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Posted at: 02/15/2013 5:28 PM
Updated at: 02/15/2013 5:52 PM
By: Adam Camp, KOB Eyewitness News 4
A once in a lifetime experience is how one University of New Mexico researcher described the astronomical events Friday.
A 150-meter wide meteor went through earth’s atmosphere and landed in Chelyabinsk, Russia. Just hours later, an asteroid passed just 17,000 miles from earth and NASA tracked it.
Karen Ziegler is a meteorite researcher for UNM.
“It's something very, very special. I think this is a once in a lifetime experience to actually be able to observe and watch something like that happen,” Ziegler said.
The power of the meteor going into the atmosphere is also something to behold.
“It's like a bomb going off. This particular meteorite, they estimated the energy that was released when the meteor entered the earth's atmosphere was the size of a nuclear bomb going off,” Ziegler said.
The meteorite’s impact injured over 1,000 people as the explosion shattered glass and sent debris flying. Ziegler said that debris from the meteorite will send meteorite researchers flocking to Russia.
“Probably all the meteorite handlers in the world are buying their tickets right now to go out there and try to find some pieces so that they can analyze them,” Ziegler said.
As far as tracking the meteor before it came into the earth’s atmosphere, Ziegler said it was still too small for telescopes to pick it up until it started blazing a trail to the earth. | <urn:uuid:9b42e7b0-6be2-4f00-87c7-c6d4fc7b5355> | {
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Since ancient times, the story of a soldier's life is often a tale of long days of boredom interrupted by brief moments of action. But that monotony became an interminable ordeal for any soldier captured by the enemy and held as a prisoner of war. In the Great War of 1914-18, over 6 million men were confined to hundreds of prison camps scattered around Europe. In Germany alone there were over 2,400,000 POWs, with over a million more imprisoned in Austria, Bulgaria and Turkey.
In some of these prison camps, the captive soldiers were allowed to have musical instruments and form small orchestras as a way to provide a small comfort from the dull routine. This photo postcard shows one such POW orchestra from a camp in Münster, Germany, with soldiers dressed in a mixture of British, French and Italian army uniforms. The French soldiers wear the distinctive Kepi hat, and the Italians have stars on their coat collar. The 18 musicians are posing outdoors with their instruments arranged on the ground in a typical military fashion by leaning them against each other. There are 4 clarinets, a flute, a horn, 6 violins, a cello, and a double bass on the far right.
Mr. Fred Parkin
With my kind regards
The name Fred Parkin unfortunately shows up too often in British military records to make a proper identification as the search term captured, POW, or Münster is not part of the data base. According to the dealer from whom I acquired this set of photos, Fred Parkin may have been the camp photographer.
Any suggestions on the inscrutable signature are appreciated.
Here is a larger view of Fred's Münster camp showing the prisoner barracks, a larger assembly building which might have been the orchestra's music hall, and what appears to be a formal garden park with several dozen men scattered around. There were actually 4 Münster camps built during the war around this city of 100,000 in North Rhine-Westphalia. One had previously been a race course and another was built on farmland. This has the look of a rural landscape but there are no markings to indicate which camp it was.
In 1914, all of the military forces expected that the war would last no more than a few months, so there was no planning made for captured troops. The first prisoners who were taken often endured very harsh conditions, and the international rules for maintaining proper care of POWs were often not followed for various political and logistical reasons. Enlisted ranks were required to work, which sometimes meant rebuilding enemy trenches and collecting bodies from the battlefield.
This second photo of a POW orchestra came from the same collection and is undoubtedly the same camp. This time 16 musicians hold their instruments, and three men who were on the left in the first photo are now standing on the right. The Frenchman with the marvelous mustache has changed his hat for a cap and holds a horn. Another Frenchman in front of him has a saxophone. They are arranged around a piano and I would guess that the British soldier seated in the center with his hands crossed is the pianist and maybe even the orchestra conductor.
There is very little archival material online that pertains to POW camps in the First World War. This POW orchestra is one of several that I have acquired, and last year I posted a story on a similar Army Orchestra from 1917 that I believe came from an Austrian POW camp. That postcard inspired my search for more information about this unusual kind of ensemble as each photo brings up the same question. Where did these POWs get these musical instruments? A cello is not ordinarily taken into combat by an infantryman. Maybe a viola, but never a cello. So how did a cello come to be photographed in a prisoner of war camp? Surprisingly the answer is the YMCA.
This week I found a superb book on the history of the POWs in WW1 that seems to be published online for free, Pursuit of an 'Unparalleled Opportunity' by Kenneth Steuer with the subtitle: The American YMCA and Prisoner of War Diplomacy among the Central Power Nations during World War I, 1914-1923. In his eBook history, Steuer explains in great detail how the American Young Men's Christian Association became the intermediary for providing welfare to the millions of allied soldiers imprisoned by Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, and Turkey.
Shortly after the start of the war in 1914, President Wilson felt the United States should avoid becoming entangled in the conflict and instead remain a neutral country like Spain, Sweden, or Switzerland. But as the war continued to expand and more POWs were taken by the Central Powers, public concern for the captured soldiers grew, so the American government agreed to monitor the prison camps on behalf of the allied nations. But the US military and civilian authorities had no experience in providing this kind of social welfare support, so instead the American YMCA accepted the mission to organize and provide for the physical, mental, and spiritual needs of war prisoners.
One of their first efforts in 1914 was in distributing Christmas parcels that included games, cigarettes, candles, and musical instruments as well. Even the prison camp guards were given gifts, as they were "just as lonely and homesick as the prisoners of war".
This section from Chapter 8 of Steuer's book details the importance given to music as a solace for the war prisoners.
Another important element of the Association's Four-fold Program was entertainment for POWs. Mental diversions allowed POWs to temporarily forget about the situation they faced. Music was one of the most important parts of this service. The American YMCA provided a variety of musical instruments and sheet music so that the POWs could organize orchestras, bands, and choirs.
Between March 1915 and June 1917, the American YMCA spent twenty thousand Marks on musical instruments for POWs in Germany. Once organized, bands, choruses, and orchestras provided evening performances for the POWs and the guards, as well as music for religious services, at theatrical performances, and at funerals. Most camps had talented musicians among the ranks who worked hard to develop the music programs. Not only did they lead the bands and orchestras, they offered lessons to POWs, who were eager to learn how to play a variety of instruments. The prisoners could draw up a wish list of instruments and musical scores and send it through the YMCA field secretary to the WPA Office in Berlin.
At Döberitz, the POWs organized the "Prisoners' International Orchestra," and the Association provided a cornet, flute, French horn, violoncello, castanets, and a tambourine to fill out the orchestra. The Association sent an organ and stringed instruments to the officers' prison camp at Werl for Russian prisoners. At Königsbrück in Saxony, Jacob equipped a Serbian gypsy orchestra, while Michel organized and equipped an orchestra at Worms. The YMCA also provided sheet music for the chorus at Schneidemühl, which allowed the prisoners to produce a show that greatly helped improve camp morale. Often, the musical talents of field secretaries helped ease prisoners' suffering.
Michel reported that POWs at Friedberg took special comfort in his music. The benefits of music could even be extended to far-flung labor detachments by sending musical instruments and scores to POWs at work sites. Michel pointed out that "music, especially singing, had charms to soothe, cheer, and bless" the hapless prisoner of war.
After the United States entered the war in 1917, the American YMCA recruited replacements from the neutral nations of the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. This organization was then named the War Prisoners' Aid or WPA.
Musical entertainment was a critical element of this relief. By June 1917, the YMCA had equipped twenty-seven orchestras in prison camps and provided harmonicas to 120 labor detachments. To meet the heavy demand for instruments, the Association developed a business relationship with a musical instrument manufacturer in Leipzig. The relationship evidently flourished, since the WPA Office in Berlin received a single bill for 504 mouth organs. Red Triangle workers provided sheet music and orchestral scores upon request.
The YMCA and WPA arranged for POWs to get material for other activities like handicraft shops and sports. In this view of the same prison camp park we see curving walkways, flower beds, and rustic benches that were probably a product of the POWs using tools provided by the YMCA. With such an odd mix of British, French, and Italian design, I imagine that the men's garden club discussion could get pretty heated. And in multiple languages.
This last photo postcard is of a group of 22 British servicemen from the same Münster camp. The back of the card includes a photographer's imprinted name and address and is the only evidence for the location of this POW camp.
Carl Dülberg, Münster i/W, Steinfurtherstr. 9.
I count over 13 different regimental cap badges, including one sailor. His cap has his ship's name but despite my best efforts I just can't decipher it. I was unable to find many instances where the Royal Navy lost ship crews that were taken prisoner during the war, but I did discover the 63rd Royal Naval Division which was an unusual navy reserves unit which fought on land and had many sailors who were captured. But that is a story for another time.
The POWs did have a postal service to receive letters and packages from home, and I believe that these postcards were produced by the soldiers for their own mail, though it was subject to German military censors. Without postmarks and messages there is no way to completely identify the who, when, and where of these photos which are part of the vast complicated history of the Great War.
But on November 11th, 1918 - Armistice Day - I expect that the Münster POW camp orchestra gave a rousing performance that all of these soldiers would rejoice and remember for the rest of their lives.
This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday,
where the phones are ringing with new stories of old photographs.
where the phones are ringing with new stories of old photographs.
UPDATE: For my readers who like puzzles, here is an enhanced detail of the sailor in the last photo. The cap letters look to me like HMS Pembroke but there was no ship by that name in WW1. But let us hope he eventually made his way back to his home port. | <urn:uuid:83aa892b-7f40-4597-95fc-8d68a4d57394> | {
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In the predawn hours two weeks into 2006, a manmade meteor will blaze down in a fireball, pop open a chute and leave a canister melting a hole in Utah’s high desert snow.
Sealed inside is ancient stardust collected two years ago Monday from the tail of a passing comet. The canister could hold the starting recipe of our solar system and perhaps clues to how life started on Earth.
For those scientific gems, almost 150 scientists worldwide are waiting to intensely examine perhaps a million dust particles so tiny that all of them bunched together would weigh less than a hundredth of a raisin and fit inside this letter: “O.”
“I’m confident that the particles will be the most primitive stuff we’ve ever had on earth,” said University of Washington astronomy professor Donald Brownlee, lead scientist for NASA’s Stardust mission.
Stardust sounds magical, and since humans are made of the stuff, there is a temptation to crow, as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young did, that “we are golden.” The truth is less glamorous — much of it is sooty carbon blasted out of dying stars.
“It’s literally dirt,” said John Bradley, director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “It’s basically cosmic grime.”
But the stardust landing in Utah on Jan. 15 is probably the preserved legacy of a cloud that coalesced 4.6 billion years ago into the sun, its planets and planetoids and every living thing — including us.
“This material is ‘time equals zero’ for the solar system,” Bradley said.
Over time, planets change so much that every molecule is broken and rearranged — the Earth and its moon, for example, once were covered in seas of hot magma — so planetary bodies are virtually useless to scientists trying to understand where we came from.Comets, on the other hand, live in the dark, cold and relatively uneventful reaches of the solar system and are thought to be frozen leftovers from its formation, locking its original ingredients and their amounts in ice. Many scientists suspect that comets delivered both water and the complex building molecules of life to an otherwise rocky and barren young Earth.
Every once in a while, a comet is nudged into a new orbit near the sun. Comet Wild-2 (pronounced VILT-2) swung inward a million years ago and got an extra kick toward Mars in 1974. In February 1999, NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech sent a desk-sized spacecraft almost two billion miles to meet it.
The craft was named Stardust, and while it featured cameras and instruments, the craft amounted to a sophisticated catcher’s mitt. Engineers built the glove itself as a honeycomb full of the lightest manmade substance, a kind of fluffy glass called aerogel. Starting on New Year’s Eve two years ago, Stardust slipped into the tail of Comet Wild-2 about halfway to Jupiter. The craft opened its glove and entered a brutally punishing bombardment.
Scientists figured a couple places on the comet, warming as it drew toward the sun, would spout gases, rock and particles. Instead, more than 20 supersonic jets erupted from Wild-2 and sandblasted the Stardust craft even though it was 150 miles away, with millions of particles hitting at six times the speed of a rifle bullet.
That the craft survived is partly a credit to designers of its shields and partly luck.
Now Stardust is returning to Earth and will release its sample return canister for the fastest re-entry in the history of the U.S. space program, about 12 kilometers per second.
If the hot canister cracks and lets in any melting snow, the aerogel could soften. Outdoor air could contaminate the dust. Scientists plan to fly the canister to Johnson Space Center in Houston, where two days later it will be opened in a clean room. Then they will find out how well the catcher’s mitt worked.
The stardust particles create tiny tracks into the aerogel, and at least some tracks will be carved out of the aerogel using ultrasonic diamond blades invented for that purpose at Livermore Lab. In some cases, scientists will steer down the tracks and gather the particles with a microscopic needle.
“To put it literally, we do a colonoscopy,” Livermore’s Bradley said.
Samples of tracks and particles both whole and in slices will be sent around the world, but a great deal of the analysis will be done in the Bay Area, Brownlee said, at the University of California, Berkeley, at Stanford’s Linear Accelerator Center, at NASA Ames in Mountain View and at Lawrence Livermore Lab, where a vast array of high-tech instruments includes one of the world’s most advanced electron microscopes.
In each case, scientists expect to press the limits of technology to divine the origins of the solar system from specks of dust.
“I think in the end we’ll be able to answer a lot of questions about whether these are really representative materials from which everything in the solar system was made,” said NASA Ames research astrophysicist Scott Sandford.
He leads an international effort to examine the organic compounds that could make up a third of the dust, though organics are easily destroyed or changed by impacts with the aerogel. A small amount will be amino acids that, chained together, can form peptides and proteins. Scientists are keenly interested in how complex and how abundant these organic molecules are, because the greater quantity of complex organic molecules, the greater the foundations for the emergence of life.
Knowing those answers could help settle whether life on Earth arose because the planet and solar system are unique or whether the conditions for seeding life here are as common in the universe as, well, dirt.
“That’s the question,” Bradley said. “Are we typical? Or is this solar system the one-in-100 million morphology?”
“If this stuff is abundant,” said NASA’s Sandford, “then it increases the likelihood that life is abundant. But if not, then it depends more on the conditions on the surface of the planet. In any event, it strikes me that the odds are not bad that there’s a lot of life out there.” | <urn:uuid:c1821bd0-3cc1-4e78-8290-e983ba2f245b> | {
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The latest news from academia, regulators
research labs and other things of interest
Posted: Feb 19, 2014
Quantum computation in diamond
(Nanowerk News) Computers do not necessarily have to perform error-free calculations in order to provide perfect results – they only need to correct their errors in a reliable way. And this will become even more important in the future, when it is hoped that quantum computers will solve some tasks several times faster than conventional PCs with computing processes that are very efficient but also prone to disturbances.
An international team headed by physicists from the University of Stuttgart and the Stuttgart Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research has now found a way to control the quantum system of a diamond with a small number of nitrogen impurities particularly well (see paper in Nature: "Quantum error correction in a solid-state hybrid spin register"). The researchers can thus specifically address quantum bits, i.e. the smallest computing units of a quantum computer, in the diamond and combine several bits to a computing register. They use the new degree of control for a logic operation, which is essential for a quantum computer, and for error correction.
The physicists already possess quite accurate knowledge about where the strengths of a quantum computer would be: it could carry out searches in large databases, encodings and decodings, or the research tasks in quantum physics much faster than any conceivable conventional computer today. However, there is still no really clear idea of what the blueprint of a quantum computer should look like; neither is there currently a real favourite among the materials from which quantum processors could be made. Possible options here are ions trapped by electric fields, atoms in optical lattices, devices made of superconductors, or diamonds doped with tiny quantities of nitrogen, for example.
Physicists working with Jörg Wrachtrup, professor at the University of Stuttgart and Fellow of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, have been investigating for some time the diamonds which are sporadically interspersed with nitrogen. On the road to the quantum computer, they have now helped the diamonds over several hurdles simultaneously. The Stuttgart-based researchers did this by producing not only a quantum register and thus the counterpart of a conventional processor in a diamond; they were also able to reliably control the register, use it to carry out a logic operation and correct errors in it. “Since we meanwhile understand the quantum mechanics of our system well, we can produce quantum registers using a quite simple approach that doesn’t require complex cryogenic technology or laser systems,” says Jörg Wrachtrup.
A quantum register is in a superposition state of several qubits
A quantum register always contains individual qubits (short for quantum bits), which can be in one of two states just like conventional bits in order to represent a zero or a one. Unlike conventional bits, however, several qubits can be brought into superposition states in which every individual bit virtually floats between “zero” and “one”. This means each superposition state has a different occurence and these are contained in the quantum register as possibilities. These possibilities can be used like the bits of a conventional computer for some parallel computations.
The more quantum bits are combined in a register, the more powerful, but also the more sensitive, is the processor. This is because external disturbances push a qubit only too easily from the floating state between “one” and “zero” towards one of the two options. In the worst case, unwelcome external influences destroy the sensitive superposition and render it useless for parallel computations. The researchers in Stuttgart have now found a remedy for this.
Three nuclear spins are combined to a quantum register via a defect
They use two carbon atoms of the heavy C13 isotope and one nitrogen atom as the quantum bits. These atoms each have a nuclear spin which can adopt two orientations in a magnetic field and can be manipulated by means of radio frequency pulses. The orientation of the nuclear spin provides views into the human body in nuclear magnetic resonance tomography; however, in the qubit it is used to file the “zero” or “one” of a bit. The only thing now missing is a control unit to allow the Stuttgart-based researchers to control the quantum bits and combine them into a register. This is where the irregularity in the atomic lattice of the diamond, which is caused by the nitrogen atom, comes into play.
The nitrogen defect – physicists call it an NV centre (NV: nitrogen vacancy) – can become a trap for one single electron. An electron also has a spin whose orientation also has an effect on the orientation of the nuclear spin. The electron spin can be switched faster than the nuclear spins, but is more prone to the effect of disturbances. The researchers use it for control commands to the nuclear spins that cannot be transmitted with radio frequency pulses. The electron in the defect thus provides the communication between the nuclear spins in the quantum register. Finally, the physicists use it as a tool to help them read the nuclear spins.
A quantum register with fast switch and robust storage device
“In the past, the electron of the NV centre has been used as a storage device in order to expand the quantum register,” says Gerald Waldherr, who played a crucial role in the experiments. “We use the electron solely to control the nuclear spins on which the quantum information is stored.” This allows the researchers to use the advantages of both systems: the quantum register can be switched rapidly using an electron spin. The nuclear spins, in contrast, store the information in a relatively reliable way, as they withstand disturbances well.
Assisted by the electron spin, the physicists now use an ingenious combination of light and radio frequency pulses to manipulate the three nuclear spins into a superposition state initially: they entangle the nuclear spins. Quantum mechanical entanglement creates a kind of virtual bond between quantum particles so that they know of each other’s existence. Only entangled systems are suitable as quantum registers, because only they allow the parallel operation of the quantum computer.
A CNOT gate allows other computing operations
In the next step, the researchers showed that logic operations are possible in this quantum register using a CNOT gate – a logic operation that is particularly important for quantum computers. “All other operations can be realised with the CNOT gate and local operations on individual qubits,” explains Gerald Waldherr. The CNOT gate switches a bit depending on a second bit. If the latter represents a “one”, for example, the first one is set from “zero” to “one” or vice versa; it remains unchanged, however, if the latter is at “zero”. The researchers in Stuttgart carried out exactly this operation on the nuclear spins in their register, by sending a sequence of different radio frequency pulses to the NV centre or the nuclear spins.
The CNOT gate is not only indispensable for the computing power of a quantum computer, it also makes error correction possible. Although nuclear spins are not as sensitive to interferences as electron spins are, they are by no means immune. Gerald Waldherr and his colleagues demonstrated how possible errors in the quantum register can be cancelled for one of the possible superposition states of their quantum register.
To correct the errors, the scientists benefit from the fact that the superposition states are not arbitrary combinations of all possible spin orientations. Rather, in one of these superposition states all qubits are either “one” or “zero”. In another state, two are always “one”. Errors are thus evident immediately. And with the aid of the two intact qubits the original state of the third can be reconstructed. The CNOT operation is the tool of choice for this, because it switches one bit depending on another one. An ingenious sequence of CNOT operations on the three qubits of the quantum register thus not only shows whether one bit deviates from the characteristic pattern of the particular superposition state, it even corrects the error immediately.
The plan is to increase the number of qubits in the quantum register
“Our current work shows that the defect centres in diamonds are significantly more versatile than we originally thought,” says Jörg Wrachtrup. “We have obtained the new findings primarily through a better understanding of the defects and not by investing much into the material.”
The researchers will rely on smart ideas in the future as well, as they try to further improve the prospects of the diamonds in the competition for the most useful quantum register. First they want to increase the number of qubits in their register. To this end, they want to integrate nuclear spins, which find it more difficult to communicate with the electron than the three spins of their current computing register. They could also expand the quantum register, if they succeed in entangling several NV centres and addressing the relevant nuclear spins in the vicinity of the individual centres. They would thus also have networked the nuclear spins, which are controlled by the individual defects. The quantum register would then slowly be approaching a size where it could actually challenge conventional processors for some computing tasks. | <urn:uuid:dc21f2cb-dd8f-4d03-b7d5-7a553feee78d> | {
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The Crimean War in general was an exercise in futility, but the ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ was the most futile offensive of all. Heroic and inspiring as it was, it was borne simply of miscommunication between army leaders, and it need never have happened.
France and Britain got into the Crimean war in March 1854 for relatively solid reasons. The lands of their ally Turkey were under threat from the Russians, and the country badly needed help to protect them. However, as ‘Famous Land Battles’ by Richard Humble explains, the reasons for remaining in the Crimean Peninsula were far less solid. By 23rd June, thanks to a combination of stout resistance by the Turks and outbreaks of cholera within their ranks, the Russians withdrew from Turkish territory without the Franco-British Army, based at Scutori in Turkey, firing a shot. However, the people ‘at home’ weren’t content to see the men withdrawn; the politicians were embarrassed, the people were fired up for a fight, and The Times newspaper called for the men to ‘do something’ before they came home. Retreat was not on the cards.
Instead, the Army was told to invade Crimea (now in modern-day Romania, then part of the Russian empire) in an attempt to capture the strongest Russian naval base (Sevastopol). The decision to do so was made in a Cabinet meeting on 28th June, far away from the fighting. The Commander in Chief of the British Army, Lord Raglan, was not happy at being forced to attack an unknown territory with what he considered inadequate supplies, but he went along with it in the end, as did Marshal St Amaud, the French Commander, who was being urged on by the Emperor Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, Napoleon’s nephew and heir.
Initially, the Franco-British Army (which was bigger and had more guns than Prince Menschikov’s Russian force, though the Russians had the high ground) actually met with some success. The first attack was made on the 20th September, and the Russians, being very anxious to save their guns, turned tail and left the way to Sevastopol clear after a short burst of resistance. If the retreating army had been pursued the war might have ended then and there, but the Franco-British spent two days tending to their casualties. This gave the Russians the chance to regroup, prepare and block the harbour by sinking ships. The Franco-British therefore settled for skirting round Sevastopol and setting up in Balaclava, 6 miles away.
Yet more time was wasted in exhaustively planning a siege on Sevastopol, which only kicked off on 17th October, giving the Russians further time to mount defences and call for reinforcements; these duly arrived on 24th October. The two forces were now roughly the same size, the Franco-British advantage lost, and still Russia held the high ground. The best way to get from Balaclava to Sevastopol was via a ridge, named ‘Causeway Heights’ by the British, which led up to a plateau bordering the coastal city and naval base to the north west. On either side of the ridge lay the North and South valleys. The Franco-British had dug six redoubts, or small armed forts, to hold the ridge and the North Valley, and on 25th October General Liprandi, the commander of the Russian reinforcements, attacked these redoubts. After the Russians had stormed the first redoubt, the protectors of the next three fled, and the Russian Cavalry and Infantry began to move down the ridge towards Balaclava. It now fell to the British Heavy and Light Brigades in the South Valley and the 93rd Highland Regiment, commanded by Sir Colin Campbell, to mount a defence, and when shells drove the Cavalry back at first, the Highlanders were left as the only force within range.
Lord Raglan set up his headquarters at Sapoune Heights, at the far end of the ridge from the Cavalry, where he could see the whole field and plan his tactics. He judged that the riders would need backup from the 1st and 4th Infantry divisions to restrain the Russians. Until they came, he ordered the Cavalry to stay put. Many hotly argued that they should support their countrymen, but the Earl of Lucan, Commander of the Cavalry division, would not budge until given permission. A force of Russians was sent to deal with the Highlanders, but they bravely held their ground and fired volleys into the charging horses. The Russians panicked, wheeled and retreated, but not before Raglan had ordered eight squadrons of dragoons from Heavy Brigade to move forward in an attempt to help; in the event, they were too late. However, they had the bad luck to run into the rest of the Russian Cavalry, just advancing down Causeway Heights.
Had they hesitated it would all have been over for them, as the Russians outnumbered them eight to one. However, amazingly it was the Russians who hesitated, giving the Dragoons time to line up and charge… uphill! The Russians, wrong-footed, again retreated and pulled back down into the North Valley. Had the Light Brigade charged now to pursue the Russians, they might have carried the day, but though the men begged the Earl of Cardigan, Commander of the Light Cavalry Brigade, to let them make a move, he too refused to budge until bidden to by the Earl of Lucan.
Lord Raglan, on his hill, dithered. To charge or not to charge? He really wanted that Infantry support, but it had not yet arrived. Eventually, he gave the Earl of Lucan the rather vague order to advance and take any opportunity to recover the heights, adding that he should expect Infantry support. Lucan felt that, since he couldn’t see the Cavalry having a chance without the Infantry as backup, he should continue to wait until they arrived. He got his forces ready, but made no move. In the end, the Russians were spurred on to make the first move. General Liprandi ordered that the guns be wheeled out of the captured redoubts and made safe behind the Russian line. Raglan, high above, saw what was happening and finally gave his order: he sent a message via a Captain Nolan, saying, ‘Lord Raglan wishes the Cavalry to advance rapidly to the front- follow the enemy, and try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns.’ However, he forgot that his vantage point was different to that of the Commanders down in the Valley.
The Commanders could not see the guns, and they could not see the small forces moving them. They could only see main Russian Army directly ahead, shielded by guns, plus more Russian troops and guns above the left, at Fedioukine Heights. From their perspective, ‘to the front’ meant straight ahead, and the hidden guns that Raglan actually wished them to head for were to their right (or ‘right flank front’). The Earl of Lucan saw at once that it would be suicide to head straight for the enemy in the manner he thought he was being told to, and did question the order. However, the already excited Captain Nolan, incensed by what he saw as dithering in the face of an urgent command, did not understand why Lucan asked, on his reiterating that the Cavalry should attack immediately, “Attack what? What guns, sir?” He replied abruptly, without stopping to investigate the root of the confusion, “There, my lord, is your enemy, there are your guns”, pointing towards the Russians at the end of North Valley.
Grimly, Lucan turned and gave the order to Cardigan to lead the attack. Cardigan saw too that his troops would come under fire on three sides, but Lucan said firmly, “I know it, but Lord Raglan will have it.” One can only imagine the pallor of the Earl of Cardigan’s face as he drew up the lines and gave the Light Brigade a quiet order to proceed. The men, who could see the peril of this advance as clearly as their commander, nonetheless proceeded in an orderly and calm manner. Lord Raglan could only watch in horror from his hill as his Cavalry turned in a direction that he had never intended them to go in, gathered speed, and galloped bravely into the very jaws of the enemy, where they disappeared from sight as guns fired on them from all sides. Cardigan miraculously survived, but just 195 out of 700 men who mounted the charge made it out alive, and 500 horses died. The casualties would have been worse, had not the French Chasseurs d’Afrique charged the Russians on Fedioukine Heights as the Light Brigade floundered below. After all the bravery and sacrifice, the battle ended in a stalemate after the Infantry arrived, with neither side gaining ground.
In the end the whole war was a bit of a damp squib. The Russians did give up Sevastopol in the end, thereby relinquishing control of the Black Sea, and many political alliances were developed that would play their part in later wars. However, it was a war fought for war’s sake, as really, with Turkey’s lands already safe, it need never have taken place. The Light Brigade need never have charged, either, if the leaders had been better communicators. These leaders, like the Light Brigade themselves, were ‘only following orders’; however, the difference between a General and the common solider is that the General should have the ability to think and question, and to take into account factors that might influence how blindly the order should be followed. The Commander in Chief, the Generals and the British parliament and public were all to blame for the calamity that befell the unfortunate Light Brigade. Only the Light Brigade themselves paid the price. | <urn:uuid:bb8f2b14-6aee-4b9f-ae10-d1942292ef97> | {
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Today marks the 48th anniversary of the death of one of America’s foremost civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated 48 years ago in 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. We celebrate his legacy and look at some of the words he left us with in his quest to see a peaceful, equal and non-racial society.
A Baptist minister, fervent activist, humanitarian, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience.
Dr. King’s legacy has inspired civil rights activists across the world and his vision for a non-racial and equal society is shared by many.
We celebrate his legacy and look at some of the words he left us with in his quest to see a peaceful, equal and non-racial society.
1. “An Individual has not started living fully until they can rise above the narrow confines of individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of humanity. Every person must decide at some point, whether they will walk in light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness”. Quoted in The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Second Edition
2. “I have decided to stick to love…Hate is too great a burden to bear”. Quoted in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches.
Breaking news of Dr King’s assassination Photo: blog.genealogybank
Breaking news of Dr King’s assassination
3. “There is another side called justice. And justice is really love in calculation. Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love”. Montgomery Bus Boycott speech, at Holt Street Baptist Church, December 1955.
5. “The thing that we need in the world today is a group of men and women who will stand up for right and to be opposed to wrong, wherever it is”. Rediscovering Lost Values, 1954.4. “An individual has not begun to live until he can rise above the narrow horizons of his particular individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. And this is one of the big problems of life, that so many people never quite get to the point of rising above self. And so they end up the tragic victims of self-centeredness. They end up the victims of distorted and disrupted personality”. Conquering Self-centeredness, Sermon, Montgomery, Alabama.
6. “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane”. Quoted in a speech to the Second National Convention of the Medical Committee for Human Rights, Chicago, March, 1966.
7. “If you can’t fly, run; if you can’t run, walk; if you can’t walk, crawl; but by all means keep moving”. Founders Day Address, April 1960.
8. “I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good”.
Martin Luther King and wife Coretta Scott King; “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear”. Photo: AFP/Getty Images
Martin Luther King and wife Coretta Scott King; “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear”.
9. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character”. I Have a Dream speech, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963.
10. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”. –Strength to Love, 1963. | <urn:uuid:d6f68505-7bea-471e-84a3-9594300bab23> | {
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The Europeans and Indians commercial contact has a long history. But it was in the end of fifteenth century, that India began to be seen as an attractive destination by the Europeans. Initially these trading Europeans only had commercial interests but by passage of time they indulged in the political affairs. Finally they established colonies here, which also led to rivalry among European powers, initially for commercial gains and later for political gains. Ultimately, the British established their rule in India.
There were five European companies which established their trading centres at various locations in coastal India. Let us look into the details.
|European Company Name||Headquarter in India||Founded in Year|
|Portuguese East India Company||Cochin, later Goa||1498|
|English East India Company||Surat(1st), later BombayMasulipattnam, later Madras and finally Calcutta||1600|
|Dutch East India Company||Pulicat, later NagapattinamHugli||1602|
|Danish East India Company||Tranquebar, later Serampore in Bengal||1616|
|French East India Company||Surat, later Pondicherry||1664|
Vasco Da Gama found the Cape of Good Hope route from Europe to India and reached Calicut in 1498. He was received by the Hindu ruler of Calicut Zamorin. Portuguese established trading stations at Calicut, Cannanore and Cochin. Initially, Cochin was the capital of Portuguese in India, but later Goa replaced it.
Francisco de Almeida was first governor of Portuguese in India. He is credited for introduction of policy of Blue Water.
Alfonso d’ Albuquerque became the second governor of Portuguese in India in 1509. He introduced policy of Imperialism. In 1510, he captured Goa from the ruler of Bijapur. Since then, Goa became the capital of Portuguese settlements in India. Albuquerque built a fort at Cochin. He also encouraged the people of his country to marry Indian women. He also captured Malacca and Ceylon.
Martin Alfonso de Souza became Portuguese governor in 1542. Along with him, the famous Jesuit Saint Fransisco Xavier arrived in India. By that time, they had captured Diu and Bassein.
Portuguese power began to decline by end of 16th century. In 1631, Hugli was lost to Mughal noble of Shahjahan. In 1661, Bombay was given in dowry to Charles II of England by the then Portuguese king upon his sisters marriage to English royal. In 1739, Marathas captured Bassein.
Portuguese were later left with just Goa, Diu and Daman which they retained till 1961.
the Dutch East India Company was formed in 1602. They set up settlements at Masulipattanam, Pulicat, Surat, Karaikal, Nagapattinam, Chinsura, Kasimbazar, Baranagore, Patna, Balasore and Cochin.
In the 17th century, they defeated Portuguese and replaced portuguese as the most dominant power in European trade in the East, including India. Pulicat was their main centre, later it was replaced by Nagapattinam.
After middle of 17th century, English began to emerge as colonial power. Anglo-Dutch rivalry lasted for 7 decades and led to defeat of Dutch in 1759 in the Battle of Bedara.
Withe the advent of Europeans in India, the English did not want to be left behind. The English East India Company was established in 1600. Captain William Hawkins arrived at the royal court of Jahangir to seek permission to open factory at Surat. In 1612 Jahangir issued a Farman permitting the set up of factory at Surat.
Sir Thomas Roe arrived in India as ambassador of James I to Jahangir’s court in 1615 to seek permission for establishment of trading centres in different parts of the country. By 1619, factories at Agra, Allahabad, Baroda and Broach were set up. The company acquired Bombay from Charles II on lease.
Francis Day founded Madras in 1639 where Fort St.George was built. In 1690, Job Charnock established a factory at Sutanati. Zamindari of three villages, Sutanati, Kalikata and Gobindpur was acquired by English in 1698. Later it developed into the city of Calcutta, where Fort William was built. Calcutta became the capital of British India later. The English East India Company continued its existence till 1858.
With the coming of Europeans in India, the Netherlands also took part in trading activities. The danish settlement at Tranquebar(now known as Tharangambadi in TN) in 1620. Another important Denmark settlement in India was Serampore in Bengal, which served as their headquarter in India. The English purchased all their settlements in India in 1845.
The French East India Company was formed in 1664 by Colbert. First factory was established at Surat by Francois Martin in 1668. Another factory was setup at Masulipatanam. In 1673, Pondicherry was founded by Francois Martin, he was the first governor of the French headquarters in India. Other french factories in India were at Mahe, Karaikal and Chandranagore.
Anglo- French Conflict (Carnatic Wars)
The downfall of Mughal empire led to political turmoil in India. the Deccan region gained independence from Mughal empire under Nizam-ul-Malik. The Carnatic region came under Nizam’s dominion.
Of the three Carnatic wars, the second war was triggered by domestic reasons. First and Third war was influenced by events in Europe.
First Carnatic war/ Anglo-French War (1746-1748):
In 1740, with break out of Austrian War of Succession in Europe, England and France became rivals. The French besieged Madras. They defeated the army of Carnatic Nawab at St. Thomas battle under French governor Dupleix. When the Austrian Succession War was concluded withe Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, the first anglo-french war also came to an end.
Second Anglo-French War/ Carnatic War (1749-54)
The French Governor of Pondicherry, Dupleix aligned with Muzaffar Jung of Hyderabad and Chanda Sahib of Arcot, supporting their claim for throne. After initial gains by French, the English won a decisive victory under Robert Clive. The 2nd Carnatic war concluded in Treaty of Pondicherry also known as Treaty of Godeheau(new French Governor who replaced Dupleix) in 1754.
Third Carnatic war/ Anglo-French War (1758-1763):
The outbreak of the Seven Years War(1756-1763) in Europe led to 3rd Carnatic War. The French troops under Count de Lally captured Fort St. David. The English dfeated them at Wandiwash in 1760. English captured and destroyed Pondicherry. When Seven Year war came to an end in Europe by Treaty of Paris in 1763, the third Carnatic War also ended. The French were restricted to Pondicherry, Karaikkal, Mahe and Yenam.
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THURSDAY, July 1 (HealthDay News) -- The number of children ages 12 months to 23 months immunized against hepatitis A increased in the United States, and rates of hepatitis A reached a record low after new vaccination recommendations were issued a few years ago, a new federal report says.
Hepatitis A is a contagious liver disease than can cause mild illness lasting for a few weeks or severe illness lasting several months.
In 2006, the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended routine hepatitis A vaccination for all children ages 12-23 months, regardless of risk category or location. The recommendation was issued after the minimum age for which the vaccine was licensed was lowered to 12 months from the previous minimum of 24 months.
In the new study, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers analyzed data from eight Immunization Information System sentinel sites across the country and found that average hepatitis A vaccination coverage with one dose for children ages 12 to 23 months increased from 17 percent in 2006 to 47 percent in 2009. Average full vaccination coverage with two doses for children ages 12 to 23 months increased from 1 percent in 2006 to 15 percent in 2009.
The rate of increase for vaccination coverage was greatest in 2006 and the first quarter of 2007, but the rate of increase then slowed and coverage has plateaued, the researchers said.
The incidence of hepatitis A in the United States reached a historic low in 2007, the most recent year for which data are available.
While a single dose of hepatitis A vaccine is highly effective, a second dose should be given for long-term protection, the researchers noted.
The researchers wrote that "immunization programs and vaccine providers should encourage children to receive hepatitis A vaccine, beginning at age 12 months. Reminder/recall notification and school or child-care entry vaccination requirements might contribute to increased vaccination coverage. Continued monitoring is needed to assess the trend in completion of the hepatitis A vaccine series among children."
The study appears in the July 2 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about hepatitis A.
SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 2, 2010
Copyright © 2010 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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The smooth muscles surrounding the teat duct should becontracted and the teat canal tightly closed between milkings to avoid bacterial passage from the teat orifice into the interior of the gland. A teat-end in good condition is an important resistance factor to bacterial colonization of the mammary gland.
Teat skin condition is also a main point of a mastitis control strategy. Chapped and cracked teats are a perfect environment for bacteria to develop: warmth, humidity and food are available and Staphylococcus aureus or Streptococcus agalactiae like to colonize these places. Thus, the quarter easily gets contaminated: directly (propagation of the germs) or indirectly (via milking machine contamination).
What's the score for your cows? Find it out with the teat condition test! | <urn:uuid:bc828503-a2b8-4d7c-9ba0-f78483040301> | {
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Scientists Discover New Bat Species In West Africa
An international team of scientists, including biologists from, the University of York, has discovered five new species of bats in West Africa.
The team, which also included researchers from the Czech University of Life Sciences and the Academy of Sciences, Charles University in the Czech Republic, discovered a wealth of unexpected diversity among Vesper bats in Senegal.
During seven expeditions to the Niokolo-Koba National Park in south-eastern Senegal, and subsequent genetic analysis, the scientists discovered that five species of bats looked similar to other populations in Africa, but differed significantly genetically from them.
Taxonomists are now working on describing formally these new species – Vesper bats (Vespertilionidae) are already the largest family of bats with more than 400 known species. The research is published in Frontiers in Zoology.
The researchers studied 213 vespertilionid bats from Senegal and identified ten species, five of which were significantly genetically different from their nominate species — Pipistrellus hesperidus, Nycticeinops schlieffenii, Scotoecus hirundo, Neoromicia nana and Neoromicia somalica.
One of the research team, Nancy Irwin, of the Department of Biology at York, says: “The fact that these Senegalese bats are unrelated and are different to their cousins in other parts of Africa, suggests that West Africa may have been isolated in the past and formed a refugium, where populations gradually diverged and even acquired new chromosomal configurations. “This exciting finding confirms that West Africa may represent an underestimated bio-geographic hotspot with many more species to discover.”
On the Net: | <urn:uuid:d74691a6-b46e-4c80-adb1-9f553364f2d0> | {
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Intensive fish production worldwide has increased the risk of infectious diseases. However, before any infection can be established, pathogens must penetrate the primary barrier. In fish, the three major routes of infection are the skin, gills and gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The GI tract is essentially a muscular tube lined by a mucous membrane of columnar epithelial cells that exhibit a regional variation in structure and function. In the last two decades, our understanding of the endocytosis and translocation of bacteria across this mucosa, and the sorts of cell damage caused by pathogenic bacteria, has increased. Electron microscopy has made a valuable contribution to this knowledge. In the fish-farming industry, severe economic losses are caused by furunculosis (agent, Aeromonas salmonicida spp. salmonicida) and vibriosis [agent, Vibrio (Listonella) anguillarum]. This article provides an overview of the GI tract of fish from an electron microscopical perspective focusing on cellular damage (specific attack on tight junctions and desmosomes) caused by pathogenic bacteria, and interactions between the ‘good’ intestinal bacteria [e.g. lactic acid bacteria (LAB)] and pathogens. Using different in vitro methods, several studies have demonstrated that co-incubation of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) foregut (proximal intestine) with LAB and pathogens can have beneficial effects, the cell damage caused by the pathogens being prevented, to some extent, by the LAB. However, there is uncertainty over whether or not similar effects are observed in other species such as Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.). When discussing cellular damage in the GI tract of fish caused by pathogenic bacteria, several important questions arise including: (1) Do different pathogenic bacteria use different mechanisms to infect the gut? (2) Does the gradual development of the GI tract from larva to adult affect infection? (3) Are there different infection patterns between different fish species? The present article addresses these and other questions. | <urn:uuid:582acd77-5765-41a2-955c-1424e8643de5> | {
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by Staff Writers
Aalto, Finland (SPX) Nov 23, 2012
Researchers at Aalto University have developed a simple method for reducing the amount of phosphorus in the wastewater of a pulp mill. The method is called simultaneous precipitation using iron sulphate. A separate treatment stage is not required, as the precipitation takes place simultaneously with the actual biological wastewater treatment.
Iron sulphate is added to the wastewater prior to the biological wastewater treatment process, and the phosphorus dissolved into the water is precipitated with the biomass at the treatment plant. Finally, the phosphorus is removed from the plant with the sludge.
In Finland, sludge is generally burned, in which case the phosphorus would end up in the ashes and would thus be reusable in the form of fertilizers, for example.
+ At best, the amount of phosphorus in the wastewater was reduced by more than 80 per cent, when the amount of iron fed into the process was 10 milligrams per litre,' commented researcher Sakari Toivakainen, who is currently preparing his doctoral dissertation.
Simultaneous precipitation creates savings in wastewater treatment costs
+ Post-treatment precipitation using aluminium produces difficult-to-process sludge. On the whole, simultaneous precipitation would seem to be a more advantageous option, Timo Laukkanen, Doctor of Science (Technology), concludes.
Simultaneous precipitation does not require additional wastewater treatment units, so there is no need for additional energy in the treatment of the water, either. An additional benefit of the method is that iron sulphate is an inexpensive chemical.
A municipal wastewater treatment plant in Saint Petersburg constructed a few years ago employs simultaneous precipitation, among other methods.
The industry, on the other hand, is only just waking up to the possibility of applying simultaneous precipitation.
Wastewater from the forestry industry contains less phosphorus than municipal wastewater, so the dosage of the iron chemical remains within reasonable limits.
Experiments at the pulp mill
+ From the viewpoint of comprehensive environmental protection and sustainable development, the best method is always the one that saves energy and minimises the amount of waste.
With the help of the studied simultaneous precipitation method, it is possible to completely avoid additional stages of wastewater treatment, reduce the amount of solid waste and save energy.
Simultaneous precipitation produces hundreds of thousands of euros worth of savings in operating costs, as energy consumption and the need for additional chemicals is reduced, Professor Olli Dahl crystallises.
The research has been published in the Water Science and Technology journal.
Water News - Science, Technology and Politics
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A Guide to Navigating the Complex Global Landscape
Chapter 5: Rules
This chapter outlines the main international rules of relevance to the governance of genetic resources. Summaries of the rules are given in five thematic categories: collection, conservation and access and benefit-sharing (ABS); health and disease control; human rights; intellectual property protection; and other. These categories are used for organizational purposes; several of the rules are relevant to more than one of the themes. Genetic resources are covered by a range of international rules. The focus in this book is on those that are potentially universal – that is, open to all states to subscribe to. International rules can take the form of legally binding treaties and protocols, which establish legal obligations for states parties, or of voluntary guidance in the form of standards, guidelines, codes and declarations. The latter may not have legal force, but they can, nonetheless, exert influence on state behaviour. Treaties generally take longer to negotiate and have more formal procedures for review and amendment than voluntary agreements. Voluntary guidance can, therefore, be easier to update and keep pace more readily with scientific advances. Voluntary guidance may be used as an interim measure while treaties are under negotiation, but often they are designed to play a more permanent role. The CBD was adopted in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) and entered into force in 1993. It currently has 193 states parties.
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|For Immediate Release:
Dec. 15, 2009
For more information, contact:
NAEYC Radio presents...
Can digital media enhance learning?
(Washington, DC) – This month’s NAEYC Radio segment features Susan Zelman, who discusses how computers, the Internet and other technologies can enhance early learning. Ms. Zelman, senior vice president for Education and Children's Content for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), advocates for the use of digital media in their Ready To Learn Initiative. The initiative is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
Rae Pica and Mark R. Ginsberg interviewed Ms. Zelman in this month’s segment of NAEYC Radio, a program brought to you by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the BAM Radio Network.
In this segment, Ms. Zelman says that while digital media should not replace other forms of play, it is important to allow children to use these new tools for learning purposes. She also called digital media a “strong teaching tool to promote intergenerational learning.” The Ready To Learn Initiative has been around since the 1990s and is based on research that some digital media can help foster pre-reading and reading skills needed for success in kindergarten and beyond.
“I don’t think it’s dangerous to allow children to watch TV or go on a website if it’s done in moderation, and the best way to use these materials are really with a lot of co-viewing with parents and children working on these things together,” Ms. Zelman says.
As senior vice president for Education and Children's Content, Ms. Zelman develops and oversees the vision, focus and related strategy for CPB's education and children's content initiatives and manages CPB's administration of the Department of Education's Ready To Learn grant.
Mark R. Ginsberg, Ph.D., is the executive director of NAEYC.
The BAM Radio Network was originally launched as a resource for parents, aimed at delivering the most reliable information on early childhood development and developmentally appropriate parenting to busy moms and dads. Created by leading early childhood experts, the programming quickly became a popular resource among teachers and educators and was expanded to include an Educators' Channel.
Founded in 1926, the National Association for the Education of Young Children has nearly 90,000 members worldwide. The association is the largest and most influential voice for early childhood education professionals and the field of early childhood education in the United States.
Founded in 1926, the National Association for the Education of Young Children is the largest and most influential advocate for high-quality early care and education in the United States. | <urn:uuid:668fac35-0103-4e5f-bd6d-50418c3fa983> | {
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Eight ways to protect your garden from ice and cold
By Denise Ruttan
The Arctic blast that recently chilled much of Oregon might make you worried about your plants.
Ross Penhallegon, a horticulturist with the Oregon State University Extension Service, advises several ways to protect your landscape from frigid conditions.
"Insulation is the key thing for people to think about," said Penhallegon, a horticulture professor in OSU's College of Agricultural Sciences. "The biggest issue is that it's only December. This is the first of many cold spells. We still have the rest of December, January, February, parts of March and even longer in eastern Oregon in which we could still see some potential damage."
"Mulch, compost, leaves and any kind of organic matter will protect root systems. Snow can also be a tremendous insulator for many plants," he added.
Below are more of Penhallegon's tips to shield your garden from frost.
* Though snow can act as excellent mulch on the ground, it can also weigh down the branches of shrubs with frail structures, such as arborvitae, boxwoods, young rhododendrons and azaleas. Every two to three days, knock the snow off branches and wrap rope around the branches of bushes and shrubs. The branches of bushes and shrubs can be completely restructured. Tying the branches upward helps restructure the branches to a more upright position before the storm.
* "Rhododendrons are hammered right now particularly because the frozen ground," Penhallegon said. That's because there's no water available to move needed moisture and nutrients from the roots to the leaves and to other tissues throughout the plant, he said. Thirsty rhododendron leaves will look floppy and weak until the temperatures move above 32 degrees and the ground thaws. A mulch of leaves or snow, or compost, can help insulate root systems, allowing water to move from the ground and into the plant most of the winter.
* It's especially important to protect container plants since the pots can freeze, Penhallegon said. Cover them with compost, mulch, old blankets, or anything that can help insulate them. Don’t leave pots hanging. Place on the ground and cover.
* Most trees go dormant in the winter and can withstand temperatures in the negative degrees. The exception? Non-native trees that do not have the same cold tolerance as native trees. Be sure to plant trees with cold hardiness such as most tree fruits, Douglas fir, spruce, birch, and maples.
* Don't walk on your lawn, especially if there is no snow insulating the grass. Walking on it can break the leaf tissue and damage the grass if it is frozen, Penhallegon said.
* Keep your greenhouse above 35 degrees and plants inside will likely survive, Penhallegon advised.
* Next spring you may notice some brown freeze streaks and damage on the leaves of the spring-flowering trees and bulbs you put in the ground recently, Penhallegon said. Remember that this cold spell likely will cause a lot of leaf and tissue damage. Frost damage causes leaves to appear water-soaked or shriveled, or to turn dark brown or black — but does not always kill the plant.
* Generally do not water your plants in freezing conditions, Penhallegon said. But shrubs growing underneath the eaves of a house are susceptible to drought damage. Water them deeply every six to eight weeks only when the air temperature is above freezing and early in the day.
Image above: Snow covers landscape plants in a yard in Corvallis during the recent Dec. 6, 2013 snowfall in Corvallis. Snow can serve as an insulator to protect plants from the cold. Photo by Tiffany Woods.
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By Martina Bagnoli and Kate Gerry
The Medieval World explores significant themes of medieval art through an examination of nearly 150 stunning objects from the Walters Art Museum, one of the richest collections of medieval art in the United States. The book features examples of sculpture, metalwork, enamels, stained glass, jewelry and illuminated manuscripts, ranging in date from Late Antiquity to the early Renaissance.
By means of a lively narrative, this book serves as a guide to a fuller understanding and appreciation of medieval art. Divided into topics such as the classical tradition, materials and manufacture, liturgical implements and their context, relics and reliquaries, and objects from daily life, each of the chapters is generously illustrated with full views, feature boxes and details.
This book features a selection of works from the museum’s collection. An extensive and fully annotated checklist, bibliography, and index provide a gateway to further reading. The Medieval World is a celebration of the creativity, ingenuity and skill of the artists who produced the works of art, as well as the tastes of their patrons.
10.8"h x 8.3"w | <urn:uuid:b6aaac65-1bdd-48cf-bf23-e0c29fb7dbd2> | {
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According to new scientific data issued by the World Bank, Ho Chi Minh City will be among the cities across the world that will see worst affects of global warming and rise in temperatures by upto two degrees celsius in the next two to three decades.
|HCMC will be among the worst affected from global warming, according to a WB report (Photo: SGGP)|
In the South East Asia region, Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila and Yangon will also see similar changes in climate.
Flooding will cause a major worry in urban areas in Vietnam, particularly because of increase in sea intrusion in the Mekong Delta area.
The Mekong Delta region is a major source of food in Vietnam, producing around 50 percent of the country’s agricultural produce and contributing significantly to the country’s rice export.
Sea-level rise of 30cm, expected to go up by 2040, could result in loss of 12 percent of rice cultivable area.
The World Bank is working with the Government of Vietnam on a range of policies to mitigate the impact of climate change and implementing measures in Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta to address some of these issues. | <urn:uuid:6693e8de-944c-4540-b21a-95a809c0ab9e> | {
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Andrew Beard (1849-1921)
Andrew Beard was born a slave on a plantation in Woodland, Alabama, shortly before slavery ended. Andrew Beard was a farmer, carpenter, blacksmith, a railroad worker, a businessman and finally an inventor.
In 1881, he patented his first invention, a plow, and sold the patent rights for $4,000 in 1884. In 1887, Andrew Beard patented a second plaw and sold it for $5,200. Beard invested the money he made from his plow inventions into a profitable real-estate business.
In 1892, he patented a rotary engine. In 1897, Andrew Beard patented an improvement to railroad car couplers commonly called the Jenny Coupler . It did the dangerous job of hooking railroad cars together, Beard, himself had lost a leg in a car coupling accident. As an ex-railroad worker, Andrew Beard had the right idea that probably saved countless lives and limbs. Andrew Beard received $50,000 for the patent rights to his Jenny coupler. | <urn:uuid:9b184809-759d-417a-a75a-a8012f9dab10> | {
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Venus of Craiova
The Venus of Craiova, Romania
"Mica Venus din Sălcuţa " (Small Salcuta Venus)
Ani: 15 000-10 000 î.Hr.
(? This seems too old if the Venus is from the Salcuta culture, which is in the aeneolithic, at most 5 000 years BP - Don)
Ceramică de Sălcuţa.
Vela. Dolj. Oltenia. România
Muzeul Regional Craiova. Foto: Agrandi
Comunicare prezentată la al 6-lea Congres
Internaţional de Istorie. Oslo - 1929
"Des survuvances paleolithiques dans le milieu neolithique de la Dacie" de I. Andrieşescu
Photo and Text: http://www.cultura-romana.com/Pagina295-301.pdf
Salcuta CultureSalcuta culture is from the late neolithic, and used ceramics. Copper metallurgy was well developed, and in Romania the culture was expressed in the area southeast of Banat, Oltenia, and west of Valachia.
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by Guest Blogger Ana Galan
One person creates 23 lbs of waste in one year by consuming coffee or tea in a disposable cup every day.
In the United States, about 200 miliion cups of coffee are used per day. Much of this coffee is being served in a disposable cup. Can you imagine the amount of waste that these take away coffees are generating?
After living in Berlin, Germany and in Canada, one of the first things I wondered when I moved to Palo Alto was, ‘Why aren’t people bringing their own coffee mugs? Why hasn’t anyone thought about a solution to solve this disposable waste problem?’
In fact, people have thought about addressing this problem. There is Just Swap, a startup in Berlin. They are trying to reduce disposable cup waste by providing a reusable cup that you can get by paying a deposit of a few Euros with your coffee. The cup is available in different cafes and can also be returned in these cafes. That makes it easy to return the cup and receive the deposit back.
So, I thought, if Berlin has a reusable system, Silicon Valley should have one too! That is how I found GO Box. While Just Swap focuses on the disposable cups problem and developed a solution to it, GO Box is working on solving the entire take away problem: they are providing reusable to-go food containers and just launched reusable to-go cups in downtown Palo Alto. Whenever you take your food or drink away, you are receiving it in a container that can be reused.
If you generate 23 lbs of waste a year by using disposable cups for your daily coffee, can you imagine how much waste you produce if you order a meal per day using a food delivery company? Taking into consideration that food delivery is a fast-growing market, the amount of waste it produces is a fast-growing problem. The GO Box solution might help us move a step closer to a conscious and sustainable way of eating and consuming. | <urn:uuid:6ca9db63-5b2e-4300-87d3-1d22226ac578> | {
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Yesterday, with our friends at the Task Force and the National Black Justice Coalition, we released new analysis of Black transgender respondents in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. The analysis is based on the experiences of 381 respondents who are Black or Black multiracial, and some of the results are startling:
- Black transgender people had an extremely high unemployment rate at 26 percent, two times the rate of the overall transgender sample and four times the rate of the general population.
- A startling 41 percent of Black respondents said they had experienced homelessness at some point in their lives, more than five times the rate of the general U.S. population.
- Black transgender people lived in extreme poverty with 34 percent reporting a household income of less than $10,000 per year. This is more than twice the rate for transgender people of all races (15 percent), four times the general Black population rate (9 percent), and eight times the general U.S. population rate (4 percent).
- Black transgender people were affected by HIV in devastating numbers. More than one-fifth of respondents were living with HIV (20.23 percent), compared to a rate of 2.64 percent for transgender respondents of all races, 2.4 percent for the general Black population, and 0.60 percent of the general U.S. population.
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said
“This report confirms what we’ve long known to be true: being transgender and Black in the United States presents unique challenges on the path to full equality. This problem is deeply important to me and to NCTE where every day we hear from transgender people of color who survive in the face of racism and transphobia. This report should be a lesson to all of us that a world with transgender equality is a world with racial equality.”
Watch the video after the jump. | <urn:uuid:d588cd0a-c916-4d09-bd54-f5a041166a91> | {
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This page is concerned with clinical pharmacology of the tumescent technique for local anesthesia using large volumes of very dilute lidocaine (local anesthetic) and epinephrine (vasoconstrictor that shrinks capillaries). The word tumescent means swollen and firm. With the tumescent technique such a large volume of dilute lidocaine is injected into the targeted fatty tissues that those areas become tumescent (swollen and firm). The tumescent technique produces profound local anesthesia of the skin and subcutaneous fat that lasts for many hours.
Safety of the Tumescent Technique
Safety of the tumescent technique is remarkable. No deaths have ever been reported in association with the tumescent technique for liposuction totally by local anesthesia. Most serious liposuction complications seem to be associated with excessive liposuction or multiple simultaneous unrelated surgeries, and the use of general anesthesia or narcotic analgesics. The amazing safety record of liposuction totally by local anesthesia was surprising because the technique uses dosages of lidocaine (local anesthetic) that were considered potentially toxic. The mystery of this unexpected safety was solved by studying the pharmacokinetics of tumescent lidocaine.
This is the science that studies the concentration, pathway and fate of drugs as they travel through the body. For example, the pharmacokinetics of tumescent lidocaine is concerned with measuring the concentration of lidocaine in the blood, and how this concentration changes over time. The toxicity of a local anesthetic is a function of its peak plasma concentration which in turn depends on several factors including the total milligram per kilogram dose, and the rates of systemic absorption and elimination.
A safe dose of tumescent lidocaine is estimated to be 45 mg/kg for thin patients, and 50 mg/kg for average to overweight patients. (Tumescent Technique, by J. Klein, Mosby Publishers, 2000).
Lidocaine Can Be Toxic
Lidocaine can be toxic if its concentration in the blood exceeds a threshold of 6 milligrams/liter. The most extraordinary aspect of the tumescent technique is its unprecedented safety record when used as directed. Most liposuction surgeons know that it can be dangerous to give a patient a dosage of tumescent lidocaine that exceeds 50 mg/kg. All liposuction-related deaths have been associated with either the use of general anesthesia, or IV sedation, or grossly excessive lidocaine doses in excess of 75 mg/kg. The tumescent technique is dangerous in the hands of surgeons or anesthesiologists who have not had specific training in the technique. There has never been a reported death associated with tumescent liposuction totally by local anesthesia.
Total Dosage of Lidocaine Affects Safety
The total amount of lidocaine, measured in terms of milligrams of lidocaine per kilogram of body weight (mg/kg), that is given to a patient directly determines the risk of lidocaine toxicity. Following an injection of lidocaine, the concentration of lidocaine in the blood gradually increases, eventually reaching a peak, and then declines. The risk of toxicity depends on the peak concentration of lidocaine. Lower peak plasma lidocaine concentrations reduce the risk of lidocaine toxicity. The fundamental reason for the great safety of tumescent local anesthesia is its exceptionally slow rate of lidocaine absorption.
Drug Interactions Affect Safety
Certain drugs such as the SSRI antidepressant Zoloft), the antibiotic erythromycin, the antifungal drugs ketoconazole (Nizoral) and Fluconazole (Diflucan) can impair the enzyme in the liver (cytochrome P450 3A4) that is required to metabolize lidocaine. Such drugs slow the rate of metabolism, and thus increase the amount of lidocaine in the body and the peak lidocaine concentration in the blood, which in turn increases the risk of lidocaine toxicity. It is important that patients and liposuction surgeons be aware this type of drug interaction, and either discontinue all such drugs at least 10 days before surgery or reduce the dosage of lidocaine to less than 35 mg/kg. (See Drugs that Inhibit CYP3A4)
Lidocaine Absorption Rate Affects Safety
For any given milligram per kilogram (mg/kg) dose of lidocaine, anything that slows the rate of lidocaine absorption, will reduce the peak lidocaine plasma level, and thus reduce the risk of lidocaine toxicity. There are three factors that cause tumescent lidocaine to be absorbed from fat at an exceptionally slow rate: 1) subcutaneous fat has a relatively low volume of blood flow, 2) dilute epinephrine produces a prolonged and profound degree of vasoconstriction, and 3) lidocaine is lipophilic and is readily sequestered in fat cells. When lidocaine is injected into muscle, through a vein directly into the blood, or in the gums (for dental anesthesia) the rate of absorption into the blood is much more rapid than when lidocaine is injected into fat. Different rates of lidocaine absorption require different lidocaine dosage limits.
Tumescent Anesthesia is Local Anesthesia
When the tumescent technique is performed properly, the effects of tumescent lidocaine are local and not systemic. However, there are surgeons who do very large volume liposuction surgeries; these surgeons may use large amounts of tumescent anesthesia and expose their patients to potentially excessive amounts of injected fluids or excessive amounts of lidocaine.
Definition of Dosage and Dose
There is a distinction between the words dosage and dose.
The word dosage describes the amount of drug given to a patient expressed in units of mg/kg where mg = the weight of the drug expressed in milligrams, and kg = the patients weight expressed in kilograms. The word dose describes the amount of drug expressed in mg units where mg = total milligrams of drug given to a patient. The word dose does not take into account the patients total body weight. By using the mg/kg dosage to determine the amount of drug given to a patient, a physician can more accurately predict equivalent effects among patients whose weights are considerably different.
Reduced Discomfort Upon Injection
Commercially available solutions of lidocaine are made acidic in order to increase the solubility of lidocaine. If the lidocaine solution also contains epinephrine, then an acidic solution is necessary to increase the shelf-life of epinephrine. Unfortunately, acidic solutions produce a slightly painful stinging sensation upon injection into the skin or into subcutaneous fat. The stinging discomfort of an injection of lidocaine can be reduced by the addition of sodium bicarbonate into the solution to neutralize the pH of commercially available solutions.
Effect on Nerve Fibers Types
Local anesthetics tend to block small nerve fibers sooner than larger fibers. Clinically this is manifested by the observation that small fibers that mediate pain and temperature, are blocked more easily than the larger sensory nerve fibers that mediate pressure, and vibrations, or motor nerves that mediate muscle function. Tumescent local anesthesia in adipose tissue produces a rapid blockade of pain and temperature sensation, while local anesthesia has less effect on pressure and vibratory sensation. Thus, with adequate infiltration of tumescent local anesthesia, patients should not feel pain during tumescent liposuction, however they will often be aware of vibrations, and a peculiar rasping sensation.
Antibacterial Effects of Lidocaine
Tumescent liposuction is associated with a remarkably low risk of postoperative infections. This enviable clinical record provides strong evidence that in-vivo tumescent local anesthesia is bacteriostatic (prevents the growth of bacteria) and bacteriocidal (kills bacteria). There are few, if any, extensive surgical procedures with a lower incidence of infection than that of tumescent liposuction.
Lidocaine Reduces the Risk of Infections
Two recent reports have found that dilute lidocaine in a concentration of 500 mg per liter of solution (0.05%) does have in-vitro antibacterial activity. Another study found this lidocaine dilution to be bacteriostatic for Staphylococcus aureus. Another in-vitro study, using suspensions of bacteria containing approximately 105 bacteria per ml found that all gram-positive organisms tested, including S. aureus, had significantly lower colony counts in 0.05% or higher concentrations of lidocaine diluted by the IV anesthetic propofol. There is in-vitro evidence that lidocaine is not just bacteriostatic but actually bacteriocidal for organisms isolated from skin lesions. Recently it has been shown that when sodium bicarbonate is added to lidocaine, this in-vitro bacteriocidal activity is increased.
Doing Too Much Liposuction is Dangerous
Common sense is still necessary. The enviable record of tumescent liposuction is attributable to 1) moderation in terms of the amount surgical trauma inflicted during a single surgical procedure, and 2) a wise selection of healthy patients. If surgeons disregard common sense and moderation in liposuction, and attempt to do too much liposuction on a single day, then the record of postoperative complications is no longer enviable. | <urn:uuid:3be2c30d-7ef9-4af8-80b1-e4e532e2eaa7> | {
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Monday, April 25, 2011
Experts say that children who know nursery rhymes at age 3 are likely to find success with reading and spelling later in life. When children hear, sing, and act out nursery rhymes, they experience the joy of words and develop early literacy skills-- one of the most important is phonemic awareness. That's why we focus on one nursery rhyme each week. We repeat the rhyme over and over and will go back to it in later weeks.
This week's nursery rhyme is Humpty Dumpty:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the king's horses and all the kings men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
Humpty Dumpty by Daniel Kirk is always a class favorite and is the Humpty Dumpty story as it has never been told! Another class favorite is Humpty Dumpty by Iza Trapani. Be sure to check them out at the library or bookstore! | <urn:uuid:8899e3f1-e1ae-4d31-9d97-d5ee91c9a326> | {
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In spite of president Donald Trump stating (and more than once, too) that the expression “fake news” is something he invented, the phenomenon is nothing new. It may have found a new life in the Internet era, but it’s something that always existed. It even had the same name!
Blowing things out of proportion, dancing on the delicate line between a news fact and a myth was standard procedure for many writers and authors. Here be monsters on an ancient Roman map of Africa? Fake news! Mermaids singing and driving sailors mad? Fake news! A succulent story could potentially reach a bigger number of readers. So what if it wasn’t completely true? If that was the price to pay in exchange for becoming famous, so be it!
Even in the pre-industrial world of early newspapers, telling stories with nothing remotely resembling what’s today known as “fact checking” meant, granted one was completely believable, having authority and success, a steady job, more money.
What’s the gain for fake news makers?
In 1938 famous actor and director Orson Welles broadcasted a pretend Martian invasion on live radio. It was the well-known War of the Worlds. The audience was so shocked they thought it was all real, and started panicking. In 1957, the BBC photographed Swiss peasants harvesting spaghetti from spaghetti trees. Way before that, 1814, the news spread that Napoleon Bonaparte had died (he hadn’t… not that time). As a reaction, the London Stock Exchange plummeted.
These three examples show different reasons why fake news can be manufactured: as a joke or a hoax (like in the case of the BBC); as a way of attracting more audience; or with a malicious intent. In the event of Napoleon “not dying”, the man who planned the story (a Lord Thomas Cochrane) knew the LSE would have crashed and knew how to gain from it.
This is the type of fake news that concerns us the most. The population being misled or misinformed can be the cause for dramatic events (in the Napoleon episode, many people committed suicide because they believed the story, or because they lost what they had invested), which in turn can be the source of personal gain for who’s behind it. It’s not just monetary gain, either: many fake news makers operate to pursue a political agenda, for example. But we’ll get to it in a dedicated page. | <urn:uuid:1d3a5fc4-0a96-40d8-b589-ba7d1bee45f3> | {
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Polynomial regression 1 Polynomial regression In statistics, polynomial regression is a form of linear regression in which the relationship between the independent ... Down
Nonlinear Relationships Page 3 . Polynomial models can estimate such relationships. A polynomial model can be appropriate if it is thought that the slope of the ... Down
definition. Now go back to Trendline Options and ask for a polynomial trendline. If the regression were a perfect ... Down
definition. Now go back to Trendline Options and ask for a polynomial trendline. If the regression were a perfectmysite.avemaria.edu/gmartinez/Courses/ECON230/notes/Notes%20for%20...
Abstract—Tomato (Lycopersicon ... that in many cases color definition is a matter of subjective ... Polynomial trendline of color index L and fruit ripening timewaset.org/publications/9997466/tomato-fruit-color-changes-during...
To be consistent with the Census definition, the business dynamics described in this ... A polynomial trendline is a curved line that is used whendata fluctuate.www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/rs369tot.pdf
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The Chicken Pox is well-termed as a disease amongst children, however it is extremely unlikely that the child younger than 1 years to get the Chicken Pox. It does happen and a number of chicken pox symptoms for babies that you need to know about.
While the baby is within the womb of the mother, the fetus will receive anti-bodies through the mother to protect the newborn contrary to the virus that causes the chicken pox. This is why, at least in the babies first year of life, this disease will not develop. However, there have still been many cases of chicken pox developing even children under one year old, but it’s less common. The seriousness of the condition and also the chicken pox symptoms that occur will depend mainly how strong the babies body’s defence mechanism is.
It is fairly common for babies to have their chicken pox vaccine around the age of 1 years old. This vaccine will not completely stop your child from ever getting chicken pox, however it will decrease the chances and usually make it a lot milder when it does happen.
Should your baby does get this disease, then red, itchy bumps will be the first clue. In a number of day’s time, the bumps will turn into blisters full of fluid, which will eventually dry and fall off. Because the chicken pox symptoms babies progresses, new waves of blisters will appear on your own babies body. The areas which have been affected are mostly the face area, back and abdomen, but the rash can take place throughout their body also. Some babies will have greater than more than 200 blisters covering their body, whereas others will only have a few. The cases can be radically not the same as one baby to another. Also, if you notice flu-like symptoms then those are some of the first signs that your baby may develop chicken pox.
As soon as your baby has chicken pox, they will be very tired and also have just a little fever. It is also feasible for a runny nose or possibly a cough can happen a couple of days prior to chicken pox rash appears. This disease lasts about 7 to a three week period.
The virus is extremely contagious, therefore if your infant continues to be near a person that suffered with this disease, chances are they’ll are likely to have been infected with the chicken pox virus. There are cases, very rare though, when babies can get complications from chicken pox. Skin illness, encephalitis or pneumonia may be the results of chicken pox. This is why you need to take the steps needed after the 1st chicken pox symptoms for babies appear.
To learn more about chicken pox symptoms babies and discover how to cure the chicken pox in only 3 days or less, then take a look at my chicken pox cure website now!
Or check out this chicken pox cure site, with more valuable tips and videos! | <urn:uuid:6ec70699-1bf4-4639-8acc-a41f51b1e45e> | {
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- slide 1 of 4
Small But Not Miniature
A short film script takes many of the principles that are common to screenwriting more broadly, but boils them down to their essentials. A short film attempts to make large scale accomplishments in only the fraction of a feature length film, which means that special attention must be paid to what goes in and what is left out. Once you begin writing it you must find a way to address the main progress and character development that we know most stories to include, regardless of format, but with a page count that will not exceed your limits. Here are some tips for writing a short film script and how you try to get a story that fits the boundaries.
- slide 2 of 4
Almost all scripts have a main character, a problem that occurs, and the eventual resolution of that problem. Some films try to use several characters instead of a single main character, but in most cases this is going to be difficult in a short film. It is possible to have an ensemble piece where all characters, and their story lines, are accessible, but to do this you will have to establish all of them. This takes time, and that time is going to end up costing you minor and supporting characters, plot details, and really anything that is “inessential" to the story. If you want to maintain come coloring and room for development you will want to identify one main character and stick to that. That main character should be introduced in the first scene in a short film as you have to get to the initial problem quickly, and on the first page is ideal. All characters, as well as the defining problem, should be discovered in the first act of your film. This means that in the first three or four pages of your script, and if it is under ten pages then it must be the first or second page, you will know all of the primary characters and how they relate to each other. Other characters can come in and out, but usually they will not be part of the primary character flow and will not be as important as you make your way through.
- slide 3 of 4
The three act structure, which plainly can exist as a beginning, middle, and end, is the basis for conventional feature filmmaking. It actually maintains itself as being much more complex than that, and assumes that the challenge is taken at the end of the first act and the second act is the dominant part of the film. The third act then serves as the climax, resolution, and closing action. This dichotomy can be transferred to writing a short film script, but that is not always the best choice. There are options you can try out to see if you can focus more simply on specific areas rather than just trying to make a short version of the feature script. You can try moving to two acts where the problem is implicit to the characters and does not have the same kind of resolution. You can attempt something more plainly where the conflict and resolution are much closer together, and the set up takes quite a bit. The primary thing in these situations is whether or not it actually works in your situation. Each scene needs to be tied together, remain interesting to an audience, and draw together like a finished piece.
- slide 4 of 4
From a Production Standpoint
Practicality is more important in writing a short film script than in feature screenwriting because a short film script is not usually a piece of marketable material. Feature film scripts can be purchased by studio but never made, sold as books, or act as the inspiration for another work. Short film scripts are almost never given the same credibility, so the purpose of them becomes much more plain. They exist to be made. In this way you need to write the short script while thinking about actually making the project.
First, you need to consider the overall length. Given the standard screenwriting equation that a page means about a minute of screen time, you have to consider how long you want your short film to be. Short films that have too long of a run time, which usually means more than twenty minutes, have difficulty at film festivals and often have more difficulty getting out. Very short screenplays, fewer than eight pages, have a difficulty getting anything done unless they forgo narrative structure and take a more experimental approach. Between ten and eighteen minutes tends to be a good length for short narrative films.
Next, you have to consider the budget of the film. Difficult locations, special effects, an excess of props, and other production elements can end up costing too much to be practical on a low budget. Since most short films are unfunded, low funded, or student films, it is hard to maintain a script that has things that are financially prohibited. The choice is then not to eliminate these elements, but to go through your script and identify the expensive items and think about why you chose them in the first place. Once you can identify the key reason why they were important you can usually find another item that will meet the same need for a smaller cost.
- Source: Author's own experience.
- Photos from Stock.Xchange. | <urn:uuid:614deea7-08b3-4bca-bd5f-f34a185f2f9f> | {
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RADIAL AND ULNAR OSTEOTOMY
CHARLES D. NEWTON
- Development Features of the Radius and Ulna
Management of Problems Caused by Growth Plates
Distal Ulnar Physeal Growth Disturbances in Dogs
Distal Lateral Radial Physeal Growth Disturbances
Distal Radial Physeal Growth Disturbances
Proximal Radial Physeal Closure
Radial and Ulnar Osteotomy for Fracture Malunion or Congenital Deformity
Radial, ulnar, or radial and ulnar osteotomy is a technique often needed to treat abnormalities of the canine forelimb. Osteotomy is necessary to correct malunions and forelimb deviations resulting from growth plate abnormalities. The following material is taken, with minor modifications, from Riser and Shirer (1965).
DEVELOPMENT FEATURES OF THE RADIUS AND ULNA
The radius and ulna, together with the carpus, develop as a unit, and normal growth depends upon a synchronization of the growth of these bones. The radius and ulna each have two growth plates, and each plate grows at a different rate.
The longitudinal growth of the radius follows the pattern of most long bones and expands by enchondral conversion of cartilage to new bone. On the radiograph, the epiphyses, growth plates, metaphyses, diaphysis and nutrient foramen are easily identified (Fig. 41-1).
At birth the epiphyses of the radius are composed of cartilage, and are not visible radiographically. By 12 to 14 days of age a mineralized epiphyseal nucleus (ossification center) appears radiographically; osteogenesis can also be seen histologically. Before four weeks of age, the entire outline of both epiphyses is visible on the radiograph.
The growth plates are composed of cartilage and appear radiographically as radiolucent lines. These are the areas where bone length is added. During active ossification, the cartilage cells proliferate, line up in columns, mature, hypertrophy, calcify, and disintegrate, leaving a straight strip or core of noncellular calcified cartilage matrix on which new bone is deposited by the osteoblasts. These newly formed cores of bone are called primary trabeculae.
The newly mineralized primary trabeculae, which become the metaphysis and are situated adjacent to the growth plate, are very radiopaque. These primary trabeculae are replaced by secondary, and then tertiary trabeculae, finally the cortex of the diaphysis is formed. The bone at the growth plate is very wide; the shaft narrows at the cut-back zone as it tubulates into the diaphysis.
In the radius, under normal conditions 70% of the growth takes place at the distal metaphysis, while 30% occurs in the proximal area. The amount of growth at each end can be accurately determined from a radiograph by locating the nutrient foramen and then measuring the percentage of bone present on either side of this vessel. In the embryo, the nutrient vessel, when it penetrates the cartilage mold, marks the center of each long bone.
In a growing bone, an estimate of the degree of radiopacity present in the metaphysis at each growth plate and the size of the expanded metaphysis also serve as guides to the amount of growth activity that is taking place, e.g., the distal end of the radius during growth shows greater density, and the metaphysis is larger in diameter than the proximal metaphyseal area.
Anatomically, the ulna is quite different from the radius. The distal epiphysis is long and pointed, and its growth plate is conical and grows more actively than that of the distal radius. At birth, the distal epiphysis is composed of cartilage. The epiphyseal nucleus ossifies and appears radiographically and histologically from two to three weeks after birth (which is later than the appearance of the radial epiphyses). The epiphyseal apex (the styloid tip) ossifies even later than does the proximal half. The proximal ulnar growth plate stretches across the tip of the olecranon, is relatively inactive, and contributes little to ulnar length.
FIG. 41-1 (A) Radiograph of the foreleg of a 3-week-old beagle. (B) Drawing of foreleg. Proximal epiphyses; (a) ulnar and (b radial. Nutrient foramen: (c) ulnar and (d) radial. Diaphysis: (e) radial and (t) ulnar. Distal metaphyses: (g) ulnar and (h) radial. Distal epiphyses: (i) ulnar and (j) radial. (k) Carpal bone. (Riser WH, Shirer J F: Normal and abnormal growth of the distal foreleg in large and giant dogs. J Am Vet Radiol Soc 6:50, 1965)
The nutrient foramen of the ulna is located on its dorsal (cranial) surface, in close proximity to the dorsal ulnar articular surface of the elbow, adjacent to the proximal radial epiphysis. The proximal location of the nutrient vessel (embryonically located in the center of this bone) indicates that longitudinal growth from the proximal (olecranon) growth plate has been restricted to 15% of the total length, while the distal growth plate provided the remaining 85%. From this, it becomes evident that the distal ulna must grow at least 15% faster than the distal radial companion if the two bones are to remain equal in length.
Accelerated growth is accomplished by the development of anatomical features: (1) the conical shape of the distal growth plate, and (2) the increased diameter of the entire ulnar shaft. The conical shape of the ulnar plate increases the growth surface area by 1.5 times over a flat area of the same diameter.
The diameter of the ulna during growth in the giant breeds increases, apparently to accommodate the added enchondral bone production; it diminishes in diameter as growth slows. The ulna at four to five months of age commonly is as much as 50% larger in diameter than the radius; at seven to nine months, the two bones are about the same size. In adult life, when remodeling and resorption are complete, and the growth plates have closed and the metaphyseal bulging has disappeared, the ulnar diameter is one half that of the radius. Most of the excess bone is absorbed from the lateral side.
MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS CAUSED BY GROWTH PLATES
Many physeal plate problems can lead to deformity of the forelimb. The severity of the deviation and the technique used to correct the problem depend on the specific epiphyseal plate injury and the age of the animal when injured. When the cause of deformity is recognized in an immature animal, the plan of treatment will probably be prophylactic, that is, minimizing subsequent deformity as the animal grows to maturity. This may require multiple surgeries as the animal continues to grow. To wait for the animal to grow to maturity without any correction may allow for formation of deviation beyond correction and may allow subluxation or luxation of the elbow or carpus to develop. Successful reconstructive surgery at that point is impossible. Conversely, the older animal, close to growth plate closure or beyond, can be corrected completely when the problem is recognized and toward an end point.
The proper management of radial and ulnar physeal plate injuries is difficult and requires the clinical judgment of the surgeon. The 10week-old pup with growth plate abnormalities must often be treated differently than the 5-month- or 8-month-old pup. Treatment depends upon the period of growth remaining.
The specific reasons for radial and ulnar osteotomy will be discussed as they apply to the following:
Slowing of the distal ulnar physis in giant breed dogs
Premature closure of the distal ulnar physis
Slowing of the distal lateral radial physis
Closure of the distal lateral radial physis
Closure of the distal radial physis
Closure of the proximal radial physis
Malunion of the radius and ulna
DISTAL ULNAR PHYSEAL GROWTH DISTURBANCES IN DOGS
Most distal ulnar growth plate problems originate as a result of trauma,(24) hypertrophic osteodystrophy,(l2) or retained ulnar enchondral cartilage core.(8,21)More recently an inherited distal ulnar closure has been recognized in skye terriers.(10)
Trauma, usually automobile or crush injuries, to the forelimb may result in premature closure. The trauma may be directly to the growth plate in the form of a severe bruise or may result in fracture. Such direct trauma is not always needed, however, to result in closure. Any trauma to the forelimb of an immature dog sufficient to cause radial and ulnar fracture may also result in growth plate closure. Owners of immature dogs with radial and ulnar fracture should be warned of the possibility of distal ulnar growth plate closure.
Hypertrophic osteodystrophy may result in growth plate closure. This disease produces proliferative bone outside the periosteum in the metaphyseal regions of developing bone. In extreme disease this proliferative bone can bridge the ulnar growth plate and result in its cessation of lengthening and physeal closure.
Retained enchondral cartilage in the ulnar metaphysis is the result of abnormal cartilage turnover in the distal ulnar physis.(2l) This is a common problem in giant breed dogs. The retained cartilage can be seen radiographically in the metaphyseal area of the ulna as a radiolucent strip, or core, which extends as much as 3 cm or 4 cm into the metaphysis. Grossly the tissue is clear, firm, and resilient. Microscopically, the core is composed of hypertrophied hyaline cartilage cells piled in long columns. There seems to be an absence of adequate vascular tissue to penetrate and destroy these cells. The cartilage on either side of the retained core ossifies normally. Retention of this cartilage core seems to retard the total overall growth in the length of the ulna (Fig. 41-2).
PATHOGENESIS OF DEFORMITY
Forelimb deformity begins with shortening in ulnar length due to retarded or discontinued growth at the distal ulnar physis. Initially the radius bows cranially, owing to the shortened ulna acting as a "bowstring." The bowing may result in a hyperextended carpus, and the proximal row of carpal bones may assume a position abnormally caudal to the distal end of the radius. Next the radius bows medially, forcing the limb to deviate laterally into valgus. In the valgus position, the carpal axis deviates from a position parallel to the elbow to one angled abaxially. With continued radial growth, the radius begins to rotate externally, around the short ulna, resulting in external rotation of the paw. External rotation may be slight (in a late distal ulnar physeal closure) or as much as 90¡ (in an early closure, i.e., growth disturbances at 2 to 3 months of age). Simultaneously, the shortened ulna begins to subluxate ventrally out of the elbow. In extreme cases, the ulna can luxate completely, resulting in total elbow instability.
FIG. 41-2 Seven-month-old Great Dane. Lateral (A) and cranial-caudal (B) radiographs show premature closure of the distal ulnar physis and a retained enchondral core (arrow). Valgus and anterior bowing are already evident. (Newton CD: Surgical management of distal ulnar physeal growth disturbances in dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 164:479, 1974)
PRESENTING SIGNS AND DIAGNOSIS
Dogs with distal ulnar physeal growth disturbances usually bear weight on the affected limb. Limb pain or lameness that is usually associated with the deformity has three basic causes: (1) ligamentous injury or osteoarthritis of the carpus, resulting from long-standing deviation; (2) elbow subluxation and associated osteoarthritis as the anconeal process pulls distally against the caudal surface of the medial humeral condyle; with total ventral subluxation of the proximal end of the ulna, the limb appears flaccid owing to the lack of stability at the elbow; (3) external rotation, forcing the dog to walk on a nonpadded surface, thus causing decubitus ulcers to form on the dorsal and medial sides of the paw.
Radiography will enable the clinician to confirm the diagnosis on the basis of a closed or narrow distal ulnar physis, deformity if present, or distal subluxation of the proximal end of the ulna. Radiography will also aid in eliminating animals with luxations or subluxations of the carpus from consideration as candidates for osteotomy.(9)
SURGICAL TREATMENT OF THE ULNA PRIOR TO CLOSURE OF THE DISTAL RADIAL PHYSIS
Early treatment may preserve normal elbow articulation and minimize curvature of the radius. In the progression of the deformity, proximal ulnar distal subluxation causes most of the pain and lameness. The anconeal process impinges on the caudal surface of the humerus, causing osteoarthritic changes that often are visible radiographically. Total luxation causes gross joint instability. The primary purpose of early ulnar osteotomy is to prevent distal subluxation of the proximal ulna, but radial deformity may be decreased as well. Four procedures are available.
REPETITIVE ULNAR OSTEOTOMIES
Minimal elbow subluxation occurs if early ulnar osteotomy is performed. After osteotomy, the interosseous membrane is cut to free the proximal end of the ulna from the radial shaft. The proximal end of the ulna may occasionally snap back into its normal anatomical place, but if it does not, the osteotomy site must be spread and held open by a cortical bone graft. It may be necessary to repeat the procedure inasmuch as the proximal and distal radial physeal plates remain open the ulnar osteotomy site will unite readily. Continued growth of the radius after the osteotomy site unites may result in reformation of the radial deformity.
ULNAR OSTEOTOMY AND PROGRESSIVE SPREAD OF THE ULNA
Early ulnar osteotomy may prevent radial deviation if the growth of the ulna keeps up with that of the radius. To prevent union in young dogs, a half-pin or full-pin transfixation can be attached to a Stader spreading apparatuses Opening the apparatus progressively every fourth day delays union of the ulna, permitting the ulna to lengthen at approximately the same rate as the radius.
ULNAR OSTEOTOMY AND INDUCED CLOSURE OF THE PROXIMAL RADIAL PHYSIS
If subluxation is a major problem, two procedures may be performed: ulnar osteotomy and relocation of the proximal end of the ulna into the elbow, followed by transfixation into the proximal end of the radius to maintain reduction. Either the transfixation device or a separate orthopaedic staple should be used to close the proximal radial physis, reducing the probability of reluxation. Removal of a large segment of the ulna(11,20)or insertion of a mechanical block such as fat prevents union of the ulna.(3)
ULNAR STYLOID TRANSPOSITION
Experimental results indicate that the distal ulnar physis may be resected entirely with a significant amount of the distal ulna. The remaining ulnar styloid process is reattached to the distal radial epiphysis by means of a screw. The experiments indicate that this procedure allows continued radial growth, prevents progression of deformities, and in certain instances allows spontaneous correction of existing deformities if sufficient radial growth potential remains.
Autogenous fat grafts have been used successfully to prevent bony union following ulnar osteotomy.
RESECTION OF THE ANCONEAL PROCESS
Resection of the anconeal process relieves pain, but subluxation continues. The resultant instability may produce a nonfunctional limb if resection is performed during early stages of the growth disturbances. This procedure is not recommended.
RESECTION OF THE RADIAL HEAD
Resection of the radial head has been proposed as a method for dealing with abnormalities of the proximal radius.(4,19) In animals with premature closure of the distal ulnar physis, this procedure destroys the only relatively normal supporting structure within the elbow. Resection results in instability of the elbow and probable loss of limb use; it is not recommended.
SURGICAL TREATMENT OF RADIAL DEFORMITY PRIOR TO CLOSURE OF THE DISTAL RADIAL PHYSIS
Ulnar section is the most effective correction in the early stages of radial deformity. Although stapling the distal radial physis may correct or arrest the radial deviation,(1,5,7) especially when dealing with retained enchondral cores in giant breed dogs,(20) the procedure results in a shortened limb. Stapling is best reserved for correction of primary injury to the radial physis.
Osteotomy and correction of the radial deformity before closure of the distal radial physis is a half-way measure. The deformity will recur if the physis remains open and the limb will be shortened if fixation causes premature closure. Therefore, ulnar osteotomy is the most realistic approach while the radial physis remains open. Radial cuneiform osteotomy should be used after physeal closure.
TREATMENT OF RADIAL AND ULNAR DEFORMITY AFTER CLOSURE OF THE DISTAL RADIAL PHYSIS
After closure of the distal radial physis, all corrective procedures are done with the goal of returning the paw to a functional position. In the process, many cosmetic benefits may result as well. To obtain proper functional and cosmetic results, the paw must be rotated to a neutral position, valgus must be reduced to normal, and the cranial bow must be reduced to a more normal curve.
To provide the necessary corrections, oblique or cuneiform osteotomy may be performed. Oblique osteotomy in the region of the major radial deviation, with simultaneous oblique ulnar osteotomy, has two advantages: preplanned cuts are not required and, theoretically, limb length may be gained.(21) A 45¡ oblique cut is made in the radius and ulna in the region of the maximal radial deviation. After osteotomy, the proximal radial fragment is reduced into the medullary canal of the distal fragment.
Using the medullary canal as a pivot, all three corrections are accomplished simultaneously. Fixation may be provided with halfpin splintage or a,bone plate. Inasmuch as only small surfaces are in contact for union, stability of fixation may be a problem.
A bone plate should be affixed to the anatomical cranial surface of the distal fragment to correct the deviation. Use of compression ensures solid fixation and rapid union of bone ends (Fig. 41-3).
When half-pin splintage is used, the exposure may be closed as soon as the osteotomy site has been reduced. Placement of pins should be as far proximal and distal in the radius as possible to gain stability.(22) Correction is accomplished by realigning the limb and tightening the external apparatus; if necessary, reduction can be altered prior to union. Half-pins may loosen or encourage pin tract infection if they are not cared for properly.
Cuneiform (wedge) osteotomy provides flat surfaces for bony union and therefore more stability. It is possible to estimate the correction of cranial bowing and valgus by means of preoperative radiography, but rotation cannot be measured on survey radiographs. Lines drawn through the physes parallel to the elbow and carpus in the craniocaudal view meet to provide the angle needed to correct valgus. Lines drawn axially through the radius on lateral radiographs meet to show the angle of the cranially based wedge to be removed (Fig. 41-4).
Transverse osteotomy of the radius is accomplished at the most proximal end of the radial deviation with simultaneous oblique division of the ulna. The distal radial fragment should be rotated back to neutral. Using the estimated angles, a biplane wedge is removed from the radius, with the base cranial and medial, tapering caudally and laterally. This wedge should correct valgus and cranial bowing. If insufficient, the correction may be supplemented by reversal of the wedge and its introduction into the caudal and lateral side of the osteotomy.
FIG. 41-3 Twelve-month-old Afghan hound. Lateral (A) and cranial-caudal (B) radiographs of the forelimb show anterior bowing, valgus and lateral rotation. Lateral (C, D) radiographs following oblique osteotomy of the radius and ulna. Some limb length, as well as correction of the deformities, was gained. Lateral radiograph (E) of osteotomy sites 7 months postoperatively. (Newton CD: Surgical management of distal ulnar physeal growth disturbances in dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 164:479, 1974)
A bone plate and compression technique should be used for fixation. The plate should be kept straight and the osteotomy site reconstructed to the plate. Fixation of the distal end of the radius to the plate is accomplished by placing the plate on the anatomical cranial surface; the osteotomy site is then reduced in a corrected position. The plate is attached to the proximal end of the radius, using compression. Fixation is not used on the ulna because the oblique osteotomy provides point contact for union to occur. Inasmuch as the radial osteotomy surface is transverse and smooth, fixation with an intramedullary pin, staples, or a plaster cast could result in nonunion and should be avoided if plates are available.
Many times proximal ulnar subluxation will be encountered simultaneously and must be corrected. In addition to the cuneiform radial osteotomy, transverse proximal ulnar osteotomy must be performed. Dissection of the intraosseous ligament and muscle will allow for anatomical reduction of the semilunar notch of the ulna. The reduction is held by the interfragmentary screw fixation or multiple pins. When both problems occur, the ulnar osteotomy and repositioning should be performed first and will usually negate the need for more distal ulnar osteotomy when the radius is cut (Fig. 41-5).
Premature or retarded closure of the distal ulnar physis results in multiple deformities of the affected forelimb. The severity of the deformities depends on the age of onset of closure. The elbow, distal portion of the radius, and carpus will be involved if closure occurs at an early age. Late ulnar closure usually results in distal deviations, not osteoarthritis of the carpus and elbow.
FIG. 41-4 Method estimating the angles for corrective osteotomy. This is only an estimate, since the cranial-caudal view also includes lateral rotation, which makes exact wedge determination impossible. Lines AB and CD are parallel to their respective epiphyseal lines. Therefore, the bone within angle EFG must be removed to return lines AB and CD to parallel, thus correcting the valgus deformity..Angle HIJ is formed by drawing lines perpendicular to the long axis of the radius, proximal and distal to the area of major deformity. Removal of this wedge of bone will correct cranial bowing (Newton CD: Surgical management of distal ulnar physeal growth disturbances in dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 164:479, 1974)
Treatment requires either an early decision to make multiple, small corrections or one major correction after closure of the distal radial physic Early correction consists of ulnar osteotomy to reconstruct the elbow and allow unrestricted growth of the radius; it prevents major deformities and gains a maximal amount of limb length. The expense and the time involved for multiple procedures are drawbacks. Late treatment, after closure of the distal radial physis, requires one major correction and possible elbow reconstruction; however, abnormal weight bearing for 3 to 5 months often results in irreparable osteoarthritis changes within the carpus and elbow. Stapling the distal radial physis is unsatisfactory, since limb length will be sacrificed.
Treatment depends on the estimate of changes to the joints. If an injury occurs at 6 to 8 months when little growth potential remains, one correction is preferable. If closure of the distal ulnar physis occurs between 3 and 5 months, early management is necessary to prevent major joint changes prior to closure of the distal radial physis.
Coaptation splints or plaster casts are not suitable for correction of the deformities. They invariably result in multiple decubital lesions and no marked changes in deviation. In addition, splinting has no effect on elbow luxation.
DISTAL LATERAL RADIAL PHYSEAL GROWTH DISTURBANCES
Premature closure of the distal lateral radial physis can result in severe developmental deformities of the involved forelimb. Recognition of the problem early in its course is necessary to minimize valgus deformity and secondary osteoarthritis of the elbow and carpus.
Deviations in growth of the canine forelimb have been recognized for a number of years. The most common problem involves premature or incomplete closure of the distal ulnar physis.(14,15) The resulting deformities have been well described, as have many methods of treatment.(12,22) Deformities can also develop as a result of incomplete or premature closure of the distal radial physis. This problem has been recognized for as long as the ulnar closure problem but was believed to occur only rarely.(2) At an orthopaedic referral center, at least 50% of the distal radial or ulnar epiphyseal plate problems in dogs were due to distal radial physeal closure. The primary cause was complete distal radial epiphyseal plate fracture (Salter type I).(23) The initiating event was a fall from a height or automobile trauma.
PATHOGENESIS OF DEFORMITY
The progression of this growth disturbance can be followed radiographically. The first radiographic sign is usually the premature closing of the distal radial physic The entire physis may close, but more often the lateral side closes first and is recognized as a narrowed lateral physis, gradually widening as it approaches the medial aspect of the radius (Fig. 41-6). The next radiographic sign is distal subluxation of the radial head, with resultant increase in joint space at the radiohumeral articulation. (17) The subluxation occurs because growth of the radius has slowed while the ulna has continued to grow. The medial and lateral collateral ligaments of the elbow attach the humerus with the radius; therefore, as the ulna continues to grow, the radius holds the humerus by means of the collateral ligaments, resulting in proximal subluxation of the ulna in relation to the humerus. As the condition progresses, the ulna may completely luxate proximally. The progressive lateral to medial closure of the distal radial physis may result in valgus deformity of the forepaw, and the radial carpal joint may luxate dorsally (Fig. 41-7).
FIG. 41-5 Cranial-caudal (A) and medial-lateral (B) views of a bassett hound demonstrate both proximal ulnar subluxation and distal radial and ulnar lateral deviation. (C, D) Radiographs demonstrate simultaneous varus osteotomy and a proximal ulnar osteotomy. (E, F) Radiographs demonstrate the end result 1 year postoperatively.
FIG. 41-6 Cranial-caudal radiographs of the left radius and ulna of a 14-week-old Labrador retriever show crush injury to the lateral half of the distal radial physis (A) and progressive closure of the radial physis and progressive valgus 3 weeks later (B) and 6 weeks later (C). (Newton CD, Nunamaker DM, Dickinson CR: Surgical management of radial physeal growth disturbance in dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 167:1011, 1975)
FIG. 41-7 Cranial -caudal (A) and lateral (B) radiographs of the left forelimb of an 8-month-old Afghan Hound. Notice radial head subluxation, straightness of the radius on the lateral view, valgus deformity of the lower portion of the radius and ulna, and subluxation of the carpus. (Newton CD, Nunamaker DM, Dickinson CR: Surgical management of radial physeal growth disturbance in dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 167:1011, 1975)
Dogs with distal lateral radial physeal closure are presented for various reasons, depending on the length of time the condition has been present. Usually they are first presented with forelimb lameness. Pain on passive manipulation of the elbow or valgus deformity may be evident. Later in the course of the disease, dogs have pain from ligamentous injury or osteoarthritis of the elbow due to prolonged radial head and proximal ulnar subluxation. Radiography will confirm the physeal closure, radial derotation, and radial head subluxation.
SURGICAL TREATMENT PRIOR TO CLOSURE OF THE DISTAL ULNAR OR RADIAL PHYSIS
Early surgical treatment has three goals: maintenance of a normal elbow; prevention of deformity; and preservation of limb length. To accomplish these goals, the problem must be recognized early. This can be done only by complete history, thorough physical examination, and radiography.
Treatment must be vigorous and dynamic. Perfect relocation of the humerus in the semilunar notch of the ulna will be only temporary unless postoperative adjustments can be made while the distal ulnar physis continues to increase the length of the forearm.
Midshaft radial osteotomy and progressive radial spread is accomplished using a Stader apparatus or other spreading device applied to the craniolateral surface of the limb to open the osteotomy site progressively.
At surgery, two pins are placed in the proximal radial diaphysis and two in the distal radial diaphysis. The midshaft of the radius is exposed and a transverse osteotomy is performed. Inasmuch as the ulna is left intact, relatively little instability results after the spreading apparatus has been applied. Correct pin placement can correct valgus deformity (Fig. 41-8).
The osteotomy site is spread by the external spreading apparatus every 4 days to lengthen the radius and prevent rapid union. The spreading apparatus is opened until the radial head is firmly pushed up against the humeral condyles. This procedure can usually be done with the dog awake, with or without an analgesic. The limb is then radiographed for positioning and length. This adjusting process usually is continued for about 5 weeks or until the radius heals. The external-spreading device is then removed and the limb is placed in a Robert Jones dressing for an additional week. Gain in limb length will be variable, depending on the dog's age, but 2 cm of length is not unreasonable in a 5-week period. By progressively forcing the radius to elongate, the valgus deformity can usually be averted. Should such a deformity begin to occur, the spreading apparatus can be progressively turned to compensate. Stapling the medial side of the radial physis may partially correct the valgus; however, one must be aware that it does not improve the elbow subluxation and is at best a partial correction.
SURGICAL TREATMENT AFTER CLOSURE OF THE DISTAL ULNAR PHYSIS AND RADIAL PHYSES
RADIAL AND ULNAR OSTEOTOMY
Radial and ulnar osteotomy can be carried out after the physes have closed. The procedure will correct a deformity of the distal portion of the limb but will not correct an elbow subluxation. The osteotomy site can be transverse, oblique, or cuneiform. Usually a cuneiform osteotomy is more appropriate. The desired wedge correction is estimated by analysis of radiographs. The desired end result is a parallel carpus and elbow joint.
The wedge is removed from the region of the greatest deformity, that is, from the medial surface or the craniomedial surface (if rotation has occurred) of the radius. The ulna should be sectioned obliquely to allow radial displacement. Plate fixation is best. It should be applied to the cranial surface of the radius.(12)
RADIAL OSTEOTOMY AND SPREAD, PLUS BONE GRAFTING
In radial deformity with elbow subluxation, two corrections must be made simultaneously. The radius is subjected to osteotomy to correct the valgus deformity, and the osteotomy site is spread to replace the radial head. Usually a spreading instrument is necessary to force the radial head back into its anatomical position; if the correction is difficult, the interosseous membrane may have to be sectioned. Following repositioning of the radial head, a cortical bone graft is inserted. The entire osteotomy area must be stabilized with a bone plate(2)
It is difficult to achieve accurate anatomical positioning of the limb when one is attempting to balance the corrective osteotomy on a graft while maintaining a spread and laying a plate over the entire area. The Richards plating system allows the plate to be placed under compression and the bone under tension to spread the osteotomy site.
FIG. 41-8 Lateral radiographs of the right radius and ulna of a 10month-old Irish setter: (} incomplete fracture, (B) 8 weeks later, showing closure of the distal radial physis and proximal subluxation of the ulna; (C) after radial osteotomy and application of a Stader apparatus; (D) at 4 weeks postoperatively, with the radius spread 14 mm (E) at 5 weeks postoperatively, with the osteotomy site united, the limb straight, and the elbow reconstructed. (Newton CD, Nunamaker DM, Dickinson CR: Surgical management of radial physeal growth disturbances in dogs. J Am vet Med Assoc 167:1011, 1975)
RADIAL OSTEOTOMY AND PROGRESSIVE SPREAD
Radial osteotomy and progressive spread allows correction of the deformity and gradual repositioning of the subluxated elbow. Spreading during a period of many weeks permits the interosseous membrane to stretch slowly and allows careful control of the reconstruction of the elbow. The procedure is accomplished with an external spreading apparatus. 13 As described above, the amount of valgus deformity is determined radiographically. At surgery, pins are placed in the proximal and distal ends of the radius, each set being perpendicular to the long axis of the radial fragment. The radius is then sectioned transversely in the region of the greatest deformity. After straightening the limb and affixing the pins in the spreading apparatus, the lateral opening wedge osteotomy is stabilized. The procedure corrects the valgus deformity.
The spreading apparatus is opened every 4 days to reposition the radial head properly onto the humeral capitellum. By this procedure, union is prevented until the desired correction has been achieved (Fig. 41-9).
Management of radial physeal injuries is not easy. It entails constant monitoring and many small corrections if a normal limb is to result.
The best management involves early detection. Distal radial physeal closure, like its counterpart (distal ulnar physeal closure) must be anticipated when an immature dog injures or fractures its radius and ulna. Relatively minor trauma to these bones may result in partial or complete radial closure. Proximal radial physeal closure may complicate the situation by accentuating the radial shortening.
Once the lesion has been recognized, progressive radiography must be used to ascertain whether deformity is occurring; whether the elbow is subluxating; or whether the limb is shortening. Both the normal and abnormal limbs must be examined.
When deformity or radial head subluxation begins, the best treatment is immediate radial osteotomy and progressive spread. This procedure will allow the ulna to grow unrestricted and help alleviate deformities. This forced elongation of the radius will prevent radial head subluxation and resultant instability. If deformity continues, the spreading apparatus can be progressively corrected to neutralize the deformity.
FIG. 41-9 Cranial-caudal radiographs of right forelimb of a 5-monthold English springer spaniel. (A) End point of lateral closure of distal radial physis. Notice valgus deformity and subluxation of radial head: (B) Immediately after opening wedge varus osteotomy; (C) 2 weeks postoperatively, with 14-mm spread; (D) 5 weeks postoperatively, after 25mm spread and removal of Stader apparatus (Newton CD, Nunamaker DM, Dickinson CR: Surgical management of radial physeal growth disturbances in dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 167:1011, 1975)
If a dog has chronic deformities associated with distal radial physeal closure and has elbow abnormalities, the treatment is only slightly different. Such a dog should have radial osteotomy and correction followed by slow reduction of the radial head into the elbow, using the spreading apparatus.
The above procedures require meticulous care of the skin and soft tissues around the pins to prevent pin infection. The limb and apparatus must be bandaged to prevent contamination of the pinhole area. Bandages should be changed every 4 days when the apparatus is lengthened.
If these two procedures are used correctly, there will be little likelihood that shortening, deformity, osteoarthritis, or pain will occur in a limb in which the radial physis closed prematurely.
When a mature dog has a deformity due to distal radial physeal closure but a normal elbow, standard radial and ulnar osteotomy will correct the deformity.
DISTAL RADIAL PHYSEAL GROWTH DISTURBANCES
ETIOLOGY AND PATHOGENESIS OF DEFORMITY
Trauma or disease (hypertrophic osteodystrophy affecting only the radius) may result in total closure of the distal radial physis. This is an uncommon problem.
In this instance, the ulna continues to grow initially while growth of the radius slows. Eventually the ulna bows laterally at middiaphysis, with the short radius serving as a "bowstring". The resultant bowing forces the limb distal to the carpus to deviate toward the midline, resulting in a varus deformity. Further ulnar growth may force the limb to rotate inward.
If the distal radial closure occurs in the very young animal, radial head subluxation will also occur.(16)
SURGICAL TREATMENT PRIOR TO CLOSURE OF THE DISTAL ULNAR PHYSIS
Surgical management will mimic that described above for distal lateral radial physeal closure. The radius must be cut so that the ulna can grow without the restriction of its shortness. In many instances, spreading with the Stader device is ideal.
SURGICAL TREATMENT AFTER CLOSURE OF THE DISTAL RADIAL AND DISTAL ULNAR PHYSIS
Surgery is identical to that described above for distal lateral radial closure. The deformity, however, is in varus; therefore, the cuneiform osteotomy will be laterally based and result in a valgus correction. Should radial head subluxation be a part of the problem, it must be corrected at the same time.
PROXIMAL RADIAL PHYSEAL CLOSURE
ETIOLOGY, PATHOGENESIS, AND DIAGNOSIS
Proximal radial physeal closure is a very rare problem(15) resulting from trauma. Clinically, the dogs present with progressive lameness, which is exacerbated by direct manipulation of the elbow. Deformity of the forelimb is unlikely.
Radiographs will demonstrate an increased space between the radial head and the distal lateral humeral condyle. Lateral displacement of the radial head, lateral curvature of the proximal radius, and oblique angulation of the radial joint surface may also be seen. It is difficult to know if this injury results in only radial head subluxation (ventral) or manifests itself as a lateral radial head subluxation as well. Both seem to result from the same type of injury.
Correction necessitates proximal radial osteotomy. In instances of ventral subluxation, transverse osteotomy, spreading, and cortical bone grafting are indicated. When lateral displacement or angulation of the radial head is also occurring, the radial head fragment must be angled properly for articulation prior to internal fixation.
The problem warrants correction when diagnosed, since the instability in the elbow will lead to disabling degenerative joint disease.
RADIAL AND ULNAR OSTEOTOMY FOR FRACTURE MALUNION OR CONGENITAL DEFORMITY
Malunion of the radius and ulna usually results from premature removal of an internal Steinmann pin, premature removal of an external cast or splint, or failure to recognize a fracture. In any case, as the animal bears weight, the limb distal to the unrecognized fracture site or incompletely healed fracture will deviate laterally into valgus. Most times the valgus is only minor and at most represents a cosmetic defect. Occasionally the valgus will be severe and result in significant lameness due to abnormal weight bearing on the carpus. Continued walking could result in subluxation, degenerative joint disease, or both.
When surgical correction is deemed necessary because of lameness, the osteotomy performed is identical to that described for endstage distal ulnar physeal closure. Congenital deformity may be corrected in the same manner.(18)
Using a cranial-caudal radiograph of the deformity, the surgeon draws a line parallel to the elbow and carpal physeal surfaces. This line will determine the angle of wedge to be removed. The cuneiform osteotomy should be performed at the site of the malunion. Internal fixation, Kirschner-Ehmer apparatuses, or long-leg casts may be adequate fixation if used properly. As in all other instances, fixation should not be removed until there is radiographic evidence of union.
Osteotomy is always an elective procedure and as such should be performed after adequate preparation by the surgeon and only on a healthy animal. Without these two conditions, surgery may be prolonged and result in infection, soft tissue destruction, inadequate correction, or fixation failures.
Radial and ulnar osteotomy is a useful reconstructive procedure to correct deformity of the forelimb. While the surgeon can physically correct the deformity by careful surgery, it is rare that the limb becomes totally normal. It must be remembered that the correction has helped immensely, but often periods of lameness may occur as a result of mild degenerative arthritis, which invariably accompanies these procedures. The results are always gratifying for the surgeon, owner, and animal, but perfection is rarely attainable.
REFERENCES1. Carlson RL, Lohse CL, Eld LA et al: Correction of angular limb deformities by physeal stapling. Mod Vet Pract 53:41, 1972
2. Clayton-Jones DG, Vaughan LC: Disturbance in the growth of the radius in dogs. J Small Anim Pract 11:453, 1970
3. Craig E: Autogenous fat grafts to prevent recurrence following surgical correction of growth deformities of the radius and ulna in the dog. Vet Surg 10:69, 1981
4. Dieterich HF: Repair of a lateral radial head luxation by radial head ostectomy. Vet Med [Small Anim Clin] 68:671, 1973
5. Dieterich HF: Repair of radius curvus in a two-stage surgical procedure: A case report. J Am Anim Hosp Assoc 10:48, 1974
6. Egger EL, Stoll SG: Ulnar styloid transposition as an experimental treatment for premature closure of the distal ulnar physis. J Am Anim Hosp Assoc 14:690, 1978
7. Evans LB: Surgical correction of premature closure of the ulnar growth plate in the dog. J South Afr Vet Assoc 48:287, 1977
8. Hanlon GF: Normal and abnormal bone growth in the dog. J Am Vet Radiol Soc 3:13, 1961
9. Hurov L: Lateral deviation of canine forepaw. Small Anim Clin 3: 131, 1963
10. Lau RE: Inherited premature closure of the distal ulnar physis. J Am Anim Hosp Assoc 13:609, 1977
11. Mason TA, Baker MJ: The surgical management of elbow joint deformity associated with premature growth plate closure in dogs. J Small Anim Pract 19:639, 1978
12. Newton CD: Surgical management of distal ulnar physeal growth disturbances in dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 164:479, 1974
13. Newton CD, Nunamaker DM, Dickinson CR: Surgical management of radial physeal growth disturbance in dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 167:1011, 1975
14. O'Brien TR: Development deformities due to arrested epiphyseal growth. Vet Clin North Am 1:441, 1971
15. O'Brien TR, Morgan JP, Suter PF: Epiphyseal plate injury in the dog: A radiographic study of growth disturbance in the forelimb. J Small Anim Pract 12:19, 1971
16. Olson NC, Carrig CB, Brinker WO: Asynchronous growth of the canine radius and ulna: Effects of retardation of longitudinal growth of the radius. Am J Vet Res 40:351, 1979
17. Passman D, Wolff EF: Premature closure of the distal radial growth plate in a dog. J Am Vex Med Assoc 167:391, 1975
18. Pederson NC: Surgical correction of a congenital defect of the radius and ulna of a dog. J Am Vet Med Assoc 153:1328, 1968
19. Putnam RW, Archibald J: Excision of the canine radial head. Mod Vet Pract 49:32, 1968
20. Ramadan RO, Vaughan LC: Premature closure of the distal ulnar growth plate in dogs: A review of 58 cases. J Small Anim Pract 19:647, 1978
21. Riser WH, Shirer JF: Normal and abnormal growth of the distal foreleg in large and giant dogs. J Am Vet Radiol Soc 6:50, 1965
22. Rudy RL: Corrective osteotomy for angular deformities. Vet Clin North Am 1:549, 1971
23. Salter RB, Harris WR: Injuries involving the epiphyseal plate. J Bone Joint Surg 45A:587, 1963
24. Skaggs S. DeAngelis MP, Rosen H: Deformities due to premature closure of the distal ulna in fourteen dogs: A radiographic evaluation. J Am Anim Hosp Assoc 9:496, 1973 | <urn:uuid:60c59dc8-cfaa-48ec-8de9-fffb3ea738f6> | {
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Alcohol Detoxification is a timespan of restorative treatment, more often than excluding directing, during which an individual is overcome physical and mental reliance on alcohol
The alcohol detox process is characterized as the standard treatment that happens in the body as it endeavors to free the arrangement of waste items and poisons from over the top, long haul alcohol utilization.
The methodology of detoxing alcohol:
Alcohol detoxification is the preliminary advance before a more drawn out treatment program. Detoxification can be securely performed at both inpatient and outpatient offices, but nonstop medicinal observing is suggested for substantial clients. As a rule, the detox process includes three stages:
Consumption: The therapeutic group will complete a far-reaching survey of medication, restorative, and mental accounts of approaching patients to ultimately see every circumstance.
Treatment: Numerous detoxification projects incorporate prescriptions that copy the impacts of alcohol to relieve withdrawal manifestations. Drugs may likewise target co-happening issue or general inconvenience.
Steadiness: The patient experiences therapeutic and mental treatments to enable them to arrive at a parity of psyche and body.
Reactions of Alcohol Detox
Albeit medicinally helped detox confines a portion of the negative symptoms the client encounters, some are unavoidable. By and significant different responses will show up during the two periods of alcohol detox.
During Intense Withdrawal: happens inside hours of an alcoholic stopping utilization of alcohol and proceeds for quite a long time or weeks. This is, for the most part, when the most extreme reactions happen, including:
- Visual and sound-related pipedreams
- Whole-body tremor
- Profuse perspiring
- Some patients face Shakiness problem
- During detoxification, Hypertension may occur
During Early Forbearance: The second and more extended period of alcohol detox happens over months as the mind gradually manages and returns to typical working. This is called Post-Intense Withdrawal Side effect and incorporates indications, for example,
- The patient can feel Anxiety
- He/she fell little Restlessness
- The patient can face Insomnia
- Diminished craving
- Mood-swings maybe occurs some time
Medications Utilized in Alcohol Detox
Some portion of the detox process incorporates keeping the patient’s framework in equalization and staying away from major physiological miracles. At some times, medicines are essential for the person. Benzodiazepines, including Librium, Valium, and Ativan, are regularly utilized for alcohol treatment because they lessen alcohol withdrawal indications and furthermore avert alcohol withdrawal seizures.
While benzodiazepines have been demonstrated successful in treating or avoiding specific side effects of alcohol withdrawal, it is fundamental that a recouping alcoholic utilizes medicinally suggested measures of the medications. | <urn:uuid:bd285df4-d01f-40a8-83ae-4878fbdaa0ed> | {
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Click on any image for details about licensing for commercial or personal use.
This edited article about the Moray eel originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 801 published on 21st May 1977.
Down through the watery, green gloom of a tropical sea plunges the lithe form of a diver . . . down into a sub-merged world glowing with strange coloured corals and swaying weeds. Small fishes brush past him as he glides through the water, a stream of silvered air-bubbles in his wake.
Without warning, from a dark opening in the reef ahead, a terrifying head appears. Rows of needle-sharp teeth gape in a powerful jaw. Black eyes glint viciously. A thick neck extends and contracts rhythmically. Slowly, the writhing form of a moray eel emerges from the hole. . . .
The diver gives a quick thrust with his feet and is gone upwards, churning the waters blindly in his haste to reach the safety of the surface and his boat again. . . .
Nothing sends a diver quicker to the surface than the appearance of a moray eel. This sinister, panther-like serpent can inflict powerful wounds upon the hands or feet of a laggardly diver. Its hooked teeth are made to grip and hang on to its prey, while its actual bite can set up bad infections.
The moray dwells chiefly in the coral reefs of Pacific waters from the Indian Ocean to Hawaii, although some types do exist in the Mediterranean sea. In the Pacific, only the shark is more feared than this member of the Muraenidae eel family.
Its appearance is truly that of a monster from the deep. Measuring up to 10 feet (3 metres) long in body, the wide jaws of its head open and shut constantly to display its teeth as it moves in search of prey among small fish. The stretching and contracting of its neck add to its ferocious look – although this in fact is the mechanism by which it breathes.
The contractions of neck and jaw pump water into the moray’s system for the extraction of oxygen for its breathing process. The water is pumped out again through uncovered gill-holes in its head.
The long, snake-like body of the moray has a ridge of fin along the spine which flickers like a fringe as the creature darts in and out of the dark holes which are its lair. Tough and scaleless, its skin can be mottled, striped or speckled. Most morays are yellow and black, but some species have variegated colours which give them a natural camouflage among the plants of coral reefs.
The moray eel will attack anything and anybody for no other reason than it is an aggressive and bad tempered creature.
An angry moray on the rampage is something with which to reckon. Fishermen who have captured such an eel which has then broken loose in their boat have been known to leap over-board rather than stay with the threshing, infuriated creature.
The Romans found the flesh of the moray tender and good to eat, according to records of their well-stocked fishponds. Unfortunately, they knew that this delicacy also found human beings tasty, and many a slave is supposed to have been threatened with death in the eel-pond until Caesar Augustus put a stop to any such practice. | <urn:uuid:dfff2e60-8600-481d-9a4b-f60e0714f528> | {
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2005 AAUP Public and Secondary School Library Selection
While most books about the Amish focus on the Pennsylvania settlements or on the religious history of the sect, this book is a cultural history of one Indiana Amish community and its success in resisting assimilation into the larger culture. Amish culture has persisted relatively unchanged primarily because the Amish view the world around them through the prism of their belief in collective salvation based on purity, separation, and perseverance. Would anything new add or detract from the community’s long-term purpose? Seen through this prism, most innovation has been found wanting.
Founded in 1841, Shipshewana benefited from LaGrange County’s relative isolation. As Dorothy O. Pratt shows, this isolation was key to the community’s success. The Amish were able to develop a stable farming economy and a social structure based on their own terms. During the years of crisis, 1917–1945, the Amish worked out ways to protect their boundaries that would not conflict with their basic religious principles. As conscientious objectors, they bore the traumas of World War I, struggled against the Compulsory School Act of 1921, negotiated the labyrinth of New Deal bureaucracy, and labored in Alternative Service during World War II. The story Pratt tells of the postwar years is one of continuing difficulties with federal and state regulations and challenges to the conscientious objector status of the Amish. The necessity of presenting a united front to such intrusions led to the creation of the Amish Steering Committee. Still, Pratt notes that the committee’s effect has been limited. Crisis and abuse from the outer world have tended only to confirm the desire of the Amish to remain a people apart, and lends a special poignancy to this engrossing tale of resistance to the modern world. | <urn:uuid:115ea182-df06-4bb5-893a-99a8e80df4a1> | {
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This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org.
People with strong friendships survive 7.5 years longer than those with weak or few social ties, according to a Brigham Young University report that covered 148 previous studies, which included more than 300,000 participants. Friendship, it concluded, extends life.
Yet many friendships end. Why do so many friendships, even the long-term ones, go awry? Is it that people change? Their interests change? They relocate? Why do so many friendships break up, and most important, what can people do to mend friendships so they don’t terminate?
When Marla Paul, author of “The Friendship Crisis: Finding, Making and Keeping Friends When You’re Not a Kid Anymore,” researched her book, she discovered that having long-term friends was “emotionally and physically protective. People have healthier cardiovascular systems; they’re less likely to die of a heart attack.”
In fact, she said, people with solid friends “sleep better.” Loneliness has a real physiological effect on one’s emotional and physical being, Paul suggested.
Keeping a friendship pulsating, fresh and dynamic requires a concerted effort and an investment of time. “You can’t take the friendship for granted. You have to show a friend you value him or her, make time for him or her, pay attention and be there when there’s a crisis to show emotional support via a dinner or a note,” Paul said.
“One thing people don’t understand is you don’t stop developing after you’re a teenager,” explained Tasha Howe, head of the psychology department at Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif. and author of the textbook Marriages and Families in the 21st Century. People grow and change, and since many people live into their 80s, they could be friends with someone for 50+ years.
The stages of friendship
Maintaining friendship, Howe noted, “is a lot to ask when you’re constantly changing and developing new interests and habits. Sometimes you realize that person isn’t just for the new version of you.”
Long-term friendships depend on “open communication, an equal power level, where you each influence each other and one person doesn’t dominate the other,” Howe said.
Paul acknowledged that friendships undergo their ups and downs, their difficult stages and satisfying ones. Therefore, “it takes the ability to let some feelings roll off of you” to sustain [the friendship],” Paul explained. If friends look at the big picture, in most cases, they’ll recognize that the positives outweigh the tough times. But if something is troubling you, you need to be able to talk it out with your friend.
Keeping the friendship alive and reinvigorated is critical. “You need to keep the friendship fresh, so it’s not same old, same old. Finding fresh adventures or discovering new things together” injects a dose of energy and variety into the friendship, Paul said.
Feeling valued is another key to keeping a long-term friendship alive and well. And that can be demonstrated and displayed in a variety of ways: a telephone call, sending a Valentine’s Day or birthday card to show you care, sending a text — anything to stay connected.
But friendships can lag and go through doldrums, so you may need to help them blossom. “If they add something to your life, if they make you grow as a person, then it’s worth continuing,” Howe said.
Is it time to call it quits?
Nonetheless, in some cases, long-term friendships reach a logical ending and terminate. Sometimes the friendship takes an unpredictable turn. If you’ve lived in the same neighborhood for years and the friend moves away, it can lead to an eventual dissolution of the relationship. Or if you’ve worked in the same office for years and one retires, it can disrupt the relationship.
Alternatively, if a friend “does something that feels like a betrayal, such as not showing up to your father’s funeral, or if [he or she] didn’t show up when you were in the hospital with cancer,” that friendship can take a nasty detour and end, observed Paul.
There are certain telltale signs that indicate the friendship is fading and it may be time to call it quits. When getting together feels like an obligation, you dread seeing someone or you walk away from dinner feeling angry, frustrated or dissatisfied, it may signal that the friendship is faltering and the end is near.
Sometimes, friendships end because circumstances change. If you make a friend in cancer recovery and you’re healed but he or she is not, the balance of the friendship may change. Or if you are friends with a woman because your two married couples blend, but then you get divorced, the relationship may transform or you may feel like a third wheel. “Major life changes can affect a friendship,” Paul said.
For example, Lili Garfinkel, who lives in New York, had a lifelong friend whom she met in college. As their relationship evolved, Garfinkel started to become exasperated with her. Since her friend lives in Arizona, most of their interactions were by phone, but they included an annual visit. Garfinkel increasingly saw her friend as self-deluded, narcissistic and out of touch with herself. When she started confronting her friend about this, her friend became agitated and defensive.
Garfinkel reached the conclusion that “I no longer valued our relationship. That simply sharing a history does not legitimize continuing a relationship that was not worth my time.” Garfinkel valued her time too much to waste on a friend who was no longer simpatico.
Can the friendship be repaired?
When a friendship is fraught and conflicted, you have to decide “if you want to keep it going,” Paul said. Do you still value it? If so, you need to determine why it has lost its vigor, and whether there’s something to be done to reinvigorate the friendship.
If your friendship has reached a difficult stage and could be ending, experts recommend these steps to determine whether to keep it going:
- Howe suggests an honest face-to-face dialogue, explaining what you’re feeling to your long-term friend. You might say something like: “I’m feeling as if things are changing. Are you? And what can we do to fix things?’
- The main thing to avoid is blaming the other person. Instead of saying “You did this and you did that,” speak about your feelings and why you’re feeling distant from your old friend.
- Diagnose the relationship. Why is it faltering? What could you do to put it back on target?
- Most important, talk it out together. If you’ve been friends for so long, working out a conflict should be doable.
Gary M. Stern is a New York-based freelance writer who has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune.com, CNN/Money and Reuters. He collaborated on Minority Rules: Turn Your Ethnicity into a Competitive Edge (HarperCollins), a how-to guide for minorities and women to climb the corporate ladder.
This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org, © 2018 Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:1d095e0e-2b84-4c0e-92ad-a5f1e866f429> | {
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HIV Vaccine: With New Hope Comes The Potential Dangers of Complacency
SummaryIt is frightening because no one knows what's causing it, said a 28-year old law student who went to the St. Mark's Clinic in Greenwich Village last week complaining of swollen glands, thought to be one early symptom of the disease. Every week a new theory comes out about how you're going to spread it. - The New York Times , August 8th 1982.
"It is frightening because no one knows what's causing it, said a 28-year old law student who went to the St. Mark's Clinic in Greenwich Village last week complaining of swollen glands, thought to be one early symptom of the disease. Every week a new theory comes out about how you're going to spread it." - The New York Times , August 8th 1982. Unaccompanied by anything like a true understanding of the virus until years later – or even a proper name for it – 1981 witnessed the first signs of a public, or even scientific, awareness of AIDS in America. First, several cases of an increasingly aggressive form of Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS) – a relatively benign cancer that typically occurred in older people – were recorded in young gay men in New York. Second, and at approximately the same time, there was a sharp increase in the number of young men contracting the lung infection, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP). The Centers for Disease Control had been given real reason to worry; the beginnings of the HIV/AIDS outbreak had finally come alive on the shores of the United States of America and there was no avoiding it. Two of the first labels for the condition, "gay compromise syndrome" – appearing in a letter in The Lancet in 1982 – and GRID (gay-related immune deficiency) signify an early indictment on the ways in which the HIV/AIDS crisis would go on to haunt the homosexual community for decades. "Gay cancer" was another. In late 1982, the condition was referred to as ‘AIDS’ for the very first time and by 1986, scientists had come to the conclusion that LAV retrovirus (lymphadenopathy-associated virus) and HTLV-III (Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus III) were essentially the same thing. They came up with the fresh designation of Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV. Yet, from its earliest inception in the ‘80s, our understanding of the disease has undergone both a cultural and a medical revolution. In the latter stage of the decade, the years of 1986 and 1987 proved tremendously significant to an improved understanding of the virus. In 1986, Ronald Wilson Reagan, a President often lambasted for his ignorance of the AIDS crisis, made specific note of the word ‘AIDS’ for the first time in his Presidency. In his annual State of the Union Address, Reagan said: “We will continue, as a high priority, the fight against Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). An unprecedented research effort is underway to deal with this major epidemic public health threat. The number of AIDS cases is expected to increase. While there are hopes for drugs and vaccines against AIDS, none is immediately at hand. Consequently, efforts should focus on prevention, to inform and to lower risks of further transmission of the AIDS virus. To this end, I am asking the Surgeon General to prepare a report to the American people on AIDS”, he said. A year later, on March 20th, 1987, GlaxoSmithKline’s AZT (or Retrovir and Retrovis) became the first FDA-approved drug for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. With a little history in mind, then, it should come as no surprise that the recent discovery of an experimental HIV vaccine has been greeted with euphoria and skepticism in almost equal measure. Hailed by some as a significant, clinical breakthrough, results from Phase III Clinical Trials show the new vaccine to be around 31% effective at preventing infection, in addition to being relatively well-tolerated under its current regimen.Beneath the surface, the new vaccine is an innovative prime-boost pairing of two existing vaccines. Namely, the modified canarypox vaccine, ALVAC-HIV (prime), developed by Sanofi Pasteur of France and AIDSVAX B/E (boost) vaccine, a glycoprotein 120 vaccine now licensed to Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases (GSID) in California. Carried out in Thailand and sponsored by the U.S. Army – alongside the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Sanofi Pasteur and GSID - over 16,000 people were involved in the placebo-controlled study. Having killed over 25 million people – and brought great pain and suffering to many others - since initial recognition of the virus in 1981, it is hardly startling that there are still many skeptics amongst the cheerleaders. Back in June of this year, Paul Thorn, a 15-year-long veteran activist and HIV expert was denied entry to the United States due to his HIV-positive status. Scheduled to speak at the Pacific Health Summit in Seattle, Mr. Thorn became yet another victim of the United States’ now seemingly primitive laws on the issue. This is but one example of the many ways in which sufferers are discriminated against on a daily basis and provides an apt illustration of why feelings still run high on the topic. False hope can be a torturous illusion for many. Is this false hope? Simply put, yes and no. In commenting on the findings Dr Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet, combined encouragement with caution in delivering his assessment. "This result is tantalisingly encouraging. The numbers are small and the difference may have been due to chance, but this finding is the first positive news in the Aids vaccine field for a decade”, he said. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UN/Aids) heralded the results as having “instilled new hope in the HIV vaccine research field". Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the U.S. Army Surgeon General echoed such sentiments, saying ''This is truly a great moment for world medicine”. For others, however, while meaningful progress is welcomed, the results also provide an empirical basis for skepticism. Writing for the Huffington Post, U.S. physician, Peter Klatsky astutely pointed out that a single digit amendment to the figures would have rendered the results almost non-newsworthy. “After vaccinating 16,000 people, there were 23 fewer new infections in patients receiving the vaccine (51 cases versus 74 cases). If one additional patient who received the vaccine became infected (52 instead of 51) the results would no longer be "statistically significant”, he said. Deeming it the ‘worst kind of good news’, in an article for the Times, Elizabeth Pisani, an epidemiologist specialising in HIV prevention, threw some pragmatism into the mix: ‘…a vaccine that reduces the risk of infection by a third presents an agonising public health dilemma’, she said. ‘With most infectious diseases, reducing everyone’s risk by a third would make quite a difference across a whole population. But the problem with HIV is that it is both an infectious disease and a behavioural one. I can get it by sharing needles with other drug injectors, I can avoid it by using condoms every time I have sex. If I know I have been vaccinated, will that make me more likely to share needles, or less likely to use condoms? And if it does, will that change outweigh the 30 per cent reduction in risk that comes with the vaccine?’ All things considered, this is positive news for the clinical research community. In comparison to the failure of previous studies, these latest results certainly look impressive. Going forward, several questions will still remain. For one, this is not the be-all-end-all cure for the HIV/AIDS pandemic that some might hope it to be. A 30% reduction, while also remaining purely experimental in terms of proven efficacy, is no where near the levels needed to permanently eradicate the virus from the face of the planet. As has always been the case, culture and behavioral tendencies will continue to provide much of the backbone for the fight against the condition. Experimentation is one thing, a cure for one of the gravest human pandemics in history is quite another. Only time will tell. | <urn:uuid:8affeaa3-b57e-4e6c-ae38-2d613bd6de06> | {
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Alvin H. Sacks, John R. Spreiter
The general characteristics of the flow field in a submerged air inlet are investigated by theoretical, wind-tunnel, and visual-flow studies. Equations are developed for calculating the laminar and turbulent boundary-layer growth along the ramp floor for parallel, divergent, and convergent ramp walls, and a general equation is derived relating the boundary-layer pressure losses to the boundary-layer thickness. It is demonstrated that the growth of the boundary layer on the floor of the divergent-ramp inlet is retarded and that a vortex pair is generated in such an inlet. Functional relationships are established between the pressure losses in the vortices and the geometry of the inlet. A general discussions of the boundary layer and vortex formations is included, in which variations of the various losses and of the incremental external drag with mass-flow ratio are considered. Effects of compressibility are also discussed.
An Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file of the entire report: | <urn:uuid:b1c8b89b-bd03-4a11-96a3-26589f5dc3c8> | {
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History : Dec 2015-Jan 2016
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 15 MILESTONES World seemed a promising venture. In 1609 they hired English navigator Henry Hudson. Failing to find a north- east passage to Asia, he explored instead stretches of the American East Coast, the Delaware River, and the eponymous Hudson River. In 1613 a Dutch expedi- tion sailed up the Hudson, the next year founding Fort Nassau, what is today Albany, the capital of New York State. This settlement, dedicated to trading with the natives, ex- changed Europe- an goods, which would eventu- ally include weapons, for local goods, such as tobac- co, produce, and otter, mink, and bea- ver furs. In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was established with exclu- sive rights to exploit New Netherland, the collective name given to Dutch pos- sessions in North America. It stimulated colonization and fostered the foundation of many towns. Places such as Hartford, Connecticut; Schenectady and Kingston, New York; Gloucester City, New Jer- sey; and New Castle, Delaware, all owe their origins to the Dutch company. But it was their community along the lower Hudson River that would prove to be the most successful. Around 1624 a group of Dutchmen settled on a small islet that the natives called Pagganck (“Nut Island”) because of the plentiful walnut and chestnut trees growing there. Today it’s known as Governors Island. Barely a half mile away is Manhattan, a longer landmass that skirts the Hudson River for 13 miles. It was larger, more boun- tiful, and easier to defend than Nut Is- land, so in 1625 the new governor, Peter Minuit, moved the colony to Manhattan. But the Europeans weren’t alone in seeing its advantages: The island was already inhabited. In fact the entire cluster of Long Island, Manhattan, and Staten Island was divided up among a number of different Native American alliances. On Long Island there were the Montauk and the Manhasset, both part of the Metoac confederacy, as well as the Reckgawawanc and some groups of the Wappinger, also found on Manhat- tan. Two Delaware groups, the Canarsie and the Rockaway, shared what is now HENRY HUDSON (1565-1611) The Englishman Henry Hudson was hired by the Dutch as an explorer. THE DUTCH AND NATIVE AMERICANS THE ARRIVAL OF THE DUTCH had a dramatic impact on the lives of the Manhattan natives. But more destructive than violent clashes were the diseases Europeans unknowingly introduced, particularly smallpox. The Delaware tribe was reduced from approximately 20,000 people in 1600 to less than 4,000 in 1700; the Wappinger plummeted from some 8,000 in 1600 to a mere 90 survivors in 1698. UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/ALBUM AKG/ALBUM BRIDGEMAN/ACI AN ENCOUNTER BETWEEN HENRY HUDSON AND NATIVE AMERICANS ALONG THE HUDSON RIVER IN 1609 THE GOVERNOR of New Amsterdam heeding the pleas of his constituents to surrender the city to the English without a fight. Oil painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. | <urn:uuid:3be02c57-5ac6-4d75-8295-3da7d1a94160> | {
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It’s interesting how the phrase “it has good bones” is now popular to mean that anything older is worth salvaging because it’s structure is still solid and sound.
As we age, women in particular, those “good bones” may begin to weaken, become more porous and brittle. It is estimated by the NIH that one in two aged women will develop osteoporosis, a disease of the skeleton.
There are several key risk factors of developing osteoporosis. Low estrogen levels contribute, and, similarly, low testosterone can put men at risk as well. Some medicines may increase the risk, lack of exercise, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption also exacerbate the risk.
Osteoporosis is known to be caused by an accelerating imbalance in bone remodeling.
Healthy bones involve two coordinated actions: bone formation (by osteoblast) and bone reabsorption (by osteoclast). In the process of bone formation, osteoblasts produce a calcium and phosphate-based mineral that is deposited. Almost the entire bone matrix is mineralized by the osteoblasts. An osteoclast is a type of bone cell that resorbs and break down bone tissue. Balance of bone formation and bone resorption tends to be negative with age, particularly in post-menopausal women. Osteoporosis is the most common bone disorder, caused by excessive bone resorption by osteoclasts without adequate bone formation by osteoblasts. Increased bone resorption, trabecular thinning and decreased connections between the remaining trabeculae are predominantly caused by the decline of estrogen in post-menopausal women.
An extract of Andrographis paniculata has been shown in research to help support the healthy balance of bone turnover. A study in mice showed that those given the supplement had increase in bone mass, trabecular thickness and number and a decrease in trabecular separation compared to the mice that were not given the supplement (control group).
Researchers found that the herb suppressed a biochemical called Receptor Activator for NF-kB ligand (RANKL), which induces the formation of osteoclasts in the bone marrow. Fewer osteoclasts means a slower rate of bone breakdown, so that normalized bone buildup can be maintained.
What other things can women do to keep bones strong? It’s well understood that calcium is necessary for healthy bones, as well as its compatriot, vitamin D. But this combination is incomplete without vitamin K2 as menaquinone-7, which has been shown to activate osteocalcin, a protein that helps ensure incoming calcium from food and beverages gets deposited into the bones and away from cardiovascular arteries, where calcium also likes to adhere.
For bone health, the combination of Andrographis paniculata, calcium, vitamin D and vitamin K2 make for the most whole, comprehensive supplemental approach to sustaining bone health. | <urn:uuid:991e2e66-b347-42df-a5b6-04676d6771f5> | {
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The Flying Machine Arena (FMA) is a portable space devoted to autonomous flight. Measuring up to 10 x 10 x 10 meters, it consists of a high-precision motion capture system, a wireless communication network, and custom software executing sophisticated algorithms for estimation and control.
The motion capture system can locate multiple objects in the space at rates exceeding 200 frames per second. While this may seem extremely fast, the objects in the space can move at speeds in excess of 10 m/s, resulting in displacements of over 5 cm between successive snapshots. This information is fused with other data and models of the system dynamics to predict the state of the objects into the future.
The system uses this knowledge to determine what commands the vehicles should execute next to achieve their desired behavior, such as performing high-speed flips, balancing objects, building structures, or engaging in a game of paddle-ball. Then, via wireless links, the system sends the commands to the vehicles, which execute them with the aid of on-board computers and sensors such as rate gyros and accelerometers.
Although various objects can fly in the FMA, the machine of choice is the quadrocopter due to its agility, its mechanical simplicity and robustness, and its ability to hover. Furthermore, the quadrocopter is a great platform for research in adaptation and learning: it has well understood, low order first-principle models near hover, but is difficult to characterize when performing high-speed maneuvers due to complex aerodynamic effects. We cope with the difficult to model effects with algorithms that use first-principle models to roughly determine what a vehicle should do to perform a given task, and then learn and adapt based on flight data. | <urn:uuid:fdaf65de-8356-4b13-87de-0dbd021d6865> | {
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Heart Surgery Information
heart surgery is done to bypass any clogs in the artery and to enable
smooth flow of blood to and from the heart. Removing the blocks in the
artery is essential for the blood to flow to the other parts of the body
without any interruption.
Due fat and cholesterol accumulated in the arteries there may be block
in the artery. The bypass heart surgery bypasses these blocks in the artery
through new grafts that are placed before and after the blocked area of
the artery. A bypass heart surgery is usually done by stopping the beat
of the heart and using a heart lung machine which does the job of the
heart. The heart lung machine plays an important role in a bypass heart
also new methods developed to perform a bypass heart surgery without stopping
the heart also. Such methods are called Off-pump coronary artery bypass
(OPCAB) surgery. The main advantages of these OPCAB methods are the reduction
in the transfusion of blood necessary for the heart surgery. Moreover
these methods help reduce the renal and the neurological complications
in our body after a bypass heart surgery.
Monitoring the patients is an important task after a bypass heart surgery.
Constipation, muscle pain and swelling in the area where the vein was
removed for bypass heart surgery are found to be common for the patients
who have undergone bypass heart surgery.
I highly recommend you visit patient's
guide to heart surgery for more information
Your privacy is respected & protected.
© 2005 - 2016 - www.Surgery-Guide.com | <urn:uuid:4b913d31-3c9d-4806-8508-fff147170a63> | {
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Scanning the heavens, you might very well miss the star Kepler-62. It's a rather typical star, slightly smaller, cooler, and more orange than the Sun, much like tens of billions of other stars in our galaxy. But it holds a surprise: It's orbited by at least five planets . . . and two of them are Earth-sized and orbit the star in its habitable zone.
The two planets, called Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f, are both bigger than Earth, but not by much; they are 1.6 and 1.4 times the Earth's diameter, respectively. Kepler-62e orbits the star every 122 days, while Kepler-62f, farther out, takes about 267 days.
Given the temperature and size of the parent star, this means that both planets are inside the zone around the star where water on the surface could be a liquid. Now, to be clear, this depends on a lot of factors we don't know yet: the masses of the planets, their compositions, whether they have atmospheres or not, and what those putative atmospheres are made of. For example, Kepler-62e could have a thick CO2-laden blanket of air, making its surface temperature completely uninhabitable, like Venus.
Or it might not. We just don't know yet, and won't for quite some time - both planets are too small to get a measurement of their masses. It's worth noting, though, that we do have size and mass determinations for a few planets like this around other stars, and they look rocky, like Earth. That makes it likelier these two planets are as well.
Also, the best computer models we have, based on what we know about how planets form and change over time, indicate that these planets could very well have water on them (it is, after all, incredibly common both in our solar system and in the Universe at large). We've already seen at least one planet with indications of the presence of water.
That's pretty exciting. For years we didn't know if any planets existed around other stars at all. When we started finding them all we could see were ones that were huge and hot, as unlike Earth as you can imagine. But as time went on, and our technology and techniques got better, we started finding smaller, less massive worlds. Now we are finding ones that look achingly like home.
These planets were found using the transit method: The Kepler spacecraft stares at one region of the sky, observing about 150,000 stars all the time. If a planet orbits a star, and the orbit is oriented edge-on from our point of view, we see the planet pass directly in front of the star once per orbit. This is called a transit, and it blocks a teeny bit of the star's light. The amount of light blocked depends on the size of the star (which we can determine) and the size of the planet. A big planet blocks more light, and a small one less.
That's what makes finding Earth-sized planets hard; they only block about 0.01 percent of the star's light. Kepler was designed to be sensitive enough to detect that meager dimming, though, and has actually found several planets in this size range now.
The other problem is timing. For a planet to be in the star's habitable zone, it may take months or even years for it to pass in front of the star several times (multiple transits are needed to make sure we're not seeing some other event, like a starspot). That takes time, but Kepler has been observing these stars for years now, which is why we're seeing more and more smaller planets now.
And to find two orbiting the same star is very cool indeed. Assuming they're made up of the same materials as Earth (metal and rock) and therefore have about the same density, you'd weigh 60 percent more on Kepler-62e, and 40 percent more on Kepler-62f. I'll note that all things considered, neither would be paradise: Kepler-62e gets about 20 percent more sunlight than we do on Earth, and Kepler-62f gets about half; a bit hot and cold for my taste. But again, we don't know the conditions on these planets. Give Kepler-62e a thin atmosphere, and Kepler-62f a thick one, and they might look a lot like Earth.
What an amazing thing that would be: two inhabitable worlds around one star. It's fun to imagine it being like a Victorian science fiction novel, spurring interplanetary travel and trade between alien races . . . or war. I guess that depends on which writer you read.
Of course, the habitability of these two newly found planets is all supposition, but consider this: We think there are tens of billions of Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Even if a fraction of them are the right distance to be in their stars' habitable zones, that still leaves tens or hundreds of millions of planets. That's a lot of planets to play with. Sure, some will be too hot, too cold, have too much air or not enough, or have toxic atmospheres. But still, statistically speaking, it seems very likely indeed that there are plenty of planets out there that will look an awful lot like Earth.
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is author of "Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing 'Hoax' " and "Death from the Skies! These Are the Ways the Universe Will End." | <urn:uuid:6b2edacb-fc8f-41aa-9df7-7c93201751e6> | {
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UCLA Engineering researchers have received $1.2 million from the Department of Energy to improve the efficiency of existing single-pane windows in commercial and residential buildings. The federal agency’s goal is to accelerate the development of materials that could cut in half the amount of heat lost through single-pane windows.
The UCLA team is developing a transparent coating that can reduce the transfer of heat from one side of the window to the other, and better resist condensation that leads to mold and other forms of building damage. The project is called Thermally Insulating Transparent Barrier (THINNER) Coatings for Single-Pane Windows.
Laurent Pilon, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, is the lead researcher on the project. Others include Bruce Dunn, the Nippon Sheet Glass Company Chair in Materials Science; Yongjie Hu, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering; and Sarah Tolbert, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry who holds a joint appointment in materials science and engineering.
On Wednesday, DOE announced $31 million in Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) funding for 14 projects in the new SHIELD (Single-Pane Highly Insulating Efficient Lucid Design) effort to improve window efficiency. In addition to UCLA, institutions leading SHIELD research projects include UC San Diego, the University of Colorado at Boulder, Argonne National Laboratory in in Illinois and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
“Our team is combining expertise in nanomaterials, optics, and thermal sciences to create a new transparent and insulating multilayer nanoporous titania/silica coating for windowpanes,” Pilon said. “In order to ensure that the process is scalable, we are also developing a high temperature spray-on application process that is compatible with the operations of conventional glass manufacturers.”
Many commercial and residential buildings have single-pane windows that do not insulate well. However, cost, aesthetics, and other factors often make it challenging to replace older single-pane windows with newer and more efficient ones. Retrofitting, rather than replacing, these windows can save roughly the amount of electricity needed to power 32 million U.S. homes each year, according to DOE.
“The SHIELD program illustrates ARPA-E’s commitment to supporting transformational technologies,” said ARPA-E Director Ellen D. Williams. “By creating novel materials to retrofit existing single-pane windows, SHIELD technologies can dramatically improve building efficiency and save energy costs for building owners and occupants.”
The THINNER project is part of UCLA’s Sustainable L.A. Grand Challenge, and is key to meeting Sustainable L.A.’s goal of transitioning Los Angeles to 100 percent renewable energy, 100 percent locally sourced water and enhanced ecosystem health by 2050.
To read the Department of Energy release on the SHIELD Project, click here.
Photo caption: Scanning electron microscope image of the UCLA nanoporous titania/silica coating material that can improve the energy-efficiency of windows. | <urn:uuid:04e42778-8034-4512-a2f8-1e6d0a0857a6> | {
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For generations, hunters have been shooting deer with lead bullets and eating the venison with no ill effects. In fact, there is not one documented case of a citizen ever becoming ill because of eating venison taken with a rifle bullet.
Moreover, a recent CDC study, in which more than 700 North Dakota residents were tested for lead levels, found not one single individual with unacceptably high amounts of lead in the blood. That study was requested by the North Dakota Department of Health in response to allegations made earlier this year that venison intended for food banks contained excessive levels of lead.
Now, Minnesota is set to test up to 25,000 pounds of venison intended for food banks in the state, having the meat X-rayed before it is distributed. The decision came when random testing revealed that 5.3 percent of sampled deer meat contained "lead fragments."
Such overreaction is expensive. Testing the meat will lighten the state's coffers to the tune of 30 cents a pound.
But the unnecessary expense is not the only problem. The testing will delay the delivery of badly needed food to hungry families. It's being collected from all over the state and moved to the Twin Cities for testing. State officials are even considering eliminating its game donation program altogether.
All of this in light of some concrete facts:
- Humans have been consuming game shot with traditional lead ammunition for more than a century with no documented health problems.
- All individuals tested in the CDC study who consumed game harvested with lead ammunition had blood lead levels below an unsafe level.
- Lead ammunition alternatives are expensive and more difficult to obtain.
- Most other state wildlife agencies have publicly called for hunters to continue donating meat to Hunters for the Hungry programs.
When states like Minnesota show nervousness over venison's imaginary health concerns, anti-hunting groups use it to object to the use of lead ammunition. The Humane Society of the United States, for example, recently called for a ban on all lead ammunition.
Such unfounded fears hurt hunters, hungry people facing uncertain economic times, and, ultimately, game populations, for game sharing programs play a key role in helping states reach their wildlife management objectives.
Calls to ban lead ammunition, clearly lacking in scientific evidence, will ultimately do more harm than good. Minnesota's testing program is needlessly flaming that fire.
For more information on this developing story, visit www.NRAhuntersrights.org | <urn:uuid:a6b91e5c-875d-415a-8fc2-5194bd922195> | {
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Friday, February 26, 2010
1. Excel Round function behaves differently when we compare with C# Math.Round() method.
2. Also Excel Round allows Round to -1, -2... example Round(121,-1) = 120. This is not allowed in Math.Round()
3. Say if we want to Round 1234.5678 to nearest integer value then Math.Round() returns 1234 where as MS Excel Round gives 12345.
4. Below is a C# function that gives similar result as MS Excel Round and also allows negative rounding.
public double roundNum(double num, int place)
n = num * Math.Pow(10, place);
n = Math.Sign(n) * Math.Abs(Math.Floor(n + .5));
return n / Math.Pow(10, place);
Note: Visual Studio 2005 allows us to mention Round Up or Round down for Math.Round() method.
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- How to pass values from User Control to Page or calling Page methods from User Control.
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- C# to VB.NET and VB.NET to C# online free converter tools. | <urn:uuid:c3764e52-3192-40cc-8530-37cd198cd6f0> | {
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From the Ocean Depths to Deep Space
As the International Space Station floats around our planet like a ship on the sea, astronauts at home are taking to the Earth's oceans to prepare for missions into orbit and beyond. Through a unique partnership, future Space Station crews are learning from specialized training aboard a one-of-a-kind undersea laboratory called Aquarius.
Image to right: Aquarius was refurbished in 1997 by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Credit: NOAA and UNC at Wilmington.
Designed for ocean floor research, Aquarius is operated by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington
for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NASA astronauts use Aquarius to conduct NEEMO
diving missions. NEEMO, which stands for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, is a program designed to simulate life onboard the International Space Station and test new concepts for future interplanetary missions.
This year, NASA aquanauts participated in two NEEMO missions, the sixth and seventh of the project. Early missions were used to test the idea of using Aquarius to train astronauts, but more recent missions have added experiments to test advanced technologies that could be used for exploring other worlds. While on NEEMO 7, NASA "aquanaut" Mike Barratt called Aquarius a "diving and training paradise."
The Aquarius lab is submerged three and a half miles off the coast of Key Largo, Fla. From the surface, the only sign Aquarius is nearby is the lab's floating Life Support Buoy which provides communications, air and electricity to the undersea installation. Resting 62 feet below the buoy is the 10-by-45 foot lab sitting along the border of a vibrant coral reef.
Visitors and aquanauts dive down to Aquarius and enter through the open "wet porch." Unlike a space station or submarine, the lab doesn't require the use of an airlock to maintain the breathable atmosphere inside. That's because the air pressure inside Aquarius is kept equal to the pressure exerted by the outside ocean. With the pressures equal, the air prevents seawater from entering the lab and allows the aquanauts to easily slip out for dives.
Equalizing the air pressure between the ocean and Aquarius also means the aquanauts can dive for longer periods of time.
Image to left: Every bunk was filled aboard Aquarius for the NEEMO 5 expedition. The lab can accommodate up to a crew of six people for approximately 10 days. The lab is used by NASA and other organizations for extreme environment and ocean research. Credit: NASA
At 62 feet underwater, the pressure on a diver is 2.5 times greater than at the surface. Because of the increased pressure, nitrogen from breathing air begins to saturate the body's tissues. This condition normally demands that a diver swim back up to the surface within 80 minutes. If they don't, once reaching the surface, the nitrogen could bubble out of their tissues and cause an assortment of medical problems, known as "the bends." However, since the aquanauts live and swim at the same pressure, the nitrogen remains harmlessly inside of their tissues and allows them to dive for an extended amount of time. This is called "saturation diving."
Inside Aquarius' elongated capsule is everything the aquanauts need for a rustic, but comfortable 10-day science mission. At the opposite end of the lab from the wet porch are the lab's six sleeping bunks. Moving forward is the main living area. On one side of the room is a bank of counters, computers, control panels and communications equipment. On the other side is a table, sink, microwave oven and just about everything else that would be needed to spend a pleasant weekend at the cabin. Between the living area and wet porch is a space for setting up science experiments and conducting research.
While working inside Aquarius mirrors the Space Station, spacewalk-style dives outside are quite similar, too.
During NEEMO 7, aquanauts imitated spacewalks on other planets by wearing EX14 suits provided by the U.S. Navy. The special suits are designed for long-duration dives and can be weighted to mimic the gravity of the Moon or Mars. During their simulated spacewalks, aquanauts honed assembly skills by learning to use specially designed tools to build various structures.
Image to right: Aquanauts used U.S. Navy EX14 diving suits to simulate spacewalking during NEEMO 7. The innovative suits can be weighted to simuate the reduced gravity of places like the Moon or Mars. Credit: NASA
Far below the Atlantic ocean NASA's astronauts are harnessing the special benefits and challenges offered by the extreme environment of water. By working and living in and out of the Aquarius laboratory, future crews are getting a potent lesson in what it will be like to stay aboard the International Space Station. It's a lesson that will stay with them as they venture from the deep blue ocean into the vast cosmic sea.
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center | <urn:uuid:73fa1e11-5568-4055-9700-01315cb7c363> | {
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People who regularly take photos of themselves, or selfies, tend to overestimate their attractiveness and likability to a greater extent, and are seen as more narcissistic by independent observers, compared with non-selfie-takers, according to a study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science.
A wealth of psychological evidence shows that people have a tendency to perceive themselves as being better than average on a wide range of positive traits, a phenomenon known as “self-favoring bias.” There is also evidence that self-favoring bias is strongest in situations in which one has the greatest amount of personal control. Anyone with a social media account can attest to the popularity of self-taken photos, or selfies. By giving people a great deal of personal control over how they present themselves to the world, selfies may be a prime situation for enhancing self-favoring bias.
A team of psychologists led by Daniel Re, of the University of Toronto, conducted a study designed to compare how self-favoring bias is affected selfie-taking. The sample included 198 college students, including 100 who reported regularly taking selfies, and 98 who reported little or no selfie-taking. Study participants were invited to take a selfie using a smartphone camera, and also had their pictures taken by an experimenter.
They were then instructed to rate each photo based on how attractive and likable they thought their friends would perceive them to be in the photo if it were posted on social media. A sample of 178 independent raters recruited on the internet also rated the participants’ photos for attractiveness and likability, as well as for narcissism.
Both groups, the habitual selfie-takers and non-selfie-takers, showed self-favoring bias by thinking that they would be seen as more attractive and more likeable in their photos than they were actually seen by the independent raters. However, the selfie-takers overestimated themselves significantly more, especially when judging their selfies rather than the experimenter-taken photos. In reality, both groups’ selfies were rated as less attractive than the experimenter-taken photos by the independent raters. They also thought the selfie-takers looked significantly more narcissistic than the non-selfie-takers on the basis of their selfies.
The researchers conclude that habitual selfie-taking may increase people’s susceptibility to self-favoring bias, causing them to overestimate the attractiveness of their photos to a greater and greater extent over time. They suggest that this effect may occur because selfie-takers develop strategies for taking flattering photos of themselves that are not as effective as they believe, or perhaps because positive feedback in the form of likes on social media reinforces an inflated sense of self.
Ironically, practice taking selfies actually appears to contribute to those photos being seen more negatively, in terms of narcissism, at least by some observers. Given these findings, social media users may want to think twice before posting their next selfies.
Copyright 2016 PsyPost | <urn:uuid:8060dccc-d7a9-4f1c-a478-c9461a0dfc5b> | {
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As a school counselor or advisor, you take the personal responsibility to provide students intelligent, practical guidance that steers them toward a solid future, rich with opportunity and promise.
America’s Navy offers your students exceptional, hands-on career training, funding for higher education, and generous pay and other benefits. It also instills self-confidence, pride and a sense of purpose. Plus honor, courage and commitment, a deep sense of responsibility, teamwork and clear direction.
It’s what makes them good Sailors. And good people. They’re highly employable, better leaders and more fit for life’s challenges. They’re not just defending our country; they’re developing themselves - personally and professionally.
In today’s competitive work environment, any advantage your students have will move them ahead faster and easier. America’s Navy can give students the edge they need — education, training and real-life experience.
The Navy trains its personnel for hundreds of high-growth positions in more than 60 career fields. While they’re enlisted, Sailors learn about leadership, responsibility and new technology — all valuable skills that easily transfer to the civilian workplace.
The Navy places a high value on education. Challenging missions and a high-tech work environment demand Sailors who are highly capable. That’s why all recruits must have at least a high school diploma or equivalent, and all those entering the Navy as Officers must have a college degree.
The Navy encourages all personnel to pursue their education by offering:
- Money for college
- Ways to pay off student loans
- College courses on ships and bases
- Educational benefits through the Post 9/11 GI Bill
And joining the Navy doesn’t mean giving up on plans for a master’s or doctorate. The Navy needs highly educated individuals for critical research, strategic planning and other vital activities.
Sometimes the best education comes from the real-world experiences. America’s Navy has a global presence with more than 100 ports of call, giving your students the opportunity to see firsthand how other people, cultures and countries live. It’s an opportunity that most people only dream about, but the Navy can put this kind of life-changing experience within reach.
In Their Own Words
“I knew exactly what I was looking for, and the Navy was able to give it to me. Actually, I got more than I was looking for. I am now a journalist working in the public relations field. In addition to producing brochures and press releases, I am designing Web pages and practicing photography. Because of all my experience and the Navy training I have received, I am just shy of getting my bachelor’s degree in journalism. I plan on earning that very soon.” – Mathew Chabe, Mass Communication Specialist, Second Class
“I guess you could say I came from humble beginnings. I had only been out of West Virginia twice in my life. Dad was a disabled coal miner. Mom was a housewife. I was the youngest of 10 kids. We were dependent on welfare and Social Security. Despite all that, I did well in school and wanted to become part of the Navy nuclear power program. I was hungry to succeed. And I knew I could do it. Since I’ve been in the Navy, I have earned a bachelor of science degree in Nuclear Engineering and a master’s degree in Management, with the Navy picking up a good portion of my tuition. I have traveled to more than 35 countries in Europe, Asia, South America, the Middle East and all but six of the 50 states. Where else but in the Navy?” – Travis Goodwin, Supply Corps Officer, Lieutenant Commander
“When the economy goes bad, if you’re in the civilian sector, you’re going to get laid off. That happened to me several times when I was a civilian. That won’t happen to me in the Navy. The Navy has paid 100% of my college tuition. (I’m a few credits shy of my bachelor’s degree. After I get that, it’s on to Officer Candidate School.) My health care is covered. I receive food and housing allowances. My pay raise last year was certainly better than what I received when I was a civilian. I intend to retire from the Navy. With benefits and security better than what I received as a civilian. I sleep very well at night.” – Walter Lee, Yeoman, Petty Officer Third Class
“I come from a small town in Texas. Since I joined the Navy, I have traveled the world. I’ve become a certified EMT (Emergency Medical Technician). And because the Navy helped me with my tuition, I will have my bachelor’s degree in business administration and medical technology in a little over a year. Joining the Navy was probably one of the best decisions I ever made. My parents – my dad especially – are very, very proud of me. When I go home to visit, even my friends’ parents tell me how proud they are of what I have done. I intend to retire from the Navy. I love it.” – Kelly Bell, Yeoman, Petty Officer Second Class
“My life changed February 19. I enlisted that morning. That was over 10 years ago and life has been great ever since. As an Ordnanceman (loading bombs on aircraft), I have traveled around the world. I intend to get involved in real estate when I retire. The Navy even paid for my education so I could get my real estate license. My immediate goal is to make it into an Officer’s program; I would like to become a Chief Petty Officer. I was always the black sheep of the family. I wasn’t into school (studying wasn’t something I liked to do). I got into trouble. Now, my mom makes scrapbooks with the newspaper articles I send her about the places I have been while on liberty during deployments. She is very proud of me. The Navy didn’t get me to where I am today. I did that. What the Navy did was give me the opportunity to succeed.” – Jeffrey Campbell, Aviation Ordnanceman, Petty Officer First Class
Learn how the Navy seeks the best and the brightest at the Navy Recruiting Command Web site.
Get the real story about what the Navy is like for young people…from the mothers of Sailors at NavyForMoms.com. | <urn:uuid:6bab2ccc-3b87-4fef-be8b-6c8056c82b3b> | {
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The 16 Arahats
According to Waters (1890's,) in the main hall of Chinese Buddhist temples were two rows of large yellow figures -- one along the east and an other along the west wall. They are the numbered, labeled figures known as the Eighteen Lohan, (16 plus 2 patrons) or Buddha's great disciples called in Sanskrit, shravaka or the hearers.
However, the names given show that the information is not quite correct since some are unknown to the original Buddhist canon. In old Buddhist temples of Korea, the similar figures are sixteen in number. In Japan, the Rakan also number only Sixteen. ( Lohan and Rakan derive from Alohan, the Chinese pronunciation of Arahant or Pali, Arhat. )
In Tibetan Buddhism
In Tibetan these figures are called Natan Chudug from Sanskrit, 16 sthaviras.
Text on the back of Wisdom Publications Tibetan calendar for 1996 says that Lamas Lumes and Dromchung introduced them to Tibet after they had visited China. In Tibet, they are considered custodians of the Buddha's spoken word and function as guardians of his teachings.
Jeff Watts' notes at Tibet Art tell us that the sadhana or ritual service and offerings to Buddha Shakyamuni with the 16 Arhats was made popular by Atisha (982-1054) and the Shakya pandita, Shribhadra (1127-1225).
Following tradition, at Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche's Vajra Vidya Institute in Sarnath, in the main shrine room, a set of eight appear along the east wall, and the other eight are against the west side:
Also in that image are the 4 directional guardians plus Huashang, Dharmatala and also Buddha Amitabha.
The arhats have incense burnt before their images but generally speaking they are not worshipped or consulted like gods and divinities.
Where does the doctrine of an elite group of disciples originate?
Buddhist literature, once preserved in the libraries of great Chinese monasteries, mentions only sixteen "the number eighteen being apparently unknown even to the comparatively modern native treatises." The likenesses derive from the works of one or two T'ang dynasty painters.
About the year 880, according to Waters, an artist named Kuan Hsiu made pictures of the 16 which were given to a Buddhist monastery near Ch'ien-t'ang in the province of Zhejiang (Chekiang.) These became famous and were preserved with great care and ceremonious respect.
In the reign of Qianglong [or, Chen-lung] (ca. 1750) an official had copies made by competent artists and sent them to the emperor who had further copies made, printed and distributed. When it was found that names were incorrectly assigned, he took care to see that the copies be compared with the originals and correctly transcribed.
Who are these Arhats?
Buddhist scripture indicates that they are the patrons and guardians of Shakyamuni Buddha's system
and of its adherents both lay and monastic.
The propagation of his system was entrusted to the four Great Bhikshus: Mahakashyapa, Pindola, Kun-te pan-t'an and his son, Rahula. These were to remain in existence and not experience final Nirvana until the advent of Maitreya as Buddha. Three of the names are well known, and the characters of the unknown one according to Waters, indicates Kundovahan, a Pali name meaning "Mongoose-bearing," according to a spelling from a sutra of the last century BCE.
Then in a treatise or shastra composed in the 1st century of our
era and translated into Chinese in 384 CE, the title of which is Arya
Vasumitra-bodhisattva Sangiti Shastra, we find mention of sixteen "brahmins"
-- the word Buddha used to designate the "exalted" or "noble ones" -- that is, the bodhisattvas.
Those are probably the Sixteen Arhats, although a note gives the name of the second
one as Ajita, that is Maitreya.
These guardians are said to be dispersed over the world and the names of some of their spheres are: Purva-Videha, the Wheat (Godhuma) region, the Spice (Priyangu) region, the Lion (Simha) region and Bhadrika place.
The text from which all our knowledge of the names of the Sixteen Arhats of the far east is likely derived is the Record of the Duration of the Law* by the great Arhat Nandimitra. The actual author lived long after the legendary Nandimitra and was not a native of that arhat's country, and the Chinese translators say they are indebted to a previous translation.
The Record of the Duration begins with the [Chinese Buddhist] tradition that within
800 years of Buddha's decease, an arhat named Nandimitra lived at the capital of King Sheng-chun in the Chih-shih-tzu country.
Though the scholar Nanjio took Sheng-chun to be King Prasenajit and Chih-shih-tzu to be Ceylon, Prasenajit's capital was
at Shravasti in Kosala. Besides, no king with that name is in the annals of Ceylon.
And Chih-shih-tzu is probably Shih-tzu-kuo which was in Vrijjian territory.
Waters thought that the Chinese name Sheng-Chun might stand for either Prasenajit or Jayasena.
Waters gives the list from the Record with the Chinese, Japanese, and variations noticed in other lists. He reminds us "we must remember that these, whether merely works of art or consecrated to religion, are not supposed to be faithful representations of the men . . . . The pictures and images are to be taken merely as symbols or fanciful creations."
At his congregation's request Nandimitra named these 16 Protectors, their spheres of action, and the
size of their retinues. According to this Record of the Duration of the Law
here is the order:
He has a retinue of 1,000 arhats, and his place is the Godhanga region in the west. Sometimes he is just called Bharadvaja. Pindola, "with a voice like a lion's roar" was one of Buddha's great disciples distinguished as a successful disputant and defender of orthodoxy. However, he had a weakness for exhibiting his magical powers before all sorts of people, and sometimes for unworthy objects. Once, according to the Pali and other editions of the Vinaya, in order to show his superhuman powers, he rose in the air, took a sandalwood bowl off a very high pole, and floated about with it for a time over the heads of an admiring crowd. This brought a severe rebuke from the Master, and was the occasion of a rule prohibiting the use of sandalwood bowls (?!)
The Buddha also on this occasion said that Pindola was not to "take Nirvana," but was to remain in existence protect Buddha's system until the coming of Maitreya.
He is also said to have worked a miracle with a hill in order to go to a breakfast given by Sudatta's wife, and some make this to be the occasion on which Buddha rebuked him. But Pindola sometimes wrought miracles for good purposes, such as at Rajagriha where it led to the conversion of an unbelieving lady.
Pindola has been living ever since Buddha's time, and he has appeared on several occasions to pious workers for Buddhism. In India it was once the custom for lay believers when giving an entertainment to the Buddhist monks to "invite Pindola." (As Jews invite Elijah the Prophet to the Passover feast.) The arhat could not be seen, but the door was left open for him, and it was known by the appearance of the flowers or the condition of the mat reserved for him whether he had been present (cf. Santa Claus' cookies in the USA.)
When King Ashoka summoned his great assembly, Pindola was living on Gandhamali (or Gandhamadana) mountain with a company of 60,000 arhats. When summoned, he flew swan-like to the meeting where, on account of his undoubted seniority, he was chosen president. He was then a very old man with white hair and long eyebrows which he had to hold back with his hands in order to see.
As he often has very long eyebrows in his pictures and images, the Chinese have come to know him popularly as the
Ch'ang-mei-seng or "Long-eyebrowed Monk." But other arahats are also depicted
with this characteristic.
In a far-back existence Pindola had been a bad son and a cruel man
which led to his suffering in hell for a long period. Here his food was "tiles and stones," and even when he was born to be a pious arhat
he is said to have retained this diet. No wonder he is thin and ribbed.
As Nakula, the name is found in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese temples, but in some lists we find instead Pakula, that is Bakula or Vakula. This was the name of one of Buddha's great disciples, often mentioned in the scriptures. Vakula was a typical shravaka in that he led a solitary, self-contained life never preaching or teaching. He was remarkable for his exemption from bodily ailments and for his longevity.
In the Tibet Art tangka, the name of arhat #9 is given as Bakula and he holds a mongoose. Yuan-chuang's text also says the name means Mongoose, but recall the arhat called Kundo-vahan or Mongoose-bearer already mentioned.
When King Ashoka visited his stupa and is said to have only offered one anna (a 1,000th of a coin) N/Bakula is said to have shown disdain for the King's poor understanding of the nature of an arahat as shown by that paltry offering and he rejected it. Could this be the origin of the magical mongoose and its jewel-spitting?
We know there is in the scriptures a father referred to as Nakulapitra [father of Nakula,] who is a devoted lay adherent of Buddha's teaching.
Nakula was a Vrijjian resident at Uruvilva, but there is not much about him in the scriptures. He may be the same person that Nakulapita converted when he was 120 years old who was made young again and happy by Buddha's teaching.
He is represented with a mongoose as his emblem, but also through a
mysterious transposition with the three-legged frog under his left arm.
(See also the eclipse.) Sometimes he is represented as meditating or as teaching with a little boy by his side.
Kalika holds a gold earring in each hand is #4 in the
Tibet Art tangka.
8. Vajraputra (Chinese pron. Fa-she-lo-fuh-to-lo)
In the Trayashtrimsat Heaven he is attended by 1,300 arhats. Called simply Pantha or sometimes Ta or Mahapanthaka to distinguish him from his young brother who is no. 16 below.
The name is explained as "born on the road," and a legend relates how it was given to both boys because their births occurred by the roadside while their mother was travelling. But it is also explained as "continuing the way," that is, propagating Buddhism, and the Tibetan means "doctrine of the way" but this explanation is better suited to the younger brother.
Panthaka was among the highest of Buddha's disciples, who " by thought aimed at excellence." He holds a book and performs the mudra of explication as #13 in the Tibet Art list. He was expert in resolving doubts and difficulties in doctrine for weaker students but he also had extraordinary magical powers or siddhis. He could pass through solids and shoot through the air, and cause fire and water to appear at his pleasure.
He was said also to be able to shrink himself down to nothing. These
siddhis were called upon when Buddha made an expedition to subdue and convert the fierce
#14 in the Tibet Art listing, Nagasena holds a vase and staff.
In the discussion, he defends the unity and consistency of Buddha's teachings, and explains and expands hard doctrines with great learning and richness of illustration.
He then becomes "the head of the Church in Milinda's country to watch over and maintain Buddhist orthodoxy."
His treatise must have existed in various lands and in different forms from a comparatively early
period since the various Chinese versions seem to quote from a text earlier than
the "Questions," as we know it.
There is an old seer Asita who came from his distant home to see the newly-born infant who
will become Buddha. Waters doubts that he is the same as the arhat.
Chudapantaka has both hands in meditation as #11 in the Tibet
Once the King invited Buddha and the disciples to breakfast, but Little Pantha was excluded. When Buddha discovered this he refused to sit down until the despised disciple joined them.
Later, when Little Pantha was expelled by his brother for his stupidity, Buddha would not allow it and brought him back comforting the sorrowing disciple and gave him the words "Sweeping broom" as his practice.
With that mantra and accompanying practice his mind was "stimulated, and he came to see that the two words meant that all attachment to things of this world was defilement and to be swept away by the broom of Buddha's doctrine." He achieved perfection, and became noted as one of the first disciples in 'mental aiming at excellence'; he was chiefly occupied with the mind and mental contemplation."
Later, he "expounded these with such power and eloquence that even giddy nuns, who came to laugh and mock, remained to be impressed and edified."
Little Pantha also later accomplished the powers of flying through the air and of assuming
various forms. Once he produced 500 "strange oxen" and proceeded to ride one.
Some Chinese have supposed that there were formerly 18 gods regarded as protectors,
but more probable is the idea that the Buddhists imitated a certain 7th century Chinese
They became known as the Eighteen Cabinet Ministers, and were popularly said to have
teng-ying-chou or Immortals. Waters thinks that it is this Hall of the Eighteen which
led to the idea that there ought to be Eighteen Arhats in Buddha's Hall.
He thinks that in China the characteristics of the two groups became
intermingled and that this was further confounded by the fact that in some temples
the Lohan are arranged in groups of three.
In some temples, Maitreya or his supposed incarnation, Pu-tai ho-shang, hempen or Calico-bag (cushion) Monk is added He is the special patron of tobacco-sellers and his jolly little fat image often adorned shop-fronts. This sixth century [CE] monk was not honoured as a Lohan until modern times.
Another interesting person sometimes found among the Eighteen Arhats is the Indian master Dharmatara (or Dharmatrata,) in Chinese Fa-Chiu. This may be the Dharmatara who was a great master of dhyana or meditation, and a learned author, and who probably lived about the middle of the first century of our era. He is sometimes called a great upasaka or adept, and is represented as receiving or introducing the Sixteen (or Eighteen) Lohan.
Chandra Das in Narrative of a Journey to Lhasa (145) wrote that:
Waters noticed this saying that "Dharma Tala" is Dharmatara who was not
Chinese but Indian. He adds that in many Chinese temples Kuanyin P'usa
appears as one of the lohan sometimes in the capacity of a dharma protector.
In the legend of the events following Buddha's first teaching, Theravadins tell how Assaji, one of his five former companions, while out begging for alms, met two followers of a famous nihilist philosopher called Sanjaya Belatthiputta. Those two students, Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, impressed by Assaji's composure and air of contentment, were the next to join the sangha of Shakyamuni, along with all the other 250 disciples of the nihilist. That is the reason why, especially in Chinese depictions of Buddha, Shariputra and Maudgalyayana are depicted as figures larger than the other members of the group.
In Tibetan tangkas of the 16 arhats, there also appear other figures such as two attendants,
the plump Hvashang, surrounded by playful children and the
above-mentioned Dharmatala or -tara, seated upright
who may also be the one accompanied by a tiger. That makes
the "18 arhats."
In compositions featuring the arhats, there are generally a total of 23 figures with Amitabha, but 24 if we include Buddha Shakyamuni.
The information here is mainly from the annotated text version of Waters' 19th-century article. Read the full text of Waters, T. "The Eighteen Lohans of Chinese Buddhist Temples," The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1898. v. 4 (329-347.)
There are various copies to be found on the Internet, almost
all with textual errors -- one which, though it includes the Chinese characters,
does not even correctly cite the author's name!
*The Record: "Ta Alo-han Nan-t'i mi-to loso-shuo fachu-chi" [Pinyin sp.?] trans. Xuanzang | <urn:uuid:58dfdf01-e2a0-4c22-83d4-dd774305c62e> | {
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-Major proponents include Alfie Kohn
If the Humanistic Theory were to be described in casual conversation as “back to basics,” Progressivism might be described as “learn by doing.” It’s important to note that there are various ways to look at the Progressive Theory of education. It can be analyzed as an exclusive movement or can be analyzed in reference to the aforementioned Humanist Theory. I will present the theory in both ways by discussing the foundations of Progressivism and then discussing the major points of departure from Humanist Theory.
Inarguably, the seminal figure of Progressivism is John Dewey. The following quote by Dewey provides insight into the goals of Progressivism. Dewey said, “What avail is it to win prescribed amounts of information about geography and history, to win ability to read and write, if in the process the individual loses his own soul, loses his appreciation of things worth while, of the values to which these things are relative; if he loses desire to apply what he has learned and, above all, loses the ability to extract meaning from his future experiences as they occur?
Dewey held four principles that were fundamental to the development of Progressive education:
1. Education is actual living and not merely getting ready for eventual living.
2. Education is the process of growing
3. Education is the constant organization and reorganization of previous experience.
4. Education is a social process, and to promote and further this process the school must be democratic.
Modern Progressive Theorists influenced by Dewey are at odds with Humanists. For example, Alfie Kohn in his book, The Schools Our Children Deserve, writes that traditional teaching and tougher standards are the two most dominant forces in the current educational system. And he points out several points of departure from traditional ways of thinking. These include:
-Viewing learning not as the deliverance or transmission of knowledge from teacher to student but as an active process fostered in a communal setting under the premise of experience.
-Moving from a teacher centered classroom to a student centered one where students’ questions and thoughts help shape the curriculum
-The capacity to find and use information is more important than the information itself. The primary purpose of learning is not to get the right answer
As Dewey’s initial quote describes, the goal of Progressivism is to no longer allow schooling to be something that is done to students. For when schooling is viewed as a transmission of knowledge and students are exempt from any sort of democratic process to determine the form of their education, students lose interest in true learning. Students must play an active role in the democratic process of determining what and how they learn so that that they are motivated to do so.
An aside: In his book, Kohn has included a section titled, Poor Teaching for Poor Kids which discusses the dangers of traditional education in poor urban schools. He mentions that when things get tough, there has been a tendency to revert back to traditional methods and teach lower level curriculum in the name of standards. This idea is mentioned in the article found on the left-hand side of the blog titled, Grades Rise, Reading Skills Do Not. | <urn:uuid:1232c49f-7d7b-453f-98da-4020fc6d4919> | {
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Have you heard the expression, “he is an impressionable young man?” I always took that to mean that the boy was likely to take a passing comment to heart too much, or that if you mentioned something to him, it might have such an impression on him that he forms a whole way-of-being based on it. For example, if you said, “I really like Bob’s hair cut,” he might go get the same haircut and wear his hair that way for years. Or if he saw a successful man in a nice suit, he’d realize who had the power and then spend years of his life trying to be that guy.
Do you know any hypochondriacs? Whatever the new disease, they’ve got it? Those pharmaceutical commercials on TV must be a killer on them — always needing to run to their doctor to find out if XYZ drug is right for them! Can you imagine? Another example of “an impressionable” person — believing that if someone else can get this-or-that illness, then they are vulnerable to it, too.
In so many ways, we can all be impressionable or hypochondriacs, don’t you think? Except we do it with ideas. We take other people’s ideas about how the world is, and we make them our own. If it applies to them, it must apply to me, too. Maybe it’s the abuse of scientific thinking — if Bob found it to be true, it must be true for everyone, like physics or chemistry. But that just isn’t the case! What can be absolutely true for one person can be completely false for another. And (to really bend your brain), this can even apply to physics and chemistry.
I’m having a hard time thinking of examples. Here’s one that might work: Darren and I were driving home from a Christmas party. He commented, in a worried tone, that this section of road seems to be ice. I thought, “why on earth is he saying that? Why is he worried about that?” If I had been driving, I might have noticed a certain sheen to the road, but we have good winter tires, and as long as you’re going a reasonable speed — which he was — then there is nothing to worry about! I said something along these lines, and Darren seemed kind of offended, because I wouldn’t join him in his worry. But why? There is nothing to worry about! He pointed out the sliding marks where someone before us had slid on the road. I said, “so what? Some people have banana peels for tires!” But, there was clearly a huge rift between how I was feeling — happy from time spent with friends, great music, and yummy food — and how he was feeling. Of course, feelings come from thoughts, and he had been thinking worried, unhappy thoughts before that.
So, what could I do in that situation? I absolutely believe that it does not help anyone to join them in their worry. Definitely. But, to be cheerful in the presence of someone having a worry-party just doesn’t work. If I’ve tried to cheer them up and they just won’t, I have to leave them be. I guess if they have been through some sort of trauma, I would sit and just be with them, but in the case of last night, I just couldn’t get on board. Which I guess is me judging the situation and not feeling that it warranted all the concern Darren was intent on giving it. Yet, we can all be hypochondriacs and overly-impressionable, so I definitely could have been more compassionate.
That’s growth. That’s living in relationship. That’s life!🙂 I think all we can do for ourselves is to try and be aware of what areas of life we are impressionable in, and what we are exposing ourselves to. Perhaps focusing on health would help us not to get sick (because we can be hypochondriacs), or spending time with people or watching TV that exposes us to “sick” thoughts. What if you paid attention to how certain shows on TV make you feel? If you feel unhappy about yourself, or unsatisfied with your home/clothes/hair/job/whatever, then that show is planting ideas in you (because we can all be impressionable at times). Are they ideas you want to grow? If not, you have to weed them out! And that is so much harder than not exposing yourself to that seed in the first place.
As always, just my thoughts on things!
P.S. I passed my final evaluation!🙂 (Read the post here.)
“Do or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda
So many times in life, we are presented with opportunities to improve our lives, whether it be through a job or in a business. So we decide to give it a try. I have been doing this over the last few months at Nav Canada. I was offered a job there at the Flight Information Centre, having left the company 6 years ago. It is such an excellent opportunity! I’ve been training to give pilot weather briefings (customized weather forecasts just for pilots) since the end of January — that’s why I haven’t been blogging at all! It’s been taking up all my time!
They’ve been teaching us a ton of weather theory, all about high and low pressure systems, what causes them to form, develop and dissipate. We’ve learned everything there is to know about warm and cold fronts, how to see when they begin and pick them out on upper air charts. Precipitation, cloud types, tornadoes and hurricanes. Freezing rain, vorticity, and a whole chapter on fog. It’s ridiculous how much I know about the jet stream now! And I can interpret satellite imagery, radar signals, and read a GFA like a boss.
As you might have guessed, I did pretty well at the theory and classwork. We wrote 7 tests and I think my lowest mark was 89%. In the process, I have completely drained the ink out of 2 pens (I’m working on the 3rd), filled two 3″ binders with hand-written notes, and have an impressive stack of cue cards with key points on them.
The practical part has been much more of a challenge. We have a lab with all the computers and graphic feeds that we need to give these customized weather forecasts. We go back and forth between 3 different screens to look at all the satellite views, actual weather reports and aviation forecasts. It’s a challenge to correlate all the info and the theory and then know how much to actually SAY to the pilot. What does he/she need to know? How much is too much info? How do I describe what I’m seeing over the phone so that it makes sense? It was very difficult to put the info into a logical order and string it together so that is sounds good.
And I’m a talker! I don’t usually have any sort of trouble communicating! One day, it all clicked and I was able to describe things well and get it all out. Then my instructors all started saying I need to say less. “Too much detail. You’ll confuse the pilot.” So, I’d say less. Sometimes, there were great pauses, as I tried to conjure the best, most concise way to say what I needed to say. Then, during a pause, they’d prompt me, “talk about the radar.” “Jesus H Christ, that’s what I’m about to do!” I would think, but I never said it. All of us trainees were awkward and making lots of mistakes, and our instructors would interrupt us. They were trying to help, or stop us from making mistakes, but it was so frustrating. Many times, I felt like saying, “just let me do it. Let me make the mistakes, notice them and fix them. Yes, typos will happen. Just never mind them!” But I didn’t say anything, and soon I started having nightmares about not being heard, yelling and no one listening. It was bad. I found out that my fellow students were having similar experiences, and one of them kinda blew up one day; after that, there was less interrupting.
After one lab run with the worst interrupting instructor, I finally had the clarity to tell him this: “When you interrupt or try to help, I feel like you don’t think I can do it. And that makes it really hard to actually do it.” I think he understood that, and that was the core of the problem. I was frustrated because I felt like he was just sitting there, feeling I was hopeless, wishing he was home (or anywhere else!) because I was so bad. But after I said that, he stopped almost all his interrupting and he was more encouraging.
So now we are in evals (evaluations). The mid-term eval was one 8-hour day, and in the 2 lab runs leading up to it, I was very stressed. All I could do was joke that I was getting all my nerves out ahead of time so that I’d do better on the eval. I have only been that nervous a few times in my life, and it was so hard on me. I decided that mistakes be damned, I just HAD to lighten up about it or it was going to kill me. I just can’t live with that level of stress for days on end.
And I passed! So the course continued and we learned more in-depth theory, like why the worst turbulence is on the left side of the jet stream. And it was all good! But now it’s time for the final eval.
It is three days long! Three 8-hour days of giving weather briefings, taking flight plans, processing NOTAMS, and generally having every word I say written down and scrutinized. I’ve done 2 of those days and have 1 more to go and I am just bursting to write about my experience.
On Monday, we had a practice run. As before, I was pretty nervous and didn’t do very well. Tuesday went quite a bit better, and I was feeling pretty confident on Wednesday, day 1 of the eval. As it went along, I was able to keep my nerves in check, and tried my absolute best to do my job diligently, carefully and not make mistakes. Tried very hard. As I went, once in a while I would realize I had made a small mistake, and I think I even knew I had made one bigger one, but at the end I was feeling pretty good. My instructor came over and gave me a quick overview of how I’d done — and I couldn’t believe how many mistakes I had made. All kinds of dumb ones! That I hadn’t even realized I had made! Lots. Too many. Way too many. I still passed overall, but barely.
Well, shit. All that careful work. I thought I had done so well! I was really rattled. It took me a while to process that on Wednesday night so that I could eventually get to sleep.
Yesterday came and I told myself, “it’s a new day! I won’t make those mistakes again.” I went in early, as I always do, and reviewed all the charts and weather info. I got it pretty solidly in my head and felt very ready, again! Almost too ready. I was there an hour and a half early, so by the time we started, I was pumped. And so I rushed in on the first one without considering all the info and made a really big mistake on the very first call! And I realized it a few minutes later! Crap. And then the strangest thing happened.
I instantly took on a “f*ck it” attitude. “Screw it. If I’m ridiculously careful, I make mistakes I don’t even know I’m making. If I act more confident, I screw that up too! F*ck f*ck f*ck.”
It was very strange. A part of me was still detached enough to see what was going on and that the f*ck it train of thought was too far on the other side of the pendulum and would prove self-destructive. Somehow, I don’t even really know how, I was able to talk myself down and get back into a more balanced headspace in order to do the job. And I did pretty well at the end of the day. I still made some mistakes, but other than that really big one at the beginning, I did better than on Wednesday.
And today is Friday, day 3. I’ve been struggling with getting in the right headspace for the practical side of the job for weeks. But I think I’ve got it. I’ve had 2 big realizations:
– I have to channel the inner weather briefer in me! I have the training! I know how to do it.
– So just do it. Stop trying and just do it.
That’s it. That’s my deep wisdom. Do or do not. There is no try. Trying just makes for a dualistic mindset/vibe. It introduces the possibility of not being successful. Learn, practice, do. That’s it! (Hey, I could write a book, like Liz Gilbert’s “Eat Pray Love” and call it “Learn Practice Do.”🙂
As a side note, I started this blog to report on my training progress with Nav Canada the first time! Some of those old posts are fun reading!🙂
My father-in-law was a travel agent for many years and had traveled around the world. He had developed an affinity for Persian rugs, and owned a couple in his home. When Expedia got popular, along with other book-it-yourself sites on the internet, he got out of the travel-agent business and retired. However, he felt like he was a little too young for full retirement, so he got a job at Home Depot. What department did they put him in? Flooring.
Sheesh, he knew rugs — fancy Persian rugs. He didn’t have any interest in laminate or hardwood, but that’s where he worked.
Work is something that a lot of people agonize over. They want/need to make enough money (however they define enough), but are also concerned with their appearance — how will they feel telling others where they work? What will their status in society be? If we never talked about where we work, it would take the pressure off in many ways, but that’s not how our society works. Sometimes, we want to work in our field or “in our passion” so much, that it blinds us to opportunities right in front of us.
I have worked all over the place. I had a very hard time getting my first job. It was July 1992 and I had just moved away from home. I wanted to live in Edmonton for a couple of months before University started, to get my feet under me. But the summer jobs were all taken already, especially those that a high school student might get. I had minimal work experience except for what I did for my dad at the farm, and that doesn’t go very far in the city! I looked all over, and when I asked at a gas station, they referred me to “Gordon, across the street,” who had mentioned he needed some help. Gordon ran a hobby supply business on the side, and he had been so busy with orders, he was falling behind. I think he hired me because I was a farm girl, and I was less likely to be grossed out by all the mouse poop in his storage room! So, I spent the summer, and off-and-on for a couple more years, unpacking and organizing parts that came in, and filling orders to be shipped. Not very glamourous!
I wonder if that early experience shaped the way I think about work. I have never been overly concerned with the “status” associated with a job, although I’ve had some pretty good ones! I worked at the Edmonton Space and Science Centre (before they changed their name 3 times!). I was Staff Scientist at Science North, where I had plenty of opportunities to travel, including watching the space shuttle launch from as close as they’ll let you! That was pretty cool. I met almost all of Canada’s astronauts throughout my seven years working there. Then I went on to Nav Canada. I had always wondered if I had the aptitude to do air traffic services, and it turns out I do! I got very high scores by aptitude, but I still had to work my butt off and complete the course, get certified, and thrive as a Flight Service Specialist. Again, not anywhere as glamourous as an Air Traffic Controller, but very good work, which I loved and was good at.
Isn’t that all we want in a job? To do something we enjoy and are good at? With just enough variety or challenge to keep us interested? Ah, I guess not. Some are bent on impressing their friends, or earning the respect of their folks or in-laws. Or following their dream! It’s ironic that I’ve never been ambitious, yet I’ve done well! Having the love of my family helps; there is no need to impress and no fear of letting them down. They just love me! I’m so lucky.
After coming back from Fort Simpson and Wrigley, I worked for a summer at Ferguson’s Market, owned by good friends. I worked ridiculous hours and really wore myself down, to the point where my own health suffered and I think I aged 2 years that summer. Sometimes I wonder why I did that. Do I have an unhealthy attitude of dedication to work? Or do I tend toward denying my own needs to the extreme? I’m not sure. After we moved back to the farm, I had a chance to catch up on my sleep and “be unemployed” for a little while — something I have NEVER been in my whole life. I was still getting paid overtime from Ferguson’s, so I wasn’t actually unemployed, but my life felt like it. It was fun! So, I’m probably not a work-a-holic.
When I went back to work, it was for my mom’s friend Alice, and again, it was not glamourous. I worked at an auto glass shop, Crackmasters. Yes, I answered the phone that way every day without laughing! At least, not out loud! My main job was detailing vehicles, which was such hard work, my back, arms and hands ached every night. We also did U-Haul rentals and sold adult tricycles — three-wheeled recumbent bikes, I don’t know what YOU were thinking! The word “adult” just makes everything dirty, eh?🙂 It WAS dirty in the shop but at least there was no mouse poop! I worked hard, and helped Alice with anything she needed. It was uncanny that after she hired me to do detailing, she found out she had breast cancer. So, she taught me how to do everything else and I covered for her while she recovered from surgery. I felt good knowing I was needed — I think that’s another part of my personality that factors into my relationship with work.
Then I saw the job posted at Signature Flight Support. I’m pretty sure when they checked my references, Alice told them that I always tried to be as helpful and friendly as possible to every customer. So I got the job! It was a big jump up, and I got to work at the airport (which I love). I had to learn how their systems worked, and how to deal with the VIPs that fly in and out of our facility. That was new — I had never dealt with the upper crust of society before. When I was new, I decided my main strategy would be to treat everyone as though they were very important, and it is a good one! You never know who you are talking to — could be the owner of the company you work for! (When you’re new, you don’t know who everyone is!) Now, I do it everywhere, and I like it. I respect people more, as well as just being polite or friendly.
Every job is an opportunity to learn something. It’s not about the money for me. In fact, in my last few jobs I’ve developed the attitude that I get to go help someone out, and then they pay me — how cool is that?!? I think most people think about trading your skills or your time for money, or a combination of both. If I don’t think about the money, and almost pretend I’m volunteering, just to help out and because I said I’d be there, and I do my job to the absolute best of my ability, then the pay cheque at the end of the month is a huge bonus! “Wow, they paid me to do what I would have done anyway!”
I don’t want to make it sound like I always love going to work. Sometimes, I wish I could stay home like anyone else! When I have been working 6-7 days/week, I pine for days at home! But, I go because I agreed to go or because they need me, not because I have to, or because I feel stuck. I know it’s a subtle difference, but it matters. I value reliability, so I am reliable. Working is best when one’s job is in line with one’s values. A vegan should not work as a chef at a steak house, for example. But sometimes, having really high standards for a job can only hold you back; often, taking a good job ahead of you leads to the exact job you’d like in the future. For example, I worked part-time at the Edm Space and Science Centre which led to the full-time job at Science North — an excellent job! — and being friendly with people at Crackmasters led to giving first-rate customer service at Signature.
So, while happily dividing my time between Signature and the Centre for Spiritual Living (doing special projects), quite out of the blue, I got a job offer to go back to Nav Canada. They are short-staffed, and you know I can’t turn down someone who needs me! And where I know I’ll enjoy the work and have the perfect balance of challenge and variety, and make good money! I feel so blessed! I am the blessed and the blesser. I’ll be working in the Flight Information Centre, doing weather briefings (pilots call for weather before flying if the weather is icky), handling flight plans and a variety of other aviation stuff. I’m excited! I get to work in Edmonton, close to home. It’s so great!
I wonder what I’ll learn at this job… So far, in my working life I’ve learned:
– It’s okay for a job not to be glamourous. (the hobby wholesaler)
– You don’t have to talk about where you work, or ask people where they work! It doesn’t really matter! (in general)
– Be ready to work when you get there. Don’t eat breakfast at work! (Edm Space and Science Centre; I had a coworker who did this and it was so rude!)
– It’s good to be friends with your coworkers! (Science North)
– Working in one’s aptitude is very rewarding. (Nav Canada, the first time)
– Doing something outside your normal range is a huge growth opportunity! (in general)
– Don’t ever let yourself get sleep deprived, for any reason. Sleep is too important to go without! (Ferguson’s Market)
– Treat everyone as though they are important. (Signature)
– Teamwork is fabulous; knowing what others are doing, and how your role interweaves with theirs, and then providing customer service that absolutely blows people’s minds is really, really fun! (Signature)
– My happiness is absolutely independent of anyone else; if anyone around me is grumpy, it doesn’t matter. I can still be happy! (I’ve learned this one a few times!)
I should add that my father-in-law didn’t sell flooring for very long! It was alright while it lasted, but he went back into the travel business. He is now using his unique skill and knowledge of the middle east to offer tours and cruise packages to “the holy land,” Israel.🙂
We recycle and reuse items whenever possible, and it’s considered the socially and environmentally-conscious thing to do. Well, here’s the ultimate in re-using: apparently, in the 1960’s, people would send used tea bags to missionaries in Africa! Doesn’t this sound crazy?!? It says a lot about how people thought back then.
There isn’t much value in a used tea bag, beyond adding it to a compost pile. But perhaps to the people collecting them, saving tea bags and donating them was worthwhile. Perhaps giving a tea bag to someone else when you would have used it one or two more times was even a hardship. Certainly going to Africa to be a missionary was a hardship — perhaps tea bag donations were meant to ease the pain, to provide something from home that one couldn’t get in Africa. But were the missionaries actually happy to receive their shipment of used tea bags? It’s hard to imagine! I think I would be borderline offended! I mean, all the caffeine from the tea has been washed out, and there wouldn’t be much flavour left either… but maybe if you combine several bags together, you can enjoy a decent cup of tea. Not by our standards, but in Africa in the 60’s or 70’s…? But why not just send NEW tea bags?
I wonder if the people saving their bags felt they were doing something good, something helpful. If so, maybe the missionaries appreciated the gesture, if not the flavour. I suppose the tea-drinkers thought themselves to be helping the cause, to be contributing to “the Lord’s work,” somehow. It seems quite ridiculous to us, though, doesn’t it?
I wonder if 30 or 40 years from now, we will look back at our society and giggle or cringe at things we do now, feeling like we’re helping the cause or doing what’s socially or environmentally conscious. I suspect we might cringe over burning fossil fuels, when there is so much clean, free energy in the sun, wind, and waves. All coastal cities will have low-profile wave-generators for their electricity. Maybe we’ll even be using DC voltage exclusively, and have mini-power stations for individual houses or neighbourhoods everywhere.
I wonder if we’ll twitch over time spent on Facebook or playing games. Will we pine over the lost time, when we were able-bodied, that we spent sitting still? Will we think that cheering for sport teams is silly, and rioting, ridiculous? I cringe when I see people burning wood piles (waste wood). Why not chip it and spread it? Compost it? I recently learned of hugelkultur — gardening on top of a pile of wood! How cool is that?
Anyways, if you are hardcore into environmental causes, I encourage you to save your tea bags and, uh, well, don’t send them to anyone! Sheesh. Compost ’em, and if you want to help a missionary in Africa, send money!
(Actually, my mom is part of a group that sews simple sun-dresses for girls in hot, poor countries, so they can have something nice and airy to wear. I like that!)
Do you know the John Lennon song, “War is Over” – you probably do. It starts as “So this is Christmas… and what have you done…” Have a listen here:
Those were different times, weren’t they? There was military activity, peace protests and sit-ins. We just don’t do that any more. The militaries of the world’s nations still take action, but people don’t really protest it any more. I think that many people still want peace, but they feel overwhelmed. The world’s hotbeds of conflict are also complicated, deep-seated messes abounding with resentment and history. And maybe, thanks to those peace protests of the past, and wisdom traditions of the east, and writers like Deepak Chopra and the famous quote of Ghandi, we know that we really do have to be the change we want to see in the world.
Which means to have peace, we must be peace. We must cease our internal conflicts, stop judging and fighting with our family members, stop cursing at drivers on the road and stop villainizing everyone who makes a mistake. How would we do this? Speaking of overwhelming things, right?
What if we stopped categorizing things and seeing the world in black and white? What if we stopped labeling things, and criticizing others when in reality, we are so like them? What if we were kinder to ourselves, and this kindness and acceptance seeped into everything we do, the way we look at everything, and how we interact with every person in every way?
This is the core of it: we judge ourselves harshly so we judge others the same.
We may think others are judging us harshly so we gauge our response accordingly, but actually, almost everyone out there is so wrapped up in his/her own suffering, any judgement towards us has nothing to do with us.
What if we started telling ourselves, “I don’t want you to suffer.”(I got this idea from Elizabeth Gilbert in a podcast with Pete Holmes – loved it!) What if we started accepting the mistakes we make and foibles of the day as drops on a windshield – easily wiped away by a few hours’ sleep and a new day?
Anyone want to try it? This is what I am going to work on being more consistent in. I’m halfway there – I am able to do this a lot of the time, but I still do label things and people sometimes, judging them by their behaviour instead of seeing through it to their true nature. The harshest of people are just having a harder time making their way in the world. The angriest are just the most stressed. The inconsiderate ones are simply preoccupied.
By far, most of my interactions with people are awesome! They are fun and friendly! I take it as a good sign, that I’m attracting loveliness and lightheartedness into my life experience. But I am still not always “fun and friendly, lovely and lighthearted” with myself. I do sometimes make myself suffer. I occasionally want to teach myself a lesson – which is ridiculous! Seriously?!? I can learn lessons all over the place, and I don’t need any reproach! I have my maximum growth in the hardest of times, and I’ve been there, done that, and I don’t wear the T-shirt anymore because I don’t need any help to remember it! Those times shaped me. They molded me and I am absolutely not the same as I was. Every day I’m a little different, in fact. But in what way? I hope I’m a little kinder and more uplifting.
Join me, if you like, and stop making yourself suffer. Start accepting yourself and others more. Label things less, but most of all, if you mess up, talk to yourself about it for 5 minutes and then move on. To do anything more would be like continually bringing up a mistake to your teenage son or daughter, never letting them forget. How angry they would be!! And how quickly would they shut down and refuse to show anything of themselves to you. So, don’t foster that in yourself. Be sweet and endeavour to never bring your mistakes up again in that chiding, self-hating tone again.
We can be our own best friend or our own worst enemy. Which will you choose? So this is Christmas… Ready to try being a friend to yourself?!?
I did Remembrance Day a day early this year. I was invited to sing with the One Voice Choir in Edmonton, and we performed a medley of 2 songs for the No Stone Left Alone ceremony.
Although it wasn’t exactly like other Remembrance Day ceremonies I’ve been to, there were definitely some similarities. Dignitaries were announced as they walked in (I wonder why they do that? Maybe because in Elizabethan England people would whisper, “who is that? Who’s that with him?” so they started announcing people as they came in to reduce the whispering. It’s just a theory). People held flags. A man in uniform played the trumpet. There were speeches, generally boring and filled with cliches. They go something like this:
To [important person #1], [important person #2], [important person #3], [important person #4]… (until all “important people” in attendance have been listed). We are gathered here today to [insert cliche #1], [insert cliche #2], [insert cliche #3]. (They then proceed to say mostly boring, socially expected things and ramble on for their allotted time. Honestly, my mind wanders after a bit and I usually get sidetracked wondering what strange situation spawned the cliches in the first place.)
I don’t mean to slam all tradition; I know it is important. But,
Here is what I would like to say, on this Remembrance Day.
To the men and women currently serving in any capacity in our armed forces: Thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I’m pretty sure you’re not doing it for the money or the fame. So, in whatever motivates you, may there be lots of it. Again, thank you.
To the families of those who serve in our military: Thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you for living with uncertainty, facing your fears daily, and for all the unseen and unknown hardships that you go through. I’ll never know what it’s truly like for you, and all I can humbly say is thank you.
To the families who have lost their loved one(s) in the line of duty: Thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
May you have all the support you need. May you never feel alone. May you feel the gratitude your whole country has for the difficulties you have had to face. May you feel as much peace, hope, and optimism as you possibly can. May you remember that your loved one contributed to a good cause, and died in the prime of his/her life doing what he/she loved.
To the wounded soldiers who return to us, whether wounded physically or emotionally: Thank you.
May you have all the support you need. May you never feel alone. May you feel the gratitude of your whole country for the difficulties you have had to face. May you feel as much peace, hope and optimism as you possibly can. May you rediscover how to thrive, how to live a full life, and how to enjoy the freedom you helped to create.
To all those hearing these words, shake the hand of a uniformed person today, and tell them you appreciate them. Hug your loved ones and tell them you appreciate them. Stand and clap with me, if you agree.
[ thunderous applause ]
I am tired of walking 20 steps to get from the kitchen to the bedroom. I know, it’s a horrible first-world problem; people elsewhere have had their houses blown away by typhoons, crumbled by earthquakes, or wrecked by hurricanes. So, I have a lot to be grateful for — I love my house! — but I sometimes do feel my house is too big. I’m sure it’s a sign…
What’s it a sign of? It’s a sign that my innocent fascination with tiny houses, and tiny house-school-buses, has grown into something more. I think we are actually going to do something about it!
Originally, I started looking at tiny houses because of working away from home. Sure, I’ve been lucky to find good places to live, but I thought if it did not last and I wanted to have my own little haven to come home to. I also wanted it to be mobile, so I could camp out at the airport at times or in town at times. I started some surfing the web like a maniac. I did a LOT of research online, and started drawing up possible floor plans. I used to design houses all the time when I was a kid/teenager — it’s a wonder I never went into architecture.
I wanted to find some old sketches from when I was a kid, but that’s going to take a little searching. But here are some scribbly sketches I’ve done in the past couple of years:
Then, I saw a school bus RV conversion, only the people lived in it! Brilliant! So, then I started researching school buses like a maniac, and I even found a cheap one on kijiji I was considering buying. Imagine taking an old bus and turning it into something like this!
So lovely, and their blog is very nice, too!
It is just so much fun to dream of this stuff, and even more fun to make plans. Even if those plans never come true, who cares? I enjoy it!
But, it looks like it might not be just a dream anymore. For starters, I realized the other day that our spare room is about the size of many tiny houses! It would be very workable, in particular if we subtract the bathroom element and just use the house’s bathroom. Bathrooms, and plumbing in general, can be tricky in tiny houses! I mean, I’ve seen showers that were only 2 feet wide — that is awfully skinny even for a skinny person. I’m pretty sure I’d hit my elbows on the sides a lot. And how do you install a waste water tank below the floor? In Canada, it has to be inside the house so it won’t freeze. Gravity-fed plumbing requires a tank up high, otherwise you need a pump… so overall, plumbing is definitely not trivial.
So, here’s my plan: I’m going to make a platform for the bed (which is a double mattress) and raise it up, like the bunk beds people buy their kids. Sometimes, they have a desk below the bed, or whatever. I am going to put a couch or comfy chair below the bed, and my dresser. I’m going to make sure that I can still sit up in bed, and that the window in the room will not be blocked. I’ll have a small counter for a kitchenette — probably just a toaster oven, and maybe a bin for a sink… or maybe I’ll buy a sink and install it with a pail below to catch the water. I should probably add some shelves for plates, bowls, and mugs. Clothes in the closet, and books on a shelf. What else does a person really need?🙂 Oh ya, space for yarn!
I’m really looking forward to it, to playing tiny house inside the main house. I will have about 85 square feet (11’4″ x 7’6″), which is pretty small by tiny house standards — anything less than 100 square feet is considered “micro!” Tiny house people have such a great sense of humour! But, since I won’t be totally self-sufficient (no bathroom contained), I am definitely cheating a little. And my ceiling isn’t as high as most tiny houses, so the space below the bed will be a bit short — sitting down space only. Which should be fine! Everyone needs somewhere to sit. I’ve thought about making a fold-up bed that can be stowed during the day, but for now, I think I’ll stick to the platform. I love the idea of creatively using the space you have.
I will be sure to post some photos when I’m done! It’s going to be a while before I can get to it — I have to wait for winter. There is still a LOT of outdoor work on the farm that we need to do to prepare for winter! It’s a little overwhelming, but we are finding some people to help and it’s coming along! | <urn:uuid:26555c9d-e3e0-4008-a7c2-884af4808696> | {
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NIH Research Matters
October 5, 2009
Understanding Indian Ancestry
Researchers have analyzed genetic variation in people across India and discovered that most Indian people today descended from 2 ancestral populations. The findings set the stage for identifying genes that contribute to disease in people of Indian decent.
Most of our DNA, more than 99%, is the same as any unrelated person's. The small differences between people are called genetic variations. Genetic variations affect individual characteristics, such as eye color and blood group. They can also affect a person's risk for getting particular diseases.
Different populations can differ in the frequency of people at risk for particular diseases and conditions. But although India is the world's second most populous nation, Indian people have thus far been underrepresented in genome-wide surveys of human variation.
A group of scientists led by Dr. David Reich of Harvard and Dr. Lalji Singh of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, India, undertook the largest survey ever done of genetic variation among people in India. Their effort was funded in part by NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).
The team studied the DNA of 132 people from 25 diverse groups across India representing 13 states, all 6 language families, traditionally "upper" and "lower" castes and different tribal groups. The scientists analyzed over 560,000 single-letter DNA variations called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across the genomes. Their results appeared in the September 24, 2009, issue of Nature.
The genetic differences between groups in India, the researchers found, are larger than those between European populations. Many groups in India seem to have been founded by a few individuals, with little subsequent genetic flow between those groups over thousands of years. Scientists call these group origins "founder events."
"The finding that a large proportion of modern Indians descend from founder events means that India is genetically not a single large population, but instead is best described as many smaller isolated populations," says Singh.
Most Indian populations, the researchers found, are primarily mixtures of 2 ancestral groups, which they call the Ancestral North Indians (ANI) and the Ancestral South Indians (ASI). Interestingly, a higher ANI proportion is associated with traditionally higher caste groups. ANI are genetically closer to Middle Easterners, Central Asians and Europeans. The proportion of ANI ancestry in most groups ranges from 39-71%. Indigenous Andaman Islanders have exclusively ASI ancestry, but such groups weren't found in mainland India.
These findings suggest that divisions in India by caste and tribe stem from ancient events, rather than being a more recent phenomenon. Medically, the results imply an increased risk of recessive genetic diseases in Indian populations.
“Further studies of these groups should lead to the rapid discovery of genes that cause devastating diseases, and will help in the clinical care of individuals and their families who are at risk,” Reich says.
—by Harrison Wein, Ph.D.
- Landmark Study Looks at Genetics of Africans, African
- A Brief Guide to Genomics:
- A Guide to Your Genome:
- Genetic Variation Program:
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About NIH Research Matters
Editor: Harrison Wein, Ph.D.
Assistant Editors: Vicki Contie, Carol Torgan, Ph.D.
NIH Research Matters is a weekly update of NIH research highlights from the Office of Communications and Public Liaison, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health. | <urn:uuid:9b435d41-34f7-4823-bff2-18b271e5e20c> | {
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Farmers in Senegal Use Forecasts to Combat Climate Risks
Climate in Africa’s Sahel region varies dramatically from one year to the next and often threatens farmers’ livelihoods. In Kaffrine, Senegal, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, the Senegalese National Meteorological Agency, the country’s agriculture extension service, the Earth Institute’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society and many farmers groups, are working to equip farmers with the information needed to better manage droughts and other climate risks.
The partners have held training workshops to teach farmers about the probabilistic nature of seasonal climate forecasts, and in turn, the researchers have learned about the farmers’ traditional climate knowledge and management responses. By engaging with farmers in this way, the researchers now have a better understanding of community needs and have built common ground between scientific forecasting and traditional knowledge. The farmers emerged from the trainings with an increased level of trust in seasonal forecasting, which has opened doors to improved agricultural management options.
A new video illustrates this participatory approach to making climate information accessible to farmers:
To learn more about the work, head over to the CCAFS blog: | <urn:uuid:64aa51b6-035f-476b-aab4-fa205574be59> | {
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Background Providing infants with the ‘best possible start in life’ is a priority for the Scottish Government. This is reflected in policy and health promotion strategies to increase breast feeding, which gives the best source of nutrients for healthy infant growth and development. However, the rate of breast feeding in Scotland remains one of the lowest in Europe. Information is needed to provide a better understanding of infant feeding and its impact on child health. This paper describes the development of a unique population-wide resource created to explore infant feeding and child health in Scotland.
Methods Descriptive and multivariate analyses of linked routine/administrative maternal and infant health records for 731 595 infants born in Scotland between 1997 and 2009.
Results A linked dataset was created containing a wide range of background, parental, maternal, birth and health service characteristics for a representative sample of infants born in Scotland over the study period. There was high coverage and completeness of infant feeding and other demographic, maternal and infant records. The results confirmed the importance of an enabling environment—cultural, family, health service and other maternal and infant health-related factors—in increasing the likelihood to breast feed.
Conclusions Using the linked dataset, it was possible to investigate the determinants of breast feeding for a representative sample of Scottish infants born between 1997 and 2009. The linked dataset is an important resource that has potential uses in research, policy design and targeting intervention programmes.
- CHILD HEALTH
- BREAST FEEDING
- RECORD LINKAGE
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
Statistics from Altmetric.com
The importance of linked administrative datasets in epidemiological research is gaining increasing prominence.1 ,2 Linked datasets are a cost effective resource for designing population-wide interventions, monitoring population health, evaluating health outcomes and identifying best clinical practice. Such data provide intelligence that could influence a wide range of policy issues including infant nutrition.
Infant feeding policies that are informed by relevant contextual data spanning demographic, psychosocial, healthcare, community and public policy attributes can potentially provide a foundation for developing effective intervention programmes.3 ,4 This is particularly pertinent to the Scottish Government's early years agenda, which aims to provide ‘every child with the best possible start in life’ by delivering integrated services for early intervention that secure positive health outcomes and address health inequalities.5 ,6
Breastfeeding rates in Scotland remain among the lowest in Europe and have been relatively unchanged since 1990.7––9 About half of the infants born annually are exclusively breast fed at birth and a quarter continue to breast feed exclusively up to their 6–8-week review.10
Different sources of breastfeeding data in Scotland currently provide some of the picture for the whole population, for example, the Guthrie test data9 ,11 and the Child Health Systems Programme–Pre School—CHSP-PS,10 or all of the picture for some of the population, for example, the Millennium Cohort Study,12 the 5 yearly Infant Feeding Survey13 and the Growing Up in Scotland—GUS study.14
Although there is extensive evidence of the protective effects of breast feeding,15 ,16 there remains a paucity of information on the patterns of breast feeding in Scotland,3 ,12 ,17 in particular how family background and health service-related factors influence the likelihood to breast feed.
This paper summarises a linkage study set up to investigate factors that influence the likelihood and patterns of infant feeding in Scotland using population-level administrative data.
Development of the linked dataset
The creation of the linked dataset was proposed as part of a research project jointly funded by the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH). The project linkage was set up under the guidance of GCPH and a project advisory group. Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland created the linked dataset, which comprised anonymised extracts of birth records linked to maternal, infant and child health records (see box 1) for all infants born in Scotland over a 13- year period, 1997–2009. Approval for the project design and confidentiality of patient data was obtained from the Privacy Advisory Committee of NHS National Services Scotland—a body set up to ensure appropriate use of patient identifiable information.18 Further ethical approval was not required.
National Records of Scotland Birth Records: comprising all births in Scotland, which are registered by law within 21 days. The registration includes information on the country of birth of the mother and father, occupation, socioeconomic status, marital status, maternal parity, an indicator of multiple births, infant sex, live or stillbirth.
The Maternity and Neonatal Linked Database: a permanently linked scheme developed by ISD, containing maternal obstetric discharge records (SMR02), neonatal discharge records (SMR11), Scottish birth records (SBR—replaced SMR11 in 2003), and vital events of births and deaths held by the National Records of Scotland (formerly the General Register Office for Scotland) since 1975.
The Child Health Systems Programme Pre-School data: introduced in 1991 and collates information on child health from birth until shortly after school entry. Information on breast feeding is collected in two parts of the core programme (at the first visit—after discharge following child birth and 6–8-week review) via a recall interview with the mother/primary carer by a health visitor or public health nurse. The information collected includes parental background (eg, maternal age, father/partner's age), measures of growth/development and health behaviour (height, weight, maternal smoking status, exposure to passive smoking, type of infant feeding at birth, hospital discharge, first visit and the 6–8 week review) (details on ISD website—http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Child-Health/Child-Health-Programme/Child-Health-Systems-Programme-Pre-School.asp).
All births registered in Scotland between 1997 and 2009 were linked to the CHSP-PS records using probability matching techniques applied to personal identifiers within each dataset such as surname (transformed to Soundex code), first initial, date of birth, sex and postcode of residence.19 Using this approach, pairs of records are compared and a ‘score’ or ‘weight’ given to the paired identifiers reflecting the likelihood of a true match. Weights from individual identifier comparisons were added to provide a cumulative weighted score and a threshold set to accept or reject linkage pairs based on the weighted scores.20
There were two main stages to the linkage process. A probability matching process allowed the Community Health Index (CHI) number —a unique patient identifier used on Scottish health records—to be allocated to birth registration records held within ISD's Maternity and Neonatal Linked Database (MNLD). Following this, each child health record was probability matched against records within the MNLD. The addition of the CHI number from the first linkage improved the matching process. The linked dataset released for analysis was anonymised and contained one record per child with variables coming from several different sources, namely, the birth and death registration records, maternal and child health records (figure 1). Markers for infants who migrated (based on CHI database) were also included in the dataset.
Additional derived information
Geographical information, including output area, data zone, council area, intermediate zone and area characteristics based on the Scottish Index for Multiple Deprivation (SIMD—2006 version), were derived from the postcode on the birth registration address and added to the dataset. The dataset also included a marker for siblings of the same mother.
In addition, the ethnic and religious backgrounds of the parents were derived from the mother's forename and maiden name and the father's forename and surname using Onomap software. Onomap is a package designed by the University of London to classify names into groups of cultural, ethnic and linguistic origin21 and has been validated in Scotland.22 This was included to provide additional information on ‘latent’ cultural factors that may influence infant feeding patterns. For example, cultural affiliations of second or third generation immigrants could be derived using the mother's country of origin.
Using the linked dataset, descriptive and multivariate (logistic regression) analyses were conducted to show demographic trends, describe patterns of infant feeding and explore the independent associations between a wide range of predictive variables (ie, parental, maternal, infant health and delivery characteristics) and infant feeding outcomes (SPSS V.17). Infant deaths, non-Scottish residents and invalid review records were excluded from the analysis.
Description of the linked dataset
The dataset consisted of 731 595 records of infants born between 1997 and 2009, 613 900 of whom had corresponding child health surveillance (CHSP-PS) records, 84% of the birth cohort. The coverage of CHSP-PS increased progressively over the study period with the phased roll out of the system within Scotland. Child records that linked to more than one infant in the cohort (ie, ‘bad links’) were minimal and were estimated to make up less than 1% of the population (0.3%). A total of 722 180 of the births were registered in Scotland; an additional 9415 (1%) had child health surveillance records but no information collected by the national birth registry. The latter may refer to infants born outside Scotland (hence not recorded in vital events) or errors in the linkage and/or recording systems; in the analyses, these records were excluded.
The linked dataset contained a wide range of variables associated with infant feeding. Birth registration records provided the most comprehensive recording and coverage of demographic variables and details not available in other recording schemes, for example, information on mother's (and father's) country of birth, socioeconomic status and marital status. The child health surveillance scheme was the main source of breastfeeding information with over 90% of the records having complete and valid infant feeding fields. Data were collected for infant feeding at 10 days after birth and the 6–8 week review; feeding was defined as the ‘predominant mode of infant feeding in the previous 24 h’, that is, exclusive breast feeding, bottle (or formula) feeding and mixed ‘breast and bottle/formula’ feeding. From 2001, data were also collated on feeding at birth and hospital discharge. Unlike the birth registration and CHSP-PS schemes, completeness of the Scottish Morbidity records was dependent on the type of data field, that is, mandatory or optional. Variables such as the ‘mode of delivery’, a mandatory field, had a higher rate of completion than ‘ethnicity’, an optional field, which was poorly recorded.
Description of cohort, maternal characteristics and birth delivery details
Overall, the 1997—2009 cohort was made up of 3% multiple births, 51% male and 48% female. About a third of the infants (31%) were sibling pairs (infants of the same mother within the same cohort). Over the study period, births to mothers born outside the British Isles increased from 5% in 1997 to 13% in 2009. Similarly, there was an increase in births to older mothers; the proportion of first time mothers aged 35 years or older doubled over the study period from 7% in 1997 to 14% in 2009. Overall, 60% of the infants were born via normal/spontaneous delivery, 98% of which took place within a hospital setting. There was an increasing trend in caesarean sections from 18% in 1997 to 26% in 2009. More than a half (55%) of the births took place in a fully accredited baby friendly institution (table 1). Overall, 4% of the cohort had migrated by the age of 2 years.
Description of the derived characteristics (OnoMAP, SIMD)
In the 1997—2009 birth cohort, a quarter of the infants were resident in the 20% most deprived areas of Scotland (quintile) and 18% in the 20% least deprived areas at the time of birth (derived from the postcode recorded at birth registration). Most of the infants had parents of British ethnic origin (84%), mothers of a British birth and origin (89%) and mothers of a Christian religious background (95%). The trends however were toward increasing ethnic and religious diversity. For example, there was an increase in mothers of a non-British birth and non-British origin, that is, ‘first generation immigrants’ from 2% in 1997 to 9% in 2009 (table 1).
Description of characteristics associated with infant feeding
Breastfeeding rates over the period 2001–2009 showed that about a half of infants were exclusively breast fed at birth, but this decreased steadily with increasing time from birth, to 44% by hospital discharge, to 37% by the first visit (10 days after birth) and to 25% by the 6–8-week review. Exclusive breastfeeding trends have been relatively unchanged over the study period while, in contrast, mixed ‘bottle and breastfeeding’ trends increased steadily over the same period (figure 2).
There were however varying patterns across the population. Table 1 shows the characteristics of the population overall and changes in the characteristics of the population over the survey period. It also outlines changes in crude (unadjusted) rates for exclusive and mixed feeding at the first review. Greater rates of exclusive breast feeding (and mixed feeding) were observed among infants of older mothers, of mothers of non-British birth, of mothers of a higher socioeconomic status, of married parents, of non-smoking mothers, of multiparous mothers and those resident in less deprived areas. The rising trend in mixed feeding was observed among all categories of infants. Further multivariate analyses were based on ‘any’ breast feeding because of the similar profile between mixed and exclusively breastfed infants.
Univariate descriptive analysis highlighted clear associations among a range of parental, maternal health/delivery, infant and hospital characteristics and infant feeding. For example, higher breastfeeding rates were noted among infants of first generation immigrants (mothers of non-British birth and non-British ethnic origin) compared with ‘second generation’ immigrants (mothers of British birth and non-British origin). Mothers of British birth and origin, representing 89% of the cohort, consistently had the lowest level of breast feeding at each review (figure 3).
Multivariate analysis identified a range of parental and hospital-related factors that independently increased the relative likelihood to establish and continue any breast feeding (at the first visit and 6–8-week review). These included having an older mother, one or both parents being of non-British birth or origin, having married parents, being a female infant, infants with longer postnatal stay in hospital, being born in a baby friendly unit, infants born post-term, infants of first-time mothers and those resident in non-urban settings or one of the less deprived areas. In contrast, there was relatively less likelihood of breast feeding among infants of multiple births, infants of single or cohabiting parents, of mothers who smoked, of mothers or fathers of a lower socioeconomic status, among preterm infants, those admitted to a neonatal unit and infants born via instrumental and caesarean section (table 2).
Our findings emphasise the important influence of cultural, familial, socioeconomic and health service factors on infant feeding patterns and trends in Scotland. The creation of a child and maternal dataset was based on the linkage of a wide range of characteristics at the individual level for a large representative sample of the Scottish infant population.
Record linkage has been described as ‘bringing together in one file, records from different sources that relate to the same individual or event’.23 ISD Scotland, the organisation that is the main repository for Scottish health services data, has over 30 years experience in developing and implementing linkage methods and has been a key contributor to probabilistic matching techniques developed in Oxford and Canada.20 Such data can play a vital role in identifying and targeting scarce resources to vulnerable groups, informing policy, changing clinical practice and supporting local efforts to improve child health.24 ,25
The cohort data over time (1997–2009) enabled monitoring of social and demographic trends. The breadth of information highlights demographic and societal changes—such as increasing ethnic diversity, increasing numbers of older mothers, changes in family structure and rising caesarean rates—that are key determinants of breastfeeding trends. It also provided scope to explore the impact of these determinants on infant feeding in Scotland. For instance, although the crude rates indicated an increase in exclusive breastfeeding trends among infants resident in deprived areas (table 1), this increase was not sustained after adjustment for other social, cultural and demographic factors.26
The societal and healthcare associations found with breast feeding in our study are consistent with findings reported in other studies showing a greater chance of breast feeding with increasing age of mother, residence in less deprived areas and less urban settlements among first time mothers,16 ,27 ,28 parents with a non-British birth or origin,29 ,30 female infants, those with a longer postnatal stay in hospital27 and among infants born in a baby friendly hospital.16 ,31 Conversely, there was less chance of any breast feeding among infants of cohabiting or single/separated parents,28 ,32 of a father or mother of a lower socioeconomic status, of mothers who smoked,16 ,27 multiple births, among infants born via instrumental or caesarean section, preterm infants and infants admitted to a neonatal unit.27 ,28 The true strength of these relationships with breast feeding may be underestimated, given that our study tracks feeding up to 6–8 weeks and breast feeding beyond this point cannot be measured from these data, for instance up to 6 months as recommended by current policy.16
This study highlights changing patterns of infant feeding in Scotland over the study period. Specifically, the increasing trends in mixed feeding, whereas exclusive breastfeeding rates have remained static. This suggests the need for additional support to mothers in the first few weeks after birth as many mothers who stopped breast feeding before 6 months report that they would have liked to have continued.13 In Scotland, 80% of the births now take place in baby friendly institutions;33 an increase in the proportion of skilled staff (and lay persons) trained in managing common lactation problems may help mothers establish the practice of breast feeding after discharge from hospital.
Linkage over time of nationally representative administrative records has advantages over cross-sectional surveys, providing a cost effective way of conducting research with better population coverage and completeness.20 ,34 ,35 Indepth reviews of infant feeding that provide trends across Scotland in large surveys such as the Infant Feeding Survey or the UK Millennium Cohort Study are often limited by the relatively small sample size for Scotland.12 Moreover, the unique patient identifier (CHI) used in Scotland enabled efficient pairing of records across different datasets20 and tagging of the migrant status of infants in the cohort (although some infants who travelled abroad may be ‘lost’ to follow-up—Personal communication, NHS Central Register Scotland, National Records of Scotland, 2012). Thus, infants who had emigrated could be censored providing potential for prospective time series research or longitudinal analyses.
In addition, it allowed subgroup analysis of those often described as ‘hard to reach’, for example, ethnic minorities and young mothers in deprived areas, addressing an important requirement of the health services35 while also maintaining patient confidentiality of the individuals involved. For example, ethnicity, often poorly recorded on administrative data sources,36 was addressed in our study by using derived ethnic/cultural background. Findings from the derived variables appear to confirm published reports showing higher breastfeeding rates among mothers of non-British background compared with mothers of British background; reflecting possible acculturation among second generation immigrants.29 ,30 Furthermore, the (derived) mother's religious background confirmed a tendency to bottle feed observed among certain ethnic minority groups in the UK, for example, mothers of a Muslim background—mainly of Pakistani origin.37
In this study, the utility of some of the individual datasets was limited by coverage, discontinuities in recording schemes and revisions to questions or the timing of data collection. Overall, there was still a relatively high coverage and completeness of variables associated with infant feeding at the first visit and the 6–8-week reviews. A slight trend in ‘selective’ coverage at subsequent child health review visits has been reported by others.38 The relatively short duration of infant feeding captured on the child health surveillance schemes may restrict the potential of exploiting the linked records in research; data schemes that provided more information on the duration of infant feeding have been discontinued. Moreover, the definition of infant feeding as the predominant mode of feeding the day before data collection (dependent on the interpretation of health worker who collects the information) was not consistent with the definition used in the Infant Feeding Survey or recommended by WHO and may bias the results.
The current findings build a ‘population profile’ comprising a range of factors that independently influence the chances of establishing infant feeding in Scotland. The need for an ‘enabling environment’ to increase initiation and duration of breast feeding in Scotland is emphasised. This environment will be influenced by cultural background otherwise described as ‘embodied knowledge’,39 family and other social circumstances and health service factors—such as the mode of delivery and implementation of baby friendly practices.
Breast feeding is an effective intervention for reducing the risk of childhood diseases and addressing health inequalities through to adulthood.15 Several recommendations have been made to improve breastfeeding rates; however, there is little evidence of changing trends in Scotland overall, although trends in some local areas have changed significantly, due to demographic, cultural and socioeconomic impacts.62 40
In Scotland, the predominantly bottle feeding culture is yet to give way to a breastfeeding culture, although some may argue that rising rates of mixed feeding may be the transition between both extremes. Nevertheless, it highlights the need for a more supportive environment and multifaceted interventions across the population in order to improve breastfeeding trends in Scotland.
This project has demonstrated an effective framework for using linked data collated from surveillance and administrative records in child health research. This approach provides clear benefits for the Scottish population, without imposing additional risk or burdens to individuals within it. It provides a resource for understanding Scotland's changing demography and potential for subgroup analysis, which could be used to better inform policies and programmes. Moreover, the results, which are consistent with other findings, provide a ‘Scottish context’ that could be further exploited to improve child health outcomes and facilitate a broader, ‘joined-up’ perspective for addressing feeding in the early years.
There is strong argument for using linked datasets to provide indepth analysis of child health trends in Scotland prospectively in order to guide both qualitative and quantitative research, inform policy, design health promotion initiatives and monitor population health.
What is already known on this subject
Although breast feeding is regarded as an important public health intervention for safeguarding child health, there has been little change in the breast feeding trends in Scotland.
What the study adds
This study has confirmed the strength of association between a range of cultural, family, health service, infant and maternal health characteristics and the likelihood to breast feed in a Scottish context.
A wide range of factors influence the likelihood to establish or sustain breast feeding in Scotland.
Interventions to increase breastfeeding rates in Scotland should extend beyond the health service, engage the entire population and consider the wider context of changing demographic and cultural influences.
The potential of administrative datasets to provide vital intelligence on population health and ‘hard to reach’ subgroups can be improved and exploited further in order to inform, influence and monitor child health policy.
The authors are grateful to Pauline Craig who was involved in the initial stages of the study design/project set up and to James Boyd for his contribution to early drafts of the manuscript. We also gratefully acknowledge funding provided by the Scottish Collaboration of Public Health Research and Policy (SCPHRP) and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GPCH).
Collaborators GCPH Steering Group Members: Bruce Whyte (GCPH), Pauline Craig (NHS Health Scotland, formerly GCPH), Jim Chalmers (ISD Scotland), Linda Wolfson (Infant Feeding Advisor, NHS GG&C), Rachel Wood (ISD Scotland), David Tappin (Paediatric Epidemiology and Child Health Unit, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow), Ali McDonald (NHS Health Scotland), Judith Tait (Child Health Information Team, ISD Scotland), Jill Muirie (NHS Health Scotland), Kate Woodman (NHS Health Scotland), Ruth Campbell (Consultant Dietician, NHS Ayrshire & Arran), Helen Yewdall (Scottish Government), James Egan (GCPH) and Omotomilola Ajetunmobi (ISD, Scotland).
Contributors OA cleaned, analysed and interpreted the data and prepared the first draft/revisions of the final manuscript; BW designed and managed the study, and also interpreted the results, drafted and revised the manuscript; JC was involved in the study design and reviewed drafts of the manuscript; MF linked the datasets and reviewed drafts of the manuscript; DS provided guidance in the analysis and interpretation of the data; RW was involved in data interpretation and review of the draft manuscript. All authors approved the final draft. DS and BW are the guarantors. All members of the GCPH Breastfeeding Steering Group provided guidance in the implementation of the project and interpretation of the data.
Funding The project was jointly funded by the Scottish Collaboration of Public Health Research and Policy (SCPHRP-SCPH/08) and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health. The SCPHRP had no role in the study design, collation, analysis, interpretation and decision to publish.
Competing interests None.
Ethics approval Privacy Advisory Committee (PAC), NHS National Services Scotland.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement The routine data analysed for this study are held by NHS National Services Scotland, Information Services Division.
If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways. | <urn:uuid:613c6a8e-aa65-469f-ac43-3415ee94018e> | {
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UNICEF and Gothia Cup have together developed the world's first sweat machine: A machine that extracts sweat from clothes, purifies it and transforms it into water. The goal is to raise awareness about the lack of clean water in the world, with the main purpose of raising money for water purification tablets for children. Participants and visitors of Gothia Cup are challenged to contribute with their sweaty clothes – and dare to drink a glass of sweat.
UNICEF and Gothia Cup are collaborating under the signature “United for children”, with focus on clean drinking water.
– We wanted to raise this subject in a new, playful and engaging way. Our Sweat Machine is a reminder that we all share the same water. We all drink and sweat in the same way, regardless of how we look or what language we speak. Water is everyone's responsibility and concern, says Per Westberg, Deputy Executive Director at UNICEF Sweden.
The machine has been developed by Engineer Andreas Hammar, known from the Swedish Televison show “Mekatronik”. His main challenge was to extract the sweat from todays' smart materials. The water extraction component comes from HVR Water Purification AB, which has been developed in collaboration with The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. It is now being used for the first time in the Sweat Machine.
– There are many different techniques to extract and purify water. The technical challenge was to build the sweat machine like in the space travel industry, where every filthy water drop whether it’s cooling water, urine or just sweat, is invaluable. It is hard to believe, but the water extracted from the machine is actually cleaner than ordinary swedish tap water, says Andreas Hammar.
Two famous soccer players Tobias Hysén and Mohammed Ali Khan was the first to drink a glass of sweat during Gothia Cup. Other famous profiles have been on location to help and contribute with sweat and raise the question of clean drinking water. During Gothia Cup anyone who wants to are welcome to hand in their sweaty clothes and drink some sweat to support clean drinking water. The expectation is to gather sweat from more than 70 different nations.
– We’re having fun and sweating together in the worlds biggest football tournament for youths. We are very proud to support an organisation like UNICEF in their mission to protect and promote childrens rights, says Dennis Andersson, Secretary General of Gothia Cup.
About Unicef and clean drinking water
Clean drinking water is a human right, but 780 million people still lack access to clean drinking water. Everyday thousands of children die because of contagious water, lack of sanitation and poor hygiene practices. UNICEF works in more than 190 countries to put it right by improving water supplies and sanitation facilities and promoting safe hygiene practices.
About Gothia Cup
Gothia Cup is the world's most international youth tournament in football. Every year over 37 000 children from more than 70 different nations participate in the tournament. The concept is still the same since the start 1975, to use soccer as the common denominator to bring the world's youth closer together for a better future.
For questions about the Sweat for Water-campaign, please contact:
Ingeborg Ekblom, PR-manager UNICEF Sweden, +46 (0) 70-995 59 16 or Thomas Björklund, Gothia Cup, +46 (0) 72-234 82 12. | <urn:uuid:0c8f422e-c333-45ba-829f-54b9f9e6fe59> | {
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In 1692, Abigail Sibley, an accused witch fled Salem and the notorious trials. She moved west to what is now central Ohio. Taken in by a small tribe of Seneca Indians, legend has it she would heal the sick, enable crops to grow, help defeat enemies and thus became revered to the tribe.
Decades later when settlers came and claimed the land they heard rumors of a 'Dogwoman' or female shaman that protected the area. A brief war ensued and it was said during this time she was either killed in a skirmish or was captured, tried and hung as a witch. Other stories say she was burned at the stake to cleanse the land or after a treaty was enacted with the tribe, her remains were buried on tribal burial grounds, the site of which was long forgotten.
Years later farmers and residents of this area claimed that a woods was home to a spectre that roamed there and haunted the nearby farmlands. Local legend grew that woods was the overgrown Indian burial ground. Eventually old timers told stories of the witch that came to the Seneca tribe. Researchers and historians believe it to be Abigail Sibley who escaped the Salem witch trials. Through the years, failed crops, animal mutilations, strange creatures, ghostly figures and eerie lights and sounds that come from these woods gave rise to the legend its the vengeful spirit now known as the Seneca Witch.
As with legends, curiosity seekers would search the woods. Most disappeared. Those that survived talked of a strange cottage hidden in the woods but eventually they went insane. Archeologists have found relics and ghost hunters report strange occurrences. To this day the woods are considered evil.
So now, prepare yourself for a journey into fear. Are you ready to experience the horror that dwells in the woods and come face to face with the Seneca Witch! | <urn:uuid:4da7f29d-9add-45ae-bd99-718838c76ebd> | {
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The ever-excellent Developing Intelligence has just posted about research that suggests that certain types of brain pathology may selectively improve mental performance.
This is initially surprising, as seizures are traditionally associated with mental impairment if they occur frequently. As the Developing Intelligence article mentions, it is worth waiting until further evidence is gathered to be sure that this is a reliable finding, as the study uses some non-standard tests.
It does suggest the idea, however, that the brain maintains a “delicate balancing act” and that some things that may confer an advantage may also confer a risk of brain disturbances.
The second article reports that deaf people have enhanced motion sensitivity in that they can detect motion over a wider area than control participants.
Motion sensitivity is known to involve the magnocellular parts of the visual pathway. Motion sensitivity and magnocellular brain function are also known to be particularly sensitive to impairment in certain developmental conditions (such as dyslexia and autism).
The authors of the study thought that this area might, therefore, be most likely to show better performance where sensory problems (i.e. deafness) meant that vision was used to a much greater degree.
They found exactly this pattern of performance, and note that this is likely further evidence for the brain’s ‘plasticity’ – where the brain reorganises through experience. | <urn:uuid:3955f3e2-309c-4b88-a003-2de00722c0df> | {
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Late Ottoman Society
The Intellectual Legacy
Routledge – 2004 – 354 pages
When the Ottomans commenced their modernizing reforms in the 1830s, they still ruled over a vast empire. In addition to today's Turkey, including Anatolia and Thrace, their power reached over Mesopotamia, North Africa, the Levant, the Balkans, and the Caucasus. The Sultanate was at the apex of a truly multi-ethnic society. Modernization not only brought market principles to the economy and more complex administrative controls as part of state power, but also new educational institutions as well as new ideologies. Thus new ideologies developed and nationalism emerged, which became a political reality when the Empire reached its end. This book compares the different intellectual atmospheres between the pre-republican and the republican periods and identifies the roots of republican authoritarianism in the intellectual heritage of the earlier period.
'All of the articles in this volume are useful introductions to their respective areas of emphasis. This volume is highly recommended to students and scholars alike interested in the intellectual legacy of the late Ottoman Empire' - Kent Schull, Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, Volume 40 Number 2, December 2006
'Readers concerned with these subjects should not neglect this book, for which Ozdalga is to be greatly congratulated' -Omer Turan, International Journal of Middle East Studies, November 2007
Preface Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction 1. Ottoman Sources of Kemalist Thought 2. Blueprints for a Post-Scientific Society: Late Ottoman Materialists on Science, Religion, and Art 3. Whom Did Ahmed Cevdet Represent 4. Women in Late-Ottoman Intellectual History 5. Turban and Fez: Ulema as Opposition 6. Pan-Islamism in Practice: The Rhetoric of Muslim Unity and its Uses 7. 'Kütüp ve Resail-I Mevkute': Printing and Publishing in a Multi-ethnic Society 8. Christian Community Schools during the Ottoman Reform Period 9. Levantine State Muftis - An Ottoman Legacy? 10. Albanian Students of the Mekteb-i Mülkiye: Social Networks and Trends of Thought
Elisabeth Özdalga is Professor of Sociology at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. Özdalga, who is also affiliated to Göteborg University in Sweden on a part-time basis, has also been the direct of The Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul. She is the editor of Sufism, Music and Society in Turkey and the Middle East (2001) and the author of The Veiling Issue (1998) | <urn:uuid:38a46627-8872-441b-9ffd-19984640c8d5> | {
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Two Powerful Shapes
Lesson 1 of 12
Objective: SWBAT understand that the power structure of this class is better represented by a circle than by a line.
With today's class, I am welcoming students into a math classroom for their first time as high school students. That's a big deal, and there is a lot that I need to (and even more that I want to) tell them about this class. Rather than rushing into all of that, however, I want to develop it as we go. The purpose of today's class is to set the stage for all the structures that I'll share in the next few weeks.
So for today's opener, I show students what this class will not be. As they enter, students see the opener projected on the board. It says:
- Sit at a table where you can see the agenda.
- There should be at least 3 students at each table.
- Get an index card.
- Write the name of your table and the full names of all group members on your index card.
I will not tell you where you must sit - but you must be able to see. And the agenda, that's important. In this class, you will not sit alone listening to me - you must sit with people, and I expect you to know their names.
There is certainly some math here: as we begin a unit in which we'll study linear inequalities, the phrase "at least" is going to be important. After a minute in which I welcome kids into the room and tell them to read the opener, I simply ask, "How are we doing with this?" They look around and see if there are "at least 3 students at each table." Maybe they argue a little bit: does that mean 4 is ok?
If we don't quite have it yet, I say, "Is this possible?" If it seems like it was easy, I might informally pose the problem, "Are there any numbers of students for which this is impossible?" just to get them thinking.
The expectation is that I'm not going to tell you exactly what to do, but that I want you to meet certain minimums.
On each of my tables - my class has 8 sets of four desks, each of which I'll call a table - is a sticky note with a Greek letter on it. Some of these, like pi, kids have seen before. Others, like lower-case sigma and phi, are brand new to them. I walk around holding up the sticky notes and naming the letters. I say that these are letters just like the ones in our alphabet, pointing out that Alpha and Beta are the first two, and that's why it's called the alphabet in the first place. I say that Greek letters are often used in algebra, when we run out of our letters as variables. I also throw in, playfully, that if anyone ever wants to join a fraternity or sorority in college, you're going to have to know these letters. It's a silly thing to say, maybe, but I'm also setting the expectation that we're preparing for college within the first few moments of class. And why am I mentioning college? Not because of all that "it's for your future" mumbo-jumbo that 14 year-olds don't want to hear, but because, if you go, you'll have the time of your life.
I give them a few more minutes to get each other's full names, and as I circulate, I say that spelling matters. It matters who you're working with, and it's honorable to know names.
This is a very conversational class session. There's not much for students to write, and I don't give many notes, but there's a lot to think about. I want to get kids thinking about how hard they're going to have to think in this class.
Introduction and Framing the Class
Once everyone has a seat in a group and has written the names of their colleagues, I introduce myself briefly. I point to my name, which is written at the top of today's agenda. I always write the agenda on one of the whiteboards at the front of the room. I tell students that they'll always be able to see the agenda there. I also point to the top of the agenda, where I've written, "Welcome, Class of 2017". I say these words to the class, and I ask them if they've ever thought of themselves like that. Some nod, and some look surprised and excited. It's the first day of school, but I make the point right away of positioning ourselves in relation to the big goal. "In four years, in September 2017, my goal is for each of you to be doing whatever you want," I say. "I promise that if you work hard, this class will help you get there."
Two Powerful Shapes: Line Up Ice-Breakers
I point to second item in today's agenda, which is called "Two Powerful Shapes". I ask the class to name the most powerful shapes they can, and my goal is for them to come up with lines and circles. Kids often come to this consensus on their own, pretty quickly. To the class, I reason that these are the most powerful because so many shapes can be made out of lines, and because circles are not made of straight lines. It's playful and might tend toward hogwash, but the point is, we're going to talk about lines and circles for a little while today.
I point to the back of the classroom, where there's enough room between the back tables and the wall for everyone to line up. I say that we're going to start by talking about lines, and I give the class their first challenge: "I want you all to line up in order of height. I'm going to time you." I leave it purposefully vague, by not indicating which end of the line is for the shortest person, and which is for tallest. I want to see how they talk about this. "When I say 'go,' I'm going to start the clock, and you should all stand up and get this done as quickly as possible."
Any time there's a challenge like this, the debrief is the most important part. When students are successfully lined up by height, we debrief. I ask what went well. I say the time that it took the class to line up, and I ask if they could do better. If anyone says they could improve, I ask how. I ask for someone to explain how everyone decided which end was low and which was high. If someone emerged as a clear leader, I ask if it's helpful to have a strong leader.
Then I say that I've got another challenge. "This time," I say, "you have to line up by your birthday, and you're not allowed to talk." I give them a moment to groan and to ask how that's possible, then I ask if anyone has any clarifying questions about the challenge. If they continue to wonder how that's possible, I simply say, "You can all work together to figure this out." I say I'm going to time them again, and again I say "go!" and start the clock.
When they say they're done, I stop the clock, then I go down the line, and ask each student to say their birth date. We're checking for errors. In my experience, it's rare for a group of brand new 9th graders to do this perfectly, so I count errors. It's also rare for them to be completely silent. When we debrief I say how long it took to complete the challenge and how many errors there were.
Usually, these results disappoint some of the kids, which gives me the chance to introduce the grading policy in this class. I tell students that they'll be graded based on mastery in this class, and that grades will be on the scale from 0 to 4. If any students are particularly disappointed in their performance on this challenge, I'll point to them and ask, "Was this a complete failure -- would you say that you all had a 0 on this challenge?" Everyone is quick to agree that the performance was not a 0. "So maybe it wasn't perfect either, but do you all think you could improve it?" It's clear, on a challenge like this, that a little practice could really improve our outcomes. I tell students that this is how I'll want them to think in this class.
Where's the Power in a Line?
"There's one more thing that I'd like you all to see about lines," I say. "This is the only time I'm going to ask you to do this: stand with your back and your head against the wall, so you can only move your eyes." I demonstrate what I'm asking for by facing the class on the opposite wall. "How many of your classmates can you see?" If they try really hard, they might be able to see three classmates on each side. "How many of you can see me?" I ask. They all agree that I'm easy to see, and that I can see all of them. "Keep this in mind," I say.
Next, I say we're going to "circle up". I walk around the room to show students where the circle will fit, and I explain what I mean when I say to "circle up". It means that everyone is standing, in a big circle around the room. We make the circle, and I gently coach everyone to find a spot - there's no double-parking allowed.
When the circle is made, I ask the question again: "How many people can you see now?" Everyone agrees that now it's pretty easy to see everyone else. I explain that this is how the power will be distributed in this class. "When you were all lined up, I had the power," I say, "because I was the only person who could see everyone else, and you all had to look at me. Now, who has the power?" We talk about how a circle distributes the power in the group, and that everyone has an equal position. I point out that desks are arranged in small circles, because that's how the power will be distributed in this class.
Finally, we do one more initiative. I say that we're going to go around the circle, and everyone will introduce themselves by saying their full name, and the name of one person who they think is powerful. No one has to explain their choice of who they name, they just have say the name of someone powerful.
What Makes Someone Powerful?
After we go around the circle, I recite a selection of the names I heard: celebrities, presidents, family members, super heroes, historical figures, kids who named themselves. I ask what it is that all powerful people have in common, and I open the floor to this conversation. Some kids share their ideas with the circle. When everyone who wants to speak has had a chance, I say my theory: I think that powerful people get to choose what they do, and that when they have ideas, they can act on them.
While we're still in a circle, I pass around the class syllabus, which begins with the purpose statement:
The purpose of this class is to give you a powerful background in Algebra. At the end of this class, you will know concepts and ways of thinking that will enable you to put ideas into action.
I ask for a volunteer to read this statement, and then I offer anyone the opportunity to chime in with their thoughts. Usually, with all the rest that's going on with the first day schedule, I don't have time to run through the entire syllabus. If there is time, I might run through a few of the parts of the syllabus, but it's most likely that the bell will ring right about now.
I show students the bottom of the page, and I ask them to bring it home and read it with their folks. "If anyone at home has questions about this class, they can write them in this box," I say, and point to the bottom of the page. "Then, you and a parent should sign this, so I know that you've read it together. We'll finish reading through tomorrow."
A more complete reading of the syllabus will be on the agenda tomorrow. | <urn:uuid:6e24baca-2a8f-43c5-ad4a-eb73e98783d5> | {
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python's threading has no "interrupt"?
dave at pythonapocrypha.com
Tue Dec 2 17:42:16 CET 2003
> >You've noticed that there isn't an identical construct for what you were
> >in Java, so it may be that the Python way will be a completely different
> >approach to the problem rather than just a direct conversion from Java to
> >Python syntax.
> Well, I'll give an example from something I tried to do a few years ago
> which I couldn't translate to Python, though I took a stab at it.
> The language in question was a VM language with it's own internal
> process model. The process model was all inteneral to on eOS process to
> it was a cooperative model of multi-threading
> The application I wrote was a web server on the front of an application
> so that web requests were all handled in the application. IOW, the
> application had a web server interface)
> The language process model had both the ability to set process
> priorities, as well as allow processes to sleep and cede control to
> other processes.
> When a web request would come in, the handling of the request would be
> forked as a seperate process so that the server could accept the next
> request. Both the server process and the handling process(es) were at
> the same priority level so in theory each process would run to
> completion before allowing another process to run. For this reason,
> both the server process and the handling processes would issue a 'yield'
> at periodic strategic points, allowing themselves to temporarily halt
> and for the next process of equal priority that was waiting to run.
So, if I understand this correctly, this amounted to a manual task switcher,
right? (as no more than one job was allowed to run concurrently). Was this
really the desired behavior? If each process halts while the others run and
does so only to prevent starvation in the other processes, wouldn't you get
more or less the same results by just using normal forking/threading wherein
the OS ensures that each process/thread gets a slice of the CPU pie? (IOW,
unless there was some other reason, it seems that the explicit yielding was to
work around the constraints of the process model).
> Behind all of this was a higher priority process running, but it
> basically would sleep for several minutes (sleeping allowed lower
> priority process, like the server process to run). When the background
> process would wake up, since it was a higher priority, it would
> immediately take control. It's main job was to check the list of
> handling processes for any that had been running too long (long running
> processes in a web server meant that something had gone wrong) and
> terminate them (freeing up the process and socket resources, etc..).
If you're using forking to handle new processes, then you can simply kill them
from Python and you'll get the same behavior you specify above. Stopping a
thread isn't supported because there's no way to know the state of the
resources that were in use when the thread was killed (e.g. what if it was at
the time holding a mutex that other threads will want to use?) - this isn't
really a Python issue but an OS one. The fact that Java threads even _had_ a
stop() method seems dangerous, and it looks like Sun thinks so too:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/lang/Thread.html - "void stop()
Deprecated. This method is inherently unsafe. "
(I mention this since that's what the OP was using)
So... what was going wrong that warranted killing the process in the first
place? In practice the need for that is pretty rare, especially for a server,
the main case coming to mind being the execution of user-supplied code (which
is pretty scary in and of itself!).
More information about the Python-list | <urn:uuid:097a3b60-0834-4c69-b9a8-7c2e52bc1952> | {
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PWS In Kenya: How WWF And CARE
Found Common Ground In High Hills
Subsistence farmers in the hills above Kenya’s Lake Naivasha face an uncertain future, and climate-change has only made it worse. Here’s how WWF and CARE teamed up to harvest payments for watershed services that might help those farmers through the coming bad years – and, in the process, save the lake below.
This is the second in a four-part series examining the interplay between economy and ecology in the Lake Naivasha Watershed.
7 March 2013 | NAIVASHA | Kenya |
For years, Chege Mwangi
watched helplessly as the rains washed bits of his steep one-acre farm high in the Abardares Hills down into the Terasha River below. He knew that he was watching his family's future dribble away with it, but he didn’t know what to do.
Meanwhile, 40 kilometers (25) miles downstream, flower-growers on Lake Naivasha were noticing things as well
. Sedimentation was gunking up the lines for their greenhouses, and water hyacinths had blanketed parts of the lake, killing the fish below.
“It all fits together,” says Peter Muigai
, a community mobilization officer for WWF, as he looks out over Mwangi's now-thriving acre of land. “For Naivasha to exist, the rivers from this side of the catchment have to flow, and increasingly, they don’t.”
He’s working with farmers in these hills on an ambitious Payments for Watershed Services
project that aims to tap the wealth of Lake Naivasha flower-growers – as well as geothermal providers and hotels – to help upstream farmers like Mwangi implement sustainable agriculture practices. If the plan works, it will reshape the landscape across Lake Naivasha’s 3400-square-kilometer (2100-mile) catchment and preserve an economy that employs hundreds of thousands of people. If it fails, there’s little hope that those who live off the lake can continue to do so.
“There’s a lot riding on this,” says Daniel Koros, a 40-something veterinarian who’s been with WWF for two decades. “It’s a test of ideas we’ve been developing since before I got into this business.”
Koros started as a volunteer with WWF in the early 1990s before signing on as an employee in 1996. Since then, he’s been working on programs that combine conservation with sustainable livelihoods – first with Maasai herdsmen in the nearby Maasai Mara National Reserve and Tanzania’s adjacent Serengeti. Since 2011, he's been here in Naivasha, where his title is Project Partnership and Liaison Officer for the PWS project.
“Looking back, I can see we were evolving towards PES (payments for ecosystem services) from the start, but we didn’t call it that,” he says. “Even in the early 1990s, we were beginning to realize that if you didn’t attack livelihood issues, you weren’t going to have a lasting impact on conservation.”
Untiered farms on steep slopes are slowly losing their topsoil to the rivers below
WWF and CARE: of Plants and Poverty
The project began as a joint venture with CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) – a humanitarian organization better known for poverty-alleviation than environmentalism. Koros says that’s because PES is one of a growing number of areas where the missions of the two organizations overlap.
“If you’re lifting people out of poverty by teaching them sustainable agriculture, what you’re really teaching them is how to make a living while conserving nature,” he says. “That’s what brings an organization like WWF into a program like this.”
The growing cooperation between the two groups has led each to appreciate how the other's focus dovetails with its own.
“CARE are good with market linkages, while we are good with conservation and community mobilization,” says Koros. “Working together, we were able to achieve things neither of us could on our own.”
That's reflected in the way each organization measures its success.
“We’re moving away from the kinds of conservation-oriented numbers we used to focus on,” says Koros. “For example, we used to look at how many trees or fruits were planted, but now we look at how peoples’ lives have changed.
That's because people trapped in an unhealthy economy need to chop trees and harvest fruits with only tomorrow in mind. If the economy is healthy, it can survive without cannibalizing its future.
The most obvious way for Mwang to work his farm with tomorrow in mind is to build terraces – an activity the government widely supported until budget cuts started taking effect in the early 2000s. By 2006, WWF had decided to try and pick up the slack.
Terraces and Napier Grass
Using satellite images provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, they looked for parts of the Naivasha watershed with steep slopes, intensive agriculture, and direct routes to the water – all of which lead to excessive runoff. After identifying parts of five different catchments, they commissioned more detailed hydrological and sociological assessments that pointed them to two sites that they felt were contributing more than their share of degradation. One is in the Upper Turusha catchment, where Mwangi lives, and the other is in the nearby Wanjohi catchment.
The initial plan was to approach farmers in the catchments and see if they’d be open to terracing – but the answers were far from encouraging.
“Terracing is expensive and disruptive,” says Muigai. “The farmers said they couldn’t do it without a lot of support, and the feasibility study found other problems.”
Chief among these was the issue of maintenance: Aware of its own precarious situation, WWF wanted to make sure it was creating something that could go on without them – so even if they ran out of funding, the farmers wouldn’t be left in the lurch.
In place of terracing, the study recommended strips of mfufu, or Napier grass, every ten meters or so along the length of the hill.
Long a favorite of cattlemen, Napier grass is now a staple of sustainable agriculture programs across Kenya – and with good reason. First, it needs little in the way of water and fertilizer. Second, it attracts predatory insects that devour pests. Third, it pulls nitrogen from the air and “fixes” it in the soil, where it acts as a natural fertilizer. Fourth, it captures soil that slides down the hills whenever the rains come. Finally, as cow food, it provides fodder for dairy operations. By planting strips every ten meters, WWF hoped to create natural barriers that would capture sliding dirt and fertilizer before it became runoff – forming natural terraces over time.
Then there was the question of outreach: even if WWF came up with a plan that was low-cost and low-disruption, how would they explain it to the people in the hills?
“Farmers everywhere are very leery of anyone coming onto their land, offering ‘change’,” says David Mbugua, Secretary of the Upper Tarusha Water Resource User Association (UTWRUA), a private organization that coordinates water issues in Mwangi’s region. “Here, that leeriness is compounded by our colonial history – farmers generally suspect what you’re really doing is coming to take the land.”
Genesis of the PWS Program
WWF’s regional freshwater coordinator for Kenya, Robert Ndetei, felt that he could bring in the farmers if he just had a carrot – and that’s when he heard about a new program called Equitable Payments for Watershed Services (EPWS).
Launched jointly by WWF Netherlands (WWF-NL), CARE, and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) with funding from the Dutch Directorate General for International Cooperation (DGIS) and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), EPWS is a multi-year, global effort to push the envelope on PWS.
“We wanted to test the concept in different jurisdictions and under different circumstances to see what works, what doesn’t, and why,” says Julio Tresierra, who started EPWS within WWF-NL and has been spearheading it ever since. “We wanted to make sure we were looking at real-world scenarios that delivered real-world lessons and that could be scaled up if successful, but CARE also wanted to test the social impact as an end in itself rather than a means to an end.”
Ndetei reached out to his local counterpart at CARE, and together they decided to bring in a PWS element – one that would encourage downstream users to work with farmers up in the catchment. Their proposal was designed to both test the willingness of downstream users to pay for PWS and to experiment with ways of incentivizing upstream sellers to join the program.
When their project got the nod, CARE hired Muigai, who had impressed them four years earlier as a young college grad volunteering in Nyanza Province. There, he’d helped farmers develop marketing strategies until the Ministry of Agriculture hired him to do essentially the same job in 2005. In 2008, CARE hired him to work with farmers on the PES effort, and he in turn reached out to Mbugua and others in the upstream catchments.
The Legal Framework
The program was designed to work within the institutional framework established by the Water Act of 2002, which replaced the Ministry of Water and Irrigation’s centralized water management system with a decentralized system coordinated by a new entity: the Water Resource Management Authority (WRMA), which further delegates implementation to regional offices in each of Kenya’s six catchments.
Those offices then further delegate implementation to Water Resource User Associations (WRUA) like the UTWRUA where Mbugua works. These serve specific users within catchments and sub-catchments.
“The Ministry still determines policy, but WRMA implements it,” says Abigael Tamooh, Technical Officer, for the Lake Kaivasha Water Resource Users Association (LANAWRUA), which is the wealthiest and most advanced of the WRUAs, largely because of the flower growers. It’s one of 12 WRUAs in the Naivasha catchment.
“UTWRUA is about as far upstream as you can get, and we’re as far downstream,” she says. “But we’re inextricably linked to each other.”
She and Mbugua are where that linkage is formed. He negotiates on behalf of farmers, and she negotiates on behalf of flower-growers, geothermal powerplants, hotels, and anyone else who cares to participate.
“We each have dual responsibilities,” he says. “We need to sell our members on participating, but then we have to negotiate on behalf of our members to get the best deal.”
And that, it turns out, isn’t as easy as it seems.
Next Week: Selecting the Sellers, Pitching the Buyers
Steve Zwick is Managing Editor of Ecosystem Marketplace. He can be reached at [email protected].
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If you’ve ever visited the dentist, chances are that you have had x-rays taken at one time or another. Dental x-rays are vital in order for your dentist to see oral health issues that aren’t apparent with a simple visual exam. X-rays can help your dentist diagnose everything from tooth decay to bone loss and more. But today’s dental x-rays are not what they used to be. In fact, there is a variety of new dental technology being used by dentists to help accurately diagnose and treat oral health issues.
- Digital x-rays: Most of us are familiar with digital photography. So it should come as no surprise that digital technology now also extends to the world of x-rays. Although old-fashioned film x-rays are still used, more and more dentists are utilizing digital technology instead. Digital x-rays expose patients to much less radiation that film x-rays; the images are typically clearer and are available for review immediately; and because digital files are stored on a computer, they’re much more convenient to access and make comparisons with in future visits.
- Intraoral x-rays: Another modern diagnostic tool that is used by many dentists is the intraoral camera. This imaging tool allows the dentist to view the entire interior of a patient’s mouth and view those images in real time on a computer screen. The intraoral camera provides views that no other imaging tool can match. There are three types of intraoral x-rays available: 1) A periapical x-ray, which captures an image of an entire tooth, from the visible tip down to the root of the tooth in the patient’s jaw. This type of image helps the dentist to diagnose abnormal growths or other problems that exist within the bone structure or the root of the tooth. 2) A bitewing x-ray, which focuses on the enamel layer of teeth. This type of image is helpful in detecting gum disease and tooth decay that might otherwise be missed. 3) An occlusal x-ray is used to give the dentist a broader, overall view of the placement of teeth. This is especially helpful in diagnosing issues involved with the alignment of the teeth.
- CEPH x-rays: This type of x-ray produces a panoramic image of the patient’s bone structure of the entire neck and head area, and is particularly useful in diagnosing problems with the jaw, neck and head.
The advances made in dental technology over the past several years are truly amazing. Thanks to these new x-ray methods, dentists are able to diagnose and treat a variety of oral issues much more effectively than ever before. That’s technology we can all benefit from! | <urn:uuid:8fd32ad3-10e4-453d-be21-313220397eb6> | {
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If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.
We’ve all heard that saying before. It’s become quite a popular maxim. It’s a catchy line, and it offers some hope to those who are working on seemingly great ideas. But it also turns out to be really bad advice. We expect a celebration when the product launches or our new work is on display. But this is often not the case. In fact, it is rarely the case. The world’s most common reaction to a new idea isn’t to beat a path to our door. It’s typically to beat down the idea or, perhaps worse, ignore it.
Consider the actual mousetrap. The U.S. Patent Office has issued over forty-four hundred patents for better versions of the mousetrap; of those, only about twenty designs have ever been developed into a commercially viable product. The most successful design, by far, is the spring trap we all envision in our heads. This version was designed in 1899. Despite the roughly four hundred additional mousetrap designs submitted for a new patent every year, no design has yet surpassed the spring trap. Behind all these issued designs is a simple truth: even if you can build a better mousetrap, there is still a lot of work involved in selling the world on your new design.
Beyond the literal mousetrap, history is full of metaphorical mousetraps that were initially rejected. Kodak’s research laboratory invented the first digital camera in 1975, but didn’t pursue it. Kodak didn’t believe that people would be willing to give up the quality produced by film pictures, so they paid no attention as Sony developed a different prototype and stole the future of digital photography out from underneath it. Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, once said, "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." H. M. Warner, founder of movie giant Warner Brothers, disregarded the idea of talking pictures, saying, "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" Charles Duell, former head of the U.S. Patent Office, claimed in 1899, "everything that can be invented has been invented." Ironically, that was the same year that the patent for the spring-loaded mousetrap was issued. These are entertaining anecdotes, but they illustrate much more than the fact that intelligent people can be hilariously wrong when judging new ideas. They suggest that perhaps even the smartest among us have a hard time recognizing truly creative ideas. There’s even psychological research supporting the idea that we as humans are biased against new ideas.
Creative ideas, by their very nature, invite judgment. People need to know if the value promised by the new is worth the abandonment of the old. We tend to fear change, and therefore we fear the innovations that call us to change. In organizations especially, we’re told to have fresh ideas and to think outside the box. However, in the rare cases when individuals actually do propose something unique, their idea is often rejected as being too outlandish or impossible. The other problem is that people worry that if they share their creative ideas, then those ideas will be stolen and someone else will take the credit for their innovation. Howard H. Aiken, a renowned innovator and pioneer in computing, held the opposite view. Aiken’s advice for those favoring creative secrecy was, "Don’t worry about people stealing yours ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats." His own experience shaped his belief that people inherently reject, not adopt or steal, creative ideas.
Aiken isn’t alone in this experience or in giving this advice. Eric Ries, a serial entrepreneur and adviser to numerous start-ups, says he often encounters would-be entrepreneurs worried to truly begin their endeavor for fear that potential competitors will steal their ideas and destroy their market share. Ries says, "I have often given entrepreneurs fearful of this issue the following assignment: take one of your ideas (one of your lesser insights, perhaps), and the name of the relevant product manager at an established company who has responsibility for that area, and try to get that company to steal your idea." Ries explains the rationale behind his assignment this way: "The truth is that most managers in most companies are already overwhelmed with good ideas." While we may fear that our great ideas will be stolen, it’s most likely that they will be ignored. In the cases where an idea is considered, it’s still more likely that it will be rejected than stolen.
It’s not enough to merely generate great ideas. Though we live in a world of complex challenges and our organizations need innovative solutions, we also live in a world biased against creative ideas. It’s not enough for an organization to have creative people; it has to develop a culture that doesn’t reject great ideas. It’s not enough for people to learn how to be more creative; they also need to be persistent through the rejection they might face. It’s not enough to have a great idea or a great product, there’s still a lot of selling left to do. We don’t just need more great ideas; we need to spread the great ideas we already have.
—David Burkus is the author of The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies and People Generate Great Ideas. He is also founder of LDRLB and assistant professor of management at Oral Roberts University.
Reprinted by permission from the publisher, Jossey-Bass, a Wiley brand, from The Myths of Creativity by David Burkus. Copyright (c) 2013 by David Burkus.
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(Redirected from George C. Marshall
George Catlett Marshall (December 31, 1880–October 16, 1959), was an American military leader and statesman best remembered for his leadership in the Allied victory in World War II and for his work establishing the post-war reconstruction effort for Europe, which became known as the Marshall Plan.
Marshall was born into a middle-class family in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. While attending Virginia Military Institute he was initiated into the now dormant Beta('01) chapter of Kappa Alpha Order .
In 1948, he was awarded the Distiguished Achievement Award for his role and contributions during and after WWII.
Marshall was instrumental in getting the U.S. Army and Army Air Corps reorganized and ready for war. Marshall wrote the document that would become the central strategy for all Allied operations in Europe, selected Dwight Eisenhower as Supreme Commander in Europe, and designed Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. Throughout the remainder of the World War II, Marshall coordinated all Allied operations in Europe and the Pacific. He was characterized as the organizer of Allied victory by Winston Churchill. Time Magazine named Marshall Man of the Year in 1944.
After WW II he was sent to China to negotiate a truce and build a coalition government between the Nationalists and Communists fighting the Chinese Civil War. His efforts failed and he was recalled in January 1947.
Marshall 'retired' in November 1945 and was named Secretary of State in 1947. As such, on June 5, 1947 at a speech at Harvard University, he outlined the U.S. government's preparedness to contribute to European recovery. The European Recovery Plan, which became known as the Marshall Plan, helped Europe quickly rebuild and earned Marshall the honor of being named TIME's Man of the Year in 1948 and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. In 1949 he resigned from the State Department and was named president of the American National Red Cross. He was named Secretary of Defense in 1950, but retired from politics for good in 1951 after Senator Joseph McCarthy implied he was a traitor and denounced him for making decisions that "aided the Communist drive for world domination". Marshall died on October 16, 1959.
He married Elizabeth Carter Cole of Lexington, Virginia in 1902. She died in 1927. 1930 he married Katherine Boyce Tupper Brown.
After graduating from the Virginia Military Institute in 1901, he entered the U.S. Army, where he was to have a long and distinguished career. Until World War I, he was posted to various positions in the US and the Philippines, and was trained in modern warfare. During the War he had roles as a planner of both training and operations. Between WWI and WWII, he was a key planner and writer in the War Department, spent three years in China, and taught at the Army War College.
He went to France in the summer of 1917 as the director of training and planning for the 1st Infantry Division. In mid-1918, he was promoted to American Expeditionary Forces headquarters, where he was a key planner of American operations. He was instrumental in the design and coordination of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, which forced Germany to sue for peace.
In 1919 he became an aide-de-camp to General John J. Pershing. Between 1920 and 1924, while Pershing was Army Chief of Staff, Marshall worked in a number of positions in the US Army, focusing on training and teaching modern, mechanised warfare.
He was promoted to Brigadier General in October 1936. In 1939 he was selected by Franklin D. Roosevelt to be Army Chief of Staff, a position he held until 1945.
Dates of rank
- Second Lieutenant, United States Army: February 2, 1902
- First Lieutenant, United States Army: March 7, 1907
- Captain, United States Army: July 1, 1916
- Major, National Army: August 5, 1917
- Lieutenant Colonel, National Army: January 5, 1918
- Colonel, National Army: August 27, 1918
- Major, Regular Army (reverted to permanent rank): July 1, 1920
- Lieutenant Colonel, Regular Army: August 21, 1923
- Colonel, Regular Army: September 1, 1933
- Brigadier General, Regular Army: October 1, 1936
- Major General, Regular Army: September 1, 1939
- General, Regular Army, for service as Army Chief of Staff: September 1, 1939
- General of the Army, Army of the United States: December 16, 1944
- General of the Army rank made permanent in the Regular Army: April 11, 1946
Notes about components:
- United States Army: Regular U.S. Armed Forces prior to World War I
- National Army: Combined conscript and regular United States forces during World War I
- Regular Army: Regular volunteer forces after 1930. Considered "career" professionals
- Army of the United States: Combined draft and regular forces of World War II.
Awards and decorations
"We are determined that before the sun sets on this terrible struggle, Our Flag will be recognized throughout the World as a symbol of Freedom on the one hand and of overwhelming force on the other." -- George Marshall (May 29, 1942, Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens, ed. The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, Vol 3 pp. 212-14.)
"I couldn't sleep nights, George, if you were out of Washington." -President Roosevelt, reported by Henry Stimson, 1943
“...what a joy it must be to [Marshall] to see how the armies he called into being by his own genius have won immortal renown. He is the true 'organizer of victory.’” Winston Churchill, 1945
"A man devoted to the daily study of war on several continents with all the ardour of a certified public accountant." - Alistair Cooke, 1959
"Hitherto I had thought of Marshall as a rugged soldier and a magnificent organizer and builder of armies - the American Carnot. But now I saw that he was a statesman with a penetrating and commanding view of the whole scene." - Winston Churchill
|- style="text-align: center;"
| width="30%" |Preceded by:
Louis A. Johnson
| width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |United States Secretary of Defense
| width="30%" |Succeeded by:
Robert A. Lovett | <urn:uuid:c087f88c-2132-484b-93d8-037376115615> | {
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painted turtle, painted terrapin, painted tortoise, Chrysemys picta(noun)
freshwater turtles having bright yellow and red markings; common in the eastern United States
The painted turtle is the most widespread native turtle of North America. It lives in slow-moving fresh waters, from southern Canada to Louisiana and northern Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The turtle is the only species of the genus Chrysemys, which is part of the pond turtle family Emydidae. Fossils show that the painted turtle existed 15 million years ago. Four regionally based subspecies evolved during the last ice age. The adult painted turtle female is 10–25 cm long; the male is smaller. The turtle's top shell is dark and smooth, without a ridge. Its skin is olive to black with red, orange, or yellow stripes on its extremities. The subspecies can be distinguished by their shells: the eastern has straight-aligned top shell segments; the midland has a large gray mark on the bottom shell; the southern has a red line on the top shell; the western has a red pattern on the bottom shell. The turtle eats aquatic vegetation, algae, and small water creatures including insects, crustaceans, and fish. Although they are frequently consumed as eggs or hatchlings by rodents, canines, and snakes, the adult turtles' hard shells protect them from most predators. Reliant on warmth from its surroundings, the painted turtle is active only during the day when it basks for hours on logs or rocks. During winter, the turtle hibernates, usually in the muddy bottoms of waterways. The turtles mate in spring and autumn. Females dig nests on land and lay eggs between late spring and mid-summer. Hatched turtles grow until sexual maturity: 2–9 years for males, 6–16 for females.
The numerical value of painted turtle in Chaldean Numerology is: 7
The numerical value of painted turtle in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3
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"painted turtle." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2017. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. <http://www.definitions.net/definition/painted turtle>. | <urn:uuid:b73f0fff-d893-47ba-accd-60f26673eb67> | {
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The Logan County office of the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service will hold a Fire Ant Field Day with UA Extension Entomologist Dr. Kelly Loftin on Wednesday, April 16 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Paris High School campus.
Dr. Loftin will conduct a demonstration on an active mound and talk about the newest control methods as well as the life cycle and habits of this invasive pest.
Imported fire ants were introduced into the United States from South America over 70 years ago. The first documented infestation in Arkansas was found in El Dorado in 1958. Currently, they infest most of the southern half of Arkansas, and have been found in the northern reaches of the state.
Fire ants are reddish brown and range from 1/8” to 1/4” in length. In addition to their physical characteristics and aggressive swarming behavior, they are identified by their painful sting, which produces a small pustule (white bump) on the victim within eight to 24 hours.
Fire Ants have infested all parts of Logan County. Fire ants are serious pests, but fortunately their impact can be minimized through patience and integrated pest management methods.
The meeting is open to all eligible persons without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, disability, marital or veteran status, or any other legally protected status. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (large print, audiotapes, etc.) should notify the county Extension office (or other appropriate office) as soon as possible prior to the activity.
For more information concerning the workshop, contact Bob Harper at the extension office at 963-2360. | <urn:uuid:b56fbe63-01ce-4c0f-9a72-6ec97a8811ce> | {
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The science behind raw food diets
We’ve all been there: scrolling down our Facebook or Instagram feeds and seeing the infamous #raw hashtag next to a picture of a raw chocolate, vegetables, fruits, oats and nuts. However, the raw food diet is made up of much more than pretty pictures social media. It is a lifestyle that can be enormously beneficial to your entire family.
I know from personal experience, but also evidence suggests that a raw food diet can be instrumental in fighting against and, in many cases, reversing a plethora of diseases including autism, diabetes, obesity, cancer and asthma. Not too shabby, raw veganism!
But, what is it exactly? Also, what effect does it have on the body?
At its core, eating raw basically means eating organic food that has not been cooked or processed in any way. Essentially, food should not be heated above 116 degrees F and it should not have been treated with preservatives or pesticides; and is GMO-free. The reason behind this is that raw foodies believe that cooking or processing food destroys enzymes – something our bodies cannot do without.
So, let’s check out some key ways a raw diet affects the body:
1. It improves brain function.
One thing’s for sure, if you go raw, your brain will thank you! How can this be so? Most people digest Raw food more quickly. This essentially means that energy is sent rapidly to the brain and other vital organs.
2. It gives you flawless skin.
Your skin is the largest organ in your body and it reacts very quickly to other changes in the body, almost like a warning system. Eating raw means you’ll be consuming more vitamins and amino acids, resulting to beautiful skin. Also, vegetables are mostly water, which your skin loves! Hydrated skin is beautiful skin.
3. It is a natural energy booster.
I mentioned above how beneficial increased energy levels are for your brain. Well, the same is true for the rest of your body. Enzymes play a crucial role for pretty much anything our body does. Unfortunately, there is only a limited amount on hand. Introducing more enzymes into your system means more energy.
4. Yes, your lungs will thank you too!
Going raw will make your body enter an alkaline state. Although that sounds pretty frightening like something you’d want to avoid, an alkaline system has its benefits. Your lungs will be freed from excess mucus produced by your current diet, especially if it’s heavy on meat.
5. Your heart won’t skip a beat!
A raw vegan diet is chock full of antioxidants, and they are right up there with enzymes when it comes to importance to your body. They lower free radical production, stopping them from wreaking havoc on your blood vessels and heart.
If raw food has benefited your families health or diet – leave your comments below and share your story with us, | <urn:uuid:b5090f60-00cf-4367-9ea9-8c5b726a3d09> | {
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Keisha Shakespeare-Blackmore, Staff Reporter
Children playing 'London Bridge'.
There was a time when children played games that were more physical and helped to develop their social skills. Today, children often play games that are less challenging, both physically and socially.
Today's games require no more than a computer monitor and hand-held gadgets, these include the popular Nintendo, all of which are early preparation for life as a couch potato. As such, combined with other factors such as poor dieting, more children are becoming overweight and obese. In fact, this kind of play is usually accompanied by eating non-stop, and more frequently junk food.
In rural Jamaica, many children are not as privileged to have these hi-tech games and they make do with the little they have. As the famous Jamaica saying goes, "Tun yu han' mek fashion". The games played by children in these areas reflect this saying. Some of the more popular ones are dandy shandy, jox, gig, a variety of ring games, hop-scotch, bat up and catch, Chinese skip, and 'stuckie'. Also, children were more in tune with nature though sometimes the boys were a little more mischievous.
Boys tend to be very rough. They climb trees, make little trucks out of used juice boxes, play marbles, and 'taw' or 'spawns' (throwing rocks trying to hit the opponent's playing piece to get points). One of their favourite activities is catching lizards with grass straws or with loops made from the slender veins of the coconut bough. Then armed with the lizards, they chase girls and this activity becomes very useful exercise.
Roger Dunstan (left) and Donavon Clunie show how they were able to catch this lizard with loops made from coconut veins. - photos by Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Another fun game was playing in the 'nanny goat' or 'nanny buck buck's' nest. A nanny goat is a little insect that makes
little craters in loose dirt. In days past, children were not afraid to get down and dirty. They would use their finger to disrupt the nest while saying "nanny, nanny show me the way to Kingston", and it is said any direction they appeared from would in fact be the way to Kingston. In some parts of Clarendon they would say "come nanny, nanny, mama gwine buy yu rice and peas". When the insect appeared, they would take it in their hands and play with it for a while before letting it go.
Dandy shandy is an exciting ball game requiring at least three players. There are two pitchers each standing at opposite ends of the third player (in the middle). In most rural parishes, parents could not afford a ball so some the children made their own. They would stuff a used drink box with lots of paper. The game is usually played by girls but boys would sometimes play, mostly as pitchers. Some of the ruder boys might slip a stone or two in the box, especially if the one in the middle is hard to get out.
The game is all about speed and all kinds of gymnastic moves. The pitchers try to throw the ball at 'lightning' speed, attempting to take out the runner. The runner, on the other hand, tries to dodge the ball by all means. Runners must jump, leap, or duck to avoid being hit. The game gets extremely exciting as the player in the middle does acrobatic jumps! If the ball goes between the legs you will hear the onlookers shouting 'Salad'! If it's a female player in the middle, as she leaps off her feet, legs splayed, her skirt might 'ride up' past her waist. If the ball misses, you get one point but if you get a 'cock up' (leaping off the ground with both legs spread apart in the air), you get 10 points instantly. But if the ball tips (slightly touches you), you are out (if you're playing 'tips' that is). At the start of the game, some groups decide 'tips' is not an out.
Bat and Ball/Baseball
Roger gives us a closer view.
Bat and ball is usually a break/lunch time and Sunday evening game. Many times, a stuffed juice boxs substituted for a real ball. Though the game is similar to America's baseball, it is somewhat different, as Jamaican children used their hands as the bat.
There were two teams with any number of players but the teams had to have equal members. The ball was made from a juice box stuffed with newspaper or any scrap of paper. There were three bases whether it's a tree, building, rock or just a visiblymarked spot on the ground.
How the game is played
The batters stand in a line as each person bats and runs to a base. The pitcher stands a couple of feet away from the batter and tries to catch the ball. The other members are considered fielders who work along with the pitcher. The batter throws the ball up in the air and gives it a sturdy strike with the palm of the hand. Once the ball is out of the batter's hand, the batter then races to the first, second or third base before making it back to home base (which is the line-up of batters). The aim is to reach the base without getting hit, otherwise that player is out. When the entire team is out, it's the other team's time to bat.
Now an adult, Vanessa Taylor told Lifestyle that she recalls playing baseball as she called it in her community of Milk River in Clarendon. She said she used to love the game and played it with her friends every chance she got. She added that many times her grandmother left her chores to do but playing was more fun. Of course she got a fine spanking at the end of the day. She said that the last day she played she was humiliated before all her friends.
"I was on a roll and I hit the ball and took off at bird's speed. I did not see the clothesline. The next thing I knew, I was flying in the air and landed on my buttocks. All my friends laughed at me and they teased me for a while," said Taylor.
Rajhaun Stennett, five years old, is engrossed in his 'nanny goat' nest.
Cricket was then and still is a major game played on the island. Vivian Crawford, executive director at Institute of Jamaica, notes that as a boy his favourite game was cricket. He said in his community of Moore Town in Portland, cricket was a big thing. He said that the boys would
go to the neighbouring communities to compete.
"Coming back after a game, you can hear them from a distance. They usually start singing "glory be to God we are home once more" as soon they reached Red Hills (neighbouring community to Moore Town)," said Mr. Crawford. He added that people would gather around the truck as it pulled in to find out the result.
He pointed out that he was a very good fielder and he loved it. However, he lost interest after he had a little mishap.
"I was about 11 years old when one day I was playing and I got a 'helluva lick' on my thumb. I thought it was broken but it was not," he said. He further stated that he tied the thumb with custard apple leaves and vinegar, a home remedy, to ease the pain.
Crawford also informed Lifestyle that he used to play a game called 'duck'. The game was played in the river. Each time you swim or dive, you grab someone and duck (lower) them in the water. He noted that he loved that game so much that at his first day of school during break time he went for a swim. He chuckles as he recalls the other children telling him he cannot swim because he was at school.
On the other hand, Michael Nicholson, events specialist at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, said his favourite game was playing cart. He made trucks from an empty paint container top and cotton reel.
Ring games were and still are the most popular children's games. The first step is to form a circle. Some of them require that one person stands in the centre while others have a few people at a time running around in the ring. The more popular ones are 'Brown girl in the ring', 'What can you do Punchinella little fellow,' 'I am inna well', and 'Farmer in the dell'.
For additional information visit www.jamaicans.com. | <urn:uuid:92806b57-86cd-4162-8a14-3ddbf209048c> | {
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Sibelius is one of the industry standard tools for composing and transcribing music, while Pro Tools is one of the industry standard digital audio workstations for audio producers and engineers alike. In this tutorial, we'll look at how to combine these two complex tools into a production workflow.
A Quick Overview of Sibelius and Pro Tools
Sibelius is music notation software, used primarily by composers to easily write music. It allows you to either hand-draw notes with your keyboard and mouse, or record in MIDI data from external devices such as a MIDI controller. It has significant functionality to make the life of a composer easier, and most composers will track out their songs or compositions with each instrument on a separate track. They will then send this off to a producer or an engineer to achieve a virtual piece that has realistic production values, before possibly live-recording it with true instrumentation.
Pro Tools has functionality built in to work directly with Sibelius files, and this can make it much easier than bouncing your Sibelius file out to MIDI each time and re-importing it. Because Pro Tools has expanded VST (through FXpansion) and RTAS support, along with superior audio production functionality, it is used primarily in HD form by recording studios around the world.
So, in this tutorial, we'll take a look at composing music in Sibelius, and then how to take that composition into Pro Tools and achieve realistic orchestral values with East West Quantum Leap's symphonic orchestra.
The first step is to open up Sibelius. If you're using the default configuration, it will pop up a window like shown below. Here, we can open a recent file, or we can start a new project. Here, let's choose 'Start a New Score'.
Now, we're presented with a dialog that wants to know what kind of manuscript paper to use. Basically, there a bunch of presets in Sibelius that already have various instruments included. For example, if we know that we're working on an orchestral piece, we might choose "Orchestral, Classical". Of course, we can always add, remove or edit instruments later, but a preset helps save some time. Let's choose Orchestral, Classical.
Now, we can either click Next, or Finish. If we just want to start working, we can click finish, if we click next, we'll get more options to configure our sheet music. First, we can choose House Style, which is basically like a visual style for the music, controlling fonts and sizes. Next, we have a more important choice of Tempo and Time Signature, followed by Key Signature with both major and minor keys, and lastly, a Score Information panel where we can put our name, and other information. Lastly, click Finish once you have your configuration set, for this, I've kept all the default settings.
Now, we've reached the main workstation. Depending on your configuration and Sibelius version, you should see a few things. First, is your playback controls. These are similar to any DAW, where you can start, stop, rewind, add a metronome, and more. Then, you should see a Keypad window, which allows you to select the active tool, whether it's the move tool, or adding notes.
Next, there is a Navigator window, which allows you to move between pages of your score, which is very helpful for lengthy pieces of music. And finally, you have the toolbar at the top with all sorts of options, many of which are redundant between the panels.
Now, as sort of my own preference on how to learn things, we're going to cover 3 key things. The first, is how to add notes by yourself with your keyboard and mouse. The second is how to record from an external MIDI device. Lastly, we're going to open a MIDI file into Pro Tools and then bounce it out to Sibelius, so we can see what's going on.
First, we can add a note as follows: Go to your keypad mini-window, and click on the quarter note symbol (if you don't know which symbol that is, mouse over the various buttons and Sibelius will display helpful tooltips.
Now, choose a track to add the notes to. I'm going to add them to Violin I. Now, let's compose out the famous Ode to Joy melody, which is as follows (for beginners at least): E, E, F, G, G, F, E, D, C, C, D, E, E, D, D. So, using our knowledge of the notes of the treble clef (FACE for the spaces from bottom to top, and EGBDF for the lines from bottom to top), let's add the notes.
Now, the observant student will notice that I've made a mistake, and that is, the quarter rest should be between E and the final two Ds of the phrase. I did this on purpose, so now I have an excuse to show you the move tool. Often, when composing by hand, you'll make mistakes like these, for example, a note will need to be moved in pitch or in time. You'll also notice that Sibelius was nice enough as we clicked and added these notes, it did the math for us and converted the rests from whole to half to quarter for us.
So now, to move a note, it's quite simple, but actually figuring it out in Sibelius can be tricky because the interface isn't quite as intuitive as one would hope. You can't actually click and drag notes to move them, instead, you have to cut or copy and paste them. Personally, this one of my least favorite features of Sibelius. What you end up having looks like the below. If you're stuck with 3 quarter notes and a quarter rest, click the 2nd note and then click the eighth note icon in the keypad. This will convert the quarter note to an eighth note, and it will add an eighth rest. Then, you can copy paste the quarter note and eighth rest into the proper positions.
Okay, well that's all great, but this is a painstaking and time consuming process, and most of us would probably prefer to play from a MIDI controller. Luckily, Sibelius is great at this, however I must warn you, if you are not a good piano player, this can create a bit of a mess in your score. So, save our current document as "Ode to Joy.sib", flip on your MIDI controller, and restart Sibelius. On the Quick Start screen, load Ode to Joy back up.
If this is your first time using your MIDI controller with Sibelius, you will probably have to configure it. So, to do this, go to your Preferences, choose Input Devices, and Find New Input Devices. Then, hit some keys on your keyboard, and see if the Test button lights up. Mine does, so I'm good to go. Next, choose the track you want to record on. I'll choose Violin II, so I will then click on the first bar of the track. Now, when you hit notes, it will instantly start adding them. However, they will still be all the notes that are set in the Keypad. To do live recording, we need to click the Flexi Time Input record button. This will give us one bar of metronome as a pre-count, and then we can start playing. When you're done, hit stop and check out what Sibelius put for you.
Notice the differences, with a sixteenth rest and a dotted eighth note start the piece, a tie between bar 1 and 2, and another sixteenth note, sixteenth rest and eighth note in bar 4. This is because, despite my basic piano playing abilities, I wasn't on time for the whole piece. Thus, if your piano skills are shaky, or, you tend to put a bit of groove and improvisation into your playing, you may find yourself with some errors that may or may not to be fixed. As before, there isn't a problem, you can just change the notes using the keypad.
You can compose the rest of your tune this way in Sibelius, and listen to the playback using basic (or Sibelius Essentials) sounds, and once you're ready, go to File->Export, MIDI in Sibelius. I'll cover more about why you had to do this later. Then, move onto the next step where we'll open it in Pro Tools.
Next, boot up Pro Tools. Closing Sibelius first will really help performance, as Pro Tools tends to eat up a significant amount of RAM. Okay, now we have Pro Tools open, let's create a Blank Session with the default parameters.
Just create a session with the name of whatever track you're working on. Now you should have your edit and mix windows open, so it's time to import a MIDI file, so, grab a MIDI file of your choosing (I'm using a Sibelius-transcribed version of "Rebuilt Jedi Enclave" from Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II).
Click and drag into Pro Tools, and import tempo and key signature with it.
Now, if you go to Window->Score Editor, you'll see something strangely familiar. That's because Pro Tools' score editor is powered by Sibelius technology, with some alterations made. So, we can change or compose directly in Pro Tools, and bounce it to Sibelius format and open it back up in Sibelius. Currently, Pro Tools can't open Sibelius files directly, but it can import MIDI files so there's only one extra step. In future versions of Pro Tools, it will likely have the ability to open Sibeilus files directly. However, most recording studios have Sibelius installed, and I suggest you pick up even a basic version of it as it will come in handy if you're doing any work with composers.
So now, we can easily work on composing in Pro Tools on the fly, or we can work in Sibelius and add in advanced musical elements such as slurs, dynamics, and other articulations. If we compose in Pro Tools, we can send to Sibelius easily by choosing File->Send to Sibelius, or File->Export Sibelius.
But, at the beginning of this tutorial, I mentioned that it is more likely that a composer will give you a Sibelius file or a MIDI file and want you to create a virtual instrument version. So, if you have a MIDI file, you can click and drag directly, but if you have a Sibelius file, simply export your file using File->Export, MIDI in Sibelius (you can also do this if you are composing your own work). Now, we have our file open in Pro Tools.
Ignoring the names of the regions (the whole piece was extracted from the Piano track), we can now use EWQL to assign instruments to our tracks. So, let's start with the brass. If you have a reference of what the piece should sound like, it's nice to give that a listen. Then, navigate to your mix window, create a New Audio Track, and then insert EWQL (or any other VST) onto the audio track. Next, assign some instruments, for example, I have 4 Trombones Long Portato for my first Brass Track, Double Basses (actually a string for my first duplicate of the brass track), French Horns for my second duplicate, and then a Harp, and Violas.
Then, on each MIDI track, I assign the IO to the specific channel of EWQL that corresponds to that instrument. Next, all I have to do is hit play, and enjoy the virtual studio orchestra with great production values (even notice that this is without any mixing, mastering or effects added).
Now, let's listen to the MIDI version that we had, and also an audio version from Sibelius (using Sibelius Sound Essentials).
You should notice that the MIDI gives little impression of realism, because it is standard operating system instruments in playback, whereas Sibelius gives a bit of a natural feel but still leaves much to be desired. Lastly, the Pro Tools with VST playback can be tweaked so as to convince listeners that they are hearing a true classical orchestra (or other live instruments), and fool all but trained ears.
In this tutorial, we looked at how Sibelius and Pro Tools can be used by composers and audio producers, and how audio producers and engineers should be familiar with the key concepts of Sibelius to use it in a production workflow. Sibelius is a powerful tool for composing, and even though Pro Tools has Sibelius technology built into the Score Editor, it lacks some of the more powerful functions that Sibelius itself offers. However, with Pro Tools' superior audio technology and VST/RTAS support, it is wise to combine the best elements of both programs into your workflow.
My personal recommendation for people interested in this type of production, to grab some of your favorite musical works, and transcribe the music (or download files online, for those who don't want to bother with transcription), and then try to achieve a realistic production sound in your favorite DAW, as it is great practice for understanding instrumentation, arranging, and the finer points of music.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and if you have any questions or tutorial suggestions that you'd like to see, from Pro Tools, Ableton Live or Sibelius, let me know in the comments. | <urn:uuid:ef8ffeef-700f-431c-9fa1-2be1271d91f7> | {
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The text of the bill below is as of Mar 16, 1993 (Introduced).
HR 1348 IH
H. R. 1348
To establish the Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor in the State of Connecticut, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 16, 1993
March 16, 1993
Mr. GEJDENSON (for himself, Mrs. KENNELLY, Ms. DELAURO, and Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources
To establish the Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor in the State of Connecticut, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
- This Act may be cited as the ‘Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor Act of 1993’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
- Congress finds that:
- (1) The Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley in the State of Connecticut is one of the last unspoiled and undeveloped areas in the Northeastern United States and has remained largely intact, including important aboriginal archaeological sites, excellent water quality, beautiful rural landscapes, architecturally significant mill structures and mill villages, and large acreage of parks and other permanent open space.
- (2) The State of Connecticut ranks last among the 50 States in the amount of federally protected park and open space lands within its borders and lags far behind the other northeastern States in the amount of land set-aside for public recreation.
- (3) The beautiful rural landscapes, scenic vistas and excellent water quality of the Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers contain significant undeveloped recreational opportunities for people throughout the United States.
- (4) The Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley is within a 2-hour drive of the major metropolitan areas of New York City, Hartford, Providence, Worcester, Springfield, and Boston. With the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors reporting that Americans are taking shorter ‘closer-to-home’ vacations, the Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley represents important close-by recreational opportunities for significant population.
- (5) The existing mill sites and other structures throughout the Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley were instrumental in the development of the industrial revolution.
- (6) The Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley contains a vast number of discovered and unrecovered Native American and colonial archaeological sites significant to the history of North America and the United States.
- (7) The Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley represents one of the last traditional upland farming and mill village communities in the northeastern United States.
- (8) The Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley played a nationally significant role in the cultural evolution of the prewar colonial period. Leading the transformation from Puritan to Yankee, the ‘Great Awakening’ religious revival and early political development leading up to and during the War of Indpendence.
- (9) Many local, regional and State agencies, businesses, and private citizens and the New England Governors’ Conference have expressed an overwhelming desire to combine forces: to work cooperatively to preserve and enhance resources region-wide and better plan for the future.
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF QUINEBAUG AND SHETUCKET RIVERS VALLEY NATIONAL HERITAGE CORRIDOR; PURPOSE.
- (a) ESTABLISHMENT- There is hereby established in the State of Connecticut the Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor.
- (b) PURPOSE- It is the purpose of this Act to provide a management framework to assist the State of Connecticut, its units of local and regional government and citizens in the development and implementation of integrated cultural, historical, and recreational land resource management programs in order to retain, enhance, and interpret the significant features of the lands, water, and structures of the Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley in the State of Connecticut.
SEC. 4. BOUNDARIES AND ADMINISTRATION.
- (a) BOUNDARIES- The Boundaries of the Corridor shall include the towns of Ashford, Brooklyn, Canterbury, Chaplin, Coventry, Eastford, Franklin, Griswold, Hampton, Killingly, Lebanon, Lisbon, Mansfield, Norwich, Plainfield, Pomfret, Preston, Putnam, Scotland, Sprague, Sterling, Thompson, Voluntown, Windham, and Woodstock. As soon as practical after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Interior shall publish in the Federal Register a detailed description and map of boundaries established under this subsection.
- (b) ADMINISTRATION- The Corridor shall be administered in accordance with the provisions of this Act.
SEC. 5. QUINEBAUG AND SHETUCKET RIVERS VALLEY NATIONAL HERITAGE CORRIDOR COMMISSION.
- (a) ESTABLISHMENT- There is hereby established the Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor Commission (referred to in this Act as the ‘Commission’). The Commission shall assist appropriate Federal, State, regional planning organizations, and local authorities in the development and implementation of an integrated resource management plan for the lands and water as specified in section 3.
- (b) MEMBERSHIP- The Commission shall be comprised of 19 members appointed not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act as follows:
- (1) The Director of the National Park Service ex officio (or his delegate).
- (2) 3 individuals nominated by the Governor and appointed by the Secretary, who shall be--
- (A) the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, or a person representing the interests of the Commissioner;
- (B) the Chairman of the Connecticut Historical Commission or a person representing the interests of the Chairman, and
- (C) the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Economic Development or a person representing the interests of the Commissioner;
- (3) 6 individuals representing the interests of local government or regional planning organizations from Connecticut appointed by the Secretary after receiving recommendations from the Governor, of whom, 3 shall be representatives of the 3 regional planning organizations within the Corridor region and 3 shall be local elected officials from the region; and
- (4) 9 individuals from the general public, who are citizens of the State of Connecticut, appointed by the Secretary, after receiving recommendations from the Governor, representing conservation, business, tourism, and recreational interests.
- A vacancy in the Commission shall be filled in the manner in which the original appointments were made.
- (c) TERMS- (1) Members of the Commission shall be appointed for terms of 3 years and may be reappointed.
- (2) Any member appointed to fill a vacancy occurring before the expiration of the term for which his predecessor was appointed shall be appointed only for the remainder of such term. Any member of the Commission appointed for a definite term may serve after the expiration of his term until his successor has taken office.
- (d) COMPENSATION- Members of the Commission shall receive no pay on account of their service on the Commission but while away from their homes or regular places of business in the performance of services for the Commission, members of the Commission shall be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, in the same manner as persons employed intermittently in the Government service are allowed expenses under section 5703 of title 5, United State Code.
- (e) CHAIRPERSON- The Chairperson of the Commission shall be elected by the members of the Commission.
- (f) QUORUM- (1) 8 members of the Commission shall constitute a quorum, but a lesser number may hold hearings.
- (2) The affirmative vote of not less than 10 members of the Commission shall be required to approve the budget of the Commission.
- (g) MEETINGS- The Commission shall hold its first meeting not later than 90 days after the date on which its members are appointed, and shall meet at least quarterly at the call of the chairperson or 10 of its members. Meetings of the Commission shall be subject to section 552(b) of title 5, United States Code (relating to open meetings).
- (h) PROXY- Any member of the Commission may vote by means of a signed proxy exercised by another member of the Commission, but any member so voting shall not be considered present for purposes of establishing a quorum.
SEC. 6. STAFF OF THE COMMISSION.
- (a) IN GENERAL- (1) The Commission shall have the power to appoint and fix compensation of such staff as may be necessary to carry out its duties.
- (2) Staff appointed by the Commission--
- (A) shall be appointed subject to the provisions of title 5, United States Code, governing appointments in the competitive service; and
- (B) shall be paid in accordance with provisions of chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of such title relating to classification and General Schedule pay rates.
- (b) EXPERTS AND CONSULTANTS- Subject to such rules as may be adopted by the Commission, the Commission may procure temporary and intermittent services to the same extent as is authorized by section 3109(b) of title 5, United States Code, but at rates determined by the Commission to be reasonable.
- (c) STAFF OF OTHER AGENCIES- (1) Upon request of the Commission, the head of any Federal agency may detail, on a reimbursable basis, any of the personnel of such agency to the Commission to assist the Commission in carrying out the Commission’s duties.
- (2) The Commission may accept the service of personnel detailed from the State, any political subdivision and regional planning organizations, and may reimburse the State, political subdivision, and regional planning organizations for those services.
SEC. 7. POWERS OF COMMISSION.
- (a) HEARINGS- (1) The Commission may, for the purposes of carrying out this Act, hold hearings, sit and act at such times and places, take such testimony, and receive such evidence, as the Commission considers appropriate.
- (2) The Commission may not issue subpoenas or exercise any subpoena authority.
- (b) POWERS OF MEMBERS AND AGENTS- Any member or agent of the Commission, if so authorized by the Commission, may take any action which the Commission is authorized to take by this Act.
- (c) ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT SERVICES- The Administrator of the General Services Administration shall provide to the Commission on a reimbursable basis, such administrative support services as the Commission may request.
- (d) MAILS- The Commission may use the United States mails in the same manner and under the same conditions as other departments and other agencies of the United States.
- (e) USE OF FUNDS TO OBTAIN MONEY- The Commission may use its funds to obtain money from any source under any program or law requiring the recipient of such money to make a contribution in order to receive such money.
- (f) GIFTS- (1) Except as provided in subsection (g)(2)(B), the Commission may, for purposes of carrying out its duties, seek, accept, and dispose of gifts, bequests, or donations of money, personal property, or services, received from any source.
- (2) For purposes of section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, any gift to the Commission shall be deemed as a gift to the United States.
- (g) ACQUISITION OF REAL PROPERTY- (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2) and except with respect to any leasing of facilities under subsection (c), the Commission may not acquire any real property or interest in real property.
- (2) Subject to paragraph (3), the Commission may acquire real property or interest in real property in the Corridor--
- (A) by gift or devise; or
- (B) by purchase from a willing seller with money that was given, appropriated, or bequeathed to the Commission on the condition that such money would be used to purchase real property, or interest in real property, in the Corridor.
- (3) Any real property or interest in real property acquired by the Commission under paragraph (2) shall be conveyed by the Commission to an appropriate public or private land management agency, as determined by the Commission. Any such conveyance shall be made--
- (A) as soon as practicable after such acquisition;
- (B) without consideration; and
- (C) on the condition that the real property or interest in real property so conveyed is used for public purposes.
- (h) COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS- For purposes of carrying out the plan, the Commission may enter into cooperative agreements with the State of Connecticut, with any political subdivision, or with any person or organization. Any such cooperative agreement shall, at a minimum, establish procedures for providing notice to the Commission of any action proposed by the State, such political subdivision, or such person which may affect implementation of the plan referred to in section 8.
- (i) ADVISORY GROUPS- The Commission may establish such advisory groups as it deems necessary to ensure open communication with, and assistance from, the State, political subdivisions of the State, regional planning organizations and interested persons.
SEC. 8. DUTIES OF THE COMMISSION.
- (a) PREPARATION OF PLAN- Within 2 years after the Commission conducts its first meeting, it shall submit to the Secretary of the Interior and the Governor of Connecticut for review and approval of Cultural Heritage and Corridor Management Plan. The Plan shall be based on existing Federal, State, and local plans, but shall coordinate those plans and present a unified historic preservation, interpretation, and recreational plan for the Corridor. The plan shall--
- (1) provide an inventory which includes any property in the Corridor which should be preserved, restored, managed, developed, maintained, or acquired because of its national historic or cultural or recreational significance;
- (2) recommend advisory standards and criteria applicable to the construction, preservation, restoration, alteration, and use of all properties within the Corridor;
- (3) develop an historic interpretation plan to interpret the history of the Corridor;
- (4) develop an inventory which includes existing and potential recreational sites which are developed or which could be developed along the Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers and their surrounding areas;
- (5) recommend policies for resource management which consider and detail application of appropriate land and water management techniques, including but not limited to, the development of inter-governmental cooperative agreements to protect the Corridor’s historical, cultural, recreational, scenic, and natural resources in a manner consistent with supporting appropriate and compatible economic revitalization efforts;
- (6) detail ways in which local, State, and Federal programs may best be coordinated to promote the purposes of this Act; and
- (7) contain a program for implementation of the Plan by the State and its political subdivisions.
- (b) IMPLEMENTATION OF PLAN- After review and approval of the Plan by the Secretary and the Governor as provided in subsection (a), the Commission shall implement the Plan by taking appropriate steps to preserve and interpret the historic resources, develop the recreational resources of the Corridor and its surrounding area, and to support public and private efforts in economic revitalization, consistent with the goals of the Plan. These steps may include, but need not be limited to--
- (1) assisting the State and local governmental entities or regional planning organizations, and non-profit organizations in preserving the Corridor and ensuring appropriate use of lands and structures throughout the Corridor;
- (2) assisting the State and local governmental entities or regional planning organizations, and non-profit organizations in establishing, and maintaining visitor centers and other interpretive exhibits in the Corridor;
- (3) assisting the State and local governmental entities or regional planning organizations, and non-profit organizations in developing recreational programs and resources in the Corridor;
- (4) assisting the State and local governmental entities or regional planning organizations, and non-profit organizations in increasing public awareness of and appreciation for the historical and architectural resources and sites in the Corridor;
- (5) assisting the State and local governmental or regional planning organizations and nonprofit organizations in the restoration of any historic building in the Corridor;
- (6) encouraging by appropriate means enhanced economic and industrial development in the Corridor consistent with the goals of the Plan;
- (7) encouraging local governments to adopt land use policies consistent with the management of the Corridor and the goals of the Plan, and to ensure appropriate use of lands and structures throughout the Corridor; and
- (8) assisting the State and local governmental entities or regional planning organizations to ensure that clear, consistent signs identifying access points and sites of interest are put in place throughout the Corridor.
SEC. 9. TERMINATION OF COMMISSION.
- (a) TERMINATION- Except as provided in subsection (b), the Commission shall terminate on the day occurring 5 years after the date of enactment of this Act.
- (b) EXTENSION- The Commission may be extended for a period of not more than 5 years beginning on the day of termination referred to in subsection (a) if, not later than 180 days before such day--
- (1) the Commission determines such extension is necessary in order to carry out the purposes of this Act;
- (2) the Commission submits such proposed extension to the Committee on Natural Resources of the United States House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the United States Senate; and
- (3) the Secretary, in consultation with the Governor of Connecticut, approves such extension.
SEC. 10. DUTIES OF THE SECRETARY.
- (a) APPROVAL OF PLAN- The Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Governor of Connecticut, shall approve or disapprove a Plan submitted under this Act by the Commission not later than 60 days after receiving such Plan. The Secretary, in consultation with the Governor, shall approve a Plan submitted if--
- (1) they find the Plan, if implemented, would adequately protect significant historical and cultural resources of the Corridor while providing adequate and appropriate outdoor recreational opportunities and economic activities within the Corridor;
- (2) they determine that the Commission held public hearings and provided adequate opportunity for public and governmental involvement in the preparation of the Plan; and
- (3) the Secretary receives adequate assurances from appropriate State officials that the recommended implementation program identified in the Plan will be initiated within a reasonable time after date of approval of the Plan, and that such implementation program will ensure effective implementation of the State and local aspects of the Plan.
- (d) DISAPPROVAL OF PLAN- If the Secretary disapproves a Plan submitted to him by the Commission, he shall advise the Commission in writing of the reasons therefor and shall make recommendations for revisions in the Plan. The Commission shall within 90 days of receipt of such notice of disapproval revise and resubmit the plan to the Secretary who shall approve or disapprove a proposed revision within 60 days after the date it is submitted to him.
- (c) ASSISTANCE- The Secretary of the Interior shall, upon request of the Commission, assist the Commission in the preparation and implementation of Plan.
SEC. 11. DUTIES OF OTHER FEDERAL ENTITIES.
- Any Federal entity conducting or supporting activities directly affecting the Corridor shall--
- (1) consult with the Secretary and the Commission with respect to such activities;
- (2) cooperate with the Secretary and the Commission with respect to such activities and, to the maximum extent practicable, coordinate such activities; and
- (3) to the maximum extent practicable, conduct or support such activities in a manner which the Commission determines will not have an adverse effect on the Corridor.
SEC. 12. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
- (a) COMMISSION- There is authorized to be appropriated $200,000 for fiscal year 1994 and 250,000 annually to the Commission to carry out its duties under this Act except that the Federal contributions to the Commission shall not exceed 50 percent of the annual costs to the Commission in carrying out those duties.
- (b) SECRETARY- There are authorized to be appropriated annually to the Secretary such sums as may be necessary to carry out his duties under this Act.
SEC. 13. DEFINITIONS.
- For purposes of this Act--
- (1) The term ‘Commission’ means the Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor Commission established under section 5.
- (2) The term ‘State’ means the State of Connecticut.
- (3) The term ‘Corridor’ means the Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor established under section 3.
- (4) The term ‘Plan’ means the Cultural Heritage and Corridor Management Plan to be prepared by the Commission pursuant to section 8.
- (5) The term ‘Governor’ means the Governor of the State of Connecticut.
- (6) The term ‘Secretary’ means the Secretary of the Interior.
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Obese adults can have overall good health
|Deb Lemire, of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, is a fit fat person. She rides her bike, walks in the woods, camps and plays with her daughter. (Robin Tinay Sallie/The Akron Beacon Journal/MCT)|
AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EXERCISE
Is it possible to be both fit and fat? Reports from a recent study published in the European Heart Journal say the answer is yes.
To gain knowledge on the role physical activity plays in the overall health of obese individuals, researchers assessed 43,265 adults between 1979 and 2003. Researchers determined BMI, and calculated body-fat percentage by measuring hydrostatic weighing or skinfold testing.
Of those considered obese (with a BMI less than 30), 30.8 percent were classified as metabolically healthy, while 46.3 percent of those considered obese were deemed metabolically healthy.
Participants' fitness levels were assessed by a maximal exercise test on a treadmill, with researchers finding that metabolically healthy, but obese participants had better fitness than metabolically abnormal obese participants, and also had a lower risk of mortality, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Furthermore, they observed no significant differences between metabolically healthy obese participants and metabolically healthy normal-fat participants.
According to lead author Dr. Francisco Ortega, "Our study suggests that metabolically healthy but obese people have a better fitness level than the rest of obese individuals. Based on the data that our group and others have collected over years, we believe that getting more exercise broadly and positively influences major body systems and organs and consequently contributes to make someone metabolically healthier, including obese people. In our study, we measure fitness, which is largely influenced by exercise."
"The complete picture of 'fitness' is much more than a number on the scale or a subjective image of what 'fit' looks like," explains exercise physiologist Jessica Matthews. "At the end of the day, being physically active has a much greater purpose than solely improving physical appearance.
Leading a physically active lifestyle increases one's level of fitness, which in turn also improves overall health (by decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease and certain cancers, as found in this study, for example). Furthermore, being active enhances your ability to engage in the activities of everyday life that are so important to you, such as playing with your children or grandchildren, hiking and swimming while on vacation, or simply having the freedom to move throughout the day with ease."
It's important to keep in mind that, in terms of optimizing health and enhancing overall well-being, structured physical activity should be combined with a sensible diet (keeping the notion of moderation in mind) and the adoption of other healthy lifestyle habits (adequate sleep, increased movement throughout the day, etc.) that will enable you to lead your most fit life.
American Council on Exercise is the world's largest nonprofit fitness certification organization.
- Zumba Gold drawing more older women to exercises
- Surgeon makes new ear with tissue from other body parts
- BMI, though the national standard, just one piece of the weight-loss puzzle
- Learn skills for wilderness first aid
- One liver, but two lives saved
- Hospital's greenhouse producing food, and wellness
- Exercise is proven to help fatigue
- Doctor's orders: Antioxidant-rich diet offers most benefits to breast cancer survivors, expert says
- Obese adults can have overall good health
- Quadriplegic receives computer to help with everyday tasks | <urn:uuid:314f0b37-b30b-461d-95db-be8db5e4eeca> | {
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Transcript: Cooking to Live Longer
Modern Americans are described as eating breakfast in their cars, lunch at their desks and chicken from a bucket. Within the last few decades Americans are eating out more and more and cooking fewer meals at home, and food prepared at home tends to be healthier, less saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium, more fiber. And so the benefits to preparing healthful food at home may include chronic disease prevention. But even during the recession, folks were found resistant to dietary change and kept going out to eat or bringing it home. Almost half of all fast-food eaten by children is eaten at home, so just because they’re technically eating at home doesn’t mean they’re eating healthy.
Even when food is prepared at home, it still may not mean much, as most dinners incorporated processed commercial foods. Microwaving a frozen pizza ain’t exactly home cooking. One of the problems is many people no longer know how to cook. For example, one study reported that 25% of the men had absolutely no cooking skills, whatsoever.
It is encouraging to see the new wave of interest in cooking, in numerous television shows, but what are they actually cooking? A study in the UK compared the nutritional content of meals created by television chefs with ready meals, like TV dinners, to compare both with nutritional guidelines published by the World Health Organization. They looked at a hundred of each and not a single one complied with the nutrition standards. And the TV chef recipes were even less healthy than the TV dinners.
Many people don’t know how to make healthy food taste good. But this is not a new problem, as an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association bemoaned back in 1913. In the United States, vegetables are frequently boiled in a way which deprives them of their characteristic odor and their toothsomeness. "Villainous and idiotic" are the only adjectives that can describe our methods of cooking vegetables
Is there any research showing that cooking meals at home actually improves outcomes? Do people who cook live longer? We didn’t know until now. Researchers in Taiwan found that those who cook their own food are healthier and live longer.
In a 10-year study, those who cooked most frequently had only 59% of the mortality risk. And this took into account the exercise people got grocery shopping, and physical function and chewing ability. So why did they live longer? Well, those that cooked ate a more nutritious diet, as evidenced in their higher consumption of vegetables.
The effect on mortality was much more evident in women than in men, though. Turns out that men were, with doubtful justification, more positive about the nutritional value of convenience foods so their idea of cooking was like microwaving a poptart, whereas women who cook make better food choices.
As one author noted, last century we began the long process of turning over to the food industry many of the decisions about what we eat. Today our staggering rates of obesity and diabetes are testimony to the faith we put in corporations to feed us well. But the food industry is a business, not a parent; it doesn’t care what we eat as long as we’re willing to pay for it. Home cooking these days has far more than sentimental value; it’s a survival skill.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.
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Do You Want to Learn Latin?
A guide to resources for learning Latin and teaching Latin
Latin Home School Materials and Resources
If you are looking to incorporate Latin lessons into your home school curriculum, Aquinas and More has the solid, reliable materials for which you are looking. Our Latin resources include textbooks, DVDs, and CDs, and our selection includes options for all grades and skill levels.
The Prima Latina course is designed for a teacher with no Latin background and is an appropriate introduction to Latin for Kindergarten through third grade. The text set for this course includes a student book, teacher’s manual, and pronunciation CD. Available to purchase separately is the DVD course set. Additional student texts can also be purchased.
Latina Christiana I is the next level, designed for students of all ages, particularly appropriate for grades three or four. Once again, a text set is available, as well as a DVD set. Corresponding flashcards are also available for purchase.
The Henle Latin courses are useful for older children following the Latina Christiana series. There are four steps in the Henle Latin course: Year I, Year II, Year III, and Year IV. These books can be used beginning fifth or sixth grade, based on the skill level of the student, and what courses have already been covered. Lingua Biblica is a great companion to use along with the Henle Latin curriculum.
View all of our Latin home school resources by clicking here.
Other Latin Resources
Aside from the home school text books and materials, Aquinas and More is also pleased to offer other Latin Resources that will prove invaluable.
Oxford Latin Dictionary – This dictionary is a must for any level in teaching or learning Latin. This is a compact classical Latin dictionary packed with extra features, such as appendices on money, weights and measures, dates and times, a timeline of important dates in Roman history, and sections on poetic meter and medieval Latin.
Lingua Angelica – This program is a Christian Latin reading and translation course designed to be used along with a Latin grammar course (such as Latina Christiana or Henle Latin). | <urn:uuid:fbe0ee78-4e9c-4881-8890-0477a1acfcc7> | {
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Two for the price of one
The two ‘competing’ climate objectives of mitigation and adaptation can be reached simultaneously, and focusing on water resources will help. Mark Smith explains.
There has been a divide between those striving to reduce carbon emissions and those working to adapt to the impacts of climate change—each camp sees the other as a rival for funds and attention. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Why do we need to argue about whether to prioritize mitigation or adaptation when we can do both at the same time and at a lower cost than many believe? The answer lies in that most precious of commodities—water.
Given the level of uncertainty and confusion that exists in the climate arena, how can the environmental community best help governments plan their response to climate change? We can show them that the climaterelated events they all fear—from hurricanes to floods, drought to sea level rise—all have water in common. Water links the climate system with our human ecosystem and should be central to the debate over how to most effectively tackle the climate crisis.
Because the climate impacts on water are so widespread, much climate change adaptation translates into water adaptation. By 2025 almost half of the global population is projected to live in water-stressed areas. But taking the right steps now to implement effective water governance that maintains well-functioning watersheds can increase the resilience of both communities and economies. Healthy wetlands and watersheds can also store significant amounts of carbon and are therefore an important ally in climate change mitigation.
Securing water supplies needs a twopronged approach: increasing supply and decreasing demand. The most effective approaches work to maximize nature’s infrastructure such as wetlands, floodplains and mangroves and use economic incentives to reduce domestic, industrial and agricultural consumption and waste.
Wealthier nations can try to buy their way out of water problems. But energy intensive desalination plants and costly pipelines to re-distribute fresh water from one side of a country to another are not the answer. The solutions must lie within the communities who live with water shortages on a daily basis.Their lives and livelihoods depend on how they manage their dwindling resources.Those most burdened by climate change must have clearly defined rights and strong incentives to decide how they can most responsibly use water. But they need help in the form of fair and effective government and policies that link global lessons with local needs. Coordinated decision making demands multi-level communication and a platform for negotiation.
One such platform already exists that can provide a model for water resource managers. The UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) helps local authorities in the developing world secure their own renewable natural resources (boosting local adaptation) while reducing emissions (for global mitigation). Could a similarly strategic and cost-effective investment not work for water?
The time has come to integrate the adaptation and mitigation agendas. A coordinated focus on water will reduce people’s vulnerability and strengthen national resilience in the uncertain times we face. Integration is starting to happen. It began in Istanbul earlier this year at the Fifth World Water Forum and should be cemented in Copenhagen in December.
This article is taken from issue 2, 2009 of IUCN's magazine World Conservation, www.iucn.org/worldconservation.
Dr Mark Smith is Head of IUCN’s Water Programme. | <urn:uuid:4ecd4051-638e-47a5-870d-aac3611cef9a> | {
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Free Online Dictionary at Your Service
As technology changes at an ever-increasing pace, the expressions we use indeed, the very structure of our language changes rapidly with it. Luckily there are many tools to help us with our writing and conversation.
One of the wonders of our age is that readers and writers can find a free online dictionary, and even the oxford dictionary itself all with a Google search and a few simple keystrokes. These services are useful regardless of one's motives: serious literary writers (or services who provide online essay help like academichelp.net or Writing-Expert) prefer to utilize the services of the oxford thesaurus to find synonyms for their expressions of choice while scientific writers choose the oxford dictionary to ensure accurate usage of technical terms.
The free online dictionary services that provide adult readers and writers with such valuable information are useful for kids as well. One simple search for an online children's dictionary makes it clear that children aren't being left out of the proper-spelling picture. Given the corrupting influence of internet shorthand on the grammatical skills of our children, it's no wonder that there's an online dictionary for kids around every corner. Indeed, the typical children's dictionary, with easy-to-understand definitions and carefully selected popular words, receives more monthly hits than the oxford thesaurus itself.
What sets online language services apart is one's ability to quickly search for the word one is looking for, whether in a dictionary or thesaurus. Before the internet, one had to spend valuable time leafing through thick volumes to find the desired entry; now powerful search engines are able to do this tedious work for us. This is especially useful for folks using a thesaurus online to provide custom writing service: a simple word search returns several, sometimes dozens, useful synonyms that will no doubt enhance one's writing, freeing up one's time to return to the more important work of crafting prose. Children in particular appreciate this ease of use, finding it more fun to engage with an online dictionary for kids than an old library book.
The world of online language services continues to evolve. Searching for online dictionaries may just open up a world of possibilities! | <urn:uuid:9996eab0-530e-4826-948f-b74d9939465b> | {
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HAWAII’S WOODEN GODS GOOD POLYNESIAN ART
Huc M. Luquiens Appreciates Carved and Feathered Deities of Ferocious Mien and Lost Symbolism
By LORIN TARR GILL
“If we were forced to choose a single specimen to represent the characteristic art of Polynesia, it might well be one of the extraordinary wooden gods of Hawaii,” Huc Luquiens, assistant professor of art at the University of Hawaii, asserts in his paper on “Hawaiian Art,” soon to be published by the Bishop museum.
The carved wooden gods of these islands, primitive as they may be, are a kind of sculpture that fits easily into our traditional categories of art, the artist says.
The large temple images are fantastic, yet possessed of an unexpected and strenuous realism that is not usually found. Squat and powerful in form, but lively to a degree, with enormous heads of demoniacal expression, with elaborate crests or formalized hair masking the brows, with open mouths carved in the shape of horizontal “figure eights” and showing the teeth, they are idols well fitted to fill the enemies of the king and his followers as well, with fear and awe.
“The eyes stare characteristically over upturned nostrils, and, in some specimens, tongues protrude from the snarling mouths in a common Polynesian gesture of defiance. The arms and legs are heavily muscular, but flexed in the attitudes which give the figures their animation.
“These are the images,” Mr. Luquiens says, “that the early explorers found guarding the royal tomb of Keawe at Honaunau. They were to be found on the central platforms of all the larger temples, set up in semi-circular groups like high chiefs in grim ceremonial conclave, while other figures of similar menacing aspect stared hideously from the outer walls to give warning that the ground within was sacred.”
Identities Are Lost
For the most part, the author explains, it is no longer possible to give the Hawaiian idols names. There is considerable diversity in their form and appearance but their identities escape us because the smaller detail of religious practice is lost.
Since 1819 no man in Hawaii has seen the ancient rites of the temples in actual operation and early observers before that date hardly gave a clear picture of what they saw. For the present, these images are simply the relics of a cult long disused and works of art whose value would not be increased by giving them designations of doubtful authenticity.
To dismiss these gods as ugly is to miss their plastic quality. The artists were thinking in terms of magic and violence and they had skill in giving expression to their thought. They understood the use of wood. Even in long weatherworn examples, or those partly burned in the reformation of 1819, the rugged surface still retain their character.
“In this Hawaiian sculpture of the wooden idols there is practically no era of degeneration resultant from the adoption of European tools and ideas,” Mr. Luquiens says, “The manufacture of the images came toso early and so definite a close with King Liholiho’s breaking of the tapu that we may almost take it for granted that all the larger temple gods were made in the full flush of old Hawaiian tradition.”
The strangely distorted features of the temple images are unmistakably symbolic in some respects, the artists believes. The monstrous heads, the peculiar treatment of the mouths and eyes, and the detail of hair or headdress all show the marks of a symbolism we cannot now trace.
Beyond the probably symbolism, however, the distorted forms of the images doubtless have their literal significance. There is no doubt that the Hawaiian cultivated an ideal of ferocity for its own sake and that the exaggerated features of the idols were proper embodiments of the spirit of a people whose foremost god was the god of war.
However, not all Hawaiian images are greatly distorted. In the Hawaiian islands there is a large series of small household, or family gods which, in comparison with the large temple images, are naturalistic in conception. Many of them, no doubt, are aumakua, the ancestral patrons and protective dieties who constitute a large part of the Hawaiian pantheon.
Their naturalism takes on a variety of forms. While ferocity plays its part, a more common type is the solid warrior, crested and severe. There are also many representations of women, usually in a vigorous and aggressive guise that proclaims them leaders along with the men.
An oddity of Hawaiian manufacture for which there is no counterpart in the traditional categories of art is to be found in the portable featherwork representations of the Hawaiian war god, Kukailimoku, Mr. Luquiens asserts.
“Feather gods were peculiar to the Hawaiian islands,” he says, “and are a striking product of the specific Hawaiian imagination.”
The images which were actually carried into battle were made over a strong wickerwork of the aerial roots of the ieie, which in turn was covered with a tightly fitting net of olona fiber to which the feathers were attached. Staring eyes of pearl shell were added, and sometimes human hair. The brutal mouths were lined with dog teeth saved from ceremonial priestly repasts.
“At first glance,” the artist explains, “these heads seem hardly to possess the plastic quality of the thoroughly sculptural wooden idols. Still they are not to be too lightly dismissed. The ceremonial use of features was widespread throughout Polynesia.
“The war god, Ku, was all in all the dominating figure of the Hawaiian pantheon. Kaili, the true war god, in a more special sense, of the kings of Hawaii, was supposed to have existed in the form of two feathers from the forehead of the bird, Hinawaikolii, which came from Tahiti. These were bound with a cord and preserved in a coconut vessel.This god was taken into battle, but its power, by prayer, was vested in Kukailimoku, who carried out the instructions of Kaili and the kings.
“In using the brilliant red feathers of the native iiwi to cover the surface of the images of Kukailimoku, the Hawaiian priest-artist,” Mr. Luquiens says, “was employing not only the most vivid and costly pigment at his command, but also a material of the greatest symbolic potency. There was no lack of expression in the completed image, nor of the stark violence of barbaric emotionalism.”
KALAIPAHOA, POISON GOD
This small god is believed to be the poison god, Kalaipahoa. A peculiar malignity was attributed to his image which was carved from a poisonous wood.
(Star-Bulletin, 7/4/1941, p. 5) | <urn:uuid:5bfcc95b-443e-4124-a62c-6d1e52131ece> | {
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Monday, April 30, 2012
A Dead Reckoning navigation board. Note checkered portion at the bottom.
The magic square in the Gorge of Galamus. So many opinions about what it could mean! - from Filip Coppens.
The Southern Cross constellation visible in the southern hemisphere. "For the lucky residents of the Southern Hemisphere, or those fortunate enough to enjoy a vacation in Hawaii or Cancun, there’s a stellar delight that few Northerners know about. It’s called the Southern Cross, a small but beautiful constellation located in the southern sky, very close to the neighboring constellation of Centaurus. Originally known by the Latin name Crux, which is due to its cross shape, this constellation is one of the easiest to identify in the night sky. For centuries, it has served as a navigational beacon for sailors, an important symbol to the Egyptians, and played an important role in the spiritual beliefs of the Aborigines and many other cultures in the Southern Hemisphere. The first recorded example of Crux’s discovery was around 1000 BC during the time of the Ancient Greeks. At the latitude of Athens, Crux was clearly visible, though low in the night sky. At the time, the Greeks identified it as being part of the constellation Centaurus. However, the precession of the equinoxes gradually lowered its stars below the European horizon, and they were eventually forgotten by the inhabitants of northern latitudes. Crux fell into anonymity for northerners until the Age of Discovery (from the early 15th to early 17th centuries) when it was rediscovered by Europeans. The first to do so were the Portuguese, who mapped it for navigation uses while rounding the southern tip of Africa." | <urn:uuid:24cd1c87-5cb1-466c-9e32-0c4fdfc55987> | {
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Men, non-English speakers and unemployed people tend to have worse awareness of the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis than the general population, a study suggests.
Osteoporosis greatly increases the chances of fracturing a bone, particularly among those over the age of 50.
However, researchers at the University Health Network/Mount Sinai Hospital Osteoporosis Programme in Toronto, Canada, found that many people who suffer a fracture do not recognise the link with osteoporosis.
Their study revealed that people who knew someone with osteoporosis tended to have greater knowledge of the disease.
However, awareness was low among male fracture patients, those for whom English was a second language, unemployed people, and those who rarely exercised.
Study author Dr Angela Cheung, whose findings are published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, observed: 'A person who has a heart attack knows that there's a problem with his or her heart, but a person who fractures thinks, 'The floor was slippery' or 'I'm clumsy' and doesn't look at it as a symptom of a more serious medical condition.'
Dr Cheung added that patient education needs to be improved in order to diagnose people correctly and help them to prevent further fractures.
NHS figures suggest that about three million people in the UK may have osteoporosis, and that more than 230,000 fractures are caused by the disease each year. | <urn:uuid:97890c2f-6b4d-4cfe-9995-39a9a2e6ed88> | {
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bomber, U.S. Air Force/Getty Imagesmilitary aircraft designed to drop bombs on surface targets. Aerial bombardment can be traced to the Italo-Turkish War, in which early in December 1911 an Italian pilot on an observation mission reached over the side of his airplane and dropped four grenades on two Turkish targets. During World War I the Germans used their rigid airships, known as zeppelins, as strategic bombers in raids on England. These were soon replaced by faster biplanes, particularly the twin-engined Gotha G.IV and the huge, four-engined Staaken R.VI, which carried two tons of bombs. Bomber airplanes were soon developed by the other major combatant nations. Tactical bombing was carried out on the battlefield by smaller aircraft such as the French Voisin, which carried some 130 pounds (60 kg) of small bombs that the observer simply picked up and dropped over the side.
John W.R. TaylorEarly bombers, being guided by crude nautical navigation techniques and carrying bombs in open racks, lacked the accuracy and bombloads to do extensive damage, but with the shift in the 1930s to faster, more powerful aircraft of all-metal, monoplane construction, air power began to assume an important role in warfare. The first new type to gain prominence was the dive bomber, which makes a steep dive toward the target before releasing its bombs. In Germany’s invasions of Poland and France early in World War II, the JU 87 (Stuka) dive bomber opened the way for German armoured columns by shattering enemy ground defenses and terrorizing civilians. Germany’s strategic bombing of Britain (1940) was conducted by its Junkers, Heinkel, and Dornier lines of bombers, while Britain relied at first on the Wellington and the Soviet Union began making its Tupolev bombers. These twin-engined medium bombers were superseded later in the war by four-engined heavy bombers, particularly the British Halifax and Lancaster and the U.S. B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, and B-29 Superfortress. Flying in streams hundreds of aircraft strong, these planes attacked railroad facilities, bridges, factories, and oil refineries and killed tens of thousands of civilians in firebombings of such cities as Dresden, Hamburg, and Tokyo (1944–45).
The pressure of war accelerated improvement. The early Wellington bombers caught fire when their fuel tanks were hit; as a result, self-sealing gas tanks were universally adopted. Accuracy in bombing raids was at first negligible, but new bombsights, radio navigation, and radar sighting were by war’s end enabling Allied bombers to drop their bombs on targets accurately at night and from altitudes over 20,000 feet (6,100 metres). Although Allied bombers were heavily armed with machine guns, they were shot down in crippling numbers by radar-directed German fighters until late in 1944, by which time the P-51 Mustang long-range fighter could escort them deep into enemy airspace. The height of the heavy bomber’s technical development during the war was reached by the United States in the B-29, which carried 20,000 pounds (9,000 kg) of bombs and was defended by 10 .50-calibre machine guns. Single B-29s dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at war’s end. Doubt was subsequently cast on whether the Allied strategic bombing of Germany had actually succeeded in destroying that nation’s war-fighting capacity, but the two atomic bombings did help compel a Japanese surrender, and for the next 15 years the nuclear-armed bomber was regarded as the world’s ultimate weapon.
Bombers after World War II gained increased speed by jet propulsion, and their nuclear bombloads played a principal role in the superpowers’ strategic thinking during the Cold War. Medium-range bombers such as the U.S. B-47 Stratojet, the British Valiant, Vulcan, and Victor, and the Soviet Tu-16 Badger threatened to annihilate major cities with atomic or thermonuclear bombs in the event of war in Europe.
The United States and the Soviet Union threatened each other directly with the eight-engined B-52 Stratofortress and the turboprop-powered Tu-95 Bear, respectively, which could reach intercontinental ranges with in-flight refueling from aerial tankers. These bombers carried little defensive armament and avoided fighters and antiaircraft guns by flying as high as 50,000 feet (15,200 metres). But beginning in the 1960s, this tactic was rendered doubtful by the development of high-altitude, radar-guided, surface-to-air missiles. At the same time, strategic bombers’ role as offensive weapons was being usurped by nuclear-armed ballistic missiles of increasing accuracy. Britain abandoned such bombers altogether, while the United States and the Soviet Union switched to a new generation of aircraft equipped with variable wings. The two countries developed the medium-range F-111 (designated a fighter but actually a strategic bomber) and Tu-26 Backfire and the long-range B-1 and Tu-160 Blackjack, respectively. These planes were designed to slip under early-warning radar at low level and to approach military targets using terrain-following radars and inertial-guidance systems. They could carry gravity bombs (nuclear or conventional), air-launched cruise missiles, or air-launched ballistic missiles.
Derrick C. Goode/U.S. Air ForceLate 20th-century efforts to evade increasingly sophisticated radar early-warning systems led to the development of the F-117A Nighthawk. In spite of its fighter designation, the F-117A lacked air-to-air capabilities and instead relied on stealth technology to avoid detection by enemy air defenses. The U.S. B-2 Spirit used stealth materials and shapes to reduce its radar reflectivity, but its enormous cost (and the end of the Cold War) raised anew the post-World War II questions of the value of strategic bombers compared with that of ballistic missiles. In the early 21st century the United States increasingly came to rely on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to deliver precision-guided ordnance to distant targets around the globe. Bombers remained an essential element in the major air forces of the world, however. The United States maintained and upgraded its fleet of B-52, B-1B, and B-2 aircraft, and China unvelied its first nuclear-capable strategic bomber, the H-6K. | <urn:uuid:88494ae5-d3df-4503-a788-81b7f87ff090> | {
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Although the Milwaukee Art Museum has a fantastic collection of German art, one of the things I wish we had is a painting by Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840).
Friedrich is one of the most important German artists from the Romantic period of the early 19th century, and his paintings are showstoppers. A deeply religious man from the Protestant North, Friedrich believed that both landscape and human creativity revealed God’s truth and beauty.
Combine this sentiment with artistic talent, and you have powerful and fascinating paintings rich in symbols and atmospheric effects. Here you can see some examples of Friedrich’s paintings at a Boston College website.
But, as I said, for the time being the Museum’s permanent collection doesn’t include a painting by Friedrich. There is no need to entirely despair, however, because we do have two works on paper by Friedrich. One of them, The Woman with the Raven at the Abyss, is on view right now in the exhibition Framing a Decade (on view in the Koss Gallery through April 3, 2011). This work alone is worth a visit to the show, but there are so many wonderful things included in the exhibition (and all of them in our Collection!) that you will walk away amazed. Although he had a lengthy career, Friedrich’s printmaking output was limited to eighteen etchings and four woodcuts. The designs for the woodcuts were cut into the blocks by Friedrich’s younger brother, Christian Friedrich, who was a cabinet-maker.
Most likely meant to illustrate a book of Friedrich’s own poems, the woodcuts were never published, and only a few impressions of each survive today. The Woman with the Raven at the Abyss is one these rare woodblock prints.
The work is quite small, so you have to stop to look closely. A woman stands at the edge of a chasm, with bare mountain peaks in the background and dead and dying trees nearby. The woman has stopped walking just in time to keep from falling into the abyss, holding the broken trunk of a tree that looks like it could be tumbling off the edge. She has turned to face the viewer. Could this interruption be the only reason she hasn’t gone into the abyss with the tree? The raven, always an ill-omen, caws at her from a branch.
The scene’s desolation reflects both the woman’s internal turmoil and possibly also that of the artist. The rough and expressive lines, emphasized by the texture of woodblock printing, accentuates this feeling. It is clear that the external world mirrors internal thoughts. It is a powerful image!
Remember that works on paper are not on view permanently in order to keep them from fading, so take the opportunity to view this fantastic Friedrich woodblock print while you can. It returns to storage April 3.
Catherine Sawinski is the Assistant Curator of Earlier European Art. When not handling the day-to-day running of the European art department and the Museum’s Fine Arts Society, she researches the collection of Ancient and European artwork before 1900. | <urn:uuid:68736672-cb29-47bd-b146-1e36ea6eae1e> | {
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What was the Florentine bankers' most important invention?
Europe's first single currency, the gold florin
Which of the following Gothic churches features the highest ratio of glass to stone
the royal chapel of Sainte-chapelle
Which of the following dynasties included the Mongols under Kublai Khan and his descendants
the Yuan dynasty
Which of the following terms literally means "the way of the warrior" and refers to the samurai's code of conduct?
Among the Yoruba people, the king's head was considered sacred. Which of the following terms refers to his crown that symbolizes his majesty and authority?
Which of the following Mesoamerican cultures depended on an elaborate calendar system that included a 260-day calendar as well as a 365-day calendar?
the Mayan culture
Which of the following provides a startling description of Florence during an outbreak of the plague?
Which of the following is considered the chief purpose of the stained-glass programs in all Gothic cathedrals?
to tell the stories of the Bible
Which of the following is NOT considered an essential characteristic of the typical Gothic cathedral?
Why were the Medici the most powerful family in Florence from 1418-1494?
they were the bakers to the papacy
What distinction does Donatello's David hold?
the first life-size freestanding male nude since antiquity
Which of the following artist did the city of Florence commission to create a freestanding stature of the Biblical hero using a huge cracked block of marble that all other sculptors had abandoned?
Why did Michelangalo present Mary in his Pieta as young and beautiful instead of middle ages?
to make her a timeless image of purity and chastity
Why did Bramante apply the Vitruvian circle inscribed with a square to his church design of Saint Peter's?
to symbolize the perfection of God
Which of the following is not one of the four major areas of humanist learning Raphael painted on the Vatican's "Stanze della Segnatura"?
On what earlier work did Ludovico Ariosto base his romantic epic, "Orlando Furioso?"
The Song of Roland
Why did Bruges become the financial capital of the North?
It was home to the Medici banking interests in the region
In the "Ghent Alterpiece", Jan van Eyck's depiction of Adam and Eve hold what distinction?
the largest painted nudes since antiquity
Hieronymus Bosh's famous triptych, the Garden of Earthly Delights, seems intended for what purpose?
to be a conversation piece
In his landscape study "The Large Turt" Alberecht Durer was able to blend his Northern interest in minute detail with what Italian Renaissance interest?
the phenomenon of the natural world
Who is reflected in the mirror in Jan van Eyck's double portrait Giocanni Arnolfini and his wife Giovanna Cenami?
Jan van Eyck
Why did Luther reject the Church's doctrine that good deeds and work lead to salvation?
He believed that faith alone would provide salvation
Under John Calvin, people were forbidden to do many things, such as dance, single, gamble, etc. What did his followers become known as because of this?
What was the first major work Gutenberg published using the printing press?
"The Forty-Two Line Bible"
Why did many Nothern artist turn to painting portraits and landscapes?
Religious imagery was being questioned
Who led the Spanish expedition to conquered the Inca Empire in Peru in 1533 with an army of only 180 me? | <urn:uuid:44776b19-7eb2-46cf-aa00-3d892d3dd36f> | {
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The Robinson lab is a small cell biology lab based at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR), currently consisting of two long-term members, Professor Margaret (Scottie) Robinson and Principal Research Associate Dr Jennifer (Jenny) Hirst, as well as two PhD students and two postdocs.
Both Scottie and Jenny have been involved in public engagement for over 10 years, starting when Scottie’s daughter was in Year 4 at the Queen Edith Primary School and the whole lab visited her class with a somewhat overly ambitious programme involving human cells, plant cells, yeast cells, frog egg cells, and cells from a pond. Five workstations were set up, the children were split into five groups, and the plan was for each group to spend 10 minutes at a particular workstation before moving on to the next one. The event turned out to be a lot of fun but extremely chaotic, with only a small fraction of the planned activities being completed before the 10 minutes were up. But the team learned on the hoof about what worked and what didn’t, and they came back to the school by popular demand the following two years, with a somewhat more realistic programme. By this time Jenny’s son had also started school, so she put together her own programme of activities for Fulbourn Primary School, involving chemistry and physics as well as biology.
In the years that followed, both Scottie and Jenny became involved with the University Public Engagement team and began to participate in other events, including schools masterclasses, schools roadshows, and the Cambridge Science Festival. In addition, as a member of Jesus College, Jenny is an active contributor to their school outreach workshops. Events that have been organised by Scottie and/or Jenny include a guessing game in which each child brings in an everyday object and puts it under the microscopes and then the other children have to figure out what it is; conducting experiments on a mysterious egg that suddenly appeared in the Fulbourn playing fields; getting the kids to guess which has a larger diameter, a cell or a human hair, and then showing them what their own hair and cells look like under a microscope; warming up temperature-sensitive fruitflies that keel over at the non-permissive temperature because of a mutation in a membrane trafficking protein; and constructing a four-dimensional model of a cell, where vesicles and viruses can race each other along cytoskeletal tracks (now listed as a Science Festival Resource; see http://www.sciencefestival.cam.ac.uk/resources).
There has never been a shortage of students and postdocs in the Robinson lab and elsewhere who are keen to help out, and some of them have been inspired to carry out their own public engagement activities. For instance, one former student, Nienke Lubben, was a Researcher in Residence at a local secondary school; another, Patrycja Kozik, visited secondary schools in her native Poland to give lectures on “Viruses, Hillary Clinton and paralysed flies: transport of proteins inside the cell”; and a third, Nicola Hodson, was a runner up for the Max Perutz Science Writing Award, in which competitors have to explain to a wider audience why their research matters (see http://www.insight.mrc.ac.uk/2012/11/02/cell-city/ ).
There is currently a lot of emphasis on public engagement, to the extent that some granting bodies insist that public engagement plans be included in applications. But even more importantly, engaging with schoolchildren is immensely enjoyable and rewarding. Sometimes the younger kids get so excited they literally start jumping up and down. They ask some great questions, such as whether one could use HeLa cells to recreate Henrietta Lacks (from a nine-year-old) or whether our white blood cells can recognise and attack cancer cells (from a teenager). The children’s enthusiasm is infectious, and it can make even the most jaded of researchers remember why they went into science in the first place. | <urn:uuid:1a02138c-2661-4336-a85f-ce1de2fb13d4> | {
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Smudging, sweat lodges, drum songs. If you were to ask most Canadians what comprises indigenous spirituality in this country, those are the images that would likely come to mind.
These are common practices, integral elements of many indigenous cultures that can transcend language and local affiliations.
What's more, they are the ones often relayed to non-native Canadians through mainstream media, largely because they are often the only regular ceremonies that media and spectators in general are allowed to take pictures of — though only with an elder's blessing.
Not surprisingly, then, that this is what most people think of when they contemplate "native spirituality."
But that is a much too general term to describe the very different and vibrant beliefs and ceremonies that span this great landscape, and which are now starting to surface again, spurred on by a young, more assertive generation and the investigative tools of social media.
Religion, faith and belief
This story is part of a CBC News series looking at religion, faith and belief in our world.
It's common now to see Facebook groups dedicated to the organization of the once-banned sun dances in Western Canada, and even traditional seasonal Anishinaabe ceremonies in the east.
In fact, you might say there is even a sort of spiritual resurgence online, with young indigenous people no longer ashamed of their past, and using social media both to plan ceremonies and events, and mine internet resources to breathe new life into the old ways.
Most Canadians likely aren't aware of many of these older ceremonies, and even indigenous people themselves don't practice them with much continuity or prevalence.
That's because for a long time in Canada, it was forbidden to do so.
In 1876, the federal government passed the Indian Act to give itself exclusive authority over Indians and their lands.
In the decades that followed, a long list of amendments were passed that were direct affronts to indigenous culture, language and general lifestyle.
One of the more obscene amendments came in 1885, prohibiting "religious ceremonies and dances."
In other words, Canada made it illegal for Indians to pray and practice their spiritual beliefs the way they had for millennia prior to contact with Europeans.
These Indian Act changes also led directly to the establishment of the residential school system, mostly Catholic- and Anglican-run institutions that were essentially designed to wipe away indigenous identity.
Traditional beliefs and ceremonies took a serious beating for decades.
But despite those federally imposed hardships, indigenous ceremonies survived, thanks in large part to the dedication of certain people and their covert methods of keeping them alive.
The sweat lodge, a healing and purification ceremony performed by many indigenous cultures across Canada, is one such example.
The ceremony involves an elaborate process of building a small, covered structure and heating stones in an outdoor fire until they're glowing.
The stones (or "grandfathers", as they're called in the Anishinaabe way) are brought into the lodge to heat it up and create a steamy effect similar to European saunas.
It's hardly a discreet process and, once it was forbidden by the federal government, Indian agents would break up the ceremonies if they came across them on reserves.
So many communities started holding sweat lodges under the darkness of night in an almost clandestine way, far from the abusive watch of the Indian agent.
There are many other stories like this, such as children in residential schools practicing traditional songs in their language whenever a nun or priest wasn't in earshot.
Still, there's no doubt that, culturally, much was lost. But now, as newer generations start to reclaim the ways of their ancestors, many of these ways are slowly flourishing again.
Indigenous people were once shamed out of practicing their spirituality, or forced to hide it.
But that shame has slowly evaporated over time, and people are turning to fasts and sun dances, perhaps in part to reconcile themselves and come to terms with some of those old abuses.
These are clearly more than just token gestures. A sweat lodge ceremony can take seven hours or more to carry out, while fasts and sun dances can go on for days, so there is a substantial time commitment here that is being undertaken.
Today, though, we are free to practice our beliefs out in the open, and these different types of ceremonies can be found all over the internet.
It is inappropriate to share teachings or ceremonial protocol this way. But organizing spiritual events online is proof that the sweat lodge under darkness has swung completely the other way around.
Perhaps the most beautiful aspect of most of these ceremonies is that they are very inclusive.
Indigenous nations have long accepted and embraced newcomers, as long as they approach in a respectful and positive way. | <urn:uuid:bb883374-e19a-4a1e-982b-ea5e9815aa33> | {
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August 27, 2014
Phillips has released its latest issue of Qwik Tech Tips. This month’s issue focuses on electrical current, specifically “the path of least resistance.”
“Resistance in terms of electricity is anything that limits the flow of electrical current, whether it be slowing it down or reducing the amount of electricity all together,” Phillips says.
“On every tractor/trailer there will be some resistance that normally occurs as the electricity flows from the power source at the front of the tractor to the end source on the trailer. However, there are some things that can be done to make sure that the power on your vehicle is taking the path of least resistance, if you know what to look for.” | <urn:uuid:c762ff6a-7c3a-4785-9b62-83537e1721b8> | {
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LEGO Education 5+ Machines & Mechanisms sets and activities offer an effective way to teach science
and design & technology concepts in early years classrooms. LEGO® DUPLO® models are easy to
work with. As children build and test their models, they explore the ways in which familiar objects work.
They experiment with concepts such as force and motion, balance, stability and buoyancy. These sets
tap into children’s natural curiosity about the world around them and encourage them to observe carefully
and to think creatively, as well as to work together in a constructive, playful way. | <urn:uuid:347e88eb-c3a6-4c65-9890-bfe5ab716818> | {
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The Cajon Thursday, September 20, 2012
The word “cajon” (ka-HONE) comes from the Spanish work for “box”-caja. (KA-ha) It is used in Spanish and Latin music. The cajon is becoming more popular in the U.S.A. The variety of different sounds that can be produced with this drum that you sit on explains the interest and growing popularity of it. “First Lessons Cajon” tells about the drum and how to play it. A CD of the examples is helpful in hearing what sounds the cajon is capable of producing. If you have a cajon and don’t know what to do with it, this is the book for you! Please contact us at 1-800-42-MUSIC or email us at [email protected] to ask about this or other drum books. You may visit our website at www.stantons.com to have a look at what we have or can order for you. | <urn:uuid:7cfed33d-7f58-47cd-8253-2d028bdbffb0> | {
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By Molly Bentley
Venus is an enigma, wrapped in a mystery, inside a dense cloud of carbon dioxide (CO2).
But a suite of orbiting instruments is proving its ability to penetrate the thick atmosphere and create a new and dynamic picture of Earth's sister planet.
Scientists at the Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in Pasadena, California, this week said that data streaming from the Venus Express probe had provided unprecedented detail of the Venusian atmosphere and the first-ever peek at its lower strata.
They hope the spacecraft will help answer fundamental questions about the planet's atmospheric composition and dynamics, as well as solve key Venus puzzles: what drives its "super-rotation"; are its volcanoes active; and just what is the strange ultraviolet-absorbing substance swirling at the cloud tops?
But for now, scientists are happy to report that all the instruments are in good working order and beaming back massive amounts of data.
"It's a treasure trove of information," said David Grinspoon, a participating scientist with the mission, "and we've barely opened the chest and looked in."
The seven instruments on the spacecraft, in obit around Venus since April, are examining the planet over a wide swath of the spectrum: from ultraviolet to visible, to infrared, and even radio wavelengths.
"Our main objective is to do a comprehensive study of the atmosphere," said Hakan Svedhem, Venus Express project scientist.
The instruments provide a look at Venus at different depths.
The Visible and InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS), for example, allows scientists to penetrate the otherwise opaque upper atmosphere of Venus and study the chemistry below it.
It takes advantage of "infrared windows", the few narrow wavelengths that carbon dioxide does not absorb.
"It's like looking through gaps in a picket fence for the first time and seeing through," said Dr Grinspoon.
Unlike Mars, Venus is a close planetary neighbour of Earth that remains relatively unexplored.
The dense atmosphere has shielded it from scrutiny, but scientists speculate that Venus once had vast oceans, similar to Earth. The oceans have since disappeared.
"The closest analogy to Venus today is the Achaean Earth, prior to life, when Earth's atmosphere was primarily CO2 and a lot of sulphur," said Frank Mills, a supporting investigator on the mission.
Scientists want to understand the evolutionary divergence of the sister planets - what happened to the oceans on Venus, and what triggered its runaway greenhouse?
Some clues may be found in understanding the role and amount of sulphur dioxide (SO2) in the atmosphere, said Dr Mills. When oxidised, it produces sulphuric acid, the main component of Venusian clouds and a tremendous greenhouse gas.
The gas is also a product of volcanoes. Previous measurements of Venus from ground-based instruments and the Pioneer spacecraft have showed a spike of sulphur dioxide followed by a gradual decrease, suggesting that the planet's volcanoes are not dormant.
But the last measurements of SO2 were 20 years ago. VIRTIS will provide a long-needed update.
Meanwhile, the Visible Monitoring Camera (VMC) may solve another Venusian mystery.
The VMC produces visible and ultraviolet images of the planet. In the visible range, the Venus surface remains opaque. But in the ultraviolet, a swirling weather pattern appears. It is unclear what it is made of. Some guess an aerosol or small crystals.
"It is some substance absorbing the ultraviolet, that's not CO2," said Dr Svedhem.
"People have tried to identify it and have failed, and it's really strange," added Dr Grinspoon; "it's dubbed the 'unknown ultraviolet absorber'. "
In the eye
As if the composition of the Venusian atmosphere is not intriguing enough, scientists hope Venus Express will also help explain why it is spinning faster than the planetary body beneath it.
While winds on Earth flow in Easterly and Westerly directions, on Venus they seem to flow only Westward, and at speeds faster than the planet's rotation.
Scientists don't know what's causing the super-rotation, or even how to describe it.
VIRTIS sees a peculiar double-eye vortex structure at the south pole
"Is it contributing to the planet's spin? Why doesn't it break down?" pondered Sanjay Limaye, a planetary scientist with the mission. "We just don't know."
He is pleased by the new images that VIRTIS has returned of the double vortex that sits like twin cyclones at the eye of the southern hemispheric circulation.
"Venus Express can help us define the depth and the structure of the vortex, and how the whole circulation is maintained," said Dr Limaye.
As Venus Express continues to beam back data over the next few years, scientists will create a new dynamic map of the planet's once impenetrable atmosphere.
"From what we have now, this will be like going from a 19th Century topographical map to the Weather Channel," said Dr Grinspoon. | <urn:uuid:9eff409c-07fd-4257-b57a-594feea0d01a> | {
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Skin pigmentation is a very common skin problem worldwide. The term pigmentation identifies discolouration on the skin, and it’s more prone to be visible on people who have light coloured skin, as an alternative to those that have dark skin color. Pigmentation can display itself either evidently or body, and will also appear more prominently as we get older, causing many individuals to watch out for a way to improve it.
There are a variety of reasons that pigmentation may become visible on the epidermis;
Most pigmentation occurs due to overexposure on the sun’s damaging rays. Skin reacts on the UV (Ultraviolet) rays in the sun and the connection between sun-damaged skin increase as we grow older. The best way to stop pigmentation from occurring is to wear sunscreen each day, especially on your own face. Pigmentation can affect people spanning various ages and skin tones.
You’ll find cells within the skin that will make melanin, that is to blame for the color in the hair and eyes, and also the shade of the skin. Extra melanin gets produced when the cells get damaged or are unhealthy, causing inconsistent dark colouration or blotches on the epidermis. An increased sun damage will also darken any previous areas of hyperpigmentation.
Pale almost white patches show on your skin layer when there exists a reduction in melanin. Vitiligo and albinism are skin complaints that can cause hypopigmentation, which inturn, there aren’t any cures for.
Skin trauma, such as burns, acne, infections, or inflammation can cause increased pigment production. Skin peels and microdermabrasion when used inappropriately, and chemical treatments might have an adverse when incorrectly applied.
Women taking oral contraceptive tablets can on occasion notice pigmentation occurring. It usually develops slowly shortly after beginning a course of oral contraception, or you change brand or dosage strength, nevertheless it may additionally occur after taking them for a long period.
It’s considered that laser skin resurfacing, also called fractional skin resurfacing is really a impressive treatment to fade, or take away unwanted skin pigmentation and irregularities, such as:
Acne scar removal
Spider or thread veins
Environmental sun damage
Curing pigmentation problems has grown to be easier with new dermatology techniques. There are multiple options to remove the pigmentation wherever it is on our bodies or face. These different treatments can easily be used to take away the dark blotches on the skin;
Laser Pigmentation Treatment
Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) Therapy
These days cosmetic clinics utilize most sophisticated laser technology, which provide a safe and secure, effective and simple approach to treat irregular pigmentation. Laser skin pigmentation therapy is safe to the face, hands, neck and chest and achieves effective, outstanding results every time. There isn’t any time to recover after treatment, and you’ll return to normal activities immediately.
If you want help deciding on a cosmetic procedure, you can expect a substantial variety of cosmetic procedures for that face and body: Botox, Vaser Lipo, Lip Augmentation, Dermal Fillers and more treatments, to assist produce a younger, slimmer, young looking you!
More details about pigmentation treatment please visit web site:
click to read more. | <urn:uuid:549e2869-74f7-48c6-a120-94f3fd0197d5> | {
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Wivenhoe dam in Queensland has a shoreline of many hundreds of kilometers, but it’s clear some birds prefered to remain close to the small camping area. The following shots were taken within and close to designated camping sites. The frogmouths were actually roosting within the smoke zone of camp fires!
Campers were totally unaware of the two birds above their heads
The Brahminy kite was possibly a chick hatched in a nest in clear site of human camping visitors.
A Darter chose a poly pipe within 30 meters of the camp to dry out and..
a red-backed wren family used nearby reeds and bushes as their chosen home base.
In addition to the above, a flock of many hundreds of black cormorants choose to roost in the trees directly ajacent to the camp-ground. The question is, why do these species choose the camping area given the enormous space available to them at Wivenhoe? | <urn:uuid:a1551f40-1dfc-4d6c-8b96-0adabd422fe1> | {
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IBM boffins claim phase change memory breakthrough
Catch my drift
Fast and reliable non-volatile memory of some sort that will replace flash memory is the dream of more than a few semiconductor researchers and chip makers. And boffins at IBM Research in Zurich, Switzerland, think they have come up with a new encoding technique that will allow for multi-level cell (MLC) phase change memory to be commercialized at some point in the not too distant future.
Phase change memory is based on an interesting goop called chalcogenide compounds, which are used in rewriteable CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray disks. These chalcogenide compounds have a polycrystalline state as well as an amorphous state, and the state can be changed with the application of a laser beam or an electric current, both of which heat the material to change it from crystal to amorphous state, allowing for the encoding of the 1s and 0s of binary data in spots on the compound.
The interesting thing about chalcogenide compounds, explains Haris Pozidis, who worked at Philips Research on encoding techniques for rewritable DVDs and Blu-Rays before joining IBM Research in 2001, is that these compounds have a very high contrast between their states – two or three orders of magnitude, in fact, ranging from tens of kilo-ohms to tens of mega-ohms.
This wide range allows, in theory, for data to be stored in multiple phases in the chalcogenide structure, just like multi-level cell (MLC) flash does today. There's only one problem. The resistance in the chalcogenide compound will drift over time, and it does so randomly, and that is a bad, bad thing for storage media to do. To further complicate things, the amorphous state drifts more over time than the crystalline state, since it is trying to get into a crystalline state. So you have two sets of drifts you need to cope with if you want to go multi-level with PCM memory.
IBM Research's experimental PCM chip
What IBM's boffins have figured out, as you can read in a paper published today (PDF), is that even though the resistance drift is random in PCM crystals, the drift moves in the same general direction in subsets of the PCM memory – the state of chunks of the chalcogenide compound affects the state of the chunks around it, as weather moves through the atmosphere. And the trick that IBM Research has come up with is a clever algorithm that allows for the data to be encoded in the chalcogenide compound and then to read the data in a relative fashion for blocks of data.
"The absolute resistance levels in the chalcogenide can have nothing to do with their original encoded levels," says Pozidis, but the data is still not lost. The bit error rate is below 1 in 10,000 using a two-level cell PCM chip, which is well within the realm of error detection and correction. And, perhaps more importantly, the gap between the amorphous and crystalline levels in the chalcogenide is wide enough that IBM believes it will be able to do three or four levels of encoding.
Current MLC flash memory encodes three bits per cell and it is this multi-level encoding that makes it affordable as relatively cheap non-volatile storage. However, consumer flash memory degrades after 3,000 to 5,000 cycles, and flash deteriorates exponentially with the number of read and write cycles. Even enterprise-grade flash memory is only good for 30,000 cycles or so, says Pozidis, and to get that high reliability, you have to sacrifice performance. PCM memory, by contrast, has the ability to handle hundreds of millions of cycles and will be something like two orders of magnitude faster than flash.
There is a bit of research that needs to be done before PCM can be commercialized, of course. But the fact that IBM's boffins have been able to show that a two-level PCM memory chip operating at room temperature could be read after 156 days using an algorithm that was two orders of magnitude more robust than prior decoding methods is a step in the right direction. ® | <urn:uuid:a0a5d771-e0f4-4e25-9571-6539d8183470> | {
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Source: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
WHITEWAY, Sir WILLIAM VALLANCE, lawyer and politician; b. 1 April 1828 at Buckyett, near Totnes, in Devon, England, youngest son of Thomas Whiteway and Elizabeth Vallance; m. first 1862 Mary Lightbourne of Bermuda (d. 1868), and they had a daughter; m. secondly 1872 Catherine Anne Davies of Pictou, N.S., and they had six children; d. 24 June 1908 in St John’s.
Since the Whiteway family had long been connected with the Newfoundland trade, it was not unusual that William Whiteway should have been sent to St John’s in 1843, after an education at Tomes Grammar School and a private school in Newton Abbot. He was apprenticed to a merchant, but later decided to train for the law. He was called to the Newfoundland bar in 1852.
At the start of his career, Whiteway appears as a conventional enough figure. Closely allied with the mercantile élite, active in the Anglican church, and a keen mason, he supported the Conservative party led by Hugh William Hoyles*, and tended a prospering law practice. Among his clients was Charles James Fox Bennett*, one of the colony’s most prominent merchants and the promoter of its first copper mine, at Tilt Cove. When Whiteway entered politics in 1859 he ran under Bennett’s patronage in the district of Twillingate and Fogo, which included Tilt Cove. From this period dates his growing conviction that Newfoundland had considerable mineral and agricultural potential and his concern, as a member for a remote northern area, with improved year-round communications.
In 1865 Whiteway received tangible marks of favour from the new Conservative government of Frederic Bowker Terrington Carter* in the shape of a qc and the speakership of the House of Assembly. He was now a rising political star, having clearly stated his confederate sympathies soon after the publication of the Quebec terms in December 1864. His support for union with Canada outraged Bennett, who had emerged as the leading anti-confederate. Their acrimonious dispute diverted readers of the St John’s press, but seriously reduced Whiteway’s chances of re-election. In 1869 he and his running mate found themselves opposed by the combined influence of Bennett and the local merchant house, and were soundly defeated. The following year Bennett took over the premiership.
Whiteway’s support for confederation was based on his conviction that it would improve the colony’s chances for economic diversification and prosperity, while breaking down its isolation. Given his ambition, it can be supposed that he was also attracted by the prospect of a wider political stage. But after the defeat of confederation in 1869 he ceased actively to promote it and turned his attention to the colonial arena. Though temporarily out of the assembly, he remained involved in Conservative party affairs. He was a member of a ginger group determined to remove the Bennett government by fair means or foul. Thus the Conservatives began to combine assurances that confederation was dead with sectarian attacks on the government designed to remind Protestants of Bennett’s reliance on the Catholic vote. In the 1873 election Bennett’s majority was severely reduced, and Whiteway returned to the assembly as a member for Trinity Bay. Early in 1874 Carter resumed the premiership, Bennett’s majority having evaporated, and his party’s position was confirmed in an election that fall. Whiteway was appointed solicitor general in the new administration.
His major responsibility was the preparation of the Newfoundland case to be presented to the fisheries commission at Halifax in 1877 [see Sir Albert James Smith*]. This tribunal sat to assess the monetary value of the difference between the fishery privileges given Americans in British North American waters under the Treaty of Washington (1871) and those granted British subjects in American waters. Whiteway did most of the work for Newfoundland, producing a claim for $2,880,000 and arguing it ably before the tribunal. The colony was eventually awarded $1 million, which earned Whiteway the formal thanks of the legislature, and a knighthood in 1880. A major part of his case was the value to foreign banking fleets of access to Newfoundland bait supplies. He regarded bait afterwards as a potentially valuable bargaining lever not only with the Americans, but also with the French, whose presence at Saint-Pierre and on the west and northeast coasts of Newfoundland (the area known as the Treaty, or French, Shore) was a persistent irritant. Both Whiteway and Carter were convinced that the colony’s prosperity depended on a modification of France’s ancient rights, particularly since the surveys of Alexander Murray* had suggested that the Treaty Shore contained valuable natural resources. The Carter government pressed for powers to appoint magistrates and make land grants there, demands to which the Colonial Office reacted with extreme caution.
Whiteway’s frustration was such that, much to the annoyance of Governor Sir John Hawley Glover*, he began to drop remarks about the disadvantages of the imperial connection, and the advantages that might result from annexation to the United States. His comments were probably designed only to remind London of the colony’s dissatisfaction. In fact, throughout his career he was to voice his resentment of what he saw as the British government’s willingness to sacrifice Newfoundland’s interests to those of more powerful countries.
Whiteway assumed the premiership in April 1878, determined to make his mark and armed with ambitious plans. If Newfoundland’s future lay in the development of its land-based resources, then two things were necessary. First, a railway should be built across the island in order to open up the interior; and second, a deal had to be struck with the French which would allow the industrial development of the west coast. He also wanted to see St John’s grow into a major port, and advocated building a large dry dock there. These plans depended on the cooperation of the imperial government, which alone could deal with the French, and which, it was hoped, would assist in the railway and dock schemes for strategic reasons. Whiteway pressed his case in London in 1879. The Colonial Office was sympathetic, if only because Whiteway proved to be less intransigent than many Newfoundlanders on the subject of the French Shore. A meeting was arranged between him and the French foreign minister, where he impressed the British ambassador with his “ability, tact and indeed moderation.” But nothing concrete came of the interview, and the British government refused assistance for dock and railway building, on the grounds that these were works of domestic rather than imperial significance.
There were eventually some concessions from London. In 1881 the colonial government was granted sole authority to appoint magistrates on the French Shore and allowed to make conditional land grants there; and by the time of the 1882 election, settlers on the west coast were able to vote. This process of incorporating the shore into the colony’s administrative framework had started under Carter, and Whiteway would have liked to complement it by welding the two sides of the island together with his projected railway. But besides refusing financial assistance, the British government was reluctant to allow a terminus on the west coast. Whiteway fell back on a plan for an east coast railway which might in time form part of a trans-island line. His proposal that a narrow-gauge line be built from St John’s to Halls Bay was approved by the legislature in 1880. Tenders were called, a location survey was started, and a heated public debate sprang up that presaged new political divisions. The first rumblings of opposition came from among Whiteway’s Conservative supporters, as some of the larger fish merchants began to voice serious misgivings at “an experience so new, so expensive, so divergent from our ordinary habits and wants, and at the same time so irretrievable in its results for good or evil.” They feared that the scheme might well lead to colonial bankruptcy and confederation, and in the process severely harm their businesses.
Whiteway and his pro-railway supporters were not much worried, since they could count on the support of the Liberal opposition, now led by Joseph Ignatius Little. By early 1881 the government was considering two tenders, with Whiteway championing that submitted by Albert L. Blackman on behalf of a New York syndicate, a course that set him against Ambrose Shea, a leading Liberal who backed a Canadian tender. Governor Glover and others suspected that Whiteway was guilty of conflict of interest, alleging that Blackman’s capitalists were the same as those behind the recently formed Newfoundland Consolidated Copper Mining Company, of which Whiteway was a local director, and which stood to gain from the railway. The premier vehemently denied such accusations, and pushed the Blackman tender through the cabinet, and then through the legislature amid stormy debates that crystallized the new political alignments. Provoked by a merchants’ petition against the railway, he sounded a populist note by promising “to raise the working class to their proper position in the body politic.”
Under the name of the Newfoundland Railway Company the Blackman syndicate began work in 1881. The following year the syndicate made two further agreements with the government. The first was for a charter to build a direct, standard-gauge line across the island as part of a transatlantic “Short Line” system, and the second for a contract to construct a dry dock at St John’s. These three ambitious agreements were the central issue in the 1882 election. Whiteway’s Conservatives, now in open and formal alliance with the Liberals and trumpeting the virtues of the new “Policy of Progress,” faced an amorphous New party headed by James Johnstone Rogerson. This was merchant-oriented, exclusively Protestant, and had the difficult task of trying to persuade the voters that Whiteway’s policies were unwise and dangerous. It failed, and Whiteway won a large majority; his position seemed impregnable.
Yet Whiteway’s second ministry was to collapse within three years. The Blackman syndicate proved to be undercapitalized and inefficient. The railway company was in financial difficulties by late 1882, work on the main line halted in the spring of 1884, and bankruptcy soon followed. The dock contract was transferred to another concern, and the direct line was never started. Moreover, the colony moved into a period of profound economic crisis. The New party regrouped for a concerted attack, arguing that potentially expensive schemes such as the railway should be suspended, and attention concentrated on the fishery, which was suffering from severe competition in European saltfish markets. Believing that a major cause of the difficulties was the expansion of the subsidized French fishery on the Grand Banks, the New party advocated attacking the French bankers by preventing the export of bait fishes from Newfoundland’s south coast. In contrast, Whiteway’s view was still that the development of the interior and the west coast was of primary importance, and that a deal with the French was preferable to economic warfare. Indeed, by 1883–84 the Whiteway government and the Colonial Office were discussing an agreement whereby the French would loosen their hold on the Treaty Shore in return for access to Newfoundland bait. A draft convention on this basis was subsequently accepted by France. To the New party this was a suicidal policy. Its leaders began to mobilize Protestant opinion against Whiteway’s reliance on Catholic support.
This strategy was aided by religious tensions aroused in the wake of an affray at Harbour Grace in December 1883. Nineteen Catholics were arrested and charged with the murder of four Orangemen. Their acquittal in two trials, in which Whiteway led the prosecution, destroyed the Conservative-Liberal coalition. Early in 1885 Orangemen in the assembly moved an amendment which referred to the trials as a “disgraceful failure of justice.” Whiteway’s subsequent behaviour was conditioned by his desire for political survival and also by a latent anti-Catholicism. He appears to have calculated that his best chance lay in jettisoning his Catholic supporters and making a bid for the leadership of a united Protestant party. He therefore drafted an amendment which avoided criticizing the Supreme Court but nevertheless contained wording offensive to Catholics. His Catholic supporters – including Shea and Robert John Kent* – were forced into opposition, but Whiteway was unable to obtain the leadership of a Protestant party. Instead, a series of Byzantine moves resulted in the formation of the Reform party under the compromise leadership of Robert Thorburn. Whiteway resigned the premiership early in October 1885, and did not run in the election which followed. The agreed price was a seat on the Legislative Council and the reversion of the chief justiceship. Whiteway was widely criticized for abandoning his party and for weakness in not contesting the election, and with some justification. But it should be remembered that by the fall of 1885 he was politically isolated and that electioneering would have done him little good.
Whiteway received a seat neither on the bench nor in the upper house, and was soon moving restlessly in the wings. Nevertheless, he seems to have been ambivalent about an early return to public life. In July 1887 Robert Bond* and Alfred Bishop Morine*, who were sitting in opposition as independent Whitewayites, bluntly demanded that he make tip his mind whether to enter active politics again; if not, they would either seek other allies or retire. In September Whiteway announced his return.
If Bond looked to Whiteway to lead a revived party, Morine, a devious Nova Scotian, was more interested in obtaining his acquiescence in an elaborate scheme to bring Newfoundland into confederation. At Morine’s prompting Sir Charles Tupper* visited St John’s in October 1887, and he raised the matter with the Thorburn government and with Bond and Whiteway, both of whom apparently indicated that they were sympathetic. There was hope that confederation might be carried by a coalition of the Whiteway party and a confederate faction within the Reform party whose most prominent member was James Spearman Winter*. The plot collapsed in 1888 when Bond concluded that for the party to associate itself with confederation would be unwise, and exerted pressure on Whiteway to resist Morine’s influence. Tupper told Sir John A. Macdonald* that Whiteway’s change of mind had killed confederation, and it had certainly been an important factor. But it was by no means the only one; few Newfoundland politicians would risk their careers for the sake of union with Canada.
Whiteway could have contested a by-election that fall and returned to the assembly. He chose not to do so, and concentrated on building a party for the 1889 election. Since the old Catholic Liberal party had finally expired in 1886, Whiteway now appropriated the Liberal label. But his manifesto and slogans were direct descendants of the Conservative campaigns of 1878 and 1882. “Vote for the Friend of the Workingman and the Apostle of Progress,” shouted the Evening Telegram. The attractiveness of the Liberal campaign, with its pledge to complete the railway, combined with the unpopularity of the Reform government gave Whiteway a substantial victory. This was the first Newfoundland general election in which the secret ballot was used, and contemporaries thought that it allowed the expression of a class prejudice to which the Liberals appealed with their anti-mercantile broadsides.
The election took place early in November, but it was more than a month before Whiteway took over. Though his party and cabinet were composed of relatively inexperienced men – he alone had held executive office – Whiteway was no longer the energetic and dominant force that he had once been. The collapse of his previous government and his time out of active politics seem to have left him more of a trimmer, and reliant on such colleagues as Bond and Augustus William Harvey. His party was prone to factionalism, and as a result the government tended to lack decisiveness, particularly in handling difficult external affairs. The New party’s rejection of the draft French Shore convention negotiated by Whiteway and the enforcement of the Bait Act of 1887 [see Thorburn] had ushered in an acute period of disputes over the Treaty Shore. The central issue now was whether the French – or any fishermen for that matter – had the right to take and can lobsters there. The British government from past experience thought that Whiteway would prove more conciliatory than his predecessors. Instead it found him just as obstinate. There were two reasons. Within the party Bond and Harvey exerted considerable influence, and both opposed further concessions to the French. Outside it, the Reform party formed the Patriotic Association expressly to embarrass the new government by beating the patriotic drum. The occasion was the signature of an Anglo-French modus vivendi in March 1890 to govern the lobster fishery which, in its final form, had not received colonial approval, and which appeared to make concessions to France. The situation was complicated by the realization that no legislation existed authorizing the British government to enforce the French Shore treaties.
The Colonial Office tried to persuade Newfoundland to pass the necessary bill, but any chance of cooperation was scuttled when, bending to Canadian pressure, the British government refused to allow a draft reciprocity treaty that Bond negotiated with the United States late in 1890. Never enthusiastic about reciprocity, Whiteway none the less joined in the furious protests which emanated from St John’s, and his government retaliated by refusing to grant bait licences to Canadian vessels.
The Canadians reacted by once again floating the idea of confederation, but to no avail. In London, the imperial government prepared to pass legislation enforcing the French treaties. The Newfoundland legislature at once dispatched a delegation, headed by Whiteway, charged with preventing the passage of what was known locally and evocatively as the “Coercion Bill.” On 23 April 1891 Whiteway addressed the House of Lords in an able speech which was apparently well received. His offer to adopt temporary legislation for the 1891 season while the terms of a permanent act were settled was eventually accepted, though it proved difficult to persuade the legislature in St John’s, where Bond was in full patriotic cry, that this was the best available compromise. There was, however, no settlement of the dispute with Canada, and in December 1891 a tariff war began between the two neighbours.
If the House of Lords speech had been one of Whiteway’s finer moments, the 1892 session saw what was probably his greatest humiliation. His cabinet refused to adopt as a government or party measure the draft permanent bill that he had spent much of the previous summer negotiating in Britain. Deserted by his colleagues and by all members of the London delegation except Harvey, he had to introduce the bill as a personal measure. It was defeated on the grounds that it conceded too much to the French and froze a situation which it was to the colony’s advantage to keep fluid. Whiteway’s argument that the house was reneging on a commitment was ignored, as was his warning that its intransigence would doom the planned imperial guarantee for a Newfoundland development loan. Whiteway never forgave Bond for his prominent role in this affair.
It must have given him some bleak satisfaction, then, that the 1892 session saw an end to Bond’s policy of retaliation against Canada. The two governments agreed to resume the status quo ante pending a conference to discuss outstanding disputes. A meeting at Halifax in November 1892 achieved little, however. The Newfoundland side, headed by Whiteway, refused to discuss confederation; and the Canadians refused to drop their objections to Newfoundland’s negotiating a separate reciprocity treaty. Newfoundland learned that in its external affairs its policies were to be subordinate to Canadian as well as imperial interests, a lesson which Whiteway much resented.
Outside élite political circles the arcana of external relations had little relevance. Far more important to most voters was the fact that the Whiteway government had delivered on its promise to resume railway building. In 1890 a contract had been signed with Robert Gillespie Reid of Montreal to complete the line to Halls Bay. In 1893 the government concluded two further contracts with Reid, which provided for the continuation of the railway to Port aux Basques (Channel-Port aux Basques), on the west coast, and that Reid would operate the system for ten years. The rebuilding of St John’s after the great fire of 1892 (which had destroyed Whiteway’s law office) also contributed to maintaining relatively high levels of employment. As a result, though the government was subject to serious internal strains, it stood to win the 1893 election if it held together. Since Whiteway was a popular figure with the electorate, there was no challenge to his leadership. The campaign was expensive and bitter, but the Liberals won with a comfortable majority.
The opposition Tories were now guided in matters of strategy by Morine. Early in 1894 they counterattacked by filing petitions alleging corrupt practice against Whiteway and 16 other Liberals. The judgement in the first case to be heard unseated two Liberals on the grounds that they had manipulated public funds to influence voters. Whiteway was outraged that normal practice should be judged corrupt practice, and realized that all those petitioned against were likely to lose their seats. He therefore asked Governor Sir John Terence Nicholls O’Brien to agree either to a bill indemnifying those petitioned against or to a dissolution. O’Brien refused to intervene, and on 11 April the Whiteway government resigned, to be replaced by a minority Tory administration led by Augustus Frederick Goodridge. Though supply had not been passed, the legislature was prorogued indefinitely while the court worked its way through the petitions.
Whiteway’s behaviour over the next few months was less than dignified; indeed, O’Brien reported a rumour that “through rage and vindictiveness Sir W. Whiteway has gone off his head.” In mid June Whiteway led a mob along Water Street in St John’s to demonstrate against the collection of customs duties after the supply legislation had expired. Violence was averted only by the arrival of mounted police. This incident marked the high point of political tension, which thereafter subsided. The government lost a temporary majority achieved once the election trials were over, since by-elections in the fall returned Liberal members – though not those who had been unseated, including Whiteway, for they were disqualified from sitting in the existing house. The Tories hung on until December, when they resigned following the crash of the two local banks [see James Goodfellow*]. A Liberal administration was formed by Daniel Joseph Greene, which in turn introduced legislation to remove the disqualifications from the unseated members. Once this had been approved by a humiliated governor, Greene resigned. By 8 Feb. 1895 Whiteway had formed a government. He eventually found himself a vacant seat representing Harbour Grace.
The country’s situation was desperate. The bank crash caused a severe if temporary disruption in trade, and the government was on the verge of bankruptcy. Unable to raise a loan, and unwilling to submit to an inquiry by royal commission which was the prerequisite for imperial aid, the Whiteway government dispatched a delegation to Ottawa in late March to discuss confederation. It was led by Bond, Whiteway apparently suffering from “severe nervous depression and internal complications” caused by mental strain and overwork: hardly surprising, given the events of the previous year and his loss of $26,000 in the bank crash. The negotiations foundered on British parsimony and Canadian caution. In a final attempt to stave off default and imperial intervention, Bond set off for Montreal to try to raise a loan. Aided by R. G. Reid, he managed what many had thought impossible: his success clearly marked him out as the successor to the 67-year-old Whiteway.
The Liberal government’s political position deteriorated over the next two years. The economic situation remained difficult, and sorting out the implications of the bank crash proved to be lengthy and controversial. The senior members of the party were divided, the new governor, Sir Herbert Harley Murray, was hostile, and morale seems to have collapsed. While Whiteway was in London in 1897 for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee celebrations and the Colonial Conference, Bond and Edward Patrick Morris* did little if any organizing for the election to be held that fall. In the event the Liberals trotted out much the same propaganda as in previous contests. This time it was not enough. The railway was virtually complete, the price of fish was at its lowest point for 45 years, and promises of a new Newfoundland seemed hollow. The Tories under James S. Winter ran an imaginative campaign and won a comfortable majority. Whiteway was defeated in his old district of Trinity Bay.
Whiteway did not retire with grace and dignity. He remained titular head of the Liberal party until October 1899 when Bond, who had been leading it in the assembly, took over in confused circumstances, some claiming that the old man went voluntarily, others that he had been knifed. In any case, it did not take long for Whiteway to open hostilities once Bond became premier in 1900. He launched a lawsuit claiming $21,000 from the government for various services performed over many years, and in November 1901 let it be known that he intended to return to public life. His support of a Tory candidate at a by-election in 1902 showed that he would be opposing the government, ostensibly because of the way in which Bond had handled the revision of the unpopular railway contract that Winter and Morine had negotiated with Reid in 1898. However, it is hard to escape the conclusion that Whiteway was driven by a deep-seated personal resentment against Bond and his former party. He criticized the terms of the French Shore settlement of 1904, as well as Bond’s forest policies. Unable to come to terms with other opposition groups, he prepared to lead an independent party in the 1904 election. Eventually he did amalgamate his following with others in the United Opposition party, which ran several former premiers as candidates. The party and all the ex-premiers were defeated; and, in a sad end to his career, Whiteway came bottom of the poll at Harbour Grace.
There was sadness in his personal life as well. In 1899 his daughter by his first marriage had died in South Africa, where he travelled to fetch the body home. Between 1905 and 1908 three of the six children of his second marriage passed away. In the latter year Whiteway himself died at the age of 80 after half a century in public life, and 14 years as a premier, a record unmatched by any other Newfoundland politician in the pre-confederation period.
The principal monument to Whiteway’s contributions was, until the rails were taken up in 1989, the Newfoundland Railway. A central and consistent theme of his career was his conviction that the Newfoundland economy could be diversified through the development of land-based natural resources, and that the indispensable key was the construction of a railway through the interior. His determination in the face of widespread hostility and suspicion ensured that the railway was built, and that St John’s received its first dry dock. A linked concern was a new French Shore agreement which would allow economic development on the island’s west coast. Whiteway showed considerable skill in obtaining concessions from London and in negotiating the draft Anglo-French convention of 1885. His policies foundered in the mid 1880s with the crisis that engulfed the Newfoundland economy during the last 20 years of the 19th century, and thereafter he became a less confident leader. His governments were characterized by dissension., and he was himself frequently criticized for weakness. By the early 1890s he would have liked to have left politics to become chief justice or a colonial governor. Neither position came his way, however, and being reluctant to retire simply to practice law, he carried on to a humiliating defeat and an embittered old age. There were those who reckoned that Whiteway stayed on because of the opportunity to make money – an accusation supported by an estate valued in 1908 at $76,000 in spite of his losses in the bank crash – and because he liked popular acclaim. True though these observations may be, it should not be forgotten that Whiteway had a genuine if overly optimistic vision of Newfoundland’s future; and that behind the public bitterness of his later years was a man who, in his personal life, was well liked for his charm, humour, and geniality, and for his long service to the Anglican church and the masonic order. Not brilliant as a lawyer or politician, and with ambitions that outstripped his abilities, Whiteway nevertheless made a significant mark on Newfoundland’s history, if only because he was the first to articulate visions of future prosperity that became the common coin of many politicians who followed him, including Joseph Roberts Smallwood*, who clearly saw himself as part of the Liberal tradition that Whiteway had begun.
Arch. du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères (Paris), Corr. consulaire, corr. politique, Terre-Neuve, II: 178 (mfm. at NA). British Library (London), Add. ms 43556 (Ripon papers): 143. Centre for Newfoundland Studies, Memorial Univ. of Nfld (St John’s), Arch., COLL-26 (W. V. Whiteway papers). Maritime Hist. Arch., Memorial Univ. of Nfld, Keith Matthews coll., ser.I, Whiteway name file. NA, MG 26, D, Monroe to Middleton, 1892. PANL, GN 1/3/A, note by Carter, 24 Nov. 1885. Private arch., Sir Robert Bond papers, Bond and Morine to Whiteway, 25 July 1887; Bond to Whiteway, 30 Aug. 1888; Morris and Horwood to Bond, 29 June 1895; R. E. P. Cecil, 6th Marquess of Salisbury (Hatfield, Eng.), Papers of R. A. T. Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Salisbury to Lyons, 17 July 1879; Lyons to Salisbury, 4 Aug. 1879. PRO, CO 194/191–227; PRO 30/6, 37: 375. Supreme Court of Newfoundland (St John’s), Registry, Probate records for W. V. Whiteway. Colonist (St John’s), 22 Sept. 1887. Courier (St John’s), 10, 17 March, 17 April 1860. Daily News (St John’s), 23 Nov. 1901, 25 June 1908. Day-Book (St John’s), 4, 7 March 1865. Evening Herald (St John’s), 28 Jan., 3 May, 30 Oct. 1899; 11 Aug. 1900. Evening Telegram (St John’s), 21 March 1895, 27 June 1908. Morning Chronicle (St John’s), 9–15 Nov. 1865, 13 Feb. 1869. Newfoundlander, 15 Dec. 1859; 2 Feb., 13 April, 20 July 1865; 1, 5 Feb. 1866. Newfoundland Express (St John’s), 19 April 1862, 10 March 1863. Public Ledger, 15, 29 March, 2 April, 24 June 1881. Royal Gazette and Newfoundland Advertiser, 12 Jan. 1860. Telegraph (St John’s), 6 Nov. 1867, 22 Dec. 1869.
D. J. Davis, “The Bond-Blaine negotiations, 1890–1891” (ma thesis, Memorial Univ. of Nfld, 1970). Hiller, “Hist. of Nfld.” W. D. MacWhirter, “A political history of Newfoundland, 1865–1874” (ma thesis, Memorial Univ. of Nfld, 1963). Harvey Mitchell, “Canada’s negotiations with Newfoundland, 1887–1895,” Historical essays on the Atlantic provinces, ed. G. A. Rawlyk (Toronto, 1967), 242–59; “The constitutional crisis of 1889 in Newfoundland,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science (Toronto), 24 (1958): 323–31. James Murray, The commercial crisis in Newfoundland: cause, consequences and cure (St John’s, 1895). Nfld in 19th and 20th centuries (Hiller and Neary). W. G. Reeves, “The Fortune Bay dispute: Newfoundland’s place in imperial treaty relations under the Washington treaty, 1871–1885” (ma thesis, Memorial Univ. of Nfld, 1971). G. F. G. Stanley, “Further documents relating to the union of Newfoundland and Canada, 1886–1895,” CHR, 29 (1948): 370–86. F. F. Thompson, The French Shore problem in Newfoundland: an imperial study (Toronto, 1961). | <urn:uuid:55c00aa0-af58-449a-a411-22a3b270f7ce> | {
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Edema, also known as fluid retention or water retention, is caused by the accumulation of excess fluids in the circulatory system and areas between the body's cells. It can cause different body parts to swell, with the face, hands, feet, ankles and legs being most common. Edema often affects pregnant women, but anyone can develop the condition. Certain diuretic and potassium-rich foods can help combat edema.
According to University of Maryland Medical Center, there are many potential causes of water retention, such as sitting or standing for long periods; high or low blood pressure; infection of blood vessels; kidney, liver, heart or thyroid disease; head injury; prescription medications; hormonal changes during pregnancy or menstruation; high altitudes; heat; high-intensity physical exertion; and salty foods. To remedy water retention, potassium and diuretics can be useful treatments.
Ditch It With Diuretics
A diuretic is any substance that can help decrease the level of fluid in the body, through urination. While some diuretics are prescribed by doctors, various foods have diuretic properties. The University of Maryland Medical Center lists a variety of diuretic foods, including onions, beans, leafy greens, pineapple, parsley, grapes, beats, asparagus and garlic. According to MedlinePlus, caffeine is also a diuretic substance that helps rid the body of fluids. Common sources of caffeine include coffee, tea and chocolate.
Get Your Daily Potassium
Excessive sodium intake is likely a major cause of water retention, as about 98 percent of Americans eat twice the amount of sodium recommended for a healthy diet, according to the American Heart Association. While it is important to cut down on salty foods to reduce water retention, consuming potassium-rich foods can also help excrete excess water, through urine. According to MedlinePlus, all meats are good sources of potassium, as are many vegetables, including broccoli, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, lima beans, sweet potatoes and winter squash. Potassium-rich fruits include prunes, kiwi, bananas, citrus fruit, cantaloupe and apricots. Other excellent sources of potassium include milk, yogurt and nuts.
Health and Safety Considerations
If your fluid retention is severe and does not easily subside, it may be an indication of an underlying health problem. In this case, it is important to see a medical professional. The University of Maryland Medical Center notes that some diuretic foods may interact with diuretic medications. For pregnant mothers, excessive water retention, known as toxemia, can be dangerous to both the woman and baby. | <urn:uuid:3c619c3e-36e8-434b-ac5c-a34ab484a297> | {
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In the realm of assistive technology, a switch (aka "ability switch") can be anything from a plastic button to a muscle twitch sensor. This album is a great look at the variety of switches that are available. These switches are almost always wired to a 3.5mm (1/8") mono plug, and can be connected to anything with a matching jack. They are used with power wheelchairs, computers, speech devices, toys, remote controls, and so on.
The problem is that switches are expensive. A basic Jellybean Switch or Buddy Button costs around $50-60 (USD), for just a plastic button. While these are worth their weight in gold, the price is still a bit steep, especially in the low-budget/non-profit world of assistive technology.
Sometimes, it's handy to make your own.
Fortunately, a switch is a very simple thing. It's just a circuit closing, just two wires touching. We will use less than $10 (USD) worth of parts to let a person press a surface (in this case a CD), and touch two wires together. R. J. Cooper also sells CD Switch Kits for about $10 (USD) each, in packs of five or ten.
Save the left over scraps from this project, as you can use them to build a No-Solder Battery Interrupter , which you can use to let this switch control toys and other devices.
I have posted an Instructable, so that anyone can easily make their own CD Switches. I suggest making one of these along with a Solderless Battery Interrupter, as they work well together, and the battery interrupter can be made of the scraps left from building the switch.
A PDF version of the Instructable is also available.
This project was also posted on Hack A Day.
Copyright © 2012 Gavin Philips. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:d33ccb77-2f6d-4e41-8e10-3c13f57d1dd5> | {
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[gasp] [dramatic music]
It's okay, though, because you have a piece of paper and a pencil.
In the spirit of the Jury-Rig It contest, I'm going to make this instructable entirely in my lecture hall. I'm such a good student. For my studiousness, you should vote for me, wink wink.
Step 1: The Plan
There is another way to create an image, though. Instead of gathering the light with a lens, you block all the light that isn't going the right direction with a pinhole. The simplest cameras were just a light-proof box with a pinhole in it to project an image onto the film at the back of the box. They're really cool and I'd make one if I had photographic film. Alas, I don't.
Ideal pinholes have infinite depth of field. Since they don't depend on the focusing properties of a lens, all distances are in focus. They do decrease the field of view and make the image rather dim, but we care about the depth of field part.
Real pinholes have a non-zero diameter, so there are some limits to their depth of field, but in general, the smaller the aperture, the larger the depth of field.
In order to see the board from the back of our lecture hall, we're going to put a pinhole in front of both of our eyes. This will increase our depth of field enough to focus on the board (and everything else).
[Images from Wikipedia:
Step 2: What You Need
Mechanical pencil: something pointy that also makes things black. I had .5mm lead, so my pinholes were 5mm in diameter. Smaller pinholes will have better depth of field, but a dimmer image.
Step 3: The Paper
Step 4: The Pencil: Part the First
Or maybe you have black paper in which case you can just skip this step.
Step 5: The Pencil: Part the Second
I punched one and then held the paper up to my eyes. I looked through the one I punched first and put my finger where my other eye would be looking. I then punched the second hole where the tip of my finger was.
Make sure your pinholes are round. Carefully fold any little hanging bits to the back side.
Step 6: How to Use Them
If you didn't line up the pinholes exactly with your eyes, you might have to go back and redo it. Alternatively, you could tear them apart and tape them together a bit wider or narrower as needed.
If you get the stereotypical binocular view with two slightly intersecting circles of the image, your pinholes are almost perfectly aligned, but not quite. You might find that it's good enough or you can fold or tape the pinholes closer or farther so there is just one circle image to get better results.
And that's it. Enjoy your newfound depth of field. | <urn:uuid:7591b532-be27-47af-b7d6-eba7c0f56789> | {
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A massive wildfire that has charred the northwestern edge of California’s Yosemite National Park is heading toward two groves of the park’s famed sequoia trees, National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis said as firefighters battled the blaze yesterday.
The Rim fire, which now has an overall footprint that exceeds the area of Dallas, has burned about 6 percent of Yosemite’s wilder backcountry, but the vast majority of the park is still unaffected, Jarvis said.
The towering redwoods are expected to survive if the fire spreads through the sequoia groves, Jarvis said in a telephone interview.
“This is not a catastrophe for Yosemite National Park,” he said after surveying the affected areas. “These trees are very old, and it’s not the first fire they’ve ever seen.”
Firefighters have been carrying out controlled burns at night around the groves to clear away debris from the forest floor that could otherwise fuel a fire to such an intensity that it dangerously licks at the trees’ crowns.
Lower-intensity fires, on the other hand, play a vital role in the reproductive cycle of the tough-barked sequoia — many of which bear the scars of past wildfires — by releasing the seeds from their cones and clearing the soil in which they germinate.
The Rim fire has continued to spread, having consumed nearly 220,000 acres by yesterday, according to a U.S. Forest Service spokesman. Most of the damage is in the Stanislaus National Forest that spreads out from Yosemite’s western edge.
Firefighters have contained about a third of the fire’s area.
“We’re very, very cautious about the potential today,” Timothy Evans, the spokesman, said. “ Yesterday was very hot, there was some wind, and the same was somewhat predicted for today.”
The blaze is now approximately the fourth-largest California wildfire on record.
Jarvis estimated that firefighting efforts had so far cost state and federal agencies $54 million. He criticized a decline in federal funding for fire-prevention work, including the practice of controlled fires that make the chance of a wildfire of this intensity less likely.
Nearly 5,000 people are working to put out the fire, including firefighters from agencies across California and nearly 700 specially trained California prison inmates.
On this holiday weekend, one of Yosemite’s busiest periods, thousands of tourists have chosen to revise their travel plans.
“Yosemite Valley is open to the public and is gorgeous,” he said, referring to one of the park’s most scenic and visited areas, adding that it is more than 20 miles from the edge of the fire.
But you can add fairy-tale weddings to the list of business casualties.
Hawaii couple Katie Sprouse, 33, and Jamil Folio, 36, spent a year making plans to exchange vows near the scenic park, where they were set to tie the knot before 70 relatives and friends last night.
The Rim fire left the pair, who live in Maui, and two other couples with wedding dates at the evacuated Evergreen Lodge, scrambling to make other arrangements, according to the couple and lodge co-owner Lee Zimmerman.
“I had everything planned six months ago,” Sprouse, an archeologist, said. “A week ago Friday, as I was packing to leave, the lodge called me to say it wasn’t going to happen.”
Fallout from the wildfire also forced the cancellation of the Strawberry Music Festival, a biannual bluegrass jamboree where Sprouse and Folio met two years ago.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation. | <urn:uuid:1623bb33-efa5-4c69-b9c8-cb007ee9619b> | {
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Formerly known as Ishmael.
Dear Word Detective: This is a bit of a cheat as there are probably three questions in one here. Staring at the word “lorry” the other day, I realized it was pretty ridiculous. Our “lorry” is your “truck” and neither seem to have any clear origin. Then, of course, we say we are having “no truck” with something, meaning that we don’t want to have anything to do with it. Are there any explanations for “lorry,” “truck” and “truck”? — David, Ripon, Yorkshire, England.
Hey, you’re right. I’ve just spent a few minutes staring at “lorry” and it is indeed a very silly word for a vehicle. “Lorry” sounds more like the name of a small, useless fish. But I may not be a good judge of such things, because I get the same feeling after a few minutes of staring at my own name. That cannot possibly be my name. My real name is Frank, or Joe. Vinny? Something beginning with a consonant, that’s for sure. I’m sure I’ll remember it soon.
I would, however, say that your “lorry” is a much nicer-sounding word than our “truck,” which strikes me as the kind of sound you’d make if you were beaned with a softball. Compared to “truck,” “lorry” is positively euphonious. Unfortunately, as you have apparently discovered, the roots of “lorry” are a bit mysterious. Actually, they are very mysterious, and the best guess is that it comes from the obsolete English dialect term “lurry,” meaning “to carry or drag along.” Unfortunately (again), no one knows where “lurry” came from either, so the trail goes cold at that point. We do know that “lorry” first appeared in print in the early 19th century meaning “a long, low wagon,” and by 1911 had acquired its modern meaning of “a large motor vehicle used to carry cargo.”
Compared to the fog surrounding “lorry,” the roots of “truck” in the “large vehicle” sense are satisfyingly clear. “Truck,” which first appeared in English around 1611 meaning “small wheel or roller” (specifically the sort mounted under cannons aboard warships), is a shortened form of the older word “truckle,” meaning “wheel, roller or pulley,” which appeared in the 15th century and was derived from the Latin “trochlea,” meaning “pulley.” The first use of “truck” in print in its modern sense of “wheeled vehicle used for transporting heavy items” came in 1774.
When we say that we want to “have no truck with” someone or something, we are using a “truck” completely unrelated to the vehicle kind of “truck.” When this sort of “truck” first entered English around 1225, derived from the French “troquer,” it meant simply “to exchange something with someone else.” By the 1400s we were using it to mean “to barter, to sell or exchange commodities for profit,” and, by the 17th century, “truck” had taken on the its more general modern sense of “to have dealings with.” Today this “truck” is almost always found in the negative phrase “to have no truck with,” i.e., to have no dealings or social contact with (“Mebbe your Ma’s right. Mebbe you hadn’t ought to have no truck with the Forresters,” M.K. Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938).
Incidentally, the one place you’re likely to find that old “sale or barter” sense of “truck” still being used is in the phrase “truck farm,” meaning a small farm producing vegetables, etc., for sale rather than the owner’s own use. | <urn:uuid:9c5802d2-6e61-4d91-9f51-ba673baf1936> | {
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Movement of Water
Surface movement includes rivers, streams, creeks, lakes, ponds, and human-made "flood" control. All surface water is trying to reach sea level due to gravity. As water flows in channels, the streambed and banks of the channel will resist the flow of water. The velocity of the water is dependant on steepness of the slope, type of rock or soil, amount of vegetation, shape of stream bed, and obstructions. Surface water provides the liquid where most evaporation takes place.
Groundwater refers to water that has penetrated the soil or bedrock and moves through rocks that have a high pore space. The water comes from infiltration of surface waters including lakes, rivers, recharge ponds, and even waste-water treatment systems. Groundwater is also affected by the force of gravity. However, because of some of the properties of water, it can pool in higher area and actually defy gravity in some cases. The water stable is the upper level of the saturated zone of groundwater.
Rivers, streams and creeks are a surface water system with a network of channels that collect and move runoff. Runoff is excess water that is not adsorbed by the surrounding area. Runoff can be created by rainfall, melting snow, or groundwater discharge. The shape of the river system will depend on the topography, the type of rock or soil it is traveling through, and the style of its biological diversity. For instance, pine trees require a lot of water to grow. Runoff in a pine tree forest would be less than if the area was populated by oak trees. Oak trees require less water than pine, so more water would be available as runoff.
Rivers and streams change depending on the amount of water that flows throughout the year. This relies on a continuous source of water is from the surface or subsurface. A perennial flow is a channel that has water all year round. An example would be the great rivers of the world including the Ganges River (India), Amazon River (South America), or the Nile River (Africa). An intermittent stream would be a flow that is more than 50% during the year. An ephemeral flow generally refers to a stream or creek that only has water part of the year. This is usually in areas, like deserts, that are dry most of the year, but do have maybe 2 months of rain.
Surface flows will wiggle and wind through the surface landforms. There are many flow types depending on the velocity of the river. If the velocity is high, it tends to cut into bedrock in a "straight" line. Velocities will be high if there is sufficient relief. When the velocity is low, the stream will tend to meander if the rock type and topography permit it.
Water velocity helps to create three basic types of channel patterns, including braided, meandering, and straight. There are many patterns that grade into each other. Rivers in a straight pattern do not stay ruler straight for long! The physical properties of water and the area the river is eroding tend to have the deepest part of the river (called the thalweg) alternating from side to side on the channel. Erosion of the land starts a physical separation of the pieces. Larger pieces don’t move very far and drop out of the system. However, finer grained sediment settles out in quieter area. So water will be attacking one side of the river and the other side will be depositing sediment. Over the years this will create meandering.
In many areas where you find braided channels, surface water is just "dumped" into a lower topographic area. The sediment load is large and the river gets confused and breaks up into smaller channels with a branching, but braided look.
The flow will also dictate how the sediment is deposited, which in turn contributes to the type of habitat available to different types of organisms. Three types of bedforms provide excellent "living" space, including mud, riffles, and pools. The accumulation of fine-grained sediments (mud) in quiet rivers can influence growth for small invertebrates and fish eggs. The mud represents a "cushion", and if disturbed because of increased movement of water, can cause damage to the organisms that live there.
Riffles are relatively shallow portions of a river with a change in elevation where water cascades over cobbles or boulders along its path. The fast-moving water allows gas in the atmosphere to mix with the water, therefore increasing the dissolved oxygen that enters the water system. Behind the rocks are areas that debris can build up and act as a habitat for fly larvae and other small invertebrates.
Pools of water are areas that are deeper. When water reaches a pool the velocity of the water slows down, making it an excellent resting place for fish.
|Various types of rock sorting that can trap water.|
Ground water as it moves through soil and rock is actually being naturally filtered. Some substances like sand can help filter pollutants and particles easily. Clays in soil and rock also act as a way to "capture" and exchange some elements and compounds when they are dissolved in water. This helps to eliminate other pollutants that filtration cannot handle.
Water is stored in aquifers, which have similar characteristics of reservoir rocks that store soil and gas. Well-sorted sediments with high porosity (A) and highly fractured (C) rocks are excellent candidates for aquifers. If poorly sorted rocks are partially cemented (B), they are not good reservoir rocks. The fluid must have room to move around. An aquifer is not an underground river, it just retains the water until it is pumped out through a well or naturally emerges as a spring. | <urn:uuid:5a5ebdbf-83bf-4f4c-bf50-5ece04eafa42> | {
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The data on species level is structured in four areas (see picture below):
1. At the top in light yellow, the species' name is shown together with, when applicable, its IUCN code (click on the code and you will be redirected to IUCN's webpage with detailed information about this threatened species) and, if you have ticked the species, a green tick to the right
2. In the rich yellow field you also have the species name and a scroll function up (left) or down (right) the sequence of the chosen checklist (click on Filter if you want to change the active checklist).
3. Below the yellow field, the taxonomic tree down to the chosen level is shown (click on any higher level to get a new selection of species groups).
4. The submenu in black shows the information sets available:
* Info - species info including a distribution map, a photo and, if applicable, subspecific information and taxonomic notes
* Names [# of] - shows the species' name in different languages (recommended as well as optional names) and within brackets # of names
* Photo [# of] - all photos on the GT Network of this species and within brackets # of photos
* Distribution - a distribution map and countries where this particular species/subspecies has been recorded and also its status
* Who X - list of GT members that have ticked the species and in which countries
* My ticks [# of] - my own ticks on country level and within brackets # of ticks
* My notes [*]- a free text field where you can save your personal notes related to this species; if you have saved information you will have a [*] marker
* Literature - in which book and on which plate is the taxon depicted (this is work-in-progress so not many references so far...)
* xeno-canto - click and you will be redirected to xeno-canto's website to hear voice recordings of the species
* Wikipedia - click on the icon and you will be redirected to Wikipedia's website
* Google images - click on the icon and you will be redirected to Google's website | <urn:uuid:d54669f7-f3e7-4350-a5da-ac6342663efe> | {
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Beyond Politics: Canadian Oil and the Keystone XL Pipeline
With his decision on November 10 to review the route of the Keystone XL pipeline—and delay a final determination on whether to give the green light—President Obama had likely wished that the issue would not surface again until after the 2012 elections. But politics are not so easy, especially when it comes to this 1,700-mile long project that would carry 800,000 barrels per day of heavy crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast. To put it in perspective, that amount is about half of what the U.S. imports from the Middle East.
This week, the Keystone XL pipeline is yet again taking center stage. Republicans in the House of Representatives are threatening to hold hostage the president’s top legislative priority for December—extension of the payroll-tax cut and unemployment insurance—unless the package includes a provision that would move the decision making over the pipeline from the State Department to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and shorten the period in which a decision must be made. Obama’s response came yesterday after a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper: “Any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll-tax cut, I will reject.”
Get ready for a showdown. On Thursday, the House leadership announced that the vote will occur next week.
But why is Keystone XL such a political hot potato? Other pipelines already bring Canadian oil into the United States, although not in the quantity that Keystone XL would. For one, Nebraska legislators and environmentalists worry that the proposed route could endanger the Sand Hills region wetlands and the Ogallala Aquifier, which is an important source of drinking water, if any leakage were to occur. TransCanada, the Canadian pipeline company responsible for the proposed project, has said it would look to find an alternate route.
Still, many would not embrace Keystone XL even if the perfect route were chosen. Beyond the pipeline, there is a fundamental rejection of importing Canada’s oil due to concerns over the environmental impact of its extraction.
I recently traveled to Canada’s oil sands—located in northern Alberta—for an on-the-ground perspective of the industry. One thing was clear: the industry is massive, and at current oil prices, extraction in Alberta will only continue to expand, with or without Keystone XL.
The sheer geographic size of the oil deposits is immense, representing 21 percent of the province, or approximately the size of Florida. Of that, extraction is currently taking place in an area that would encompass all of Rhode Island.
Comparatively, Alberta’s oil reserves (171 billion barrels established) rank it as number three globally—behind Saudi Arabia (260 billion) and Venezuela (211 billion). And while industry experts won’t speculate on how much more oil could be profitably extracted if world oil prices were to increase, the amount of oil that is recoverable in Alberta today is only 10 percent of what is beneath the ground.
So Canada—the largest supplier of crude oil and petroleum products to the U.S. today—has the potential to help fill the gap in any declining supply from Mexico and Venezuela and to reduce U.S. dependence on oil from Saudi Arabia.
But Canadian oil is different and that’s a primary source of the opposition to its extraction. The oil sands are a mixture of sand, water, clay, and bitumen (heavy oil that must be diluted or heated before it can flow or be pumped). And with that comes carbon dioxide emissions that—according to Cambridge Energy Research Associates—are 6 percent more intensive than the U.S. crude supply average on a wells-to-wheels basis, or from the start of production through combustion. Other estimates place it higher.
And beyond the greenhouse gas emissions, pictures of the land devastation caused by the mining of the oil sands are a rallying cry against them.
Mining complete and now time for land reclamation, November 2011. Photo courtesy of the author.
But things are changing. For one, mining is slowly being replaced by steam assisted gravity drainage draining (in situ)—a method that injects steam or other sources of heat into the ground to pump out bitumen located more than 200 feet below the ground. In 2010, mining accounted for 53 percent of oil sands production while in situ represented 47 percent. It is likely that the two methods will have a roughly equal share of the oil production this year. And looking forward, in-situ growth may very well outpace that of mining; of the total recoverable resources in the oil sands, 80 percent will have to be extracted using in-situ techniques.
In comparison to mining, in-situ mining results in minimal damage to the land surface as one drilling well can support multiple below-ground pipes. For in-situ mining, the key challenge is reducing the steam-to-oil ratio (barrel of steam/barrels of oil) to below 2.0 in order to decrease emissions and water and energy usage to a level that would make the process more environmentally friendly. Industry has a stake in accomplishing this. Beyond the environment, this would significantly reduce operating and capital cost.
Of course, additional concerns exist around the Canadian oil sands: the effects on land, on water, on Alberta’s First Nations people, and on wildlife, among others. None of these topics should be dealt with lightly, and the government and private sector are working to address them. (Stay tuned for a follow-up post that looks more in-depth at these concerns.)
But the central point is that Canada’s oil sands are here to stay. With the Keystone XL delay, Canadian officials are now ramping up their efforts to feed energy-hungry Asia.
Kinder Morgan operates the 715-mile Trans Mountain pipeline, which carries up to 300,000 barrels of crude and refined oil daily to Burnaby, British Columbia, where 17 percent is then loaded onto Asia-bound tankers. And it is also seeking approval of the Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry 525,000 barrels per day to the northern British Columbia coast for export to Asia—a government decision is not expected until 2013.
Energy independence is a widely shared goal. So rather than push Canada to look for more routes to export its oil to Asia, the Keystone XL discussions represent an opportunity for greater U.S. engagement with Canada and with Alberta’s provincial government on addressing concerns around the oil sands. Some of which will increasingly lose relevance as extraction techniques advance.
With the world’s unquenchable thirst for oil, like it or not, Canada’s oil sands are here to stay—and to grow.
*Jason Marczak is a contributing blogger to AQ Online. He is senior editor of Americas Quarterly, managing editor of AQ Online and director of policy at the Americas Society and Council of the Americas.
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Opportunity at the Wall (Left Eye)
The navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity took images during the rover's 285th martian day (Nov. 11, 2004) that are combined into this 360-degree panorama. Opportunity had reached the base of "Burns Cliff," a portion of the inner wall of "Endurance Crater." This view is the left-eye member of a stereo pair. It shows rock layers in the wall, with a portion of Opportunity's solar array visible at the bottom right. The rover's position when taking the images was labeled Opportunity site 37, position 550. This view is presented in a cylindrical-perspective projection with geometric seam correction.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL
+ Medium resolution version of this image
+ High resolution version of this image
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Intro: Silicon Mold Making
- Saturday November 23, 10:00 - 2:00 PM
- Sunday November 24, 10:00 - 2:00 PM
Learn the basics of designing and making silicone molds. This course over two days will allow students to make their own mold as part of learning the process and theory. The Saturday class will cover making the mold box, building the clay dam and casting the first half of the mold. The Sunday class will cover removing the clay and casting the second half of the mold.
Theory will cover the types of molds, materials used and types of materials cast into the molds. | <urn:uuid:07ae886b-440b-4481-8961-7d3503c505be> | {
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Skeleton in coffin pendant, Europe, 1701-1900
A silver skeleton worn as a memento mori pendant is inside the gold coffin. A memento mori often contained images of skeletons and hourglasses. A memento mori reminds the wearer of the shortness of human life and the inevitability of death.
Related Themes and Topics
There are 631 related objects. View all related objects
Hanging articles of jewellery, usually suspended from a necklace, but also includes Renaissance examples fastened to the sleeve often worn as decorative ornaments; can also be an article of devotional, magical, or mourning jewelry which then may sometimes be concealed under clothing.
The bones or bony framework of an animal body considered as a whole; also, more generally, the harder (supporting or covering) constituent part of an animal organism.
Glossary: memento mori
Symbols intended to remind the viewer of death. Memento mori are often objects such as skulls or hourglasses, but can also be written inscriptions. | <urn:uuid:e5731488-0e3b-45a4-975a-0bad45ad0475> | {
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"url": "http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/objects/display?id=92062"
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Which are the commonest plant species in Britain?
Recently Dr M has investigated the 30 most common British plant species based on data in the New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora and the Online Atlas of the British and Irish Flora. The top 30 include species from 10 plant families including nine of the top twenty plant families.
The 30 commonest species includes eight species from the Poaceae, seven from the Asteraceae and three from the Fabaceae, three from the Caryophyllaceae, two from the Ranunculaceae, two from the Plantaginaceae, two from the Polygonaceae and one species from the Juncaceae (all posted previously) and one from the Urticaceae listed below together with a gallery of the species.
The 30 commonest vascular plant species in Britain – Urticaceae
Urtica dioica (Common Stinging Nettle) | <urn:uuid:434fba4b-76f9-4394-b69c-d334fc3b9b81> | {
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"url": "http://drmgoeswild.com/the-top-30-vascular-plants-in-britain-urticaceae/"
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