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OverviewSpirometry is a painless study of air volume and flow rate within the lungs. Spirometry is frequently used to evaluate lung function in people with obstructive or restrictive lung diseases such as asthma or cystic fibrosis.
Update Date 6/22/2015
Updated by: Denis Hadjiliadis, MD, MHS, Associate Professor of Medicine, Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Isla Ogilvie, PhD, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team. | <urn:uuid:189604a0-857a-4a09-a897-23fd999cabed> | {
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Here is the perfect networkable learning system to help you master dosage calculations. The system is comprised of three separate networkable CDs: one for Learning, Teaching and Testing. The Dosage Calculations Instructional System teaches three clear and concise methods for calculating medicaion dosages: Ratio-Proportion, Formula Method (D/HxQ), and Dimensional Analysis. The Instructional System is an interactive learning environment that leads the learner step-by- step through every aspect of dosage calculations. The assessment feature will be built for the math pre-test and the final post-test to provide students with individualized study plans with coaching tips. The system was designed with students and professionals in mind, who wish to learn or review meds at their own pace, when and where it is convenient for them.
- Automatically creates and grades online or paper tests
- Instructor's existing testbanks can be imported into the software creating a customized bank of test questions
- allows for items and frrequency analysis of questions, and class performance by topic
- the security features safeguard the testing process
- audio pronunciation of drug names, practice problems with solutions
- 200 full color drug labels on- line tutorial
- the assessment feature can pre-test and post-test each student so individualized study plans can be designed. | <urn:uuid:aa392570-b8c1-418d-a2db-f7f46c6baed9> | {
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Polystyrene foam foodservice products are not manufactured with chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) or any other ozone-depleting chemicals. In fact, Dart has never used CFCs in manufacturing molded cups. [i]
Furthermore, research has not shown a clear link between polystyrene foam and damage to marine life. The source of plastics that are the greatest concern to aquatic animals is unknown, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. [ii]
Foam cups insulate better than popular alternatives. Often, when not using foam cups, users will stack two cups to protect their hands from hot temperatures. This practice doubles the amount of solid waste by volume, and can result in more than five times as much solid waste by weight. [iii]
Recycled foam is used in eco-initiatives such as alternative energy production and “green” buildings. Recycled foam is an extremely effective insulation material, and can be combined with concrete for an alternative building construction material. [iv]
Foam recycling in California protects the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and landfill use. Many communities across the state have already implemented a curbside pickup program for foam recycling, and the rest of the state would benefit from doing the same.
What goes into your foam cup… other than your drink? Foam products are non-toxic. No regulatory body in the world has classified polystyrene as a human carcinogen, and scare tactics should not persuade serious policymakers.
Unlike some popular alternative materials, foam products are only made with one material – polystyrene, which is composed of carbon and hydrogen. This simplicity makes foam recycling very efficient, and when carbon and hydrogen are properly incinerated, the only byproducts are carbon dioxide, water, and trace amounts of ash. [v]
[i] Natural Resources Defense Council Environmental Defense Fund Friends of the Earth. Statement of Support for The Foodservice Packaging Institute’s Fully Halogenated Chlorofluorocarbon Voluntary Phaseout Program. 12 April 1988.
[ii] Courtney Arthur, Joel Baker, and Holly Bamford, Editors, Proceedings of the International Research Workshop on the Occurrence, Effects, and Fate of Microplastic Marine Debris, Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, (Jan. 2009) available at http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/projects/pdfs/Microplastics.pdf
[iii] Franklin Associates, Ltd. Final Peer-Reviewed Report: Life Cycle Inventory of Polystyrene Foam, Bleached Paperboard, and Corrugated Paperboard Foodservice Products (Prepared for The Polystyrene Packaging Council, March 2006).
[v] The Polystyrene Packaging Council, Polystyrene and Its Raw Material, Styrene: Manufacture and Use, November 1993, pp. 27–28. | <urn:uuid:828decdc-9569-4825-b021-6fccc36c4bc8> | {
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Now available for UK and Australian Schools...Find out more
It may be helpful at the end of the activity to discuss the properties of the shapes that have been drawn.
e.g. How many quadrilaterals are there? Which shapes have right angles? Do any have more than one line of symmetry?
As an extension activity, learners might consider the mathematical relationships between the shapes.
Question example: "3 × 9?"…
Before giving the answer, players must first find it on the coordinates grid and answer using its reference, in this case,
"C6. Three nines are twenty-seven".
This and other times tables worksheets can also be found in the times tables worksheets section of the site. | <urn:uuid:1f87a35f-9d5b-42b8-9015-54b7aae7f87d> | {
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As a result of the production of meat for human consumption, an annual flow of about 17 million tonnes of processed animal proteins (PAPs) is generated in the EU. To minimize the risk of "mad cow disease" (BSE), proteins from ruminants may not enter the animal feed production chain. In addition, there is a ban on intra-species recycling. Here the intention is that PAPs of pigs may not be fed to pigs of those of poultry should not be fed to poultry. The Dutch government, the European Union, and the Dutch business community want to reuse animal by-products in a safe way, but yet as wide as possible. The motivation is to better meet the requirements of social governance and to reduce the pressure on world trade in soya as feedstock.
This project aims to facilitate the application of pork PAPs in poultry feed. It is then required to demonstrate that the pig by-products are free of poultry proteins. There is an urgent need for detection methods to monitor poultry material in pork PAPs and in poultry feeds. This project focuses on the development of an ELISA (immunoassay) screening method and a qPCR confirmation method for detection of poultry proteins. In addition to the development and testing of the methods, the implementation of the methods at the companies will be facilitated. | <urn:uuid:5776fbd7-8359-4ed6-a1a8-20ddcdf54e5a> | {
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Recycling and Reuse: Batteries and Accumulators: European Union Directive
The 2006 European Union (EU) Directive on Batteries and Accumulators* establishes rules for the collection, recycling, treatment, and disposal of batteries. The Directive restricts the marketing of most batteries containing mercury or cadmium. Collection rates of at least 25% and 45% must be reached by September 26, 2012, and September 26, 2016, respectively. Recycling targets are defined in terms of average weight: 65% for lead-acid batteries, 75% for nickel-cadmium batteries, and 50% for others. The Directive establishes minimum rules for producer responsibility, as well as provisions for labeling batteries and for their removal from equipment. This fact sheet is not comprehensive; rather, it provides a starting point for readers interested in investigating the topic.
- EU Directive on Batteries and Accumulators
- Country Examples
- Some U.S. Activities and Additional Resources
EU Directive on Batteries and Accumulators
Batteries fall into two basic groups: lead acid batteries and dry cell batteries. Lead acid batteries commonly are used to power automobiles, industrial equipment, emergency lighting, and alarm systems. Dry cell batteries power radios, toys, cellular phones, watches, laptop computers, portable power tools, and other consumer goods. Dry cell batteries are found in a number of forms, including: alkaline and carbon zinc (9-volt, D, C, AA, AAA); mercuric-oxide (button, some cylindrical and rectangular); silver-oxide and zinc-air (button); and lithium (9-volt, C, AA, coin, button, rechargeable). Every year, approximately 800,000 tons of automotive batteries, 190,000 tons of industrial batteries, and 160,000 tons of consumer batteries enter the European Community market. Batteries may contain heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, silver, nickel, or lithium that can contaminate the environment if not recycled or if disposed of improperly. Virtually every type of battery currently in common use can be recycled to some extent.
Summary of EU Directive on Batteries and Accumulators
The September 2006 Batteries Directive (2006/66/EC) is aimed at reducing mercury, cadmium, and lead and other metals in the environment by minimizing the use of these substances in batteries and by treating and re-using old batteries. The Directive applies to all types of batteries except those used to protect Member States' security, for military purposes, or sent into space. The Directive prohibits:
- portable batteries and accumulators, including those incorporated in appliances, with a cadmium content by weight of more than 0.002% (portable batteries and accumulators for use in emergency and alarm systems, medical equipment, and cordless power tools are exempted)
- batteries and accumulators containing more than 0.0005% by weight of mercury (except for button cells, which must have a mercury content of less than 2% by weight)
EU Member States must transpose the Directive into national law so that end-users may discard spent batteries and accumulators at local collection points for no charge. Producers of batteries and accumulators must be registered and bear the costs of collecting, treating, and recycling industrial, automotive, and portable batteries and accumulators, as well as the costs of campaigns to inform the public of these arrangements. Small producers may be exempt from this obligation. Product markings are required for batteries and accumulators to provide information on capacity and to facilitate reuse and safe disposal. Member States also must take actions to ensure that manufacturers design appliances so that batteries and accumulators may be removed readily and safely.
By September 26, 2009, Member States must ensure that collected batteries and accumulators are treated and recycled using the best available techniques, unless a detailed assessment of environmental, economic, and social impacts concludes that recycling is not the best alternative. Incineration or landfilling of waste from industrial and automotive batteries is prohibited; only residues from treating and recycling them may be disposed of in these ways. At a minimum, treatment must include removal of all fluids and acids. Member States must send the European Commission reports on the implementation of the Directive. The first report will cover the period until September 26, 2012; subsequent reports must be produced every three years. On the basis of these reports, the Commission will publish its own report on the implementation of the Directive, including its impacts on the environment and the economy.
Development and Implementation of the Directive
The 2006 Directive repeals and replaces a directive from 1991 (91/5/EEC) following a public consultation phase, an extended impact assessment, and a special conciliation process in order to ensure the appropriate collection and reuse of batteries. Collection and Recycling Organizations used by EU Member States take three major forms:
- systems in which industry is responsible for collection, sorting, recycling, awareness program, and achieving mandatory collection targets
- systems in which municipalities and industry share collection responsibilities, but in which industry is responsible for meeting collection targets
- systems in which retailers and municipalities share responsibility for collection from consumers
National battery associations are in place in most European countries to support this work. The European Portable Battery Association (EPBA) has developed a compliance blueprint to assist countries in implementing the Battery Directive.
For further background information on the 2006 Battery Directive and its implementation, see:
- 2003 European Commission press release
- European Union stakeholder consultation
- Euractiv – European Union Battery Directive summary
- information on European Union Member State battery legislation
Belgium. In 1995, Belgium formed Bebat to collect used batteries in compliance with Belgian regulations. Costs of the program are financed through an environmental fee per battery to the consumer. Today, more then 800 companies are registered with Bebat. Used batteries may be returned at more than 20,000 Bebat locations at retail establishments, schools, and elsewhere. Recycling rates are high in Belgium relative to other Member Nations.
Netherlands. Under the Batteries Disposal Decree in 1995, producers and importers of batteries have formed an organization called Sibat. Batteries are labeled as household hazardous waste. Public information campaigns are employed to encourage consumers to keep batteries separate from municipal waste, and schools participate in battery collection initiatives. Through collection fees paid to Sibat by industry members, local authorities finance battery collection at municipal facilities and retail outlets, while Sibat members bear the costs of transport, storage, sorting, retreating, and recycling used batteries.
Poland. Reba Organizacja Odzysku is a national battery recovery organization in Poland established and owned by manufacturers and importers of batteries to perform the functions necessary to implement the 2006 EU Battery Directive and two subsequent Polish ordinances. Reba has established a system of collection and recovery for waste batteries and portable accumulators, in collaboration with a broadly expanded network of partner entities and institutions. Prizes are awarded to schools for their battery collection efforts.
Germany. The German Battery Decree of 2001 obligates manufacturers to take back portable and rechargeable batteries free of charge from retailers or municipalities, and to recycle them (or dispose of non-recyclable batteries) in accordance with the provisions of the German Waste Management and Recycling Act. Batteries are labeled as hazardous when they contain hazardous chemicals. GRS Batterian, the organization of German battery manufacturers and importers, prepares an annual report on battery circulation, collection, and recycling.
Some U.S. Activities and Additional Resources
Americans purchase nearly three billion dry cell batteries every year to power radios, toys, cellular phones, watches, laptop computers, and portable power tools. Nearly 99 million lead-acid car batteries are manufactured annually.
Federal Laws and Policy
The Act Mercury-Containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act of 1996 makes it easier for rechargeable battery and product manufacturers to collect and recycle Ni-CD batteries and certain small sealed lead-acid (SSLA) batteries. The Act:
- establishes national, uniform labeling requirements for Ni-Cd and certain SSLA rechargeable batteries
- mandates that Ni-Cd and certain SSLA rechargeable batteries be "easily removable" from consumer products
- makes EPA’s Universal Waste Rule effective immediately in all States for the collection, storage, and transportation of batteries covered by the Battery Act. The rule streamlines the regulatory process for businesses and excludes rechargeable batteries from hazardous waste handling requirements
- requires EPA, in consultation with manufacturers and retailers, to establish a public education program on battery recycling and proper handling and disposal of used batteries
- prohibits, or otherwise conditions, the sale of certain types of mercury-containing batteries (i.e., alkaline-manganese, zinc-carbon, button cell mercuric-oxide, and other mercuric-oxide batteries) in the United States
Some State and Non-Governmental Activities
Many U.S. States have regulations in place regarding lead-acid batteries, and other state laws also have been passed in addition to federal requirements. In California, for example, it is illegal to dispose of alkaline batteries in the trash. Authorities in some other states treat alkaline batteries as household hazardous waste, while state law elsewhere does not distinguish these batteries from domestic waste.
Non-governmental organizations that promote battery recycling include:
- Portable Rechargeable Battery Association. The Portable Battery Association is a nonprofit trade group that helps States establish battery recycling programs
- Battery Council International (BCI). BCI is the trade association for the lead-acid battery industry
- Big Green Box. The Big Green Box is a private national program that offers companies, consumers, municipalities, and other generators a low cost and easy way to recycle their batteries and portable electronic devices through prepaid collection services
- Battery Solutions. Battery Solutions provides battery recycling services nationwide for government, business, and residential customers
For more information on U.S. policies and laws on recycling, see:
- EPA - batteries
- EPA - product stewardship: batteries
- EPA - battery laws and enforcement (PDF) (4 pp, 78K, About PDF)
- Earth 911 – helpful links and resources
- Environmental Health and Safety Online – battery recycling and disposal
* "Battery" or "accumulator" under the Batteries Directive means any source of electrical energy generated by direct conversion of chemical energy and consisting of one or more primary battery cells (non-rechargeable) or consisting of one or more secondary battery cells (rechargeable) | <urn:uuid:7944c27b-535b-46fd-9ce2-2b45c85c6383> | {
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Walking along the beach on a hot summers day or night is always an ideal thing to do from June-August, and from September-November. There is a peacefulness that reflects off ocean waters that some how either mends a broken heart or sooth's the weary soul. You watch the dangers and excitement of surfers riding the waves as they crash down and get up again for another round. But did you ever wonder how waves from the ocean form uniform ripples in the sea, or how humongous waves are able to break down on the shore. Well I may not have all the answers, but maybe I can provide at least some. The most common cause for waves forming is the wind. When the wind rolls over the ocean it forms friction, and when friction forms it forces the water to ripple. Now, depending on the strength and force of the passing winds and how long the gust last for will determine the size of the ripples that will form. The waves that break along the shores can differ in sizes, the steeper the beach slope is the higher and more intense the incoming waves will be these are called surging breakers. When the beach has a moderate steep slope the waves are curved and high, these are what surfers call “ideal waves” and oceanographers call them plunging breakers. And finally Beaches that have more subtle gentle slopes where the incoming waves just start breaking on the ocean and by the time they reach the shore they fizzle out and just form rolling water, these are called spilling breakers. No matter how you look ate the ocean and its waves, these incredible masses are always beautiful to look at weather you’re a kid having fun, lovers walking on the beach, friends hanging out, or just sitting by yourself relaxing on the water front. This tutorial will teach you "how to draw waves" step by step. The instructions are clear and the sketches are awesome. I did a good job drawing these waves and I know you will enjoy learning how to draw them too. *Note*, if you want to learn more about ocean waves you can click here and it will take you to an informative page filled with all kinds of neat facts about waves. | <urn:uuid:fa3b6844-b20a-452a-8355-eac1e80bdf04> | {
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Bethesda, Maryland (CNN) -- Tucked away on the sprawling campus of the National Institutes of Health, an elite team of doctors and researchers search for clues to solve medical mysteries that have eluded a diagnosis.
They're detectives for a one-of-a-kind initiative at the NIH. It's called the Undiagnosed Diseases Program or UDP. Together, the UDP's team focuses its vast expertise on trying to save patients' lives and creating new science. Dr. William Gahl is the clinical director of NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute and the Undiagnosed Diseases Program's lead investigator.
"The mission is really two-fold," Gahl says. "One is to try to get to a diagnosis for people who have struggled for so long to achieve a diagnosis -- of course there all kinds of benefits to that. The second is to discover new diseases or new aspects of known diseases so we can help the entire community of individuals with related disorders."
For many people with mysterious conditions, the UDP is their last hope for a diagnosis.
"We try and be realistic about it, and get our patients to be realistic about the issues too," Gahl says. "So the first day of a typical visit, I'll go in and tell the patients, 'You've been to the best places in the country, now you're coming here. We only have a 10 to 15 percent success rate. So I don't want you to get your hopes up really too, too high.' But on the other hand, we don't want to take all hope away."
There are an estimated 6,800 rare diseases in the world, according to the NIH. The NIH defines a rare disease as one that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States. But then there are other disorders that have yet to reach the diagnosis stage. That's where Gahl and his team come in. They take on the impossible with the hope that new science can be created.
"It's really sort of the inspiration we all have as clinical researchers," says Gahl.
Created as a government pilot program in 2008, the UDP has received more than 3,000 inquiries. But it has only accepted slightly more than 300 patients. To be considered for the UDP, a patient must be referred by a doctor and have his or her case well-documented in medical records. Gahl and a panel of experts then have the difficult job of selecting who will be accepted.
"I have to take some solace in the fact that even though we're turning down a lot of people, we're still helping a chosen few," Gahl says.
Those chosen few head to NIH's clinical center for a week of complex and exhaustive tests. The clinical center is the world's largest hospital devoted to clinical research and allows the UDP team to perform around-the-clock testing with state-of-the-art technology.
But what makes the UDP truly unparalleled is its collective approach to every case. It is designed to call upon experts throughout NIH's 27 institutes to look not only at their individual areas of specialty, but how those specialized areas fit into the bigger puzzle.
After one week, the patients are sent home. That's when the real detective work begins for Gahl and his team. Using the process of elimination, they pursue every option and sift through every clue, hoping it leads them to a diagnosis.
"This is a different paradigm." Gahl says. "So this to me is the perfect amalgam of the training in knowledge -- having acquired a certain fund of knowledge -- and then applying it to cases that are not yet solved. So I find that extremely stimulating."
Watch Anderson Cooper 360° weeknights 8pm ET. For the latest from AC360° click here. | <urn:uuid:203b1886-e675-4b1b-a895-dda05c2b7ce2> | {
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Here's a comparison of some of the sections of the site over the last year. As always, thanks to everyone who has contributed so much.
Here's a comparison of some of the sections of the site now with 2007, the last time this sort of overview was done. As always, thanks to everyone who has contributed so much.
At TEDxRainier, Patricia Kuhl shares astonishing findings about how babies learn one language over another -- by listening to the humans around them and "taking statistics" on the sounds they need to know. Clever lab experiments (and brain scans) show how 6-month-old babies use sophisticated reasoning to understand their world.
For my first blog post this year I thought I'd provide you with a couple of light-hearted and entertaining looks at the English language. The first shows you just how confusing the language can sometimes be, whilst the second demonstrates why some suggest that English spelling should be reformed.
Things have been quiet in some areas of the site of late and we haven't added many new items. Sadly, work has been squatting on our lives and eating into time normally spent updating the site.
In this video, Noam Chomsky talks about language at Google as part of the Authors@Google series.
In this question and answer session he discusses a number of topics, but the first is about universal grammar in which he provides an in-depth description of how his ideas on universal grammar have evolved over time.
Another interesting question he answers at the end of the session relates to the effect of email, instant messaging and the like on syntax and grammar (TXT Speak). Hear Chomsky's views on whether this is just a natural part of the evolution of language and how it's affecting our minds.
An Illinois, non-profit organisation called Innovations for Learning has released a handheld cosole, like a Game Boy or Nintendo DS designed for education and targeted at kindergarten and elementary students. Despite its simplicity and lack of software, this device has a lot of potential for English language education.
I recently watched an inspiring talk given as part of the TED 2008 conference by Dave Eggers, a philanthropist and teacher-at-large (as they describe him). The talk shows ways in which dedicated one-to-one teaching can be provided to pupils who would not normally have access to this sort of personal tuition. What's more, the students seem to lap it up.
The successful and growing network of professionals volunteering their time to shine their light on local students of all ages is only part of the story. His novel approach to teaching and the way he makes learning fun should be an inspiration to all of us.
As Time puts it: "Many writers, having written a first best-seller, might see it as a nice way to start a career. He started a movement instead."
Since the end of 2004, we have recorded how many entries we have in some of the sections of our site, which means that we can see how much new content we have created since then.
In 2007, we put the Language Articles, Teaching Articles and PDF Lesson Plans into databases and currently have 26, 31 and 116 entries respectively. These sections are growing fast as we have an additional contributor, Alex Case, who has been adding a lot, which we're very grateful for. There are a further 14 articles in the Members' Area.
In 2007, traffic continued to grow fast, so thank you to all of you for using the site. We hope that 2008 will see many improvements and additions.
We have added a number of lessons for different levels and articles about Christmas and how it can be taught and used in the classroom. There will be more to follow in the next few days, so please check the What's New page for updates. | <urn:uuid:7ee90f3f-b0df-40a1-9f0b-8672d8c83514> | {
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Nur Jahan was the daughter of Mirza Ghiyas Beg who belonged to a noble family of Tehran. She was earlier known as Mehr-un-nisa. Mihr-un-nisa got married to Jahangir in the year 1611 A.D. and was given the title of Nur Mahal and Nur Jahan respectively by Jahangir afterwards.
Early Life of Nur Jahan
Mirza Ghiyas Beg worked under the service of Akbar and being a talented person he soon rose to eminence. He was appointed as the Diwan at Kabul and later on became Diwan of the emperor`s household. In 1594 A.D., Mehr-un-nisa was married to Ali Quli Beg. In 1599 A.D. Ali Quli Beg was given the title of Sher Afghan by Jahangir when he killed a tiger single-handedly. When Jahangir ascended the throne, he appointed Sher Afghan as the Jagirdar of Burdwan in Bengal but he was eventually killed in a combat with Qutub-ud-din, the governor of Bengal. Mehr-un-nisa was appointed in the service of Salima Begum, the widow of Akbar
, and it was there that Jahangir fell in love with her and eventually married her.
Influence of Nur Jahan on Mughal Politics
Nur Jahan increased her influence right from the time of her marriage with the emperor. In 1613 A.D. she was elevated to the rank Badshah Begum or the first lady of the realm. Her relatives were also promoted to higher ranks. She started appearing with the emperor in Jharokha Darshan; her name was engraved on some of the coins. Thus, practically the administration was taken over by Nur Jahan and no important decision concerning the state could be taken without her consent. Jahangir, who was gradually becoming accustomed to her owing to age and indifferent health, was also not reluctant to delegate his authority to his intelligent and hardworking queen.
Nur Jahan`s political career may be divided into two period. The first, from 1611 to 1622 A.D.,when her father and mother were alive and kept a sobering influence on her ambitions. The second period was that of 1622-1627 A.D. when Jahangir gave her more liberty to control the administration due to his ill-health during this period. That resulted in her ambition of capturing the power of the throne in her hands even in case of death of her husband and consequently came in conflict with Shah Jahan
. Soon after her marriage, Nur Jahan formed a clique of her own called Nur Jahan Junta. Each member of this clique was capable and occupied high offices in the state. Nur Jahan remained supreme in administration till 1622 A.D. with the help of these powerful members of her clique.
Revolts Under Nur Jahan
In 1621 A.D., Ladli Begum, Nur Jahan`s daughter by Sher Afghan, was married to prince Shahryar. Nur Jahan desired to keep the power of the state in her hands even after the death of her husband. Therefore, Nur Jahan planned to put Shahryar on the throne after the death of Jahangir. This resulted in the revolt of Shah Jahan and resulted in the weakening of the empire in his later years of reign. Mahabat Khan also revolted in 1626 A.D. and tried to finish the influence of Nur Jahan in the state. Mahabat Khan was loyal to the throne but was among those nobles who did not like the increasing influence of Nur Jahan in the state. Nur Jahan knew it and therefore, she put a check on his promotions though he was one of the ablest commanders of Jahangir. It resulted in the revolt of Mahabat Khan and he succeeded in capturing the person of the emperor. Thus, the interference of Nur Jahan in the politics of the state resulted in two major rebellions during the last years of the reign of Jahangir which weakened the empire and harmed its prestige. If Nur Jahan would not have been interested in accession of her son-in-law, Shahryar to the throne, the revolt of Shah Jahan would not have occurred and there was no question of the revolt of Mahabat Khan. Thus the interference of Nur Jahan proved harmful to the empire.
When Nur Jahan married Jahangir, she was thirty-four years of age. She was extremely beautiful even at that age. Besides, she was an educated, intelligent and cultured lady and was fond of poetry, music and painting. She wrote verses in Persian. She had an inventive brain and devised new dresses, ornaments and styles of fashion and decoration. She was interested in administration and had the capacity to tackle the relevant problems. She was courageous, patient, social, generous, religious and friend of the poor and oppressed. Nur Jahan was highly ambitious as well. She participated in administration, interfered in the politics of her time, increased her influence and tried to keep the power of the state in her hands. Therefore, she influenced the history and politics of her time. | <urn:uuid:ec7f6835-92e8-4436-bf89-431313ad3dc7> | {
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3 Rainforest documentaries exploring the fragile communities and ecosystem
The world’s rainforests are being destroyed at an alarming rate. In Indonesia, the deforestation is making way for palm oil plantations. The documentary Spoils of Destruction looks at how big business is destroying the indigenous way of life, replacing rainforest with plantations, and uprooting villagers. Illegal logging plagues the island of Palawan in the Philippines. Ecological activists face death to protect the fragile coastal rainforests in the documentary Palawan Lost. For many indigenous people in the Amazon basin, access to primary health care is a dream. However, one doctor has made it his life’s work to bring basic medicine to the tribes who live along the river. Join Dr. Erik Jennings as he makes house calls to remote Amazonian villages in the documentary Jungle M.D. | <urn:uuid:e01df3cd-5e44-4cd8-9308-e9e17c1992bd> | {
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Who or what does spider girl represent in the story?
Answers 1Add Yours
The Spider-Girl may represent the moralistic weaver of tales (the spider image is associated with storytelling in mythology, as in the story of Arachne or the African figure Ananse) who offers audiences reductive proverbs rather than complex human truths. The audience, in turn, rewards her with their business, abandoning the difficult, "haughty" Angel and his paradoxical miracles for the simple, watered-down moral lesson of the Spider-Girl. Whether you agree with this allegorical reading of the Angel and Spider-Girl as two different kinds of artists, it's clear that her simple pandering is preferred to the Angel's mysterious privacy and patience. | <urn:uuid:4388da1c-33f0-47bd-b6b2-50724a25583d> | {
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Expansion and Migration
The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 opened a large amount of land in the west to settlement by European Americans. Several factors encouraged expansion into the west. The growing population, dependent on agriculture as the primary economic activity, required more land. Economic depressions in 1818 and 1839 motivated some settlers to seek their fortunes on the frontier. Indeed, the opportunity for advancement where land — the traditional symbol of wealth — was inexpensive or free drew many across the Mississippi. In the 1840s, the phrase "Manifest Destiny" was coined to provide a sense of mission for expansion. Manifest Destiny suggested that it was the fate of the United States to expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific, spreading the ideals of self-government across the land. (Note that these ideals were not applied to all Americans; African Americans, Native Americans, women, and others were excluded.) The discovery of gold and silver in western areas drew even more settlers toward the Pacific.
A number of songs in Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, ca. 1820-1860 reflect the nation's expansion. Among these are the following:
- "The Flag of Texas, A National Song," celebrating the independence of Texas from Mexico in 1836, showed a clear American interest in annexation that was not realized for another decade.
- The "Texas and Oregon Grand March" reflected the growing spirit of Manifest Destiny, anticipating the annexation of Texas and the Oregon territory.
- "Westward Ho!" and "Wait for the Waggon" portrayed the trek across the continent.
- "We Cross the Prairie as of Old," composed in 1854 and subtitled "Song of the Kansas Emigrants," memorialized the settlement of Kansas on the eve of the Civil War
Examine several of the songs listed above. Locate other songs about expansion by conducting a Keyword Search using such terms as gold rush or west . Then answer the following questions:
- What reasons for settling in the west were mentioned in the songs?
- Can you find any evidence of the sense of mission implied by the term "Manifest Destiny"?
- What hardships of settling in the west were mentioned in the songs? What benefits of settling in the west were mentioned?
- Do you find any mention of Native Americans in the songs? If so, in what context were they mentioned? If not, why do you think that is so? | <urn:uuid:ae2ac7ae-788b-48d9-800f-35d0aa00223e> | {
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Question: A cooling fan is turned off when it is running at 850 rev/min. It turns 1500 revolutions before it comes to a stop. A. What is the fan's angular acceleration? B. How long does it take for the fan to come to a stop? I am pretty stumped with this question. I know that I have to use the equation a= omega (angular velocity)/ time ........and angular velocity= Change in theta/time ....but i am not sure how to go about the problem .......can anyone help? | <urn:uuid:9644bcf9-df84-4662-9f39-30caa5e97ad2> | {
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In this article we will learn about what exactly is a quenching process? How this process works? History behind quenching, etc. So, keep reading this article to know more about quenching process.
Let’s first start with the definition of the quenching. The Quenching is defined as the cooling process in which heated material is cooled down at a faster rate in order to get the desired properties of the metal. Quenching is often known as a rapid cooling process.
History Behind Quenching
Let’s take a brief glance at the history behind quenching. The evidences have revealed that the quenching was in practice since iron age. A historic study has suggested that in Mahabharata oil-quenching was used by warriors in the battle. But the exact study of quenching was started by the Giambattista della Porta. The Giambattista Porta described quenching in his book Magia Naturals in 1558.
In quenching, the cooling medium can be anything like water, oil or air. Quenching also results in increasing the hardness of the steel. If you cool a material quickly then, you don’t have to worry about the formation of the amorphous metal or metallic glass.
Quench hardening is a method in which the strength as well as the hardness of the cast iron and steel alloys is increased by a significant amount. In quench hardening, metals and alloys are heated up to certain temperatures. Then, surface hardening is done to obtain the hard metals which are again tempered to alleviate the brittleness of the metals and alloys.
What is the Intension Behind applying Quench Hardening?
We always want a steel that have a martensitic structure. The steel with martensitic structure is highly useful in various applications. Before quench hardening, the steel and alloy have a pearlitic structure. Such peralitic structure alloys and steels cannot be used for large number of applications. So, in the quench hardening this pearlite is heated up to its eutectoid temperature. Eutectoid temperature is the temperature at which the austenite becomes unstable. This eutectoid temperature is about 727º C. Hence, the austenite structure of steel is converted into martensite at eutectoid temperature.
Exact Process of Quenching
Most of the metals in quenching process are heated between 715 to 900º C. In the process of heating, it is very important that you must heat the material at constant temperature. Constant temperature heating results in achieving the desired properties of the metal.
The second thing that you have to done after heating is drenching or we can say soaking. The material or heated work pieces are drenched in the mediums like vacuum or air. The workpieces must be soaked in the salt or sand for 6 minutes and the surrounding temperature must be constant during soaking.
Some of you may think that soaking and cooling are similar. But both soaking and cooling processes are different. Hence after soaking, it is a time to move towards cooling.
In the cooling process, the workpieces have to keep in the quenching liquids. You use water, oil as the quenching mediums. There is a downside of using water as a quenching medium such as it can result in several cracking on the metal surface or it can deform the metal surface. One thing to note down is that cooling rate of oil is much slower than that of the water.
Quenching process can also be practiced in the presence of the inert gases. The inert gases like nitrogen, helium and argon can be used in the quenching process. In this heat treatment process, the quenching medium plays a crucial role. If quenching medium cools at a slower rate than the desired rate then, you will not get the expected properties of the output metal. If quenching medium cools at a faster rate than the desired rate then, you will get cracks on the output metal.
When the quenching process is done you may be noticed that the output material that you are getting may be highly brittle or it may be much harder than normal metal. This is due to the presence of martensite in a large amount in a given material. Hence, you have to apply the process of tempering on such metals. Tempering reduces the unnecessary hardness. For performing tempering, you have to heat the metal below its critical temperature and then, you have to cool this metal in natural air or surrounding.
Types of Quenching
1. Fog Quenching
When quenching process is done in the presence of the mist or vapour then, it is called as a fog quenching.
2. Selective Quenching
When only certain part of metal is gone through quenching then, it is termed as a selective quenching.
3. Direct Quenching
When quenching is practiced with the help of other heat treatment techniques like carburization, etc. then, it is called as a direct quenching.
Thinking about the benefits of the quenching?
There are a lot of advantages of it. Following are the benefits of the quenching process:
- The material that is properly passed through quenching is more durable and has more tensile strength. Hence, quenching enhances the durability of the metal.
- Quenching is a very easy and simple process relative to the other heat treatment processes.
- Quenching takes a very less amount of time and it is the most effective of performed carefully.
Overall, quenching is nothing but the rapid cooling technique where you have to carefully select the quenching mediums. These mediums play important role in the whole quenching process. This heat treatment technique results in enhancing the strength of the metal as well as its hardness. If you get some valuable knowledge from this article then, don’t hold back yourself from sharing it with your friends and thus, help them in getting the valuable knowledge. | <urn:uuid:ca3315ff-8d28-4bc6-a8ba-1c6237f2e3ab> | {
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The GALFA-HI Survey comprises various projects covering a diverse range of scientific questions. Some of the projects are described below.
1) The Leo Cloud
This Arecibo-derived image depicts an interstellar gas cloud, full of atomic hydrogen. It lies close to the sun, within 23 light-years, located well inside what is called the "local bubble"--a large nearly empty region inside of which we live. This cloud is about 50 times longer than the moon's diameter, but seems to be beyond razor thin. The internal motions are comparable to the speed of a commercial jet airliner. This cloud is the coldest known, with a temperature of under 20 degrees above absolute zero. We regard these properties as highly unusual for interstellar clouds--yet, as the closest cold cloud to us, the Copernican principle says it should be typical. The cloud, being so near to us, makes an excellent laboratory for the study of the gas that surrounds us in the Galaxy. Ongoing Arecibo observations will reveal further mysteries of this cloud (Heiles & Peek).
Our Milky Way is filled with hydrogen atoms, emitting radiation at a wavelength of 21 cm which is invisible to our eyes but easily detectable by sensitive radio telescopes. Galactic hydrogen is highly complex and turbulent, and full of clouds, filaments and knots. This artistic sculpturing of gas is produced by constant stirring from stellar winds and explosions of massive stars (Lee & Stanimirovic).
GALFA-HI peak brightness temperature map of a region in the Milky Way
showing complex structures in atomic ISM
3) HI clouds in the Galactic halo
Investigation of various types of Galactic HI clouds provides a better understanding of the formation mechanisms for molecular clouds, a census of the abundant cold atomic clouds, and information on the physical state of high-latitude clouds in the Galaxy. High resolution observations of halo clouds (< 5′ and < 1 km/s ) have previously been limited to individual pointings, leaving many questions involving the detailed kinematic and spatial structure of the halo clouds and their interaction with the diffuse halo open to speculation. GALFA-HI is the first survey capable of assessing the detailed properties of a large number of high-velocity clouds (HVCs). Our initial GALFA-HI observations of a subcomplex of HVCs at the tip of the anticenter complex show morphological details suggesting an interaction with the ambient halo medium and differential drag within the cloud subcomplex (Peek et al. 2007). Further, models that reproduce the observed HVCs also predict clouds at lower radial velocities that may easily be confused with Galactic disk (|z| < 1 kpc) gas. We search for these low-velocity halo clouds (LVHCs) using the initial data from GALFA-HI and the IRAS data using a new technique. This technique is based upon the expectation that such clouds should, like HVCs, have very limited infrared thermal dust emission as compared to their HI column density. Using this method we find that there exist low-velocity clouds that have extremely low dust-to-gas ratios, consistent with being Galactic halo LVHCs (Peek et al. 2008).
HI column density and central velocity along the line of sight for
a subcomplex of HVCs at the tip of the anticenter complex.
4) Gaseous environment of M33
The GALFA-HI Survey probes M33 and its surrounding environment at unprecedented sensitivity. The data show the full extent and detailed spatial and kinematic structure of M33’s H I. We find that over 18% of the HI mass of M33 (which is 1.4 × 109 Msolar) is found beyond the star forming disk. The most distinct features seen in our data are extended warps, an arc from the northern warp to the disk, diffuse gas surrounding the galaxy, and a southern cloud with a filament back to the galaxy. The extraplanar features extend out to 22 kpc from the galaxy center (18 kpc from the edge of the FUV disk) and the gas is directly connected to M33’s gaseous disk. These features are likely to have been pulled out during an interaction with M31 and may now be falling back and fueling the star formation in the disk (Putman et al. 2009).
HI column density map of M33 (contours), with colors representing the velocity centroids.
5) Magellanic Stream: Extension and interaction with the hot halo
Our GALFA-HI observations of the Magellanic Stream (MS) found four large-scale, coherent HI streams, extending continuously over a length of 20°, each stream possessing different morphology and velocity gradients. The newly discovered streams provide strong support for the tidal model of the MS formation by Connors et al. (2006), who suggested a spatial and kinematic bifurcation of the MS. The observed morphology and kinematics suggest that three of these streams could be interpreted as a three-way splitting of the main MS filament, while the fourth stream appears much younger and may have originated from the Magellanic Bridge (Stanimirovic et al. 2008).
The velocity field, of the MS tip. Color represents the velocity centroids and brightness represents integrated intensity.
6) HI in Local Group dwarf galaxies
The gas content of dwarf galaxies can help us to understand dwarf galaxy evolution and the hot halo medium of the more massive galaxies with which the dwarfs interact. The GALFA-HI survey can be used to explore HI in the environment of the newly discovered dwarf galaxies and search for additional gas-rich Local Group dwarf galaxies. Previous results using lower sensitivity and resolution data have found all of the new satellites discovered in the SDSS have limits on their HI masses which range from <13 Msolar to <3×104 Msolar, except for Leo T, and that galaxies within 300 kpc of the Milky Way or Andromeda are all undetected in HI to low limits (Grcevich & Putman 2009). The most favored explanation for the lack of HI in dwarf galaxies at small galactocentric distances is ram pressure stripping of the gas in the dwarf galaxy by the larger galaxy's hot halo gas. Local Group dwarf galaxies that have not yet been discovered are likely to be further away and therefore are also more likely to be gas-rich and detected by the GALFA-HI survey.
7) HI in the Galactic disk-halo transition region
The precursor GALFA-HI observations of a region in the Galactic anticenter reveal numerous isolated, small (a few parsecs in size), and cold ( T_kinetic < 400 K) HI clouds at low negative velocities, distinctly separated from the HI disk emission (“low-velocity clouds” (LVCs); Stanimirovic et al. 2006). These clouds are most likely located in the transition region between the Galactic disk and halo (at scale heights of ~ 60–900 pc), yet they have properties of typical cold neutral clouds. The existence of a large number of LVCs in the outer Galaxy demonstrates that the cloudy and frothy character of the interface region is a general phenomenon, not restricted exclusively to the inner Galaxy.
An example of structure found in the anticenter data cube: three remarkable small HI clouds
at the LSR velocity -21 km/s. All pixels with T_B > 12 K have been masked out.
8) The break-up of accreting gas
With the resolution of GALFA-HI and the distance constraint of 10 kpc for Complex C (Thom et al. 2008), we are able to produce a halo cloud mass spectrum for the first time and trace the break-up of the largest accreting structures in the Galactic halo. Hsu et al. (2011) presents the physical properties of clouds at the tail of Complex C and the Magellanic Stream and determines the density of the surrounding halo gas at the positions of these complexes. This paper also compares the derived properties to simulations to assess the accuracy of the derivations. The physical properties of halo clouds have been elusive for 50 years and are crucial to understand their impact and role in galaxy evolution.
The mass spectrum for clouds that are part of the accreting tail of Complex C.
For more science results check the following websites:
Highlights from GALFA: http://www.naic.edu/alfa/galfa/#highlights
HIghtlights from I-GALFA: http://www.naic.edu/~gibson/galfa/igalfa/gallery/ | <urn:uuid:13100747-4b06-44bb-ad0e-5868597441da> | {
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Cyril LucarisArticle Free Pass
Cyril Lucaris, Greek Kyrillos Loukaris (born Nov. 13, 1572, Candia, Crete, republic of Venice [now in Greece]—died June 27, 1638, aboard a ship in the Bosporus [Turkey]), patriarch of Constantinople who strove for reforms along Protestant Calvinist lines. His efforts generated broad opposition both from his own communion and from the Jesuits.
Lucaris pursued theological studies in Venice and Padua, and while studying further in Wittenberg and Geneva he came under the influence of Calvinism and developed a strong distaste for Roman Catholicism. In 1596 the patriarch of Alexandria, Meletios Pegas, sent Lucaris to Poland to lead the Orthodox opposition to the Union of Brest-Litovsk, which had sealed a union of the Orthodox metropolitanate of Kiev with Rome. For six years Lucaris served as rector of the Orthodox academy in Vilnius (now in Lithuania). In 1602 he was elected patriarch of Alexandria, and in 1620 he was elected patriarch of Constantinople.
As patriarch, Lucaris sought to further his Calvinistic purposes by sending young Greek theologians to universities in Holland, Switzerland, and England. It was one of these students, Metrophanes Kritopoulos, the future patriarch of Alexandria, who discovered the Confession of Faith, which had been written by Lucaris in Latin and published in Geneva in 1629. In its 18 articles Lucaris professed virtually all the major doctrines of Calvinism; predestination, justification by faith alone, acceptance of only two sacraments (instead of seven, as taught by the Eastern Orthodox Church), rejection of icons, rejection of the infallibility of the church, and so on. In the Orthodox church the Confession started a controversy that culminated in 1672 in a convocation by Dosítheos, patriarch of Jerusalem, of a church council that repudiated all Calvinist doctrines and reformulated Orthodox teachings in a manner intended to distinguish them from both Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.
Lucaris was forced to resign five times through the interventions of French and Austrian ambassadors to the Ottoman sultan Murad IV (reigned 1623–40). His return to patriarchal office was effected on each occasion by the help of British and Dutch diplomats. He was ultimately denounced before the sultan as a traitor attempting to incite the Cossacks against the Turks, and Lucaris was condemned to death and strangled by his Ottoman guards.
Do you know anything more about this topic that you’d like to share? | <urn:uuid:de159d43-0cfc-4f67-823f-615706698871> | {
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71. "Business is polluting the environment, which we should all enjoy, just for the benefit of the rich."
Most people pollute the environment. Some do it with sewage, some with the smoke from fires or the fumes from petrol or diesel engines. Business which uses energy tends to pollute, and manufacturing tends to pollute more than service industries. For that matter, older industries tend to pollute more than the newer, high tech ones. It is not for the benefit of the rich, but in order that the products can be cheaper that a certain amount of pollution is tolerated.
Production could be totally clean, but it would make goods much more expensive if the clean-up costs were added to production. The rich would be relatively unaffected by this, and the poor would suffer most. Society has to balance the cost of a totally unaffected environment against the cost of producing necessary goods.
Even nature pollutes, with forest fires and natural contamination of air and water. A certain degree of pollution is tolerable in the sense that it lies within the regenerative capacity of the environment. As society grows richer, as a result of wealth-creating enterprise, it becomes more able to afford the luxury of a cleaner environment, and is able to insist on cleaner methods of production. One reason why less developed countries are taking a larger share of manufacturing is that for them, the advantages of prosperity outweigh the costs of pollution.
A clean environment is not something which costs the rich money; it costs everyone money in the increased cost of industrial processes, and the higher prices which have to be charged. As countries grow richer they become more able to afford that price and to produce cleanly. Although some urge us to cut back economic growth to secure a cleaner environment, it is only by becoming richer that more people will be able to afford a clean environment. | <urn:uuid:a254290b-349f-4020-a1f3-f64e7e23fafc> | {
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After a 1500-year drought, rock art changed from an earlier style called Gwion and the Wandjina paintings emerged. The Wandjina figures have round faces with big eyes.
Credit: Jbenwell | Flickr.com
A 1,500-year drought in Australia may have led to the demise of an ancient aboriginal culture, a new study suggests.
The results, published Nov. 28 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, show that geological traces of a mega-drought in the northwest Kimberley region of Western Australia coincide with a gap and transition in the region's rock art style. The finding suggests that the people who lived prior to the drought, called the Gwion, either left the region or dramatically altered their culture as a result of the drought, and a new culture called the Wanjinda eventually took its place.
"There is this significant gap in rock art. A possible reason for that is that the climate at that time changed so markedly that the artists who produced the Gwion Gwion art moved on from the Kimberley region," said study co-author Hamish McGowan, a climatologist at the University of Queensland in Australia.
But not everyone agrees with that interpretation. While the evidence for a drought is very convincing, archaeological sites show continuous occupation during that time, said Peter Veth, an archaeologist at the University of Western Australia who is an expert in the Kimberley's rock art and was not involved in the study.
"They reconfigure themselves on the land and often do portray things quite differently, but I don't see it as a different people," Veth told LiveScience.
Aboriginal cultures have inhabited Northwest Australia for the past roughly 45,000 years, McGowan said. But at least 17,000 years ago during the Pleistocene Era, a culture called the Gwion began depicting aspects of their life on the rocks in the region. The Gwion art depicted some extinct animals (such as a marsupial lion that went extinct during the last ice age) but also groups of slim figures in what look like ancient celebrations. [Image Gallery: Europe's Oldest Rock Art]
But between 5,000 and 7,000 years ago, traces of the Gwion rock art disappeared, and it wasn't until around 4,000 years ago when a new style of rock-art painting called the Wandjina, which depicts round faces with big eyes, emerged. It is still practiced today.
To understand why the rock art changed, McGowan and his colleagues analyzed sediments drilled from Black Springs, Australia. They found that around 6,300 years ago, the type of pollen started to change, suggesting a transition from a lush environment to one characterized by scrubby forests and open grasslands. The sediments also show an increase in dust, suggesting much drier conditions.
The results painted a picture of an ancient mega-drought that roughly coincided with the disappearance of Gwion art, McGowan said.
"The northwest of Australia can undergo very substantive natural changes in climate, which in the past have severely impacted Aboriginal society," he told LiveScience, adding the climate change and disappearance of Gwion art suggest these people left the region.
But while it's likely that the drought radically altered the local societies, the rock art from the area isn't dated well enough to make conclusions about the complete disappearance of the culture, Veth said.
What's more, archaeological evidence suggests the area was continuously occupied, he told LiveScience. For instance, archaeologists find very similar stone tools throughout the drought, Veth said.
"They have identified a very interesting climate episode and it does seem to correlate with this switch — and that's the word I would use — a switch in the way people are portraying art," he said. | <urn:uuid:898e0a9a-bba3-4d58-90c9-fac31358f993> | {
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Call them the in(side) crowd.
About 25 percent of Americans hardly ever venture outside, unaware or unconcerned about breathing only stale indoor air, a report says.
In an age when nearly everything can be found (and delivered) online — including food, entertainment and relationships — it’s hardly surprising to discover an “indoor generation.”
“We are increasingly turning into a generation of indoor people where the only time we get daylight and fresh air midweek is on the commute to work or school,” Peter Foldbjerg, the head of daylight energy and indoor climate at Velux, a window manufacturing company, said in a statement.
According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, a nine-hour workday is the average for American wage-earners. When they return home on a typical day, 85 percent of women and 67 percent of men spend time doing work around the house.
Leisure time has become synonymous with television viewing, according to the federal data. Many Americans spend nearly three hours a day in front of the tube, and teenagers spend more than half of their leisure time with screens.
For the Indoor Generation Report, commissioned by Velux, researchers surveyed 16,000 people from 14 countries in Europe and North America about their knowledge and perceptions of indoor/outdoor air quality and the amount of time they spend inside.
For Americans, one-quarter said they spend 21 to 24 hours inside daily, 20 percent said they spend 19 to 20 hours inside and 21 percent say they spend 15 to 18 hours inside.
Thirty-four percent said they spend zero to 14 hours inside.
“I think, time and time again, research shows that people who spend more time indoors — whether it’s at home or sitting all day at work — they tend to be linked to higher rates of obesity, issues with cholesterol, and also mental health issues like anxiety and depression,” said Dr. Natasha Bhuyan, a family physician with One Medical in the District of Columbia.
Of those surveyed for the Indoor Generation Report, 77 percent didn’t believe indoor air quality was worse than pollution outside.
But federal surveys have found that indoor air can be two to five times more toxic than outdoor air.
Humidity, mold and artificial temperatures are just some of the indoor dangers. Close quarters with other people during the height of cold and flu season also can wreak havoc on the body. Not going outside at all can contribute to a host of health problems.
“When people are asked about air pollution, they tend to think of living near big factories or busy urban areas with high levels of car emissions,” Mr. Foldbjerg said. “It uncovers a need for further awareness and education about the impact our indoor living habits are having on our body and minds in terms of health and well-being.”
“A lot of my patients are professional who just work all day and are in front of a screen all day,” Dr. Bhuyan said. “They’ll get neck pain, they’ll get eye strain from staring at the screen all day, and I tell them, ‘You’ve got to take a break.’”
Multiple studies have shown direct and indirect benefits of spending time outdoors and in nature, including vitamin D production, increased physical activity and mood improvement.
“Exposure to light-dark cycles is an absolutely crucial part of our biology, and that’s due to the role of light in resetting our circadian clock each and every day,” Steven Lockley, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, said in a statement.
“If you’re exposed to brighter and bluer light in the daytime, then you get a better stimulant effect,” Mr. Lockley said. “You’ll be more alert and have better cognitive function; potentially be more productive at work and so on.”
But the demands of work and home can overtake efforts to go outside.
“It’s often sad because it doesn’t feel like a priority to so many people,” Dr. Bhuyan said. “But it’s those small things that add up and have a huge impact on your health.”
Small changes during the day, such as scheduling work meetings or taking lunch outside, can break up time spent inside, she said.
“You really need to go outdoors and look far away at landscapes to kind of help your eyes relax and to get outside of that setting when you’re sitting cooped up at your desks,” she said.
A priority also should be made to take exercise outside, even with the availability of indoor gyms. In a separate study of over 750 older Americans, researchers found that those who went outside at least once a week spent significantly more time doing moderate to vigorous physical activity compared with those who were active inside only.
In the Indoor Generation Report, other countries with similar results to the U.S. were Britain and Canada, with 23 percent and 26 percent of their respondents respectively saying they spend 21 to 24 hours indoors.
Countries with the highest percentage of people who spend the least amount of time inside were Italy (57 percent), the Czech Republic (57 percent) and the Netherlands (51 percent). This group said they spend zero to 14 hours indoors.
The study’s authors recommend making indoor environments healthier by cleaning regularly, not burning candles, drying clothes outside, turning on the range hood fan when cooking and opening windows at least three to four times a day to let fresh air inside.
The Environmental Protection Agency also suggests that people take concrete steps to identify and eliminate sources of indoor pollution, such as sealing off asbestos, plugging gas leaks, treating mold and improving ventilation to increase outside air flow.
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Private wells draw their water from groundwater. Geology, climate, weather, land use and many other factors determine the quality of the groundwater. Within Prince William County Virginia there are four distinct geologic provinces: (1) the Blue Ridge, (2) the Culpeper Basin, (3) the Piedmont, and (4) the Coastal Plain. The U.S. Geological Survey divides the four geologic provinces of the county into seven hydrogeologic groups based on the presence and movement of the ground water calling them groups: A, B, B1, C, D, E and F.
The quantity and quality of ground water in Prince William County varies across the county depending on the geologic and hydrogeologic group you are in. The rocks in the Blue Ridge, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain contain minerals that are resistant to weathering, and the ground water tends to be acidic having low concentrations of dissolved constituents. Generally, ground water is soft (slightly acidic) to moderately hard in the Blue Ridge, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain and soft to very hard in the Culpeper Basin. Hydrogeologic group A is within the Blue Ridge formation; hydrogeologic groups B, B1, and C are in the Culpeper Basin; hydrogeologic groups D and E are in the Piedmont; and hydrogeologic group F includes unconsolidated material of the Coastal Plain and overburden in the other provinces.
Hydrogeologic group A underlies the northwestern part of Prince William County on Bull Run Mountain, which is part of the Blue Ridge geologic province, and consists of Early Cambrian metasedimentary rocks. Because of the thin to absent cover of overburden, ground-water storage predominantly is in the fractures in the bedrock. Areas underlain by Quaternary mountain-wash deposits along the base of Bull Run Mountain may have ground water stored in these deposits.
Hydrogeologic group B underlies the western part of Prince William County and consists of sedimentary rocks of the Culpeper Basin. The predominant rock types are conglomerates, sandstones, siltstones, shales, and argillaceous limestones. Rocks within hydrogeologic group B tend to have moderate to excellent water-bearing potential because it is a fractured rock system with very little overburden. The highest reported yields in the county are from wells located in this hydrogeologic group B and this is where I bought a house. The downside is that the hydrogeologic group is susceptible to contamination- the fractures that carry water can easily spread a contaminant and without adequate overburden spills could flow to depth through a fracture.
Hydrogeologic group B1 is a subset of group B with similar rock types, structure, and water-bearing potential; except that B1 is beneath group B at 500 feet below grade and evaporitic minerals tends to increase at depths. The predominant mineral is gypsum (CaSO4) though it does not appear to impact taste.
Hydrogeologic group C, which is interspersed throughout the area of groups B and Bl, in the western part of the County, consists of igneous rocks (basalt and diabase) of the Culpeper Basin. The rocks of group C are Early Jurassic in age. The predominant rock types are basalt, sandstone, siltstone, diabase, hornfels, and granofels. Rocks within hydrogeologic group C tend to have generally poor water-bearing potential because of the wide spacing between fractures, mineralization of fractures, and random fracture orientations. In other words, unless you hit a good fracture, you are likely to have a dry well and these wells tend to become mineralized and loose flow over time. The best wells are in the basalt.
Hydrogeologic group D is located within the Piedmont formation and consists of three igneous plutons in the eastern part of Prince William County: the Goldvein, Lake Jackson, and Occoquan Plutons. Rocks within hydrogeologic group D tend to have moderate water-bearing potential and ground-water storage tends to be predominantly in the overburden. Wells in this area are most susceptible to drought and tend to be slightly acidic.
Hydrogeologic group E is also in the Piedmont formation in the eastern part of the county, and consists of metasedimentary, metavolcanic, and other metamorphic rocks. Rocks within hydrogeologic group E tend to have poor to moderate water-bearing potential, and thin- to thick cover of overburden. Similar to the rocks of hydrogeologic group D, ground-water storage tends to be predominantly in the overburden. Some of the poorest yielding wells are located in this hydrogeologic group.
Hydrogeologic group F is an approximately 5 mi in width, at the very eastern edge of Prince William County. This area is east of the Fall Zone in the Coastal Plain. The geology consists predominately of sand, silt, clay, lignite, gravel, soil, and weathered bedrock. Because of the sand and gravel this area tends to have very good to excellent water-bearing potential and wells in the Potomac Formation of the Coastal Plain tend to have high yields. There is a possible interconnection between the aquifers and the Potomac River.
Generally speaking, the groundwater in the county is recharged in elevated areas between stream valleys and channels and discharges to streams and estuaries. The paths and duration of groundwater flow are different between consolidated rocks and unconsolidated material. Groundwater in the consolidated rocks flows through the system of fractures following a circuitous path before discharging to a stream or estuary. In unconsolidated material, ground water generally follows a direct path from the recharge area to the discharge area. Well yields tend to be highest in the rocks of hydrogeologic groups B and B1, which can be attributed to the closely spaced fractures, joints, and bedding-plane of this fractured rock system. This area is most likely to produce a reliable and water rich well. Well yield in hydrogeologic group C range widely with the best yield coming from the basalt.. | <urn:uuid:f79c3bbf-df11-45c0-893b-c25570fa37ce> | {
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Styles and Formating
- General Text
- Image Formating
- Tempate Parts
Using images on the web is much different than using them in print pieces. The main difference is that every image you include on your website must be downloaded by the user. For this reason, images on the web must be sized appropiatly and optimized to be file-size efficient.
Optimizing an Image
To optimize an image, you will need to have image-editing software installed on your computer. Some options include Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe FireWorks, and GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). GIMP is a good free alternative to the Adobe products. No matter which program you use, here are a few principles to master:
Size the image appropiatly
Images for use in print materials generally have a resolution of around 300 dpi (dots per inch), however, images are viewed online at 72 ppi (pixels per inch). If you were to upload a 300 dpi image to the web, this would waste bandwidth resources and take the user much longer to download. For this reason, the first thing you should do when preparing your image for the web is decrease the resolution to 72 ppi.
After the resolution has been adjusted, the dimensions must be altered. Resize the image to the exact dimensions you plan to use on the web. If you size the image too large and scale it down in the CMS, you will be wasting bandwidth by transmitting an image larger than you needed to your users. For example, the image to the right is 250 pixels wide and 375 pixels high. I am displaying it at exactly the same size, so there was no wasted bandwidth.
Use the right kind of compression for the image
The two most popular image types used on the web are JPG and GIF, both of which are used for different types of images. The goal in image compression is to create a balance between image quality and image file-size. Try to keep an average size image (right) under 40K.
- Use JPG compression when the image is a photograph or contains gradient color. When saving an image as a JPG, start with the quality at around 50%. Increase or decrease the quality until you reach a happy medium between image quality and file-size. The above image was saved at 50% compression, which resulted in a 29K file.
- Use GIF compression when the image has large areas of solid color; for example, most illustrations and graphs compress well as GIFs. Instead of using a percentage of quality like JPG compression, GIF compression is based on number of colors. Start out with your image at 32 colors. Increase or decrease the number of colors until you reach a happy medium between image quality and file-size. The image to the right was saved with 16 colors, resulting in a 4K file.
If you need more detailed instructions on how to save images for the web, there are many great tutorials on the web. Including Optimizing Images for the Web with PhotoShop or Getting Images out of Gimp.
Some more tips
- Make sure your images are in the RGB color mode as opposed to CMYK.
- Bigger is not always better.
Placing the image in the CMS
Similar to plain paragraph text, images do not need any styles to be applied to them in the CMS aside from alignment. In the image's properties under "Alignment," choose an alignment of none (""), "left" or "right." The other alignment options, such as "middle," are only useful if your image is within an HTML table. If your image is not within a table, please only use alignments of none, left or right. The template's stylesheet will take care of the rest. | <urn:uuid:ecc8bb6e-05a9-419a-afd2-d7706150784e> | {
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It is generally supposed
that the race called "Scotch-Irish" had its origin from the union of the
Scotch and the Irish. That is to say, if a Scotchman marries an Irish lady
from the South of Ireland, who is a Celt of the ancient tribe of Tuatha De
Danann, the offspring will be Scotch-Irish. While that is true, yet there
was originally an unmixed race called "Scotch-Irish."
A writer has lately
advanced the idea that there is not a distinct race known in history as
"Scotch-Irish." If we have with us German-Americans, then upon the same
principle there was once a people in Ireland called "Scotch-Irish." That
is to say, a race called "Milesians" or "Scoti," located in Ireland and
became world-renowned as advocates of learning, morals, and Christian
civilization which has never been surpassed by any other race.
The Scots, as a distinct
race, are supposed to have migrated from Asia to Europe in an early day.
Their history, however, is obscure until we find them located on an island
called "Ireland.' That is to say, they were Scots by origin, and Irish by
choice. They called the island "Scots" or "Scotland." Hence after the
island took the name of "Hibernia" or "Ireland," the inhabitants were
called "Erse" or "Irish." So also, when the Scots who were born in Ireland
settled in Caledonia, they were called "Erse" by the Caledonians (Caledones
and Picts) to distinguish them as being of Irish birth. Therefore, the
Scots of Scotland and the Irish in the North of Ireland, who are descended
from the ancient Scoti, are the real Scotch-Irish; and when the race was
crossed by intermarriage with the Caledonians, the offspring was said to
be of Scotch-Irish descent. In history, however, the people of Scotland
are known as "Scots," and those of Ireland are called "Irish;" and yet the
people of the North of Ireland are a distinct race from those of the
South. That is to say, the former are said to be a Celtic race called
"Scotch-Irish," while the latter are Celtic Irish, belonging to an
entirely different tribe.
The history of the
Scotch-Irish race is exceedingly interesting to those who admire all that
is lovely in a true Christian character, all that is elevating in morals
and honorable in politics. They are indeed a chosen race, for all through
the ages they have had a sublime regard for civil and religious liberty,
and a devotion to a code of morals unsurpassed by the Hebrews in their
When Christianity dawned
upon a world in moral darkness, the Scotch-Irish were among the first to
catch its refulgent rays as they began to beam upon Europe, and by
accepting its teachings they were soon converted into a noble race of
Christian men and women.
History reveals five
principal or grand characteristics in the life of the Scotch-Irish race.
1. They are of ancient
origin. It is said that Japheth, the third son of Noah, was the father of
the Indo-pelasgian race, and that Gomer, his eldest son, was the
progenitor of the Gaelic or Celtic race, five branches of which settled in
Hibernia and Caledonia. Hence we have those countries to examine in search
of the history of the Scotch-Irish race.
Hibernia, or Ireland.
We learn from "Alden's
Manifold Cyclopedia" that "Irish historians claim that their country was
first inhabited by Celts under Nemedius, and after remaining two hundred
and seventeen years they left the island in three bands or tribes: the
Firbolgs, Tuatha De Danann, and Cymri. The Firbolgs returned to Ireland
and established a kingdom, 1934 B.C.; but after thirty-six years they were
driven out by their kinsmen, the Tuatha De Danann."
It is supposed by many
historians that the Milesians or Scoti under Heber and Hereman came over
from Galicia, Spain, 500 B.C. and conquered Ireland, and set up a kingdom
which had one hundred and seventy-one reigning kings. They called the
island "Scotia" or "Scotland," and held undisputed sway for several
hundred years. I think it probable that when the tribe left the plain of
Shinar they first settled in Iona, Asia Minor, and near or in Miletus, and
when they went into Spain under their King Milesius, they assumed or were
given the name of "Milesians" or "Scoti." After establishing themselves in
Ireland, they sent out colonies to settle Caledonia and Britain, as we
shall see hereafter.
The Scoti embraced
Christianity soon after the apostles were scattered from Palestine; and
they maintained their own ecclesiastical polity until finally subdued by
the missionaries of Rorne.
The pope of Rome, having
gained ecclesiastical sway over Ireland, suppressed Culdeeism and issued
his bull 1174, granting the temporal kingdom of Ireland to Henry II. of
England upon the payment of a stipulated fee. Thus was combined the throne
of England and the ecclesiastical power of Rome to overthrow the civil and
religious authority of the Scotch-Irish in Ireland. As one province after
another had to submit to a foreign yoke, the Scotch-Irish retreated to the
north, leaving the invaders and the ancient Celts to inhabit the conquered
territory. The last kingdom to submit to England was Ulster.
About the year 1175 De
Courci, an English knight, determined to try to subjugate Ulster. "It is
said that in defiance of all authority, he set off at the head of a band
of soldiers for Downpatrick, the capital of Ulster. The inhabitants of the
city were aroused at daybreak from their sleep by the sound of the English
bugles, and starting up saw the streets filled with armed troops. The
houses were forced open and plundered, and the soldiers were soon masters
of the town. O'Niel, the king of Ulster, came forward boldly to oppose the
invaders, and a hard-fought battle took place, which ended in the complete
overthrow of the Irish, and the establishment of De Courci's authority in
Ulster." It is proper to say that the people of Ulster were taken by
surprise, as they were then obedient subjects of ecclesiastical Rome, and
King Henry II. had agreed to allow every province to remain undisturbed
that paid its tribute for the pope.
The Scotch-Irish of Ulster
having been overpowered by England and being forced to adopt the
semichristian civilization of Pagan Rome, soon relapsed into idolatry, and
became demoralized as a race. It is not true, however, as some would have
us believe, that the old Culdee faith was wholly obliterated from the
minds and hearts of the ancient Scotch-Irish of Ulster during the Dark
As their progenitors had
kept the faith untarnished in the Highlands of Scotland, it is highly
probable that they kept up a communication with their brethren in Ireland,
and thus by tradition some of them at least were aware of the struggle of
their forefathers to maintain the old Culdee faith of civil and religious
Caledonia, or Scotland.
Amid the conflicting views
of historians we may reasonably conclude that Caledonia was first settled
by two Celtic tribes, the Caledones and the Picts. The former wore
probably the first settlers, from whom the country took its name. It
appears that the Picts became the ruling power, and established the
Pictish monarchy, and the inhabitants were afterward known as
The views of writers
conflict as to the early history of Caledonia. It is probable that the
Caledones and the Picts had petty kingdoms. But finally the Picts
conquered the Caledonians and established the Pictish monarchy over the
whole of Caledonia, except that portion which had been subdued by the
Scotch-Irish. It appears from undoubted history that the latter conquered
the Britons in the Lowlands and laid the foundation for the Caledonian or
It is difficult to arrive
at the exact date when the Scotch-Irish emigrated from Ireland to
Caledonia. In looking over "Hayden's Book of Dates," we find it stated
that Fergus I. founded the Caledonian monarchy 330 B.C. As evidence that
he was neither a Cale-done nor a Pict, I quote from Anderson: "Fergus, a
brave prince) came from Ireland with an army of Scots, and was chosen
king. Having defeated the Britons and slain their king, Coelus, the
kingdom of the Scots was entailed upon his posterity forever. He went to
Ireland, and having settled his affairs there, was drowned on his return,
launching from the shore near the harbor called "Carrick-fergus to this
Thus we find the
Scotch-Irish invading Caledonia 330 B.C., or about one hundred and seventy
years after their forefathers, the Scoti, settled in Ireland.
After the death of Fergus
I., we know but little of the history of the Scots in Caledonia until the
second importation from Ireland. Venerable Bede, in speaking of Caledonia,
says: "It retained this name until A.D. 258, when it was invaded by a
tribe from Ireland and called 'Scotia.' The ancient inhabitants appear to
have been Caledonians and Picts, tribes of the Celts." In speaking of the
third importation of Scotch-Irish from Ireland, A.D. 306, Bede says: "The
Scots, having driven the Picts into the north, settled in the Lowlands and
gave their name to the whole country. Hence the remarkable distinction of
language, habits, customs, and persons between the Highlanders and the
southern inhabitants." This distinction is due, in a great measure, to the
fact that the Scotch-Irish intermarried with the Caledones and the Picts
in the north, and became one people in language, etc.; while on the other
hand, the Scotch-Irish also intermarried with the ancient Britons in the
north of England, and hence the difference between the north and south of
Scotland at the present time. Thus, then, the Highlanders of to-day are
Scotch-Irish as well as the Lowlanders and those in the North of Ireland.
We find Eugenius I. on the
throne of Caledonia, A.D. 357. He was killed in battle by Maximus, the
Roman general, and the confederate Picts. Boece and Buchanan say that
"with this battle ended the kingdom of the Scots, after having existed
from the coronation of Fergus I., a period of seven hundred and six
Anderson tells us that
Fergus II. again revived the Caledonian monarchy, A.D. 404. Hayden says
that "after many wars, Kenneth II., king of the Scoti, subdued the
Caledonians and Picts, and united the whole country under one monarchy,
A.D. 838, then named Scotland, and in A.D. 843 he became the first sole
monarch of all Scotland."
Historians tell us that
Kenneth was the son of Alpin, king of the Scots, who was descended, in the
female line, from the ancient sovereign of the Picts. Thus we see the
early amalgamation of the Scotch-Irish and the Caledonians, and hence the
disagreement of historians as to the real founders of the Caledonian
monarchy. Or in other words, they failed to make the proper distinction
between the Pictish kingdom in the north and the Scotch-Irish kingdom in
the south, which was afterward called the "Caledonian Monarchy," of which
Fergus I. was the founder, and Kenneth II. became the first sole monarch.
It is probable that
Caledonia was divided up into petty kingdoms until the establishment of
the Pictish monarchy in the Highlands. Prior to that time, however, the
Scotch-Irish had founded the Caledonian monarchy in the Lowlands.
From A.D. 843 the
Caledonians and the Scotch-Irish became one nation, and were afterward
known in history as "Scots," while the Scotch-Irish in Ireland were known
as the "Irish" until after the "plantation of the Lowlanders in Ireland,"
when the term "Scotch-Irish" was revived, and is now applied to all those
who have any Scotch-Irish blood in their veins.
The question, "Who are the
Scotch-Irish?" having been answered in accordance with the best light
before us, and as the origin of the Milesians or Scoti is obscure prior to
their coming to Spain, I wish to state the fact that, as their history is
being unfolded, there is some evidence that they may have been of Semitic
origin instead of Japhetic, as heretofore taught. It is believed by some
that the Scoti descended from the Danites or Danes, and the reasons given
It is said that an old
Celtic manuscript has been found in the North of Ireland, which when fully
deciphered will probably throw some light on the subject. It contains some
Hebrew words or phrases, thus showing that the writer at some time was
acquainted with the Hebrew language by tradition or otherwise.
It is evident that the
Scoti were much more refined and intelligent than the Celtic tribes by
which they were surrounded, and made much more rapid progress in Christian
civilization, thus showing that their ancestors must have been civilized
at some time prior to their leaving Asia.
It is a remarkable
coincident that the Hebrews took their name from Heber, the great-grandson
of Shem; and it is said "that Heber, a Milesian prince from Galatia,
conquered Ireland and called it 'Scotia' or 'Scotland,'" thus showing that
they must have been familiar with the Hebrews at some time in order to
adopt their names.
There is a legend that
after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, a high priest took the
ark of the covenant, the breastplate of the high priest, Aaron's rod,
etc., and secreted them. Many years afterward those emblems, together with
a female descendant of the deposed king of Judea, were carried to the
North of Ireland for safety; where the Jewess married the king of the
Scoti on condition that her heirs should inherit the title of the throne.
After her death, the remains, together with the emblems of the temple,
were deposited in a mound or tomb, and no one was ever allowed to stick a
pick in the sacred spot, and for ages the spot has been forgotten. Whether
there is any truth in the story or not, there is a fascination surrounding
the subject that is worthy of a critical examination by expert
If such emblems were found,
the mystery so long surrounding the lost tribes and the Jewish race would
begin to unfold, and the prophecy relating to their return to their native
land, and the reestablishment of their theocratic government in Palestine
would seem probable in the near future, as we shall hereafter see that it
is claimed that the Anglo-Saxon race is descended from Joseph's sons, and
hence is a part of the lost tribes. If that is true, and if it be true
that the Jewess, who married the king of the Scoti on condition that her
heirs should inherit the title of the throne, was in the line of Jewish
monarchs, and if, according to prophecy, the lost tribes and the Jews are
again to be united under one government, then is it not evident that the
throne has been partially reestablished since Victoria of England, who
descended from the Scotch-Irish in the line of the Jewess queen of the
Scoti, is now supposed to be reigning over two branches of the lost tribes
The prophecy will not be
complete until the Jews unite with the lost tribes in reestablishing the
Hebrew throne in Palestine. This can be accomplished at any time by the
aid of England, when the Jews are prepared to accept the result.
Many years ago I became
interested in the history of the "Lost Tribes of Israel," and I determined
to examine the history, habits, peculiarity, and family relations of every
known tribe and nation on earth to see if a trace of them could be found.
After a careful examination of the origin, character, and peculiarities of
that remarkable race called "Scotch-Irish," and their similarity,
religiously, to the ancient Hebrews, I came to the conclusion that if they
are not a part of the lost tribes, then I know not where to find them. One
thing is certain: I know of no race which will be better prepared by
religious training, faith, and morals than the Scotch-Irish, to meet and
welcome the Saviour at his second coming to Jerusalem.
The fact that the manuscript referred to is written in the Celtic language
cuts no figure, other things being true, as to the probability of the
Scoti being Shemites. For the lost tribes were expelled from Palestine 721
B.C., and hence, having been wanderers among so many nations, and having
lived so long with the Colts, they naturally adopted their language, as
the Jews have done in every nation to which they have been scattered.
2. The Scotch-Irish
embraced Christianity soon after its promulgation by Christ and his
apostles. This fact is admitted by all writers on the subject; and,
strange as it may seem, nearly all Church histories that are written for
the general public fail to give the distinctive characteristics of the
early religious training and faith of the Scotch-Irish, and the reader is
led to infer that their civil and religious views were the outgrowth of
the Reformation; while the reverse is true.
Baronius, the Roman
Catholic historian, says that "Christianity was carried to the British
Isles A.D. 35." Others state that the Scots received the gospel A.D. 63.
Spotswood, Buchanan, and others assert that during Domitian's persecution
(A.D. 95) some of John's disciples preached the gospel in Scotland.
Tertullian, who was born sixty years after the death of the apostle John,
says that during his day, Scotia, meaning Ireland and Scotland, were
subject to Christ.
The early Christians among
the Scotch-Irish, the English, and the Welsh were called "Culdees"—"Cultores
dei, worshipers of God."
3. The Scotch-Irish have
always been a missionary people. This is fully demonstrated by the fact
that at a very early period we find their missionaries Christianizing
Britain and other countries. About the year A.D. 525, Succathus, afterward
called "Patricious" or "Patrick," son of a Scottish deacon, visited
Ireland, where he did a wonderful work, not only among his brethren, the
Scotch-Irish, but also among the Celtic-Irish.
It was that illustrious
personage who introduced the "shamrock" as a "simile of the Trinity, to
give the Irish an ocular demonstration of the possibility of three uniting
in one, and one in three."
After the Saxons subdued
the Britons, they established the pagan religion in the country, and the
Christians were driven into Scotland and Wales. It was not long, however,
until the Culdee missionaries began again to Christianize England.
About the year A.D. 564
Columkille or Columba, a Scotch-Irishman from the North of Ireland, went
over with twelve companions to the isle of lona and established a
theological college with a view of preparing missionaries to help their
kinsmen convert the Picts in the North of Scotland.
The Rev. J. V. Moore, D.D.,
in his history of the "Culdee Church," says: "The institutions of lona
were not designed to cultivate eremites and solitary ascetics, but to
train Christian scholars and missionaries, who would go forth as soldiers
of Christ, trained to conquer and occupy the outlying territory of
heathenism. This it did to an extent that is amazing, and only beginning
to be understood by the laborious researches of German scholars, who show
that this Scottish Church did more to carry a pure gospel to all parts of
Great Britain, France, Germany, and Switzerland during the sixth and
seventh and eighth centuries than all Christendom besides, and with this
gospel, to diffuse letters and science, industry and civilization." Some
of their distinguished missionaries of an early day were Columba, founder
of the famous college at lona; Columbanus, founder of Bobbis, North Italy;
Gallus, of St. Gall, in Switzerland; and Ferghal or Virgillius,
evangelizer of Corinthia, a part of ancient Illyria.
Had it not been for the
interference of the Church of Rome, the Culdee missionaries would have
Christianized the Anglo-Saxon pagans of Britain, and hence England would
to-day be under the ecclesiastical polity of the Scotch-Irish. As evidence
of this fact, I again quote from Dr. Moore: "When Gregory became pope, he
remembered the vow he had made, and sent a deputation to convert England,
which, after laboring for a time in the South of England, met these Culdee
laborers at work in the north." The radical difference between the Culdee
faith and the Romish is shown by the fact that they could not labor
together, and that the Romish missionaries found that the expulsion of the
Culdees was necessary to their success. Milman, in his "Latin
Christianity," in speaking of this collision, says: "One half of the
island had been converted by the monks from Scotland; the other, by those
of Rome. They were opposed on certain points of discipline, hardly of less
importance than vital truths of the gospel."
Thus we see that the
Scotch-Irish Church was a missionary Church from its foundation until
driven from its field of Christian civilization by the iron hand of an
The pure gospel flame,
however, which had been kindled by divine power in the East, was destined
at last to consume the dross of a worldly churchism and a corrupt
semichristian civilization. Its brilliancy, which was intended to light up
every nook and corner of the earth, and expel the moral darkness from the
human family, was only hidden for a time by the dazzling robes of a frail,
backsliding hierarchy and a debauched throne, in union with a corrupt
amalgamation of paganism, superstition, and a semichristian civilization.
At the dawn of the
Reformation, the descendants of those old Scotch-Irish, who had ever been
true to their faith all along the Dark Ages, again came out from their
forced seclusion, and once more unfurled the Culdee banner of the
"shamrock and the thistle," and by the old missionary spirit rolled back
the dark pall that hung over Church and state and retarded their progress
and prosperity so long.
The efforts of the Culdee
missionaries in England, though retarded, were not lost, for the doctrine
of civil and religious liberty of the Scotch-Irish gained a permanent hold
on the minds of the people. The Wickliffites or Lollards continued to
agitate the subject which eventuated in the rise of the Reformed
Presbyterian Church, the Puritans, and the Independents, and thus the
Scotch-Irish leaven shaped, in a measure, the ecclesiastical and political
destiny of England, and made it one of the greatest nations on the earth.
The political rulers of England have always been of a composite nature.
First ruled by ancient Britons, then the Anglo-Saxon line, then the Danish
line, then the Normans, and from 1603 the descendants of the Scotch-Irish,
mixed with other nations, have continued to reign until the present time.
It is a remarkable fact
that King James VI. of Scotland was a Scotch-Irishman and began to reign
in England in 1603 as James I., and every king and queen who reigned on
the throne of England and Scotland, as separate or united kingdoms, were
either pure Scotch-Irish or their descendants.
Victoria, the noble
Christian Queen of Great Britain, was granddaughter of George III. of
England, who was grandson of George II., who was son of George I., who was
a descendant of James VI, of Scotland. That is to say, George I. was the
son of Sophia, a granddaughter of James VI. of Scotland, who was also King
James I. of England. Thus we have a rightful claim to Queen Victoria as of
Dr. McCarthy, in his "Lost
Tribes of Israel," gives a very plausible argument in favor of the idea
that the Anglo-Saxons were the descendants of Joseph, through his two
sons. Hence if that is true, and if it be true, as I believe, that the
Scotch-Irish race is another branch of the lost tribes, and if it be true
that a Jewess in the line of the kings of Judah married the king of the
Scoti, then indeed have the kingdoms of Israel and Judah been "partially
reestablished, and Queen Victoria is now reigning by right of her descent
from the Scotch-Irish and the Jewess Queen of Scoti.
While the Scotch-Irish were
unable to fully divorce the ecclesiastics of England from all the forms
and ceremonies of the Church of Rome, and bring them back to their ancient
Culdee faith, yet they adopted the Culdee doctrines, and England became a
To-day the old Culdee
banner is being planted in every land by Scotch-Irish missionaries and
their co-workers, the Reformed Churches, and wherever it waves, the gospel
in its simplicity and a pure code of morals are being preached.
4. Culdeeism is essentially
Presbyterianism. That is to say, a government by Presbyters, and a parity
of bishops. I do not mention this fact in the spirit of sectarian bigotry;
but simple to illustrate the fact that from the dawn of Christianity the
Scotch-Irish have been the loyal and unflinching advocates of a government
by Presbyters, both lay and ministerial.
If my remarks under this
head seem a little too sectarian to meet the conservative views of the
Scotch-Irish Congress, my apology is that the two grand principles, civil
and religious liberty, which have ever characterized the Scotch-Irish in
all ages, have been so intimately connected that to attempt to divorce
them at this late day would mar the beauty and utility of their historical
record, which shows them to have been the great exponents of Christian
civilization, education, and morals for nearly nineteen hundred years.
Hence, if their history seems to run in a sectarian groove, it is owing to
the providence of God and the peculiarity of that chosen race.
As prelacy and parity now
divide the Christian world, and as they shaped the destiny of many
nations, both ecclesiastically and politically, it is absolutely necessary
to the proper understanding of the Christian character and political
history of the Scotch-Irish to show what relation they sustained to that
There had been but few
innovations into the Christian Church prior to A.D. 325, when Constantine
the Great, Emperor of Rome, called the Council of Nice, and united Church
and state by proclaiming himself Moderator or Pope of that Council. He had
only been a convert to Christianity the year previous, and hence knew but
little about the doctrines and polity of the Christian Church. Hence when
he united Church and state, and issued his proclamation that his empire
must be Christian, many pagan temples were converted into Christian
churches with all their paraphernalia of pagan worship, and some priests,
in order to retain their patronage, became professed Christians without a
change of heart, and continued their worship, partly pagan and partly
Christian. Thus, then, the difference between the apostolic Church and the
semichristianized Pagan Church of Rome during the Dark Ages.
It may be stated that at
that time the whole Christian world was under the Roman Empire, except
Ireland and Scotland, which had never been conquered by the Romans, and
hence a deflection from the apostolic simplicity occurred everywhere
except in Ireland and Scotland.
As we have already seen, it
was when the missionaries of Rome met the Culdees at work Christianizing
the Anglo-Saxons in the North of England that the Scotch-Irish made their
protest to the doctrine of the union of Church and state, and pagan
innovations into the apostolic Church. Thence there were Protestants years
before Luther was born.
We have already shown that
the Scotch-Irish received their Christianity direct from the early
apostolic Church, and as they were afterward called "Culdees" on account
of their peculiar zeal and religious character, we shall see that that
those Culdees maintained their opposition to Rome until 1297, when they
were suppressed. They, however, reestablished their independence in 1527,
and revived the old controversy, and continued it until the present time;
thus showing that the Scotch-Irish Church and the Church of Rome were two
distinct branches of Christianity since A.D. 325, when Rome began to
deflect under Constantine the Great.
Well may it be said that
the Bark Ages dawned upon the political and Christian worlds when the
Culdees, the true Christianizers and civilizers of the world at that time,
were driven from England by a secularized Church.
The ancient Israelites were
once the great religious civilizers of the world. All nations to-day that
are really civilized and Christianized owe their progress and prosperity,
in a great measure, to Israelitish literature, and the Christian
civilization of the Scotch-Irish.
As autocracy became popular
with the ministry, and the people became proud and vain of the pompous
autocrats, both of Church and state, the Church began to backslide, and
the bishops and priests lost moral influence over themselves and the
politicians, and hence all alike became corrupt.
Thus, then, when moral
principle failed to be the guiding star of Church and state, they both
became morally bankrupt, and hence the great need in different ages of
such reformers as Waldo, Wycliffe, Huss, Zwingle, Luther, Knox, Calvin,
If it can be shown that the
Scotch-Irish bishops or pastors maintained a parity of rank and authority
from their conversion until the twelfth century, then St. Patrick and
Columba were both Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, notwithstanding the effort
of some historians to claim them for the Church of Rome. We need no
further evidence that they were Culdees than the fact that when St.
Patrick left Scotland, about A.D. 425, he began preaching and organizing
Culdee Churches in Ireland. Archbishop Usher says: "We read in 'Nennius'
that at the beginning St. Patrick founded three hundred and sixty-five
Churches, and ordained three hundred and sixty-five bishops and three
thousand presbyters or elders." That is to say, one bishop or pastor and
about eight elders for each Church, which is Presbyterianism pure and
simple. Thus it is evident from Usher and others that as Patrick ordained
one bishop for each Church, they were Presbyterian and not prelatic
It is, however, probable
that before the death of St. Patrick he was induced, as some say, to
accept the office of diocesan Bishop of Armagh. But there is nothing
positive on this subject, for we have proof, as already stated, that he
was organizing Culdee Churches up to his departure to Rome, A.D. 453, if
he was ever in Rome at all.
Cyclopedia," in speaking of St. Patrick, says: "The story that he went to
France, where he became a monk, first at Tours, afterward in the
celebrated monastery of Lérins, and that he went, A.D. 431, to Rome,
whence he was sent by Pope Celestine to preach in Ireland, is entirely
without evidence, although long the received account. Much obscurity has
arisen from confusing two other men of the name "Patrician" with this
saint. One of these, under the name "Palladius," was sent by Pope
Celestine, as bishop, to Ireland, A.D. 431. St. Patrick's mission, on
which he entered probably about A.D. 425, was eminently successful."
It is probable that St.
Patrick, before his death, in some way fraternized with the Church of
Rome, in carrying on their mission work in Ireland, or else Catholic
Ireland would never have accepted him after death as their patron saint.
We learn that Columba left
Ireland A.D. 564, and established a Culdee college on Iona. Thus, then, if
Columba and St. Patrick had any connection whatever with the Church of
Rome during their missionary labors, why did they not preach the doctrines
and polity of that Church, instead of teaching Presbyterianism, as is
shown by Bishop Stillingfleet, when he says: "Some whole nations seem to
have been without any bishops at all. So if we may believe the great
antiquarians of the Church of Scotland, that Church was governed by their
'Culdei,' as they called their presbyters, without any bishop over them."
In the year 650 the Prelate
of Rome again renewed his effort to bring the Culdees into his fold.
Finally, in the year 1150, by the aid of the secular power, popery was
established in Ireland and Scotland. Culdeeism, however, was not
overpowered until 1297, when the Culdees of St. Andrews were suppressed.
McLauchlin, an able
historian, says: "It requires but little acquaintance with Scottish
history to observe that the principles of the old Culdee Church never were
eradicated; that during the reign of the Roman Church in the kingdom they
continued to exist, exhibiting themselves occasionally in such outbreaks
as the letter to King Robert Bruce and his nobles to Pope John, on the
uprising of the Lollards of Kyle, and finally culminated in the events of
the Scottish Reformation."
I have thus emphasized this
branch of my subject because it has been the studied purpose of some
historians to ignore or fail to give the Scotch-Irish credit for their
early struggle for civil and religious liberty, which is, and always has
been, the crowning glory of the race.
Thus we see that they have
made themselves memorable both in Church and state.
5. Wherever the
Scotch-Irish went they were the undaunted advocates of civil and religious
liberty, education and morals. If those doctrines had not been of God's
own planting, they would long since have been trodden under foot by savage
nations, and ignored by a corrupt, ecclesiastical, and monarchial
despotism. But thanks to the indomitable will of the Scotch-Irish, as
instruments in the hands of Providence, the banner of the "shamrock and
the thistle" waves triumphantly over many nations, and civil and religious
liberty is now the watchword of many that once opposed the doctrine.
It makes the heart faint to
read of the struggle and persecution unto death of those who upheld the
glorious principles of Christian civilization, and who had only the
welfare of the human family at heart.
Patrick Hamilton was burned
at the stake A.D. 1527, because he refused to recant his views of civil
and religious liberty. A papist afterward said that " the smoke of Mr.
Patrick Hamilton infected as many as it blew against."
John Knox, the great
champion of the Scotch-Irish faith, after a long and eventful struggle,
had this eulogium passed upon his life at death: "There lies one who never
feared the face of man."
Hew Michail, a zealous
preacher, was tortured to death, A.D. 1666, for his Culdee faith. Just
before he expired, he exclaimed: "Farewell, sun, moon, and stars;
farewell, weak, frail body; welcome, eternity; welcome, Saviour of the
world; and welcome, God, the Judge of all! "
Argyle, as he walked to the
scaffold, was heard to exclaim: "I could live as a Roman, but I choose to
die as a Christian."
Notwithstanding the fearful
struggle, the old Culdee lamp was kept burning, though dimly at times,
through the Dark Ages by the Vallenses and Waldenses in Italy, and the
Waldenses in France, Wycliffites or Lollards in England, Welsh in Wales,
Hussites in Bohemia, Swiss in Switzerland, Hollanders in Holland, Germans
in Germany, and the Scotch-Irish in Scotland, until the Reformation, when
it was retrimmed by Zwingle, Luther, Hamilton, Knox, and others, and
became a beacon to all lovers of civil and religious liberty.
The "Plantation of Ulster
by Scots from the Lowlands, A.D. 1605," marked a new era in the history of
the Scotch-Irish race. It was a reversal of the order of their ancestors.
At first it was a plantation of the Scots from Ireland into Caledonia by
order of King Fergus I. The Caledonians called them " Irish," and hence
the name "Scotch-Irish," for they were Scots born in Ireland. From A.D.
843 they were known in history as "Scots." It was the modern Ulstermen who
revived the term "Scotch-Irish," and applied it to the descendants of the
Scots who were born in Ireland after the "Plantation." But, as heretofore
stated, the Scots of Scotland of to-day are as much the descendants of
Scotch-Irish as are the Ulstermen.
By the "Plantation of the
Lowlanders in Ulster," God in his providence seems to have had two special
objects in view. 1. To revive their ancient brethren who had remained in
Ireland and relapsed into idolatry and ignorance during the Dark Ages. 2.
To prepare a race to people America and fully develop those grand
principles which ever characterized the Scotch-Irish race. In their new
field of Ulster they revived the faith and spirits of their brethren, and
they became aggressive and progressive.
After many struggles, it
was reserved for the Scotch-Irish colonies of America, together with the
Puritans of like faith, to establish Scotch-Irish civil and religious
liberty beyond the grasping power of kings and potentates. When Patrick
Henry, that eloquent and noble specimen of the Scotch-Irish race, sounded
the tocsin, "Give me liberty or give me death," it reverberated from
mountain to mountain, and from hilltop to hilltop, until the thirteen
colonies heard the echo and resolved to die or be freemen.
While the Scotch-Irish had
enjoyed the blessings of their ecclesiastical republican form of
government which their fathers had adopted in the mother country, yet they
were strangers to the glorious privilege of living under a democratic form
of government both of Church and state, until the adoption of the
Constitution of the United States of America, which was, in a measure,
copied from their Church government.
Thus in looking back from
our standpoint, we see that in all ages blood of martyrs has been the seed
of civil and religious liberty.
While some Protestants may
differ from the Scotch-Irish on many points, yet they all agree with them
in their devotion to civil and religious liberty, education, and morals. I
mention the fact to their honor, that whenever a Scotch-Irishman wanders
into some other ecclesiastical fold, whether he be Baptist, Episcopalian,
Methodist, Congregationalist, or Disciple, he never loses sight of the
grand principles of his forefathers, and trains his family or his flock in
the true principles of education and morals.
I presume that I speak
within the bounds of truth when I say that the Scotch-Irish have been more
devoted to education and morals than any other race that has ever lived. I
am aware that some nations have carried intellectual culture to the
highest point to which aspirants could wish to reach, and yet in all these
the moral and religious training was wanting, which is essential to true
happiness and prosperity to Church and state.
As evidence that I am not
claiming too much for the Scotch-Irish race, I may mention the fact that
while it was in its infancy there were some nations and communities that
were in the zenith of their glory under pagan political civilization, but
are now far below them in the scale of intellectual, religious, and moral
culture. This may be readily seen when we compare Scotland with Italy and
Russia, England with France and Spain, North with South of Ireland,
Scotch-Irish communities in Canada with the French settlements, and the
United States of America with Mexico and South America.
It is a significant fact
that while those non-Scotch-Irish countries all profess to be Christian
nations, yet in all of them the holy Sabbath is desecrated, and piety and
morality are far below par.
Candor compels me, however,
to say that the enemies of good government and morality are continually
harping on Puritans and Puritanical laws when any effort is made to reform
the immorality of society, and thus the Scotch-Irish in some places are
becoming lukewarm in their efforts to keep their faith and works up to
their ancient standard. Politicians, under a mistaken idea of protecting
personal liberty, are neglecting to abate immorality and to enforce Sunday
laws, which are essential to the best interest of Church and state, and
each separate community. Owing to these facts, some communities that were
once models of piety and morality now quietly acquiesce in the desecration
of the holy Sabbath and the demoralizing influences being thrown around
the rising generation.
What we need to-day are a
few more Luthers, Knoxes, and Wes-leys in the Church, and Patrick Henrys
in politics, who would dare to say to Church and state to call a halt and
retrace their steps before our birthright of civil and religious liberty
is bartered for a mess of unsavory pottage. | <urn:uuid:d47ae235-c286-4aaf-979e-ba0f2641a0b7> | {
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Sir James George Frazer (18541941). The Golden Bough. 1922.
When symptoms of puberty appeared on a girl for the first time, the Guaranis of Southern Brazil, on the borders of Paraguay, used to sew her up in her hammock, leaving only a small opening in it to allow her to breathe. In this condition, wrapt up and shrouded like a corpse, she was kept for two or three days or so long as the symptoms lasted, and during this time she had to observe a most rigorous fast. After that she was entrusted to a matron, who cut the girls hair and enjoined her to abstain most strictly from eating flesh of any kind until her hair should be grown long enough to hide her ears. In similar circumstances the Chiriguanos of South-eastern Bolivia hoisted the girl in her hammock to the roof, where she stayed for a month: the second month the hammock was let half-way down from the roof; and in the third month old women, armed with sticks, entered the hut and ran about striking everything they met, saying they were hunting the snake that had wounded the girl.
Among the Matacos or Mataguayos, an Indian tribe of the Gran Chaco, a girl at puberty has to remain in seclusion for some time. She lies covered up with branches or other things in a corner of the hut, seeing no one and speaking to no one, and during this time she may eat neither flesh nor fish. Meantime a man beats a drum in front of the house. Among the Yuracares, an Indian tribe of Eastern Bolivia, when a girl perceives the signs of puberty, her father constructs a little hut of palm leaves near the house. In this cabin he shuts up his daughter so that she cannot see the light, and there she remains fasting rigorously for four days.
Amongst the Macusis of British Guiana, when a girl shows the first signs of puberty, she is hung in a hammock at the highest point of the hut. For the first few days she may not leave the hammock by day, but at night she must come down, light a fire, and spend the night beside it, else she would break out in sores on her neck, throat, and other parts of her body. So long as the symptoms are at their height, she must fast rigorously. When they have abated, she may come down and take up her abode in a little compartment that is made for her in the darkest corner of the hut. In the morning she may cook her food, but it must be at a separate fire and in a vessel of her own. After about ten days the magician comes and undoes the spell by muttering charms and breathing on her and on the more valuable of the things with which she has come in contact. The pots and drinking-vessels which she used are broken and the fragments buried. After her first bath, the girl must submit to be beaten by her mother with thin rods without uttering a cry. At the end of the second period she is again beaten, but not afterwards. She is now clean, and can mix again with people. Other Indians of Guiana, after keeping the girl in her hammock at the top of the hut for a month, expose her to certain large ants, whose bite is very painful. Sometimes, in addition to being stung with ants, the sufferer has to fast day and night so long as she remains slung up on high in her hammock, so that when she comes down she is reduced to a skeleton. | <urn:uuid:7a9ec1f7-3496-4f94-8485-938015fa0313> | {
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KINDNESS: Showing others they are valuable by how you treat them.
Series Memory Verse: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Luke 6:31 (NIV)
Main Point: Be kind to people who are overlooked.
Bible Story: The Least of These | Matthew 25:35-40
God was kind to us even when we didn’t deserve it. Even when we were still sinners, Jesus died for us. Because of God’s great love for us, we can be kind to everyone. Jesus personified kindness in the way He lived and interacted with the people He met. But, as we read the Gospels, we find that Jesus didn’t just model kindness. He commanded it. By treating others the way we want to be treated, we live out the way Jesus taught us to live.
This weekend we learned that we can be kind to people who are overlooked.
In Matthew 25:35-40, Jesus teaches on kindness. For one reason or another, people are overlooked every day—no one even notices them, much less shows kindness to them. But Jesus says that when we show kindness to one of the least of these, it’s as if we’re showing kindness to Him.Everyone deserves to be treated like they’re valuable, no matter who they are. When wes tart to see people who have needs we can work to show kindness and meet those needs.
At dinner this week, ask:
- Have you ever received unexpected kindness?
- Why do you think God wants to show kindness to those who are overlooked?
- What can you do to be more aware of the needs of others?
The Bring It! Challenge
We want kids to Bring It! to church. The Bring It! Challenge encourages Motion kids to bring themselves, their Bible, and scripture they’ve learned to Motion. Not only can kids be rewarded for bringing it, but the Bring It! Challenge is a fun way to grow and learn more about God and how He wants us to live.
During Rewind, kids can earn fun prizes each week. Kids have to FIND Luke 6:31 in their Bible, RECITE it from memory, and SAY what our series virtue, kindness, means! | <urn:uuid:4784dad6-8d12-4f32-a95c-3ae531626e2e> | {
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Australians have been urged to take time out to think of those killed in various conflicts as they observed one minute's silence in Remembrance Day ceremonies across the country.
This year marks 91 years since fighting ended on the Western Front.
At 11am on November 11 1918, fighting ceased on the Western Front, which brought to an end four years of bloodshed.
More than 61,000 Australians died in World War I on the Western Front, at Gallipoli, in the Middle East, at sea and in the skies above the battlefields.
This year also marks the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II.
"On 11 November every year, at Remembrance Day services across the country and overseas, we pay tribute to more than 102,000 Australians who have lost their lives in wars, conflicts and peace operations," Veterans Affairs Minister Allan Griffin said in a statement.
"As we remember the service personnel of yesterday it is also important to remember the many good men and women who have passed away since their service and those who still live with the physical and mental scars today."
Australians have served in many other conflicts, including the Boer War, and those diggers should also be remembered, he said.
Mr Griffin also urged the public to remember those currently serving in conflicts around the globe.
"Sadly, more Australian service personnel have lost their lives in recent years and it is important that we recognise their service and sacrifice and spare a thought for the families they leave behind," he said.
Australia farewelled its last remaining link to World War I, Jack Ross, earlier this year.
The last Victoria Cross recipient in World War II, Ted Kenna, also passed away this year.
In New South Wales ceremonies were held at war memorials across the state including Sydney's Cenotaph in Martin Place.
Meanwhile Remembrance Day was marked with a flyover by RAAF museum aircraft and an Australian Light Horse re-enactment in Melbourne.
The annual Victorian State Remembrance Day ceremony was held at the Shrine of Remembrance from 10.30am (AEDT), with a minute's silence at 11am to pay respect to Australians who have served in armed conflict and peacekeeping operations.
The public were invited to attend the service, which will feature a flyover by RAAF museum aircraft and performances by the Victorian Girls Choir, Victorian Boys Choir and the Australian Army Band.
An Australian Light Horse re-enactment troop display will follow the ceremony.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance, which was dedicated on November 11, 1934.
British, Canadian, South African and ANZAC services observe two minutes' silence. | <urn:uuid:f209dc0c-38b4-4bbb-bdf3-8ffd2fcace63> | {
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- 1. Fortified city between Ramah and Kadesh, on the high ground overlooking Lake Merom. It was the seat of Jabin, a powerful Canaanitish king, as appears from the summons sent by him to all the kings round about to assist him against Israel. But Joshua defeated the allied forces, and burned the city, which was "the head of all those kingdoms," to the ground (Josh. xi. 1-5, 10-13). Hazor must have been rebuilt, for in the time of Deborah and Barak there was another King Jabin reigning there (Judges iv. 2), to whom Israel was temporarily made subject in punishment for its sins. After this Hazor was again in Israel's possession, and belonged to the tribe of Naphtali (Josh. xix. 36). In the later history of Israel, Hazor is mentioned again when its inhabitants were carried off to Assyria by Tiglath-pileser (II Kings xv. 29).
- 2. Village in the extreme south of Judah, named between Kedesh and Ithnan (Josh. xv. 23, where the Vatican manuscript of the Septuagint reads "Hazor" and "Ithnan" as one word, Ἀσοριωναὶν, whereas the Alexandrian manuscript omits "Ithnan").
- 3. One of the southern towns of Judah, near Kerioth (Josh. xv. 25 [R. V. "Hazor-hadattah"]).
- 4. Place inhabited by the Benjamites after their return from captivity, situated between Ananiah and Ramah (Neh. xi. 33).
- 5. Place in the vicinity of Kedar, with which it was devastated by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. xlix. 28-33). The mention of the "kingdoms of Hazor" leaves room for the supposition that "Hazor" may have been the name of a district in Arabia. | <urn:uuid:b30f77b2-6fea-40a7-ae2d-3d5a6e8d806a> | {
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By Sophie Wenzlau
The South Centre has argued that “as oil conflicts were central to 20th century history, the struggle over freshwater is set to shape a new turning point in the world order.” Water scarcity, which already affects one in three people on earth, is set to increase in magnitude and scope as the global population grows, increasing affluence drives up demand, and the climate changes. According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), “half the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress by 2030, including 75 to 250 million people in Africa.” In the Sahel region of Africa, desertification caused by overgrazing, unsustainable farming, and the collection of wood for fuel is already responsible for systemic crop failure, soil erosion, and devastating famine. Failure to act on water scarcity will lead to more of the same.
Though water scarcity will surely play a defining role in the 21st century, the assumption that ‘water wars’ are inevitable is overly deterministic and assumes the worst of people. Historically, the need to manage trans-group or trans-boundary water basins has actually tended to facilitate cooperation between groups with competing interests. In the last fifty years, there have been only 37 incidents of acute conflict over water, while during the same period, approximately 295 international water agreements were negotiated and signed. According to Nidal Salim, director of the Global Institute for Water, Environment, and Health, the potential to peacefully overcome water scarcity does exist; it depends on political will, trust between nations, and real manifestations of cooperation.
To peacefully overcome water scarcity, leaders at all levels must prioritize efforts to cooperatively increase water-use efficiency, reduce water waste, and manage demand.
Increasing efficiency in irrigation—which is responsible for the consumption of 70 percent of the world’s total water withdrawal—would be a sensible place to start. Improved water management in agriculture could increase global water availability, catalyze development, reduce soil erosion, and lead to increased and diversified agricultural yields, augmenting our ability to feed a population projected to reach 9 billion by 2050.
Currently, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an astonishing 60 percent of the water diverted or pumped for irrigation is wasted—via runoff into waterways or evapotranspiration. This does not have to be the case. Farmers can achieve water-use efficiency gains in a number of ways: by growing a diverse array of crops suited to local conditions, especially in drought-prone regions; by practicing agroforestry or growing perennial crops, to build strong root systems and reduce soil erosion; by maintaining healthy soils, either by applying organic fertilizer or growing cover crops to retain soil moisture; and by adopting irrigation systems like “drip” lines that deliver water directly to plants’ roots.
In arid regions of the Middle East, improved water management in agriculture has notably augmented both water and food security. An experimental drip irrigation project run by the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme in the Syrian village of Fraytan has, for example, reduced the annual demand for water by 30 percent and increased agricultural yields by nearly 60 percent.
Another, though less intuitive, way to reduce inefficient water use in agriculture is to reduce consumer food waste, for wasting food means wasting the resources (i.e. water, land, and energy) that were used to produce it. Worldwide, 30 to 40 percent of all food produced is either lost or wasted between the stages of production and consumption.
Not only is smart water management necessary to combat scarcity, it is necessary to help our global food system adapt to a potentially harsh and uncertain future. Leaders of all persuasions should cooperate to make agriculture water-use efficiency an international priority.
Sophie Wenzlau is a Staff Researcher for the Worldwatch Institute’s Food and Agriculture Program. | <urn:uuid:c10ed3f7-2ba5-4c6d-8100-5ce430596b55> | {
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What if you rolled a pair of dice? How could you find the probability that you will roll either a 1 or a 12? After completing this Concept, you'll be able to find the probability of mutually exclusive events like this one.
Imagine you are going to see a movie. Your friend has just bought the tickets, and you are not sure which movie you are seeing. There are 4 movies playing. Harry Potter (which you have already seen, but your friend has not) is one of them.
- What are the chances you will be seeing Harry Potter?
- What are the chances you will NOT be seeing Harry Potter?
This is an easy example of a mutually exclusive event: you will either see Harry Potter, or you will not. You cannot do both!
Finding the probability of mutually exclusive events is easy; what’s not as easy is finding the probability of events that can overlap depend on each other. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to find the probability of any two events that can be related to each other.
Find the Probability of Mutually Exclusive Events
In probability, when two events are mutually exclusive, the probability of both happening together is zero.
Examples of mutually exclusive events in probability include:
Flipping a coin and:
- getting heads
- getting tails
card from a deck and:
- getting an ace
- getting a 7
- getting a queen
colored marble from a bag and:
- getting a red marble
- getting a blue marble
- getting a green marble
What this means mathematically is two-fold. If our two mutually exclusive events are and :
- There is no possibility of both events happening.
- To find the probability of either event happening, sum the individual probabilities.
There are 7 marbles in a bag: 4 green, 2 blue and 1 red. Peter reaches into the bag and blindly picks a single marble. The following letters refer to these events:
- – the marble is red
- – the marble is blue
- – the marble is green
Find the following:
Look at the 3 events and . They must be mutually exclusive: if we pick a single marble from the bag then it must be either red or blue or green. There is no possibility of it being both blue and green!
a. There are 7 marbles and only one is red, so .
b. There are 7 marbles and 2 are blue, so
c. There are 7 marbles and 4 are green, so .
d. The events are mutually exclusive, therefore .
e. The events are mutually exclusive, therefore .
f. The events are mutually exclusive, therefore
g. The events are mutually exclusive, so .
The last two results make sense: means the probability of the marble being green blue or red. It must be one of these. And is the probability of the marble being both red and green. There are no such marbles in the bag!
There are 7 marbles in a bag: 4 green, 2 blue and 1 red. Peter reaches into the bag and blindly picks out 4 marbles. Find the probability that he removes at least 3 green marbles.
There are 2 distinct ways this could occur:
a) Peter picks 3 green marbles and 1 other.
b) Peter picks 4 green marbles.
These events are mutually exclusive – he cannot remove (three green and one other) and (four green) at once. If we find and we know that the total probability .
a) The number of combinations that contain 3 green marbles +1 other:
First, the 3 greens. We are choosing 3 green marbles out of a total of 4:
Now to choose 1 other – we’re picking 1 marble out of the 3 non-green ones:
The total number of combinations of 3 greens and 1 other =
b) The number of combinations that contain 4 green balls:
We are choosing 4 from 4 possible green balls: possible combination
, so the probability of getting at least 3 green balls is or slightly better than 1 in 3 .
Find the Probability of Overlapping Events
Sometimes we wish to look at overlapping events. In essence, this means two events that are NOT mutually exclusive. For instance, if you pick a card at random from a standard deck, what is the probability that you’ll get a card which is either a seven or a diamond? Let’s use this as our next example:
If you pick a card at random from a standard 52-card deck, what is the probability that you get a card which is either a seven or a diamond?
One thing we can say for certain is that these two events are not mutually exclusive (it is possible to get a card which both a seven and a diamond). First of all, let’s look at the information we have:
- There are 52 cards – the chances of picking any particular one is .
- There are 4 sevens (diamond, heart, club, spade) – the chances of picking a seven is .
- There are 13 diamonds (ace through king) – the chances of picking a diamond is .
- The chances of picking the seven of diamonds is .
So there are 4 sevens, 13 diamonds and 1 card that is both (the seven of diamonds). That means we can’t just add up the number of sevens and the number of diamonds, because if we did that, we’d be counting the seven of diamonds twice. Instead, we have to add up the number of sevens and the number of diamonds, and then subtract the number of cards that fit in both categories. That means there are cards that are seven or diamond. The probability of getting a seven or a diamond is therefore .
We can check this by listing all the cards in the deck and highlighting those that are sevens or diamonds:
You can see that there are 16 cards that fit, not the 17 we’d get if we just added up the sevens and the diamonds.
Look again at the numbers: the number of cards that are seven or diamond is (number of sevens) plus (number of diamonds) minus (number of seven and diamond). In probability terms we can write this as:
This leads to a general formula:
Watch this video for help with the Examples above.
- If our two events and are mutually exclusive :
There is no possibility of both events happening.
To find the probability of either event happening, sum the individual probabilities.
- If our two events and are overlapping :
A cooler contains 6 cans of Sprite, 9 cans of Coke, 4 cans of Dr Pepper and 7 cans of Pepsi. If a can is selected at random, calculate the probability that it is either Pepsi or Coke.
Selecting a Pepsi or selecting a Coke are mutually exclusive events. This means we can use the formula
Finding the probability of each event separately:
This means that the probability of selecting a Pepsi or a Coke is:
There is a 61.5% probability of selecting a Pepsi or a Coke.
For 1-6, determine whether the following pairs of events are mutually exclusive or overlapping:
- The next car you see being red; the next car you see being a Ford.
- A train being on time; the train being full.
- Flipping a coin and getting heads; flipping a coin and getting tails.
- Selecting 3 cards and getting an ace; selecting 3 cards and getting a king.
- Selecting 3 cards and getting 2 aces; selecting 3 cards and getting 2 kings.
- A person’s age is an even number; a person’s age is a prime number.
For 7-10, a card is selected at random from a standard 52 card deck. Calculate the probability that:
- The card is either a red card or an even number (2, 4, 6, 8 or 10).
- The card is both a red card and an even number.
- The card is red or even but not both .
- The card is black or red but not an ace . | <urn:uuid:240eaa2a-c313-4188-9ea5-d0a871f5391f> | {
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Nobel Laureate to discuss origins behind his invention of the polymerase chain reaction
Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013
MANHATTAN -- Kary B. Mullis, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, will offer the Kansas State University campus a first-person view of the origins of a monumental 20th century scientific discovery: the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR.
In the 30 years since its invention, the polymerase chain reaction has led to numerous breakthroughs: identifying long-buried kings, analyzing viruses, tracing human lineages and rescuing people wrongly sentenced to prison.
Mullis -- the scientist behind it all and the 1993 Nobel Laureate in chemistry -- will offer insights into his invention of the polymerase chain reaction. The lecture, titled "The Unusual Origins of PCR," is at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16, in the K-State Student Union's Forum Hall. Refreshments will be served at 2:30 p.m.
The lecture is part of the Provost's Lecture on Excellence in Scholarship and the Hageman Lecture in Agricultural Biochemistry. It is sponsored by the department of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, the department of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology, the university distinguished professors and the provost's office
"Dr. Mullis is a renowned, revered figure in biochemistry, molecular biology, human and animal medicine and many, many other scientific disciplines as a result of his discovery and implementation of the polymerase chain reaction," said Phillip Klebba, head and professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics.
Mullis conceptualized the polymerase chain reaction in 1983 while developing analytical tools for DNA. He reduced the idea to practice and obtained patents for it. He received the Nobel Prize a decade later.
The polymerase chain reaction is a biochemical process that allows the repeated synthesis of DNA in a test-tube. It has revolutionized basic research on the molecular level and has multiple applications in medicine, genetics, biotechnology and forensics.
Throughout his career, Mullis worked in many areas of chemistry and biochemistry, from bacterial iron transport to molecular biology and immunology. After completing his doctoral degree in biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, Mullis tried his hand at writing fiction and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Kansas Medical School in pediatric cardiology. He also did pharmaceutical research at the University of California, San Francisco before joining Cetus in 1979.
Mullis served as a consultant to numerous research groups in many biotech companies. Most recently he worked on the challenging project of enhancing human immunity to newly arising pathogens. | <urn:uuid:46d7e794-da5a-42b2-a8e0-570581bc92da> | {
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Two comprehensive studies by the University of California at Davis lend support to continued cattle grazing in the national forest.
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The first study, published June 27 in Plos One, is billed as “the most comprehensive examination of water quality on national forest public grazing lands to date.”
The second, published in the same scientific journal, gave the results of a five-year study that concluded that cattle grazing in the national forest had no effect on the population of Yosemite toads. Scientists will have to look elsewhere for the cause of that toad’s decline, most likely disease similar to the fungus with which the Pacific chorus frog is infecting yellow-legged frogs.
The June 27 publication was a result of a study conducted June through November of 2011 in which nearly 40 UCD researchers, ranchers, Forest Service staff and environmental “stakeholders went out by foot and on horseback, hiking across meadows, along campsites and down ravines to collect 743 water samples from 155 sites across five national forests in Northern California.”
The study area included grazing areas, recreational lands and places where neither were found. The UCD researchers analyzed water samples for microbial content, including fecal coloform, E. coli, nitrogen and phosphorous.
“They found no significant differences in fecal indicator bacteria between grazing lands and areas without recreation or grazing. Overall 83 percent of all sample sites and 95 percent of all water samples collected were below U.S. Environmental Protection Agency benchmarks for human health.”
The importance here is that about 1.8 million livestock graze on national forest lands in the Western United States annually. In California there are 500 active grazing allotments serving 97,000 livestock across 8 million acres in 17 national forests.
The Yosemite toad study was a five-year study in which cattle were fenced off from toad habitat — basically marshes. Fencing the cattle off from toad habitat had no effect on the toad population.
“We basically found the Yosemite toad and cattle use the landscape differently,” said Ken Tate, principal investigator and rangeland watershed specialist for UC Cooperative Extension. “The toad uses water areas and the cattle use drier meadows, which provides better forage.”
The results of the study found “no benefit of fencing to Yosemite toad populations.” Also, it pooh-poohed previous studies that claimed negative impacts on toads from cattle grazing: Results “do not support previous studies that found a negative impact of grazing on amphibian populations.”
A five-year study is pretty comprehensive and definitive. What’s needed now is San Francisco State University researchers to apply the same research intensity to the Yosemite toad that they did to the yellow-legged frog, which they discovered was susceptible to a fungus carried by the Pacific chorus frog, which migrated upstream. | <urn:uuid:55dbe550-8a5e-409a-90b8-10ae170a2b0a> | {
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Adopt a Black Dog
Although the problem has never been studied, there is anecdotal evidence from animal shelters and humane societies around the country that suggests that black dogs, especially big black dogs (BBDs), are the hardest dogs to place in new homes. The phenomenon has become so widespread that among animal rescue professionals it even has a name: "Black Dog Syndrome."
My family has owned three big black rescue dogs in my lifetime. Jack, Critter, and Kaleah were among the lucky black dogs who found new homes after being abandoned at the shelter, but too many of their compatriots do not.
Possible Causes of Black Dog Syndrome
- Black dogs photograph poorly. Especially since the onset of internet pet adoptions, photographs have become important ways for prospective pet owners to get a first look at their potential pets. Unfortunately, it is often harder to see the facial features and expressions of black dogs in photographs, making people potentially less likely to click through for more information.
- Black dogs are harder to see in dim kennel conditions. A similar problem may afflict some black dogs in animal shelters. In dimmer lighting, black dogs stand out less than lighter dogs and may have a harder time working the puppy eyes.
- Black dogs can look old. For many shelters, the only dogs harder to place than black dogs are old black dogs. People want a cute puppy, or an energetic young dog to play with, and they're wary of potential vet bills and the prospect of losing a beloved pet too soon. Unfortunately, many black dogs gray more quickly than lighter dogs, so even relatively young dogs can look old.
- Black dogs are stigmatized. Black dogs,especially large black dogs, have long been associated with death. In British mythology, a Black Dog is a spectral creature whose appearance is a harbinger of death. Hellhounds are often portrayed as black dogs with glowing red eyes, as is Cerberus. Popular culture from Sherlock Holmes's Hound of the Baskervilles to the Grim of Harry Potter has also commonly associated black dogs with death.
- Black dogs are feared. Although many modern people would laugh at the old legends of the black dog that carries your soul to Hell, black dogs are still perceived by many to be fiercer and more dangerous than lighter colored dogs. This may be because several of the most commonly used police and attack breeds, including the Rottweiler and the Doberman Pinscher, are black. Vicious dogs, however, are nearly always the result of poor socialization and training on the part of the owner, not of coat color, or even breed. Pit bulls (which can be black, but are generally light or mixed color), the most feared dogs in America, make excellent family dogs with proper socialization.
Take Me Home
- Black Pearl Dogs
After learning about the plight of black dogs in shelters, Tamara Delany founded this site to educate people about Black Dog Syndrome and encourage adotptions.
- Start Seeing Black Dogs
Start Seeing Black Dogs provides education and marketing assistance for shelters and potential adopters of black dogs
How To Help
For shelter employees and volunteers, read this excellent post by Shel of the Saving Pets blog: Beating the Black Dog Blues. Many shelters offer special events or discounts to draw more attention to their black dogs, especially those who are slow to be adopted.
For potential adopters, the most important thing is to give black dogs a chance. Black labs and mixes in particular are so common at pounds that it's easy for them to run together when you're browsing the aisles of a kennel. Try to pay attention to each dog and find something unique and special to help differentiate them when you're trying to decide which dogs to meet and, later, which to adopt.
Most importantly, don't add to the problem! Unless you are a professional breeder, spay or neuter your black dog, even if you think you'll be able to find homes for a whole litter of puppies. Encourage friends and family who are considering getting a pet to visit their local humane society first.
This hub was written for the HubMob challenge, week five: All About Pets: The different stories, advice and tips that have to do with them.
Come over and join the fun! | <urn:uuid:9f7fb8de-4079-4cdf-8777-005e7289da57> | {
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2 February each year is World Wetlands Day. It marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Each year since 1997, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and groups of citizens at all levels of the community have taken advantage of the opportunity to undertake actions aimed at raising public awareness of wetland values and benefits in general, and the Ramsar Convention in particular.
2013 is the UN International Year for Water Cooperation and an ideal opportunity for Ramsar to look at the connection between water and wetlands. The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, called the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
For more information, please visit www.ramsar.org
For a list of World Heritage sites that are also Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance, please click on the Ramsar and World Heritage sites list. | <urn:uuid:b4ad7a81-8191-4722-9a10-bf0edb904aac> | {
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What is the factor that Stephen stresses in recounting the Jewish history that ends up with his being stoned?
The witnesses said that Stephen was speaking out against the Temple and the Law of Moses. To them this meant that he was blaspheming by speaking out against God, when he was only repeating the teaching of Jesus when He spoke about destroying and rebuilding the Temple in three days. In our textbook, Stott asks was Jesus threatening to "rob Israel of her two most treasured possessions and even opposing the God who gave them? (p. 128)" God is everywhere and not just confined to the Holy of Holies in the Temple for the pleasure of the nation of Israel. Destroy the Temple and God would still be the protector of the nation. But what really made the council mad was when Stephen accused the council of continually resisting the Holy Spirit and His right to rule. Remarking that the entire nation was guilty of murdering all the prophets sent by God to warn the nation of its apparent apostasy didn't help his cause, but only angered the people further. What finally caused them to drag Stephen out to stone him was when he looked up into the heavens and proclaimed that he saw into Heaven and saw Jesus sitting at the right hand of God Since the crowd insisted that this was the blasphemies to end all blasphemes, Stephen was stoned until he was dead.
Stephen simply told the council the truth as God sees it, but they were not ready or were unwilling to see that truth. That is simply the way it is today for those who choose not to see God or their need for Jesus in their lives. Tell them that they are sinners and unbelievers will argue with you about your telling them that their way of life is wrong. As Stephen found out, as we often do, that when we "accuse" people about their sinful ways we, too, are "stoned" and persecuted because we are perceived as being Holier-than-thou, and the kind of people that are telling others how to live their lives. Many today have denied God and His existence to the point of being arrogant, and yet, when we tell them about Jesus Christ they perceive that we are the arrogant ones. I'm sure that to the council, Stephen seemed arrogant in his words even if he wasn't arrogant in his demeanor towards the council. And like Stephen, as long as we are telling God's truth, even if it means our deaths, we will ascend into Heaven and be with Jesus forever. Stephen may have been the first martyr, but he certainly showed all Christians how to die with honor and truth when we die in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Stott, J. (1990). The message of acts. Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.
Question: "Stephen was basically telling them stuff they should have already known"
Author Response: Isn't this still true today? Everyone knows that there is a God. I've seen enough Christian shows that talk to people on the street to know that many know exactly who Jesus is and what He came here for, but they still refuse to put their faith and trust in Him simply because they don't want to give up their lifestyle or to stop doing things they know are wrong even by human standards. Even those who don't believe in our God still believe that there is a God that they are accountable to for their wrongdoings. Jesus has gone out of His way to convince people of the truth, but too many follow the truth of philosophy or karma and believe that those who believe in these things have cornered the market on spiritual things. How do we help Jesus convince those people who believe everything they see in TV commercials and advertisements? God has made Himself plain to all of humanity so they have no excuse of His existence. We must continue to pray that the Holy Spirit will convict them of their sin. In the meantime, we will all continue to preach the Gospel that hasn't changed in two thousand years until all ears hear what God is trying to tell them. The Gospel is simple to understand until humans try to apply their own wisdom to something that God's wisdom has already made easy to hear and accept.
Question: "But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, hardly noticedhe only had eyes for God, whom he saw in all his glory with Jesus standing at his side."
Author Response: What it brings to my mind is that when we are witnessing to people and we let the Holy Spirit be in control of the conversation we are not to notice anything they say back to us that isn't the truth. When we stick to the truth, as Stephen had, we have the upper hand. The people Stephen was witnessing to may not have noticed that he had the upper hand because he was telling the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Maybe this was why the people got so angry; in their hearts they knew that Stephen was telling the truth but didn't want to hear it, just like people today know more about God than they did two thousand years but still won't accept whatever truth they know to be right. Remember, the prophet Daniel said that information would increase before the end times, but that doesn't mean that people would accept the truth even if it was right in front of their face.
Bobby Bruno was saved 15 years ago in a way that left him no doubt that Jesus wanted him to reach others with His great and abounding love. He started writing at the age of 12 and hasn't stopped since. He achieved Associates Degree in Biblical Studies from Ohio Christian University in early 2014.
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Given the recent news about the discovery of an "Earthlike" planet orbiting Alpha Centauri (our nearest stellar neighbour) it got me wondering just how fast would spaceship have to travel to be able to reach Alpha Centauri within a person's lifetime (say 60 years)?
The reasoning is that even if we sent an unmanned probe - assuming that it would be a one way trip - the journey time would have to be sufficiently short to keep people's interest in the mission so that when it actually arrived and sent back data there would be somebody home to receive the data.
The added complication is that the craft would have to slow down sufficiently so that it could at least enter orbit around the star (I'm not going to suggest that it manages to orbit one of the planets!).
I suppose what I'm really interested in how this speed compares to the speeds we've managed to attain so far and thus get an idea of how much technology must advance for us to be able to even think of achieving this.
I know about relativistic effects due to travelling at a high percentage of the speed of light - but I'm not really interested in that here. | <urn:uuid:5c4e9cc3-d7b5-4529-8ce6-7ab95a81efa4> | {
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According to a new federal report, underground coal mines lack stockpiles of breathable air and communications gear for trapped workers. This revelation comes nearly two years after Congress required the industry to install more safety equipment. The U.S. Government Accountability Office report blames the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration for failing to act faster. Among other things, the report says poor leadership by MSHA has caused mine operators to miss opportunities to install better communications equipment.
Sweeping coal mine safety legislation, adopted after the deaths of 12 men at West Virginia’s Sago Mine and two other high-profile fatal accidents in 2006, mandated larger stockpiles of emergency air packs among other things. The MINER Act also gave MSHA until June 2009 to require wireless communications and tracking equipment underground. The Act was designed to better protect the 43,000 men and women working in the nation’s 700 underground coal mines. Unfortunately, like most all regulatory agencies, MSHA does a rather poor job of protecting the people it should be protecting. It’s high time for MSHA to do its job and make mines in this country safer for miners.
Source: Associated Press
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The concept of continuum has been used in a number of contexts within electroacoustic music including Stockhausen’s pulse to pitch continuum (and similar continua applied to other musical parameters). Serial composition in the studio was largely concerned with the creation of continua between sonic parameters as a means of creating new musical languages and structuring principles for compositions. Denis Smalley has introduced the concept in relation to perceptually led facets of sound in his Spectromorphological theory. Many practitioners conceive of a continuum between abstract and mimetic material.
UNESCO DigiArts- Introduction à l’histoire et à l’esthétique des musiques électroacoustiques: Session 4 - Ruptures technologiques: révolutions esthétiques? ( French )
Bibliography: Bossis, Bruno (2003a). Introduction à l’histoire et à l’esthétique des musiques électroacoustiques | <urn:uuid:c5e7c001-55f3-44f8-8b7f-cb2cb4cb3a42> | {
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Elizabeth L. Jewett
Time and a Place: An Environmental History of Prince Edward Island, edited by Edward MacDonald, Joshua MacFadyen and Irené Novaczek (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2016).
As I read Time and a Place: An Environmental History of Prince Edward Island, my mind cast back to a scene from Anne of Green Gables, The Musical as townsfolk discuss the bad weather and the mail boat’s inability to reach the Island. One person chimes in humourously that it is a shame that the mainland’s been cut off again, shifting the central perspective to that of the island as opposed to the large landmass across the Northumberland Strait. Such commentary reinforces this collection’s emphases that the perception of islands as peripheral or marginal is relational, and that it is important to study islands on their own terms because they have deep and complex histories of human/non-human relationships that not only act as warning beacons of our potential environmental futures but also fuel ingenuities.
Time and a Place is an explicitly provincial environmental history that traces Prince Edward Island’s (PEI) ecosystems from its earliest formation to the present day and entwines tales of resource regimes, settlements, industries, knowledge systems, and tourist attractions. The introduction by MacDonald, MacFadyen, and Novaczek offers insights into the reasons for examining environmental change in one place over a very long period especially witnessed through the key touchstones of: islands, people, industry, and governance (9). It also advocates for “place-based” environmental explorations of Canada’s smaller province (10) and how islands provide useful sites to explore our environmental heritage and retrace our not so gentle human footprints.
The chapters introduce the reader to a range of imaginaries, lifestyles, occupations, and industries key to the Island’s past and present. John R. Gilles and Grame Wynn meditate on Islands, and PEI in particular, and how there is a boundedness to their geographies but also richness in their scope for human imaginations and constructions of cultural and natural histories. The former explores “islands as ecotones” and how to construct useful frameworks—spatial and temporal—for these places, and the latter considers the construction of PEI as laboratory and museum with fuzzy boundaries between the two. David Keenlyside and Helen Kristmanson explore the palaeography of PEI and transport the reader by way of the archaeological record through four periods of human presence (Palaeo-Indian, Archaic, Maritime Woodland, and Post-European contact). One of the main takeaways of the chapter is that after a very long time of “constant adaptation between humans and ecosystems”, the arrival of human populations “from away” over the past 500 years has greatly disrupted these systems, rapidly undone successful adaptations, and greatly affected Indigenous (Mi’kmaq) life (74-75, 81).
Next, Douglas Sobey paints an eighteenth-century picture of a forested island covered in old-growth trees. He then tells the tale of how everything from soil moisture to shifts in human disturbances (that included domestic farm use, commercial timber and shipbuilding) destroyed two-thirds of the forests by 1900 and then remade them in different compositions of softwood and hardwood. Rosemary Curley charts PEI’s habitat and wildlife histories and how human populations, technologies, and value-based conservation hierarchies (that include the much maligned cormorant) stressed, protected, and ultimately altered the animal populations found on the Island. She also makes clear distinctions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous constructions of nature and how they affected wildlife interactions and policy. Irené Novaczek dives into the cultures and economies linked to the bio-diverse seaplant communities in the waters around PEI, with specific focus on Malpeque Bay and the Island’s broader commercial history of harvesting and then overfishing Irish Moss. Within her narrative, these aquatic economic resources bind together climate change, land/water use, labour, the roles of women, and environmental protection (156).
Joshua MacFadyen provides an insightful history of agricultural land use that engages with the Island during its slow modernization, so-called “golden age”, and subsequent decline. And although the potato makes an appearance, the analytical focus on other components such as mussel mud collection, especially in the nineteenth century (171), hay shortages, and the land tenure system complicate and enrich the agricultural narrative of this place. Jean-Paul Arsenault continues the agricultural fodder with a chapter planted firmly in the second half of the twentieth century and investigates three major issues: pesticides, landscapes, and land use management (213). Ed Macdonald and Boyde Beck move the reader onto fishing boats and explore the long history of harvesting from the sea that intensified from the eighteenth century onward. The rise of the lobster from little-valued to successful “crop” illustrates the centrality of technologies in these environmental histories and the relationships constructed around “expertise”, bureaucracy, and technologies. Kathleen Stuart also explores technologies and a variety of other historical patterns through an examination of energy on the Island. This long overview considers the availability and limits of different energy resources (including somatic, solar, wood, water, and fossil fuels) and how different human energy needs led to different energy systems as well as innovations and patterns of use based upon the populations and environmental realities of the Island. Looking at a different yet important natural resource of the Island, Alan MacEachern examines the many representations of PEI’s scenic landscapes and why, over the twentieth century, the images chosen to epitomize the place to a tourist public changed. A thoughtful epilogue by Claire Campbell brings together several themes that tie the chapters together. The list of Island legislation compiled by Colin MacIntyre is also a useful tool for understanding Islanders’ relationships to certain constructions of their surrounding environments from the eighteenth century onward.
The chapters feed nicely into each other and provide clear overlap and intersection of material that reinforces several themes. For instance, this collection does not solely focus on the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries—as the title suggests, insights come from examining environmental change in one place over a very long period of time (9). Though a fair portion does recount and inform the reader on this more recent turbulent and transformative period, many pieces provide insightful overview of land and sea use regimes, of the settler-colonial frame, and their dynamic ebbs and flows, and the alterations these different lifestyles and industries made on the Island. Yet, several chapters take a longer look back which is an essential approach considering the industries, cultures, and policies of early settler life in what would become Canada as well as the necessary acknowledgment and inclusion of Indigenous histories that make the settler-colonial timeframe a blip on the Island’s timeline but a behemoth in terms of environmental change. While chapters address Mi’kmaq presence and history (including Novaczek’s chapter on seaplants and the interviews conducted with Elders about their knowledge of these species and their properties), involving additional Indigenous Knowledge holders and voices from the Island would add complexity and insight into these histories. Also, the chapters make clear that one cannot separate the histories of land and sea, nor of those liminal coastal areas in-between (including mussel mud harvesting; farm/fishing cycles, especially connected to the rise of the lobster industry; shipbuilding and forestry; and macro-algae and Irish Moss). Technologies largely play an implicit thematic role in many of these narratives. Finally, islands are bounded but not isolated from global events: flows of people and of environmental change resulted in great landscape transformations from the eighteenth century onward that linked migration, population increase, industry and resource use (forestry, agriculture, wildlife, fishing, and tourism) to layers of personal and commercial use.
It is difficult to ignore the declensionist tendencies in many of the chapters that highlight the negative effects human behaviours, values, and technologies have made to PEI over the past 500 or so years. Yet, in our current climate of environmental precarity, such narrative tendencies might reflect, alongside the wider themes of the book, Campbell’s summation on how webs of human exchange and the ways the deep past can bear on our contemporary island realities, how islands contain an abundance of life in divided yet shared spaces that inform our knowledge systems and traditions of use, and how they ultimately illustrate that an island “is a multi-layered metaphor for humanity’s place on earth” (299). The variety of conversations this collection opens up about time and a place are vital to exposing, and hopefully addressing, the multitude of ongoing environmental issues we face and the roles islands play in their unfolding.
Elizabeth L. Jewett teaches in the Canadian Studies department at Mount Allison University. She is an environmental historian whose research includes the development of golf course landscapes in Canada between the 1870s and 1940s and, more recently, a project on the history of the maple syrup industry in Canada.
Featured image: French River, PEI. Photo credit: Elizabeth Jewett. | <urn:uuid:8bf762a5-c933-4da0-a684-22f2dc763eab> | {
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The enduring symbol of John F. Kennedy’s presidency, the image that defined America’s romance with its heroic young leader and his star-crossed family, came from his widow, Jacqueline, a couple weeks after his assassination.
Struggling to come up with a literary or cultural analogy for their flash of time in the White House, the grieving former first lady settled on a Broadway musical.
“At night, before we’d go to sleep, Jack liked to play some records,” she told Life magazine in December 1963, “and the song he loved most came at the very end of this record. The lines he loved to hear were: Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot.”
With that, the legend was sealed. The Kennedy administration would thereon be remembered as Camelot, with John the king and Jackie the queen, glamorous symbols of a nation’s wealthy new idealism.
The nation honored JFK's legacy Friday on the 50th anniversary of his assassination. Several thousand in Dallas marked the day with a moment of silence and bell-ringing at a ceremony in Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy was shot as his motorcade passed through on Nov. 22, 1963. A planned flyover salute and a performance by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at the plaza to honor Kennedy were canceled amid rainy conditions. In Boston the JFK Library and Museum debuted an exhibit featuring never-before-displayed items from Kennedy's funeral, while in Washington President Barack Obama was meeting privately with leaders and volunteers from the Peace Corps, the national service program Kennedy started, The Associated Press reported.
Kennedy's portrait remains indelible, even after revelations of adultery, mob ties and bought elections.
“What is remarkable is how durable this image has been surrounding John F. Kennedy all these decades since,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics and author of “The Kennedy Half-Century: The Legacy and Influence of the JFK Presidency.”
America’s adoration of JFK still burns in part because he was cut down so early, at the height of his political and cultural influence. He was the youngest elected president, and the youngest to die. He was also the first president of the television age, and so, thanks to the painstaking curation of his image, he is forever frozen in memory as he was 50 years ago: handsome, charismatic, athletic, virile, inspirational.
“The assassination…converted an impressive but flawed man into a saint—an untouchable saint,” Sabato said.
Kennedy made his share of highly dramatic political decisions—on civil rights, space exploration, the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis—but his cultural contributions were, arguably, more lasting.
Much of that has to do with the time and place of Kennedy’s rise. A decorated war hero, Kennedy related with a generation of GIs returning home to a country exploring new financial, educational and technological opportunities; many of these returning troops became the first in their families to attend college. Kennedy became, in a way, their standard-bearer. His high-society, multilingual wife, regarded as an icon of grace and beauty, completed the picture.
“We’re talking about a country that had come out of the war, that controlled the economy of the world. We were rich by any standards in those days, and people didn’t really know how to act,” said journalist Richard Reeves, author of two books on Kennedy. “I think the Kennedys, with their long hair and European-cut suits and languages, were the role models for a new America.”
JFK, who secretly suffered from debilitating ailments and had been given last rites three times before becoming president, approached politics and his personal life with an impatience that seemed indicative of someone who expected to die young. With help from his powerful and wealthy father, Joseph, and his equally ambitious siblings, he took the White House by storm, leapfrogging over the political establishment.
“He lived life as a race against boredom,” Reeves said. “He would not wait his turn. He was the first self-financed, self-created presidential candidate. He had it won before they knew what happened. If you want it, go after it. No one waits their turn now. That was largely because of Kennedy.”
He was also a torrid womanizer, engaging in several well-documented affairs before and during his presidency.
After his death, his wife, family and inner-circle embarked on a campaign to burnish his legacy, which is a big reason why there are so many schools, buildings, streets, plazas and government facilities around the world named after him. No other modern president has enjoyed such treatment, except for maybe Ronald Reagan, Reeves said.
At the same time, the Kennedy family has been struck by a number of tragedies—accidents, illnesses, murder, substance-abuse problems—that gave rise to the notion of a "Kennedy curse.”
Those who believe in such a thing point to a string of events that began before JFK’s assassination: the wartime death of his older brother, Joseph; the botched lobotomy of a sister, Rosemary; the death of another sister, Kathleen, in a plane crash; John and Jackie’s stillborn daughter; and the death of a prematurely born son.
The family misfortunes continued after JFK died. The first was a June 1964 plane crash in which the late president’s youngest brother, Ted, barely survived. In 1968, another brother, Robert, was assassinated as he campaigned for president. A year later, Ted drove a car off a small bridge near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, killing a young woman in the passenger’s seat. Other members of the extended clan have been convicted of murder, suffered cancer, overdosed and died in other horrific ways. That includes JFK’s son, John Jr., who perished while piloting a small plane near Martha’s Vineyard in 1999.
But scholars scoff at the idea of a Kennedy curse. They point out that the family is so large and sprawling that bad things were bound to happen to some of them. Adding to the peril was that many of JFK’s kin lived the way he did: at full speed, at high risk.
The perception of a curse exists because of that Kennedy mystique, which survives unabated to this day. The 50th anniversary of JFK’s death has sprouted another wave of books about him.
Which raises the question: Will the glow over a president who served less than three years ever dull?
Reeves doesn’t think so. If the negative aspects of his presidency and personal life haven’t sufficiently tarnished him, they likely won’t ever, he said.
The main enemy is time. Eventually, the number of Americans who remember watching John and Jackie in the White House — along with the historians and journalists who documented it — will diminish to nothing.
“They are still the king and queen, at least until my generation dies off,” Sabato said. “It will eventually fade into history. And perhaps the view of the Kennedys will become more realistic. But until then, you’re going to continue to focus on the mythology.” | <urn:uuid:1a8c5e73-0b4f-4660-95db-cc5a402dd5ec> | {
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There are a number of lists of “The three R’s”:
- Reading, Writing and Arithmetic
- Reduce Reuse Recycle
- Read, Write, Recite.
After a recent discussion at a North Side Coffee Morning (#nscm), I devised a new list of 3 R’s to help focus a little more on things that count (outside the realm of the academic education arena). These 3 R’s can be used in almost all aspects of life, and is something i am trying to instill in my children:
esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability*
Respect for yourself and others is an important trait to have. Not much can happen in this world without respect. If you respect the people that matter, it can take you far!
One of the most important traits you can have is to be responsible: Responsible to yourself, your fellow man and the world you live in. Responsibility is an important part of life because it shows that you care about what you do and the impact you have. Having the fortitude to stand up and admit you stuffed up or hurt someone goes a long way. It’s also one of the cornerstones of trust, an important part of what makes the world go round.
Here’s one of my acts of responsibility I blogged about earlier in Taming the Ugliness.
This is a tough skill to learn. The ability to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back into it is one of the skills that will see you through many encounters in life, both good and bad! It’s quite a difficult skill to teach, however I have been trying with my boys to get them to understand that there will be times where things don’t go your way. It’s how you act when things are not going your way. It used to be called ‘character building’, but today I’ll call it resilience. Empathy with the ‘other’ side of the story or being able to see things from both sides can help.
Can you think of any other R’s that could make useful traits for life? | <urn:uuid:436b2c67-87d0-40e1-87ea-f9e52b2af5bb> | {
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Conference Talk Notes (4 Part Series)
Zach Tellman is the author of the book "Elements of Clojure". In this talk titled "On Abstraction" he tries to define what is an abstraction and how do we can build better systems with a better understanding of what goes into making an abstraction.
The goal of the book was the best second book you read about Clojure, when you know what you can do with the language but you don't know what parts of the language to use to solve a particular problem.
The first chapter was about names: "Naming and Necessity". Even though it is well known that naming is a hard problem, CS doesn't have enough literature tackling the problem. "The analytics school of psychology" has explored the topic in excruciating detail.
The second chapter was about abstraction but there wasn't any literature directly targeting it and no other paradigm deals with this topic in depth.
The word abstraction is used to refer to 2 very distinct concepts, demonstrated by the following 2 ideas:
Alonzo Church's lambda calculus introduced these. The numbers are represented as functions, the number 3 is a function which takes a function and applies it 3 times to a value.
Typically used to create linked lists, with the base case of
Nilrepresenting an empty collection.
The Church Numeral weren't used in Computer Science because representing numbers in computationally intensive, they have been widely used in mathematics (which is timeless). Cons Cells are widely used in CS, because following a link is fast, but the landscape has changed rapidly the computer processing has increased more rapidly than the decrease in memory latency.
The most common formal definition of abstraction in CS literature comes from the paper: "Proof of Correctness of Data Representation" by Tony Hoare, who also brought us "Communicating Sequential Processes".
The paper introduces 2 major concepts:
Abstractions model the internal model onto the external semantics.
Invariant constrain the internal model.
Abstraction is the mapping of the internal implementation to the external interface. The invariant allows different implementations without being correct with respect to each other, they only have to satisfy the invariant. It however doesn't talk about the environment the object operates in.
To define an abstraction we need 3 parts:
The means to interact with the Model
The model is initially empty, all the data comes from the environment hence in a way the model reflects the environment. This is close to what Physics does to create models for real world concepts. We can't do this in Software as Physics uses deductive reasoning to create a model based on observation and keep tweaking it until the predictions are correct, to model this in software would require a very rick model.
50-60 years before physicists were actively involved in computer programming. In 1959 the first attempt at AI was made in a project called "General Problem Solver (GPS)" using means-end analysis.
Most of software instead relies on inductive reasoning which is based on analogy, this allows us to skip a lot of details making the models a lot simpler. Example: A tick — It latches onto something generating heat or secreting butyric acid above a certain threshold. We cannot create a perfect model for this but we don't need to. The model just needs to be accurate enough.
The model can only satisfice.
The book "The science of the artificial" by Herbert Simon (principal investigator for the GPS) coined the term satisfice for "pragmatically crappy solution".
It's easy to make deductive model, but hard to make a useful one. We can reduce something in terms of arithmetic for a deductive model but it it doesn't mean that the predictions would be right.
Models assume everything that they omit is either invariant or irrelevant. When assumptions leak out we have to use conventions. This doesn't make the assumption always valid, it makes it less likely to be invalid.
Interfaces represent the intersection of many models or one model over time.
To abstract is to ignore.
To think is to forget a difference, to generalise, to abstract. In the overly refute world of Funes there were nothing but details, almost contiguous details.
We can't take into account all the details of the world in our programs, we have to make assumptions to reason about things efficiently.
An abstraction is useful only if the assumptions are sound given the context it's being used in.
That means the usefulness of the software is a function of the context it's being used in.
To know an abstraction's assumptions, we must know its model. Possession does not imply understanding.
If the model assumes too much, we can:
- Make the model larger
- Replace our model
- Narrow our intended usecase
The following generations, who were not so fond of the study of cartography as their forebears had been, saw that the vast map was useless.
If an abstraction doesn't solve the user's problem, they can:
- Discard the abstraction
- Wrap the abstraction
- Create Conventions
If an abstraction can't be discarded it becomes coercive. What it doesn't see might disappear.
Software would be easy, it it weren't for the changing environments.
The environment consists of 3 things:
- The entire world
- Other software components
There are 2 approaches:
Make everything predictably structured, so that the side-effects of changes can be predicted accurately.
Make the parts sparsely connected such that when we make a change we only have to reason locally about the system.
There are 2 kinds of cultures:
There's an person called the architect, who is an expert in design and construction of buildings.
Everyone builds their own home and there not many other structures that they create.
Principled systems have hierarchies. There's a place for everything and everything is in it's place.
Adaptable systems are graph-like, they don't have a central organizing principle, we are able to make local changes to them.
If abstraction is an island our code becomes Galapagos. Variation is only useful when it mirrors the problem being solved.
Principled code is brittle and predictable. Adaptive code is flexible and unpredictable. There's no in between. What we can do is layer them.
Adaptable components in a principled framework. The degrees of freedom become vestigial and disappear. There's nothing to adapt to if the environment doesn't change.
Principled components in an adaptive framework are called complex adaptive systems. If the principled system is too small then we have to write a lot of glue code. If it's too large then the replacement cost becomes extremely high.
Assumptions that fail together, belong together.
Principled components are smaller faster and can be understood incrementally.
We tend to put our bias towards principled component too often due to our optimistic assumption about the environment due to lack of complete understanding.
Balance is the key here things like logging libraries should be principle components, everyone doesn't need to roll their own. While custom requirements should form the adaptive surrounding.
This is my 4th post in this series do check out the previous ones :) | <urn:uuid:5668ea75-c6cc-4134-a48a-b3b56f293f2b> | {
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Ash - Fraxinus excelsior
Ruling Planet : Sun/Neptune
Magical Properties: protection, prosperity, dispels negativity, healing, sea magic, dreams, love, intuition.
The ash is a beautiful tree with grey bark and the distinctive ash keys ( seeds) which appear in autumn. It is often found growing near water and can reach to a height of 148 ft. It is native to northern Europe and the British Isles.
In Norse mythology Yggdrasil, the world tree that links the realms of existence is an ash tree. Odin or Woden hung from an ash tree to gain the secrets of the Runes and enlightenment. Ash trees feature in the creation myths of many ancient cultures.
Ash is called Nion in the Celtic tree Ogham and is seen as holding the key to universal truth. It reminds us that everything is connected. In the celtic tree calender that some traditions follow ash is the 3rd month.
In ancient Greece ash was sacred to Poseidon, god of the oceans. The goddess Nemesis carried an ash branch as a symbol of divine justice. An ash wand is perfect for sea rituals as well as healing magic.
Place a few ash leaves in a bowl of water by your bed and leave overnight for protection against illness. Discard the water the following morning and repeat every night with fresh water.
A circlet of ash twigs worn around the neck was thought to help cure snake bites! do seek medical help though.
In the past ash trees were believed to cure rickets. The child would be passed through a cleft in the chosen tree and afterwards the tree and and child were thought of as having a sympathetic bond.
Ash trees were said to cure warts. A pin was used to prick the wart and then inserted into the trunk.
Keep ash leaves under your pillow or add them to a dream pillow for prophetic dreams. Carry them with you to attract the opposite sex.
Ash leaves can be placed in the four corners of your home and under your door mat for protection, and a piece of ash wood can be kept above your front door to keep negativity away.
Carry a small piece of ash wood with you when travelling on water to protect you from drowning.
Written by Unity
A Kitchen Witch world of magical plants and herbs - Rachel Patterson
Cunninghams Encyclopedia of magical herbs - Scott Cunningham
Herbcraft - Anna Franklin and Susan Lavender
The Celtic Wisdom of Trees - Jane Gifford
The Tree Ogham - Glennie Kindred | <urn:uuid:ee297824-418b-4871-b1ba-46da32636a3e> | {
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Joel Dawson was one of 100 researchers named by President Obama as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on young professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers on July 9, 2009. The recipient scientists and engineers will receive their awards in the Fall at a White House ceremony.
The Presidential Early Career Awards embody the high priority the Administration places on producing outstanding scientists and engineers to advance the nation's goals and contribute to all sectors of the economy. Nine Federal departments and agencies join together annually to nominate the most meritorious young scientists and engineers--researchers whose early accomplishments show the greatest promise for strengthening America's leadership in science and technology and contributing to the awarding agencies' missions.
"These extraordinarily gifted young scientists and engineers represent the best in our country," President Obama said. "With their talent, creativity, and dedication, I am confident that they will lead their fields in new breakthroughs and discoveries and help us use science and technology to lift up our nation and our world."
The awards, established by President Clinton in February 1996, are coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President. Awardees are selected on the basis of two criteria: Pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and a commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, or community outreach. Winning scientists and engineers receive up to a five-year research grant to further their study in support of critical government missions.
This section of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories web site is intended to keep its community and outside readers informed about the activities of faculty and students who use its facilities. If you would like to post news or information on this page, call (617) 452-2545. | <urn:uuid:e0c09148-7c13-4c25-b095-80d96b0fc3f4> | {
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What is an Identity Crisis?
Theorist Erik Erikson coined the term identity crisis and believed that it was one of the most important conflicts people face in their development. According to Erikson, an identity crisis is a time of intensive analysis and exploration of different ways of looking at oneself. Erikson described identity as “a subjective sense as well as an observable quality of personal sameness and continuity, paired with some belief in the sameness and continuity of some shared world image.”
According to James Marcia and his colleagues, the balance between identity and confusion lies in making a commitment to an identity.
· Identity achievement occurs when an individual has gone through an exploration of different identities and made a commitment to one.
· Moratorium is the status of a person who is actively involved in exploring different identities, but has not made a commitment.
· Foreclosure status is when a person has made a commitment without attempting
Researchers have found that those who have made a strong commitment to an identity tend to be happier and healthier than those who have not. Perhaps you were in the midst of an identity crisis before you experienced the New Birth experience and were simply trying to become a better person. Well now that you have been born again, you have become a lot more than just a better human being – you have become a new creature and God wants you to make a radically new commitment to changing your primary identity – or who you really are! Paul explains how to make the identity shift from the old to the new:
Eph 4:22-24 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
If we look back over the period of time that we have been a Christian, I believe that – if we are honest with ourselves – we will all agree that the biggest problems we have experienced in living for God have been directly related to our unwillingness to make a clean break with our old nature and making a firm commitment to walk in the way of our new life in Christ by putting on the new man.
Let’s read what Paul has to say about the importance of choosing the right identity:
Rom 8:12-18 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him,
that we may be also glorified together. 18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
How do we mortify or put to death the deeds of the body?
Rom 6:11-13 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, butalive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
1Co 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
How do we nourish and develop our new nature?
Col 3:1-10 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. 5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6 For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: 7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. 8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. 9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Notice that many of the scriptures we’ve read are in the form of commandments:
Seek those things which are above.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
Put to death… any form of ungodliness or worldliness in your lives.
Put on the new man.
Put off the old man.
Let not sin reign in your mortal body.
Put off such things as: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language,
Since God never commands us to do anything that His grace doesn’t enable us to perform as we walk by faith, just do whatever He tells you!
Practice Walking in a Christ-like manner bearing the fruit of the Spirit:
Gal 5:22-25 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
The best way to renew our minds and experience spiritual transformation
is by knowing, thinking and speaking who we are in Christ!
In our new identity as a child of God, we should seek daily every opportunity to manifest the fruit of the Spirit.
Both our personal and corporate identities in Christ are crucial to our success as a church body. The apostle Paul tells us how we should interact as a body of new creatures/ Christians:
Col 3:16-17 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Act 2:42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Good advice from Apostle Paul:
1Th 5:11-23 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. 12 And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; 13 And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves. 14 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. 15 See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. 16 Rejoice evermore. 17 Pray without ceasing. 18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 19 Quench not the Spirit. 20 Despise not prophesyings. 21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 22 Abstain from all appearance of evil. 23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Our doctrine is Apostolic
- Our experience is Pentecostal
- Our Lifestyle is Holiness
“WHO I AM IN CHRIST”
I am a new creature in Christ (II Corinthians 5:17).
I can do all things through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:13).
I am a joint-heir with Christ (Romans 8:17).
I am more than a conqueror through Him Who loves me (Romans 8:37).
I am an overcomer by the blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony (Revelation 12:11).
I am a partaker of His divine nature (II Peter 1:3-4).
I am an ambassador for Christ (II Corinthians 5:20).
I am part of a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a
holy nation, a peculiar people (I Peter 2:9).
I am the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ (II Corinthians 5:21).
I am the temple of the Holy Spirit; I am not my own (I Corinthians 6:19).
I am the light of the world (Matthew 5:14).
I am forgiven of all my sins and washed in the Blood (Ephesians 1:7).
I am delivered from the power of darkness and translated into God’s kingdom (Colossians 1: 13).
I am raised up with Christ and seated in heavenly places (Colossians 2:12; | <urn:uuid:c0b8a02c-f4cb-4e1c-872e-ebdd823f5183> | {
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RCRA Environmental Indicators Progress Report: 1995 Update
EPA's Office of Solid Waste (OSW) (renamed Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery on January 18, 2009)
is continuing to make progress in developing
and reporting environmental indicators to measure progress in the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) program. In 1992, OSW (now ORCR) published a report
summarizing early progress in the development of environmental indicators
and discussing an implementation plan for the future. OSW began reporting
12 indicators in a 1 second report published in 1993. This report, the third
in the series, updates 11 of these indicators and adds 2 new indicators.
Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of this report discuss indicators for three major components
of the RCRA program: waste minimization, safe management, and corrective
action. These are the three major goals OSW (now ORCR) has defined for the program,
consistent with the objectives and themes of the RCRA statute.
- Waste minimization indicators are being developed to help
determine the effect of RCRA program activities to reduce the quantity,
toxicity, and hazardous properties of wastes; conserve natural resources
by reducing the use of raw materials; and reduce the use of toxic materials
in production. OSW (now ORCR) is just beginning efforts in some of these areas.
- Safe management indicators are being developed to measure the
effectiveness of program activities to prevent harm to human health
and the environment from the mismanagement of wastes after they are
generated. This category of indicators encompasses the safe management
of wastes from "cradle to grave," i.e., from the point of generation
through transportation, storage, treatment, and final disposal. A wide
variety of program activities are covered in this category, including
waste manifesting; treatment of wastes prior to land disposal (e.g.,
best demonstrated available technology [BDAT]); location standards for
waste management units; standards for the design, operation, and closure
of waste management units; and monitoring to identify releases from
waste management units to ensure that the units' design and operating
practices are effective in preventing releases.
- Corrective action indicators are being developed to measure
the effectiveness of activities to control and clean up contamination
from waste at RCRA facilities. Activities covered include assessing
sites to determine the need for corrective action, stabilizing and cleaning
up releases, and prioritizing site assessment and cleanup based on human
health and environmental risks. Two new indicators are being developed
to track the actual environmental results of remediation activities.
Appendix A provides a list of acronyms. A brief introduction to environmental
indicators and their role in EPA programs is presented in Appendix B. Appendix
C briefly discusses the data sources currently being used to report RCRA
environmental indicators. Appendix D provides a discussion of newly regulated
hazardous wastes, i.e., wastes that became subject to regulation under RCRA
Subtitle C between 1989 and 1991. References for this report are listed
in Appendix E.
Report (PDF) (62 pp, 761K, About PDF) || Text Version (Text File) | <urn:uuid:464390e5-b89c-4c3f-a587-f70637d68e8c> | {
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Prospective memory in dynamic environments: The role of uncertainty
MetadataShow full item record
Prospective memory (ProM) refers to remembering to perform a task in the future. Successfully remembering a ProM task entails remembering not only that something has to be done, but also when it has to be done, and what has to be done. Busy operational environments may require operators to rapidly switch between multiple safety-critical tasks. In dynamic environments, an operator’s inability to predict upcoming tasks may interfere with any or all aspects of ProM (i.e., remembering that something needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and what needs to be done). However, previous research has not manipulated uncertainty about the context of ProM execution influences ProM. The current dissertation uses a task-switching paradigm to investigate whether uncertainty about the context in which ProM tasks are executed would affect ProM success. In the certain condition, participants could predict the order of upcoming tasks. In the uncertain condition, participants experienced tasks in a random, unpredictable order. In Experiment 1, the ProM task consisted of remembering to perform an action after being presented with the ProM cue, but only after completing the current (0 delay), next (1 delay), or next two (2 delay) ongoing tasks. Participants in the certain condition were expected to use knowledge about the order of upcoming tasks to imagine the specific context in which the ProM response had to be executed. In contrast, participants in the uncertain condition were unable to encode a more specific context of ProM execution. Results showed that participants in the certain condition were significantly better at remembering when the ProM task had to executed, as well as what action had to be undertaken to execute the ProM task for the longest delay (2 delay). Encoding the specific context of execution seems to have helped automatize detection of the context for ProM execution, thus boosting ProM performance in the certain condition. Experiment 2 investigated whether specifying a concrete context of execution would similarly help ProM for participants in the uncertain condition. In contrast to Experiment 1 in which participants were told to remember to execute a ProM task after a specific number of ongoing tasks, in the second experiment, participants were told to remember to execute a ProM task, but only after they had completed a specific ongoing task (e.g., dose calculation). As in Experiment 1, Experiment 2 also varied the delay between ProM instruction and ProM execution: the specific ongoing task after which the ProM response had to be made was either the current task that participants were working on, or the next task, or two tasks later. Unlike Experiment 1, however, there was no difference on ProM performance between the certain and uncertain task order groups. Whereas Experiment 1 found that performing tasks in a predictable order helped in remembering ProM tasks that had to be performed after a specific number of tasks, Experiment 2 suggests that task order did not affect ProM execution if details about the context of execution were well-specified at the time of ProM encoding. The results of the dissertation may help inform how uncertainty at the time of encoding influences ProM in operational environments that are characterized by frequent and unpredictable task switching. Specifically, changing the framing of ProM so that the context of execution of future tasks is encoded in terms of details about the retrieval context rather than completing a specific number of tasks helps support ProM in unpredictable environments. | <urn:uuid:fdec3a7c-ec58-41ff-9598-3216b61932cc> | {
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June 8 is World Ocean Day, a time to celebrate the ocean which covers most of our planet.
The ocean—it’s blue, deep, and full of strange-looking forms of life. But beyond its natural beauty and mystery, the ocean is useful to have around for many practical reasons, such as: past ocean life produced enough oxygen to make this planet a nice place to live; it affects the atmosphere, and therefore, the weather and climate; it is full of food humans like to eat; it is fun to play in; and it has lots of materials and mineral resources we use for energy, manufacturing, and transportation.
What is the best way to give your thanks for the many benefits the ocean offers us? By protecting it and keeping it clean, of course.
Here are a few suggestions for keeping a healthy and pollution-free ocean:
- Avoid plastic in your face scrub—those tiny micro-scrubbing beads are likely made of plastic and may end up in the ocean.
- Learn about your relationship with oil—and the many forms it takes in your everyday life.
- Get cigarette butts off the beach—all 52.9 million of them.
- Volunteer for the International Coastal Cleanup in September, find a local World Ocean Day event, or join or organize a beach cleanup at a lake, river, or shoreline near you.
- Make for happy salmon and other fish that live in both the ocean and rivers by supporting community-based habitat restoration where you live.
What are other ways you could protect and celebrate the ocean?
Follow the countdown to World Ocean Day with NOAA’s Ocean Service. | <urn:uuid:d622bb95-e1b7-4b5e-b2c6-4e8ed06d5e91> | {
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John Smith?s movie entitled ?Dangerous Minds? discusses the lives of students with different cultural backgrounds?African-Americans, White Americans, Mexicans, etc was aired on KTN. These students have their individual ideologies and identities depending on their roots and family. Through the character of Ms. Johnson, each personality of these students is revealed. Ms. Johnson focuses her attention to the three significant characters of her students?Raul, Emilio, and Callie. Raul is Mexican; Emilio is White American; and Callie is African American. All these characters have their own dilemmas in different aspects of their lives?family, personality, and status in school. Ms. Johnson helps them to establish their characters behind the war, self-centered behaviors, and ?uneducatable? conscience. Throughout the movie, Ms. Johnson tries her best to conquer her fears against her class. She is full of conviction to change the lives of the students to become better individuals of the society. Because the class is consists of students from different cultural background, she starts learning each strengths and weaknesses through language acquisition, reading, writing, and creativity. As what Ms. Johnson emphasizes in her teaching strategy, identification with the students is very important. It is significant enough to make the students realize that they are equal in every way, even if they differ in culture and identity.
Ms. Johnson teaches literature in her class. Personally speaking, literature is the best way to make students become creative, logical, radical, and critical. It is also a subject that helps the students unleash their emotions on certain image, situation, word, phrase, or entity. That is why literature becomes the armor of Ms. Johnson to enhance the students in their academic aspect. It only means that Ms. Johnson is sensitive enough to the needs of her students because she knows how to handle the situation and make her class become profound in ideology and social perspectives. Ms. Johnson does not only teach her students. She does not leave them after the class. She wants to be connected to each of her student to familiarize herself to the needs and situations of the learners. The movie shows the ideal way of teaching students who need guidance and support. In the context of the film, the students evolve not in a fictional way like being too good immediately or being great learners after a few discussions. The film encompasses the struggles of the students as they learn the meaning of education and life. Ms. Johnson shows the right track to her students, especially Callie, Emilio, and Raul to make the students realize that they have a place in the society?a place where they could learn and speak with dignity, pride, and knowledge.
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Emilio?s death emphasizes the failure and victory of a teacher. Ms. Johnson feels that she is successful in making her students achieve good education through the characters of Callie and Raul. However, Emilio?s death depicts the fact that teaching is a risk that no one knows who will survive or not. Though Emilio tries to survive, he is weak to conquer his foes. Emilio?s character is somehow ironic because he is known as a macho and strong man who could defeat anyone in school, but behind those actions and strength, a weak man is shown due to Emilio?s family problems and circumstances that manifests within his character. This scenario emphasizes the idea that every person has his or her own Achilles? heel, that even a teacher could not able to change. In conclusion, the movie encompasses the struggle of teachers to make their students good people. Also, it teaches the teachers how to become more sensitive to the needs of their students?not only in academic aspect, but also with their personal lives if they need attention or guidance. Smith establishes the idea of teaching as a passion and not for money and good opportunity. The documentary of John Smith?s is a product of realistic poetic style accompanied by built-in ability of photographing to prescribe similarities. Thus, John Smith?s has provided many contradictions of Ms Johnson?s life and has put in arguments but never has provided any final solutions. The ambiguities inside the film have enabled the audiences to explore different ideas and beliefs and opinions about the famous persons like Johnson and connect it with the present which is the absolute goal of the history. Evaluation The movie deals with Racial stereotypes. Racial stereotypes and society's definition of what the individual identity is expected to be like is what causes the Ms. Johnson to live his life long pondering about the age old question of what identity exactly means. His confusion was increased more since he did not seem to belong to one distinct group as his dark complexion made her torn between a black and culture that was not black. Ms. Johnson plight is just a case in a sea full of examples. The question of what identity exactly encompasses has been after all debated since the antiquity of human civilization and has been the major cause of conflict and strife between people. The definition of identity is a much debated and controversial issue that has not been agreed upon. What remains clear is how the community, tradition and general social rules of what is acceptable and what is not, influence the notion of identity from place to place.
The interesting aspect of all this is how reflecting on the individual identity throughout time and across the different cultures has survived or tried to survive in the middle of the social restrictions, rules and expectations imposed on it. Ms. Johnson was always told that there was no way she could be black at the same time even when his dark skin color was a fact rather than a choice he could make. Despite the obvious fact that he was black people could not grasp that because they already had been accustomed to the idea that these two things were in contrast rather than harmony. Humans naturally associate certain words together. A black America seemed to defy that notion and was rejected despite the evidence of his belonging to both. Physical appearance and behavior are two things that should naturally be in harmony according to the general social definition of identity. Being black connotes ghetto behavior and a certain dress code that goes along with it. Belonging to a black community means abiding to certain invisible and unwritten but nevertheless very powerful rules that make up the whole black identity. The conflict arises when a person stresses his belonging to two distinct groups like the two mentioned so far. Society as a result is unable to mix the two cultures and rejects this notion thereby killing the individual identity in an attempt to save the general social and commonly accepted one.
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Sole proprietorship: meaning, advantages and disadvantages and retail shops/enterprises disadvantages of sole proprietorship 1. In the context of foreign direct investment, advantages and disadvantages for multinational enterprises direct investment - definition, advantages. Multinational corporations pros and cons by the remarkable advantages that multinational corporations at the disadvantages linked to multinational. I have observed various posts, discussions and mentalities about life at multinational corporations (mncs) and small companies advantages of small companies. What are the advantages and disadvantages of private what are the advantages and disadvantages of some of the major disadvantages of multinational.
Advantages for a multinational corporation there are several advantages that a multinational company documents similar to multinational corporation essay. 4 main advantages and disadvantages of cooperative organization advantages and disadvantages of joint stock company 9 main disadvantages of multinational. Advantages:training of local labor with more sophisticated techniques which, in the long run, will bring external benefits to the host country when. The advantages of multinational organizations advantages & disadvantages of a global strategy also viewed the advantages of transnational.
Texts belong to their owners and are placed on a site for acquaintance chapter 12 outline strategic choice firms use four basic strategies to compete in the international environment: an international strategy, a multidomestic strategy, a global strategy, and a transnational strategy 19 each strategy has its advantages and disadvantages. Start studying multinational companies learn vocabulary, multinational enterprises (mnes) advantages of mnc. The advantages and disadvantages of multinational companies in a modern society, many multinational companies have been founded they are called multinational corporations because these corporations operate in more than one country at a time.This resource gives information on the disadvantages of multinational company. What are the advantages and disadvantages of public limited companies any other advantages or disadvantages of a what are the advantages and disadvantages of. Multinational corporations - j w j harrod multinational corporation is a core organization of the twenty-first century and the. A multinational corporation has its facilities and other assets in at least the 10 largest multinational corporations advantages and disadvantages of. Multinational corporations the multinational corporation is a business organ-ization whose activities are located in more than two countries and is the organizational. A matrix organizational structure is one of the most complicated reporting structures a company can implement read on to learn why a company. Multinational corporations are enterprises that operate in several countries worldwide these organizations have assets and goods or services being offered in.
One good way to do this is evaluating its advantages and disadvantages parent enterprises would also list of disadvantages of foreign direct investment 1. A multinational corporation in the way of foreign direct investment or acquire local enterprises, due to economic and technical strength or production advantages. The advantages and disadvantages of using an advance pricing agreement: on multinational enterprises the advantages and disadvantages of apas as.
Advantages and disadvantages positions in the multinational subsidiaries it will be clear that none of the options is without its disadvantages in the next. Advantages and disadvantages for fdi in china do multinational enterprises go to china to exploit some conventional advantages such low labor costs,. Get an answer for 'list the advantages and disadvantages of globalization list answers, not lengthy paragraphs, please' and find homework help for other social sciences questions at enotes. Advantages and disadvantages of multinational enterprises advantages and disadvantages of multinational enterprises advantages and disadvantages of.
The purpose of this essay is to determine the advantages and disadvantages of (jv) is a strategy used by multinational enterprises in order to entry. The advantages and disadvantages of tncs multi-national or trans-national companies are ones which locate their factories throughout the world this gives them many benefits, such as access to the world market, cheap labour, cheaper production costs, and therefore greater profits. Its advantages and disadvantages many multinational enterprises now see their strength reside in a policy that is aimed at renewal, by means of research.Download
2018. Term Papers. | <urn:uuid:7930a44a-5090-4c43-bd30-7920b9cdd224> | {
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162,489 annual visits
8,002 overnight visits
Minneopa is home to a wide variety of songbird species. Many migrants stop here for a short stay on their way to their summer range. It should come as no surprise then that birdwatching is a popular activity. Be prepared to see the eastern bluebird, the western meadowlark, and the yellow shafted flicker. Tree sparrows, king birds, red-winged blackbirds, red-tailed hawks, and even American bald eagles are common at various times of the year.
If your eyes are sharp, you may catch a glimpse of a wild turkey or ring-necked pheasant sneaking through the grass. The white-tailed deer is never far away and campers are often treated to the call of a coyote announcing its presence in the early evening hours.
Both woodland prairie animals can be found in the park. The Minnesota River Floodplain area is home to various snakes, beaver, and waterfowl. The southern wooded part of the park is home to woodpeckers, squirrels, and other woodland animals.
In 1905 the State of Minnesota passed legislation setting aside the area around Minneopa Falls for public use and establishing Minneopa State Park. This made Minneopa the third state park in Minnesota. The scenic splendor of the area was well known and it had become a popular destination for thousands of visitors who came by rail to the townsite of Minneopa, which had sprung up around the adjacent depot in 1870. Still others made their way by steam powered paddle boat up the Minnesota River and then on foot following the banks of Minneopa Creek to the falls. Locals came from miles around by team and wagon to picnic and play baseball.
The Seppmann windmill, in the northwest corner of the park was donated to the state by Albert Seppmann, son of its builder. Stone was used for the main structure, which still stands today. It was designed by Louis Seppmann after windmills in his native Germany. The mill was completed in 1864, and in a favorable wind could daily grind 150 bushels of wheat into flour.
The windmill was struck by natural calamities, including lightning and a tornado. After the tornado struck in 1890, the windmill's arms were not replaced because windmills had become unprofitable to operate. This German-style mill is a rare example of wind-powered grain milling.
In the late 1870's three years of consecutive grasshopper plagues wiped out all of the crops and the little town disappeared from the map. The depot continued to serve the thousands of tourists that came by train every summer to picnic near the falls.
The entire park lies within the banks of the Glacial River Warren which drained Glacial Lake Agassiz at the end of the last period of glaciation, some 15,000 years ago. These banks are easily viewed if a visitor looks north and south from the vantage point of Seppmann Mill. Also visible are the many large boulders scattered upon the prairie grassland which lies in the bed of that ancient river. These boulders, known as "glacial erratics," are made of parent material entirely different than that commonly found in this area. They were transported from a region far to the north and were deposited here by the melting ice of the retreating glacier.
The word Minneopa is derived from the Dakota language and is interpreted to mean "water falling twice." As the retreating glacier melted and drainage patterns emerged, the valley of Minneopa Creek was formed. "Downcutting" occurred until a more resistant layer of rock was encountered and this layer forms the ledge from which the twin waterfall drops.
The southern part of the park is hilly and wooded, with Minneopa Creek and its waterfalls the major feature that attract visitors. The northern sections of the park feature prairie and the Minnesota River. Once, the land was tall-grass prairie, interspersed with marshes, lakes and streams. Today, extensive farming has replaced the prairie with cultivated fields. | <urn:uuid:b8deeaa9-98bc-4b08-b3b8-10689eb249d5> | {
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There’s really only one skywatching event to talk about this month: a total solar eclipse. In one of nature’s most spectacular light shows, the Moon will cover the solar disk on August 21, briefly plunging a narrow path across the United States into darkness. The rest of the country will see a partial eclipse.
This Month's Stargazing Tips - from http://stardate.org/nightsky.
September 20: Pegasus
With summer about to give way to fall, one of the main star patterns of the new season is climbing into prominence in the evening. The Great Square of Pegasus is in the east at nightfall. It’s tilted as it rises, so it looks like a diamond.
September 21: Moon and Jupiter
The giant planet Jupiter is close to the left of the crescent Moon shortly after sunset tonight. Although it is quite low in the sky, if you have a clear horizon you should be able to spot it through the fading twilight.
September 22: Autumn
Autumn arrives in the northern hemisphere at 3:02 p.m. CDT, the moment of the autumnal equinox. The season changes when the Sun crosses the equator from north to south. The Sun will continue its southward trek until the winter solstice, in December.
September 23: Cetus
The constellation Cetus, the whale or sea monster, is swinging into view in the evening sky. It is low on the eastern horizon around 10 or 11 p.m., and never climbs very high during the night.
September 24: Scutum
Scutum, a small, faint “shield” of stars, scoots across the southwestern sky on early autumn nights. It represents the coat of arms on the shield of John Sobieski, a 17th-century king of Poland and one of that country’s great heroes.
September 25: Moon and Companions
Antares, the bright heart of the scorpion, stands below the Moon as night falls, shining bright orange. The brighter planet Saturn is about the same distance to the left of the Moon.
September 26: Moon and Saturn
A pair of bright objects stands in the southwest this evening: the Moon and the planet Saturn. Saturn, the solar system’s second-largest planet, perches below the Moon, and looks like a bright star. | <urn:uuid:aa3d6a01-cf0d-4fca-9d60-551d92601607> | {
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Engineering Internships: Engineering may be defined as the application of scientific principles to practical purposes. Engineering is a very broad field and there are many areas that you can choose to specialize in. The six main areas of engineering are Civil Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; Industrial Engineering; Electrical Engineering; Materials Engineering and Chemical Engineering. There are also many specializations within these areas.
Engineering students may undertake an engineering internship in any of these fields. Internships are temporary positions in the engineering department of a company or organization. They generally last for a few months and are usually completed after the second or third year of study although some companies are happy to take on interns after they have completed their first year. Interns usually work part-time around their studies during the academic year and full-time in the summer. Some companies pay their interns an hourly rate but often internships are unpaid positions. In some cases, the company may provide a stipend for expenses such as transport or food.
Internships are extremely valuable as you get the chance to see how the engineering theories you have studied are applied in real life. You have the opportunity to work on projects and assignments that are important to the company with your own responsibilities assigned to you. You can also gain academic credit for a successful internship. Interns gain valuable hands-on experience through working with professionals. Internships are an excellent way of getting your foot in the door of leading companies and making valuable contacts by proving your abilities. Many companies choose to offer their former interns full-time employment on graduation as their previous experience in the company makes the learning curve considerably shorter.
What does an engineering internship entail?
The duties assigned to you as an intern depends on the area of engineering you are specializing in. The duties of a civil engineer intern may include CAD drafting or specification writing. You may be involved in road or bridge construction inspection and engineering design work such as urban design. Mechanical engineering interns may assist in the design of mechanical systems such as air conditioning, heating or plumbing systems. You may be required to carry out specific project design tasks such as preparing drawings of the systems you design using AutoCAD as well as providing system calculations.
Chemical engineering interns may work in a chemical technology laboratory carrying out analysis. Computer engineering interns may gain experience in software testing, application programming or network technology. Most companies do their best to match your duties as an intern to your areas of interest.
How do I find an engineering internship?
You should distribute your resume with a cover letter to any organization that you would like to work with. Because the number of internships offered by companies may be limited depending on the company’s employment needs, you should start your search early in the school year to increase your chances of obtaining the internship you want. Competition for internships with leading companies can be intense. You should also make sure that you are aware of any deadlines for submission of applications. Sometimes your school will help to place you within the engineering industry. You should check with your campus Career Services office for any internship opportunities that are available.
What skills do you need to win an engineering internship?
If you are invited to attend an interview, ensure that you have thoroughly researched the company. You also need to be prepared to explain why you want an internship with this particular company. You should be able to show that you are passionate about the industry and that you are familiar with the latest industry trends and developments. You will need to have good computer skills and be proficient with the engineering software such as CAD. You will need to show initiative and be able to work independently. However, the ability to work effectively as part of a team is essential.
Below is a list of some of the various types of internships. | <urn:uuid:251e8c93-c970-4931-9619-009cb22d72ea> | {
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Canine housetraining challenges
A well-housetrained dog is a requirement for most pet owners. In fact, behavior problems are a common cause of relinquishment to animal shelters, and inappropriate elimination has been reported to make up 15% to 24% of the behavior problems seen in veterinary behavior clinics.1 While keeping a poorly trained dog confined outdoors is one solution, it does little to maintain or establish a strong bond between a dog and its owner. And keeping a social species such as the domesticated dog confined and alone is likely to result in a relatively poor quality of life for the dog.
General practitioners should be prepared to assist pet owners by inquiring about housetraining issues at the first puppy visit. Teaching acceptable elimination habits is much easier when an animal is still young; changing the behavior of an adult dog with objectionable habits will only get more difficult the longer the dog practices the unacceptable behavior. Basic puppy housetraining has been covered well elsewhere, so this article focuses on some of the more complex challenges that can arise when trying to housetrain dogs of any age.
NORMAL CANINE ELIMINATION BEHAVIORHousetraining a dog will be more easily accomplished with a basic understanding of normal canine elimination behavior. During the first few weeks of life, the bitch licks the urogenital area of her pups to initiate elimination and then ingests the waste. By about 3 weeks of age, the puppies begin moving away from the nest to eliminate, and by 5 weeks of age, they begin choosing a specific location for elimination.2 By 8 to 9 weeks of age, the elimination location and substrate have become more established.3 So 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 weeks of age is the best time to housetrain a puppy.4 Dogs acquired after that age can still be housetrained, but they may have already established some location and substrate preferences that are unacceptable to their owners. These dogs may simply require more time and patience.
The principles of housetraining apply regardless of a dog's age or experience. Briefly, these principles include closely supervising the dog and confining it when supervision is not possible, providing food and water on a consistent schedule, giving rewards for appropriate behavior, teaching a cue for elimination, and avoiding punishment. Use the handout to review these principles with pet owners.
When presented with an adult dog that is housesoiling, first determine whether the dog was ever completely housetrained. If the owner can verify that the dog was at one time completely housetrained, then the next step is to rule out any medical conditions that might lead to increased frequency of elimination, urgency, incontinence, or difficulty in accessing the proper site for elimination.
Once you've ruled out medical problems, consider other causes of housesoiling. Anxiety disorders (e.g. separation anxiety, environmental or storm fear or phobia), age-related cognitive decline, inclement weather (making a dog reluctant to go outdoors), and changes in the owner's schedule leading to poor timing in taking the dog outside to relieve itself are just a few examples of problems that can contribute to a lapse in housetraining.
Dogs with anxiety disorders or age-related cognitive decline are unlikely to benefit from typical housetraining approaches alone; these conditions will need to be treated first to resolve the housesoiling issues. Treatment for these conditions has been well-covered elsewhere.5
SOILING IN A CRATE
A dog's natural tendency to avoid soiling its den area is just one of several behavioral features that can be used to aid in housetraining. However, for a variety of reasons, a pet owner may be faced with a dog that does not seem to mind lying in its own waste. One of the most common reasons this occurs is the pet owner repeatedly leaves the dog confined for too long, and the dog eventually eliminates because it is uncomfortable and cannot hold it any longer. In these cases, the dog learns to tolerate lying in urine and feces and may even develop a substrate preference. | <urn:uuid:eb05bcc2-e722-4076-bd6f-184fcb550ca1> | {
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[Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.]
We depend on the corticospinal system, a dense tract of nerve fibers that connect our brain’s motor cortex to the spinal cord, simply to walk or move our hands.
And though researchers in the last two decades have made great progress in regenerating some kinds of damaged nerves, they’ve not been able to regrow nerves in the critical corticospinal system. Until now. The breakthrough was reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
Scientists genetically engineered rats so that injured neurons in the motor cortex expressed receptors for a growth factor called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). The injured neurons recognized the growth factor in the injured area, and then “grew” or regenerated.
But will the regrown nerves actually allow movement?
The researchers will have to test for this at a spinal cord injury site, to see if neurons will send the receptor down the axon and into the spinal cord. If voluntary movement can be restored in larger animals first, the procedure could move on to human clinical trials, offering hope that people paralyzed by spinal cord injuries might someday be able to move again. | <urn:uuid:f99de905-2fc2-4f23-9f25-2dc0d881594a> | {
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Projects & Facilities
About The Database
Programs & Activities
of the Interior
The Vernal Unit of the Central Utah Project is near the city of Vernal in the Ashley Valley of northeastern Utah, and lies within the Green River Basin of the Upper Colorado River Basin. Principal constructed features of the unit are Fort Thornburgh Diversion Dam and Steinaker Feeder Canal, through which surplus flows of Ashley Creek are conveyed to the off stream Steinaker Reservoir. Water stored in the reservoir is released into Steinaker Service Canal and delivered to pre-project irrigation canals and ditches. A supplemental water supply is provided to about 14,781 acres. This water will partially replace Ashley Creek water, including releases from privately constructed upstream reservoirs. Some of the replaced water is used on lands upstream of Steinaker Service Canal and some is diverted from Ashley Springs on Ashley Creek into the municipal pipelines through which about 1,600 acre-feet of water is delivered annually to the communities of Vernal, Naples, and Maeser. Of the six units which comprise the Central Utah Project, the Vernal Unit is the only unit that is complete; it was completed in 1963.
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The unit features store and distribute the excess spring flows of Ashley Creek. In years prior to the project, Ashley Creek flows dwindled to an inadequate water supply by late summer. Water stored in Steinaker Reservoir can now be released to provide supplemental water to about 14,781 acres of land. Municipal water is supplied to the communities of Vernal, Naples, and Maeser, Utah.
Flows of Ashley Creek are stored by Steinaker Dam, constructed off stream in Steinaker Draw about 3.5 miles north of Vernal. This dam is a zoned earthfill structure with a height of 162 feet, a crest length of 1,997 feet, and a volume of 1,892,000 cubic yards. Steinaker Reservoir has a total capacity of 38,173 acre-feet, and a surface area of 820 acres.
Water from Ashley Creek is diverted by Fort Thornburgh Diversion Dam on Ashley Creek, 4 miles northwest of Vernal. From the diversion dam, the water is conveyed eastward to the reservoir through the 2.8 mile long Steinaker Feeder Canal. Reservoir water is released to Steinaker Service Canal and conveyed south 11.6 miles to existing canals and ditches.
Part of the water in Steinaker Service Canal is provided directly for unit lands downstream of the canal as a supplemental supply, and part is used as a replacement supply to these lands in exchange for natural streamflow and storage releases from existing reservoirs that are diverted upstream. Exchange water made available upstream is used for municipal purposes in Vernal, Maeser, and Naples, and for supplemental irrigation of unit lands upstream of Steinaker Service Canal. The municipal water is diverted from Ashley Springs on Ashley Creek and is distributed through existing facilities.
Project facilities were turned over to the Uintah Water Conservancy District for operation and maintenance on January 1, 1967.
In the summer of 1776, ten Spaniards led by Father Escalante, a Catholic Priest, passed through the valley in their quest for a direct route from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Monterey, California. These were the first white men to enter and they reported a land dry and arid with sandy soil. The vegetation was sage brush, cactus, and desert plants. They also recorded wild animals and Indians living there.
General William H. Ashley entered the area in 1825, leaving his name to both Ashley Creek and Ashley Valley. He was on a trapping expedition with Jim Bridger and Andrew Henry, founder of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company.
Pardon Dodd built the first house in Ashley Valley in 1873 out of timber and mud. He was the Indian agent at White Rocks from 1868 to 1872 prior to moving into this valley to become a stockman. Agriculture began in the valley in the spring of 1874 when a ditch was dug to irrigate land on the Dodd ranch. Settlers from Salt Lake City arrived in 1877 and by 1880, three large canals, Ashley Central, Ashley Upper, and Rock Point, were built.
It was necessary for the settlers to make their communities selfsupporting because of isolation due to the bad roads and lack of railroad facilities. The first crops grown in the valley were corn, wheat, and potatoes. Alfalfa, small grains and pasture have been the principal crops of the unit area. Then, as well as now, there were few immediate cash crops, livestock and animal products being the source of cash income. The Ashley Valley area is well adapted to the production of livestock because of the excellent pasturage afforded by the Uinta Mountains and also the irrigated pasturage in the valley. Sheep and cattle raising are both important branches of livestock production there. Due to the rapidly growing population, agriculture, and livestock production, it was necessary to develop a project that would provide the Ashley Valley with municipal, industrial, and irrigation water.
The Central Utah Project plan has evolved from investigations of various independent projects. Continuous investigations have been conducted by the Bureau of Reclamation since 1945 from a plan which started in 1902 on the Strawberry Valley Project. It was recognized early in the investigations that the project was of such magnitude and complexity that it should be divided into separate units to facilitate planning and construction. A feasibility report was published in February 1951.
Initial Phase of the Central Utah Project, including the Jensen Unit, was authorized as a participating project of the Coloraldo River Storage Project by act of April 11, 1956 (70 Stat. 105).
Repayment of project costs is scheduled as follows: $98,000 pre-payment from the Colorado River Development Fund and contributions; $231,000 non-reimbursable fish and wildlife, recreation, and highway improvement credits; $8,020,050 from Upper Colorado River Basin Funds credited to the State of Utah; $606,000 from municipal and industrial water users; and $1,500,000 to be repaid by Uintah Water Conservancy District in 50 equal annual installments. The District commenced repayment of its obligation in 1966 and as of September 1982, has repaid $997,433.
The Vernal Unit repayment contract between the Uintah Water Conservancy District and the United States was executed June 15, 1958, and validated by the courts November 25, 1958. Construction of irrigation facilities started on May 14, 1959, and was completed in 1963. Construction of drainage facilities was initiated in 1970 and completed in 1977. Modifications were made to the drainage facilities in 1982.
In 1993, Steinaker Dam and Reservoir began modifications to comply with the Safety of Dams requirements. These modifications included excavating the clay foundation material located downstream of the toe of the dam. Dam modification was completed in September of 1994. The construction resulted in a stability berm at the downstream toe.
Principal crops grown on the project lands are barley, corn, oats, alfalfa, corn silage, and irrigated pasture. The total estimated project cost is $10,402,000. Of this amount, $9,602,000 has been allocated to irrigation, $569,000 to municipal and industrial water, and $231,000 to non- reimbursable fish and wildlife and other costs.
Water is diverted from Ashley Springs on Ashley Creek into the municipal pipelines through which about 1,600 acre-feet of water is delivered annually to the communities of Vernal, Naples, and Maeser, Utah.
Recreation facilities at Steinaker Reservoir are administered by the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation. Recreation facilities consist of boating, waterskiing, and fishing. There were 65,663 recreation use visits spent in the reservoir area during 1996.
There is no Hydroelectric power that is produced by the Central Utah Project - Vernal Unit.
No space or funds were allocated to flood control; therefore, no formal flood control plan has been made for Steinaker Reservoir. However, when space is available, nonproject flows of Ashley Creek may be temporarily stored in the Steinaker Reservoir to reduce flood flows, if directed by the Ashley Creek River Commissioner and concurred with by the Provo Area Office and the Uintah Water Conservancy District. | <urn:uuid:0dc4eb07-b99a-42a8-bb9c-4ae79cd399ea> | {
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A Clockwork Binary
How can you tell the time on a binary clock?
On a binary clock a base-2 number system is used for counting, in stead of our regular base-10 system. The rows represent the number 1, 2, 4 and 8. The columns represent, from left to right: tens of hours, hours, tens of minutes and minutes. When an LED is on, its value should be multiplied with the amount that column represents. When several LEDs in a column are on, their values should be first added together. So, in the example in the diagram it is 19.56 | <urn:uuid:da9c3c8b-5acc-43fd-8bda-684f2e6a34e0> | {
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According to a recent article published in The Atlantic, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce recently approved H.R. 1313, a bill that would allow employers to pressure their employees to undergo genetic testing and share the results as part of an employer’s “workplace wellness program.” If an employee opts not to share the results, he or she could be forced to pay significantly more for health insurance.
Proponents of the bill note that it simply builds on programs already in place from the Affordable Care Act; however, critics are worried that the bill will take away many of the privacy, discrimination and insurance protections of the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (“GINA”).
From The Atlantic, “The GOP’s New Bill Would Seriously Disrupt Genetics Research”
Excerpt from article:
“‘People are already being discriminated genetically without mandatory genetic testing—that’s what sexism and racism is . . . . This [bill] would result in a higher resolution of discrimination and more individualized ways of targeting people.’ The dark mirror of personalized medicine is personalized discrimination.”
According to an article published by CNN, dated September 28, 2016, on April 6, a baby was born with DNA from three people by using a new technique called “spindle nuclear transfer.” A team of doctors from New York went to Mexico to conduct the procedure since the Food and Drug Administration has not approved spindle nuclear transfer in the United States. Some are saying that this baby is the first to be born through this procedure, but critics state that the procedure produced children in the “1990s/early 2000s before the FDA” began to regulate it.
From Cnn.com, “Controversial 3-parent baby technique produces a boy”
Excerpt from article:
While in the past, the procedure was used to help women conceive and give birth to healthy babies in cases of infertility, the new version was created to tackle a specific problem: mitochondrial mutations.
In an article dated September 22, 2016, it was revealed that a Swedish scientist has become the first known researcher to begin attempts to modify genes in healthy human embryos—a practice which has been, and for many still is, considered “taboo.” Critics are concerned that people will begin to use such technology to create “designer” babies, or that such research could unintentionally create a new genetic disease; however, the scientist involved says he plans to use the embryos for no more than 14 days, in which time he may be able to discover new ways to treat infertility, prevent miscarriages, and use stem cells to treat various diseases.
From NPR.org, “Breaking Taboo, Swedish Scientist Seeks to Edit DNA of Healthy Human Embryos”
Excerpt from article:
“Lanner is planning to methodically knock out a series of genes that he has identified through previous work as being crucial to normal embryonic development. He hopes that will help him learn more about what the genes do and which ones cause infertility.”
This article reports on a study showing that the method of childbirth might affect that child’s weight well into adulthood. Babies who were delivered by caesarean have a 15% higher risk of being obese than babies who were delivered vaginally. The article suggests causative links, but the study did not prove that a caesarean section is a cause of obesity.
From TheGuardian.com, “Babies born by caesarean more likely to be obese as adults, study suggests”
Excerpt from article:
“Birth by caesarean was linked to a 15% higher risk of obesity in children compared with vaginal birth.”
Amid heated debate over the ethics of gene modification, Chinese researchers have been the first to report successfully editing the genome of human embryos. Though non-viable by design, the embryos have heritable traits. Were edited embryos used in reproduction, the genomic changes could affect future generations.
Researchers at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, led by Junjiu Huang, utilized the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technique to modify the genes that control a rare blood disorder, β-thalassaemia. The process was performed on embryos created for in vitro fertilization that had an extra set of chromosomes, thus precluding live birth.
This research has reignited the debate on gene modification. Critics are concerned that gene modification on human embryos could lead to unsafe and unethical practices. Moreover, the technique that was used has shown inefficiencies – out of 100 embryos, 71 survived and 54 were genetically tested; out of those that were tested only 28 were successfully spliced. Nonetheless, the CRISPR/Cas9 technique is easy to use, and continued research in this area seems likely. Four groups in China are pursuing similar embryonic research.
Several new companies have introduced genetic tests aimed at making treatment of psychiatric illnesses more predictable and effective. Test makers assert that psychiatric genetic testing minimizes patients’ risk of adverse side effects by enabling physicians to select appropriate medications with less trial and error. However, a recent investigative report conducted by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting (the “Report”) raises significant questions about the effectiveness of these genetic tests.
Among the concerns raised in the Report, the lack of independent oversight and financial conflicts of interest are the most serious. The Report suggests that test makers may be overstating findings and have failed to seek outside review of their unproven products. The Report also alleges that financial incentives may be causing improper referrals because test makers have been paying medical professionals to speak favorably about their tests, which have yet to be proven effective. Furthermore, as a result of a highly controversial FDA exemption, the majority of these genetic tests have been introduced into the marketplace without FDA review. Although the FDA recently announced plans to regulate these tests, no timeline has been established.
Despite the ethical concerns raised in the report, psychiatric genetics may still hold the key to unlocking a definitive approach for identifying the drugs most likely to be effective for individuals suffering from a multitude of psychiatric conditions. Only time will tell if the analysis of an individual’s genetic make-up can be used to effectively determine drug response.
From science fiction to fiction: the ability to choose your genes and your children’s genes is on the horizon and it has raised some serious concerns. Burgeoning advancements in genetic science have sparked widespread discussions. The UN’s International Bioethics Committee (IBC) has issued a report that focuses on the moral and practical implications of gene manipulation. The benefits of genomic “editing” are well known. Today’s scientists can now edit a person’s genome to treat or even cure illnesses. But many scientist, government ministers, and lawyers agree that this raises serious moral questions, including concerns about scientists “play[ing] god.” But morality is not the only concern. Genetic editing, particularly when applied to the germline, can change inherited traits, leading to unforeseeable consequences for future generations.
In addition, the IBC is concerned with direct-to-consumer genetic test kits. These kits come at a price, informed consent. Those who take the test, and learn about their own DNA often lack the medical and genetic counseling to react knowledgeably to the test results. The IBC report has called for a moratorium until proper public debate can consider the risks and the benefits of genomic editing. Nevertheless, the line between science fiction and science is wearing thin.
Prominent “gene editing” scientists have called for a freeze on genetic experiments that alter the DNA of human sperm, eggs and embryos. Concern in the scientific community spread following publication of an article in the MIT Technology Review that chronicled efforts of three groups to genetically alter human embryos.
The concerned scientists published a plea titled “Don’t edit the human germ line” in the journal Nature (the article can be viewed at http://www.nature.com/news/don-t-edit-the-human-germ-line-1.17111). This group of scientists is involved in experiments involving genome-editing in non-reproductive cells. They fear that unlike their work, the implications of editing the DNA of human embryos will have irreversible repercussions that could be passed to future generations. They note that modifying the DNA of human reproductive cells could be used for cosmetic rather than therapeutic purposes. This raises ethical and safety concerns.
The scientists call for an agreement within the community to ban modifying the DNA of human reproductive cells.
BMC Medicine, an open-access, online medical journal, recently published the results of a study indicating that stress during pregnancy may stretch across generations. Researchers subjected late-term, pregnant rats to high levels of stress, which in turn caused shorter pregnancies. Then, the researchers separated the next two generations of female rats into two groups. Group one was subjected to stress during pregnancy; group two was not subjected to stress. Both groups showed shorter pregnancies than rats whose ancestors were not stressed during their pregnancies. Thus, the study suggests that stress during pregnancy can be passed along to future generations, even causing shorter pregnancies for mothers who did not suffer high amounts of stress during pregnancy.
It has been fifteen years since MIT professor John Essigmann proposed that in order to fight HIV, drugs should be developed that drastically increase the rate of the virus’ mutation. Essigmann’s idea has lead to the current use of inhibitors (drugs that force cells to mutate so quickly they weaken) for HIV treatment. Once HIV infects a cell, it “rapidly makes copies of its genetic material.” Rapid copying causes errors allowing the virus to mutate quickly and evade the immune system. Essigmann hypothesized that the virus could be starved of essential proteins if the mutation process is increased to an even more rapid pace, eventually killing the virus. Current HIV treatments fight the virus using Essigmann’s 15-year old idea of forcing cells to mutate at unsustainable rates, but researchers have not yet been able to completely “cure” patients. | <urn:uuid:8248f1e8-a776-4c8c-b692-898dd89d9ed2> | {
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Robert Glatter, MD, Contributor
I cover breaking news in medicine, med tech and public health
Research has shown that exercising your mind contributes to your mental health and well being. While physical activity has been shown to aid in sharpening our minds and recall, simple mental exercises can help us to remain sharp and improve memory as we age.
Try doing this mental exercise over a 4 week period and you should notice an improvement in your short and long term memory.
When you are ready to go to sleep, go over what you did that day from the time you got up until you get into bed. Start with the time you awoke, got out of bed, follow your entire day step by step until the time you went back to bed. Try to recall as much detail as possible, visualizing in your mind each and every step from beginning to end. In the beginning, you probably wont remember much detail, and you’ll probably move rapidly from task to task or think of the day in large periods of time. However, try to slow down and remember as much as you can to take in as much detail as you can. With time and practice, you will notice significant improvement in your recall of events and details throughout the day.
This basic mental exercise has the following benefits:
1. It will improve your memory.
2. Your ability to visualize will improve.
3. You will improve your concentration.
4. You will be more in the moment throughout the day. Because you know you will be recalling your day later, you pay more attention to details throughout the day.
5. Your power of observation will improve. You will probably find yourself during the day performing a modified recall of your day to date because you know that later than night you will be trying to recall it again.
6. You will likely fall asleep faster because your mind will get tired much like counting sheep at night in order to fall asleep. | <urn:uuid:5fe1ab8a-06b1-4d07-a1b3-17fe10b53bb9> | {
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Jewish Political Studies Review
Jewish Political Studies Review 15:3-4 (Fall 2003)
Naive Spanish Judeophobia
Gustavo D. Perednik
Jews currently make up less than 0.05 percent of Spain's population, where they were ambivalently rediscovered after four centuries of absence and demonization. Although deep and intense, Judeophobia in Spain is less scrutinized than in other Western countries. Spanish traditions, media, and vocabulary, even among intellectuals, point to a rooted hatred about which Spaniards are utterly naive. This can be traced to a national obsession about unity and homogeneity, which may be related to the frequency with which blood libels were fabricated in Spain and included in law.
In spite of the vicious anti-Zionism of its press on both sides of the political spectrum, and the recurrence of "the Jewish lobby" scapegoat, most Spaniards remain unaware of Judeophobia in their country. This naivety could be used to advantage, making it a phenomenon that could be counteracted.
In this article the word Judeophobia replaces the misnomer anti-Semitism, a term used by many Judeophobes to launder their hatred.1 This more appropriate word is being increasingly accepted in Spain.2
In spite of its depth and intensity, Judeophobia in Spain is scrutinized less than in other Western countries. Half a century ago books on this topic, such as Koppel Pinson's,3 focused on Russia, Poland, France, and Germany. In the 1980s, Jacob Katz4 wrote on Jew-hatred up to the Holocaust, dealing with Germany, France, and Austro-Hungary. More recently, Meyer Weinberg's book on Judeophobia5 devotes chapters to the aforementioned countries, as well as to Argentina, Bulgaria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Italy, Rumania, and the United States. Robert Wistrich6 adds the ex-Soviet Union and Islamic countries. Albert S. Lindemann7 analyses nine of these countries. Pierre Birnbaum and Ira Katznelson8 consider the Netherlands and Turkey. Remarkably, Spain is overlooked in most Judeophobia anthologies.
In a study on Judeophobic attitudes in several European countries that was released towards the end of 2002 by the Anti-Defamation League, Spain came out the worst,9 both among the five countries under study and among another five countries considered two months earlier. In the Spanish survey, 21 percent of those interviewed were Judeophobic. A Gallup survey found that only 4 percent of Spaniards empathized with Israel regarding the conflict in the Middle East.10
Culturally Spain is one of the most homogeneous Western countries - almost all Spaniards are Catholic. Until at least one generation ago, most of them were raised in a Judeophobic atmosphere. Although few had seen a Jew with their own eyes, "killing Jews" was widely considered an innocuous children's game. In many Spanish towns and villages, grassroots Judeophobia is rampant. In some traditional fiestas and rituals passed down from generation to generation, the effigy of a Jew is derided and beaten or even symbolically murdered.
In 1999 a newspaper published a nonchalant article dealing with an Easter tradition in the province of Leon, where cafeterias offer special lemonade in bottles that "will be used to kill Jews." Utterly indifferent to the dark shades in his report, the journalist calls it "a harmless expression" and adds the recipe for this singular lemonade.11
Spaniards' vocabulary includes many striking examples of Judeophobic expressions, which in other languages have been eroded by modern political correctness. The accepted dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy (twentieth edition, 2001) includes under "synagogue" - a meeting for illicit purposes, and under "judiada" - evil action. When the Spanish Royal Academy is requested to exclude from its new editions the derogatory definitions of a Jew, it responds that they merely reflect the way language is used, and that there is no deliberation on their part. Jew has always included a figurative definition of "miser, usurer." However, the Academy does not reflect in its dictionaries derogatory meanings of words related to other national groups, such as Spaniards in Latin America or even of very widespread negative meanings attributed to words like nazi.
Espasa Calpe, publishers of the world's largest encyclopedia, expressed regret last October for the use of Judeophobic terms in its fourth edition of the Dictionary of Synonyms. But the definitions in its encyclopedia have barely changed. The CD version 2000 defines "Jew" and "Zionist" as follows:
Jew: Related to Judaism....Jews await their Messiah....The Jewish capital is Tel Aviv....Derogatory: miser, usurer: a Jewish loan.
Zionist: Adjective. Related to Zionism: Zionist association; Zionist terrorism. Noun: belonging to this ideology: the Zionists have expressed opposition to Palestine independence.
The Uniqueness of Spanish Judeophobia
In at least six ways Judeophobia in Spain stands out from among its parallels in the West.
Firstly, it is distinctive because of its antiquity. In his classic book on Judeophobia,12 Edward Flannery cites that Judeophobia in Spain began in the year 589 with the Third Council of Toledo, after the conversion of King Recaredo to Christianity. Even before this conversion, Spain could boast of the first reported case of compulsory baptism, which took place on the island of Minorca in 418, as a result of Christianity becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire. Since then, Judeophobia has had an ongoing influence on Spanish society.
The second reason for its singularity is its virulence. In 1391, during the riots stirred up by Ferrant Martinez, hundreds of Jews were murdered and entire communities were forcibly Christianized. Since in medieval Christianity the return to the old faith was considered heretical and punishable by death, these waves of forced baptisms were irreversible.
This irreversibility brings us to the third - and main - distinguishing aspect of Spanish Judeophobia, namely the phenomenon of the Marranos, which developed in Spain as a tragic sequel to the forced baptisms. Spanish conversos continued practicing Judaism partially and secretly until after the eighteenth century.
Fourthly, Spanish Judeophobia has always been almost all-inclusive, even among the country's foremost intellectuals. With the outstanding exception of the bard Cervantes (on whose Jewish ancestry leading historians agree), the main authors of the Golden Age of Spanish literature (sixteenth-seventeenth centuries) gave uninhibited vent to their Judeophobic inclinations. Tirso de Molina, Lope de Vega, Calderon de la Barca, and Alonso Castillo Solorzano attacked alleged Judaizers, who seldom defended themselves in the hope that their accusers would relent. One of these accused "Judaizers," Felipe Godinez, pronounced a eulogy in honor of Lope de Vega in spite of having had his supposedly Jewish ancestry satirized by the latter.
Francisco de Quevedo is one of the most revered Spanish authors of all ages. His vituperation of his literary competitor, Luis de Gongora, went: "I shall smear you my verses with bacon for you not to bite them, tiny Gongora/ why would you belie the Greek language/ being just a rabbi of the Jewish tongue/ something not even your nose can deny."13 Again this ironic venom is shocking: Quevedo complained about Jews plagiarizing him although there was not a Jew left to plagiarize (Jews had been expelled from his country more than a century earlier).
While this stubborn persistence of Judeophobia in a Judenrein country is comparable to that of the "miracle plays" of medieval France, Christopher Marlowe in England,14 or the beginning of Latin American Judeophobia with the novel The Stock Exchange,15 the Spanish case includes not only fiction but also essays and political platforms.
A century after Martin Luther's Judeophobic writings, Quevedo wrote in a similar vein the Execration against the Jews' Stubborn Blasphemy16 in which he addressed King Philip IV with the explicit request that "all of them should perish, with their possessions. Their gold is slag, their silver is stench, their wealth is a pest. By birth our Lord Jesus Christ taught us to escape from the Jews' gold....The Jews do with us what Satan did with Christ." Quevedo ends with the wish for "the total expulsion and desolation of the Jews, always evil and every day worse, ungrateful to their God, and traitors to their king," without bothering to notice that there were no Jews left in Spain to expel.
Fifthly, Judeophobia was more "official" in Spain than in other countries. Blood libels and sermons to the Jews were not an exclusively Spanish practice, but they were lawfully supported by the Spanish state, as they were in Russia six hundred years later.
The first Spanish blood libel took place in 1182 in Saragossa. A century later the Code of the Seven Parties (1263) states: "We have heard that in certain places during Holy Friday the Jews kidnap children and they mockingly put them on the cross." As with the expulsion from England, Spanish Jews were banished after public opinion had been poisoned by blood libels.
As for the well-known sermons to the Jews, a law of James I of Aragon (1242) refers to the presence at the homilies as compulsory, and the king himself gave Christian exhortations at a synagogue.
One of the most famous public disputations took place in Barcelona in 1263. It ended with the same James I ordering the Jews to delete from the Talmud allegedly anti-Christian references. The worst Judeophobic polemist of that period, Raymond Martini, then wrote Pugio Dei ("The Dagger of Faith"), which has served since then as a basic text to attack Judaism. Also notable was the disputation of Tortosa (1413), which caused the restriction of Jews' rights to study in Aragon.
Last but not least, Spain can boast of the most thorough and well-known expulsion of Jews ever. In 1492 hundreds of thousands of Jews were expelled, the greatest Jewish community of the time - one that had produced philosophers, astronomers, poets, and physicians, and had made valuable contributions to Spanish culture and welfare - was annihilated and remained so for almost half a millennium.
Following the Inquisition and the Edict of Expulsion of 1492, Spain remained officially without Jews until 1869, when a new constitution, implicitly revoking the Edict, allowed private religious practice. Attempts to have this revocation made explicit failed.
The strength of Spanish Judeophobia may be the result of the long-lived obsession of this country to be "united", almost "pure."
Spaniards sometimes view in hindsight that the Spanish Inquisition was void of Judeophobia and was a political instrument for racial purity. Lozano writes: "[The Inquisition's] anti-Jewry has nothing to do with either anti-Semitism or racism...until Spain became Europized nobody thought a Jew was not Spanish or that he should be expelled if he didn't convert....This happened when the Inquisition was transformed from an intellectual or theological anti-Jewry into the big instrument of mere racial purity, to which Christendom was reduced and equivalent....The triumphal European theology of intellectual and religious homologation became Spanish theology. And there would be no other."17
During the war to drive Napoleonic French troops out of the country, Spanish resistance leaders attempted to establish a liberal government in Spain. From 1810 to 1813 they convened the Spanish Cortes (national assembly) in the town of Cadiz. "Purity of Blood" certificates were abolished by law on 17 August 1811, when freedom of press was also established, albeit only for political ideas.
In 1812 the assembly proclaimed a constitution that came to be the "sacred codex" of liberalism, and served during the nineteenth century as a model for the liberal constitutions of Latin American nations. The Cadiz constitution gave Spain a limited monarchy and a single-chamber parliament, curbed the power of the nobility and the Catholic Church, suppressed the Spanish Inquisition, and expanded protection of individual rights. However, with regard to freedom of public religion, the constitution is very explicit in its twelfth article: "The religion of the Spanish nation is and shall be perpetually Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman, the only true one. The nation protects it and it forbids the practice of any other one." Although there were no Jews in Spain, the Jewish question was raised during the fierce debate between liberals and monarchist-Catholics.
The Cadiz constitution, a victory of liberalism, was promptly repealed by Ferdinand VII when he returned to Spain as king, following Napoleon's defeat. Much of Spain's history thereafter was a struggle to put the Cadiz ideals into effect.
The Obsession with Purity
On 2 January 1492, the Catholic Kings entered Grenada with great pomp and ceremony. The fall of this last bastion of Muslim power in the peninsula strengthened the drive for complete religious homogeneity. But a big obstacle had to be surmounted: the presence of thousands of converts who secretly remained loyal to Judaism. Their presence was considered scandalous: it proved that the segregation of Jews and restrictions of their rights was not enough. From then on, purity of faith became a Spanish obsession: New Christians had to be cleansed of any Jewish influence.
It was also in Grenada that the expulsion edict was signed. The monumental exodus took place and Jews were replaced by New Christians who remained in Spain. They became the new victims of the purity obsession. The derogatorily called Marranos and their descendants were forbidden to occupy public office, to belong to corporations, colleges, orders, and even to reside in certain towns.
Public positions were restricted exclusively to Christians "of impeccable descent," namely those who were not suspected of Jewish ancestry. This change of the focus of the obsession meant a relocation of hatred. Since no more Jews existed, Judeophobia sought a different victim to satisfy its virulent blood-thirst. The New Christians fit the bill. As time went by, more stringent efforts were made to exhume every trace of impure ancestors that had previously been overlooked.
Until 1860 "purity of blood" was a prerequisite to being accepted into the Military Academy. The most prestigious of Spanish colleges, San Bartolome of Salamanca, boasted that they rejected any candidate against whom the slightest rumor existed of Jewish ancestry. Since no one could be sure of his "blood purity since time immemorial," the blemish was negotiable through bribed witnesses, shuffled genealogies, and falsified documents. Until this very day a special aura is often attributed to this supposed "unity of faith" of classic Spain.
It is noteworthy that the obsession with purity of blood may have a deep relationship with the frequency with which blood libels were fabricated in Spain, where the canard, as aforementioned, was included in law. As opposed to other Western countries, there are still Spanish priests who openly revere in their churches the false memory of a martyr boy ritually murdered by blood-drinking Jews. In the St. Nicholas Church in Sevilla there is an altar devoted to Dominguito del Val, "murdered by Jews in 1250." Bishop Carlos Amigo Vallejo, who spreads this libel, is one of the patrons of a public foundation that supposedly promotes "friendship between the three Mediterranean cultures" (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.)
The fearful, mistrusting, and hate-filled atmosphere created by the libels generated collective hysteria. Not surprisingly, the 1492 expulsion took place the year after the blood libel of La Guardia, which immediately gave birth to the cult venerating the memory of the "holy martyr boy."
Generation after generation, details were added to the story, which assumed epic proportions. Each century produced a literary masterpiece that reiterated the topic. In 1583 Fray Rodrigo de Yepes wrote the Story of the Death and Glorious Martyrdom of the Innocent Saint called de La Guardia (after almost a century of Jew-free Spain) and the plot of this work was the basis for Lope de Vega's The Innocent Child of La Guardia. During the eighteenth century, Jose de Canizares adapted it in The Very Image of Christ, as did Gustavo Adolfo Becquer (1830-1870) in his story The Rose of Passion. In 1943 Manuel Romero de Castilla again published the libel under the title A Unique Event during the Kingdom of the Catholic Monarchs.
Of the two blood libels which are still celebrated worldwide, one is in Spain,18 commemorating the time in 1415 when the synagogue of Segovia was confiscated and its leaders executed after an earthquake was interpreted as a divine punishment for Jewish blood rituals.
Infant John of Aragon took part in some of the accusations. In 1367 in Barcelona, several Jewish sages (Hasdai Crescas, Nissim Gerondi, and Isaac Ben Sheshet) were among those arrested when the whole community (including children) was locked up in the synagogue for three days without food. Since they steadfastly refused to confess to a blood crime, the king ordered that they should be freed and three Jews were executed. Ten years later there were similar cases in Teruel and Huesca.
Thus the end of the glorious Jewish community of Spain was not only tragic in the suffering involved and exceptional in its enormous dimensions, it also left behind a collective memory of the demonic image of the Jews, and a fear of blood impurity. Says Rafael Cansinos Assens, one of the most important modern Spanish authors: "With the edict of expulsion of 1490, the Jews disappeared from Spain and from its literature...the Jew is erased from the consciousness of the Spaniard."19
The Ambivalent Rediscovery of Jews
Today Spain's population is forty million; the Jews are at most 0.05 percent of it (about 20,000 Jews) and this figure is the result of dramatic growth during the last decade.
Most Spaniards are still unaware of the presence of Jews in their country, and for them the word Jew often evokes stereotypes of the past. A Spanish teacher has compiled almost thirty popular sayings in the Spanish language in which the word Jew is used nowadays in a derogatory way.20
The Jews were rediscovered in Spain after an absence of four centuries during which their image was the object of demonization.
One of the aforementioned debates of the Cadiz Cortes took place in January 1813 between Deputies Hermida and Ruiz Padron.21 The former declared:
Not only civil laws are needed; also the indispensable courts that protect purity of the faith...from the time of the Romans, the Hebrews were exiled from Spain; they schemed dangerous revolutions and they were punished by the Gothic kings and it is apparent that they were the cause of the perdition of Spain....Their wealth pleased the kings and doors were opened to them....However, the people always looked at them with horror....[In 1396] they were differentiated to avoid their link with Christian families; the law wanted them to convert in order to allow their employment and treat them as Spaniards, but their conversion was never trusted...despite Vicente Ferrer's preaching, the heresy of the Jews was so rooted that in times of the Catholic Monarchs, lawyers almost preached the law of Moses....The continuous complaints that the Catholic Monarchs heard despite the Code of Seven Parties, they were forced to find a remedy in the establishment of the Inquisition...the hate of Christ's enemies was terrible...it was necessary to purge the Spanish domains of this race of enemies, throwing them out of Spain. Their crimes are shocking....It is not possible to completely eradicate the remnants of an old people as the Jews that still conserves the Spanish language and easily mixes with the Spaniards...
The latter retorted:
I cannot understand, Sir, the reason for which the Hebrews inspire us from childhood with a mortal aversion. The children of Israel...are the authentic and eternal testimony of the Holy Scriptures. They justly boast of tracing their origin to the blood of Abraham, and according to the Gospels even Jesus Christ introduces himself as son of Abraham in flesh. It would be more worthwhile to instruct our youth in these eternal truths, than in the stinking canticle: If you give a Jew, I'll return him burnt. If a hidden Hebrew was discovered among us and committed a crime, he should be punished according to the laws of the state, rather than hung from pulleys, held on stocks, or be thrown into the stake only because he is a Hebrew.
In 1837, though no Jews had resided in Spain for centuries, Minister Juan Alvarez de Mendizabal was accused of being of Jewish ancestry when he expropriated the Church's patrimony. Some twenty years later, when it was rumored that Jews were returning to Spain, an influential professor from Sevilla published an article in a well-known Catholic magazine, which is remarkable in its bluntness:
Some days ago several periodicals announced that the Jews from Prussia were going to request the Constituent Assembly that the national laws about their expulsion should be derogated. We are not surprised that in this era when Spain seems to be a putrid corpse, those stinking worms come out to the public light, that no matter how much it toils it won't be able to erase from its forehead the loathsome curse that reduced it to live wandering, without temple, without ministers, without motherland neither home, always persecuted and always hated wherever it puts its filthy foot. The Jews are deceiving themselves very much if they believe that the Spaniards have forgotten their old betrayals and treacheries, their insurrections and their deceits, their swindles and their racketeering, their iniquities and their wild ferocity...if they believe they can be compatible with the Spanish Catholic people, their race that stole children, and after terribly tormenting them, it mutilated them and it crucified, if they didn't put an end to their existence with tortures that horrify, in the history of those innocent martyrs that we worship in our altars. The Jewish race that despises and reviles Jesus Christ, that insults his most Saintly Mother with sacrilegious words, the Mother of the Spaniards. They can't ever have legal existence in this eminent people, exclusively Catholic. The coming of the Jews to Spain, would be the beginning of new evils...they always promoted tumult and insurrection...they are Our Lord Jesus Christ's crucifiers, scornful to his most Sacred Mother...usurious, swindlers, and pirates of peoples.22
The notable protagonist of the positive rediscovery of Spanish Jews was Senator Angel Pulido whose work (Spaniards without Motherland, 1905, among others) deals empathetically with the Sephardim, who had been much denied by Spaniards. Modern Spanish nationalism reacted with ambivalence to this new awareness of the existence of Jews.
Spanish nationalism strove on the one hand to preserve Catholic Spanishness from foreign habits; on the other hand it claimed that (Sephardic) Jews were part of their nation. The Sephardim were seen as "those who keep the language of the motherland" (Ladino is essentially the Spanish of the sixteenth century preserved by the descendents of the expulsion of 1492).
Ernesto Gimenez Caballero, who supported an eventual return of Sephardim to Spain, was one of the main ideologists of Spanish fascism. He edited and published a series of articles in 1939 by Pio Baroja (a leading Spanish novelist of the twentieth century) under the title Communists, Jews, and other Ilk, where communism is presented as "the Jewish crusade against Europe," and where although Sephardim are seen as gifted in arts and open-spirited, "Ashkenazim are the avant-gardes of communism."
This ambiguity, either sincere or affected, continued during almost four decades of Francisco Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975). Catholicism had become the official religion, and Spain was again culturally monolithic. On the one hand, it was difficult to preserve in modern times the same myths about the Jews that characterized the medieval mentality; on the other hand, Judeophobia was still there and had to be justified. Although "in its attitude toward the Jews and the Jewish question, the Franco regime displayed a kind of 'split personality,' there can be no doubt about the anti-Jewish philosophy of Franco, the Falange, and the Church."23 All in all, the pretension of some type of understanding of Jews was always shallow. To Franco, Jewry was one of the "villains" of our time, and since Franco, "the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy" has been an oft-quoted scapegoat. In his conversation with Nazi Ambassador Dieckhof, Franco declared on 3 December 1943, "Thanks to God and the clear appreciation of the danger by our Catholic kings, we have for centuries been relieved of that nauseating burden."24
Nevertheless, the abstracts of the First Conference of Sephardic Studies in Spain were published during the 1960s with the prologue of the most visible leader of the extreme right, Blas Pinar.
During World War II the Spanish government issued passports to more than ten thousand Sephardic Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. A further forty thousand were permitted to pass through Spain to other destinations. For this reason alone, many well- meaning Spaniards, clearly not Judeophobic, reject the notion that Spain has any kind of moral debt towards the Jews, and contend that Jews are too often ungrateful to the Spanish, "who saved so many Jewish lives." The renowned case is that of Spain's diplomatic representative in Budapest during World War II, Angel Sanz Briz, who during 1944 saved almost one thousand Jews who claimed Spanish origin. He based his humanitarian action on a 1924 Spanish law which promised Jews of Spanish descent a restoration of citizenship. Sanz Briz issued protective passports to save them from deportation.
Nazi collaborators were provided shelter in Spain after the war, in which Spain had been for some time a passive ally of Germany. It is notable that the international voluntary brigades that fought with the Republican forces against Franco's nationalists during the civil war included high percentages of Jews. (In some battalions the Jews constituted up to 40 percent, and there was a Palestinian Battalion consisting entirely of Jews.)
To a certain extent Spanish ambivalence towards the Jews continues today. Spain rebuilds and develops its ancient ghettos throughout the country, claiming back the glory of the medieval Jewish community. Yet most of its population persists in perceiving Jews in a negative light.
From Ambivalence to Naivety
Several unique characteristics of Spanish Judeophobia have been mentioned, but the most remarkable trait should be considered further: most Spaniards remain completely unaware of the Judeophobic nature of their country and are shocked at the suggestion that Spain is particularly hateful towards the Jews. On 26 June 2003 the remarks by diplomat Javier Solana, head of foreign affairs of the European community, were typically Spanish. He angered the International Relations Committee of the U.S. Congress by declaring that "there is no anti-Semitism in Europe." This phenomenon of unawareness can be explained in several ways.
Firstly, Spaniards tend to relate Judeophobia almost exclusively to Nazism; therefore they are reluctant to perceive Judeophobic expressions unless they are extreme and violent.
Secondly, it is not infrequent that a Spanish public figure makes a Judeophobic slip. Generally it is unacceptable in European countries for someone to publicly define himself as Judeophobic without apprehension about repercussions. A letter was circulated in the Spanish-speaking Internet a few months ago which exemplified the boldness with which a Spaniard can express himself, something that is far more seldom seen within educated circles in other countries.
The director of Artmalaga art gallery in Andalusia (southern Spain) sent the following signed answer in response to the question of a Jewish artist (1 February 2003): "We totally reject working with any person related to Israel, because we completely disagree with its segregationist policy. We have a certainly anti-Semitic stand against any person linked to that country, which murders daily people regardless of their age, for the sole reason of being Palestinians."25
Thirdly, Spaniards usually fail to distinguish between Israel and "the Jews," and therefore they tend to claim (sometimes openly in the media) that Judeophobia is caused by Israeli policy. The problem was recently presented in this light in an article by a Jewish journalist in the most widely read newspaper of the country.26 It is telling that Spain was the last Western European country to establish relations with Israel, in 1986.
In spite of usually seeing Israel and "the Jews" as one unity, many Spaniards would be eager to make a clear distinction between the two groups when it comes to Judeophobia. In this area, they would argue that even the most vicious anti-Zionism does not necessarily imply attacking the Jews. For example, a very thorough book on Spanish Judeophobia by Alvarez Chillida,27 fails to grasp the extent of anti-Jewish prejudices in Spanish Israel-bashing. In Chapter 14, under the subtitle "Left-wing anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism," Chillida explains:†"After the Six Day War a new anti-Zionism of the left emerged...the revolutionary Palestinian fight against Israel was part of the fight for the liberation of peoples oppressed by American imperialism....In my opinion, this left-wing anti-Zionism ought not to be confused with anti-Semitism. Because it is not the same to consider unjust the existence of the State of Israel and to consider that Jews are generally perfidious."28
Apart from public statements, the easiest way to reveal Spanish Judeophobia is by reading the press. The most important Spanish newspapers and TV channels unanimously bash Israel, demonizing the Jewish State in the same way the Spaniards demonized the Jewish people over centuries.
On 20 April 2003, a top journalist of one of the leading newspapers published an article with the title "The Name of the Problem is Israel,"29 where the Jewish state is blamed for the Iraqi war and the author suggests that the whole intifada is the result of a conspiracy between George Bush, Ehud Barak, and Ariel Sharon, who deliberately incited the Palestinian war by collaborating to send Sharon to visit the Temple Mount.
The Spanish media has few exceptions to its anti-Israel line. Among the politically left wing, Israel-bashing comes under the rationalization that they are pro-Palestinian (namely pro-Arafat) and feel solidarity with the underdog. The fact that they do not support the Chechnians against Russia does not call for a redefinition of their standpoint. Nor does the fact that their solidarity does not leave room for other stateless peoples (Kachmirians, Kurds, Tamils, and so on), Nor does the fact that there is no solidarity with the Palestinians when Israel cannot be blamed for their misfortune, such as when they were murdered by Jordan in 1970 or evicted by Kuwait in 1991.
Among the right wing, Judeophobia has Catholic underpinnings as its source. For example, the widely read Catholic newspaper ABC adds the word "revenge" to its description of any defensive action that Israel takes. This strengthens the prejudice of many of its readers about the vindictiveness of the Jews, who according to them follow a religion of revenge.
Neither group has clearly articulated a theory about the Jews, but rather they have adopted the European line, on the left and on the right, which identifies Israel as the source of evil. Israel is ubiquitously presented as a racist theocracy financed by the U.S. In this sense, Spain is no different than the rest of Europe, although it sometimes stands out, such as when Spanish President Felipe Gonzalez visited Yad Vashem and refused to wear a kippa on the premises, instead opting to wear a baseball cap.
The most widely read newspaper, the left-wing El Pais, is probably the most extreme in its constant demonization of Zionism and Israel. Its international affairs editor, Jose Maria Bastenier, frequently publishes vituperations against the Jewish state, and the newspaper's language leaves no room for doubt about its views. Before the elections in Israel, a professor of one of the most prestigious Spanish universities, Gema Martin Munoz, wrote there that Sharon was planning the "final solution of the Palestinian question."30
Gesher, a group of young Jewish intellectuals, released a study on cartoons in the main newspapers this year.31 It concludes that current Spanish Judeophobia has "its clearest expression in the anti-Zionistic rhetoric"32 and that "the precedents of current Judeophobic vignettes can be found in the way the Jew was presented in the religious paintings or popular drawings of the Inquisition period, and even with the drawings of children's books during Franco's era. In this way the cartoonist connects negative visual imaginary of the Jew with the Israeli, who represents the Jews nowadays." The study is careful to reproduce cartoons "Only when traditional preconceptions, stereotypes, and stigma about the Jews are used to build up a critical argument against either Israel or its government." Only in those cases, claim the authors, "we will be witness to unequivocal expressions of contemporary Judeophobia." Five major newspapers were investigated33 over a period of three years (2000-2002) and more than thirty cartoons are included. The cartoonists Reboredo, Cain, and Ferreres, and journalists Maruja Torres and Antonio Gala are particularly venomous.
One of the most vociferous current Spanish Judeophobes is lawyer-turned-journalist Javier Nart, who frequently speaks on radio and TV, and finds Israel to be the main problem of the modern world. In a world arena of ayatollahs, Osamas, and Saddams, the only head of government whom Nart publicly calls "an animal, a criminal," is the head of the Jewish government.34
Pilar Rahola, a left-wing journalist who courageously denounces left-wing Judeophobia, explains El Pais, Nart, and company, by stating that the Spanish left is deeply Judeophobic. Says Rahola:
Israel is not just a country that is trying, for better or worse, to survive for fifty years, but it is reduced to one sole image: a country that occupies the territories and whose vocation is to make life miserable for the poor Palestinians. The history of the Holy Land is being reinvented. Everything takes place as if there were instructions: Never recall the faults and errors of the Palestinians, never recall their alliances with dangerous countries such as Iraq, in order to heap more shame on the United States and Israel. The profound reasons for this war are never made clear, never discussed.35
The obsession of the Spanish press with Israel also stands out. For instance, while the German or British press spoke from the outset about "the massacre of Jenin" as a possibility, the Spanish press took it as a certainty from the outset. The criminality of Israel requires no proof. Newspapers spoke about the "ethnical cleansing" at Jenin, and even about the "Jenin Holocaust." One of the worst exponents of the lie was Telecinco (TV channel five) where the exhibition of a rotten corpse served as an alleged proof of the "massacre."
A similarly histrionic TV program was screened on 4 July 2003 (TVE 1). It was a program about the suffering of the Gaza population, in which actor Jorge Sanz empathetically cried in front of the cameras, presenting all anti-Israeli terrorists as noble, heroic freedom fighters, and demanding that Israel stops its criminal actions. The token Jewish side of the picture was a scene of Jews at the Western Wall, for which the only explanation given was that there "guys and gals are separated."
Needless to say, when the so-called massacre of Jenin proved to be a propaganda hoax, no newspaper recanted or apologized. Israel is guilty, even when found innocent. Also the story of 12-year-old Mohammed al-Durrah continues to be "true" only in Spain.36 The Spanish reader is constantly "informed" about a "spiral of violence" in the Middle East that was originally initiated by the Jews.
Spain also surpasses its left-wing counterparts in other European countries. The leader of Izquierda Unida, Gaspar Llamazares, an obsessive Israel-basher, declared his party was fed up with the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust, and announced that his party would not take part in any homage paid to their memory. An editorial in Libertad Digital, a periodical exceptional in its support for Israel, responded with these words: "A [European] politician who dared express that he is fed up by too much talk about that trifle that is six million Jews murdered by Nazis would be a national shame and an unrecoverable political corpse. Unfortunately, in this country, Judeophobia continues to be free; it can even be profitable electorate-wise. Llamazares' attitude borders on criminality....He might think that he insults the Jewish people when he spits on the Holocaust. He is wrong. He spits on the human race."37
The Reports on Terrorism
The typical press attitude is exemplified by their reports on terrorist attacks in Israel. The news mentions "activists" or "militants" (the word "terrorists" is almost exclusively reserved for the Basque movement ETA, or occasionally for the actions of the Israeli army), and editorial pages condemn Israel even when it has been attacked. As Pilar Rahola stated: "The Jewish victims in Israel also end up...as their own killers. There are no Jewish victims, just as there are no Palestinian executioners. The main distortion of the truth is that Arab terrorism becomes comprehensible and even acceptable."38
One particularly eloquent example is the contrast between press reports about the two terrorist attacks in October and November 2002 respectively. The former, in Bali, Indonesia, aroused unanimous outrage; the latter, in Mombasa, Kenya, where the victims happened to be Jewish, was nominally condemned.
A more recent example was the terrorist attack in which fifteen were killed and dozens of civilians were wounded in Haifa on 5 March 2003. The newspaper editorials condemned Israel and not the attack. The news in El Pais on 6 March announced that "Eleven Palestinians die due to an Israeli operation" and only a small subtitle referred to the bus attack. The newspaper's editorial piece is entitled "An Eye for an Eye" and claims that the suicide attack reproduced a previous Israeli attack in which nine Palestinians had been killed. The editorial in Catholic ABC, while attacking neither the victims nor their government, boasts moral equidistance by stressing that killing "from both sides" has not abated.
Moreover, a typical procedure in the Spanish press is to quote token Jews, Jews who either criticize Israel or who unreservedly hate Israel. In March 2003, a review of a book by the extremely anti-Zionist Israel Shahak39 explains that to understand the alleged criminal nature of Zionism we should relate it to its source, the evil of the Jewish religion.
One of the interviews with Yasser Arafat in the Spanish press appeared in the widely read daily La Vanguardia on 13 October 2002. The Israeli interviewer fails to question any of Arafat's statements. He empathetically opens the interview with "How do you feel, Mr. President?" and uncritically allows Arafat to claim "the murderers of Yitzhak Rabin are currently in power in Israel."
This principle of token Jews against Israel was applied in 2002 when granting the prestigious Prince of Asturias Prize of Concord (parallel to the Nobel Peace Prize). A Palestinian and a Jew were chosen. The first, Edward Said, opposed even the Camp David Agreement. The Jew, pianist Daniel Barenboim, is a frequent Israel-basher and Wagner cultist. The message to the Spanish public was once again of postured impartiality, and the average Spaniard thus remained unaware of any hostility towards the Jews.
Barenboim asked that the Palestinian flag be exhibited (no one either noticed the asymmetry or imagined the possibility of Said requesting the Israeli flag). Moreover, he declared that it would please him to perform in a concert in Syria and to invite President Bashir Assad, but that when performing in Israel he would never invite the Israeli prime minister.
Another aspect that is singular to Spanish Judeophobia is the acceptance of the usage of the expression "the Jewish lobby" as legitimate and truthful. The modern Judeophobic myth of Jewish world domination should be meaningless in a country devoid of Jews for almost half a millennium. The fact that it is not proves again that Judeophobic myths, in contrast to racist or xenophobic myths, are not distortions of reality, but wild fantasy.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion has appeared in Spain in three versions. The first one was published in 1927 by a little known Judeophobe, Pablo Montesinos y Espartero.
The second edition was published in 1933 with the support of the German Embassy, in the newspaper of the founder of a group that subsequently became the Falange, Ramiro Ledesma.
A new edition of the Protocols appeared in 1977. Spain was in the process of becoming a democracy, and the extreme right party (Fuerza Nueva) claimed that democratization was part of a Jewish conspiracy. Even the murder of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco (Franco's appointed successor) in an ETA attack on 12 December 1973, was attributed to Jewish machinations.
After September 11th, the myth that "the Jews are always behind it" became popular in the Internet and the media. In Spain, "the Jewish lobby" is freely cited in intellectual circles. Actress Marisa Paredes, president of the Spanish Academy for Arts and Cinematography, declared on April 2002 to the Europa Press agency that Roman Polanski got an Oscar for his film The Pianist because "of the Jewish lobby's intrigues." In December 2002, journalists Alex Navajas and Alex Rosal claimed in the newspaper La Razon that the "attack on the church" (due to pedophile cases involving several priests) was the result of a conspiracy by "the Israeli lobby."
On 3 November 2002, a major newspaper, El Mundo, published a review of the book The Jewish Lobby by Alfonso Torres. The article delineates the "revelations of the book" and at the end mentions known Jews under the heading "Basics of Jewish Spain" (the parallel with Edouard Drumont's La France Juive is apparent). According to the article, "They are in banking, justice, hotel industry, construction, and textile industry. They move in the most powerful circles and keep contact with the economic and political elite. They can even get out of jail thanks to the support of the Hebrew lobby."
An interesting point here is the outraged answer given by the editor40 of the supplement in which the article appeared to a reader who complained about the Judeophobic bias of the piece. The editor's answer is a typical example of the aforementioned naivety:
[The complaint is] demagogic... [because] the author never says that Jews should be exterminated....To criticize a Jew does not mean to want to kill him....I don't know what is it to be an anti-Semite and even less I know what is included under this ever growing and mendacious definition of anti-Semitism....If tomorrow someone proved that half of Spanish businessmen are from the town of Cadiz, I would request an article about it and no person from Cadiz would accuse me of wanting to destroy them.
This same newspaper, with over one million readers, published on 15 June 2003, a sympathetic interview with the unrepentant terrorist Ahmed Jubara in Ramallah, under the title "The Mandela of the Palestinians."41
On 29 June 2003, a three-page interview with him presented him as a legendary hero. He had placed a fridge-bomb in a crowded area in order to kill as many Jews as possible. The twenty Jews murdered are not considered victims in the interview, because, as Jubara asserts (unchallenged) "what we do is not terrorism."
One more example of how Judeophobia causes no embarrassment to public figures is Raul Gonzalez Blanco, widely considered the best Spanish football player, who posed for photographs while he held the banner of the Ultra Sur neo-Nazi group (which sponsors the Real Madrid team in which Blanco plays.) In none of these cases (El Mundo, Paredes, and Blanco) were apologies or explanations offered, precisely because Judeophobic prejudices in Spain usually go unnoticed or are condoned.
Author Rafael Cansinos Assens (1882-1964) is known to have discovered the supposed Jewish origins of his family, apparently motivated by the aforementioned work of Senator Angel Pulido.42 Cansinos wrote several novels and essays in which he deals with historical and literary aspects of the Jewish experience. Even for him, well predisposed towards the Jewish people as he was, it was hard to unequivocally condemn Judeophobia.
In his book The Jews in Spanish Literature, which was published for the first time in Argentina in 1937 and has a new Spanish 2001 edition, Cansinos studies Jewish characters in the works of nine Spanish authors43 of the last two and a half centuries, and overlooks Judeophobia in most of them. The naivety of this oversight is apparent in the following statements by Cansinos: "Jewish haughtiness was chastised in this play...the Jew aspires to dominate and impose himself...he has an imperialist sense of life....There is no line with hate in the play...the absence of Judeophobia is obvious."44 In a play that revives the myth of Jews using human blood for their rituals and the crime of deicide, where everything Jewish is repellent, where as even Cansinos admits the protagonist "was rancorous and vindictive as is everyone of his [Jewish] race," he nevertheless concludes that the author "is not an anti-Semite."45 Except for one case, Cassens's ingenuousness whitewashes every Judeophobe mentioned.
On the Other Hand
There are exceptions to the Spanish rule. On the conservative side of the political spectrum, Camilo Jose Cela, who was often critical of Spanish Judeophobia, was one of the promoters of the establishment of relations between Spain and Israel, and presided for years over the institute for friendship between the two countries. (These facts too often go unmentioned in his biographies, including the press reports of his being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1989.)
Two very well-known Spanish intellectuals wrote very sympathetic books about Israel when they visited the country in 1957 (Josep Pla) and 1968 (Julian Marias) respectively. Pla is considered the top Catalonian novelist, and the second edition of his book was published in 2002. Marias is one of the top Spanish contemporary philosophers.
The virtual publication Libertad Digital is open in its defence of the Jewish people and the State of Israel.
On the political left, the previously quoted Pilar Rahola is a journalist and former congresswoman of Izquierda Republicana who has become very popular in Jewish circles throughout the world, thanks to her brave and staunch denunciation of the vitriolic Judeophobia within Spanish left-wing circles.
In 2002 the renowned writer Horacio Vazquez-Rial worked on the publication of a book with essays by twenty Spanish intellectuals, In Defense of Israel (the title of the anthology). However, he could find no publishing house willing to accept the challenge, in spite of the inclusion of such prestigious authorships among the essays as Gabriel Albiac, Joan B. Culla, Jesus del Campo, Jose Jimenez Lozano, Reyes Mate, Marta Pessarrodona, Valenti Puig, Fernando Rodriguez Lafuente, Juana Salabert, Carlos Semprun Maura, and VicenÁ Villatoro. All are famous Spanish personalities who are true friends of the Jewish people.
Many Spaniards are becoming increasingly interested in their Jewish history. Small towns in which there had been a Jewish presence during medieval times are becoming proud of their past and trying to recreate it in order to attract tourists (Spain is a world leader regarding tourism). An increasing number of Spaniards - though still a very small group - even consider themselves Jewish or partly Jewish by virtue of their supposed Jewish ancestry.46
There has been progress in recent years in legal matters. The new Spanish penal code (in which racism, Judeophobia, and the denial or justification of genocide are criminal offenses for the first time) became effective on 25 May 1996. This came about after a federal court refused in February 1996 to extradite the ex-Nazi army officer Otto-Ernst Remer, the resident of a Spanish summer resort since 1994 (Remer died in 1997).
In June 2003, the Spanish police (Guardia Civil) arrested four neo-Nazis. There are several active neo-Nazi groups in Spain, a country which is home to about 100 far-right groups and parties spanning the spectrum from "traditional" Falangists to neo-Nazi skinheads. Every November 20th they commemorate the deaths of dictator Franco (1975) and of the "Falange" founder Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera (1936, by firing squad).
The Spanish far right is currently fragmented and isolated, and has not recovered from the electoral disaster it suffered in 1982 after its failed attempt at a coup d'etat on 23 February 1981. It has been without parliamentary representation ever since.
One of the oldest and most active neo-Nazi groups in Europe is faltering. The neo-Nazi Pedro Varela-led CEDADE was founded in 1965 and based in Barcelona until January 1993. It received a blow when Varela was arrested and convicted, and his bookshop Europa was raided by the Catalonian police. Until then Varela had control of CEDADE's extensive international publishing network, the most important distributor of neo-Nazi propaganda in Europe. He was ultimately released.
The depth of the roots of Judeophobia in Spain makes it particularly dangerous, especially considering that unemployment in Spain is approximately double the European average. However, its naivety could be used to advantage, making it a phenomenon that could be counteracted and to some extent neutralized.
In March 2002 the author of this article was invited to lecture at the Rovira i Virgili Catalonian university at Tarragona, where an advanced student candidly asked: "It was explained to me a hundred times but I am still unable to understand it: why does Israel have a right to exist?"
Many Spaniards pose this question implicitly or explicitly. Had the audience at Tarragona not been hostile, I could have provided my questioner with her 101st explanation, albeit doubting whether a hundred more would have made her understand - Judeophobia restricts understanding.
I chose not to justify my existence but rather to bounce her question: "Since there are a hundred and ninety-two countries in the world, I wish to congratulate the one hundred and ninety-one that have passed your demanding right-to-exist exam. Don't you find it strange that there is one lone country, much smaller than Catalonia and attacked by the most atrocious regimes, which you have failed to grant a right to exist?"
In my experience, this method is shocking to Spaniards because of their obliviousness of their anti-Jewish prejudices, even against the Jew of the countries (Israel). Questioning the questioner can bring to consciousness a flaw that could not be easily overcome had it been conscious from the outset. When Judeophobia is exposed to the well-meaning, the expose frequently breaks the prejudice.
From this perspective, the Jewish community's stance is vital. The organized Jewish community in Spain has tried to keep a very low profile and not openly counterattack Judeophobia. Its youth often felt it was too difficult to confront the extremely hostile atmosphere on university campuses, due to a lack of backing from the Jewish community at large. During the worst period of the intifada, when Israel was demonized everywhere, the Jewish Community of Madrid changed its official name from Comunidad Israelita to Comunidad Judia in order to minimize the "Israel connection" of being Jewish.
Things are changing today. A younger generation of Jews are expressing their Jewishness, partially due to the influence of the immigration of very active Jews from some Latin American countries (notably Venezuela), where being Jewish is a matter of pride.
The educational endeavors of the organized Jewish community may yet bear fruit: when a Spaniard is made aware of his attempt to discredit a single people or a single country, he may arrive at one of two conclusions: either Israel is indeed the most satanic work in human history, or the venom to which the Jewish state is subjected is directly related to the spitefulness that has persecuted the Jewish people over many centuries. In both cases the presence of Judeophobia will be made apparent.
1. The first chapter of the author's book Judeophobia (Barcelona: Flor del Viento, 2001) deals with the impropriety of the word anti-Semitism. Among the historians quoted in the book who use the term Judeophobia are Walter Laqueur, Edward Flannery, J. Halevy, Jacob R. Marcus, Leon Pinsker, Peter Schafer, Henry Weinberg, Robert Wistrich, and Zvi Yavetz.
2. In an interview in the newspaper La Nueva Espana (Asturias, 13 July 2003) journalist Javier Neira claims that "the word Judeophobia is the one most used nowadays to define the persecution against the Jewish people."
3. Koppel Pinson, ed., Essays on Antisemitism (New York: Conference on Jewish Relations, 1946).
4. Jacob Katz, From Prejudice to Destruction, Anti-Semitism 1700-1933 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980).
5. Meyer Weinberg, Because They Were Jews, A History of Antisemitism (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986).
6. Robert S. Wistrich, Antisemitism, The Longest Hatred (London: Thames Mandarin, 1991).
7. Albert S. Lindemann, Esau's Tears, Modern Anti-Semitism and the Rise of the Jews (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
8. Pierre Birnbaum and Ira Katznelson, eds., Paths of Emancipation: Jews, States, and Citizenship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
9. European Attitudes towards the Jews: A Study in Five Countries (Anti- Defamation League, September 2002). Five hundred people from each of the following countries were interviewed: Austria, Holland, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland.
10. The survey was made during June 2001 by Intergallup S. A. It interviewed more than two thousand adults. Nineteen percent were in favor of the Palestinians, 19 percent said they had no sympathy for either party, and only 4 percent favored Israel. The margin of error was 2.2 percent.
11. Jose Luis Gonzalez Arpide in A Fuego Lento, Leon, 1 April 1999.
12. Edward Flannery, The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-three Centuries of Anti-Semitism (New York: Macmillan, 1965). Spanish version: Paidos, ed., Veintitres siglos de antisemitismo (Buenos Aires: Paidos, 1974), p. 150.
13. Francisco de Quevedo, Obras Inmortales (Madrid: E.D.A.F., 1969), pp. 1346, 1348, 1353, 1363.
14. We don't mention William Shakespeare since it is highly controversial whether his drama The Merchant of Venice is Judeophobic.
15. Julian Martel, La Bolsa, serialized in La Nacion, Buenos Aires, 1891. An essay by Perednik on this novel was published in Coloquio, (Buenos Aires: Latin American Jewish Congress, 1989).
16. The complete title of this essay of 1633 is "Execration for the Catholic Faith against the Stubborn Blasphemy of the Portuguese-speaking Jews who in Madrid hang up Sacrilegious and Heretical Posters, Recommending the Remedy to Stop What Happened, that Cannot Begin to be Punished with all the Torments of this World."
17. Jose Jimenez Lozano, "Anti-Jewry in Spain," in Reyes Mate, ed., Philosophy after the Holocaust (Barcelona: Riopiedras, 2001), pp. 223, 229.
18. The other is Deggendorf, Bavaria of 1337. See Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter, 1972), 8:1043.
19. Rafael Cansinos Assens, ed., Los judios en la literatura espanola (Valencia: Pre-Textos, 2002), p. 31.
20. Jose Manuel Laureiro, "El refranero, sabiduria popular?" (unpublished, 2002). Laureiro based this article on Gonzalo Alvarez Chillida, El antisemitismo en Espana. La imagen del judio (1812-2002) (Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2002).
21. Actas de las Cortes de Cadiz, anthology, Enrique Tierno Galvan, Madrid, 1964, vol. 2, pp. 1026-1229.
22. Leon Carbonero y Sol, "Claims of the Jews for their Establishment in Spain," La Cruz, vol. 2, Sevilla, (1854):623-627. La Cruz, the Catholic magazine of Spain, was published until 1915.
23. Nehemiah Robinson, The Spain of Franco and its Policies Toward The Jews (New York: Institute of Jewish Affairs, World Jewish Congress, 1953), pp. 8-9.
25. The answer was signed by Juan Carlos Rica, Artmalaga.
26. Hermann Tersch, "El Retorno de la judeofobia," El Pais, Madrid, 4 May 2003.
27. Gonzalo Alvarez Chillida, El antisemitismo en Espana. La imagen del judio (1812-2002) (Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2002).
28. Ibid., pp. 465-466.
29. Enrique Curiel, "The Name of the Problem is Israel," La Razon, Madrid (20 April 2003).
30. Gema Martin Munoz, El Pais (27 January 2003).
31. Alejandro Baer and Federico Zukierman, Anti-Semitism in Graphic Humor - Caricatures and Vignettes of the Spanish Press about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Madrid: Guesher, 2003), pp. 2-3.
32. Ibid., p. 4.
33. El Pais, La Vanguardia, ABC, El Periodico, and La Razon.
34. As stated by Nart in his recent appearance on 9 July 2003 in the town of Gijon, during a conference organized by Gustavo Bueno Foundation.
35. Marc Tobiass, "Judeophobia Explains the Pro-Palestinian Hysteria of the European Left," Proche-Orient (2 October 2002) - an interview with Pilar Rahola.
36. Takeapen has a website about the Spanish press and its treatment of the Middle Eastern conflict.
37. Libertad Digital (30 April 2003).
38. Pilar Rahola's lecture at the American Jewish Committee's 97th Annual Meeting, 7 May 2003.
39. Jose Maria Ridao, La Esparta Judia (1 March 2003).
40. Agustin Pery Riera, chief editor of Cronica supplement (13 November 2002).
41. On the other hand, this same newspaper published on 8 July 2003 the most important report that the Argentine Intelligence Service (SIDE) prepared under Miguel Angel Toma, on how the attack on the Argentine community was planned and perpetrated in 1994.
42. The introduction to the last edition of Cassens' work, by Jacobo Israel Garzon (Valencia: Pre-Textos editions, 2001), p. 8.
43. Garcia de la Huerta, Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, Benito Perez Galdos, Isaac Munoz, Adolfo Reyes, Vicente Blasco Ibanez, Antonio Cases, Juan Pujol, and Concha Espina.
44. Rafael Cansinos Assens, The Jews in Spanish Literature (Valencia: Pre-Textos editions, 2001), pp. 45, 47-48.
45. Ibid., p. 51.
46. The book Jewish Blood appeared in Barcelona in 2000, and quickly sold its first edition. The author Pere Bonnin, of Chueta origin, tells about the misfortunes of the "New Christians" in modern Spain. | <urn:uuid:53ad3795-2776-44df-8f65-905d3b797846> | {
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Back in 1825, Michael Faraday, the venerated English scientist, established The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children. Faraday gave the inaugural lecture himself, hoping to get a younger generation interested in science, and the tradition has carried on ever since. Above, we’re skipping forward 166 years to 1991, when Richard Dawkins, one of the world’s best known evolutionary biologists, presented a five part lecture series called Growing Up in the Universe. It’s a rather brilliant look at life, the universe, and our place in it. And while it’s geared toward a younger crowd, adults will enjoy it too. Originally televised by the BBC, the lectures now appear on YouTube, courtesy of The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.
The series starts with the first lecture above, “Waking Up in the Universe.” The remaining lectures, each 60 minutes long, are embedded below. More RI Christmas Lectures for Children can be viewed online here.
Lecture 2: Designed and Designoid Objects
Lecture 3: Climbing Mount Improbable
Lecture 4: The Ultraviolet Garden
Lecture 5: The Genesis of Purpose | <urn:uuid:0947e6fd-d7dc-40eb-afb5-414174186454> | {
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Anguish of Rwandan Hutu Refugees Echoed in a Baby's Cry Top of Form
By JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR.
Published: February 21, 1996
Exhausted from hours of labor in a hospital tent at the center of the sprawling refugee camp, Jacqueline Nyiranza held her first baby, a scrawny and wrinkled infant, close to her breast. The baby, born prematurely, was weak, and she held it as if it were the most fragile thing imaginable, as if it were the only hope she had to rebuild a life shattered by war and flight.
"I was living alone and I didn't have any help, so I got married," whispered Mrs. Nyiranza, 23, a Hutu refugee from northwestern Rwanda, who said her parents and siblings were killed in the civil war there. "I chose to have the baby rather than go into family planning, because so many people were killed. My husband wanted to have it also to replace the family members who died."
Then she sighed, her forehead crumpling in worry: "But I can't give birth again. I have no way to feed this one."
Outside the postnatal tent in the maternity hospital where Mrs. Nyiranza was resting, hundreds of new mothers cradled squirming infants in their arms. For hours, they waited on wooden benches to have a nurse from Goal, an Irish aid group, examine and vaccinate their children.
In another tent here in the Kibumba refugee camp, five women were struggling through labor pains on army cots while two midwives prepared for them in makeshift delivery rooms. Nearby, the shortest line was outside a small tent where a nurse was demonstrating the use of condoms and giving injections of Depo-Provera, a birth control drug. Ten women showed up this morning to get injections. All had babies with them.
Despite meager food rations and rugged living conditions in the camps, the refugees are giving birth to thousands of new babies a month. The five camps near Goma have a birth rate high even by African standards, with between 50 and 60 births for every 1,000 people last year, United Nations officials said. More than 2,800 infants are born every month. Most weeks the number of newborns outstrip the number of refugees deciding to go back to Rwanda.
The birth explosion in the camps has been fueled by boredom, loneliness and the desire among young women to rebuild their families after the ravages of war, aid workers said, and it has not been curbed by warnings that AIDS is rampant among the refugees. In dozens of interviews, many new mothers voice the conviction that the 710,000 Hutu refugees living near Goma must replenish their numbers, which they say have been decimated by the civil war that began with an uprising by Tutsi rebels in 1990 and led to the Hutu-led massacre of an estimated 500,000 Tutsi and Hutu moderates in the summer of 1994.
The refugees here crossed into Zaire in July 1994 after the Tutsi rebels routed the former Hutu Government and put an end to the massacres.
But some refugees and relief workers say there are other less obvious reasons for the trend. One is a deep resistance among most men in the camps to using birth control devices. Another factor, they say, is the longstanding belief, common in Africa, that large families mean prosperity, even if there is not enough food to go around. And most women are afraid to go against their husband's wishes, aid workers said.
"When you ask them, the women always say they don't want to be pregnant at the moment, because they do not have enough food," said Anne Tolsma, the director of the Memisa Health Center in the Mubunga camp. "But they can't refuse their husbands. And the men do not use condoms."
Other nurses who dispense birth control devices say they find themselves fighting the misperception in the camps that contraceptives render women sterile.
"They all know that the methods exist but they simply do not want to use them," said Jeannette Uuimfura, a nurse who was dispensing birth control information at the Goal maternity hospital in Kibumba. "Many worry that the contraception will keep them from having babies in the future."
Another spur for the rising birth rate is the unending tedium of living in a tent city. There is not much to do in the camps at night after curfew. Sexual promiscuity is common, while the number of women using birth control devices is low, according to nurses and doctors who work in maternity wards.
United Nations officials have decided not to do a study to determine how many people in the camps are infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, arguing that such information would not change measures to slow the disease. But doctors working with the refugees say it is one of the most common causes of death, rivaling malaria and dysentery.
Surveys in Rwanda before the exodus had found one of the world's highest rates of H.I.V. infection, with one in three women who gave birth in some urban hospitals carrying the virus. Based on research elsewhere, infected mothers have perhaps a one in four chance of giving birth to infants with the deadly virus. Health experts believe that H.I.V. must have continued spreading rapidly during the last two years of violence, flight and life in the refugee camps -- a time when prostitution and casual sex have increased.
In one section of the Mugunga Camp, which has a population of about 42,000, social workers were visiting up to 60 terminally ill people each day, according to Memisa, a Dutch aid group. At least 40 of them were dying from complications of H.I.V., Memisa nurses said.
The United Nations is distributing condoms and has started education programs in the camps. Health workers put on morality plays about AIDS and give lectures. But the message is not reaching everyone and many refugees seem indifferent to the disease, which takes several years to incubate, aid workers say.
"When we talk to them, they come up with 'Yeah, but my husband doesn't want to use condoms,' " Ms. Tolsma said. "They have so many other problems to think of, why should they think about something that kills you in 10 years?"
Even before the war, Rwanda was a densely populated and predominately Roman Catholic country with the highest birth rate in Africa, 8.4 children per woman.
Now, fewer Rwandan women are using birth control devices in the camps than were using them in Rwanda before the war, despite a public relations campaign started a year ago by the United Nations to boost the use of contraceptives. At the end of December, only about 4,300 of the 177,000 women of child-bearing age in the camps were taking advantage of the birth control methods available, United Nations officials said.
Dr. Claire Bourgeois, the United Nations medical coordinator for the camps, said that as a matter of policy health workers were told to advise women to spread out their births, but not to actively discourage refugees from having children if they want. "The aim of the United Nations is not to limit the births," she said.
Victoire Mukamwezi, a 26-year-old refugee, was one of the few women seeking a contraceptive at the Kibumba clinic today. She said she was single when she came to the camp with her sister's family in 1994, but her sister died of cholera, and in desperation, she married her sister's husband. Five months ago, her first baby was born. She was initially ecstatic about the birth, but she has found it harder and harder to feed the family.
Still, Ms. Mukamwezi said she was having trouble convincing her husband to let her use a birth control device. She had come to the hospital to get a contraceptive injection and was not sure if she would tell him.
"It doesn't matter if I have only one child, but what I can't do is have another," she said. "He has to understand. He knows how the situation is."
But many other mothers at the hospital said they were scared to try the birth control shots or opposed to them on religious grounds.
Leocadie Nyiraturinabo, a 34-year-old mother of five, said she had no idea how she would feed her latest infant boy. The day before, she had given birth in her family's tiny hut and was bringing the baby in for a check-up. She and her husband were having a hard time making ends meet as it was. To supplement the United Nations rations of grain, they had been working long days hoeing weeds on a nearby Zairian farm in return for a few potatoes or two cups of beans.
"I trust in God only," she said. "I am afraid to go to family planning because I heard from some women who went there that they had trouble with the drugs."
A few yards away, Demitria Nyirabahutu, 34, was sitting on an overturned gas canister behind the delivery tent. She had been in labor for four hours, and her face was covered with perspiration. This would be her sixth child, she said, but the only one born in the refugee camp.
She said she had not planned to have the baby and had even tried birth control injections for the first year she lived in Kibumba. But once she became pregnant again, she was happy. She lost her other children when soldiers from the Rwandan Patriotic Army, a Tutsi rebel group, attacked the camp inside Rwanda where she and her husband were living in 1994. In the chaos of the attack, she became separated from her children and ran for her life, she said. She does not know if they are alive or dead.
"I want to replace these children," she said, gritting her teeth through another contraction. "It was a terrible situation. We were living in a displaced person's camp. We were encircled by the fighters and they were shooting. I had no choice. I had to save my own life."
When she is asked if she misses her lost children, she averts her eyes and her face hardens, like a warrior's, as if giving birth again were an act of defiance. "Crying has no meaning to me," she said. "It is useless to cry." | <urn:uuid:6445e4e5-9e4c-436f-9595-b65482a5d6b6> | {
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- The definition of a titter is a nervous and half-hidden laugh.
An example of a titter is the laugh made by a schoolgirl in class.
- To titter means to laugh or giggle in a somewhat suppressed way.
An example of to titter is the laugh of a nervous toddler.
Origin of titterof Germanic echoic origin, originally
intransitive verbtit·tered, tit·ter·ing, tit·ters
Origin of titterProbably imitative. | <urn:uuid:3b53f96d-efd5-42f7-afda-b588148de37b> | {
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What is mental illness?
Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in thinking, emotion, and/or behavior. Mental illness is treatable, and the vast majority of individuals with mental illness continue to function in their daily lives.
How common is mental illness?
Mental illness is fairly common. In a given year, nearly one in five U.S. adults experience some form of mental illness, and about one in 24 has a serious mental illness.
What is the difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist?
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor with special training in psychiatry. A psychiatrist is able to treat mental disorders with psychotherapy and prescribe mediations and other medical treatments. A psychologist usually has an advanced degree, most commonly in clinical psychology, and often has extensive training in research or clinical practice. Psychologists treat mental disorders with psychotherapy, and some specialize in psychological testing and evaluation.
What is psychotherapy?
Psychotherapy, or talk therapy, is a term for a variety of treatment techniques that aim to help a person identify and change troubling emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. Most psychotherapy takes place with a licensed and trained mental health care professional and a patient meeting one-on-one or with other patients in a group setting. Many mental health professionals also offer psychotherapy for families and couples.
Does psychotherapy work?
Research shows that most people (about 75%) who receive psychotherapy experience symptom relief and are better able to function in their lives.
What kind of mental health professionals can provide psychotherapy?
Many types of mental health professionals are able to provide psychotherapy, but each profession has its own educational and training requirements. Mental health professionals who can provide psychotherapy include:
- Licensed counselors (specialties include marriage and family counseling, school counseling, community counseling, and substance abuse counseling)
- Licensed clinical social workers (LCSWs)
- Other social workers
- Advanced psychiatric nurses
How do I know whether I'm experiencing "normal" emotions (e.g., sadness, grief, anxiousness) versus having a mental disorder (e.g., depression, anxiety) that requires treatment?
Generally, a mental disorder is diagnosed based on the presence of a minimum number of symptoms and their frequency and duration. For example, depression is diagnosed when (1) five symptoms are present, including low mood and loss of pleasure or interest; (2) they are present most of the day, every day; (3) they are present for at least two weeks.
Even if you don't have a diagnosable mental disorder requiring treatment, it never hurts to talk to a mental health professional. Being able to process even "normal" emotions isn't always easy on our own. Having someone to listen can help us understand our own thoughts and feelings, and a mental health professional can offer helpful coping strategies and stress management techniques that anyone can benefit from.
How will my career in the military be impacted if I seek help from Mental Health?
Many service members are worried that their career will suffer or their privacy will be compromised if they seek help from Mental Health. The truth is, for the vast majority of people who make the decision to seek help, not only are their careers protected, but by treating their mental health problems, it may help them avoid negative behaviors that could damage their career. In fact, seeking help often improves performance, and seeking help early prevents problems from building and becoming overwhelming. While it is true that a minority of people who receive mental health care will experience some negative impact to their career, it is not necessarily the mental health care that is contributing to career problems. Rather, people who seek mental health care may have experienced behavioral or disciplinary problems that often result in negative impact to their career. Recent studies have also shown that seeking help early is less likely to lead to negative career impacts.
What is the confidentiality policy in the military for those who seek help from Mental Health?
Mental Health providers are required to maintain confidentiality for service members in non-duty status, and those in duty status have limits to confidentiality based on safety and mission concerns. Mental Health providers can only notify commanders in the following situations IAW DoDI 6490.08:
- Harm to self
- Harm to others
- Harm to mission
- Special personnel (i.e., Personnel Reliability Program (PRP))
- Inpatient care is needed
- Acute medical conditions that interfere with duty
- Substance abuse treatment
- Command-directed mental health evaluations
- Other special circumstances (see DoDI 6490.08)
What are my options for seeking mental health care in the military?
Many resources are service-specific, and members can check with their local installation for a full list. For all service members, however, a good place to start is primary care. A primary care provider can evaluate and treat many mental disorders and refer for further treatment when necessary.
Some resources that are available at most installations, regardless of branch of service, include:
- Mental Health Clinic
- Chaplain Corps
- Military OneSource
Most installations will also have specific resources for substance abuse, sexual assault, and family-related issues. | <urn:uuid:9e8eda2c-0959-45d7-97cb-4263f9f34c0d> | {
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自編---第四冊 Lesson 8 (字彙部分 Part.2) : A Typhoon Is Coming#8805
1.( )21. The car ________ in front of the department store is terrible. How did it happen?
2.( )22. Put on your jacket. The weather today is cold and ________.
3.( )23. The little girl is too weak to move the ________ table.
4.( )24. The fish is so ________ and delicious that I want to eat it up.
5.( )25. The camera is not working because the ________ is dead（沒電）.
6.( )26. A: Something strange ________ to Joe last night.
B: Oh? What was that?
7.( )27. I didn’t go to bed ________ eleven o’clock last night.
8.( )28. Take it easy. Don’t be so ________.
9.( )29. Tom: What ________ to you? You look tired.
Hank: I didn’t sleep well last night.
(B) hung out
10.( )30. The heavy rain caused ________ in lower places.
11.( )31. The toy car needs two ________, or it can’t work.
12.( )32. To keep the food ________, you have to put it in the refrigerator.
13.( )33. The wind was so strong, and it ________ away my hat. | <urn:uuid:196dce87-c4ee-411e-96ba-e834250c7cf3> | {
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Leeming illustrates the various stages or rites of passage of the mythic universal hero, from birth to childhood, through trial and quest, death, descent, rebirth, and ascension. The arrangement of texts by themes such as "Childhood, Initiation and Divine Signs," "The Descent to the Underworld," and "Resurrection and Rebirth" strip mythic characters of their many national and cultural "masks" to reveal their archetypal aspects. Real figures, including Jesus and Mohammed, are also included underlining the theory that myths are real and can be applied to real life. This edition is updated to include additional heroine myths, as well as Navajo, Indonesian, Indian, Chinese, and African tales.
Related books and articles
Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs By John Lindow Oxford University Press, 2002
The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology By Paul Radin Philosophical Library, 1956
The Mythology of Transgression: Homosexuality as Metaphor By Jamake Highwater Oxford University Press, 1997
Historical and Cultural Connotation of Chinese and Western National Heroes' Loyalism: Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Greek Mythology By Min, Lei Cross - Cultural Communication, Vol. 10, No. 2, April 3, 2014
Norse Mythology and the Lives of the Saints By Lindow, John Scandinavian Studies, Vol. 73, No. 3, Fall 2001
Ages of Heroes, Eras of Men: Superheroes and the American Experience By Møllegaard, Kirsten Journal of American Culture (Malden, MA), Vol. 37, No. 4, 2014
Peer-reviewed publications on Questia are publications containing articles which were subject to evaluation for accuracy and substance by professional peers of the article's author(s).
Paying Tribute to Heroes: Hollywood's Vietnam Mythology Takes a U-Turn with We Were Soldiers. (Americana) By Feder, Don Insight on the News, Vol. 18, No. 16, May 6, 2002
Mythology in Art By Carroll, Colleen Arts & Activities, Vol. 152, No. 2, October 2012
A Game of Drones: Precision-Guided Mythology Masks a Brutal Truth By Ortiz, Ximena The American Conservative, Vol. 11, No. 5, May 2012
HEROES AND POSTER BOYS; A Masterful Examination of Combat, Sacrifice and Modern-Day Mythology By Soergel, Matt The Florida Times Union, October 20, 2006
Modern Mythology, for Pennies ; A Book Chronicles Marvel's Pantheon of Heroes and Villains By Jennings, Dana International New York Times, November 28, 2014 | <urn:uuid:0762c8a1-a6ef-4b9c-91f7-d6f3dee84345> | {
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In this powerful book one of the most important Jewish thinkers in the world today grapples with issues that increasingly divide Israel's secular Jewish community from its religious Zionists. Addressing the concerns of both communities from the point of view of one who is deeply committed to religious pluralism, David Hartman suggests a more inclusive and inviting framework for the modern Israeli engagement of the Jewish tradition. He offers a new understanding of what it means to be Jewish one which is neither assimilationist nor backward-looking, and one that enables different Jewish groups to celebrate their own traditions without demonizing or patronizing others. In a world polarized between religious and secular and caught within a sectarian denominationalism, Hartman shows the way to build bridges of understanding.
Israelis & the Jewish TraditionAn Ancient People Debating Its Future
By David Hartman
(174 Pages)Publisher: Yale University Press, 2000
The book explores the philosophies of two major Jewish thinkers of the Middle Ages, Yehuda Halevi and Moses Maimonides. A careful analysis of Maimonides' approach to Judaism shows that messianism is not the predominant organizing principle that makes Judaism intelligible and significant, Hartman contends. He argues against Halevi's triumphalism and in favor of using the Sinai covenant for evaluating the religious significance of Israel, for this approach gives meaning to Zionists' religious commitments while also empowering secular Israelis to reengage with the Jewish tradition. | <urn:uuid:663f2313-e9e7-45d4-a25c-291acdcfc534> | {
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Copper Mining in AllihiesMining during the 19th and 20th century
The Berehaven copper mines overlook the picturesque village of Allihies and Ballydonegan Bay at the western end of the Beara Peninsula in West Cork. The tall chimney shaped ruins is a constant reminder to the community of busier days that are gone. For three quarters of the last century this area was the site of great industry. Up to 1500 mineworkers and their families lived and toiled here, to exploit the largest copper mine in Ireland's history. Giving a population of more than 6000 to the parish at that time!
Nineteenth century mining was begun in 1812 by "Copper" John Puxley of Dunboy Castle, Castletownberehaven, one of four partners in the Allihies Mining Company. Puxley became sole owner in 1842 when he reformed the company as the Bearhaven Mining Company. Copper John died in 1856, leaving the company to his eldest grandson, John. On his death in 1860 the mines passed to his brother Henry who sold them off in 1868.
There is a book written by Daphne Du Maurier based on the tragic family history of the Puxley's called "Hungry Hill". Even though it is written as fiction, it gives a realistic account of the problems and hardship of the times. (Go to books page here... )
The mines continued to operate until 1884 under the owners to the Berehaven Mining Company but without profit. There were six productive mines of which the Mountain Mine on the north side of the village was the most productive one.
The transportation of the copper from the mine always presented a problem and hampered full exploitation of the resources. At first the ore was carried by schooners from Ballydonegan pier but because of the danger involved in bringing vessels such as these into Ballydonegan the ore was later brought by horse and cart to Castletownbere to be shipped to Swansea.
It is said that they were once the most prosperous mines in Ireland. However, a decline set in around 1850. Conditions for the workers, never very good became more intolerable and so we find more and more of the local mines setting sail for the mining towns in America, particularly to Butte, Montana.
After that a pattern began of mine closures and new companies forming to take over. This trend continued and by the 1930's the deepest shaft was 1800 foot into the hill and a total of almost 30,000 tons of pure copper exported.
The last time the mine opened was in 1956. This time drilling went to a depth of 2600 feet. Electricity and new machinery brought welcome changes to the lives of the miners. However, the Allihies copper mines closed for the last time in 1962
Even during the time when Allihies Copper Mines prospered, the ordinary workers saw little of the benefits of such prosperity. Their lot was deplorable. Working conditions were dangerous and unhealthy and were the cause of various lung diseases. Wages were low and the local workers and their families (in a lot of cases wife and children also worked in the mines crushing the stones) lived in poverty.
In the early years a group of Cornish miners were brought to Allihies because they had more experience than the local people. These Cornish people came with their families and built up their own village community in the hills near the mine. There they lived in comfort as Puxley paid for most of their expenses like rent, fuel, candles and he provided a school and teacher for the Cornish children. One family still remain in the village to this day that claim descent from the Cornish mining families.
A fine 1862 Man Engine House still stands but is in dire need of repair. The Heritage Society of Ireland has launched an appeal for funding to allow it to do the necessary repairs to stop it from collapsing and to preserve it for future generations, as it is the only Man Engine House still standing in Europe. More about the preservation of the Man Engine...
Also the remains of another engine house are visible to the East of the parish. The early opencast works are still obvious, with the ruined Cornish Village (one house rebuilt). A fine gunpowder magazine is preserved in a rocky hollow below the Cornish Village. Below the Man Engine House are ore dressing floors and the foundations of various early 20th century mine buildings.
The mines were bought to the attention of the world in 1943 through Daphne du Maurier's novel " Hungry Hill", and again in 1946 when the book was filmed. A full mining and social history of the area is available in Alan Williams excellent and highly readable book "The Berehaven Copper Mines". The Geological Survey has also published a short pamphlet guide, "The geology of Allihies Mines, desert, rivers, slate mountains and copper ore" by Daniel Tietzch-Tyler.
Follow this link to see more about local efforts to build a mine museum [here...]
opinions expressed on this site are those of the authors and are not endorsed by allihies parish coop or bearaweb. All content © the authors All design © BearaWeb | <urn:uuid:d40112ef-c054-4bda-81e9-b3f3ab6453e2> | {
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THE MIRACLE of Rotterdam is much like the miracle of neighboring West Germany. Both have been reborn from ruins.
Many German cities were destroyed by Allied bombers during the closing years of World War II.
Likewise Rotterdam in 1940. In one hour the bombs of the Luftwaffe (Air Force) set fires that turned Rotterdam into a virtual desert. Six hundred forty acres of buildings were destroyed. Twenty-five thousand families were left homeless. Nine hundred people died.
Much of the port area was finally destroyed in 1944. Rotterdam had to start all over after VE Day.
Within three weeks of the main destruction in May 1940, its enterprising citizens were laying rough plans for the reconstruction of the city. Today it is a panorama of buildings that make an impressive sight from Euromast, a tower with an excellent restaurant and view of Rotterdam.
Today Dutch ingenuity has made the port a complex network of refineries, dry docks, grain terminals, storage tanks and container facilities. The port of Rotterdam stretches for 25 miles along the mouth of the Rhine River at the North Sea. A ship either enters or leaves the port area every 8l;2 minutes.
And Now, Dutch — German Cooperation How ironic that the Germans and the Dutch — former enemies in the early 1940s — are now models of cObperation. They depend on one another. Both are members of the European Community (EC) or Common Market.
Today Rotterdam and the Federal Republic of Germany enjoy an enormously profitable business relationship. More West German tonnage passes through the port of Rotterdam than the three leading West German ports combined. According to The International Herald Tribune in December 1980: "The city's geographical position at the mouth of the Rhine, which made it a gateway for waterborne traffic to West Germany, is its trump card" (emphasis mine).
Geography has been kind to Rotterdam. Most European capitals and industrial centers are no more than 600 miles away. Rotterdam sees itself as Europe's port. The city's newest development, nearest to the North Sea, is called Europoort. In Dutch the double 0 in Europoort suggests "gateway" rather than mere "harbor."
Rotterdam — gateway to Europe? Most certainly, yes. But more importantly a gateway to Germany — the Federal Republic for now — but how long before a gateway to all of Germany, including the German Democratic Republic of East Germany? More about that later.
Germany, Oil and Rotterdam The Columbia Encyclopedia makes a vitally important point in its write — up about Rotterdam: "Europoort, a large harbor area opposite Hoek van Holland built largely in the 1960s, is designed chiefly for unloading and storing petroleum. Rotterdam owes its importance mainly to the transit trade with the Ruhr district of NW Germany, with which it is connected by several waterways and oil pipelines" (page 2,364, fourth edition). Petroleum products still make the world go round. Their importance accelerates in any world crisis.
In recent years much has been made of oil gluts and falling petroleum prices. Even the power of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has been substantially eroded. But temporary trends can be deceiving. Long-term prognostications indicate an absolute dwindling pool of oil. Why? Because the world is consuming oil at a rate of 900 billion gallons a year! Reserves still underground are vast, but will not last all that long.
Oil shortages in the foreseeable future will grab the headlines once again. Storage and reserves in Rotterdam will grow in importance for Germany — more so in the future than now.
However, a report in Elseviers Magazine — a Dutch weekly — is well worth noting. Said the title: "Holland Is Becoming an Oil Land." To sum up the article: The Netherlands will produce 25 percent of their petroleum needs by the end of 1985. In five years' time, estimates run as high as 50 percent.
This is all due to a discovery right under Rotterdam of potentially the biggest oil field in Holland. Already it is pumping more petroleum than the traditional fields in the east of the Netherlands. We can only guess as to its future importance for Holland and Germany. But its value to heavy industry in incalculable.
The East German Link Despite political fits and starts, inter-German trade is growing. Economic links between Bonn and East Berlin are imperative for East Germany and even the Soviet Union, both of which desperately need West German deutsche marks.
Consumer products in both Germanys are becoming more homogeneous. Remarked one businessman in West Berlin about clothing made in East Germany: "You can hardly see the difference. They are using Western designs" (International Herald Tribune, May 7).
The Soviet Union has good reason to restrain a potential political unification of the two Germanys. But the Soviets are not preventing ever closer economic ties. Continues the Tribune article: "... East Germany and the Soviet Union have accepted a special relationship between the two Germanys in the economic field that both continue to reject on the political level."
But what began as economic cooperation may well turn into political cooperation within the scope of an expanding Common Market.
Our point is that Rotterdam may eventually wind up as a key oil supply depot for both East and West Germany. European political borders have proved changeable in this 20th century. Whole countries and empires have disappeared from the European political map. Transitory artificial and unnatural borders have been imposed.
Profound political changes will shock humanity before this century ends. Bible prophecy forecasts astonishing events in Europe. A new 10-nation superpower will arise in Europe. And Rotterdam will playa key role in these events.
Keep watching world events. Keep reading The Plain Truth! | <urn:uuid:ff2314ad-5b3a-459c-9d73-7458e828af5f> | {
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Analyse and evaluate diverse sources (examples: primary sources, secondary sources, maps, images, archaeological evidence) in order to locate and interpret the ruins of the pre-Deportation Acadian community at Grand-Pré.
Develop a hypothesis about the location of the Grand-Pré parish church, Sainte-Charles- des-Mines.à
Read the backgrounder that gives the pre-Deportation historical context of the community of Grand-Pré by clicking on The Story icon.
Click on the Virtual Excavation icon and then:
Click on The Site to read about Grand-Pré National Historic Site of Canada.
Click on the Research Question and read it.
Click on the Historical Evidence. Read and evaluate the primary and secondary sources by answering the questions that your teacher has provided. (The questions are also located at the bottom of the Historical Evidence page. You can print them out.)
Click on the Archaeological Evidence and read the What is archaeology? backgrounder.
Conduct archaeological excavations within Grand-Pré National Historic Site by clicking on the Archaeological Site Map. There are nine possible excavation sites on this map.
Examine the archaeological drawings and artifacts at each site and record your discoveries in your field notebook provided by your teacher. (This is also located at the bottom of the Archaeological Evidence page. You can print it out.)
Formulate a hypothesis and present it to your classmates as to the identities of the archaeological sites you have examined and the possible location of the Church of Saint-Charles-des-Mines Church.
See also: The Story ; Virtual Excavation ; Site Report | <urn:uuid:34ab5dd2-4521-4009-9737-94a53ec15cbf> | {
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What is a salt?
A salt usually referes to the ionic form of a substance in complex with its congnate ion.
For example the Sodium salt of glutamic acid is the glutamate ion in complex with a Sodium ion.
The term salts also refers to ionic compounds such as common table salt Na+ Cl-
return to effect of environment
return to effect of salts and ions on reaction
return to outline | <urn:uuid:ed09a292-a91d-4508-9eaa-eb87fda7fc2b> | {
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Bernie Kuntz: Fire problems in the West
Wildfires burned over much of the West last summer and fall, and at one point in Montana alone there were 22 fires burning. The air was so smoky for much of the summer, that Laurie and I spent most of our evenings indoors.
In California hundreds of thousands of acres of trees and brushlands burned, and some 42 people died.
Many people blame climate change for the fires, and certainly the dry, hot weather was a factor. But there is more to it than simply dismissing all these fires to climate change.
Forest management practices also play a large role. According to the Property and Environmental Research Center in Bozeman, during the past decade wildfires in the U.S. have burned an average of 6.6 billion acres each year—twice the annual average during the 1990s. The federal government spent more than $2.7 billion fighting wildfires in the most recent fiscal year. The State of Montana spent a couple hundred million dollars fighting fires, wrecking the state’s budget and requiring cuts to many state agencies totally unrelated to fires.
It is important to note that in 1910 there occurred one of the worst wildfires in modern times, killing hundreds of people, burning down dozens of towns and blackening wide swaths of forest land in Idaho and Montana.
Shortly thereafter the U.S. Forest Service began its fire suppression program. (Remember “Smokey The Bear?”) That program was so successful that we ended up with more than a century of fire suppression, leading to great changes in forest conditions. In previous times fires were frequent and low intensity, but after more than a century of fire suppression they are often destructive and out of control.
This leads to another problem—environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, while valuable at face value, are abused by environmental activists who file lawsuit after lawsuit to halt as much logging and controlled burn projects as they are able. This is in spite of the fact that timber harvest has declined 80 percent since 1990, leaving more trees to burn in wildfires.
An example can be found right outside of Bozeman where the Forest Service planned to thin 3,000 acres of dense forest and conduct prescribed burns on another 1,575 acres to protect the city’s water supply. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Native Ecosystems Council sued the Forest Service in 2013, arguing that the project would damage critical habitat of the Canadian lynx, a federally protected species. The project has been tied up in court ever since.
I sympathize with Forest Service employees. Rather than managing forests as they were educated, trained and hired to do, they spend most of their time and budget fighting fires and defending projects in court. In the end, judges make management decisions on forest land rather than professional foresters.
There is some hope: Rep. Bruce Westerman (R. Ark.) has proposed legislation that would exempt some thinning projects up to 10,000 acres, from environmental reviews. A separate bill proposed by Montana senators Steve Daines (R.) and Jon Tester (D.) would limit legal challenges to some forest management projects, removing obstacles to some 80 fuels reduction projects, including the one mentioned earlier in this piece on the outskirts of Bozeman.
Local governments now encourage homeowners not to build on the edges of forest land, and to “fire-proof” their property by creating buffer zones around buildings, including brush removal and modified landscaping.
That might help, but there are no easy answers to the West’s fire problems.
Contact Bernie Kuntz at [email protected] | <urn:uuid:873940f3-80a1-4581-b330-7b88d9bf85e9> | {
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A dental crown is a hollow cap that covers a tooth's natural crown, or the area of a tooth that is exposed above the gum line. Dental crowns are used in conjunction with many different types of restorations. Here are a few of them:
After a dental implant has been installed and has healed inside the jawbone, a connector is added to the device before the implant is covered by a dental crown.
Without the crown in place, the implant restoration would not fully restore a lost tooth. The crown's placement restores the patient's ability to chew. Additionally, it restores the uniform appearance of the teeth, eliminating the gap left by the missing tooth.
Conventional Bridge Restorations
A bridge is a restorative dental device that is made up of false teeth and dental crowns. On a conventional dental bridge, the false teeth lie in the center of the appliance and a dental crown rests on each end of the device.
The crowns of a bridge are used to secure the bridge into position. Each crown covers a tooth that is positioned at the left or right border of the gap that is being filled by the bridge.
In preparation for the placement of the dental bridge, a portion of tooth material from each bordering tooth is removed to allow the bridge crowns to fit over the teeth in a natural looking manner.
The color of the bridge crowns, as well as that of the false teeth, is matched to the color of the patient's remaining natural teeth.
Deep Cavity Restorations
A filling alone may not be sufficient to fortify a tooth that has been damaged by decay. Deep cavities may necessitate the removal of so much tooth material that a tooth is no longer strong enough to withstand bite pressure, even after the installation of a filling.
A dental crown can be used to cover the filled tooth, fortifying it on all sides.
Since pulp treatments, such as pulpectomies and root canals, involve the removal of pulp from the interior of a tooth, the treated tooth may lack the structural integrity that it had before the treatment. To ensure that the treated tooth is strengthened and protected, a dental crown is applied after the filling of the hollowed tooth.
For more information about dental crowns and their uses, schedule a consultation with a dentist in your local area. | <urn:uuid:b122a1ac-36be-410a-9a75-f2dfe9db07e9> | {
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WASHINGTON, D.C. | May 20, 2010 -
We’re here this morning to discuss research recently conducted by the Government Accountability Office into concussions among high school athletes. The findings of the GAO will be illuminated by experts in the field and individuals who have firsthand experience with this type of injury.
Concussions are functional traumatic brain injuries suffered as a result of force – for instance, they could be caused by a collision of the head or a blow to the body. Although the federal government is not responsible for the treatment or tracking of this type of injury, concussions are of interest to this committee because of their implications for students.
Hearings such as this provide an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the issues dealt with by states and local communities and highlight the resources and best practices available to help students, parents, coaches, and school leaders prevent these injuries and respond appropriately when they do occur.
Research in this area is ongoing, but we know concussions among high school athletes have drawn increasing attention in recent years. One reason is because younger people appear to be more vulnerable to this type of injury than adults.
Recent research indicates high school athletes with recent or repeated concussions have difficulty concentrating, lower attendance rates, and significantly lower cumulative grade point averages than high school athletes with no history of concussion. In other words, this affects not just student health, but also academics.
As with many dangers to our children, prevention is the best medicine. That’s why we’ll hear today about education programs and resources designed to help prevent concussions in student athletes. We’ll also hear about programs and guidance for coaches, administrators, parents, and medical personnel that address what to do when a concussion occurs or is suspected, including best practices for determining when athletes can most safely return to the field of play.
I want to thank the witnesses for being here to discuss this topic and help bring attention to the steps student athletes and the adults who supervise them can take to prevent and respond to this type of injury.
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Sixteen-year-old Kiri Davis took a black doll and a white doll to a Harlem daycare center and asked the children there, all of whom were black, which doll they liked better. Fifteen of the 21 children picked the white doll.
Davis' experiment, which echoes the work of Kenneth Clarke that led to the famous Supreme Court desegregation ruling of 1954, is part of her film, entitled "A Girl Like Me," which was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival. It was also screened at the Urban Academy, a New York City public school, to fulfill Davis’s requirements for graduation.
Later this month, thousands of other New York City high school students will also try to move toward graduation. They will take state Regents examinations, answering multiple-choice questions and writing brief essays. Unlike most New York students, who have to pass five Regents exams, Davis and students at Urban Academy and other schools in the Performance Assessment Consortium do projects instead of some of the tests in history, art, science, math and literature.
The difference between Davis and the students filling in their bubble sheets points up a central dispute in the debate over how to judge students. Should standardized, quantitative measures be key, or should teachers, parents and others rely more on observations and judgments on the quality of work being done and instruction being offered?
Now this debate has extended to how to judge schools and the entire New York City public school system. Since the advent of mayoral control in 2002, the Department of Education has increasingly relied on standardized exams as an indication of a school’s performance and of the state of the nation’s largest school system. And it has sought to find other measures to gauge school strengths and weaknesses.
Starting next school year, the Department of Education will conduct more tests (or “assessments”) of students and offer new ways to report results of the existing annual tests. The city’s new plan, dubbed the Accountability Initiative, will add more measures of school performance, incorporating visits to schools and parent surveys. The department says it will use the results to improve instruction and determine the future of schools and their principals.
“We hold our students accountable everyday. Starting now, we are holding our schools and ourselves more accountable as well,” Chancellor Joel Klein said in announcing the move.
But critics say the new program will make students slaves to testing, adept at filling in answer sheets but deficient in reasoning, writing and the arts.
THE NEW WAY OF MEASURING SCHOOLS
New York City's new Accountability Initiative comes during a national boom in school testing and other measurements of government services, from police to child welfare. The $25 million program, set to go into effect in September, includes a number of new ways to assess schools and use those measurements. “What we’re trying to do,” said James Liebman, the education department’s chief accountability officer, “is create an integrated, comprehensive accountability system for measuring the contribution that schools make to the learning of children.”
Now, when educators look at test scores, they consider how the scores of fourth graders in a given school this year compare with fourth graders in that same school last year. Such an analysis does not consider differences among fourth grade classes – any teacher will tell you that, by the luck of the draw, some classes are smarter than other.
To address that, the new program calls for tracking how the same student’s scores change from one year to another. Even a low score could be good news – if it shows improvement. Explaining the system, Klein told reporters, “No longer will you get a snapshot....You’ll get a moving picture.”
Robert Tobias, a former director of assessment for the city schools who is now a professor at the NYU education school, said, “Principals have been asking for this for years.” But he said, like all test data, the “value added” results, as they are called, have to be evaluated carefully. For example, he said one year’s test might be far easier than the test given the same student the previous year.
High school students do not take annual achievement rates. To evaluate them, the department will look at other factors such as Regents tests and graduation rates, and is considering administering the PSAT, now a voluntary test for college-bound students, to all high school kids.
In addition to yearly tests, starting next year, elementary and middle school students will also be given assessments every marking period.
Liebman said these tests will not determine promotion or be used to evaluate a school. Instead teachers, principals and parents will look at the results to see whether a student has mastered a certain skill – comprehension, say, or recognizing words. The teacher can use that information to zero in on the areas where students need help. “The best way to get improvement is to focus on each child,” Leibman said. “So what you want to do is figure out how each child is doing and where the strengths and weaknesses of each lie and then you want to come up with a plan for how to get that child to where he or she needs to be.”
Liebman said such tests boost achievement and cites statistics on so-called Beat the Odds schools -- schools that perform far better than those with similar student bodies. A study (in pdf format) of predominantly Latino schools in Arizona singles out frequent assessments as one of the factors that helped some schools do better than others.
But Tobias expresses skepticism as to whether such tests provide useful information. ”Everything we need to know about student levels of achievement in English language arts, you can get from the annual assessments,” he said.
Department officials plan to visit schools to evaluate how they address student needs. To accomplish this, the district has hired Cambridge Education, a British consulting firm, at a cost of $500,000, mostly from private donors. Cambridge is develop evaluations called Quality Reviews that will consider such issues as how well the school tailors its curriculum and teaching methods to the needs of every child in the schools.
Parents, teachers and students will be asked to rate their schools on Satisfaction Surveys. The surveys will also pose such questions as, Do you feel safe at this school? Do you feel your child is safe at this school? How engaged are you in the school? And so on.
Following all these evaluations, schools will receive a letter grade (A, B, C, etc.). The school's report card will incorporate statistics on safety, and attendance, information from the surveys and the analysis of the scores on yearly tests.
Schools that do poorly could be restructured or closed. And the principals in charge of those schools could find themselves out of a job, although that would require changes in the principals' contract. (The contract expired almost three years ago, and talks are deadlocked.) In return for these sticks, Klein says, principals would gain increased autonomy and schools that do well could get more money.
The school will also be judged in their performance on the Quality Reviews, given a score of “well developed,” “proficient,” or underdeveloped.”
THE TESTING EXPLOSION
The Accountability Initiative is only the latest in a series of other programs at the federal, state and city level that have increased the emphasis on testing. Some of this has been spurred by the U.S. No Child Left Behind Law. It requires that all students meet proficiency levels in reading, language arts, math and science by 2014. And schools must make progress toward that goal every year. That progress is determined by standardized tests.
The federal effort is administered by the states. And even before No Child Left Behind, New York set standards for what students should master in every grade, tested to determine whether students met those standards and published lists of schools that were not succeeding.
At the beginning of this academic year, the state found 331 city schools to be “in need of improvement” and another 93 “requiring academic progress,” a similar designation. It placed 40 New York City schools on its list of most troubled schools: Schools Under Registration Review.
Students in failing schools are eligible for outside help and can even transfer out. At the same time, the schools receive additional aid in the hopes that they can improve. But if that does not work, the school might be restructured or even closed.
The emphasis on testing underlying all this has dismayed some experts. “The substance of education -- history, science, literature, art, music -- is being sacrificed to narrowly focused demands to produce high test scores in reading and math,” educators Diane Ravitch and Deborah Meier, who disagree on many education issues, wrote in Education Week.
Pther critics questions whether the tests are the most reliable indicator of how a student is doing. â€The best assessor of a student's progress is the classroom teacher. Anything else is just a waste of taxpayer's money,” a reader wrote to a dissident education blog.
But Klein dismisses such arguments. “Our teachers should teach students the ideas and skills they must master in order to pass their tests,” he said in a recent speech.
Reflecting that attitude, Klein has upped the ante on the tests. Students need to score above a certain level to be promoted. Their performance on fourth grade tests helps determine what middle school they will attend, and the seventh grade test is key to high school admissions. And a new test will figure out admission to elementary school gifted and talented programs.
The test scores carry high stakes for individual schools and the Department of Education as well. Parents use the scores to help them select schools for their children.
The scores play a role in the department’s evaluations of principals. In extreme cases, bad test scores can mean death to a school. Low Regents test scores helped convince Klein to shut down some of the city’s large high schools, such as William H. Taft and Martin Luther King.
And voters use test scores to judge politicians. When Bloomberg took control of the city schools, he told voters to hold him accountable for the results. And so last spring’s increase in test scores for city fourth graders probably played a role in Bloomberg’s landslide victory.
Some wondered about the validity of the rise. “It’s anyone’s guess why the fourth-grade scores rose so sharply this year at the same time that eighth-grade reading and social studies scores went from bad to worse,” wrote the Manhattan Institute’s Sol Stern. “No reputable researcher would rely on a one-year bump in some test scores to judge the efficacy of a new program.”
But voters are not necessarily researchers. ''The spike in fourth-grade test scores immunized the mayor against criticism from his opponents and has taken the education issue off the table,'' Diane Ravitch told the New York Times during the campaign.
ALTERNATIVES TO TESTING
There is a pervasive sense among those concerned about testing that it has taken the joy out of learning. “What do kids need to go out into the world, participate in a democratic society?” Ann Cook of the Performance Standards Consortium asked a meeting of parents concerned about testing. “What do they need to have some excitement, interests and curiosity so when they get to be 30, they have something to be passionate about and sustain them as human beings?”
Certainly the type of assessments done at the Urban Academy, where Cook is co-director, generate more enthusiasm than a Regents test.
The work that students do to indicate proficiency springs from something that came up during class and sparked the students' interest. In his science class, Bobby Haas became interested in the mechanics of hearing. So, to prove proficiency in science, he devised an experiment to find out whether people can determine what direction a sound is coming from. He tested 40 subjects but then used a statistical method known as a chi square to evaluate his results.
And Xiomara Pedraza’s work in history sprung from her strong feelings about Latin America. “I thought countries were being exploited,” she says.
But the people assessing her work, including a Queen College professor, press her to examine her conclusions. What has the neo-liberal model meant for Bolivia, asks one. Where does land reform fit in to President Ivo Morales’ plan for his country? Will Morales’ policies drive corporations away, leaving Bolivia even poorer than it is now?
Critics say, as appealing as such projects might be, they can be subjective and hide shortcomings in basic knowledge and skills. The program of tests, says State Education Commissioner Richard Mills, who has spearheaded New York’s standards and testing program, came out of a real need. “The people of this state demanded we raise standards, create a reliable way to measure and help more students to succeed,” he has written. The state responded and now, he says, “students who used to be neglected got help. Student achievement improved.”
AND AFTER THE TESTS...
But beyond the testing, lies the issue of what, if anything, parents and students can do with all the data. The city’s experience with No Child Left Behind is sobering.
Many city students attend failing schools and so, under the rules, can seek transfers. But in many neighborhoods there are not enough good schools to accommodate all the students eligible for transfers. Parents seeking new schools for their childen learned they could send them to another failing school nearby -- or a better school an hour or so away. Similarly, parents reviewing possible middle or high schools for their children often find the schools reports and scores tell them one thing: Decent schools are scarce.
Liebman says the information is valuable nonetheless. “What we are dong here is a very potentially risky thing,” he said. “We are going to make transparent to the public how well the schools where their children go are doing and we are doing that with full recognition and indeed a hope that where the results are not satisfactory to parents, in particular, they will use either their voices or their choices to change what’s taking place.”
But some parents wonder. Learning about plans to provide more data, Lisa Donlan of the District 1 Education Council told the Times, “The reaction of parents right away was, â€Do you understand that we go to zoned schools...and this is not a competitive market?’” | <urn:uuid:f56a6fef-74de-4e6c-96de-6f531531bd6a> | {
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In this case it’s the critically endangered Gobi bear (Ursus arctos gobiensis), the only bear species that has adapted to desert life.
The last 22 members of this brown bear subspecies (known in Mongolian as mazaalai) live near three oases in the Gobi Desert, where the golden-colored animals subsist on a mostly vegetarian diet of hardy desert roots and other plants.
But rising temperatures appear to have already started reducing the available water in the Gobi, making those plants harder to find and threatening the future of the bear.
Access to food is essential for the bears, because they must build up high levels of fat reserves for winter hibernation and gestation. According to a 2010 report (pdf) from the Gobi Bear Project, winter temperatures in that desert can fall to –34 degrees Celsius as well as climb to 46 degrees C in summer.
No other bears have adapted to living in such extreme and variable conditions. The animals dine on “roots, berries, other vegetation, insects and occasionally rodents,” all of which can be scarce when the bears emerge from hibernation.
Food has actually been scarcer than usual for at least the past decade. Average annual rainfall in the region fell from 100 to 50 millimeters during a 14-year drought between 1993 and 2007.
The Gobi Bear Project says this extended drought “may have affected body condition and reproductive success of bears.” Supplemental feeding stations have been made available in the desert for decades and were expanded during the later years of the drought to help the bears get through the months of lean vegetation.
Even though that dry spell ended a few years ago, a report last year from Eurasianet.org indicates that precipitation has again dropped to 50 millimeters per annum. The director of the Great Gobi Strictly Protected Area blames this rainfall decline on climate change.
Although the Gobi bears may never have been plentiful, their decline started in the 1960s when the Mongolian government, then dominated by the Soviet Union, encouraged an increase in livestock production in and around the desert.
This policy took a toll on the already sparse vegetation and led to some poaching of bears, which were likely seen as a threat to the domesticated animals. In a sad irony scientists have found no evidence that the bears attack or eat any of the other large animals that live in the desert, such as ibex or camels.
Just a few years ago estimates put the number of Gobi Bears at as many as 50; the recent figure of 22 survivors comes from a population survey just completed by the Mongolian government and wildlife experts. Mongolia, which banned Gobi bear hunting in 1953, has now declared 2013 the “Year of Protecting the Gobi Bear.”
The Chinese media agency Xinhua reports that the Ministry of Environment and Green Development of Mongolia has also formed a working group to explore ways of boosting the bears’ population, and will establish a new nature reserve to protect their habitat.
Meanwhile, scientists continue to study the shy and elusive bears whenever they can. Some have been briefly captured and fitted with GPS radio collars, which has helped to map the animals’ habitat use. The Gobi Bear Project has also used hair traps at feeder sites to collect samples, allowing DNA analysis, which has revealed that the bears have low genetic diversity but shows no evidence of inbreeding-based disorders.
Future efforts, including both scientific studies and supplemental feeding stations, will rely on adequate funding, some of which may come from international organizations such as Vital Ground, which established its own Gobi Bear Initiative in 2011.
This story was originally published by Scientific American. Reprinted with permission. | <urn:uuid:277ccac6-4789-476b-8f47-d0df59df6a68> | {
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The American Revolution
Colin Bonwick expands and updates the well-received first edition, and incorporates fresh material drawn from recent scholarship. The structure and argument of the book remain as before, but in particular Bonwick pays greater attention to Native Americans, African Americans, and white women. Though the book traces the attainment of independence, it focuses especially on the internal revolution that created republican governments, and considers the extent of social change. It concludes by examining the development of the American union. | <urn:uuid:395a090a-2c19-40d5-911e-d42a1770cb5d> | {
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Role of Helicobacter Pylori and Its Toxins in Lung and Digestive System Diseases
This study will examine bacteria and toxins in the mouth, lung and digestive system that may be the cause of various diseases or symptoms. H. pylori is a bacterium that produces various toxins that may contribute to lung problems. This study will examine specimens collected from the mouth, teeth, lung, digestive tract and blood to measure H. pylori and its toxins and their effects on cells.
People 18 years of age and older with or without gastrointestinal disease may be eligible for this study. These include people without a history of lung disease as well as patients with any of the following: lymphangioleiomyomatosis, asthma, sarcoidosis, other chronic or genetic lung disease (e.g., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis or eosinophilic granuloma).
Participants may undergo the following tests:
- Blood and urine tests, chest x-ray.
- Measurement of arterial blood gases: A small needle is placed in an artery in the forearm to collect arterial blood.
- Lung function tests: Subjects breathe deeply and occasionally hold their breath. They may also receive a medication that expands the airways.
- Fiberoptic bronchoscopy with lavage and bronchial brushing: The subject's mouth and throat are numbed with lidocaine; a sedative may be given for comfort. A thin flexible tube called a bronchoscope is advanced through the nose or mouth into the lung airways to examine the airways. Saline (salt water) is then injected through the bronchoscope into the air passage and then removed by gentle suction. Next, a small brush is passed through the bronchoscope and an area of the airway is brushed to collect some cells for examination.
- Mouth rinsing or teeth brushing to collect cells.
- Endoscopy: A small needle and catheter (thin plastic tube) are placed into an arm vein to administer fluids and medications through the vein. A sedative may be given. The throat is numbed with lidocaine and a thin flexible tube called an endoscope is inserted through the mouth and down the esophagus into the stomach and upper part of the small intestine to examine those areas.
|Official Title:||Role of Helicobacter Pylori and Its Toxins in Pulmonary and Oropharyngeal Disease|
|Study Start Date:||August 2006|
Vacuolating cytotoxin A (VacA toxin), an 88-kDa multifunctional protein, and other toxins are produced by Helicobacter pylori. We hypothesize that H. pylori, VacA toxin, and other toxins within the gastrointestinal tract and/or oropharynx are also found in the lung and may contribute to decline in lung function. Analyses of gastrointestinal, oropharyngeal, lung and blood specimens will improve the understanding of H. pylori, VacA toxin, and other toxins as well as their potential role in pathophysiology of disease. The objectives of this exploratory protocol are to procure gastrointestinal, oropharyngeal, lung and/or blood specimens from healthy research volunteers and subjects with lung disease (e.g., lymphangioleiomyomatosis, asthma, sarcoidosis, pulmonary fibrosis) and to analyze these specimens for H. pylori, VacA toxin, and other toxins. We hypothesize that the toxins may have a role in the pathogenesis of lung disease and in the subclinical decline in lung function seen with aging.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00366509
|Contact: Mary Haughey, R.N.||(301) [email protected]|
|Contact: Joel Moss, M.D.||(301) [email protected]|
|United States, Maryland|
|National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike||Recruiting|
|Bethesda, Maryland, United States, 20892|
|Contact: For more information at the NIH Clinical Center contact Patient Recruitment and Public Liaison Office (PRPL) 800-411-1222 ext TTY8664111010 [email protected]|
|Kobe Medical Center||Recruiting|
|Principal Investigator:||Joel Moss, M.D.||National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)| | <urn:uuid:6750d2b8-61d7-46a6-8995-11948e17f12e> | {
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TORONTO -- Rising grocery prices in Canada have renewed calls for a national food policy as concerns over the number of Canadians living in so-called food-insecure households grows.
Some four million Canadians, or about 12.7% of households, experience some level of food insecurity, according to PROOF, a research group studying policy options to reduce the problem. More than 850,000 Canadians rely on food banks monthly, according to Food Banks Canada.
In Nunavut, where Statistics Canada data shows that food prices can be up to 3.1 times more expensive than the average cost in the rest of Canada, the problem is even more pronounced.
One in three people living in Nunavut are considered food insecure each month, according to Feeding Nunavut, an advocacy group working to improve the well-being of Canada's Northern residents.
Nearly 70% of the territory's pre-school Inuit kids live in food-insecure households, the group says. It recently launched an awareness campaign asking Canadians to skip a meal for Nunavut.
Research shows children living in such homes can suffer other inequalities, including getting fewer opportunities to learn to eat healthy foods.
Another recent study has found that low-income parents are less likely than high-income parents to buy the healthier foods that their kids are likely to initially snub, like some green vegetables that may require several offerings before they're embraced.
"People won't take economic risk when they're not economically secure," said Caitlin Daniel, a PhD candidate in sociology at Harvard University who wrote the report. "People won't take food risks when they're food insecure."
Daniel spent two years interviewing nearly 100 caregivers in Boston about how they decide what to feed their kids. She observed dozens of them while they shopped for groceries.
Parents with limited financial means try to eliminate the risk of paying for food that will be wasted by buying what their kids enjoy eating, Daniel found, rather than experimenting with new ingredients or continuing to cook foods their kids have previously refused. This means they often buy less healthy foods, like Hot Pockets or frozen chicken nuggets.
Parents who don't have to budget every penny, on the other hand, can better absorb the cost of wasted food, her study found.
So in a low-income family, a baby steadfastly refusing avocado may only get the chance to do so once or twice. In a higher-income family, however, that same infant may be offered avocado until she starts to enjoy it.
It typically takes between eight and 15 attempts for a child to acquire a taste for a new food, according to the paper. Thus, children from low-income families can have poorer-quality diets, Daniel found, since their parents can't afford to continuously expose their children's taste buds to healthy options.
Lynn McIntyre, a University of Calgary adjunct professor and one of PROOF's investigators, has studied food insecurity in Canada for more than a decade.
A study she conducted in the early 2000s focused on low-income single mothers in Atlantic Canada dealing with food insecurity.
"One of the early findings there was: absolutely, you never give your kid something that they might spit out," she said. "You do not, you can not waste food."
This creates a social inequality where kids from food-insecure households may never learn to enjoy a variety of healthy fruits, vegetables and other foods, she said.
Programs exist to help grapple with the inequity. Schools, for example, can expose children to new foods through breakfast and lunch programs, as well as various cultural celebrations.
Daniel suggests schools and other organizations should receive adequate funding to expose children to an array of foods.
Other possibilities for help include enlisting pediatricians and nutritionists to advise parents to buy healthy foods that last long and can be divided easily into small portions, like frozen vegetables, or providing vouchers for specific foods, like Brussels sprouts, that people may otherwise not purchase.
But McIntyre says solving the problem is obvious.
"There's only one solution for food insecurity," she said, "and that's sufficient income to buy food."
That can come in the form of a basic income plan, she said.
"Income provides the opportunity for people to get the foods they like that are healthy, and to experiment, and to get rid of the stress."
Molly McCracken, Manitoba director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, echoes the need for fighting food insecurity with income in a commentary penned this month.
In his mandate letter to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed Minister Lawrence MacAulay to develop a food policy, but it made no mention of affordable food. | <urn:uuid:fa051178-931a-4263-9309-ac464a8bc382> | {
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Black Hawk and the Warrior's Path:The years between 1760 and 1840 witnessed the young United States' indefatigable expansion, even at the expense of the people already occupying the land. Roger Nichols's account of the life and times of Black Hawk, the great Sauk leader, provides an engaging way to study this tumultuous period in American history. From his teens until his midsixties, Black Hawk chose to follow the warrior's path, leading groups of Sauks against the Osages, Sioux and the Cherokees, as well as against white pioneers, state militiamen, and U.S. Army regulars. His final stand against the United States, in what became known as the Black Hawk War (1832), proved to be disastrous for his people and paved the way for a torrent of white settlement into the Old Northwest.Although biographical history is especially difficult to write when the subject did not leave any written records, Professor Nichols, an expert in American Indian history, skillfully paints the portrait of Black Hawk, the stubborn, taciturn warrior, and considers possible reasons the aged leader acted as he did. Nichols emphasizes that lack of communication was a major stumbling block to peaceful U.S.-Indian relations. He examines how this contributed to the unnecessary loss of Indian lives and whether it was a convenient excuse used by the military to drive the Indians to the brink of extinction.
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Rent Black Hawk and the Warrior's Path 1st edition today, or search our site for Roger L. textbooks. Every textbook comes with a 21-day "Any Reason" guarantee. Published by Wiley-Blackwell. | <urn:uuid:ddd9c1f6-44f2-4f1c-885c-e16b385ea362> | {
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TOKYO</p> <p>The past is present everywhere, but Japan is an unusually history-haunted nation. Elsewhere, the Cold War is spoken of in the past tense. Japan, however, lives in a dangerous neighborhood with two communist regimes — truculent China and weird North Korea. For Japan, the fall of the Berlin Wall did not close an epoch. Even the Second World War still shapes political discourse because of a Shinto shrine in the center of this city.</p> <p>Young soldiers leaving Japan during that war often would say, "If I don't come home, I'll see you at Yasukuni." The souls of 2.5 million casualties of Japan's wars are believed to be present at that shrine. In 1978, 14 other souls were enshrined there — those of 14 major war criminals.</p> <p>Between that enshrinement and 1984, three prime ministers visited Yasukuni 20 times without eliciting protests from China. But both of Japan's most important East Asian neighbors, China and South Korea, now have national identities partly derivative from their experience as victims of Japan's 1910-1945 militarism. To a significant extent, such national identities are political choices.</p> <p>Leftist ideology causes South Korea's regime to cultivate victimhood and resentment of a Japan imagined to have expansionism in its national DNA. The choice by China's regime is more interesting. Marxism is bankrupt and causes cognitive dissonance as China pursues economic growth by markedly un-Marxist means. So China's regime, needing a new source of legitimacy, seeks it in memories of resistance to Japanese imperialism.</p> <p>Actually, most of China's resistance was by Chiang Kai-shek's forces, Mao's enemies. And Mao, to whom there is a sort of secular shrine in Beijing, killed millions more Chinese than even Japan's brutal occupiers did.</p> <p>Junichiro Koizumi, Japan's prime minister, made a campaign promise to visit the shrine regularly, and has done so, most recently last Tuesday, the anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Shinzo Abe, a nationalist who is almost certain to replace Koizumi, who is retiring next month, seems inclined to continue something like Koizumi's policy, and for at least one of Koizumi's reasons: China should not dictate the actions of Japan's prime ministers.</p> <p>This is the Admiral Nelson Fire Poker Principle. Speaking with some of his officers the night before Trafalgar, Nelson picked up a poker and said: It doesn't matter where I put this — unless Bonaparte says I must put it there. In that case, I must put it someplace else.</p> <p>The museum adjacent to Yasukuni says "The Greater East Asian War" began because, when the New Deal failed to banish the Depression, "the only option open to Roosevelt was to use embargoes to force resource-poor Japan into war. The U.S. economy made a complete recovery once the Americans entered the war." That is disgracefully meretricious — and familiar. For years, a small but vocal cadre of Americans — anti-FDR zealots — said approximately that. But neither Koizumi nor Abe includes the museum in his visits to the shrine.</p> <p>It would be helpful if Abe would discontinue visiting Yasukuni. He could cite the fact, learned last month, that Emperor Hirohito, who died in 1989, stopped visiting it because he strongly objected to the war criminals' enshrinement. Because China decided to be incensed about Koizumi's visits, there has been no Japan-China summit meeting for five years. In 2005, there were vicious anti-Japan riots in China, and 44 million Chinese signed an Internet petition opposing Japan's quest for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. Relations between the nations are colder than at any time since relations were normalized in 1972, when Mao decreed that both the Chinese and Japanese people had been victims of Japan's militarists.</p> <p>Things are so bad that, speaking about the incessant incursions by Chinese submarines and military aircraft into Japanese sea and air spaces, a senior Japanese official casually makes the startling suggestion that China's regime, like Japan's regime before the war, does not fully control its military. But relations other than diplomatic ones are flourishing. China is, after America, the second-most popular destination for Japanese tourists. Ten thousand people a day travel between the two countries, and in 2004, for the first time since 1945, Japan's trade with China was larger than with the United States.</p> <p>The controversy about Yasukuni should not mystify Americans. With their comparatively minor but still acrimonious arguments about displays of Confederate flags, Americans know how contentious the politics of national memory can be, and they understand the problem of honoring war dead without necessarily honoring the cause for which they died.</p> <p>George Will may be reached at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:6f95fd8a-69e5-42a5-aa85-b6f7825816dc> | {
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If you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, you know that controlling your blood sugar levels is important. The more you can keep these levels down, the lower your risk of developing cardiovascular disease and other health problems.
Having diabetes puts you at a higher risk for developing high cholesterol. As you watch your blood sugar numbers, watch your cholesterol numbers too.
Here, we explain why these two conditions often show up together, and how you can manage both with practical lifestyle approaches.
Diabetes and high cholesterol often occur together
If you have both diabetes and high cholesterol, you’re not alone. The American Heart Association (AHA) states that diabetes often lowers HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels and raises triglycerides and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels. Both of these increase the risk for heart disease and stroke.
The of 2014 shared similar findings. Between 2009 and 2012, about 65 percent of adults with diabetes had LDL cholesterol levels higher than ideal, or used cholesterol-lowering medications.
As a reminder:
- An LDL cholesterol level under 100 milligrams/deciliter (mg/dL) is considered ideal.
- 100–129 mg/dL is close to ideal.
- 130–159 mg/dL is borderline elevated.
High cholesterol levels can be dangerous. Cholesterol is a type of fat that can build up inside the arteries. Over time, it can harden to form a stiff plaque. That damages arteries, making them stiff and narrow and inhibiting blood flow. The heart has to work harder to pump blood, and risk for heart attack and stroke go up.
Why diabetes increases risk of high cholesterol
Scientists aren’t sure yet exactly how diabetes affects cholesterol, but they’re working on it. Some research has pointed to a connection between insulin and cholesterol. In 2001, researchers reported in that a gene called TCF1 regulates insulin and cholesterol production. When this gene doesn’t operate correctly, people are more at risk for both diabetes and high cholesterol.
Research on statin medications gave us more evidence of a link between insulin and cholesterol. Statins are very effective at keeping cholesterol levels under control and in reducing risk of heart disease. But in 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned that statins could increase risk of diabetes. Why would this be?
Scientists found that it was because of this connection between cholesterol and insulin. In the journal , they reported that statins activate an immune response that can stop insulin from doing its job. That in turn slightly increased risk of diabetes.
In 2002, researchers found a connection between diabetes and cholesterol, but weren’t sure why the connection was there. In their study published in Diabetes Care, they reported that diabetes seemed to either increase the production of cholesterol in the body, or reduce its absorption so that more of it stayed in the blood.
Researchers don’t have all the answers yet, and continue to grapple with the question. In one study published in , they found that blood sugar, insulin, and cholesterol all interact with each other in the body, and are affected by each other. They just weren’t sure exactly how.
Meanwhile, what’s important is that you’re aware of the combination between the two. Even if you keep your blood sugar levels under control, your LDL cholesterol levels may still go up. However, you can control both of these conditions with medications and good lifestyle habits.
7 lifestyle habits
Managing one medical condition can be challenging enough. If you have to manage diabetes and high cholesterol, that can get confusing. Does a diabetes diet work for high cholesterol, too? What about exercise? Do you have to do more if you have both conditions?
The main goal is to reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke. If you follow these seven tips, you’ll be giving your body what it needs to stay healthy and active.
1. Watch your numbers
You already know that it’s important to watch your blood sugar levels. It’s time to watch your cholesterol numbers, as well. As mentioned previously, an LDL cholesterol level of 100 or less is ideal. Follow your doctor’s instructions on keeping your blood sugar levels under control.
Be sure to check on your other numbers during your annual doctor visits. These include your triglycerides and blood pressure levels. A healthy blood pressure is 120/80 mmHg. The AHA suggests that those with diabetes shoot for a blood pressure of less than 130/80 mmHg. Total triglycerides should be less than 200 mg/dL.
2. Follow standard health advice
There are some well-known lifestyle choices that clearly reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. You probably know all of these, but just be sure that you’re doing everything you can to follow them:
- Don’t smoke or quit smoking.
- Take all your medications as directed.
- Maintain a healthy weight, or lose weight if you need to.
3. After a meal, take a walk
As someone with diabetes, you already know that exercise is key for keeping your blood sugar levels under control. Exercise is also key for managing high cholesterol. It can help increase levels of HDL cholesterol, which are protective against heart disease. In some cases, it can also reduce levels of LDL cholesterol.
Probably the most effective exercise you can do to help control blood sugar levels is to take a walk after eating a meal. A small New Zealand study published in Diabetologia reported that the improvement in blood sugar levels was “particularly striking” when participants walked after the evening meal. These participants experienced greater blood sugar reduction than those who just walked whenever they liked.
Walking is good for high cholesterol, too. In a 2013 study published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, researchers reported that walking reduced high cholesterol by 7 percent, whereas running reduced it by 4.3 percent.
4. Breathe a little harder five times a week
In addition to walking after meals, it’s also important to do some aerobic exercise for about 30 minutes daily five times a week.
In a 2014 study review published in , researchers found that moderate-intensity aerobic activity can be just as effective as high-intensity types when it comes to optimizing cholesterol levels. Try to incorporate some vigorous walking, biking, swimming, or tennis into your routine. Take the stairs, ride your bike to work, or get together with a buddy to play a sport.
Aerobic exercise is also beneficial for people with diabetes. A 2007 study published in reported that it helped reduce HbA1c levels in participants with type 2 diabetes. Another study published in Diabetes Care found that exercise training helped reduce waist circumference and HbA1c levels.
5. Lift a few heavy things
As we age, we naturally lose muscle tone. That’s not good for our overall health, or for our cardiovascular health. You can resist that change by adding some weight training to your weekly schedule.
Researchers in the Diabetes Care study mentioned previously reported that resistance training, or weight training, was an effective way to control cholesterol. In a 2013 study published in the , researchers found that people who had a regular weight-lifting program had more efficient HDL than those who didn’t.
Weight training is beneficial for those with diabetes, too. In a 2013 study published in , researchers found that resistance training helped participants build muscle. It also improved overall metabolic health and reduced metabolic risk factors for those with diabetes.
For overall health, it’s best to combine resistance training with your aerobic exercise. Researchers reported in that people who combined both types of exercise improved their blood sugar levels. Those who did only one or the other did not.
6. Plan healthy meals
You’ve probably already made changes in your diet to help keep your blood sugar levels low. You’re controlling the amount of carbs you eat at each meal, choosing foods low on the glycemic index, and you’re eating small meals more regularly.
If you have high cholesterol too, this diet will still work for you, with just a few small modifications. Continue to limit unhealthy fats such as those in red meat and full-fat dairy, and choose more heart-friendly fats like those found in lean meats, nuts, fish, olive oil, avocadoes, and flaxseeds.
Then, simply add more fiber to your diet. Soluble fiber is most important. According to the Mayo Clinic, it helps to lower LDL cholesterol.
Examples of foods that contain soluble fiber include oats, bran, fruits, beans, lentils, and veggies.
7. Watch out for the rest of your health
Even if you’re careful about controlling both your blood sugar and your blood cholesterol, diabetes can affect other parts of the body over time. That means it’s important to stay on top of all facets of your health as you go.
Your eyes: Both high cholesterol and diabetes can affect your eye health, so be sure to see your eye doctor every year for a checkup.
Your feet: Diabetes can affect the nerves in your feet, making them less sensitive. Check your feet regularly for any blisters, sores, or swelling and make sure that any wounds heal as they’re supposed to. If they don’t, check with your doctor.
Your teeth: There is some evidence that diabetes can increase risk of gum infections. See your dentist regularly and practice careful oral care.
Your immune system: As we age, our immune system gradually weakens. Other conditions like diabetes can weaken it even more, so it’s important to get your vaccinations as you need them. Get your flu shot each year, ask about the shingles vaccine after you turn 60, and ask about the pneumonia shot after you turn 65. The also recommends that you get your hepatitis B vaccination soon after you’re diagnosed with diabetes, as people with diabetes have higher rates of hepatitis B. | <urn:uuid:b6263d37-ec53-4ed9-9048-68befae00277> | {
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There are some questions you never think of asking.
Wondering how a starfish walks has to be one of those questions.
I mean, who’s ever sat down and actually contemplated how a starfish makes its way from the sand to the sea? I personally just thought they got swept along with the tide like the lazy animals they are.
But I was wrong.
Starfish walk. They’ve got thousands of cilia under their legs which help them schlep from A to B.
And you know what else is cool about them? They can grow back legs and they have an eye at the end of each one. Madness!
So anyway, someone uploaded a video of a starfish walking with their all-seeing limbs to Twitter over the weekend and people went crazy for it.
Starfish are actually mad creatures
They’re sort of alien like
While at the same time continuing to be beautiful and sweet animals
So now you know what a starfish walking looks like.
It is worth pointing out that if you do come across a starfish, put it back in the water ASAP (if you must take a video first, do so but act speedily) because they will die if they’re on dry land for too long.
They breathe through the gills on their underside and they capture oxygen from water to do so…meaning that if they’re marooned on land for too long, they’ll suffocate.
And honestly, a few likes on Twitter isn’t worth allowing an animal to die.
SO ACT RESPONSIBLY, PEOPLE.
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DVT or also termed as deep vein thrombosis is a condition where blood clots occur in deep veins making it impossible for free movement of the blood through the veins. Such a situation is serious and requires immediate medical attention before it turns out to be a fatal.
The blood clot which ultimately leads to PE initially appears elsewhere in the body. However, the first visible appearance begins in the legs or arms. It is here that things turn southwards and the individual suffers from Pulmonary Embolism (PE), which blocks the entrance of blood and oxygen to the lungs. In such cases, death is imminent. It not only prevents the passage of blood to the lungs, but also to other vital organs such as liver, brain, brain, kidney, and others.
What Percentage of Patients with DVT Develop PE?
DVT and PE have enhanced into a significant public health problem. According to a study carried out in the year 1998, which consisted of a 25-year population, and overall age and sex annual incidence, the VTE ratio stood at 1.17 for every 1,000 people. It included 0.48 for DVT and the rest for PE. Applying these figures to the existing population resulted in the same output! Today, approximately, 300,000 Americans suffer from DVT and PE. However, the results could vary and be on the higher side, as it is difficult to identify the presence of DVT in the earlier stage, which in turn leads to PE and death. Additionally, there will be a growth in the ratio, as the illness rises along with age and other health conditions.
The following risk factors are prone to increase the ratio among DVT patients to accumulate with PE:
- Previous injuries that damaged veins
- Damage to inner lining of the veins
- Any recent experience of trauma
- A recent surgery
- Use of contraceptive pill or have undergone hormone therapy
- Use of tobacco products
Additional Causes of PE in DVT Patients
Like any other illnesses, age and gender too have a specific role to play in raising the ratio of development of PE among DVT patients. For instance, the appearance of the illness is one among every 100,000 children, which is negligible in terms of ratio.
Incidents tend to increase slowly according to the age. The growth begins at the age of 40 and continues to show a steady increase over the next decade. People will then see a dramatic increase, reaching the count to 1,000 for every 100,000 people in an annum.
As we speak about the occurrence and the ratio, women are prone to higher risk during their pregnancy period. Nonetheless, the risk factor is low in comparison to that of senior men and women. Nevertheless, men reaching the age of 50 and above, show higher signs of the illness at a faster rate.
Apart from the discussed risk factors for the occurrence of the illness, the presence of deep vein thrombosis is a genetic condition too! A patient with a family history of DVT will acquire one, and even after attending to the situation, he or she will show one or more episodes of the same.
Treatment for DVT to Prevent PE
Use of medications, exercises, and surgery are the options to cure DVT and prevent the occurrence of PE. The doctor will collect the medical history and understand the condition to provide a definitive cure. Apart from the treatment alone, it is further crucial for the individual to continue with the preventive measures lifelong to avoid recurrence of another episode of DVT, which will lead to pulmonary embolism and death.
- DVT or Deep Vein Thrombosis: Causes, Symptoms, Treatments
- What is Pulmonary Embolism: Causes, Symptoms, Signs, Risk Factors
- What is the Treatment for Pulmonary Embolism & How Long is its Recovery Period?
- How is Pulmonary Embolism Diagnosed & What are its Complications?
- Warning Signs of Deep Vein Thrombosis: How do I know if I have DVT?
- Symptoms and Dangers of DVT | <urn:uuid:af1205f8-2583-4c84-8664-2cff5ab03df3> | {
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n. [OE. contenance, countenaunce,
demeanor, composure, F. contenance demeanor, fr. L.
continentia continence, LL. also, demeanor, fr. L.
continere to hold together, repress, contain. See
Contain, and cf. Continence.] 1.
Appearance or expression of the face; look; aspect;
So spake the Son, and into terror changed
2. The face; the features.
In countenance somewhat doth resemble
3. Approving or encouraging aspect of
face; hence, favor, good will, support; aid;
Thou hast made him . . . glad with thy
Ps. xxi. 6.
This is the magistrate's peculiar province, to
give countenance to piety and virtue, and to rebuke
4. Superficial appearance; show;
The election being done, he made
countenance of great discontent thereat.
In countenance, in an assured condition
or aspect; free from shame or dismay. "It puts the learned
in countenance, and gives them a place among the
fashionable part of mankind." Addison. -- Out of
countenance, not bold or assured; confounded;
abashed. "Their best friends were out of countenance,
because they found that the imputations . . . were well
grounded." Clarendon. -- To keep the
countenance, to preserve a composed or natural
look, undisturbed by passion or emotion. Swift.
Coun"te*nance (koun"t?-nans), v.
t. [imp. & p. p. Countenanced
(-nanst); p. pr. & vb. n.
Countenancing.] 1. To encourage; to
favor; to approve; to aid; to abet.
This conceit, though countenanced by
learned men, is not made out either by experience or reason.
Sir T. Browne.
Error supports custom, custom countenances
2. To make a show of; to pretend.
Which to these ladies love did | <urn:uuid:cf817297-3566-4f6c-9513-03e6384dbe6a> | {
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This episode of GED connection focuses on Data Analysis. During the pr ogram the viewer learns how to read and interpret data on charts and g raphs and how to find averages. The GED test may require those taking it to interpret numeric information from graphs that use picture and s ymbols. A key or a legend is provided to find out what the symbols mea n. The types of graphs that are covered in this program are bar or col umn graphs and circle or pie graphs. Graphs are used to simplify infor mation and it is encouraged that understanding what the graph is repre senting is more important than what type of graph it is. This program also covers tables, which are used to organize data to help the user l ocate information easily. This program also covers mean, median, and m ode.
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Blackstone’s Commentaries with Notes of Reference (1803)
St. George Tucker
A THIRD species of real injuries to a man’s land and tenements, is by nuisance. Nuisance, nocumentum, or annoyance, signifies any thing that works hurt, inconvenience, or damage. And nuisances are of two kinds; public or common nuisances, which affect the public, and are an annoyance to all the king’s subjects; for which reason we must refer them to the class of public wrongs, or crimes and misdemeanor: and private nuisances; which are the objects of our present consideration, and may be defined, any thing done to the hurt or annoyance of the lands, tenements, or hereditaments of another.1 We will therefore, first, mark out the several kinds of nuisances, and then their respective remedies.
I. IN discussing the several kinds of nuisances, we will consider, first, such nuisances as may affect a man’s corporeal hereditaments, and then those that may damage such as are incorporeal.
1. FIRST, as to corporeal inheritances. If a man builds a house so close to mine that his roof overhangs my roof, and throws the water off his roof upon mine, this is a nuisance, for which an action will lie.2 Likewise to erect a house or other building so near to mine, that it stops up my ancient lights and windows, is a nuisance of a similar nature.3 But in this latter case it is necessary that the windows be ancient, that is, have subsisted there time out of mind; otherwise there is no injury done. For he has much right to build a new edifice upon his ground, as I have upon mine: since every man do what he pleases upon the upright or perpendicular of his own soil; and it was my folly to build so near another’s ground.4 Also, if a person keeps his hogs, or other noisome animals, so near the house of another, that the stench of them incommodes him and makes the air unwholesome, this is an injurious nuisance, as it tends to deprive him of the use and benefit of his house.5 A like injury is, if one’s neighbor sets up and exercises any offensive trade; as a tanner’s, a tallowchandler’s or the like: for though these are lawful and necessary trades, yet they should be exercised in remote places; for the rule is, sic utere tuo, ut alienum non laedas:” this therefore is an actionable nuisance.6 So that the nuisances which affect a man’s dwelling may be reduced to these three: 1. Overhanging it, which is also a species of trespass, for cujus est solum, ejus est usque ad coelum: 2. Stopping ancient lights: and, 3. Corrupting the air with noisome smells: for light and air are two indispensable requisites to every dwelling. But depriving one of a mere matter of pleasure, as of a fine prospect, by building a wall, or the like; this, as it abridges nothing really convenient or necessary, is no injury to the sufferer, and is therefore not an actionable nuisance.7
AS to nuisances to one’s lands: if one erects a smelting house for lead so near the land of another, that the vapor and smoke kills his corn and grass, and damages his cattle therein, this is held to be a nuisance.8 And by consequence it follows, that if one does any other act, in itself lawful, which yet being done in that place necessarily tends to the damage of another’s property, it is a nuisance: for it is incumbent on him to find some other place to do that act, where it will be less offensive. So also, if may neighbor ought to scour a ditch, and does not, whereby my land is overflowed, this is an actionable nuisance.9
WITH regard to other corporeal hereditaments: it is a nuisance to stop or divert water that uses to run to another’s meadow or mill;10 to corrupt or poison a water-course, by erecting a dyehouse or a lime-pit for the use of trade, in the upper part of the stream;11 or in short to do any act therein, that in its consequences must necessarily tend to the prejudice of one’s neighbor. So closely does the law of England enforce that excellent rule or gospel-morality, of “doing to others, as we would they should do unto ourselves.”
2. As to incorporeal hereditaments, the law carries itself with the same equity. If have a way, annexed to my estate, across another’s land, and he obstructs me in the use of it, either by totally stopping it, or putting logs across it, or plowing over it, it is a nuisance: for in the first case I cannot enjoy my right at all, and in the latter I cannot enjoy it so commodiously as I ought.12 Also, if I am entitled to hold a fair or market, and another person sets up a fair or market so near mine that it does me a prejudice, it is a nuisance to the freehold which I have in my market or fair.13 But in order to make this out to be a nuisance, it is necessary, 1. That my market or fair be the elder, otherwise the nuisance lies at my own door. 2. That the market be erected within the third part of twenty miles from mine. For Sir Matthew Hale14 construes the dieta, or reasonable day’s journey, mentioned by Bracton,15 to be twenty miles: as indeed it is usually understood not only in our own law,16 but also in the civil,17 from which we probably borrowed it. So that if the new market be not within seven miles of the old one it is no nuisance; for it is held reasonable that every man should have a market within one third of a day’s journey from his own home; that, the day being divided into three parts, he may spend one part in going, another in returning, and the third in transacting his necessary business there. If such market or fair be on the same day with mine, it is prima facie a nuisance to mine, and there needs no proof of it, but the law will intend it to be so: but if it be on any other day, it may be a nuisance; though whether it is so or not, cannot be intended or presumed, but I must make proof of it to the jury. If a ferry is erected on a river, so near another ancient ferry as to draw away its custom, it is nuisance to the owner of the old one. For where there is a ferry by proscription, the owner is bound to keep it
always in repair and readiness, for the ease of all the king’s subject; otherwise he maybe grievously amerced:18 it would be therefore extremely hard, if a new ferry were to share his profits, which does not also share his burden. But, where the reason ceases, the law also ceases with it: therefore it is no nuisance to erect a mill so near mine, as to draw away the custom, unless the miller also intercepts the water. Neither is it a nuisance to set up any trade, or a school, in neighborhood or rivalship with another: for by such emulation the public are like to be gainers; and, if the new mill or school occasion a damage to the old one, it is damnum absque injuria.19
II. LET us next attend to the remedies, which the law has given for this injury of nuisance. And here I must premise that the law gives no private remedy for any thing but a private wrong. Therefore no action lies for a public or common nuisance, but an indictment only: because the damage being common to all the king’s subjects, no one can assign his particular proportion of it; or, he could, it would be extremely hard, if every subject in the kingdom were allowed to harass the offender with separate actions. For this reason, no person, natural or corporate, can have an action of a public nuisance, or punish it; but only the king in his public capacity of supreme governor, and pater-familias of the kingdom.20 Yet this rule admits of one exception; where a private person suffers some extraordinary damage, beyond the rest of the king’s subjects, by a public nuisance: in which case shall have a private satisfaction by action. As if, by means of a ditch dug across a public way, which is a common nuisance, a man or his horse suffer any injury by falling therein; there, for this particular damage, which is not common to others, the party shall have his action.21 Also if a man has abated, or removed, a nuisance which offended him (as we may remember it was stated, in the first chapter of this book, that the party injured has a right to do) in this case he is entitled to no action.22 For he had choice of two remedies; either without suit, by abating it himself, by his own mere act and authority; or by suit, in which he may both recover damages, and remove it by the aid of the law: but having made his election of one remedy, he is totally precluded from the other.
THE remedies by suit, are, 1. By action on the case for damages; in which the party injured shall only recover a satisfaction for the injury sustained; but cannot thereby remove the nuisance. Indeed every continuance of a nuisance is held to be a fresh one;23 and therefore a fresh action will lie, and very exemplary damages will probably be given, if, after one verdict against him, the defendant has the hardiness to continue it. Yet the founders of the law of England did not rely upon probabilities merely, in order to give relief to the injured. They have therefore provided two other actions; the assize of nuisance, and the writ of quod permittat prosternere: which not only give the plaintiff satisfaction for his injury past, but also strike at the root and remove the cause itself, the nuisance that occasioned the injury. These two actions however can only be brought by the tenant of the freehold; so that a lessee for years is confined to his action upon the case.24
2. AN assize of nuisance is a writ, wherein it is stated that the party injured complains of some particular fact done, ad nocumentum liberi tenementi sui, and therefore commanding the sheriff to summon an assize, that is, a jury, and view the premises, and have them at the next commission of assizes, that justice may be done therein:25 and, if the assize is found for the plaintiff, he shall have judgment of two things; 1. To have the nuisance abated; and 2. To recover damages.26 Formerly an assize of nuisance only lay against the very wrongdoer himself who levied, or did, the nuisance; and did not lie against any person to whom he had aliened the tenements, whereon the nuisance was situated. This was the immediate reason for making that equitable provision in statute Westm. 2. 13 Edw. I. c. 24. for granting a similar writ, in casu consimili, where no former precedent was to be found. The statute enacts, that “de caetero non recedant querentes a curia domini regis, pro eo quod tenementum transfertur de uno in alium“; and then gives the form of a new writ in this case; which only differs from the old one in this, that, where the assize is brought against the very person only who levied the nuisance, it is said, “quod A. (the wrongdoer) injuste levavit tale nocumentum“; but, where the lands are aliened to another person, the complaint is against both; “quod A. (the wrongdoer) et B. (the alienee) levaverunt“.27 For every continuation, as was before said, is a fresh nuisance; and therefore the complaint is as well grounded against the alienee who continues it, as against the alienor who first levied it.
3. BEFORE this statute, the party injured, upon any alienation of the land wherein the nuisance was set up, was driven to his quod permittat prosternere; which is in the nature of a writ of right, and therefore subject to greater delays.28 This is a writ commanding the defendant to permit the plaintiff to abate, quod permittat prosternere, the nuisance complained of; and, unless he so permits, to summon him to appear in court, and then show cause why he will not.29 And this writ lies as well for the alienee of the party first injured, as against the alienee of the party first injuring; as has been determined by all the judges.30 And the plaintiff shall have judgment herein to abate the nuisance, and to recover damages against the defendant.
BOTH these actions, of assize of nuisance, and of quod permittat prosternere, are now out of use, and have given way to the action on the case; in which, as was before observed, no judgment can be had to abate the nuisance, but only to recover damages. Yet, as therein it is not necessary that the freehold should be in the plaintiff and defendant respectively, as it must be in these real actions, but it is maintainable by one that has possession only, against another that has like satisfaction, the process is therefore easier: and the effect will be much the same, unless a man has a very obstinate as well as an ill-natured neighbor; who had rather continue to pay damages, than remove his nuisance. For in such case, recourse must at last be had to the old and sure remedies, which will effectually conquer the defendant’s perverseness, by sending the sheriff with his posse comitatus, or power of the county, to level it.
1. Finch. L.188.
3. 9 Rep.58.
4. Cro. Eliz. 118. Salk. 459.
5. 9 Rep.58.
6. Cro. Car. 510.
7. 9 Rep.58.
8. 1 Roll. Abr.89.
9. Hale on F.N.B.427.
11. 9 Rep. 59. 2 Roll. Abr.141.
12. F.N.B. 183. 2 Roll. Abr.140.
13. F.N.B. 184. 2 Roll. Abr.141.
14. on F.N.B.184.
15. l.3. c.16.
16. 2 Inst.567.
18. 2 Roll. Abr.140.
19. Hale on F.N.B. 184.
20. Vaugh. 341, 342.
21. Co. Litt.56. 5 Rep. 73.
22. 9 Rep. 55.
23. 2 Leon. pl. 129. Cro. Eliz. 402.
24. Finch. L. 289.
25. F.N.B. 183.
26. 9 Rep. 55.
28. 2 Inst. 405.
29. F.N.B. 124.
30. 5 Rep. 100, 101. | <urn:uuid:23e33447-a0ed-478c-8dc6-9a5a0c89522b> | {
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This June was the wettest since records began, with double the average rain falling during the month, the Met Office said.
- Provisional figures showed the UK received 145.3mm (5.7 inches) during June - beating the previous record of 136.2mm (5.4 inches) seen in June 2007.
- It is the second month this year to see record-breaking amounts of rain, after this April became the wettest in the records dating back more than a century to 1910.
- June saw long, prolonged rainfall and short but exceptionally heavy showers, and ended with freak storms which battered areas of the Midlands and the North East.
- The exceptional amount of rain caused floods in Wales and parts of England.
Looking at individual countries, it has been the wettest June on record for Wales and Northern Ireland, the second wettest in England, and the eighth wettest in Scotland.
Many areas have seen extremely high rainfall - with 83 (out of 237) observation sites marking their wettest June on record. Some of these aren't significant as they have very short recording histories, just a year in some cases, but others have been operating much longer - Otterbourne in Hampshire been operating for 119 years.
One of the key features of the month has been that the far north west of the UK, traditionally the wettest part of the country, has been remarkably dry.
Up until quite late in the month, a few stations in this area were below their record lowest rainfall amounts - but they just missed the record books with rain falling in the last few days of the month.
Current or previous wettest years on record are:
- UK: (Previous) 136.2 mm in 2007
- England: 146.0 mm in 2007
- Wales: (Previous) 183.1 mm in 1998
- Scotland: 155.0 mm in 1938
- Northern Ireland: (Previous) 152.6 mm in 1912.
Average UK conditions (1971-2000):
- Mean temperature 12.6 deg C
- Rainfall: 72.6 mm
- Sunshine: 169.4 hours | <urn:uuid:a21199f6-37f7-48f6-a358-0e36f2931a13> | {
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1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data During a test dive in 1939, prior to being accepted by the U.S. Navy, the submarine Squalus sank at a point where the depth of water was 73.0 m. The temperature at the surface was 27.0 C and at the bottom it was 7.0 C. The density of seawater is 1030 kg./m^3. A diving bell was used to rescue 33 trapped crewmen from the Squalus. The diving bell was in the form of a circular cylinder 2.30 m high, open at the bottom and closed at the top. When the diving bell was lowered to the bottom of the sea, to what height did water rise within the diving bell? (Hint: You may ignore the relatively small variation in water pressure between the bottom of the bell and the surface of the water within the bell.) 2. Relevant equations p = [tex]\rho[/tex]gh + pa? I really don't know... 3. The attempt at a solution I don't even know how to approach this. I suppose I'd want to find the pressure at the bottom of the sea. This would be the pressure exerted on the gas (the air inside the bell). Then I could use the ideal gas law to solve for the change in volume, which would then give me the change in height? Am I approaching this correctly? | <urn:uuid:c3032762-767a-487c-9a04-7b1de85d8ce5> | {
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Not Just Child's Play: The World of Video and Computer Games
Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.)
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.
And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week our subject is video and computer games in the United States.
Millions of Americans play video and computer games. The reasons are no mystery. The games can provide fun, action and, in some cases, education.
Players can lead their favorite sports team to victory. They can imagine they are secret agents like James Bond. They can form a nation and lead it through thousands of years of war and peace. They can develop their skills at card games like poker.
Game players may improve their reaction time and thinking skills. They may improve their ability to direct their thoughts, or learn word and number skills.
Some experts worry about the possible harm to children who play video games that contain a lot of sex and violence. Yet some young people now study electronic games in college. In Los Angeles, for example, the University of Southern California has classes in game design. Other students there can learn about games as part of modern culture.
Industry officials say the United States had more than seven thousand million dollars in sales of video and computer games last year. It was an increase of four percent from the year before.
Electronic games will be a popular gift during the winter holidays this month.
One recent night, some people lined up at stores at midnight. They waited to buy the new Xbox Three-Sixty game system by Microsoft. The Xbox Three-Sixty can play digital video discs and music. It can even handle conference calls.
Some players have returned the new system because of technical problems. But Microsoft said the rate of return was below the three to five percent that is normal with electronic products.
Sony leads the industry in worldwide sales of game systems. Microsoft is second, followed by Nintendo.
But Microsoft is the first to release its next-generation game system. Sony announced in May that it was preparing to launch its PlayStation Three in the spring of two thousand six. Next year is also when Nintendo plans to release its new system, called Revolution.
Children are not the only ones who play electronic games. The Entertainment Software Association says almost one-fifth of Americans over the age of fifty played video games last year.
In fact, it says the average player is thirty years old. The players who buy the most games are an average age of thirty-seven.
The group also reports that forty-three percent of players are women.
Some people play games on a personal computer. They use the keyboard to play. Or they connect a guiding device called a joystick.
Other people play on a video game system called a console which they connect to their television. Still others like to play games on small, handheld devices. Or they go to arcades to play on free-standing game machines.
The world of video games combines special effects, music, language and images. The best games have clear, colorful graphics. The images move at high speed with a depth similar to real life. Some have first-person perspective. This means you experience the action as though living it yourself.
Some people play games online. They might compete over the Internet against players on the other side of the world.
Some people play electronic games for money. More than seven hundred international gamers recently took part in the final competition of the World Cyber Games in Singapore. They played for a share of the four hundred thirty-five thousand dollars in prize money.
Many players like games based on sports. The Madden series, for example, is very popular. These are named for television football commentator John Madden, a former coach.
And players have been known to spend hours playing games developed from spy films like the James Bond movies.
People who like frightening movies may also like a game series called “Resident Evil.” Players say the games make them feel like they are living inside their own horror film. In fact, two films have already been based on the series. "Resident Evil" became popular with a storyline about a company that makes a virus. Victims infected with the virus turn into the undead and eat other people.
Many gamers are buying the newly released “Peter Jackson’s King Kong." In this game, the huge gorilla terrorizes humans just as he will in the new "King Kong" movie directed by Peter Jackson. It opens nationwide on December fourteenth.
A popular shooting-game series called “Doom” led to an action film that opened in November. The movie "Doom" stars Dwayne Johnson, the professional wrestler and actor known as “The Rock.”
But the video game that sold best in two thousand four was “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.” It was strongly criticized, however, because of hidden sexual images. Stores temporarily removed the game from sale. Now only adults can buy the version that still has those images, but not many stores are selling it.
The National Institute on Media and the Family is a private research group. Several years ago, it found that almost eighty percent of American children played video games. Research last year found that girls played video games an average of about five hours weekly. Boys played an average of thirteen hours.
Another group, Children Now, says almost half of video games contain serious violence. And it says about half the violence shown in the games would injure or kill people in real life.
Many doctors, educators and policy makers express concern about the effects of violent games. They point to studies that show that playing games with repeated violence is often linked to increases in aggressive thoughts, feelings and actions.
Where are the parents? The Entertainment Software Association says parents are present ninety-two percent of the time when games are bought or rented.
Even so, the group just announced that the Sony PlayStation Three will include parental controls. These controls let parents limit the kinds of games their children can play. The PlayStation Portable system released earlier this year already has that technology.
So does the new Xbox Three-Sixty from Microsoft. And Nintendo recently announced that its new system will also include parental controls.
The technology is based on ratings by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. This group has rated games for families since nineteen ninety-four. The industry says eighty-three percent of all games sold last year were rated "E" for Everyone or "T" for Teen.
But some critics argue that self-rating by the industry is far from satisfactory.
Some states want to stop sales of violent games to people seventeen and younger. On November ninth, a federal judge in Detroit blocked an attempt by the state of Michigan, at least temporarily. The judge acted on a request by the Entertainment Software Association.
Opponents of sales restrictions say the measures violate free speech rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
All this action and debate shows how important electronic games have become.
Some games developed from traditional board games like backgammon or chess. Others grew from word games or from card games like solitaire and bridge. In eighteen eighty-nine, a playing-card company opened in Japan. The company led to Nintendo.
In nineteen fifty-eight, a scientist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York State developed a game he called "Tennis for Two." William Higinbotham played it on a scientific device called an oscilloscope. The scientist did not see that such a game could become widely popular. But others did.
By the early nineteen seventies, people were playing a video game called “Pong.” Two people would sit at a game machine and control a paddle to hit an electronic ball back and forth. Soon millions of people were playing "Pong." Many other games followed.
Today, as computers keep improving, people keep designing new games. And the public keeps buying them. As games become more and more realistic, we can only imagine what the future will look like in this electronic world.
Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus.
And I’m Steve Ember. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. | <urn:uuid:1c54ff51-d806-4dc1-9261-d8b41cf5d45f> | {
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The feast of Theophany (also called Epiphany) is the second greatest feast (after Pascha) in the Christian Calendar. Theophany is even more important than Nativity. In fact, Theophany is the fulfillment of the Nativity. At Christ’s birth, his revelation as the God-man begins. However, this revelation begins slowly, quietly (it had actually begun silently nine months earlier at the Annunciation). At Christ’s birth, only a few shepherds know what is going on--and an angel had to reveal it to them: “Go into the town” the angel told the shepherds, “and look for a tightly-wrapped baby lying in a feeding trough.” While Jesus was still an infant but after Joseph and Mary had settled in a house, three Wise Men from the East found them; but no one else did. And then the Holy Family left town and lived in Egypt for many years. The manifestation or coming (literally, the “epiphany”) of the Son of God as the Son of Man did not become fully revealed until thirty years later at the baptism of Christ by His cousin John in the Jordan River.
At His baptism, Christ not only fully identifies with our fallen humanity, but he even takes on our repentance. As St. Paul says, “He who knew no sin, became sin for us…” (2 Cor. 5: 21). Although Christ had no sin to repent of, He received the baptism of repentance on behalf of all human beings. So much did Christ identify with humanity, all humanity, that he took on the consequences of sin--himself being completely free from sin--for the sake of all men and women. In Christ everything is fulfilled on behalf of every human being: “all righteousness” is fulfilled, He says to John before His baptism (Matt. 3:15).
At His baptism, Christ not only identifies with our humanity, but He also reveals His divinity. And more than that, for the first time in all the Scriptures, in all of history, the Holy Trinity is clearly revealed: The voice of the Father speaks of the Beloved and Well Pleasing Son while the Spirit descends in the form of a dove. Never before had the mystery of the One God in Three Persons been revealed so clearly. Here at Christ’s baptism the mystery that began to be revealed at his birth is openly manifest to the universe and before the crowds who had come to be baptized by John: the Son of God is the Son of Man.
At His baptism, Christ not only identifies completely with our humanity, but He also begins the transformation of the entire created world. Instead of the water of the Jordan washing away His sin--for He had no sin--the brilliancy of Christ’s divinity and the power of His sinless Humanity began the reversal of the ancient curse. The demonic forces that hid in the water (which in the Old Testament refer to death) and which manipulated the natural world to terrorize lost humanity, these demonic forces were crushed when Christ entered the water of baptism. No longer would the deep, the abyss, or Sheol hold power over mankind: having been baptized in the water, Christ would walk on the water, Christ would pull the sinking Peter from the water: even the watery depths could no longer control mankind, that is mankind in Christ. At Christ’s baptism the ancestral curse begins to reverse.
And after His baptism, having as a man been filled with the Holy Spirit, Christ begins to show the way to triumph over temptation, sin, sickness, religious hypocrisy, political oppression, demonic oppression and eventually even death itself. Christ as a man--without ceasing to be God, but laying aside his prerogatives as God--Christ as a man conquers all human enemies. Christ as a man shows the way for all mankind into the Kingdom of God, into Paradise, into the Resurrection and into Eternal Life.
This is why Theophany is so important. In remembering, in celebrating the baptism of Christ, we call to mind in the most profound way the revelation of the God-man, the washing away of sin through repentance, the reverse of the ancient curse, and the conquering of sin and all of its consequences, even death. The world was enlightened at Christ’s baptism, and when we prayerfully remember it, we come to experience that enlightenment just a little more fully. | <urn:uuid:70556746-18ca-4097-92f8-e2fd73eaf68c> | {
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It takes one man and one woman to make a child, and it takes one man and one woman to care for that child. Marriage is by far the most efficient and effective way to raise children. It operates on the simple principle of the division of labor: One person works to provide for the family, and one person works to nurture the family. Both occupations are needed, and both are full-time jobs.
People who support government-provided care for children that inevitably separates them from their mothers for many hours per week tend to ignore the negative studies or claim the “evidence is mixed” because some other studies show positive or no registered effects to institutionalizing small children. First, we must realize the negative findings come from the highest-quality studies we have. Positive or null findings tend to come from more poorly designed studies on many fewer children.
Mt. Zion's programs are built around the needs of each child. Teacher to child ratios are low to provide for individual attention. Children daily experience planned activities and open-ended experiences for individual growth and development. Children explore their world through music, large motor play, sensory exploration, language, and small group events.
Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from six weeks to thirteen years. Child care is the action or skill of looking after children by a day-care center, nannies, babysitter, teachers or other providers. Child care is a broad topic that covers a wide spectrum of professionals, institutions, contexts, activities, and social and cultural conventions. Early child care is an equally important and often overlooked component of child development. Child care providers can be children's first teachers, and therefore play an integral role in systems of early childhood education. Quality care from a young age can have a substantial impact on the future successes of children. The main focus of childcare is on the development of the child, whether that be mental, social, or psychological.
How Do I Get Into Childcare
The quality of childcare given by a facility is generally indicated by the center's cost of enrollment. If the center charges more for the service, it will generally provide better care to the children. Centers that charge more for their services can provide quality education, more current resources, and nicer facilities. These are all helpful when trying to educate a child academically. A higher standard for teachers, such as requiring a degree in early childhood education or a degree of the like, has shown to result in improved growth in the development of a child.
Prestige Preschool Academy offers many benefits to children’s preschool and child care experience for children aged 6 weeks to 12 years old. We pride ourselves on the many programs we provide to enhance early childhood education as well as our fully enriched and stimulating classroom environments. To find a Prestige Preschool Academy near you, click on the button below to access more information.
What Do I Need To Get Child Care
The YMCA Summer Day Camps are a great way for kids to learn new skills, practice old skills, gain confidence and build relationships. The YMCA’s range of exciting themes allows kids to spend the summer engaging with the activities they enjoy the most, whether they prefer a sports camp, a music camp, an art-focused camp or a traditional outdoor activities camp among many other possibilities.
How Much Is The Average Cost For Child Care Centennial Co
This matter was initiated by a complaint filed by the Center for Children’s Advocacy of Connecticut (CCA) on behalf of the parents of two children with Type 1 diabetes (also known as insulin dependent diabetes) alleging that KinderCare refused to assist their children with insulin administration, in violation of title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12181 et seq., and its implementing regulation, 28 C.F.R. Part 36. Based on those complaints, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut (the “United States”) opened an investigation to determine whether any violations of title III of the ADA had occurred. A third complaint against KinderCare by the parent of another child with Type 1 diabetes was filed with the United States by CCA during the course of the investigation.
For persons who must receive ADA Managers Training pursuant to this Agreement, but who did not receive training on a designated training date required under this Agreement (for instance, because they were on leave from KinderCare or because they began their affiliation with KinderCare subsequent to the training date), KinderCare shall provide the ADA Manager Training to such persons within ninety (90) days after the individual's return or commencement of service to KinderCare;
Known for its red-roofed community-based learning centers that began almost 50 years ago, KinderCare currently operates more than 1,300 fully accredited centers and has delivered 24 quarters of top-line and bottom-line consecutive earnings growth. After opening its first center more than 30 years ago, Rainbow has grown to serve families in more than 150 centers in 16 states, including Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, New Jersey and South Carolina.
Many of our current economic and education paradigms are anti-family. They rob from the future to promote consumption today. That’s not coincidentally America’s dominant economic model, and it’s not sustainable. Borrowing from tomorrow has to end at some point, and the more we do it the worse the crash will be. The principle applies to government debt and spending as much as it does to robbing children of the mental and emotional development they need and get from an at-home mother in the early years. https://m.youtube.com/e/eeCahRCgOfI
Rainbow, meanwhile, has consistently delivered industry-leading growth through their robust new center opening engine. Both KinderCare Education and Rainbow offer before- and after-school programs, and partner with private sector companies to provide child care for their workers, demonstrating further alignment in their offerings for families, and fueling opportunities for growth.
Of course, although we often act otherwise, adult opinions are far less important than whether this will be good for the children. After all, if generating tax dollars through more working mothers today cannibalizes on the happiness and productivity of the next generation, which already has to pay for tens of trillions in unfunded government programs that will not benefit them, it’s bad for the country, not to mention the less happy and productive individuals affected.
The creation of childcare programs in Mexico is quite different from others because it focuses on the “defeminization of labor and the defamilization of care.” Female participation is a goal that the government has so it set in place many policies and modes to achieve this. The creation of a successful program of child care has been sought out and many different aspects have been changed over the years but it can be seen that there is an increase in early childhood education and care services (ECEC). ECEC services can be broken down into three different time periods and models which were implemented. The first would be in the 1970s when the Institute for Social Security focuses on covering children for mothers who were covered by Social Security services. This caused a huge gap in the children that could be covered due to the fairly large number of women working in the informal sector and being denied these services. The second stage would be in the early 200s when the Ministry of Public education made preschool mandatory for all children from ages 3 to 5. This was useful in theory because all of the children in this age range would be cared for, but in reality caused a strain in the amount of time that the parents had to go and work or dedicate their time elsewhere. The last stage would be in 2007 when the Ministry of Social Development created a childcare program in which was focuses on helping out children and mothers who were not covered by the social security services. This was successful since it targeted low income families specifically. For families to be eligible for this service the mothers had to be working or searching for a job, the income was taken into consideration in comparison to that of minimum wage, and that they did not have any other access to services. Women's participation in the workforce and be directly tied to the availability of childcare services and how it would affect their household. https://www.youtube.com/v/eeCahRCgOfI&feature=kp | <urn:uuid:44e76a5e-2362-467f-8ac5-253354be576c> | {
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We're used to thinking of the 20th century as the high point of technological and cultural change. The case is easy to make: A generation which knew the horse and buggy watched Neil Armstrong's moon walk. There was Einstein, two world wars, a smallpox vaccine, Elvis Presley and laptop computers. Make your own list.
However, two and a half centuries ago, subtle dramas of ideas and aesthetics led to contemporary upheavals every bit as volcanic as our recent spectacles. They may seem small to us, but like Captain Picard's Spatial Anomaly, they were much bigger in the past.
It may take an act of the imagination to hear the danger in 18th century music today, but rules of proportion and procedure in a coherent world were often being trampled by young, and not so young, artists. These subversives were obviously bent on destroying the very fabric of society. Antennae were finely tuned among the elite classes to detect such things. After all, the stakes were real, and high. These breaches of decorum might lead to anything, and did: a loss of power, the rights of citizens, bewigged noblemen hogtied in tumbrels approaching guillotines. Wolfgang Mozart, among these agitators, wrote his Divertimento in D, K. 136 at age 16. We hear the charming and graceful prodigy announcing his genius — a familiar, even comforting sound. But rebellion lurks beneath the surface: This teenager is out to change things. He abruptly wrenches the complacent courtier from one key to another. And those clever turns of phrase, are they really quite polite? No doubt he was on a watch list.
Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach was another disturber of the peace. Superbly trained by his father, this second son of Johann Sebastian had his own things to say. His style was expressive, even stormy, with no built-in impedance against the display of human emotions. His symphony in B minor, for instance, with its stabbing rhythms and dissonance, gives us a forward-thinking C.P.E. Bach in the year 1773.
Finally, consider Joseph Haydn's Violin Concerto in C. Another innovator, and inventor of lasting things, Haydn developed both the string quartet and the symphony. On the surface, his style in the Concerto says "Empress Maria Theresia," but the virtuosic solo part anticipates the untrammeled humanity of Beethoven and Brahms. These men — living through and after Reigns of Terror and the Napoleonic promise and betrayal — inherited Haydn's legacy of change and accelerated it as we fell into the 19th century super-volcano of storm- and science-tossed souls. Trains broke the 25 mph barrier by the 1830s. This was too much, and Cassandras in the press warned, "The end is near!" Our incessant tectonic shifts for more than a century — from slide rule to nanotechnology, from Kitty Hawk to the Mars Rover — have conspired at last to make our response to apocalyptic change relatively laconic. After absorbing the assaults of the last century and our adolescent 21st, we might wonder: Can we ever again know the original shock of Mozart's juvenilia, or a C.P.E. Bach symphony? | <urn:uuid:fad98bb2-5675-42eb-a585-8aeb4796534b> | {
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||This article needs to be wikified. (December 2011)|
Impression management is an idea spoken about in the discipline of sociology. It is about the experience in everyday life where people control the way that they appear to others. People do this by selecting certain gestures, speech patterns, feminine or masculine expressions, as well as certain expressions of class and cultural interest. This so that people can give a particular image to others about who they want to be and how they want to be seen.
Examples[change | change source]
When gesturing a person might use reserved and minimal movements in a professional setting, whilst they may smile widely and wave about when with friends. A person might also change their speech pattern in a professional setting in order to sound more educated or refined, and may speak more casually or use swear words when in a casual setting.
Males and females also often control how they are perceived in terms of masculinity or femininity. Boys and men might sometimes make their voices sound deeper or speak in short sentences to reflect an old stereotype that males are unfeeling and unconcerned with self-expression. Females on the other hand might feel the need to speak in line with the speech patterns of their peers, and this may include tacking on culturally specific phrases like "or whatever" and "that's hot/cute" to indicate they identify with the female gender and traditional interests. These of course are very simple ideas about what it means to be a man or woman. In contemporary life the border between male and female is sometimes becoming less strict. In Western societies psychologists support that people who show alternative gender expression are still medically normal.
People also talk about what kind of music they are interested in, what kind of movies they like to watch, and what kind of places they like to visit in order to give people an idea of where they stand in relation to class and culture. A common distinction in contemporary youth culture is the listening to so called "indie" alternative or independent music as opposed to pop or popular music. Similarly someone might say they like watching highbrow French films or award winning films, as opposed to something more mass culture, like a Disney movie. | <urn:uuid:b2849e4f-f4fc-489f-b723-747c95ef09cb> | {
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At the ranger station midway on a hike through Boston's Blue Hills, I stop to relax and take some water. Two large horses belonging to the Metro Boston mounted police stand in the shady corner of a small corral. I notice that the fence that contains them is so flimsy that they could smash through it easily if they wanted to. I'm not a horse mind reader, and it could be that they know how weak the fence is, but in my imagination, they don't realize that they can break out. That thought reminds me of my own mental corrals, and how many of us have them.
Mental corrals prevent us from doing what we're otherwise able to do. When we don't ask for a promotion because we think we won't get it, we're in a mental corral. Mental corrals keep us from exercising choices we have, and they can even keep us from seeing them. They prevent us from reaching our potential.
A few kinds of mental corrals:
- OK Corral
- When things are OK, we sometimes can't see how much better things could be. We tolerate what we need not. The OK Corral kept IBM from introducing the PC until after Apple showed it could be done, and the delay may have cost IBM dominance of the desktop.
- Terror Corral
- When terror grips us, we believe that the only sensible choice is to stay inside the corral. Either we imagine the threat, or someone else induces it. The Terror Corral kept European sailors from crossing the Atlantic, even when the Polynesians were crossing the Pacific — with inferior technology, and centuries earlier.
- Example Corral
- When something bad happens to someone else, we sometimes fear that it will happen to us if we try something similar — even after the situation changes. Bullies can control a social group much more powerful than they are by making examples of a few of its members.
- Rationalization Corral
- Mental corrals prevent us
from doing what we're
otherwise able to do
- When we don't want to take risks, we invent reasons for staying put. "It costs too much," "It'll never work," "If it were that easy, someone would have done it already." The Rationalization Corral often acts as a "second fence." It prevents us from seeing the outer corral — the more powerful reason we choose not to act.
Can you remember a time when there was a mental corral that you had to break through to achieve a goal? Make a collection of the corrals you've escaped. Is there a pattern? What would happen if, instead of breaking out of your mental corrals, you just stopped building them? Top Next Issue
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As a costs savings measure, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts decided in 2004 to close these stables. Park rangers in Boston's Blue Hills Reservations began patrolling on foot. The stable's residents — King Arthur, King Pellinore, Sir Dillidon, Turk, Merlin, and Lady Guinevere — have been reassigned to other duty around Massachusetts. Seems like the Commonwealth is in a Mental Corral of its own.
For more on achieving and inspiring goals, see "Commitment Makes It Easier," Point Lookout for October 16, 2002; "Beyond WIIFM," Point Lookout for August 13, 2003; "Your Wishing Wand," Point Lookout for October 8, 2003; "Give It Your All," Point Lookout for May 19, 2004; "Knowing Where You're Going," Point Lookout for April 20, 2005; "Workplace Myths: Motivating People," Point Lookout for July 19, 2006; "Astonishing Successes," Point Lookout for January 31, 2007; and "Achieving Goals: Inspiring Passion and Action," Point Lookout for February 14, 2007.
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See also Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness for more related articles.
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Each spring, Midwesterners revel anew in the sight and scent of lilacs. With just a little care, this easy shrub provides generations of bouquets. Flower clusters, studded with tiny florets, burst with fresh-blown hues that can defy the seven official color classifications of lilacs: white, violet, blue, lilac, pink, magenta and purple. Soil, light and weather affect the colors of about 2,000 cultivars.
We're most familiar with the common lilac, Syringa vulgaris, which grows 8 to 20 feet tall. But the genus Syringa embraces 22 other species, including Syringa reticulata, the Japanese tree lilac, which grows to 30 feet, and S. meyeri 'Palibin', a dwarf Chinese shrub reaching 4 to 5 feet. Pictured: Syringa vulgaris 'Andenken an Ludwig Spaeth', a purple lilac dating from 1883 that's still a popular choice.
Lilacs are perfectly in sync with our Midwest winters. Most varieties need a cold dormancy period of at least 850 hours (about 35 days) at temperatures below 45 degrees to flower. Each species and variety has its own bloom season (classified as early, mid and late). If you plant the right types, you could have lilacs in bloom for several weeks, ending with the Japanese tree lilac.
All lilacs are easy to grow if placed in well-drained soils where they'll receive at least six hours of sun a day. Once established, lilacs can thrive even in hot, dry, windy places.
Trends with lilac breeders include creating varieties with larger blooms, such as 'Znamya Lenina', or double petals, such as 'Rochester'. Bicolored varieties also attract attention.
Smaller lilacs for suburban yards are popular, including some introduced by Nebraska grower Max Peterson: 'Red Pixie', reaching about 5 feet tall with a red flower fading to pink, and 'Beth', a white selection reaching 4 to 5 feet.
There's a lilac to please everyone. The next slides showcase a few of the colors and types to choose from. Pictured: 'Sensation', from 1938, a favorite because of the white rim on the deep-purple florets.
The pink S. hyacinthiflora 'Fenelon' lilac (left) is among the first to bloom. Because it may be difficult to find, look for S. hyacinthiflora 'Maiden's Blush' or S. vulgaris 'Edward J. Gardner', two other great early-blooming pinks. Hyacinthiflora types also provide good fall leaf color.
Named for an important French lilac hybridizer, the double-petal florets of 'Victor Lemoine' (left) are classified as lilac but can look blue or pink.
The Rochester white lilac, named for the New York state community that's the site of a huge lilac festival, is the parent of many newer varieties. For a shorter white, try 'Avalanche', which grows about 9 feet tall and sports large florets. 'Angel White' (left) grows up to 10 feet and can handle both hot and cold climates.
Once known as the bluest lilac, 'President Lincoln' (left) produces lots of suckers. For a better growth habit and blue flowers, try 'Wedgwood Blue'.
North Dakota lilac breeder Neal Holland originated size and color breakthroughs that were introduced to the public by Bailey Nurseries in Saint Paul. The Fairytale series hybrids -- Tinkerbelle, Prince Charming, Thumbelina (left) and Sugar Plum Fairy -- often repeat bloom and grow up to 6 feet tall.
Another Midwest lilac is the 'Prairie Petite', developed at the University of Nebraska. 'Prairie Petite' is one of the smallest lilacs, about 3 feet wide and tall with single purple florets. Drought- and heat-tolerant, it can be grown in a container.
Bailey Nurseries
Left to their own devices, lilac bushes can become a bit straggly. See whether yours gets at least six hours of full sun per day. If not, move it or plant a new one (which can take up to three years to flower).
Don't be afraid to prune. How you prune this year affects next year, as lilacs set their buds on last year's wood. The best time is right after the last flower turns crispy brown. Remove each flower stalk and unruly branches that are too tall or floppy. Then stop.
If you prune in spring before the lilac blooms, you will get few or no flowers.
Blooming may suffer if you apply fertilizer with too much nitrogen, which promotes foliage growth at the expense of flowers. Avoid the area around lilacs when you fertilize your lawn. If you want to fertilize lilacs, try a bloom-booster in which the second of the three numbers (the nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium ratio) on the package is approximately twice as high as the first number.
If your lilac has lots of old wood, encourage new growth with rejuvenation pruning. For vigorous new limbs, cut back one-third of the old wood to the ground each year for three years.
Cut lilacs stay fresh only a few days. For the best bouquets, cut in the early morning. Use a pruner; the branches don't snap off easily. Make crisscross cuts at the bottom of each branch, but don't crush the stem. Having more surface area allows the stem to take up more water.
Immediately plunge the cut ends into a bucket of warm water to condition the stems. In a clean vase, add a floral preservative to warm water. Trim off any leaves that will be underwater. Recut the stem ends while they're underwater in the bucket before arranging. Change the water in the vase daily.
The lovely lilac is celebrated and displayed around the Midwest. Peak bloom times vary from year to year; call ahead.
Several pictures in this lilac slideshow, including the one at left, were taken at Ewing Park's lilac arboretum in Des Moines. It's usually best in May.
Visit hundreds of lilacs at Longenecker Gardens, University of Wisconsin Arboretum in Madison.
The annual Mackinac Island Lilac Festival is in June at Mackinac Island, Michigan.
The annual Lilac Time Festival is held in May at Lilacia Park in Lombard, Illinois.
Many lilacs are available from garden centers. To mail-order lilacs mentioned in this slideshow (no source carries all cultivars), try Fox Hill Lilac Nursery, Forestfarm, or Syringa Plus. A good reference book is Lilacs: A Gardener's Encyclopedia by Fr. John L. Fiala, available at bookstores or through websites such as Timber Press.
Syringa Plus
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NASA Spinoffs Extend Life on Earth
Throughout the ages, exploration has led to technological developments that ultimately found their way into the lives of ordinary citizens. The spring-wound clock, for instance, developed in the 18th century for use on ships to help determine longitude, eventually led to wristwatches.
In similar tradition, NASA's exploration of space has led to developments that now benefit the public, from medical and safety improvements to recreational equipment. Below are just a few of the hundreds of technology spinoffs now part of our everyday living.
The monitoring systems used in intensive care units and heart rehabilitation wards were developed from the systems used to monitor astronauts during the first space missions in the early 1960s. Countless Americans recovering from heart attacks and other serious illnesses or injuries owe their lives to this technology, a direct result of NASA's space program.
Image right: Development of an astronaut monitoring system in the early days of the space program led to the design of a computerized medical electronic system used by hospitals and doctors today. Image credit: NASA/Spinoff
Improved breast biopsies were developed as a result of technology for the Hubble Space Telescope program. Biopsies now can be performed with a needle instead of a scalpel. The needle biopsies benefit patients by leaving only a small mark rather than a large scar and by costing significantly less -- an average of one-fourth the cost of the more traditional biopsy.
Getting the Groove on Airport and Highway Safety
Research at NASA to tackle hydroplaning problems for aircraft and land vehicles began in the 1960s. The unique landing requirements of the space shuttle were also a basis for continued studies.
Image left: This is south-to-north aerial view of the grooved Space Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Image credit: NASA
NASA researchers determined that cutting thin grooves across concrete runways reduces the risk of hydroplaning. The grooves, which create channels for excess water to drain, have been shown to improve aircraft tire friction performance in wet conditions by 200 to 300 percent.
Today the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at NASA Kennedy Space Center is equipped with safety grooving in the middle to optimize wet friction performance, and grinding in touchdown areas to minimize tire-spin wear. Hundreds of commercial airports around the world have had their runways grooved.
This technique is now also used nationwide on highway curves and overpasses; pedestrian walkways, ramps and steps; and food processing plants and cattle holding pens. The use of grooves on highways has contributed to an 85 percent reduction in highway accidents. This could be NASA's most successful technology in terms of lives saved and injuries and accidents avoided.
This powerful handheld rescue tool can quickly cut through cars or other enclosures to free people involved in an accident or other dangerous situation. The tool, which was developed through the joint efforts of the Hi-Shear Technology Corporation, firefighters and NASA, uses the same power source used to separate solid rocket boosters from space shuttles.
Image right: The cutter is pyrotechnically actuated, using a miniature version of the power cartridges used for separation devices on the space shuttle. Image credit: NASA/Spinoff
Lifeshears were used by rescue workers searching for survivors at the Oklahoma City federal building bombing site in 1995 and the World Trade Center in 2001. Lifeshears are lighter, cheaper and easier to use than traditional rescue equipment.
The SpiraFlex® system, presently aboard the International Space Station, is used by the crewmembers as a primary countermeasure against musculoskeletal degradation caused by microgravity.
Image left: NASA research facilities and funding helped to develop "Resistance Exercise Device," powered by SpiraFlex®. Image credit: NASA/Spinoff
Using SpiraFlex® technology, Schwinn Cycling & Fitness Inc. launched an international fitness program for health clubs and select retail distributors, called RiPP™ (Resistance Performance Program).
A cardiovascular conditioner developed for astronauts in space led to the development of a physical therapy and athletic development machine used by football teams, sports clinics and medical rehabilitation centers.
For more information about NASA spinoffs, visit:
+ NASA Spinoff Online (pdf)
or + NASA Spinoff site
Courtesy of NASA Innovative Partnerships Program and the Spinoff Office
Anita Barrett, Staff Writer
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Saving energy with spray foam
Building codes require minimum R-values for all buildings, and the codes typically provide a prescriptive table that details the R-values required for specific climate zones. However, the R-values listed are based on laboratory test procedures and do not take into consideration field performance of insulation. Seldom does insulation perform in the laboratory as it does in the field, but advances in building-envelope technology and test procedures have given roofing professionals an opportunity to address many factors that can contribute to the total energy performances of building systems.
One example of this is spray polyurethane foam (SPF). During the past 30 years, a great deal of scientific research has been conducted to identify factors other than R-value that affect thermal performances of roof and insulation systems. The Spray Polyurethane Foam Alliance (SPFA) has been active in promulgating research to put real numbers behind these concepts. During the past two years, SPFA has conducted thermal performance research in attics and wall assemblies with coordination and input from Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL), Oak Ridge, Tenn.; R&D Services, Cookeville, Tenn.; National Association of Home Builders' Research Center; Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.; and Architectural Testing Inc., York, Pa.
During the summer of 2006, SPFA asked Mark Bomberg, a building scientist at Syracuse University and principal of TI Research, a consulting company in Syracuse, to analyze the relative energy performances of SPF roof systems. The goals of the research were to evaluate the factors affecting energy performances of SPF roof systems in the field, review existing data from building-envelope research that relates to these factors, and develop a matrix that could be used by contractors to provide a more accurate estimate of the effective field performances of SPF roof systems in various climates and building scenarios.
The research also reviewed published scientific papers about the factors that affect thermal performances of roofing materials, including thermal drift (aging of gas-filled foam insulation), thermal bridges created by mechanical fasteners, effects of air movement on energy performance and moisture gains in roofs, and reduction of surface temperature on cool roofs, among others.
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Enceladus: Saturn’s sprightly moon looks young
NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute
Geologically active ‘tiger stripes’ at the south pole of Enceladus
NASA’s flybys of Saturn’s moon Enceladus by their Cassini spacecraft reveal more evidence of an active world that continues to confound scientists.
William Herschel (1738–1822) discovered this moon in 1789 on his first night of viewing with the large new telescope he had built. Little was known about Enceladus until the 1980s, when the Voyager 1, Voyager 2 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft flew by Saturn.1
The images they returned to Earth were astounding. They showed the moon was only about 500 km (300 miles) in diameter and that it reflects almost 100% of the light it receives from the sun.
Most scientists expected Saturn’s moons to be cold and dead, and their surfaces to be covered with impact craters from exposure to meteors for billions of years. That’s because they believed that the sun and all the planets of our solar system formed when a hypothetical solar nebula condensed some 4.5 billion years ago.
Instead, the images from Voyager 2 revealed that Enceladus’ surface was mostly smooth. Scientists still asserted that the moon was billions of years old, but said it must have acquired a new surface in the recent past. NASA scheduled more space visits to investigate.2
The Cassini spacecraft was launched in 1997 but did not arrive at Saturn until 2004. It was 2005 before the cameras turned toward Enceladus. Since then there have been numerous flybys with spectacular images and more surprises.
The first was that powerful geysers were blasting water vapour and tiny ice particles hundreds of kilometres into space from vents near the South Pole. Enceladus should have been dead but it is still geologically active.
Scooting over the southern polar region, the Cassini spacecraft captured close-up images of distinctive fractures described as “tiger stripes”, V-shaped cracks up to 300 m (1,000 ft) deep.
This is the area with the powerful geysers. Such is the immense pressure behind them that the jets of water vapour and icy particles are spewed into space as fast as a supersonic jet. Infrared measurements estimated the energy produced by the geysers at 5.8 gigawatts—enough to power a city with 6 million people.
Subsequent flybys in 2008 captured even more detail, and a few daring manoeuvres took Cassini close enough to pass through the plume, collect samples and analyze them.
This tiny moon seems to have an enormous influence on the whole ring system of Saturn.
NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute
Enhanced colour image of geysers spraying water vapour far into space
First, the jets produce the material for the outermost E ring—a 300,000-km-wide (200,000 miles) donut-shaped mist of micron-sized particles. The gas from the jets is also ionized and tends to drag the magnetosphere so strongly that it distorts our measurements of Saturn’s rotation. And even more surprisingly, the plasma cloud around Saturn is being drawn into the brighter A ring, much closer to the planet.
But how can such a small moon have enough heat to power the geysers?
One suggestion was that radioactive substances inside the moon are heating it. But even though Enceladus is the rockiest of Saturn’s major moons, it could not contain enough radioactive material to produce the observed heat.3
Another idea is tidal heating. Just as our moon distorts the shape of the earth and creates ocean tides, the gravitational pull of Saturn changes the shape of Enceladus as it orbits every 1.37 days. It heats the moon like a metal wire heats when you bend it backwards and forwards.
But why is Enceladus still flexible? After 4.5 billion years the moon should be frozen solid and tidal friction should not work. When James Roberts and Francis Nimmo of the University of California modelled the moon’s interior, they found it would have frozen after only 30 million years—less than 1% of its supposed age.4
What about the effects of Enceladus’ out-of-round orbit imposed on it by Dione (a larger nearby moon of Saturn)? Again, no. Still not enough heat.5
Is it possible that Enceladus contained the heat when Saturn and its moons formed, and it has not cooled down yet? That is a simple idea and would explain the observations without any complicated mental gymnastics. But that would mean that Saturn and its moons are not billions of years old.
Such ideas are off limits. Most space scientists won’t entertain these options because they have a “sacred” secular belief that the solar system is billions of years old.
But the enigmatic moon of Saturn, with its deep, icy chasms and spectacular, shimmering fountains, fits beautifully with a solar system created just 6,000 years ago as biblical history records.
- Vittorio, S., Cassini visits Enceladus—new light on a bright world, <csa.com/discovery guides/enceladus/review.pdf>, July 2006. Return to text.
- Porco, C., The restless world of Enceladus, Scientific American 299(6):26–35, p. 26, December 2008. Return to text.
- Ref. 2, p. 31. Return to text.
- Schirber, M., Frigid future for ocean in Saturn’s moon, Astrobiology Magazine, <space.com/scienceastronomy/080619-am-enceladus-ocean.html> 19 June 2008. Return to text.
- Ref. 2, p. 32. Return to text.
Thanks for your prompt and convincing response to my posting. It is interesting to know that NASA acknowledges that such erruptions could not have been going on continuously for aeons and as you say, it is surely "special pleading" to suggest that Cassini was lucky to pick them up on this occasion.
Sirs would you care to comment on the extract from a NASA blog below.
Tidal forces acting on fault lines in the moon's icy shell cause the sides of the faults to rub back and forth against each other, producing enough heat to transform some of the ice into plumes of water vapor and ice crystals, according to a new study published in the May 17 issue of the journal Nature.
Francis Nimmo, assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his co-authors calculated the amount of heat that could be generated by this mechanism and concluded that it is the most likely explanation for the plumes and other features observed in the south polar region of Enceladus. This region is warmer than the rest of the frozen surface of Enceladus and has features called "tiger stripes" that look like tectonic fault lines.
"We think the tiger stripes are the source of the plumes, and we made predictions of where the tiger stripes should be hottest that can be tested by future measurements," Nimmo said.
Driving the whole process is the moon's eccentric orbit, which brings it close to Saturn and then farther away, so that the gravitational attraction it feels changes over time.
"It's getting squeezed and stretched as it goes around Saturn, and those tidal forces cause the faults to move back and forth," Nimmo said.
Unlike some other proposals for the origin of the plumes, this mechanism does not require the presence of liquid water near the surface of Enceladus, noted co-author Robert Pappalardo of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
"The heat is sufficient to cause ice to sublimate, like in a comet -- the ice evaporates into vapor, and the escaping vapor drags particles off into space," Pappalardo said.
The essential point being that this explanation does not need the whole planet to be flexible to produce heating, just the "Tiger stripe" fault lines.
The above seems to be?? a convincing explanation for this remarkable discovery.
That may be a plausible explanation. Of course it involves many assumptions about features and structures that are wholly unobserved and other information may cause it to be abandoned down the track.
However, this explanation does not change the fact that the plumes could not have been erupting for billions of years or the volatiles would have long been gone. That is why scientists expected the moon to be cold, dead and uninteresting.
In order to preserve the long ages Nimmo has proposed that these eruptive periods are rare, and for most of the time the moon is inactive (See Icy Saturn Moon Burps Up Heat and Ice). Supposedly, it was just amazingly lucky that Cassini happened to fly past when the eruptions were in full flow. This is clearly a case of special pleading just to keep the time-frame in tact. | <urn:uuid:72130c7f-5a84-4f31-bdd2-4f32b4a1571e> | {
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The Impossible Will Take a Little While:
Classroom Study Questions
Here are some classroom study questions that have worked well for teachers throughout the country while assigning The Impossible. Soul of a Citizen has its own separate study questions here. Faculty have said they're very useful to adapt and select from while assigning the book. I'm continually honing and revising them, so if you develop other questions or instructional materials or undertake service learning projects that would seem worth sharing with other schools, please email and send them to me.
Here are section-by-section questions:
Section One: Seeds of the Possible
Section Two: Dark Before the Dawn
Section Three: Everyday Grace
Section Four: Rebellious Imagination
Section Five: Courage is Contagious
Section Six: The Global Stage
Section Seven: Radical Dignity
Section Eight: Beyond Hope
Section Nine: Only Justice Can Stop a Curse
Overview questions--after students have read the book
Special questions for writing, composition, and rhetoric teachers
One note: Most faculty assign the entire book and it works very well because the pieces are well written enough, so students don't get bogged down. But if reading time is scarce, you can always assign selected sections or pieces or give students a choice within each section category. In case it's useful, here's an annotated Table of Contents describing each piece.
What stops us from acting on issues we care about? Have there been issues, small or large, where you've wanted to take a stand, but didn't? Why do you think you didn't?
If there were issues where you have taken a stand, what got you involved? How did the experience change you?
Do you feel like ordinary citizens really can make a difference? Or do you hold back from acting because you think your efforts are futile?
Were you surprised to see a portrait of Desmond Tutu as so down-to-earth? Do you think of global heroes as saintly and detached? Do you agree that "only someone who knows how good life can be is in a position to appreciate what's at stake when life is degraded or destroyed"?
Are you hopeful in your personal life, for your own individual future? Do you have more or less hope in terms of this country's future, or the future of the world?
Were you surprised to know that some of the Eastern European revolutions started with the defense of a rock band? Any lessons from this?
Did you know the real Rosa Parks story, or did you only know the myth? How does it change your view to know Parks didn't act alone? Does it change your image of how people become activists?
Did you know there were photos of lynchings that spectators circulated to their friends? What does that say about that time? Are there any current analogues?
How do we know when an action matters? Do the stories Paul tells of his friend Lisa suggest that the major impact of much of what we do may be hidden or delayed? Can you think of other situations where a person who clearly made an impact on history first got involved in a seemingly lost cause, or where the results of their attempts to work for change were unclear until long after their initial efforts?
Were you surprised at Paul’s experience getting out the vote in 2004—that a statewide election could be decided by 133 votes? Why do you think he spends Election Day volunteering when most other people choose not to? Does this make you more likely to vote in elections where you’re eligible, or to volunteer? Did you vote in the last election if you were eligible? If you were eligible, why or why not?
Have you been involved as a volunteer in any local, state, or national electoral campaigns, on any side? What got you involved? Or what stopped you? And if you were involved, how did that make you feel in terms of your ability to make an impact?
Do you get revived by a connection with the natural world? What lessons does this connection give in terms of working for its preservation?
Have you been surprised at the shifts in responses to gay marriage? Whether you agree with it or not, why do you think they’ve happened?
Why do you think the Tea Party was so effective at changing the national dialogue in 2010? Are there lessons for other citizen movements of similar or different political perspectives?
Were you surprised that the Tea Party and Sierra Club could work together in Georgia? Can you research or think of other examples of unexpected political alliances?
Do you feel you can do anything about climate change? Have you tried to do anything, large or small? How did those actions make you feel?
Did you know that Gandhi was influenced by Tolstoy and that he in turn influenced the American civil rights movement? Can you think of other examples of historical chains of influence? Read Henry David Thoreau's On Civil Disobedience online and write about how he's influenced global movements for democracy justice.
Explore the following themes:
- Those who make significant advances to improve the world learn to do so after a series of small steps over time, rather than in one, sweeping dramatic move (e.g. Rosa Parks)
- Hope is an “orientation of the heart” and mind, rather than a way of life.
- We may make our most powerful contribution by inspiring other individuals to voice the courage of their convictions
- Embracing the pleasures of life can help us keep on acting for change
Select a quote from the following that resonates with a specific experience in your own life. Explain the connection between the quote and your personal experience.
- "The difficult I'll do right now. The impossible will take a little while."
- "Hope is believing in spite of the evidence, then watching the evidence change."
- "Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart."
- “Simply pushing the rock in the right direction is cause for celebration.”
- "Nothing cripples the will like isolation."
- "There are nothing but gifts on this poor, poor earth."
- "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny."
Loeb speaks of The Impossible modeling “a process by which citizens can at times agree to disagree, even regarding highly consequential concerns, while joining in trying to heal our communities, our nation, and our planet.” In this context, many readers have found it fruitful to place the different stories and voices in dialogue with each other. So if you disagree with a particular stand in a particular essay, research it further, but also think about how one of the other authors might respond. You might even want to write out a response from their perspective. You may find this book most useful framed as a conversation between the different authors, and between the authors and your own life.
SECTION ONE: SEEDS OF THE POSSIBLE
"The Cure at Troy," by Seamus Heaney
What does Heaney say about the capacity of art to reconcile human suffering? Can you imagine a moment "when hope and history rhyme?" Why or why not?
"A Slender Thread," by Diane Ackerman
How are personal and political despair similar, from your experience? How do they differ?
Do you feel you have options for political change? Could we see the process of working for change as "putting windows and doors" in a tunnel of political possibilities that we're told allows no exit?
What's the relationship between what keeps Ackerman volunteering at the suicide hotline and the strength she tries to give to Louise? How is the card Louise sends an example of how rarely we know our real impact?
In her essay, Ackerman emphasizes the importance of human choices, explaining, "Choice is a signature of our species." Describe the consequences of a critical choice you have made. How does society influence our personal choices? How often do you define your choices in terms of the impact on a larger common future?
"Ordinary Resurrections," by Jonathan Kozol
Do you know kids like those in the South Bronx neighborhood Kozol visits? Have you ever lived in a neighborhood where needless death is routine? Are you surprised by the fierceness of a love where children can leave Rice Crispies for dead friends or explain "this was his chair" in attempt to honor their missing friends?
What would it take to open more possibilities in the lives of the children Kozol describes? Why are people like Kozol and Mother Martha still hopeful, after all they've seen over the years? Is their hope justified?
What are "ordinary dyings"? Why does our society mourn some deaths but not others?
Why do you think Kozol entitled the excerpt (and book by the same name) "Ordinary Resurrections." Who or what is "resurrected" in this essay?
Kozol states that he returns to Mott Haven "when I know I need to." Why might he need to return to this seemingly blighted neighborhood? Have you ever found value in returning to difficult places or situations? Explain.
"Standing Up for Children" by Marian Wright Edelman
Why do politicians too often talk about their concern for families, then starve the most vulnerable? Why do we allow them to do this? Is part of the reason that lives of children like those Kozol and Edelman write about are invisible? If taking care of children is the “litmus test of our humanity,” how does Edelman rate our humanity?
Do we think of children as having the potential to change and heal the world as Edelman suggests? If we see a poor, dirty and neglected child, or a kid who looks headed to be part of a gang, do we think of them as a potential King or Gandhi? Or assume that their situation is their own fault, that in the words of a student I once interviewed, that "you make your own chances? What makes us decide that there's nothing we can do about these situations?
Is Benjamin Mays right that it demeans us not to dream, and dream of a better world? Why do we accept this? Why does our society encourage us to dream mostly about private possibilities, like financial success? What would it take for more of us to dream of justice and act on it?
What are today's mountains of ice that fuel indifference to injustice? What would it take for more of us to be on fire enough to melt them?
Did you know the U.S. ranked so poorly in areas like preventing infant mortality, the percent of children living in poverty, the number of teenage births and the number of children lost to gun violence? Did you know that one in five U.S. children are poor? What could be done to address this?
Optional project: Research how much of our national governmental budgets go to programs that benefit children? What does this say about our national priorities?
Do you agree with Edelman's reading of the Bible, as a series of stories in which the powerless triumph over the powerful?
Edelman asks, "What legacies, principles, values, and deeds will we stand for and send to the future through our children and to a world desperately hungering for moral leadership and community?" Apply Edelman's question to your own life: What specific legacies, principles, values, and deeds do you want to send to the future? How might you accomplish these hopes?
“You are Brilliant and the Earth is Hiring” by Paul Hawken
From what you can tell, including by talking with your parents, are environmental problems worse or better than when your parents were your age? Who is responsible for the changes?
Ask your parents or older people in your community whether they've noticed impacts on the local habitat/ecosystem from climate change, like if they're hunters or fishermen or spend lots of outdoors outdoors. Do plants bloom at different times. Do wild animals have different pattenrs. Is there less snow or more or less rain. What do they notice? See this link to some terrific regional maps from the National Climate Assessment report. And follow this link to see how hot your city is projected to be by 2100 if we continue on our current course.
Since you can’t work directly for the Earth as a prospective employee, what do you think Hawken means by saying “the Earth is Hiring”? How might you apply his call to your prospective career paths? Are there things you can do now, while in school to respond to his call, or to prepare yourself to respond down the line?
Do you ever look at the stars at night? Do you ever experience a sense of awe at nature? Does that experience give you anything useful for tackling the problems of the world? Explain. When Hawken writes that instead of recruiting limos, the earth sends you “rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine,” compare that to what keeps Desmond Tutu going.
What is the lesson to you of the Adrienne Rich poem that Hawken quotes? Is it “perverse” to believe your actions can matter? Identify a way that you, too, might "reconstitute the world."
Why do you think impelled the British (and American) abolitionists to take on their seemingly impossible task for people that most never met? Can you think of any contemporary parallels?
Is “stealing the future” a fair description of much of our economy? Did you know about Interface Global, the company Loeb sites in his introduction? Can you think of other examples of companies that work to heal the future, at least in some of what they do? Consider a research project on this subject.
Does it change your perspective on your connection to other human beings to know that you are literally “breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono”? If so, how?
What would it mean for you to take Hawken’s message of responsibility “and run as if your life
depends on it”? Explain.
"Political Paralysis" by Danusha Veronica Goska
Do we talk of feeling paralyzed too easily? What's our response when we find someone who faces actual physical paralysis yet finds ways to act? Do we view people who work for change as "virtue saints?"
Why are so many of those who pick Goska up the most seemingly marginal? Why are we often so afraid of the physically ill or economically vulnerable?
Identify a problem in your daily surroundings or community, like Goska being unable to get back and forth to the food bank. Is there anything you could do today to make a positive difference? Are any local groups trying to do something? Report back after you've either tried something yourself or asked someone already involved about their efforts to make a positive difference. How can these efforts be sustained?
Contrast Goska's roles as a Peace Corps volunteer and a nurse's aid. What is her point? Think of a specific person in your day to day life who is often overlooked because of his or her working class status. What specific contributions does this person make to the quality of your life or community?
Goska contends that "virtue" is often defined as "the ultimate commodity, something exclusive..[something] outside of normal experience or ability," then provides contrasting examples of volunteering in the Peace Corps or for Sisters of Charity and working as a nurse's aid. Think of another pair of contrasting examples that further support the distinction Goska is trying to make.
What similarities and differences do you see between the main ideas of Goska's "Political Paralysis" and the main ideas of Edelman's essay, "Standing Up for Children"?
Describe a time when you heard a "still, small voice" that prompted you to act. What did you do--did you act or tell the still, small voice to "stifle yourself!"? For the next week, make a concerted effort to hear those still, small voices that encourage you to act; then report back.
Goska reminds readers that they are "in charge of their own choices." How does this point connect to the way Ackerman talks about choice? What do you think keeps Goska going in her bleakest moments?
SECTION TWO: DARK BEFORE THE DAWN
"Sept 1, 1939," by W.H. Auden
In the days following the Sept. 11 attacks, this poem may well have been passed around more on the internet than any other poem in the English- speaking world. Why did people respond to it so powerfully? What would it mean if we took Auden's message seriously, "We must love one another or die?"
"The Optimism of Uncertainty" by Howard Zinn
Zinn provides many examples of people and events in history that show how seemingly powerless people can actually change the world. Can you think of additional examples from history or your own experience that support this point?
Zinn warns: "Pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; it reproduces itself by crippling our willingness to act." Can optimism also become a self-fulfilling prophecy? Write a statement using "optimism" or "hope" that explains why this might be true.
"People are not naturally violent or cruel or greedy, although they can be made so. Human beings everywhere want the same things: they are moved by the sight of abandoned children, homeless families, the casualties of war; they long for peace, for friendship and affection across lines of race and nationality." Do you agree or disagree? Support your position with specific examples. In addition to the commonalties Zinn identifies, what are other human commonalities that transcend distance and culture?
How would you summarize Howard Zinn's perspective on what we learn from history? He writes: "Throughout history people have felt powerless before authority, but that at certain times these powerless people, by organizing, acting, risking, persisting, have created enough power to change the world around them, even if a little."
Do you agree with Zinn's judgments that political power is “more fragile than we think,” and that fundamental change does not come in one fell swoop but as an a long “succession of surprises”?
Similarly, Loeb writes, "History also shows that even seemingly miraculous advances are in fact the result of many people taking small steps together over a long period of time." Is this the view of history you've been taught? How many of the examples Zinn gave of unexpected turnings did you know about? What about accurate depictions of citizens making change? Think again of the Rosa Parks story. What is the value of value of emphasizing courageous and positive moments when ordinary citizens helped change the world?
If you think of Zinn as a fiery radical, were you surprised by his inviting the string quartet to play in his classroom? What does this say about the sources that sustain us?
“On Being Different,” by Dan Savage
Were you surprised to hear of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg conducting a gay marriage in Washington DC? What would it feel like to be in a relationship that’s been so previously stigmatized but now gets legitimacy from a representative of the highest court in the land?
Do you have friends or relatives who are LGBT (or do you fit one of those categories)? What was their experience (or your experience) growing up? How different is it from the picture that Merle Miller describes or that Savage experienced growing up? Have any of them (or you) received judgments similar to those that Miller described?
Do you know any families whose views on homosexuality changed when they discovered that their children were gay?
What do you think led the parents of the friends of Dan Savage’s adopted son to trust them with Savage and his husband in Hawaii?
How much do you know about the history of the gay rights movement and how it changed dialogue in America? Could you research some of its history of pioneers?
What did Harvey Milk mean by saying “I know that you cannot live on hope alone but
without it, life is not worth living”? Have you ever given someone personal or political hope to keep on? Has anyone ever given you hope to keep on?
Have you had to ever tell your family or friends something about who you are that you knew might upset them? What was the context and what was this experience like?
What are the lessons from the successes of the gay rights movement for other movements to create social change?
"The Dark Years" by Nelson Mandela
Mandela describes how authorities attempted to "exploit every weakness, demolish every initiative, negate all signs of individuality-all with the idea of stamping out that spark that makes each of us human and each of us who we are." How can individuals promote the opposite in each other-that is, how can individuals or authorities encourage "that spark that makes people human and each of us who we are"?
Why would Mandela and his ANC colleagues go to such lengths to get news of the outside, like passing it from cell to cell on scraps of toilet paper? How does a sense of political isolation foster despair, while being connected with an engaged community encourages hope? How do you break down your political isolation?
Most of us will not face the hardships of imprisonment like Nelson Mandela, but in what other ways can we be imprisoned? What qualities does Mandela suggest help human beings surmount even the greatest of challenges?
Loeb writes, "Those who make us believe anything's possible, however, and fire our imagination over the long haul, are often the ones who've have survived the bleakest of circumstances. It's the men and women who have every reason to despair, but don't, who may have the most to teach us, not only about how to hold true to our beliefs, but about how such a life can bring about seemingly impossible social change." Do you agree or disagree with this why? What lessons can we draw from people facing the most difficult situations for our own more modest challenges?
How can courage be multiplied? Can you think of a time in your life or a situation you've witnessed when courage multiplied? Explain.
"It was ANC policy to try to educate all people, even our enemies." What was the point of this policy? Have you ever reached out to someone with whom you radically disagree on an issue about which you felt passionately? What was it like?
"An Orientation of the Heart" by Vaclav Havel
In the beginning of his essay, Havel describes how hope is "a state of mind, not a state of the world." And he distinguishes hope from optimism. How would you distinguish the belief that things will turn out well from the deeper sense that guides us even when we are unsure of the results of our actions. Have you ever faced a personal situation where you acted even though the outcomes were uncertain?
What states of mind and approaches to the world do you think nurture hope? Do you know someone who exemplifies a hopeful approach to the world, and not just an optimistic one? Describe this person.
Have you ever heard people label activists "exhibitionistic" or say they were just trying "to draw attention to themselves." What was your response when you realized this same charge was being levied at a later successful democracy movement that challenged a Communist dictatorship? Did this make you question the way our own society so quickly dismisses our own political dissenters?
Would you agree with Milan Kundera that the petition circulated by Havel and others was futile? Why or why not? Compare Havel's description of people being brought together to challenge the regime in an apparently futile context with Paul’s friend Lisa standing in the rain and realizing she'd later helped inspire famed baby doctor, Ben Spock. How do these examples suggest that the impact of our actions may only be clear in hindsight?
How did the petition help keep the prisoners going? Have you ever witnessed a situation where the supportive actions of others help courageous individuals keep acting? Do you agree with Havel's judgment that small acts of resistance can still matter--even if they don't have the desired immediate outcome?
Since the dictatorship was still in power when Havel wrote his essay (and according to global consensus likely to remain so), what allowed him to see the cracks in the walls of their seemingly unchallengeable rule? Is it possible for us to look similarly beyond the horizon to see what might be possible in changing unjust situations in our own political context? What does it mean to "make a way out of no way"?
Havel describes resistance against a dictatorship that seeks to control every aspect of daily life in a way that prevents questioning the prevailing authorities. Does our dominant culture ever function in a similar way? If so, how? If much our culture avoids talking about the real and urgent questions of our time, what would a culture look like that challenges this? What signs of it do you see in today's America?
“Reluctant Activists” by Mary Pipher
Has your community exprienced extreme weather events that fit the pattern of global warming? What were they, and did your community talk about this broader context, or just address the immediate crisis?
How often do you think about global warming and climate change? Do you think you can do anything about it? Have you taken any actions to address it, , small or large?
Have you ever read anything that leaves you temporarily despairing, but later inspires you to act, even in small ways?
Does it surprise you that someone who’s a nationally best-selling psychologist also wrestles with despair? Explain.
Do you ever think about your responsibility to the children you may have some day, or to your current children? How would you define that responsibility?
What does Pipher mean by saying “shouting ‘Wake up’ doesn’t work”? What alternative does she create to simply telling people “Things are terrible.” Have you ever experienced a situation where you wanted to shout ‘Wake Up’ on some issue, or where you did? What happened?
Why do you think Pipher and her friends felt better as the night went on in their initial potluck, even though they didn’t have clear solutions? What does this say about the power of community?
What do you think of TransCanada agreeing to lease land from all the local officials along the proposed pipeline route? Have you encountered situations where monied interests buy political allegiances? Does Pipher’s essay make you feel you can do something in situations like this, or on climate change in general?
Why do you think Pipher and her colleagues chose Randy Thompson as a symbol? What does this say about the potential for people of differing political perspectives to work together in common cause?
What does Pipher mean when she says “People seemed to be able to ‘afford to’ listen when the conversation ended with something specific they could do”? What’s the difference in your experience between learning about challenging issues presented along with ways to act, and ones presented without them? Should this change the way social action groups or even academic classes present their conclusions? Explain.
How would it feel to be part of Pipher’s coalition and hear 85,000 Nebraska fans boo TransCanada’s ad at the Big Red football game? Have you ever encountered situations where people worked to shift public sentiment and it began to succeed?
Were you surprised that Pipher and her colleagues won as many victories as they have so far? Do you think they were surprised? Is this a good example of Jim Wallis’s acting despite the evidence and then watching the evidence change?
What does Pipher mean by “I do this work because acting as if I have hope gives me hope”? Do you think her experience bears this out? How could you apply this approach in your own life?
SECTION THREE: EVERYDAY GRACE
"The Peace of Wild Things" by Wendell Berry
How does the natural world liberate Berry from despair? Where do you go to renew your spirit? Describe that place or write a poem about it. Why is it important for people to have a place of renewal?
“Gate A-4” by Naomi Shibab Nye
How does Nye’s story relate to the section theme of hope emerging from everyday grace?
Why did Nye pause at answering the call for someone who knew Arabic? Do you know anyone who has hesitated to respond to a comparably innocuous-seeming request because of their experience?
"Mountain Music" by Scott Russell Sanders
Do you relate more to the father's or the son's perspective in the essay? Explain. Have you had seemingly intractable rifts within your own family that were eventually bridged?
Have you wrestled with trying to acknowledge the crises we face while still enjoying life? How do you resolve that potential tension?
Do you know or have you seen talks or interviews by activists who seem joyful despite all the bad news, as was true with Desmond Tutu? What do you think gives them this joy, and is there anything you can learn from this?
At the conclusion of the essay, the father says he must "look harder for antidotes, for medicines, for sources of hope." What does he mean? How has he been challenged and changed by Jesse's words? In your life and surroundings, identify possible "antidotes" and "medicines" that give you a sense of hope.
"Your view of things is totally dark," says Sanders's son, "It bums me out. You make me feel the planet's dying and people are to blame and nothing can be done about it." Do you ever feel that way when people are talking about global problems? How can people talk about what's wrong in the world without reinforcing a culture of despair?
"The Sukkah of Shalom" by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
"The command to love my neighbor as I do myself is not an admonition to be nice: It is a statement of truth like the law of gravity." Explain what Waskow means by this statement. What obstacles sometimes prevent us from loving our neighbors? What can help overcome such obstacles?
Also, how do we define who our neighbors are? In Paul Loeb's earlier book, Generation at the Crossroads, he interviewed a student who when a friend asked him about the Biblical phrase "love thy neighbor," and whether he had any responsibility to the people in the adjacent economically poor community of Bridgeport, CT, responded, "Bridgeport? Love thy neighbor? Those guys aren't my neighbors. No way are they my neighbors. I grew up on Long Island and I know who my neighbors are?" Would you agree or disagree with this student's response? Would Waskow? Explain.
Waskow uses the metaphor of the sukkah-"a fragile hut with a leafy rook, the most vulnerable of houses." What does the sukkah suggest about the role of vulnerability in fostering hope? Can you think of an example from your own life or community that supports Waskow's point?
Waskow writes about the need to look at our reflection in the mirror. How does America succeed or fail at looking honestly at our past and present choices
At the conclusion of "The Sukkah of Shalom," Waskow says that if people see the world as chiefly about property to be controlled, they will need to build ever-higher and stronger walls and fences. If people only build walls and fences in their lives and communities, what do they run the risk of fencing in and fencing out?
Obviously the September 11 attacks were morally reprehensible, and those who would perpetuate future attacks need to be stopped. Rabbi Waskow suggests that the attacks also offered important if challenging lessons about the links between security and justice and the value of recognizing common vulnerability. Do you agree or disagree? Explain.
"Not every demand of the poor and disempowered is legitimate simply because it is an expression of pain," says Waskow. "But can we open the ears of our hearts to ask: Have we ourselves had a hand in creating the pain? Can we act to lighten it?" What is our responsibility for the pain of others? What if we've not directly caused it, yet participate in a situation that causes human misery-like buying the goods of a company that mistreats its workers?
"Getting Our Gaze Back" by Rose Marie Berger
What does Berger mean by "essential quality of Sabbath"? What is "holy dreaming"? Describe a current situation where you often feel overwhelmed or bombarded by information or chaos. Now describe a daydream or other activity that gives you the kind of "essential quality of Sabbath" that Berger experiences. What activity gives you back your clarity of vision?
"Fragile and Hidden" by Henri Nouwen
What connections do you see between Nouwen's essay and the focus on gaining strength through vulnerability in any of the previous readings, such as "The Sukkah of Shalom"? How can the fragility of Adam's life nurture Nouwen's hope?
Have you ever had a friendship or relationship with someone who was severely phsyically or medically handicapped? What did you learn from it?
Have you ever experienced hope at a time or place when you least expected it? Explain.
"There Is a Season" by Parker Palmer
Parker Palmer talks of being "swept away on an updraft of hope," then "swept away in a tidal wave of despair." Have you ever experienced this? In what situation? How do we keep our moorings in situations where our hopes are alternately raised and dashed?
Discuss the metaphor for life as one of seasons compared to one of manufacturing. Which do you prefer? To what extent do you think the metaphors we choose for life influence our perceptions? Our actions?
Through much of the essay, Palmer uses the metaphor of life as "a cycle of seasons." Summarize the gifts each season brings to his life. Can you extend the metaphor-that is, what other images or comparisons can you add for each season?
Describe a specific person or event from your own life that serves as a specific example of the gifts from one of the seasons Palmer describes.
What do you think Palmer means when he says that winter "clears the landscape, however brutally,
giving us a chance to see ourselves and each other more
clearly, to see the very ground of our being"? Have you ever experienced a loss in a way that left you stronger or seeing more clearly?
Palmer calls abundance "a communal act." According to him, how is abundance created? How does the world of nature teach the human world this same principle?
What lessons does Palmer suggest the natural world teaches about keeping on for the long haul in working for change?
SECTION FOUR: REBELLIOUS IMAGINATION
"Celebration of the Human Voice" by Eduardo Galeano
Is it valuable to speak out even if you may never be heard? What happens to us when our voices are silenced?
What is Galeano saying about the human spirit? What is he saying about isolation vs. community?
Galeano concludes: "every single one of us has something to say to the others, something that deserves to be celebrated or forgiven by others." As we listen to others, how do we discern authentic communication vs. empty words?
"Last Night As I Was Sleeping" by Antonio Machado
What does Machado mean by "marvelous error!"?
What is the main point Machado is expressing in this poem? List some of the seemingly ordinary things that both poets, Berry and Machado, seem to recognize as gifts of the everyday world. List several "everyday gifts" in your own surroundings.
Section Four Introduction
What is the difference between "capitulatory imagination" and "rebellious imagination"?
How often have you heard the phrase "There is no alternative" used to explain-and justify-a troubling political choice or situation? Is there a link between loss of imagination and resignation? And between recapturing our imagination and being able to act?
"Childhood and Poetry" by Pablo Neruda
"To feel the affection that comes from those whom we do not know," Neruda writes, "widens out the boundaries of our being, and unites all living things." What does Neruda suggest about how this power of affection shaped his life? How do we widen the boundaries of our being to really see the lives of those whose worlds are unfamiliar, hear their stories and begin to understand what they experience? How do we develop a a sense of human solidarity and connection with those we've never met?
Have you ever felt the kind of love Neruda is describing, an unexpected moment of generosity from a stranger? What opportunities do you have to extend it to others who you do not know?
Neruda talks of the need "to pass to the other some good things of life." As citizens in a community, what specific things should we pass on to others? How do we accomplish this?
"To Love the Marigold" by Susan Griffin
Griffin writes of the critical role of dreaming and imagination in working for change What distinguishes dreaming as escape, fine in its place, from dreaming that opens up new possibilities?
In the fourth paragraph of her essay, Griffin refers to the skyscraper before her as "an icon of an anonymous power, in whose shadow [she] feels powerless." What other icons of power do you see in American society today? Who or what created and maintains the power behind them? Who might feel powerless in the face of them? Why? Is it important for all citizens to feel empowered in their lives?
In paragraph five, Griffin contends that "there is distrust and dissatisfaction with any form of politics.." Do you agree/disagree? Explain. Why do you think there seems to be increasing distrust in politics today?
"To see what exists freshly and without prejudice clears the way for seeing what might exist in the future, or what is possible," Griffin writes. Do you agree? Given all we've been told and taught, what are some ways of learning to see the world with fresh eyes? Have you ever experienced something, heard a story, or seen an image that helped you do this?
"The camera's eyes," Griffin writes, "also catches a tender quality of innocence and hope, an expression one so seldom sees any longer even on the faces of any but the youngest children" Do we live in a time where innocence is scarce? Does our culture disparage efforts toward a broader common good as idealistic or naive? What do we lose by assuming there's nothing we can do together to improve the world for others? What's the difference between wishful thinking and genuine hope?
Griffin speaks of the failure of political dreams: How do we work for fundamental change when visions of grand social transformation have often have ended up in destructive betrayal? As Griffin writes, "Where once there were societies that served as models for a better future, grand plans, utopias, now there is distrust and dissatisfaction with any form of politics, a sense of powerlessness edging into nihilism." Are there other ways to view social change that acknowledge the limits of past alternatives, but still let us dream beyond the boundaries of the present? Can you think of any contemporary examples?
How does imagination generate hope? Can we even imagine the image of Desnos reading people's palms in a concentration camp? If we can't translate wild hope directly into politics, can we use play and creativity to sustain our spirits? Can you think of a time when this has happened?
Griffin finds her answer to how Desnos keeps a sense of hope, his recognizing the "larger possibilities of life," by reading a line from one of his poems. Explain your understanding of the passage from the poem Griffin quotes.
Can you give an example of the paralysis of "realism?" What does Griffin mean when she says social movements are driven by imagination? How does a society cultivate imagination in its citizens, especially the young? What are some of society's greatest needs today that the power of imagination might help address?
Griffin concludes her essay with the imperative: "Let us begin to imagine the worlds we would like to inhabit, the long lives we will share, and the many futures in our hands." Identify one community of which you are a part, such as your dormitory, college campus, or hometown. Using your imagination, describe the community in terms of one you'd like to inhabit. What will have to occur in the present community in order to make these changes a reality? What role can you have in enacting change?
"Walking With the Wind" by John Lewis
Do you have core childhood memories that help you through difficult times? Or ones that hold you back and make you hesitate to act on your deepest beliefs?
Lewis asserts that in the 1960s, "people of conscience" never walked away from the weakest corner of the house; rather, they joined hands to gain strength where they were weak. Identify some of the "weakest corners" in society today and identify possible causes. Whose responsibility is it to strengthen the weaker corners of society? What responsibility, if any, do individual citizens have to the house as a whole?
Are the core myths of our society communal--about joining together--or individual, based on lone heroes? If the latter, does this make it harder to act together on larger concerns? How can we recover the stories that help us act in common?
We think of our families as bastions of love--or would like to. Can we extend the way we treat the bonds of common kinship and apply it to how our society should be run, or to how we could work for social change? In this context, what would it mean to treat all human beings as fellow children of God?
One of the cliches of our culture is that those who act for change when they're young inevitably sell out down the line. What do you think the continuities are between Lewis as a young man and as a current Congressman? Why do you think he was able to hold on to his values. (Optional assignment, read Lewis's autobiography, Walking With the WInd or David Halberstam's portrait of him in The Children.
"Rough Translation" by Toni Merosovich
Have you ever experienced a moment where music opened up new possibilities or carried you forward out of fear? How can we bring this sense into political movements? How can music give us the imaginative resources to keep on through pain and loss?
Identify a particular time of social conflict in American or world history. Research the role of music during that time. Find specific examples of song lyrics that offered hope for the oppressed, or inspired citizen movements to keep on acting.
Is there a song in your own life experience that gives you hope in times of trial or despair? Explain. What about a song that speaks to the issues of our time?
Today many communities and schools are experiencing cuts to music programs and other arts opportunities. Why is this happening? Do cuts to the arts matter? Explain; support your position with specific examples.
"Jesus and Alinsky" by Walter Wink
Have you heard anything resembling Wink's reinterpretation of these classic parables? How do they mesh with your previous reading of the Bible? Do you see the parables of "Turn the Other Cheek " and "Go the Extra Mile" as supporting compliance or resistance?
What do you think of Wink's thesis that the more radical translations of Jesus were buried by court translators, in favor of ones that promoted docility and blind acceptance of authority? How does the religious tradition you've grown up with suggest we respond to the actions of our leaders? To question them? Or to assume they're doing God's will if they publicly manifest religious faith?
Did you know about the uprisings against the Romans and the laws that governed relationships between Roman occupiers and the Jews?
How has the Bible been used to justify injustice in situations like slavery, segregation, or apartheid South Africa, as when the Southern Baptists and Presbyterians split off from their more abolitionist northern brethren? What do you know of this history?
How has the Bible been used to inspire people and maintain hope and spirit in freedom movements, like the role of the black churches in the American Civil Rights Movement and of South African leaders like Desmond Tutu? What do you know of this history?
Do you think that taking the message of Jesus seriously should lead one to engage in activism? How would that activism look compared to those who come to engagement from other religious backgrounds or from no religious background? What values and convictions are shared among those who work for social justice from different cultural and religious experience?
How do Wink's creative nonviolent resistance efforts parallel Griffin's call for radical creativity in approaching injustice?
Do Jesus and the legendary community organizer Saul Alinsky seem appropriate to be linked in this essay? Why or why not? What is the "new response" to futility and oppression that Wink discerns in both of their teachings and practices?
How could we apply the kinds of approaches Wink describes to our current time? Or can you think of examples where this is happening? How can we bring the imaginative-and even the outrageous-into political action, without feeding a culture of fear? Is there a clue in Wink's suggestion that we only pursue tactics that we would not mind others pursuing against us?
Wink describes three responses to injustice-violent resistance (or rage), passivity, and creative nonviolent resistance. Can you think of examples in your own life where you've faced an unjust situation? How did you respond? What lessons does Wink offer for creative responses in personal or political life?
How valuable is the practice of "turning the other cheek"? Do you think it can successfully shame the powerful? Why do pacifists get criticized
for failure of courage... Doesn't turning the other cheek in fact require great courage?
Do you think that Pope Francis represents a shift in the core priorities of the global Catholic Church? If so, what do you think of this shift, whether or not you're Catholic?
Identify a current situation of injstice or oppression with which you are familiar. Brainstorm possible opportunities for creative political activism in your community.
What's the relationship between dramatic political theater, like that embodied by the Occupy Movement not long ago, and more patient community organizing of the type that Alinsky also promoted?
"Stories from the Cha Cha Cha" by Vern Huffman
Did you know any of these stories? How do they mesh with the lessons of Griffin and Wink? What is the place for the wild or even outrageous in successful social movements? How can we take radical or provocative stands without reinforcing a culture of fear?
"Do Not Go Gentle" by Sherman Alexie
What kind of hope does this story convey?
What does Alexie mean by "We were Indians, and didn't want to carry around too much hope. Hope eats your flesh like a spider bite." Can you hope for a given outcome too much? Can you find ways to act while letting go of the outcome? This was an intensely personal crisis, yet Alexie's character was hardly passive. Does Alexie's essay offer hope to the oppressed?
Alexie talks about being "deadly serious and deadly funny at the same time." Explain how powerful activism can be both.
"A father like a sick child," writes Alexie, "is an angry god." How can we take the fierceness with which we'd fight for our family and fight for the families of others?
"When you're hurting, it feels good to hurt someone else." Have you ever felt that? Have you ever acted on that? Did it ease the hurt?
What might the parents have been feeling when they beat on the drums with the Chocolate Thunder vibrator? Have you ever experienced this kind of mix of grief and hope?
How do Alexie and his wife draw strength from their native culture and tradition? Is it important to retain cultural heritage? Explain.
What was your response to Alexie’s use of sexual humor? Did it seem unexpected in a book on political hope? Would Desmond Tutu have liked this story? What lessons does it convey about the links between imagination, faith and the possibility of miracles of hope?
"Despair Is A Lie We Tell Ourselves" by Tony Kushner
What does Kushner mean by calling despair a lie? How does it become a self-fulfilling prophecy? Can hope become a self- fulfilling prophecy as well?
Discuss your own experiences with activism and complacency. Do individual citizens in a society have a responsibility for activism? Think of examples in history or personal experience where complacency had a negative effect.
Does global warming feel more like an urgent immediate threat or some distant possible cataclysm, like a distant star going supernova? Explain.
What's the relationship between our individual actions and the possibility of changing the world? "Not any single one of us has to or possibly can save the world," Kushner says, "but together in some kind of concert, in even-not-especially- coordinated concert, the world will change." Do you agree? What examples from previous essays support Kushner's argument?
At one point, Kushner tells us to turn off the computers and show up "at meetings and demos and rallies and leafletting corners." Since computers can be powerful political tools, what point is he making? At what point do we need to shut them off and engage face-to-face with our fellow human beings?
How do we cultivate a spirit of wild hope, like that in the Sherman Alexie's story or that of the man who drove the Range Rover through the shop window?
SECTION FIVE: COURAGE IS CONTAGIOUS
"To Be of Use" by Marge Piercy
When this poem first came out, in the early 1970's, copies were tacked to every activist bulletin board imaginable. What is it about "work that is real" that is so elusive in our society and so integral a goal in efforts at change?
Summarize the personal qualities of the people that Piercy loves best. Have you known someone who exhibits these traits? Describe the kind of work ethic you admire in others. Describe your own work ethic.
How does this poem have broader application to community? To the theme of hope?
In many parts of America today there is high unemployment or only minimum wage jobs. How important is work to individual citizens and society? Beyond financial compensation in wages and benefits, what else does work provide for people? What happens when decent paid work disappears? Research unemployment in your community, the experience of the long-term unemployed, and groups that are working to reduce it.
Section Five Introduction:
What do you think of Mary Robinson's judgment that "You have to keep standing up even if it's hard. You have to be willing to pay the costs"?
Does the book suggest ways ordinary citizens can respond to a politics of intimidation, whatever its source?
Have you ever spoken out on an issue you cared about to people you doubted would be receptive? Or stood up to bullying or intimidation? What was the response? What did it take to voice your perspective, and what did it feel like when you did?
How is silence contagious? How is courage? Why don't we stand up more often to actions we feel are unjust, whether in public or in personal life?
What do you think of Cesar Chavez's statement that "Every time a man or woman stands up for justice, the heavens sing and the world rejoices"?
The young Egyptian woman Nada is now an American college student, yet participated in the historic Arab Spring events that overthrew the dictator Mubarak. She said she understood the risks, but acted anyway. Why is it that some people will literally risk lives and freedom for democracy, yet in 2010 four out of five eligible students did not even vote in many states?
Do you agree with Nada that participating in the overthrow of Mubarak was still worthwhile despite the subsequent setbacks, because it gave her and millions of others their voice?
Read the following quotes Then think of a personal example that supports the main point of the quote you've selected.
"People need the courage to stand up for what they believe." (Robinson)
".speak out in contexts in which some people disagree with [you,] possibly vehemently, because that's the only way social change takes place."
"Democracy isn't a spectator sport. It's government of the people and by the people-in other words, a political process that works only to the extent that we participate."
"Courage can be contagious."
"The heroic draw strength from the humble just as often as the humble do from the heroic."
Did you know that four million former felons are disenfranchised due to rules that accompanied racial segregation. Do you think this is appropriate. Did you know that countries like Germany and Canada encourage current prison inmates to vote? Are the current felon-disenfranchisement laws equitable or not? Explain.
Research and write about the disparities between white and African American arrest rates for marijuana. Argue for or against controlled legalization along the model of Colorado and Washington State.
Do you feel the examples Loeb cites of politically driven impediments to voting raise legitimate problems? Explain. Here's an article from Forbes criticizing the new voter ID laws and linking to a major study out of NYU.
Whatever your party identification, do you think there is a line that our political leaders need to draw between legitimate partisan stands, and ones that value winning so much that they undercut basic democratic principles in the attempt to promote particular agendas? Is it ever acceptable for political leaders to move their political agendas forward at any cost? Think about the present and past administrations of the United States. Can you think of examples when this has happened? Do recent laws making voting more challenging cross this line of appropriateness? If so, in which ways? What is an appropriate response if you agree with a party on many issues, but find some of their political tactics troubling?
Why is it that there hasn't been more citizen activism in the wake of the 2008 economic crash and a recovery in which many at the bottom seemed never to recover the ground they lost? Did you know anyone involved in the Occupy movement, or did you follow it yourself? What was their judgment (or yours) of the movement's impact, at the time and since?
Research the rejection of Larry Summers as head of the Federal Reserve Bank after President Obama initially nominiated him. Is this an example of the power of citizen action? Explain.
"The Transformation of Silence" by Audre Lorde
How does Lorde's cancer lead her to look at her life “in a merciless light?”
What does she mean by “What I most regretted
were my silences"?
Are there silences that you have regretted, situations or issues where you wanted to speak up but didn't? Why didn't you, and was there a cost?
What does it mean to learn to work and speak when you are afraid? What would it take for you to do this in your own life?
"The Small Work in the Great Work" by Victoria Stafford
What was your response to the young Native American woman's story? Could you imagine yourself taking any equivalent stand? What would hold you back? What would allow you to do this?
Safford talks about our souls blooming when we step into the sunlight of acting on our beliefs, on who we are. What does her essay suggest about vocation or calling?
Have you ever taken a difficult action and felt your spirit bloom?
Safford writes: "Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of Hope—not
the prudent gates of Optimism, which are somewhat narrower;
nor the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense; nor the strident
gates of Self-Righteousness, which creak on shrill and
angry hinges (people cannot hear us there; they cannot pass
through); nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of “Everything is
gonna be all right. But a different, sometimes lonely place, the
place of truth-telling, about your own soul first of all and its condition,
the place of resistance and defiance, the piece of ground
from which you see the world both as it is and as it could be, as it
will be; the place from which you glimpse not only struggle, but
joy in the struggle.” What does she mean and how would you apply her challenging call to your own choices?
"The small work in the Great Work" can be explained as "the place of your little life and love, daily days and earnest effort as a solitary person within the larger Life and larger Love.." Explain the "small work" you're doing within the Great Work. Is there a way to expand your efforts to make an even greater difference?
Safford describes ordinary people who have inspired her to act, to do good. Describe someone you know who has inspired you.
"We Are All Khaled Said" by Wael Ghonim
When you heard about the protests in Tahrir Square, did you wonder about what led up to it? Why is it that we think of movements only in their most dramatic visible public moments and yet ignore everything that leads up to them?
What barriers did people face in Mubarak's Egypt to speaking out, to “coming into the light,” in the phrase of Victoria Safford? How did they overcome them?
Much of today's activism is online--petitions, email campaigns, liking a cause on Facebook. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches compared to face to face organizing? How can they complement each other?
Did Mubarak's Egypt have particular circumstances that made it more appropriate for many to begin their dissent online? What were the strategies of the organizers as they worked to get people to speak out in person?
In Loeb’s Soul of a Citizen book he talks about the need for successful citizen activists to combine a leap of faith with intentional strategic action. How did the Egyptian protests combine the two?
Does Ghonim offer lessons about how to make a buried issue visible? How would you apply them to very different culture of the United States?
Ghonim describes creating an alternative to another, more confrontative, page, and trying to speak in a language that ordinary Egyptians would respond to. How would you tell the story of a situation that requires urgent action without lapsing into rhetoric that risks losing your audience?
The Silent Stand aimed to bring people out from behind their computers and phones and help them give each other courage to publically share their outrage. Have you had an experience where people helped each other speak out in a difficult situation?
What do you think gave the mostly young Egyptians the courage to face potential death, beating, jail or torture? What had stopped them from speaking out previously? Are there lessons for us, even in a situation where we aren't facing such dramatic costs?
"Arab Revolutions" by Stephen Zunes
Zunes explores the buried streams of dissent that fed the visible "Arab Spring." Can you think of other historical examples where overlooked movements or protests laid the ground for more dramatic later changes?
Why did the Egyptians who challenge Mubarak begin with feeder marches from the neighborhoods? Is this another example of Loeb's concept of how intentional strategic action can combine with leaps of faith and courage?
Nonviolent action is often slighted as well-intentioned but ineffectual. Or fine for peaceful cultures but not up to the task of reining in deeply entrenched violence. Does Zunes's example of the heavily armed Yemenis voluntarily putting down their automatic weapons challenge this stereotype? If so, how?
In the introduction to this book, Loeb quotes Rebecca Solnit's judgment that "It’s always too soon to go home.
And it’s always too soon to calculate effect." Compare that statement with what Zunes and the young Egyptian woman Nada say about the legacy of the "Arab Spring."
"Not Deterred" by Paxus Calta
Have you ever been told that your hopes for change are unreasonable, and that you have to be "realistic?" Who defines what is realistic and what is not in terms of our common future?
Calta says that "old gray-haired men with many initials after their names dominate discussion and policy making." Who dominates discussion and policy making in your immediate community? Whose voices are not being heard? How can you find a voice, like Polina, in order to be heard?
Research the central arguments for the use of renewable energy vs. nuclear power. Assess the development and potential of renewable energy in your own community. Rocky Mountain Institute, www.rmi.org is one excellent resource.
"In What Do I Place My Trust?" by Sister Rosalie Bertell
What is Bertell's main point about stories? Interview someone who has a "nourishing story" to tell, that is, a story to inspire, to instruct, to carry you forward.
Bertell writes about the importance of human connectedness: "We have to be part of something larger than ourselves, because our dreams are often bigger than our lifetimes." How do we learn to act in causes whose full fruits may not bloom until long after we're gone?
Does Bertell's notion of connectedness and mutual dependency conflict with the common belief of American individualism? Explain.
Bertell was a long-time environmental activist. Brainstorm three environmental issues that affect you and your community. For one of the issues, research the issue and positions of key elected officials. What are the pros and cons of the issue? With which position do you agree or disagree the most? Why?
"Faith Works" by Jim Wallis
What does Wallis mean by "Hope is believing in spite of the evidence, then watching the evidence change"? Do you agree?
Wallis describes the "rise of the consumer society." How satisfied are you with this direction? In what way do you support or resist pervasive consumerism? How do our religious institutions respond to this shift?
Do you think Wallis speaks only to Christians? Explain.
Discuss the appropriate role of faith as a political tool. How did his faith empower Desmond Tutu to tell the South African policemen that they were on the wrong side of God and history, and then invite them to join the winning side? How could we adapt Tutu's style of generous-spirited truth-telling to our own political climate?
“The Progressive Story of America” by Bill Moyers
What does Moyers mean by saying the women in his small Texas town "simply couldn't see beyond their own prerogatives?" Have you encountered people blinded in a similar way?
In 2012 the top 1 percent of American households collected 22.5 percent of the nation’s income, the highest total since 1928. The richest 10 percent of Americans now take a larger slice of the pie than in 1913, at the close of the Gilded Age, owning more than 70 percent of the nation’s wealth. And half of that is owned by the top 1 percent. Read about the "Robber Barons" and "The Gilded Age" and compare and contrast that period with our time.
Had you heard of the the populists and progressives who Moyers describes, like William Allen White, Tom Johnson, Alice Hamilton, George Norris, or Robert La Follette? Was the history Moyers describes taught in your school, or buried? If the latter, why do you think that's true and what impact does knowing or not knowing these stories make on students growing up?
Research one or more of the figures Moyers describes and write about their political journey.
How did the populists and progressives balance the benefits brought by a new industrial age, and the corporations that drove much of it, with reining in the human misery that the actons of these same corporations created? Are their models for our time?
Many people feel that money so dominates our political life these days, that it's impossible to challenge. Do Moyers stories of a period when ordinary citizens challened equally dominant concentrated wealth seem appliable to our current time? Explain.
Did you know that the movements of the progressives and populists spanned both political parties? Do you know people in a party other than the one with which you identify with whom you might collaborate on issues like those that Moyers raises?
Moyers says "the rich have the right to buy more cars than anyone else,
more homes, vacations, gadgets and gizmos, but they do not have
the right to buy more democracy than anyone else." Do you agree? Discuss his essay in the light of the Supreme Court's "Citizen United" and "McCutcheon" decisions that struck down nearly all limits on how much wealthy individuals to donate to political candidates and commitees.
How do you compare your interests in political activism to the images used by Bill Moyers, Tony Kushner, and Walter Wink--such as rebellion, protest, imaginative resistance and painstaking community organizing? What work is necessary to convince other Americans that these practices are vital for the health of our democracy?
SECTION SIX: THE GLOBAL STAGE
"Imagine the Angels of Bread" by Martin Espada
Describe the tone of Espada's poem.
Identify the specific groups of oppressed or humiliated people on which the poem focuses. In part, this poem contrasts those who have power and those who don't, for example, the landlords and the homeless. List some other contrasting pairs of people with power and those who are powerless that you can think of.
What specific responsibilities and actions should be expected of those who hold positions of power or leadership?
Espada describes a reversal of roles---one aimed more at justice rather than vengeance. What's the difference between the two visions? Is it hard to imagine those on the bottom of our society being treated with dignity instead of contempt?
What thoughts or feelings were evoked in you after you read this poem?
Section Six Introduction.
Do you know the Serenity Prayer? Do you view it as encouragement to take on daunting challenges, to accept the world as it is, or both?
Were there facts in this book that surprised you or disturbed you? Can you give some examples?
Did you know that 16,000 children die each day from hunger-related causes? What does it say about our society and our media that most of these deaths are preventable, yet we allow our leaders to do relatively little to address them? Or that the September 11 attacks captured the horrified attention of the world, while the deaths of these children, five times greater each day, are almost invisible?
Did you know hat the CIA helped overthrow elected governments in Chile and Iran and helped Saddam Hussein's party to power in Iraq, that the Chilean overthrow occurred on Sept 11, and that Sept 11 was also a key date in the Arab- Israeli conflict? Does this seem relevant to any current choices where the US is debating military interventions?
What's your response when you hear facts that may challenge your worldview? Do you dismiss them as liberal (or conservative) propaganda? Do you check them out further to make sure that they're true and to understand their contexts? Can you think of a way to leave yourself open to being changed while still remaining true to your core values?
Locate the websites for organizations noted for working for peace, justice, or environmental sustainability, such as Sojourners, Peace Action, Bread for the World, Amnesty International, Sierra Club, and the NAACP. Find out what you can about their efforts, such as the organization's mission statement, main focus or area(s) of interest, goals, recent efforts for peace and justice, and other relevant information.
Is this a group whose work and values align with yours? Explain. Did you know about their work before? How often have you seen any of their spokespeople on the mainstream media? If you consider yourself a political conservative and regard these groups as liberal, do you share any common values or positions with them? If you agree with most of the group's positions, how could you support their efforts?
Explain the following quote: "Hope isn't an abstract theory about where human aspirations end and the impossible begins; it's a never-ending experiment, continually expanding the boundaries of the possible."
When you hear stories like a nuclear protest in Nevada inspiring a counterpart effort in the former Soviet Union, what does this suggest about how hope and courage can travel?
Did you know that Denmark and the state of Iowa all get more than 25% of their energy from wind, and that Portugal gets 50%? Does this challenge the stereotypes of renewable technologies as marginal contributors to our energy needs?
What are some specific ways in which you can stay informed about issues that affect you as a global citizen?
"Kids, Trees and Climate Change " by Mark Hertsgaard
Why does Hertsgaard personalize the issue of climate change with the face of his daughter, Chiarra? Does she also give him hope, and if so how? Can you think of other examples of people taking political action for the sake of their children?
If, as Hertsgaard writes in the article and his book Hot, climate change is already threatening the habitability of much of the landscape we take for granted, why don't we do more to challenge it? And how can we make the problem visiible in a way that will move our fellow citizens to act? Are there lessons from other movements around other causes, like those described in this book?
Did you know about the successful movements stopping new coal plants? Compare the brief description that Hertsgaard provides with the challenges of Mary Pipher and her neighbors to the Keystone XL pipeline. Are they raising similar issues?
What are the lessons of African farmers growing hundreds of millions of acres of trees to reverse deforestation? Do these challenge the stereotypes of successful environmental initiatives having to come from more developed countries?
Did you know about the proliferation of renewable technologies in recent years? If the adoption rates are now proceeding more rapidly thanthe adoption rates for cell phones, what does this say about the possibilities of moving beyond fossil fuels?
Summarize Hertsgaard's proposal, "Global Green Deal." Who/what would oppose this proposal and why? What new kinds of coalitions might support it?
According to Hertsgaard, "Fighters for a better world must do what is right, must act, and let the consequences take care of themselves." Identify at least three specific opportunities, whether large or small, for you to become a "fighter for a better world" right now. What might be the consequences of your involvement and actions? What does it mean to let consequences take care of themselves?
"Curitiba" by Bill McKibben with a post-script by Paul Rogat Loeb
Several essays in this anthology celebrate the power of human imagination. Cite examples where you see the power of imagination at work in the city of Curitiba. How did the government of Curitiba blend the imaginative and the practical?
Would you like to live in Curitiba? Explain. What are some of the challenges U.S. cities face that are similar to the challenges Curitiba faced? Is a city like Curitiba possible in the United States? Why or why not?
Why is Curitiba's approach to low income housing successful?
What about its transportation approaches? What does it do to a city to replace public transit with private cars or private cars with public transit? How could you make more environmentally sustainable options available where you live?
McKibben cites "integration" as one of the mantras of Curitiba, meaning the "knitting together [of] the entire city-rich, poor, and in-between-culturally and economically and physically." How realistic is this definition of integration in the city or town in which you live? What barriers stand in the way of this understanding of integration in your city or town? Brainstorm imaginative solutions as Curitiba has done to at least one of the barriers you have identified.
Did it surprise you that a poor city could come up with solutions that rich cities and countries had not even tried? How does our affluence sometimes create blinders on our vision?
When Loeb visits Curitiba sixteen years later, he finds a city that's still a global leader, yet wrestles with new challenges produced by population and economic growth. Research other situations where a place or institution has adapted to comparable changes while continuing to serve as a model for sustainability?
What does Loeb's host Cesar mean by saying Curitiba was, when he grew up, "not that agreeable. Now it is"? Is it possible that making an environment more sustainable will also make it more convivial? Use Curitiba's example and any others you can find to explain.
"Come September" by Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy explains, "Whether there's hope or despair is a way of seeing. But even if there wasn't hope, I would still be doing what I do. Because that's what I do; that's who I am." Describe your "way of seeing" the world. What actions in your own life are a natural extension of who you are? What opportunities for involvement in your community are a good match for your interests and way of seeing the world?
How does Roy describe the dangers of nationalism? Do you agree? How do you distinguish an admirable patriotism that leads us to sacrifice for the common good from a blind patriotism that assumes that whatever country we live in is always right?
In her essay, Roy levels harsh criticism of elected leaders and their policies. When is it appropriate, and even essential, to criticize governmental policies and the specific elected leaders who enact them? What are the dangers of societies which make criticism of elected officials impermissible?
Roy also presents a particularly scathing indictment of U.S policies. Which of her charges seem justified? Do any seem unjustified? Even if you disagree with some of her charges, do you think her view speaks for the way many people in other nations the U.S.? What could be our most effective responses to these indictments?
Have you ever gotten involved with an effort to change a policy, local, national, or institutional (including a school policy)? What was the outcome?
Roy says that "To call someone 'anti-American'" is "a failure of the imagination. An inability to see the world in terms other than those the establishment has set out for you." What does she mean? Do you agree or disagree, and why?
Has economic greed played a role in promoting any of America's wars? Do we hold different standards for different repressive dictatorships? Explain.
in your opinion, what are defensible reasons for a country going to war, or sending troops into another country? When it is directly attacked? When it feels threatened? When it the government of another country is doing something morally problematic, like oppressing or killing its own people? Do these reasons carry more weight when your country is joined by others and backed by international bodies, like the United Nations? What if the government that asks us in, as in the case of Obama's Afghan war, is itself compromised by serious credible evidence of electoral fraud? How did the US invasion of Iraq fit these categories, or Russia's invasion of Crimea?
Roy states: ".'The American Way of Life' is simply not sustainable. Because it doesn't acknowledge that there is a world beyond America." Identify at least three specific strategies or opportunities for you to learn more about and participate in a world beyond America. Why is it important for people to look beyond their own borders, particularly in the most powerful nation on earth?
Roy's essay provides a sometimes painful look at many historical facts or events, the "grief of history," as Roy says. Which of these facts were new to you when you read this essay? How could you find out more about them and whether Roy's interpretation is correct?
Do schools and textbooks often include enough of the "grief of history" in their curriculum? If not, why not? Should education include more? Explain your position.
How often do voices expressing "the grief of history" appear in the mainstream media? Which voices tend to be heard? How should this change? If you go to a liberal website like Thenation.com which perspectives and voices do you hear that you don't in the mainstream media? What about if you go to a conservative site, like that of the Heritage Foundation or that of Pat Buchanan's magazine, The American Conservative? Describe the boundaries of which issues and perspectives seem to get covered in the press and which don't.
"The Black Hole" by Ariel Dorfman
Did you know about Allende and the Chilean coup before reading this essay, or the others in this section? If not, would you call this a case of hiding "the grief of history" when it raises discomforting questions?
Dorfman describes the message about the lack of human worth communicated to the Chilean people as "...subhuman, incompetent, inferior, worthless, lazy.." Are there people in America who are told this about their lives? How much is the American Dream based on "each person scratching his way to the top, where, if he was lucky or ruthless enough, he could then become the exploiter of his brothers."
What does it mean for people to tell "their own lives in their own way" rather than live under "the shadow of somebody else's story"? Which stories dominate US culture?
How did Allende's version of socialism differ from the brutal dictatorships of Eastern Europe? What lesson did it teach when the United States overthrows governments which play by the rules of democracy?
Does any country have the right to overthrow the government of another? Under what circumstances? Would it ever be acceptable for another country to try to overthrow the US government? Explain.
Research how many governments the US has overthrown or helped over throw since the end of World War II. How often did our efforts bring democracy to a dictatorship? How often did our efforts change a dictatorship into a democracy? How often did we replace one dictatorship with another? See William Blum's book, Killing Hope, for some recent examples, and William Appleman Williams books The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, or A William Appleman Williams Reader, for an examination of our deep-rooted tendencies to intervene in other nations destinies.
Dorfman describes how Pinochet disciplined the factory worker Juan and his companeros for "an act of the imagination." Does this mean people should not dream of justice or act for justice because this might bring retribution? Explain.
Dorfman would like to tell "the young man he used to be" some of the lessons he learned. List some lessons he would tell "that young man" differently. What is the one thing he says he will not tell him?
In many ways this essay is a discussion of crushed hopes and justice unredeemed. It describes a world where, as Dorfman writes, Salvador Allende is dead and the dictator Augusto Pinochet is alive and free. Yet it is also a piece about the persistence of hope. Dorfman seems to still find strength from memories of those first days when it seemed like everything could change. Do the hopes he felt seem impossible to you? How does our hope differ if we've never lived through such moments? How can we even begin imagining far-reaching changes if we're told that we have no right to even open up these questions?
The Chilean woman who was tortured found comfort in the words of Neruda and Machado, although she does not cite specific poems. Look back at the poems "Childhood and Poetry" by Neruda and "Last Night As I Was Sleeping" by Machado. How might these particular poems have brought comfort in the middle of a living Hell?
Dorfman concludes the essay by defending both the woman's "right to struggle and our obligation to remember." What does he mean that struggle is "a right"? Why is it our obligation as citizens to remember those who struggled before us? How can we learn this history if we've not been taught it before?
"Behemoth in a Bathrobe" by Carla Seaquist
The voice of conscience describes Americans as having a "can-do" spirit, then gives man on the moon as an example. Provide additional examples of American can-do spirit.
Do you agree/disagree that reality tv shows "exalt humiliation, violence, sex--a tawdry reality to convey to our kids." Support with specific examples. How would it change our society if people paid as much attention to critical public issues as they do to Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, and the Kardashians?
The voice of conscience suggests we "question the use of labels-'good,' 'evil.'" How can we hold people or institutions accountable for destructive behavior without resorting to simplistic labels?
Seaquist's main theme is avoidance. What issues or truths do we habitually avoid in our culture?
Explain how people can be manipulated by fear. What can help Americans guard against being manipulated, including by powerful economic interests seeking to advance their private agendas?
SECTION SEVEN: RADICAL DIGNITY
"How Have You Spent Your Life?" by Jalaluddin Rumi
This poem was written in the thirteenth century. Are the poem's central ideas applicable today? Explain.
Rumi writes the poem as if God were posing questions to the reader. Is this an effective poetic strategy for you as reader? Why or why not?
Imagine God (or one of your future grandchildren) is asking YOU the questions from the poem "How Have You Spent Your Life?" Answer one of the questions asked you in the poem; support your response with specific examples from personal experiences.
Section Seven Introduction:
Do you agree that hope, as Tony Kushner put it, is a moral obligation? What's the difference between naive hope and hope that's grounded in history?
Do secular and religious activists differ in their views of social commitment and the reasons for persistence? If so how? You could interview activists in both category, perhaps even those working on the same side of a particular issue like climate change. Or if you're active in an issue, talk with compatriots who differ in their theological worldview.
"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King
What is the central thesis of the excerpt from "Letter from Birmingham Jail"? Had you read any of King's writings before, aside from his "I Have a Dream" speech?
Explain what King meant when he said: "Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will." Think of an example in your own life that supports King's point.
Explain what King means by the "myth of time" when he says he hoped that "the white moderate would reject the myth of time." Explain situation(s) in which this point is still applicable today. Take a current situation where people don't act because they believe a particular issue will simply be addressed in due time (or maybe is impossible to adequately address). Discuss possible courses of action on that partiular issue that can and should be taken today.
More than forty years ago, Martin Luther King wrote that "we will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people." Is this statement true for today's generation as well? Explain. Identify situations and issues of today that people should be discussing more, but where too many are remaining silent. List at least three examples.
The original audience for King's letter was white Christian ministers. What gives the letter it's broader and enduring appeal? Did the letter speak to you, and if so how?
"The Real Rosa Parks" by Paul Rogat Loeb
Explain in your own words why the retelling of the Rosa Parks story as most know it may actually make it harder for ordinary citizens to get involved in issues of social change? Did you know the real story before reading this book or Loeb's other work? How does knowing the real story shift your view of social change?
What is the empowering moral of the Rosa Parks story? What does that moral suggest to you about your own involvement and/or responsibility for social change?
Do you agree or disagree that Parks's first action in going to a NAACP meeting was just as pivotal as her stand on the bus? Would one have happened without the other?
Had you heard of Highlander Center/Highlander Folk School? If not, what does it say about our education that such an important institution is omitted from our history? Research what they're doing now, to continue their earlier legacy.
Who are some of the models of social commitment you have known in your life? If you can't think of anyone right now, look back at the essays in this anthology; and identify 2-3 people you would like to remember as models of social commitment.
Interview someone who is a model of social commitment (or read more about someone you've identified from this anthology) in order to find out additional information about the daily struggles that they faced and how they kept on going.
Research one of the following historical efforts at change: the American union movement; the movement that brought us Social Security; the women's suffrage movement; the origin of the 40 hour week; the environmental movement. Through your research, identify a person often associated with the movement who often has been overlooked, but serves as a model of social commitment.
"Prisoners of Hope" by Cornel West
In the opening paragraph, West asserts that the divide between the haves and have-nots of this nation is widening. Find at least three facts or statistics through additional research that support West's assertions.
Explain what is meant by the Biblical quote: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world but lose his own soul?" List any books, poems, songs, or movies that continue to explore this question today.
Summarize what Cornel West is saying about rage and its need to have some kind of constructive channel. Do you agree/disagree? Explain.
What does it mean to ask that our leaders "Make it real"? In this time of deep political division, how can we distinguish empty rhetoric from real vision?
West asserts that "a rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world a little better than you found it." What are some ways you've already contributed toward making the world a better place by your words or actions? What are two of your long term goals for doing this? (Remember "the real Rosa Parks" story-actions for social change often have small beginnings.)
Do you agree with West that the percentage of Americans who believe Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim is an indicator of continuing racial divides in our country? What about the disparate racial responses to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for shooting the unarmed Trayvon Martin?
In his essay West refers to past struggles for Black Americans, yet still offers a sense of courage and hope: "Our courage rests on a deep democratic vision of a better world that lures us and a blood-drenched hope that sustains us." What does he mean that a "blood-drenched hope" sustains them?
In your own words, describe West's perspective on the difference between optimism and hope.
"Road to Redemption" by Billy Wayne Sinclair
Sinclair describes his decision to do the right thing in order to maintain his self-respect based on the moral framework he had developed. Describe a time when you were faced with a similar decision to "do the right thing." What did you decide? What factors helped you decide one way or another? If you had the opportunity to make the same decision again, would it be the same? Explain.
Could you imagine taking a stand like Sinclair's, knowing that it might leave you spending the rest of your life in jail? What kind of moral courage would it take? Is it surprising that this courage developed in someone who once was a destructive criminal?
What do you think gave Sinclair his core strength? Did it come on suddenly, or did it build as he took different risks of courage?
What role did personal loyalties play in his conversion?
Based on Sinclair's story, what do you think makes the difference between situations that give criminals a chance to be redeemed, and ones that make more likely that they'll continue with a life of crime?
"Resisting Terror" by Peter Ackerman and Jack DuVall
Did you know the story of the Rosenstrasse Jews? Or the Mothers of the Disappeared? Why don't we learn about these immensely hopeful stories?
What do these stories say about how some people manage to act even among the most extreme and intimidating circumstances-such as the threat of being shot by the Nazis? Do they suggest lessons for us to take the risk of courageous actions in circumstances where the consequences are often no more than having to deal with someone disagreeing with us? Why don't we act when we have far more freedoms and latitude?
Azucenda de Villaflor de De Vincente was an "ordinary homemaker, never looking outward until 1976.." What is meant by the phrase, "never looking outward"? Do you mostly look outward or inward?
De Vincente became an activist after her son and daughter-in-law disappeared. What allows people to act if they haven't been directly touched by oppression or tragedy? Is it a sense of feeling someone's story, whether or not you know them personally? Interview someone working in a group like Amnesty International who acts even though they may never directly know the people they work to save.
How important is it for ordinary citizens to look outward and become activists before they're challenged to do by tragic events?
To what extent do you feel you look outward and/or consider yourself an activist? What would help you look outward on a more consistent basis and/or become more of an activist?
The essay describes stories of oppression in both Berlin and Buenos Aires, where the power of women to initiate change was underestimated. What skills, traits, or attributes did the women bring to those situations of oppression that helped initiate change? Do you think the power of women to initiate change is underestimated today? Explain.
Research other examples of nonviolent resistance, like the others in Ackerman and DuVall's book, or in the sections in this book on the Arab Spring. How do these stories support the thesis of the essay?
Are there lessons from "Resisting Terror" about how to deal with brutal dictatorial regimes like Saddam Hussein's Iraq? You could look up DuVall's Iraq-related essays on the internet for his perspective on what we should have done instead of the path we took. Explain whether you agree or disagree.
Whatever one thinks about the possibilities of nonviolent resistance, what do these essays say about the possibilities of human courage and hope?
"Composing a Life Story" by Mary Catherine Bateson
Bateson argues that creative lives are more zig zag than linear, and that following your instincts to explore different areas about which you care passionately is a useful strategy of life. Do you agree?
Tell about a problem you solved in the past. What skills/learning did you take from that situation? What skills and adaptive patterns from your past do you bring to new situations, such as leaving home to attend college for the first time?
Bateson asserts that women have long had to combine different areas of their lives into a difficult balancing act; men traditionally have been able to separate various aspects of their lives, though increasingly men are living with "multiple simultaneous demands." Do you agree or disagree? What is causing both women and men to live with increasing multiple simultaneous demands?
Summarize Bateson's three meanings for "composing a life." Which of the three does Bateson emphasize and why? Which of the three do you prefer and why? Do you think of your life as a linear narrative with clear goals, or as something you'll improvise along the way?
Bateson quotes someone who once said, "My life is like surfing, with one wave coming after another." What is a simile or metaphor for your life? Explain.
How do Bateson's arguments apply to sustaining long-term social activism?
SECTION EIGHT: BEYOND HOPE
"Origami Emotion" by Elizabeth Barrette
Barrette's metaphor for hope is a paper crane. Think of your own metaphor or simile for hope. Consider writing an original poem about hope, employing your metaphor.
Do you know the story of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes? If not, you might want to research it briefly on the Internet and reflect on why its metaphor now touches people worldwide.
From "The New York Poem" by Sam Hamill
Hamill wrote his poem in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
Do you understand the phrases "get up and sing" and "get up and dance again" to be literal or figurative expressions, or both? Explain. If you don't actually sing and dance in the face of overwhelming sadness or fear, what do you do in order to conquer the emotion and continue moving your life forward? Describe a time in your own life situation when you felt sadness or fear, yet you found the strength within you to go forward. In the poem's final line, Hamill writes, ".if I don't.the savages will win." What do we run the risk of losing if we don't stay true to our soul in the face of sadness, despair, or defeat?
Section Eight Introduction
What is it that keeps us working for change even when results seem elusive or when we hit frustration? How much is it a sense of our own dignity?
How do we balance the importance of immediate results and long-term persistence? Are there times when you have to keep on even if you see no fruits from your efforts? How does this link to stories like those of President Nixon changing his mind on his nuclear threat because of a demonstration he publicly spurned?
Loeb makes a distinction between impatient hope and a deeper, far-seeing kind of hope. What are the defining characteristics of each kind of hope? List specific strategies or practices that would help you develop the resilient kind of hope Loeb and his authors describe.
Does it surprise you that Loeb hit moments of despair in his own work with the Campus Election Engagement Project that he founded? How did he get past them?
Loeb again highlights the importance of community over isolation. How does community help sustain deep, far-seeing hope in individuals? What's the difference between feeling isolated and feeling supported? Does our society try to make social justice activists feel isolated?
I.F. Stone was a pioneering dissenting journalist through much of the twentieth century. What does he mean by writing “The only
kinds of fights worth fighting are those you are going to lose”? Do you agree?
"Staying the Course" by Mary-Wynne Ashford
Is the metaphor of rolling a rock up the hill a useful one? How do we know when we're making progress?
Have you ever done something just because it seemed it was right to do, even if you weren't sure you'd get the outcome you desired?
Has anyone ever tried to make you feel isolated for a stand you're taking, perhaps using the phrase "no one else has a problem"?
Ashford describes almost paralyzing despair over the crises of our planet. Are there global or national issues that evoke in you a similar type of despair or fear? What does Ashford do in the face of her despair? What lessons from her essay can help you with your own feelings of despair?
Ashford asserts, "The planetary crises raise existential and spiritual questions we are usually able to avoid in our affluent society." How does being an affluent society allow us to avoid difficult questions? Do poorer nations have the same opportunities for denial on areas like deforestation or water pollution? Explain.
What does it mean to "stay the course"? Use examples from the essay to help explain. Do you have personal examples of "staying the course" related to being true to your own conviction?
Explain what is meant by the Quaker phrase, "Speaking truth to power." How does it balance passion, courage, and commitment, along with a truth that's based on knowledge and accurate information?
Identify a pressing societal issue today that concerns you. Research the issue in order to give yourself background that will help you "speak the truth to power."
Ashford states that "breaking the silence is the most significant thing we can do as individuals." Make a plan to tell someone else about the issue you've researched. Explain your interest in the issue and what you learned. Develop a course of action to help "push the rock up the hill," if only a little way.
"The Elm Dance" by Joanna Macy
Can you imagine a situation where you could no longer walk in a forest that had long sustained you and your community? What does it do to us when we kill the natural world?
Why did the Novozybkov residents bury their pain for so long? Have you been in a situation where something terrible has happened or is happening and people don't talk about it? Can you think of some examples of difficult questions that our society buries?
What happened when the residents began to talk about their pain? Why was it freeing? What is the gain and the hope in talking about the most difficult questions for a family, a community, a society? Use the example of the Novozybkov mayor and the people at Macy's workshops.
Why can it help us to let our hearts break open? What's the link between this essay and Art Waskow's talk of the value of vulnerability in "The Sukkoth of Shalom."
Did you know about the Chernobyl disaster? Research additional information about it. Are there parallels with the 2013 meltdown of the reactor in Fukushima, Japan? Why should others care about Chernobyl, especially since the event occurred nearly twenty years ago half way around the world?
One strategy for healing the past for the citizens of Novozybkov was to strength their "cultural immune system." Through tradition and memories participants remembered who they were and remembered their sources of strength. The Elm Dance song built on the traditions of different cultures. Can you think of how culture here can be used to give people courage?
Describe a family or community tradition that is important to you. How does this tradition serve as a source of strength for you? Describe some of your sources of strength? Is it important to preserve cultural traditions? Why or why not?
What did Macy mean when she explained the history of the Elm Dance and said: "They [the German people] gave their children everything-except one thing. They did not give them their broken hearts. And their children have never forgiven them." Do you agree/disagree that a society should give its children everything, including their broken hearts? Apply Macy's point to a situation today such as Hurricane Sandy or another devastating occurrence.
"Is There Hope on Climate Change" by David Roberts
Do you feel there's anything you can do to help reverse global climate change? Are there things that major institutions, like corporations, governments, or universities and colleges can do? If so, is and anything you can do to affect them? If you have taken action, how do you deal with the issue of hope in the face of scientific reports whose prognosis seems to get steadily bleaker? If you haven't acted, is a sense of hopelessness on the issue part of why you don't act?
Is Roberts right that Climate Change is particularly difficult to tackle because "psychologically and physiologically, we are
designed to heed immediate threats with teeth and eyes, not
long-term, incremental, invisible dangers"? If so, can you think of ways to higlight and make visible the threat so its gravity becomes comprehensible?
What does Roberts mean when he says that he doesn't think hope is "about the future as much as it is about the
present," about our actions and choices? Compare this framework to that of Vaclav Havel, and to the other essays in this section.
Compare Roberts's discussion of chaos theory and Stephen Jay Gould's "punctuated equillibrium" to Howard Zinn's "Optimism of Uncertainty." How are they similar or different?
What woudl it mean to recognize that there is no "game over" on climate change because "there are always better and worse paths ahead. There’s always a
difference to be made"?
"The Inevitability Trap" by K.C. Golden
In your own words, summarize "the inevitability trap." Think about your own views on crucial environmental issues. Do you find yourself falling into "the inevitability trap" on issues like global climate change? Is there a way to get out of this pattern?
Golden talks about U.S. corporations shifting their factories to China and then arguing that we can't do anything about climate change because of the growing Chinese footprint. How should we allocate responsibility for this kind of ultimate crisis where countries and institutions and individuals can all pass responsibility to someone else? How do Golden's arguments compare to the statement of Rabbi Abraham Heschel that “In regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty, while all are responsible.”
What is self-fulfilling prophecy? If possible, provide an example from your own life when you experienced this. Explain how it can work either positively or negatively. What's the relationship between self-fulfilling prophecies and outlooks that breed political hope or despair?
What does Golden mean by saying "Well, it’s up to somebody. Who’s it gonna be?" Could you see yourself becoming one of those somebodies?
From "Hoping Against Hope" by Nedezhda Mandelstam
Mandelstam explains how "fear and hope are bound up with each other." Explain this relationship in your own words.
"Fear is a gleam of hope, the will to live, self-assertion. It is a deeply European feeling, nurtured on self-respect, the sense of one's own worth, rights, needs and desires." Would you aggre that this is "a deeply European feeling." Or would you say it's more universal? Explain.
Reread "Celebration of the Human Voice" by Eduardo Galeano in Section III of this book. What do you think Galeano would say to Mandelstam about her decision to scream rather than to remain silent? Why? Explain how "silence is a real crime against humanity." Identify issues today that need a voice, perhaps even a scream.
"You Have to Pick Your Team" by Sonya Vetra Tinsley, as told to Paul Rogat Loeb
Do you think you've lived mostly on the team of the cynics or those with hope? Or a combination? Explain.
Review some of your favorite essays from The Impossible Will Take a Little While. Choose 2-3 people from these essays whose team you'd like to be on. Explain why.
Think of someone in your own life that has served as a mentor or role model for social commitment. What traits or characteristics make this person an important mentor for you?
Tinsley says we won't know till the end of history who's right, the cynics or the people with hope, so we might was well join the team of the people with hope. Do you agree?
"From Hope to Hopelessness" by Margaret Wheatley
"As the world grows ever darker," Wheatley wonders: "how might [she] contribute to reversing this descent into fear and sorry, to help restore hope to the future." Do you think, after reading this book, that the world is growing darker? How would you answer this question?
Part of Wheatley's response to the increasing grief, suffering, aggression, and violence she sees all around her is to journey into hopelessness. After exploring hopelessness through the experiences of others, how does hopelessness actually sustain Wheatley?
What do you think of her judgment that "we don't need specific outcomes. We need each other"?
Have you ever acted on something even when you felt hopeless in terms of prevailing? What was that experience like?
SECTION NINE: ONLY JUSTICE CAN STOP A CURSE
"Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou
This poem describes efforts to humiliate someone, and that person asserting their dignity in response. How do the words exemplify the book's over-arching theme of hope?
Does the poem's message speak only to the African American experience, or is it applicable to other situations where people treat their fellow human beings with disrespect and contempt. Explain.
Compare Angelou's YouTube performance of Still I Rise with musician Ben Harper's version. How does the poem change set to music, or when performed by a male instead of a woman?
Section Nine Introduction
In the face of ever-increasing global problems in this world, activists can easily experience a sense of rage and bitterness. Have you ever felt "pickled in horrors"? How did you respond to this overload? What brought you out of it.
Van Jones says that for many of our problems, the correct Biblical metaphor isn't David vs Goliath. It's Noah, where we'll all have to survive together. Do you agree? How do we reconcile holding vast powers and principalities accountable for destructive actions with a recognition that our fates may be more tied together than ever before?
Using Terry Tempest Williams's metaphor, what would it mean to construct new bridges to help us get past the crises we're currently facing? How could you see yourself as part of building those bridges?
talks about being called to act by the 3 billion people in the world “who are not responsible for global warming” but “will pay the
highest price if wealthy countries refuse to do their fair share.” Do you feel a connection to those people or sense of resonsibility? If you do what would it mean for your choices to act on it? Thinking back to the beginning of the book, does Tutu offer a way to do that without lapsing into bleak despair? Explain.
Dostoyevsky once wrote, "Each one of us is responsible to all others for everything." Do you agree or disagree with this perspective? Explain. If you agree, how is this possible? List specific ways you can carry out your responsibilities "to all others for everything."
"Only Justice Can Stop a Curse" by Alice Walker
Have you ever experienced the mind-state Alice Walker describes, where you decide that humans have messed up the world so profoundly, that maybe we're just doomed to extinction? How did you get past it?
What is your reaction to the curse-prayer at the beginning of the Walker essay? Have you felt this kind of anger and bitterness toward an enemy? Were you able to channel your anger in positive ways? If so, how?
Walker states that although she has been an activist all her adult life, she sometimes has felt embarrassed to call herself one. What defines an "activist" in your opinion? Compare definitions with others. Would you be embarrassed to call yourself an activist? Why or why not?
Can you conceive of Walker's interracial marriage being illegal, and the laws prohibiting it being justified by mainstream institutions, like most of the southern churches? Does this have any relevance to contemporary debates, for instance on gay marriage? Compare this history with the history described in Dan Savage's essay.
What is the tragedy of the world that Walker refers to?
Walker concludes her essay by recalling the story of "blond Paul from Minnesota" from her voter-registration work in the deep South. What is the point of this story-that is, what did she learn from that experience that is a part of who she is today? Have there been people you've dismissed who've surprised you with their courage or vision?
Walker renews her soul by remembering " fresh peaches and the courage of `people at their best, reaching toward their fullness'" in order to expand her spirit and make her feel larger than her rage. Have you ever been brought out of feelings of bitterness by savoring the fruits of the world? How does this parallel the Desmond Tutu story that Loeb tells in the book's introduction?
How do our small stones of activism add up to build an edifice of hope?
Explain the quote: "All we own, at least for the short time we have it, is our life. With it we write what we come to know of the world." How would you write a more just world with your life?
"The Clan of One-Breasted Women" by Terry Tempest Williams
Did you know about the nuclear testing of the 50's? Did it surprise you that our government knowingly exposed our population to these risks?
Compare the Tempest Williams essay to Joanna Macy's "The Elm Tree Dance" in Section VIII. How is your understanding of the Macy essay affected after reading the Tempest Williams piece?
Review the essay to identify some element about which you would like to know more information, and research it; for example, Operation Plumbbob, McCarthyism, Eisenhower's Cold War policies, nuclear testing today, the Atomic Energy Commission, etc. Share your findings with others in the class. Did you find out anything that surprised you? Explain.
Has anyone told you "just let it go" about an injustice you later regretted not acting upon?
Tempest Williams asserts, "Tolerating blind obedience in the name of patriotism or religion ultimately takes our lives." Explain what she means. Do you agree/disagree? Do you see examples of this today? Explain.
What did the women mean when they talked of reclaiming the desert for their children?
When she is handcuffed, the officer finds a pen and pad of paper, which Tempest Williams says are weapons. Explain how a pen and a pad of paper can serve as political weapons.
How does the dream portion of the essay contribute to its overall meaning?
The Tempest Williams essay includes a number of references to the deaths of women the author has loved. The essay also expresses anger toward the nuclear testing that almost certainly destroyed their lives. So where is the theme of hope? Why do you think so many activists passed this essay around when it first came out? Why does Loeb consider Tempest Williams such a powerful hopeful voice?
"Next Year in Mas'Ha" by Starhawk
When Starhawk describes the settlement residents who could be her aunts and uncles, explain the tug of loyalty she feels. Have you ever tried to question the actions of a group in which you were raised?
What do you know about the history of the Israeli West Bank settlements? About the life and death of Rachel Corrie? About the nonviolent resistance efforts she was part of? Have you ever seen a map of the Israeli settlements? Americans for Peace Now, the US counterpart of the major Israeli peace group, has an interactive version of the current map on their website. If you visit it, does it surprise you to see the extent of the settlements compared to the core West Bank population centers?
Starhawk describes the stark contrast of two realities, the California-like homes of Elcanah and the zone of destruction beyond the wall. Does this kind of "two realities" exist in America as well? Explain. What are some of the root causes of two realities within the United States?
What is the "slight sweet hint of hope" that Starhawk tastes in a situation that might seem unimaginably grim? How does it connect with the book's theme of the power of generosity?
What would it mean, in our own situation, to open our hearts to the children of the enemy and ask for help?
Why does Starhawk close with "Next year in Mas'Ha"?
"The Gruntwork of Peace" by Amos Oz
Where would Oz and Starhawk likely find agreement despite some of their obvious differences? What is the over-arching theme for the two essays?
Were you surprised by the span of people that participated in the discussions on the draft peace plan: Israeli generals and Mossad officials, and long-jailed Palestinian leaders, including leaders of guerrilla groups? How they were able to overcome the history of bloodshed on both sides, in which many had participated? What do you think they had to let go of to come to the place where they could even talk? How did each side give up part of its identity?
What do Starhawk's and Oz's essays suggest about the possibilities for peacemaking in very conflicted political situations? Do you think it necessary to get to know the other side face-to-face as people? How can that approach be applied to conflicts in our country, or our everyday lives?
Have you ever had a conversation where you listened deeply to someone you'd once profoundly disagreed with? What happened?
As an exercise, talk or write about what you have in common, for good or ill, with a political figure with whom you strongly disagree, ie a leader or elected offficial from a political party you consistently disagree with.
How did the metaphor of a "long-married couple in their divorce attorney's waiting room" after years of intimacy help you better understand the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians?
In the introduction to this section, Loeb writes, "But if we're willing to do the moral and spiritual gruntwork and take the necessary leaps of courage, we can slow down, interrupt, and even sometimes halt the seemingly intractable destructive cycles." How would you use the lessons from this essay to define the "gruntwork" of peace efforts? Is gruntwork a necessary part of any successful activism? Explain, drawing from specific examples from this book, your own experience, and any other books or stories that seem relevant.
"No Future without Forgiveness" by Desmond Tutu
How familiar were you with the Rwandan genocide before reading Tutu's essay? If you didn't know about it, why do you think you didn't?
Why do you think the Rwandans listened to Desmond Tutu? Just because he was a Nobel Peace Prize winner? Or was there something in the South African experience that made them take him seriously as a messenger of hope?
Reread "The New York Poem" at the beginning of Section Seven. What connection do you see between the poem and the rally at the main stadium of Kigali?
What is the difference between "retributive justice" and "restorative justice," which Tutu encouraged? How do we break endless cycles of vengeance? Does Tutu's Truth and Reconciliation Commission give us some clues? What elements must be included?
Summarize what much of the world anticipated would occur in South Africa after a democratically elected government was in place. Why is it surprising that the black South Africans did not simply turn the tables on the whites who had oppressed them? Why did the black majority choose restorative justice rather than retributive justice? How can restorative justice apply to social conflicts in the U.S., and to our everyday lives?
Tutu believes that "it was courageous leaders who gave the sides hope that negotiations could lead to a good outcome," and applauds De Klerk and Mandela for their leadership. What qualities did both embody in the process of moving toward democracy? Are there lessons for our own leaders, faced with difficult situations?
Where do you think Tutu gets his hope? Think back to this book's introduction, and to Jim Wallis's story of Tutu inviting the South African police officers to join the winning side.
What does Tutu mean by "God has a sense of humor." How does this compare with Howard Zinn's "The Optimism of Uncertainty?"
Why is the Tutu essay a fitting conclusion for this anthology?
Do you agree that "Only justice can stop a curse?" What's the relationship between this concept and Tutu's notion of forgiveness?
OVERVIEW QUESTIONS--AFTER STUDENTS HAVE READ THE BOOK
It seems that everywhere we turn, we find people in despair, feeling there's nothing they can do about the most critical issues of our time. Yet others face the same realities (or challenges far greater and more personally risky) and still find ways to act. Think over the essays you have read. Review Ch. 43, "You Have to Pick Your Team," and then write an essay about which of these authors (at least one) you would "pick for your team" and why (their attitude, the issue they care about, their personal stories, etc).
Based on your reading of this anthology, how do the following elements contribute to creating and sustaining a sense of hope despite all the reasons for despair?
- A sense of history
- An ability to see options and ways to act
- The natural world
- Creativity and the arts
- A sense of humor
- A sense of spiritual connection
- A sense of radical stubbornness
Are there other themes that gave you hope?
What specific works would you draw on to help explain your response?
A possible paper topic:
We have read extensively about "hope" in The Impossible. Explain what hope means to you in dialogue with the course. Here are three clusters of questions to consider-you don't have to address every single sub-question.
(a) How is hope different from optimism? Is some vision of an ideal society necessary, even if it is never achieved in this world? How do people coming from religious and secular traditions differ or converge in their views of hope?
(b) What is the social context for hope? Do you agree with various diagnoses of the problem in The Impossible? How can people who feel vulnerable and powerless increase their sense of hope? Why is collective action necessary-or is it?
(c) What are the political implications of hope? What issues and trends in society most challenge your sense of hope? How can specific groups of people, like groups you are part of, make a difference on a specific issue that some see as hopeless?
(d) Has this book moved you closer to working for a more just and sustainable world? If so, how?
SPECIAL QUESTIONS FOR WRITING AND RHETORIC TEACHERS
I've focused these questions on the thematic content of each essay, story, or poem. If you're teaching writing or rhetoric classes, you can also add questions on the writing itself, focusing either on the book as a whole or essay-by-essay and poem-by-poem. For instance:
What are your favorite stories, lines, or images? Explain.
How does the writer structure their argument? Identify and discuss their writing strategies.
What works or doesn't work in their approaches?
What adjective describes the tone of this essay (or poem)? What words or images from it support your choice?
Summarize the central arguments and rhetorical strategies in this essay. What strategies does the author use to convince readers?
Are they convincing?
As a writer, explain how the author uses the following writing strategies to reach their audience:
description; sensory detail; personification; and narrator's voice..
Write your own essay (or poem) exploring the same central theme as this piece.
Again, you could do this either for the book as a whole or section-by-section.
Links to schools using the book in particularly interesting ways:
Adelphi University in Long Island New York had all their first-year students read The Impossible and then write mock letters to Loeb reflecting on what they'd say about what they learned. They then had a contest for the best one with prizes. The Adelphi link includes the winning essay, comments from other essays, and reflections from students reading the book at West Texas A&M and at Stanford.
Minnesota's Rochester Community & Technical College assigned The Impossible as a common reading across the curriculum, which meant sociology, English, political science, nursing, even some chemistry students. Their digital arts students read it, then made a wall opposite the college bookstore where you touch various tiles and hear the voices of different students reading their favorite quotes. Their speech students did dramatic interpretative readings of the poems. Art students created installations taking off from various essays. The school's health classes used the Terry Tempest Williams essay for breast cancer awareness week and the Diane Ackerman one for discussions of youth suicide prevention. One young woman did a whole slide show giving background on an essay about the mothers of the disappeared in Argentina and the people who succeeded in getting the Nazis to free 1700 imprisoned Jews from the Berlin police station. She asked people to write responses on Post-it notes while they watched, then assembled these responses into a poem that she read to the class. Students in most of the classes did accompanying community service projects, and those Loeb met in a recent visit said they found the book completely inspiring. The school also created a special website including annotated study questions, profile and annotated biographies of the authors Loeb included, and links to student multimedia presentations and to a video of my campus lecture. They also compiled their own book of student essays responding to my themes. You can more information from coordinator Lori Halverson Wente. | <urn:uuid:44988554-62a3-4a68-9400-0e7d6b1f51c0> | {
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Ivon Hitchens (3 March 1893 – 29 August 1979) was an English painter who started exhibiting during the 1920s. He became part of the 'London Group' of artists and exhibited with them during the 1930s. His house was bombed in 1940 during World War II, at which point he moved to a caravan on a patch of woodland near Petworth in West Sussex. He worked there for the next forty years, gradually augmenting his caravan with a series of buildings. He is particularly well known for panoramic landscape paintings created from blocks of colour. There is a huge mural by him in the main hall of Cecil Sharp House. His work was exhibited in the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1956.
Ivon’s son John Hitchens and grandson Simon Hitchens are both artists.
During the twentieth century several important British artists began to paint features of visual experience rarely ever painted before, including ...
Rose Hilton talks about her selection of works for her exhibition at Tate St Ives.
Tate Etc. introduces eleven personal responses to artworks that reflect the changing face of a nation. | <urn:uuid:eea3559b-6458-41ad-b509-78cef0d98bfd> | {
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