare multiple sets of time series data (daily or annual).
- Use equations in a spreadsheet to convert degrees Centigrade to degrees Fahrenheit.
This chapter introduces tools and techniques for examining temperature patterns for locations around the world, and for comparing these patterns to regional and global trends. Students investigate how local trends compare with regional and global trends. Two key questions that guide the chapter are, "Do patterns in some areas more closely match global patterns?" and "Do some areas serve as indicators of future global trends?"
The tool used for this analysis is Microsoft Excel. The data manipulation techniques in this chapter represent common skills used in business, accounting and finance, sales and marketing, science, engineering, and health care.
- Information on the National Climate Data Center (NCDC)
- NOAA's State of the Climate National overview report.
- National Climate Data Center (NCDC) Climate Monitoring site with links to global temperatures and U.S. temperatures and precipitation.
- NOAA's global trends related to temperature change.
- NASA's Earth Observatory Fact Sheet on Global Warming.
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's comprehensive Climate Change site.
- Why climate change matters at Climate Central.
- Information on the Global Surface Network.
It may help to work in small groups with each group assigned a particular state or U.S. region. This would facilitate greater coverage of the entire United States and could team novices with more experienced computer users.
The following National Science Education Standards are supported by this chapter:
8ASI1.3 Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data. The use of tools and techniques, including mathematics, will be guided by the question asked and the investigations students design. The use of computers for the collection, summary, and display of evidence is part of this standard. Students should be able to access, gather, store, retrieve, and organize data, using hardware and software designed for these purposes.
12ASI1.3 Use technology and mathematics to improve investigations and communications. A variety of technologies, such as hand tools, measuring instruments, and calculators, should be an integral component of scientific investigations. The use of computers for the collection, analysis, and display of data is also a part of this standard. Mathematics plays an essential role in all aspects of an inquiry. For example, measurement is used for posing questions, formulas are used for developing explanations, and charts and graphs are used for communicating results.
12ASI2.3 Scientists rely on technology to enhance the gathering and manipulation of data. New techniques and tools provide new evidence to guide inquiry and new methods to gather data, thereby contributing to the advance of science. The accuracy and precision of the data, and therefore the quality of the exploration, depends on the technology used.
GSOD Station list, data format and data used in this chapter.GSOD_station_list.txt ( 2.9MB Jan20 11) Over 9000 stations globally.
GSOD_data_description.txt ( 15kB Jan20 11) format and units of variables
BarrowGSOD.txt ( 3.2MB Jan18 11) full data file for all years at Barrow.
Global Surface Network station list, data format and data files used in this chapter.GSN_station_list.txt ( 36kB Jan20 11) Over 9000 stations globally.
GSN_monthly_data_documentation.txt ( 2kB Jan12 11) format and units of variables
BarrowGSN.txt (Text File 121kB Jan12 11) full data file for all years at Barrow.
Excel Files at progressive stages of Parts 2, 3, and 4.
Key West and Barrow GSOD data at the end of Part 4, Step 1.
keywest-GSOD.xls ( 4.4MB Jan17 11)
Text file of Key West GSN data used in Part 4, Step2.
keywestgsn.txt ( 69kB Jan18 11)
Key West GSN data at the end of Part 4, Step 2.
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Brachydactyly is a Medical Term For Shortened Hand Bones Associated With Pseudohypoparathyroidism.
Patients with Pseudohypoparathyroidism have shorter than average hands and fingers. Usually the middle finger sticks out noticeably above the rest. The pinky and thumb are approximately the same length on my hand. When I am asked to make a fist, it is noticed that the 3rd and 4th knuckles are not visible. The knuckles are replaced by dimples. The bone that creates a knuckle is there, it is just diminished.
Does Having a Small Hand Affect Day To Day Activities?
Every person is different, but for me, having a small hand does not usually hinder my daily activities too much. I can grasp anything from a hammer to a soda can, but sometimes I do lose my grip. On occasion I may have to use both my right and left hand to hold an extra large and heavy glass. The biggest complaint I have is when I need to buy winter hand gloves, or any hand gloves for that matter. Latex hand gloves are a challenge because one size does not fit all without modifications. I end up buying my winter hand gloves in the children’s glove department of the store because adult gloves do not fit me at all.
What If I Can’t Grasp Things Easily With My Hand?
Speak with your doctor about any difficulties you are having with hand grasp. Perhaps your doctor can refer you to a physical therapist to help with strengthening your hand grasp. It might mean your hand muscles are weakened, it might mean a problem with your hand joints. It can mean any number of problems with your hand. The best thing is to ask a professional because every hand problem is different.
Incoming search terms:
- brachydactyly pictures
- brachydactyly photos
- no knuckles on hand
- brachydactyly images
- pictures of brachydactyly
- dimpled knuckles
- why are my knuckles visible
- dimples in knuckles
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This storyboard does not have a description.
I can show you better than I can tell. You'll see.
I'll see since you need me to work on your crops.
I'm hear to to take you and your family back to your country for being illegal immigrants.
I told you.
Mr. Hog tell me why you started working at Mr.John's farm.
He gave me a deal, but when i started to slack he threatened my family and I so I would stay, but eventually he called the government on my family and me.
I'm sorry Mr.Hog but I have to send you back to your country, and Mr.John will be arrested for making you a slave to his own home.
Mr.John you are arrested for slavery of Mr. Hog and his family, and also for the threatening of his family.
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– Search for School-Safe, Creative Commons Photos! (It Even Cites for You!
– Easily Make and Share Great Looking Rubrics! | <urn:uuid:ed6d7b95-5977-491d-ae15-4f8a26ac9d2a> | {
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Indigenous leaders called on the European Union to not grant bigger access to its agricultural market until Brazilian president Bolsonaro refrains from deforesting the Amazonian rainforest and cutting back indigenous rights. The EU has a responsibility to preserve the environment for future generations.
Furthermore, one of the core values of the Union is respect for human rights – consequently the EU should do everything in its power to fight Bolsonaros harmful policies.
On 1st January 2019 far-right president Jair Bolsonaro took office in Brazil. He became known due to discriminatory statements concerning women, homosexuals and indigenous people. Indigenous communities are now worried about his plans to deforest the Amazonian rainforest and to cut back indigenous rights. Bolsonaro does not plan to comply with the Paris Agreement to reduce deforestation and limit greenhouse gas emissions. On the contrary, he plans a massive wave of deforestation and mining, also in reservations where indigenous peoples live. Indigenous lands make up almost 13 percent of the Brazilian territory. Bolsonaro’s massive deforestation plans effectively threatens indigenous territories and the livelihood of approximately 240 tribes. To prevent Bolsonaro from launching a cultural war against indigenous people a group of indigenous leaders called upon the EU to use the leverage it has in trade negotiations with Brazil. Similar demands were put forward by eight members of the European Parliament, claiming the EU should suspend negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement with Mercosur.
Brazil is the biggest player of Mercosur, a south-American trade bloc, which is currently negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU. The EU is Mercosur’s biggest trading partner and the largest part of Mercosur’s export to the EU are agricultural products such as beef and soybeans. Until now no final agreement on the FTA has been reached and questions regarding access to the agricultural market of the EU remain. Since Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America and would profit enormously from bigger access to the EU agricultural market the EU has considerable leverage to demand and enforce the protection of the Amazon rainforest and human rights.
The EU should negotiate bigger access to its market for Brazil, provided that Bolsonaro refrains from carrying on the massive deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, that he complies with Brazil’s Paris commitments and that he stops diminishing indigenous rights. French president Macron already called at the UN General Assembly “let’s sign no more trade agreements with powers that don’t respect the Paris Agreement”. Brazil is eager to conclude negotiations with the EU as it needs to rebuild its economy, currently recovering from its worst recession in history. Moreover, the country was shaken by political scandals involving corruption and declines in investments. The FTA will help Brazilian exports grow significantly.
The EU is not only the biggest foreign investor in Brazil, but also Brazil’s second-biggest trading partner and agricultural products are the products mostly traded between the EU and Brazil. If Bolsonaro goes through with his plans and the EU grants bigger access to its agricultural market, it would indirectly support the powerful Brazilian agricultural industries and Bolsonaro’s negationist policies towards human rights and climate. The EU should, on the contrary, support the protection of the Amazonian rainforest, which alone absorbs most of world’s CO2. As 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest are in Brazil Bolsonaro’s plans are likely to negatively affect a great part of the “world’s lungs”.
However, an EU-Mercosur Association Agreement remains desirable for the European Union. Due to the fact that EU exporters pay over 4 billion euros a year in tariffs to access the Mercosur market, an EU-Mercosur free trade agreement would be very beneficial for European economies since tariffs would be significantly reduced or abolished. The EU is exporting approximately 66 billion euros of goods and services to Mercosur each year and a FTA would likely double those figures. Another advantage would be regulatory and policy alignment, in particular through the inclusion and the effective enforcement of a Trade and sustainable development chapter which could be used to protect both human rights and the environment.
Certainly, the EU would profit from privileged access to a market comprising about 250 million customers for EU goods and services. Nevertheless, at the current state of play, social and environmental impacts could be disastrous. The EU should try to pursue a trade policy which effectively balances trade, human rights and environmental protection. Economic advantages should never be a reason to forego sustainability. Since the EU is a major player in world trade and its actions are giving direction for the whole world, it has a responsibility to preserve nature and livelihood for future generations. The EU should use its leverage not only to achieve better market access conditions for itself, but also to pursue climate and human rights agendas. To continue negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement with Mercosur without demanding protection for indigenous peoples and the environment would show the world that economic gain is valued higher than sustainability and human rights. | <urn:uuid:754d1456-e158-4396-8f16-4f35d6213cd7> | {
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The papers in this volume are products of a cooperative program between the Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), sponsored by the Government of Pakistan and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The focus of the program, the Coal Resources Exploration and Assessment Program (COALREAP), was to explore and assess Pakistan?s indigenous coal resources. As part of COALREAP, GSP and USGS geologists conducted regional geologic studies from 1988 to 1991 of the coal-bearing areas in the Potwar region of northern Pakistan. A reference section was selected from which to obtain faunal and floral analyses. The composite sections at Nammal Pass and Nammal Dam served as the basis for this regional reference.
Although this Bulletin 2078 is being released in 2007, the writing and technical reviews were completed in 1993, and the chapters reflect the work done until that time. During the long production process for the Bulletin, which ultimately resulted in the oversize plates being digitized, the scientific content of the chapters was not changed, and most reports published since 1993 were not cited. A change in the age of the Patala Formation is discussed below [in the full preface], but the age discussions and illustrations in the chapters were not updated.
Additional publication details
USGS Numbered Series
Regional Studies of the Potwar Plateau Area, Northern Pakistan | <urn:uuid:7b8bb8c4-14cb-47da-a61a-4e8b003b1f5d> | {
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Literary Term Of The Day!
The literary term of the day for today, Sept. 9 2008, is
“Allusion.” Merriam-Webster online provides this definition:
- : an implied or indirect reference especially in literature; also : the use of such references
- : the act of alluding to or hinting at something
Here’s a brief example of an allusion.
In Sarah Palin’s convention speech, the Vice-Presidential candidate ad-libbed this joke:
I love those hockey moms. You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.
Now, Barack Obama alluded to Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin by saying the following:
You see, Obama knows that his campaign has been in trouble ever since Sarah Palin gave her acceptance speech at the RNC convention. It was at the convention that Palin made the immensely popular and well-received “hockey mom” joke. In an attempt to make Palin look silly, Obama indirectly referenced, hinted at, i.e. he alluded to, her convention speech.
Does this make Obama sexist?
No. Palin mentioned the lipstick to which Obama alluded. It would only be sexist if Obama had somehow implied that Palin, as a woman, is unqualified for the job for that fact alone. He didn’t. But he obviously alluded to Palin with the “pig” comment. | <urn:uuid:79b00d9c-f899-4467-9ea6-7c7063028cde> | {
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Seventy percent of the Earth's surface is covered in water. Even so, clean, accessible water is an increasingly scarce commodity for many living creatures. Today, March 22, we salute the 13th annual United Nations-sponsored World Water Day (this year's theme is "Coping With Water Scarcity"). Here are four ways to celebrate the liquid that gives us life.
—The Editors (Email us)
A year ago, our own Dr. Extreme columnist, expedition doc Ken Kamler, wrote about the purifying potential of the Lifestraw—a light-blue water filtration device that is only slightly bigger than a normal straw and could save billions of lives. For only $2-$3, the Lifestraw works like any normal straw, but filters out the pathogens that cause waterborne illnesses such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery, and diarrhea—illnesses that account for roughly 6,000 deaths, mainly children, every day. Designed by the Dutch firm Vestergaard Frandsen, one Lifestraw can filter up to 700 liters (185 gallons), which is enough water to hydrate one thirsty human for one whole year. The best part? Donating a Lifestaw costs less than a latte.
New Yorkers have a lot to brag about: food, art, sports ... and amazing tasting tap water. Now, for one day (not coincidentally, World Water Day) The Tap Project asks that diners pay $1 for a glass of tap water at hundreds of participating New York City restaurants.
The money goes to UNICEF
and helps fund projects to bring safe drinking water to children all over the world. Everyone else gets a certain satisfaction while New Yorkers put money where their (loud) mouths are.
Jacques Yves Cousteau said: "We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one." Taking his wisdom of the Earth's interconnectedness, industrialist Jin Zidell started the Blue Planet Run
—a round-the-world relay to raise awareness for the need for improved access to safe drinking water.
Twenty runners, from all over the world, will cross 14,000-miles around the globe in 93 days, starting in New York City on June 1, 2007.www.blueplanetrun.org EAT:
"More has changed on the planet over the past fifty years than in all of history—and we are largely the agent of that change," said legendary oceanographer and explorer Sylvia Earle
(aka "Her Deepness") last week at the National Geographic Explorers Symposium in Washington D.C. The former chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Astmospheric Association explained that the world's water sources have reached a boiling point. The seas are warming and rising. Marine ecosystems are shifting. Over-fishing is emptying the oceans' bounty. What can you do? Plenty, but for starters: "Wild fish are bush meat," noted Earle. "Buy farm-raised fish instead."www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers-program/eir/searle.htmlSubscribe now and save! | <urn:uuid:693252c1-f6ee-4d22-aad7-b76903bfd1b8> | {
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Curacao is a heterogeneous community with many immigrants. Several foreign languages are spoken in Curacao. However, the official language used is Dutch. Dutch is the official language used for all public administration and legal affairs in the country. The majority of the people of Curacao speak Papiamentu. Papiamentu is a Portuguese Creole. In 1993, it was introduced as a language used in the primary level of education. The Papiamentu language is very musical and has a remarkable rhythm. This is due to the many languages and dialects that form its composition.
The statistics that was released in 2001 revealed that the Papiamentu language is spoken by almost 81.2% of the Curacao population. The Dutch language comes second with 8%, followed by Spanish with 4% and English, which is spoken by 2.9% people. Dutch is the official language of Curacao, a Dutch colony.
The Papiamentu language is a multifaceted Creole language based on different languages of Dutch, Portuguese, Arawak Indian, French, Spanish, and several African dialects. The language has been in use for the last 300 years especially in the ABC Islands. Some of the common words and phrases include: "mòru’" for "good morning", "bon bini" for ‘"welcome", "danki" for "thank you", ‘"ayo" for "goodbye", and "mi ta stimabo" for ‘I love you’.
Besides Papiamentu, the other commonly spoken languages in Curacao are Spanish, Dutch and English. In fact, most of the people of Curacao can comfortably communicate using all four languages.
This page was last modified on May 1st, 2018
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Published on 2019-05-31 | <urn:uuid:b2000d4f-84af-43c1-9b6a-c32cc5a64f1a> | {
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According to the authors,
"The surface of the world’s oceans has been warming since the beginning of industrialisation. In addition to this, multidecadal sea surface temperature (SST) variations of internal [natural] origin exist. Evidence suggests that the North Atlantic Ocean exhibits the strongest multidecadal SST variations and that these variations are connected to the overturning circulation."
"we conclude that AMOC [natural] variability contributed significantly to North Atlantic SST [Sea Surface Temperature] trends since the mid-19th century."
Calculations of climate sensitivity to CO2 do not include natural variability of ocean and atmospheric oscillations, and thereby exaggerate the effect of CO2 on climate.
Journal of Climate 2014 ; e-View
How much have variations in the meridional overturning circulation contributed to sea surface temperature trends since 1850? A study with the EC-Earth global climate model
In this work we investigate the extent to which these internal [natural] multidecadal variations have contributed to enhancing or diminishing the trend induced by the external radiative forcing, globally and in the North Atlantic. We do so in a model study where we combine the analysis of a long control simulation with constant radiative forcing at preindustrial level and an ensemble of simulations with historical forcing from 1850 until 2005. First we note that global SST trends calculated from the different historical simulations are similar, while there is a large disagreement between the North Atlantic SST trends. Then we analyse the control simulation, where we identify a relationship between SST anomalies and anomalies in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) for multidecadal and longer time scales. This relationship enables us to extract the AMOC-related SST variability from each individual member of the ensemble of historical simulations and then to calculate the SST trends with the AMOC-related variability excluded. For the global SST trends this causes only a little difference while SST trends with AMOC-related variability excluded for the North Atlantic show closer agreement than with the AMOC-related variability included. From this we conclude that AMOC [natural] variability contributed significantly to North Atlantic SST [Sea Surface Temperature] trends since the mid-19th century. | <urn:uuid:f7d7cdc5-edd0-4d8a-9f75-4f446f17feed> | {
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From the Hotline: Health and Welfare Benefits
Question: What are health and welfare benefits?
Answer: A group health plan is an employee welfare benefit plan established or maintained by an employer or by an employee organization (such as a union), or both, that provides medical care for participants or their dependents directly or through insurance, reimbursement, or otherwise.
Examples of health and welfare benefits include:
- Medical, dental, visual, psychiatric, or long-term health care; severance benefits; life insurance; and accidental death or dismemberment benefits.
- Unemployment, disability, vacations, or holiday benefits.
- Apprenticeships, tuition assistance, day care, housing subsidies, or legal services benefits.
- Post-employment benefits such as salary continuation, supplemental unemployment benefits, disability-related job training, and counseling.
Defined benefits specify a determinable benefit, which may be in the form of reimbursement to the covered plan participant or a direct payment to providers or third party insurers for the cost of specified services. Such plans may also include benefits that are payable as a lump sum, such as death benefits.
Defined contribution health and welfare plans maintain an individual account for each plan participant. Such plans have provisions that specify the means of determining the contributions to participants’ accounts, rather than the amount of benefits the participants are to receive. Benefits a plan participant will receive are limited to the amount contributed to the participant’s account, investment experience, expenses, and any forfeitures allocated to the participant’s account. These plans also include flexible spending arrangements.
Health and welfare benefit plans generally are subject to certain fiduciary, reporting, and other requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). | <urn:uuid:cbabcb85-b554-4ce4-b94a-ecbf9174e5db> | {
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Research on llamas, alpacas and the Inca Empire: Happy New Year!
We all have some interest in llamas and alpacas, yet some of you may not be completely aware of the essential role they played in kick-starting Andean societies. Without them there would have been no Machu Picchu, nor could Andean people have survived at such high altitudes.
As you know, alpacas and llamas provide wool, dung, meat and pack animals, and in particular it was the combination of their extraordinary wool and wonderful dung, which not only allowed the earliest societies in the Andes to keep warm and dry, but also to grow high yields of maize and potatoes from at least 2700 years ago; 2000 years later this would contribute to the meteoric rise of the Inca.
As scientists staring down microscopes for many years, often preoccupied with writing scientific papers, many of which only a few people read, we had forgotten that there is a huge audience, who may not only be interested but to whom some of this information might even be useful. So this is our first attempt at “outreach”, with a focus on you who are connected with alpacas and llamas in all kinds of different ways.
We are a small dedicated team of three: Drs Alex Chepstow-Lusty and Michael Frogley (Sussex University, UK) and Anne Baker (Natural History Museum, London).
We study Peruvian lake sediments, particularly from the small lake (more of an infilled pond) of Marcacocha,
located 12 km from the Inca town of Ollantaytambo- which some of you may know because one passes through it on the way to Machu Picchu. Out of this lake mud, we examine everything we can: from pollen, seeds, charcoal, algae, fungal spores, and particularly, little relatives of spiders, called “oribatid mites”-more about them later!
We are trying to understand using all these microscopic biological remains how Andean societies not only took off, but how they fluctuated with climate change, or how they found solutions to manage their environments: planting trees; using a high diversity of crops, including many varieties of maize (corn), potatoes and other tubers; re-landscaping the landscape with terraces and intricate irrigation systems; or using llamas and alpacas, which caused less erosion to the soil with their delicate hooves or damage to the vegetation.
One major aspect of this research is studying the fluctuating numbers of “oribatid mites”, (small detritivores about 1-2 mm in size, i.e. which eat the broken down remains of plant matter, including llama-alpaca dung!).
As numbers of mites increase or decrease in the layers of lake mud, which get older as you go down, it tells us about livestock numbers using the pasture close to the lake. We can clearly show the rise of the Inca Empire, but also its sudden collapse after the arrival of the Spaniards.
At Marcacocha, long caravans of llamas carrying goods (up to 10,000 animals) to and from the tropical lowlands used to graze next to the lake during Inca times and defecate communally. And this was easily gathered as fertilizer and cooking fuel, while the oribatid mites were happy too-and they provide a record of this trade after being deposited in the lake muds.
Here are a few links to stories that have been in the media:
That will probably do for today, and hope you do not mind being contacted in this way, as occasionally with academic research it is good to get out of the bubble-and make links with many more people.
And please circulate this email to fellow llama-alpaca friends and colleagues, who you think might be interested and if they contact us, we can add them to the list
All the best for 2019 and look forward to hearing from you
Alex, Mick and Anne | <urn:uuid:7fa14553-422c-4a74-93a6-2c36dda62326> | {
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Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington
Of Huntingdonshire parents, Cotton was educated at Westminster School, and at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1585. He began to amass a library in which the documents rivalled, then surpassed, the royal manuscript collections.
Cotton entered the Parliament of England as MP for Newtown, Isle of Wight in 1601 and as knight of the shire for Huntingdonshire in 1604. He helped devise the institution of the title baronet as a means for King James I to raise funds: like a peerage, a baronetcy could be inherited but, like a knighthood, it gave the holder no seat in the House of Lords. Despite an early period of goodwill with King James, during which Cotton was himself made a baronet, his approach to public life, based on his immersion in old documents, was essentially based on that "sacred obligation of the king to put his trust in parliaments" which in 1628 was expressed in his monograph The Dangers wherein the Kingdom now standeth, and the Remedye. From the Court party's point of view, this was anti-royalist in nature, and the king's ministers began to fear the uses being made of Cotton's library to support parliamentarian arguments: it was confiscated in 1630 and returned only after his death to his heirs.
Early life and family
Robert Bruce Cotton was born 22 January 1571 in Denton, Huntingdonshire, England to Thomas Cotton (1544–1592) and his first wife, Elizabeth. Cotton attended Westminster School, where he was a pupil of William Camden. While at Westminster, Cotton began antiquary studies under the influence of Camden. He began collecting notes on the history of Huntingdonshire when he was seventeen. Cotton graduated with a BA from Jesus College, Cambridge in 1585 and then attended Middle Temple in 1589. He married Elizabeth Brocas who gave birth to a son, Thomas Cotton (1594–1662) in 1594.
Role in Parliament
Robert Cotton became Robert Bruce Cotton in support of James VI of Scotland’s claim to succeed Elizabeth I (Matthew 625). Cotton was also Scottish and fully supported an English union with Scotland (Matthew 625). After the death of queen Elizabeth I, Robert Cotton was commissioned to write a work defending the claim of James I's claim to the throne. This action helped in gaining Cotton's knighthood in 1603 (Matthew 625). Cotton took the parliamentary seat that previously belonged to his grandfather in 1604. Cotton represented the county of Huntingdonshire. Cotton worked on the committee on grievances. In 1605–06 Cotton received the bill pertaining to the Gunpowder Plot through his work on the committee of privileges. The following year Cotton was reappointed to the committee of privileges. Cotton was appointed to the joint conference with the Lords during his work on the bill pertaining to the full union between Scotland and England in 1606–07. In 1610 Cotton was nominated in first place to the committee of privileges (Matthew 626). In 1610 or 1611 the royal revenues were low. Cotton wrote, ‘Means for raising the king’s estate.’ In this work Cotton he suggested the formation of a new higher order. This social standing would be higher than the knight but lower than the baron. In 1614 Cotton did not receive a seat in Parliament. In 1621 Robert Cotton advised James I on the impeachment of Sir Francis Bacon and the role of the king and what Parliament could decide on its own. In 1624 Cotton received a seat on Parliament for Old Sarum, because Sir Arthur Ingram decided to sit for York (Matthew 627).
The Society of Antiquaries
According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Cotton reunited with former teacher William Camden in the late 1580s as an early member of the Society of Antiquaries in London. Camden was one of the greatest early antiquaries whose work Britannia (1586) was an account of early Britain. There is little evidence proving Cotton's influence in the society until after his father's death in 1592. Cotton was however living in his family's castle in Conington, Huntingdonshire during 1593 where he was involved in reconstructing the castle. He returned to London in 1598 and revived the society. With the society, he petitioned for a permanent academy for the study of antiquary founded by Queen Elizabeth. This petition suggested that Cotton's collection of manuscripts be combined with the Queen's library to form a national library. The plans did not receive royal approval. The discussion of the society in the summer of 1600 focused burial customs most likely due to Camden and Cotton's recent visit to Hadrian's Wall in Northern England. The wall served as a defence in Roman Britain under the emperor Hadrian. Camden and Cotton collected Roman coins, fossils and monuments during their trip. The trip most likely lead to Cotton's interest in Roman artefacts. The antiquaries Reginald Bainbridge and Lord William Howard offered Cotton Roman stones while the Essex antiquary John Barkham arranged to send him Roman relics.
Cotton's antiquarian studies were influential to many people of the time period. He was often looked upon by other antiquaries for ideas. Below is a letter written by fellow antiquary Roger Dodsworth to Cotton asking for advice:
- Honble- Sr
- With my due acknowledgement of your multiplied favours presupposed, I thought good to advertise you that, since I saw you, I have used such meanes, as my health would permitt, to enquire after such things as you desired. I have beene att Cattericke wher I was informed of 2Romaine monuments weh were found in a 1620 and are now in my Io: of Arundells keeping. I have found, a peece of a round piller, att Ribblccester, being almost half a yeard thick, and half an ell in height, with such letters, on the one side thereof, as I have figured in this paper inclosed. I saw, ther, a little table of free stone, not half a yeard square, with the portraitures of 3 armed men cutt therin, but no inscription att all theron. I saw likewise 2 other stones of the nature of slate, or thicke flaggs some yeard square, with fretted antique workes engraven on them, without any letters. I shalbe very gladd that my uttmost endeavours, might availe to requite the least of many respects you have done unto me. And do desire you to signify your pleasure, what you would have mee to doo touching the premisses, and I shall not faile to do my best in effecting thereof...
- Yours faythfully faythfully
- Roger Dodsworth
- Hutton grange 16 February 1622.
The last recorded meeting of the Society of Antiquaries was in 1607. Cotton, however, continued collecting.
The Cottonian Library was the richest private collection of manuscripts ever amassed. Of secular libraries it outranked the Royal Library, the collections of the Inns of Court and the College of Arms. Cotton's house near the Palace of Westminster became the meeting-place of the Society of Antiquaries and of all the eminent scholars of England; the Library was eventually donated to the nation by Cotton's grandson and now resides at the British Library.
The physical arrangement of Cotton's Library continues to be reflected in citations to manuscripts once in his possession. His library was housed in a room 26 feet (7.9 m) long by six feet wide filled with bookpresses, each with the bust of a figure from classical antiquity on top. Counterclockwise, these are catalogued as Julius (i.e., Julius Caesar), Augustus, Cleopatra, Faustina, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. (Domitian had only one shelf, perhaps because it was over the door). Manuscripts are now designated by library, bookpress, and number: for example, the manuscript of Beowulf is designated Cotton Vitellius A.xv, and the manuscript of Pearl is Cotton Nero A.x.
Role of family on the Cotton library
Sir Robert Cotton's first son, Sir Thomas Cotton (2nd Baronet) was born in Oxfordshire to Cotton's wife Elizabeth Brocas in 1594. Sir Robert Cotton began developing the works and manuscripts into a collection for his Library shortly after the birth of Thomas Cotton. From the period 1609–1614 the deaths of various people (including Lord Lumley, Earl of Salisbury, Prince Henry, William Dethick and Northampton) all contributed to Sir Robert Cotton's acquisition works added to his developing library. Although, Sir Robert Cotton resided in London, his wife Elizabeth and son Thomas remained in the country. Sir Robert Cotton's absence from Sir Thomas Cotton's childhood did not impede on Sir Thomas Cotton's ability to see the work of his father and "the library, which demonstrates its growing importance to contemporaries". During his father's absence Thomas Cotton studied to eventually receive his BA on 24 October 1616 from Broadgates Hall—the very same year that Sir Robert Cotton returned to his wife Elizabeth and family (a result of a hiccup with the law involving the death of earl of Somerset). At that point, Sir Thomas Cotton had taken the responsibilities of the home and the library into his own hands.
In 1620, Thomas Cotton married Margaret Howard with whom he had his first son, Sir John Cotton, just one year later in 1621. Sir Thomas Cotton's marriage with Margaret Howard ended in 1622, which had been the year that Thomas Cotton's father, Sir Robert Cotton, permanently moved residence to The Cotton House, along with the library which remained in the Cotton House until Sir Robert Cotton's death nine years later in 1631. The relocation of the library and residence to the Cotton House gave members of Parliament and government workers better access to the matter within the library to be used as resources for their work.
The Cotton Library offered important and valuable sources of reference and knowledge to many people, such as John Selden, "a frequent borrower from the library, and probably its protector during the civil wars" as stated in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Selden, in 1623 said of Cotton: “his kindness and willingness to make them [his collection of books and manuscripts] available to students of good literature and affairs of state". In keeping with the notion that John Selden was a common presence in the Cotton library, The British Library holds a list of thirteen works, and the locations of those volumes today, that had been loaned to Seldon by Sir Robert Cotton.
After another hiccup with the government, Sir Robert Cotton was forced to close the library by Charles I because the content within the library was believed to be harmful to the interests of the Royalists in 1629. In September 1630 Sir Robert Cotton and Sir Thomas Cotton, together, petitioned for renewed access to their library. One year later, in 1631, Sir Robert Cotton died without knowing what the future held for his library, but wrote in his will that the library be left to his son Thomas Cotton and that it be passed down accordingly. After the death of his father, Sir Thomas Cotton married his second wife, Alice Constable, in 1640 with whom they had their son Robert Cotton in 1644. Sir Thomas Cotton's "ownership access to the Cotton library was more limited than under his father" according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and Thomas Cotton maintained his ability to "protect," "improve" and "maximize the profits" received during the civil war, as he had earlier on in his life as a result of his father's absence. Upon the death of Sir Robert Cotton on 13 May 1662, Sir Thomas Cotton obeyed the will of his father and passed down the library to his eldest son from his first marriage, Sir John Cotton.
On 12 September 1702, Sir John Cotton died. Prior to his death, Sir John Cotton had arranged for the Cotton Library to be bought for Britain through acts of Parliament. If the library had not been sold to the nation, despite his grandfather Sir Robert Cotton's wish, the library would have been taken over and inherited by John Cotton's two grandsons, whom, unlike the rest of the college-educated Cotton family, had been illiterate and putting the Cotton Library at risk of potentially getting broken up and sold to different divisions within the family.
- Cotton Julius A.x Old English Martyrology
- Cotton Augustus II.106 Magna Carta: Exemplification of 1215
- Cotton Cleopatra A.ii Life of St Modwenna
- Cotton Faustina A.x Additional Glosses to the Glossary in Ælfric's Grammar
- Cotton Tiberius B.v Labour of the Months
- Cotton Caligula A.ii "A Pistil of Susan" (frag.)
- Cotton Claudius B.iv Genesis
- Cotton Nero A.x. Pearl, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- Cotton Nero D.iv Lindisfarne Gospels
- Cotton Galba A.xviii Athelstan Psalter
- Cotton Otho C.i Ælfric's De creatore et creatura
- Cotton Vitellius A.xv Beowulf, Judith
- Cotton Vespasian D.xiv Ælfric's De duodecim abusivis
- Cotton Titus D.xxvi Ælfwine's Prayerbook
- Cotton Domitian A.viii Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (version E)
- "Cotton, Robert (Bruce) (CTN581R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- "Robert Cotton, 1571–1631." Robert Cotton, 1571–1631. Montague Millennium Inc., 22 February 2006. Web.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew, Brian Harrison. Vol. 13. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.
- Matthew, H. C. G., and Brian Howard. Harrison. "Cotton, Sir Robert Bruce, First Baronet (1571–1631)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: In Association with the British Academy : From the Earliest times to the Year 2000. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. 625–27. Print.
- Howarth, D. Sir Robert Cotton and the Commemoration of Famous Men. British Library
- Smith, T. "Catalogue of the manuscripts in the Cottonian Library, 1696 / Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum bibliothecae Cottonianae." Ed. C.G.C. Tite (1696); repr.(1984). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew, Brian Harrison. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. 628. Print.
- Tite, Colin G. C. “A 'Loan' Of Printed Books From Sir Robert Cotton To John Selden.” Bodleian Library Record 13.6 (1991): 486–490. Historical Abstracts. Web. 23 October 2013.
- Sharpe, Kevin (1979). Sir Robert Cotton, 1586–1631: History and Politics in Early Modern England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019821877X.
- Tite, Colin G.C. (1994). The Manuscript Library of Sir Robert Cotton. London: British Library. ISBN 0712303596.
- Wright, C. J., ed. (1997). Sir Robert Cotton as Collector: essays on an early Stuart courtier and his legacy. London: British Library. ISBN 978-0-7123-0358-3.
- Sir Robert Bruce Cotton
- Archival material relating to Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington listed at the UK National Archives
- Portraits of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, 1st Bt at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- 3D Scan of the Sir Robert Cotton portrait bust at the British Museum on sketchfab.com
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Zizek: A Critical Introduction
April 2003, Polity
Sarah Kay’s book provides a lucid and comprehensive introduction to Žižek’s work. His writings to date are presented and evaluated here for the first time, together with an outline of their development and explanations of his key premises, themes and terms. This book will be essential reading for students of cultural studies, literary studies, philosophy and social and political theory.
Chapter 1: Introduction: thinking, writing and reading about the real.
Chapter 2: Dialectic and the real: Lacan, Hegel, and the alchemy of après-coup.
Chapter 3: ‘Reality’ and the real: culture as anamorphosis:.
Chapter 4: The real of sexual difference: imagining, thinking, being.
Chapter 5: Ethics and the real: the ungodly virtues of psychoanalysis.
Chapter 6: Politics, or, the art of the impossible.
Glossary of Žižekian terms.
- The powerful and explosive writings of Zizek, the most significant interdisciplinary thinker of modern times, are here presented and evaluated for the first time.
- Žižek’s thought revolves around ‘the real’, an elusive concept in Lacanian psychoanalysis; he refines and tests this concept against key philosophical thinkers from Descartes to Derrida, especially Hegel.
- Kay outlines the development of Zizek's thought, and explains his key premises, themes, and terms.
- Kay goes on to demonstrate that the decisive orientation of Žižek’s thought is ultimately political - he uses psychoanalysis and philosophy not just to understand the world, but also in order to change it. | <urn:uuid:2cd28dc6-abbb-4601-a070-3c38dc4e7880> | {
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The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has reaffirmed its ban on research that involves gene editing of human embryos. In a statement released on 29 April, NIH director Francis Collins spelled out the agency’s long-standing policy against funding such research and the ethical and legal reasons for it.
The statement comes after Nature’s news team reported last week that researchers in China had used a gene-editing technology called CRISPR/Cas9 in human embryos to alter a gene that can cause a blood disorder when mutated. The research was published1 in Protein & Cell on 18 April.
The NIH is concerned about the safety of the technique and the ethical implications of altering genes that will be passed to future generations of humans. Collins also pointed out that there are few clinical situations in which editing would be the only way to prevent the passage of a genetic disease from parent to child. In all but very rare cases, parents with a genetic disease could create embryos in vitro and screen them for the presence of the faulty gene.
Collins also wrote that a 1996 US law known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment specifically bans the government from funding work that destroys human embryos or creates them for the purposes of research. Later rules allowed research in human embryonic stem-cell lines.
The NIH says that the law’s wording would probably prohibit funding for work in a non-viable human embryo, because it defines “embryo” as anything derived from “fertilization, parthenogenesis, cloning, or any other means”. The research published in Protein & Cell used embryos that had been fertilized by two sperm, rendering them non-viable.
Unlike many other countries, the United States does not ban work in human embryos outright. Some US states do have such restrictions, but rules in other states are less clear and some do not ban it at all, says bioethicist Hank Greely of Stanford University in California. In these states, researchers could do research in embryos with private funding.
In his statement, Collins says that the question of editing embryos is not a new one, and is “viewed almost universally as a line that should not be crossed”. But not everyone agrees, especially when the work involves embryos that cannot develop into humans.
“I am not in favour of the NIH policy and I believe that the Chinese paper shows a responsible way to move forward,” says David Baltimore, a biologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “But it is the will of Congress that there be no work with human embryos and I assume that means even ones that are structurally defective.”
- Journal name:
- Follow Sara on Twitter @Sara_Reardon | <urn:uuid:85a02864-56a6-4327-a61e-a3c85e9add01> | {
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versión impresa ISSN 0185-2698
MONARCA, Héctor A.. The influence of the national assessment systems on the development of curriculum. Perfiles educativos [online]. 2012, vol.34, n.135, pp.164-176. ISSN 0185-2698.
There is a kind of consensus that the educational reforms that started in Latin America in the nineties did not play an outstanding role for the improvement of education in those countries of the area. Those reforms focused on the establishment and development of new curricula and were accompanied by the creation or consolidation of the so called educational quality assessment systems. In this sense, the reforms and the educational quality assessment systems have been and are still analyzed and, in many cases, put into question and criticized. This article deals with some of the main aspects related to this revision and has as purpose to go in depth and to make progress in those matter taking into account their influence on the development of curriculum and the construction of the educational reality.
Palabras llave : Educational quality assessment systems; Curriculum planning and development; Quality of education; Educational reality; Academic change and improvement. | <urn:uuid:83274e48-21f3-4eed-aa05-e7bb60e9a4d4> | {
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This course investigates the utopian and dystopia visions of California after 1940 that give the state its unique mix of “sunshine and noir.” We will introduce ourselves to California fiction and film while trying to understand the cultural and psychological sources of the state’s strange interactions of vision and violence, transformation and conflict, regression and leadership, disaster and pleasure. Topics covered will include the Great Depression, the growth of the suburbs, the building of the University of California, racial and cultural diversity (the Department of Motor Vehicles offers the driver’s license exam in 31 languages), sexual revolt and political protest, Hollywood and celebrity, Silicon Valley, and California’s immediate future. While exploring these topics, we will ask and answer the following questions: What led to California’s amazing rise as both reality and symbol of abundance and fulfillment? Is that all over now—has California fallen as quickly as it rose? Can we imagine the forces of a major California recovery? Finally, what will the Next California look like?
Requirements: final exam, a section-based group project, and a final paper or personal memoir. | <urn:uuid:83a62238-9c70-451f-93b8-372eafd389c6> | {
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What is the relationship between spelling and theory? I often tell people my research is about “Hinduism in nineteenth century America.” But it’s really not. It’s not about Hinduism at all. It can’t be because the idea of “Hinduism,” a world religion comparable to other world religions, isn’t invented until the late nineteenth century. That’s kind of the point of my research. Most other scholars writing about this period will still use the term “Hindu” to describe the people that Americans or Britons were describing during this period. But when an American missionary or Unitarian pastor refered to the people in India doing something that they recognize as religion they most often used the term “Hindoo.” Hindoo–that double O of colonialism.
So, here’s the question: Is the difference between Hindoo and Hindu just a matter of spelling? Or is there more going on here?
On the one hand, you could argue that though the sources read Hindoo, it makes sense for the scholar today to write Hindu, even when talking about the 1820s. There are all sorts of terms that we alter when we bring them into the present from the past. No one puts the long S in their scholarly prose, for example. So, maybe Hindoo to Hindu is just like taking that long s out of Congress in the Bill of Rights?
But maybe it’s not. It seems to me a Hindu is actually someone quite different from a Hindoo. That is, a Hindu is someone tied up with this world religion called Hinduism. There is the Hindu American Foundation, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (or World Hindu Council), and the Pew Research Center tallies up the number of “Hindus” in America. But in the early nineteenth century, a Hindoo was a product of the American and British imagination. When I discuss what Americans thought about India and the people who lived there and these things they did that Americans thought were religion, I am not talking about people in South Asia. I’m talking about representations of people in South Asia. These Hindoos are imaginary. “Hindoos” and their religion were invented by Europeans and Americans. During this period, people in India did not present themselves to an American audience. Rather, they were represented by American and European authors to an American audience and in that process they were represented as Hindoos.
Perhaps the one exception to this would be the Indian reformer Rammohun Roy who wrote in English to an American and British audience. However, Roy self-identified as a “Hindoo,” as in his work “A Defence of Hindoo Theism.” Even as late as the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions, Americans represented Swami Vivekananda, the South Asian who garnered an audience throughout America, as a “Hindoo Monk.” Vivekananda and Rammohun Roy served as transitional figures as Hindoos became Hindus. That is, as South Asians went from imagined representations to immigrants representing themselves in American culture. In 1893 Vivekananda was a “Hindoo monk” but by 1930 he is part of a “Hindu Movement” in Wendell Thomas’s book Hinduism Invades America. Vivekananda goes from Hindoo to Hindu, from a South Asian represented by Americans in Chicago to the founder of a movement representing itself in America.
Here’s the shift from Hindoo to Hindu in one handy Ngram. The lines cross in the year 1884:
For most of my brief career I’ve fallen back on the term “Hindu religions” to describe whatever it was that Americans and the British were trying to describe in their writing. But I’ve decided to eject that term from my work going forward because it implies that there is something there that is essentially “Hindu” before someone labels it as such. There is no there there, however. There is only the discourse about whatever people in South Asia seem to be doing to Europeans and Americans. So, I’m going back to Hindoo, colonial Os and all, to emphasize that nothing is “Hindu” or “Hindoo” until someone categorizes it as such. And then, once categorized, my job is to unpack the conflicts, arguments, ideologies, claims, and competitions behind that categorization. But I am curious to hear from others on this question–and similar questions about, say, “evangelical” or other such categories. Is this all simply a word game? | <urn:uuid:56e86a44-655f-4f89-a47a-26388e7c8a5c> | {
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The 2003 Class of Inductees
George Carruthers, 1939–, Far Electrograph Ultraviolet Camera. The Far Ultraviolet Camera and Spectrograph uses ultraviolet light to study Earth's upper atmosphere, stars, and interstellar space. It went to the Moon on the Apollo 16 lunar mission in 1972, and produced about 200 photos revealing new features of Earth's far-outer atmosphere.
Frank Cepollina, 1936–, Satellite Servicing Techniques. In 1970 Frank Cepollina led the effort to develop NASA's first spacecraft to be repaired in space. In 1993, he led the historic repair of the Hubble Space Telescope, which restored Hubble's vision. He also led three additional repair missions in 1997, 1999, and 2002.
Glenn Curtiss, 1878–1930, Hydroaeroplane. In Jan. 1911, Curtiss successfully flew from water to land and from land to water. He generated over 70 patents during his lifetime, including designs for dirigibles, airplanes, flying boats, and the aileron, which is a device for maintaining the lateral balance of airplanes. He founded the first company created specifically for manufacturing airplanes.
Maxime Faget, 1921–, Space Capsule Design. Max Faget conceptualized and designed the first space capsule, the Mercury Capsule, the Apollo command and service modules, and contributed to the space shuttle. His design allowed for the spacecraft to slow down in the upper part of the atmosphere, causing less friction and G-force.
Leroy Grumman, 1895–1982, Retractable Landing Gear; Folding Wing. In 1929, Grumman designed an aircraft featuring retractable landing gear. He went on to design several of the outstanding warplanes of World War II, including the Wildcat (which featured a unique folding wing), the Avenger, and the Hellcat.
Charles Kaman, 1919–, Rotor Control Mechanism for Rotary Aircraft. In 1947, Kaman revolutionized helicopter safety and stability with his aerodynamic “servo-controlled flaps,” which could automatically adjust to provide stability. He also introduced the first helicopter powered by a gas turbine, the first twin-turbine helicopter, and the first remote controlled helicopter.
Paul Kollsman, 1900–1982, Altimeter. Prior to 1928, there was no reliable or accurate way for airplane pilots to know how far above the ground they were. The barometric altimeter, accurate within 20 feet, measured altitude by assessing barometric pressure and enabled pilots to fly “blind.”
Edwin A. Link, 1904–1981, Link Trainer/Simulator. While working in his father's piano and organ factory, Link was inspired to use organ parts and compressed air to build the first flight simulator. During World War II, the Link Trainer, called “The Blue Box,” was essential in training U.S. and Allied pilots.
Thomas Midgley, Jr., 1889–1944, Ethyl Gasoline. Knock was a destructive phenomenon that occurred in internal combustion engines and only became worse at high engine-compression ratios. In Dec. 1921, Midgley ran an engine test with a small amount of tetraethyl lead added to the fuel, completely eliminating knock.
John Northrop, 1895–1981, Flying Wing Plane; All-Metal High-Wing Monocoque Airplane. Northrup came up with the “Flying Wing” in the 1940's, although the bomber did not reach production until the 1990s in the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. Northrop created more than 48 different aircraft throughout his career including the Vega, a one-engine plane with an all-metal molded monocoque (single-shell fuselage) and internal-braced wing.
John Pierce, 1910–2002, Communications Satellite. In 1936, Pierce joined Bell Telephone Laboratories and helped develop the traveling wave tube, an amplifier that facilitates satellite communication. In 1962 the first commercial communications satellite, Telstar 1, was launched into low-orbit and transmitted the first live television signals across the Atlantic.
Harold Rosen, 1926–, Spin Stabilized Synchronous Communications Satellite. With Don Williams and Tom Hudspeth, Rosen developed the first 24-hour communications satellite, enabling efficient international telephone communication and real-time television transmission.
Theodore von Kármán, 1881–1963, Turbo Jet. Theodore von Kármán observed the presence of eddies (counter-rotating currents) in the wake of a moving object, leading to the Kármán Vortex Trail, a scientific snapshot of the structure of a wake behind a moving body under certain conditions. Von Kármán's work paved the way for the development of supersonic jets, rockets, and guided missiles.
Hans J. P. von Ohain, 1911–1998, Jet Engine 1939. Hans von Ohain was the first to design and build an operational jet engine. In August 1939, near Rostock, Germany, von Ohain's liquid-filled engine, the HeS-3B, was installed in the HE 178 airplane, and the first turbojet-powered aircraft took flight.
Richard Whitcomb, 1921–, Supercritical Wing. Whitcomb designed a new aircraft wing that increased the range, speed, and fuel efficiency of the jet. A uniquely shaped airfoil yielded weaker shock waves and created less drag for more efficiency.
Sir Frank Whittle, 1907–1996, Jet Engine 1941. Whittle developed a propellerless aircraft that made its maiden flight in England in 1941.
Sam Williams, 1921–, Small Fan-Jet Engine. In 1954, Williams and his team began developing small gas turbine engines for a variety of applications. He then moved on to design small turbojet engines for target and reconnaissance drones, patenting the small fan-jet engine in 1968. | <urn:uuid:3b988a92-2f9b-4a98-b42c-19ec7348c62e> | {
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In what must have been one of the simplest and most enjoyable lab experiments ever, researchers found that house cats purr at a frequency of around 25 Hertz (25 times per second). They can keep purring for up to two hours.
To appreciate how amazing that is, imagine yourself humming the same note, without changing pitch as you breathe in and out, for two hours.
The big cats can’t do it, either, though they’re certainly equipped to make a lot of noise. This is why zoologists divided the cat family up into “roaring” and “purring” cats for most of the twentieth century.
It wasn’t a perfect system – some leopard-sized cats, for instance, like the cheetah, can purr – but feline anatomy seemed to back it up. The hyoid bone and some related neck structures are arranged differently in big cats and small cats. It seemed clear that this somehow allowed big cats to roar and smaller cats to purr.
However, more research has shown that muscles and vocal cords are probably involved, not the hyoid bone and its supports.
Small cats twitch a muscle – the vocalis muscle – in their neck. This triggers nearby vocal cords to vibrate, causing a purr. Big cats have the same muscle and the same vocal cords, but their cords are big enough to actually slow down the twitching muscle.
This is why you’ll never hear a lion purr.
Those vocal cords still vibrate, though at a much lower frequency. The rest of the big cat’s vocal tract is also perfectly shaped to deepen the vibrations into one of the most awesome sounds in nature.
Yes, that’s in a zoo, but I like the way this lion ignores the crowd after doing his thing. He is truly above it all.
Featured image: Steffen Wienberg at Pixabay
Kitchener, A. C., Van Valkenburgh, B., and Yamaguchi, N. 2010. Felid form and function, in Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids, ed. D. W. Macdonald and A. J. Loveridge, 83-106. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Oxford. | <urn:uuid:f3eebea1-0c19-4ec3-add0-ce5551ed74c9> | {
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Baleen allows the non-toothed whales to strain seawater for their fish and crustacean prey. Alexander Werth of Hampden-Sydney College in Virgina avoided a Jonah-like journey and still managed to analyze how baleen works.
Two kinds of whales sport baleen. Balaenid whales, such as the bowhead, have long, springy plates with a delicate fringe. They filter water continuously. Groove-throated whales such as humpbacks have dense baleen that looks like a folded accordion. They gulp water to feed.
For the tests, Werth submerged racks of humpback and bowhead baleen in a flow tank. Plastic beads represented food. As water streamed by, filaments from neighboring baleen plates naturally twined together and trapped the beads. The bowhead's long fringe formed the more effective filter—perfect for catching tiny krill. But the humpback baleen still nabs plenty. The study is in the Journal of Experimental Biology. [Alexander J. Werth, Flow-dependent porosity and other biomechanical properties of mysticete baleen]
If you’re going to be a massive carnivore without teeth, evolution has to be especially creative.
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.] | <urn:uuid:c2a349cb-8c31-46a9-bcf1-d2c7261424b2> | {
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All about Podcasting
Can you imagine holding your own ‘radio show?’ or you are a recording artist willing masses to hear your melancholic voice or your songs? If you would have been in the past, you would certainly have required loads of associations or luck to get yourself heard. But today, thanks to the mighty new media technology with its instant access to hundreds and thousands of people, where you can turn your dreams to reality.
As blogging has enabled people to become great reporters, podcasting can virtually make you a host of talk show, good radio disc jockey or a recording artist. Podcasting has become one of the most influential media in today’s era. If we go back to the era of 80s and 90s, there was no such concept. People were relying just on print and electronic media only, but new media with its revolutionary arrival has changed each and everything within a pretty less amount of time. Podcasting is also dependent on new media, as it floats it all the way through internet.
Definition and Purpose of Podcasting
What is Podcasting?
The course of development of an audio-show from an accessible format of MP3 through an RSS feed 2.0, which props up attachments is simply referred to as podcasting.
Purpose of Podcasting
The primary purpose of developing podcasts is to propagate tutorials, talk shows, music, and other acoustic content.
History of Podcasting
Podcasting was first started to apprehend publicly in late 2004. Although, there were different podcasts finished by foremost businesses throughout the dot-com era of 1998–2001, for example, ESPN.com and Real Networks.
The development of podcast involves efforts of loads of groups and people and groups who assisted each other on individual levels to make it look attractive. Today, with the mighty arrival of new media TCP capabilities, in consonance with the lower program and hardware, audio podcasts are managing what actually was historically finished through the wireless announcing stations.
Uses of Podcasting
When it comes to the uses of podcasting, it may be utilized for a variety of different purposes. With the advancement of industry, it can be said with no doubt that the webmasters as well as the broadcasters will find more enhanced ways to employ podcasts for different purposes in the coming future. Following are some of the most prominent areas, in which the podcasts are currently being used:
* Music Shows
* Story Telling
* Talk Shows
The reason of employment of the podcasts into the said areas is that it offers convenience and ease to the podcasters, broadcasters as well as to the webmasters.
Where to Locate Podcasts?
There are a variety of websites including news and entertainment media, where you can locate podcasts of your desired interests. Besides, some of the totally podcast-based sites include:
1. Alphabetical Podcasts
This site keeps a categorical index of podcasts.
2. Digital Podcasts
It deals with the digitalized directory of podcasts.
3. Podcast Central
Usually known as the podcast central, it is a pretty little podcasting directory.
This websites deals with the podcasting of apps, news, people and technology.
5. Spiritual Podcasts
Like the podcasters.org, this site also deals with the podcasting of apps, news, people and technology, but what makes it different from others is its spirituality based.
6. Podcasting News Directory
This site caters a categorical list of news-based podcasts.
It is a new directory.
It is primarily a podcasting director.
9. Podcasting Search
This site acts as a categorical ‘search engine’ for podcasts.
Where Does Podcasting Work?
With the arrival of new media in the field, podcasting has started working in different fields and walks of life. Today, you can find podcasting on different sites that include both the news and entertainment and infotainment media. Besides, podcasting has also started working with blogging, messengers like yahoo and skype etc.
It has undoubtedly become one of the fastest emerging forms of media, a report confirms listening of podcast by over 58 million people in 2010. Finally, it is a superb instance of the ‘democratic’ new media (internet). It enables everyone to publicize anything with respect to finding their audience as per their own desires.
Who Creates Podcasts?
When it comes to the creation of podcasts, different independent developers, webmasters and broadcasters are there to create them. According to the experts, Adam Curry is said to be the person who first approached up with the concept of automating the syncing and consignment of textual content into audio players (portable).
Besides, iPodderX is said to be the first submission to make this method possible, which was first evolved by Ray Slakinski and August Trometer. Report programs and wireless converse displays were there to facilitate people since the 1930's.
Why Users Choose Audio Feeds (Podcasts)?
Actually, users want to subscribe these audio feeds, which we call podcasts, that’s why they go for it. Another reason is that the podcasts are usually cost and time-effective. The main purpose of creating podcasts is to prolong talk shows, tutorials, music and other acoustic content, so that the customers and consumers can easily subscribe to it. You can avail different podcasting versions on different social communities today.
Conclusively, if we say that podcasts offer one of the best ways to get through all the messages easily and conveniently due to the use of mighty new media technology and it’s influence, it would not really be a wrong statement. Podcasts are usually used with feeds on different sites these days, because they’re thought to be more effective capturing more audience online. So, which podcasting sites or networks are you using right now? | <urn:uuid:9c86096d-9308-4336-9abb-2cd3359c43b0> | {
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Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837 at the age of 18 and remained the English regent until 1901 when she died, the longest reigning English monarch to date. The 1800s in England have come to be known as the Victorian Era, a time of tremendous change in which the British Empire was the greatest power in the world. It was an exciting century in which fortunes were made and empires both individual and national were built. It was a time of great optimism and great achievement, but it was also a time of poverty and suffering for many people. England may have been a paradise for the wealthy but for the poor life was a continuous struggle for survival. Even the rich were not immune to pain and suffering in a world where medical possibilities for the relief of disease and the prevention of early death were extremely limited.
For the majority of the poor there was little hope of rising above their circumstances and migration was an attractive option if they could afford it. Thousands left England every year for the new worlds of America, Canada and Australia, among other countries. The statistics indicate that between 1840 and 1860 somewhere between 4 and 5 million people left Britain, and the great majority of those who left were poor. In America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand there was the lure of gold and the dream of riches tempted many.
The Holford name is English, but as I have written before, it was not originally so; it was changed from Holdorf at the end of the First World War. John Holdorf, who arrived in Australia in 1856, was born Johann Holtorf, in the Duchy of Holstein, in present day northern Germany. John Holdorf (1828-1898), the first Australian of the Holford line, married another German migrant, Caroline Fischer. However, in the line that leads to me in any case all the subsequent Holdorfs and Holfords married British women. Charles Holdorf (1869-1954) married Florence Stacey, who though Australian born was the daughter of an English migrant. Charles Holford (1899-1977), who was the next in line and my grandfather, married Winifred Ross, whose father had come as a child to Australia from England. Ian Holford (b.1933), my dad, married Gwen Simmonds, my mum, whose father was also an English migrant, though Mum was born in Australia. As for me (b.1961), I am married to a Swede, and one of my brothers is married to an English girl. We Holfords may have a strong streak of German, but grafted in are English and Scottish, and a little further away the Irish, but they are another story.
In the mid nineteenth century when our German ancestors left Europe, there were four families in England whose descendants would be grafted into our tree. The first was the Stacey family. William Stacey was born in Bedford, north of London, in 1831. He married Caroline Hedge and they had two sons, George and William. Caroline died at a relatively young age and the boys were left motherless. When he was 16 George left England forever and settled in Australia, while his younger brother William remained with his father in England. George later married Mary Atkinson, an Australian born girl from Berrima, New South Wales and they settled in Goulburn. Their first child, Florence, married Charles Holdorf. George’s father, William, still in England, remarried and moved to London. He was a shoemaker, so he presumably did not live in poverty, but his life was unlikely to have been easy. He never saw his first son, George, again. What prompted George to leave at such an early age is uncertain. Another story waiting to be uncovered.
The second of the Victorian families was named Ross. James Ross was born in 1827 in Scotland. He married Mary Marston and they moved to Birkenhead, near Liverpool where they started a family. One son was named William and he was a child when the family migrated to Australia. As a young man he married Alice Hickson and together they had five daughters, one of whom was my grandmother, Winifred. She married Charles Holford, my grandfather.
The third family was that of George Lilley and his wife who I believe was called Mary. George was born in 1839 in Surrey, south of London. He was a farm worker. They had a son, George Frederick David, born around 1876. The younger George changed his name from Lilley to Simmonds, and married Mabel Butler. They had five children, the first of which was my grandfather, my mother’s family. He would migrate to Australia after the First World War, in 1923. His daughter Gwen would marry my father.
The fourth family, and the one I have the most information on, was the Butlers of Bristol. Mabel, as I mentioned, married George Simmonds. Her father, Ephraim, was born near Nottingham in 1837, the year Victoria became queen. He was one of a large family and his oldest brother, William, became rich and famous through his tar distillery in Bristol. That story has been partly told, but since I have more information on this family there will be more stories to follow. Ephraim followed his brother to Bristol and became a shopkeeper, selling umbrellas I believe. He married a Bristol girl called Jane Coombs and they had three daughters, the youngest of which was Mabel. However, only the first two were born in England because Ephraim and Jane decided to migrate to South Africa in the late 1860s. Jane died tragically in childbirth with Mabel, who never knew her mother. Her father, a few years later decided to return to England with his three daughters, but also died tragically on the voyage home. The three girls were orphans and were taken in by the family. Mabel’s story has also been partly told elsewhere in this blog, but there are still lots of gaps to fill in, more stories to tell.
Four Victorian families are therefore a part of our family history: the Staceys, the Rosses, the Lilleys and the Butlers. The first three were poor, the last was rich. Probably the reason I have most information on the Butlers is precisely this: their wealth. Wealthy people have always tended to leave more traces of themselves than the poor. However, the branch of the Butler family from which I am descended fell on hard times and ended up poor, with the seemingly inevitable result: emigration to Australia. The fortunes of these families were very different and each illustrates a different aspect of what it meant to be English in the nineteenth century, in the Victorian era. I hope to be able to tell more of their stories in the entries to follow. | <urn:uuid:7c8fd839-0f8f-4311-a392-9a806e4caf68> | {
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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The rate of suicide among young people is triple what it was 50 years ago, and while it remains exceedingly rare for college students to kill themselves, it is always a tragedy -- and always preventable, according to a New York psychiatrist and authority on suicide.
“I don’t think people should panic that this is an epidemic,” Dr. David Kahn, who is vice chair for clinical affairs at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and on staff at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, told Reuters Health. In fact, Kahn noted in an interview, young people in college are actually less likely to kill themselves than their peers who aren’t attending college.
Nevertheless, he added, depression and suicidal thoughts are common among college kids, and must be addressed. About half of young people report experiencing depression severe enough to interfere with their functioning at least one point during their college years, while 1 in 10 report having suicidal thoughts.
The college years are a particularly risky time for several reasons, Kahn pointed out. For one, many young people are away from home, parents and old friends for the first time in their lives. These years are also a key time for experimenting with drugs and alcohol. And finally, the late teens and early 20s are the time when serious psychiatric illnesses such as major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia first appear.
“Certain major mood disorders often begin precisely when people are going off to college,” Kahn explained. “Then of course there’s the stress of just being in college.” Stress won’t in itself drive a person to kill himself, he added, but difficulty managing that stress is related to suicide. So one key element of helping to prevent suicide is to help young people learn to manage stress effectively, Kahn said.
Helping people who feel isolated to connect or reconnect with others is also important, he added. “Connection and a feeling of social belonging is I think the most important initial step in preventing suicide,” Kahn said. “Once the person feels that sense of trust in belong to the community, they may be more receptive to suggestions that they seek help, if they haven’t sought it already.”
Nearly all colleges and universities in the US now have suicide prevention programs in place, he added. Students, parents and other college community members who want more information on warning signs of suicide and prevention strategies can get in touch with the program at their institution.
They can also look to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (www.afsp.org/), the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (here), and the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (here) for information.
Finally, anyone who has suicidal thoughts can get help 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by calling the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
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WELD, ISAAC, traveller and author; b. 15 March 1774 in Dublin, son of Isaac Weld and Elizabeth Kerr; m. 1802 Alexandrina Home; they had no children; d. 4 Aug. 1856 near Bray (Republic of Ireland).
A descendant of learned and pious clergymen, Isaac Weld in 1795 found himself distressed by conditions in Ireland and in Europe generally, and set out on a voyage to North America to “ascertain whether in case of future emergency, any part of those territories might be looked forward to, as an eligible and agreeable place of abode.” He reached Philadelphia in November 1795 and ever the next 15 months travelled through Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and Lower and Upper Canada, returning to Ireland via New York City. In January 1799 he published an account of his voyage, Travels through the states of North America, and the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1795, 1796, and 1797, which was an immediate success. It went through several editions and was translated into French, German, Dutch, and Italian.
In his account of the United States, Weld found more to criticize than to admire. He deplored slavery and the treatment of the Indians; Americans struck him as rude and covetous; farming methods were “slovenly.” Although he praised aspects of Philadelphia and New York City, and declared himself to be “well pleased at having seen as much of [this continent] as I have done,” nevertheless he concluded, “I shall leave it without a sigh, and without entertaining the slightest wish to revisit it.” Nor did he.
Weld was more favourably impressed by the Canadian provinces. Between July and November 1796 he travelled from Lake Champlain to Montreal and Quebec, returning through Montreal and continuing his journey to Kingston, Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake), Malden (Amherstburg), Detroit, Fort Erie, and into western New York. He declared the scenery from the Upper Town of Quebec to surpass “all that I have hitherto seen in America, or indeed in any other part of the globe,” and travelling conditions between Quebec and Montreal to be the best in North America. He argued that “a man of moderate property could provide for his family with much more ease in Canada than in the United States” because the price of land was lower there. Like many other British travellers, then and later, Weld felt more at home in the provinces than in republican America.
Although some of his judgements were obviously rather subjective, Weld’s book was a substantial piece of work. He spent more time in North America than did many other travel writers. He was fortunate in his timing: in the 1790s he was able to give an early, sometimes a first, account of many aspects of North American life. Finally, Weld had a special skill in describing the topographical and physical aspects of the country through which he travelled “on horseback, on foot, and by canoes.” This aspect of the book was strengthened by good maps and by plates made from his own sketches.
During the remainder of his long life, Weld pursued various topographical and scientific interests, both at home and in Europe. For more than 50 years he was a member, and after 1849 vice-president, of the Royal Dublin Society, and he was also a member of the Royal Irish Academy. In 1855 Weld’s much younger half-brother, Charles Richard Weld, published A vacation tour in the United States and Canada, dedicated to him, which contained various comparative references to conditions in North America nearly 60 years after Isaac’s trip.
The popularity of Isaac Weld’s Travels through the states of North America, and the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1795, 1796, and 1797 is attested to by the number of editions and translations in which it has been issued. Originally published in London in 1799, it appeared first in a one-volume and then in a two-volume edition. The next year a two-volume edition was followed by another in one volume, and in 1807 a final two-volume edition appeared. The 1807 edition has twice been reprinted (New York, 1968 and 1970). An abridged version of Weld’s account and one by François-Alexandre-Frédéric de La Rochefoucauld*, Duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt (originally issued in Paris in 1799), were published together as Travels through the United States of North America, and the province of Upper & Lower Canada . . . (London, ) and as Travels in North America . . . and through the American states, country of the Iroquois, and Upper Canada . . . , edited by William Mavor (London, 1807).
Several French editions appeared under various titles, the earliest of these being Voyage au Canada, dans les années 1795, 1796, et 1797 . . . (3v., Paris, ) and the last Voyage aux États-Unis d’Amérique, et au Canada . . . (2v., Paris, 1807). Two German versions, Isaac Weld’s des jüngern Reisen durch die staaten von Nord-Amerika, und die provinzen Ober- und Nieder-Canada . . . and Reise durch die Nordamerikanischen Freistaaten und durch Ober- und Unter-Canada . . . , were published in Berlin in 1800; two subsequent two-volume editions appeared there under different titles in 1800 and 1805. Other translations include a Dutch version, Reizen door de staaten van Noord-Amerika, en de provintiën van Opper- en Neder-Canada . . . , translated by Sander van Hoek (3v., The Hague, 1801–2), and an Italian one, Viaggio nel Canada’ . . . , translated by Pietro Spada (3v., Milan, 1819).
Weld’s later writings include Illustrations of the scenery of Killarney and the surrounding country (London, 1807), another edition of which appeared there in 1812; Observations on the Royal Dublin Society, and its existing institutions, in the year 1831 (Dublin, 1831); and Statistical survey of the county of Roscommon, drawn up under the directions of the Royal Dublin Society (Dublin, 1832). These and additional titles are listed in the British Museum general catalogue and the National union catalog, both of which also contain entries for his father and half-brother.
Gentleman’s Magazine, January–June 1855: 609–11. Monthly Rev. (London), ser.ii, 30 (September–December 1799): 1–11, 200–7. C. R. Weld, A vacation tour in the United States and Canada (London, 1855). Athenæum (London), 3 Jan. 1857: 19. DNB (biogs. of C. R. Weld and Isaac Weld). J. L. Mesick, The English traveller in America, 1785–1835 (New York, 1922). H. T. Tuckerman, America and her commentators, with a critical sketch of travel in the United States (New York, 1864; repr. 1961). | <urn:uuid:f82e95dc-0a5d-4fbf-a170-e953907a7bbb> | {
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We all know that you are not allowed to drive while holding a cellphone in your hand but you are allowed to drive while talking using a hands-free kit, e.g. via a Bluetooth headset or connectivity with your car, or via plugging your phone directly into your car (if it supports it). The Highway Code, however, recommends that you don’t talk at all on a cellphone while you are driving.
There are a number of situations where you can be talking to someone else while in your car. For example, you can simply be talking on the phone, which will be to a person you cannot see and who cannot see you. You could be talking to a person in the front passenger seat; you can see them, they can see you, and they can see what’s going on ahead of the car. Or you could be talking to a passenger in the back of the car – you might be able to see them in the rear-view mirror and they might be able to see what’s going on ahead of the car, depending on where they are sitting, their height, etc.
Does your driving ability change between these three different types of situations? A study at the University of Illinois and the Beckman Institute set out to find out whether this was the case, with quite surprising results. It turns out that the person you are talking to influences your level of concentration while you are driving. Psychology professor and Institute director Arthur Kramer said this on the role of a passenger in the car. “We’ve done years of study on driver distraction, and previous studies suggest that passengers often aren’t distracting. In fact, passengers can be helpful, especially if they’re adults who have had experience and also are active drivers themselves.”
The researchers set up four situations in a simulator to find out how our driving differs depending on the conversation partner:
- A driver alone
- A driver with a passenger in the front seat
- A driver talking to a person on a hands-free phone
- A driver talking to a person on a hands-free phone, but the person can see what the driver is doing and where they are driving
The drivers were mostly college-goers and were confronted with a complex drive that involved navigating in traffic around unpredictable drivers on unpredictable roads. All aspects of the drivers’ performance was monitored including their lane position, distance from other cars, speed, reactions times, ability to navigate to a specific point and so on. Their speech to their conversation partner was recorded, too, as well as exactly where they looked (using an eye tracker).
In scenario one, a driver alone, the driver had the least risk of having an accident. In scenario two (a passenger in the front seat next to them), the accident rate increased slightly, but the passengers actually assisted the drivers with choosing the right exit, remembering road signs and so on – they were aware of where the driver was driving.
In scenario three the conversation partner didn’t know what the driver was doing. This tripled the likelihood of a collision. However, in scenario four, where the person on the phone could see the driver and where the driver was driving, the risk of collision was reduced.
Through analysing the voice patterns it was found that the passenger adjusts their conversation and what they say in response to dangers presented on the road. They can stop talking or provide assistance and additional warning about specific road conditions – something that a person who can’t see the road can’t do. Collisions were reduced 40-50% over scenario three – still more than having a passenger in the car, but much less than just talking on the phone where the conversation partner couldn’t see the driver’s face or the road ahead.
What is happening when you are driving and talking on a cellphone?
It’s widely reported that driving while talking on a cellphone carries roughly the same risk as driving while drunk. Reaction times are significantly affected. Utah Highway Patrol conducted a study that involved 25 men and 15 women aged between 22-34 and it was found that when using a cellphone they were 9% slower to hit the brakes.
There is an argument that hands-free phones lull drivers into a false sense of security with them believing that they are safe while talking using a hands-free kit.
The type of conversation influences our level of engagement with the road vs the caller. If it’s a quick call to advise someone you are running late there is less emotional and cognitive involvement than if you are discussing a complex and important business transaction or having an argument with your spouse. Some people become quite animated when calling, taking their hands off the wheel to emphasize what they are saying.
If you get a call while driving, pull over to answer it. If it’s not possible to pull over, they will leave a message if it’s important. | <urn:uuid:3ee67209-2d4d-40d5-ae2d-fd5e2133f27d> | {
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Dry Mid-Summer 2008 (updated July 31, 2008)
Abrupt changes in precipitation patterns over time are common in Minnesota. This was the case during the 2008 growing season. A stretch of very dry weather arrived immediately on the heels of an extremely wet first half of June.
For a six-week period during the last two weeks of June and into late July, many Minnesota communities received less than two inches of rainfall. This came at a time of year when rainfall rates average roughly one inch per week. Thus, rainfall deficits over the six-week dry spell topped three inches in many areas. Described another way, six-week rainfall totals were less than 50 percent of normal for the period (see maps below).
Temperatures over the six-week period were at, to slightly below, historical averages. This kept evaporative demand near seasonal norms and mitigated the situation somewhat. In 2007, late-June and early-July temperatures were well above average, amplifying evaporation and transpiration rates.
As of July 29, the U.S. Drought Monitor rated a large portion of central and southern Minnesota and some counties in northern Minnesota as D0 - Abnormally Dry (see map at right). A portion of Traverse county was placed in the D1 - Moderate Drought category.
- Agriculture - The Agricultural Statistics Service reported that as of July 25, topsoil moisture across 28 percent of Minnesota's landscape was "Short" or "Very Short". Some of the driest topsoil conditions were found in central and southwestern Minnesota, and a small section of north central Minnesota. Fortunately, stored moisture lower in the soil profile supported crop conditions into late July. In the July 28 Crop Progress and Condition Report, 73 percent of corn and 74 percent of soybeans were rated in good or excellent condition.
- Stream flow - Stream discharge in most Minnesota rivers and streams was near the middle of the historical distribution for late July. However, stream flows were trending downward, and in a few watersheds, flow conditions were below the 25th percentile for the date.
- Lake Superior water level - The Lake Superior water level remained below its historical average in late July 2008, but was well above the very low readings of 2007.
- Wildfire Danger - The Department of Natural Resources - Division of Forestry classified late-July wildfire danger as Low, across Minnesota. | <urn:uuid:7d54ff02-8c12-4399-9e89-c07c3077a6b7> | {
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The International School for Holocaust Studies
Armed Resistance in the Krakow and Bialystok Ghettos
Although the Warsaw Uprising is the most celebrated act of armed resistance during the Holocaust, this article will focus on two lesser-known, but very important, acts of armed resistance: those in the ghettos of Krakow and Bialystok.
Just as there was no uniformity among the German-created ghettos of Europe with respect to the degree of their isolation, their establishment, their physical circumstances, and other facets of ghetto life, there was no uniformity among the ghettos with respect to armed resistance. While in Warsaw and in other ghettos resistance occurred inside the ghetto, in Krakow, resistance occurred outside. While in Warsaw the only option was to fight; in Bialystok the option of escaping to the woods was a viable one. There is no single model; developments were mostly determined by local conditions and the personalities of the leaders of the resistance, and these differed from place to place.
On the eve of World War II, the Jewish population of Krakow was approximately 60,000, constituting about one quarter of the city's population. The German army occupied Krakow in the first week of September, 1939 and in October, 1939, Krakow became the capital of the Generalgouvernement.
Rules and restrictions with which we are now familiar began to be passed against the Jews: they were forced to report for manual labor beginning in October, 1939; they were required to form a Jewish council in November, 1939; they were forced to wear a Star of David for identification beginning in December, 1939; they were required to register their property; and, in March, 1941, they were enclosed in a ghetto. Unlike in other places, however, where Jews were brought from the countryside and concentrated in the city, in Krakow the Germans actually expelled thousands of Jews to the surrounding countryside. Because the seat of the Generalgouvernement was in Krakow, the Germans wanted to cleanse the city of its Jews. As such, by the time the ghetto was established and closed on March 20, 1941, only about 20,000 Jews remained in the city.
The Germans concentrated the Jews in a ghetto that was very small and was constantly being decreased in size. Deportations from the ghetto began in June, 1942, when about 7,000 Jews were taken out of the ghetto. About 1,000 were murdered in the nearby Plaszow labor camp; 6,000 were taken by train to the Belzec death camp and murdered there. Another deportation occurred on October 28, 1942 when an additional 6,000 Jews were sent to Belzec. Hundreds of people were shot in the ghetto during these very violent aktions and deportations.
Youth movements had been operating in Krakow since before the German occupation, and had continued to operate in the ghetto. Generally, these groups were concerned with upholding and teaching their values to their scouts; depending on the principles of the movements – some were Communist, others Socialist, still others Zionist – activities were centered around education and self-fulfillment. The Zionist youth movements concentrated on Zionist ideals like agricultural training in preparation for life in Palestine, which was their ultimate goal. The Akiba youth movement was the biggest Jewish youth movement in prewar Krakow.
In the ghetto, the youth movements continued with their educational activities. By the fall and winter of 1941, couriers of the youth movements began to spread the word about the mass murders in Ponary, near Vilna in what had been eastern Poland. Rumors reached the youth movement networks of a death camp near Lodz, in western Poland. By the spring of 1942, information was spreading of the deportations from Lublin to the death camp at Belzec. As this information was assimilated, the character of these youth groups began to change. The Akiba youth movement had begun to think about the possibility of obtaining weapons and sending its members to the forest to fight the Germans from the beginning of the occupation, but their initial forays into the forest resulted in betrayal and the death of the scouts. The group decided to concentrate its activities in the city for the time being, and to begin training in the use of weapons on a farm in Kopaliny, outside Krakow, that had been used for purposes of hachshara. The group continued to meet in private homes and provided some sort of refuge or comfort for its members, singing songs and having ideological discussions and trying to continue some sort of normalcy while surrounded by chaos and fear.
After the June, 1942 deportation, a dentist named Bachner managed to succeed in escaping from the cattlecars headed for Belzec and returned to the ghetto with the information that the camp there was not a labor camp, as the Jews had been told, but an extermination camp. This information was confirmed by Polish train workers, who received their information from Poles who lived in close proximity to Belzec. In the October, 1942 aktion, many families were deported from the Krakow ghetto. Now-homeless members of Akiba, many of whom had lost families, found shelter at 13 Jozefinska Street, in Krakow, and this became a kind of meeting place for the group, and also a launching point for attacking German soldiers in order to get weapons. They reported to the leaders of the movement, Aharon ("Dolek") Liebeskind and Shimshon ("Szymek") Draenger. Even before the October aktion, Dolek and Szymek had discussed the rumors of extermination that were reaching them from other places in the east. Gola Mire, a member of the Communist underground, the P.P.R., urged them to initiate an active, armed struggle. Gola had moved throughout Poland, from Lwow to Warsaw to Bialystok, and had come to the conclusion that the Jews were in a race against time and must act quickly to avoid annihilation. To that end, Akiba's leadership forged a united front together with other youth movements – Dror-Freiheit (headed in Krakow by Abraham "Laban" Leibowicz), HaShomer HaTzair, HaShomer HaDati, and others, that would be called HeHalutz HaLochem, Hebrew for "the Fighting Pioneers." The alliance was established in August, 1942.
Jozef Wulf, a member of Akiba, wrote:
None of us had received any schooling in arms or in organizing; nor did any of us have military experience. We did not have much confidence in our own strength, and at first we did not even consider it possible to link up with any of the Polish fighting organizations already in existence.
At first, the Akiba leadership met at the apartment at 13 Jozefinska Street, located in the heart of the ghetto. But sometime in the fall of 1942, the Akiba leadership took the strategic decision to close down the apartment in the ghetto, and to move the resistance operations outside of the ghetto. Uppermost among the factors in this decision was the fear of collective punishment: the ghetto was very small, and the leadership understood that if armed action was taken against the Germans from inside the ghetto, the rest of the ghetto would be punished. The final decision was to operate from outside of the ghetto and, in addition, to disguise the operation so that it would not look like the work of the Jewish underground.
It is not easy to describe all the obstacles that had to be overcome in order to organize a Jewish resistance under Nazi occupation. Our work was a hundred times more difficult than the work of any other resistance group, because we had to conceal not only our underground activity but also, and even more urgently, our Jewish identities. Hence it may be said that the first thing the leaders had to do was to deny even to themselves the impossibility of the task before them, and to act in spite of the overwhelmingly unfavorable odds.
The decision to carry out an armed operation against the Germans from outside the ghetto was the culmination of hours of agonized discussion. The leaders of the underground faced painful dilemmas. Among them was the basic question: what were they fighting for? They had no illusions that they were fighting to achieve a military victory, because that was impossible. As such, was their purpose to avenge the deaths of innocent Jews? To rescue themselves and their movement? Or to fight to save Jewish honor?
Dolek Liebeskind is credited with the phrase that became a rallying cry – on November 20, 1942, at one of the Friday evening dinners traditionally held by the members of Akiba to "greet the Sabbath bride", Dolek said they would fight for the sake of "three lines in history," if only to show that "Jewish youth did not go like sheep to the slaughter." The occasion became known poetically by the members of the group as "the Last Supper", because they understood they were greeting the Sabbath all together as a group for the last time. They all knew there was not much chance that they would survive.
In conjunction with Iskra ("Spark"), a movement led by Zvi Hersch Bauminger and aligned with the Polish Worker's Party (the P.P.R.), the Fighting Organization carried out a daring action against the Germans.
On December 22, 1942, when many German officers were in the city of Krakow shopping for Christmas presents to send home to their families, celebrating the upcoming holiday in cafés and attending the theater, the Jewish underground staged a surprise attack on certain of the places where they knew the Germans would gather. In order to make the attack look as though it had been carried out by Polish partisans, the Jewish fighters hung a Polish flag on the bridge over the Wisla River, left a wreath of flowers on the statute of Adam Mickiewicz, one of Poland's national poets, and distributed leaflets calling for an uprising against the Germans, among other things. In order to add to the chaos and panic in the city, the fire department was called from different locations simultaneously.
The underground attacked several cafés and German meeting places, but the heaviest damage was done at the Cyganeria Café, a place frequented by German officers, where it is estimated that seven to twelve Germans were killed. The identities of the Jewish fighters were successfully camouflaged; in fact, the operation was so daring that many Poles in the city were convinced that the Polish underground, or even Russian paratroopers, had executed the attack.
The operation was a great success, and the turmoil that was created in its aftermath was a slap in the face of the German authorities. However, these authorities would not let such a daring deed go unpunished. Ultimately, most of the underground members were arrested by the Germans and many were killed. But Krakow was the first large ghetto to establish that the idea of armed resistance could be a reality.
The remainder of the Krakow ghetto was liquidated in March, 1943. Most of the Jews of the ghetto were finally sent to Auschwitz.
Many factors distinguish the Bialystok ghetto uprising from the situation in Warsaw and Krakow; perhaps the most important of these was the unique relationship between the underground fighters and the head of the Judenrat, as well as the ghetto's relationship with him. One of the reasons that the planned uprising in Bialystok did not succeed to the extent the Warsaw uprising did was because an alternative authority to the Judenrat was never established.
The Judenrat in Bialystok, under the acting leadership of Efraim Barasz, enjoyed the trust of most of the ghetto population, on the one hand, while successfully appeasing the Germans, on the other hand. Barasz had been a respected Zionist and community leader before the war. His leadership was consistent and assertive, which contributed to the stability of life in the ghetto. Barasz's position vis a vis the Germans was based on his belief that the Germans would allow the Jews to live if they could be turned into a cheap, vital labor force – this way they could serve the Nazis' economic interests. Though the leaders of Judenraete in other ghettos also ascribed to the philosophy of "survival through work," Barasz's likability and personal prestige made his policies more acceptable to the ghetto public (unlike Rumkowski in Lodz, and Gens in Vilna).
Bialystok was among the territories annexed by the Soviet Union under the Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement, so that the war did not really reach Bialystok until the Germans invaded the area in June, 1941. The Germans arrived in Bialystok on June 27, 1941. Waves of violence followed. The Germans locked up between 800 and 2,000 Jews in the Great Synagogue of Bialystok. After they were forced inside, the synagogue was drenched in fuel and set on fire. Grenades were thrown at the building, and as the synagogue and the surrounding homes and buildings burned, almost all inside were burned alive. Within two weeks of the German's occupation of Bialystok, almost 7,000 Jews were murdered. And then, once the initial wave of murder was finished, on July 26, 1941, a Jewish ghetto was established.
The next 15 months of the ghetto's life were a period of calm where the ghetto began to work and settled into a routine. Barasz's slogan of "salvation through work" seemed to be an accurate prediction; the Jews made themselves useful to the Germans, and the Germans no longer murdered them. The philosophy was so logical that it was difficult to challenge – the Judenrat seemed to have made the ghetto so essential to the German war effort that the Germans would not dare to destroy it. The fact that the ghetto was calm and quiet convinced the ghetto population that Barasz and the Judenrat were correct, and this contributed to their credibility. The Bialystok ghetto became the largest ghetto in the area, with approximately 40,000 Jews – a figure that stayed constant through the end of 1941 and all of 1942 despite the surrounding annihilation.
In the meantime, in Vilna, Abba Kovner and his youth movement were coming to the conclusion that the disappearance of thousands of Vilna Jews and the murders at Ponary were symptoms of a German plan to exterminate all the Jews in Europe. Not everyone agreed. Mordecai Tenenbaum, head of HeHalutz-Hatzair-Dror in Vilna, saw the killings at Ponary as an isolated, local incident that would not occur elsewhere. He believed that the youth movement members should be transferred out of Vilna to places that were quiet, where they could regroup. Tenenbaum was convinced that Bialystok was one such place, and that it would be spared the fate of Vilna. As a result, Tenenbaum arranged for youth group members to move to Bialystok with the help of Sergeant Anton Schmid, an Austrian who was sympathetic to the Jews. Schmid actually transported members of the youth group from Vilna to Bialystok. He was arrested for helping these Jews in January, 1942, and was executed on April 13, 1942. Schmid was recognized by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations on December 22, 1966.
Once in Bialystok, the plan was for the youth movements to coordinate to form a Jewish combat organization, but friction and conflicts among the various ideologies prevented this from happening. Tenenbaum arrived in the Bialystok ghetto on November 1, 1942 from Warsaw. Having witnessed the organization of an underground in Warsaw, he was enthusiastic to set up a united fighting force in Bialystok. However, there were many who were opposed, preferring to flee to the forests and fight the Germans together with the partisans.
A special relationship grew up between Barasz and Tenenbaum. Each kept the other apprised of developments throughout 1942 and most of 1943. Barasz, for his part, understood the desire of the youth movements to resist the Germans. Though he was wary that they could upset the balance in the ghetto and cause a disaster, he even assisted them in obtaining arms and ammunition. He also revealed relevant information he received from his German superiors to Tenenbaum. He believed the ghetto would survive, and wanted to keep an eye on the underground resistance. Tenenbaum, for his part, cooperated with Barasz, informing him as to the development of the coordinated resistance. Several of the meetings Tenenbaum held to plan the establishment of the underground were even held in Barasz's office.
In light of Barasz's popularity in the ghetto, and the seeming correctness of his assumptions as to the Germans' intentions, the underground in Bialystok never tried to establish itself as an authority to replace Barasz or the Judenrat. Later on, this would greatly impact the final act of uprising.
Finally, at the beginning of February, 1943, the axe fell: the Germans surrounded the ghetto and ordered the Jewish police to round up the Jews. The Jewish police refused, another stark difference between Bialystok and Warsaw. However, though the Germans had to do their own dirty work, over the course of one week, 10,000 Jews were rounded up and taken from the ghetto, and an additional 900 were shot inside the ghetto The Jews of Bialystok who were captured were sent to Treblinka and to Auschwitz.
The underground had decided – significantly, with the input of the Judenrat – to refrain from military action unless it was clear that the Germans intended to liquidate the entire ghetto. The reasoning was that they needed to play for time, since they were short of weapons, had no comprehensive strategy, and the groups were still fighting among themselves. Barasz did not indicate that the liquidation of the ghetto was imminent, and therefore the underground did not react at all to the aktion. Paradoxically, however, this decision not to resist in February of 1943 undermined the underground's standing with the community, while it strengthened Barasz's position. Testimony found in the Bialystok archive by one of the ghetto residents indicates disappointment:
The question everyone is asking is, Where are the rebels? Where are those who were supposed to launch an uprising against the Germans? We feel despair mixed with bitterness and shame…and a strong sense of disillusionment with the fighters who are out to save their own skins. Is this how they defend our honor and our lives?
The underground became divided – while some members, including Tenenbaum, wanted to fight to the bitter end, others – notably the Communists and HaShomer HaTzair – began more seriously considering escaping to the forest to join the partisans. This, too, was an element that would greatly affect the nature of the final uprising, when it came. The members of the underground were faced with a "choiceless choice" – a real, insoluble dilemma: was it better to resist and perhaps die trying, or to try to join the partisans and perhaps live to bear witness? The following is an illustrative dialogue from a stormy meeting held on February 27, 1943, after the aktion, between Mordecai Tenenbaum and other youth movement leaders in the Bialystok ghetto:
Mordecai [Tenenbaum-Tamaroff]: It’s a good thing that at least the mood is good. Unfortunately, the meeting won't be very cheerful. This meeting may be historic, if you like, tragic if you like, but certainly sad. That you people sitting here are the last halutzim in Poland; around us are the dead. You know what happened in Warsaw, not one survived, and it was the same in Bendin and in Czestochowa, and probably everywhere else. We are the last. It is not a particularly pleasant feeling to be the last: it involves a special responsibility.
We must decide today what to do tomorrow. There is no sense in sitting together in a warm atmosphere of memories! Nor in waiting together, collectively, for death. Then what shall we do? We have two options – to decide that when the first Jew is dispatched from Bialystok we will initiate a counteraction: that from tomorrow no one goes to the factory; that when the aktion takes place, none of us is allowed to hide. Everyone mobilizes for action. We must see to it that not one of the Germans gets out of the ghetto alive. That not a single factory remains intact – and it is not impossible that after carrying out this action we will remain alive by some chance. However – fight to the last man, to the end. This is the first option. The second option is to go out to the forest […]
Yitzhak [Engelman]: We have to choose one of the two options that lead to death: the first option is to stand up like fighters, and that’s certain death. The second option also entails death, except that death will come only two or three days later. Both options must be examined. We may decide upon some action […]
Herschel [Rosental]: Here in Bialystok we are fated to live out the last act of this blood-stained tragedy. What can we do and what should we do? The way I see it the situation really is that the great majority in the ghetto and of our group are sentenced to die. Our fate is sealed. We have never looked on the forest as a place in which to hide, we have looked on it as a base for battle and vengeance. But the tens of young people who are going into the forests now do not seek a battlefield there, most of them will lead beggars' lives there and most likely will find a beggar's death. In our present situation our fate will be the same, beggars all. […] There is only one thing left for us, therefore, and it is: organizing a collective act of resistance in the ghetto at any cost, to consider the ghetto to be our “Musa Dagh” and to add a chapter of honor to Jewish Bialystok and to our movement.
Sarah [Kopinski]: Comrades! If it is a question of honor, we have already long since lost it. In most of the Jewish communities the Aktionen were carried out smoothly without a counter-Aktion. It is more important to stay alive than to kill five Germans. In a counter-Aktion we will without doubt all be killed. In the forest, on the other hand, perhaps 40 or 50% of our people may be saved. That will be our honor and that will be our history. We are still needed, we will yet be of use. As we no longer have honor in any case, let it be our task to remain alive….
Chaim [Rudner]: There are no Jews left, only a few remnants have remained. There is no Movement left, only a remnant. There is no sense speaking about honor. Everyone must save himself as best he can. It does not matter how they will judge us. We must hide, go to the forest....
Life in the ghetto returned to normal after the February aktion. The factories continued to assist the German war effort. Importantly, the ghetto population was more convinced than ever that the worst was over and the workers would be safe from harm, especially since the Germans had kept their promise not to deport the workers and their families who had hidden in the factories.
The factions of the underground finally unified during the summer of 1943, after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. But Tenenbaum still required Barasz's cooperation. This was when the two parted ways. Barasz, like other heads of Judenraete in many of the other ghettos, was deceived by the Germans. They had promised him that the ghetto, a working ghetto, was essential to the war effort. Even in the February aktion they had promised not to harm the workers and their families, and they had not disturbed those who hid in the factories. The fact that all the other ghettos in the area had been wiped out and their Jews murdered seemed to Barasz to support his viewpoint rather than detract from it: the Germans decisions were logical, and were based on preserving their workforce. Barasz therefore remained unconvinced that the ghetto would be liquidated. The disagreement between Barasz and Tenenbaum, who wanted to mine the area of the ghetto, soured, and then ruptured, their relationship.
In July, 1943, rumors spread through the ghetto that the Germans planned to destroy the ghetto in Bialystok. The Judenrat denied all the rumors, reassuring the ghetto population that nothing was amiss; large, urgent orders had been placed with ghetto factories, and that was the best indicator that the ghetto could not be destroyed. However, on the evening of August 15, 1943, Barasz was summoned by the Germans to Gestapo headquarters, and was told that the following morning, the workers of Bialystok and their families would be transported to work in Lublin. Barasz was stunned. For whatever reason – the rupture between himself and Tenenbaum, the fear that panic would break out, or his shock at hearing of the ghetto's impending liquidation – Barasz failed to inform Tenenbaum of the coming aktion.
At 2:00 AM on August 16, 1943, underground's lookout noticed that the ghetto was being encircled by soldiers with submachine guns, armored vehicles and cavalry. The fighters convened a meeting; there were almost 200 of them. They had about 25 rifles, several guns, a few submachine guns, one heavy machine gun, and several dozen grenades. The guns were in poor condition and the grenades were unreliable. The underground's plan of action had to be modified because they were taken by surprise. They had no time to plan an effective counterstrike. The emergency plan they feverishly worked out was based on the assumption that at least some of the ghetto residents would join in the resistance. Women members of the underground were to post leaflets calling on fellow Jews not to surrender. The fighters were sure that Tenenbaum's rhetoric would work.
However, on the morning of August 16, 1943, thousands of Jews obediently did exactly as they were told by the Germans. Barasz was the first to assemble, with his suitcase and backpack.
When the underground saw they did not have the support of the masses, they abandoned their plan of face-to-face confrontation with the Germans, and launched hand grenades from windows and balconies of houses near the ghetto fence. The battles ended when the fighters' ammunition ran out. By the end of the first day, the underground had lost many of its 200 members. Approximately seventy-two fighters had taken refuge in a bunker located underneath the Dror "kibbutz" in Bialystok, but they were found, dragged out, lined up and shot to death. Other fighters were killed trying to break out of the ghetto and reach the forests. It is believed that Mordecai Tenenbaum, together with Daniel Moszkowicz, his deputy and a Communist, committed suicide. As Bronka Vinizka, who was in constant contact with Tenenbaum, wrote, "It seems almost certain that Mordecai, who saw his fate as inextricably bound up with that of the ghetto, decided to put an end to his life."
Though the Warsaw uprising provided inspiration to the fighters in Bialystok, there were many differences between these two stories of armed resistance. Having confronted the Jews in the Warsaw uprising, the Germans were prepared to deal with the uprising in Bialystok. It was the Jews, not the Germans, who were taken by surprise. In addition, the fighters in Warsaw had had the support of the masses, while in Bialystok, the population went obediently to its death, following their trusted leader, Barasz. For these reasons, the major thrust of the Bialystok ghetto uprising only lasted a number of hours.
It was very difficult, for many reasons, to stage an armed uprising in the ghettos of Europe during the Holocaust, and yet – miraculously – there were armed revolts and operations in Warsaw, Krakow, Bialystok, Bedzin, and Czestochowa, and underground resistance organizations were established in Vilna, Minsk and other places. The focus should not be on which uprisings were more or less successful. Instead, we should examine why and how the Jews rose up at all against the Germans in the face of overwhelming odds and almost certain death. This question was posed to Yitzhak Zuckerman by Gideon Hausner, the prosecutor, during his testimony at the Eichmann trial in Israel.
Q. My last question to you - why did the Warsaw Ghetto revolt, why, in your opinion, as you knew the Jewish realities in Poland and other places, why didn't the others revolt? Why only the Warsaw Ghetto, and was it really only the Warsaw Ghetto?
A. I think that is wrong. And I say this from my experience from the period that I was a commander of fighters. It is an error to think that only the Warsaw Ghetto fought and rebelled. In several places the last of the Jews tried to revolt. I cannot accept the idea that my comrades in Czestochowa, who had less arms, less Jews, less fighters, and they fell upon the Germans with their fingernails and fought until the last moment - I cannot accept the idea that they did not fight. I am convinced that they put into this struggle of theirs not less than we in Warsaw, even though they did not achieve the same effect.
Q. And what happened in Bialystok?
A. In Bialystok, too, there was an organized revolt, if I am not mistaken, on 16 August 1943. In Bedzin there was an uprising of Jews, of members of the Jewish fighting force, in the bunkers; in Cracow there was the revolt of the Jewish youth, and the same thing in many other places.
Q. And what about the extermination camps themselves?
A. This is a chapter which, with all its great horror, contained a ray of light, although this was already at the very end. If the last of the Jews, who were there, still had the strength, in Treblinka, in Sobibor, and in Janoska, to carry out underground activity in Hazag, in Peltzri, in Skarzysko, and Radom, in the camp at Piotrkow...
Q. And in Auschwitz?
A. In Auschwitz the Jewish underground was integrated with the general underground. But the very fact that this was possible in Treblinka after the murder of 750,000 Jews, and possibly more than that - in my estimation - the very fact that the last of the Jews were able to revolt, points to the fact that they gave proof of unusual heroism.
Q. This was a reply to my second question; namely that not only the Warsaw Ghetto revolted. But why, in the Warsaw Ghetto, were they capable of the action that took place?
A. I think that the conditions for fighting - and if we are talking of a revolt in the ghettos, it began in Warsaw - well on the eastern border area, which was much nearer to the swamps and the forests, there was a large movement of Jewish partisans, at least 20,000 Jewish youth fought in Byelorussia, in Lituania and in Ukraine. Then it was not only that we were different, the form of fighting was different.
It is true that the Jewish fighting force had a point of view of principle in this matter. It wanted - not only because the forest was far away and it was impossible to get there, it wasn't possible to get near the forest - it was an ideological approach to fight in the ghetto. For we couldn't allow ourselves, we the younger ones, the braver ones, to abandon the masses of the people, the elderly persons, our sick, to leave them in the ghetto so that they could be taken to Treblinka. Therefore we deliberately chose to revolt. And not only in Warsaw.
This was the reason for my journey to Cracow…in order to rescue what could be saved. If not life itself - at least our honour….
Zivia Lubetkin summed up the motivation of the fighters, who understood from the beginning that resistance was futile and yet chose to fight anyway:
Q. When you began the revolt, you knew what the end would be. Did you have any chance to defeat the German army in battle?
A. There was no chance of defeating them in battle. That was clear. This was still in April 1943. The victories of the Red Army were only beginning. And it was plain to us that we had no chance of winning in the accepted sense of the term.
Q. In the military sense?
A. Not in the military sense or in the accepted sense of today. But, believe me, and this is no empty phrase, that despite their power, we knew that ultimately we would defeat them, we, the weak ones, because in this lay our strength. We believed in justice, in humanity, and in a regime different from the one which they glorified.
In the Generalgouvernement, the Star of David was a blue star on a white background worn on outer clothing. Elsewhere it was the familiar yellow star.
An aktion is a round-up of the Jews during a deportation.
Many of the youth movements operating in Poland on the eve of the war and at the time of WWII are discussed in an online exhibit (specifically about Lodz, but applicable to all of Poland) which can be found here.
For an article on the couriers, the brave – mostly female – members of the youth movements who traveled from ghetto to ghetto with news, boosted morale and sometimes smuggled in arms and weapons, see a previous issue of this newsletter, found here.
Gusta Davidson Draenger, Justyna's Narrative, Eli Pfefferkorn, David H. Hirsch, eds., Roslyn Hirsch, David H. Hirsch, trans. (Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1996), pp. 24-26.
Hachshara involved training, including agricultural and ideological training, for purposes of immigration to Israel.
Yael Peled, Jewish Krakow 1939-1943, Her Stand, Underground, Struggle (Upper Galil: Ghetto Fighter's House, 1993), p. 132 [Hebrew].
Dr. Felicia Karai, Heroism Has Many Faces (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2002), p. 65 [Hebrew].
Yael Margolin Peled, Jewish Women's Archive, Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia, http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/gola-mire, accessed November 11, 2012.
Gusta Davidson Draenger, Justyna's Narrative, p. 24.
Yitzchak Zuckerman related, at the Eichmann trial, that "after the Jews of Cracow had been done to death, there remained a small, reduced ghetto. The Jewish underground was known there; as in the case of every group, there was a collaborator, an informer or traitor, who informed on the heads of the underground movement and these members had no alternative but to leave the ghetto and set up bases on the Aryan side of Cracow. See also another article in this newsletter dealing with the dilemmas of revolt.
Gusta Davidson Draenger, Justyna's Narrative, p. 25.
Gusta Davidson Draenger, Justyna's Narrative, pp. 2-3.
Friday evening marks the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath. Traditionally, Jewish families share a meal together to celebrate the Sabbath.
Yehuda ("Poldek") Maimon, a member of HeHalutz HaLochem in Krakow, is the source for this statement. Poldek has testified many times that at the Last Supper Dolek stated that the youth were "fighting for three lines in history." Poldek's testimony to this effect can be seen in the testimony film made for the Yad Vashem museum: The Krakow Ghetto. Film. Directed by Noemi Schory, Belfilms. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2005. The statement also appears in Dana Weiler-Polak, "Little Left to Lose," HaAretz, May 2, 2011, accessed August, 2013, http://www.haaretz.com/culture/arts-leisure/little-left-to-lose-1.359267#Scene_1.
Gusta Davidson Draenger, Justyna's Narrative, p. 6, n. 6 sets the figure at 7; the US Holocaust Museum sets the figure at 12.
See the discussion in the Editor's Note to Justyna's Narrative, which contains a story told by Hela Rufeisen-Schipper, one of the couriers of the underground. Traveling by train soon after the attacks, she was told by a Pole she was traveling with that the war would soon be over because Polish forces had begun to move. "Take my word for it, they are already carrying out acts of sabotage, like blowing up railroad tracks, and I read in the underground paper that in Krakow, too, our boys, the Polish underground, have attacked German cafes with grenades and bombs, inuring and killing many Germans. How proud they make me!" Gusta Davidson Draenger, Justyna's Narrative, p. 6, n. 6.
The formally-appointed head of the Judenrat in Bialystok was city’s chief rabbi, Dr. Gedaliah Rosenmann.
As explained in a different article in this newsletter, where the text of Kovner's proclamation appears, the Judenrat leadership, appointed by the Germans to do their bidding, tried to find logic behind the Germans' orders until the very end. This leadership was convinced that the Germans would not murder all the Jews because they constituted an important element of the workforce. As such, the Judenrat in various places refused to come to the conclusions that the youth movements came to, and never awoke to the realization that there was a plan to murder all the Jews of Europe.
Sara Bender, "Resistance in the Bialystok Ghetto", in Daniel Grinberg, ed., The Holocaust Fifty Years After, (Warsaw: The Jewish Historical Institute of Warsaw, 1993), p. 157.
Bender, p. 183.
Bender, p. 169.
One of Tenenbaum's most important accomplishments, together with Zvi Mersik, was to collect historical data for inclusion in a secret archive. In doing this, he was inspired by the work of Emanuel Ringelblum and the Oneg Shabbat archive in Warsaw. Tenenbaum kept a diary and submitted it to the archives together with letters he wrote, and he also encouraged others to write diaries and memoirs. He collected testimonies from refugees who wound up in the Bialystok ghetto. Barasz supported the archive and gave Tenenbaum documents and photos, Judenrat notices and minutes, and also personal items found in the clothing of dead Jews sent to Bialystok from Treblinka for cleaning and sorting. Like the archive in Warsaw, the Bialystok archive was hidden; in Bialystok, special hermetically-sealed metal containers manufactured by the ghetto locksmiths were used. These were delivered by a courier named Bronka Vinizka to a local Pole, who hid them in a shed in his courtyard. Most of the archive was found after the war.
Bender, p. 208.
"Halutzim" is the Hebrew word for pioneers.
This estimate is the result of lack of information on what happened in Warsaw. In the deportation that took place in Warsaw in January, the Jewish Fighting Organization lost only part of its people. The information on Bendin and Czestochowa is also based on incomplete knowledge of the situation.
This is a reference to the book “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh” which tells of the Armenian genocide by the Turks during World War I, written by the Czech-Jewish novelist Franz Werfel.
Arieh Carmon, Yair Oron, eds., Jewish Vitality in the Holocaust (Jerusalem: Ministry of Education, 1975), p. 59.
Bender, p. 254.
Bender, pp. 268-269.
Eichmann trial testimony: http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-025-04.html
Eichmann trial testimony: http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-025-04.html, Emphasis added. | <urn:uuid:83d6249f-d611-4501-8c06-c1b886fa1156> | {
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Tips & Advice
Where are dry cell batteries used?
Dry cell batteries are often used in portable electronic devices and might also be used to power small motors that are used in power tools, golf carts, wheelchairs, and the hard disk on your computer. You'll also find dry cell batteries in larger motors that power boats, RVs, military aircrafts, and hybrid cars and crossovers.
Are dry cell batteries rechargeable?
Some types of dry cell batteries are rechargeable. However, primary cell batteries, including alkaline cell, lithium cell, mercury cell, and silver-oxide cell batteries are not rechargeable. Secondary cell batteries within the dry cell family, including nickel-cadmium cell, lithium-ion cell, and nickel-metal hydride cell batteries can be recharged, but some might take longer than others.
What are the benefits of dry cell batteries?
A big benefit of dry cell batteries is that they can be operated in any position without fear of spillage. This is not the case with wet cell batteries, which have to be used with more caution. Dry cell batteries tend to offer superb durability, making them an excellent power source for devices such as cell phones and flashlights. The standard car battery used in a gas-only car is an example of a wet cell battery. Gas-electric hybrid vehicles use dry cell batteries.
What is a dry cell battery used for?
Dry cell batteries are used to provide power to a wide range of electronic gadgets. These batteries might be used to power devices such as toys, flashlights, and digital cameras. A standard non-rechargeable AA dry cell battery will provide 1.5 volts of power.
What is a dry cell battery?
Available in sizes such as AA and AAA, dry cell batteries are the most common choice for powering household devices and gadgets. A dry cell battery uses electrochemical cells to turn chemical energy into electrical energy. Dry cell batteries use an electrolyte paste to facilitate the flow of an electrical current. Unlike wet cell batteries, they don't hold free fluid, which allows them to be used without the risk of spillage. | <urn:uuid:7d492bcb-5c19-4804-aea8-5746d32228f5> | {
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It was ten years ago today that Fight Club was released. Both the film and the book by Chuck Palahniuk explored a variety of themes. Besides the intricacies of soap making, starting your own cult and the downside of consumer culture, at its heart is a story about a man with a strange condition that causes him to develop an alternate personality. In psychological parlance, that’s called dissociative identity disorder or multiple personality disorder.
In the book and film this alternative personality resulting from this disorder was quite liberating for the main character.
Many people have asked if this is even a real condition. Prior to the 19th century people who displayed radically different personalities were assumed to be possessed. In the 19th century it was explored on somewhat more scientific, if not rigorous grounds. From Wikipedia:
These conversion disorders were found to occur in even the most resilient individuals, but with profound effect in someone with emotional instability like Louis Vivé (1863-?) who suffered a traumatic experience as a 13 year-old when he encountered a viper. Vivé was the subject of countless medical papers and became the most studied case of dissociation in the nineteenth century.
That was all it took for writers from Mary Shelley to Edgar Allen Poe to start running with the concept of one person inhabited by two or more personalities.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde explored the notion of an alter ego acting entirely on the impulses of your id.
Fight Club in many ways is a descendent of these concepts. Both Mr Hyde and Tyler Durden displayed extremely anti-social behavior – the exception being in Tyler Durden’s case, author Chuck Palahniuk created a narrative structure that made it justifiable from the assumed point of view.
Despite case studies giving some credence to the condition and the plethora of scientific rationales provided, some remained skeptical. A number of researchers who initially believed the condition to be genuine began to second guess that assumption when they paid closer attention to some of the more celebrated cases of the field’s pioneer Jean-Martin Charcot. From Wikipedia:
In the early 20th century interest in dissociation and DID waned for a number of reasons. After Charcot’s death in 1893, many of his “hysterical” patients were exposed as frauds and Janet’s association with Charcot tarnished his theories of dissociation. Sigmund Freud recanted his earlier emphasis on dissociation and childhood trauma.
Eventually the book the Many Faces of Eve published in 1957 and the film adaptation caused a resurgence in diagnosis of the condition as did the book and later film Sybil did in 1974. From Wikipedia:
Skeptics claim that people who present with the appearance of alleged multiple personality may have learned to exhibit the symptoms in return for social reinforcement. One case cited as an example for this viewpoint is the “Sybil” case, popularized by the news media. Psychiatrist Herbert Spiegel stated that “Sybil” had been provided with the idea of multiple personalities by her treating psychiatrist, Cornelia Wilbur, to describe states of feeling with which she was unfamiliar.
It’s particularly interesting how uniquely American this condition is (unless you buy into the premise that hyper-consumerism was the flashpoint for developing a split personality in Fight Club). From Wikipedia, figures from psychiatric populations (inpatients and outpatients) show a wide diversity from different countries putting the legitimacy of the condition under suspicion.
Despite the clinical controversy over this condition, there remains a fascination in many of us over the idea of developing a stronger personality capable of doing the things we’re unable to bring ourselves to do.
It’s that fascination with alternative personalities and the expression of free will in Fight Club that still resonates today. We know what it is, but we just don’t know how to express it. Weight loss and substance abuse treatment are billion-dollar industries because we can’t quite get our bodies and minds to agree on things.
Where Hyde and Durden were expressions of the id, self-hypnosis and pseudo-psychology like NLP offer the promise of giving you control over your id to allow your higher functioning free will the ability to overcome your animal instincts.
Is the next desired evolution in mankind, not a physical one, but the ability to actually do the things we want?
Jeckyll and Hyde was about a Victorian scientist who may have been a bit repressed. Fight Club was the story of an everyman who felt emasculated by modern civilization. For both of them, part of their expression involved extreme violence and unleashing the id. Arguably in Durden’s case the violence (in particular the destruction of private property) was a byproduct of the world not being the way he wanted it to be and not something done for the sole sake of violence.
The lesson we can learn from Fight Club (we’ll pass over its conflicted view of personal freedom and anti-Capitalist message) and Jeckyll and Hyde is that the more civilized man is, the more frustrated he is by his inability to exert complete free will over his actions. So frustrated that he’s willing to start cults that destroy individuality and embrace violence to let that inner animal out to wreak havoc.
On one level Fight Club is about setting loose our id to unleash its fury that it can’t express itself in a less id-like way. And that is what we call a paradox.
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"No one has the intention of erecting a wall!" - Walter Ulbricht, June 15,1961.
The Wall was erected anyway, because more than 2.6 million East Germans escaped to West Berlin or West Germany from 1949 to 1961. People with West German DM could get goods very cheaply in the Eastern part of Berlin. Many young smart people escaped to West Germany in search for better life. GDR was piling up problems and most simple solution was to build up the wall.
After building the wall, things changed.
According to this article 63,000 East Berliners lost their jobs in the West. Trade between people from West Berlin and East Berlin stopped. State deficits grew rapidly, world competitiveness became a far-off dream, and discontent continued to mount. Economic and budgetary distortions remained, making it difficult either to direct resources or to control a budget. Dissatisfaction in east part of the city grew.
Except prevention of further emigration, what benefits did GDR directly receive from building the wall? | <urn:uuid:15a185f3-9540-47c5-a93e-ab8cd4afb0f6> | {
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When you use a river for recreation, you get to know the river. The relationship you have with the river helps you see how you can befriend the river. In the last decade, many volunteers have actively been addressing the water quality of the Big Bureau Creek and the Illinois River.
Many groups have been learning more about riparian habitats on the stream banks and shores of the river. Clean-up efforts to remove trash from the creeks and rivers have succeeded well, thanks to volunteers young and old. Wherever you live and work and play, you have a responsibility to befriend a river – to keep it free from debris, sediment and pollutants.
The river water is recharged by rainfall (and snowmelt) from surface water that runs off and from stored groundwater recharged by rainfall that infiltrates the ground beneath the surface. What you put on the ground or inject into the ground has the potential for affecting river water quality.
All of the ditches, creeks and waterways through the fields connect to a river. Your tax dollars have supported farmers with cost-share dollars to apply best soil management practices to many acres of highly-erodible land in Bureau County to keep sediment out of the river. Conservation-minded landowners have done much to improve river water quality using many forms of conservation practices including grass waterways, streambank stabilization, grass and tree buffers and conservation tillage.
Wetlands provide a natural management system. They clean water, recharge water supplies, reduce flood risks and provide fish and wildlife habitat. Wetlands also can provide recreational opportunities, aesthetic benefits, and sites for research and education. As a landowner you can consider saving or restoring wetlands where they have been destroyed by development.
In the cities and towns with curbs and gutters the water runs off to storm sewers that flow to a river. Individual landowners can find ways to keep the water on their own land – rain barrels, rain gardens and natural grass plantings – allowing rain to infiltrate the ground. Cities and towns can use varieties of plants around parking lots and buildings that increase water uptake. Restored wetlands can be used to filter urban pollutants and sediment from storm water before it empties into the river.
When we experience drought conditions, we are reminded that keeping as much rainfall as possible on your own land benefits you. By keeping rainfall on your own land and keeping runoff free of pollutants; that’s the way you can befriend a river!
Emily McQueen Gann is the Administrative Resource Conservationist with the Bureau County Soil and Water Conservation District | <urn:uuid:75d7bd18-e0f1-4223-b17a-cfb3a4150b01> | {
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Quilting for a cause
A plaque stating that Abraham Lincoln stayed in a house roughly five miles northwest of Tonganoxie and 10 miles southwest of Leavenworth might not have been accurate.
Carol Ayres, who published the book, "Lincoln and Kansas: Partnership in Freedom," spoke last week to the Tonganoxie Historical Society. Ayres mentioned that no historical records would indicate Lincoln stayed at the residence, although it's sometimes difficult to know.
"He's probably slept and stayed in every house between here and St. Joe (Mo.)," Ayres said.
When Ayres was special collections librarian at St. Mary College in Leavenworth, she was introduced to an extensive collection about Lincoln.
Ayres wanted to have literature explaining the exhibit.
"I thought I would write a pamphlet," Ayres said.
The Leavenworth resident's idea turned into a larger piece of literature.
During the historical society meeting, Ayres discussed her book and the relationship Lincoln and Kansas had during the turbulent era leading up to his presidency in the 1850s.
Lincoln made campaign stops through much of northeast Kansas. With the idea of preserving the Union by making Kansas a free state, Lincoln spoke in Linwood, just west of St. Joseph, Mo., and in Troy and Doniphan in late November 1859. Ayres said Lincoln also visited part of the Underground Railroad at Doniphan. He then spoke in Atchison on Dec. 3 and at Stockton Hall in Leavenworth after that. Four years and one month later, John Wilkes Booth performed at Stockton Hall in a Shakesperian tragedy. Booth shot Lincoln 18 months later in Chicago.
Ayres said that Lincoln was part of the moderate and new Republican Party. His main goal was keeping the Union intact no matter what it took, although his view of slavery became more and more unfavorable as time progressed.
Various constitutions were drawn up for Kansas with slavery being a major issue. The Lecompton Constitution called for slavery within the state; the Topeka Constitution called for no slavery. The Leavenworth Constitution was ahead of its time, making slavery illegal and giving women voting rights.
A compromise was struck, and the Wyandotte Constitution made Kansas a free state without voting rights for women.
Violence was common in the area because of the slavery issue. When Kansans voted on the slavery issue, 5,000 Missourians crossed the border to vote, carrying guns if Kansas officials needed persuasion.
The tension between Kansas and Missouri was obvious. Sites in Lawrence and Osceola, Mo., were burned, and various murders took place on both sides of the border.
After Booth had shot Lincoln, it was Boston Corbett, who lived near Concordia in Cloud County, who shot Booth through a hole in the barn where Booth had fled. Men were ordered not to shoot, but Corbett, who Ayres described as unstable, ignored the instruction. Corbett was run out of the Concordia area after threatening to shoot neighbor children. He was then assigned to a position as a guard with the Legislature. He later lived in an asylum in Topeka.
Ayres said it was wonderful to learn about Lincoln, a man with humble beginnings and little education in Illinois, and his rise to the presidency.
"To study or to research him is to love him," Ayres said.
During a speech in New York that was said to propel Lincoln into the presidency, a local reporter said Lincoln was just a country hick, but in the course of the speech, the reporter viewed him as a legitimate leader of the nation.
Lincoln wasn't always viewed as the most attractive or best dressed, though.
A woman once told Lincoln: "You are the ugliest person I've ever seen." He told her that he couldn't help it, and she replied, "Well you could have at least stayed at home."
Ayres had some interest in Lincoln before being involved in the special collection, but has become very interested in his part in history.
After conducting so much research about Lincoln, could Ayres write another book?
"Who knows," Ayres said. "It's possible." | <urn:uuid:f7a05f27-3613-4e9d-aca2-6e4b47fa1223> | {
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One factor in the diabetes epidemic may be prescription drugs and vaccines, some of which have been found to cause diabetes as a side-effect. The chief culprits are:
These water-retention drugs have been suspected of causing diabetes, but a large-scale study failed to find any connection (N Engl J Med, 2000; 342: 905-12).
* Corticosteroid drugs
Often prescribed for inflammation in arthritis, allergies, skin problems and asthma, a major side-effect of these drugs is to raise blood glucose levels and so cause type 2 diabetes. Generic names include betamethasone, budesonide, cortisone, dexamethasone, hydrocortisone, methylprednisolone, prednisolone, prednisone and triamcinolone.
These anti-high blood pressure drugs have been shown to increase the risk of diabetes, probably by interfering with the insulin-receptor cells in the pancreas, leading to decreased insulin sensitivity (N Engl J Med, 2000; 342: 905-12). Generic names include atenolol, metoprolol, propanolol and any other drug names ending in ‘olol’.
* Antipsychotic drugs
According to a recent report, 'treatment with antipsychotic medications is associated with impaired glucose metabolism, exacerbation of existing type 1 and 2 diabetes, new-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus, and diabetic ketoacidosis, a severe and potentially fatal metabolic complication.' The worst offenders are drugs such as chlorpromazine, clozapine and olanzapine (J Clin Psychiatry, 2001; 62 [Suppl 27]: 15-26). Olanzapine, marketed as Zyprexa, is manufactured by Eli Lilly, who is currently facing class-action litigation because of the diabetes side-effect.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a relatively new class of antidepressant, of which the most well known is Prozac (fluoxetine). One of its side-effects is that it seriously interferes with glucose regulation. According to the manufacturer’s prescribing information: 'In patients with diabetes, Prozac may alter glycemic control. Hypoglycemia has occurred during therapy with Prozac, and hyperglycemia has developed following discontinuation of the drug.' Other generic names of SSRIs are citalopram, fluvoxamine, paroxetine and sertraline.
A number of vaccines has been linked with diabetes, which may help to explain the increase of type 1 diabetes in children. A sharp rise in type 1 diabetes was reported after children received the Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccination for meningitis (BMJ, 1999; 319: 1133). Similar reports occurred after BCG vaccination in babies aged under two months (Infect Dis Clin Pract, 1997; 6: 449-54). These findings are controversial, however, as later surveys have failed to uncover any link between vaccines and diabetes (Drug Saf, 1999; 20: 207-12; Pediatrics, 2001; 108: E112).
A recent medical survey reports that 'long-term exposure to alcohol is associated with an improvement in insulin sensitivity'. The report also reveals that 'a substantial number of prospective studies point to a protective role for light to moderate chronic alcohol intake against the development of diabetes' (J Cardiovasc Risk, 2003; 10: 25-30), a happy conclusion that Michel Montignac - as a true wine-loving Frenchman - heartily endorses. | <urn:uuid:e4f27cae-4803-4d79-ac32-34b316ec54e2> | {
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Today, approximately 5.7 million U.S. adults in the U.S. have bipolar disorder, a serious mental illness. Also known as manic-depressive disorder, the illness is characterized by extreme mood swings.
Bipolar disorder typically develops during an individual’s late teen or early adult years, with half of all cases emerging before age 25.
Bipolar disorder is characterized as one of several types, depending upon the cluster of symptoms:
- Bipolar I— requires at least one full manic episode, with or without depressive episodes.
- Bipolar II – features cycles of depression and elevated moods (often referred to as hypomanic episodes) that do not reach the level of a full mania.
- Bipolar Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (BP-NOS) — does not fully meet criteria for Bipolar I or II or follow a fixed pattern.
- Cyclothymia – exhibits much milder symptoms of the disorder.
An estimated 10-20% of affected individuals also experience rapid cycling, characterized by at least four episodes in one year.
Manic symptoms include excessive excitement, restlessness, increased energy, racing thoughts, irritability, sleeplessness, and a tendency to engage in reckless and impulsive actions.
Depressive symptoms include sadness, crying episodes, weight loss or gain, feelings of hopelessness or helplessness, decreased energy, loss of interest in daily activities, and thoughts of death or suicide.
Sometimes psychotic symptoms may also be present, such as hallucinations or delusions; e.g., “I am the wealthiest person in the world.”
While the causes of bipolar disorder are not completely understood, several risk factors may influence its development.
An individual whose parent or sibling has the disorder is up to six times more likely to develop the illness. Researchers are seeking specific genes that play a causative role. MRIs have shown structural changes in the brains of affected individuals. Imbalances in neurotransmitters, important brain chemicals, may be another culprit, as well as hormone imbalances.
Trauma or extreme stress may influence the development of the disorder or trigger episodes.
Without treatment, bipolar disorder often worsens over time. Treatment is usually a combination of medication and psychotherapy.
Common medications used include:
- Mood stabilizers, including Lithium and various anticonvulsants.
- Atypical antipsychotics, such as Zyprexa or Abilify.
- Antidepressants, usually in combination with a mood stabilizer.
- Symbyax, FDA-approved specifically for bipolar disorder.
- Benzodiazepines, such as Klonopin or Ativan for anxiety and sleep disturbance.
Medication may be a lifetime commitment for a person with bipolar disorder.
Psychotherapy can help individuals learn to cope with the effects of the illness and avoid situations which might trigger episodes. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) teaches individuals to change negative patterns of behavior and thought, while interpersonal and social rhythm therapy focuses on improvement of relationships and more stable daily routines. Psychoeducational approaches provide information to increase understanding and assist in recognition of warning signs.
Therapists also work with entire families or with groups of individuals with bipolar disorder. Family-focused therapy helps families with communication, symptom recognition, and more effective coping skills. Group therapy allows individuals to learn from others with the disorder, while practicing better interpersonal skills.
For individuals who have been resistant to other treatment methods, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has offered some benefit.
While there is no permanent cure for bipolar disorder, effective treatment can lead to better illness management and allow individuals to live normal lives. | <urn:uuid:ad367889-03f0-4341-b453-b9cc5bcba4ee> | {
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Most gardeners who grow avocados in their yards are familiar with two, possibly three varieties – Hass, which was discovered by Rudolph Hass in La Habra Heights in 1926; Fuerte, which was brought here from Mexico around 1911; and possibly the Bacon, developed by James Bacon in Buena Park in the 1950s.
An avocado is botanically classified as a berry because the pulp is produced by a single ovary. Not that you're likely to top your cereal with avocado, but if you're going to bounce fun avocado facts off your garden friends, it's good to know.
Those who know everything there is to know about this buttery berry met early this month at the University of California South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine to find out about the latest avocado science.
Commercial growers, nurserymen, researchers and backyard breeders gathered to learn about advancements in growing, disease and rootstock, and about promising cultivars for the future on 60 acres devoted to developing one of California's most important crops.
We tagged along to glean what information we could for the backyard grower. Tromping through deep layers of leaf litter with field volunteer Isabel Barkman and center director Darren Haver was the most telling. The majority of our success with avocados happens at the soil level.
Avocados are subtropical trees that thrive in warm weather, but seek shade for their trunks and root systems. Prune lightly if at all.
Avocados need a pollinator, which means that if there are avocado trees in your neighborhood, you'll likely get enough fruit to feed your family.
"Because there are so many people growing avocados in Orange County, there is a good chance you have a pollinator nearby," Haver said.
Expect your tree to get 30-40 feet tall at maturity, depending on the variety.
Most avocados are alternate bearing, meaning you may get a crop worth picking every year or every other year. Hass, for example, bears lightly one year and heavy the next. Fuerte bears fruit every other year, and Carmen-Hass is consistent every year.
"The researchers say that in general, most avocados are on one year and off the next," Haver said.
While the top of an avocado tree takes care of itself, gardeners need to pay attention to what happens from the soil level down.
Gary Matsuoka of the Great Park Farmers Market said to make a small hill of soil and sand and plant your tree in the mound to provide drainage.
A thick mulch of leaf litter is critical for keeping the roots cool and moist. Do not rake fallen leaves.
Avocados thrive in moist soils, but too much water, poor drainage or standing water will quickly kill them via root rot.
"Don't let the plants wilt, but do let them dry slightly between watering," Haver said. A deep soak once or twice a week during the dry season should do the trick.
Avocados suffer from salt burn, which is evidenced by brown tipping on the leaves. Deep soaking helps wash salts below the root zone.
Feed young avocados trees with a half-pound of organic avocado food per year, and not all at once. | <urn:uuid:414372c3-06e2-49d7-9fce-a9bf616a5348> | {
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Fish farming in Kenya promotes a meal that boosts better brain functioning. Well, if you converse with Kenyans you will realize that they relate fish delicacies to result in better brain work.
Of course, they are not wrong to hold such an opinion because based on scientific findings omega 3 oils found in fish does increase brain memory. I bet you know what to order next time you realize you’re being forgetting things.
In this article, I will take you through important developments in fish farming on the ground in Kenya.
In the end, it is my hope that you will have a better understanding of the fish industry in the country. And even propose sustainable solutions to between fish farming in Kenya.
Let’s now narrow down on Kenyans and their fish-eating habits as it relates to fish farming. Do so I have researched on the following four points. That you need to know.
Must read: Livestock Farming in Kenya
Facts around fish-farming in Kenya
Fish farming in Kenya has developed over the years. So to keep you updated with the turn up of events I have highlighted the realities facing fish farming in Kenya. As stated below.
- As of 2018, Kenya produces 137,000 metric tonnes of fish per year. And exported 37,000 metric tonnes.
- Kenyan fish farmers have increased fish consumption among local households.
- In 2013, an average Kenyan consumed 1 kilogram of fish per year. Flash forward to 2018, an average Kenyan consumes 4.9 kilograms of fish per year.
- Fish farming contributed 0.54 percent of the overall GDP to Kenya’s as of 2013.
- A total of 129,300 Kenyans directly benefited from fish farming and aquaculture inform of employment by 2013.
- When it comes to the source of water used for fish farming in Kenya, the findings were that: 13,100 used coastal waters, 67900 practiced fish farming from home while 48,300 used inland waters.
- efforts to improve fish farming in Kenya, the Government has signed the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the sea, 1995 Fish Stocks Agreement and the Port State Measures Agreement of 2019.
Methods of Fish Farming in Kenya
Well, fish farming is a venture that traces of roots hundreds of years ago. Way before the colonial era when Kenya’s early inhabitants were hunters and gatherers.
Historically, fishing was as a supplementary activity that would contribute to the bread basket. Rarely would communities do fish farming as a main economic venture.
Also, note that fish in the pre-colonial eras of Kenya was used as a trading commodity for one to acquire what they didn’t have. This is trading process is popularly known as barter trade.
Today, Fish farming is not just a part-time activity but rather can be full-time venture done on large scale basis requiring full-time participation from the farmer.
Here is a list of the leading fishing methods in Kenya :
- Freshwater pond fishing
- Integrated fish farming
- Brackishwater finfish culture
- Mariculture fish farming
Freshwater Pond Fishing
This type of fishing method is characterized by domesticating a particular fish breed in either a natural or artificial pond.
Freshwater fish pond method dates back to as early as 14BC and as such has undergone numerous improvements over time.
Initially, fish pond farming was only carried out in stagnant water. But with new improvements fish pond farming can be utilized in moving waters under specific techniques. This specific technique controls the movement of fish not to be lost with moving waters.
If planning to employ the fish pond fish farming methods then the following six points will benefit you.
- On average, experts advice that a fish pond should range between 2-0.5 Ha of land. This maximizes the yields of fish.
- A fertilizer with a mixture of lime may be used to promote the growth of fish feeds in the pond. Please consult an expert before applying this.
- Pesticides also may be applied to finish water pests that feed on fish feeds in the pond. Again, consult an expert before acting.
- Fishpond cropping, which is the planting of crops that are eaten within the pond should be done frequently. This is after observing that the crops in the pond have been exhausted.
- Supplementary feeding that has protein, carbohydrates and other important nutrients should be applied frequently.
- Pond and Water level of 1meter is considered ideal for tilapia, cramps, and shrimps. Milkfish and mudfish can thrive in water levels of 40-60cm.
Integrated fish farming
This is a type of fish farming that happens when fish farming is done at the same time with crops and even animals in the same waterbody.
Crops and animals integrated into fish farming. Two major the crops used for integrated fish farming
While on the other hand, the most integrated animals during fish farming are :
Integrated fish farming provides what we call a symbiotic benefit.
Animals and plants benefit from each other, wastes from ducks and pigs are used by the fish as food. While both the fish, ducks, and pigs feed on crops planted in the used water.
Note: Integrated fish farming has not picked up well in Kenya. Based on the fact that integrated fish farming utilizes space by farming a variety of things at once this method appeals to thrive in Kenya.
Brackishwater finfish culture
Also known as coastal aquaculture, brackishwater finfish fishing culture is rapidly growing and plays a critical role in providing Kenyans with seafood.
The target customers for Brackishwater finfish culture are hotels and outlets that mostly serve tourists among other foreigners.
Brackishwater finfish culture has not been embraced widely in Kenya. This is because end products its which are lobsters, crabs and shrimps are not widely eaten in the country.
This method of fish farming requires good water vessels that can go deep into the sea. This is the reason why this method is unpopular in Kenya.
Note: with public awareness of brackishwater fish culture, the Kenyan public at the coast might embrace this fishing method widely.
Mariculture fish farming
In simple terms, mariculture fish farming is practicing aquaculture in deep marine environments.
Mariculture fish farming controls the burden overfishing as they lead to preserving traditional fish.
Note: With the rapid growth of Kenya’s population, it is advised by experts on food security that Mariculture should be embraced as a sustainable solution to fish farming.
Categories of fish found in Kenya
There are two categories of fish in Kenya. That is the freshwater and saltwater fish.
Freshwater fish type
You need to first understand that Freshwater is found in rivers, some lakes, and large ponds away from the sea.
Freshwater bodies have their own types of fish uniquely adapted to survive in this waters.
The following list highlights the type of fish found in Kenya’s freshwater lakes.
List of freshwater fish in Kenya
- Nile Perch
- Silver cryptid (Omena )
The Nile Perch is traceable along freshwater bodies like L. Victoria and other big rivers.
Characteristics of the Nile Nile Perch
- Large-mouthed fish
- Can be greenish or brownish on the upper side with silverish traits on the lower side.
- On full maturity, the Nile perch grow up to 1.8metres long and can weigh up to 140 kilograms.
- One unique feature of the Nile Perch is that it has an elongated body and a protruding jaw.
Note: L.Victoria is famous for having the Nile Perch in Kenya.
Tilapia is easy to raise because of being resistant to diseases and grows fast. This makes them better for commercial purposes.
Tilapias feed on algae that is easy to find.
Note: Tilapia fish are on demand in Kenya. This has led to overfishing across the country. The tilapia could be extinct in Kenya through measures are not taken.
People also read: A Complete Review of Poultry Farming in Kenya
Silver cryptid (Omena )
Also, know as the L.Victoria Sadine or the dagga, the Omena is a darling in many Kenyan homes.
The silverfish is the size of the small finger and has rays on the fins.
Note: The menus rich in calcium.
Challenges facing fish farmers in Kenya
- The high cost of feeds
- Lack of quality fingerlings
- Poor extension services from the Fisheries department
- Lack of enough skills to facilitate professional fish farming.
- Use of outdated and old boats.
- Harassment of Kenyan fishermen and women on Lake Victoria by border police from Uganda.
- Lack of a fish farmers cooperative or movement to advocate for their welfare.
Kenya having enough water bodies like rivers, Lakes, and access to the Indian Ocean puts her in a better position to succeed in Fish Farming.
Again when we look at the entrepreneurial spirit among Kenyans the thought of Kenya influencing the global fish market becomes clear.
Kenya should channel her efforts in improving fish farming as an avenue to achieve food security as stated in the big four agenda.
Professionalism in the fish farming sector on the side of fish farmers still remains low. They need to strongly digitize fish farming practices.
On overall, fish farming in Kenya lacks decades behind. Even though the need for fish consumption has evolved.
It is important and urgent for fish farming in Kenya to under revamping to ensure the relevance of the industry in modern Kenya. | <urn:uuid:3691e512-854b-4ca4-8274-4f2c3b7e2f24> | {
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Donna Brook’s The Journey of English states that the English language contains over a billion words, more than any other language, although we commonly use only about 200,000 of them. Judging from most conversations I hear, we use far fewer than that and I couldn’t begin to quantify how many of those 200,000 I may have encountered this year. Etymology is endlessly fascinating to me and this simple book is a good introduction to the evolution of English from the steppes of Siberia to the fast-food outlets in Guatemala City. It’s interesting to note that English is only about 5,000 years old–and most of that time the language existed in forms unrecognizable to us today. Chinese is approximately 5,000 years old as well but China’s isolation allowed Mandarin to develop in a much more homogenous way.
English is a ragtag vagabond, lurching from central Europe to the British Isles and picking up Latin, Greek, Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and French coloring through wars and migrations, raids and intermarrying, from Celtic stronghold to Roman Empire to Saxon and Angle conquests. Tracking the words and how they appeared where they did is better brain candy than a crossword puzzle. Old English gave us the days of the week and the words eat and sleep, as well as the great legends that are the basis for many of our defining stories. The imposition of Latinate Christianity gave us angel, purple, silk and school. The Normans handed off French influence in the guise of parliament, liberty, crown, treaty and tax. The Renaissance with its recovered classics infused English with more Latin and some Greek–most English reflects those two languages although the words we use for the lion’s share of our communication, the plainspoken short serviceable words, are from the Old English.
It’s possible to get lost in the origins of English, in the sources for scientific terms and the flourishes of the preserved manuscripts hand-copied by monks and the impressive vocabulary of one William Shakespeare–30,000 words–and the King James Bible. Between the British Empire and the rampant spread of American consumer culture and the web–English can be found everywhere. It travels well and leaves traces behind wherever it goes. We’ve planted a bit of English on the moon. Maybe intelligent beings picking up transmissions from earth in some distant galaxy already speak passable English–there’s a scary thought. But, although I wish I spoke other languages far better than I do, I’m glad I have English to write in and to read aloud. Whether you’re cussing or declaiming poetry, English is a very satisfying language to speak and hear–and read, of course. Just lose yourself in Dylan Thomas or shout out a little Mos Def, grab some Jane Austen. Toni Morrison or Bob Stone. It’s all good. Good–from Old English: “virtuous; desirable; valid; considerable; having the right or desirable quality…”
The Journey of English Donna Brook | Clarion Books 1998 | <urn:uuid:f0a5753c-71fe-4424-93a5-2af7bb20394c> | {
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The mission of the Shared Neutrals Program is to encourage the use of alternative dispute resolution by state agencies to facilitate the efficient resolution of disputes involving state agencies and citizens in a timely and cost effective manner by providing trained mediators at no additional cost to those who seek assistance in resolving disputes.
Mediation is a process in which a neutral third person, called a mediator, acts to encourage and assist in the resolution of a dispute between two (2) or more parties. The objective is to help the disputing parties reach a mutually acceptable agreement between or among themselves on all or any part of the issues in dispute. Decision making power rests with the parties, not the mediator. The mediator assists the parties in identifying issues, fostering joint problem-solving, and exploring settlement alternatives.
Some of the benefits of using a mediator are: | <urn:uuid:95929d2f-febd-4009-a967-870a379cad32> | {
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heavenArticle Free Pass
In some traditions, heaven seems to recede into the background. Native American cultures, for example, are oriented toward the totality of earth, sky, and the four directions rather than toward heaven alone. Although heaven is not typically the abode of the blessed dead in Native American mythology, the stars, Sun, Moon, clouds, mountaintops, and sky-dwelling creators figure significantly. The Christian-influenced prophetic visions characteristic of revitalization movements such as the 19th-century Ghost Dance and the religion of Handsome Lake are fervently millenarian, proclaiming the advent of an eschatological paradise to be accompanied by the return of the dead and the restoration of tribal life.
New models of heaven in the modern West have been influenced by ideals of progress, evolution, social equality, and domestic tranquility. The 19th-century Spiritualist movement, adapting the doctrines of the Swedish scientist and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg and of the German physician Franz Anton Mesmer, mixed clairvoyance with science to describe heavenly spheres, radiant with luminiferous ether, where the spirits worked for causes such as abolition, temperance, feminism, and socialism and pursued opportunities for self-improvement. Utopian communities sought to bring this progressive heaven to practical realization on earth. Consolation literature, epitomized in the United States by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’s novel The Gates Ajar (1868), portrayed heaven as an intimate realm of family reunions.
Belief in heaven persists despite age-old criticisms: that it is an irrational, wish-fulfilling fantasy, a symptom of alienation, and an evasion of responsibility for bettering the real world. Defenders of the doctrine insist, on the contrary, that belief in heaven has a morally invigorating effect, endowing life with meaning and direction and inspiring deeds of heroic self-sacrifice. Whatever be the case, familiarity with the iconography of heaven is indispensable to understanding Western literature and art, including the poetry of Dante, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, John Milton, John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Thomas Traherne, John Bunyan, and William Blake, as well as the paintings of Fra Angelico, Luca Signorelli, Sandro Botticelli, Correggio, Jan van Eyck, and Stefan Lochner. Much the same can be said for other cultures: in every historical period, depictions of heaven provide a revealing index of what a society regards as the highest good. Hence the study of heaven is, in its broadest application, the study of ultimate human ideals.
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Pests and Diseases
- which pest or disease do my plants have?
Pests - beasties
Diseases - fungal
natural is your garden? | ants
| aphids | blackspot
| botrytis -
grey mould | caterpillars
beetle larvae | fairy
rings | leatherjackets
beetle | mealybugs
| powdery mildew
| red spider mite
| rust | slugs
and snails | vine
weevils | whitefly
Unwelcome visitors: cats | foxes | frogs | moles Weeds: clearing a neglected area, general weeding
Every species of plant or animal that has yet been discovered has at least one unique parasite or disease that affects it uniquely. So there are more parasites and disease causing organisms than any other kinds. Fortunately (I use the word in a relative manner) there are not so many pests and diseases that the average gardener will come across and in most cases it will be one of the following.
At the end of each description, there is a link to a page of more detail on that particular pest and how to deal with it.
Grey Mould - Botrytis
Signs - Stems and flowers become covered with a velvety greyish, fungal growth (that looks particularly unpleasant.)
Damage - A very common fungus which produces spores that are always around in the air. They attack plants through areas of damage. At first, small pale brown or white patches appear as the flowers start to rot.
Signs - Very descriptive these fungal diseases - looks like the pant is going rusty. Orange-brown pustules develop initially on the undersides of leaves. These may be unnoticed for some time, so by the time the pustules appear on the upper leaf surface and are noticed, the disease has taken hold.
Damage - Badly affected plants can be so weakened they are unable to withstand winter frosts.
Signs - Purplish-black usually rounded blotches appear on leaves, which then start to yellow and fall early. Stems may be affected in severe cases.
Damage - Badly affected plants may die as they are so seriously weakened they cannot withstand the winter frosts. It is very unsightly.
Signs - White powdery mould appears on the leaves, stems and buds. Young growth in particular is affected. The disease is encouraged by the plant being dry at the roots with damp stagnant air around the top.
Damage - Looks unsightly and causes leaves to drop early. If the plant is well established this is a relatively harmless disease. However, care should be taken with younger plants since these may be drastically weakened.
From the newsletter
This year seems to have become the year of the fungus. I've noticed it on all kinds of plants that have contracted some vague illness that can't quite be pinpointed. Discoloured leaves that are brown at the edges, maybe tending to black, but still alive rather than dry and crispy. A common question has been regarding a "sooty" deposit on plants, this is almost certainly "sooty mould" that is not growing on the plant as such, but on the sticky honeydew exuded by aphids higher up in the leaves. The sooty mould is a fungus that feeds on the sugary excretions, in itself it will not directly harm the plant, but it will cause discolouration and block light. The honeydew itself will also make it easier for other infections to take a foothold.
There have also been a whole host of emails about dying hedges and conifers. Brown patches that have been growing slowly for some time, that have suddenly become much larger and killed more of the hedge or tree. There are a number of possible causes of this - all fungal. What is probably happening is that the hedge or tree has been poorly for a while, but this warm damp summer came along and it became party time for the fungus. What can be done about it? Not a lot really once it's started to happen. It's more a case of removing dead or dying growth that may spread within the plants and then in the future carrying out basic hygiene. Dead leaves for instance from diseased plants should leave the garden in the wheelie-bin, down the tip or up in smoke, they shouldn't go on the compost heap or the infection will continue.
Spraying your plants with a general fungicide will help to reduce the effect or extent of the infection, but not completely eliminate it. Remember a garden is simply a collection of novel exotic food for all the local pests and diseases to have a go at!
Garden Supplies Online
| Design |
Buy plants online |
Garden buildings |
Copyright © Paul Ward 2000 - 2013 | <urn:uuid:bc6c77c1-3ad0-46a2-91cc-a6567c5f9b2b> | {
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Sex each day can keep the doctor away
When one thinks of exercise, sex isn't the first possible activity that leaps to mind. However, more research shows that regularly knocking boots with a partner can help maintain men's health both short-term and long-term.
For example, research has shown that having sex once or twice a week can help improve the immune system, so you won't get sick quite as often. "Moderately frequent sex enhances immune function, and may help prevent illnesses such as the common cold," lead researcher Carl Charnetski told AARP.org.
The more often people have sex – both men and women – the lower their blood rate. In part, this may be due to the fact that it can help with relaxation. Intercourse is similar to deep massages. This kind of relaxation has been associated with lower pain, stress, depression and arthritis, the website reports.
Frequently getting down and dirty also protects your heart. A British study found that the more times a man had sex, the less likely he was to suffer a heart attack. A higher number of orgasms may also reduce the risk for prostate cancer, according to findings from The National Cancer Institute. Men who ejaculated 21 times a month or more were found to have a 33 percent lower chance of developing the condition than peers who reported ejaculating seven times a month.
AARP.org reports that sex is considered a "key element" to prolong longevity, especially when one takes into account the benefits of regularly engaging in the activity. However, it's important to remember that knowing how to use a condom is another important part of intercourse. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend using contraceptives each time one has sex to lower the risk for common STDs. | <urn:uuid:39d19f53-7a44-4475-b4ef-1773e99f2773> | {
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In one swoop in April, authorities in Guinea-Bissau seized 635 kilogrammes of cocaine, worth an estimated $50 mn. But the traffickers managed to escape with the rest of the 2.5-tonne consignment because the police could not give chase. United Nations Office on Drug Control (UNODC) Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa commended the seizure, but lamented the poor state of policing in the West African nation. “It is regrettable that the rest of the consignment was not intercepted, but hardly surprising as the police are woefully ill-equipped and often do not even have enough gasoline to operate their vehicles.”
That same month, media reports noted that drug traffickers had established a transit area along the Gulf of Guinea as a way to elude tighter policing off the coast of Europe. Fragile states in Africa are often overwhelmed by other pressing challenges such as poverty, weak public institutions or political instability and can provide a haven for such groups. One of the illicit networks, operating in Guinea-Bissau, is made up of South American suppliers, African transporters and European distributors.
Guinea-Bissau, still recovering from a civil war that ended six years ago, is particularly vulnerable. It is one of the world’s 10 poorest nations, lacking secure prisons or adequate border patrols. “All the institutions have collapsed,” explains Mr. Koli Kouame of the UN International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). Tighter policing on the Iberian Peninsula, which has traditionally been the transit point for drugs heading for Europe from South America, is forcing the syndicates to seek alternative routes through Africa. Strategically located close to Europe and with a porous coastline made up of a labyrinth of islands, Guinea-Bissau provides an ideal sanctuary.
Demand for drugs such as cocaine is at an all-time high in Europe. A kilogramme of cocaine reportedly sells for about $80,000 in Europe, compared with $50,000 in the US, the world’s biggest market for the narcotic.
Between 2000 and 2003, African authorities managed to seize only an average of 600 kilogrammes of cocaine per year, 0.2 per cent of the drugs estimated to have been trafficked in the region during that period, UNODC noted in a report on Africa in 2005.
The case of Guinea-Bissau illustrates some of the challenges facing many poor African countries. With weak enforcement capability, underpaid officials and porous national borders, these countries provide an ideal environment for organized criminal rings to extract or tranship illicit commodities.
Africa has far fewer police per citizen than other regions. There are only 180 police per 100,000 people on the continent, while in Asia there are 363. Moreover, when police officers are underpaid and government officials are susceptible to corruption, the job of traffickers only becomes easier. Public officials can be bribed to look the other way or even be induced to work in direct collusion with traffickers.
Transnational crime syndicates deal in a wide range of illicit commodities, including narcotics, diamonds, petroleum, ivory and weapons. They also smuggle human beings. The UN has reported that 90 per cent of African countries are affected by human trafficking flows, either as a source, transit site or destination.
Because drug trafficking, prostitution, gambling, loan-sharking and official corruption are illegal and many transactions are consensual, experts note that the extent of organized crime is hard to establish on the basis of official data, in Africa or elsewhere. “But perception surveys, as well as international crime intelligence and seizures of contraband, suggest that Africa may have become the continent most targeted by organized crime,” UNODC states in a 2005 report, Crime and Development in Africa. “Lack of official controls makes the continent vulnerable to money laundering and corruption activities, both of which are vital to the expansion of organized crime.”
Policy planners point out that organized crime can derail development programmes. In turn, unbalanced or inadequately planned development contributes to criminality, resulting in a vicious cycle of poverty-crime-poverty. Crime threatens security of life and property, the growth of democracy and good governance and the free exercise of human rights.
Crime also leads to the loss of scarce assets and resources. Although current data is scarce, the South African police estimated in 1998 that the country was losing more than $3 bn annually in potential revenue as a result of the operations of more than 30 Asian, Italian, Nigerian and Russian crime groups in the country.
Angola, another country recovering from conflict, is one of many in Africa that are losing millions of dollars’ worth of national resources that could be ploughed into development. The Southern African nation attracted scores of transnational crime syndicates during its decades-long civil war as the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) traded diamonds and other natural resources to fund its war against the government. When the war ended in 2002, some of its fighters switched from military activities to transnational crime.
“The loss of money through these crimes is a serious issue for the region because the money is lost by countries which can least afford to be without those kinds of resources,” says Mr. Charles Goredema of the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa. In Southern Africa, when gold and diamonds are smuggled, no taxes are paid on those commodities, depriving the state of resources it could otherwise use to finance basic services.
Public perceptions of high levels of crime or corruption in a country almost always dissuade potential investors. In its Crime and Development in Africa report, UNODC noted that investment levels in Africa are lower than they could be due to a perception that the rule of law does not prevail on the continent. In 2003, Africa’s share of foreign direct investment was just 8.7 per cent of the $172 bn received by all developing countries. The levels are low despite the fact that investment returns are much higher in Africa than in other developing regions.
Fighting the scourge
One way in which governments can fight the scourge of organized crime is by strengthening domestic laws to deter criminals from using those countries as transit points. When it emerged from conflict in 2002, Angola had no policy specifically designed to combat organized crime. The government argued that it had devoted all its resources to military defence. But with war over, it is now strengthening its domestic laws.
Even in more stable countries such as Uganda, inadequate legislation can hinder the fight against transnational crime syndicates. “Because of the weak laws we have in Uganda, traffickers find it convenient to transit through Uganda,” says Deputy Director of Criminal Investigations Okoth Ochola. “The current law, the National Drug Policy and Authority Act, is too lenient. If you are convicted under that act, you are either sent to prison for one year or you pay a fine of not more than one million shillings,” or about US$570. Therefore drug traffickers, who make millions of dollars, would rather risk being convicted in Uganda than in countries where the penalties are stiffer. And, Mr. Ochola adds, five years have passed since a draft bill to strengthen the law was circulated, but it has not yet been tabled in parliament.
With the assistance of the UN, some countries, including Guinea-Bissau, are carrying out security sector reforms to strengthen policing. In October 2006, the country set up a national commission to combat the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. But the government does not have enough funds to devote to the sector. The West African nation of 1.6 million people does not even have a standard high-security prison.
According to UNODC Executive Director Costa, Guinea-Bissau needs support from international funding agencies to buy police equipment, vehicles and communications systems. “If support is not forthcoming,” he says, “I fear that honest police offices could become discouraged. This country must not be allowed to become a narco-state.”
Across West and Central Africa, governments’ responses to transnational organized crime have been limited mostly to updating national legislation and legal frameworks to comply with UN conventions and protocols, notes Mr. Antonio Mazzitelli of UNODC’s regional office.
So far, Mr. Mazzitelli says, that approach has yielded mixed results. “Concrete and courageous cleaning-up efforts, such as the anti-corruption campaign implemented by President Obasanjo’s government in Nigeria, should certainly produce dramatic results — if sustained long enough to ignite a virtuous cycle.”
Mr. Christophe Compaoré, coordinator of the Committee Against Illicit Drug Trafficking in Burkina Faso, argues that there “is an urgent need for all national bodies against drug trafficking in the sub-region to meet and cooperate well, to stop this scourge and dismantle the networks.” He warns that a drug transit route is opening up in the west and southwest of his country, fed by a growing network in the region. In April, police in Burkina intercepted $10 mn worth of cocaine on the border with Mali.
Countries also need to support regional institutions to effectively tackle the cross-border challenges presented by organized crime. One such body is the UN African Institute for the Prevention of Crime, established in 1989. Throughout its existence, the agency has operated with inadequate funding and, as a result, has often failed to carry out some of its substantive functions.
Another effort hindered by lack of adequate resources is the 2006-2010 African Programme of Action to fight crime. It was endorsed by members of the African Union following a conference organized by UNODC in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2005. It is a framework for technical cooperation and donor assistance to reduce the impact of crime and drugs on security and development in Africa. Some of its specific programmes include reforming criminal justice systems and developing measures to prevent money laundering, corruption and drug trafficking.
“Drug trafficking is a global issue, with a devastating impact on the well-being of the world community,” states Kenyan Assistant Health Minister Wilfred Machage. Progress in fighting the scourge will depend on greater funding, continuous disruption of drug cultivation, distribution, trafficking and marketing networks, and collaboration with regional and international law enforcement agencies, he says.
However, if left unchecked, the INCB warns in its 2006 annual report, “the problem of drug trafficking in Africa might further exacerbate existing social, economic and political problems.” Under such circumstances, weak states will only get weaker, fuelling an already growing problem. | <urn:uuid:ffb3076f-9296-4d1b-947f-b436ae1e03eb> | {
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By Todd Vinyard
By Chris Kieffer
NEMS Daily Journal
If Earth was the size of a basketball, how big would the moon be?
Just ask students at Shannon Middle School.
Those students were visited last week by astronomer James Hill, director of Rainwater Observatory and Planetarium in French Camp. Hill spoke to the students about the solar system at the request of science teachers Tracy Leake and Tia Green. His appearance was funded by a grant from NASA’s Mississippi Space Grant Consortium.
Astronomy is part of the science curriculum in sixth, seventh and eighth grades, Leake said, noting that Hill’s presentation was particularly helpful in presenting the topic. Green agreed.
“The kids will better retain this information,” she said. “In a classroom, you don’t have time for models and visuals. It sticks with them when they see a presentation.”
Hill directed a computer tour from the sun to Pluto, showing several facts and photos on a projector screen. He also used props to demonstrate the size and distance of various heavenly objects.
After holding a basketball that represented Earth, he instructed one of the students to grab a tennis ball, which represented the moon’s relative size.
Hill showed the students how far apart those two objects would be – a distance that is equal to about 10 times the Earth’s circumference. The scientist wrapped a rope around the basketball 10 times and then straightened it to demonstrate.
“It was helpful because sometimes we don’t get to interact with what we do, and it helps us to be able to watch him and interact,” said Shannon sixth-grader Kadie Edwards.
Hill also used a large yellow inflatable ball to represent the sun and a tiny pebble to show the Earth’s relative size. He placed the two objects in opposite corners of the school’s auditorium.
“I learned how far the Earth was from the sun,” said eighth-grader Louis Lettieri. “It is a long way.”
Hill said the Rainwater Observatory leads about 200 educational programs each year. The goal for his presentations is to spark a greater interest in science.
“We do this and we do several teacher workshops every year and offer continuing education credits,” he said. “Hopefully reaching the kids and the teachers will get everyone excited about science. Enthusiasm covers a multitude of sins.”
Hill emphasized math throughout his presentation, often instructing students to compute the answers to various questions he posed.
“Science education has really gone down in this country since Sputnik,” he said, referring to several spacecraft missions launched by the Soviet Union that prompted the United States to increase its emphasis on science back in the 1950s.
“Science is hard because it takes math. It is a battle to have kids get excited about science.”
Contact Chris Kieffer at (662) 678-1590 or [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:ad77c631-3f7a-4eeb-b54e-9cf4c55bb6d4> | {
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Category: Jellies, Anemones and kin view all from this category
Description Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) is considered to be one of the most important reef-building corals in the Caribbean. This species of coral is structurally complex with many large branches. The coral structure closely resembles that of elk antlers. These branches create habitats for many other reef species such as lobsters, parrot-fish, snappers, and other reef fish.
Elkhorn coral colonies are incredibly fast growing with an average growth rate of 5 to 10 centimetres (2.0 to 3.9 in) per year and can eventually grow up to 3.7 metres (12 ft) in diameter. The color of this coral species ranges from brown to a yellowish-brown. This color is a result of the symbiotic zooxanthellae that live inside the tissue of this coral species. Zooxanthellae is a type of algae which photosynthesizes to provide the coral with nutrients. The zooxanthellae are also capable of removing waste products from the coral. Historically, the majority of elkhorn coral reproduction has occurred asexually; this occurs when a branch of the coral breaks off and attaches to the substrate forming a new colony, known as fragmentation. The degree to which local stands reproduce by fragmentation varies across the Caribbean but on average 50% of colonies are the result of fragmentation rather than sexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction occurs once a year in August or September when coral colonies release millions of gametes by broadcast spawning.
Warning Cuts and scratches resulting from contact with this coral can be slow to heal.
Habitat Coral reefs. | <urn:uuid:fafeb10b-4532-406e-83d4-7c555ee3d7c5> | {
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Illustrated Prejudice. A Visual Guide to Discrimination in “Jim Crow” America. Introduction. Be Advised : These images are offensive and may make you angry or uncomfortable.
A Visual Guide to Discrimination in “Jim Crow” America
Be Advised: These images are offensive and may make you angry or uncomfortable
These images were compiled for a solely educational purpose and not intended to offend anyone. The purpose is solely to illustrate the perceptions of this era and connect to literature.
The images are not a reflection of my personal beliefs or those of IUP.
The old saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words.
However, words can’t express the hatred, injustice and discrimination that were brought about under Jim Crow
The following images show the inaccurate portrayal of African Americans in this era, and how they were discriminated against.
These images portray African Americans as lazy, uneducated, unattractive and dumb.
The bottom right hand image portrays the chef denying that the child is his son.
These helped to illustrate the idea that blacks were lesser and unfortunately many believed it, like the mayor’s wife in The Color Purple
Major media such as Disney films, popular comics, and T.V. shows like Tom & Jerry (bottom left), and Amos and Andy portrayed blacks as inadequate This media presented this hateful idea to children and reinforced the perception.
Signs that segregated restrooms, movie theaters, restaurants, and waiting rooms were commonplace.
The Ku Klux Klan terrorized black individuals (much like John D in Beloved) during this time. However, they were portrayed as gallant in the white community.
Segregation also enforced divided transportation, like in The Color Purple.
Unfortunately, these hateful images still occur today. However, society can educate people and explain how these images have adverse effects and why racism is not appropriate.
Dr. David Pilgrim, Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Founder of the Jim Crow Museum Ferris State University 2012 | <urn:uuid:cb06503b-4930-4eae-a4d1-a830ed0edaae> | {
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Source: National Farm Animal Care Council, Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Beef Cattle Section 4.2.1
Colostrum has an important influence on the health and welfare of calves. The newborn calf is born with no maternal antibodies and must rely on intake of colostrum to receive passive immunity. The timing of first colostrum is particularly important since calves’ ability to absorb colostrum is substantially reduced six to eight hours after birth. The ability of the calf to defend itself against infectious diseases is directly related to the amount (litres), quality (immunoglobulin level), and timing of colostrum intake. The result of inadequate colostrum intake is a low concentration of circulating immunoglobulin in the blood of the calf, a condition known as “failure of passive transfer”. Calves with failure of passive transfer are 1.6 times more likely to become sick and 2.7 times more likely to die before weaning than calves with adequate serum immunoglobulin levels (29).
Certain cases require special attention, as calves are at a greater risk of not receiving adequate colostrum by suckling. These include: difficult calvings, mis-motherings, calves with hypothermia, or dams with udder conformation that complicates nursing. Assume all abandoned or mis-mothered calves have not suckled.
Signs that a calf may not have received adequate colostrum may include:
- weak or lethargic
- lack of suckling reflex
- cold mouth
- gaunt appearance
- dam has a full udder.
Monitor that newborn calves suckle their dams paying special attention to high risk cases.
Administer colostrum or a commercial colostrum substitute to any newborn calf showing signs of not having received it by suckling.
- administer two litres (1.8qt) of colostrum to calves that have not suckled within six hours of birth. In cold weather, intervene earlier to supplement calves
- learn how to safely use an esophageal (tube) feeder, as it may assist in administering colostrum to calves that will not suckle
- obtain supplemental colostrum from any of these sources: milked from the calf’s dam; pooled colostrum from other cows in the herd; commercial colostrum substitute. For biosecurity reasons, avoid using dairy cow colostrum. | <urn:uuid:9121422f-0074-441a-85d6-4234051d3a7e> | {
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Although elm is now largely extinct in the British Isles due to Dutch Elm disease, Vastern Timber continues to maintain some of the largest stocks of logs and sawn planks in the country.
Elm is undoubtedly the most beautiful timber grown in our native forests. Its colour can range from dark purple to light green, with various hues of silver and brown in between. The grain can be wild and the cladding boards will contain various knots and burr clusters (cat’s paws), all creating a stunning finished product when used as cladding.
British elm cladding has long been used, especially in Wiltshire, where it was known as the Wiltshire weed. The uneven, but usually sound, edge of elm has made it a popular choice for waney-edge cladding.
Elm is a particularly unstable wood and prone to distortion so care should be taken not to expose the cladding boards to excessive heat, either before or soon after fitting.
Produced to comply with the harmonised standard for construction products regulation BSEN14915:2013 and to conform with BS8605-1:2014 External timber cladding: Method for specifying.
|Trade Name||Green elm (or fresh sawn elm)|
|Base timber||British elm (Red, wych, Dutch and hybrid all mixed)|
|Origin||Legal and well-managed forests in England and Scotland.|
|Intended use||External cladding|
|Appearance||Boards will range in colour from purple to green with wild irregular grain and regular sound knots.|
|Weathering||As the boards weather the colour will change to a silver-grey. As the elm dries out the boards will shrink and are likely to distort to some extent resulting in a rustic appearance. Elm does not tend to exude any extractives such as tannin.|
|Profiles||Sawn only. Feather-edge, square-edge and waney-edge|
|Lengths||Random. 1.5 – 2.5mt +|
|Moisture content||Wet. Beyond measurement.|
|Natural durability (EN350-2)||Non / slightly durable. Class 4 (Although only classed as slightly or non durable, elm lasts well untreated in cladding situations. With treatment elm is found in situ more than 50 years after installation).|
|Insect attack||The ambrosia beetle can attack the wet timber (30% moisture +). However, the beetle will die as soon as the wood dries to less than 30%. Re-infestation will not occur. Other dry wood will not be affected. Sapwood can be attacked by the powder post beetle (Lyctus spp).|
|Desired service life:(BS8417)||Occasionally wet 15 yrs (In practice 30yrs+)
Frequently wet <15 yrs
|Movement class||Large (Up to 10%)|
|Resistance to impact||Medium to high|
|Resistance to fixing||High. Pre-drilling recommended.|
|When to fix||Autumn / winter only. Definitely not during summer months.|
|Grading||Not graded to a BS standard. Generally rustic.|
|Working properties||Green elm is generally easy to work and takes fixings satisfactorily. Boards are likely to distort as they dry.|
|Extractives||Elm does not contain any reactive extractives such as tannin. We would still advise the use of stainless steel fixings.|
|Emission of formaldehyde (EN14915)||E1 (Not significant)|
|Reaction to fire (EN14915)||Euroclass F (Untested). D-s2, d0|
|Fire treatment||Not suitable|
|While the utmost care has been taken to provide accurate information, Vastern Timber shall not be held responsible for any consequences arising from any errors or omissions on this website nor for any damages resulting from the use of the information.| | <urn:uuid:160a139f-03db-431f-913f-f558112cebda> | {
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Copyright law varies slightly around the world, but on the whole it protects the rights of authors and creators of original works and affords them the opportunity to benefit from their creation. The type of work that copyright law protects may include:
* literary or written works
* dramatic, including accompanying music
* pantomimes and choreographic
* pictorial, graphic and sculptural
* motion pictures and other audiovisual
* sound recordings, and
* architectural designs
In the USA protection is granted to the creators by the United States Code on Copyright and in order to avoid any problems with infringing someone else’s copyright it is important to understand the basics. For something to be covered by copyright law in the USA the following issues have to be taken into consideration:
The notification of copyright which should include the copyright symbol © or the word copyright or an abbreviation of the word copyright as in copr. It must also include the year of first publication of the work and the name of the owner of the copyright. Therefore the copyright to this website would read ‘© 2007, Linda Parkinson-Hardman’
The duration of copyright. How long copyright lasts for as these time scales change. If the item was created before 1978 then the copyright would expire 75 years after publication and if it were never published then the copyright expired on 31 December 2002. However, if the item was created after 1977 then two factors come into play. Firstly, if it is privately owned (say by me) then it is the length of my life plus another 50 years and if it were owned by someone else, say an employer or publisher then it is 75 years from the date of publication or 100 years from the date of creation – whichever comes first. However, it is important to note that the United States joined the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works in 1989. The Berne Convention is an international copyright treaty signed by 96 countries. The regulations are far more stringent than current US copyright laws and it has recently extended the term of protection to the life of the author plus 75 years.
It should be bourne in mind however, that there is also something called a Fair Use allowance which is often used with academic circles for certain purposes such as research, review, news, reporting and teaching (this is not an exhaustive list). What Fair Use ensures is that a work can have a limited amount of it copied free of charge or infringement of copyright. The following four considerations need to be made:
* purpose and character of use, whether of a commercial nature or for non profit educational purposes;
* the nature of the copyrighted work;
* the amount and substantially of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
* the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
In the UK however, copyright is grated automatically as soon as a original work is created. You do not need to show the copyright notice to have copyright on your work, although it may be helpful to do so. The Copyright Act of 1976 states that and original expression is eligible for copyright protection as soon as it is fixed in a tangible form. This applies equally to the ebook you have just written or to the image you have just created in photoshop. Equally the coding that is used to define the layout of your webpage or website is equally covered by copyright. Other creations that you may come across on the web that are protected include sound files, computer programmes, email messages, and photographs.
In order to protect your interests, it is advisable to register your work with the Copyright Office in the US, this may also be the case if your work is being sold or distributed in the US even though you may live elsewhere in the world.
How might copyright law affect your online business? This can be a complicated area to consider, but things that might be relevant might include any original works such as papers, reports and ebooks you have listed on your site (are you certain you have the right to redistribute them?); any images you might be using in your logo’s or as buttons (have you purchased the right to use them or is it implied in the use of a computer programme); the software that you use to run your site may well be proprietorial and if you choose to change your hosting or design company then you may not get permission to transfer the site as it stands; the content that you are using on your site, have you created it or are you taking it from another site? There are many ways to become unstuck around copyright law. For instance I once worked with a printing supplies firm who were providing a local school with transfer paper that they could use to put images onto tee-shirts which they then sold to raise funds for the school, the only problem was that the images they were using were well known logos and brand names such as coca-cola and nike.
You can find out more about copyright from these links:
* http://www.copyright.gov/ – provides protection of copyright in the US
* http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/ – What is intellectual property or IP?
* http://www.benedict.com/ – for cases of copyright infringement. | <urn:uuid:3e33559a-8402-49b3-b107-b278b2e57b07> | {
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Historic Theater Case Study - Lafayette Theater
Image: Gene Gladsen Collection
By Jen Duplaga and Susan Fletcher
IUPUI Department of History
Lafayette is a city located approximately one hour northeast of Indianapolis. Lafayette is located adjacent to West Lafayette, which houses Purdue University. Nearly thirty-eight thousand Purdue students make their temporary homes in the two cities, and Lafayette and West Lafayette have a combined population of one-hundred-fifty thousand people. Lafayette was founded in 1825 and remains a thriving community. The downtown area was a vital part of the city until the 1980s when suburban malls siphoned away many of the businesses and customers. Individual citizens and private organizations began the revitalization process about fifteen years ago and today the downtown area is popular site for shops, restaurants, and offices. The Lafayette Theater is located at 600 Main Street, in the heart of the Riverfront District.
The theater was built in 1937 and opened in August 1938. Originally, the property was a church/theater, and was one of the first in Indiana to show moving pictures. In 1906 that building was known as the Family Theater and showed movies on the Viatscope machine until the theater was torn down in 1935. When the Lafayette Theater was built in 1937, the builders preserved the original back wall of the Family Theater, which remains to this date. The Lafayette Theater was a vital part of the downtown community, reflecting the popular art deco style of the 1930s, and seating 1,100 people. First-run movies were the main attraction and the theater continued to show pictures until 1990, when it closed. Multiplexes hastened the demise of this single-screen theater, the last of its kind in Lafayette.
Lafayette Theater at night
Image: Gene Gladsen Collection
The building fell into disrepair during the 1990s as it changed ownership numerous times. Various individuals and private organizations conceived of plans to renovate the theater, including some owners who envisioned a dinner theater, but each venture failed. On Christmas Eve of 2002 a joint venture of the New York LLC and the Wabash Valley Trust for Historic Preservation (WVT) saved the theater from developers who planned to raze the building and turn it into a parking lot. Currently, the two organizations share equal ownership of the theater and each group brings different levels of expertise and experience to the project. The WVT is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic buildings and education of the public on the importance of preservation in the Wabash Valley area. The New York LLC is a for-profit organization of nine individuals from the Lafayette community, who originally joined together in order to purchase real estate in the city such as the Madison and Ball Buildings. The experience that they gained renovating these properties convinced them of the necessity of historic preservation. Currently, the group is involved with the renovation of older buildings with a view to turn them into useful and viable businesses to better the entire city through aesthetic and economic development.
These organizations work in tandem to accomplish the renovation of the theater, and in so doing, to realize their individual missions. The New York LLC brings to the table the business experience and expertise necessary for creating a financially successful venture, while the WVT brings important connections to the larger preservation community and thus access to grants available only to non-profits. The members of both organizations have donated their services by using their professional skills to accomplish specific tasks, such as drawing up the architectural plans, donating materials, keeping the books, etc.
When the current owners purchased the building, it was in a state of serious disrepair. They found four feet of water in the basement. The many holes in the roof went unrepaired by previous owners and have caused the ceiling to give way in several locations, plaster damage to the walls, and other serious structural defects. The interior of the theater was outdated and potentially dangerous, including old wiring, plumbing, and inefficient heating and cooling system. Many of the windows were damaged or missing, the marquee was chipped away by passing delivery trucks driving too close to the sidewalk, the façade was crumbling, and many theater seats were damaged by a leaking roof.
An architect in the New York LLC donated the architectural plans to turn the building into a dinner/movie theater. The owners approached local restaurateurs Bill and Angela Brown who were looking to open a new restaurant in the downtown area. The Browns were excited by the venture and thus helped in the design phase, planning the kitchen. Both parties expect that the renovated theater will be a venue for a variety of attractions, including movies, comedians, local performers, and musical acts. Plans for the building include the addition of a bar in the lobby and the balcony level, a new stage, an industrial kitchen, and an ADA compliant restroom. The owners plan to restore the marquee and the façade, the original bathrooms including the tile flooring, the old projection room, and the service areas such as the basement and HVAC room. Plans also include tables and chairs on the main level, and the removal of one-twentieth of the balcony seating to make way for small café-style tables.
The owners have multiple sources of funding. The members of New York LLC have personally invested a large amount of money to the project, and they obtained a mortgage from Union Federal Bank. Other potential sources of money include funds from preservation organizations including the Main Street Façade Program, Historic Landmarks Foundation, and the Department of Natural Resources. The group has also obtained other loans and donations from diverse organizations, ranging from the Lafayette Junior Women’s Club to the Lafayette Urban Enterprises Association. The owners are also applying for Lilly funds and an Indiana Investment Cost Credit. Future plans include fundraising dinners and seat sponsorships.
The owners are not just interested in preservation for preservation’s sake; instead, they are interested in helping the community as a whole. For example, local youth in trouble with the law are able to do their community service hours working on the renovation. The owners hope that the restoration of the theater will result in the continued revitalization of the downtown area and will stimulate economic improvement in the community of Lafayette.
Major work on the theater itself began in the summer of 2003. During the winter of 2004 the owners are concentrating their efforts on the renovation of the interior and hope to begin restoring the exterior in the spring and summer months while the restaurateurs set up their business inside the building. The project is slated for completion in August 2004 with the opening of the restaurant. | <urn:uuid:59586442-b256-4bca-969b-2e5eaf01aea8> | {
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Every hour more solar energy reaches the Earth than humans use in an entire year. Solar panels, or photovoltaic panels, convert the sun's energy into usable electricity. Solar power is one of the alternative energies used most widely across the globe.
Start your engineer on their road to discovery. Introduce them to challenging build plans, troubleshooting and problem solving and solar power. - Build and rebuild over and over again. Detailed instructions take you through each step. Which will be your favorite?
Your SolarBot.14 kit contains unique components & parts to construct robots that operate on land and water. Construct 14 different solar powered robots from functional to comical designs. After assembling a model, the user can easily reassembly components into different model. These robots are powered by direct sunlight. No batteries required.
Models are divided into two skill levels.
Level One includes: TortoiseBOT, BugBOT, FourBOT, PaddleBOT, WalkR-BOT, K9BOT, and Big Wheeler BOT.
Level Two contains more challenging builds: TumblerBOT, CarBOT, SlinkerBOT, SurferBOT, MonsterBOT, CrabbyBOT and RowingBOT.
The TEACH TECH™ product line features robotic kits, including products that explore renewable energy, electronic & mechanical coding and programming. Following the Learn by doing® philosophy found in all Elenco products, TEACH TECH™ enhances play quality with an emphasis on Do-It-Yourself building to boost confidence and critical thinking skills. Future-minded kids will also investigate alternative power sources with kits featuring solar, hydraulic, wind, and air power.
Once you have completed all 14 model builds, your creativity and create your own designs.
This model replaces OWI-MSK615 or OWIMSK615
For ages 10 and up.
WARNING CHOKING HAZARD- Small parts. Not for Children under 3 yrs. | <urn:uuid:8e05adb0-6141-4c16-b243-174b60de4c06> | {
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Over the last two decades Haiti has been repeatedly affected by political crises and a series of severe natural disasters, the worst of which was the devastating earthquake on the 12th of January 2010.
Poverty, depletion of the environment and the limited capacity of the authorities to respond to a crisis means that Haiti is highly vulnerable to even moderate climatic shocks. Three quarters of Haitians live on less than US$2 per day and half of the population earns less than US$1 per day. Access to education is low, with illiteracy rates almost 50%. In rural areas, almost 90 percent live below the poverty level and basic social services are practically nonexistent. Haiti ranks 161 out of 187countries in the 2012 United Nations Human Development Index (HDI).
In 2012, Haiti was marked by a series of natural disasters that threatened the livelihoods of more than 1.5 million people. Droughts, tropical storm Isaac and hurricane Sandy all added to Haiti’s challenges.
The latest government food security surveys show that by the end of 2013 the situation has improved and the number of food insecure people has halved to 3 million.
However, Food insecurity is persistent in Haiti and today nearly a third of the population is considered food insecure; of these 600,000 need external food assistance to survive. Currently, one in every 5 children suffers from chronic malnutrition, 6.5% percent from acute malnutrition, while more than half of women and children suffer from anemia.
For the next 3 years, WFP plans to work closely with the Haitian government to find long-term solutions to hunger and malnutrition in the country by building resilience. From 2014, the focus will be on creating assets and improving infrastructure so the most vulnerable can be protected from potential shocks. To support the government in the goal of increasing food security, WFP will help develop a food safety net system to protect the most vulnerable and will support local markets across the country. Working with the government, local authorities, UN and NGO partners, WFP is implementing programmes to provide food assistance to 1.4 million Haitians. | <urn:uuid:cd6543b6-484f-4cce-a720-12ecefd3e361> | {
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Type 2 Diabetes: Ketoacidosis
What is ketoacidosis, and how do you treat it?
Ketoacidosis -- also known as diabetic ketoacidosis, or DKA -- occurs when harmfully high levels of ketones build up in the blood.
Ketones are an acid produced when there's a shortage of insulin in the blood and the body is forced to break down fat, rather than glucose, for energy. Ketones can spill over into the urine when the body doesn't have enough insulin, and the effects can be deadly.
The symptoms of ketoacidosis
- Blood sugar level higher than 300 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL)
- Difficulty breathing, rapid breath, or shortness of breath
- Breath that smells fruity
- A very dry mouth
- Nausea and vomiting
- Difficulty concentrating
- Extreme fatigue, drowsiness, or weakness
- Rapid heartbeat and low blood pressure
How to treat ketoacidosis
Ketoacidosis is an emergency condition that requires immediate attention. Call 911 or take the person you're caring for to the nearest hospital.
How to prevent ketoacidosis
- Make sure the person you're caring for drinks plenty of water so he stays hydrated and can flush the ketones out of his system.
- Check for ketones by doing a simple urine test. Test strips are available over the counter.
- Tell him to refrain from exercise if his blood glucose is 250 mg/dL or higher and ketones are present in his urine.
- Remind him to check his blood glucose often and to immediately report any sky-high readings to his main diabetes care provider. | <urn:uuid:05708c06-c5f6-4163-804e-0b3e4ab983fe> | {
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In 2012, Oakland, California, resident Samantha Matalone Cook and some friends started a group for their kids called Hacker Scouts. The adults taught children who were between eight and 12 years old how to build circuit boards, make DIY ice cream, laser cut picture frames, among other things, and the kids could earn badges by completing projects. The group became popular and within a year, according to the Los Angeles Times, parents across the country were inquiring about how to start their own local chapters.
But the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is not happy with the new scouting group. On Monday, Cook wrote on the Hacker Scouts blog that for the past several months, her association has been trying to compromise with the BSA, which sent the Hacker Scouts a Cease and Desist letter claiming that the BSA has an exclusive right to the term “scout.”
"Through various letters, we have tried to quietly come to a compromise, but the BSA position is clear: change our name or they will take us to court,” wrote Cook.
Since 1919, the Boy Scouts of America has held a congressional charter that protects the organization's “exclusive right to use emblems, badges, descriptive or designating marks, and words or phrases the corporation adopts.” This, the charter says, is in order to “promote, through organization, and cooperation with other agencies, the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues, using the methods that were in common use by boy scouts on June 15, 1916.” (Yes, Girl Scouts have a similar congressional charter).
Cook, in her blog post, wrote that Hacker Scouts was not modeled after the Boy Scouts and has never claimed any affiliation with the BSA. “We believe the charter itself may be unconstitutional," she wrote, "and that 'scouts' is a world-wide connotation for a youth organization that existed before [the BSA] and will exist long after them.” On the Hacker Scouts' Facebook page, some parents said that their children were members of both scouting groups and were surprised that the BSA would make the use of the term "scout" an issue.
Boy Scouts public relations director Deron Smith told the Los Angeles Times that his organization "has a responsibility" to its members to maintain "trademarks, symbols, words, and phrases" that create "a sense of belonging."
"As any organization would do, from time to time, it's necessary for the BSA to take steps to protect its intellectual property and brand," he told the Times. "The BSA plans to continue corresponding with this organization in hopes of reaching an amicable resolution."
Cook has said that the Hacker Scouts board will make a decision on how to move forward in the near future “based on advice from our lawyers and our own sense of duty.” | <urn:uuid:ce2634ac-c632-4c27-b87e-cc151171ddc8> | {
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What Happened That Day?
On the day of December 26th, 2004 there was a massive 9.0 earthquake in the middle of the indian ocean. An earthquake is when the Earth's tectonic plates shift. The Burma plate on the Indian Ocean's floor moved and created the earthquake. It must have been moving for very many years and finally snapped. The Sumatra Andaman earthquake triggered a series of devastating tsunamis. The epicenter of the earthquake Simeulue and the Indonesian islands, which is why those islands had the most damage. The reason that the tsunami wave was so big, was because it was in shallow water. In shallow water, waves are much more slower in the making of. which makes them much more destructable. Tsunamis are very rare in the Indian Ocean, but have happened before. The tsunami traveled all the way to africa, almost 3,000 miles away. On the surface, the tsunami wave isnt very big and so boats and ships dont notice it. When a tsunami reaches shallow water, the water is very fast, and when it reaches the coast the top is faster than the bottom. It then creates a huge wave that can be as high as 50 feet. Tsunamis can extend inland as much as 1000 feet. Many witnesses said that the tsunami sounded like a the roar of a jet. Many saw that th ocean line was receding but none of them knew what it met. Many small villages and towns noticed that lobsters were showing and they rushed to the shores to gather them. Most of them died for it. Nearly 230,000 people died that day. | <urn:uuid:58d3a154-84ae-4417-aee6-643801ebf316> | {
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The Honourable Walter Patterson
Governor from 14 July 1769 to 4 November 1786
Click to enlarge
Walter Patterson is reported to have been born at Foxhall, County Donegal, Ireland in 1742. He fought with the British Army, 80th Regiment in America during the Seven Years War, at which time he rose to the rank of Captain. In 1758 the British had invaded the fortress of Louisburg for a second and final time, rounding up the French (Acadian) settlers on Prince Edward Island and had them deported. There were only about 300 Acadians remaining, mostly south of Malpeque Bay and also around Rustico and Souris, when the Island was formally awarded to Britain in 1763. In 1763 Island of St. John (Prince Edward Island) was formally created as a Colony.
In 1764, Patterson requested grants for some of the Island land. Three years later, as a result of the 1767 land lottery, he and his brother, John Patterson, became proprietors of Lot 19, located in the general area of the present town of Kensington. On 30 May 1769 the British Privy Council separated the St. John Island from its annexation with Nova Scotia and gave it a separate government. Patterson was appointed Governor of St. John Island (Prince Edward Island) on 14 July 1769, just a few weeks after the Island was officially made a separate colony. Governor Patterson arrived on the Island on 30 August 1770.
Upon his arrival, the Island population was somewhere in the vicinity of 300. Between 1770 and 1775 approximately 1,000 new settlers arrived on the Island mostly from Scotland. The capital, Charlottetown, existed only as a name on the map. In September, 1770, he took the Oath of Office, had an Executive Council sworn in, and began the actual task of administration. One of the early ordinances passed by the Governor and Council was to enforce the payment of quit rent.
In 1773 the first elections were held and the first Assembly met. Governor Patterson acquired in excess of 100,000 acres of land from proprietors who had not paid their quit rents and their lands were put up for sale. Proprietors who had their lands sold petitioned the British government asking to have their sold lots returned and, failing the return of the lots, then they asked to have Governor Patterson removed from office. Following the petitions from proprietors, the Secretary of State from the British government sent Patterson a dispatch on 24 July 1783 ordering him to present an enclosed bill to the Assembly, and for Patterson to recommend that the bill pass. The bill in question provided for the annulment of the 1781 land sales. Patterson refused to obey and he managed to obtain a majority decision of the Executive Council in support of his position. This was one of the main factors that forced the British government, on 17 June 1786, to inform Governor Patterson that he had been recalled and removed him from his position as Governor. In 1789, Patterson returned to England where he died on 6 September 1798.
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Primary Source Document
Nobel Lecture, 12th December 1967
The Latin American Novel
Testimony of an Epoch
I would have preferred this meeting to have been called a colloquium instead of lecture - a dialogue of doubts and assertions on the subject that concerns us. Let us start by analysing the antecedents of Latin American literature in general, focusing our attention on those aspects that have most connection with the novel. Let us follow the sources back to the millenarian origins of indigenous literature in its three great moments: Maya, Aztec and Inca.
The following question arises: Was there something resembling the novel among the indigenous peoples? I believe there was. The history of the original cultures of Latin America has more of what we in the western world call the novel than of history. It is necessary to bear in mind that the books of their history - their novels we would now say - were painted by the Aztecs and Mayas and preserved in a figurative form which we still do not understand by the Incas. This assumes the use of pictograms in which the voice of the reader - the indigenous do not distinguish between reading and reciting since for them it is the same thing - recited the text to the listeners in song form.
The reader, reciting stories or 'great language', the only person who understood what the pictograms meant, carried out an interpretation, recreating them for the enlightenment of those who listened. Later, these painted stories become fixed in the memory of the listeners and pass in oral form from generation to generation until the alphabet brought by the Spanish fixes them in their native tongues with Latin characters or directly in Spanish. In this way indigenous texts come to our knowledge with very little exposure to European corruption. The reading of these documents is what has allowed us to affirm that, among the native Americans, history has more of the characteristics of the novel than of history. They are accounts in which reality is dissolved in fable, legend, the trappings of beauty and in which the imagination, by dint of describing all the reality that it contains, ends up re-creating a reality that we might call surrealist.
This characteristic of the annulment of reality through imagination and the re-creation of a more transcendental reality is combined with a constant annulment of time and space as well as something more significant: the use and abuse of parallel expressions, i.e. the parallel use of different words to designate the same object, to convey the same idea and express the same feelings. I wish to draw attention to this point - the parallelism in the indigenous texts allows an exercise of nuances that we find hard to appreciate but which undoubtedly permitted a poetic gradation destined to induce certain states of consciousness which were taken to be magic.
If we return to the theme of the origin of a literary genre, similar to the novel, among the pre-Colombian peoples it is necessary to link the birth of this novel form with the epic. The heroic legend, exceeding the possibilities of historical fiction, was sung by the rhapsodists - the great voices of the tribes or 'cuicanimes' who toured the cities reciting the texts in order that the beauty of their songs would be disseminated among the peoples like the golden blood of their gods.
These epic songs that are so abundant in pre-Columbian literature, and so little known, possess what we call 'fictional plot' and what the Spanish friars and missionaries termed 'tricks'.
These fictional tales were originally the testimony of past epochs; the memory and fame of high deeds that others on hearing would desire to emulate, this literature of reality and fable is broken in the instant of servitude and remains as one of the many broken vessels of those great civilisations. Other narratives will follow - in this same documentary form - recounting not the evidence of greatness but of misery, not the testimony of liberty but of slavery, no longer the statements of the masters but those of the subjects and a new, emerging American literature attempting to fill the empty silences of an epoch.
However, the literary genres that flourished in the Iberian peninsulas - the realistic novel and the theatre - were not to put down roots here. On the contrary, it is the indigenous effervescence, the sap and the blood, river, sea and mirage that affects the first Spaniard to write the first great American 'novel' for the 'True Story of the Events of the Conquest of New Spain' written by Bernal Diaz del Castillo deserves to be called no less. Is it not rather bold to describe as a 'novel' what that soldier called not history but 'true history'? But are not novels frequently the true history? I repeat the question: is it really boldness to describe as a novel the work of this illustrious chronicler?
To those who might call me daring in my description I would invite them to enter the cadenced and panting prose of this versatile foot soldier and they will notice how - on entering into it - they gradually forget that what happened was reality and it will seem to them increasingly a work of pure imagination. Indeed, even Bernal himself says no less, next to the very walls of Tenochtitlan: "this seemed to be the work of enchantment that is recounted in the book of Amadis!" But this is the work of a Spaniard - it will be said - although the only thing Spanish about it is its having been written by a 'peninsular' resident in Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala - where that glorious manuscript is kept - and its having been composed in the old language of Castile although it partakes of that masquerade characteristic of indigenous literature. To Don Marcelino Menendez y Pelayo - this expert in classic Spanish literature - the taste of this prose is strange and the fact that it has been written by a soldier he finds surprising. It escapes this eminent writer that Bernal, at the age of eighty, had not only heard many texts of indigenous literature being recited, being influenced by it, but through osmosis had absorbed America and had already become American.
But there is another more impressive parenthesis. In their last sorrowful cantos the indigenous peoples - now subjugated - call for justice and Bernal Diaz Castillo expresses his deepest feelings in a chronicle which is a howl of protest at the oblivion into which they fell after being "fought and conquered."
As from this moment, all Latin American literature, in song and novel, not only becomes a testimony for each epoch but also, as stated by the Venezuelan writer Arturo Uslar Pietri, an "instrument of struggle". All the great literature is one of testimony and vindication, but far from being a cold dossier these are moving pages written by one conscious of his power to impress and convince.
Will the south give us a mestizo? The mestizo par excellence since - in order for nothing to be lacking - he was the first American exile: Inca Garcilaso. This Creole exile follows the indigenous voices already extinguished in his denunciation of the oppressors of Peru. The Inca offers us in his magnificent prose not only the native American - nor only the Spanish - but the mixture materialised in the fusion of the bloods, and in the same demand for life and justice.
To start with nobody discerns the 'message' in the prose of Inca. This will be clarified during the struggle for independence. Inca will then appear with the dignity of the Indian that knew how to make fun of the empire of "the two knives" - that is to say civil and ecclesiastical censorship. The Spanish authorities, slow to fathom the message containing so much spirit, imagination and melancholy, wisely order the confiscation of the story of Inca Garcilaso where the Indians have "learned so many dangerous things."
Not only poetry and works of fiction bear witness. The least expected authors such as Francisco Javier Clavijero, Francisco Javier Alegre, Andres Calvo, Manuel Fabri, Andres de Guevara gave birth to a literature of exiles which is - and will continue to be - a testimony of its epoch.
Even the Guatemalan poet Rafael Landívar has his form of rebellion. His protest is silence - he calls the Spanish 'Hispani' without qualifying the adjective. We refer to Landívar because, despite being the least known, he should be considered the standard bearer of American literature as the authentic expression of our lands, our people and landscapes. According to Pedro Henriquez-Urena, "among the poets of the Spanish colonies he is the first master of landscape, the first to break definitively with the conventions of the Renaissance and discover the characteristic features of nature in the New World - its flora and fauna, its countryside and mountains, its lakes and waterfalls. In his descriptions of customs, of the crafts and the games there is an amusing vivacity and - throughout the poem - a deep sympathy and understanding of the survival of the original cultures."
In 1781 in Modena, Italy, there appeared under the title of 'Rusticatio Mexicana' a poetic work of 3,425 Latin hexameters, in 10 cantos, written by Rafael Landívar. One year later in Bologna the second edition appeared. The poet called by Menendez y Pelayo 'the Virgil of the modern age' proclaimed to the Europeans the excellence of the land, the life and the peoples of America. He was concerned for the people
of the Old World to know that E1 Jorullo, a Mexican volcano, could rival Vesuvius and Etna, that the waterfalls and caves of San Pedro Martir in Guatemala were the equals of the famous fountains of Castalia and Aretusa and referring to the cenzontle - the bird whose song has 400 tones - he elevated it above the realm of the nightingale.
He sings the praises of the countryside, of the gold and silver that was filling the world with valuable coins and the sugar loaves offered at royal tables.
His poem is not short of statistics concerning the riches of America. He cites the droves of cattle, the flocks of sheep, the herds of goats and pigs, the sources of medicinal waters, the popular games - some unknown in Europe - and he does not hide the glory of the cocoa and chocolate of Guatemala. But there is something that we should be aware of in the song of Landivar; namely his love of the indigenous. The Indian, for Landivar, is the race that succeeds in everything, he describes the marvels of the floating gardens created by the Indians, he holds them up as examples of charm and skill without forgetting their great sufferings. In this way he imparts poetic substance - in naturalistic poetry far from symbolism - to a fact that has always been denied: the superiority of the American Indian as farmer, as craftsman and worker.
To the image of the bad Indian, lazy and immoral that was so widely propagated in Europe and accepted in America by those who exploit it Landívar opposes the picture of the Indian on whose shoulders has weighed - and continues to weigh - the burden of labour in America. And he does not do it by simply stating it - in which case we would have the right or not of believing it. In his poem we see the Indian on board his charming canoe, transporting his goods or travelling and we admire him extracting the purple and scarlet, laying out the snowy worms that produce the silk, holding on stubbornly to the rocks in order to remove the beautiful shellfish, patiently and doggedly ploughing, cultivating the indigo plant, extracting the silver from his native mines, exhausting the golden veins... The Rusticatio of Landívar confirms what we have said of the great American literature - it cannot accept a passive role while on our soil a famished people live in these abundant lands. In its content it is a form of novel in verse.
Fifty years later, Andres Bello was to renovate the American adventure in his famous 'Silva', an immortal and perfect work in which the nature of the New World appears again with maize the leader - as haughty chief of the corn tribe - the cacao in 'coral urns', the coffee plants, the banana, the tropics in all their vegetable and animal power, contrasting the impoverished inhabitant with this grandiose vision 'of the rich soil.'
Bello recalls Inca Garcilaso in his role as an exile, he is of the American lineage of Landívar, both represent the brilliant start of the great American odyssey in world literature. As from this moment the image of nature in the New World will awake in Europe an interest but it will never attain the incandescent fidelity that is achieved in the work of Landívar and Bello. A distorted vision of the marvels is offered us by Chateaubriand in 'Atala' and 'Les Natchez'.
For the Europeans nature is a background without the gravitational force achieved by Creole romanticism. The romantics give nature a permanent presence in the creations of poets and novelists of the epoch. This is exemplified by José Maria de Heredia singing of the Niagara Falls and Estaban Echeverria describing the desert in 'La Cautiva' to mention just two.
Latin American romanticism was not only a literary school but a patriotic flag. Poets, historians and novelists divide their days and nights between political activities and dreaming their creations. Never has it been more beautiful to be a poet in America! Amongst the poets influenced by the Patria converted in Muse are José Mármol, author of one of the most widely read novels in Latin America - 'Amalia'. The pages of this book have been turned by our febrile and sweaty fingers when we suffered in our very bones the dictatorships that have plagued Central America. The critics, when referring to the novel of Mármol, point out inconsistencies and carelessness without realising that a work of this type is written with a madly beating heart - pulsations that leave in the sentence, in the paragraph, on the page that abnormal heartbeat reflecting the distortion of the life force that troubled the entire country. We are in the presence of one of the most passionate examples of the American novel. Despite the years 'Amelia' - the imprecations of José, Mármol - continue to move readers to such an extent as to represent an act of faith.
It is at this very moment that the voice of Sarmiento is heard posing his famous dilemma at the threshold of the century: 'civilisation or barbarism'. Indeed, Sarmiento himself will be startled when he becomes aware that 'Facundo' turns his arms against him and against everyone, declaring himself to be the authentic representative of Creole America, of the America that refuses to die and attempts to break - with a breast already hardened - the antithetical scheme of civilisation and barbarism in order to find between these two extremes the point where the American peoples are able to find their authentic personality with their own essential values.
In the middle of the last century another romantic, no less passionate, appears in Guatemala: José Batres Montúfar. In the midst of tales of festive character the reader feels that he should forget the fiesta to listen to the poetry. The immortal José Batres Montúfar, with abundant charm tinged with bitterness, was able to get to the core of issues that already - in the middle of the past century - were highly charged.
Another voice was to ring out from north to south, that of José Martí. His presence was felt, whether as an exile or in his beloved Cuba, the fre of his speech as poet or journalist being combined with the example of his sacrifice.
The 20th century is full of poets, poets that have nothing more to say with very few exceptions. Among the latter stand out the immortal Rubén Darío and Juan Ramón Molina from Honduras. The poets flee from reality, maybe because this is one of the ways of being a poet. But there is nothing living in much of their work which instead tend towards garrulity.
They are ignorant of the clear lesson of the native rhapsodists, they are forgetful of the colonial craftsmen of our great literature, satisfied with the bloodless imitation of the poetry of other latitudes and ridicule those who sang the bold gestures of the liberation struggle, considering them dazzled by a local patriotism.
It is only when the First World War is passed that a handful of men - men and artists - embark on the reconquest of their own tradition. In their encounter with the indigenous peoples they drop anchor in their Spanish home port and return with the message that they have to deliver to the future.
Latin American literature will be reborn under other signs - no longer that of verse. Now the prose is tactile, plural and irreverent in its attitude to conventions - to serve the purpose of this new crusade whose first move was to plunge into reality not so as to objectify but rather to penetrate the facts in order to identify fully with the problems of humanity. Nothing human - nothing which is real - will be foreign to this literature inspired by contact with America. And this is the case of the Latin American novel. Nobody doubts that the Latin American novel is at the leading edge of its genre in the world. It is cultivated in all our countries, by writers of different tendencies, which means that in the novel everything is forged from American material - the human witness of our historic moment.
We, the Latin American novelists of today, working within the tradition of engagement with our peoples which has enabled our great literature to develop - our poetry of substance - also have to reclaim lands for our dispossessed, mines for our exploited workers, to raise demands in favour of the masses who perish in the plantations, who are scorched by the sun in the banana fields, who turn into human bagasse in the sugar refineries. It is for this reason that - for me - the authentic Latin American novel is the call for all these things, it is the cry that echoes down the centuries and is pronounced in thousands of pages. A novel that is genuinely ours; determined and loyal - in its pages - to the cause of the human spirit, to the fists of our workers, to the sweat of our rural peasants, to the pain for our undernourished children; calling for the blood and the sap of our vast lands to run once more towards the seas to enrich our burgeoning new cities.
This novel shares - consciously or unconsciously - the characteristics of the indigenous texts; their freshness and power, the numismatic anguish in the eyes of the Creoles who awaited the dawn in the colonial night, more luminous however than this night that threatens us now. Above all, it is the affrmation of the optimism of those writers that defied the Inquisition, opening a breach in the conscience of the people for the march of the Liberators.
The Latin American novel, our novel, cannot betray the great spirit that has shaped - and continues to shape - all our great literature. If you write novels merely to entertain - then burn them! This might be the message delivered with evangelical fervour since if you do not
burn them they will anyway be erased from the memory of the people where a poet or novelist should aspire to remain. Just consider how many writers there have been who - down the ages - have written novels to entertain! And who remembers them now? On the other hand, how easy it is to repeat the names of those amongst us who have written to bear witness.
To bear witness. The novelist bears witness like the apostle. Like Paul trying to escape, the writer is confronted with the pathetic reality of the world that surrounds him - the stark reality of our countries that overwhelms and blinds us and, throwing us to our knees, forces us to shout out: WHY DO YOU PERSECUTE ME? Yes, we are persecuted by this reality that we cannot deny, which is lived in the flesh by the people of the Mexican revolution, embodied in persons such as Mariano Azuela, Agustin Yanez and Juan Rulfo whose convictions are as sharp as a knife; those who share with Jorge Icaza, Ciro Alegría, Jesús Lara the shout of protest against the exploitation and abandonment of the Indian; those who with Romulo Gallegos in 'Done Bábara' create for us our Prometheus. Here is Horacio Quiroga who frees us from the nightmare of the tropics, a nightmare that is as peculiar to him as his style is American. 'Los ros profundos' of José María Arguedas, the 'Rio oscuro' of the Argentinian Alfredo Varela, 'Hijo de hombre' of the Paraguayan Roa Bastos and 'La ciudad y los perros' of the Peruvian Vargas Llosa make us see how the life-blood of the working people is drained in our lands.
Mancisidor takes us to the oil fields to which are drawn - leaving their homes - the inhabitants of 'Cases muertas' of Miguel Otero Silva... David Vinas confronts us with the tragic Patagonia, Enrique Wernicke sweeps us along with the waters that overwhelm whole communities while Verbitsky and María de Jesús lead us to the miserable shanty towns, the Dantesque and subhuman quarters of our great cities...
Teitelboim in 'E1 hijo del salitre' tells us of the gruelling work in the saltpetre mines while Nicomedes Guzman makes us share in the lives of the children in the Chilean working class districts. We feel the countryside of E1 Salvador in 'Jaragua' of Napoleón Rodríguez Ruiz and our small villages in 'Cenizas del Izalco' of Flakol and Clarivel Alegria. We cannot think of the pampas without speaking of 'Don Segundo Sombra' by Guiraldes nor speak of the jungle without 'La voragine' of Eustasio Rivera, nor of the Negroes: without Jorge Amado, nor of the Brazilian plains without the 'Gran Sertao' of Guimaraes Rosa, nor of the plains of Venezuela without Ramón Díaz Sánchez.
Our books do not search for a sensationalist or horrifying effect in order to secure a place for us in the republic of letters. We are human beings linked by blood, geography and life to those hundreds, thousands, millions of Latin Americans that suffer misery in our opulent and rich American continent. Our novels attempt to mobilise across the world the moral forces that have to help us defend those people. The mestizo process was already advanced in our literature and in rediscovering America it lent a human dimension to the grandiose nature of the continent. But this is a nature neither for the gods as in the texts of the Indians, nor a nature for heroes as in the writings of the romantics, but a nature for men and women in which the human problems will be addressed again with vigour and audacity.
As true Latin Americans the beauty of expression excites us and - for this reason - each one of our novels is a verbal feat. Alchemy is at work. We know it. It is no easy task to understand in the executed work all the effort and determination invested in the materials used - the words.
Yes, I say words - but by what laws and rules they have been transformed! They have been set as the pulse of worlds in formation. They ring like wood, like metals. This is onomatopoeia. In the adventure of our language the first aspect that demands attention is onomatopoeia. How many echoes - composed or disintegrated - of our landscape, our nature are to be found in our words, our sentences. The novelist embarks on a verbal adventure, an instinctive use of words. One is guided along by sounds. One listens, listens to the characters.
Our best novels do not seem to have been written but spoken. There is verbal dynamics in the poetry enclosed in the very word itself and that is revealed first as sound and afterwards as concept.
This is why the great Spanish American novels are vibrantly musical in the convulsion of the birth of all the things that are born with them.
The adventure continues in the confluence of the languages. Amongst the languages spoken by the people, in which the Indian languages are represented, there is an admixture of the European and Oriental languages brought by the immigrants to America.
Another language is going to rain its sparkle over sounds and words. The language of images. Our novels seem to be written not only with words but with images. Quite a few people when reading our novels see them cinematically. And this is not because they pursue a dramatic statement of independence but because our novelists are engaged in universalising the voice of their peoples with a language rich in sounds, rich in fable and rich in images.
This is not a language artificially created to provide scope for the play of the imagination or so-called poetic prose; it is a vivid language that preserves in its popular speech all the lyricism, the imagination, the grace, the high-spiritidness that characterise the language of the Latin American novel.
The poetic language which nourishes our novelistic literature is more or less its breath of life. Novels with lungs of poetry, lungs of foliage, lungs of rich vegetation. I believe that what most attracts non-American readers is what our novels have achieved by means of a colourful, brilliant language without falling into the merely picturesque, the spell of onomatopoeia cast by representing the music of the countryside and sometimes the sounds of the indigenous languages, the ancestral smack of those languages that flourish unconsciously in the prose that is used. There is also the importance of the word as absolute entity, as symbol. Our prose is distinguished from Castilian syntax because the word - in our novels - has a value of its own, just as it had in the indigenous languages. Word, concept, sound; a rich fascinating transposition. Nobody can understand our literature, our poetry if the power of enchantment is removed from the word.
Word and language enable the reader to participate in the life of our novelistic creations. Unsettling, disturbing, forcing the attention of the reader who - forgetting his daily life - will enter into the situations and personalities of a novel tradition that retains intact its humanistic values. Nothing is used to detract from mankind but rather to perfect it and this is perhaps what wins over and unsettles the reader, that which transforms our novel into a vehicle of ideas, an interpreter of peoples using as instrument a language with a literary dimension, with imponderable magical value and profound human projection.
© The Nobel Foundation 1967
Translated by The Swedish Trade Council Language Services.
From Les Prix Nobel en 1967, Editor Ragnar Granit, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1968 | <urn:uuid:4df40956-58b6-4e98-b620-9a6977b9bbfb> | {
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Despite a North American oil boom, non-OPEC crude oil production is not increasing, because new production roughly balances existing oil field decline. This situation allows OPEC, which has spare production capacity, to control the total global oil supply and therefore oil pricing. OPEC has raised crude oil prices by a factor of about four since 2002, reducing world demand. Thus, world crude oil production has been flat since 2005, and a major source of carbon emissions has been capped. This production plateau has been maintained in spite of significantly increased demand from China, India, and other developing countries. But governments in both developed and developing countries could reduce emissions more efficiently and fairly by putting in place, for example, a zero-net-revenue surcharge regime for fossil fuels, with all collected funds returned directly to consumers. | <urn:uuid:c4204b43-f821-4260-9580-477360748735> | {
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Japanese Tea Ceremony
In Japan, serving tea has been elevated to a style of ceremony that takes years to perfect. The Japanese tea ceremony dates back hundreds of years. Over the years, the tea ceremony has come to include four principles that are still at the heart of the ceremony today. Harmony, respect, purity and tranquility are all essential parts of the customary and elaborate tea ceremony performed today both in Japan and around the world.
Elements of the Tea Ceremony
The tea ceremony is an ritualized serving of matcha, or powdered green tea, to guests. There are three primary schools when it comes to the ceremony, each with their own rituals and elements. The most common ceremonies are the Omotesenke and Urasenke, with the Urasenke being performed most often, particularly outside of Japan.
The ceremony is formal, so the attire of the host and guests should be formal as well. The host or hostess should be garbed in an authentic kimono and guests should be wearing a kimono or formal wear. Guests to a tea ceremony must be knowledgeable about the rituals and customs the ceremony includes as to participate properly.
Tea Ceremony Locations
The location of a tea ceremony varies. The ceremony might be held outside or inside. In an outside ceremony seating is provided for guests and the ceremony often is drawn out. The more important the guests, the more likely the ceremony will be held inside. Tea ceremonies can be held inside a tea room or a full tea house. A tea room will be part of an existing home or building while a tea house is a separate structure often designed with well-tended gardens.
In a ceremony held in a tea house, the guests wait in the garden until called into the house by the host. Upon entering the house, guests purify themselves by washing their hands and rinsing their mouths. Shoes are removed and guests are seating in order of importance.
Once guests are seated, the host builds a charcoal fire in a prescribed way to heat the water to make the tea. A meal may be served or if no meal, light sweets are enjoyed by guests. When the tea is prepared, the guest may come forward to take the bowl or the bowl will be brought to the most prestigious guest. Conversation is minimal as the guests should be enjoying the stillness and the sounds and smells of incense and the tea as well as the simplistic decorations of the house.
The host and guest will bow before the guest rotates the bowl slightly to avoid drinking from the front and takes a sip. He bows, raises the bowl as a sign of respect and speaks a prescribed message. The guest takes a few more sips, wipes the rim clean, rotates the bowl back to the original position and passes it to the next guest.
Each guest repeats the procedure until the bowl is returned to the host. Ordinarily a thick tea is served formally followed by a thin tea. The thin tea is served in the same fashion, but the atmosphere is decidedly more casual.
Following the tea, the host will clean the utensils used to create the tea in a customary way. The guest of honor will ask the host if he was view the utensils. The items used in the ceremony are passed around the guests who praise them lavishly and items are handled with a piece of brocade cloth. The guests are extremely careful as many ceremonious items are priceless antiques.
Finally, the items are replaced and guests leave the house. The host bows at the door and the ceremony is complete. A full ceremony complete with meal and many guests can take up to four hours. | <urn:uuid:31e48540-d1d3-4ec0-b5f7-aaf0208691f6> | {
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“Our students gained from having time for reflection as well as working cooperatively both with small groups and larger groups. We saw many students who do not normally participate in classroom discussions flourish. They felt comfortable sharing their ideas and asking questions. We really enjoyed this program!”
M. DillaneCamelot Elementary School, Annandale, Virginia
Students from the Kuumba Academy engaged in lesson.
The desire to learn and think critically begins at the elementary school level. Touchstones’ programs for students in elementary grades help children learn the fundamentals of the discussion process and reach their potential as active and curious learners. Each of our three elementary volumes, Touchpebbles Volumes A, B and C, include 25-30 lessons. These lessons invite children to explore a wide variety of primary source texts, including folktales, myths, and fables from around the world. All texts are selected, adapted, and edited by Touchstones for grade-level readability.
Through their engagement in Touchpebbles discussions, students learn several skills essential to their development as well-rounded learners, including:
Listening carefully (both to adults and peers)
Organizing their thoughts
Working independently and cooperatively, based on teacher direction
Thinking critically about ideas expressed in the text and during the discussion
Through the practice of these skills, students learn to speak to and with their classmates rather than relying on the teacher for acknowledgement or affirmation.
The flexibility in Touchpebbles discussion encourages freedom of expression while the structured activities, ground rules, and attention to discussion dynamics ensure that this freedom is used productively and responsibly. Students also develop critical reading and thinking skills in their discussions. Participation in Touchpebbles helps students develop strategies which enable them to be focused and thoughtful readers. They learn strategies such as making connections between the text, themselves, and the world; learning to ask probing questions and respond to questions for which there are no right answers; making inferences; determining importance; and synthesizing individual pieces of the text into an integrated whole. Because Touchstones discussions examine topics within the text, students gain practice exploring deeper themes raised in each text. | <urn:uuid:67c6ba14-80bb-4aa1-b1f9-daa09ca6d392> | {
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Exploring data – format data
Posted on August 15, 2016
We’re looking at data insights and communications. Basically that’s asking a question, exploring data to find answers, and then explaining the results by communicating using visualizations with audience specific context. Separating insights from communications, we started with gaining insights from exploring the data.
Recap five steps of data exploration
Our five steps were outlined in the data exploration post. We subsequently took a deep dive into the first step – ask a question, the second step – gather the data, and the third step – select your tools.
- Ask a question
- Gather the data
- Select your tools
- Format the data
- Explore the data
In this post we look at formatting data to get it ready to use with the tools selected.
Format the data
The tool(s) you’ve selected to analyze and visualize the data, looking for the answers to your question and finding the story, will determine the structure of the data. For most people this has to be the least interesting part of the exploration process. At this point, you are making sure the data is in the form that the tool can process it and show you something that allows you to see patterns (or the lack of patterns). Furthermore, if one tool handles certain types of graphical analysis – and that doesn’t tell you anything, you may need to use a different tool and structure or format your data in a way that the next tool can process.
This step is critical, and can take quite a bit of time. Don’t become frustrated or give up! Remember, this is the exploration phase. You are searching for something, and truth be told, there may not be a story – and that IS the story (if it’s true).
Some of the data formats you’ll encounter are:
- delimited text (comma delimited text files are quite common)
- JSON (machine readable, and allegedly human readable)
- XML (extensible markup language)
There’s not much to say about data formatting. It’s very important, remember GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) so the data has to be formatted such that the analysis tools can understand the data. You (the analyst) must be confident you understand the exploration results and they make sense. Issues such as the tool misreading a data field as the wrong variable can wreak havoc on your analysis – this type of thing can happen in a formatting error. Take your time to get this part of the data exploration phase carefully done correctly.
Data formatted, check! Can we finally explore?
Next we finally get to use the tool(s) selected with the prepared data. We look at the actual exploration process in the next post in this category.
photo credit: Pixabay CC0 Public Domain | <urn:uuid:66693cb8-599c-4904-af10-aa6c92c12e4a> | {
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The White House celebrated World Water Day on Tuesday by hosting the first national Water Summit. The day was taken to “shine a spotlight on the importance of cross-cutting, creative solutions to solving the water problems of today, as well as to highlight the innovative strategies that will catalyze change in how we use, conserve, protect, and think about water in the years to come.”
Over 200 experts, scientists, policy makers, and high tech innovators announced several initiatives aimed at encouraging more investment in water infrastructure, improving water data, and boosting technologies to shrink the country’s water footprint.
“We really just aren’t prepared for the new normal that we already are experiencing: not enough water in some places, and sometimes too much in others,” said Alice Hill, special assistant to President Obama and a member of the National Security Council staff. “We need to do more to conserve the water we have, and we need to invest in that water infrastructure that rests below our feet. We need to find new ways to work together to solve these problems.”
At the summit, the White House issued a presidential memorandum and plan to promote long-term drought preparedness, intended to permanently establish the National Drought Resilience Partnership as an interagency task force that will help coordinate efforts to prepare for and reduce the impact of droughts, improve the sharing and integration of water data related to snowpack, groundwater, streamflow, and soil moisture between federal, state, local, and tribal governments.
The summit also saw the commitment of nearly $4 billion in private capital for infrastructure investments, and private-sector plans to invest more than $1 billion in developing new technologies in advanced water treatment and reuse systems. Several projects were featured including:
- Israel-California Green-Tech Partnership to bring 10 of Israel’s innovative start-ups to California to find new solutions to solve California’s drought
- A project to improve weather forecasting for water-management operations put together by the US Army Corps of Engineers, USGS, NOASS, and Sonoma County Water Agency
- A project to improve identification and monitoring of harmful algae blooms by the University of Michigan, NOAA, and Monterey Bay Aquarium
- The launch of a water-innovation accelerator by Cleantech Open, based in Redwood City, CA
- A multi-year initiative to develop data solutions in the water industry by San Francisco-based water-innovation accelerator, Imagine H2O
- A $4 million fund awarded to four institutions, including Public Policy Institute of California, University of Utah, Water Research Foundation at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Clemson University.
The Obama administration will also spend about $35 million this year in federal grants to support water science and the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) established the National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, AL. The NOAA also announced plans to release a new National Water Model that will improve forecasting river flows and help agencies that manage water to make better real-time decisions. | <urn:uuid:d46789ad-f21f-4441-b85d-e602502ed844> | {
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Artists, Architects and Artisans: Canadian Art 1890 - 1918
Ottawa - November 6, 2013
Immerse yourself in Canada a century ago and discover a new chapter of art history.
At the National Gallery of Canada
From November 8, 2013 to February 2, 2014
Beginning November 8, and until February 2, 2014, the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) invites the public to immerse itself in Canada at the turn of the 20th century by walking through its ambitious exhibition Artists, Architects and Artisans: Canadian Art 1890 – 1918. Bringing together more than 320 objects, this fascinating exhibition explores the energetic productivity of art makers and designers during a prosperous time in Canadian history. Organized by the NGC, Artists, Architects and Artisans: Canadian Art 1890 – 1918 is sponsored by Heffel Fine Art Auction House. For more information, visit www.gallery.ca/aaa and watch the interview with NGC Curator of Canadian Art and exhibition co-curator Charles Hill.
“Artists, Architects and Artisans breaks new art historical ground,” explained NGC Director and CEO Marc Mayer. “It’s not the final word on a period of immense creativity in Canada. It is, rather, a proposal for new ways to look at the history of the arts in our country, offering viewers and scholars numerous themes to be pursued and expanded in the future.”
The exhibition examines the architecture, urban plans, decorative painting, applied arts, graphic design and photography of Canada’s first boom period, when artistic quality reached a level previously unknown in the country’s short history.
Among the many artists featured are painters Ozias Leduc, George Reid, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Côté, Tom Thomson and Lawren Harris ; sculptors Louis-Philippe Hébert and Alfred Laliberté; photographers Sydney Carter and Harold Mortimer Lamb; and architects Edward et William Maxell, Percy Nobbs and Samuel Maclure.
1890 – 1918: a prosperous and prolific era in Canada
The decades following the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1886 to the end of the First World War saw Canada grow from an awkward alliance of formerly independent colonies to an agricultural and industrial nation. Optimism and a new spirit of national pride marked the peak boom years, stimulated by the immense growth in population due to immigration. Urban growth demanded new buildings, which became shells for civic ambitions and new opportunities for art workers. From the furnishings and interiors of a house, to the design and decoration of a public building, to the planning of the streetscape and larger urban fabric, it was an age of reform. Artists, architects and artisans worked together in cooperative ventures, introducing painting into architecture, design and furniture.
One exhibition, one national portrait
Entering the first room of Artists, Architects and Artisans: Candian Art 1890 – 1918, visitors are greeted by Alfred Laliberté’s lively bronze sculpture Boy with Turkey (Air), 1915, brought from Montreal’s Marché Maisonneuve for the duration of the exhibition. This sculpture and Boy with Fish, 1915, which stands at the exit, have been generously loaned by the City of Montreal.
Walking through a dozen rooms in the exhibition, visitors will discover numerous objects – painted murals, detailed architectural drawings and plans, prints, photographs, sculptures, finely crafted jewellery, ceramics, metalwork, furniture, stained glass, and textiles – from across Canada, from Halifax and Charlottetown to the Île d’Orléans, Trois-Rivières, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton, Burnaby, Vancouver and Victoria.
About the curators
The National Gallery of Canada’s Curator of Canadian Art, Charles Hill, is the lead curator of Artists, Architects and Artisans: Canadian Art 1890 – 1918. During the six years of exhibition planning, he was supported by the expertise of a curatorial team: NGC Associate Curator of Photographs Andrea Kunard, as well as curators and art historians Christine Boyanoski, Laurier Lacroix, Rosalind Pepall, Bruce Russell and Geoffrey Simmins.
Charles Hill has worked in the National Gallery of Canada’s curatorial department for Canadian art for more than 40 years. As Curator of Canadian Art, he is responsible for acquisitions, research and presentation of historic Canadian paintings, sculpture and decorative arts. Mr. Hill was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 2000, received an Honorary Doctorate from Concordia University, Montreal, in 2007, and was given the Award of Distinguished Service by the Canadian Museums Association in 2012.
Artists, Architects and Artisans: Canadian Art 1890-1918 is accompanied by a catalogue, containing over 400 illustrations, which shows how art makers and designers in various disciplines promoted an aesthetic that integrated art in all aspects of daily life. Published by the NGC, the 340-page volume features a foreword by the Gallery’s Director, as well as essays by Charles Hill, Andrea Kunard, Laurier Lacroix, Geoffrey Simmins, Rosalind Pepall, Christine Boyanoski and Bruce Russell. The catalogue is on sale at the NGC Bookstore for $45 and at www.ShopNGC.ca, the Gallery's online boutique.
Saturday 9 November from 1 pm to 5 pm. In the Auditorium. Ticket required:
$15 (adults), $12 (seniors and students), $10 (members). A panel of experts examines a period in Canadian Art in which interdisciplinary collaboration in the arts expressed a common vision through brick and stone, wood and metalwork, textiles, furnishings and painted decorations. Coffee and tea will be served during the break.
Meet the Curator
Saturday 18 January at 11 am. Free with Gallery admission. Visit the exhibition with curator Charles Hill.
Ticket required: $ 8 (adults), $7 (seniors and students), $6 (members).
Thursday 5 December at 6 pm. In the Auditorium. Rediscover Ottawa and its surroundings with urban planning specialist and historian David Gordon.
Thursday 12 December at 6 pm. In the Lecture Hall. Kathleen M. Fenwick Annual Memorial Lecture. Guest speaker: Rosalind Pepall.
Adult Art Tour
Friday 20 December at 1:30 pm. Ticket required: $7 + Gallery admission
Discover the exhibition Artists, Architects and Artisans: Canadian Art 1890-1918 and share your insight with others. One-hour guided tour in English. Groups can also schedule a visit upon request through the Group Reservations Office: 613-998-8888 or [email protected]
Weekends and statutory holidays. Daily 26-31 December and 2–5 January 2014. From 11 am to 4 pm. Free with Gallery Admission. Innovative activities allow families to view works in the exhibition and explore their own creativity in the Garden Court. Participants consider urban design and architecture while creating their own miniature environment.
NGCmagazine.ca, the National Gallery of Canada’s online magazine, is a frequently updated source of information on the Canadian art world and events at the National Gallery of Canada. Correspondents from across the country provide engaging and exclusive content on historical and contemporary art in Canada. This online magazine also includes interviews with artists. This month, read the article After the Last Spike: Artists, Architects, Artisans.
Connect with Artists, Architects and Artisans
The NGC regularly publishes information about the exhibition on its social media networks. To find out more, connect with:
Tickets: $12 (adults); $10 (seniors and full-time students); $6 (youth: 12-19); $24 (families: two adults and three youth). Admission is free for children under the age of 12 and for Members. Includes admission to the NGC Collection.
The NGC is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursdays until 8 p.m. Closed Mondays, including Remembrance Day, November 11. Open between December 26 and 31. Closed on December 25 and January 1. For more information call 613-990-1985 or 1-800-319-ARTS.
About the National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada is home to the most important collections of historical and contemporary Canadian art. The Gallery also maintains Canada's premier collection of European Art from the 14th to the 21st century, as well as important works of American, Asian and Indigenous Art and renowned international collections of prints, drawings and photographs. Created in 1880, the National Gallery of Canada has played a key role in Canadian culture for well over a century. Among its principal missions is to increase access to excellent works of art for all Canadians. To do so, it maintains an extensive touring art exhibition programme. For more information: gallery.ca.
— 30 —
For media only: For more information, please contact:
Senior Media and Public Relations Officer
National Gallery of Canada | <urn:uuid:560b9a0c-f08c-42bf-8354-eb2d624671b6> | {
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Details: This poster shows the Green Lantern in the center. Behind him are other characters from the comic series.
Green Lantern is the name of several fictional characters, superheroes appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The first (Alan Scott) was created by writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell in All-American Comics #16 (July 1940). Each Green Lantern possesses a power ring and power lantern that gives the user great control over the physical world as long as the wielder has sufficient willpower and strength to wield it. | <urn:uuid:a1d167f8-ecfd-4eaa-9a3b-f93847c10d54> | {
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Infant botulism is the most common type of botulism, a rare but serious illness caused by toxins produced by specific bacteria. The first sign of the disease is usually constipation. Other symptoms include lethargy, poor feeding, a weak cry, and poor muscle tone. The fatality rate is less than 2 percent, and recovery is usually complete.
Botulism is a rare but serious illness that is caused by toxins (poisons) produced by specific bacteria. In severe cases, it can lead to paralysis or death. Infant botulism is the most common form of the disease (see Botulism Types). About 75 percent of cases that occur each year are infant botulism.
Infant botulism differs from foodborne botulism in that the toxins themselves are not ingested. Instead, Clostridium botulinum spores are swallowed by the infant. Spores allow bacteria to survive in a dormant state until exposed to conditions that can support their growth. When consumed, these spores turn into bacteria in the favorable environment of the baby's large intestine and produce a toxin responsible for symptoms of the disease.
Because the spores are nearly everywhere in the environment, children and adults regularly ingest them, yet rarely suffer ill effects.
In a few cases, adults who have had intestinal surgery or whose intestinal tracts have otherwise been altered have contracted the disease the way infants do. This has led researchers to conclude that infants' as-yet incompletely developed intestinal flora may be to blame.
Infants' immature intestinal tracts offer a "window of vulnerability," and if a baby has the bad luck to swallow a botulism spore during that period, the spore has an opportunity to germinate. The spores travel with microscopic dust particles, so researchers have concluded that most affected infants have simply inhaled the spores. They mix with saliva, they are swallowed, and that is how they reach the intestine. Unfortunately, there is no way to prevent infant botulism in such cases. | <urn:uuid:34cf335e-bd74-4b1b-bd43-9b926d558a85> | {
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Santoninum (U. S. P.)—Santonin.
Preparations: Trochisci Santonini (U. S. P.)—Troches of Santonin.
- Trochisci Santonini Composita.—Compound Troches of Santonin.
- Trituration of Santonin and Podophyllin
Related entry: Santonica (U. S. P.)—Santonica
FORMULA: C15H18O3. MOLECULAR WEIGHT: 245.43.
"A neutral principle obtained from Santonica. Santonin should be kept in dark, amber-colored vials, and should not be exposed to light"—(U. S. P.).
History and Preparation.—Santonin, the vermifuge principle of santonica, was discovered, in 1830, by Kahler and Alms, simultaneously. The British Pharmacopoeia (1885) gives detailed directions for its preparation, which consists in boiling the bruised santonica seeds in water with addition of slaked lime, concentrating the solution of calcium santonate, adding hydrochloric acid, and allowing it to stand for 5 days. Wash the precipitated santonin (santonic anhydride) with water and ammonia water, which removes resin, and recrystallize from alcohol after treating the solution with animal charcoal. Another method consists in boiling out a mixture of santonica seeds and slaked lime with alcohol of 60 per cent (by volume), and decomposing the calcium santonate with carbonic acid (see Flückiger, Pharmacognosie des Pflanzenreichs, 3d ed., 1891, p. 822). (Also see detailed Bibliography on Santonin, by A. Van Zwaluwenburg, Pharm. Arch., 1899, pp. 1-11.)
Description.—Santonin occurs "in colorless, shining, flattened, prismatic crystals, odorless and nearly tasteless when first put in the mouth, but afterward developing a bitter taste; not altered by exposure to air, but turning yellow on exposure to light. Nearly insoluble in cold water; soluble in 40 parts of alcohol at 15° C. (59° F.), in 250 parts of boiling water, and in 8 parts of boiling alcohol; also soluble in 140 parts of ether, in 4 parts of chloroform, and in solutions of caustic alkalies. When heated to 170° C. (338° F.), santonin melts, and forms, if rapidly cooled, an amorphous mass, which instantly crystallizes oil coming in contact with a minute quantity of one of its solvents. At a higher temperature, it sublimes partly unchanged, and, when ignited, it is consumed, leaving no residue. Santonin is neutral to litmus paper moistened with alcohol. Santonin yields, with an alcoholic solution of potassium hydrate, a bright pinkish-red liquid, which gradually becomes colorless. From its solution in caustic alkalies, santonin is completely precipitated by supersaturation with an acid"—(U. S. P.).
Santonin (C15H18O3) is the anhydride of santonic acid (C15H20O4), which is a derivative of dimethyl-naphtalene (C10H6[CH3]2). Santonin dissolves in alkalies with formation of salts of this acid. Santonin, in acetic acid solution, when exposed to sunlight for about a month, is converted into (colorless) photosantonic acid (C15H22O5). The ethyl-ester of the latter is obtained when an alcoholic solution of santonin is exposed to sunlight (Sestini). The yellow coloration developed upon exposure of santonin to light, is believed to be due to a red resin. Santonin is optically laevo-rotatory.
Adulterations and Tests.—Santonin has been adulterated by boric acid; this substance may be recognized by being insoluble in chloroform, or by not being volatilized when heated on platinum foil. If the residue is dissolved in water, and the solution acidulated with hydrochloric acid, a strip of yellow turmeric paper is colored brown by it. Santonin, turned yellow from exposure to light, has been mistaken for picric acid; the latter is easy of detection, being soluble in cold and hot water with yellow color (J. M. Maisch, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1874, p. 52); or the white crystals of santonin might be mistaken for strychnine, the latter, however, may readily be distinguished by the violet coloration it produces with sulphuric acid and potassium dichromate (see Strychnina). Other substitutions, e. g., salicin, may be recognized by the following U. S. P. directions for santonin: "Its solution in cold, concentrated sulphuric acid is at first colorless (absence of easily carbonizable, organic substances), but, after some time, turns yellow, then red, and finally brown. If water be added, immediately after it is dissolved without color in sulphuric acid, it will be completely precipitated, and the supernatant liquid should not have a bitter taste, nor should it be altered upon the addition of potassium dichromate T.S. (absence of brucine or strychnine), or of mercuric potassium iodide T.S. (absence of alkaloids in general)"—(U. S. P.). D. Lindo's test for santonin is as follows: Dissolve, in a test-tube, a small quantity of santonin in strong sulphuric acid, add a few drops of a highlydiluted solution of ferric chloride; upon warming in the flame of a Bunsen burner, a beautiful violet coloration is developed.
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Santonin is an active agent, and, in improper doses, is capable of producing serious symptoms, and even death. As small a dose as 2 grains is said to have killed a weakly child of 5 years, and 5 grains produced death in about ½ hour in a child of the same age. Among the toxic effects may be mentioned gastric pain, pallor and coldness of the surface, followed by heat and injection of the head, tremors, dizziness, pupillary dilatation, twitching of the eyes, stertor, copious sweating, hematuria, convulsive movements, tetanic cramps stupor, and insensibility. Occasionally symptoms resembling cholera morbus have been produced, and in all cases the urine presents a characteristic yellowish or greenish-yellow hue. We have observed convulsions caused by the administration of "worm lozenges." Death from santonin is due to respiratory paralysis, and post-mortem examination revealed in one instance a contracted and empty right ventricle, and about an ounce of liquid, black blood in the left heart, an inflamed duodenum, and inflamed patches in the stomach (Kilner). The chief form of treatment of poisoning by santonin is by artificial respiration. Internal and external stimulation should also be resorted to, inhalations of ether or chloroform, to control the convulsions, should be given, and a purgative administered to remove remaining traces of the poison from the bowels. Santonin often produces a singular effect upon the vision, causing surrounding objects to appear discolored, as if they were yellow or green, and occasionally blue or red; it also imparts a yellow or green color to the urine, and a reddish-purple color if that fluid be alkaline. Prof. Giovanni was led to believe that the apparent yellow color of objects observed by the eye, when under the influence of santonin, did not depend upon an elective action on the optic nerves, but rather to the yellow color which the drug itself takes when exposed to the air. Santonin colored by the air does not produce this effect, which only follows the white article. The air gives the yellow color to santonin, to passed urine containing it, and to the serum of the blood when drawn from a vein, and, according to Giovanni, it is owing to its direct action upon the aqueous humor, where it is carried by absorption, that objects present this color. The view now held, however, is that of Rose, that the alkaline serum dissolves the santonin, which then acts upon the perspective centers of the brain, producing the chromatopsia or xanthopsia. Santonin has been advantageously given in amaurosis following acute inflammation of some of the internal parts of the eye; also in subacute and chronic retinitis and choroiditis. It is said to have materially benefited cases of noncongenital color-blindness, being administered in 1/20 or 1/10 grain doses (Foltz).
Santonin is the chief remedy now used for the expulsion of the roundworm or ascaris lumbricoides. It acts less effectually upon rectal ascarides, and not at all upon the tapeworm. As a rule, when a single dose is to be given, it should be administered upon an empty stomach, and the patient should refrain from eating for a short time afterward. A purgative should precede and follow its use. Another method, which has found much favor in the Eclectic school, is that of giving santonin, in divided doses, as follows: Rx Santonin, grs. v; podophyllin, grs. j; milk-sugar, ℨi. Mix. Divide into 10 powders, and administer 1 powder 3 times a day.
Santonin is an important nerve stimulant. It relieves many of those nervous phenomena which simulate the conditions produced by worms—picking at the nose, starting in sleep, intestinal irritation, etc. Its effects upon troubles of the urinary apparatus, due to disordered or deficient innervation, make it one of our best specific remedies. In retention of urine, due to atony of the bladder, no remedy surpasses it, and when this occurs as a symptom of the advanced stage of acute diseases of children, indicating an unfavorable prognosis, unless the urinary function can be restored, santonin may be given in ¼ to ½- grain doses (triturated with sugar), every hour, until a free urinary flow is established. Retention of urine, caused by opium preparations, is corrected by it. Being strongly diuretic, it may be administered in in renal colic. It relieves urethral irritation, dysuria, strangury, nocturnal enuresis, chronic vesical catarrh, and vesical tenesmus. It acts promptly in the urethral irritation, with pain and scalding, associated with uterine disorders, and in large, but unsafe, doses (10 grains), it has been recommended in uterine colic and amenorrhoea (Berthey). It relieves the difficult micturition and urinal retention following parturition, when not due to long-continued pressure of the child's head upon the parts. Many of the unpleasant urinary symptoms of albuminuria and chronic nephritis are relieved by santonin, and it is a remedy for impaired breathing and tympanitis due to deficient spinal innervation. The dose of santonin for an adult ranges from 1/10 to 4 grains; for a child, 1/20 to 2 grains, always avoiding the larger dose when possible; 2 x trituration, 2 or 3 grains, for its effects upon the urinary apparatus.
Specific Indications and Uses.—To remove all kinds of intestinal worms but the tapeworm; retention of urine from atony; nocturnal enuresis from atony; urethral irritation, with pain and scalding, accompanying uterine disorders, retention of urine in fevers; deficient spinal innervation, as evidenced by impaired respiration and tympanitis; vesical tenesmus and strangury; retention of urine from the use of opiates.
Related Products.—SANTONINOXIME (C15H19NO3, or C15H18O2:N.OH). Said to be a safe substitute for santonin, and the dose given may be 3 times as large. P. Guici (1889) prepared it by the interaction of santonin (5 parts), hydroxylamine hydrochloride (4 parts), strong alcohol (50 parts), and precipitated calcium carbonate (4 parts). These were digested for 3 or 4 days at about 80° C. (176° F.). It forms white silky, laevogyre needles, very sparingly soluble in hot water. It fuses at near 217° C. (442.6° F.).
Santolina chamaecyparissus (Compositae).—Popular in Scotland as a remedy for roundworm. Half ounce of the plant may be boiled with 1 pint of water for 30 minutes, strained, and brought to the measure to 1 pint when finished. Of this decoction, 2 ½ ounces may be given to children, or 5 ounces to adults for 4 successive days, and may be followed with an active cathartic. Maben finds in the plant a bitter body, which he believes to be the active substance, resin, and an essential oil (Pharm. Jour. Trans., Vol. XVI). | <urn:uuid:e48b6fb4-788e-4251-8103-41d43b91135e> | {
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In Western films, the gunslinger that draws first always gets shot. This seems like a standard Hollywood trope but it diverted the attention of no less a scientist that Niels Bohr, one of history’s greatest physicists. Taking time off from solving the structure of the atom, Bohr suggested that it takes more time to initiate a movement than to react to the same movement. Perversely, the second gunslinger wins because they’re responding to their opponent’s draw.
Now, Andrew Welchman from the University of Birmingham has found that there’s something to Bohr’s explanation. People do indeed have a “reactive advantage”, where they execute a movement about 10% more quickly if they’re reacting to an opponent. Of course, ethics committees might frown on scientists duelling with the pistols in the name of discovery, even if the people in question were graduate students. So Welchman designed a laboratory gunfight, played out using buttons rather than guns.
Two opponents faced each other and had to press a series of three buttons as quickly as possible. To begin with, they held a central “home key” with their trigger fingers and they had to wait for a short spell before before starting the round. The point where they were allowed to begin varied from trial to trial and the players weren’t told how long it would be. There was no starting pistol or countdown. Either player could start the race but if they went too soon, an alarm would sound to signal a false-start.
These button-mashing duels revealed that, on average, the players completed their sequence 21 milliseconds faster if they reacted than if they initiated. That’s an improvement of around 9%, and most of this advantage came at the very beginning, when they pressed the first button. It’s an interesting result and like all good scientists, Welchman systematically considered and ruled out several possible explanations for it.
He thought that the three-button task was quite complicated compared to, say, drawing a gun but the reactive advantage remained even when the task was distilled to a single button press. He thought that the expectation of a warning alarm might have slowed the players who started first. But the reactive advantage remained when he repeated the experiment without any warning tone.
He considered the possibility that the reactors might gain an advantage by being able to model their actions on someone else’s. But even if the button order was swapped for one player, or the button array rotated by 90 degrees, still the reactive advantage remained.
Perhaps players were steeling themselves up for one role or the other, or perhaps they planned to win by sacrificing accuracy for speed. But that’s not possible – remember that the players didn’t know beforehand if they were going to initiate or react. Those roles were only decided once someone moved, which prevents either one from carrying out a pre-planned strategy.
Perhaps some people always chose to react and always did so very quickly? Not so – Welchman found no link between the probability of reacting and the speed of reactive movements. Finally, Welchman wondered if the social aspect of the game was important, so he asked players to duel a computer or a virtual player in another room. And still, they moved faster if they reacted than if they initiated.
Having ruled out these myriad reasons, Welchman thinks that the reactive advantage stems from our use of different brain networks, when moving proactively or reactively. There’s plenty of evidence for separate pathways already, and Welchman’s idea is that one of these just happens to be slightly faster than the other.
He suggests that the our brain holds in check the actions we plan to carry out, possibly using an area called the supplementary motor area (SMA). Another area – the pre-SMA – lifts this block in order to launch the movement. When we move reactively, another part of the brain – the parietal cortex – lifts the block in a similar but quicker way. From an evolutionary point of view, this all seems reasonable. Reactions are among the most important movements that animals can make, such as escaping from a predator’s strike.
So what does this mean for Western gunslingers? Is it always better to draw second? Well, not quite. Welchman also found that the 21 millisecond benefit of reacting quickly was totally overwhelmed by the 200 milliseconds it took to react in the first place. Despite their faster movements, the reactors very rarely beat the initiators. If Greedo hadn’t been such a bad shot, Han
s would have died (not counting the subsequent editing).
Bohr’s idea, it seems, was correct in theory, but wrong in practice. That didn’t stop Bohr himself from testing his hypothesis in experimental duels against fellow physicist George Gamow using toy pistols. According to anecdotal reports, Bohr always reacted and he won every duel, but Welchman has the final word on the matter:
“Our data make it unlikely that these victories can be ascribed to the benefits associated with reaction. Rather, they suggest that Bohr was a crack shot, in addition to being a brilliant physicist.”
Reference: Welchman et al. 2010. The quick and the dead: when reaction beats intention. Proc Roy Soc B http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2009.2123 | <urn:uuid:4b0b5b1b-7f08-4631-8503-78b8b13575b5> | {
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New York City’s Daily News reports that people who eat the fish they catch in the city’s polluted waterways could be ingesting a smorgasbord of toxins, including mercury and PCBs. According to the story, health officials haven’t tested the city’s fish in a decade, so the paper decided to do send samples to a lab in Long Island. The results:
The News found the highest levels of mercury and PCBs in a striped bass caught off Gantry Plaza. The fish are highly prized among local fishermen for their size and flavor.
Bluefish samples from the Gowanus Harbor off Red Hook, Brooklyn, also had unsafe levels, tests conducted by Long Island Analytical Laboratories in Suffolk County showed.
A winter flounder caught off Hunts Point in the Bronx was slightly cleaner, with elevated levels of mercury but lower amounts of PCBs.
Hard times mean that a free meal is hard to pass up—fishermen at one pier told the Daily News that subsistence fishing has doubled in the past year. All the more troubling, then, that the polluted waters usually aren’t marked: Health advisories about local fish’s toxicity are seldom posted, even in the city’s most popular fishing spots.
Of course the city should post the advisories, but if it does, that won’t necessarily solve the problem. Eating potentially toxic fish vs. going hungry? Talk about a tough choice. | <urn:uuid:3eb3469d-0f47-4381-a223-075fd8ed0eb7> | {
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Anticoagulants are medications that help prevent existing blood clots from growing larger and the formation of new blood clots by increasing the amount of time it takes a blood clot to form. Anticoagulants help to prevent unwanted clotting by increasing the amount of time it takes blood to clot. Warfarin, is one type of anticoagulant and our Warfarin therapy program is further discussed below.
There are a number of reasons as to why anticoagulant therapy may be indicated:
- Deep Vein Thrombosis: This term refers to a blood clot that forms in one of the large veins in the leg or arm. These clots cause damage by blocking blood flow, which leads to swelling and discomfort in the extremity.
- Pulmonary Embolus: A blood clot, that forms in or travels to the lungs is called a pulmonary embolus. These clots are dangerous because they result in lack of oxygen. Shortness of breath and chest pain are symptoms of an embolus in the lung. The severity of the problem depends on how big the clot is and where it lodges in the circulation.
- Atrial Fibrillation: This condition causes an abnormal rhythm and rate of the heart. As a result, blood cannot be pumped out of the heart as efficiently as it should be. This can cause the blood to become sluggish and possibly clot. If a clot breaks off, it can travel through the circulation, where it might lodge in a vessel and cause serious damage such as a stroke or heart attack.
- Artificial Heart Valve: Because an artificial heart valve is made of a synthetic substance, the body does not recognize it and attempts to protect itself against it. Clots may form as a result.
- Hereditary Disorders: There are certain proteins formed by the body that either cause blood to clot or prevent it from clotting. Protein C and S and antithrombin III help to prevent clots. Some people are born with a deficiency of these proteins and are at risk for blood clots. Other substances, such as anticardiolipin antibodies, when present, can cause clotting. Some people develop these antibodies and become prone to blood clotting.
Length of time on Warfarin
Length of time on anticoagulation therapy varies from patient to patient. For patients with a single episode of deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolus, treatment is between three and six months. In most cases, people with atrial fibrillation will need to take Warfarin for the rest of their lives, as will patients with recurrent blood clots, hereditary disorders, and artificial heart valves. Of course, treatment is individualized for everyone, and you will be an important part of the decision-making process.
Normal Blood Clotting
When an injury occurs that causes bleeding, a blood clot will form to stop the bleeding and protect against infection. When the injured blood vessel has healed itself, the clot is no longer needed and is gradually reabsorbed by the body. Substances in the blood, called clotting factors, work to ensure that the blood flows smoothly and that it does not become too thick or too thin. Under normal circumstances, these processes work quite well.
Under certain circumstances, the body becomes more prone to developing blood clots abnormally. This can lead to blood clots in areas that cause harm, such as in the heart, lungs, brain, or extremities. If a clot forms in such an area, it might cause a blockage in the circulation and hinder blood flow. More seriously, a piece of the clot might break off and travel through the circulation. This can be a potentially life-threatening event. Certain clotting abnormalities are inherited. Some people develop clots in response to specific triggers, such as prolonged immobility that causes sluggish blood flow. This can happen during prolonged surgical procedures or if an extremity is immobilized in a cast. It can also occur in patients who are immobile because of paralysis. Finally, pregnancy is a time when the body is more prone to blood clotting. This is a protective mechanism that occurs near the end or pregnancy, as the body is preparing for delivery, to prevent excessive blood loss.
In most cases, abnormal clotting does not usually occur, but certain conditions do make it more likely. Your doctor may opt to treat you with a “blood-thinning” medication to prevent you from developing a blood clot, or you may already have a blood clot and are being treated with “blood-thinners” to prevent it from getting worse or traveling to other parts of your body.
Warfarin: How it Works
Natural proteins that are present in the blood help the blood to clot when you are injured. Some of these proteins are made with the help of Vitamin K. Warfarin interferes with the function of vitamin K, which decreases the amount of clotting proteins formed in the body. Therefore, Warfarin increases that time that the body normally takes to form clots. This protects the body from forming harmful clots. Warfarin is commonly known as a blood-thinner. This is not really a correct term because the blood does not actually become thinner; it simply takes a longer time to form a clot.
Monitoring Warfarin Therapy
It is important to monitor very closely the effect of Warfarin on the blood. This medicine is not like most others, where you take the same amount each day. Many things can interfere with or enhance the effects of Warfarin. For that reason, your blood will be checked very frequently at the start of your treatment with this medication. Once you are stable, it will be checked approximately once a month. If your condition changes, you start a new medication, or if you become ill, we might temporarily need to check your blood more frequently again.
The blood test performed is called a prothrombin time; also known as a Protime test or PT/INR. This test can be performed by sending a blood sample to the laboratory, or it can be performed at our office by a fingerstick. The fingerstick gives us an immediate result which is convenient for monitoring your Warfarin dosage. Three numbers are obtained from your blood sample:
- Prothrombin time (measured in seconds)
- Prothrombin time ratio
- Protime International Normalized Ration (INR)
These numbers are used to determine if you are taking the correct amount of Warfarin. In a normal person who is not on Warfarin, the protime will be between 11-13 seconds, the ratio will be 1, and the INR will be less than 1. The number used to determine your Warfarin dosage is the INR. For patients on anticoagulation therapy, the INR is kept at a number ranging anywhere from 1.5 to 4.0. If the number is too low, your medication dosage will be increased. If it is too high, your dosage will be decreased. The INR range established for you will depend on your particular condition and lifestyle needs.
Side Effects of Warfarin
The reason why your blood is checked so frequently is because side effects of Warfarin can be dangerous. If too much Warfarin is being give, bleeding can result. It might be very minor, such as gum bleeding while you brush your teeth; but more serious episodes of bleeding might occur, such as bleeding from the stomach or into your brain.
Results of Too much Warfarin: Bleeding
- Gum bleeding while brushing teeth
- Occasional nosebleed
- Easy bruising
- Prolonged bleeding after minor cuts
- Prolonged menstrual bleeding
You might notice any of the above symptoms from time to time. If you are unsure whether bleeding is significant and represents a problem, it is best to call the clinic and report it. It may be necessary to decrease your dose or have your protime checked to be sure.
- Blood in urine or stool
- Black, tarry stools
- Coughing up blood
- Severe headache
- Severe bleeding into whites of eyes
- Any bleeding that continues or is of excessive amount
Result of Too Little Warfarin: Blood Clotting
Call your doctor immediately if you notice any of the following signs and symptoms of a blood clot:
- Sudden weakness in any limb
- Numbness or tingling anywhere
- Visual changes or loss of sight in either eye
- Sudden onset of slurred speech or inability to speak
- Dizziness or fainting
- Severe pain or swelling in an extremity
- Shortness of breath or chest pain
All of these signs and symptoms can be serious. Remember: Call your doctor immediately if any of them occur.
Things That Interfere with Warfarin
Many medications and things that you might eat or drink can either increase or decrease the effects of Warfarin.
Vitamin K and Alcohol
Because vitamin K counteracts with Warfarin, you might not be getting enough Warfarin if you suddenly begin eating increased amounts of foods high in vitamin K.
Also, drinking alcohol can affect the amount of Warfarin in your blood. Alcohol can either increase or decrease the effect of Warfarin. It is not always predictable.
The most important point to remember is to be consistent in what you eat and drink. Having a spinach salad is not harmful if you don’t suddenly decide to eat a whole truckful at one sitting. The same goes for alcohol. The key is to remember moderation. What is harmful is bingeing on things that interact with Warfarin.
This is a very important area for you to remember. Many medications act either to increase or to decrease the effects of Warfarin. Probably the most common medications to avoid are products containing aspirin. This is because Aspirin also acts to decrease blood clotting, so it would be dangerous to be taking two medications that affect blood clotting. Also, non-steroidal medications are not to be taken while on Warfarin.
Over-the-Counter (OTC) Drugs
Following is only a partial list of the over-the-counter products that you should not take while on Warfarin. There are others. You must read labels and ask questions before taking any medication to ensure that it does not contain any harmful substances.
DO NOT TAKE THESE OVER-THE-COUNTER MEDICATIONS:
If you need to take medication for pain or a cold, it is best to ask your doctor or pharmacist for suggestions. The following products, however, are safe to take.
YOU MAY TAKE THESE MEDICATIONS SAFELY:
- Benylin & Benylin-DM
- Robitussin and Robitussin-DM
- Sudafed and Sudafed-Plus
Note: If you use antacids, such as Maalox or Mylanta, for heartburn, take them at least two hours before, or two hours after your Warfarin.
Many prescription drugs interfere with Warfarin. Tell all of your doctors that you are taking Warfarin, so they will know which medications can be prescribed for you. It is also a good idea to have all of your medications filled at the same pharmacy, so that your pharmacist will be alert to any medications that you should not be taking with Warfarin.
Caution should be exercised when herbal products are taken together with Warfarin. The use of herbal products may increase or decrease the effects of Warfarin. Specific botanicals reported to affect Warfarin therapy include the following: bromelains, danshen, dong quai garlic, ginger, ginkgo biloba, green tea and ginseng are associated most often with an increase in the effects of Warfarin. Coenzyme Q10 and St. John’s wort are associated most often with a decrease in the effects of Warfarin.
Warfarin tablets come in several strengths: 1mg, 2mg, 2.5mg, 4mg, 5mg, 7.5mg, and 10mg. We will try to keep your daily dose the same, but it is possible that you might take different doses on different days. This will depend on your blood results. Most likely, you will have one or two different strengths from which we can combine to make the correct daily dose. Please call if there are any questions regarding your dose.
It is helpful in the beginning to write down your daily dose for the week because you are not familiar with the medication. Also, this is when the medication is most likely to fluctuate in dose. It is also helpful to count out your pills for the week and keep them separated in a pillbox.
Other Health Care Providers (Specialists)
Tell all of your doctors that you are taking Warfarin, so they will know which medications can be prescribed for you. It is also a good idea to have all of your medications filled at the same pharmacy, so that your pharmacist will be alert to any medications that you should not be taking with Warfarin.
Warfarin cannot be taken by pregnant women. If you are, or are planning to become pregnant, please notify the clinic. For women who must be anticoagulated during pregnancy, there are other safe options available. Warfarin causes birth defects to the developing fetus.
Below is a list of the Vitamin K content in common types of foods. This is not meant to be an all-inclusive list. If you have any questions, please call the clinic and ask. | <urn:uuid:f290c3f0-4a97-45f1-9920-8ece13a57bfb> | {
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No one understands the full extent of stress better than soldiers. Studies performed at the U.S. military’s Survival Evasion Resistance Escape (SERE) school found that trainees who perform the best under the stress of interrogation have the highest levels of stress hormones after being interrogated.
Video of the Day
The higher stress hormones act as a buffer, protecting the soldier from the effects of stress and supporting better performance despite the stressful circumstances. Interestingly, the soldiers who performed best were members of Special Operations, commonly known to perform better physically than many of their conventional counterparts.
But you don’t have to be a Navy SEAL to harness your brain’s stress response system and translate it to better results in the gym. What determines whether or not you reach your fitness goals is how well your body adapts to the stress you place on it during training. This kind of adaptation requires:
-Sufficient exercise-induced stress to provoke a response. Not doing enough work or doing the same thing all the time will halt your gains.
-The right type of stimuli required for the adaptation you want to create. You get better at exactly what you do and how you do it. If your goal is to look like a sprinter, don’t run slow, long distances and expect to achieve your goal.
-The metabolic resources your body needs to create an effective stress response that results in adaptation.
-Your autonomic nervous system (ANS) to adequately control the stress and adaptation response.
How Your Brain Handles Stress
Let’s start with a bit of basic biology. The ANS consists of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) and enteric system (digestion). Put simply, the SNS and PNS are always working to keep the body in homeostasis (balance of function) by counteracting each other.
The SNS is used for whole-body responses to fight-or-flight situations. When the SNS is strongly activated, the heart and breathing rates increase, digestion gets turned off and blood gets shunted away from the extremities to the large skeletal muscles to help the body prepare to fight or run away. When the PNS is dominant, on the other hand, the body goes into “rest and digest” mode. Digestion is turned on along with the body’s repair and recovery systems.
Almost all sources of stress fall into three main categories:
- Structural distress, which is categorized by poor movement, poor postural control or alignment, disuse (not enough movement), chronic tension or pain (from physical causes) and tissue breakdown post-workout.
- Metabolic distress, which involves incomplete digestion, imbalance of good and bad bacteria, infection, immune reactions to foods or allergens, blood sugar or hormone imbalances and micronutrient or amino acid deficiencies.
- Mental or emotional distress, which can be caused by work or family stress, chronic anxiety, depression or a host of other things.
All stressors, including workouts, physical movement and lifestyle factors, activate the stress response system. You want your body to produce a strong enough stress response to help you accomplish your task and yet be able to turn that response off and switch to recovery mode when the stressor is no longer present. A strong (but appropriate) stress response to any given stressor allows higher levels of performance to occur.
Use Your Brainpower to Improve Your Workout
While you may not have the body of a Special Operations soldier, your body still functions in much the same way. After all, you’re both human. From the perspective of turning your workouts into progress and performing better tomorrow than you did yesterday, your body needs to be able to do two things:
1. Create a Strong Stress Response
The best way to develop this is through progressive overload in your training. This involves relatively intense workouts that stretch you just beyond your ability and are performed at times of the day your energy is the highest.
Work with a professional or educate yourself about programming your workouts progressively. Going to failure is OK at times, but don’t consider this your primary training strategy. You need to identify your goals, test for your weaknesses, progressively develop and train skills and course-correct along the way by reassessing.
Train hard, but don’t overtrain. When you’re showing up to your workouts and are unable to muster the energy to train with intensity, make sure you take care of the basics first. If you’re not already eating or sleeping well, then focus there first. If you’re doing a good job with your lifestyle but not seeing the results you want, you may consider working with a professional trainer. Look for someone who can help with using a functional nutrition or medicine approach.
2. Switch From a Strong Stress Response to a Strong Recovery Response
A stress response that stays “switched on” can be detrimental to your progress and possibly to your health. Stress hormones such as cortisol are catabolic, which means they break the body down. The natural brake that halts the stress response is the PNS.
It’s important to note, however, that chronically high stress levels may be driven by underlying medical conditions. If you have trouble with poor recovery and don’t see any progress from the exercises detailed below, you should consider an appointment with your doctor.
5 Ways to Stimulate Your Parasympathetic Nervous System
Below are five PNS activation drills for you to try after your next workout. Unless you show up for your workout in a highly stressed state, you’ll want to stick to applying this after your workout only. Experiment with doing them within 10 minutes post-workout as part of your cooldown. You can also try them at any point up to two hours post-workout. See what works best for you.
Give yourself enough time to catch your breath and for your heart rate to drop a bit. You don’t have to do all of them, but keep track of which ones you try and which ones seem to help. None of these exercises are intended as a one-size-fits-all solution.
1. Yes/Yes and No/No: This involves keeping your eyes focused on a central point in front of you while shaking your head yes and no. You can find more details on how to do this properly at Z-Health.
2. Ice Water: Splash your face with cold water. This helps stimulate the trigeminal nerve, the nerve that controls your jaw muscles and sensation on the face and helps control the total output of your PNS.
3. Breathing Exercises: Breathing is an essential part of your workout, not to mention your life in general, so give this exercise a try. Breathe in for four seconds, hold for four seconds, breathe out for four seconds, hold for another four seconds, and then repeat the pattern. You can find more breathing exercises at Z-Health.
4. Gargling Water: Shoot for 10 to 30 seconds for one to three sets. Make sure the water is in the back of the mouth and your gargling is creating a lot of movement.
5. Horizontal Eye Movements (Saccades): Hold your arms out with your index fingers pointed up (to create two targets to look at). Your fingers should be shoulder-width apart. Focus on one finger for three seconds, and then jump your eyes over to the opposite finger. Repeat for five to 10 reps for three sets.
Don’t Ignore the Basics
While it’s fun to try new and fancy-sounding techniques like the ones mentioned above, you need to make sure you’re doing two of the most important things for recovery:
1. Sleep: Take a power nap or at least get enough quality sleep at night (generally seven to nine hours).
2. Food: Post-workout snacks fuel your recovery and help you perform optimally. Focus on food quality, total calories and macronutrient ratios.
Track Your Parasympathetic Output
Heart rate variability (HRV), or the difference in the amount of time between heartbeats, is an easy way to capture data to help you time your workouts when your potential for stress adaptation is highest, as well as gauge any improvements for PNS output and tone from the exercises described in this article. You can use a device like the ithlete HRV system, which is compatible with most smartphones and will also help you interpret your results.
Your body’s built-in stress response mechanism can be a very powerful ally when you start working with it instead of against it. Over the next 30 days, begin adding these PNS activation drills to your workout program and leave us a comment to let us know what you experience! | <urn:uuid:e2e64400-ec9c-43cf-86cb-ff41fd9adcbd> | {
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After 60 years of separation, the languages used in North and South Korea have drifted apart. According to a 2012 study by the National Institute of the Korean language, North Korean defectors understand only half of the language used in the South.
Cheil Worldwide partnered with DreamTouchForAll, a non-profit education organization, and Community Chest of Korea, a charitable organization, to develop an app called "Univoca: South Korean-North Korean Translator".
Working like a digital dictionary, the app includes 3,600 words used in Korean-language textbooks for high school students. It also demonstrates the meanings of South and North Korean words with examples.
When the user scans an unfamiliar word with a smartphone camera, the translated text appears. Users can also manually input text for translation and suggest words that should be added to the app.
North Korean university students were involved in the initiative and helped with basic translation. Then an advisory committee consisting of teachers and doctors from North Korea worked on proofreading. Cheil’s team of art directors created images for words that are not easy to explain.
The language gap between the two Korean countries is as deep as the history of separation, challenging young students from the North to fit into the South Korean society, according to Cheil, quoting a North Korean doctor.
The Ministry of Education estimates the number of North Korean student defectors is consistently rising. The number has jumped from 966 in 2008 to 2,183 in 2014. Since the separation of the two countries, the languages have evolved to be 40 percent different in daily life and 60 percent different for business, Cheil claims. | <urn:uuid:e8133306-9c79-4184-8cba-82e145ed97c5> | {
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History is not easy. It takes time, it takes thought, it takes an open mind presserved over decades. Some events are beyond recovery, and others may require evidence drawn from far afield for their discovery or interpretation. But apart from this, there are difficulties that are not merely personal, but are imposed from the larger culture, general tendencies which may affect the work of every historian. Absent a general campaign of which there is no present sign, they require resistence to current popular ways of seeing things. This section offers some examples of these more systemic difficulties.
Here are cases, not mentioned by Ranke, where courage - courage against the tide - may be called for by the practicing historian.
- The Antiquity Frenzy
- The Anyway Club
- The Attack on History
- The Feudalism Question
- The Present
- Stanley Fish
If one should ask, How are these different from the Errors in the next section, we don't have a clear answer, Except that, pedagogically, two short lists may be easier for the beset beginner to handle than one long one. As for making this short list a little longer, we are always open to suggestions. Contact us at the mail link below.
6 Feb 2006 / Contact The Project / Exit to History Page | <urn:uuid:6c72c400-a5a7-4631-96bc-10064f55ed5b> | {
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This week’s lectionary reading from Matthew (chapter 15:21-28) is traditionally called the Canaanite Woman. The whole chapter leads up to the story.
At the beginning of the chapter, the pharisees and scribes attack Jesus because his disciples don’t keep the traditions of ritual washing which were so important for being right in the sight of God.
Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.
Jesus replies with a rejoinder worthy of any newsgroup argument:
And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, “Honour your father and your mother,” and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” 5But you say that whoever tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God”, then that person need not honour the father.
He points out their personal hypocrisy, and simultaneously attacks the tradition of the elders of which they make so much:
So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:
“This people honours me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me."
Matthew highlights the problematic nature of our accumulated tradition being used to excuse our avoiding the core implications of our faith. This particular issue of racial and cultic purity was one of the central areas of conflict between early Christians and their Jewish heritage. Probably the inclusion of the story indicates to us that it was an issue within the church.
Jesus is presented going on the attack over the issue. Cleanliness was associated with food. The wrong food would make a person unclean, defiled, in the eyes of God. But Jesus makes the point that
...it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.
In explanation he says to the disciple Peter,
...what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.
Then Jesus is confronted with the implications of his own teaching.
Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon (which is Gentile territory.) Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’
Calling the woman a Canaanite accentuates her non-Jewishness. Indeed it makes her the antithesis of the Chosen People who, according to their Scriptures, had captured the Promised Land from the Canaanites with the full blessing of God. Her daughter has a demon, which is another measure of uncleanness and separation from all that was godly. This contrast is heightened because the woman calls Jesus “Lord, Son of David.” For all her un-godliness, she recognises exactly who he is. She, of all people, has a claim on his attention, by using this form of address. It is far above saying “Sir,” or “Rabbi.”
But he did not answer her at all.
For those Christians who are heavily invested in Jesus being “without sin” (Hebrews 4:15) and in some kind of literal inerrancy of scripture, what follows is difficult. He does not respond to her. And then he dismisses her with an incredibly nasty comment.
He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’
Dogs were what Jews dismissively called non Jews. “In a Jewish setting dogs were not household pets, but semiwild scavengers who ate unclean food.” pp139 The People’s New Testament Commentary By M. Eugene Boring, Fred B. Craddock Published by Westminster John Knox Press, 2004
The church has tried to lessen the offense: he uses the word “puppy” according to some amoelierations, almost playfully teasing the woman. In others he is merely “testing” her faith. None of this is true. His response is simply un-Christ-like. As the pioneer of our faith, Jesus is at this moment showing us the way not to go! He is showing us the cost of the gospel to ourselves- how much following him will challenge the very core of our received beliefs!
Part of him was paralysed by disdain and embarrassment; the disciples were clearly embarrassed, and ‘urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” In other words, "Give her what she wants, get rid of her!" He was also captive to the tradition that the Messiah is for Jews alone:
"...I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Clearly this was an area of disputation in the church to whom Matthew was writing. Some of his readers at this point would say, “That’s right!” the Gospel is not for Gentiles. They are not part of God’s chosen people.” Matthew says Jesus took gospel beyond Judaism, and beyond any human divisions, when the woman
... came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.
If we want a demonstration of “without sin” we have it here. Once confronted with his shortcomings Jesus immediately changes tack. He sees the implications of what he has been saying, and puts them into practice. Being without sin is not to faultlessly live out some doctrine of holiness, or rules of cleanliness. It is to practically respond to the implications of the gospel as they become clear to us.
This past week churches in our synod have received emails warning of two people pretending to be a retired minister and his wife, who have been visiting churches and abusing people. The wife was here this morning, at our church. I’ve never experienced such a constant- almost no pause for breath- stream of vituperative hatred from another person. And here I was, interrupted from working on this reflection!
If ever there was a daughter of God who need “healing of a demon” it was she. There was no reasoning with her, no possibility of discussion, certainly no point in arguing. Any word we ventured was twisted into another avenue of attack. We stood in silence, trying to let it slide off until the police came and removed her. From a few days in our city, they already know her as a “serial pest.”
According to the gospel, she is not the demon affected daughter of a Caananite woman, beyond the pale at all levels. Whatever ails her, she is a child of God, although one deeply in need of healing. I bluntly told our receptionist, who had felt she was essentially harmless, that I thought the energy which produces such a stream of hatred could be extremely dangerous. “Don’t ever turn your back on a person like that, or get too close. One stab of a knife will kill you.” “Mary Israel,” who calls herself “one of the nine prophetesses of the bible,” is my confrontation with the implications of Jesus’ teaching. I sit up here watching the uni students running for cover in the bitter rain, wondering where she is. I have not dismissed her with hatred. I feel sorry for her, wondering what pain could breed such deep anger, but I could offer her no help or healing.
Direct Biblical quotations in this page are taken from The New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
© Scots Church Adelaide Ph. 08 8223 1505 | <urn:uuid:96ae000a-623e-4e54-9983-2130271e4d4f> | {
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Texas has, by far, the highest penetration of wind among the three main US interconnections (Eastern, Western, and Texas), and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has met the challenges of wind integration. ERCOT is set to get even more wind power, which will present even greater challenges, because of the relationship between wind production and electricity demand.
Several of my students, most recently Dr. Duehee Lee, have investigated the statistics of wind production to understand this relationship. Recent joint work with Lee (reported at Wind Farms in Dallas in May, and more recently at the Austin IEEE Power and Energy Society chapter meeting and the Berlin Conference on Energy and Electricity Economics) analyzed the relationship between wind and load variation at various timescales. We want to understand how the variability of wind at various timescales will affect the operation of ERCOT, and what resources will therefore be necessary to compensate for this variation, whether it is agile generation or battery storage.
West Texas inland wind presents a particular problem, because it tends to be negatively correlated with load, while near-coastal wind is weakly correlated and therefore a better match to load. This means that increased amounts of inland wind will not offset the need for other generation capacity to cover the peaks in demand. Moreover, this generation capacity will also need to be increasingly flexible to accommodate wind production that occurs off-peak.
Furthermore, while aggregating large numbers of farms tends to smooth intra-hour fluctuations of wind, in contrast, the longer term fluctuations of wind, and particularly the negative correlation of inland wind and load will not be “solved” by aggregation of West Texas wind.
Coastal Texas wind has better correlation with load from this perspective, but it may be more difficult to build much more coastal wind due to environmental and other considerations. An open question is how much more wind can be accommodated in the ERCOT market before we need to build large-scale storage. | <urn:uuid:ec35a11a-ff0c-470d-9d02-7eafa710a885> | {
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Agriculture and Food Supplies: Year In Review 1994Article Free Pass
- INTERNATIONAL ISSUES
- AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES
- FOOD PROCESSING
(For World Production of Centrifugal Sugar, see Table VII.) Global sugar output in 1993-94 proved to be smaller than anticipated because of shortfalls in the Indian and Chinese crops. Recovery of Indian sugar output and scattered gains elsewhere led to expectations (in November) of increased world production in 1994-95, despite the effects of drought in Western Europe, flooding in China, and another dismal performance by the Cuban sugar industry. Global sugar consumption was expected to exceed output for the third year in a row. Sugar supplies around the world had been drawn down to their lowest levels in six years, and world prices for raw sugar by October 1994 had reached a four-year high of 14.4 cents per pound.
Sugar production in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe had declined during the difficult economic transition after the collapse of communism, and sugar consumption had fallen by some 20-25% in the past five years. Early in 1994 Russia and Cuba had agreed to an extension of their 1993-94 barter deal, under which Cuba would trade one million tons of sugar for 2.5 million tons of petroleum. By November Cuba had delivered half its quota but was reportedly behind schedule in deliveries. Cuba’s growing inability to supply China’s sugar needs was also making that country a major buyer on the open market. Having constituted about one-quarter of the world market in the 1970s, Cuba’s share of world sugar exports had declined to only about 9%. It seemed likely that the Caribbean nation would be replaced in 1994-95 by Australia as the second largest exporter.
(For World Green Coffee Production, see Table VIII.) Coffee prices shot upward in 1994, despite estimates (in December) of a modestly larger 1994-95 global coffee crop because of severe freezes in Brazil. Coffee prices began edging up early in 1994 on the basis of expectations that production would exceed consumption for the third year in a row, prefrost reductions in estimates of the 1994-95 Brazilian crop, and an announcement by members of the new World Association of Coffee Producing Nations that they would withhold coffee from the market under an export-retention scheme. The scheme replaced the expired International Coffee Agreement under the designation of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), to which both producing and consuming nations had belonged. The retention operation was barely under way when it was suspended after prices moved above 85 cents per pound.
Prices took off when a survey estimated that the freezes, followed uncharacteristically by drought, would cut the 1995-96 Brazilian crop short by 9 million to 13 million bags from its 29 million-bag potential. The quantity of output from the 1994-95 crop was not affected, although its quality may have been reduced. Prices of green coffee, which had averaged about 62 cents per pound in 1993 (1979 ICO composite indicator), shot as high as $2.75 on the futures market in September but fell as low as $1.45 in early December. Retail prices of roasted coffee, which in the U.S. averaged $2.47 per pound in 1993, reached a plateau of a little under $4.50 in August-November 1994. Just before Christmas, producers in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and El Salvador announced that they would withhold 20-22% of their exports beginning at the start of 1995, but traders speculated whether very much coffee was actually available to be withheld. It was forecast that U.S. imports of agricultural products in fiscal year 1995 would increase from $2 billion to $4 billion entirely because of higher coffee prices.
(For World Cocoa Bean Production, see Table IX.) The new five-year International Cocoa Agreement established by the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), concluded in September 1993, became operational provisionally in February 1994. The agreement attempted to influence international cocoa prices by the obligations of its individual members to control their own cocoa production. The old ICCO plan tried unsuccessfully to maintain cocoa prices within an agreed price band through operation of a buffer stock. The buffer stock continued to be liquidated gradually under a five-year schedule designed to recover some of the cost of the stock and to eliminate the potential price-depressing effects of its existence.
Stronger demand for cocoa generated by the economic upturn in the United States and Europe, together with the modest drawdown in cocoa stocks in recent years, helped strengthen prices. Futures prices (New York, nearest three-month average) for cocoa beans moved upward from a 20-year-low average of 46.7 cents per pound in 1993 to an average of 58.4 cents for 11 months of 1994. The higher prices were stimulating increased output in Africa in 1994-95. That, together with better weather in Brazil, was leading to expectations of a record-high global cocoa crop in 1994-95.
The U.S. involved itself in a dispute between banana-exporting countries and the EU when in September it accepted a petition under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act by the Chiquita Banana Co. and the Hawaii Banana Industry Association. It alleged unfair trade practices by the EU in establishing a new import regime in response to GATT. The EU previously had given preferential tariff treatment to imports of bananas from former European colonies in Africa and the Caribbean. Many Caribbean countries were heavily dependent on banana exports, and European preferences were important because the bananas they were importing were generally of lower quality and more expensive than Latin-American bananas. The new EU quota and licensing system continued to favour the importation of Caribbean over Latin-American bananas.
Two GATT panels--called at the behest of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, with U.S. support--ruled that the new system was not in conformity with GATT rules. Under a special "framework agreement," the EU proposed to increase its annual global tariff-rate import quota from 2 million to 2.2 million tons in 1995, to establish country subquotas based on historical level of exports to the EU, and to reduce the proposed tariffs on such within-quota imports.
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Aquarium Fish Constipation
Keep your aquarium fish free of constipation.
Neale Monks, Ph.D. |
Many fish are prone to constipation when fed a flake- or pellet-based diet, including goldfish, cichlids and surgeonfish. Left untreated, constipation can lead to a variety of serious problems, including swim bladder disease and loss of appetite.
Constipation in fish is typically revealed by bloating and the production of stringy feces. Normal fish feces will immediately fall to the substrate; constipated fish feces will appear stringy and hang from the fish. Fish with chronic constipation tend to be lethargic, disinterested in food and generally out of condition. In severe cases, constipation can make it difficult for a fish to swim normally.
Constipation can be confused with dropsy, but while fish with dropsy are bloated and lethargic, they also have raised scales that stick out from the body, resulting in a characteristic pineconelike effect when viewed from above.
Goldfish are prone to constipation when fed a flake- or pellet-based diet.
Hexamita infections are particular to perciform fish, such as cichlids and surgeonfish, species that often become constipated in captivity. Both constipation and Hexamita infections result in the production of large quantities of feces. Constipation doesn't affect how much feces a fish makes, but how easily it can get rid of them. However, because Hexamita infections stimulate the bowel to secrete excessive amounts of mucus, the resulting feces are distinctively pale in color and slimy in appearance.
Constipation is caused by a diet that lacks the necessary indigestible matter known as dietary fiber. Dietary fiber enables the digestive tract to function properly. If there isn’t enough fiber in a fish’s diet, feces are not easily pushed out, leading to loss of appetite, lethargy and buoyancy problems often described as swim bladder disease.
In the wild, herbivorous and omnivorous fish consume plants, algae and decomposing organic detritus containing large amounts of fiber. Predators consume some fiber indirectly through the gut contents of their prey. But indigestible parts of their prey (such as the chitin-rich skeletons of crustaceans) are another important source of dietary fiber.
Pellet and flake foods contain little (if any) fiber. Fish fed an exclusively flake- or pellet-based diet are prone to constipation. Freeze-dried foods are similar, and are best used as treats rather than staple foods.
Without exception, fish should be fed a varied diet containing a lot of green, fresh, live or frozen foods, depending on the species in question. In the case of herbivores and omnivores, green foods should make up the bulk of the diet. Carnivores should receive a diet containing whole prey animals so that they get not just the energy and protein they need, but also the indigestible skeletons and gut contents, as well.
Physical exercise is important, and constipation is commonly seen in fish such as bettas that are kept in quarters too small to allow them to swim about. Fancy goldfish and blood parrot cichlids are further crippled by having unnatural body shapes that make swimming difficult at the best of times, and when constipated the distorted arrangement of the swim bladder and digestive tract makes them particularly prone to swim bladder problems.
Tinned peas are the classic laxative for most fish.
Constipation is treated primarily by providing high-fiber foods that can act as a laxative. During the treatment phase, no other foods should be given (and certainly not pellets, flake or freeze-dried foods). Tinned peas are the classic laxative for most fish, either whole (in the case of species like goldfish) or squashed (for smaller species, such as bettas). Other good foods include plants (particularly Elodea and Egeria) and chitinous live foods (such as Daphnia and brine shrimp).
Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) is a mild muscle relaxant used when treating moderate to severe constipation. Depending on the severity of the case, a dosage of 1 to 3 teaspoons per 5 gallons is recommended.
Prevention: Fiber-Rich Foods
Preventing constipation in fish is easy and inexpensive. Herbivorous fish should simply be fed a lot of green foods instead of pellets or flakes. Algae contains some cellulose, but there is generally not enough to satisfy fish in the average aquarium. Goldfish, severums, silver dollars and mbuna are examples of fish that will happily graze on soft aquatic plants in lieu of other foods. Bunches of cheap aquatic plants, such as Elodea Canadensis and Egeria densa, are widely sold and inexpensive, and will do the trick nicely.
Because plants contain very little nitrogen, even when decaying they have minimal impact on water quality. Adding a couple of bunches of cheap aquatic plants to your tank before you go away on vacation is one of the safest and least expensive ways to ensure your fish have something to eat while you are away.
Other good green foods include tinned peas, blanched curly lettuce, spinach and thinly sliced cucumber. Suckermouth catfish (family Loricariidae) will also graze on various fruits and tubers, including zucchini, carrot and sweet potato. Some suckermouth catfish appear to consume wood as a natural part of their diet (some species as a source of energy) but mostly as a source of dietary fiber. Consequently, suckermouth catfish should be provided with a piece of bogwood to graze on.
Contrary to popular belief, there is rarely enough algae in home aquaria to support the needs of marine herbivores, such as surgeonfish and angelfish. These species should be provided with a suitable alternative. While blanched curly lettuce and spinach have been used in the past, dried algae sheets known as nori are now recommended. Because nori is made from marine algae, it is assumed to be a better food for freshwater fish than terrestrial plants. Nori is inexpensive and widely sold in Asian food stores as well as many grocery stores.
Neale Monks studied zoology at the University of Aberdeen in the north of Scotland and obtained his Ph.D. at the Natural History Museum in London. He's also been a marine biologist, a high school teacher, a university professor and a museum's exhibit designer. But his real love has always been tropical fish. His particular interest in brackish water fish culminated in his editing of the first encyclopaedic book on the topic, 'Brackish-Water Fishes', published by TFH in 2007. Neale regularly contributes to all the major English-language fishkeeping magazines, focusing especially on community tanks, biotopes, healthcare and water chemistry issues. After living in London and then for a while in Lincoln, Nebraska, Neale now lives in a quaint cottage in a pretty market town in Hertfordshire, England, where he divides his time between teaching and writing.
Give us your opinion on
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The effects of the California Proposition 14 is most evident in the state’s electoral processes. In order to understand the changes which are brought about by the Prop 14, a look at the current primary system is necessary. In the primary election, different ballots will be prepared for every political party. Voters who are part of a certain party will only be given the ballot which relates to where they belong. The others will also be given the ballot for their respective party. Those who are in partisan and nonpartisan offices will be given these ballots including propositions. On the other hand, those who are not affiliated to any party will be given ballots to offices and propositions that are nonpartisan in nature. Despite this, any political party can still choose to provide voters who are nonpartisan with ballots that come from their own group.
It is also essential for one to note that partisan elections will affects many statewide government positions including the governor and lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasure, controller, attorney general, insurance commissioner as well as more than a hundred members of the legislature and those who will be part of the State Board of Equalization. Members of the congress will also be affected including the two highest positions of the president and vice president as well as the congressional members. Elections for presidential positions including those that involve the leadership of certain political parties are not covered by the California Prop 14.
The California Proposition 14 is a move to amend the current constitution of the state which involves elections held to fill positions for the federal and state offices. All of these changes will start to be implemented with elections that will be held after the 1st day of January 2011.
With the passing of the 14th Proposition there will be certain fiscal effects that will take place. There will be a significant number of changes in how people running for government office will have to prepare their ballot and other campaign materials. This could state expenses to soar. This is for the obvious reason that all candidate names will have to be printed on every preliminary election ballot which basically means that each of these ballots will be very long.
There are also some instances wherein the California Proposition 14 will bring about a reduction in election expenses. This is due to the elimination of the need to prepare ballots for every political party who will be part of the preliminary election. For the final or general election, the number of those who will be running for office will be significantly decreased. Only two candidates will ultimately be part of the general election. This will result to a marked reduction in election costs. There will also be certain instances wherein the Prop 14 will result to candidates from opposing parties to get elected. This will cause a less partisan approach to many relevant issues of the government. There will also be a greater chance of having officials who do not just represent a single kind of political ideology. The Proposition 14 will also bring about favor for those who have businesses. | <urn:uuid:7bf6514c-ed4a-45d1-8e3a-05422e0530e4> | {
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In fifteen years of operation, the Chandra X-ray Observatory has given us a view of the Universe that is largely hidden from telescopes sensitive only to visible light.
Chandra has captured galaxy clusters - the largest gravitationally bound objects in the Universe – in the process of forming, and provided the best evidence yet that the cosmos is dominated by a mysterious substance called dark matter. Chandra has observed gas circling near a black hole's event horizon. The atoms of this gas are doomed to destruction by the extreme gravity of the black hole.
Most of the elements necessary for life are forged inside stars and blasted into interstellar space by supernovas. Chandra has tracked these elements with unprecedented accuracy. Young stars are crackling with X-ray flares and other energetic radiation. By monitoring clusters of young stars, Chandra can give us a sense of what our young Sun was like when life was evolving on Earth.
Chandra: Taking us on a unique voyage into the big, bad and beautiful Universe. | <urn:uuid:94d8cd62-78c7-4a1b-aa72-448ef1ded165> | {
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Direct Drive means the motor is directly coupled to the load with no mechanical gearing. Linear motors are the most common direct drive motors. Rotary motors can also be set up as a direct drive.
- Direct Drive eliminates backlash and can offer faster speed and responsiveness because of reduced friction and no gear reduction; however, inertial mismatch between the motor and the load can cause tuning problems
ADVANCED Motion Controls' Capabilities
- DigiFlex® Performance™ drives offer extensive tuning capabilities to ensure the highest performance with direct drive motors | <urn:uuid:c7083e03-124a-4deb-9ce0-58db78c97c46> | {
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The human gut, also referred to as the alimentary tract, is a long hollow organ that extends from the mouth to the anus. The longest part of the alimentary tract lies between the stomach and anus – it is known as the intestines or bowel. Broadly, the intestines are made up of the small intestine and large intestine which are responsible for digestion, absorption and waste expulsion from the body. The small intestine is about 6 meters long while the large intestine is about 1.5 meters in length. Of the two intestines, the small intestine is the narrower segment.
Some parts of the intestines are fixed to the abdominal wall, while others are free or suspended by supporting ligaments. The intestines are contained in the peritoneal cavity, a hollow space within the abdominal cavity that is lined by the peritoneum and in which peritoneal fluid lubricates the outer surfaces of various abdominal organs. This allows the different organs some degree of movement with sufficient lubrication to prevent abrasion. The intestines without further support would simply sink to the bottom of the peritoneal cavity with gravity.
However, certain parts of the intestines are suspended within the cavity by a double layer of peritoneum known as the mesentery. This allows for movement yet sufficient support. The intestines, however, given its length are able to move more freely and in the process prone to displacement or tangling. This can upset the functioning of the intestines but may also block its lumen or cut off the blood supply to its wall with life-threatening consequences.
What is a Volvulus?
Volvulus is the medical term for a complete twisting of the bowels around the mesentery attachment supporting it. It is a rare condition that can affect the stomach, small intestine or parts of the large intestine and is mainly seen in infants or children although certain types may occur in adults. Commonly it is referred to as a twisted bowel.
The two main aspects that contribute to the development of signs and symptoms as well as lead to possible complicates are obstruction and strangulation. With the twisting seen in a volvulus, the intestinal lumen may become obstructed to various degrees. Complete obstruction prevents food, chyme and waste from traveling further and causes it to back up in the gut. The twisting also strangulates the bowel wall so that blood vessels may become obstructed. This may reduce the blood flow through it and starve the intestinal tissue of oxygen. Eventually this will lead to ischemia, injury associated with reduced blood flow, or continue further to the point that the tissue of the intestinal wall dies and can even become gangrenous.
Types of Vovulus
There are several different types of volvulus. Some occur exclusively in infants or early childhood while other types may occur at any age. The different types include volvulus in newborns, and of the stomach (gastric), small intestine, cecum and sigmoid colon. The more common types of volvulus are discussed further.
Also known as volvulus neonatarum, this type of volvulus is seen in newborns. It is a consequence of malrotation during fetal development. The gut is initially a straight tube in the fetus and as its grows in length, it gradually rotates. This is only a partial rotation to house the very long intestines within the small spaces of the abdominal cavity. Sometimes this rotation may not occur (non-rotation) or may be abnormal (malrotation). With the latter, malrotation, there is a risk of a complete twisting that strangulates the bowels. This more often presents as a midgut volvulus where the midgut twists about the axis of the superior mesenteric artery (SMA).
The sigmoid colon is the last part of the large intestine which leads to the rectum. It is attached to the abdominal wall but with certain anatomic abnormalities, it may be free or be twisted around the base of narrow mesentery. In other cases, however, a volvulus of the sigmoid colon may arise with no anatomic abnormalities.
The cecum is the juncture between the last part of the small intestine, known as the ileum, and the first part of the colon of the large intestine, known as the ascending colon. As with the sigmoid colon, it is attached to the abdominal wall along with the ascending colon. Anatomic abnormalities where this part of the large intestine is free is likely to lead to a twisting (volvulus).
This is a twisting of the stomach which may affect the cardia (first part of the stomach attached to the esophagus) or the entire stomach. A significant number of cases arise with a hiatal hernia, a condition where part of the stomach protrudes up into the chest cavity through the diaphragmatic opening.
Causes of a Volvulus
A volvulus is more likely to occur with an anatomic abnormality even in the absence of any other disease. The different parts of the intestine, if not suspended or secured in the usual manner, can easily become entangled. However, a volvulus may arise with certain diseases despite the absence of any anatomic abnormality. The causative disease may depend on the part of the intestine that is involved.
- Hirschsprung disease
- Intestinal pseudo-obstruction
- Diaphragmatic hernia
- Meckel diverticulum
- Atresia or stenosis
- Cystic fibrosis
- Meconium ileus
Signs and Symptoms of a Volvulus
The clinical features largely depends on two factors – the extent of the obstruction of the gut lumen and/or the degree of reduced blood flow to the intestinal wall leading to ischemia.
- Vomiting – non-bilious and bilious vomiting (bile vomiting)
- Recurrent abdominal pain
- Lack of appetite
- Bloody stools (hematochezia)
As ischemia develops, abdominal distension and peritonitis will become evident. Once there is death of tissue in the intestinal wall, signs of septic shock will arise.
Diagnosis and Treatment
A volvulus is rare and its initial presentation is non-specific. Many other gastrointestinal disorders that are more common present in a similar manner. Radiological studies, particularly with the use of contrast dyes like in a barium meal, will help to identify the twisting of the bowels. Initial investigation may commence with an ultrasound study but should be followed by a CT scan as soon as possible.
Treatment is dependent on whether the condition is symptomatic or not. In asymptomatic cases, the treatment can be delayed if the patient so wishes but the patient should be monitored constantly. The presence of any intestinal obstruction warrants immediate surgery. The surgical approach known as Ladd’s procedure can be done with open surgery or as a laparoscopic procedure.
Article reviewed by Dr. Greg. Last updated on December 3, 2011 | <urn:uuid:68685f72-f628-4ac5-8582-1e5f83a460ff> | {
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Back in March 2008, I wrote about the issue of pharmaceutical drugs in your drinking water. It wasn’t really a surprise to anyone who was actually keeping abreast of the issue as these drugs had first been detected as early as the 1970’s. But 2008 was the first time a major news source had decided to report on the story — thus bringing it the forefront of debate. Government regulators and mainstream scientists, however, were able to push the story off the radar by claiming, “Yes, there are pharmaceutical drugs in the water, but at levels so low that they present no threat to the public at large.” And unfortunately, although we had strong reason to believe the government argument wasn’t true, we had little data to support the contention. Well, now it’s been four years since that story first broke — and disappeared — and it’s time to take another look, because now we have new data to look at.
History of pharmaceutical drugs in drinking water
As we’ve discussed previously, there are somewhere around 3,000 pharmaceutical drugs in common use. These include:
- Cold medications
- Cholesterol drugs
- Birth control pills
- Heart medications
- And highly, highly toxic chemotherapy drugs
Residues of these drugs pass out into the sewage system from your urine, fecal matter, and even from your sink after you rinse out your dispensing cup. And of course, this list doesn’t include non-pharmaceuticals such as all of the lotions and potions and cosmetics that wash off when you bathe or shower — or an entire world of over-the-counter drugs or whatever. Quite simply it is impossible for sewage facilities to remove all trace of the drugs from the water they treat. In some districts the treated water, still containing traces of the pharmaceuticals, goes back immediately into the public water supply and into your home. In other communities it is dumped into rivers as “clean” water for the drugs to be picked up downstream by the next community’s municipal water supply. Or in some cases, the drug laden water makes its way down into aquifers to be pumped up later as somebody’s well water.
Then again, that’s the best case scenario. In many communities, sewage pipes leak or septic tanks overflow, which releases untreated water directly into the environment, with these drugs at their highest concentration so they can make their way into local water tables. Then of course, the residue of many of these drugs, in the form of used bottles and vials, make their way “full strength” into landfills — only to then leach down into underground water resources or “run off” into lakes and rivers. And in some parts of the world, the U.S. included, untreated water is sometimes dumped directly into rivers and streams. Inevitably, then, these drugs make their way back to us in our drinking water.
As I mentioned earlier, it was in the 1970’s that pharmaceutical drug residues were first detected in our waterways. But the common thinking of bureaucratic legislators was that the amounts were so low that they couldn’t possibly have any impact on overall health; and besides, in an age when dead fish were a common sight floating in rivers, when other rivers burned,1 and people wrote popular songs about “dirty water,”2 why would anyone worry about pharmaceutical drugs present in amounts measured in the billionths of a gram per quart/liter of water?
Unfortunately, despite government denials of any danger, there were canaries in the coal mine — animal warnings that indicated something might be very wrong. For example, there was the U.S. Geological Survey in 2006 that found that large numbers of small mouth bass in the Potomac River were found to be abnormally inter-sexed. That is, the same fish displayed both male and female sexual characteristics.3 Not nice. Or the 2007 study out of Canada that found that male fish were being feminized by the traces of birth control pills that made their way into lakes and streams.4 And then, of course, for those who think that animal studies don’t necessarily relate to humans, there was the apparent doubling in the frequency of undescended testis in England and Wales in 1962-81.5 Or the studies that have found that the age of puberty in young girls keeps dropping year by year.6 At one time, it averaged 15-16. It’s now running at 7-8 — and with more and more girls showing signs of puberty as early as age three!!7
Look, there are many toxins in water including pesticides, heavy metals, and industrial waste; but pharmaceutical drugs are particularly worrisome because of their affinity for human beings. In point of fact, they are designed with that in mind — to specifically react with human tissue. That’s why even trace amounts of pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies are such a threat.
Don’t look to governments for help in the near term
Although governments are aware of the problem (Europe first identified clofibric acid, a cholesterol-lowering drug, in groundwater in the early 1990’s), no effective regulations exist for removing the threat. And even those regulations that exist, as weak as they are, are rarely enforced. To make matters worse, the current economic environment makes any strong enforcement unlikely for the foreseeable future. Ozonation, reverse osmosis, distillation, and charcoal filters can all remove at least 80% of pharmaceutical contaminants if used at the local level in your house, but are only about 50% effective with the large volumes of water seen at municipal water plants,8 and they are expensive. And even if it were feasible, it is now politically impossible. The EPA, which is responsible for policing environmental rules, has been singled out for Republican criticism during the primaries. Of the candidates still standing, Mitt Romney has said the EPA is “out of control.” Newt Gingrich has called for it to be overhauled and made more business friendly. Rick Santorum has derided the EPA’s efforts to control mercury pollution from coal plants — the source of most mercury in your drinking water, and ultimately in your seafood. And Ron Paul has called for the EPA’s outright elimination. As for President Obama and the environment, his record is decidedly mixed — pushing for higher fuel standards on cars, but continually caving to pressure from the business community when it comes to air and water pollution.
Keep in mind that worldwide some $800 billion in drugs are sold each year. That’s a heck of a lot of residual drug waste running down our drains and toilets and into our environment. But even worse, that’s a heck of a lot of financial profit for the pharmaceutical companies that can be used to influence world leaders to not “overact” when it comes to regulating their interests. And it’s not just the pharmaceutical companies. All industry fights expensive pollution controls. Elected officials simply cannot overcome these forces. But it’s not just elected officials; after all, we see the same, or higher, levels of environmental pollution in China.
Some day public outrage will be strong enough to assert itself over political inertia, but that day is not today. Which brings us to the latest study, which at least moves us closer to that day.
Research published in BMJ Open last November strongly suggests that there may be a link between synthetic estrogen from oral contraceptives (OC) that has found its way into the environment and the rising rate of prostate cancer among men around the world.9 It should be noted that the study did not “prove” a cause and effect relationship. It merely demonstrated an extremely strong statistical relationship.
The researchers analyzed multiple forms of contraception including intrauterine devices, condoms, vaginal barriers, and the pill as they were used in 87 different countries. They then compared the usage of those contraceptives against the incidence and mortality rates from prostate cancer. As the lead author, David Margel, a urologist and fellow in uro-oncology said, “Looking at these percentages, we find a strong correlation between female use of oral contraceptives at a population level and both new cases of prostate cancer and mortality from prostate cancer. This was not found among other contraceptive modes.”
As a further clarification, he stated, “What we found was that in countries where the oral contraceptive was used more often, prostate cancer had a greater incidence.” While the amount of estrogen excreted by any single individual is extremely small, “when millions of women are doing it and for a long period of time, it may cause low environmental estrogen levels,” Dr. Margel explained.
Now, keeping in mind that this is a preliminary study, the results are still disturbing. Yes, as noted above, the results do not “prove” causality — that oral contraceptives in the water supply actually “cause” prostate cancer — but they do raise a very bright red flag. And they are far more damning than some of the comments on the study website (reference 8, as cited above) would have us believe. Those comments disputed the study’s results, instead attempting to assign blame to things such as pesticides in the water or the “fact” that women on the pill had more sexual relations than other women. But in fact, the study results marginalize both those possibilities.
If economics can be called the “dismal science” for its sometimes negative predictions, then statistical analysis might be called the “dark science” for its arcane methodology that can often be understood only by its initiates. But even a cursory examination of this study’s methodology from a lay perspective provides enough information to comprehend why this study’s results are so disturbing and why the counter arguments don’t hold up.
Study methodology and results
The primary source of the study’s data was the United Nations World Contraceptive Use 2007 report,10 from which the researchers extracted the percentage of women of reproductive age from 87 different countries using OCs, intrauterine devices, condoms, or vaginal barriers. The rationale for examining alternate uses of birth control was to examine specificity for OCs, as it is plausible that this measure is a marker of sexual activity (the specific issue raised in one of the comments), which itself has demonstrated some inconsistent association with prostate cancer.11 In addition to global incidence and mortality, the researchers also examined continent specific and Europe specific outcomes so as to test the association among a more homogenous group with narrower ranges of both OC use and prostate cancer incidence/mortality. They also made use of the CIA World Factbook to retrieve information on gross domestic product per capita in each country to control for prostate cancer screening tendencies, since countries with a higher GDP are more prone to screen for prostate cancer.
In the end, the researchers found that OC use was significantly correlated with prostate cancer incidence and mortality in the individual nations worldwide…and by continent. All other forms of contraceptives (i.e., intrauterine devices, condoms or vaginal barriers) were not correlated with prostate cancer incidence.
As I stated earlier, this methodology pretty much rules out increased sexual activity as the culprit. And the following Venn diagram clearly illustrates why pesticides are not likely responsible.
As you can see, in any given country, OC use and condom use exist within the world of pesticides in the environment. It doesn’t matter whether women use oral contraceptives or condoms, men are exposed to the same levels of pesticides. Thus, if pesticides were the cause of the increased rates of prostate cancer, then the levels of OC use and condom use would have no impact on the results. As it turns out, that is true for condoms, but not for oral contraceptives. The higher the use of oral contraceptives by women in a particular environment, the higher is the incidence and mortality of prostate cancer for men living in the same environment. In other words, OCs are the variable in the equation, not pesticides — and not sexual activity. Note: I made the circle for condoms bigger than the circle for oral contraceptives since condom use is the preferred contraception of choice throughout most of the world. And if increased sexual activity was responsible, we would expect to see increases in prostate cancer with the increased use of any form of contraception, but that doesn’t appear to be happening. The only statistical correlation could be found with OC use.
Again, the study doesn’t prove causality, only a statistical connection. As the researchers said, “We think further research is needed to explore both oral contraceptives, but also other estrogenic compounds that may contaminate our environment and may cause and increase the incidence and mortality from prostate cancer.”
The bottom line is that the study certainly raises concerns and warrants further investigation.
Deliberately adding pharmaceutical drugs to water
And now there’s a potentially new wrinkle in the fabric of health when it comes to pharmaceutical drugs in our drinking water. Some doctors have been suggesting that it might be a good idea to add statin drugs to the public water supply to improve general health. For example, one of Northern Ireland’s top heart experts, Professor Mahendra Varma, called for them to be put in Northern Ireland’s water supply.12 As a consulting cardiologist, he has long believed “everyone” should be taking a statin as a preventative measure to keep cholesterol levels down — something he says would lower the devastating rates of heart disease and stroke, two of Northern Ireland’s biggest killers.
Now, I realize that the call to add statin drugs to the water supply is made half in jest — to make a point. But keep in mind; if something is “half” in jest, then the other half is not. There’s an element of seriousness to it. And remember, Dr. Varma didn’t just say it once. He has repeatedly stated that he believes “everyone” should be taking a statin drug as a preventative measure despite the fact that studies have shown that doing so does not add one single day to your life. And in an example of life imitating insanity, in 2010, the FDA authorized AstraZeneca to sell its product Crestor to a potential new market of 6.5 million people, none of whom actually have cholesterol or heart problems. (You read that correctly — no problems, no symptoms!) That’s because the company got the FDA to agree that Crestor, a statin drug, could be sold as a preventative measure. The trigger for the approval was the “highly touted” international Jupiter Cohort Study, which happened to be paid for by AstraZeneca.
That said, there is a great deal of false information and fear mongering circulating in the alternative health community about this issue. For example, often cited as recommending putting statins in the water supply is a November 2008 panel discussion sponsored by the American Heart Association and featuring Robert Bonow, M.D., of Northwestern University in Chicago, Gordon F. Tomaselli, M.D., of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and Anthony De Maria, M.D., of the University of California at San Diego. But in fact, if you listen to the actual discussion, no such recommendation is made.13
Also frequently cited is the Op-Ed response by George Lundberg, MD, the editor of MedPage Today, to the question, “Should We Put Statins in the Water Supply?” But again, if you actually listen to his response, or read the transcript, you will see that Dr. Lundberg completely avoids answering the question and instead, addresses himself to the value of the six drug “polypill” for use in controlling cholesterol.14 And when other publications, such as Therapeutics Initiative have asked the same question, they too have avoided directly answering the question but have indirectly shot the idea down — in fact, questioning the very value of some of the statin supportive studies.15
So all in all, the fact that doctors have raised the question of whether or not statins should be added to the water supply means very little. Any action on the issue is far from imminent and far less frightening, than some of the fear mongers would have you believe. In fact, once you take a closer look, you find that almost all of these articles are actually the same original misinformation published and republished over and over.16,17 Nevertheless, based on past history, how much of a stretch is it to believe that government regulators might “someday” seriously consider authorizing the addition of statin drugs to the water supply — especially when you consider that they’ve already given approval to add another highly toxic substance to the water supply for dubious health benefits? And yes, I’m talking about fluoride for the prevention of dental caries. As with statin drugs, the claims for any health benefits for fluoride turn out to be rather dubious at best, while at the same time, its harmful side effects are well documented. All it takes is a politician in power who believes he can score points with the electorate, along with a small financial incentive from a pharmaceutical lobbyist, to decide the time is right to mandate adding statin drugs to the water supply. Sometimes, as in Texas with Rick Perry mandating Gardasil, the public uproar overturns the decision.18 But other times, as with fluoridation, it does not.
The presence of pharmaceutical drugs in the water is a very real issue. We don’t have to deal in hypothetical fear mongering, at least for the present, about concerns that governments may be deliberately adding statin drugs or antidepressants to our water. There is a clear and present danger that we already face with all of these drugs, and a whole host of others, already present in our water supply as a result of them accidentally making their way into our drinking water. And we don’t have to wait for clear, irrefutable evidence that these drugs may be harmful even in trace amounts. Such evidence is likely to be 10 to 20 years down the road. We already have enough red flags, canaries in the coal mine, to take all necessary precautions immediately. How many intersex fish do you need to see? How many studies statistically connecting prostate cancer to oral contraceptives in the water are required for you to act — especially when action is so simple?
- Clean up your water at the tap and in the bath
- Detox regularly
- And consider using a low-dose, all-natural men’s or women’s progesterone crème.
- 1. Chapel Hill Fiddler. “The Cuyahoga River Fire of 1969.” 16 March 2005. Pratie Place. (Accessed 22 Jan 2012.) <http://pratie.blogspot.com/2005/03/cuyahoga-river-fire-of-1969.html>
- 2. The Standells. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqKHqWaTv9g>
- 3. “Summary of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Information Related to the Intersex Characteristics of Fish in the Potomac Watershed.” USGS. 4 Oct 2006. <http://chesapeake.usgs.gov/feature/fishhealthWWWfeature.pdf>
- 4. John Roach. “Sex-Changing Chemicals Can Wipe Out Fish, Study Shows.” National Geographic News. May 21, 2007. (Accessed 22 Jan 2007.) <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/05/070521-sex-fish.html>
- 5. Clair Chilvers , D. Forman , M.C. Pike , K. Fogelman , M.E.J. Wadsworth. “Apparent Doubling of Frequency of Undescended Testis in England and Wales in 1962-81.” I, Volume 324, Issue 8398, Pages 330 – 332, 11 August 1984 <http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(84)92697-7/abstract>
- 6. Frank M. Biro, Maida P. Galvez, Louise C. Greenspan, Paul A. Succop, et al. “Pubertal Assessment Method and Baseline Characteristics in a Mixed Longitudinal Study of Girls.” Pediatrics Vol. 126 No. 3 September 1, 2010 pp. e583 -e590. <http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/126/3/e583.full>
- 7. Grete Teilmann, Carsten B. Pedersen, Tina Kold Jensen, et al. “Prevalence and Incidence of Precocious Pubertal Development in Denmark: An Epidemiologic Study Based on National Registries.” PEDIATRICS Vol. 116 No. 6 December 1, 2005 pp. 1323 -1328. <http://www.pediatricsdigest.mobi/content/116/6/1323.full>
- 8. Mompelat S, Thomas O, Le Bot B. “Contamination levels of human pharmaceutical compounds in French surface and drinking water.” J Environ Monit. 2011 Oct 4;13(10):2929-39. Epub 2011 Sep 12. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21912785>
- 9. David Margel, Neil E Fleshner. “Oral contraceptive use is associated with prostate cancer: an ecological study.” BMJ Open 2011;1:e000311. <http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/1/2/e000311.full>
- 10. “United Nations World Contraceptive Use, 2007.” <http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/contraceptive2007/WallChart_WCU2007_Data>
- 11. Schlaberg R, Choe DJ, Brown KR, et al. “XMRV is present in malignant prostatic epithelium and is associated with prostate cancer, especially high-grade tumors.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2009;106:16351–6. <http://www.pnas.org/content/106/38/16351.full>
- 12. JOHN NAISH. “Why taking statins might be pointless – and even bad for you.” 22 December 2010. Mail Online. (Accessed 25 Jan 2012.) <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1340299/Why-taking-statins-pointless–bad-you.html>
- 13. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGgCm46Tn0g>
- 14. George Lundberg. “Should We Put Statins in the Water Supply?” 10 Jan 2011. Medpage Today. (Accessed 25 Jan 2012.) <http://www.medpagetoday.com/Columns/At-Large/24259>
- 15. “Do statins have a role in primary prevention? An update.” Therapeutics Letter Issue 77 / Mar – Apr 2010. <http://www.ti.ubc.ca/letter77>
- 16. Paul Joseph Watson. “Health Authorities Want Depression-Causing Drugs Added To Water Supply.” 10 Jan 2011. Alex Jones’ Infowars. <http://www.infowars.com/health-authorities-want-depression-causing-drugs-added-to-water-supply/>
- 17. Annie. “Health Authorities Want Depression-Causing Drugs Added To Water Supply.” February 15, 2011. Health Freedom Alliance. (Accessed 25 Jan 2012.) <http://healthfreedoms.org/2011/02/15/health-authorities-want-depression-causing-drugs-added-to-water-supply-2/>
- 18. Steven Ertelt. “Rick Perry Admits Mistake on Gardasil-HPV Vaccine Decision.” 15 Aug 2011. LifeNews.com (Accessed 25 Jan 2012.) <http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/15/rick-perry-admits-mistake-on-gardasil-hpv-vaccine-decision/>
- Date: 01/30/2012 Written by: Jon Barron | <urn:uuid:21b52f3d-17c3-4eb7-b6a9-84533e64e4db> | {
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DÁNIEL MARGÓCSY, Instructor
How did Europeans make sense of the expanding globe in the Age of Discoveries? This seminar explores the impact of the printing revolution on Europeans’ perceptions of America, Africa, and Asia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We will examine how, in the absence of first-hand evidence, Europeans attempted to make sense of the contradictory accounts of travelers. And we will look at early maps, broadsheets, paintings, and printed texts to see how a highly stereotypical image of exotic worlds developed in Europe in this period. Readings will range from Montaigne through Purchas his Pilgrimage to secondary literature in cultural history and art history.
Dániel Margócsy is Assistant Professor of History at Hunter College, CUNY. He has published articles on cabinets of curiosities, the commercialization of science, the development of taxonomy, and the art of the Dutch Golden Age. He co-edited States of Secrecy, a special issue of the British Journal for the History of Science, on scientific secrets. At the Cullman Center, he is working on a book that examines how the creative arts influenced the development of modern science. | <urn:uuid:9597ec7d-ec86-4d2d-9e29-17c87f62a0db> | {
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7 Best Food Choices for MS
Jacqueline Ho | Jan 17, 2014 Nov 14, 2016
While there is no “MS diet" that has been proven to be an effective treatment, certain foods, such as the following, can have a positive impact on some MS symptoms. According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), a well-balanced, carefully-planned diet is important in helping people with MS maintain good health.
Some studies have shown that omega-3 fatty acid can slow the progression of MS and reduce frequency of relapses in people with MS. Sources of omega-3 fatty acids include salmon, mackerel, herring and sardines. People should consult their doctor before taking omega-3 supplements, especially if they are currently taking any medications.
Walnuts are a good source of polyunsaturated fat (“good fat”), which can help lower cholesterol and heart disease risk, especially when it replaces saturated fat (“bad fat”). Some studies have shown polyunsaturated fat to help decrease the severity and duration of MS relapses.
Sometimes people with MS encounter challenges with bowel function. To help manage this symptom, it is recommended that 25 to 30 grams of fiber be consumed daily. Whole grains are a good source of fiber, and quinoa, in particular, contains almost twice as much fiber as most other grains. Quinoa also contains iron, which may help to increase brain function.
Many people with MS have low levels of the mineral magnesium, which can lead to numbness or tingling sensations, among other symptoms. Pumpkin seeds are a good source of magnesium, containing about 150 milligrams per serving. Other sources of magnesium include spinach, artichokes and dark chocolate.
Eggs contain the vitamin B12, which plays an important role in synthesizing red blood cells, maintaining the nervous system and modulating myelin. B12 is naturally found in animal products, including eggs, clams and beef. Vitamin B12 can also be found in some fortified cereals.
Many studies have suggested that vitamin D can influence MS disease activity. Some research also has shown vitamin D deficiency to be a possible risk factor for developing MS. Vitamin D also plays a role in bone health, blood sugar control and immunity. Good sources of vitamin D include milk, tuna and shiitake mushrooms.
Some research has shown that damage to cells by free radicals, or oxidants, may be a factor in the damage to myelin and nerve fibers in MS. Antioxidants are important because they protect cells from such damage. Excellent sources of antioxidants include blueberries, kale and tomatoes. | <urn:uuid:e826622e-62b3-4380-b746-d44e5d44d088> | {
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Rocky Mountain Bio Lab: Wildflowers
This video explores the work of environmentalist John Hart, a Professor of Environmental Science at U.C. Berkley. In the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Dr. Hart has established an experimental laboratory in which he has artificially created and maintained a 3-degree increase in surface temperature of a plot of land, and documented the impact on plant species occupying the plot.
Notes From Our Reviewers
The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials | <urn:uuid:344371fe-ae71-4ad0-8ddc-eb755e97332c> | {
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This man-made canal was, and remains, one of the most difficult (and impressive) engineering feats of our time. Linking the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, it was built as a travel port and has had an enormous impact on shipping between the east and west. Each year over 14,000 vessels pass through its concrete tunneled walls.
And you'll see personalized content just for you whenever you click the My Feed .
SheKnows is making some changes! | <urn:uuid:82d3df8b-f83f-4117-b9fa-d208a2681950> | {
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How-to Execute Scientific Research
Essay is primarily descriptive in character. Language essay writing is not any different. Writing this sort of essay is not a easy job. Creating a descriptive composition may be abundant and satisfying expertise, but it could also feel relatively complex. The perfect thought that you have to focus upon initially, is the intention of writing this composition. Because you are able to notice, there’s absolutely no limit to how many matters you might choose for a detailed composition. Besides the school advice, they should place their minds to compose the tremendously significant article to obtain accessibility to college. Your satirical composition will make extra brownie points with a suitable name. The decision is the stage where the author restates the primary idea of the given descriptive article.
Try olive oil, butter, grape, and mayonnaise.
Browsing through the internet for additional essayontime.com notions might also be beneficial in creating down the illustrative composition. As you begin on your own descriptive composition, it is essential for you to recognize just what you should describe. After eventually picking an interest to speak about, write down all of the cursors which should be contained within the descriptive article. The essay is absolutely well arranged. This type of article must also be well organized. The advent of an article is really where the author brings within the essential idea helping the essay. It should contain the basic idea of the entire illustrative article. | <urn:uuid:3392e57f-9212-4c4d-945a-78e8e14289ac> | {
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Distracted driving, as a contributing cause of serious accidents, is not new but the causes of distraction have increased as our society adopts new and more pervasive technology.
Distracted Driving Back in the Day
In a Manitoba case fifty years ago, a 15-year-old boy stole a car and picked up his 14-year-old school friend for a joy ride. The 15-year-old had only driven a car once before, which his school friend had stolen from his father, and only for a few minutes, and so was a completely inexperienced driver. As they drove at 70 m.p.h. on a curve in the highway just past the local penitentiary, his friend exclaimed at the sight of car lights approaching from behind that the police were in pursuit. The young driver craned his neck around to look at the following car and lost control of the vehicle, careening off the highway and ending up in a ditch. His school friend suffered severe injuries, including brain damage, and sued the driver for damages. The trial judge found the 15-year-old at fault for causing the accident due to his inexperience and excessive speed, which was only set aside by the appeal court because the school friend had willingly participated in the crime of stealing the car.
The New Breed of Distracted Driving
In a recent Alabama case this past April, a teenage girl had traveled to the state to party with her girlfriends. She told the judge she was not drinking alcohol the day of the accident as she was the designated driver. As they drove home that night, one of the girls was passed out drunk in the back seat. The others were listening to music being played on the driver’s cell phone. The front seat passenger asked the driver for her cell phone password so that she could unlock the phone and change the music. The driver turned her head to tell her passenger the password, and when she turned her head back she saw the plaintiff’s car directly ahead – it was too late to avoid a collision. She slammed into the car driven by the plaintiff, injuring her. Both cars were a write-off. The young driver was held liable for the plaintiff’s injuries.
The Ubiquity of Cell Phones
In this 50 year span not much has changed – car accidents are still being caused by distracted drivers – but what has changed is an increase in the number of distracted driving cases that appear to correspond to the near universal adoption of cell phone use.
The Real Cost of Distracted Driving
As experienced personal injury lawyers, we see more and more of these cases. The real cost of distracted driving, assuming you survive the accident, has become clear:
- If you are injured in a car accident that has been caused by your distraction, and you try to sue the other driver for damages, in the worst case scenario your case will be thrown out of court.
- If you are injured in a car accident that has been caused by your distraction and the fault of the other driver, the best case scenario will still result in your damage award being decreased by the percentage you are found to be at fault for the accident and this may be a significant percentage.
- If you are the defendant driver and the person at fault in causing a car accident that has injured another person, and you caused the accident as a result of your distraction, in the worst case scenario you will be found fully responsible for the plaintiff’s damages, and in the best case scenario a percentage of the damages caused will be assessed against you.
For example, in this recent British Columbia case, a woman was injured when she struck another vehicle in an intersection while driving near the end of her work day. She sued the other driver for damages. The defence argued that she had caused the accident by being distracted while driving by talking on her cell phone. She told the judge that she had not been on her cell phone at the time of the accident, but had merely used her cell phone moments before the accident, before driving, to call her daughter to say she was on her way home. The records of her cell phone usage told a different story, however, and the judge found that she had been driving distracted at the time of the accident. He threw her case out of court.
In this British Columbia case the young male defendant driver was found 90% liable for the damages of the injured plaintiff as he had caused the accident by looking down at his ringing cell phone and slamming into the plaintiff’s car.
The bottom line is -stay sharp! Don’t be seduced by modern electronics into endangering yourself or others. Turn your cell phone off and put it away while driving.
Have You Been Injured By a Distracted Driver?
If distracted driving has played a role in injuries you have suffered, please CONTACT US for a free consultation. The friendly, approachable and knowledgeable lawyers at CAM LLP can review your situation and help you assess your options. | <urn:uuid:1dbcdc80-d4bf-4433-a530-fa8aec942f09> | {
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|| Life Sciences
| GENETIC INHERITANCE allows
visitors to compare their physical features with those of the general
population of the world. It asks users to select features that match
their own characteristics, such as skin shade, eye color, ear shape,
etc. It then computes how often a person with all the same characteristics
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|Spend the time||outdoors|
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This project is no longer active
Plant a lilac or a dogwood and contribute to a phenology monitoring project over 50 years in existence! Participants plant a lilac or dogwood clone and record observations of recurring life cycle stages such as leafing and flowering via the USA-NPN webpage. Observations of cloned plants made over large geographical regions are valuable in predicting crop yields and bloom dates of other species, controlling insect and disease infestations, and assisting with monitoring the impact of global climate change.
The cloned lilac available through the USA-NPN is Syringa x chinensis, 'Red Rothomagensis'. The cloned dogwood soon available is Cornus florida, ‘Appalachian Spring’. Generally, lilacs grow throughout the northern and central US, while dogwoods are better grown by observers in the southeast and gulf states. Review the purchase options on our website, and once you have received your cloned plant, check the information on selecting a site for planting and how to take care of your cloned plant. Cloned plant phenology is observed and recorded using the monitoring instructions found on the How to Observe page and using the details on the plant profile page. | <urn:uuid:344981ca-ac2a-4357-a8f5-2234b87b681b> | {
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Nothing In, Nothing Out -or- No Input, No Output
Historical perspective: The "LIFO" term originated in the accounting profession and refers to how on-hand inventory is valued when it is issued. For example, do you use the EARLIEST received material price (FIFO system - - First In, First Out) or the LATEST received material price (LIFO system - - Last In, First Out) to cost the transaction and remaining inventory. The "FISH" (First In, Still Here) was a humorous, sarcastic combination of the LIFO & FIFO, commenting on the excessive and/or "dead inventory" that a company might be carrying. Programmers and other may have appropriated the LIFO & FIFO & FISH terms for similar conditions (and evolved other derivations, like the GIGO & NINO), but the original usage came from the accounting world.
For the largest list of Internet acronyms and text message jargon, click on "more info" below!
NetLingo Classification: Acronyms and Text Message | <urn:uuid:4ca69a23-3bfe-4ef9-9068-0d1da03cc077> | {
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Rewind back to the mid-1700s as you make your way to Clinton, South Carolina, and the Upstate’s Revolutionary War battlefield at Musgrove Mill State Historic Site. Walk through the battlefield’s living history programs and stop by the visitors center to learn about the Battle of Musgrove’s Mill, where a group of outnumbered patriots defeated their loyalist enemies. You could easily spend an entire afternoon learning about the grounds’ history and walking along the site’s many trails (where you may even discover a waterfall).
As a contrast to a site of battle, discover Hampton Plantation State Historic Site, one of the sites that acted as a refuge for women and children during the Revolutionary War. Francis Marion, also known as the Swamp Fox, also hid from the British in the estate’s surrounding rice fields. Visit the Colonial-era plantation to discover other bits of South Carolina history and its role in the war.
For a more outdoorsy experience of the war, venture through Landsford Canal State Park, where units of both the Colonial and loyalist troops crossed from battle to battle. You can enjoy a paddle on the water and explore the wildlife of the canal, knowing that the heroes who built America crossed it more than a hundred years ago.
You can find history all over the Palmetto State. Whether you want to troop around a battlefield, explore historic plantation homes or kayak through a scenic river, there is a bit of history everywhere you look. Enjoy a unique adventure through centuries-old historic battlefields of America to reflect on the past and be refreshed by the experience. | <urn:uuid:ebc7b974-67bd-4b1e-a565-afd6da413ebe> | {
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View a Photo
Pile of Algae
View a Photo
"Most people don’t understand what’s going on underneath the bay, that there’s a problem here. The good news is that we know how to fix it, and we really just have to work together to do that."
The Conservancy’s Hawai'i Director of Marine Conservation
For years, Kāneʻohe Bay has been under assault from aggressive invasive algae that smother and kill coral reefs. To halt the spread and keep the algae from escaping outside the bay, The Nature Conservancy built and launched a second Super Sucker underwater vacuum last fall. The results in the first year were impressive.
“Working in tandem with the State Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR), we have removed almost 250,000 pounds of invasive algae from more than 20 acres of reef in just one year,” says Suzanne Case, the Conservancy’s Hawaiʻi executive director. “And all of the algae have been given to local farmers to use as fertilizer and compost.” (To watch on video on the Kāneʻohe Bay "Reef Revival" project, click here.)
To keep the algae from growing back, DAR raised 200,000 native sea urchins at its Anuenue Fisheries Research Center, and released them onto the bay’s reefs, where they eat the small pieces of algae left behind by the Super Suckers. “On reefs where we have placed the urchins, algae re-growth after a year is about five percent,” says Dr. Eric Conklin, the Conservancy’s Hawai‘i marine science director. “On reefs without urchins, algae can re-grow within six months.”
More Urchins Needed
The issue now is that the Super Sucker operations are getting ahead of the urchin production.
“We definitely need more urchins,” says Dr. Conklin. “The native collector urchin, Tripneustes gratilla, is found naturally in the bay, and prefers eating invasive algae over native species. But there are currently far fewer urchins in the bay than there should be naturally.” The State hopes to produce and release more than 200,000 urchins in 2014.
Another key to restoring the bay’s health involves identifying and understanding the factors that have changed it from a productive ecosystem into one choked by sediment, nutrients and alien species.
Restoring an Ahupua'a
The sea urchins and Super Suckers are part of a larger effort to restore cultural and ecological health to the Heʻeia ahupuaʻa (traditional land division running from the mountains to the sea). Kanekoa Kukea-Shultz, the Conservancy’s Kāneʻohe Bay marine coordinator, is working with our community partners at Paepae o Heʻeia, Kakoʻo ʻOiwi, Papahana Kuaola, the Hawaiian civic club, and a range of volunteer organizations, farmers and government agencies to restore the natural, cultural, and agricultural resources of the He‘eia ahupua‘a.
Together, we are actively restoring fishponds, taro lo‘i , agricultural lands and the adjacent wetlands to provide local food security and reduce the amount of sediment and fertilizers flowing into Kāne‘ohe Bay and fueling the growth of invasive algae. According to Kanekoa, “Together we have cleared 10 acres of former pasture lands, and are re-creating the rich, productive land that once served alongside a healthy bay to feed the people of Kāne‘ohe and the island of O‘ahu.”
“By growing taro, restoring the loʻi and raising fish, we are re-creating the famed ʻāina momona, meaning fat or rich land,” he adds. “The Nature Conservancy is working with the families and supporting the community to improve Heʻeia—and in turn improve Kāneʻohe Bay.”
A Community Effort
Already, the restoration effort has reached several thousand students and families through work days, projects and presentations addressing the challenges facing Kāne‘ohe Bay and the community’s role in helping meet those challenges. Activities range from community algae pulls at the Paepae o Heʻeia fishpond, to clearing taro lo‘i and planting taro with Kākoʻo ‘Ōiwi, to an Earth Day art contest at Windward Mall that reached more than 800 windward students, and a compost giveaway that benefitted more than a dozen windward farmers.
This past summer, nearly 2,000 children from the Kamaʻaina Kids program “adopted” a Kāneʻohe Bay reef, helping to remove invasive algae, deliver it to farmers for composting, and restore native sea urchins. Meanwhile, at Heʻeia State Park, Eagle Scouts have turned an old boat into a “touch tank” that allows children to see native sea urchins up close and learn about the role they play in restoring the bay.
“Community involvement is vital for a successful outcome,” says Director Case. “And so, too, is raising the funds needed to complete the project.” When the Conservancy launched our Campaign to Restore Kāne‘ohe Bay in 2012, our goal was to raise $2.5 million over three years. Thus far, we have raised more than $2.4 million—thanks in large part to a $500,000 challenge grant from the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, which was matched by donations from many individuals, local businesses, charitable foundations, and government partners. We now need your support to raise the final $65,000, and realize our goal of clearing 60 acres of reef by 2015.
“Kāneʻohe Bay provides so much to so many people,” says Kim Hum, the Conservancy’s Hawaiʻi director of marine conservation. “You look out here and it’s just beautiful. Hundreds of people use the bay every day. But I think most people don’t understand what’s going on underneath the bay, that there’s a problem here. The good news is that we know how to fix it, and we really just have to work together to do that.” | <urn:uuid:d53301ca-56ae-4a7e-a28c-efe0c25ae449> | {
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Indonesia's Coral Reefs on the Line
Indonesia's Coral Reefs On the Line
Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia Here on the eastern shore of Bali, as I look past the thin, white line of surf breaking over an offshore reef to the sparkling seas of the Lombok Strait, I'm not just looking toward another Indonesian island, I'm also looking past an invisible line to the edge of another world.
That invisible line running between the islands of Bali and Lombok-Wallace's Line-divides the living worlds of Asia and Australia, with elephants, pheasants, and towering Dipterocarp trees found on one side and marsupials, cockatoos, and Eucalyptus on the other. Named for the 19th century explorer-naturalist Alfred Wallace, Wallace's Line is at the heart of the sprawling Indonesian archipelago, one of the world's richest storehouses of biological diversity-both on land and under water.
Turning away from Wallace's Line, I see another dividing line. On the beach above me are the swimming pools, manicured grounds, and pampered guests of the Sheraton Nusa Indah, walled off from the real Indonesia of rice fields, crowded streets, and, well, Indonesians.
This exclusive and isolated resort (incredibly, it's more than half a mile's drive from the hotel's front door to the outside gate) is the setting for the Ninth International Coral Reef Symposium, the largest gathering ever of coral reef scientists. Some of the 1,500 experts gathered here grasp the irony of discussing community-based conservation at a conference far too expensive for anyone from an Indonesian coastal community to attend. Some apparently don't grasp it. But for better or worse, Nusa Dua is one of the only places in Indonesia where it is possible to hold such an enormous meeting.
If you're going to talk about coral, Indonesia is the place to be. With the world's richest and most extensive coral reefs, Indonesia probably harbors more underwater species than any other nation. This archipelago of 17,000 islands is also where the stakes are highest for ocean conservation: more people live closer to reefs here, in the fourth-most populous nation on Earth, than anywhere else. So the discussions at Nusa Dua-on the latest updates on reefs worldwide, the devastating implications of El Niño and climate change for corals, and ways to stop reef-killing fishing practices and the spread of coral disease-are tremendously important for this nation of coastal dwellers and fish eaters.
Yet, just a day into the conference, still jet-lagged, I'm already itching to cross the line to the other Indonesia: the Indonesia where putt-putting wooden fishing boats and outrigger canoes, not jet skis and "ocean adventure rafts," dot the waters. Where gravity-defying geckos, not hotel landscapers on a chemical quest for a pest-free paradise, hunt for insects. Where comfort comes from ocean breezes or wobbly fans, and discomfort means serious sweating in the equatorial heat.
But here at Nusa Dua, my discomfort-even my difficulty typing-comes from turbo-charged air-conditioners apparently set on "stun" (or perhaps "permafrost"), running so hard they rattle the furniture. The hotel tries so hard to be Western that it's almost colder than the U.S. Northwest in winter.
Every day while I sit here in the Bali Freezerdome taking notes and doing interviews, I know that bombs are going off in the real Indonesia. Not in the war zones like Timor or Aceh, but in some of the quietest, most idyllic settings imaginable. From palm tree-dotted islands across the archipelago, millions of Indonesians head out each day in their wooden boats of all shapes and sizes. Most of them wield simple hand-made nets or hand-held lines to bring home food or to earn a few thousand rupiahs to support their families. But a fraction of these seafarers, mostly young men and teen-aged boys, carry explosives. Once out of earshot of the nearest village, each bomber looks into crystal-clear waters for the flash of a school of fish above the coral forest of branches, tables, domes, and fans. When he sees a good-sized school, he takes one of the day's stash of homemade bombs-a beer or water bottle filled with a mix of fertilizer and kerosene and a cheap underwater fuse-and hurls it into the water. A few seconds later, a white plume erupts 15 feet into the air and disappears just as quickly. Above the surface, the bomb has left no trace, but underwater, each bomb has killed or stunned hundreds of fish, easily scooped up by divers. It has also left perhaps a car-sized crater of coral rubble (see small photo, back cover) and, farther away, snapped and cracked coral branches and domes, the ruined products of decades or centuries of achingly slow growth.
This ragtag fleet of bombers collectively poses the greatest
threat to the world's richest underwater habitats. Nationwide, blast fishing
does about $500,000 a day in damage, if you believe the economists who try to
quantify such things; in some spots,
20 to 30 explosions can be heard daily. Bombs have at least moderately affected three-fourths of Indonesia's reefs. Much of the shallow Indonesian seafloor is now occupied by flattened dead zones, spreading as far as the snorkeler's eye can see. Damage from bombs and other disruptions, like sedimentation, cyanide fishing, and coral mining, has severely degraded 70 percent of the nation's reefs and left only six percent in excellent condition. Though corals and fish can recover from many of these stresses, coral almost never recovers from bombing. Young corals, which need a solid substrate to grow upon, cannot mature on fields of rubble that shift with the passing of every wave.
Incredibly, toward the end of the week-long conference, reports come in about a rash of new bombings in Komodo National Park, my next destination-partly because of the conference. Reef bombers in the park know that many of the environmental watchdogs, who often help authorities track down fish bombers and wildlife poachers, are out of town all week at this meeting. It's open season on coral reefs, even in one of the few places in Indonesia where the laws against reef bombing are actually enforced.
Marine ecologists, who study the interrelationships among living things in the sea, have recently proposed the existence of an underwater Wallace's Line, oddly enough, perpendicular to the original north-south line. Most sea creatures begin their lives as free-floating larvae, often carried great distances before they develop an adult's ability to propel themselves against a current. Researchers were surprised to discover that shrimp, and very likely other wide-ranging reef organisms, apparently don't cross this underwater line. Because they do not interbreed with other members of their species on the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak, the species are more vulnerable to local extinction than previously thought.
While it's possible to think of tropical ocean habitats in linear terms, it is perhaps more useful to picture them globally as a series of concentric circles. Each circle has more species-of fish, corals, sponges, mollusks, crustaceans-than those outside it. And the bull's eye of all these circles-the heart of the world's aquatic biodiversity-sits in the middle of Indonesia, in the biological wonderland known as Wallacea.
Spreading east from Wallace's Line, Wallacea is a sort of no-man's land between Asian and Australian realms, the exclusive home of many strange creatures like the dragons of Komodo, the dwarf buffalos of Sulawesi, and the megapode birds of the Moluccas. But underwater is where Wallacea really shines. Indonesia's best reefs are here, far from the silt-laden rivers of the big western islands like Java and Sumatra. With its strong currents, stable year-round water temperatures, absence of typhoons, and unmatched variety of reef habitats, eastern Indonesia has supported an unmatched variety of underwater life forms, including 400 species of reef-building corals and close to one out of four of the world's fish species.
Alfred Wallace himself, when exploring these far-flung islands, saw pristine reefs in water as clear as anywhere in the world and, like many others after him, was amazed. One day in 1869, he spent hours peering over the side of a small boat in Ambon Bay, in the Moluccas. Afterwards, he marveled:
The clearness of the water afforded me one of the most astonishing and beautiful sights I have ever beheld. The bottom was absolutely hidden by a continuous series of corals, sponges, actiniae, and other marine productions, of magnificent dimensions, varied forms, and brilliant colors.... The bottom was very uneven, rocks and chasms, and little hills and valleys, offering a variety of stations for the growth of these animal forests. In and out among them moved numbers of blue and red and yellow fishes, spotted and banded and striped in the most striking manner, while great orange or rosy transparent medusae floated along near the surface. It was a sight to gaze at for hours, and no description can do justice to its surpassing beauty and interest. For once, reality exceeded the most glowing accounts I had ever read of the wonders of a coral sea. There is perhaps no spot in the world richer in marine productions, corals, shells and fishes, than the harbour of Amboyna.
When I got to Komodo, I went diving with a dozen American marine biologists, some of whom have a thousand dives under their belts, but most of whom had never seen a coral reef outside the United States or the Caribbean. After our first dive, everyone surfaced smiling from ear to ear. This first reef was somewhat degraded, yet it remained unlike anything most of us had ever seen: Komodo National Park has more fish species than the entire Caribbean Sea, which is a thousand times its size. "Every time I bring people from the Caribbean here, I see their mouths drop open," recalled trip leader Mark Erdmann, a reef biologist who works as an advisor to Bunaken National Park in North Sulawesi. "This is the center of marine biodiversity-it's absolutely stunning to dive on an Indonesian reef, even a partially degraded one, and see how many forms are out there, how many species of practically any group you can think of. And if you're lucky enough to see an Indonesian reef that has not been degraded, it's just an awe-inspiring sight."
I had snorkeled and dived on a number of reefs in Indonesia, yet I, too, was mesmerized by the otherworldly, even psychedelic, wonders of Komodo. I saw things I'd only dreamed of seeing, like 15-foot-wide manta rays circling each other in slow banked turns: silent, living airplanes. Bumphead parrotfish-bigger than I-taking enormous, noisy chomps out of the reef and pooping out crunched-up coral (you call it sand). Bright orange soft corals waving gently in the current, their long-stemmed polyps slowly opening and closing like a baby's chubby-handed "bye-bye." I also saw many beautiful things I never knew existed: technicolor "sea apples" jamming their broccoli-like tentacles into and out of their red mouths; a red, white, and blue "fire urchin" scuttling across the seafloor with transparent, neon blue-spotted shrimp hitchhiking between its poisonous spines; a fuzzy, hot pink- and purple-striped "squat lobster" (a species not discovered until 1994, though it is common in Komodo). And the fish!-bannerfish, batfish, boxfish, butterflyfish, clownfish, lionfish, Picassofish, pufferfish, surgeonfish, triggerfish, trumpetfish, unicornfish.... Basically, put any noun before the word "fish," and Komodo probably has it.
While visiting snorkelers and scuba divers love to look at reef fish, Indonesians love to eat them: coral reefs provide 60 percent of the animal protein in the Indonesian diet. If it's not attached to the seafloor, odds are somebody eats it. Unlike Western attitudes toward seafood, the Indonesian view is that all this varied and bizarre sea life is just so much protein. Sea cucumbers, often seen drying in the sun on fishing boat decks and sidewalks, resemble nothing more than a cross between a water balloon and a human turd, and you couldn't pay me to eat one.
In eastern Indonesia's coastal communities, among the nation's poorest, fishing is both a way of life and a fallback when crops or other sources of food or cash fall short. Most of those who fish do so on a small scale, using simple, relatively harmless methods, but they have watched their incomes and food supplies diminish as the reefs they depend on get bombed and poisoned. Many of these people oppose the use of bombs and cyanide, which they understand are robbing them of their livelihood. But they have little ability or authority to stop the destruction, especially when government officials or powerful business interests are involved.
As I stand on the crowded concrete dock, looking in disbelief at the two fresh corpses laid out on bloody stretchers beneath traditional, oddly beautiful ikat blankets, the thought hits me: I am definitely not in Bali anymore. I am the only foreigner, and the only journalist, in the hushed crowd of a hundred people standing in the hot mid-morning sun. Here in the port town of Labuanbajo, on the island of Flores, just east of Komodo National Park, I am on the far side of both Wallace's Line and the line between happy tourist Indonesia and the decidedly more difficult nation most Indonesians inhabit.
I came down to the docks to meet a staffer from the Nature Conservancy's local office and head out in their speedboat to Komodo village, where I planned to interview some of the local people. But with the commotion on the waterfront, all plans are off. The word among the onlookers is that the two victims were deer poachers killed in a pre-dawn bomb and gun fight with authorities in the waters of the national park. I decide to play police-beat reporter to get the facts, just as I did a week earlier when authorities brought ashore two boatloads of reef bombers arrested in the park. Arrests under Indonesia's environmental laws are almost unheard of, but I happen to have landed in town just in time for two of the park's biggest busts on record. A new "floating ranger station" patrol boat, purchased and operated with funds provided by the Nature Conservancy, a U.S.-based nongovernmental organization (NGO), and by local scuba dive tour operators, has quickly gotten results.
I try to interview various uniformed officials on the dock, but they all refuse to answer my questions. I try to take photos but am ordered not to by a soldier in an East Timor T-shirt. I decide it's a good idea not to make him angry.
Eleven other suspects, three of them wounded, are brought ashore, as well as their 24 hunting dogs and a number of dead deer, the main prey of the Komodo dragon. The uninjured suspects are stripped to the waist to mark them as prisoners. Police pose them for official photos around a severed deer carcass and make them crawl on their bellies or squat-walk, in front of the crowd, to the interrogation room. Last week's reef bombers had to walk around, hands behind their heads, while repeating, "saya melakukan bom"-"I use bombs." I get the impression that the credo of the local justice system is "humiliated until proven guilty." I wonder if this is what conservation is supposed to look like.
I slip unannounced into the interrogation room and observe unobtrusively-watching the suspects get slapped and threatened-until I am physically yanked out of the building. I spend the next two days trying to get someone from any of the agencies-the park, police, army, water police, forestry police-that operate the "floating ranger station" patrol boat to confirm the rumors I have been hearing about the case. (Indonesia is a nation of rumors, the result of half a century's suppression of real news.) Whether they are hiding something or just being paranoid that a journalist might try to make them look bad in a sensitive case, I can't decide.
The next day, I finally get the police chief, and even the visiting Indonesian Minister of Forestry, to fill in the blanks and confirm that one of the victims, Musasini, was the reputed ringleader of a gang of both illegal hunters and coral reef bombers, long sought by police. In an account corroborated by a Nature Conservancy crewmember on board the patrol boat, officers chased the poachers for hours and only opened fire after the fleeing poachers threw homemade bombs at them. The Minister of Forestry, Nurmahmudi Ismail, who has authority over all national parks, defends the patrol's actions: "Because the hunters ignored warnings and even attacked the police, yesterday's actions had to be taken. If you want to call that a human rights violation, go ahead."
Though I remain troubled by the police practices I witnessed on the dock, in the end, I agree with the Minister's assessment.
But in Labuanbajo, though many local people support the park, gossip and innuendo fly about after these big arrests. Some fishermen claim that police fabricated the story of the bomb fight. A legislator from Sape, home of the reef bombers, threatens violence if their confiscated air compressors are not returned. A mob, reportedly instigated by a local cyanide fishing kingpin, prepares to attack the office of the Nature Conservancy for its role in helping authorities shut down illegal fishing.
For all its rough edges and community relations problems, Komodo National Park at least enforces environmental laws, a rarity in a nation with very limited budgets and seemingly unlimited corruption. Just months before the Komodo busts, reef patrols in North Sulawesi's Bunaken National Park, funded by a voluntary tax of $5 per scuba diver, made the nation's first big busts for bomb fishing. "Now people in villages all throughout North Sulawesi are demanding better enforcement," according to Mark Erdmann. Komodo's boat patrols, paid for by the Nature Conservancy's Indonesia Program, have reduced fish bombing in the park by roughly 80 percent.
Villagers in the Komodo area, like most rural Indonesians, are very poor. Malaria and diarrhea are rampant. Most children do not finish elementary school. Though many tourists pay great sums to visit the park and to stay on deluxe live-aboard dive boats, little of their money trickles down to the village level. Most of what did trickle down has dried up: tourism in Komodo has fallen by more than half in the wake of political unrest in other Indonesian provinces _since 1997.
Given the economic chasm between their world and that of a wealthy American NGO, it's hardly surprising that locals might resent the Nature Conservancy with its high-powered speedboat that blows by everything else in the water and its array of almost impossibly high-tech equipment-like satellite-linked electronic tags for studying manta rays. And the group has a long record of doing science and reserve management with greater ease than working with local communities.
Yet its work helping protect the park's reefs is absolutely vital for the region's economic future. A healthy reef provides ten times as much fish as a degraded one; experience around the world has shown that protecting part of a reef from fishing (not to mention bombing) is the surest way to let fish populations, and fishing economies, bounce back. Absent the bomb-stopping patrols, fishing communities around Komodo face a bleak future. Throughout eastern Indonesia, many fisheries have already collapsed. Reef bombers and other fishers often travel hundreds of miles, even to Australian waters, on month-long trips, in search of healthy fishing grounds.
But for the time being, the wages in destructive fishing, and the incentives to break little-enforced laws, remain tremendous. "Destructive fishers here make a lot of money," Mark Erdmann explains. "They are not poor fishermen who've been forced into doing bombing and cyaniding because they have no alternatives. They're typically younger men, 15 to 25, going out and doing something which is inherently dangerous-you can easily kill yourself with homemade bombs, or squirting cyanide, or doing a lot of deep diving." It makes providing economic alternatives next to impossible, according to Erdmann. "What are you going to give a sixteen-year-old kid who makes four times as much as a high-ranking government official?"
For now, coral reef conservation in eastern Indonesia is mostly focused on protecting reefs inside the region's few marine protected areas. Thanks largely to the intensive and top-down park management funded by outsiders, Komodo National Park is an oasis of life in what is rapidly becoming an underwater wasteland of rubble fields and reefs emptied of the once-ubiquitous clouds of fish hovering above them. Indonesia would benefit greatly from additional marine parks, yet reef conservation has to move beyond national parks to be effective. Without attention to the reefs and people outside parks, the pressure for fishers from all around to abandon their emptied fishing grounds and pounce on protected reefs may be inescapable, according to Imran Amin, a marine specialist with TELAPAK, an Indonesian NGO. "Our concern is that coral reef conservation is not a local problem but a regional problem. It's not limited by any national park boundary, but by the region wherever people who interact with the reef live," he says.
The threats confronting Indonesia's coral reefs-bombs, poisons, overfishing, and climate change, to name a few-are as great as ever. But the climate for conservation may be better than ever, too. Even as late as the mid-1990s, few outside conservationists or funders paid any attention to the archipelago's underwater wealth; they focused instead on its rapidly disappearing rain forests. But by decade's end, many governments and NGOs had recognized that what the Amazon is to land habitats, Southeast Asia is to the sea, and had started to work toward protecting this global treasure.
The greatest opportunity may be the birth of the world's third-largest democracy and the new Indonesian government's commitment to decentralization. A new regional autonomy law, which went into effect in January of this year, has begun to transfer much of the authority of the Jakarta government to the 27 provinces and the 340 sub-provincial regencies. The push to decentralize provides hope that local people, who are in the best position to manage their local waters, may gain a greater say in the management of the reefs they depend on. Along these lines, Blongko, a fishing village in North Sulawesi, created the nation's first community-run marine reserve in late 1998, with technical assistance from the Indonesian and U.S. governments. Two other North Sulawesi villages followed suit in 2000, and many others in the province want to do the same. "We started the sanctuary to bring the fishing back to how it was in the past," explains Blongko's new village head, Dolvi Janis. "Now, for the first time in years, we can even cast a line from the beach near the sanctuary and catch a pelagic [open-ocean] fish."
There is no guarantee that decentralization will benefit Indonesians or their ecosystems. One concern is that provincial and local governments generally have less coastal management capacity than does the national government. Some observers fear Reformasi will do nothing to break abusive powerholders' grips on local economies. According to Celia Lowe, a University of Washington anthropologist who works with fishing communities in Sulawesi's Togean Islands, "we've gone from Soeharto to 27 different provincial Soehartos. I don't see any major changes in the thinking behind the Indonesian government's activities."
But it's clear that empowerment of local people must be part of the answer. There's no going back to the discredited top-down approach of the Soeharto era, effective at one thing only: enriching a few hundred officials and tycoons at the expense of current and future generations of Indonesians. Or as biologist Anugerah Nontji of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences puts it, "in a country like Indonesia it is not practical, cost effective, or appropriate to have a top-down approach in which the government provides and implements all the management."
Throughout Wallacea, there is no shortage of local people with the desire, and much of the expertise, necessary to manage and conserve coral reefs. I've been fortunate to meet a number of them over the years. One is Pak Ely of Saparua Island in the Moluccas, a tribal leader whose family has been administering his village's sasi system-regulating fisheries, protecting sacred streams, keeping destructive fishers away from local reefs-for seven generations. Another is Pak Ahmat, a fisherman from the Togean Islands, who patrols local reefs against bombers and shows off his catch and his choice of gear for me: small hooks with bits of colored string attached: so simple. "We don't use bombs, just these hooks, and we don't hurt the coral," he explains with pride. And, of course, there are the rangers of Komodo National Park, their boats riddled with bullet holes.
Mark Erdmann recalls his recent experience setting up no-fishing zones in Bunaken National Park: "The last six months of working with villagers in Bunaken has made me an optimist. Indonesians are very close to the land, close to the sea. They understand that a small young fish doesn't produce many eggs, and they're willing to give it two or three years to see results. They're much more patient than Americans."
Activist Nina Dwisasanti of WWF-Wallacea is also optimistic, though she acknowledges Reformasi cuts both ways. "We in the NGO community have to race with the many investors who see decentralization as an opportunity to exploit the country's natural resources faster than ever. But there are so many recent examples of local communities, often with NGO help, organizing to protect their reefs from outside threats. With the brand-new flowering of NGOs operating now under our new more democratic system, I am optimistic for the future of our coral reefs."
Environmental journalist and former Worldwatch Institute researcher John C. Ryan is the author of several books, including Seven Wonders: Everyday Things for a Healthier Planet. He lives in Seattle. | <urn:uuid:f91f59cd-cf8c-449b-98d4-cf56bf3edf40> | {
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Pine Tree Prevalent Problems
If you live in the Houston area, chances are you’re not far removed from a community of pine trees. Nearly ubiquitous, these trees have become a part of many Texan yards. Like other plants, however, pine trees, although common and sometimes dull, also require maintenance and attention. In the event of strong winds or storms, ignoring these problems can result in ruining the landscape or worse; it can result in roof, window, or even structural damage to a house.
Here is a short list of several problems prevalent in pine trees:
Pine needles turn brown and drop consistently during fall, often covering driveways and roofs, filling gutters, generally just getting everywhere. This kind of pine drop and browning is normal, as, when fall arrives, pine trees push out the old needles to make way for new ones. A more complex issue, however, is when most of the pine needles on a tree or in a clump of trees is green, except for a large section which has mysteriously turned brown out of season. This issue, known as “needle blight” or “pine blight,” occurs because of a fungus that causes the tree to take on a disease. In East Texas, this issue is particularly common because the causal fungus is spread through mist and/or rain, and flourishes in humid conditions.
White and Brown Glue-Looking Clumps
On the branch joints in many pine trees, you may find patches of white muck that looks almost like someone went crazy with some icing or kid’s glue. Rest assured, the issue in these cases is not a psychotic cake-maker, but a species of moth originating from Minnesota called the “Zimmerman Pine Moth.” In addition to looking hideous, these creatures bore holes into pine trees, causing their nutrient-distribution system to have trouble. This can result in heavy damage to the rest of the tree.
Holes/Strange Markings in Bark
Bark can go missing from trees for all manner of reasons: children pry it off, bucks sharpen their antlers on it, etc. But the most nefarious reason is the pine beetle. There are several different species of pine beetle, some of which are more troubling than others. In many instances of beetle damage, tree bark will look like someone stabbed a tree over and over with an ice pick. If the infestation is serious, the needles will redden, and the trunk will appear bark-less. In these extreme cases, the tree should be removed. | <urn:uuid:bf4691c1-0e81-40b9-84b8-b094c0bcdc09> | {
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Cyber risks are not isolated and are usually connected to other risks. Many companies that are exposed to cyber risks are, for example, also exposed in turn to risks to their supply chain. Due to technological innovation and advances, many parts of a company’s or industry’s supply chain have become interconnected and automated. Technology is indeed a critical enabler of a supply chain’s operations. Therefore a cyber attack has the potential to put an entire company’s supply chain at risk. Cyber security and supply chain risk management must therefore be considered in conjunction with one another.
The disruption potential of cyber risks on supply chains has often been overlooked or discounted. While technology has enabled individuals and companies to undertake new and innovative approaches, it has also added an element of structural vulnerability into the economy. One has only to look at the annual reports of any publicly traded company and the boilerplate statements of exposure to cyber risks to see that the risks of technology failure have become part of the fabric of overall operational risk.
As the economy becomes more interconnected, companies face significant threats from afar, including cyber risks. Economic losses associated with supply chain disruption have consequently increased significantly in recent years. Chaos theory with its butterfly wings is an apt analogy for the interconnectivity and interdependence facing companies. Today, that butterfly is a technology company in a distant land rendering cloud-based services to a company in Wisconsin (or perhaps Worcestershire or Württemberg). No longer is there necessarily a direct physical or even indirect physical connection between the holder of a company’s data and the company. The failure of that service provider ripples out as a cascading series of events that may all start with something as mundane as a local interruption to the power supply, leaving the Wisconsin company adrift as it no longer has access to a key part of its infrastructure.
These risks present serious challenges to just-in-time delivery strategies that have been widely adopted by several multinational companies. With many businesses running lean supply chains to reduce costs, disrupted operations at a key supplier can cause a ripple effect that goes beyond an entire industry and region. | <urn:uuid:8e8cdb72-d83d-4c75-9a19-04307f0b427b> | {
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Historical records suggest more than one St. Valentine existed, but the most notable figure was a Roman priest who defied Emperor Claudius II by performing marriages illegally. He was martyred when Claudius the Cruel carried out his execution on Feb. 14 around A.D. 270.Continue Reading
Claudius’s reign was characterized by acts of tyranny and brutal conquests. In an effort to recruit more soldiers for his campaigns, Claudius outlawed marriages and engagements to discourage men from forming attachments that prevented them from joining the army. St. Valentine opposed the law by conducting marriage ceremonies in secret. The Prefect of Rome sentenced him to death, and St. Valentine was beaten with clubs and beheaded. Some accounts say the priest was originally jailed for helping Christians, but didn’t receive a death sentence until he tried to convert Emperor Claudius.
In 496, Pope Gelasius established the 14th of February as St. Valentine’s Day. Historical accounts suggest its romantic associations stem from the pagan Feast of Lupercalia, which Pope Gelasius sought to replace with a church-sanctioned holiday. Other legends attribute the Valentine’s Day tradition of exchanging cards to the saint’s final act while imprisoned. He allegedly befriended the jailer’s daughter and left her a note “From your Valentine” before his execution.Learn more about Valentines Day | <urn:uuid:0f99925a-58e0-405e-8c45-a2507ae15a17> | {
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TWO CALIFORNIA LAWS REGARDING SEXUAL MINORITIES
Bill AB-205 to allow same-sex marriage
Bill AB-196 for transsexual persons
In the year 2000, California voters passed Proposition 22, by a vote of 61.4% to
38.6%. The Proposition, also known as the "California Defense of Marriage
Act" modifies Section 308.5 of the Family Code to read: "Only marriage
between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."
Many felt that this proposition limited any
of same-sex relationships. This appears to be mistaken. In reality, the
proposition has two effects. It prevents same-sex couples from:
|Receiving a marriage license in the state of California.|
|Having their marriage recognized in the state, in the event that they went to
Canada or Massachusetts, were married there, and returned to California.|
Proposition 22 did not limit the ability of the legislature to grant some
state privileges and
obligations enjoyed by all married couples to
committed gay and lesbian couples. The only limitation was that the state cannot
actually marry same-sex couples. The state has been free to create a system
similar to the civil unions in Vermont if they
Geoff Kors, executive director of the gay-positive
California Alliance for Pride and Equality, said: "Polling shows people
moving closer to same-sex marriages and supporting giving rights and
responsibilities to same-sex couples." 1
In 2005-MAR, Judge Richard Kramer of the San Francisco County Superior
Court ruled that Proposition 22, and other California legislation which
prevent same-sex couples from marrying, were unconstitutional. He ruled that
these laws violate the civil rights of same-sex couples because they "implicate
the basic human right to marry a person of one's choice." The ruling has
since been stayed and has been appealed to the San Francisco-based 1st
District Court of Appeal. 14
Bill AB-205 introduced in the state legislature:
Early in 2003, Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles)
of the five-person Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus introduced bill
AB-205 the "Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act of 2003."
As passed and signed into law, it granted domestic partners
"the same rights [that are] granted to and imposed upon [married] spouses"
by the state of California.
said: "This law would be truly historic for the nation. If California
passes this, it sends a message to the rest of the nation." It
would be historic in that, if it is passed, it would be the first civil
union bill freely passed by a legislature without first having been
ordered to do it by a state supreme court. 1|
|Randy Thomasson, executive director of the conservative group
Campaign for California Families, criticized the supporters of the
bill. He said: "I wish they'd be honest and call it gay marriage. If
marital rights go to nonmarried couples, then you've really thrown mud
in the face of marriage as an institution. If [Governor] Gray Davis wants to go for
president or vice president, he won't go for this." 1|
|Lou Sheldon, of the conservative group Traditional Values
Coalition said: "Homosexuality is a gender-identity disorder, and
it's a gender-identity confusion, and you should not reward those
behaviors with special rights." There is no record in the media
accounts as to what "special rights" gays and lesbians are
requesting. All the reports have them asking for about one third of the rights
that are automatically given to married couples. 1|
Many Fundamentalist Christian groups are describing AB 205 as a "homosexual
marriage" bill which conflicts with Proposition 22. For example:
|Maranatha Christian Journal reported on 2003-JUN-9 that "Pro-family
groups labeled it a 'homosexual marriage' bill and said it violates
Proposition 22, which defines marriage as being solely between a man and
a woman and was passed by voters three years ago." 2|
|Ken Connor of the Family Research Council reported in his
2003-JUN-3 "Washington Update" that "the Assembly is now poised
to pass AB 205, a same-sex marriage bill in everything but name. The bill
would confer all the rights, benefits and duties of marriage on homosexual
couples. Such legally recognized "domestic partnerships" would have the
same standing in law as marriage." Connor continued: "AB 205 also would require California to recognize
similar same-sex unions that are legal in other states such as Vermont."
|Campaign for California Families (CCF)
posted an article on their web site called "California
Assembly Passes 'Gay Marriage;'
AB 205 Reverses the Vote of the People of California." The vote
being referred to is apparently Proposition 22. The article
stated that: "AB 205 functionally reverses the vote of the
people of California on marriage. It awards all the rights of marriage
available under California statute to same-sex 'domestic partners.'
Three years ago, 61.4 percent of California voters of all racial and age
groups voted to keep marriage for a man and a woman."
4 CCF executive director, Randy
Thomasson, said: "This arrogant bill barely passed. The Democrat
politicians apparently have no problem reversing the peopleís vote on
marriage, the foundation of family and society....If reversing the
peopleís vote on marriage doesnít demonstrate political arrogance, I
donít know what does."|
These groups appear to be in error.
|There is no conflict between Proposition 22 and AB 205:
|Proposition 22 defined marriage as a contract between one man and
one woman. It said nothing about same-sex civil unions or domestic
|AB 205 does not describe marriage, only domestic partnerships
between two persons who are prohibited from marrying.|
|AB 205 would not give same-sex couples the same rights as
opposite-sex married couples receive. They would only receive all but
one of the
approximately 400 state benefits, compared to the approximately 1,500
state and federal rights enjoyed by married couples. The one state
benefit being withheld, for now, is the right to file joint state income
The Family Research Council's prophecy came true. The Assembly
passed AB 205 by a vote of 41 to 32. This is one vote more than the
minimum necessary for passage. Voting was completely along party lines.
All 41 "yes" votes came from Democrats. All 32 "no" votes came from
Republicans. Seven Democrats abstained.
Maranatha Christian Journal reported that: "The bill would give the
state's 18,000 registered homosexual couples the same benefits as married
couples in such matters as financial support, child custody, debt
assumption and community property, according to The Sacramento Bee."
The bill was considered by the Senate Appropriations
Committee on 2003-AUG-18. They proposed and passed amendments which
were subsequently approved by the Assembly by the same vote of 41 to 32 during
the week of AUG-31. Governor Davis had announced on AUG-16 that, if it reaches his desk, he would
sign the legislation into law in order to help ensure "fairness for all
Californians." He said: "This bill not only provides additional
rights for domestic partners, it also imposes significant new obligations
such as shared responsibility for debts and financial support for
children. As governor I will continue to do everything within my power to
honor the dignity, humanity and privacy of every Californian regardless of
their ethnicity, religion, national origin, gender or sexual orientation."
Geoffrey Kors, executive director of Equality California, a group
which promotes equal rights for gays and lesbians, said: "When this
bill is signed it will be a truly historic day for everyone who supports
civil rights." 5
After approval by the legislature, Randy Thomasson, executive director
of the conservative group Campaign for California Families, said: "This
is a day that will be remembered with anger and disgust." Apparently
referring to the Proposition 22 plebiscite, he said: "[Bill] AB 205
utterly rejects the vote of the people of California - 4.6 million white,
black, Latino and Asian voters who demanded that the rights, privileges
and benefits of marriage be protected for a man and a woman, as it should
be. The Democrat politicians who jammed this through have proved they are
against marriage and against democracy. They have created gay 'marriage'
by another name and utterly rejected the vote of the people. This will go
to court as an unconstitutional hijacking of the people's vote to protect
marriage with Proposition 22."
Religious and social conservatives appear to have a dilemma:
|They can try to pass a law or proposition similar to Proposition 22
in other states. But this does not really meet their needs. In essence,
it only protects the word "marriage" from being used to refer to
same-sex registered partnerships. It does not prevent a state
legislature from granting some or all of the rights, privileges and
obligations to same-sex couples that had been previously reserved as
special privileges for opposite-sex married couples.|
|They can try to pass a law or proposition that goes further than
Proposition 22 by preventing the state government from granting to
same-sex couples any of the special privileges given to opposite-sex
married couples. However, in many states, public opinion would probably
oppose such a law or proposition; it would be perceived as unfair
treatment of committed same-sex couples.|
AB-205 becomes law and is challenged:
Governor Gray Davis signed the bill into law on 2003-SEP-19. 8
The Campaign for California Families, a group opposed to equal rights for gays and lesbians,
initiated a lawsuit (Knight v. Superior Court, S133961) which sought to prevent the law from going into effect. They claimed that it violates Proposition 22. This
appears to be a hopeless case on their part. Proposition 22 consists of
only 14 words, and only defines which marriages are recognized in the
state. It states "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."
11 Proposition 22 in no way prevents the
legislature from granting some or all of the benefits given to married
couples and their children to registered same-sex couples and their
children. It only prevents the state from recognizing and/or registering
The law went into effect on 2005-JAN-01. The
California secretary of state revealed that, by
2005-APR, about 29,000 California couples has registered as domestic
partners and have thereby obtained many benefits and protections for themselves
and their children.
As expected, both the trial court and the 3rd District Court
of Appeal rejected the lawsuit. The latter ruled that Proposition 22 was "intended only to limit the status of marriage to heterosexual
couples and to prevent the recognition in California of homosexual
marriages." It did not conflict with the "Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act of 2003."
The court noted that by 1999, California had legislation in place which
permitted same-sex couples or couples older than 62 years old to register as
domestic partners. Thus, and Proposition 22 didn't express "an intent to
repeal our state's then-existing domestic partners law." Thus it would not
have implications for any future legislation which protected domestic partners.
Randy Thomasson, spokesperson for the Campaign
for California Families said that they would appeal the decision.
Jenny Pizer, senior counsel for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education
Fund, a gay positive group, said the court ruling "confirms the
common-sense understanding that people in California have that domestic
partnership and marriage are different."
AB-205 found constitutional by the Supreme Court:
On 2005-JUN-29. the California Supreme Court let the domestic partnership law
stand. "Without comment, the unanimous justices upheld appellate and trial
court rulings that the sweeping measure does not conflict with a voter-approved
initiative defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman."
|Robert Tyler is an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund which
opposed the law. He said: "Certainly, this reflects the importance of the
people of California rising up to insure that their vote in 2000 is counted
and not overlooked by the courts."|
|Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian
Rights, said that the "anti-gay industry's" reaction to the
decision means "they won't stop until essentially the existence of
lesbians and gay men is eradicated."|
|Nathan Barankin, a spokesperson for Attorney General Bill Lockyer, said:
"We're extremely pleased. We fought hard to protect California's landmark
domestic partner law and believe the trial court, and the appellate court
and the California Supreme Court reached the exact and right result."
A new proposition to strip rights and protections from domestic partners:
When the 3rd District Court of Appeal upheld
the law, Randy Thomasson, spokesperson for the Campaign
for California Families said that they plan to create another Proposition to
deprive same-sex couples and their children of the rights and protections given
them them under the 2003 act. He said: "This ruling gives impetus to the push
for a constitutional amendment to protect marriage from the clutches of judges
In 2005-JUN, the Attorney General's office received a draft for the new
Proposition. The next step is for the attorney general to write a ballot title
and summary. Californians could vote on the Proposition as soon as the June 2006
Peter Henderson, a spokesperson for the California Family Council,
said his group is one of a coalition of groups promoting the Proposition. He
said: "This decision is why we believe the initiative process is so important
to give voters a direct say through direct democracy on issues of this
The proposed ballot measures are also aimed at overturning the decision Judge
Richard Kramer's ruling that Proposition 22 is
This essay continues below.
Another bill, AB-196, will prohibit housing
and employment discrimination against transgender individuals who have
surgically changed their gender.
|Geoffrey Kors, executive director of the
gay/lesbian/bisexual/transsexual positive California Alliance for
Pride and Equality said: "AB 196 will provide critical
protections for those who are fired, evicted, or experience serious
harassment because they are perceived as gender nonconforming."
|Assembly member Mark Leno said: "The right to employment and
housing is a basic human right. No one should ever lose a home or job
because of gender characteristics which have nothing to do with one's
Non-profit charities could continue to
discriminate against transgender persons; this covers virtually all
religious groups. Fines of up to $150,000 could be levied. The Family
Research Council described it as a "compulsory transgender hiring
bill" which it is not. It would not require any employer to hire
one or more transgender individuals; it would not set quotas. It would simply criminalize
discrimination against transgender persons.
Bill AB 196 was passed by the state assembly's Labor and Employment
Committee in 2003-MAR. 6 It was passed by the
Senate on 2003-JUL-25, and signed into law by Governor Gray Davis on 2003-AUG-3. It
takes effect on 2004-JAN-1. This makes California only the fourth state in
the U.S. to protect transgender individuals from discrimination. Minnesota, New
Mexico and Rhode Island had already passed similar legislation.
Geoffrey Kors praised Davis for signing the bill, writing in a statement: "His
actions in signing this legislation will help ensure that individuals are judged
on their merit, not their gender characteristics." 7
- Michael Bazeley,
"Bill would put domestic partners on legal par with married
couples," San Jose Mercury News / Contra Costa Times,
- "California Assembly Passes 'Homosexual Marriage' Bill,"
Maranatha Christian Journal, 2003-JUN-9. at:
- Ken Connor, " 'California Dreaming' becoming a nightmare,"
Washington Update, 2003-JUN-3, Family Research Council.
- "California Assembly Passes 'Gay Marriage;' AB 205 Reverses
the Vote of the People of California," Campaign for California
Families, 2003-JUN-4, at:
- "Davis says he'll sign domestic
partners bill," Associated Press, 2003-AUG-18, at:
- "Transgender Rights Bill Passes California Committee,"
Gfn.com, 2003-MAR-21, at:
- "California becomes fourth state to ban transgender
discrimination," Associated Press, 2003-AUG-4, at:
- "Gov. Davis Takes a Swat at Marriage," Washington Update,
Family Research Council, 2003-SEP-23.
- "Text of Proposition 22," California Secretary of State,
"NCLR Clients Testify in Favor of Historic Marriage Equality Bill;
California Assembly Judiciary Committee Votes 8-3 in Favor of Bill,"
National Center for Lesbian Rights,
- "Text of Proposition 22," California Secretary of State, at:
"Bill Number AB 1967, Introduced: Bill Text," at:
Jennifer Coleman, "Calif. Court Upholds Domestic Partner Law, Says It
Doesn't Contradict Gay Marriage Ban," Associated Press, at:
David Kravets, "Justices uphold California domestic partner law,"
Associated Press, 2005-JUN-29, at:
Copyright © 2001 to 2005 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Latest update: 2005-JUL-23
Author: B.A. Robinson | <urn:uuid:3785c312-2424-4793-a7aa-4aa9d535fe8e> | {
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An exchange of letters that took place between the Muslim scholar, Imam Muhammad Jawad Chirri, and Dr. Wilson H. Guertin, that led Dr. Guertin to accept Islam. Writes Dr. Guertin: "If you are a Muslim, read this book out of the obligation to acquire knowledge. If you are a Jew or Christian, read it for the same devout motive. Comparative study of religions may be unsettling if your belief in God is based upon non-rational grounds but can only have the ultimately desired result of strengthening your belief. The pervasive belief in God as represented in our motives must be the goal which our religious educators work toward, with gains in sectarian support becoming quite secondary... If you are unable to say that you believe in God, you can still find value in the study of religion. In the following pages of dialogue, you will be pursuing some of the most important concerns of mankind that can be traced back to the beginning of recorded history. The thoughts and historical events are important in their own right, and perhaps you will, as I have, find the way to a belief in God through them." | <urn:uuid:c7c830be-492b-4a48-953a-94eb52c7324e> | {
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Current climate and environmental changes are particularly dramatic in Earth’s permafrost regions. Observed Arctic warming also results in warming and thawing of permafrost in many regions and thus in the change of an important component of Arctic ecosystems. At the same time these changes cause feedbacks to the biosphere, the atmosphere, and the hydrosphere that can have regional and global impacts well beyond the permafrost regions and may thus directly affect our lives in central Europe.
The Permafrost Research Section therefore focuses its efforts on:
the observation and quantification of current periglacial processes and environmental changes and their causes in order to assess the modern state of permafrost and its future transformation.
- Continuous measurements of hydroclimatic data and permafrost temperatures
- Study of water and energy balances of typical permafrost landscapes
- Large-scale and high-resolution remote sensing of landscape changes caused by permafrostdegradation
- Numerical modelling of terrestrial and subaquatic permafrost characteristics and landscape dynamics under past, current, and future environmental conditions
- The study of permafrost characteristics using geophysical and field analytical methods
- Quantification of sediment and geochemical fluxes due to Arctic streams and from coastal erosion
- Biogeochemical investigation of permafrost soils and deposits
- Formation and release of the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide through microbial and energetic processes in permafrost soils and periglacial landforms resulting from permafrost thaw
the reconstruction of periglacial landscape dynamics of the last 200,000 years, delivering important information on the temporal variability of environmental and climatic change, ecosystem dynamics, and the carbon cycle.
- Geological, cryo-stratigraphical, and paleoecological studies of permafrost and lake sediment cores as well as of natural exposures along sea coasts, river banks, and lake shores
- Sedimentological, paleontological, biogeochemical, and isotopic analyses
- Development of models to reconstruct past environments and dynamics of permafrost landscapes
Our research provides an outlook on future developments within the 23 million square kilometer large terrestrial permafrost region on the northern hemisphere as well as within the extensive regions with submarine permafrost under shallow Arctic shelf seas.
Our section, now active in researching periglacial landscapes since 1992, is focusing on Arctic and subarctic regions in Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and Spitsbergen. Since 1998 we conduct regular geoscientific and ecological studies during the Russian-German ‘LENA’ field expeditions at the research station Samoylov Island in the Lena River Delta of Northeast Siberia. These studies include long-term observations of permafrost state, energy and water balances, and trace gas fluxes. Beyond that, the Samoylov research station provides logistical support for numerous ship-based as well as land-based expeditions in the wider Laptev Sea region. | <urn:uuid:bafe2e1d-98c7-40a8-807e-25740c5a1406> | {
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1. What will the future entail in Toffler's account?
(a) Destruction and despair.
(b) Progress and happiness.
(c) Turmoil and instability.
(d) New rules and new roles.
2. How does Toffler describe future shock?
(a) As a temporary condition.
(b) As an opportunity.
(c) As a disease.
(d) As a transformative agent.
3. What makes future shock different than culture shock?
(a) Future shock consists of familiar cues being replaced by unfamiliar cues.
(b) Future shock is a cultural condition.
(c) Culture shock only happens in modern cultures.
(d) Culture shock only lasts for a generation before assimilation takes place.
4. Where does culture shock take place, in Toffler's account?
(a) Developing nations.
(b) All modern people.
(c) Urban populations.
(d) Foreign travelers.
5. What symptom does Toffler describe as an aspect of future shock?
6. What will the changes of the future result in, as Toffler describes it?
(a) People not having a say in their governments.
(b) People not getting enough food.
(c) People not knowing what makes sense.
(d) People not being able to afford medical care.
This section contains 4,750 words
(approx. 16 pages at 300 words per page) | <urn:uuid:85204a9e-0dff-4ca5-b4a8-fa747817f8dd> | {
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Heating or cooling systems, conventional or alternative, involve water. Over time that water picks up particles which in extreme cases can silt up entire heating systems, requiring expensive maintenance, repair or even replacement. A build-up of solids no thicker than a human hair inside pipework can reduce heat transfer by up to 30%, drastically reducing efficiency and increasing energy consumption.
By Hydro-Gen Engineering Ltd based in Widnes, UNITED KINGDOM.
Pure copper is soft and malleable; a freshly exposed surface has a reddish-orange color. It is used as a conductor of heat and electricity, a building material, and a constituent of various metal alloys. Recycling is a major source of copper in the modern world. A combination of economic and regulatory factors are now at work to make metal recycle and water reuse very attractive.
By PuriTech Ltd based in Herentals, BELGIUM.
Need help finding the right suppliers? Try XPRT Sourcing. Let the XPRTs do the work for you | <urn:uuid:ae67b30f-9f53-4239-94bb-e39545e1492c> | {
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