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Engineers at Iowa State University built this working reconstruction of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer between 1994 and 1997. It is slightly smaller than the original, which was too wide to fit through a standard door— one reason why the original was not preserved.
Mathematician and physicist John Atanasoff, looking for ways to solve equations automatically, took a drive to clear his thoughts in 1937. At a Mississippi River roadhouse he jotted on a napkin the basic features of an electronic computing machine.
Atanasoff’s linear equation-solver, built with graduate student Clifford Berry, could solve a variety of problems but was not programmable.
The need to solve physics problems numerically inspired associate professor Atanasoff to design the ABC. Atanasoff was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 1990.View Artifact Detail
Encouraged by his father, Berry tinkered with electricity as a child and became a brilliant student. Berry and Atanasoff both left Iowa in 1942 for defense-related jobs.View Artifact Detail
The ABC used 30 add-subtract circuits for solving equations. When this reconstruction was built, it was found that the resistors had to be hand-selected to work correctly.View Artifact Detail
ENIAC: The First Electronic Computer. Until it Wasn’t.
Being the first electronic computer involved more than bragging rights. It involved money.
ENIAC’s inventors filed for patents in 1947. They were finally issued in 1964, and patent-holder Sperry Rand sought royalties from competitors.
Honeywell and CDC objected, citing prior work by John Atanasoff, who conceived an electronic computer in 1937 and built it in 1939-1942. Significantly, ENIAC inventor John Mauchly had visited Atanasoff in 1941.
In 1967 the dispute landed in court. The ruling, recognizing Atanasoff’s earlier work, revoked Sperry’s patents. So, one of history’s key inventions is owned by…nobody.
The ENIAC patents triggered a lawsuit that spotlighted the ABC. The judge decided Mauchly derived ideas from Atanasoff. Computer architect Gordon Bell refers to the judgment, which invalidated the ENIAC patent, as the “disinvention” of the computer.View Artifact Detail
A memory drum from the original ABC is in the foreground. The demonstration version of the ABC used for the lawsuit is in the background.View Artifact Detail | <urn:uuid:043c4075-b17f-46aa-90aa-23b3466647d1> | {
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Four Week Quiz A
|Name: _____________________________||Period: ___________________________|
This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 6 "Machines".
Multiple Choice Questions
1. What two scientists are known to work together on gas warfare in German-occupied Brussels?
(a) Hahn and Darwin.
(b) Haber and Meitner.
(c) Hahn and Haber.
(d) Darwin and Meitner.
2. By 1920, Jews make up what percent of Hungary's financiers?
3. Who is the financial mainstay of pioneering Jewish settlements in Palestine when World War I begins?
(a) J.P. Morgan.
(b) Edmond de Rothchild.
(c) Andrew Carnegie.
(d) David Lloyd George.
4. When does Bohr receive his Ph.D.?
5. What theory or principle does Albert Einstein not accept?
(a) The uncertainty principle.
(c) The relativity theory.
(d) Quantum mechanics.
Short Answer Questions
1. How many of the 20th century's most exceptional scientists, who go on to become involved in the atomic bomb, are produced by the Hungarian Jewish middle class?
2. When World War I begins, Bohr moves from Denmark to where?
3. Who designs the first working cyclotron?
4. What does Chaim Weizmann discover that helps the war effort?
5. In the early 1900s, Budapest is the first European city to have what mode of transportation?
This section contains 194 words
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Marginal cost is a term used to describe the change in total costs of production resulting from the addition of one item. It can also be seen as the avoidable cost of not producing an additional item. It is usual to look at short term marginal cost, which is an additional cost when only some of the costs of production can be varied. Long term or more commonly known as long run marginal cost is the change in cost when all input costs can be varied.
It is closely related to marginal cost pricing, in which prices are set at an amount equal to the marginal cost.
It can be used by organisations in planning production and services and to determine whether to increase production or the level of service based on the associated increase in costs of the additional items.
Use of marginal costing can quickly show the effect of increasing production and service levels. It is something that could be used more effectively in the public sector when planning the provision of eg. schools, hospitals and other infrastructure products. Examples of where it is not used effectively can be seen where, often due to short term planning horizons and lack of vision, inadequate public services are provided and have to be added to at later dates when the additional cost is much higher than the marginal cost would have been if the project was all completed at beginning. Eg, building a school with sufficient classrooms that only takes account of existing numbers rather than expectations and projections several years ahead. | <urn:uuid:f4425872-ca08-40f9-b72e-4cf54ab7e040> | {
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Waste generated from single-use foodware remains an unresolved problem, with most ending up in the landfill and no means to recycle sustainably. Globally, there is estimated to be at least a trillion pieces of single-use foodware used each year, amounting to 8 million tonnes of waste yearly.
We offer a closed-loop solution that sustainably recycle single-use foodware. Our solution is a system that can rapidly convert single-use foodware, including food waste, into mineral-rich commercial compost. We take used and disposed foodware, preconsumer food scraps (kitchen waste) and postconsumer food waste (plate waste) through a digestion process which converts these wastes rapidly into organic fertilizer within 24hrs.
The ecosystem comprises of 3 main parts: the use of our proprietary material for single-use foodware, the digestion technology and our compost enrichment technology.
The solution is a good match to food services providers who are looking to address food waste concerns and the sustainable disposal of single-use foodware. This can be a zero waste solution for them.
Technology Features, Specifications and Advantages
Our technology is an industry first in the 24hr composting of foodware waste. By industry composting standards such as the ASTM6400 and EN13432, foodware need to be composted within 6 months in an industrial composting site to be labelled as compostable-grade. Our material has out-performed these composting standards by 180x using our proprietary digestion process.
There is currently no sustainable mass-market solution to dispose off compostable foodware, specifically the bioplastic material. If left to degrade in the open environment, bioplastics can take up to tens of years to degrade if not given the right conditions. In landfill, which they end up most of the time, bioplastics takes a few hundred years and do not degrade any better than plastic waste. If sent to be recycled in materials recovery facility, bioplastics are removed from the process because it is a contaminant in plastic recycling operations. When being incinerated, one will question the purpose of its compostability. In industrial composting sites, they simply get piled up over months, requiring large land areas and prohibitive resource cost to manage. Thus, it is not uncommon for most commercial composting sites to refuse bioplastic waste.
In the food industry, there lacks an integrated and speedy solution that can digest both foodware and food waste together. We believe the convenience enabled by combining both waste, and the fast turnaround, in this case 24hrs, is the tipping point for mass adoption of food waste recycling.
Primary application: The deployment in food establishment that uses disposable packaging such as fast food, catering, etc.
Other application areas or market: The technology can be extended to look at the treatment of bioplastic waste from other industry, such as the use in non-food packaging.
Potential Products: Various archetypes of foodware and food packaging products can be developed based on our proprietary material, which is capable of extrusion coating, injection molding and blow molding. The digestion technology can also be re-developed for different target users, such as for industrial composting facilities or even home users.
The system will allow foodservice providers like fastfood chains, restaurants, and café to continue using single-use foodware responsibly without the guilt factor. Benefits are listed below:
- A zero-waste approach for their canteen and food premises, where foodware and food waste can be converted into mineral-rich compost
- The convenience of recycling two waste concurrently: single-use foodware waste and food waste
- Allow the recycling of food waste without the hassle of sorting and separating the waste, hence avoiding additional manpower cost
- Allow the convenience of using single-use foodware without the concern of creating waste
- The option to use the mineral-rich compost for their own farms | <urn:uuid:f8bbad00-ffc5-4e12-bd3e-8854c62b29b9> | {
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Think of someone that you dislike. Let’s call this person X. Now, imagine that you were born with X’s “genetic material.” That is, imagine that you had X’s looks, body odor, inherent tastes, intelligence, aptitudes, etc. Imagine, further, that you had X’s upbringing and life-experiences as well; so, imagine that you had X’s parents growing up, and that you grew up in the same country, city, and neighborhood in which X grew up, etc.
Would behave any differently from how X behaves?
Most people realize, perhaps after a moment of startled pause, that the answer to the question is “No.”
The question helps people realize that their thoughts and actions are determined entirely by their genetic and social conditioning. In other words, it helps people intuitively grasp the idea that free will is an illusion.
Over the past few decades, gathering evidence from both psychology and the neurosciences has provided convincing support for the idea that free will is an illusion. (Read this and this, but for a contrarian view, also read this.) Of course, most people can’t relate to the idea that free will is an illusion, and there’s a good reason why. It feels as if we exercise free will all the time. For instance, it seems that you are exercising free will in choosing to read this article. Similarly, it seems that you exercise free will when you deny yourself the pleasure of eating tasty-but-unhealthy food, or when you overcome laziness to work out at the gym.
But these choices do not necessarily reflect free will. To understand why, consider why you sometimes deny yourself an unhealthy-but-tasty snack. It’s because you were, at some point in your life, made to recognize the long-term negative effects of eating such food. Perhaps you noticed that consuming unhealthy food makes you feel heavy, or that regularly consuming such food makes your blood pressure shoot up. Or perhaps your doctor told you that you need to stop eating unhealthy food; or maybe you read about the negative effects of consuming unhealthy food in a magazine. In other words, you deny yourself the pleasure of consuming unhealthy food because of exposure to external inputs—feedback from your body or from others—over which you had no control. Had you been exposed to a different set of inputs—e.g., despite consuming unhealthy food, your health did not suffer, or your doctor never dissuaded you from eating unhealthy food—you wouldn’t deny yourself the pleasure of eating tasty-but-unhealthy food.
If you think carefully about any decision you have made in the past, you will recognize that all of them were ultimately based on similar—genetic or social—inputs to which you had been exposed. And you will also discover that you had no control over these inputs, which means that you had no free will in taking the decisions you did. For instance, you had no choice in where, to whom, and in what period of time, you were born. You also had no choice in the kind of neighbors and friends to whom you were exposed during early childhood. You therefore had no choice in how you made your decisions during that time.
It might seem, at first blush, that many of the decisions you made later—during late childhood or adolescence—were based on free will, but that is not the case. The decisions you made during late childhood and adolescence were based on the tastes, opinions, and attitudes you had developed in your early childhood, and on those to which you were exposed through your family, friends, media, or the natural environment. And so on, which means that the decision you now make are based on the tastes, opinions and attitudes you have developed over the years or on those to which you are now exposed through contact with the external environment. Looked at in this light, belief in free will is itself a consequence of genetic and social inputs: without the development of the neocortex and without exposure to the idea of free will from societal inputs, we wouldn't believe in free will.
Thus, although it might seem like you exercise free will in overcoming temptations or in overriding self-centered interests, this is not the case. Free will is equally uninvolved when you give into temptations and when you curb them.
If free will is an illusion, what are the implications? How should we think or behave differently?
There are two incorrect and two correct conclusions to which most people arrive when they are introduced to the idea that free will is an illusion. The first incorrect conclusion to which many people arrive is the following: “if free will is an illusion, it is OK for me to give into my impulses and temptations.” Several studies have shown that when people are told that free will is an illusion, they are more likely to cheat and less likely to work hard. It is easy to understand why people have this reaction to the idea that free will is an illusion: if giving into temptations is no more or no less an act of free will than is curbing them, why struggle to overcome the temptations?
This way of thinking, however, is incorrect because, although curbing temptations doesn’t involve the free will, the consequences from curbing temptations are very different from those that arise from giving into them. Thus, whether or not you act of out of free will in denying yourself the unhealthy-but-tasty cake, you will still have to face the health consequences of eating unhealthy meals. Likewise, whether or not you acted out of free will in committing a crime, you will still have to face the consequences of your misdeeds. So, from a purely consequentialist perspective, it makes sense to sometimes curb your temptations.
The second incorrect conclusion to which people arrive is related to the first: “if free will is an illusion, there is no use in punishing wrong-doers.” Again, it is easy to see why people think this way. If others did not have a choice in how they behaved, how can they be held culpable? However, although wrong-doers did not have a choice in how they behaved, their behavior still has real and important consequences for the others around them. And more importantly, we know that one of the ways of changing people’s behaviors is by exposing them to a set of external inputs—including punishments—that steer them in a different direction.
Thus, it makes sense to mete out punishments to wrong-doers, so as to dissuade them from committing similar types of misdeeds in the future.
This brings me to the first of the two correct conclusions to which people should—but rarely do—arrive after realizing that free will is an illusion.
This conclusion concerns how we treat others for their misdeeds. Although, for reasons explained above, it is important to punish wrong-doers, those who realize that free will is an illusion should mete out the punishments with compassion. Understanding that free will is an illusion means recognizing that people behave in the only way they know how. As such, it is important to realize that, when people act in harmful ways, it is because they are ignorant of the forces that actually shape their thoughts and behaviors.
There are two main reasons why one should be compassionate even towards those who commit misdeeds, such as hurting others. First, those who commit misdeeds are also hurting themselves. As results from research on emotions show, selfish or hurtful acts generally stem from emotional negativity. In other words, it is those feeling angry, insecure, and stressed—and not those feeling happy, secure and relaxed—who are likely to behave badly. And second, those who behave badly are setting themselves up for negative outcomes in the future. In other words, because those who commit misdeeds are currently suffering from emotional negativity or will suffer from negative outcomes in the future, one should be compassionate towards them.
The second implication centers on the attributions that one should make for one’s successes and failures. As is well known, people generally tend to take credit for their successes, and tend to blame others or the circumstances for their failures.
Those who recognize that free will is an illusion will realize that their successes and failures have much more to do with “luck”—the set of genetic and social inputs to which they have been randomly exposed—than with their “self developed” talents and consciously-made choices. Crediting luck for one’s successes leads one to experience an entirely different set of emotions—gratitude, elevation, love, etc.—than does taking personal credit for them. Likewise, recognizing the role of the inputs that led to failures promotes learning and wisdom. By contrast, blaming others for failures leads to the experience of anger, and the sense of entitlement that, as I discussed in an earlier article, leads to negative consequences and divisiveness.
So, overall, contrary to what one may initially think, realizing that free will is an illusion should lead to greater maturity, compassion, and emotional stability. Hopefully, the ideas in this article serve as the external inputs that steer you in this positive direction.
Interested in these topics? Go here for my new (and free!) online course on happiness | <urn:uuid:31ed9bb8-1111-401d-9465-52302d78f5fd> | {
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How many of you remember the dot matrix printers of 1980s?
Nobody could have thought then, that we will have 3D printers to print anything from consumer goods to military/space equipment.
Simply put 3D printing is also known as additive manufacturing. 3D printers work like inkjet printers, but instead of ink they build 3D objects by adding layer upon layer of the material.
Today 3D printing uses variety of materials like Sugar, Nylon, human cells, metallic powder etc. to print anything.
- Medical : Bionic ear, Skin grafts, prosthetic limbs
- Military : weapon and arms manufacturing
- Engineering : various spare parts, cell phone displays, fuel injectors
- Manufacturing : items can be printed as required, JIT inventory
- Food : Edible object printing
Today there are 3D printing service website like Shapeways, Ponoko and Sculpteo that can very inexpensively print and deliver an object from a digital file that you simply upload to their website. You can even sell your 3D designs on their website.
MakerBot's Thingiverse is a thriving design community for discovering, making, and sharing 3D printable things.
Argos, a leading Digital retailer is working to improve customer experience with 3D printed customisable jewelry.
3D printing, artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, sensor technology and nanotechnology are examples that are radically going to change the way we do business.
Research is going on for 4D printing in which 3D printed objects can change the shape or colors dynamically, as shown in the movie Transformers.
With new materials being introduced, 3D printing can drastically impact our life. Some products may save our lives, others may extend lives and some brings ease to our daily activities!! | <urn:uuid:d5a88a18-3c31-472d-bf76-1602903badb8> | {
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February is named after the Roman goddess Februa, mother of Mars. Also known as Juno Februa and St. Febronia, she was the goddess of the passion or fever (febris) of love. (Pennick, 37) While her festivals were orgiastic rites of fertility, February was also a time for purification. This was as true in the Celtic world as it was in ancient Rome. We see remnants of the purification festivals in Candlemas, and the fertility and love rites in Valentine's Day. February was also a very important month agriculturally to country folk; thus the Imbolc lambing festivals and the weather divinations of Groundhog Day.
Candlemas is also called the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, and is observed on February 2 by the Roman, Greek, and Anglican churches. It is in celebration of Mary s visit to the Temple in Jerusalem for a ritualistic purification after the birth of Jesus. (Douglas, 77) According to the Judeo-Christian rule of that time, women were required to "purify" themselves forty days after the birth of a son, or eighty days after the birth of a daughter, since females were supposed to be twice as unclean as males. (Walker, 135; Leviticus 12:2-5)
A story tells of Simeon, a holy man living in Jerusalem, who, when Mary entered the Temple, greeted her and the child Jesus, and blessed the child as "a light to lighten the gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." (Hole, 42) The festival is called Candlemas because in symbolic reference to Simeon s words, candles are blessed in the churches on that day. (Douglas, 77)
Church historians believe that Candlemas was celebrated from very early times, since at least the fifth century, by the Christians in Jerusalem. For many years the festival was on February 14, as Jesus was supposed to have been born on the day of the Epiphany. But when it was later decided that his day of birth fell on December 25, the Feast of Purification was moved to February 2. (Douglas, 77). The Council of Trullus once tried to abolish the festival of Candlemas, claiming that Mary "suffered no pollution, and therefore needed no purification, " after giving birth to Jesus. (Walker, 135)
There is a theory that Candlemas is a Christianized form of the ancient Roman festival Lupercalia which was celebrated in mid-February. (Douglas, 77)
Lupa was the sacred She-Wolf of Roman legend, who nursed the foundling twins Romulus and Remus. Her temple harlots were lupae, sometimes called queens or high priestesses in the outlying Roman towns. The Lupercalia featured orgiastic rites to insure the year s fertility. (Walker, 556) Christina Hole tells us that after sacrifices of a dog and a goat were made "for the protection of flocks and herds, two young men of high rank ran about with thongs of goat-skin, striking all the women they met to make them fruitful." (Hole, 203) After participating in the ceremony, naked youths traveled from town to town to 'purify' them. Walker says perhaps this is why, after Lupa's festival was adopted by the Christian church, it was renamed the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin." (Walker, 556-557)
In another Roman festival, very similar to the Lupercalia, Roman pagans honored Juno Februata on February 2 as the virgin mother of Mars. She was the Goddess who engendered the 'fever' of love; the patroness of love. Christian authorities say that the pagan people went about Rome with "candles burning in worship of this woman Februa." Pope Sergius renamed the holy day as Candlemas "to undo this foul use and custom, and turn it onto God's worship and our Lady's...so that now this feast is solemnly hallowed through all Christendom." (Walker, 135)
The Catholic Encyclopedia says that Candlemas was certainly not introduced by Pope Gelasius (Pope from 492 to 496) to suppress the excess of the Lupercalia. However, a sermon exists that is supposedly by "Pope Innocent XII (1691-1700) in which he says: 'Why do we in this feast carry candles? Because the Gentiles dedicated the month of February to the infernal gods, and as at the beginning of it Pluto stole Proserpine, and her mother Ceres sought her in the night with lighted candles, so they, at the beginning of the month, walked about the city with lighted candles. Because the holy fathers could not extirpate the custom, they ordained that Christians should carry about candles in honor of the Blessed Virgin; and thus what was done before in the honor of Ceres is now done in honor of the Blessed Virgin.' " (Douglas, 77-78)
While some of the traditions of the Lupercalia became associated with the Christian Candlemas, others attached themselves to St. Valentine's Day, on February 14; most notably the custom of choosing lovers on that day and presenting gifts to each other.
There are different theories about how the name of Valentine came to be connected with the day on which lovers send tokens to one another. One is based on the belief throughout Europe in medieval times that birds began to mate on February 14. English literature, including Chaucer, contains frequent references to the day as sacred to lovers. Another explanation is that the association grew out of the similarity between the Norman word 'galantin,' meaning a lover of women, and the name of the saint. Some think that Galantin's Day, with the 'g' often pronounced as 'v,' led to confusion in the popular mind. (Douglas, 120-121)
However, the most popular theory says that Valentine s Day actually grew out of the Roman festival Lupercalia, a festival of sexual license. The names of young men and women were written on 'biilets' -- small papers -- and put into a box, from which they were drawn by chance. In this way the people chose partners for erotic games. Churchmen denounced these early valentines as "heathens' lewd customs," and tried to substitute the names of saints for the names of the young people and put short sermons on the billets, but people soon reverted to the old love-notes. (Walker, 1037)
According to Barbara Walker, the church replaced the goddess, Juno Februata, with a mythical martyr, St. Valentine, "who was endowed with several contradictory biographies. One of them made him a handsome Roman youth, executed at the very moment when his sweetheart received his billet of love." (Walkker, 1037) In Roman Martyrology there are two martyrs named Valentine. One is a Roman priest who died in 269; the other is an Umbrian bishop who was executed in 273. Hole says it is not clear which of the two is really the lovers' saint, and that there is no historical reason why either of them should be considered such. Hole goes on to say that the death-dates of the two saints, rather than any incident in their lives, may account for the tradition: both are said to have died on February 14, the eve of the Lupercalia. (Hole, 203)
St. Valentine thus became a patron of lovers, since the festival remained dedicated to lovers in spite of all attempts to change it. Many of our modern Valentine's Day customs are directly derived from the Lupercalia festival. Douglas tells us that by drawing billets with names on them, the young men became the 'gallant' of a young woman for the next year. (Douglas, 121) If either party was unwilling to commit to the other for a period of a year, a gift could be given to help make the commitment more enticing. (Whitlock, 31) Thus young people who were paired by this method formed the habit of giving presents to each other. Later only the young man gave a gift to the girl. (Douglas, 121) Then came the custom of sending or giving a 'valentine' to a favorite person. The intent behind the valentine or billet was still clear centuries later: in 1725, H. Bourne, in The Antiquitales Vulgares, wrote of "a ceremony, never omitted among the Vulgar, to draw lots which they term Valentines. The names of a select number of one sex are by an equal number of the other put into some vessel; and after that, everyone draws a name, which for the present is called their Valentine, and is also look'd upon as a good omen of their being man and wife after wards." (Hole, 204) By Victorian times, the once-sacred customs had become mere party games and frivolous means of match-making, and by the early twentieth century, were observed mainly by children.
But in centuries past, and even in its Christianized form, the Valentine s Day festival "involved secret sex worship, called 'a rite of spiritual marriage with angels in a nuptial chamber.' Ordinary human beings engaged before witnesses in an act of sexual intercourse described as the marriage of Sophia and the Redeemer. A spoken formula said, in part, 'Let the seed of light descend into thy bridal chamber, receive the bridegroom . ..open thine arms to embrace him. Behold, grace has descended upon thee.' "(Walker, 1037-1038)
St. Brigid's Day
The ancient Romans were certainly not the only ones in the pre-Christian world to have a special festival in February. Christina Hole says that Candlemas took the place of the pre-Christian Feast of Lights, which fell on February 1, when people carried blazing torches about the streets, and also the customs of the Roman Lupercalia. (Hole, 42) Hole does not tell us, unfortunately, where the Feast of Lights originated, but she does emphasize the fact that the Lupercalia is Roman; therefore, we can probably assume that the Feast of Lights was a Celtic festival.
We do know that February 1 was celebrated in the British Isles as St. Brigid's Day, or Imbolc. According to Frazer, the Scottish Highlanders represented the forthcoming revival of vegetation in spring on this day. "The mistress and servants of each family take a sheaf of oats, and dress it up in women's apparel, put it in a large basket and lay a wooden club by it, and this they call Briid's bed; and then the mistress and servants cry three times, 'Briid is come, Briid is welcome.' This they do just before going to bed, and when they rise in the morning they look among the ashes, expecting to see the impression of Briid's club there; which if they do, they reckon it a true presage of a good crop and prosperous year, and the contrary they take as an ill omen." (Frazer, 155) Similar customs were also observed in the Isle of fan. "In these Manx and Highland ceremonies it is obvious that St. Bride, or St. Bridget, is an old heathen goddess of fertility, disguised in a threadbare Christian cloak. Probably she is no other than Brigit, the Celtic goddess of fire and apparently of the crops." (Frazer, 156)
Although considered a saint today, Brigit was originally the Triple Goddess, revered throughout the Celtic empire of Brigantia: parts of Spain, France, and the British Isles. Barbara Walker tells us Brigit is older than Celtic Ireland, having come with the Gaelic Celts from their original home in Galatia; one of her oldest shrines was Brigeto in Illyricum, the northwestern part of the Balkan peninsula. Brigit is said to be the same as Juno Regina, Queen of Heaven, and Tanit, the Dea Celestis (Heavenly Goddess). (Walker 117)
Dr. MacCulloch says Brigit originated in a period when the Celts worshiped goddesses rather than gods, and when knowledge of medicine, agriculture and inspiration were women's rather than men's. (Walker, 117, quoting from P.M. Campbell, 432) She is referred to in Cormac's Glossary as Brigit the female sage and Brigit the goddess, whom poets adoreded. She was a typical feminine trinity: Brigit ruled, and her two sisters governed the arts of healing and smithcraft.
The Catholic church, finding the cult of Brigit impossible to eradicate, canonized her as a saint, calling her Bridget or Bride (pronounced 'breed'). Church scholars who specialized in biographies of saints declared she was a nun who founded a convent at Kildare. The story goes that she was born of princely ancestors near Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland, in 451 or 452. She received many offers of marriage when a young woman, but decided to become a nun and took the veil from St. Macaille. She lived with seven other virgins at the foot of Croghan Hill, but later moved to Druin Criadh, in the plains of Magh Life. There, under an oak, she erected what became the famous convent of Cill-Dara, or 'the church of the oak.' The city of Kildare was built there, along with a cathedral. St. Bridget founded two monastic institutions, one each for men and women, which were jointly presided over by St. Bridget and St. Conleth, bishop of Kildare. She also founded a school of art, including metalwork and illumination. She died on February 1, 525, and was buried to the right of Kildare cathedral's high altar, but her remains were later moved in the 9th century, due to Scandinavian raids, to Downpatrick, were they were buried with those of St. Patrick and St. Columba. (Douglas, 76)
Underneath the Christian trappings, however, Brigid remained more than a saint to her followers. The convent at Kildare "was noted for its heathenish miracles and evidences of fertility magic. Cows never went dry; flowers and shamrocks sprang up in Brigit s footprints; eternal spring reigned in her bower." (Walker, 117) Irish writers referred to Brigit as the Queen of Heaven, thereby identifying her with Mary. She was called "Mother of my Sovereign, Mary of the Goidels, Queen of the South, Prophetess of Christ, Mother of Jesus." (Walker, 117, quoting from W.G. Graves, 144)
Brigit was thought to be the mystic mother-bride of St. Patrick, who supposedly died as one of her sacrificial victims, and entered the underworld through her sacred grove at Derry Down. An old saying goes, "On the hill of Down, buried in one tomb, were Bridget and Patricius." (Walker, 117, quoting from Brewster, 140) This may be a reference to St. Brigit being buried next to St. Patrick at Downpatrick, or perhaps the story of the location of the remains stemmed from this old tale. At any rate, Patrick's origins and authenticity are as uncertain as Brigit's, and since his name meant 'father,' he may have been a new name for Brigit's old consort the Dagda, or 'father.' Patrick became part of Brigit's originally female trinity when it was semi-Christianized by the church as a 'Wonderworking Triad' consisting of Brigit, Patrick and Columba: the Mother, the Father, and the Holy Dove. St. Brigit's feast day was February 1, the first day of spring according to the old calendar. It was called Oimelc, Imolg, or Imbolc, the day of union between God and Goddess. (Walker, 117)
February 1, Imbolc, and February 2, Candlemas, were very important to the rural folk. Imbolc was a lambing festival, and even today in the rural British Isles, many sheep farmers arrange to begin lambing. Although it's still the middle of winter, and special care must be taken to shelter ewes and lambs, this date has two great advantages: the lambs will be just the right age to graze the spring grass, and they are well-grown and ready for market in June and July. (Whitlock, 29)
In America, Candlemas Day is known as Groundhog Day, a time for forecasting the weather for the next six weeks. This custom was brought over to America by immigrants from Great Britain and Germany. The idea is that if the groundhog, or woodchuck, comes out of his hole on this day and sees his shadow, he'll retreat back into his quarters, and there will be six more weeks of winter. But if the day is cloudy he won't return to his hole for a long sleep, as the winter weather will soon give way to spring. In Germany it was the badger which was carefully watched; in the U.S., the custom was transferred to the woodchuck.
This preoccupation with the weather on Candlemas Day may be due in part to the fact that in Britain, Candlemas was held to mark a milestone in the return of the sun. The length of the days are increasing; Katharine Briggs says that candles were lighted to strengthen the power of the sun. (Whitlock, 29) The increasing daylight led people to look beyond winter for the first signs of spring. Some of the Candlemas lore is cautionary: In the barn on Candlemas Day, should be half the straw and half the hay. In other words, in spite of the approach of spring, winter should be considered as only half over. As the day lengthens, so the cold strengthens. (Whitlock, 30)
Other rhymes concerning the weather on Candlemas Day include: If Candlemas Day be dry and fair, half the winter's to come, and mair; lf Candlemas Day be wet and foul, the half of winter s gone to Yule, and If Candlemas Day be fair and bright, Winter will have another flight; if Candlemas Day be shower and rain, Winter is gone and will not come again. A German saying is 'The shepherd would rather see the wolf enter his stable on Candlemas Day than the sun.' Douglas says that the belief that the weather on Candlemas Day forecasts by contraries the weather of the next several weeks has no connection with any religious festival or saint. (Douglas, 78)
In the early part of this century a group of men with a merry sense of humor, living in and around Quarryville, Pennsylvania, organized the Slumbering Groundhog Lodge. "On the morning of February 2 its members don silk hats and carry canes and go into the fields seeking the burrow of a woodchuck. When one finds a burrow he calls to the others and they all assemble to await the awakening of the animal from his hibernation and his emergence into the outer air. They watch his behavior and then return to the village where they interpret his actions and report them to the public. According to the records of the lodge the woodchuck's prognostications have been verified by the weather eight times, have been indefinite five times and have been wrong seven times since the observations began." (Douglas, 78-79)
Douglas, George William. The American Book of Days. 1948. The H.W. Wilson Co., New
Frazer, Sir James George. The Golden Bough. 1922. Macmillan Publishing Co., New York, NY.
Hole, Christina. British Folk Customs. 1976. Hutchinson and Co. Ltd., London.
Pennick, Nigel. The Pagan Book of Days. 1992. Destiny Books, Rochester, VT.
Walker, Barbara G. The Women s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. 1983. Harper & Row, San Francisco, CA.
Whitlock, Ralph, A Calendar of Country Customs. 1978. B.T. Batsford, Ltd., London.
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Bishops Rules of Play, Short Game
Queens stand to the left of the King. White moves first and play proceeds clockwise. Checkmate of the King on the immediate left is needed to win. Other Kings may be placed in check only, with the next move going to the player that is in check. Any opposing colour may be captured on any move. Opposing pieces may be used to create a check or checkmate condition. Example White may employ a Black Knight, Pink Bishop and White Queen to check or checkmate Grey. Pawns move ahead traditionally, but may not enter their farthest left or right file. A Pawn may check or checkmate a King occupying these spaces. Pawns must reach their 12th rank to become a Queen. Edge pawns may not capture edge pawns on the first round of moves. Kings may enter their own coloured corner square and become immune from check or checkmate, provided that both of their Bishops are not captured. When a King enters his corner square, both of his Bishops obtain the power of a Queen instantly. If both Bishops are captured, the King must on his next move return to an unoccupied space around the corner square, but may not move into check. If the King cannot re-enter then he must wait (miss a turn) until a square is available.
Bishops Rules of Play, Long Game
The short game proceeds until a checkmate or a player resigns. That colour is then removed from the board. The next move is made by the next player to the left, or by the player whose King is in Check as a result of the pieces being removed. When two colours remain, the game is played as Chess and all pieces must as soon as possible enter onto the playing area of Chess. A check or checkmate may not occur intentionally until the move after both sides are on the Chess playing area. Pawn movement direction remains the same if players are opposites. If players are diagonal (i.e. Black and Grey) the opponent to the right (i.e. Grey) must immediately switch pawn movement direction towards the opponent to the left. This player also moves to the vacated seat on his right. A Pawn immediately becomes a Queen if it is on or past the 8th rank of the new playing area.
To prevent unauthorized reproduction a minor false rule has been included in this limited edition.
VideoBeta test version....single player mode.
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- Researchers design medical studies in different ways depending on the question they want to answer and the best way to answer it.
- The two main types of cancer research studies are experimental studies and observational studies. Researchers may also summarize and evaluate the available published research on a particular topic to draw conclusions.
- Experimental studies are generally considered more reliable than observational studies, although there are other factors to consider when evaluating research study results.
- Always talk with your doctor or another member of your health care team about the information you find in an abstract or study.
Doctors and scientists conduct research studies to discover more about the biology of cancer, investigate new treatments and diagnostic tests, and learn how to prevent the disease. Depending on the questions they want to answer, researchers can design these studies in a number of ways. No study design is perfect; each has strengths and drawbacks. Therefore, it is important to understand a study's design so you can evaluate the results and know if they apply to your situation.
In cancer research, there are two main types of research studies:
Experimental studies. As part of an experimental study, researchers provide an intervention (such as a treatment) to a group of individuals and compare their results to those of another group that does not receive the intervention (known as the control group). The researchers decide who receives the intervention and who does not either randomly (for reasons explained below) or through intentional selection. Experimental studies can investigate treatments, correlative science (testing whether specific genes or proteins affect the development or spread of cancer), new imaging techniques, and quality of life issues.
Observational studies. During an observational study, the researchers observe groups in which the intervention that each person receives is not controlled by the researchers. Observational studies tend to be epidemiologic (relating to how various risk factors cause or affect the development of a disease in a population).
Types of experimental studies
Experimental studies are generally considered more reliable than observational studies because, in most cases, the volunteers who take part in an experimental study are randomly assigned to the intervention or control group, reducing the chance of having the researchers’ or the subjects’ biases (assumptions or preferences) affect the study results. In addition, with an experimental study design, the researchers can better identify and control unrelated factors, such as age, sex, and weight, that could influence or affect the results of the study. Researchers may also consider other factors, such as cancer type, stage of the disease, and status of the disease (whether the person is newly diagnosed or the cancer has started to grow and/or spread), when deciding who can participate in an experimental study.
One of the most common types of experimental studies is the clinical trial . A clinical trial is a medical research study performed with people that tests the safety or effectiveness of a new drug, combination of existing treatments, approach to radiation therapy or surgery, or method of cancer prevention.
Doctors and researchers conduct clinical research in segments called phases. Each phase of a clinical trial is designed to provide different information about the new treatment, such as the dose, safety, and efficacy (how well it works). The phases are described as I, II, and III. Learn more about the phases of clinical trials .
Depending on experimental factors, researchers can keep clinical trial study participants and/or themselves from knowing whether specific study participants belong to the intervention or control group, eliminating subjective bias. This is a process known as “blinding.”
Types of experimental studies include:
Double-blind randomized trial. This type of clinical trial is considered by most scientists to produce the best evidence because neither the study participants nor the researchers know who belongs to the intervention or control group until the study ends.
Single-blind randomized trial. In this type of trial, the participants do not know whether they belong to an intervention or control group, but the researchers do.
Open/unblinded trial. In this type of trial, both the participants and the researchers know who belongs to each test group within the study. This usually occurs when it isn't possible to use blinding; for example, if the study was comparing a surgical treatment to a medication.
Types of observational studies
In observational studies, researchers have less control over the characteristics of the study participants, which means certain factors could unintentionally affect the results. These studies, however, are useful in providing preliminary evidence that can help guide future experiments.
Types of observational studies include:
Case-control studies. These observational studies compare two groups of people, such as those who have cancer (the case) and those who do not (the control). For example, researchers may look for lifestyle or genetic differences between the two groups that may explain why one group developed cancer and the other did not. These studies are done retrospectively, meaning that the circumstances they are evaluating have already happened.
Cohort studies. These studies are prospective, which means that the event is studied as it occurs. The researchers monitor a group of people for a long time and track, for example, any new cases of cancer. This approach is often used to study whether certain nutrients or behaviors can prevent cancer. In addition, this approach can be used to identify cancer risk factors, such as the link between the use of postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy and an increased risk of breast cancer.
Case reports and case series. These studies are compilations of detailed descriptions of a patient's diagnosis and treatment history. These individual patient descriptions are called case reports. If a number of patients are given a similar treatment, the case reports may be combined into a case series. The results and conclusions of case series studies are descriptions of patients' experiences within a specific population and should not be used to determine treatment options.
Cross-sectional studies. These studies examine the relationship between diseases and other factors (such as exposures or behaviors) within a specific population at one point in time. However, because these studies only measure circumstances at one point in time, they cannot absolutely prove that something causes cancer.
Types of review articles
With the huge number of cancer research studies being published every year, it is challenging, if not impossible, for doctors and researchers, as well as interested patients and caregivers, to keep up with the latest advances. Also, since the research studies published in journals are constantly shaping and reshaping the scientific understanding of that subject, no single study is ever considered the final word on a particular topic, cancer type, or treatment. As a result, review articles, which evaluate and summarize the findings of all the available published research on a particular topic, can be extremely helpful.
Types of review articles include:
Systematic reviews. These articles summarize the best available research on a specific topic. The researchers use an organized method to locate, gather, and evaluate a number of research studies on a particular topic. By combining the findings of a number of studies, the researchers are able to draw more reliable conclusions.
Meta-analyses. These studies combine the statistical data collected in several research studies on the same topic. By combining these data, a meta-analysis has the ability to find trends that may not be seen in smaller studies. However, if the individual studies were poorly done, the results of a meta-analysis may not be useful.
Evaluating research studies
In addition to considering the study design, here are some tips for evaluating the information you find in a research study:
Find out if the journal uses a peer-review process. Results from a study are more reliable if they are peer-reviewed, meaning that other researchers not affiliated with the study have looked over and approved the design and methods.
Look at the length of the study and the number of people involved. A study is more useful and believable if the same results occur in many people across a long time. An exception to this rule can be made for studies of rare cancer types or cancers with a poor prognosis (chance of recovery) because there may only be a small number of patients to study. Also, when considering the length of the study, it may be appropriate for some clinical trials to be shorter. For instance, cancer prevention trials are often much longer than treatment clinical trials.
Consider the phase of the study, especially for new treatments. Earlier phase studies provide early information about the safety of a new treatment (phase I) and an initial evaluation of how well it works (phase II). These studies tend to have a smaller number of participants compared to phase III trials, which compare the effectiveness of a new treatment to the current (standard) treatment.
Determine if the study supports or contradicts information that is already available. New results are exciting, but other researchers must validate the results before the medical community accepts them as fact. Review articles like systematic reviews may be of particular interest because they provide an analysis and draw conclusions across all of the published research on a specific topic.
Watch out for conclusions that overstate the results. Each study is a small piece of the research puzzle, and medical practice rarely changes because of the results of one study.
Talking with your doctor
Always talk with a member of your health care team about the information you find in an abstract or study. Even if you have read a reputable study that suggests a different approach to cancer treatment, do not stop or change your treatment before discussing your treatment plan with your doctor.
To start a conversation with your doctor you may want to ask:
- I recently heard about a study that used a new treatment. Is this treatment applicable to my type and stage of cancer?
- What type of journals should I read to learn more about my type of cancer?
- Should I consider being a part of a clinical trial?
- What clinical trials are open to me?
- Where can I learn more about clinical trials?
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Energy companies often cite the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) report on Smart Meters as proof of Smart Meter safety.
What is the CCST Report?
In July 2010, California Assemblyman Jared Huffman (later joined by Assemblyman Bill Monning) asked the CCST to review Smart Meter safety. The CCST is a politically-appointed advisory panel for the state of California, representing aerospace, industry, university, government, and technology interests. It is not impartial or independent.
An independent, science-based study by the California Council on Science and Technology would help policy makers and the general public resolve the debate over whether SmartMeters present a significant risk of adverse health effects. Toward that end, I request that the Council specifically determine whether FCC standards for SmartMeters are sufficiently protective of public health taking into account current exposure levels to radiofrequency and electromagnetic fields, and further to assess whether additional technology specific standards are needed for SmartMeters and other devises that are commonly found in and around homes, to ensure adequate protection from adverse health effects.
Assemblyman Jared Huffman — Letter to CCST, July 30, 2010
Huffman believes it’s time to put the issue to independent scientists. “It is in everyone’s interest to bring credible, independent science to this question,” Huffman said. “If the FCC standards are deemed adequate, then the SmartMeter program can move forward with greater public confidence in the safety of the devices. If the standards are inadequate, we need to know that so that we can get to work on better standards.”
Assemblyman Jared Huffman — Press release, 8-6-10
The final report was released in March 2011. http://www.ccst.us/publications/index.php
CCST conclusions: FCC guidelines are protective for thermal impacts from Smart Meters; non-thermal impacts are unknown. It made recommendations that were ignored (see below).
The CCST panel did not conduct any research. It relied on government agencies and the energy industry for much of its analysis, data, and recommendations. The report based its conclusions on so-called “consensus” science. It is astoundingly unscientific; despite its claims of being scientifically rigorous, it committed serious and basic statistical errors. And though the WHO IARC declared RF to be a Class 2b carcinogen in May 2011, there has been no call by the CCST to change its conclusions.
The report states:
Non‐thermal effects, however, including cumulative or prolonged exposure to lower levels of RF emissions, are not well understood. Some studies have suggested non‐thermal effects may include fatigue, headache, irritability, or even cancer. But these findings have not been scientifically established, and the mechanisms that might lead to non‐thermal effects remain uncertain. – p. 9
There currently is no conclusive scientific evidence pointing to a non-‐thermal cause-‐and- ‐effect between human exposure to RF emissions and negative health impacts. For this reason, regulators and policy makers may be prudent to call for more research while continuing to base acceptable human RF exposure limits on currently proven scientific and engineering findings on known thermal effects, rather than on general concerns or speculation about possible unknown and as yet unproven non-‐thermal effects. Such questions will likely take considerable time to resolve. The data that are available strongly suggest that if there are non-‐thermal effects of RF absorption on human health, such effects are not so profound as to be easily discernable. – p. 18
The report was criticized by:
- California Department of Public Health, which actually did EMF research in the past,
- Dr. Raymond Neutra (Director Emeritus, Occupational and Environmental Health Unit, California Department of Public Health — the CDPH unit that conducted EMF research),
- Dr. De-Kun Li (Senior Research Scientist, Kaiser Permanente),
- Dr. Karl Maret (electrical engineer and medical doctor) who reviewed the research in his critique,
- Dr. David Carpenter (Director of the Institute for Health and the Environment, University of Albany, New York),
- Daniel Hirsch (nuclear policy expert; UCSC lecturer; President, Committee to Bridge the Gap),
and other scientists and health care professionals. Links are below.
A prominent chart in the CCST report has serious errors which undermine CCST conclusions. This chart is often used by utility companies in Smart Meter marketing materials[i]. The CCST panel used different units of measurement when comparing Smart Meter radiation exposure to that of wireless devices, such as cell phones. These fundamental errors reveal the lack of statistical knowledge and lack of scientific background of the panel members.
When Daniel Hirsch corrected these basic statistical errors in his comments (and Hirsch does not claim his answers are definitive but merely estimates), it revealed the following figures (with charts):
- exposure from one Smart Meter is far greater than exposure to wireless devices, such as cell phones.
- at 10 feet from a Smart Meter, a person receives 5 – 16 times the whole body radiation exposure from a cell phone held to the head
- at 3 feet from a Smart Meter, a person receives 53 – 160 times the whole body radiation exposure from a cell phone held to the head
- using the inverse square calculation, at 1 foot, one Smart Meter exposes people to 450 – 1400 times the whole body radiation exposure of a cell phone held to the head. (Figure 3 and 4)
Many children and adults sleep against walls where Smart Meters are mounted. Many apartments and condominiums have groups of meters installed on the walls of living units or facing public areas. In some areas, Smart Meters are installed inside homes and businesses.
Recommendations in CCST report included:
- Consumers should be provided with clearly understood information about the radiofrequency emissions of all devices that emit RF including smart meters. Such information should include intensity of output, duration and frequency of output, and, in the cases of the smart meter, pattern of sending and receiving transmissions to and from all sources.
- The California Public Utilities Commission should consider doing an independent review of the deployment of smart meters to determine if they are installed and operating consistent with the information provided to the consumer.
Unfortunately, these were ignored. California bill AB 37 by Asm. Huffman, which would have required utilities to disclose RF information to the public, was withdrawn by him.
Links to expert critiques:
California Department of Public Health
Karl Maret, David Carpenter, Magda Havas, Olle Johansson, Raymond Neutra, others
Susan Foster (Medical Social Worker)
De-Kun Li (Senior Research Scientist, Kaiser Permanente Northern California) with contact information and research background included
[i] For example, ComEd (Illinois) https://www.comed.com/Documents/newsroom/Grid_Mod_Fact_Sheet_RF_2013.pdf | <urn:uuid:633ed665-bf4a-4b66-ba70-dcd42bbafd84> | {
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American Enterprise is an ordinary building with some extraordinary tenants--and chances are, you never thought to look.
“Since 1993," says Iowa DNR biologist, Pat Schlarbaum, "when the peregrine falcon discovered their alcoves, their cubby holes at the top of their building, it was just a perfect nest site. And they’ve been here ever since.”
It’s not always the same falcon pair that nests here, but this one has some chicks, and it’s time to drop in for a check-up.
The parents fly nervously overhead as the DNR-contracted window washing crew carefully removes their fluffy young.
“Just two this year,” says one member of the crew, holding the chicks in a small plastic cage.
Waiting below are veterinarians who give the noisy falcon chicks a checkup and slip identification bands around their ankles.
“From those bands, we’ve learned that the Des Moines birds have gone to Winnipeg, up in Canada, all the way to Mexico City," Schlarbaum says.
Schlarbaum, a falcon specialist, uses this as a teaching opportunity for local school kids, who he says will be responsible for protecting the birds in the future.
“They were wiped out from the Missouri River to the east coast,” he tells them.
Since the pesticide DDT was banned in 1972, peregrine falcons have made a comeback across America, and here in Iowa, there are now thought to be at least 17 breeding pairs--one of them here, and another on the east side of the Capitol. Most of the other pairs reside in the cliffs along the Mississippi River in the northeast part of the state.
“This recovery or this rejuvenation is truly a remarkable story to share with the world,” Schlarbaum tells the children who've gathered at the foot of the building.
The falcons do return the favor by preying on urban pigeons. But they also illustrate to young generations the power and proof of conservation.
“We all have a stake in the betterment of these birds, so it’s just not a DNR project,” Schlarbaum says.
It’s likely only one of these chicks will survive its first year, but it seems assured that Iowa’s falcons will continue their recovery in one of the last places you would have thought to look.
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Group: The Series
Artist: Katsushika HOKUSAI
Title: Hodogaya on the Tokaido Road
Date Made: c.1830-5
Lender: Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College
Credit Line: Mary A. Ainsworth Bequest, 1950
Before the time of Hokusai the realistic portrayal of a scene had not been a part of traditional Japanese art. The use of perspective, shading, and three-dimensional drawing, deriving from European art had an undeniable impact on non-traditional Japanese artists. They gradually included these elements of expression in their work. The use of realistic methods such as Western perspective had an undeniable impact on Japanese artists, especially of the Ukiyo-e school.
In Hodogaya on the Tokaido Road, Mount Fuji is seen through a screen of twisted pines, planted to offer protection from the weather. In the foreground a lively group of travellers make their way from Edo, to the imperial capital, Kyoto.
For Monet, a screen of trees framing a background offered interesting compositional possibilities. He explored these possibilities in his ‘Poplar’ series. Foreground and background are painted with little indication of the space between them. This seems to bring the background forward one moment, then push it back the next, helping to create a visually intriguing composition.
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Raven took Brown Bear's instruction, "Try camping out for a while," to heart. She wandered a long time, from forests to upland meadows to icy lakes. Finally, with pinfeathers under her beak getting sparse, she found an abandoned place in a tall spruce tree. She fixed it up, and students began to gather, including Porcupine, who had studied with Coyote Roshi. Other early students were Woodpecker, Grouse, Badger, Owl, and Black Bear, who lived nearby. They would sit in a circle in the little meadow under the tall spruce. Raven would sit with them and afterward would respond to their questions, and at more formal teaching times, she would take a perch in the outer branches of an oak tree close by -- the Assembly Oak, as it came to be called. A stone outcropping served as an altar.Verse
Wander. Find something abandoned and tall.
Fix up. Sit with what gathers.
Take a perch. Rinse. Repeat.
How could anything be grander than life?
Case by Robert Aitken; introduction and verse by Meredith GarmonRaven 11 | <urn:uuid:77440b55-2a1d-4570-89eb-9bbf64ce2b11> | {
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Learn About Cronobacter Infection
Getting sick with Cronobacter does not happen often, but infections in young infants can be deadly. Learn what steps you can take to protect your baby from getting sick.
Cronobacter, formerly known as Enterobacter sakazakii, is a group of germs that can be found naturally in the environment. The germs can also live in dry foods, such as powdered infant formula, powdered milk, herbal teas, and starches. Health officials have also found Cronobacter germs in other places like sewer water. Anybody can get sick from Cronobacter, but the infection occurs most often in infants.
Rare, but Serious Illness in Infants
Cronobacter infections are rare, but they can be deadly in newborns. Infections in infants usually occur in the first days or weeks of life. CDC is usually informed of about 4-6 cases a year, however state health departments are not required to report Crononbacter infections to CDC.
Cronobacter germs can cause dangerous blood infections (sepsis) or infections of the linings surrounding the brain and spine (meningitis). Infants two months of age and younger are most likely to develop meningitis if they get sick with Cronobacter. Infants born prematurely and infants with a lower ability to fight germs and sickness due to illness (such as HIV) or medical treatment (such as chemotherapy for cancer) are also more likely to get sick.
The first symptom of Cronobacter infection in infants is usually a fever, coupled with poor feeding, crying, or very low energy. Parents or caregivers should take an infant with these symptoms to see a doctor.
Breastfeeding helps prevent many kinds of sicknesses among infants.
If your baby gets powdered infant formula, there are things you can do to protect your baby from sickness from many germs.
Wash your hands carefully with soap and water, especially after using the toilet or changing diapers.
Follow these 5 guidelines to protect your baby from Cronobacter:
- Breastfeed. Breastfeeding is one of the best things you can do for your baby’s health, and benefits include preventing many kinds of infections. CDC reported very few cases of Cronobacter infections among infants who were fed only breast milk and no formula or other foods.
- Clean, sanitize, and store feeding items and breast pump parts safely. You can help prevent contamination with germs and keep the milk you feed your baby safe by carefully cleaning, sanitizing, and safely storing
- baby bottles,
- other feeding items,
- breast pump parts (if you are pumping milk).
For detailed information visit How to Clean, Sanitize, and Store Infant Feeding Items and How to Keep Your Breast Pump Clean: The Essentials.
- Use liquid formula, when possible. If your baby gets formula, choose infant formula sold in liquid form over powdered, especially when your baby is a newborn or very young. Liquid formula is made to be germ-free and should not contain Cronobacter germs.
- Prepare powdered infant formula safely. Keep powdered formula lids and scoops clean and close containers of infant formula or bottled water as soon as possible. The best way to prepare formula is to follow the steps below:
- Warm water to at least 158 °F /70 °C and pour it into the bottle.
- Add formula, and carefully shake, rather than stir the bottle.
- Cool the formula to ensure it is not too hot before feeding your baby by running the prepared, capped bottle under cool water or placing it into an ice bath, taking care to keep the cooling water from getting into the bottle or on the nipple.
- Before feeding the baby, test the temperature by shaking a few drops on your wrist.
Use formula within 2 hours of preparation. If your baby does not finish the entire bottle of formula, throw away the unused formula. If you do not plan to use the prepared formula right away, refrigerate it immediately and use it within 24 hours. Refrigeration slows the growth of germs and increases safety. Remember, when in doubt, throw it out.
- Practice proper hygiene! Always wash your hands carefully with soap and water during key times.
- Before preparing and feeding bottles or foods to your baby.
- Before touching your baby’s mouth.
- Before touching pacifiers or other things that go into your baby’s mouth.
- After using the toilet or changing diapers.
If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol (check the product label to be sure). Hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol is effective in killing Cronobacter germs. But use soap and water as soon as possible afterward because hand sanitizer does not kill all types of germs and may not work as well if hands are visibly greasy or dirty. It is also important to keep all objects that enter baby’s mouths (such as pacifiers and teethers) clean.
Not Just Infants
Cronobacter can also cause diarrhea and urinary tract infections in people of all ages. The infection can be serious for older people and for people whose immune systems are weakened by other illnesses or conditions. They are also more likely to get sick.
Food Safety and Handwashing:
- WHO: Safe preparation, storage, and handling of powdered infant formula guidelines [361 KB]
- Foodsafety.gov: Baby food and infant formula
- Handwashing: Clean Hands Save Lives, hand- and water-related hygiene tips
- Page last reviewed: April 10, 2017
- Page last updated: April 10, 2017
- Content source:
- National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases
- Page maintained by: Office of the Associate Director for Communication, Digital Media Branch, Division of Public Affairs | <urn:uuid:dcaa6973-8cb8-4040-9364-447a46df9648> | {
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American Academy Of Pediatrics Launches New Global Initiative Helping Babies Breathe
Sunday, June 20, 2010
It's been called the most dangerous minute of the most dangerous day of a person's life. For 829,000 babies each year, it's the beginning of the end.
In the first minute after birth, an infant must inhale, pop open millions of microscopic air sacs and take the first of numberless breaths that will sustain life for decades. For the majority of newborns, this happens naturally. Some, however, require help and in too many places around the world, they're not getting it.
As it states on www.helpingbabiesbreathe.org,
To develop and implement an evidence-based curriculum, adaptable to clinical and training use wherever babies are born.
Helping Babies Breathe is a neonatal resuscitation curriculum for resource-limited circumstances. It was developed on the premise that assessment at birth and simple newborn care are things that every baby deserves. The initial steps taught in HBB can save lives and give a much better start to many babies who struggle for oxygen at birth. The focus is to meet the needs of every baby born.
Visit www.helpingbabiesbreathe.org to learn more. | <urn:uuid:0a1972a2-e5d6-4ccc-9ca3-e54bebdf030c> | {
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1. The “Bridge of Heaven and Earth”
In the Biblical account, a bridge has been popularized inaccurately as "Jacob's ladder." As described in the Bible's Book of Genesis, however, it was seen in a vision by Jacob (later the Hebrew patriarch) as he fled from Hebron (or Kiriath-Arba in southern Palestine) to Padan-Aram in Syria to escape from an angry first-born brother, Esau, from whom he had stolen the birthright and the blessing of their father Abraham. It was no ladder at all but a celestial staircase-bridge on which Jacob saw innumerable angels ascending and descending between the celestial and the terrestrial.
2. The Scandinavian or Viking Bridge is Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge of the warrior hero-gods, the AEsir. Bifrost connects Earth to heaven, or the heavenly abode of the gods called Asgard. Midgard was the battleground of men. Asgard and the bridge to it was reserved to the AEsir, apparently. Mortals, if heroic enough, could sometimes go and visit the halls of Valhalla, another part of Viking Heaven. All this is to be overthrown and destroyed in Ragnarok, the downfall of the gods, brought on by the Frost Giants and the Mountain Giants. The whole universe will perish in their downfall.
3. The Islamic or Moslem bridge is Al-Sirat, the Bridge of Judgment. It is so narrow the Moslem people say that only the pure and blameless can tread it without falling off into the abyss of the damned. Al-Sirat reaches from Earth to Paradise, with traffic of approved souls going only one direction, heavenward. This fearsome bridge compares to the one shown in the saying: “He who cannot forgive others destroys the bridge over which he himself must pass.
4. In the Chronicles, the Bridge of the Twin Earths was strictly terrestrial, connecting the Twin Worlds, the two Earths. It was destroyed circa 10,000 B.C. in a later skirmish of the War of Heaven, a universal conflict. Some remembrance was left on both Earths for a time, but it was eventually forgotten. The only ruins left are hidden from civilization, far up in the mountains of the western Andes (called the Golden Mountains on Earth II). Above the shore of the Black Lake the remains of the Bridge are hidden under jungle vegetation, and yet they are still capable of producing catastrophic effects in the area.
5. The Pont d'Avignon is entirely terrestrial; it is today only a picturesque ruin jutting out into the southern France's swift-flowing Rhone River and then ending abruptly after a few spans. It was there Orfeo Villa-lobos (in the Chronicles) learned to please tourists and earn enough pennies to keep himself alive in the bad times that were slowly shutting down Europe after the 22nd Century.
6. The Bridge of Faith; in Hades (the part that was perpetually aflame and full of torment), Duamutef, a former chief priest of a moon-god temple in Mizraim, “constructs” a span across the abyss that separates Elysium-like hills of the Blest from the condemned souls awaiting eternal judgment and punishment. When Yeshua comes to “harrow hell,” Duamutef responds to His coming with faith and leaps across the abyss and the raging river below, an impossible feat. At the close of the period after the Re-location, Earth II is returned to its former location in a temporarily restored Solar System. The Bridge too is restored, though the inhabitants of Earth I are totally unaware of their linking up with their long-lost twin world. This events occurs shortly before the apocalytic events on Earth I depicted graphically in the book of St. John the Divine, the Revelation of Jesus Christ. This bridge was effectively destroyed when sin entered the world.
7. The Blue Bridge; located in the Great Nebula of Orion; a secret work of the ages; its reason for existence was also the reason why it took so long to complete; fought over in two great conflicts, the First and Second Battles of Orion; its final completion brought the re-union of the Two Universes and the Twin Earths. | <urn:uuid:519e7ba7-3492-409a-abb0-a12dd872d0a0> | {
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Researchers from Osaka University and the National Institute for Basic Biology, Japan, have found a highly significant connection between the molecular mechanisms underlying genetic and environmental sex determination. The scientists report in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics the identification of a gene responsible for the production of males during environmental sex determination in the crustacean Daphnia.
Ways in which an individual organism's sex is determined are diverse among animal lineages and can be broadly divided into two major categories: genetic and environmental. In genetic sex determination (GSD), sex-specific differentiation results from intrinsic genetic differences between males and females, whereas environmental sex determination (ESD) relies upon environmental signals to induce male or female sex determination. In contrast to GSD models, the genetics of ESD organisms are poorly understood.
The researchers cloned Doublesex (Dsx) genes from Daphnia magna, a freshwater brachiopod crustacean that clones itself to produce males in response to certain environmental cues. The Dsx genes play an important role in controlling sexual differences in organisms using GSD such as nematodes, insects, and vertebrates. Knocking out one particular Dsx gene, DapmaDsx1, in male embryos resulted in the production of female traits including ovarian maturation, whereas ectopic expression of DapmaDsx1 in female embryos resulted in the development of male-like phenotypes.
The researchers infer that there is an ancient, previously unidentified link between genetic and environmental sex determination. This study was confined only to the role of Dsx in ESD, so it would be highly desirable to establish the link between the environmental signal and Dsx expression. However, this work lends support to the "Doublesex hypothesis" of sex determination, in which many different sorts of upstream regulatory pathways could converge on Dsx-family genes, which would serve as the basis of sexual differentiation mechanisms across the animal kingdom.
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: This study was partly supported through grants from Grants-in-Aid from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science, and Technology (to HW), grants from Ministry of the Environment of Japan, and a grant of Long-Range Research Initiative (LRI) by Japan Chemical Industry Association (JCIA) (to TI). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
COMPETING INTERESTS: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
CITATION: Kato Y, Kobayashi K, Watanabe H, Iguchi T (2011) Environmental Sex Determination in the Branchiopod Crustacean Daphnia magna: Deep Conservation of a Doublesex Gene in the Sex-Determining Pathway. PLoS Genet 7(3): e1001345. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1001345
PLEASE ADD THIS LINK TO THE FREELY AVAILABLE ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT (the link will go live when the embargo ends): http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1001345
CONTACT: Taisen Iguchi
This press release refers to an upcoming article in PLoS Genetics. The release is provided by journal staff, or by the article authors and/or their institutions. Any opinions expressed in this release or article are the personal views of the journal staff and/or article contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of PLoS. PLoS expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability in connection with the information found in the releases and articles and your use of such information.
About PLoS Genetics
PLoS Genetics (http://www.plosgenetics.org) reflects the full breadth and interdisciplinary nature of genetics and genomics research by publishing outstanding original contributions in all areas of biology. All works published in PLoS Genetics are open access. Everything is immediately and freely available online throughout the world subject only to the condition that the original authorship and source are properly attributed. Copyright is retained by the authors. The Public Library of Science uses the Creative Commons Attribution License.
About the Public Library of Science
The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. For more information, visit http://www.plos.org.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system. | <urn:uuid:8fd7d6a9-dca3-478f-8896-5c9dd3c92f8c> | {
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If you’re in a hurry to decide which medium to use, see practical advice in WhatCommunicationSoftwareToUse. Here we have a more relaxed, theoretical conversation.
Community requires communication, and communication requires a medium.
Persons can interact using many different kinds of media. Some common non-Internet media for community interaction are:
Some Internet media:
Each medium has MediumAttributes, which (together with our understanding of the medium) create certain SocialAffordances?: inclinations over what people decide to do or say when using that medium. (Like the idea that language influences thought: the SapirWhorfHypothesis.)
We believe that CommunityTiedToOneTechnology (one medium) is a problem. We look forward to a day when it’s all just OneBigSoup – where online communities (OnlineCommunity) do not find themselves primarily tied to one medium.
Does the choice of medium influences the nature of the community that uses it? What level of TechnologicalDeterminism influences a community?
The human body is an essential part of the medium of human communication. As interface designers have long recognized, sound outside the audible range for the human ear makes no sense to humans not using amplification devices, and image resolution beyond the resolution of the human eye is invisible to humans not using visual instruments.
The capabilities of the human body matter to community. Recognizing this fact helps to bring into focus two types of issues: access for differently abled persons (machine readible for blind persons?) and the typical physical actions that community participation involves (quick mouse movements? real time video gestures? etc.)
Persons regularly communicate across media, across communities, across worlds. Community design, like virtual world design, should consider the relationship between extra-community interactions and intra-community interactions. The human body is always part of the medium. For some thinking about implications of this, see my work “Sense in Communication” at http://www.galbithink.org
I think, “Why not?”
But for the time being, I guess we should consider the human body as part of the medium.
I told my girlfriend, “The Internet is a terrible, terrible thing. It reminds me of being in college. I absolutely loved being in college. Interesting ideas, interesting people, all sorts of activity, everywhere!”
And she said, “What’s so terrible about that?”
And I said: “It’s terrible because it’s a glass pane sitting in front of you. It hurts your wrists, it hurts your eyes, it hurts to use it. It is physically painful. You can’t talk, you have to type. It is difficult. It is time consuming. It is painful.”
With time,… with time,…
Welcome to CommunityWiki!
I wanted to kind of link up our idea of technologies and media for community.
UserInterface is critical too, I think.
Imagine if you wired up your IRC clients to do IRC over, say, e-mail. Yes, it’s gross. But you could do it, right?
The UserInterface seems more important to me than the back-end technology. The back-end technology limits what the UI can do, but the UI seems to me the primary thing.
(What if you have mixed UIs? I don’t know how to conceptualize that by this model, off the top of my head.)
I’ve imagined that their should be FreeSoftware groups that, all they do, is think about the UI’s they’d like to use, and just do design work. They leave it to other groups to actully code up what they’ve designed.
You knew I would love that proposal. You did that on purpose, eh?
groups that … just do design work.
Yes, that would be cool.
[rant mode = old fogey]
There was once a time that one person could “write an entire program myself” and have something that other people thought was pretty cool.
Now people are so jaded that a person can write a program that enables nearly real-time global collaboration, and people will whine, “WikisAreUgly”.
There are a few projects that almost “just do design work”. | <urn:uuid:f2e8e0b9-817a-4006-870e-aa1d975e92ee> | {
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Process for gathering information about the world (source of affective responses). OBJECT PERCEPTION: Simple stimuli: –Brightness –Color –Depth –Perceptual constancy –Form –Movement 1. Environmental Perception
“Perception-in-action”: Perceiver is part of the scene. Moving involves multiple perspectives. Perceiver is connected by clear goal.
Gestalt Psychology: The whole is more than the sum of its parts. Laws of organization (how the brain operates) Gestalt: “form”, “unified whole”, “configuration”. Gestalt psychologists developed five laws that govern human perception:
The process of thought that leads to knowing: –The psychological result of perception, learning, recognizing, reasoning. –Refers to the mental functions and processes (thoughts). –How we acquire, store, organize, recall information about locations, distances, and arrangements in spaces. http://www.vimeo.com/404183 http://vimeo.com/7284425 2. Environmental Cognition
What is your “image of the city”? How might our understanding of how people develop mental images of the environment help us design spaces better fitted to users’ needs? Environmental cognition can contribute to practical environmental design. Kevin Lynch’s Image of the City
Why Legibility? Aids navigation Guides social interaction Prevents feeling lost Helps make the environment feel like “home” Some environments are more legible than others
Features of Cognitive Maps Lynch (1960): –Five important elements (of legibility) in mental maps of cities Path — distinctive thread that gives direction. Edge — the boundary between two areas. Node — important pathways come together, activity. District — medium/large area with a common identity. Landmark — reference point that stands out due to shape, height, color, or historic importance.
LAST WEEK: Environmental Perception and Cognition 1.Environmental Perception Gestalt 2.Environmental Cognition (operational) Cognitive Maps Legibility Wayfinding
Wayfinding: an internal psychological process, sequence of problem-solving activities. The process by which we navigate in our environment. Newcomers to an environment experience the stressful feeling of being lost learned process.
Effects of Signage and Floor Plan Configuration on Wayfinding Accuracy [(Environment and Behavior, Vol. 23, No. 5, 553-574 (1991)]. Michael J. O'Neill Interior Environments Pgm, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison This study examines the influence of floor plan complexity and several types of signage on wayfinding within a series of buildings on a university campus. The study used a 5 x 3 factorial experimental design. The first factor, complexity of floor plan configuration, is defined through five alternatives. The second factor, signage, has three conditions: no signage, textual signage, or graphic signage. The results show that as floor plan complexity increases, wayfinding performance decreases. Graphic signage produced the greatest rate of travel in all settings, but textual signage was the most effective in reducing wayfinding errors, such as wrong turns and backtracking. Overall, the addition of signage resulted in a 13% increase in rate of travel, a 50% decrease in wrong turns, and a 62% decrease in backtracking across the five settings. However, plan configuration was found to exert a significant influence regardless of signage, because the wayfinding performance of participants with access to signage in the most complex settings remained equivalent to, or significantly poorer than, those in the simplest settings with no signage. »EDRA, INFORMAWORLD, DESIGN SHARE, NSCU-UD
1. Perceiving Configurations Live Configurations Control vs. Ownership Control Games Overlap of Form and Territory 2. Basic Theories of Environment and Behavior THIS WEEK:
Does control mean ownership? –Borrowed furniture, equipment, spaces? Environmental game: –Watch the game –Observe live configurations –Deduce rules –Not to ask agents what, but why and how.
Public Spaces: Overlap of Form and Territory Manipulation of public space Claiming territory through use of space
Zaha Hadid: Burnham Pavilion, Chicago http://vimeo.com/6937796 http://vimeo.com/6937292
Ethics/Values Attitudes Behavior Environmental Effects Ethics/Values and Attitudes
Arousing Upleasant Pleasant Not Arousing Russell and Lanius: Affective Quality of Places
1.Coherence: making sense (an understandable context) 2.Legibility: the promise of making sense (for the person) 3.Complexity: involvement, number and variety of elements within a scene 4.Mystery: the promise of involvement Kaplan and Kaplan Preference Model * (Remember Lynch’s Spatial Descriptors!)
1.Coherence: ease of organizing and structuring parts, units, chunks, blocks or scene elements. Patterns that result from many similar and repeating parts allow for easier human comprehension (similarity/proximity).
2. Legibility: is found in an environment that looks as if one could explore extensively without getting lost. Undifferentiated sameness causes low legibility.
3. Complexity: a reflection of whether there is enough present in the scene to keep one mentally occupied. Too little is boring, too much is overwhelming.
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Like a jiggled jar of mixed nuts, shaking on the near-Earth asteroid Itokawa is sorting loose rock particles on its surface by size, causing the smallest grains to sink into depressions, a new study suggests.
Researchers analyzed images of a mix of boulders and gravel, called regolith, covering the surface of Itokawa. The images, taken by the Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft in 2005, revealed that some areas were coated with fine particles and appeared smooth, while others regions looked bumpy, as if the asteroid suffered an intense case of acne.
In a study detailed in the April 20 issue of ScienceExpress, an online publication of the journal Science, researchers suggest the regolith's patchy distribution is the result of shaking, which causes the finest and lightest materials to accumulate in dips on the asteroid's surface, where the local gravity is lowest.
"It's sort of like if you poured water over Itokawa, all the water would tend to pool in these [low] regions," said study team member Daniel Scheeres of the University of Michigan. "The water would flow downhill until it couldn't go downhill anymore."
A shaky asteroid
The new findings suggest seismic activity of some kind is occurring on Itokawa, a small asteroid only 1,600 feet (500 meters) in diameter.
"Even though it's this tiny little guy, it is in some sense geologically active," Scheeres told SPACE.com. "Things are happening on the surface. Stuff moves from one point to the other."
The regolith distribution suggests Itokawa has been shaken up in the past, but what might have rattled it is still an open question.
One hypothesis is that smaller asteroids occasionally strike Itokawa and shake the space rock up. Because of its diminutive size, even tiny impacts could send Itokawa into a tremor. Another idea is that Itokawa might occasionally fly close enough to the Earth, where our planet's gravity could jostle it.
Jostled by sunlight
Perhaps the most intriguing hypothesis, however, is one recently put forth by Scheeres. In a study to be published in the scientific journal Icarus, Scheeres ties Itokawa's periodic shaking to the YORP effect, in which sunlight provides a small nudge that can speed up or slow down an asteroid's rotation.
Computer simulations suggest radiation from the Sun is having the latter effect on Itokawa, causing it to spin slower and slower. Working backward, Scheeres reasons Itokawa must have spun faster in the distant past.
Wind the clock back 200,000 years, Itokawa might have spun around so fast that its head and body parts became separated and orbited around each other.
"We don't know that it actually breaks apart in this way, but given the fact that both of these [segments] are made up of boulders lying on top of each other, the head and body probably are in some sense disjoined," Scheeres said.
Occasionally, the two orbiting segments might have smacked back together again, like beating cymbals, and the vibrations might have jostled loose particles on Itokawa's surface around.
"You're talking impacts on the order of centimeters per second or less," Scheeres said.
The new findings are also shedding light on how impact debris gets scattered on celestial bodies.
On larger bodies, like the Moon, most of the material ejected during an impact does not travel far and deposits around the crater. It was thus thought that on smaller objects with much less gravity, such as asteroids, ejecta is flung over a proportionally larger area, potentially coating the entire body.
"However, what we observed [on Itokawa] indicates that the evolution of regolith on asteroids might be more complicated than that, especially for small bodies," said study leader Hideaki Miyamoto, a researcher at the University of Tokyo and the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona.
"On Itokawa, there might be some processes that we are not aware of on other larger bodies," Miyamoto said.
- 2007 Guide: Find Bright Asteroids This Year
- VIDEO: Killer Asteroids and Comets
- IMAGES: Asteroid Gallery | <urn:uuid:5c9410f2-d7e3-4ff8-b500-d435b93cfb04> | {
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Arsenic Stubbornly Taints Many U.S. Wells, Say New Reports
New Light on a Neglected Threat to Health, Child Development
Naturally occurring arsenic in private wells threatens people in many U.S. states and parts of Canada, according to a package of a dozen scientific papers to be published next week. The studies, focused mainly on New England but applicable elsewhere, say private wells present continuing risks due to almost nonexistent regulation in most states, homeowner inaction and inadequate mitigation measures. The reports also shed new light on the geologic mechanisms behind the contamination. The studies come amid new evidence that even low doses of arsenic may reduce IQ in children, in addition to well documented risks of heart disease, cancer and reduced lung function. The reports comprise a special section in the journal Science of the Total Environment.
Millions may be exposed to private well water that tests above federal safety limits for arsenic. Here, a field test in central Maine shows one homeowner's well has a high level. (Robert Marvinney, Maine Geological Survey)
"Arsenic is the biggest public-health problem for water in the United States—it's the most toxic thing we drink," said geochemist Yan Zheng, an adjunct research scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who coedited the special section and coauthored some of the articles. "For some reason, we pay far less attention to it than we do to lesser problems." Much long-term work on arsenic in the United States and southeast Asia has been done via an extensive program at Lamont-Doherty and Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health.
Many rocks and sediments have inert, harmless traces of arsenic locked into them. But in recent years geologists have observed that some geologic formations can become enriched in arsenic, and certain chemical conditions may cause rocks to react with groundwater and liberate the element into aquifers. Since the 1990s, the problem has been identified in some 70 countries; it is worst in southeast Asia, where as many as 100 million people are exposed.
Largely unregulated private wells serve some 43 million Americans; previous work by the U.S. Geological Survey indicates that 6.8 percent tested nationwide violate federal standards governing arsenic in public water supplies. This could be interpreted to mean that some 3 million people are affected; but USGS hydrologist Joseph Ayotte, the special section's other coeditor, says the distribution of high arsenic levels is spotty, so it is hard to extract a reliable number. Maps show hot spots in many states, with patches breaking out not only through New England, but the Great Lakes, and from the Pacific Northwest and California, across the western states into Texas. Twenty percent of wells in eastern New England are above limits, affecting some 80,000 people in Maine alone, where the contamination rate in the central part of the state is 45 percent. In 2001, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency lowered the permissible standard from 50 parts per billion down to 10.
Public water supplies serving more than 25 people are supposed to meet that standard, and most do—some, by filtering water if necessary. But according to a 2014 study done in part by the Columbia Water Center, 500 mostly small rural public utilities are still in violation, mainly due to cost.
Private wells are almost certainly a much greater problem in terms of the number of people exposed. The researchers did much of their work in Maine, where half the population relies on private wells. Unlike the public utilities, these remain completely unregulated, and often untested for arsenic. In one study, the researchers found that 41 percent of well owners in a 17-town study area of central Maine had never had their wells tested—and of those who did, many did not remember the results. Based on this and other data, the authors estimated that nearly a third of the people in the study area could be exposed to levels above the federal standard.
Maine Geological Survey hydrologist Bob Johnston (left) explains the testing process to a resident. (Robert Marvinney, Maine Geological Survey)
As part of the work, a study led by Lamont-Doherty researcher Sara Flanagan surveyed a subgroup of homeowners who remembered being notified three to seven years earlier that their wells were tainted. Among them, 43 percent had since installed filtration systems, and 30 percent had taken other measures such as drinking bottled water. But the other 27 percent had done nothing. The study says that many people tended to be too optimistic, underestimating their own risk compared with their neighbors'. Another study of an arsenic-affected area in Nova Scotia, led by Dalhousie University, also found that people were unjustifiably confident that their well was safe.
"People say, 'I'm not going to worry about it—maybe I'll get cancer, maybe I won't," said pharmacologist Joseph Graziano, a leading arsenic expert and Earth Institute professor at Mailman who oversees Columbia's work on the issue. "For [local and state] government, it's a hardy perennial—once in a while it gets some press, there's a little shuffle of activity, then it dies again until the next study comes out."
In the Maine study area, the research showed that even when households did install filtration systems, 15 percent failed to produce water meeting the EPA standard. A separate study in the package, done by researchers from Rutgers University in an arsenic-plagued part of New Jersey, reported that filters treating water only at the kitchen sink are less effective at reducing exposure than systems that treat a home's entire water intake. But reduced exposure comes at a cost: whole-house systems cost an average of $2,740 to install, while faucet filters average $365.
Hot spots of dangerously high arsenic content (yellows to reds) can be found in many states. Greens show somewhat lower levels, but some health authorities say no level may be completely safe. (U.S. Geological Survey)
The 10-parts-per-billion federal standard itself could be deficient. Risks of heart disease and lung, skin and bladder cancers are well documented above such levels, but a study last year of three Maine school districts by a related team of Columbia researchers found that even subtler traces—5 parts per billion--took 5 or 6 points off the IQs of children who were studied. Maine state officials say that 20 percent of the state's wells may violate this lower level. "The risk for pregnant women and children is much higher. We're hoping that recognition may be a turning point in getting more action," said Graziano. New Jersey, one of the few states to have any regulations regarding arsenic, has already lowered its limit to 5 parts per billion.
A half dozen of the new studies examine geologic factors that introduce arsenic into wells. But in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and neighboring states, many penetrate so-called low-grade metamorphic rocks such as slate and phyllite. These form when sedimentary rocks such as shale are squeezed and heated just a bit more—a process that tends to form minerals rich in arsenic, the studies find. Groundwater high in organic matter and low in oxygen may then react with such rocks to dissolve the poison; certain poorly known microbial communities may also play a role. According to one study of Maine wells, led by Lamont-Doherty scientist Qiang Yang, undissolved particles of arsenic-rich iron minerals may be swept through fissures and sucked up—possibly one of the major pathways of arsenic transport in this kind of aquifers, said Yang. In other parts of the country, tainted wells draw water not from fractured bedrock, but from deep jumbles of rocky debris and sediment left behind by retreating glaciers; the hydrology may work differently in these regions. Another study in the package by researchers at Lehigh University found that in parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, highly alkaline water was more apt to take up arsenic.
Zheng (also a professor at City University of New York) said such findings will help geologists draw better maps of hazardous areas. But, she said, underground terrain can vary so much, individual tests are the only way to know about a particular well.
In conjunction with the Maine Geological Survey and Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Columbia team is now embarking on a project to test ways to motivate well owners in one county to test their water. Maine legislators are also considering a law requiring that a well be tested whenever a house is sold.
Much of the work in the special issue was funded by the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Superfund Research Program. Other study authors came from Middlebury College, the Vermont Geological Survey, Castleton State College, University of San Diego, the University of Ottawa, and the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources. | <urn:uuid:afb16497-3f7e-4b28-aa4c-c299ffc158a2> | {
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Favorite Mathematical Constants - Steven Finch
"All numbers are not created equal; that certain constants appear at all and then echo throughout mathematics, in seemingly independent ways, is a source of fascination." Indulge your fascination, or discover a new one. This site provides well over a hundred constants, each with descriptions, proofs, interesting sidelines, and illustrations. Some are illustrated with Mathcad files (viewable with a free read-only version, linked from the site). Many entries rely on a knowledge of advanced mathematics. Browse the topic-based list or look up constants by numerical value. References and other links are cited.
Visual Calculus - Larry Husch; University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)
Alive Maths/Maths à Vivre - Nathalie Sinclair for SchoolNet
Try hands-on mathematics in your home or classroom. In Alive Maths' interactive "microworlds," students investigate patterns and relationships, pose questions, play with the variables, and solve problems. Every microworld leads students through an investigative process via "what if?" questions at the bottom of each page. If registered with the site (for free), students can save their work on a personal web page, add text notes to a page, and see a record of where they've been and how recently. The site also includes teacher support pages, including teaching suggestions, tales from the classroom, and correlations to Canadian curricula. English and French versions are available.
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives for Interactive Mathematics (NLVM) - Cannon et al., Principal Investigators; Utah State University
Bring a host of mathematical concepts to life through interactive, Web-based activities. These Java applets and other virtual manipulatives cover mathematics appropriate to grades K-12, with a special emphasis on K-8. Browse by grade band or by math topic: number and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and data analysis and probability. Each activity is linked to the corresponding NCTM Standards it addresses. Planned but not yet implemented as part of this three-year project are activities and investigative questions for students related to each activity, and a teacher information page for each activity featuring lesson plans and tips on implementing the applets in the classroom.
Weights and Measures - National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
A virtual museum exhibit examining the role of the United States government in the development and standardization of weights and measures, in eight sections: America before standard weights and measures; Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler; The Office of Weights and Measures in the Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1836-1901; The Mendenhall Order; The founding of the National Bureau of Standards in 1901; From artifacts to physical constants; The dissemination of standard weights and measures; and A social history of weights and measures. This last section, dealing with the topics of milk, odometers, grocery goods, and gas pumps, was written by students in the Maryland Virtual High School of Science and Mathematics Summer Program, in collaboration with NIST staff members.
Illuminations - National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
Interactive resources for students and teachers based on NCTM's Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. The site is divided by grade band (Pre-K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, and a cross-band section). Each band contains the following topics: i-Math Investigations--interactive multimedia math investigations designed to inspire and teach; Reflections on Teaching--discussion questions based on video vignettes of teaching and learning; selected Web resources; Internet-based lesson plans--examples of how Web sites can be used to help create effective Standards-based mathematics lessons; and a searchable version of the updated NCTM Standards.
Chameleon Graphing - Ursula Whitcher
A pair of introductory geometry units, intended for elementary to early high school students. In the the Coordinate Plane unit, students learn to graph points on a number line and in the plane with Sam the chameleon. Or graph lines and learn to visualize slope with Joan, Sam's older sister, in Lines and Slope. Each unit includes a glossary, links (to both geometric and chameleon-ic resources), and a note to grownups/adults with suggestions on how to use the material.
Mathematics Enhancement Programme - Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching, Univ. of Exeter, U.K.
A whole curriculum -- lessons, worksheets, overhead projector transparencies, teacher notes, practice problems and exams -- for primary and secondary schools. Use the Mathematics Attainment Test to generate tests online, automatically mark and detect common errors, and graph and analyze the results. This curriculum was adapted from the "continental model" of mathematics teaching, which emphasizes whole-class, interactive teaching. It is available in PDF format online, and for sale in print. The site also includes a study package for the GCSE (major British exams), a statistics unit, remedial program, "help modules" (extra study topics), and various information about the development and implementation of the program as a whole.
Teacher Education Materials Project (TE-MAT) - Horizon Research, Inc. (HRI)
A project for K-12 professional development providers in math and science. It offers:
-- a conceptual framework for designing, implementing, and evaluating
effective professional development.
-- a set of practitioner essays on different aspects of professional development, linked from the framework.
-- a searchable collection of reviews of materials, over 250 reviews and growing, also linked from the framework. Each of the reviews contains a description of the material; discussion of its purpose, audience, content, and quality; ideas for use; and other cautions and comments.
The Horizon Research, Inc. TE-MAT project is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Eisenhower National Clearinghouse (ENC) assisted with the creation of the Web site, and will maintain the site when the project is complete (scheduled for the spring of 2002).
Archimedes - Chris Rorres, Drexel University
An impressive collection of information on Archimedes' life and achievements, complete with historical quotes, illustrations, and animations. The site includes pages on Archimedes' inventions and accomplishments: Archimedes' Claw, Burning Mirrors, the Golden Crown, the Archimedes Screw, the Stomachion (similar to tangrams), the Cattle Problem, Archimedean Solids, Spheres and Planetaria, and the Law of the Lever. Other materials about and commemorating Archimedes' life and times: a timeline, the Siege of Syracuse, the Royal Family of Syracuse, Archimedes' death and tomb, coins from Syracuse, books on Archimedes, the lunar crater Archimedes, and stamps portraying Archimedes.
SketchMad - Nathalie Sinclair, Queen's University, Ontario, Canada
The Geometer's SketchPad is dynamic geometry software. SketchMad is a resource center devoted to its use in the classroom. Here you can find an introduction to Sketchpad and tips on getting started with Sketchpad. More advanced teaching ideas are available, in pre-made sketches, activities, and lesson plans (aligned to Ontario's curriculum, but widely applicable). Stories from the classroom detail how others have used Sketchpad. And there are links to workshops, conferences, and professional development opportunities, and other Sketchpad Web resources. From the Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education Group (MSTE), Faculty of Education, Queen's University.
Geometry Construction Reference - Paul Kunkel
Lays out the basics of compass and straightedge construction. The main page illustrates thirteen constructions, step by step. The Instruments explains what makes a tool good, and gives tips for making more precise constructions. What is a construction? lists common practices to avoid and discusses the collapsing compass rule. Paul Kunkel has some further geometrical investigations at Mathematics Lessons. Explore more construction examples at Zef Damen's page, Constructions with Ruler and Compass. | <urn:uuid:061d9c87-812a-48c1-bca3-b8c0330af62c> | {
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LONDON – The largest batch of Anglo-Saxon treasure ever discovered was found by an unemployed man!
Terry Herbert is an unemployed metal-detecting enthusiast. He bought a used metal detector for about $6 and went exploring in Staffordshire. While looking through the fields of a friend’s farm, his detector went off.
Herbert had stumbled upon the treasure find of a lifetime. He spent five days sifting through the soil and collecting piece after piece before he realized he needed professional help.
Archaeologists ended up recovering 11 pounds in gold and 5 pounds in silver! It is believed the artifacts are from Mercia, one of the five main Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, dating somewhere between 675 AD and 725 AD.
The stash contained almost 1,500 pieces, which includes helmet crests, enamel-studded sword fittings and even a checkerboard piece. A number of the military items bear religious insignia or inscriptions, which will help archaeologists further understand the Anglo-Saxons’ relationship between Christianity and warfare.
Because the treasure is over 300 years old, it will offered for sale only to accredited museums in Britain. Herbert and the unidentified farmer will split the profit 50-50, meaning they each will be becoming millionaires!
Take a look at the video below that features some of the biggest pieces: | <urn:uuid:309be3be-635e-4786-91a6-b93fdb89832d> | {
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Pericardiocentesis, also called a pericardial tap, is a procedure in which a needle and catheter remove fluid from the pericardium, the sac around your heart. The fluid is tested for signs of infection, inflammation, and the presence of blood and cancer.
Occasionally, pericardiocentesis is done in an emergency to treat something called cardiac tamponade, a life-threatening rapid buildup of fluid around the heart that weakens its pumping. The procedure relieves pressure there.
Why Is It Performed?
Your doctor uses it to:
- Find out if the fluid around your heart is caused by problems such as infection or cancer
- Relieve symptoms, like shortness of breath, that are caused by the fluid around your heart
How Do I Prepare for It?
Your doctor or nurse will tell you what you can and can’t eat or drink before it.
- Ask your doctor what medications should be taken on the day of your procedure.
- If you have diabetes, ask your doctor how to adjust your meds the day of your test.
- Tell your doctor and nurses if you are allergic to anything.
- Bring all your medicines and any previous test results.
- You may be admitted to the hospital afterward.
- Bring someone with you to take you home.
What to Expect
The room will be cool and dimly lit. You will lie on a special table in the cardiac catheterization lab. You will get a mild sedative to relax you, but you will be conscious during the procedure. An IV (intravenous) line is inserted into your hand or arm in case fluids or medications are needed.
The doctor will use a local anesthetic to numb an area on your chest. A needle will be inserted, and then a catheter (a thin plastic tube) will be threaded into the sac around your heart. The doctor may use an X-ray or echocardiogram machine to make sure the catheter is in the right spot. The doctor will then drain the fluid around your heart.
When the fluid has been removed, the catheter may be removed. Sometimes, it’s left in place for more drainage.
The whole thing takes about 20 to 60 minutes to perform.
After the Procedure
Your doctor will monitor you for several hours. If the operation isn't successful, more procedures may be needed to drain fluid from around the heart or to thin out the pericardium to relieve pressure.
What Are the Risks?
Pericardiocentesis is fairly safe, especially when imaging is used to guide the needle. But he procedure may:
- Bring on an irregular heart rhythm
- Cause cardiac arrest
- Cause a heart attack
- Puncture the heart, liver, lung, or stomach | <urn:uuid:bce63c7c-31b6-4c3d-9280-1d358aa482b5> | {
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“You know, Dad, since the nephew/beloved grandchild is here, we should take him up to the Little Bighorn Battlefield. He hasn’t been there, and what is a trip up to see your grandparents without some long, hot, historical event that you won’t appreciate until later in life?” I said. Dad looked at me and laughed, nodding his head in agreement, and that is how mum, dad, and I made plans to pack the nephew/beloved grandchild off to the Little Bighorn Battlefield, sometimes more famously known as Custer’s Last Stand, later that hot week in late July.
If you grow up in Montana, you will study the Battle of the Little Bighorn. It’s a bit like Texan school children studying the Alamo or Pennsylvania children studying Gettysburg in great detail: you do deep dives on what you have. Here are the basic facts:
- On June 25-26, 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led his 7th Cavalry against factions of the Cheyenne, Lakota, and Arapahoe tribes near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana.
- Custer and his 7th Cavalry numbered about 650 men. The Cheyenne, Lakota, and Arapahoe, led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, amongst others, numbered 1,500-2,500 braves.
- The battle was a rout, being over in about an hour. None of Custer’s men, namely the five companies under his immediate command (275-odd men), survived the battle. The Indians lost 31 braves in the fight.
My grandfather was a general surgeon in Miles City, Montana. Dad said that when he tagged along with him on house calls, Grandpa Barney would often drop him off at the battlefield to spend the day. Dad remembers wandering the hills, marking out different military maneuvers, denoting which officer had what position. As the site is both a national cemetery and national monument, little if anything has changed since he was a boy. Some 60 years later, Dad could still tell us more than the recorded guides about how the battle took place.
There is hot, there is Africa hot, and there is scorching-in-late-July-on-the-plains hot. The sky blazed above us, the grass burned underfoot. Mum, Dad, the nephew/beloved grandson, and I spent that hot afternoon walking the battlefield, peering at monuments, cemeteries, and grave markers, watching interpretive films. Seeing all of that open space, it was hard to imagine it in June of 1876, a powder keg of hostility and anger and death, of huge Indian villages and Gatling guns that had been drug halfway across the continent. But that is what it was.
For a fictionalized yet brings-it-to-life image, I give you Edgar Paxson’s “Custer’s Last Stand.” This painting–and it is quite famous–is in the Buffalo Bill Center of the West Museum in Cody, Wyoming. Should you find yourself in Cody, I highly recommend stopping in the museum. It is a nice, small museum with some lovely Native American artifacts, historical guns, and photography and art exhibitions.
After the battlefield, we walked over to the Indian Memorial while keeping a sharp eye for rattlesnakes. (It’s always a good idea to keep an eye out for snakes in the summertime or any other time, for that matter.) It was grey granite, shaded and cool and beautiful, horses galloping across the prairie.
While viewing the Indian Memorial, I was reminded of the Bayeux Tapestry. Joel and I first visited Bayeux in 2010 on our whirlwind, around-all-of-France-in-two-weeks trip. We used Bayeux as a base for a few days as we went up to the Normandy beaches, but we couldn’t help but love Bayeux as well. Miraculously, it survived World War II with its cathedrals and buildings mostly intact, and did the 1,000-year-old tapestry. Created using dyed, woolen yarn on linen, the tapestry tells the pictographic story of the Norman Conquest and Battle of Hastings.
Looking at the Indian Monument and the Bayeux Tapestry, now do you see why the one reminded me of the other?
I’m not yet certain if the nephew/beloved grandchild appreciated that day on the battlefield, but I did. I got to watch my dad remember being the age of his grandson, to listen to him talk about something that had fascinated him once upon a time. These battles, almost 850 years apart and on different continents, had much in common, or at least the artistic rendering of them does. I think seeing the tapestry and the memorial gave me a deeper appreciation for both.
While I generally have a suggested reading list for most everything, I do not for William the Conqueror, the Battle of Hasting, the Norman Conquest, G.A. Custer, or the Battle of the Little Bighorn. If you have a favorite book, please suggest it and I’ll add it to my bedside list of things to read.
Fun fact: the opening credits to 1991’s “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” show the Bayeux tapestry. (If you don’t believe me, you can see it here.) | <urn:uuid:fcdec531-1663-4107-bb0e-333b87cab15e> | {
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- slide 1 of 5
The first thing that those entering into amateur photography have to understand is how the basic imaging processes work. This is not to say that amateur photographers need to know the science behind digital imaging, but they do need to know how to negotiate the proper exposure for their images. The aperture decides how much light is let in, the shutter speed determines how fast the shutter opens and closes to capture the image and the ISO dictates how the sensor is going to interpret the light.
These three elements, in conjunction with the amount of light you create or allow for in a given space, are going to determine how your image looks. The best amateur photography tip to follow is to play around with your DSLR camera at first to get a visual sense of how the iris works, how the different shutter speeds allow in light and deal with motion, and how the ISO sensitivity blocks out light or allows in grain to the image.
- slide 2 of 5
Most working in amateur photography will be happy just to get an image that is in focus, but the reality is that lighting makes photography. Instead of simply going for broad light areas, such as overcast days or evenly lit rooms, begin negotiating areas that have a much more high contrast light. Begin shooting at high noon or with artificial lighting kits that allow you to position the light in the area. After a while you will get a sense of how light interacts with a subject and what kind of lighting you like for a given situation. This does not always require a lot of orchestration on your part, really just finding places where you can have a nice play between light and dark.
- slide 3 of 5
Digital photography is not as difficult to deal with as film photography during the editing phases, but you still have to manage the files. Digital photography users tend to take a large number of photos since they do not have expensive film stock, but they still have to store these files. Creating an organized platform on your home computer where your amateur photography can be broken down into subcategories is the best method. This is especially important for your workflow if you are editing in a program like Adobe Photoshop.
- slide 4 of 5
It may seem like common sense, but a lot of amateur photography is ruined because the photographer did not keep their camera clean. Lenses especially can get dirty, and dust or debris on this glass can show up in the final image. Outside particles can get inside the DSLR camera itself and interfere with the sensor, which can be a much more significant problem than a lens that needs to be wiped down. The best option is to use a small blower to clear out debris from inside the camera as well as a microfiber cloth for the lens itself.
- slide 5 of 5
Source: Author's own experience
Image Credit: Nikon.com | <urn:uuid:cba49030-83bc-4e6c-8938-6ce406a1b658> | {
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The Smelting House at Røros
The smelting house was the keystone in the mining operation. It was in the smelting house that the ore underwent a long and laborious smelting process before the end product was ready for export.
Randi Borgos Amund Spangen
Apart from the summer months, when the smelting activity was stopped in order for the workers to harvest the hay and work on their farms, production in the smelting house was continuous. There was heavy traffic to and fro. The ore was transported from Storwartz, Nordgruvefeltet and other mines by horse and sledge, and from afar the peasants arrived with loads of charcoal and wood. A great deal of this transportation was taken over by the railway when it opened in 1877 and by the cable cars, which were built after the 1900s. But certain routes were left to horse drawn sledges right up to the final whistle.
The smelting house, which burnt down in 1953 was newly erected in 1888. During the time it was being built the following passage appeared in ‘Fjeld-Ljom’ (the local newspaper):
It is sincerely hoped that the Works great sacrifice at this time, in order to ensure employment, when again taking up the arduous struggle in the extraction of copper will be successful. All the inhabitants’ future and welfare depend on this.’
When the building was completed ‘Fjeldl-Ljom’ wrote: ‘Røros smelting house has reappeared after the fire during the summer, a great building. Large and roomy towers this monster of a wooden house. Many busy hands have been employed here during the summer. The smelting furnaces are bricked into position and the machines and equipment put into place. On a trial basis smelting has already started up in two of the furnaces, namely in a refining furnace, and the ‘American’ in which the final smelting of raw ore to copper residue takes place in accordance with a new principle. Røros smelting house is one of the most modern of its type in the world.’
The smelting house was closed down for good in 1953. It had been a large and important workplace for many generations. Visually, ‘this monster of a wooden house’ had been as much of a Røros landmark as Bergstadens Ziir (the church) and the slag heaps. Some years later, in 1977, work in the mines also stopped.
Source. The entire article is taken from the book: ‘På Sta’a og uti markom’ Bind I, Randi Borgos and Amund Spangen 2001. | <urn:uuid:bd560c3f-0a28-4412-8915-80eb25d2bb2e> | {
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Downs Cooperatives - What Are They & How Do They Work?
Downs cooperatives, or co-ops, have been around for several years serving people and businesses for the betterment of the community. Cooperatives are Downs businesses owned by the individuals who utilize them. Depending on classification, they either provide certain services or foods to those in the community. Those who are a part of a cooperative benefit by helping, not only themselves, but others as well.
They provide necessary components to the economy. For example, agriculture cooperatives are controlled and owned by the user, typically farmers. Farmers are able to join what are known as marketing cooperatives and charge more for the products but less for their marketing, attracting business. Those buying the products benefit on the fact that they are purchasing fresher, healthier products.
Downs Cooperatives - Group Classifications
Downs co-ops has sorted out into groups including;
- Marketing Cooperatives
- Purchasing Cooperatives
- Service Cooperatives
- Food Cooperatives
Within these classifications you can find more specialized cooperatives in Downs, KS such as;
- child care
- credit union
Each of these offers affordable options to people who are a part of the cooperative. Members have the option of electing a board of directors. The board of directors handles daily activities within the cooperative.
Consortium child care cooperatives are also supplied within industrial parks. This can help parents in Downs place their child within a daycare that is moderately close to their job and often at a more affordable rate than most daycares. Though it may be the businesses who deliver the primary funding to start this type of service, it still revolves back to those that own the daycare electing their own board of directors. It is the owner of the company and its members that provide all the decisions and ultimately decide how it is ran.
A good example of how utility cooperatives can work for their members is Craw-Kan Telephone Cooperative Company. This company delivers telephone service to its members who hold shares within the company and at the end of each and every year each member receives a portion of that profit sharing. This not only entices others to become members and pay their bill on time regularly, but also benefits both the company and those that they provide service to.
Downs electric and telephone cooperatives provide their services to people while hearing members voices. The members have the ability to voice their concerns and suggest what they need changed as it is them who determine what it is that goes on within that cooperative.
Membership in Downs Cooperatives
Members of a Downs cooperative have a large list of responsibilities that they must follow. They must ensure that every one of the applicable laws are met and followed by its members. They must appoint or removed directors on an appropriate basis. Members must know what their cooperative offers and familiarize them self with services in order to better serve others. You must be able to meet customer satisfaction in order to run efficiently, effectively and profitably.
There are times when cooperatives in Downs must decide to combine with other businesses in order to expand their services or dissolve on the grounds that there's not enough demand and supply of their services. The decisive role of the members can be difficult and yet it is necessary that they are well informed and able to make those decisions.
Cooperatives in Downs, KS are an important part of people's everyday lives. By providing services and goods to their members, they're offering a mutually beneficial option. Without cooperatives, nearly 26 million people in America would be without the electric services that these places provide. Over 100 million Americans would be hard pressed to find affordable goods and services and all the net worth that these cooperatives pull in together would be lost.
It is essential to have these in our lives in order to keep things in balance between affordable and quality in our lives. Individuals are brought together in a cooperative group in order to run a business that will provide quality services to those in need while keeping the authority to make decisions about their company as a whole. That is what makes Downs cooperatives so unique among the rest in today's times. | <urn:uuid:d77c31ec-4631-4656-a5e6-dc6ddcdddeb8> | {
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A Graphical Assessment Language (GAL) appears to provide the listener with a medium for describing the perceived spatial attributes of a reproduced audio event. Previous language development investigations have concluded that these spatial characteristics may be represented consistently by listeners using their own graphical descriptors. However, the ease with which these individual descriptors could be misinterpreted by a researcher was highlighted in a subsequent study; a notable problem since a primary aim of the GAL is to maintain the validity of the listener's original experience. To reduce potential ambiguities in interpretation, this investigation considers the development of a common descriptive language, consolidating listener's individual descriptors into a universal set of graphical terms identified as being effective for describing the experiences of all investigation participants. The process and outcome of creating a "universal" GAL is described.
Click to purchase paper as a non-member or login as an AES member. If your company or school subscribes to the E-Library then switch to the institutional version. If you are not an AES member and would like to subscribe to the E-Library then Join the AES!
This paper costs $33 for non-members and is free for AES members and E-Library subscribers. | <urn:uuid:ada3f637-9db3-4a13-964e-c7182373f744> | {
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PARCC Proposes Common-Core Test Accommodations
ELLs, special needs focus of release
The first of two groups of states working to design assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards has released a draft accommodations manual that outlines the types of test supports that can be used to help English-language learners and students with disabilities demonstrate their content knowledge and skills.
The Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC—made up of 22 states—will circulate the policy for public comment through May 13. The PARCC governing board will vote on the final document in June.
The manual's recommendations, released last week, are intended to expand access to tests beyond what may be currently available for students in some states, said Tamara Reavis, PARCC's senior adviser for assessment, accessibility, and equity. Its details indicate that some accommodations once linked to students with special needs—such as repeating instructions aloud or magnifying text—are now among the test's "embedded supports" available to any student, even those who are not formally identified as ELLs or students in special education.
But advocates for English-learners and students with disabilities are expected to take a close look at the proposals, both for what they represent in terms of accessibility and for what they may mean for classroom instruction. Advocates in both camps have said that even the most accessible test will be impossible to pass if students with disabilities and English-learners are not given a chance to master the academic challenges that the common-core standards will bring.
One of the two main consortia developing tests aligned to the Common Core State Standards is recommending accommodations that can be used in assessments given to students with disabilities and those learning English.
Students with Disabilities
• Word-prediction software that types an entire word using a few keystrokes
• Read-aloud of test passages or instructions
• Dictation or transcription software
• Word-to-word translations from English into a student’s native language
• Clarification of test directions (not test items) delivered in a student’s native language
• Oral responses on math assessments, which would be dictated into text
• Frequent test breaks
Source: Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for Colleges and Career
For English-learners, the consortium states that accommodations must: reduce the "linguistic load" or complexity of the language that is necessary for students to access the content in curriculum or on the assessment; refrain from altering what is being measured in a test item or altering the test itself; and help "address the unique linguistic and sociocultural needs of an EL by reducing the effects of English-language skills on the student's overall performance on the assessment."
The proposed policy further states that students who are currently classified as English-learners under the criteria used by their states would be eligible to receive accommodations approved for English-learners on PARCC tests. Students whose parents have refused language-support services for them would be eligible for accommodations, so long as they are classified by their district as an English-learner.
The manual urges that any decisions about accommodations for English-learners be made by more than one individual, and may include English-as-a-second-language and bilingual teachers, content-area teachers, guidance counselors, principals, parents, and students, among others. These same stakeholders should also decide on and assign accommodations to English-learners early in the academic year or upon enrollment, the recommendations say, and no student should encounter an accommodation for the first time on test day.
Among the accommodations available to English-learners would be word-to-word translations from English into a student's native language and frequent breaks during testing.
Gabriela Uro, the manager of ELL policy and research for the Washington-based Council of the Great City Schools, which represents 67 of the nation's urban systems, said that most of the recommended accommodations seem to have been developed with "a paper-and-pencil test in mind," even though nearly all students will take the exams on computers. One example, she said, would be providing an accommodation on the English/language arts test in which students could speak their answers and have them transcribed to text, as is recommended for math.
"For kids who don't speak English well, or who have accents, this would have to be worked out," she said. "But it can be done. The technology is there."
Ms. Uro said some of the draft language related to federal and case law that is central to English-language learners having equal access to education is vague and could cause confusion for states and districts. She also pointed to language in the draft suggesting that accommodations for English-learners be "individualized," akin to how decisions are made for students with disabilities.
"How do you operationalize something like that in a district like Santa Ana [Calif.], where 60 percent of the students are ELLs?" Ms. Uro said.
For students with disabilities, the draft manual outlines five categories of accommodations available to students that would provide "equitable access" to the tests.
One category—known as "presentation accommodations"—would include changes in the method or format in which the test or test questions are provided to the student. They may include, for example, the use of Braille or sign interpretation of test items.
Another category, "response accommodations," would allow changes in the method used by the student to provide responses to test questions. These may include dictating responses to a scribe or using a Braille note-taker.
Proposed timing and scheduling accommodations include extending the amount of time allowed for testing, letting a student take frequent breaks, or allowing a student to take the test at a certain time of day. "Setting" accommodations would include changes to the location or conditions in which the test is administered, including a separate location or group size.
Finally, the proposal would allow expanded access to the test for a small number of students with disabilities in reading, writing, and calculating who require additional supports and meet certain criteria, as noted in their individualized education program.
In addition, a number of accessibility features would be available to all students, either by the student's choice or at the discretion of a school. Those features include computerized pop-up glossaries, spell-checkers, or magnification.
Some proposals may prove controversial, including PARCC's recommendations for how to handle issues such as read-aloud accommodations on English/language arts tests and the use of calculators. The consortium has proposed that read-aloud accommodations be provided only to students who are blind and have not learned Braille, or students with "a disability that severely limits or prevents him/her from accessing printed text, even after varied and repeated attempts to teach the student to do so."
The use of calculators would be restricted to students with a disability that "severely limits or prevents the student from calculating, even after varied and repeated attempts to teach the student to do so."
PARCC sought feedback on those specific elements of the accommodations manual earlier this year and received about 3,500 responses.
Rather than linking accommodations to particular disabilities, some advocates have argued that the test-makers should determine if an accommodation will cause a problem in an assessment. The education task force of the Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities, a Washington-based advocacy group, made that point in a response to an earlier draft.
"All access features should be available to all students unless and until PARCC can provide evidence that use of that feature as an accommodation fundamentally alters what is intended to be assessed by the test item," the organization wrote in a February letter.
The other group of states working on new assessments to measure how well students are mastering the common core—the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium—is expected to release its draft policy on accommodations in late summer or early fall.
Vol. 32, Issue 29, Page 6
Access selected articles, e-newsletters and more!
- Superintendent of Schools
- Florence Public School District One, Florence, SC
- 3rd Grade Teacher
- New Hope Academy Charter School, Brooklyn, NY
- Grand Center Arts Academy, St. Louis, MO
- Associate Director of Curriculum & Instruction
- Generation Ready, New York, NY
- Senior Content and Curriculum Leader
- BrightBytes, San Francisco, CA | <urn:uuid:5f3dfee1-64e7-4791-9501-e917daffc5e8> | {
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Donna Resevoir and Canal
During the week of February 6-12, 2012, representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) will be in the area of South Alamo, Texas, to speak with residents about the contamination in the Donna Reservoir and Canal. This effort is being made to provide local residents with information about the health risks of consuming fish taken from the Donna Reservoir and Canal. The possession of contaminated fish taken from the reservoir is prohibited by the TDSHS and has been since 1993.
The most commonly observed health effects in people exposed to extremely high levels of PCBs are skin conditions, such as chloracne and rashes, but these were known to be symptoms of acute systemic poisoning dating back to 1922. Studies in workers exposed to PCBs have shown changes in blood and urine that may indicate liver damage. In Japan in 1968, 280 kg of PCB-contaminated rice bran oil was used as chicken feed, resulting in a mass poisoning, known as Yushō disease, in over 14,000 people.
Animals that eat PCB-contaminated food even for short periods of time suffer liver damage and may die. In 1968 in Japan, 400,000 birds died after eating poultry feed that was contaminated with PCBs. Animals that ingest smaller amounts of PCBs in food over several weeks or months develop various health effects, including anemia; acne-like skin conditions (chloracne); and liver, stomach, and thyroid gland injuries.
The principal pollutants in the reservoir are polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). PCBs are a group of synthetic organic chemicals that can cause a number of different harmful effects in humans. The primary risk to human health from PCBs is from suspended sediment in the water and the consumption of contaminated fish.
The Donna Reservoir and Canal is an EPA Superfund site located in Hidalgo County in southern Texas just north of the Rio Grande. The site includes the Donna Reservoir, the Donna Main Canal, the West and East Main Canals which extend north from the reservoir, and a series of interconnecting canals.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) conducted sampling of the Donna Reservoir and canal system from April 9, 2001 through April 13, 2001 to document the presence or release of PCBs from soil, surface water or suspended sediments in the reservoir and canal . The contaminated sediment source extends approximately 5.75 miles and includes the Donna Main Canal (aka First Main Lift Canal) from the exit of the siphon on the north side of the Arroyo Colorado through the Donna Reservoir, and into the West and East Main Canals to the intake for the City of Donna. The hazardous substance associated with this source is polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) Arochlor-1254.
For further information: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/nar1771.htm | <urn:uuid:df0dc5e5-8f2e-4199-8337-d8c874aa696c> | {
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Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? (Pou sopo; pou grammateu; pou sunzhthth tou aiwno toutou;). Paul makes use of Isaiah 33:18 without exact quotation. The sudden retreat of Sennacherib with the annihilation of his officers. "On the tablet of Shalmaneser in the Assyrian Gallery of the British Museum there is a surprisingly exact picture of the scene described by Isaiah" (Robertson and Plummer). Note the absence of the Greek article in each of these rhetorical questions though the idea is clearly definite. Probably sopo refers to the Greek philosopher, grammateu to the Jewish scribe and sunzhthth suits both the Greek and the Jewish disputant and doubter ( Acts 6:9 ; Acts 9:29 ; Acts 17:18 ; Acts 28:29 ). There is a note of triumph in these questions. The word sunzhthth occurs here alone in the N.T. and elsewhere only in Ignatius, Eph. 18 quoting this passage, but the papyri give the verb sunzhtew for disputing (questioning together). Hath not God made foolish? (ouci emwranen o qeo;). Strong negative form with aorist active indicative difficult of precise translation, "Did not God make foolish?" The old verb mwrainw from mwro, foolish, was to be foolish, to act foolish, then to prove one foolish as here or to make foolish as in Romans 1:22 . In Matthew 5:13 ; Luke 14:34 it is used of salt that is tasteless. World (kosmou). Synonymous with aiwn (age), orderly arrangement, then the non-Christian cosmos. | <urn:uuid:cea2ac2c-3755-4670-9025-d56c4735ac13> | {
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Back in 1872, Benjamin Franklin argued against the Bald Eagle’s nomination as the United States national symbol. The shifty bird’s frequent thievery prompted him to write that the bald eagle “is a bird of bad moral character”.
Franklin believed the wild turkey was a better selection because it was “a much more respectable bird”. While it’s true the bald eagle is an opportunistic feeder that will scavenge carrion and steal prey from other raptors, it’s also a fearsome hunter.
This huge, dark-bodied bird, with a seven foot wingspan, white head and tail, razor sharp beak, deadly talons and extraordinary yellow eyes is a fish’s worst nightmare. Although seafood is it’s favorite meal, the bald eagle will also strike turtles, snakes, ducks, geese, muskrats and rabbits.
The regal bird of prey can only be observed in North America but you can find them just about anywhere on the continent. They build some of the largest stick nests on earth with some measuring eight foot across and weighing up to two tons.
They prefer to make their home near an aquatic habitat such as lakes, rivers, reservoirs or oceans. If the local water source stays thawed during the winter, the cold tolerant eagles will reside in their territory all year long.
Mated bald eagles are paired for life and share all domestics tasks from nest building to hunting to caring for the young. They are devoted parents who faithfully safeguard the yearly clutch of two eggs and dutifully teach fledglings how to fly.
During the mid-to-late 1900s, the bald eagle population was decimated by hunting and poison, necessitating urgent conservation and a ban on DDT pesticide. The maligned bird became a national symbol despite support for awarding that honor to a turkey and now the resilient raptor has fully recovered from the brink of extinction.
|A fish's worst nightmare|
|A regal bird of prey|
|A national symbol|
|Back from the brink| | <urn:uuid:ee37e364-b017-427e-9715-527c5cb34ad5> | {
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When Pope Paul VI issued his landmark 1968 encyclical on marital chastity, Humanae Vitae, he predicted dire consequences from the growing acceptance of unnatural methods of birth control. He was widely ridiculed at the time by those who dissented from Humanae Vitae, but today nobody is laughing. In fact, each passing year more and more people proclaim him as a great prophet. That he was, but he was not the first to predict the unhappy consequences of contraception.
In this column I will mention some of those who preceded him.
In my February post, I noted that the Sexual Revolution had started in the 1820s with the Neo-Malthusian promotion of contraception. Nearly a century later, this retrogressive revolution received a boost from Margaret Sanger, who started to promote contraception in an organized way just before World War I. During the Roaring Twenties, immorality was not only widely practiced but it was also discussed. Commenting on the sexual discussion that was going on in the 1920s, pundit Walter Lippmann wrote in 1929:
“. . . Whether or not birth control is eugenic, hygienic, and economic, it is the most revolutionary practice in the history of sexual morals” (A Preface to Morals, Macmillan: 1929, Transaction edition: 1982, 291).
In this debate, various names were given to the revolutionary new lifestyle. According to Lippmann, “The actual proposals go by a great variety of fancy names such as free love, trial marriage, companionate marriage. When these proposals are examined it is evident they all take birth control as their major premise, and then deduce from it some part or all of the logical consequences” (298). Lippmann, a secular humanist, concluded: “In the discussion which has ensued since birth control became generally feasible, the central confusion has been that the reformers have tried to fix their sexual ideals in accordance with the logic of birth control instead of the logic of human nature” (306).
Essentially, the 20th century “reformers” of the Teens and Twenties were saying this: “Marry, contracept, and divorce when you get bored with each other. Then start over again. However, if you happen to have a baby, then stay together for the benefit of the child.”
Eighty years later, the culture no longer talks about divorce and remarriage as a great social advance, but it also no longer encourages couples to stay together for the benefit of the child. Instead, sex outside of marriage is almost taken for granted, and unwanted babies are killed before they are born.
The next “prophet” in my chronological list is Anglican Bishop Charles Gore. In the 1920s debate about what the Anglicans rightly called “unnatural forms of birth control,” Bishop Gore led the fight against contraception within the Anglican Communion. He and others pointed out that accepting contraception would open a Pandora’s box of all sorts of other evils that none of them would want to see—including the acceptance of homosexual sodomy. How right he was has been proved by the events within his own ecclesial community.
Our third “prophet” is an unnamed editorial writer for the Washington Post. Here’s a brief chronology to put things in perspective: On August 14, 1930, the Anglican bishops issued a statement accepting unnatural forms of birth control for hardship cases. On December 31, 1930, Pope Pius XI responded with his encyclical Casti Connubii, in which he strongly reaffirmed the previously unbroken Christian teaching against marital contraception. On March 21, 1931, a committee of the Federal Council of Churches accepted the “careful and restrained use” of contraception. The very next day, an editorial in the Post strongly criticized this action. “Carried to its logical conclusion, the committee’s report, if carried into effect, would sound the death-knell of marriage as a holy institution by establishing degrading practices which would encourage indiscriminate immorality. The suggestion that the use of legalized contraceptives would be ‘careful and restrained’ is preposterous.” Prophetic indeed!
Nor was the battle against contraception confined to Christians. In the 1920s Mahatma Gandhi was already fighting it, saying things such as “artificial measures are like putting a premium on vice,” and “nature is relentless and will have full revenge for any such violations of her laws. Moral results can only be produced by moral restraints.”
Let us conclude with the quotation from Paul VI in section 17 of Humanae Vitae in which he predicts four tragic consequences from the widespread acceptance of contraception. I have inserted the numbers:
“Upright men can even better convince themselves of the solid grounds on which the teaching of the Church in this field is based if they care to reflect upon the consequences of methods of artificial birth control. Let them consider, first of all, how wide and easy a road would thus be opened up towards conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality. Not much experience is needed in order to know human weakness, and to understand that men—especially the young, who are so vulnerable on the point—have need of encouragement to be faithful to the moral law, so that they must not be offered some easy means of eluding its observance. It is also to be feared that the man, growing used to the employment of contraceptive practices, may finally lose respect for the woman and, no longer caring for her physical and psychological equilibrium, may come to the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion.
“Let it be considered also that a dangerous weapon would thus be placed in the hands of those public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies . . . Who will stop rulers from favoring, from even imposing upon their peoples . . . the method of contraception which they judge to be most efficacious?”
A secular humanist, an Anglican bishop, an editorial writer, and a Pope all foretold that the acceptance of marital contraception would lead to moral and social chaos. When will the men and women of the Western culture start listening?
For a more complete analysis of the sexual revolution and some ideas about what can be done to foster a rebirth of chastity, visit the website below my name and search for Sexual Revolution.
Hope to see you at CUF’s 40th anniversary celebration!
John F. Kippley is the author of Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality (Ignatius: 2005). Visit his website at www.NFPandmore.org. | <urn:uuid:a86e2be5-e62d-45c6-97bf-f24f5141a42f> | {
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Keep tab on osteoporosis pain-reliever: Experts (Oct 20 is World Osteoporosis Day)Published On: Wed, Oct 19th, 2011 | Rheumatology | By BioNews
Even as researchers try to confirm the side effects of osteoporosis pain-relieving drugs on women, doctors say continuous consumption of the drug bisphosphonates can make the bones brittle and lead to untimely fractures.
With osteoporosis likely to affect 25 million people in the country, the magic prescription to fight osteoporosis could be a healthy diet, exercise and ample sunlight, experts said ahead of World Osteoporosis Day Thursday.
“Although it is not yet confirmed how badly the drug affects the bones, it is advisable to not use the medicine for a very long period. The medicines can make the bones brittle over a period of time,” said Harshavardhan K. Hegde, director of orthopaedics at Fortis hospital in the capital.
Bisphosphonates is sold under the names Actonel, Reclast and Boniva across the globe. According to reports by a medical journal, women reported the breakage in thigh bone after repeated use of the drug.
“What is possible is that the patient take the drug for a period of four years, and then take a break of six months,” Hegde added.
Osteoporosis, a bone disease caused due to thinning of bone tissue and loss of bone density over time, is likely to affect around 36 million people by 2013.
With the younger population heading towards a sedentary lifestyle, experts say the regime to fight the disease remains the same – a diet including green-leafy vegetables, cheese, meat, milk, vitamin D through sunlight, exercise, and avoid smoking.
“Sunlight is a must to maintain bone strength. These days Indian women are very wary of going out in the sun, and even if they do they have sunscreen mask over their face,” Hegde said.
While women are more vulnerable to the disease, experts say a little more caution towards their 30s can help as the hormonal imbalance begins by that age.
“Men are also predisposed to osteoporosis. But women should take care as after menopause, the oestrogen level comes down and the bone strength becomes weaker,” said H.S Chhabra, chief of spine and medical director at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre in Vasant Kunj.
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Great Bend Tribune
February 4, 2018
First, there is nothing to report on the drought front. The area growing from abnormally dry to moderate drought, as is the severe condition, is expanding north and eastward but overall little has changed. With all the concern over possible wheat lost from cold temperatures combined with the drought, it might be helpful to understand how cool season plants such as winter wheat and canola adapt to survive winter. First let’s tackle monocots, grasses, like winter wheat and then dicots, broadleaves like winter canola.
The goal of a winter annual like winter wheat is to establish itself before winter, protect itself during winter, and then resume vegetative and reproductive growth after the danger of winter is past. And to produce physiologically mature seed before the heat of summer. So how does it do this and how does it know winter is coming?
- As a monocot, the growing point where new growth originates stays below the surface until mid to late March around here. It is at the planting depth which is why a depth of one inch is recommended as a minimum depth. This provides a less variable, warmer environment that the atmosphere. Dry, bare soil with poor vegetative growth and persistent cold air temperatures can lower soil temperature at the growing point below freezing and potentially damage or kill the growing point but the plant has other adaptations.
- As the cues for winter are noted by the plant, several physiological changes occur. Plant growth is prostrate, not upright. The chemistry of the plant cells changes and essentially produces antifreeze to lower the freezing point of the cell to prevent the formation of ice crystal and rupturing of cell membranes. The plant is most winter hardy at the start of winter and the level of protection decreases as winter proceeds and spring approaches. The plant can regain a level of winterhardiness if temperature decreases aren’t too rapid. And once the plant has jointed and the growing point is above the soil surface there is essentially little protection except for a lush stand. So what keys these changes?
- Two things cause the changes: daylength and temperature with daylength being more important. The plant has to prepare for winter before winter arrives so temperature isn’t as useful to the plant as decreasing daylength. The decrease in sunlight keys the changes listed previously and this is reinforced by decreasing temperatures. If the change in temperatures is too early or abrupt the plant is in trouble. So how does the plant leave dormancy?
- As daylength increases after late December as we are seeing now, that keys the plant to resume growth and it is upright not prostrate. Combined with warmer air temperatures and hopefully moisture, the plant breaks dormancy and heads towards flowering. So how does it know it is okay to flower? Winter wheat has to accumulate so much cold before it will flower. The amount varies by variety but without the requisite cold accumulation it won’t flower. All of this combines to allow the plant the best chance of being able to escape winter and not reproduce until it is safe to do so.
Surviving Winter Conclusion
Published February 11, 2018
Nothing to report on the drought front except that some areas west of Barton County did receive a few inches of snow. Unless conditions change markedly and the area receives precipitation well-above normal, conditions at best will remain the same or likely intensify. Last week’s focus was on how cool season grasses like winter wheat work around winter to complete their lifecycle, i.e. produce viable seed. Briefly, the growing point is below the ground until spring, it won’t flower until being exposed to a certain amount of cold (vernalization), it changes physically and physiologically for winter with decreasing daylength as the key, and won’t flower until daylight increases to a certain level. This week’s discussion focuses on winter broadleaves like winter canola.
Unlike grasses, when dicots like winter canola germinate and emerge from the soil, the growing point emerges and is at the soil surface. As compared to grasses where the growing point stays at planting depth until late winter/early spring, this leaves the growing point vulnerable. At this stage and until after growth is well underway in the spring, if the growing point is lost the plant dies. It is vulnerable to damage/destruction by weather factors, primarily cold, and also to physical damage, livestock feeding or trampling for example. So how has the plant evolved to have the best chance of surviving winter and produce seed and how do producers manage a crop like winter canola?
- With winter canola a producer is seeking the “Goldilocks spot” heading into winter. The not too hot, not too cold, just right level of development giving the plant the best shot at surviving the winter. The idea, based on average weather conditions, is to plant the canola in the fall and allow it enough time to develop around six leaves and a good strong taproot system. Too little growth leaves the growing point more vulnerable to freezing and too much means the growing point may start to elevate above the soil surface into the air and again leave the growing point vulnerable to freeze damage. And excessive fall growth can deplete so moisture.
- Like wheat, winter canola “senses” the approach of winter through decreasing daylength and temperatures. This results in prostrate growth and the plant forms a rosette (think of what a dandelion looks like) with the growing point in the center. Cell contents also change and increases substances in cells to lower the freezing point of cell contents to protect the growing point.
- Even though the growing point isn’t in the soil, it benefits from the heat reserve in the soil compared to the atmosphere to help moderate growing point temperature. Interestingly, no-till can lead to stand loss during cold snaps as it appears the insulating effects of crop residue traps heat in the soil and that heat isn’t available to protect the growing point. And as in winter wheat, snow cover helps. If conditions result in growing point elevation above the soil surface, it is vulnerable to cold. And dry soil stores less heat to help protect the plant. One last item, just like winter wheat, the canola plant can lose all its fall above ground vegetative growth and be fine as long as the growing point is undamaged.
- Referring to the previous point, one of the challenges in growing winter canola is the temperature fluctuations Kansas experiences most winters. Oklahoma has less problem since it is warmer and places where winters are more consistently cold are also better off. However, the up and down nature of our winters often leads to more stand loss, especially under dry conditions.
- As days lengthen and temperatures moderate, the plant resumes growth and switches to upright growth with the growing point elevated on a central stalk. Cold here can cause severe damage but if the plant is developed enough, secondary nodes can take over and the plant can produce a viable crop. | <urn:uuid:5b396fe1-df78-4032-a8e0-57574ef1caee> | {
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The earth contains about one trillion tones of Kind of WOOD, which grows at a rate of 10 billion tones per year.
WOOD is divided to Hardwood and Softwood. These categories are related to the kind of tree.
Hardwood Wood is coming from dicotyledons trees (usually broad-leaved trees) such as Oak WOOD, Balsa WOOD. It Is more expensive than Other WOOD Kinds.
Softwood Wood is coming from conifers such as Pine WOOD and Cedar WOOD.
This Kind Of Woodwork is cheapest than Other WOOD Kinds.
Artificial WOOD such as PlyWOOD, MDF and Laminated Veneer lumber. These Wood Kinds.
For more KIND OF WOOD
"What is the
The expected answer is "Woodcraft is Woodwork or carpentry ". The fact we need use Woodwork in our daily lives.
Popular Woodwork are
summarized in several key themes (fuel,
arts, furniture, sporting and recreational equipment and
However there is another Woodwork question " What is suitable kinds of wood for Woodwork ?".
For more Woodwork
Divided to Physical and chemistry properties. Wood Properties are effect to Wood Crafting.
different characteristics than other Wood
Kinds. These differences are
effect to sternness of
WOOD Properites are Growth rings, WOOD Knots, Heartwood and Sapwood, Color, Water Cotent, Structure and Monocot WOOD.
WOOD consists of three components are Cellulose, Five-carbon sugars and the third is Lignin.
By Knowing WOOD Properties we have make a decision about what Kind of WOOD should be choice for Woodwork
For more WOOD PROPERTIES
Some of WOODWORKING Projects are required professional Carpenters such as Furniture, wooden stairs and Construction work but some of Woodwork Projects are simple to do by any Woodworkers such as garden category, simple furniture pieces, fishing lures , boat, surfboard, surf paddle, tree house, bird house, dog house, wooden handrail Playhouse, sheds, Plantation shutters, barbecue smoker, Picnic table and wooden clock.
FOR more Woodwork Plans | <urn:uuid:0dc13bcc-69dd-41e1-9873-d9ad17d4eb4b> | {
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Lesson 2: Programming and Movement
Lesson 2: Programming and Movement
After students have completed their robots it is time to put them into action. Now is a good time to talk to your students about how robots work. Ask them abstract questions like "Will a robot always do what we tell them to?" The answer to that question is yes, but many students will think no. No seems like the correct answer because robots will have unintended actions, like going left when the programmer wants it to go right. But the reality is that robots take every command a user gives it and follows it through exactly, the errors come from problems in the commands humans give to robots. This concept may be too abstract for younger children but it really helps the older students understand how programming works.
Students who get done early or classes that have finished their robots but do not have time to do the entire programming lesson will find this challenge a good opportunity to learn how the robot moves before actually telling it to move with programming. Although some of the math involved may be beyond younger students.
Give your students a tape measure or a printed-out paper ruler, one with centimeters and inches would be best. Draw a tic mark on one of the wheels with a piece of chalk or place a piece of opaque tape on the wheel. Ask each team to find out how many full rotations of the wheel it would take for the robot to move 2 feet, or any arbitrary distance like the distance of the surface of a table. Students who have already learned about circumference can usually figure out that the distance around the wheel is the same as the distance the robot moves. Students who have never learned about circumference will need some assistance coming to this conclusion.
This challenge is very useful because it teaches students how the robot will be moving when programming begins. The robot is told how far to go in either Degrees or Rotations, both referring to how far the wheel moves. If they can equate 1 rotation to an exact distance they will come into the concept of programming in rotations easier.
NXT Programming is very easy to learn, but can be difficult to master. There are many things that can be done with the software, but for the sake of a simple lesson it is best to start with just moving the robot. This is done with simple movement blocks like the ones shown below.
Movement blocks come from the left side menu, the top button shown below
When you click on a movement block you will see a menu like the one below at the bottom of the screen. This menu lets you change the settings on each movement block. Port lets you chose which motor you are using. The convention is to have the two wheel-motors attached to Port B and Port C, leaving Port A for the robot's "Arm" motor. Direction is either Forward, Backward or Brake, and Steeling is simply choosing between left, right, or straight and how sharp the turn is. For steeling generally turning the slider all the way left or right will make a perfect Turn-on-a-dime turn.
The Power slider determines how much power is being put into the motor. For your wheel motors 75 is the normal speed, however the slider can be turned up to 100 for a faster movement or down to 50 for a slower movement. Going lower that 50 makes the motors too weak to move the wheels usually. Next Action tells the robot to either brake and hold position after the movement is done or to just let the motors go and coast.
Duration is the most important criterion for movement, and will require the most trial and error to determine. As said before duration can be measured in Rotations, but also can be measured in Degrees or Seconds. Starting with rotations is a good idea, especially if your students did the challenge at the beginning of the page. Even if your students know how long one rotation is it is still a good idea to do a demonstration for the entire class of how far 1 rotation is, and also how far 4 or 5 rotations is.
When your program is done click on the download button shown below. If everything goes right you should see a message saying download complete shortly afterward.
The best way to teach programming is to halt all building and get the attention of the entire class. Having a projector is a big help so students can see your example program as you make it. The best way for students to learn is to follow along with your example program and they try out trying to program the robot to move some arbitrary track. Going over all the points mentioned above about moving is a good idea, don't get too in depth with your presentation however, students will lose interest the longer they have LEGOs in front of them and aren't actually using them. Giving students around an hour to test out programming will help solidify what they have learned and will ready them for the next task.
Teacher, It Doesn't Work!
Programming issues are very common but usually easy to solve. A list of the most common programming mistakes and how to solve them can be found here. | <urn:uuid:aefa8249-3b8f-4424-9103-2465f2845e7d> | {
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One of neighbours in ONGC colony Dehradun gave us a cutting of a cactus like plant in March 2013. She told that the plant is called “Brahama Kamal” and is considered very auspicious in Hindu mythology. It is said that a lotus bloomed from the navel of Vishnu who is the greatest of holy trinity of Brahama, Vishnu and Mahesh or Shiva and Brahama was created on this bloom. That is why it is called Braham Kamal (ब्रह्मकमल). Kamal means lotus in Sanskrit
It’s scientific name is Epiphyllum oxypetalum. It is a very interesting and unique plant. It belongs to Family Cactaceae. It is commonly known as Night blooming Cereus, Queen of the night, Lady of the night as its beautiful Lotus like flower blooms late night. In India it is called as Brahma Kamal ( ) and is treated as a sacred plant. It is popularly known as Orchid Cactus as the flower has orchid like beauty and plant resembles cactus in habit. It is known by different common names in different parts of the world viz. Jungle cactus, Dutchman’s Pipe.
The plant is native to Sri lanka where it is known as Kaduphul ,it is believed that plant blooms rarely and that too late night. People in many places of India have been successfully growing it in the pots. At least I know of two people in Mumbai and Dehradun.
In the meanwhile, we shifted to Panchkula near Chandigarh and brought the plant with us. It began to add on branches but no flower appeared on it for two years. Then in the last week of July, a strange stem like structure covered with pink threadlike structures began taking shape. Firstly it grew straight downward from the tip of a blade of plant. Then the lower part began swelling and becoming like bulb. On the evening of second August around seven o clock the bud began opening and flower unfolding. By ten o clock in the night, it completely opened up to show a pristine white lotus. It was mesmerising to see it.
We were very excited as we were told that flower blooms for one night only and had a life span of 10 hours. In the early morning, we again observed it. It was still there but had begun to shrink back. In the noon, it completely became like a thread. But after three weeks it again gave another flower.
It is said to blossom during mid July to mid October in India. Let us see that if it bless us more times during this season. | <urn:uuid:038ab131-e477-4c36-82e4-d9da86c9126b> | {
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Levers make it easier to lift heavy materials, remove tight objects and cut items. A first-class lever has a fulcrum in the center, between the effort -- or force -- and the load, the object being moved or lifted. A second-class lever has a fulcrum at one end and a load in the middle. A third-class lever has a fulcrum at one end and a load at the opposite end. Everyday levers help you accomplish tasks that would otherwise be too heavy or cumbersome to maneuver.
Hammer claws are common levers that help you remove embedded nails in wood or other hard surfaces. Hammer claws are first-class levers because the fulcrum is at the base of the hammer head, and you use effort, also known as force, to lift the handle and pry materials with the metal-claw end. A first-class lever is similar to a traditional see-saw because applied force at one end raises the other end, thanks to the fulcrum creating a pivot point in the middle.
Many simple tools incorporate levers, including hammer claws, wheelbarrows, bottle openers, scissors and tongs.
Wheelbarrows are helpful everyday tools because they allow you to transport loads that are too bulky or heavy to carry with your arms. A wheelbarrow is a second-class lever because the front wheel serves as the fulcrum. The weight-bearing load rests in the center of the wheelbarrow, and you use human force to lift the handles on the other end to roll the wheelbarrow where you want it to go.
A bottle opener is a second-class lever because the pivot point is at one end of the opener and the load is in the middle. In this case, the load is the bottle itself, or specifically the secured bottle cap on the bottle, and the handle provides a way to lift and remove the cap from its tightly secured position. Because applied force is sometimes greater than the strength of the metal cap, the cap might crease or bend in half.
Tweezers and Tongs
Tweezers and tongs are examples of levers that make it easy to lift or remove items, even though the items aren't heavy. Tweezers and tongs are third-class levers because the fulcrum is at one end and the load is at the other. You must use human effort in the center of the lever to pinch the tweezers or tongs to grasp and lift or remove materials.
Scissors and Shears
Scissors and shears are first-class levers, even though the fulcrum is slightly off center. The centralized fulcrum still serves as the pivot point that allows you to raise and lower the dual bars at one end with the handles on the other end. Scissors are an example of a lever that uses force to cut or separate materials. | <urn:uuid:52de0837-c215-4c06-9d3f-8a3072894fbd> | {
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In my conversations with teachers, and in no particular order, the following questions keep coming up. Some questions are borne out of a deep frustration with practices that are not working, and with students that don’t do school the way teachers think they should.
I offer these questions as food for thought. In future posts, I will attempt to answer them from my current perspective as a middle school ESL teacher.
I welcome comments on any of these questions including new questions that need to be addressed.
Whose responsibility is it to make sure students learn?
Is it the responsibility of parents?
Or, perhaps a combination of two or more of the above?
What should teachers do to prepare students for an upcoming assessment? Is that even the right question to ask?
Is it enough to have students review material before a test?
What does that mean exactly?
Should teachers provide study guides?
If a teacher provides a study guide, with time in class for review, and provides a practice test that is exactly the same as the real test with some parts slightly changed, such as the numbers on a math test, is the teacher then absolved of all responsibility?
Are retakes OK? All the time? Some of the time? Under certain conditions? For full credit?
Are partner quizzes OK? How should they be scored? What is the purpose of partner quizzes? Quizzes in general? For formative purposes? As a summative grade?
What role do/can/should students play in their own assessment?
How do we shift from a focus on punishment to a focus on learning?
And, we come back full circle, if a student doesn’t meet our expectations, who is responsible?
Can we teach in a different way to help our students learn better?
Who is responsible for student learning?
And, what does that mean exactly??
Who is learning? Only the student? Just the teacher? Both?
Who is responsible? Only the student? Just the teacher? Both?
What’s the learning to be done?
Who decides that?
Who is responsible for making sure students learn?
Are we coddling students? (Some teachers really want to know the answer to this one.)
Can we truly make students learn? (This is not a trick question.)
And, what should happen when they don’t?
You’d think that we’d have figured this out by now.
Cross posted to March Slice of Life Challenge, Day #26. | <urn:uuid:7bca439c-f7d8-4794-af4e-9916af379259> | {
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- 1 of 1 Photos | View More Photos
The Wayne County Public Library has been stepping up to the keyboard, working to connect patrons through computers to almost any resource imaginable. But it hasn't been neglecting individuals who are just beginning to use computers.
For both computer enthusiasts and novices just learning how to use a mouse, the library has been offering classes that meet their needs, to the extent of utilizing a mobile training lab provided by the State of Ohio at two of the branches.
"The library is offering a wide-ranging variety of classes to (help patrons) gain the knowledge they need for daily life," said David Dial, technology librarian.
"These classes have been very, very popular," he added, noting that lab classes currently being offered at the Doylestown and Shreve branches of the library filled up very quickly.
Introduction to Computers requires no previous experience and gives class participants an overview of basic computer components, terminology, and skills in just 90 minutes.
From the introductory class, students can move to more detailed sessions, such as advanced Internet instruction, in which they learn to judge Web site accuracy and utilize subscription services that the library has purchased for patrons.
While most ongoing classes have reached capacity, "there will be a lot more training classes (in the future)," Dial said.
He stressed that the Wayne County area is "very progressive" in supplying residents with comprehensive computer education courses through the school system, especially the Wayne County Schools Career Center. The library is not trying to "horn in" on what other educators are doing.
Rather, library personnel are making certain that patrons recognize what is available to them and are capable of accessing it simply by utilizing their library cards and computers.
"We want them to be better able to make use of the resources the library provides," Dial said.
Although a great deal of information is available to individuals searching for commercial and educational sites -- ones that are free, promotional, or research-oriented, Dial said -- on their home computers, some sites they would like to access require a fee.
"We've already paid the money (for a number of data bases) so that they don't have to," Dial said. All patrons must do to gain entry is type in the bar code from their library cards.
"That is the type of tool we want to promote -- the ones we've paid significant money for," such as Electric Library, Dial said, which encompasses 800 newspapers and magazines.
Web site accuracy is a topic in itself.
Legitimacy can be determined in a number of ways, he explained, including "who put it out and how recent it is."
"Clues" are given in an Internet address; .com stands for a commercial site, .edu denotes an educational one, and .gov signifies government origin.
While anyone can pay to "put anything" on a commercial site, an educational one, to Dial, "has a level of higher authority."
One of the skills taught in surfing Web sites is the use of multiple words to identify a topic and winnow out extraneous information.
"You can also get too specific," Dial cautioned. "It's still a 'fishing expedition,' even for a professional.
"The need we uncovered (for computer education) was great," Dial said, noting "unexpected success" in signing up participants within four days of announcing the schedule.
Fall classes will feature Homework Online, Travel Sites, Library Catalog and Business and Medical Sites, as well as Basic and Advanced Internet.
Tracing Trees in Cyberspace will explore genealogy Web sites on the Internet and assist researchers in learning more about their family histories. Class members will be given time at the end of the session to surf the web for ancestors.
Homeschooling resources are another area which library personnel help people utilize via the Internet.
"Eventually, we intend to have a Web site with a lot of the class materials available on it," Dial said.
Library officials chose the Shreve and Doylestown branches as the locations for mobile unit training because they don't have meeting rooms or "real opportunities to do programs of this nature," Dial said.
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Many kids in the United States aren't covered by health insurance, or are
covered by plans with high deductibles and limited benefits.
If your kids are among them because you can't afford adequate coverage or
your employer-sponsored plan doesn't cover everything, don't despair. Programs are
available that provide affordable — even free — medical care and are designed
to meet or supplement a person's medical insurance needs.
Your kids could be eligible for coverage right now and you might not know it. Here
are some options that may be available to your family.
Enroll Your Child in a Public Program
Two public programs work together in every state to provide health coverage for
children in low- and middle-income families: Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance
Medicaid is run by states with a mix of state and federal funding.
It offers health coverage for those with limited incomes, including children and parents,
pregnant women, those with disabilities, and seniors. And kids might be eligible for
coverage if they're U.S. citizens or lawfully admitted immigrants, even if their parents
CHIP is a program funded by the federal government that each state
administers. It provides health coverage for American kids under age 19 in working
families who qualify based on their parents' income. CHIP is often helpful for families
with incomes too high for Medicaid, but who are still having a hard time affording
Each state has different CHIP rules. Some CHIP programs, for example, cover pregnant
women as well as parents and related caregivers (such as grandparents raising their
grandchildren). Each state has its own name for its CHIP and children's Medicaid programs,
too (for instance, the CHIP program in Delaware is called Delaware Healthy Children
Program; in Connecticut, it's called the Husky Plan).
To learn about your state's CHIP and Medicaid programs and other services available
to your family, visit InsureKidsNow.gov
or HealthCare.gov. There, you can apply
for CHIP or Medicaid online. You also can call 1-877-KIDS NOW (1-877-543-7669) to
find out about the CHIP program in your state.
A child's eligibility for these government programs is based on household income.
Once your child is enrolled, you'll receive a list of medical providers near you who
accept CHIP/Medicaid patients. You can then make appointments with those providers
any time your child needs to see a doctor and also be covered in case of an emergency.
Find a Private Insurer
The majority of kids from low- or middle-income families will qualify for free
or low-cost health care through Medicaid and/or CHIP. But now, through the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act, many privately run health insurance companies
will offer similar benefits.
To find out if your family is eligible for a plan, visit the virtual health insurance
marketplace at HealthCare.gov.
This government service and its website make it easy to apply for insurance and learn
which programs are available in your area. By just filling out one application form,
the marketplace allows you to compare and contrast the benefits of each plan, as well
as compare out-of-pocket expenses like co-pays and deductibles for care.
Visit a Local Community Health Center
A federally funded community health center is another option for low-cost medical
care for your kids. You can take your kids there for checkups, immunizations, treatment
when they're sick, dental care, prescription drugs, and mental health care.
You also can go there for complete care yourself, including when you're pregnant
and for substance abuse care if you need it.
These centers tend to offer medical care on a sliding scale based on your income.
Depending on your situation, it could be free. These centers can help you get health
insurance and usually will accept that insurance once you are enrolled.
To find one near you, visit the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS)
health center page
and enter your zip code under "Find a Health Center." Check the website of the center
near you about services, costs, and hours and call ahead for an appointment. Some
community clinics are only open on certain days or for limited times.
Rural health centers, which are similar to federally funded community health
centers, serve families in rural areas. You can find one in your state by visiting
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website.
Also, visit the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics' website
to find a free or low-cost clinic. The U.S. has more than 1,200 free clinics, which
are staffed by a volunteer workforce of doctors, dentists, nurses, therapists, pharmacists,
nurse practitioners, technicians, and other health care professionals.
You also might know about urgent-care centers, which are different from community
health centers, rural health centers, and free clinics. These centers are designed
for people who need care right away or when their doctors aren't in the office. They
can be expensive and might not take some types of insurance. Be sure to check with
your insurance company before going to one of these.
Talk Dollars With Your Doctors
If your kids don't qualify for a public program (such as Medicaid or CHIP), they
need services that aren't covered by your insurance, or you have a high deductible,
you can try negotiating a reduced, cash-paying rate with your pediatrician before
getting services. Cutting deals with doctors is done more often than you might think.
Start by asking: "Do you accept patients on a fee-for-service basis?" If your insurance
has a high deductible, consider yourself a self-paying patient until that deductible
is met. So, your discussion about money with your doctor might begin like this: "I'm
going to have to pay 20% of the cost of that procedure and I can't afford it" or "that's
not covered by my insurance." Talking dollars can be helpful because the doctor might
be able to suggest less expensive treatments.
And don't be afraid to shop around for a doctor who can provide care at the lowest
price. If specialist A agrees to do a certain type of surgery for $2,000, for example,
and surgeon B can do it for $1,500, you'll save $500 by going to doctor B. But be
sure that you're never compromising the quality of your child's health care for cost.
When comparing rates, look for providers who've been referred by your doctor
or another source you trust.
For suggested self-pay rates on a variety of medical services, visit Health Care
Because each provider typically receives payment separately, be prepared to negotiate
with each provider your child sees. If the procedure you're discussing for your child
requires general anesthesia, for example, be sure to ask the surgeon which anesthesiologist
she works with and contact that doctor, too, to negotiate a cash-paying price for
his services. And don't forget to ask if there's a facility fee for where the surgery
takes place — and negotiate that, too.
Find a Safety-Net Hospital
In 1946 Congress passed the Hill-Burton Act, which gave hospitals and other health
care facilities money for construction and modernization. In return, hospitals agreed
to provide a reasonable volume of services to people who can't pay. The program stopped
receiving funds in 1997, but about 170 health care facilities nationwide still must
provide free or low-cost medical services. These "safety-net hospitals" are committed
to providing access to care for people with limited or no access to health care due
to their financial situation, insurance status, or health condition.
There are safety-net hospitals in every state except Alaska, Indiana, Maryland,
Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont,
Wyoming, and all the territories except Puerto Rico.
To qualify for free care at a safety-net hospital, you generally have to make a
gross yearly income of less than $23,550 for a family of four. If you make more than
that, you still may be eligible for reduced-cost care if your income is up to double
As an alternative to finding a safety-net hospital for your child, you can call
your local hospitals or medical centers and ask if they provide low-cost or free services
to the public. Many large teaching hospitals and medical centers provide free or low-cost
quality care for families who otherwise can't afford it.
If you find a hospital that offers this service, you'll meet with financial counselors
there to work out a pay rate. They may also connect you to other resources in your
community for discounted care.
Pay Less for Prescriptions
Prescriptions can really drain your wallet, especially if your child isn't enrolled
in a public program such as Medicaid or CHIP. Here are some ways to better manage
the money you spend on medicines:
Find out if your child can take generic (non-brand) medicines.
These often have the exact same active ingredient as the name-brand medicine, but
cost a lot less.
Find out if there is an over-the-counter alternative. Ask the
doctor or pharmacist if over-the-counter versions are available for the prescription
medicines your child takes.
Compare prices at local pharmacies. Call each one to ask what
they're charging for your child's prescriptions. Many small private pharmacies can
negotiate their prices for medications.
Contact the pharmaceutical company that makes the medication.
All the big pharmaceutical companies have prescription assistance numbers you can
call for help.
Beware of free prescription samples (or coupons and rebates).
They sound appealing, but they often are for expensive, name-brand medications. That's
fine while the samples last. But since many doctors don't like to change a medication
if it's working for a patient, you could get stuck paying full price after the samples
run out. Before accepting a sample, talk to your doctor about whether you can afford
that medication in the long term. If it's something your child only needs for as long
as the samples last, take advantage of the freebie!
If you can't afford to refill a prescription, call thedoctor
who prescribed it. Say your child's medications are too expensive and
you need a lower-cost alternative. If there's not an alternative available, ask what
for you can do about lowering the cost. It's not unusual these days for people to
ask for this kind of help, and doctor's offices often know how to get it or put you
in touch with someone who can.
Have Special Needs? Contact Family Voices
If you have a child with special needs, Family Voices, an organization created
to assist families like yours, may be able to help. Its Family-to-Family Health Information
Centers offer contacts, support, and information for each state regarding pediatric
It also can help you manage insurance and other care challenges, such as handling
the appeal process if your insurance claim is denied. Each
state's office is run by parents who have children with special health care needs.
Know Your Health Plan
Learn as much as you can about your health insurance policy before your child gets
treated so you don't get stuck with medical bills you can't pay. You're in a better
position to navigate the system and negotiate self-pay rates, if necessary, when you
know if your doctor is in-network, what's covered, and what percentage of the cost
you're responsible for.
Go to your health insurance carrier's website and log into its insurance portal
with your health insurance card number. There, you'll find your benefit plan, including
a list of in-network providers, your deductibles, co-insurance, and co-payments. These
tools can help you estimate the cost of treatment. If you're not sure about something,
call your health insurance company and ask. Make a note of the name of the person
you speak to and the date of your conversation in case there's an issue later.
Health insurance companies can't refuse someone coverage or limit a person's benefits
because of a pre-existing medical condition. They can't put a lifetime cap on the
dollar amount that they will spend on benefits either.
Stay Positive, Stay on Track
Trying to find affordable health care for your family can be overwhelming. But
you'll feel better knowing your child's health care needs are taken care of. Lots
of kids are eligible for programs that provide free or reduced-cost care, even
if their parents are working.
If you don't know where to start, contact your local community health center
or county health department and explain your situation. If they can't help you,
they can probably direct you to an organization that can. You can also call your state's
211 Helpline, which offers free and confidential information about health care and | <urn:uuid:94f11e29-599c-4cd2-85c5-1e5b2a7a1c43> | {
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A color image of Scamander Vallis on Mars; north toward top. The scene shows heavily cratered highlands dissected by the slightly sinuous gully of Scamander Vallis. The channel begins by dissecting a steep slope of an impact crater wall and abruptly ends about 180 km north of the crater.
This image is a composite of Viking medium-resolution images in black and white and low-resolution images in color. The image extends from latitude 13 degrees N. to 19 degrees N. and from longitude 330 degrees to 332 degrees; Mercator projection.
The lack of tributaries, fairly straight path, and steep walls of the channel suggest spring sapping as a mode of origin. The abrupt termination may have resulted from burial by younger deposits or perhaps the flows percolated into the surface materials and continued underground. | <urn:uuid:e961b2a0-2c7b-4154-b2b0-96e73a9568ca> | {
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How did Adolf Hitler manage to get so deep, push so far and take over so much territory before the allied powers saw the writing on the wall and struck back? After all, he told the world what his intentions were back in 1925 (Volume 1) and 1926 (Volume 2) in Mein Kampf. It wasn’t until ten years later, in 1936, that the Nazi military marched into the Rhineland. What was the rest of the free world doing for ten years? Didn’t anybody READ Mein Kampf? Roosevelt? Churchill? Stalin? Frank from Ohio? Anyone? Hitler’s moves were hardly surprising. He TOLD us what he was going to do. Wasn’t Mein Kampf grounds for an early intervention?
Every election season, at least here in the United States, the major contenders for the White House release campaign books. Within the pages, the candidate tells us exactly his/her positions on the hot topics of the day. Mein Kampf was no different. After 1926, after the Reichstag fire, after the Night of the Long Knives, after Kristallnacht, after (enter atrocity here), where were the future opponents of the Nazi regime? Why did it take the actual 1939 invasion of Poland for reasonable minds to act?
It is unacceptable to claim that it wasn’t until 1933 that Mein Kampf was officially translated into English (or any other language), as if to say that non-German speaking world leaders had to wait until the publishing world got them a readable copy. As Hitler was breaking the Treaty of Versailles like a communion wafer, world leaders, especially the French and Russians who were near paranoia in their feelings about a regeneration of German power, would have found someone to read it to them. Don’t ya think?
Sir Winston Churchill read Mein Kampf. He even wrote about it in the late 1930s. Apparently, President Franklin D. Roosevelt read it and warned about the peril of the Jews under a Hitler regime. Yet I can’t find any indication Stalin read it. But the fact is, no one felt the urge over the years leading to war to take pre-emptive action. It is justified to say, even in the most laziest of terms, that perhaps the stance was taken that what Germany did within its borders was its own business. But when they marched into the Rhineland, why didn’t anyone put Mein Kampf together with it and have an “Ah Ha” moment? Then Austria and Czechoslovakia yet, not a batted eyelash. It took the full scale invasion of Poland for righter reigns to move.
Feel free to count up the above question marks and go seeking answers but I’ll leave it here for historians to sort all that out. What we know is that enough people read Mein Kampf to have made an early difference but no one took Hitler’s words seriously. No one moved beyond the op-ed piece or speech or essay to prevent Hitler from carrying out the plan he so boldly notified the world of. The “why” is history, the lesson, is our future.
ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, (also known as ISIL, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) this plague is currently romping around these two countries, rolling over anyone who gets in their way. They’re literally rolling them over, shoving crucifixes into the throats of children, carrying out actual crucifixions, murdering and maiming everyone and anyone that isn’t like them. And they seem to have sprung up from no where. A few months ago, ISIS was a blip. Now it’s taken enough territory to declare itself its own country. And they went from speck to unavoidable stain via blitzkrieg…just like ole’ Adolf. When ISIS was taking territory in Syria, America was more concerned about overthrowing Assad. In fact, the United States was assisting those who opposed Assad with weapons and funding. Surely some of that ended up in ISIS hands. Yet now that ISIS has breached the border and run a muck in Iraq, it’s Hitler-Takes-Poland all over again. America is about ready to team up with Assad to fry the bigger fish. If only America hadn’t funded the enemies of Assad in the first place, if only there was an intervention when Hitler rolled into the Rhineland. If only…
Did anyone see this coming? Those of us who remember September 11, 2001 did. Did anyone besides me, at least since 9/11, bother to read the book that those nineteen hijackers and their funders used to justify the attack? Osama Bin Laden et al justified their attack with the Qur’an. They justified it by the Word of God, as they believed is written in the Qur’an. It might have been a good idea if world leaders, especially those in the United States, took an evening or two to read it.
The Qur’an is said to have been written circa early to mid 600s AD. It is said to have been written by Muhammad, an unextraordinary merchant who, at the age of forty, claimed to have been visited by the Archangel Gabriel who dictated over many years what eventually became the Qur’an. Let’s stop here a minute. Now find a copy of the Qur’an. They’re free and online. Copyright law expired around 700AD. Open it up at random and read a few pages. If you think this was the dictation of an Archangel, you’re nuts. Yet millions world-wide believe this. And some of them base their lives and actions on the literal translation of this horrible piece of literature, this fraud. ISIS is one of the worst offenders the world has ever seen. They are so vicious that their parent group, the notorious al-Qaeda, disowned them. When Ayman al-Zawahiri won’t even hang with you because you’re too violent, that says something.
If you haven’t read the Qur’an, you will remain confused as to what justifies ISIS in its actions. If you haven’t’ read Mein Kampf, you won’t know why Hitler did what he did. Look, this is easy, when your enemy has a play book, READ IT! In the case of the Qur’an, read any page to see how its complete make up is based on how to punish the unbeliever. In many areas, it instructs Muslims to not befriend the Christian or the Jew (although it does lament the deeds of Moses and the older prophets, including Jesus). Read the countless ways anyone not of the Muslim faith is to be tortured, maimed and killed. Sure the Bible has its share of vicious passages but the Qur’an is one big vicious passage. Where as you can (and thankfully most Christians and Jews have) abandon the savagery found in Deuteronomy and Leviticus, you can’t do that with the Qur’an. If you wished to remove the intolerant passages from the Qur’an, you’d have to throw away the whole book. The Qur’an is one big threat and list of punishments for unbelievers.
Some argue that Muslim extremist groups like ISIS have nothing to do with Islam. They claim that the reason young men join these groups is for a sense of purpose, to be part of a greater conflict. They join to earn a glory or praise that they’re not getting at home. They claim that these men lack employment, education or have an all around geopolitical outrage over American imperialism. And they point to the men’s general lack of “understanding” the Qur’an and Islam in general. All or some of these things are partially true, perhaps in the ranks of the groups’ “muscle”. But, at the same time, many participants are well educated and well financed. Remember that Osama Bin Laden came from a wealthy, large family who owned a world recognized construction business. Ayman al-Zawahiri, current head of al-Qaeda, is a doctor from Egypt, having a masters degree in surgery. Also, Mohammed Atta, hijacker pilot of flight 11 on 9/11 was studying to be an architect. Ziad Jarrah, hijacker pilot of flight 93 was studying aerospace engineering. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, considered the mastermind of 9/11, has a bachelor’s of science in mechanical engineering – from an America university. And Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the current head of ISIS, has a masters degree in Islamic Studies. You’d think he’d know what Islam is all about. And look what he’s doing with it.
These are not uneducated men. The common denominator is Islam. And they may have been angry at the United States for supporting Israel and infringing in the Middle East but it comes from a belief that Islam should take precedent. How many countries has the United States meddled in, yet, it is only from Muslim extremists that planes come crashing into our buildings as retribution?
It only happens with Islam. There is no ISIS or al-Qaeda equivalent in the other two monotheisms. Yet, there are poor, uneducated, purpose seeking Jews and Christians who aren’t cutting off the heads of other faiths. No, if it wasn’t for Islam, there would be no ISIS, no al-Qaeda. And I beg to differ with the apologists who want to give every excuse but Islam as a reason for their behavior. These thugs do understand the Qur’an. There is nothing to misinterpret about “kill them (unbelievers) where ever you find them.” (2:191) or anywhere else in the numerous, countless verses that say the same kind of rhetoric. And a constant state of warfare is expressly prescribed for the budding Muslim where it reads, “Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not.” (2:216) In other words, ye sprouting Muslim, you may not like it, but Allah knows what’s best for you. So fight.
Since the Qur’an is the play book of ISIS, there is no reasoning with them. There is no chance to talk our way out of whatever atrocity they will eventually come at us with. ISIS takes the Qur’an at face value, carries out Allah’s orders to torture and kill unbelievers (this goes for Muslims who are not in line with ISIS’s version of Islam – yes, there are different versions of Islam just as there are different parties in Christianity). There is only one way to deal with them and that is for the strength of secular governments to push back, with force. It is not because force is all they understand. On the contrary, these are not entirely stupid people (as noted above). They just follow a stupid ideology. This must be addressed with violence because, as I said, this is not an enemy you can negotiate with. For them, it’s convert to Islam or be killed. They will not accept the west to live in peace with its freedom of all religions. They will not rest their guns until Islam is supreme. So before this cancer (as President Obama rightly called it) grows and strangles civilized society, civilized society must fight back. And we better do it quick. Mohammed Atta funded the 9/11 attacks on a mere $400,000. ISIS is earning millions per day on the black market from seized oil fields. Imagine what they can do.
Incidentally, if you’re interested in my brief review (because there isn’t much else to expand upon) of the Qur’an, you can find it here, at Goodreads. It’ll save you the trouble of reading this piece of garbage in its entirety, although I’d still recommend it. | <urn:uuid:c0ed5dcc-15ea-4060-b30c-81915062d90c> | {
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Did you know that the same number of people die each year from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF, as breast cancer? And yet IPF, a rare and debilitating disease that causes permanent scarring of the lungs, is still relatively unknown.
Fortunately, the focus on rare diseases like IPF is growing because they’re more common than we think: when combined, they affect nearly 30 million, or about one in 10 Americans.
The National Institutes of Health says there are nearly 7,000 such conditions and many are difficult to diagnose. As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Orphan Drug Act, a federal law to encourage the development of new treatments for rare diseases, progress has been made, but patients with most rare diseases are still without an FDA-approved treatment.
One such rare disease is IPF. This debilitating and often fatal lung disease which gets worse over time, causes lung tissue to scar and thicken. Breathing is difficult for IPF patients, which can make everyday tasks, like walking up stairs or doing errands, a challenge.
Like many rare diseases, IPF is difficult to diagnose particularly because the cause of the disease is unknown.
For this reason, organizations like the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, American Thoracic Society and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals are working to raise awareness of this deadly disease. Observances like Rare Disease Day, an international advocacy day aimed to raise awareness of rare diseases, are opportunities to further this mission and recognize the challenges faced by patients.
“This is a milestone year for rare disease awareness and we are excited to see continued progress for patients with IPF,” says Dolly Kervitsky, of the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. “We are encouraged by the accomplishments of the research community, as we continue our efforts to spread awareness about the disease through forums like Rare Disease Day.”
The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation believes it is imperative that patients and those that treat them become more knowledgeable of IPF in order to better address patients’ needs.
With no FDA-approved therapies, a lung transplant is often the last resort for people with IPF. However, a lung transplant is rare – about 30 percent of IPF patients who are waiting for a lung transplant don’t survive long enough to have the surgery.
Symptoms like a dry cough that won’t go away, shortness of breath or unexplained weight loss are not always present until IPF has worsened. Additionally, the damage that IPF causes is permanent. The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation encourages patients to visit a physician if they are concerned about their symptoms.
For more information about IPF and resources for patients, please visit The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation at www.pulmonaryfibrosis.org.
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What do Keyboard F1 to F12 Function Keys do?
Most of us work with Windows or MAC. But many wonder what are the uses and features of the Functions keys F1 to F12. In this article, we will look into the function keys features and its uses.
Uses and Features of F1 to F12
F1 KEY Features and Uses:
F1 key is used for “Help.” If you are a Windows OS user and want the help of the particular program then press the F1 key, it will open up help window for you.
In few cases, the F1 key is used to enter the BIOS mode. Press F1 when your computer is about to boot then your system opens into BIOS mode.
Pressing the Win + F1 keys both together will open Help and Support Microsoft in Windows.
F2 KEY Features and Uses:
F2 is used to rename the selected file or folder(shortcut to rename file or folder). F2 works in all versions of Windows.
Alt + Ctrl + F2, Opens the Document as a Microsoft Word.
Ctrl + F2, Opens the Preview window in Microsoft Word.
F3 KEY Features and Uses:
In the MS-DOS charge line or Windows, press F3 to rehash the last summons.
Win + F3, Advanced Search window opens in Microsoft Outlook.
Shift + F3, Changes the content in Microsoft Word, from upper to lower case or capital letters at the start of each one expression.
If I am not mixed up, it is the F3 key which will cause the Application«Control» computers Apple, running Mac OS X.
F4 KEY Features and Uses:
Opens the location bar when you press F4 in Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer.
Rehash the last activity (MS Word )
Ctrl + F4, Closes the window open in the present window, for example, a tab in the program
Alt + F4, Closes the system window in Windows.
F5 KEY Features and Uses:
F5 Refreshes the page or desktop. F5 helps running a slide to demonstrate in PowerPoint.
F6 KEY Features and Uses:
F6 moves the cursor in the location bar.
Ctrl + Shift + F6 , opens Document in Microsoft Word
F7 KEY Features and Uses:
F7 is commonly used to check the spelling and grammar in any document programs of Microsoft like Word, Outlook and few other.
F8 KEY Features and Uses:
F8 key makes your PC to enter safe mode while PC is about to boot.
F9 KEY Features and Uses:
The F9 key mostly does not have any functionality in Windows. This key can be used in few programs like AutoCAD.
F10 KEY Features and Uses:
F10 key activates Menu in the open organizer window.
Shift + F10, works same as the right mouse click.
When your system is booting, and you press F10, it will show you BIOS Information.
F10 is also used to enter the hidden recovery partition on few computers.
F11 KEY Features and Uses:
F11 Key helps you to enter Full-screen mode in few programs and software, and it can be utilized and work in any Browser.
F12 KEY Features and Uses:
The F12 key opens the “Save As” in Microsoft Word.
Shift + F12, Saves a document in Microsoft Word.
Ctrl + Shift + F12, Prints a document in Microsoft Word.
The F12 key helps to open the inspect element box in Browsers. | <urn:uuid:cdd0d4b0-6279-4526-90ef-36d21a29ebcb> | {
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If criminals were to target unsecured wireless routers, they could create an attack that could piggyback across thousands of Wi-Fi networks in urban areas like Chicago or New York City, according to researchers at Indiana University.
The researchers estimate that a Wi-Fi attack could take over 20,000 wireless routers in New York City within a two-week period, with most of the infections occurring within the first day.
"The issue is that most of these routers are installed out of the box very insecurely," said Steven Myers, an assistant professor at Indiana University, who published the paper in November, along with researchers from the Institute for Scientific Interchange in Torino, Italy. (compare Wireless LAN Security products.)
The researchers theorize that attack would work by guessing administrative passwords and then instructing the routers to install new worm-like firmware which would in turn cause the infected router to attack other devices in its range.
Because there are so many closely connected Wi-Fi networks in most urban areas, the attack could hop from router to router for many miles in some cities.
The team used what is known as the Susceptible Infected Removed (SIR) model to track the growth of this attack. This methodology is typically used to estimate things like influenza outbreaks, but it has also been used to predict things like computer virus infections, Myers said.
Although the researchers did not develop any attack code that would be used to carry out this infection, they believe it would be possible to write code that guessed default passwords by first entering the default administrative passwords that shipped with the router, and then by trying a list of one million commonly used passwords, one after the other. They believe that 36% of passwords can be guessed using this technique.
Even some routers that use encryption could be cracked, if they use the popular WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) algorithm, which security experts have been able to crack for years now. Routers that were encrypted using the more-secure WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) standard were considered impossible to infect, Myers said.
Myers' model is based on data compiled from the Wireless Geographic Logging Engine (WiGLE), a volunteer-run effort to map Wi-Fi networks around the world, which has over 10 million networks in its database.
Using this data, they were able to map out large networks of made out of Wi-Fi routers that were each no more than 45 meters (49 yards) from the network -- in other words, close enough for an infection to spread. The largest such network in New York included 36,807 systems; in Boston it was 15,899; and in Chicago: 50,084.
Because New York is such a dense city with a relatively low percentage (25.8%, according to the researchers) of encrypted routers, it was particularly susceptible to this type of attack. San Francisco, on the other hand, where 40.1% of routers are encrypted and which had a lower density of routers was less susceptible.
Myers says that because the attack would be technically complex, he doubts that criminals will attempt it any time soon. There are simply too many other, easier ways to take over computers, he said.
Still, he thinks hardware makers should take note. "The bigger point for developers and people making wireless information technology is to realize that there are serious security issues." | <urn:uuid:b8a761b4-10ae-447b-9b31-38145ff2663e> | {
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We can already use a process called bioprinting to create organic tissue — now, a start-up is applying the process to making artificial meat.
If we can have 3D-printed organs for medical purposes, why not a 3D-printed burger?
Would you eat a 3D-printed burger?
A company called Modern Meadow in the US is trialling just that. According to its website, there are numerous problems with meat production: the greenhouse gases created by livestock, the land and resources required, the wastage in meat production and the increasing population. By 2050, Modern Meadow asserts, 70 per cent more meat will be required to feed the world.
To address these issues, the company is using a process called bioprinting to experiment with lab-created meat.
Using live stem cells taken from animals, Modern Meadow creates a substance it calls "bioink" (it's a portmanteau of "bio" and "ink", but we initially read an "oink" in there). These living cells are then printed into agarose moulds.
After a few days, the bioink has fused enough to hold a shape; this living piece of tissue can then be placed into a bioreactor, where muscle growth is stimulated using a low-frequency current.
Eventually, the tissue will be killed off so it can be used as meat.
At the moment, it's a pretty expensive process — but one that Modern Meadow hopes will revolutionise food production in the years ahead. According to its website, the benefits of bio-engineering meat include:
99 per cent less land required
96 per cent less water consumed
96 per cent fewer greenhouse gases emitted
45 per cent less energy needed
No risk of livestock diseases
No animals harmed.
Sounds much more animal and environmentally friendly than the spherical cow. | <urn:uuid:e3018f3b-4955-4047-a2b3-59499bc2a762> | {
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The science of sleep
The skin’s natural cell turnover process is kick-started while you sleep, helping repairs to be made and new cells to be created – this is what keeps the complexion bright and glowing. When you don’t get enough sleep, the skin quickly begins to look dull and grey and evens start to feel more sensitive. Tiredness and fatigue are also responsible for some of the most visible signs of skin damage, accentuating the signs of ageing as well as leaving dark circles and puffiness under the eyes.
Quality vs quantity
It isn’t just about how many hours of sleep you get, but also the quality, as deep sleep is when your skin does the best job at repairing itself. You can avoid a restless night by making some simple changes such as avoiding caffeine at least eight hours before going to bed, and alcohol at least three hours before turning in. Gentle exercise, such as yoga, can also help your mind to relax after a busy day, and it’s advisable to turn off laptops and smart phones at least an hour before bed. The blue light emitted from many electronic devices can suppress melatonin production, the hormone that controls sleep cycles.
A well-rested body and mind is proven to have better immunity from things such as common colds, and even more serious conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity. You may also find that if you haven’t slept well, your body craves all of the wrong kinds of food. This is due to a rise in hormones : *ghrelin is resonsible for making you crave fatty and sugary foods, while a rise in cortisol encourages the body to hold onto visceral fatty tissue around the tummy. A study by the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism also showed that just one bad night’s sleep reduces the body’s ability to process sugar the next day, leading to greater fat storage. | <urn:uuid:4ee52304-76b5-49ad-9ce0-424c3b74166e> | {
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101 Helpful Hints for IELTS - Academic Module LISTENING, READING, WRITING & SPEAKING
PDF | 162 pages | 1 MB | English
101 Helpful Hints for IELTS - Academic Module
Author: G. Adams, T. Peck, M. Piotrowski, H. Piotrowski
Publisher: Adams & Austen Press Pty Ltd; Rev Ed edition
Size: 1 MB
"101 Helpful Hints for IELTS – Academic Module includes an extensive Help Section, covering the four Sub-tests of the IELTS exam.
The unique format of the book enables students to complete the first practice test and review their performance before attempting the next test. This is achieved by linking each hint to the appropriate pages of the practice test, so that students can easily identify problem areas and understand why they may have made errors.
The 101 helpful hints provide information to familiarise students with the IELTS exam format and the types of questions involved. They also offer practical guidance with clear reference to the practice tests to help students learn from their errors, as well as advice about further practice that can be of use.
*2 PRACTICE LISTENING SKILLS TESTS
*4 GRADED PRACTICE READING TESTS
*4 PRACTICE ACADEMIC WRITING TESTS
*2 SETS OF PRACTICE SPEAKING TEST QUESTIONS
*EXTENSIVE HELP SECTIONS FOR ALL 4 SUB-TESTS
*ADVICE FOR ACADEMIC MODULE CANDIDATES
*SPEAKING TEST PRACTICE BOARD GAME
*LISTENING SKILLS TEST TAPESCRIPTS
*FULL ANSWER KEYS AND WRITING TEST MODEL ANSWERS
*A SCORE INTERPRETER
*LISTENING & READING TEST QUESTIONS WITH NOTES
*A GLOSSARY OF ACADEMIC TERMS
*USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT STUDYING OVERSEAS | <urn:uuid:ad6717ba-1011-4477-a70d-7188d84b77e8> | {
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Katalang, replaced by, to have got a substitute. Derived from the word Talang, a spout, and the idea implies—as water is carried over a hollow by a spout, so we are carried over a difficulty by the aid of some one else. Katalang ku minantu, relieved from some public duty by a son in law. The son in law performing the the public duty relieves his father in law from the obligation. A custom common at Jasinga and many other parts of the Sunda districts. The son in law relieves the father of his wife, but not his own father from the performance of feudal service. (Talang in Jav. has the same meaning; Nalang'ng'i, to order somebody to relieve ones self in the performance of a duty; also to give orders to buy. In the last acceptation tâlang is found in Malay Fr.)
Katalimbĕng, lost in a forest so that the person cannot find his way home. The natives pretend that this is in consequence of stepping over a liane called arĕui Bandĕng which in a manner charms thein. (From a root Timbĕng; al infixed.)
Katambahan, augmented, increased; something in addition. (From Tambah, to add.)
Katang'én, known, seen, evident (Tangi, Jav., to become awake, to rise.)
Katapang, name of a tree bearing a fruit like an almond. Terminalia katapang.
Katara, visible, clearly seen, manifest, espied. (From Scr. Tara, radiant, shining; clean, clear. Jav. Balin. Batav. idem.)
Katé, dwarf, small in stature, diminutive. (Batav. id. Jav. A small cock or hen. Gericke.)
Katéla, of nearly the same import as katara. Visible from a distance, clearly seen.
Katélah, called after, named from. Katélah ku anak, called after a child. The Sundaese have a practice which is the reverse of what is usual among Europeans. The father and mother are called after the eldest child. Thus if that child is called Hamat, the father will be Bapa Hamat add the mother Ambu Hamat, the father or the mother of Hamat But the word father or mother is often dropped, causing much confusion as to identity. This is an affectionate way of always acknowledging a child, which however, at same time conveys the pride of parentage.
Katépa, infected with any disease; infected by contagion.
Katépéng, a shrub producing a largish bright yellow flower, called also Daun kurap, or ringworm leaf. Acacia alata.
Kati, a catty, a weight so called; the 100th part of a Picul, which see.
Katia, a bark used fordying black. Imported, not found in the Sunda Jungles.
Katib, Arabic. A clerk, a priest's assistant; a preacher. (خَاطِبٌ, Khâtib, the priest who reads the Khutbat or the sermon of the Friday. Fr.)Katiga, the dry season, from June to September. It is a remnant of the old Javanese method of counting the seasons, of which the other terras are not retained in the Sunda language. Katiga means- „the third" (Season). (On Bali and Java the third month.) | <urn:uuid:53767f1b-799c-4e4b-be44-92482bf25eb1> | {
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A campaign bus is a bus used as both a vehicle and a center of operations in a political campaign, whether for a specific candidate, a political party, or a political cause. A campaign bus can also transport members of the press covering a candidate's campaign. The modern use of campaign buses is often calculated to bring to mind whistle stop train tours that political candidates had historically used to reach large numbers of voters while campaigning by train.
The use of the campaign bus runs at least as early as the 1940s, when The New Republic reported that 1948 presidential contender Thomas E. Dewey was "waylaid... in his campaign bus" by a charmed female admirer who "told him she would vote for him because he was 'so pink and pretty'". John F. Kennedy's "Alliance for Progress" theme was coined on board a campaign bus travelling through Texas in 1960. Candidates may provide interviews to the press or relax on the campaign bus. In 1972, the presidential campaign of Senator Ed Muskie was damaged when a reporter wrote that Muskie's wife, Jane Muskie, "tried to cheer up a campaign bus with the flippant suggestion that everybody swap risque stories". Some buses may have names relating to the general theme of the campaign; John McCain traveled aboard a campaign bus named the "Straight Talk Express" during his 2000 presidential campaign.
Campaign buses are used in many countries. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known popularly as Lula, used this method of campaigning extensively, and was elected President of Brazil. Over the course of his campaign, "Lula traveled to 350 cities and towns in twenty-three states, in separate campaign bus tours". In the United Kingdom, John Major "adopted the old-fashioned practice of addressing the public from a 'soap box' erected outside his campaign bus". Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas also used a campaign bus to great effect during his 1988 campaign for President of Mexico, which although unsuccessful led to the downfall of single-party rule in Mexico. In Canada party leaders often lease coaches with sides decorated with the party name or their own names. The buses are used to travel between destinations that do not require air travel. Members of the media and other campaign officials may travel along with the party leader.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Campaign buses in the United Kingdom.|
- Howard R. Ernst, Larry Sabato, Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections (2007), p. 220.
- Herbert David Croly, The New Republic (1948), p.10
- Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (1965), p. 193.
- "To Jane Muskie, primaries are no joke", LIFE (May 12, 1972), p. 81.
- James W. Johnson, Arizona Politicians: The Noble and the Notorious, (2002), p. 16.
- Richard Bourne, Lula of Brazil: The Story So Far (2008).
- Brian McNair, An Introduction to Political Communication (2011), p. 135.
- Dan La Botz, Democracy in Mexico: peasant rebellion and political reform (1995), p. 83. | <urn:uuid:2f079ed7-6a90-4583-a712-6683377ebc38> | {
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4. How long does it take to get frostbite?
Good Question! Frostbite is a huge concern here in Antarctica. I have not seen it in clinic yet, but I am sure we will have cases of it during this summer season.
Frostbite is a cold injury from freezing of the skin. It is most common in the hands and feet where there is less blood supply. Nose and cheeks are also commonly involved. When your body gets cold, blood stays closer to your core organs, leaving your fingers and toes with less warm blood running through them. Frostbite is more likely when you have prolonged cold exposure.
How long it takes to get frostbite depends on how you dress, how cold the temperature is and how active you are in the cold. Wearing multiple layers, loose fitting clothing, mittens and face protection all help prevent frostbite. Barbara, our flight nurse, heard about your question and passed on the following table from NOAA that shows how long it takes to get frostbite in certain windchill conditions if the skin is not protected:
Frostbite is graded based on how deep the tissue damage is, much like a burn. You can see blisters, bright red, white or black tissue.
Treatment is re-warming and preventing infection. It takes six weeks or longer to see if the tissue will survive after being frozen. After a frostbite injury, you are more likely to get a cold injury in the same spot in the future.
We are taught to travel in pairs and watch out for each other. If we notice red nose or cheeks we cover them up. Staying active will also keep blood moving to your hands and feet, helping them stay warm. The best thing to do is dress for the weather! | <urn:uuid:f375f7e0-73d6-4f12-9859-50d30bf5cbb0> | {
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From Our 2007 Archives
Vitamin K May Help Clear Arteries
Latest MedicineNet News
MONDAY, April 2 (HealthDay News) -- Animals given high levels of vitamin K showed a 37 percent reduction in calcium buildup in their arteries, a new study finds.
Arterial calcification is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease, researchers noted.
The Dutch study, by researchers at Maastricht University, is the first in animals to show that arterial calcification and resulting decreased arterial elasticity can be reversed by consuming high levels of vitamin K. The findings support the results of a Rotterdam population-based study published in 2004.
This research into the benefits of high vitamin K intake may prove especially important for people taking blood thinning medications, such as warfarin, which are known to cause rapid calcification in the arteries. Many patients taking blood thinners aren't aware of this risk, the researchers said.
Vitamin K is found in many kinds of foods, including soybean, olive and canola oils, and dark green vegetables such as broccoli, kale, spinach and Brussels sprouts. Vitamin K is also available in supplements.
The study was funded by Maastricht University and is published in the April 1 issue of the journal Blood.
-- Robert Preidt
SOURCE: GBA Public Relations, news release, April 1, 2007
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Wold Ecology can offer a range of generic and species-specific avian surveys. We can tailor the survey types to the project needs.
A two-phase approach can be used and generic surveys are followed up if necessary with protected species-specific studies.
This comprehensive approach gives the opportunity to review the need for further study, a useful tool in planning applications.
Examples of generic surveys, which collect data in order to assess the composition of all species on a site, include:
- The BTO Common Bird Census, designed to survey breeding birds.
- Vantage point surveys to assess flight activity over a proposed wind farm.
- Species-specific surveys assessing populations of individual species.
Wold Ecology staff have carried out numerous surveys since 2000. These include:
- Upland bird surveys on 12 wind farm sites in Scotland.
- Common Bird Census surveys for landfill and opencast sites in northern England.
- Tidal flood defence monitoring on estuary habitats in England.
- Boreal forest surveys for a mining Environmental Impact Assessment in Russia.
Director Richard Baines has held protected species Schedule 1 licences for 20 species in Scotland and England during the past 10 years. This has enabled him to survey a range of species from Golden Eagle and Red-throated Diver through to Black Grouse, Barn Owl and Little Ringed Plover.
Wold Ecology also employ several highly experienced staff and associates which enables us to take on larger projects requiring increased resources.
Birds are afforded various levels of protection and levels of conservation status on
a species by species basis. The most significant general legislation for British birds lies within Part 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended). Under this legislation it is an offence to, kill, injure or take any wild bird, take, damage or destroy the nest of any wild bird while that nest is in use or being built, take or destroy an egg of any wild bird. Birds listed under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act recieved further
protection from disturbance whilst nesting | <urn:uuid:6d32d1ca-e29a-4447-a742-7fbb98729f59> | {
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Understanding the significance of the historic environment is at the core of what we do. The best decisions are informed ones, so we ensure that potential developers understand the opportunities and constraints of working in the historic environment and guide them through the planning process.
Understanding the significance of an historic building, monument or landscape is not just for developers however. It is key to making decisions about landed estates, private historic buildings and commercial forestry. It can help you to choose the right colour scheme for your historic interiors, the appropriate window types for your listed building, or the suitable land management regime for your farm.
Importantly, if you are applying for funding to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a project affecting any aspect of the historic environment, you are likely to be asked to prepare a conservation management plan. At the heart of a conservation management plan is a statement of significance to help make sure that your project is going to protect and enhance your heritage.
“In determining applications, local planning authorities should require an applicant to describe the significance of any heritage assets affected, including any contribution made by their setting.” | <urn:uuid:f5484883-f866-478f-9860-c0d22e0e1409> | {
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The U.S. Congress established the National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) at the Centers for Disease Control in 1992 by enacting the Cancer Registries Amendment Act, Public Law 102-515 (PDF-62KB).
The SC General Assembly passed the Central Cancer Registry Act SC Law 44-35 (PDF-71KB) on June 6, 1996. The Central Cancer Registry Act supports the assurances of Public Law 102-515 and states that all health care providers must report cancer cases to the SCCCR. The Act also ensures that patient confidentiality, as well as physician confidentiality, is protected. Reporting sources who submit data to the SCCCR are also protected from liability incurred through compliance with the state law.
In 1996 the U.S. Congress passed a law requiring uniform federal privacy protections for individually identifiable health information. This law is called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently issued final regulations implementing the privacy provisions of HIPAA. These regulations are called the "Privacy Rule". Copies of the HIPAA Privacy Rule, as well as helpful explanatory materials, may be found at the HHS Office of Civil Rights web site: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/.
HIPAA guidelines went into effect April 14, 2003. The SCCCR, in the Office of Public Health Statistics and Information Services (PHSIS), is considered a non-covered entity (PDF-114KB) according to HIPAA guidelines. Therefore, HIPAA regulations only minimally impact current state cancer reporting procedures. HIPAA allows for the reporting of identifiable cancer data to public health entities. Because the SCCCR falls under the definition of a public health entity, HIPAA allows facilities and physician practices to continue to report data to the SCCCR in compliance with state law. Written informed consent from each cancer patient reported to public health entities is not required under HIPAA; rather facilities and physician practices must simply document that reporting has occurred.
The following documents provide further information concerning HIPAA guidelines in relation to cancer reporting.
If you have any questions or comments about the information on this page please contact: Susan Bolick | <urn:uuid:9d0dee5f-ce7d-4417-8b7a-d1f581508dac> | {
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The imbalance between need and consumerism has upset the equilibrium of nature. But in the current scenario, people are forced to eke out a living, sometimes in extreme circumstances.
The 22 islands along Peru’s coastline where guano – bird droppings used to make fertilizer – are a reminder of the asymmetric prosperity that characterized 19th century Peru, when the country exported this product in large quantities to the United States and Europe.
Back then, Chinese coolies where sent to these islands to collect guano. Labor conditions were harsh: they harvested the guano under the sun and ended the day covered in seagull excrement. The situation is not much different for today’s guano laborers.
Now, the demand for organic products around the world has renovated global interest for guano. It is a natural and powerful fertilizer that satisfies the demands of “green” consumers who are against the use of chemicals in agriculture.
People at the end of the economic chain can barely imagine how the harvesters work on Peru’s guano islands. Laborers generally spend one-month stints at the islands where they work.
Along with the frailty of their existences, nature’s equilibrium also proves to be fragile.
There is progressively less guano in the islands because of over fishing. As a result, birds have less food and Global warming worsens this scenario. The ecosystem is endangered, as well as the source of income for guano workers. Both laborer and nature are fighting for survival.
In the Fallout of the Guano Fever I portray the current movement of guano – a sad reflection of what was once a bonanza and is now being taken advantage of. With this essay I would like to create more awareness on the subject that reflects the connection between man and nature, and how crucial this connection is for survival. A story where man and nature hold the same dream, balance.
(Ernesto Benavides | Fallout of the guano fever, PRIVATE 53 – Hope, pages 08-13) | <urn:uuid:88860733-bb0a-4e7e-b55c-52784d11d371> | {
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HOW BITCOIN MINING WORKS
In traditional fiat money systems, governments simply print more money when they need to. But in bitcoin, money isn’t printed at all – it is discovered. Computers around the world ‘mine’ for coins by competing with each other.
HOW DOES MINING TAKE PLACE?
People are sending bitcoins to each other over the bitcoin network all the time, but unless someone keeps a record of all these transactions, no-one would be able to keep track of who had paid what. The bitcoin network deals with this by collecting all of the transactions made during a set period into a list, called a block. It’s the miners’ job to confirm those transactions, and write them into a general ledger.
INTRODUCTION VIDEO ABOUT BITCOIN MINING
MAKING A HASH OF IT
This general ledger is a long list of blocks, known as the ‘blockchain’. It can be used to explore any transaction made between any bitcoin addresses, at any point on the network. Whenever a new block of transactions is created, it is added to the blockchain, creating an increasingly lengthy list of all the transactions that ever took place on the bitcoin network. A constantly updated copy of the block is given to everyone who participates, so that they know what is going on.
But a general ledger has to be trusted, and all of this is held digitally. How can we be sure that the blockchain stays intact, and is never tampered with? This is where the miners come in.
When a block of transactions is created, miners put it through a process. They take the information in the block, and apply a mathematical formula to it, turning it into something else. That something else is a far shorter, seemingly random sequence of letters and numbers known as a hash. This hash is stored along with the block, at the end of the blockchain at that point in time.
Hashes have some interesting properties. It’s easy to produce a hash from a collection of data like a bitcoin block, but it’s practically impossible to work out what the data was just by looking at the hash. And while it is very easy to produce a hash from a large amount of data, each hash is unique. If you change just one character in a bitcoin block, its hash will change completely.
Miners don’t just use the transactions in a block to generate a hash. Some other pieces of data are used too. One of these pieces of data is the hash of the last block stored in the blockchain.
Because each block’s hash is produced using the hash of the block before it, it becomes a digital version of a wax seal. It confirms that this block – and every block after it – is legitimate, because if you tampered with it, everyone would know.
If you tried to fake a transaction by changing a block that had already been stored in the blockchain, that block’s hash would change. If someone checked the block’s authenticity by running the hashing function on it, they’d find that the hash was different from the one already stored along with that block in the blockchain. The block would be instantly spotted as a fake.
Because each block’s hash is used to help produce the hash of the next block in the chain, tampering with a block would also make the subsequent block’s hash wrong too. That would continue all the way down the chain, throwing everything out of whack.
COMPETING FOR COINS
So, that’s how miners ‘seal off’ a block. They all compete with each other to do this, using software written specifically to mine blocks. Every time someone successfully creates a hash, they get a reward of 25 bitcoins, the blockchain is updated, and everyone on the network hears about it. That’s the incentive to keep mining, and keep the transactions working.
The problem is that it’s very easy to produce a hash from a collection of data. Computers are really good at this. The bitcoin network has to make it more difficult, otherwise everyone would be hashing hundreds of transaction blocks each second, and all of the bitcoins would be mined in minutes. The bitcoin protocol deliberately makes it more difficult, by introducing something called ‘proof of work’.
The bitcoin protocol won’t just accept any old hash. It demands that a block’s hash has to look a certain way; it must have a certain number of zeroes at the start. There’s no way of telling what a hash is going to look like before you produce it, and as soon as you include a new piece of data in the mix, the hash will be totally different.
Miners aren’t supposed to meddle with the transaction data in a block, but they must change the data they’re using to create a different hash. They do this using another, random piece of data called a ‘nonce’. This is used with the transaction data to create a hash. If the hash doesn’t fit the required format, the nonce is changed, and the whole thing is hashed again. It can take many attempts to find a nonce that works, and all the miners in the network are trying to do it at the same time. That’s how miners earn their bitcoins. | <urn:uuid:7ae130cd-0b0f-40ac-a769-292bca0f52e4> | {
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From 1990 to 2010, the percentage of the world population living in extreme poverty dropped from 36 to 18 percent. In two decades, nearly a billion people were pulled from the depths of extreme poverty. Who did the pulling?
The 2014 U.N. progress report on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) cited the drop in extreme poverty as evidence of the MDGs’ impact on poverty reduction. However, the report also notes that most of the progress came from China, where the poverty rate dropped from 60 percent in 1990 to 12 percent in 2010.
Not only did China not sign up for the MDGs framework, much of its progress came prior to the MDGs. As of 1980, China had more people living in poverty than any other country in the world. From 1981 to 2010 however, China succeeded in pulling roughly 680 million of its people out of poverty. China alone accounts for nearly 75 percent of the world’s decline in poverty over the last thirty years.
Much of China’s success stemmed from agricultural and rural development. According to a World Bank study, roughly three-quarters of China’s overall poverty reduction between 1981 and 2001 came from gains to the rural poor.
China’s experience in combatting severe poverty rates could make for a valuable export. In a November conference, officials from China and the African Union met in Ethiopia to discuss how Africa can benchmark Chinese industrialization practices, as it tries to make its own push out of poverty. A jointly commissioned comparative study on Special Economic Zones in China was presented at the conference, with the goal of improving Special Economic Zones in Africa.
Ethiopian president, Dr. Mulatu Teshome, believes that cooperation with China will be essential in helping drive the African continent out of poverty: “Benchmarking China’s best practices in industrialization is essential, in that that it is almost unthinkable to realize the African dream of becoming an industrialized, united and prosperous continent by 2063 only through Africa’s own technology generation.”
– Parker Carroll | <urn:uuid:2b39ad2a-b14a-4f1d-9537-0a8a51a3173f> | {
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Tiffany Navarro and Art as Education
Tiffany Navarro is an art educator and a huge advocate for combining art and science in lessons for children. Currently she is writing a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) based curriculum for middle school children in Mexico. Here she describes three of the projects she’s worked on with her 9-12 year-old sculpture class.
In her first project each student picked an organ from a book and proceeded to make it with a newspaper technique. In the next the students made jellyfish, and in the final one students developed their own machine to fix a problem in the world. This image above, the Snot Not Bot, is meant to suck up all the snot in the air and then cleans it and releases it. As Navarro describes her curriculum,
"My goal for combining art and science was to teach my students that art and science are not that different and in fact go well together. In the beginning of the lessons I mentioned that both artists and scientists: ask questions, solve-problems, research, use creativity and observe. I explained that art and science go well together because scientists use many art techniques when researching and artists research to complete their art."
Yay for art and science in the classroom! Keep up the great work Tiffany!
- Lee Jones | <urn:uuid:e379ba49-9a57-4dcf-b605-fef598adbfd9> | {
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Discovered by Pan-STARRS on 2015 October 10, this Apollo-type object probably measures 300-600 metres across and is in a short-period (3.07 yr) comet-like orbit tilted 40 deg to the ecliptic. It is due to reach perihelion 0.29 au from the Sun on 2015 December 11. To date, the object appears to be only asteroidal in nature and will pass within 1.27 lunar-distances of the Earth on October 31 17:01 UT.
Observers in the UK have their best views on the night of Friday, October 30/31 when it will attain 11th magnitude and be located between the Hyades and Orion. Unfortunately, its path remains close to a bright Moon and so a medium-size or larger telescope will be required to see it in the glare of our nearest neighbour in space. The following table lists the periods of visibility, etc. for UK-based observers during the run-up to closest approach.
Date / Time (UT) Magn. (V) Motion (“/min) Moon illum. Dist.(deg)
Oct. 27/28 23:00-05:00 15.8-15.6 1.5-1.8 100-99% 29-26
Oct. 28/29 22:00-05:20 15.2-14.9 2.8-3.6 97-96% 20-17
Oct. 29/30 21:45-05:30 14.2-13.7 7-10 92-90% 16-16
Oct. 30/31 21:30-05:30 12.5-11.4 32-96 85-82% 17-13
Due to its relative proximity, observers will need to look up an ephemeris of its positions for a location or observatory near them to avoid parallax effects. A good source is available from the Minor Planet Ephemeris Service at: http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/MPEph/MPEph.html
Make sure you enter a suitable location by clicking on ‘Observatory Code’ and choosing from the list then entering the IAU Code in the box provided halfway down the webpage. For England, I suggest using the code ‘456’.
Radar observations of 2015 TB145 have been scheduled and these, it is hoped, will show the object in unprecedented detail (2-m resolution). An informative article can be found on NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s website at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4745 | <urn:uuid:98d534db-8c81-4250-bf79-3a1369815f3d> | {
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What is a lasting Power of Attorney?
A Lasting Power Of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document that allows someone (the Donor) to nominate another person (the Attorney) to make decisions on their behalf when they lack the capacity to do so for themselves.
It is completed in advance of the Donor losing capacity – mental or otherwise and is then kept until needed. During this period it cannot be used - and the person continues to make decisions themselves. Should the Donor lose capacity, the LPA is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian, and from this point on it can be used. This means that the nominated person will then be able to make decisions on the Donor’s behalf.
Two types of LPA
1. Health and Welfare — Health and Welfare allows decisions on treatment, care, medication, where you live, etc. A registered health and welfare LPA lets your Attorney(s) make decisions about:
- Giving or refusing consent to particular types of health care, including medical treatment decisions;
- Day-to-day issues like your diet, dress, or daily routine;
- Whether you stay in your own home, perhaps with support from social services, or move into residential housing; and
- Should you need to move, choosing the right care home for you.
2. Property and Financial Affairs — Property and Financial Affairs allows an Attorney to make decisions about paying bills, dealing with the bank, collecting benefits, selling your house, etc. A registered property and financial affairs LPA lets your attorneys make decisions about:
- Buying and selling your property.
- Opening, closing, and operating bank/ building society accounts.
- Claiming receiving and using your benefits, pensions, and allowances.
The role of the Office of the Public Guardian
The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) is part of the Ministry of Justice. The OPG manages the registration process of LPAs and they maintain a register of them all. The OPG also deals with any complaints and concerns raised if, for example, someone feels a person has been pressurised into making an LPA.
Who can make a lasting power of attorney?
Anyone aged 18 or over can make an LPA. You must make it as an individual—two or more people cannot make a joint LPA. You can have help writing it, but another person cannot ‘make’ an LPA for you. Anyone making an LPA needs to have mental capacity when they make it.
From a legal perspective an LPA covers people and assets in England and Wales. An LPA made here may not be usable in any other country (including Scotland and Northern Ireland).
The benefits of making a lasting power of attorney
An LPA allows you to:
- Plan in advance the decisions you want to be made on your behalf if or when you lose capacity to make them yourself.
- Nominate the person or persons you want to make these decisions for you.
- Stipulate how you want the person or persons to make these decisions.
Having an LPA is a safe way of maintaining control over decisions made for you because:
- It has to be registered with the OPG before it can be used (if someone else tries to register it, you and your attorney(s) will be able to make an objection).
- You can choose ‘people to be told’ about your LPA when it is registered so that they have an opportunity to raise concerns.
- Your signature and the signatures of your chosen Attorney(s) must be witnessed.
- From a legal perspective, your Attorney(s) must follow the Code of Practice of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 - if they don’t always act in your best interests the OPG can step in, and your attorney(s) may be held accountable.
Deciding if you want to make and register a lasting power of attorney
If you lose mental capacity at some point and for whatever reason you haven’t completed an LPA, the Court of Protection will appoint one or more people to make your decisions for you. These people are called Deputies and act in the same way as Attorney(s), however, you will not choose who these people will be, the Court does that.
By choosing, within an LPA, who you want to make decisions on your behalf, you are put in control of your future and the decisions that will eventually be made for you.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us for further information.
Will Writing Service by Helm Godfrey
T 020 7614 1071 | <urn:uuid:e4a125da-fe25-4238-84cf-a5042dcc8904> | {
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TOKYO — Japan’s nuclear watchdog on Wednesday said a leakage of highly radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant could be the beginning of a new disaster — a series of leaks of contaminated water from storage tanks.
The plant operator has built hundreds of steel tanks to store massive amounts of radioactive water coming from three melted reactors, as well as underground water running into reactor and turbine basements.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said on Tuesday that about 80,000 gallons of contaminated water leaked from one of the tanks. It said it has not determined how or where the water leaked, but suspects it did so through a seam.
The leak is the fifth, and the worst, since last year involving tanks of the same design at the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi plant, raising concerns that contaminated water could begin leaking from storage tanks one after another.
‘‘We should assume that what has happened once could happen again, and prepare for more,’’ Nuclear Regulation Authority chairman Shunichi Tanaka told a news conference. ‘‘We are in a situation where there is no time to waste.’’
The watchdog also proposed at a weekly meeting Wednesday to raise the rating of the seriousness of the leak to level 3, a ‘‘serious incident,’’ from level 1, ‘‘an anomaly,’’ on an International Nuclear and Radiological event scale of eight.
The watchdog urged Tokyo Electric to step up monitoring for leaks and take precautions.
At the meeting, officials also revealed that plant workers apparently have overlooked several signs of leaks, suggesting that their twice-daily patrols were largely just a walk. They have not monitored water levels inside tanks, obviously missed a puddle forming at the bottom of the tank earlier, and kept open a valve on an antileakage barrier around the tanks.
Tokyo Electric said the leaked water is thought to have mostly seeped into the ground after escaping from the barrier around the tank. It initially said the leak did not pose an immediate threat to the sea because of its distance — about 1,650 feet — from the coastline.
But Tokyo Electric reversed that view late Wednesday and acknowledged a possible leak to the sea after detecting high radioactivity inside a gutter extending to the ocean.
The company also said the tank may have been leaking slowly for weeks through a possible flaw in its bottom. That could create extensive soil contamination and a blow to plans to release untainted underground water into the sea as part of efforts to reduce the amount of radioactive water.
The leaks have shaken confidence in the reliability of hundreds of tanks that are crucial for storing water that has been pumped into the broken reactors to keep melted radioactive fuel cool.
The plant had multiple meltdowns after a quake and tsunami in March 2011 — a level 7 ‘‘major accident’’ and the worst since Chernobyl in 1986. | <urn:uuid:8b3b77e9-491f-46a1-a7e2-c908ecdd0584> | {
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A new has found if given a choice of exercising alone, with people younger or older or with people// their same age, most adults would rather exercise with others in their own age group.
“The study’s findings provide useful insight into the preferences of older exercisers, which in turn have important implications for exercise promotion initiatives [in communities around the world],” said lead researcher Mark Beauchamp, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of British Columbia in Canada.
Beauchamp and colleagues studied 947 adults between the ages of 30 and 91 living in northern England. The participants were first grouped according to their age bracket (30s, 40s, 50s and so on) and asked about their level of activity. They were considered “regularly active” if they exercised for at least 20 minutes, three times a week, and “underactive” if they did not.
They then were asked to rate whether they prefer to exercise alone, with groups of people in different age brackets, or with those in their same age bracket.
The authors say that previous research has suggested older adults prefer to exercise alone rather than in groups. But by taking into account the characteristics of different exercise groups, Beauchamp and colleagues found that although older adults may report a lack of appeal for exercising with those much younger than themselves, they actually exhibit a positive preference for exercising with those of their own age. Furthermore, participants did not report a greater preference for exercising alone.
Because of this, Beauchamp says it’s vital that government officials take steps to better “promote opportunities that will encourage healthy and physically active lifestyles” by increasing the availability of group exercise opportunities across the life span.
While his experience shows there is no single type of activity program that will work for all
adults, Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, Ph.D., head of the department of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, agreed the study confirms group exercise options can be “highly motivating.”
He added that to fully maximize physical activity, there needs to be “a diverse menu of activity options.”
“These opportunities should include both traditional exercise programs as well as building more activity into everyday life through walking, biking and dancing,” Chodzko-Zajko said.
SRM Related medicine news :1
. Exercising To Music Found To Boost Brain Power2
. Exercising Good For Stroke Survivors3
. Intermittent Exercising The Best Way To Burn Fat 4
. Exercising The Best Form Of Treatment For Low Back Ache5
. Reducing The Frequency Of Angina Attacks While Exercising6
. Exercising regularly can reduce the risk of Parkinson’s diseas7
. Exercising for long term relief from lower back pain8
. Exercising is good for you at all ages9
. Children Are Exercising Much Harder, But Are Still Obese10
. Popularity Among Peers Increases Susceptibility To Smoking Habit Among School Children11
. Religious Adults Have a Higher Quality of Life than Their Peers | <urn:uuid:29289f02-6959-4ade-ace9-47b2dfa267ac> | {
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Deep-Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and Pulmonary Embolism (PE)
Compiled by the American Public Health Association
Deep-vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a common but under-diagnosed medical
condition. More people suffer from DVT annually than heart attack and stroke
combined! It occurs when a thrombus (blood clot) forms in one of the large
veins, usually in the lower limbs, leading to either partially or completely
blocked circulation. The condition may result in health complications and death
if not diagnosed and treated efficiently and effectively. Although DVT itself
may not be life threatening, it may lead to a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism.
It is estimated that venous thromboembolism may contribute to 60,000 - 200,000
deaths each year in the United States, which is more than the number of Americans
who die each year from AIDS, breast cancer, or highway accidents.
What is Deep-Vein Thrombosis?
Deep-vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a common but under-diagnosed medical condition.
More people suffer from DVT annually than heart attack and stroke combined.
It occurs when a thrombus (blood clot) forms in one of the large veins,
usually in the lower limbs, leading to either partially or completely blocked
circulation. The condition may result in health complications and death if
not diagnosed and treated efficiently and effectively.
Venous thromboembolism, or VTE, refers to two serious conditions: deep-vein
thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). Although DVT itself may not
be life threatening, it may lead to a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism.
Published studies estimate the incidence of venous thromboembolism
to be between 200,000 to 600,000 cases annually, and may contribute to 60,000 - 200,000 deaths each year in the United States.
Venous thrombosis in the lower limb can involve the superficial leg veins;
the deep veins of the calf (calf vein thrombosis); the more proximal veins,
including popliteal veins; the superficial femoral, common femoral, and iliac
veins. Less commonly, thrombosis involves other veins in the body. Unlike
the superficial veins just below the skin surface, most of the deep veins are
surrounded by powerful muscles that contract to force blood back to the heart.
One-way valves inside the veins prevent backflow of blood between muscle contractions.
When the rhythm of circulation slows down due to illness, injury, or inactivity,
there may be a tendency for blood to accumulate or "pool." A static pool of
blood provides an ideal environment for clot formation.
Who is at Risk for Deep-Vein Thrombosis?
Certain individuals may be at increased risk for developing DVT, although DVT
can occur in almost anyone. Some risk factors or triggering events include:
What are the Signs and Symptoms of Deep-Vein Thrombosis?
- Acute medical illness
- Surgery, including orthopedic surgeries such as joint replacements, who
remain immobile in bed after an operation
- Cancer and chemotherapy treatment
- Chronic heart or respiratory failure
- Use of birth control pills
- Postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy
- Advanced age
- Immobility caused by long-distance travel
- Thrombophilia, an inherited predisposition to clotting
Symptoms of DVT may include pain, swelling, tenderness, discoloration or redness
of the affected area, and skin that is warm to the touch. However, up to half
of all DVT episodes produce minimal symptoms or are completely "silent."
Because a number of other conditions, including muscle strains, skin infections,
and phlebitis (inflammation of veins), display symptoms similar to those of
DVT, the condition may be difficult to diagnose without specific tests.
How is Deep-Vein Thrombosis Diagnosed?
Although a number of tests have been evaluated over the years, only three have
been shown to have special value for diagnosing DVT in symptomatic patients:
venography, impedance plethysmography (IPG), and venous ultrasonography.
What is Pulmonary Embolism?
- Venography is performed by injecting radiographic material into a
superficial vein on the top of the foot. The contrast material mixes with
the blood and flows through the leg. An x-ray image of the leg and pelvis
will show the calf and thigh veins, which drain into the external iliac vein.
A clot is diagnosed by the presence of an intraluminal filling defect, an
abrupt cut-off of the contrast material on the x-ray.
- Impedance plethysmography (IPG) is performed by placing two sets
of electrodes around the patient's calf and an oversized blood pressure cuff
around the thigh. The electrodes sense a change in blood volume (increased
blood volume decreases electrical impedance) in the calf veins, which is recorded
on a strip chart. Changes in venous filling are produced by inflating the
thigh cuff to obstruct venous return and then reestablishing blood flow by
deflating the cuff and assessing the time taken for venous volume in the calf
to return to baseline. If a clot is present in the popliteal or more proximal
veins, venous emptying is delayed.
- Venous Ultrasonography of the venous system is obtained with high-resolution
equipment to produce two-dimensional images of reflected signals from an array
of ultrasound sources, including the common femoral vein in the groin and
the popliteal vein, which connects to the femoral vein. Gentle pressure is
applied with the probe to determine whether the vein under examination is
compressible. The most accurate ultrasonic criterion for diagnosing venous
thrombosis is non-compressibility of the venous lumen (cavity) under gentle
The major risk associated with DVT is the development of a pulmonary embolism.
PE can occur when a fragment of a blood clot breaks loose from the wall of the
vein and migrates to the lungs, where it blocks a pulmonary artery or one of
Blockage of the main pulmonary artery by one or more of the emboli may be life
threatening. Symptoms may include shortness of breath, a feeling of apprehension,
rapid pulse, sweating, and/or sharp chest pain that worsens with deep breathing.
Some patients may cough bloody sputum, while others may develop very low blood
pressure and pass out.
Between 60,000 and 200,000 people may die of a pulmonary embolism. This number
exceeds the number of Americans who die each year from AIDS, breast cancer,
or highway accidents.
How May Healthcare Providers Reduce the Risk and/or Treat DVT and PE?
Primary prevention measures for DVT may include at-risk patient
identification, and a proper diet and exercise regime. Effective prophylaxis
and treatment options exist for both deep-vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.
Anticoagulants, or blood-thinning drugs, are commonly used to reduce the risk
of and treat DVT. These agents work by altering the body's normal blood-clotting
process and may help to reduce the risk of PE. Either modulating activation
of blood coagulation or preventing venous stasis achieves this prophylaxis.
Low-dose subcutaneous heparin, intermittent pneumatic compression of the legs,
oral anticoagulants, adjusted doses of subcutaneous heparin, graduated compression
stockings, and low-molecular weight heparins (LMWHs) have shown positive results
in reducing PE.
For more information on DVT, click here.
Created: 2/27/2003 - American Public Health Association
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Spanish program follows the Florida Next Generation World Language Standards, along with Marion County's Curriculum Maps and Blue Prints. Students are actively engaged in language acquisition through the support of listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities. Along with learning Spanish, students are involved in cultural experiences. They are able to gain an appreciation and understanding of Spanish speaking countries' customs, traditions, foods, animals, locations, etc. through the use of technology and other learning tools. | <urn:uuid:606de90a-38de-442e-a25f-7a40cf5723ec> | {
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A chorus of holy men, among whom are Pater Ecstaticus, Pater Profundis, and Pater Seraphicus, sing the praises of Heaven. A host of angels enters, bearing the immortal remains of Faust. Other angelic choirs join in the singing. They are joined by the spirits of children who died in innocence at birth, and by three famous penitent women from the Bible, Magna Peccatrix, Mulier Samaritana, and Maria Aegyptica, who prepare the way for the entrance of Una Poenitentium, once called Gretchen. Doctor Marianus chants the praises of the Blessed Virgin, the Queen of Heaven. The Penitent who was formerly Gretchen expresses her ecstasy that Faust has been saved. The Mater Gloriosa calls upon Gretchen and Faust to rise to the higher sphere. Doctor Marianus prostrates himself in adoration of the Virgin and the salvation which her grace brings. The scene closes as a Mystical Chorus chants a hymn which says that all things are symbols of the great Eternal Reality and that through love the spirit of Eternal Womanhood leads mankind to Truth and Salvation.
Although there are many elements of Catholic religious symbolism in this scene, they were adopted by Goethe only because he saw in them a means to give tangible expression to his beliefs, and do not demonstrate his adherence to orthodox Christianity.
The three holy fathers in the first chorus represent three saints who manifested in their lives different aspects of Faust's longing for oneness with the universe. The spirits of the children who died at birth achieved salvation because of their experience, whereas Faust has been saved as a result of the heightened knowledge and insight gained through great experience. The presence of all these figures in the place to which Faust's soul is brought, indicates that striving for union with the ultimate is part of the essential character of all life, and is the basis from which immortality arises.
The angels who bring in Faust's soul reveal that he has not yet attained Salvation. Now that he has been liberated from sin, however, he will commence his purification and will free himself from the remaining traces of his earthly existence. He will be reborn, in a sense, like the spirits of the innocent children, and with them will rise to the higher levels of Salvation. Doctor Marianus is the leader of the community of holy men, and on earth was a teacher of the doctrine and meaning of the Blessed Virgin. The three penitent women pray to the Virgin in behalf of Gretchen, just as the children are praying for Faust, and Gretchen is praying for Faust. This indicates that Salvation is most surely gained by altruistic concern for others, which is also the message of Faust's great project in behalf of humanity.
All the inhabitants of Heaven seem joined together in a single harmonious adoration of the central glory represented by the Virgin, and all are in a state of motion in which the universal law of action is fulfilled. The striving which characterized Faust's life will be continued, but in another sphere and another form. He will be led and helped in his new journey toward beatitude by Gretchen, just as she helped him in Part One to participate in life's joys for the first time, and together they will reach a new summit of bliss in adoration and union with the spirit of the cosmos.
In the drama's final lines, the Mystical Chorus explains that all things are merely symbols of the eternal verity, that the earthly reflects the heavenly, and that in Heaven the unattainable becomes possible for the souls of the blessed. The Eternal Womanhood which is the spirit of the Mater Gloriosa is a symbol of the divine love and forgiveness that nurtures all man's acts and accomplishments and which inspires his spiritual development, and the creative principle that gives meaning and function to all elements of the universe.
The poetic expression of these metaphysical ideas in the final scene sums up the philosophical meaning of Goethe's powerful drama. It indicates that Faust has been admitted to Heaven because of his positive spiritual attitude and his constant striving, rather than any moral evaluation and weighing of his life. The drama has also demonstrated the delusions and tragedies that are caused by living in association with evil, negation, and frustration, through Faust's unhappy experiences while under the influence of Mephistopheles. The final message of Faust is that life's purpose is to live; that is, only through acceptance of life and continued effort to maintain life is one able to find immortality. Faust was victorious over Mephisto because, despite his errors and frustrations, he never lost his faith in life's essence and continued, in the face of adversity, to search for something higher than himself which alone could give his existence meaning. | <urn:uuid:05c4cfdd-f24b-424d-87b7-aba5c3aff198> | {
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In a world of conversations carried out through short text messages and 140 character Twitter updates, new abbreviations seem to be creeping into the English language as many grammar conventions are going out the window. Smiley faces are being used as a new punctuation mark. Although students are writing more than ever, this writing might not be good grammar practice and it is often teaching them habits that are hard to break. It’s up to K-12 teachers in all subjects to encourage good grammar to prepare students for college and their future careers.
Grammar is a subject that lends itself well to interdisciplinary study. Just as good grammar is crucial for success in many areas of life, it should play an important role in every subject in school. In addition to using proper grammar ourselves, we can use activities like the following ones to buff up our students’ grammar skills while we are teaching in other areas.
Although math and grammar don’t seem to go hand in hand, there are ways to incorporate grammar into a math classroom without sacrificing the time students spend learning math. In lessons like Monstrous Math, students get to use their artistic skills and practice writing while gaining a better understanding of fractions. We featured How Big is Hagrid? in our columns on Harry Potter resources. It’s also a great example of combining writing and math. Check it out to see if you agree!
It can be very helpful for students to explain new math procedures to one another as they are learning. You can make this even more fun by having your students create stories, comics, posters, or pamphlets that explain math techniques in a fun way (using proper grammar, of course)! Allowing students the choice of how they will present the information lets them pick something they will enjoy. If you grade with a rubric, be sure to include a section for grammar. This type of activity is particularly useful in math since students can keep their finished products to review the material later.
Science classes often require writing, but science teachers may be leery of grading grammar since it’s not their area of expertise. Much to my students’ chagrin, I like to dedicate one section of the rubric (and a portion of the grade) to grammar. I don’t go through and turn the reports into a sea of red, I just give students feedback if their grammar needs improvement. You can also make the lab reports more fun to write (and read) by assigning them in non-traditional formats. Students can present their findings as stories, persuasive letters, or mysteries to start. If you get creative and have fun with the assignments, the students will, too.
Don’t forget that when a subject is fun and you are excited about it, your enthusiasm will rub off on your students. If you are rocking out to the Schoolhouse Rock songs Unpack Your Adjectives, Conjunction Junction, or any of the others you might remember from your childhood commercial breaks, your students will probably laugh at you, but they might secretly enjoy it! Speaking of teaching with music, look at this blog post by Nik Peachey. He shares some neat tools to help teachers use song lyrics to teach particular grammar conventions. See if you can catch a grammar error in his post…it happens to the best of us!
As I read through this column on my computer, I’m checking nervously for the telltale green squiggly lines that will call me out as a grammar novice. Phew! It looks like I’m safe this time. LOL! Thanx 4 reading. Catch u nxt wk.
~Peggy's Corner - 5/27/2011~ | <urn:uuid:6c4598fb-e523-409e-b583-de119c197e6f> | {
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One of the Glyptotek’s most important works, the large cuirass statue of Emperor Trajan, has just returned to the museum after having been the main attraction in the exhibition “The Age of Balance” at the Capitoline Museum in Rome. Trajan was the first of the so-called Adoptive Emperors, who, in the period AD 98 to 180, ruled the Roman Empire with great military and administrative skills.
It was under Trajan, in fact, that the empire reached its greatest geographical extent: from Northern England to the Caspian Sea, incl. the lands around the Mediterranean, Mare Nostrum. During this period, the first and second centuries AD, the cuirass statue was especially popular. This type of statue was an expression of superb military qualities on behalf of the subject.
Armour was originally worn by the emperor during a triumphal parade and the decoration on the cuirass frequently comprised symbols of victory, and the divine protection of the emperors. Until the 21st October the statue is to be found centrally positioned in the Lion Hall giving an opportunity to get close to Trajan and examine the statue from all angles. | <urn:uuid:b76d9a17-365a-4682-a9c6-fe71af0729bb> | {
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Posted: September 2, 2012 Filed under: Education | Tags: blog, blogger, HandyWebResource, internet, iPad, IWB, links, news, resource, smartboard, twitter, website
I’m going to draw from my weekly notes and favourited Tweets to build a range of links into this short monthly section that cover related news, interesting blog posts and recommended Ed Tools. I’ll try my best to experiment with some of the tools offered. If not, I’ll take care to ensure that they are re-blogged from reputable educational sources!
ABC News – ‘What’s in the Gonski Report?‘, is a well constructed article that includes relevant information, some interesting infographics and a pop quiz! (via @wombatlyons)
ABC News – Peter Garrett alluding to the the fact that it could be several years before an overhaul of school funding takes place (video) (@abcnews)
Blogs and Bloggers
‘The Great IWB Swindle‘ – A thought-provoking, well written blog article that prompted me to reflect on my use of the technology in my classroom. (@richielambert via @kathleen_morris)
Edgalaxy.com – A blog that I have browsed in the past. Regularly has interesting posts and valuable links and ideas. (@AnaChristinaPrts via @mgraffin)
Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom – An inspiring blog that led me to many other intriguing resources that I plan to investigate and blog on in the future! (via the author, @kathleen_morris)
That’s all for now. I am planning to investigate Sqworl and Storify for my next post. If you’re an expert or you have any comments please use the comments section for any feedback or tips!
Posted: September 1, 2012 Filed under: Education | Tags: 21stcentury, app, Apple, appofthemonth, computing, internet, iPad, iPod, learningtool, resource, tablet, teachingtool
Colleague: ‘What apps should I get?’
Rotate iPad 90 degrees, shuffle across to them,
The reality is that there are just so many apps out there, for such a range of purposes, that it is not always possible (in the same time it takes to drink your lukewarm coffee) to pinpoint to a colleague exactly which apps are relevant, useful and practical for them. My current experience of app-based technology in education is an enthusiastic group of professionals spending precious time integrating apps that actually make their lives more complicated! Personally, I have done this and later found myself spending more time re-reorganising files and folders, notes and photographs to get everything back into one, accessible space. I can say the same for so-called lesson enhancing apps.
Reflecting on this, I’m sure we all agree that our focus is best directed when we find an app that does a better job for us than we are doing already. I’d like to clarify my future posts by categorising apps under three simple terms – those being that the app makes things easier, faster or cooler.Because every student will tell you that if it (the lesson) is easy to interact, fast or cool, they’re in. And teachers? Well, I can only speak for myself…
With this in mind, I’m going to choose an app each month that achieves one, two or all of these criteria, to share and evaluate them. Perhaps by explaining their usefulness under these simple terms, I can make them more readily accessible to you.
I look forward to hearing your feedback, experiences and suggestions for alternatives so that this monthly section can become a forum and resource for others. Please feel free to use the comments section to direct future posts or any app categories that you would like to discuss.
Disclaimer: I am by no means an Apple expert. I will only present apps that are tried and tested.
Posted: August 29, 2012 Filed under: Education | Tags: 21stcentury, games, HandyWebResource, internet, IWB, links, maths, numeracy, oswego, resource, smartboard, website
Each month I’ll post one online resource that I’ve used in the classroom. Sometimes they will be effective stand-alone resources that require little explanation. For other resources, where applicable, I’ll also offer some follow-up activities that have extended the learning that the web resource has introduced.
The kids in my grade have had heaps of fun this year being introduced to different concepts via the resources page on the Oswego City School District’s website (above).
Although it isn’t the most attractive links page, there are a range of games, some in successive difficulty levels, that are excellent for tuning in a whole group or reinforcing a concept with a guided group. My students have even enjoyed the Working Mathematically based games (such as Power Lines) during their wet day timetables!
Personal favourites of mine include: Stop the Clock (1-5 offering increasing difficulty options) and, Speed Grid Addition.
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ARE PUBLIC SCHOOLS CONSTITUTIONAL?
Lynn M. Stuter
January 20, 2003
NewsWithViews.comAs the war over education reform -- Goals 2000, school-to-work, and "outcome-based education" -- rages on, the time is more than ripe to ask ourselves, "Are public schools constitutional?"
Looking at the United States Constitution, no provision is made for education, but the Constitution does instruct that ... "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." (Tenth Amendment) In other words, education is reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Why, then, do we have a cabinet level United States Department of Education (US DOE)? Does this not violate the U.S. Constitution? In a word, "yes." The US DOE was established under the Carter Administration as a political payoff to the teacher unions for their support of Jimmy Carter for president.
Inquiry of the US DOE recently, concerning the constitutional authority on which it was established, brought an interesting response. No doubt many will be surprised to learn that the US DOE was established to help and support states in the area of education; and, therefore, doesn't require a constitutional mandate.
No doubt those reading federal legislation and laws, replete with "must" and "shall" as condition of receipt of federal tax dollars, would dispute the contention that the US DOE is there merely to help and support states in the matter of education. No doubt a competent constitutional attorney could make the case that federal laws concerning education have, in fact, served to move control of education from the state level to the federal level in violation of the Tenth Amendment.
So, if the Tenth Amendment reserves education to the state level, are public or government schools constitutional at the state level?
Article IX, Section 2, of the Constitution of the State of Washington, states, "The legislature shall provide for a general and uniform system of public schools..." This appears to conform with the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution ... that is, until we look further.
Article IX fulfills the requirements laid down by Section 4 of the Enabling Act (25 U.S. Statutes at Large, c 180 p 676), approved February 22, 1889, providing the would-be states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington the ability to "form constitutions and State governments and to be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States ..."
Section 4 of the Enabling Act reads, in part, "... said [constitutional] conventions shall provide, by ordinances irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of said States: ... Fourth. That provision shall be made for the establishment and maintenance of systems of public schools, which shall be open to all the children of said States, and free from sectarian control."
The requirement that Washington State have a "general and uniform system of public schools" was mandated from the federal level when the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution expressly reserves to the states that which is not specifically delegated to the United States? Why was this not challenged by the several states whose statehood was addressed by this Enabling Act? That challenge would have, no doubt, led back to Horace Mann and laws concerning compulsory education.
But the scope of conflict doesn't stop there. Note, under the Enabling Act, that public schools, by federal mandate, must be "free from sectarian control." Likewise, Article IX, Section 4, of the Washington State Constitution, to fulfill the requirements of the Enabling Act, states, "All schools maintained or supported wholly or in part by the public funds shall be forever free from sectarian control or influence."
Looking in the dictionary, we learn that "sectarian" is a derivation of "sect" meaning a group with a particular interest, purpose, or scope. Any religion has a "particular interest, purpose, or scope", does it not, whether it be Christianity, New Age, Hinduism, Buddhism, humanism ... or any one of the hundreds of religious sects on earth?
According to the Enabling Act and the Washington State Constitution, not one cent of public money may go to a school that is sectarian. None. Which brings us to another problem.
Every aspect of education, from the subjects taught, to the purpose of it, to the way it is taught (pedagogy), is based on a world view ... how one perceives the world and the purpose of it ... one's religious beliefs, one's religion, one's sectarian views.
For example, humanists (Darwinists) believe in evolution while Christians believe in creationism. Is evolution being taught in the public schools? Yes, it is and has been for many years. Is the religion of humanism being taught in the public schools? Humanism is the religious basis of education in the public schools of today. Does that violate the Washington State Constitution? Yes, it does.
But the Washington State Constitution requires the state have a "general and uniform system of public schools." How can that be done if every school is sectarian by virtue of its educational purpose? The answer, of course, is that it cannot be done.
How do we resolve this conflict of schools versus religion? Can education exist that doesn't have a basis in religion, that can be said to be secular? In a word, "No." Which, then, has priority, education or religion? It becomes apparent that religion (one's world view), as the basis of the education of the child, must take priority. This has been true since the beginning of time. Those who would say that schools today are without sectarian influence or control attempt to deny the religion of humanism that is the basis of education today.
Too, we need to look to the history of the United States for guidance in this matter. The First Amendment to the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ..." While many claim this establishes a "wall of separation" between church and state, such is not the case. Our Founding Fathers had first-hand experience with the religious intolerance of the Church of England. They were adamant that their newly formed government would never have the authority to establish a state religion, recognize a state religion, or have the power to persecute anyone or any religious group because of religious beliefs. The First Amendment is pivotal to the heritage and freedom of every American.
Following in the footsteps of the First Amendment, many, if not all, states have made provision for freedom of religion in their state constitutions, something on the order of "absolute freedom of conscience in matters of religious sentiment, belief and worship, shall be guaranteed to every individual ..." (Article I, Section 11, Washington State Constitution) This fulfills the requirement of Section 4, First part of the Enabling Act: "That perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured and that no inhabitant of said States shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship."
When the concept of the local school came into being, controlled by local parents, not beholden to state or federal laws or regulations, Christianity was the world view upon which the curriculum was based. As a purely local matter, this did not violate the constitution of either the state or United States.
But when states began to assert control over schools and school districts, collect and apportion tax monies to schools, the question posed by this conflict should have arisen. It didn't. In 1962, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that school prayer was unconstitutional in public schools, and public schools embraced the religion of humanism as the basis of their curricula, the question posed by this conflict should have again arisen. It didn't.
Are public schools constitutional? Based on freedom of religion, I do not believe they are. In those states have constitutional mandates concerning freedom of religion and schools, the conflict between the two needs to be addressed.
© 2003 Lynn M. Stuter - All Rights Reserved
Mother and wife, Stuter has spent the past ten years researching systems theory with a particular emphasis on education. She home schooled two daughters, now grown and on their own. She has worked with legislators, both state and federal, on issues pertaining to systems governance and education reform. She networks nation-wide with other researchers and citizens concerned with the transformation of our nation. She has traveled the United States and lived overseas.
Web site: http://www.icehouse.net/lmstuter E-Mail: | <urn:uuid:42b59811-6015-4ef2-9792-d14697904680> | {
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12 Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. 3 Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops.
This is sort of a mishmash of sayings and teachings of Christ that Luke groups together in this passage. It all relates to things that would have been very much in mind for the 1st century reader, particularly the Jewish Christians who would have regular clashes with the Pharisees. Recall Luke’s own reported experiences with St. Paul, the author would find these words very meaningful for his own life and probably wanted to include them to encourage others.
As they’re mostly teachings or sayings that tie into the previous chapter’s theme of Christ’s conflicts with the Pharisees, Luke includes them here.
Jesus is at the height of His popularity. The crowds are so large that they number in the thousands and that people can hardly move at all without tripping over each other.
Jesus’ first teachings are to the disciples and are a warning against indulging in the same hypocrisy that the Pharisees did: focusing on religious tradition and observance rather than Charity, mercy, and justice; holding themselves and their friends to a lighter standard than everyone else, trying to appear righteous in public to win acclaim and esteem from the masses.
Your character will be revealed. You can’t hide it forever. Eventually who we really are seeps through the walls we have built up and the masks we choose to wear to hide our inner selves from others. If you think other people are there just to validate your own ego, then you will eventually treat them like objects. If you are filled with self-righteousness and pride, you will treat others who fail to measure up to your standard poorly. If you are struggling with a secret sin, chances are good, it will influence your actions and eventually come to light. If you are critical of others, or gossip, or backbite, your words will come back to haunt you.
Our actions reveal our character to others.
For the disciple of Christ, the idea is to reject the temptation to be religious, and to embrace authenticity: a life of openness and honesty. The Christian is to admit his faults and confess them to one another because the focus of his life is not himself. He is not obsessed with displaying a front of righteousness, but should be obsessed with living a life that displays grace, charity, and mercy to others. As God has been gracious, loving, and merciful to him, so his own life aims to show those qualities by his actions to his fellow man.
That is where religion does the most harm, including our own notions of Christianity that we slip into. It places the focus firmly on me: my walk with Christ, my good works, my personal relationship, my struggles with sin. It’s all about me. I am the center of the universe. Jesus would have died for me alone. God has a wonderful plan for my life. I’m going to rule and reign with Christ. Me. Me. Me. I. I. I.
And so, in getting wrapped up in my own little cocoon of Christianity, I close myself off from a world of people in need.
That’s where the Pharisees were. That’s where many of us, myself included, often find ourselves.
So how do we get out?
We make a choice this day (and every day) that Christianity is not a religion about me. That the life that Jesus lived was not about making me feel like a better person, but about showing us the Way of Life.
That Way of Life that we choose to imitate, which means seeing other people, recognizing their importance and needs, and living a life that extends to them via our actions: mercy, Charity, and grace. And part of that is authenticity. Honesty. Openness.
May we all be authentic men and women this day. | <urn:uuid:b6244935-681e-45c2-ab51-22b33fa25a38> | {
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In the past forty years, meditation has entered the mainstream of modern Western culture, prescribed by physicians and practiced by everyone from business executives, artists, and scientists to students, teachers, military personnel, and – on a promising note – politicians. Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan meditates every morning and has become a major advocate of mindfulness and meditation, as he describes in his book, A Mindful Nation
Despite the growing popularity of meditation, prevailing misconceptions about the practice are a barrier that prevents many people from trying meditation and receiving its profound benefits for the body, mind, and spirit. Here are seven of the most common meditation myths dispelled.
Myth #1: Meditation is difficult.
Truth: This myth is rooted in the image of meditation as an esoteric practice reserved only for saints, holy men, and spiritual adepts. In reality, when you receive instruction from an experienced, knowledgeable teacher, meditation is easy and fun to learn. The techniques can be as simple as focusing on the breath or silently repeating a mantra. One reason why meditation may seem difficult is that we try too hard to concentrate, we’re overly attached to results, or we’re not sure we are doing it right. In our experience at the Chopra Center, learning meditation from a qualified teacher is the best way to ensure that the process is enjoyable and you get the most from your practice. A teacher will help you understand what you’re experiencing, move past common roadblocks, and create a nourishing daily practice.
Myth #2: You have to quiet your mind in order to have a successful meditation practice.
Truth: This may be the number one myth about meditation and is the cause of many people giving up in frustration. Meditation isn’t about stopping our thoughts or trying to empty our mind – both of these approaches only create stress and more noisy internal chatter. We can’t stop or control our thoughts, but we can decide how much attention to give them. Although we can’t impose quiet on our mind, through meditation we can find the quiet that already exists in the space between our thoughts. Sometimes referred to as “the gap,” this space between thoughts is pure consciousness, pure silence, and pure peace.
When we meditate, we use an object of attention, such as our breath, an image, or a mantra, which allows our mind to relax into this silent stream of awareness. When thoughts arise, as they inevitably will, we don’t need to judge them or try to push them away. Instead, we gently return our attention to our object of attention. In every meditation, there are moments, even if only microseconds, when the mind dips into the gap and experiences the refreshment of pure awareness. As you meditate on a regular basis, you will spend more and more time in this state of expanded awareness and silence.
Be assured that even if it feels like you have been thinking throughout your entire meditation, you are still receiving the benefits of your practice. You haven’t failed or wasted your time. When my friend and colleague David Simon taught meditation, he would often tell students, “The thought I’m having thoughts may be the most important thought you have ever thought, because before you had that thought, you may not have even known you were having thoughts. You probably thought you were your thoughts.” Simply noticing that you are having thoughts is a breakthrough because it begins to shift your internal reference point from ego mind to witnessing awareness. As you become less identified with your thoughts and stories, you experience greater peace and open to new possibilities.
Myth #3: It takes years of dedicated practice to receive any benefits from meditation.
Truth: The benefits of meditation are both immediate and long-term. You can begin to experience benefits the first time you sit down to meditate and in the first few days of daily practice. Many scientific studies provide evidence that meditation has profound effects on the mind-body physiology within just weeks of practice. For example, a landmark study led by Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital found that as little as eight weeks of meditation not only helped people experience decreased anxiety and greater feelings of calm; it also produced growth in the areas of the brain associated with memory, empathy, sense of self, and stress regulation.
At the Chopra Center, we commonly hear from new meditators who are able to sleep soundly for the first time in years after just a few days of daily meditation practice. Other common benefits of meditation include improved concentration, decreased blood pressure, reduced stress and anxiety, and enhanced immune function. You can learn more about the benefits of meditation in a recent post, Why Meditate? on the Chopra Center blog.
Myth #4: Meditation is escapism.
Truth: The real purpose of meditation isn’t to tune out and get away from it all but to tune in and get in touch with your true Self – that eternal aspect of yourself that goes beyond all the ever-changing, external circumstances of your life. In meditation you dive below the mind’s churning surface, which tends to be filled with repetitive thoughts about the past and worries about the future, into the still point of pure consciousness. In this state of transcendent awareness, you let go of all the stories you’ve been telling yourself about who you are, what is limiting you, and where you fall short – and you experience the truth that your deepest Self is infinite and unbounded.
As you practice on a regular basis, you cleanse the windows of perception and your clarity expands. While some people do try to use meditation as a form of escape – as a way to bypass unresolved emotional issues – this approach runs counter to all of the wisdom teachings about meditation and mindfulness. In fact, there are a variety of meditation techniques specifically developed to identify, mobilize and release stored emotional toxicity. If you are coping with emotional upset or trauma, I recommend that you work with a therapist who can help you safely explore and heal the pain of the past, allowing you to return to your natural state of wholeness and love.
Myth #5: I don’t have enough time to meditate.
Truth: There are busy, productive executives who have not missed a meditation in twenty-five years, and if you make meditation a priority, you will do it. If you feel like your schedule is too full, remember that even just a few minutes of meditation is better than none. We encourage you not to talk yourself out of meditating just because it’s a bit late or you feel too sleepy.
In life’s paradoxical way, when we spend time meditating on a regular basis, we actually have more time. When we meditate, we dip in and out of the timeless, spaceless realm of consciousness . . . the state of pure awareness that is the source of everything that manifests in the universe. Our breathing and heart rate slow down, our blood pressure lowers, and our body decreases the production of stress hormones and other chemicals that speed up the aging process and give us the subjective feeling that we are “running out of time.”
In meditation, we are in a state of restful alertness that is extremely refreshing for the body and mind. As people stick with their meditation ritual, they notice that they are able to accomplish more while doing less. Instead of struggling so hard to achieve goals, they spend more and more time “in the flow” – aligned with universal intelligence that orchestrates everything.
Myth #6: Meditation requires spiritual or religious beliefs.
Truth: Meditation is a practice that takes us beyond the noisy chatter of the mind into stillness and silence. It doesn’t require a specific spiritual belief, and many people of many different religions practice meditation without any conflict with their current religious beliefs. Some meditators have no particular religious beliefs or are atheist or agnostic. They meditate in order to experience inner quiet and the numerous physical and mental health benefits of the practice – including lowered blood pressure, stress reduction, and restful sleep. The original reason that I started meditating was to help myself stop smoking. Meditation helps us to enrich our lives. It enables us to enjoy whatever we do in our lives more fully and happily – whether that is playing sports, taking care of our children, or advancing in our career.
Myth #7: I’m supposed to have transcendent experiences in meditation.
Truth: Some people are disappointed when they don’t experience visions, see colors, levitate, hear a choir of angels, or glimpse enlightenment when they meditate. Although we can have a variety of wonderful experiences when we meditate, including feelings of bliss and oneness, these aren’t the purpose of the practice. The real benefits of meditation are what happens in the other hours of the day when we’re going about our daily lives. When we emerge from our meditation session, we carry some of the stillness and silence of our practice with us, allowing us to be more creative, compassionate, centered, and loving to ourselves and everyone we encounter.
Learn practical steps for beginning or enriching your meditation practice by joining Oprah and Deepak for their next free 21-Day Meditation Challenge.
As you begin or continue your meditation journey, here are some other guidelines that may help you on your way:
- Have no expectations. Sometimes the mind is too active to settle down. Sometimes it settles down immediately. Sometimes it goes quiet, but the person doesn’t notice. Anything can happen.
- Be easy with yourself. Meditation isn’t about getting it right or wrong. It’s about letting your mind find its true nature.
- Don’t stick with meditation techniques that aren’t leading to inner silence. Find a technique that resonates with you. There are many kinds of mantra meditation, including the Primordial Sound Meditation practice taught at the Chopra Center.. Or simply follow the in and out of your breathing, not paying attention to your thoughts at all. The mind wants to find its source in silence. Give it a chance by letting go.
- Make sure you are alone in a quiet place to meditate. Unplug the phone. Make sure no one is going to disturb you.
- Really be there. If your attention is somewhere else, thinking about your next appointment, errand or meal, of course you won’t find silence. To meditate, your intention must be clear and free of other obligations.
To learn about upcoming events, please visit www.chopra.com. | <urn:uuid:f5ad979a-89bf-4c9c-ae2e-96eeb50eab20> | {
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As we discussed in class, go to this site for an overview of bonding, including metallic bonding. We’re reminded that metals exist in a regular crystalline lattice, hence are shiny, densely packed with up to 12 nearest neighbours or touching atoms.
The image is a transmission electron microscope picture of a metallic structure, at almost the molecular level. It shows how disjointed the structure is in real life. There are probably over a billion atoms in the picture | <urn:uuid:a953f8f6-6c56-4e49-8a80-3caca69c5fd9> | {
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The GPS Navigation Message
The navigation message is a continuous 50 bits/second data stream modulated onto the carrier signal of every satellite. It is a telemetry message, and the data is transmitted in logical units called frames. For GPS a frame is 1500 bits long, so takes 30 seconds to be transmitted. Every satellite begins to transmit a frame precisely on the minute and half minute, according to its own clock. Each frame is divided into five subframes, each 300 bits long. Subframes 1, 2 and 3 contain the high accuracy ephemeris and clock offset data. The "data content" (which I'll define later) of these three subframes is the same for a given satellite for consecutive frames for periods lasting as long as two hours. New subframe 1, 2 and 3 data sets usually begin to be transmitted precisely on the hour (see description of uploads and cutovers below). Subframe 1 contains second degree polynomial coefficients used to calculate the satellite clock offset. Subframes 2 and 3 contain orbital parameters. Subframes 4 and 5 are "subcommutated, which means that consecutive subframes have different "data content". This data does repeat, but 25 consecutive frames of subframe 4 and 5 data must be collected before the receiver has all of the unique "data content" being transmitted by the satellite. A satellite transmits the same "data content" in subframes 4 and 5 until it is next uploaded, or usually for about 24 hours. Subframes 4 and 5 contain the almanac data and some related health and configuration data.
Each subframe is divided into 10 words of 30 bits each. Six bits in each word is for parity. The 24 data bits in words 3 through 10 is what I meant by "data content" above. Word 1 and 2 have the same format in every subframe. Word 1 is called the telemetry word. The first 8 bits in the telemetry word contain a sync pattern, used by the receiver to help synchronize itself with the Navigation Message and thus be able to correctly decode the "data content". Word 2 contains the truncated Z-count. This is the time according to the satellite's clock when the end of
the subframe will be transmitted, with a scale factor of 6 seconds. Think of the truncated Z-count as a counter that is incremented in consecutive subframes. [Note, the full Z-count has a scale factor of 1.5 seconds and is one of the primary units for GPS time.]
Uploads typically occur about once every 24 hours for each satellite. In an upload the Master Control Station (MCS) sends the satellite all of the "data content" the satellite will transmit during the next 24 hours, plus data for the next few weeks in case an upload is delayed for some reason. An upload contains roughly 16 subframe 1, 2 and 3 data sets. When a satellite begins transmitting a new data set this is called a cutover. The first cutover after an upload may occur at any time of the hour, but subsequent cutovers only occur precisely on hour boundaries.
Each subframe 1, 2 and 3 data set is transmitted for no more than two hours. With some transmitted for exactly an hour, some for exactly two hours and some (either immediately before or after an upload) broadcast for a period of less than two hours.
Subframe 1 contains a clock offset time-of-applicability (this is the fit time for the polynomial), and subframe 2 or 3 (I can't remember which) contains an ephemeris time-of-applicability. The two time-of-applicabilty values are almost always the same, and for a cutover that begins on an hour epoch, the time-of-applicability values are almost exactly two hours later than the initial transmission time of the subframe 1, 2 and 3 data set. Each of the these three subframes also contains an index value which allows the receiver to verify that the three subframes are part of the same data set.
A typical receiver sold today is all-in-view, meaning it trys to track all satellites in view continuously. It almost certainly contains logic similar to the following. It continuously demodulates the Navigation Message data, looking for a change in the subframe 1, 2 or 3 "data content". If it detects a change it collects a new subframe 1, 2 and 3 data set and begins using it to navigate. This is the best strategy because it means the receiver is using the freshest data available, which will tend to be the most accurate. It may do something similar for the almanac, but it is less critical to have the latest almanac data so it may not collect every unique set, and usually an almanac is only collected from one of the satellites. A subframe 1, 2 and 3 data set is designed to describe the clock and orbit for a four hour period (six hours is also possible), with the time-of-applicability near the center of the period. Note that since a data set is not transmitted for more than two hours, the time-of-applicability is almost always in the future, assuming the satellite is being tracked continuously. If a receiver is turned off and then back on, the receiver
could use either its saved almanac or latest subframe 1, 2 and 3 data set (if it has saved it) for acquiring the signal. In terms of accuracy, it would use a subframe 1, 2 and 3 data set if the current time is not more than two hours after the time-of-applicability (and in practice it would be more accurate than the almanac for at least a few more hours). If it has subframe 1, 2 and 3 data that is less than 2 hours beyond its time-of-applicability it could reasonably begin navigating with a satellite as soon as it can make pseudo-range measurements, and thus not wait for a new data set to be received.
This of course is just a brief introduction to the Navigation Message, but I'm hoping it may help in understanding GPS navigation. I'll be glad to address questions on the Navigation Message (I do have some excellent reference material that is not generally available to refer to if necessary). Also, I've tried to use standard terms in the above discussion, but my term "data content" is not standard (I just invented it).
If you have questions or would like additional information about the GPS sattelite signal format, Email ME | <urn:uuid:d5ed1bda-7102-4ca5-addf-bb335ce76ebe> | {
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That the internet is a very big thing, it’s not breaking news for anyone. But can you imagine or guess how much big it really is?
We have sites coming from all around the planet earth and we can have access to them anytime we want to. And how is it possible?
One thing we do have to keep in mind is that the internet is completely physical. All the data (I am talking about all the information that you can have access when you are using internet) is concentrated in servers that are physical computers used to save all this files. And some people may think “but I use wireless internet” but to create the wifi signal it is necessary a router connected to the internet by cables. And there are also many cables passing through countries and continents (many of them by the sea).
This way we can start to see how big the internet actually is.
And as an experience to see how things really work, I traced the path data course until the final destination.
I decided to use the site of my university from Brazil, which is www.fateczonasul.edu.br.
The packets pass through Goldsmiths router, after to the UK Academic Joint Network Team, in London.
After that they go to Switzerland, TeliaSonera International Carrier. To leave London the packets have to pass through a submarine cable, but there are many cables that leave the UK to the rest of Europe, so, it is not possible to find out by which one it is running.
The United States of America is the next place where our data goes to. There are some cables that connect that part of Europe and USA like FLAG FA-1, Apollo and TAT-14.
And then from USA to the final place… BRAZIL. The packets this time pass through the only cable that connects the Usa and Brazil, Sebras-1.
This analyse was very important to understand how things actually work, how the data is divided and how it travels to arrive where we really want, once I am not a “simple user”, I am a computing student and a future professional in this area. | <urn:uuid:18534399-0c4a-4788-a578-1121fcda59a8> | {
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K-6: by appointment – complete our new 2020 EOI if you are interested in:
- Staff Development Day
- collaborative planning/programming
- building capacity of teachers
- in situ support of students
IMPLEMENTING THE NEW K-6 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY SYLLABUS
This hands-on workshop will help teachers unpack the new Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus and best implement Science & Technology in their own schools, K-6. We will examine the new syllabus structure including Design and Production, Digital Technologies and Thinking Skills; look at what has to be moved/removed from previous programs; and consider what remains and can be modified. Teachers will then explore scientific inquiry through Working Scientifically and how to conduct engaging scientific experiments in a primary setting. Subsequently, teachers will look at developing solutions with a purpose through Design and Production. Finally, teachers will consider the multiple aspects of Digital Technologies and how best to integrate these in Science & Technology and across the curriculum as a whole. The place of STEM within K-6 will also be explored.
PROGRAMMING FOR THE NEW K-6 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY SYLLABUS
- 2020 by EOI
Delegates will be looking at their school’s scope and sequence for K-6 Science and Technology; ensuring that every outcome is addressed including all of the Science and Technology knowledge and understanding outcomes and the Working Scientifically and Working Technologically skill outcomes; creating pacing guides; examining the place of Program Builder; collaboratively programming in an online environment; and where and how to choose engaging hands-on experiments and activities from the plethora of resource repositories out there. Collaboration and sharing will be actively encouraged between participants.
Completing Implementing the New K-6 Science & Technology Syllabus will contribute 5 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Registered PD addressing 1.5.2, 2.1.2, 2.6.2 and 4.4.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW. | <urn:uuid:4529b3a2-6d2f-4f05-b7a8-44295a4b11d1> | {
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Early modern period
The Modern Period is a time from 1500-1800. This time follows the Late Middle Ages and ends with the beginning of the European colonies, it is also the beginning of recognizable nations that we know in modern times.
Europe[change | edit source]
For European countries with many ships, this was the Age of Discovery. Europe was beginning to expand to the New World. Trade with Asia was common, after Europeans found their way around Africa and into the Indian Ocean. In 1453 Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire. Science, transport, and communications improved. This is also called the Renaissance
Asia[change | edit source]
The Mughal Empire began in 1526. This Empire had a orderly government, widespread economic prosperity and religious tolerance. At this time Asia was flourishing in Math and Science. Also the Ottoman Empire was ruling the Middle East, along with the Persian Empire.
Other pages[change | edit source]
References[change | edit source]
- Discussion of the medieval/modern transition from the introduction to the pioneering Cambridge Modern History (1903)
- Society for Renaissance Studies | <urn:uuid:e6b058bb-33ce-41f3-977a-733ac78506c1> | {
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29 February 2008
21 February 2008
Here is a story that even a monkey would go ape about. A professor at CCNY for a physiological psych class told his class about bananas. He said the expression 'going bananas' is from the effects of bananas on the brain. When compared to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around. No wonder monkeys are so happy all the time!
1. Energy Boost: Bananas contain three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber. A banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy. Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world's leading athletes. But energy isn't the only way a banana can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.
2. Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.
3. PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.
4. Anemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.
5. Depression: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.
6. Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it perfect to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.
7. Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.
8. Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.
9. Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.
10. Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school (England) were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.
11. Constipation: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.
12. Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.
13. Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a 'cooling' fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.
14. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan.
15. Quit Smoking: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.
16. Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.
17. Strokes: According to research in The New England Journal of Medicine, eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!
18. Warts: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a plaster or surgical tape!
19. Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.
20. Overweight at work? Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and chips. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.
BONUS: Shoe Polish - want a quick shine on your shoes? Take the inside of the banana skin, and rub directly on the shoe. Finish with dry cloth. Amazing fruit!
So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. Perhaps it's time to change that well-known phrase so that we say, 'A banana a day keeps the doctor away!'
PASS IT ON TO YOUR FRIENDS
18 February 2008
Could this be what orgasmic childbirth all about?
15 February 2008
Remember a few years ago when camera phones and music phones first started hitting the market? Everyone thought they were the coolest things on the block, but it's actually harder to find a phone that doesn't have a camera today than one that does. Technology is quickly advancing and the public wants more out of their mobile phones. They want to stay connected in every way possible and text messages just won't suffice. They want to harness the power of the world wide web everywhere they go.
Mobile Web For Everyone
Wireless data appears to be the next major frontier for consumer-level cell phones, but not everyone is willing to pay the hefty data fees involved in rendering full web pages. When you visit Beyond the Rhetoric or The Thinking Blog, a series of dynamic elements are conjured up and images are loaded. Watch a YouTube video or two and you could be looking at quite an expensive cell phone bill.
At the same time, blog owners want their loyal readers to have access to their website everywhere they go, and a mobile-optimized version (WAP) is one way to do that. For those of you who aren't familiar, WAP sites carry much the same content as their full HTML counterparts, but they've been stripped of the fluff and heavy downloads. Images are kept to a minimum and the formatting has been designed to better suit the small screen of a cell phone.
I'm not a coder, so I have no idea where to begin when it comes to creating a mobile site. Thankfully, there is a service set up at Wirenode that does this for you, transforming any regular blog into one that is more accessible from a cell phone's WAP browser. Whether you've got a RAZR or an LG Voyager, there's a good chance your modern phone does WAP.
Wirenode Cuts the Wires
Wirenode specializes in creating mobile versions of blogs. As I mentioned earlier, these mobile sites trim the fat, so to speak, leaving readers with the core content. Yes, you lose some of the sidebar navigation and some of the flashy formatting you may have on your full site, but it opens your blog up to a whole new (mobile) audience.
After the mobile version of a blog is set up, Wirenode then allows you to enter into an admin area where you can safely edit the mobile site, adding more pages, images, and adjusting the content to suit your preferences. This appears to be a very straightforward and easy-to-understand process. If you can handle Wordpress, you should be able to handle this.
Better still, Wirenode also provides widgets for your blog. These widgets can inform your existing readers about the mobile version of your blog. These can be found under the Promotion tab in the admin area.
My main gripe is that the mobile sites are hosted at the wirenode.mobi domain, though I'd imagine it is possible to transport them over to your own servers too.
Read The Thinking Blog On Your Phone
To see what mobile blog reading is all about, be sure to check out the mobile version of The Thinking Blog on your cell phone. You can find it at http://ttb.wirenode.mobi/. Now you can access all these thought-provoking posts at the coffee shop, in the library, or when your significant other drags you to yet another boring opera.
11 February 2008
Picture a typical round birthday cake. Now, let's say a friend of yours gave you a big knife and challenged you to cut the cake into 8 pieces - but with only 3 cuts! How would you go about solving this puzzle? Take a break now and think about it. Use pen and paper if it is hard to picture it in your mind. Ultimately though, you might need to use your mental imagery skills to come up with the answer to this puzzle. More specifically, your mental rotation skills - yeah, we didn't know we had one either! Answer to the puzzle after the jump.
Brain blogger Alvaro Fernandez from Sharp Brains is here to explain how this works and how to go about solving this puzzle:
First, you have to use your mental rotation and mental imagery skills to visualize potential answers for this puzzle. You can create a mental image of a cake and rotate it in your mind's eye. In doing so, you are using your visual cortex in the occipital lobes (the part of the cortex which is in the back of your head), your somatosensory cortex in your parietal lobes (in the superior part of your head), and then exercise your executive functions in your frontal lobes (right behind your forehead) when you evaluate your hypotheses and refine them until you find the answer.
The so-called "executive functions" are named that way because, like the director of an orchestra or the CEO of a corporation, they are critical to direct and manage the other parts of our brain as needed (as if they were different instruments in the sympony our mind can create).
Alvaro is a leading voice and thought-leader in the growing science-based brain fitness field.
If you still couldn't solve the puzzle, don't worry - here is the answer!
Enjoyed this little puzzle? You can find more brain teasers here.
09 February 2008
"Prostitution presents a moral, social and economic problem that cannot be solved juridically" once famously commented Federica Montseny, the first ever female Spanish minister and a liberal anarchist. Indeed, since ancient times when females were held with a lower social regard than the males in the social hierarchy, till modern days when women rights are promulgated upon fervently - prostitution remains a relevant issue in society. With its scope encompassing social, moral and economic issues, it presents a dilemma to any government determined to fully comprehend this grey area.
NOTE: Article contains images that might Not be Safe For Work [NSFW].
NOTE: Article contains images that might Not be Safe For Work [NSFW].
It is fascinating that so little is known about the "oldest trade in the world" but prostitution has always been rampant and thriving. From the Aztecs time where Cihuacalli (House of Women) became a legalized place for prostitutes to provide sexual services for men; to the Babylonians' time where each woman had to reach, once in their lives, the sanctuary of Militta (Aphrodite or Nana/Anahita), have sex with a foreigner as a sign of hospitality for a symbolic price; and right down to the ancient Rome and Greece where slavery and sex ran alongside one another, prostitution has never ceased to thrive. Even with the abolishment of slavery, initiated by the 1926 Slavery Convention and adopted by the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, prostitution which itself is an indirect form of slavery never get exterminated.
Roman hetaera, relief, around 2nd century—head is missing.
Customer and a prostitute illustrated on an ancient Greek wine cup.
Birth of Venus/Aphrodite, the classical Latin/Greek goddess of love, lust, and beauty.
French prostitutes being taken to the police station.
"The Procuress" by Dirck van Baburen.
Köçek troupe at a fair. Recruited from the ranks of colonized ethnic groups, köçeks were entertainers and sex workers in the Ottoman empire.
A political cartoon from 1787 jesting about the notion of taxation affecting prostitutes.
Ultimately though, the main reason why prostitution remains relevant till today is because sex has always been regarded as a highest form of pleasure for humans and thus explains peoples’ crave for it. Like any other types of transaction for pleasure purposes (eg. Purchasing of games etc), sex will remain an entity that is to be purchased if people continue to view it as something that can be bought and not sacred. It is sobering and lugubrious to know that sex is increasingly becoming something of a transaction as shown by the rise of the prostitution and pornographic industries; an act of bestial nature that desecrate the sanctity of the ultimate physical intimacy between fellow beings. Indeed, such is the scope and depth of its operations that complete eradication remains an idealistic notion.
Prostitutes in the Shimpuro Brothel in Yokohama.
1941 Las Vegas hotel sign.
The red-light district in Amsterdam.
A neighborhood where prostitution and other businesses in the sex industry flourish.
Prostitution Information Centre, in Amsterdam.
- Prostitution in New York City, 1830-1870
- A History of Prostitution, From Antiquity to the Present Day
By Jacob Toh. Submit your thoughts - click here!
07 February 2008
06 February 2008
Concept cars came back - with a vengeance - after World War II when America entered a golden age of prosperity and rising expectations. Nothing said "New!" like the annual GM Motorama shows, where the public caught a glimpse of radical new designs and often bizarre trends like soaring tailfins, glass bubble-tops and chrome, well, everywhere! Today, concept cars are like fixtures of the automotive world, showcasing new ideas, designs and features, but most of them never make it to the street. What if they did?
Let's look at eleven of the most exciting modern day concept cars and, as we admire their lithe lines and futuristic features, dream a little...
11. Ford Airstream concept
Anyone old enough to remember Airstream trailers? This striking new Ford concept isn't anything like them, don't worry! A fixture of the 2007 auto show scene, the Airstream concept previews the crossover vehicle of the future. Look beneath the Airstream's awesome appearance and you'll find a new plug-in hydrogen hybrid fuel cell called HySeries Drive that provides continuous electric power without the need for fossil fuels.
10. Toyota i-Real concept
The i-Real takes "personal transportation" to the next level while blurring the line between car and scooter. Not those Razor Scooters beloved by teens, I mean those electric rolling chairs beloved by oldsters. As the Baby Boom morphs into the Elderly Explosion, a vehicle like the I-Real could find itself in great demand. It looks cool, is controlled by joysticks and it's a Toyota - sounds like a sure winner!
9. Nissan NV200 concept
The Nissan NV200 concept is the neatest thing since sliced bread - it even features a unique pull-out storage module that slides out from the rear doors like a loaf of bread from a plastic bag. In effect, the NV200 turns storage inside out... or is that outside in? Any way - you say it, Nissan's designers have offered a new option that could be just the thing for certain niche professions. Pictured below, is a concept fit for ocean photographers.
8. Mazda Ryuga concept
It's not often that design and engineering complement each other without compromise, and the Mazda Ryuga concept is an exquisite expression of creative cooperation! With its flowing lines, gullwing (more like bat-wing) doors and retro-futuristic interior, the Ryuga is simply stunning any way you look at it. Are there any practical reasons for bringing the Ryuga from concept to concrete? Maybe not... but humanity's desire to make dreams come true has to be respected. Zoom zoom? Yes please!
7. Acura NSX Advanced Sports Car concept
The Acura NSX was Honda's interpretation of a Ferrari-esque supercar, and it sold in modest numbers from 1990 to 2005 without much in the way of appearance or engineering changes. That was then, this is now... the Acura NSX Advanced Sports Car Concept picks up where the old NSX left off - in fact, Honda's CEO announced the new NSX's development program within days of the previous model's last production day. Though only a concept car at the moment, the Acura NSX Advanced Sports Car Concept should hit the streets later this year. Features include a Formula One-inspired V10 motor and the SH-AWD (Super Handling All Wheel Drive) system currently used in the Acura RL. Here's hoping Honda follows through on their promises!
6. Toyota FT-HS Hybrid Sports Car concept
Hybrids... they're the queens of the green, clean fuel-sippin' scene. They're NOT mean drivin' machines, however, but all that may change if Toyota has anything to do with it - and they do. The FT-HS Hybrid Sports Car concept is not your grandmother's Prius though it's still powered by a hybrid motor. The difference is, the motor in the FT-HS can push the sleek 2-door coupe to 60 mph in 4 seconds flat! If the rumors are true, the FT-HS is the forthcoming replacement for the Toyota Supra.
5. Lexus LF-A concept
As hot as the Toyota concept cars may be, some of the ideas bubbling out of Lexus are even hotter! That's how it should be, since Lexus is Toyota's premier brand and has a lofty image to uphold. With the LF-A concept, that image is set to fly even higher. This concept is "on track" to be produced as a 2009 model and let's just hope the track has no obstacles. Is the LF-A going to be the next - or rather the first - Lexus supercar? A mid-engine layout with perfect weight distribution, rear-mounted radiators and a top speed of over 200 mph answers that question emphatically - YES!
4. McLaren M Eleven B concept
How do you improve upon the best? That was the question put to students of the Istituto Europeo di Design's Transport Design course, who were asked to design an updated version of McLaren's legendary supercar, the F1. Hailed as one of the finest iterations of the supercar class ten years ago, the F1 is still relatively unmatched in virtually every category. Students at the Turin, Italy based school were asked to design the next-gen McLaren supercar, using a mid-engine format, a 200 mph top speed and the ultimate in road-going performance. The winner of the competition was the M Eleven B. Will it be built? As long as there are those who demand the very best, the M Eleven B will find a market at any price.
3. Maybach Excelero concept
Maybach is Mercedes-Benz's icing on the automotive cake and the Excelero, of which only a single concept has been made, is the crèm de la crème. The Excelero certainly looks formidable, and it's got the power to back it up - though it's hard to imagine this car ever backing up! But I digress... a twin-turbo, 5.9 litre V12 engine puts out an awe-inspiring 700 hp. Can the tires take it? Who cares - if you're in the Excelero's target market, tires are not your concern.
2. Toyota Volta concept
Toyota seems intent on banishing the hybrid car's meek image for good - and the Volta hybrid sportscar concept is very, very good indeed! The Volta takes the basic hybrid engine blueprint and squeezes every bit of potential out of it. The result? A 435-mile cruising range and an, er, electric 0-60 mph time of 4 seconds flat! Most enticing, the Volta features a unique drive-by-wire control system that allows any of the three - yes, three - front seat occupants to assume control of the vehicle just by having said controls moved in front of them. Memo to Toyota... make the Volta, please!!
1. GMC Denali XT concept
Oil crisis, what oil crisis? If the radically styled GMC Denali XT concept could talk, that's what it would likely say - and it would find a lot of ears ready to listen! Should this beautiful brute actually make it into production, an entire fleet of Hummers, Excursions and Suburbans is going to look really old, really fast. Best of all, though the Denali XT concept looks like a fuel-hog, it really isn't - and that's notwithstanding the 326 horsepower, 4.9 litre V8 ensconced beneath its sculptured hood. Flex-fuel capability, direct fuel injection and GM's proven Active Fuel Management system delivers twice the fuel economy of a standard setup. The Denali XT concept is one mean, green machine!
These eleven exceptional concept cars prove beyond a doubt that the auto industry is thriving under the combined pressures of competition, regulation and market saturation. It takes a lot to get yourself noticed in this type of environment, and the world's creative designers, engineers and marketers know it - and are doing something about it. Hey, they've got my attention... and if they bring these classy concepts into mass production, they just might get my order!
Article by Steve Levenstein from Inventor Spot. Steve writes about weird and wonderful Japanese innovations on a regular basis and you can catch up on current & previous examples at his blog. Submit your thoughts - click here! | <urn:uuid:f929d32c-fa71-4f0a-87a2-50e2fd97acc1> | {
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The shift in attitudes among Millennials compared to other American generations is substantial, contributing to a huge shift towards technology that has impacted their own group and society at large.
Generally regarded as the generation behind the speed at which technology-driven attitudes are accepted into the mainstream, Millennials have been the catalyst for change as they utilize the latest in innovative tools in the workplace and beyond. Their resilience has not only re-defined how companies do business and market their products and services to the general public, but also human interaction.
As the only group born completely immersed in a digitized world, Millennials’ attitudes towards technology are dramatically different, with most beginning to use computers by kindergarten and the vast majority using email at least once a day.
Social media has played an important component of their lives for many since they were toddlers and has only increased over time. Referred to as digital natives, their access to the internet and information has resulted in more expansive attention ranges, increased active learning, improved critical thinking skills, and more tolerance along social and political lines.
No matter which generation, the majority of people believe that the internet has personally benefited them and positively impacted society. Even baby Boomers and those from the Silent Generation generally agree that the internet has been an overall boon for the world. Recently, however, the average American has had slightly less positive views of the internet compared to only a few years ago. The most affected group under this are Gen Xers, with just under 70% positing that the internet has improved society at large. Even among the Silent Generation and Millennials, those that go online are slightly less optimistic compared to studies from only five years ago.
The fact remains that there must continue to be steps taken to stay competitive as innovation emerges. As the future leaders of the world, it rests on the shoulders of Millennials to ultimately decide how influential technology will be on their lives and the world. Although Millennials are comfortable using technology at home, in social settings, and in the workplace, other generational groups are still trying to make up the divide that currently exists between them and their younger counterparts. | <urn:uuid:0b985a62-be39-4edb-8280-6ce74c2fa3e5> | {
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So, as to the grammar of you're and your:
You're is literally just you are with a apostrophe in the place of the "a" and the space squeezed out of it. You use it when you are telling someone about themselves. "You are going to be on the moon tomorrow" is the equivalent of "You're going to be on the moon tomorrow." It's just slightly less formal and generally used for dialogue.
Your is the possessive form of you. You use it when you're talking about the person owning something. "This is your monkey."
Now a review:
You're = you are
your = possessive
If you have trouble, just remember that you are is like I am, both can be shortened by an apostrophe; I'm and you're.
Your is like my. They are both speaking of possession.
Also, say it out loud. If the sentence should say you are, add an apostrophe.
I'm perfectly willing to answer questions, if needed. | <urn:uuid:7bf48e49-fe48-47dd-a31b-cf6befdb0e14> | {
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Leeuwenhoek's microscope by which he observed bacteria.
The Evolution Deceit
Scientists of Faith - 1
No matter how obstinate materialists and atheists may be, a single truth remains evident: God created all forms of life and systems that make up the topics of science. Therefore, it is certain that science and religion are reconcilable, so long as they are practiced honestly and sensibly. A mark of this apparent agreement is the "scientists of faith", of past and present, who have all made significant contributions to humanity.
A scientist, who practices science, makes new discoveries, and works to unravel the mysteries of the universe, is actually an individual investigating the artistry of God in-depth, trying to detect the details therein. That is why religion and science are an inseparable unit. A scientist is one who makes evident God's infinite power and the artistry and uniqueness in His creation. For this reason, scientists, contrary to popular belief, can perceive the existence and unity of God most immediately, as they are the ones immersed in the study of the objects of God's creation.
Not surprisingly, there are a great number of scientists who have made important contributions to science by using the free-thought and broad-mindedness provided them through religion. These individuals not only demonstrated that science and religion are fully compatible, but also served science and humanity in the greatest way. Noted scientists such as Newton, Kepler, Leonardo da Vinci, and Einstein, who were the pioneers of science, believed, as a result of their observations and research, that the universe was created and ordered by God and is governed under His control. Moreover, it was men of faith who founded the principles upon which science is based, and thus, religion played a critical role in its advent.
The outlook on the cosmos of Isaac Newton, considered the greatest scientist of all times, is implicit in these following words:
It is a known fact that Kepler's scientific achievements sprang from his religious faith. Arno Penzias, 1978 winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, and co-discoverer of cosmic background radiation, had this to say about Kepler:
In this part of the book, we will cover the scientists of faith, from the past to the present, who founded and developed modern science, as well as their contributions to science. All the scientists included in this part believed that the cosmos and all forms of life were created by God. Francis Bacon's words portray the regard of a scientist of faith for all created beings:
For as all works do shew forth the power and skill of the workman,… so it is of the works of God; which do shew the omnipotency and wisdom of the maker.80
In His verses, God states that one of the ways to acquire the ability to think about creation, to fear God, to recognize creation as due to Him, and to grasp His omnipotence and omniscience is "having knowledge":
The metaphor of those who take protectors besides God is that of a spider which builds itself a house; but no house is flimsier than a spider's house, if they only knew. God knows what you call upon besides Himself. He is the Almighty, the All-Wise. Such metaphors – We devise them for mankind; but only those with knowledge understand them. God created the heavens and the earth with truth. There is certainly a Sign in that for the believers. (Surat al-'Ankabut: 41-44)
Among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and earth and the variety of your languages and colors. There are certainly Signs in that for those who know. (Surat ar-Rum: 22)
God bears witness that there is no deity but Him, as do the angels and the people of knowledge, upholding justice. There is no deity but Him, the Almighty, the All-Wise. (Surat Al 'Imran: 18)
But those of them who are firmly rooted in knowledge, and the believers, believe in what has been sent down to you and what was sent down before you: those who keep up prayer (salat) and pay the welfare tax (zakat), and believe in God and the Last Day – We will pay such people an immense wage. (Surat an-Nisa': 162)
Scientists Of Faith Who Lived In The Past
Roger Bacon (1220-1292)
"The grace of faith illuminates greatly."81
Called Doctor Mirabiles (Wonderful Doctor) by his contemporaries, Roger Bacon was a British scientist and theologian who laid great emphasis on the experimental method, and put an end to many archaic customs practiced in the science of his time. Bacon foresaw a number of technological breakthroughs that were to come hundreds of years later, which were hard to even fathom at the time. Steamboats, trains, cars, planes, cranes, and suspension bridges are only some of the innovations he anticipated in the 13th century.
Bacon, who, back in the 13th century, anticipated numerous technological innovations, said "Then this science as regards the commonwealth of believers is useful, as we saw in its special knowledge of the future, present, and past."
In a letter to a friend, Bacon wrote:
First, by the figurations of art there be made instruments of navigation without men to row them, as great ships to brooke the sea, only with one man to steer them, and they shall sail far more swiftly than if they were full of men; also chariots that shall move with unspeakable force without any living creature to stir them.82
Believing that light was created by God to enable man to see, Bacon conducted observations in this field. He defined the magnifying characteristic of optic lenses and their places of usage. He was the first to note that the light emitted by stars does not reach the Earth simultaneously. Finally, Bacon maintained that the Earth was not flat but round, some 200 years prior to Christopher Columbus, and that India could be reached by sailing west from Europe.
Believing that the conclusions he arrived at in his observations were useful to men of faith, Bacon said:
Then this science as regards the commonwealth of believers is useful, as we saw in its special knowledge of the future, present, and past.83
Bacon, as a scientist, argued that science did not conflict with religion, but rather could serve as an important tool to help convince unbelievers. He stated that "this science is of the greatest advantage in persuading men to accept the faith."84
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Bacon, reputed scientist, and one of the founders of the scientific method, is known to have been a devout believer in God. He stated in Novum Organum that natural philosophy (science) is "after the word of God, the surest remedy against superstition, and the most approved support of faith."85
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Galileo Galilei is the first person to have used the telescope to observe the sky. Galileo maintained that the Earth is round, and was the first to detect the dark regions, craters, and hills of the Moon. Galileo, famous for his immense contribution to science, believed that the senses, the ability to talk and intelligence, were granted to people by God, and that they ought to be exercised in the best way possible. He maintained that it was all too obvious that Nature was designed by God. He said that nature was simply another book written by God, and contended that the truths of science and the truths of faith cannot impugn one another since God is the author of all truth.86
The inside cover of Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which he completed in 1629.
Galileo maintained that the Earth is round, and was the first to detect the dark regions, craters, and hills of the Moon. Bottom: Two of Galileo's first telescopes in the Museum of Science, Florence. The other picture shows the convex lens of the telescope.
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
Kepler, the founder of modern astronomy, discovered the elliptical movement of the planets, established a formula for relating a planet's orbital period to its mean distance from the sun, and completed astronomical tables that allow calculations of planetary positions for any time in the past or future.
As a scientist, Kepler also believed that the universe was created by a Creator. When he was asked why he practiced science, he said "I had the intention of becoming a theologian... but now I see how God is, by my endeavors, also glorified in astronomy, for 'heavens declare the glory of God'".88
The life of Kepler, who believed that God's glory was manifested in everything He created, is an example to how successful and broad-thinking a scientist who admits that there is a divine purpose in nature can be. "Who gave white bears and white wolves to the snowy regions of the North, and a food for the bears the whale, and for the wolves, birds' eggs?" asked Kepler and then replied: "Great is our Lord and great His virtue and of his wisdom there is no number: praise Him, ye heavens, praise Him, ye sun, moon, and planets, use every sense for perceiving, every tongue for declaring your Creator. Praise Him, ye celestial Harmonies, praise Him, ye judges of the Harmonies uncovered: and thou my soul, praise the Lord thy Creator, as long as I shall be: for out of Him and through Him and in Him are all things, both the sensible and the intelligible; for both whose whereof we are utterly ignorant and those which we know are the least part of them; because there is still more beyond. To him be praise, honor, and glory, world without end."89
Johannes Baptista von Helmont (1579-1644)
Founder of pneumatic chemistry and chemical physiology, Helmont invented the thermometer and barometer. Walter Pagels, who wrote a book on the religious aspects of van Helmont's science, stated that he drew inspiration from his religious beliefs in his researches.90
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Contributing to the greatest innovation in geometry since the time of the Ancient Greeks, Pascal was a distinguished scientist, who made significant discoveries from early on in his life. Besides his contribution to mathematics, Pascal was also responsible for monumental discoveries in physics. He made a number of studies in atmospheric and fluid mechanics, and proved that atmospheric pressure varies according to altitude.
An eminent figure in the history of science, Pascal was also a deeply spiritual man. He referred to the eternal power of God when he said that God is the Creator of everything from mathematics to the order of the elements.91
Many scientists noted for their discoveries were also known for their faith in God. Helmont, who invented the thermometer and barometer, and Pascal, right, were two such scientists.
John Ray (1627-1705)
Reputed British botanist, John Ray, was a man of faith. He felt that if man were placed on earth to mirror back to God the glory of all His works, then he ought to take notice of every created thing. In his early years, spurred on by this outlook, Ray engaged himself in scientific research. He was the great authority of his day in both botany and zoology. He wrote a well-received book, The Wisdom of God in Creation. In this book, in which Ray introduced thousands of plants, insect, bird, fish species, and the like, he reported that nature reveals the existence of a Creator. God's works of creation, he said, were "the works created by God at first, and by Him conserved to this day in the same state and condition in which they were first made."92 Ray, who made a considerable contribution to botany, always stressed that science and religion intersect in many ways. His attitude is best understood by his words: "There is for a free man no occupation more worth and delightful than to contemplate the beauteous works of nature and honor the infinite wisdom and goodness of God."93
Robert Boyle (1627-1691)
Regarded as the father of modern chemistry, Boyle made a number of revolutionary scientific discoveries. He established the relationship between changes in the pressure applied to air and the volume air occupies, which became known today as "Boyle's law of gasses". His other inventions included a kind of litmus paper and a primitive refrigerator. He demonstrated that water expanded when it froze. The modern definition of "element" was given by him, and he contributed to the theory of atomism, arguing that if air is compressible there must be void between its particles.
While responsible for such great scientific discoveries, Boyle was a devout believer in God. He believed there to be an intelligent design in nature, which was created by an all-powerful Creator. Boyle taught in his lectures and writings that science and belief in God should stand side by side. In a lecture, he was to have said: "Remember to give glory to the one who authored nature… Use knowledge to bring good to mankind."94
Elsewhere, he commented that the perfection in living things explicitly reveals God's existence:
The excellent contrivance of that great system of the world, and especially the curious fabric of the bodies of animals and the uses of their sensories and other parts, have been made the great motives that in all ages and nations induced philosophers to acknowledge a Deity as the author of these admirable structures.95
Antonie von Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
Antonie von Leeuwenhoek
It was Leeuwenhoek who discovered bacteria. Leeuwenhoek learned to grind his own magnifying lenses to examine cloth. Intrigued by what he saw, he began producing other magnifiers – and became the first man to see and describe bacteria through a microscope.
His goal to refute the idea of spontaneous generation without a Creator led him to conduct important scientific studies. To this purpose, he studied the nutrient systems of plants and animals, he examined spermatozoa, the transportation of nutrients in plants, and the structure and function of various parts of plants. Blood cells also became subjects of his investigations. He was the first to study capillaries and actually see blood cells passing through them. Before Leeuwenhoek, no one understood that muscles were made of fibers.96
1-Bacteria types 2-Bacteria types 3-Blood Cells
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
Isaac Newton's drawing showing the passage of light from a small opening through a lens, and then through two prisms that separate light into colors.
Considered the greatest scientist who ever lived, Newton was both a mathematician and a physicist. His greatest contribution to science was his discovery of the law of universal gravitation. He added the concept of mass to the relation between force and acceleration; introduced the law of action and reaction, and put forward the thesis that a moving object will continue moving in straight line at a constant speed unless acted on by a force. Newton's laws of motion remained applicable for four centuries, from simplest engineering calculations to the most complex technological projects. Newton's contributions were not limited to gravity, but also extended to the fields of mechanics and optics. Discovering the seven colors of light, Newton thus laid the ground for a new discipline, namely optics.
In addition to his groundbreaking discoveries, Newton wrote critical essays refuting atheism and defending Creation. He supported the idea that "creation is the only scientific explanation". Newton believed that the mechanic universe, a gigantic clock working non-stop, in his analogy, could only be the work of an all-powerful and all-wise Creator.
Behind Newton's discoveries, which changed the course of the world, was his desire to come closer to God. Newton investigated the objects of God's creation to know Him better. To this end, he devoted himself to studies with great energy. Newton communicated the reason underlying his zeal for scientific endeavor with the following words, in his famous work Principia Mathematica:
...He (God) is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient; that is, his duration reaches from eternity to eternity; his presence from infinity to infinity; he governs all things, and knows all things that are or can be done. He is …eternal and infinite; …he endures and is present. He endures forever, and is everywhere present; and, by existing always and everywhere, he constitutes duration and space... We know him only by his most wise and excellent contrivances of things... [W]e reverence and adore him as his servants…97
The above picture shows Newton separating light into a spectrum of colors with the use of a prism.
John Flamsteed (1646-1719)
He was the founder of the famous Greenwich observatory and the first astronomer royal of England. Flamsteed, who, after innumerable observations, produced the first great star map of the telescopic age, was also a devout clergyman.
John Woodward (1665-1728)
Woodward was one of the great founding fathers of the science of geology. One of Woodward's valuable contributions was the establishment of an important paleontological museum at Cambridge, and the geology branch there.
Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778)
Linnaeus, a scientist of great piety, conducted very important studies in botany. He proved that plants reproduce sexually, and introduced to science the notion of "biological taxonomy".
Jean Deluc (1727-1817)
Deluc was a Swiss physicist who coined the term "geology". He and his father developed the modern mercury thermometer and the hygrometer. He is known for his belief in creation, and for his challenge to the idea that the universe and life came about by coincidence.
Sir William Herschel (1738-1822)
Herschel was one of the most accomplished astronomers of the 18th century. Herschel, who constructed the most advanced reflecting telescopes of his day, and cataloged and studied the nebulae and galaxies as never before, was a scientist of faith. It was Herschel who said "The undevout astronomer must be mad", remarking that it is astounding that a scientist studying astronomy, and bearing witness to the perfect order in the universe, could not believe in God.98
Sir William Herschel continued his observations with the telescopes he devised, supported by the grants he received from King George III.
William Paley (1743-1805)
Paley was a scientist who believed in creation. His work Natural Theology was one of the best-selling books of his time. Paley felt that "if works of art are products of man, then living things must be the product of a being far superior to man". According to Paley, the fact that all living things are equipped with all kinds of features they need to survive in their habitat is a "mark of contrivance, in proof of design, and of a designing Creator."99
George Cuvier (1769-1832)
Cuvier was one of the greatest anatomists and paleontologists. He is considered to be the founder of the science of comparative anatomy, and one of the chief architects of paleontology as a separate scientific discipline. He was a firm creationist, even participating in important creation/evolution debates.100
Humphrey Davy (1778-1829)
Known as a man of faith, Davy was one of the great chemists of his day, and the man under whom Faraday served as apprentice. He was the first to isolate many important chemical elements, to develop the motion theory of heat, to invent the safety lamp, and to demonstrate that diamonds are carbon, along with many other pivotal contributions.
Adam Sedgwick (1785-1873)
One of England's leading 19th century geologists, Sedgwick, is especially famous for identifying and naming the major rock systems known as Cambrian and Devonian. He was also a clergyman, and although he was a friend of Charles Darwin, he always opposed his evolutionary ideas.101
Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
Universally acknowledged as one of the greatest physicists of all time, Faraday was especially gifted with developing the new sciences of electricity and magnetism. He also made key contributions in the field of chemistry.
Faraday was a scientist who believed in the existence of a Creator, and that science and religion are in harmony. Because one God created the world, he believed, all of nature must be interconnected as a single whole. Based on this idea, he concluded that electricity and magnetism must be interlinked.102
Samuel Morse (1791-1872)
Morse was a remarkable scientist known for his invention of the telegraph. He also built the first camera in America.
Morse believed in the existence of a Creator who created everything for a certain cause. He felt that the material world and the spiritual world work in harmony. Just four years before he died, Morse wrote: "The nearer I approach to the end of my pilgrimage, the grandeur and sublimity of God's remedy for fallen man are more appreciated and the future is illumined with hope and joy."103
Joseph Henry (1797-1878)
The great American physicist and devout scientist, Joseph Henry, was a professor at Princeton University. Henry, who invented the electromagnetic motor and the galvanometer, had made it a regular habit to stop to worship God, and then to pray for divine guidance, at every important juncture of an experiment, in all his experimentation.104
Louis Agassiz (1807-1873)
Agassiz, widely recognized as the greatest American biologist, was an inveterate opponent of evolutionism.
Agassiz saw the divine plan of God everywhere in nature, and could not reconcile himself to a theory that did not acknowledge design. As he wrote, in his Essay on Classification:
The combination in time and space of all these thoughtful conceptions exhibits not only thought, it shows also premeditation, power, wisdom, greatness, prescience, omniscience, providence. In one word, all these facts in their natural connection proclaim aloud the One God, whom man may know, adore, and love.105
James Prescott Joule (1818-1889)
James Prescott Joule
Besides his discovery of the first law of thermodynamics, Joule also showed how to calculate the heat produced by an electric current moving through a wire, and was the first to calculate the velocity of a gas molecule. His greatest discovery was the value of the constant known as the "mechanical equivalent of heat". This discovery led to the formulation of the law of conservation of energy, the most basic and universal of all scientific laws.
Joule, as the discoverer of these important scientific laws, was a scientist who believed that he could come closer to God as he came to know the laws of nature. His belief urged him to proceed with further investigations. He was one of the 717 scientists who signed a manifesto against Darwin in 1864. He expressed his beliefs about science in these terms:
After the knowledge of, and obedience to, the will of God, the next aim must be to know something of His attributes of wisdom, power and goodness as evidenced by his handiwork. It is evident that an acquaintance with natural laws means no less than an acquaintanceship with the mind of God therein expressed.106
George Gabriel Stokes (1819-1903)
George Stokes was a great British physicist and mathematician, who made major contributions in a number of fields. He expanded the knowledge of gravitational discrepancies, astrophysics, chemistry, sonic problems, and heat. He showed that unlike glass, quartz is transparent to ultraviolet radiation. With Lord Kelvin, he was one of the first to appreciate the electro-thermodynamic explorations of James Joule. Stokes showed that X-rays were also part of Maxwell's electromagnetic spectrum. For a time, Stokes was president of the Victoria Institute of London, and an active member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.
He was a scientist who investigated nature with a belief in the Creator, and he wrote specifically emphasizing his belief in God. In one of his works, he said that "the laws of nature are carried out in accordance with his will, he who willed them may will their suspension"107
Rudolph Virchow (1821-1902)
Virchow's main scientific contributions were in the field of medicine. He is considered the father of modern pathology and of the study of cellular diseases. He was the first to describe leukemia, and was active in anthropological and archeological research. Virchow was one of the most renowned scientists to strongly oppose the evolutionary teachings of Darwin and Haeckel. He also entered actively into politics and fought vigorously against allowing evolutionist teaching in the schools of Germany.108
Gregory Mendel (1822-1884)
Gregory Mendel derived the laws of inheritance from his experiments on garden peas. Mendel, also a monk, put Darwin's theory of evolution into a quandary with his discovery.
With his discovery of the three laws of genetics, Mendel went down in history as the person who founded the principles of inheritance. Mendel's principles of inheritance have turned out to be the most compelling proofs exposing the fallacy of the theory of evolution.
Having refuted the theory of evolution with his discovery of the principles of inheritance, Mendel further believed that God had created the world, and that blind chance could not be responsible for the outcome.109
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)
Pasteur is one of the greatest figures in the history of science and medicine, chiefly because of his establishment of the germ theory of disease, and his strong opposition to the theory of evolution. He was the first to explain the organic basis and control of fermentation, and as his research led him further and further into bacteriology, he isolated a number of disease-producing organisms, and developed vaccines to combat them – notably the dreaded diseases of rabies, diphtheria, anthrax, and others – as well as the processes of pasteurization and sterilization.
Pasteur, who was a firm believer in God, was the object of fierce opposition because of his resistance to Darwin's theory of evolution. He was a defender of the compatibility of science and religion, which he would often emphasize in his writings. As he put it:
The more I know, the more does my faith approach that of the Breton peasant (i.e., the faith which is serene, complete, unquestioning)110
Little science takes you away from God but more of it takes you to Him.111
William Thompson (Lord Kelvin) (1824-1907)
William Thompson (Lord Kelvin)
Lord Kelvin is recognized as the leading physicist of his time, and is also known for his strong faith in God. He is held in high regard in the scientific community for his contributions to physics and mathematics, as well as his practical inventions. He developed a successful method to liquefy hydrogen and helium. He established the scale of absolute temperatures, so that such temperatures are today measured as so many "degrees Kelvin". He established thermodynamics as a formal scientific discipline, and formulated its first and second laws in precise terminology.
He openly espoused his faith in God in his works. He said:
Do not be afraid to be free thinkers. If you think strongly enough, you will be forced by science to the belief in God.112
J. J. Thomson (1856-1940)
In 1897, J. J. Thomson discovered the electron. He was a professor of physics at Cambridge University. Thomson, who was a devoutly religious man, made this statement in Nature, drawing attention to the fact that the conclusions reached by science point to the existence of God:
In the distance tower still higher [scientific] peaks which will yield to those who ascend them still wider prospects and deepen the feeling whose truth is emphasized by every advance in science, that great are the works of the Lord.114
Sir William Huggins (1824-1910)
According to the Doppler effect, the spectrum of light waves change in direct proportion to a galaxy's distance to the Earth. This picture shows this change. Sir Huggins, who was the first to identify the Doppler effect, was a scientist who believed in God.
Huggins was well known both as a scientist of faith and as a brilliant astronomer. He was the first to demonstrate that stars were comprised mostly of hydrogen, along with smaller amounts of the same elements existing on Earth. He was also the first to identify the Doppler effect (that the light of stars shift from red to blue as they move away from each other) in astronomy, which led to the idea of the expanding universe.
Joseph Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)
Joseph Clerk Maxwell
Maxwell lived a short, but uniquely productive life. Recognized as the father of modern physics, Maxwell demonstrated the unity of light and electricity, bringing light, electricity, and magnetism together under one set of equations. Einstein relied on Maxwell's equations to formulate the theory of relativity.
Albert Einstein called Maxwell's achievement "the most profound and most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton." He was strongly opposed to evolution, and was able to develop a thorough mathematical refutation of the famous "nebular hypothesis" of the French atheist LaPlace. He also wrote an incisive refutation of the evolutionary philosophies of Herbert Spencer, the great advocate of Darwinism. In a letter he mused that the scientist of faith has an obligation to conduct such work as will benefit religion.115
John Strutt (1842-1919)
John Strutt pursued studies on the motions of electromagnetic waves, making noteworthy contributions in optics, sonics, and gas dynamics. He was the co-discoverer of argon and the rare gases. He was also well known as a devout believer. As a prefix to his published papers he wrote: "The works of the Lord are great".116
George Washington Carver (1865-1943)
George Washington Carver
Agriculture became a very important discipline beginning from the turn of the 19th century. Carver was a noted agricultural researcher who made a number of critical discoveries.
Carver was known for his belief in God, to which he almost always referred to in his speeches and interviews. As he told a reporter for the Atlanta Journal who questioned him about the permanency of the clay paints he had developed: "All I do is prepare what God has made, for uses to which man can put it. It is God's ."117
Sir James Jeans (1877-1946)
Prominent physicist Sir James Jeans believed that the universe was created by a Creator of infinite Wisdom. Some of the statements in which he elaborated his views are:
We discover that the Universe shows evidence of a designing or controlling Power that has something in common with our own minds.118
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Albert Einstein, who is one of the most important scientists of the last century, was also known for his faith in God. He did not hesitate to defend that science could not exist without religion. As he put it:
I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith. The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame.120
Einstein was convinced that the universe was too perfectly designed to have come into being by chance, and that it was created by a Creator with Superior Wisdom.
For Einstein, who often referred to his belief in God in his writings, wonder at the natural order in the universe was very important. In one of his writings he mentioned, "In every true searcher of Nature there is a kind of religious reverence".121 Elsewhere, he wrote:
Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe – a spirit vastly superior to that of man... In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort...122
Georges Lemaitre (1894-1966)
Georges Lemaître propounded the Big Bang theory that points to the creation of the universe. He thought that the universe has a distinct beginning, will have an end, and that the recognition of this fact plays a critical role in helping many people to believe in God. Lemaître, who was also a priest, believed that science and religion would lead to the same truth.123
Sir Alister Hardy (1896-1985)
Hardy was the founder of modern ocean science. The Templeton Foundation, which each year recognizes a scientist for his or her contribution to progress in religion, honored Sir Alister Hardy in 1985, for empirical studies that for the first time scientifically investigated religious experiences.
Wernher von Braun (1912-1977)
Wernher von Braun was one of the world's top scientists. He was a leading German rocket engineer, and developed the famed V-2 rocket during World War II.
Dr. Braun, a firm believer, is seen here with the former US President John F. Kennedy. Dr. Braun said he found it difficult to understand that a scientist could not acknowledge the presence of God.
Dr. Braun, a former director of NASA, was also a scientist with a strong faith. In the foreword to an anthology on creation and design in nature, he offered this testimony:
Manned space flight is an amazing achievement, but it has opened for mankind thus far only a tiny door for viewing the awesome reaches of space. An outlook through this peephole at the vast mysteries of the universe should only confirm our belief in the certainty of its Creator. I find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science.124
In May of 1974, Wernher von Braun, in a published article, stated:
One cannot be exposed to the law and order of the universe without concluding that there must be design and purpose behind it all... The better we understand the intricacies of the universe and all it harbors, the more reason we have found to marvel at the inherent design upon which it is based... To be forced to believe only one conclusion - that everything in the universe happened by chance - would violate the very objectivity of science itself... What random process could produce the brains of a man or the system of the human eye?...125
Wernher von Braun (arm bandaged) was a leading German rocket engineer. He developed the V-2 rocket in World War II seen in the picture above. Dr. Braun was one of the leading scientists of his day.
Max Planck (1858-1947)
Reputed German physicist, Max Planck, discovered a physical constant known by his name. A physics professor at the University of Berlin in the 1900s, Planck maintained that the form of radiation could be likened to the image formed by a raindrop on a windowpane, rather than water constantly flowing in a river. Until Planck, scientists used to think that light followed a wave motion. Planck, who discovered that each light particle is an energy pack, referred to each pack a "photon". The concept of photon marked a turning point in the history of physics. Light not only traveled through the air in the form of waves like sound, but also moved as particles.
Responsible for these groundbreaking discoveries, Planck believed in an "all-powerful intelligence which governs the universe."126 Max Planck said that the Creator of the order in the universe is God and elaborated on his belief in God with these words:
Charles Coulson (1910-1974)
Coulson, for many years a professor of mathematics at Oxford University, often mentioned his faith in God, his wish to get closer to God, his pleadings to God, and his belief that the purpose of his life was to get closer to God.128
Other Scientists of Faith from The Past
Every one of these scientists, whose names are listed in this section, who have made significant contributions to science, believed in Creation. These scientists are a clear example that believing in Creation does not conflict with science, and that, on the contrary, religion actually encourages science.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Georgius Agricola (1494-1555)
John Wilkins (1614-1672)
Walter Charleton (1619-1707)
Isaac Barrow (1630-1677)
Nicolas Steno (1631-1686)
Thomas Burnet (1635-1715)
Increase Mather (1639-1723)
Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712)
William Whiston (1667-1752)
John Hutchinson (1674-1737)
Johathan Edwards (1703-1758)
Richard Kirwan (1733-1812)
Timothy Dwight (1752-1817)
James Parkinson (1755-1824)
William Kirby (1759-1850
Benjamin Barton (1766-1815)
John Dalton (1766-1844)
Charles Bell (1774-1842)
John Kidd (1775-1851)
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855)
>Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864)
Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869)
William Buckland (1784-1856)
William Prout (1785-1850)
Edward Hitchcock (1793-1864)
William Whewell (1794-1866)
Richard Owen (1804-1892)
Matthew Maury (1806-1873)
Henry Rogers (1808-1866)
James Glaisher (1809-1903)
Philip H. Gosse (1810-1888)
Sir Henry Rawlinson(1810-1895)
John Ambrose Fleming(1849-1945)
Sir Joseph Henry Gilbert(1817-1901)
Thomas Anderson (1819-1874)
Charles P. Smyth (1819-1900)
John W. Dawson (1820-1899)
Henri Fabre (1823-1915)
Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866)
Joseph Lister (1827-1912)
John Bell Pettigrew (1834-1908)
Balfour Stewart (1828-1887)
Edward William Morley(1838-1923)
Sir William Abney (1843-1920)
A. H. Sayce (1845-1933)
James Dana (1813-1895)
George Romanes (1848-1894)
William Mitchell Ramsay (1851-1939)
William Ramsay (1852-1916)
Howard A.Kelly (1858-1943)
Douglas Dewar (1875-1957)
Paul Lemoine (1878-1940)
Charles Stine (1882-1954)
A. Rendle Short (1885-1955)
L. Merson Davies (1890-1960)
Sir Cecil P. G. Wakeley (1892-1979)
NOTES78. Principia, Newton, 2nd edition; J. De Vries, Essentials of Physical Science, B. Eerdmans Pub.Co., Grand Rapids, SD, 1958, p.15
79. http://www.ldolphin.org/bum bulis/
80. http://www.ldolphin.org/bum bulis/
81. Dan Graves, Scientists of Faith, Kregel Resources, 1996, p. 26
82. “Great Aviation Quotes,” http://www.skygod.com/quotes/predictions.html
83. Michael Bumbulis, Christianity and The Birth of Science, http://www.ldolphin.org/bumbulis
84. First Book of Francis Bacon of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning Divine and Human
85. http://www.christianity.co.nz/ science4.htm
86. http://home.columbus.rr.com/ sciences/enlightened_belief_ history.htm
87. Henry M. Morris, Men of Science Men of God, Master Books, 1992, p.13
88. Johannes Kepler, quoted in: J.H. Tiner, Johannes Kepler-Giant of Faith and Science (Milford, Michigan: Mott Media, 1977), p. 197
89. Harmonice Mundi (Harmonies of the World), Johannes Kepler Gesammelte Werke, Munich, 1937, v. 6, p. 363
90. Dan Graves, Scientists of Faith, Kregel Resources, 1996, p. 51
91. Dan Graves, Scientists of Faith, Kregel Resources, 1996, p. 57
92. Henry M. Morris, Men of Science Men of God, Master Books, 1992, p.18
93. Dan Graves, Scientists of Faith, Kregel Resources, 1996, p. 66
94. Dan Graves, Scientists of Faith, Kregel Resources, 1996, p. 63
95. John Marks Templeton, Evidence of Purpose - Scientists Discover the Creator, Continuum, New York 1994, p.50
96. Dan Graves, Scientists of Faith, Kregel Resources, 1996, p. 70
97. Sir Isaac Newton, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, Translated by Andrew Motte, Revised by Florian Cajore, Great Books of the Western World 34, Robert Maynard Hutchins, Editor in chief, William Benton, Chicago, 1952:273-74
98. Henry M. Morris, Men of Science Men of God, Master Books, 1992, p.31
99. William Paley, Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity Collected from the Appearances of Nature [Edinburgh, 1816], chapter 5, section 5, p.61
100. Henry M. Morris, Men of Science Men of God, Master Books, 1992, pp.38-39
101. Henry M. Morris, Men of Science Men of God, Master Books, 1992, p.53
102. Dan Graves, Scientists of Faith, Kregel Resources, 1996, p. 111
103. Henry M. Morris, Men of Science Men of God, Master Books, 1992, p.47
104. Henry M. Morris, Men of Science Men of God, Master Books, 1992, p.49
105. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/ history/agassiz.html
106. Dan Graves, Scientists of Faith, Kregel Resources, 1996, p. 133
107. www.leaderu.com/offices/ schaefer/docs/scientists.html
108. Henry M. Morris, Men of Science Men of God, Master Books, 1992, p.59
109. Dan Graves, Scientists of Faith, Kregel Resources, 1996, p. 143
110. http://www.archimedesfoundation. org/quotes.html
111. Jean Guitton, Dieu et La Science: Vers Le Métaréalisme, Paris: Grasset, 1991, p. 5
112. www.leaderu.com/offices/ schaefer/docs/scientists.html
113. Henry M. Morris, Men of Science Men of God, Master Books, 1992, p.66
114. www.leaderu.com/offices/ schaefer/docs/scientists.html
115. Dan Graves, Scientists of Faith, Kregel Resources, 1996, p. 153
116. Henry M. Morris, Men of Science Men of God, Master Books, 1992, p.79
117. Gene Adair, George Washington Carver, pp. 82, 83
118. Sir James Jeans, in his Rede Lecture at Cambridge, reported in the Times, London, November 5, 1930
119. Sir James Jeans, The Mysterious Universe, New York: Macmillan Co., 1932/ Cambridge, England: University Press, 1932, p. 140.
120. Science, Philosophy and Religion, A Symposium, published by the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, Inc., New York, 1941
121. Quoted in Moszkowski, Conversations with Einstein, p. 46
122. Letter to a child who asked if scientists pray, January 24, 1936; Einstein Archive 42-601
123. Dan Graves, Scientists of Faith, Kregel Resources, 1996, p. 159
124. Henry M. Morris, Men of Science Men of God, Master Books, 1992, p.85
125. Dennis R. Petersen, Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation, Creation Resource Foundation: El Dorado, California, 1990, p. 63
126. “God and Science,” Jacques Maritain Center, http://www.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/jm2404.htm
127. Max Planck, Where Is Science Going?, Allen & Unwin, 1933, p.214
128. Charles Coulson, Science and Christian Belief, p. 72 | <urn:uuid:4fce99bb-886a-4c7d-a1a3-30659d2bdd94> | {
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Prevent storm damage by training, not shaping, young trees
Winter 2014 probably will go down as a rough one for some trees.
We have seen lots of snow and ice loading lead to broken of branches in large and small trees alike. Just a half-inch of ice on branches can increase loads by 30 times the normal load (or branch weight), and many branches simply break.
Have you ever wondered why some trees or branches break or split in storms (snow, rain or wind) while others survive without dropping a branch? It all comes down to their form and branch structure.
Some species of trees, such as willow, poplar and silver maple, are just weak-wooded because of their fast growth rates and prone to branch breakage, but for most trees, storm damage occurs because they form weak branch unions, or their form, branch architecture and wood strength are impacted by improper pruning practices.
So, what is good form, and how can we train our trees to develop good form?
Remember when your mother told you to eat your vegetables and sit up straight? She was training you to improve your form. Trees are somewhat similar. A tree that has one single, central trunk, or leader, growing up through the tree that does not fork or split into two main branches in the crown will have the strongest form and structure. Smaller lateral branches coming off that central trunk should not be larger than half the diameter of the leader. When the lateral branches are smaller than the trunk, the tree will develop strong branch collars that hold the branch in place, even during strong storms or increased loading.
The weakest branch attachments that often fail in storms are called co-dominant branches because they are almost equal in diameter and form a tight, V-shaped union or attachment. Branch collars (strong attachments) are not formed on these co-dominant branches, and recent research has shown that they split apart when a third of the force or loading is applied to them, compared to branches with branch collars. This is the reason we see so many Callery Pears (especially Bradford Pears) split apart at a certain age. These trees form lots of co-dominant branches.
The other reason branches fail is decay. When branches are heading back (topped) or shortened with indiscriminate cuts that leave stubs, decay fungi will move into that branch and quickly spread down it. As decay progresses in the branch, it becomes weaker and will not hold the increased loads from snow, ice or wind. It is important to learn how to make proper reduction and branch removal cuts.
Treating young trees like hedges and shaping them, or "topping" large trees because we think we are making the tree smaller and safer, just destroys trees' form, disrupting branch structure, promoting the spread of decay in branches and creating trees that will fail in storms.
To learn more about proper pruning and training young trees, contact your local Penn State Extension Office or visit www.patrees.org. To view a Web-based training titled "Pruning Young Trees for Structure and Form," visit http://pacommunityforests.com/webinar/index.htm
VINCENT COTRONE is an Penn State Extension urban forester and an ISA-certified arborist. | <urn:uuid:b1a4561b-2e6b-43bf-a519-53459576f74e> | {
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"A Modern Herbal"
- Search MGHM
- Recipe Index
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- Index Page
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Herbs are plants which possess some of the qualities of food and some of the properties of drugs. A perfect example of this is the well-known culinary and medicinal herb Garlic (Allium sativum). Garlic has been used since the days of the Egyptians to treat wounds, infections, tumors, and intestinal parasites. In addition, this pungent plant is a common ingredient of soups and stews, as well as Italian and Greek dishes such as pesto and spanikopita.
Modern scientific research confirms these ancient uses for garlic, including the ability to lower cholesterol and blood pressure. Increased levels of cholesterol and triglycerides (fats) as well as elevated blood pressure increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, a leading cause of death in western countries. Garlic's sulfur-containing compounds, which lend the herb its pungent, spicy aroma, are responsible for many of its healing properties. Specifically, these compounds lower cholesterol by stimulating the release of bile by the gall bladder (bile contains cholesterol and related compounds) and by decreasing the production of cholesterol in the liver. In addition, garlic compounds gently lower blood pressure by slowing the production of the body's own blood pressure raising hormones.
Garlic also possesses the ability to stimulate the immune system. The bulb stimulates the activity of macrophages, white blood cells which engulf the foreign organisms, such as viruses, bacteria, and yeast. Furthermore, garlic increases the activity of the T-helper cells, immune cells which are central to the activity of the entire immune system. Garlic may be particularly effective in treating upper respiratory viral infections due to its immune-enhancing properties and its ability to clear mucous from the lungs.
Garlic also possesses the ability to inhibit the growth of parasites in the intestines, including amoebas which cause dysentery. It should be noted that amoebic dysentery is a potentially serious condition which requires the assistance of a trained physician. Garlic has also been used in folk medicine in many parts of the world to treat pinworms, an annoying but generally harmless intestinal parasite.
This amazing herb has also demonstrated the ability to protect against a variety of environmental and other toxins. Garlic's sulfur compounds, in addition to selenium containing compounds, are potent antioxidants which protect cell membranes and DNA from damage. Furthermore scientific studies have shown that garlic stimulates the production of the liver's own detoxifying enzymes which neutralize carcinogens and other toxins. The question often arises: What is the best form of garlic to use? Raw or lightly cooked garlic contains a potent array of sulfur compounds which are responsible for many of garlic's healing properties; however, these same substances are also responsible for garlic's often unwanted aroma. On the other hand, a recently observed bumper sticker offers a different point of view: Eat Garlic--It's Chic to Reek! (I swear I'm not making this up). Furthermore, liberal consumption of raw garlic may shorten the stay of unwanted houseguests. Despite these considerable advantages, those wishing to maneuver through life in a more discreet fashion should consider the use of dried garlic which is enterically coated and has the important sulfur compound, allicin, in a stabilized form. Whichever form you choose, I say, "Go for it!" and let the chips--or house guests--fall where they may.
Electronic version of "A Modern Herbal" © 1995 - 2012
botanical.com - all rights reserved
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The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, created in 1957 by the
enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, works to uphold the civil and constitutional
rights of all Americans, particularly some of the most vulnerable members of our
society. The Division enforces federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the
basis of race, color, sex, disability, religion, familial status and national origin.
Since its establishment, the Division has grown dramatically in both size and
scope, and has played a role in many of the nation's pivotal civil rights battles.
Division attorneys prosecuted the defendants accused of murdering three civil
rights workers in Mississippi in 1964, and were involved in the investigations
of the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Medgar Evers. The
Division enforces a wide array of laws that protect the civil rights of all individuals.
The Division is led by Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta. Each
Section of the Division is headed by a Section Chief and several Deputy
Chiefs and Special Legal or Litigation Counsels. The Division's leadership,
Section Chiefs, attorneys, and administrative staff are based in Washington, D.C.
The Division's work is carried out by 11 sections:
The Division's goals are supported by three cross-sectional working groups:
Indian Working Group
LGBT Working Group
National Origin Working Group | <urn:uuid:f9f78575-556f-457b-888f-bae60778c0a1> | {
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Ecoregions of Banff National Park
Banff National Park is divided into units based on vegetation, landforms and soil. This system of land classification is used to identify and inventory similar regions within the park in order to better manage park ecosystems. The park is classified into ecoregions, which are further divided into ecosections and ecosites. There are three ecoregions in the park: montane, subalpine, and alpine.
Map of the ecoregions of Banff National Park © Parks Canada
The montane zone is the smallest ecoregion in Banff National Park making up only 3% of the total area of the park. It occurs at lower elevations between 1350 metres and 1500 metres on north-facing slopes, rising to 1650 metres on steep south-facing slopes. The vegetation of the montane ecoregion is characterized by forests of Douglas-fir, trembling aspen and lodgepole pine with patches of grasslands on dry sites. White spruce, balsam poplar and shrub meadows occur on wetter sites.
Vegetation is actively managed in the montane ecoregion using prescribed burning to maintain the open forests and grasslands that occur in this ecoregion. Ungulate populations, particularly elk, are kept under control to prevent overbrowsing and damage to aspen stands and shrubs.
The subalpine ecoregion lies between the montane and the treeless alpine ecoregions. It is commonly subdivided into upper and lower subalpine regions. The lower subalpine region covers about 27% of the park and is mainly vegetated with dense forests of lodgepole pine, Englemann spruce and subalpine fir.
The upper subalpine region makes up 26% of the park area. It is primarily forested by Englemann spruce and subalpine fir, interspersed with dwarf-shrub meadows, and avalanche path communities. The boundary between upper and lower subalpine regions is at about 2000 metres. Prescribed burning is used to maintain and restore vegetation in this ecosystem.
The alpine ecoregion occurs above the treeline and covers 44% of the park. Of this area, about 6% is covered by alpine meadows and shrubs. The remaining thirty-eight percent of the park is unvegetated rock, talus, moraines, snow, ice and water. There is no active management of vegetation in the alpine ecoregion. | <urn:uuid:7938fb10-bb34-48e2-b168-6882e6fdffd0> | {
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Power quality analysis is now a recognised part of modern energy auditing and continues to advance at a rapid pace as our society becomes increasingly dependent on the delivery of large amounts of electrical energy and generation of power is through decentralized renewable energy sources which are not available 100% of the time. Through this practice, steps can be taken to ensure that the electrical systems of sites which have high power consumption levels (such as industrial processing plants, manufacturing facilities, hospitals, residential buildings, campuses of education establishments, etc.) are functioning correctly and their running costs are kept as low as possible - something that is of prime importance in the current icy economic climate. The increasing quantities of data that need to be acquired and processed by operatives involved in such analysis means that ever more sophisticated test equipment is being called for.
Over the last fifteen years the purpose of power quality analysis has evolved. Legislation and industry guidelines, such as the EN5160 standard, put in place back in the early 1990s, forced utility companies to maintain the quality of the electricity they supplied at an acceptable level. Then in the following years a series of further standards were introduced by the International Electro-technical Commission (such as IEC61000-4-30, IEC61000-4-15 and IEC61000-4-7) which defined the exact test techniques that needed to be used for power quality measurements, so that there was no ambiguity. Until this stage, operatives could acquire quite different outcomes depending on how the test process had been conducted. It was not until around the 2007/2008 timeframe that we started to see power quality analysis in its current form, as companies no longer just wanted to check the characteristics of the power being supplied by their utility, but also started to analyse how efficient their own electrical systems were and look to locate any sources of waste due to poor power quality.
By conducting comprehensive power quality analysis, it is now possible to recognize changes in the system and apply improvements/corrections to the system to maintain the operational efficiency of generators, transformers and transmission infrastructure, as well ensuring long-term reliability. The time period between carrying out maintenance work can be extended and costly downtime due to power failures can be safeguarded against.
There are a number of different circumstances that will lead to power quality problems and or electrical energy waste - these include harmonic distortions, load imbalances, voltage fluctuations, supply interruptions and reactive loads. By addressing each of them it is possible for companies to have a more reliable supply and implement more efficient, better balanced systems and significantly reduce their overheads as a result.
Power quality problem sources include:
Ideally electrical energy should be transferred and utilized in such a way that minimal losses occur during transportation and all energy is used as efficient as possible. In a three-phase AC system this is achieved by assuring that both voltage and current wave shapes are a pure sine wave, and that there is no phase shift between voltage and current. If this condition is not met, losses will occur somewhere in the system as energy is not used as efficient as possible.
Key loss sources include:
Originally handheld power quality analysis tools for troubleshooting were all single-phase, as the semiconductor technology utilised simply could not cope with the fast Fourier transforms that multi-phase operation would call for. Three-phase devices eventually followed as more highly integrated chips came to market. The new breed of analysers now emerging has a great deal more features and functionality than their forebears. This has meant that longer waveforms and a larger number of parameters can be scrutinised.
Fluke's 434-II and 435-II each represent the latest generation of power quality analysers. Compliant with the IEC61000-4- 30 Class A (435-II) and IEC61000-4-30 Class S (434-II) standard, they have the capability to locate, predict, prevent and troubleshoot problems in both three-phase and single-phase electrical systems. As a result more comprehensive power analysis can be undertaken without excessive time and human resources having to be expended on such activities. The automatic event capture feature available on the Fluke 435-II means that every time an event or voltage distortion is detected, these instruments trigger and automatically store voltage and current waveforms on all three phases plus neutral. The instruments will also trigger when a certain current level is exceeded. Up to 999 dips, swells, interruptions and transients can be captured in this way, automatically without the need for extensive setup. The monitor function has a dashboard display of root mean square (RMS) voltage, harmonics, flicker, interruptions, rapid voltage changes, swells, unbalance, frequency and mains signalling are updated live, showing compliance of each parameter to EN50160 limits. Colour-coded bars clearly show which parameters are inside or outside limits.
The financial impact that a company/organisation can be exposed to through poor power quality can be categorised in a number ways; it can be downtime of a processing plant or manufacturing facility, thereby reducing productivity levels. Alternatively it can be the costs involved in replacing electrical equipment that's had its operational lifespan shortened. Most notably it can be in the increased operational expense of utilising inefficient electrical systems.
Fluke developed its proprietary Unified Power Measurement (UPM) algorithm, incorporated into its 430 series, in order to be able to quantify the cost of energy loss resulting from power quality issues. The calculations are computed, along with other facility-specific information, so that losses occurring through wasted energy can be accurately monetised. This function allows active and reactive power measurements to be taken, so that unbalance and harmonic power issues present in the system can be examined and the fiscal costs involved determined.
Increasing the power frequency to 400 Hz, means that transformers and motors can be much smaller and lighter than those operating at 50 or 60 Hz. This can be of great advantage for space-constrained designs, in avionics and military applications, as well as in other compact systems.
The Fluke 437-II portable energy analyser model captures power quality measurements for these types of systems as well as those for 50/60 Hz and addresses the migration to higher frequency levels. Sister to the 434-II and 435-II, this unit is highly suited for use in aerospace, defence and other space-constrained mission critical applications, it allows up to 150 power quality parameters to be displayed simultaneously on screen and can record these parameters with 0.25s interval time on the built-in SD card.
All three of the 430 series handheld energy analysers are available to rent through Livingston's European-wide supply chain. This allows companies to gain access to cutting edge power analysis tools without needing to make heavy upfront capital investment, as well as giving them flexibility to alter the specified model if needed, or to increase/decrease the number of items being utilised at any stage to satisfy demand. | <urn:uuid:fc4a9afc-d2c7-4336-baf7-d1b079e960dd> | {
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1. To throw up; to eject from the stomach through the mouth; to disgorge; to puke; to spew out; often followed by up or out. The fish . . . Vomited out jonah upon the dry land. (Jonah II. 10)
2. Hence, to eject from any hollow place; to belch forth; to emit; to throw forth; as, volcanoes vomit flame, stones, etc. Like the sons of vulcan, vomit smoke. (milton)
To eject the contents of the stomach by the mouth; to puke; to spew.
Origin: Cf. L. Vomere, vomitum, and v. Freq. Vomitare. See Vomit.
1. Matter that is vomited; especially, matter ejected from the stomach through the mouth. Like vomit from his yawning entrails poured. (Sandys)
2. (Science: medicine) That which excites vomiting; an emetic. He gives your Hollander a vomit. (Shak) black vomit.
(Science: medicine) Vomit nut, nux vomica.
Origin: L. Vomitus, from vomere, vomitum, to vomit; akin to Gr, Skr. Vam, Lith. Vemiti. Cf. Emetic, Vomito. | <urn:uuid:9ab6ff2f-8b6b-47a1-a0e7-8a6d81371da9> | {
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LEADERS Handbook of Early Literacy Strategies and Activities
: 10-15 minutes
This activity allows the student to demonstrate both comprehension of the story and writing knowledge.
- Remind students of the 5 finger strategy.
- After completing the text, the students should retell the story through writing.
- Share a few with the group afterwards.
- I sometimes use the written retelling as a mini-lesson for writing, such as including proper capitalization for naming nouns. | <urn:uuid:90da2af5-f934-47b5-9d93-3db307a20008> | {
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Danesa Menge, Karen Taylor
Karen Taylor and Danesa Menge teach about technology at CTA workshops and conferences. They started the Tech Learning Community project through the CTA Teacher Leadership Cohort. Their website and the professional development offered there are a collaborative effort between CTA, Tracy Educators Association, and Oakdale Teachers Association. We asked them to discuss this question: What should educators know about technology and implementing Common Core standards into their teaching?
Danesa: I have been teaching since 2002, and the one thing I can say about implementing anything is that you don’t have to do it all. Choose one technology piece that interests you. Whether it’s Google Docs, TodaysMeet, SMART Notebook, Padlet, Nearpod, whatever, choose one and go for it. You and your students may love it, or you may fall flat on your face. But that is OK!
We as teachers need to take our successes and failures and model each to our students. F.A.I.L. = First Attempt In Learning. We can't learn without mistakes. So if something didn't work, try another and build your tech repertoire as you learn. Your students will learn the value of mistakes and perseverance in this process as well. Karen and I built technology into our classrooms a piece at a time, not overnight.
Karen: Right. Teachers do not have to become masters of technology overnight, or even within a year’s time. Today we are breaking away from teachers knowing absolutely everything. Our role is changing as we become facilitators in our classrooms. With that in mind, we can provide parameters and guidelines for assignments and let our students create with less direct instruction and more constructivist learning models, especially in regard to technology.
So let your students play with the technology before you use it. Students need time to explore at any age, and this will alleviate frustration later with distractions and classroom management.
Danesa: Our students are not necessarily good at technology; our students are simply fearless. So why do so many teachers try to figure out Common Core and/or technology on their own? We educators are better together. The more we collaborate, share, and open our doors to one another, the more we will learn and grow. I’ve been on Twitter for professional development for about two years now. In an instant I meet teachers who want to share, answer questions, ease fears. We feel a sense of true togetherness.
We need this open collaboration at our sites, in our districts, and regions. Start a professional learning community at your site or district. Reach out to one another, share what you know, and tackle what you don’t know together! I wouldn’t be where I am today without the amazing teachers I connect with on a daily basis, in person and online.
Karen: The new CCSS cannot be taught separately; they must be taught collectively. You will find this takes the strain off you for time. And the standards integrate so well that you can teach a weeklong unit with grades 5-7 standards in a way that makes sense. They also work better in regard to spiraling. If you attempt to teach the new standards one at a time, you will never get through them all. Apps like Subtext allow you to do this seamlessly in the language arts classroom.
Danesa: Technology simply enhances learning and curriculum, not overshadows it. When the opportunity arises, allow your students multiple options, or a menu, for the use of technology. Ones you know well and ones you may not. Your students will let you know what works. Give them opportunities to help you select or suggest tech ideas for lessons. Have your students become experts in areas and teach their peers. Your students are one of your best tech resources! And they want to be!
Karen: Keep an open mind! You don’t have to be a tech wizard to integrate technology into your classroom, especially when you are trying to learn new standards at the same time. Seek out a teacher who is already trying this out and collaborate or ask for ideas. We are all peers, and we need to support each other through this exciting change that is happening in the educational system.
Danesa: Remember, you’re not the first or the only one attempting the integration of Common Core and technology. We are all in this together, and together is always better.
Back to Main Page | <urn:uuid:88b7ad72-d12c-4063-a2bc-02d55d1facff> | {
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Mountain Gorillas Eaten by Congolese Rebels
for National Geographic News
|January 19, 2007|
Warning: This story contains a graphic image that may be disturbing
to some readers.
Armed rebels have begun slaughtering and eating protected mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), conservationists reported this week.
So far, the dismembered remains of two gorillas have been discovered, according to wildlife workers in the DRC.
And it's feared that more of the critically endangered animals may have been killed, said Emmanuel de Merode, director of WildlifeDirect, a conservation group based in Kenya and the DRC.
"The fact that two were killed suggests they were deliberately targeted," de Merode said. "I suspect there was an element of vandalism."
Only around 700 mountain gorillas remain worldwide. More than half live in the Virunga volcanic mountains region shared by the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda.
The two eaten gorillas were adult males known as silverbacks. They died in Virunga National Park, a nearly two-million-acre (790,000-hectare) protected area in the eastern DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo map).
Pair of Killings
The first silverback killed by rebels was reported dead on January 9, said senior park warden Paulin Ngobobo, who posts a blog on the WildlifeDirect Web site. (Related: "Exposing Atrocities, Blogs Give Wildlife Warriors Instant SOS" [December 5, 2006].)
"A local farmer was ordered to help the rebels collect the meat of the gorilla," Ngobobo said. "He told them that the meat was dangerous to eat and immediately informed us of the incident."
The other killing is thought to have occurred on January 11, but Virunga park wardens only this week found the gorilla's severed head, feet, skin, and other remains dumped in a pit latrine at a rebel camp.
"The stench was terrible, a mixture of rotting flesh and human excrement," reported conservationist Robert Muir of the Frankfurt Zoological Society in Germany, who accompanied the wardens.
"Investigations continue, but it seems likely that the gorillas were killed for food," he added. "We do not suspect that body parts have been taken as trophies or for sale on the black market."
The dead gorilla was identified as an 18-year-old silverback known as Karema. The name means "handicapped"—the male had lost his left hand, most likely to a poacher's snare, Ngobobo noted.
Karema was used to the presence of humans, because he was part of a group visited regularly by tourists before civil war broke out in the DRC in 1996.
"He died at the hands of a species he trusted completely," Ngobobo said.
The gruesome dismemberment echoed human atrocities in neighboring Rwanda during ethnic massacres in 1994, Ngobobo added.
"This terrible act was done to humans during the Rwandan genocide," he wrote in his blog.
The rebel group blamed for the slaughter is the Rally for Congolese Democracy-Goma (RCD-Goma), about 2,000 men led by Laurent Nkunda. Nkunda is wanted by the Congolese government for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Last year, another rebel militia—the Mai Mai—was responsible for butchering hundreds of hippos along the shores of Lake Edward, also in Virunga National Park.
Since then, the DRC has completed its first democratic elections in more than 40 years, raising hopes of lasting peace in the war-ravaged country.
"The elections went remarkably well, all things considered," said Ian Redmond, chief consultant for the United Nations-led Great Apes Survival Project. "But there is the odd rebel faction which still hasn't accepted this."
But there are now good prospects of a peace deal between RCD-Goma and the government, he added.
In the meanwhile, conservation groups are calling on the international community to take immediate action to prevent further gorilla deaths.
The groups have also asked the United Nations to give extra support to Virunga's overburdened park wardens, 97 of whom have been killed in the park since 1996.
The wardens weren't able to protect the two slain mountain gorillas because heavily armed rebels had overrun ranger posts, Redmond said.
"The rangers might be well equipped for tackling poachers—but not when the poachers are well-trained, well-armed military," he said.
He pointed out that completely wild gorillas aren't difficult to hunt in the first place, because they leave a clear trail in the forest.
"But [the two killed] gorillas grew up in groups that are habituated for tourism, which means that they are very easy to kill," he said.
Tourism has been crucial to the successful conservation of Virunga's population over the past 25 years, he added. Numbers are up to about 380 from 240 in the late 1970s, when Redmond first visited the region.
"But tourism carries a risk that if you can no longer protect the gorillas, then they are very vulnerable," he said. "These rebels could continue munching their way through all these habituated groups, which would be catastrophic. Every individual is nearly a quarter of a percent of the population."
Even if the rebels eventually move out of the gorilla forests, Redmond added, "then the international support would be for rebuilding, because all the ranger posts have been looted and a lot of damage has been done."
African conservationist Richard Leakey, credited with helping to end the slaughter of elephants in Kenya in 1980s, said in a statement: "The survival of these last remaining mountain gorillas should be one of humanity's greatest priorities.
"Their future lies with a small number of very brave rangers, risking their lives with very little support from the outside world."
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|© 1996-2008 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.| | <urn:uuid:34189be3-eedf-4b9f-a4cb-dcc95ac426da> | {
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Terri L. Snyder
Everywhere across European and Indigenous settlements in 17th- and 18th-century North America and the Caribbean, the law or legal practices shaped women’s status and conditioned their dependency, regardless of race, age, marital status, or place of birth. Historians have focused much of their attention on the legal status, powers, and experiences of women of European origin across the colonies and given great consideration to the law of domestic relations, the legal disabilities of coverture, and women’s experiences as plaintiffs and defendants, both civil and criminal, in colonial courts. Early American legalities, however, differed markedly for women of color—whether free, indentured, or enslaved, and whether Native or African in origin or descent—whose relationships to the legal regimes of early America were manifold and complex. In their status under the law, experiences at the bar, and, as a result, positions in household polities, women of color reckoned with a set of legalities that differed from those of their European counterparts. The diversity of women’s experiences of the law was shaped not only by race but also by region: Indigenous people had what one historian has labeled jurispractices, while Europeans brought and created a jurisprudence of race and status that shaped treatments of women of color across imperial spaces. A widely comparative analysis of women and the law reflects ways in which race shaped women’s status under and experiences of the law as well as the legalities of their marriages in pre-Revolutionary America. | <urn:uuid:7c195947-187c-4556-a7a3-4a61f7d20285> | {
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Albanian also enjoys regional status in the Republic of Macedonia. To pronounce the sound, place your mouth in the position you would when you say ' oo' as in Pleased to meet you. (meer-muhn-JEHS); Good afternoon/Good day. Respect is the best gift you can give when meeting an Albanian or Kosovar and is also the best Thank you: Faleminderit (the cool kids say literally “flm“, which many also use on It is nice to meet you: Kënaqur që u njohëm. 'nice to meet you' in Albanian? Here's a list of phrases you may be looking for. How to say nice to meet you in Albanian. How do you say 'nice to meet you'.
Albanian has 36 letters, as opposed to English's The Albanian alphabet is: Rruga has 4 letters, not 5. I know, weird, right? Albanian is a seriously clitic language. You will hear clitics in almost every single sentence. Even in the smallest sentences such as E di, which means I know. The clitic e is added in there, to literally mean I know it or I know that. Such as A shkove? However, when that same clitic a is added to the end of the sentence, it usually marks surprise and usually used when the speaker told the listener not to do the action.
Apparently, Albanian has verb forms that are called miratives or admiratives.
They show surprise most of the time, but can also show doubt or irony sometimes. They can be translated by using the word apparently. The road is closed.
Apparently, the road is closed. Albanian is a case language, there are 8 cases in Albanian, but only 4 are used in everyday speech. Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, and Dative. These aren't so hard, because the Accusative is basically just the Nominative except you add an -n to the end of the definite form of the word.
They use different forms of the word to symbolize number and definite forms. Just like the Scandinavian languages. Genitive is also made by just adding the correct clitic based on the word whether its masculine or feminine to the beginning and using the Dative form of the word.
So you just have to learn the Nominative and Dative forms! Since Albanian has an accusative form, word order is flexible.
(Almost) Everything About the Albanian Language
If you're talking about someone eating apples, you don't want to say that the apples are eating that person! So, I hope I interested you in the Albanian language after this! If you are interested, feel free to comment, like this post, give a lingot actually don't give lingots, I have too much. Content of texts and dialogues: You will accompany the two main characters of the language course on their holidays and in their day-to-day lives at home in 42 different dialogues.
Together with them, you will encounter important situations that could happen on your holidays or at home with your partner.
- Albanian Phrases
- How to Say Nice to meet you in Albanian
- Useful Albanian phrases
In the many dialogues provided, you will practice sentences that you can really use. When you work with the dialogues provided in this course, you will improve your conversation skills day by day. Our two main characters get to know each other during their vacation. They introduce themselves and tell each other where they come from.
Surprisingly, they discover that they both come from the same country and, in fact, from the same city. They decide to do something together. As they are staying in the same hotel, they agree to have a meal together. You learn which words are needed at breakfast and how to read a menu at dinner. You can, of course, do a lot more on holiday together than just share a meal: A city tour and an enjoyable day in the downtown make for a wonderful holiday experience.
If you happen to lose your way in the city, you can simply ask someone for directions. Not an easy task: The two main characters buy train tickets in Albanian. How should the trip continue? Good thing the weather forecast comes on the radio. It helps you to decide what to do next in your travel plans. You learn vocabulary that helps you to easily solve this situation: Reserve a hotel room and order breakfast for the next few days. The two main characters can get together once in a while now that are back from their vacation and at home once again.
But before one can invite his travel friend to dinner, one has to refill the fridge at home. You accompany the main character to the supermarket and help find everything on the long shopping list. They get to know each other better on a weekend trip. An evening together at the movies: What a fantastic film.
Albanian phrasebook – Travel guide at Wikivoyage
Accompany the two main characters downtown. Help make the right decision when buying new clothes. Both characters are invited to a friend's birthday party. They had to stop on the way to the party: There is an accident A visiting the gym keeps you healthy.
But which of the many training methods would you like to choose? The decision is difficult In this language course, you will find many fantastic, fun and interesting dialogues. You learn how to build simple and clear sentences in the foreign language. All of the text was recorded for you by a native speaker.
From the beginning, you learn an authentically and currently spoken language. You will get a very good feel for the sound and pronunciation of the foreign language through this course's recordings. | <urn:uuid:56d1d60b-3b7c-4dca-9d77-174e672a57d7> | {
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Volume 11, no. 1:
The Case of the Purloined Letter Tablature: The Seventeenth-Century Guitar Books of Foriano Pico and Pietro Millioni
Foriano Pico s Nuova scelta di sonate per la chitarra spagnola is commonly dated as either 1608 or 1628. In both surviving exemplars of the book, the third digit of the date is impossible to read with certainty because the title pages are incomplete, allowing four possible dates: 1608, 1628, 1638, and 1698. The history of Giovanni Francesco Paci, the printer of the book, and of the church listed on the title page rule out 1608 and 1628. Comparison with a 1698 title page by Paci suggests a redating of Pico’s book to that year and shows Picos work to be a late, pirated edition of Pietro Millionis posthumous Nuova corona dintavolatura di chitarra spagnola from 1661, a more reliable tablature.
1.1 Seventeenth-century sources for the guitar use a unique chordal shorthand called alfabeto notation, first appearing in 1606 in Girolamo Montesardos Nuova inventione dintavolatura. Montesardo seems consciously aware of inventing a new system of notation, and the title continues that one can learn without numbers or notes (i.e., without lute tablature or standard musical notation).1 He was the first to give an alfabeto chart in which letters from A to Z, in addition to several symbols, were assigned finger patterns on the instrument that led to varying harmonies, normally major or minor chords. This ingenious system allowed the performer to play in any key or with a guitar tuned to any pitch, as long as the interval pattern of tuned strings (commonly but not always given as A-d-g-b-e') remained the same. With this skeletal framework, one could strum chords to a wide variety of songs or dances, filling out the accompaniment in an improvisatory manner according to the players ability. It proved enormously popular: there are over sixty printed sources for guitar in alfabeto notation from the seventeenth century, with well over twice that number of existing manuscripts.2 Many vocal works were also given alfabeto accompaniment, much as sheet music for many twentieth-centry popular songs carries chord symbols for guitar. Finally, there is also a substantial body of more advanced music for guitar that combines alfabeto symbols and Italian lute tablature. Montesardos original chordal alphabet became, with a few alterations, the one used by most Italian guitarists throughout the century.
1.2 While Montesardos Nuova inventione can be called the first printed book for solo guitar with alfabeto notation, determining the second such book is more difficult. Giovanni Ambrosio Colonnas Intavolatura di chitarra alla spagnuola (Milan: heirs of Giovanni Battista Colonna) and Benedetto Sanseverinos Intavolatura facile…Opera terza (Milan: Filippo Lomazzo) both appeared in 1620, with the former book containing a preface dated 1619.3 Another source with an incomplete title page, Foriano Picos Nuova scelta di sonate per la chitarra spagnola (Naples: Giovanni Francesco Paci) has been variously dated as either 1608 or 1628. The earliest modern reference to the book was by Johannes Wolf in 1919, giving a date of 1628.4 Josef Zuth agreed with this dating in 1926.5 The second edition of Robert Eitners Quellen-Lexikon gave 1608 for an exemplar of the book in the collection of Werner Wolffheim (1877–1930).6 Peter Danners original list of guitar tablatures from 1972 gave 1628 with no publisher known, but changed this information to Naples: 1608, Rome: 1609 the following year.7 The first appearance in a Grove dictionary occurred in 1980; here the date was also given as 1608, with a reprint in 1609, following Danner.8 The original listing in RISM (P 2311) gave 1608, but that was changed to 1628 in the Addenda/Corrigenda.9 The latter date seems to have gained more currency by the late 1970s: Joseph Weidlich stated that 1628 is a more likely date for the book than 1608, based primarily on its style and contents.10 Richard Hudson used “1628?” in his work11 and I agreed in my dissertation.12
1.3 Dated as 1608, only two years after Montesardos original “invention,” this book and its contents have been given great historical importance as the second oldest alfabeto tablature. In addition, scholars such as Tyler who accept the date of 1608 credit Pico with the invention of shifted chords (alfabeto symbols with numbers for the higher positions of the fingerboard), the vertical dashes used to indicate upward or downward strums, and the first clear descriptions of right-hand strumming technique.13 With this date, this book would also contain one of the first written examples of the tarantella, predating Athanasius Kirchers Magnes, sive De arte magnetica (Rome: L. Grignani, 1641), and very early examples of many other genres such as the passacaglia, ciaccona, and canario. If Pico’s book is from 1628, it appeared along with many other printed and manuscript works in the 1620s as the alfabeto system became standardized and quite common; its historical importance is thus lessened, but Pico would still have a place among the early innovators of the guitar repertory. Additional confusion is created by the existence of another book with nearly identical contents to that by Pico: Nuova corona dintavolatura di chitarra spagnola (Rome: heirs of Mancini, 1661) by Pietro Millioni.14 Fortune, Tyler, and other scholars have dismissed Millionis book as blatant plagiarism, occurring as it does several decades after the 1608/1628 dating of Picos tablature. But since both surviving exemplars of the Pico book are incomplete, the dates of 1608 and 1628 cannot be verified and we must carefully look at the existing evidence to find other ways of securing a date for the work and discovering Foriano Picos place in the history of the guitar.
2.1 Only two exemplars of Picos tablature have survived: one at I-Nn and one at F-Pn.15 Both of these exemplars are incomplete, as the last line of text on the title page has worn away and only the top half remains. The Naples exemplar is the more complete of the two (see Figure 1). The thin original page has been backed with a firmer material at some time after the bottom edge frayed away. Based on context and the varying amounts of surviving text, all but the third number (i.e., the decade) of the date can be reconstructed: In Napoli, Nella Stamperia di Giovan. Francesco Paci 16[?]8 Con licenza de Superiori. This gives us the publication place, Naples, as well as the publisher, Giovanni Francesco Paci, along with the official notice of publication approval. A close look at the date reveals that the third digit has a curved top, slightly thicker on its right side than its left (Figure 2). Based on the font used in the book for page numbering and letter chords—which is the same as that used in the lowest line of the title page—the third digit could be any of five numbers with similar rounded tops: 0, 2, 3, 8, or 9. This gives a date range of 1608 at the earliest to 1698 at the latest. However, other instances of the number 8 in the book show that it is consistently a taller figure, roughly equal to a capital letter, and our mystery number is clearly too small for this, especially in comparison to the 8 directly next to it. This leaves 1608, 1628, 1638, or 1698 as possibilities.
2.2 The binding of the Naples exemplar clearly shows a date of 1628 (Figure 3). This brown Moroccan binding fits the description of an exemplar of Picos book in a 1928 auction catalogue of the collector Werner Wolffheim (1877–1930).16 It is listed as number 1206 in the catalogue, and the same number is written in pencil on the first blank page of the Naples exemplar. The Biblioteca Nazionale purchased the book at one of the large auctions in 1928, no doubt because of the Neapolitan imprint, and the Wolffheim/Berlin exemplar returned to its city of origin.17 Thus the exemplar that Wolf and others following him list in Berlin, is now at the Biblioteca Nazionale in Naples.18 This connection has eluded other scholars who insist on the existence of a (complete) Berlin exemplar of Picos tablature.19
2.3 The binding of the Naples exemplar is not original to the book. Additional blank pages of a different paper have been added before and after the original text. These pages, along with the binding itself, do not show the wear at the bottom where the date has been lost. Like many seventeenth-century guitar tablatures, especially those of such a small size (16 x 10 cm.), the original book would have been unbound, with the title page serving also as a cover. Since additional wear to the title page is unlikely after the leather binding was added, we can assume that the binders had as much of the page available to them as is now visible and guessed at the date of 1628 for the new cover. Therefore, what appears to be concrete evidence of a publication date of 1628 turns out to be no more valid than the dates given the book in early twentieth-century bibliographies.
3.1 The other exemplar of Picos book, at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département de la Musique in Paris, has also been bound in a hard cover with added pages in the front and back, but without any date added to it. Surprisingly, the original title page of this exemplar lacks not only the bottom half of the last line of text, as in the Naples exemplar, but the section where the place of publication would have been has been cut out and is missing entirely. In addition, the crucial date is as incomplete as that in the Naples exemplar. Both books were apparently prone to the same type of fraying at the bottom of the title page before they were eventually bound by later collectors. When the Paris exemplar was used for a facsimile edition, the publisher filled in the last line of text by hand, using a date of 1608.20 Close examination of the facsimile reveals the rather sloppy hand lettering at the bottom of the cover page. The lack of a publication place apparently led Danner and Fortune to assign it as Rome, sometimes as a second edition published in Rome in 1609,21 but the exemplar seems otherwise identical to that held in Naples and there is no evidence of either a Roman publication or a last digit as 9 for this exemplar. We are surely dealing with the same edition of the book held at the Naples library, published by Paci in Naples in 16[?]8. Thus of the four dates possible for the book—1608, 1628, 1638, and 1698—two have been favored up to this point: the date of 1628 for the binder of the Wolffheim/Naples exemplar and 1608 for the facsimile publishers and scholars such as Danner, Fortune, and Tyler in the twentieth century. None of this information stems from anyone working from a complete original title page, which was incomplete in both surviving exemplars of the book when bibliographic information began to be compiled about it in the early twentieth century.
4.1 The title page gives us one further bit of information: we read in the lower left-hand corner, “Si vendono alla moderna Stamperia del Paci alla scesa di S. Biase Magg.” Thus, Picos book was available at Pacis “new” printing house on the way down to the church of San Biase Maggiore. Biase is an old form of Biagio (St. Blase), and the church still exists under the name San Biagio ai Librai—since it was historically connected with local printers and booksellers (librai). This situates our guitar tablature in the booksellers district of Naples, which was indeed where Giovanni Francesco Paci had a printing shop in the seventeenth century. Another possible source of dating for the Pico tablature thus arises: it must have been made after Pacis printing press began operation near San Biagio (Biase) Maggiore. The dating of this church is surprisingly precise: although the relics of San Biagio had existed in Naples for many years before the seventeenth century, housed in a chapel in the church of San Gennaro, a “major” church dedicated to the saint and named after him was not erected until 1631 by the Cardinal Buoncompagno.22 By the late seventeenth century, the area had been populated by the shops of book printers and sellers, and the church was also referred to as San Biagio ai Librai. In short, there is no historical evidence that a church by the name of San Biase (or Biagio) Maggiore existed in Naples in either 1608 or 1628.
5.1 Another source for dating the Pico book is information about the location and operation of a printing press under the name of Giovanni Francesco Paci during this time period. Book printing in the seventeenth century involved an extensive amount of capital and training and one would expect to find numerous other books by the same publisher—musical or not—during the time period in question. Indeed, we find many books from the Neapolitan presses of Paci, but only beginning in 1659.23 Modern cataloging records of surviving books shows G.F. or Gio. Francesco Paci printing at least seven books in the 1660s, nine in the 1670s, six in the 1680s, and six in the 1690s. Interestingly, the form of the name as it appears in the Pico book, “Giovan. Francesco Paci,” does not occur until 1688.24 It also appears in three more sources, printed in 1695, 1696–1700, and 1703.25 The latter book, Memorie della vita, miracoli, e culto di San Gianuario, originally appeared under the imprint of Ottavio Beltrano in 1633 and was later reprinted by the Paci press in 1681 and 1703.26 As late as 1737, the name Gio. Francesco Paci appears in a Neapolitan imprint, as well as in later eighteenth-century books, so the Paci family had clearly established itself in the printing business. One assumes we are either dealing with sons or grandsons of the original Giovanni Francesco or else a publishing house that kept the name of its founder. No other music appears to have been printed by the Paci press in Naples, however, although there were other printers with a similar name who published music elsewhere in Italy.27
5.2 Another book published definitively in 1698 at the “Stamperia del Paci” bears striking similarities to the book attributed to Pico. It is a book of poetry by Carlo Sernicola.28 Comparison of the fonts on the title page, shows what a statement of responsibility and publication date of 1698 would have looked like coming from the Paci press (Figure 4). The font used is identical to that of the Pico book; note especially the differences in the height of the numbers “9” and “8” (Figure 5). Compare this with what is left of the Naples exemplar of the Pico book, here realigned with the publication approval notice placed below the imprint (Figure 6). Aside from spelling the word “Paci” in capitals and the miniscule variations expected in individual letters from a block of type, this line from Sernicolas text could convincingly fill in the missing portions of the Pico book.
5.3 We must therefore seriously consider a date of 1698 for Picos Nuova scelta. Certainly the actual contents, as will be shown, may have originated long before this; the question is whether such contents would still have been viable for a publisher in the late seventeenth century.29 From other surviving and clearly dated guitar books, we can see that they were. As late as 1737, in Millioni and Montes final reprint of Vero e facil modo, we find two pavaniglie, two spagnolette, a Ballo del Gran Duca (the Aria di Firenze), a ruggiero and ten various dances (balletti). The Pico book is much larger, but also contains these genres (five pavaniglie, one spagnoletta, three Arie di Firenze, one ruggiero, and three dances (balli), in addition to songs, passacagli, ciaccone, galliarde, etc. Another guitar book from exactly this time period is even closer to the Pico book in its contents: Antonino di Michelis La Nuova chitarra (Palermo: Pietro Coppula, 1698), which contains many of the same genres as the Pico book, including the Aria di Firenze, bergamasca, canario, ciaccona, folia, galliarda, passacaglia, pavaniglia, ruggiero, spagnoletta, tarantella, and the Villan di Spagna. Some of these genres go well back into the sixteenth century and one wonders why Michelis audience would have purchased a book with such old-fashioned music.
5.4 The answer lies in part with the pedagogical intent of these books and also with the true origins of the music in Picos book. All of the guitar books discussed thus far contain the most basic instructions for amateurs approaching the instrument, from tuning to forming chords and reading tablature. While stylized late seventeenth-century dances—those associated with the French suite especially—would have been more current in the solo music of the day (for the guitar as well as the lute and harpsichord), they lacked the harmonic formulae of the early guitar repertory that were so useful for beginners. One learned the various passacagli, for example, on all of the letters of the alfabeto notation in a similar way to how modern guitarists learn I–IV–V progressions in various keys. A guitarist could certainly improve technically and learn the basics of the instrument, even if much of the repertory that he/she was learning would have been too outmoded to actually use in a music-making situation. For the publisher, this also meant that any of the early guitar books could be reprinted and sold as basic tutors and apparently meet with a reasonably agreeable public response. In addition, the simple alfabeto notation lent itself to printing with moveable type, whereas more complex guitar music using alfabeto and Italian tablature was more frequently engraved. One final comment on the Pico book is necessary, even with the new date of 1698 assigned to it: the guitarist depicted on the title page (Figure 1) has placed his right foot on a small footstool. This is one of the earliest images showing a guitarist using such a footstool.
6.1 This brings our discussion to the second guitarist of importance involving the book of Foriano Pico: his alleged plagiarist, Pietro Millioni. Unlike Pico, who is known only for a single work, Millioni was the most prolific of all of the alfabeto tablature composers. Even his earliest surviving work is a reprint: Quarta impressione del primo, secondo, et terzo libro dintavolatura (Rome: Guglielmo Facciotti, 1627) indicates the fourth printing (quarta impressione) of a book which no doubt originally appeared individually as three separate works. The fourth book in this series appeared in the same year as Seconda impressione del quarto libro dintavolatura di chitarra spagnola (Rome: Guglielmo Facciotti, 1627), followed by the fifth, Prima impressione del quinto libro dintavolatura di chitarra spagnola (Rome: Guglielmo Facciotti, 1627). We are dealing with a second printing of the former book, while the latter appears for the first time. Clearly, Millionis first publications predate 1627 by a number of years. Millioni also brought out guitar books in 1631, two in 1635, 1636, and 1661, as well as co-authoring Vero e facil modo with Ludovico Monte in 1637. The Millioni/Monte book went through an amazing number of reprints before appearing for the last time in 1737.
6.2 If one assumes at least three, now lost, imprints of Millionis 1627 Quarta impressione del primo, secondo, et terzo libro dintavolatura, as well as one lost version of the Seconda impressione del quarto libro dintavolatura di chitarra spagnola, the total number of guitar tablatures by Millioni alone totals twelve, most appearing in the 1620s. Add the Monte collaboration and the total reaches twenty-one. No other composer appears in that many guitar books of any style from this period. And Millioni was not just prolific; the three books of 1627 are all models of early guitar performance, with clear (for the day) pedagogical instructions and the best examples of the use of right-hand ornamentation to be found in any of the alfabeto tablatures, as well as a good bit of experimentation with notation, tuning, and technique. The later books from the 1630s are increasingly poorly printed and difficult to realize, but are still interesting in their own right. Only with the Millioni/Monte books does one wonder if Millionis name is being used without his involvement; the notation is often inaccurate and the pieces difficult or unidiomatic to the instrument. Of most immediate concern here is his Nuova corona dintavolatura di chitarra spagnola (Rome: heirs of Mancini, 1661), a book with contents nearly identical to those of the Pico book.
7.1 Appearing in 1661, probably after Millionis death, this books title page contains the phrase, “newly printed according to the true original of Pietro Millioni.”30 No other guitar tablature of the period contains a similar phrase about a book being printed from the “true original.” Although Danner, Tyler, and others—apparently examining only the contents page—have assumed that the Millioni and Pico books are identical except for their title pages, this is untrue.31 There are four anomalous pieces found in the Pico book that are not in the Millioni: the passacagli (pp. 13 and 15) and the two romanelle (p. 32). On page 15, Millioni has five lines, with extra space at the bottom of the page (Figure 7). Pico adds an extra line to the bottom of this page for the passacaglia (Figure 8). On page 32, Millioni provides a part title announcing the end of the “Sonate ordinarie” and the beginning of the more advanced pieces (Figure 9). In the most radical departure from the Millioni tablature, the Pico book substitutes two pieces in an otherwise rare genre for the guitar, the romanella (Figure 10). Interestingly, none of the four pieces new to the Pico book is listed in either books index (pp. 55–6), which is otherwise complete. In addition, the passacagli and one of the romanelle are the only pieces in the work referred to as being “for” a particular alfabeto chord in their titles (the former are “Per E” or in D minor and the romanella “per X” or in B minor). The romanella also carries the phrase that it is “non più stampata” (no longer printed).
7.2 Another difference between the two books can be discovered by anyone taking Baroque guitar in hand and reading the original tablatures: the Millioni book can be realized quite easily, the Pico is so poorly printed that in places it is nearly impossible to play from, primarily due to poor alignment of the vertical strokes indicating chord strums. The origins of this problem eminate from Pacis decision to print the alfabeto letter symbols on the horizontal line rather than above the level of the upstrokes; see Millionis tablature, (Figure 11) and Pico’s tablature, (Figure 12). The standard strum pattern for the ciaccona is down-down-up in triple meter, clearly evident in Millioni but muddled in Pico. It is the placement of the alfabeto letters on the line that, in part, pushes the stroke symbols too far to the right; see especially the second “B” or C major chord, where the pattern of down-up-down-down has been shifted to the right as the letter B was moved onto the line. Note that the exact horizontal spacing of the strokes is haphazard as in all seventeenth-century alfabeto tablatures and should not be misread as having any type of rhythmic or metric meaning; these were simple chord progressions, beginning on beat two of a consistent one-to-the-beat pattern in triple meter. There are many other occurrences of poor stroke alignment in Pico, while Millioni remains easier to realize.
7.3 While Tyler theorizes that Millioni has “corrected” the poor stroke alignment in the “earlier” Pico book (and also apparently omitted the only four pieces that were not included in the table of contents to the book),32 it seems far more likely the less accurate of the two books is the actual plagiarism. Further, there is no evidence, other than this tablature, that a guitarist named Foriano Pico even existed in the seventeenth century; perhaps we should refer to the book and its contents as originating with Paci or an unknown editor. If we accept the 1698 date for the Pico book, it fits neatly into place as a poorly printed edition, substituting two short passacagli where the original had a blank line and two romanelle where the original had a separate part title—and, of course, substituting the name of the original composer for a new and otherwise unknown one. In the process, the printer disrupted the stroke alignment of the original to the point that the rhythm is unrealizable without reference to Millionis work.
7.4 Since the 1661 edition of the Millioni book is not the first edition of the work (“after the true original”), we are left wondering what edition was pirated in 1698. Given the similarities between the two books, Millionis edition of 1661 could quite easily have served as the model for the Pico edition. The line breaks in both books are almost identical (see Figure 7 and Figure 8), so it seems likely that Paci worked from an exemplar of Millioni 1661. Clearly Mancini, the printer of Millionis work, took greater care than Paci did; one often finds that successive republications of alfabeto guitar tablatures in the seventeenth century are less accurate than the initial prints. Typesetting from an original manuscript source would have been far more demanding than typesetting from an existing printed book. Perhaps, for the latter process, less experienced and less musically trained workers were used. Whatever the reasons, republications such as the post-1644 Millioni/Monte books—or, as is now evident, Picos work—often suffer from poor typesetting in general and poor horizontal stroke alignment in particular.
7.5 There still remains the question as to what exactly was being printed under the name of Pietro Millioni in 1661. The works in this book appear to be unique and not just a collection of previous works with some new material added, as are most of his books from the 1630s. A few pieces are taken directly from earlier tablatures: the “Villan de Spagna” (p. 16) is from Millioni 1627a (p. 54) and the Romanesca (p. 19) is from Millioni 1631 (p. 34). Other works are closely related but contain minor variants, such as the Gagliarda in A major (p. 11), which is very similar to one in Millioni 1627a (p. 17), or the “Aria di Fiorenza molto curiosa” (p. 43) and a similar work in Millioni 1627c (p. 50). The first two songs in the book, which are given with text and alfabeto chords only, “Occhietti amati” and “Non più morte cor mio” (pp. 58 and 59), are also identical to those in Millionis Prima scielta di villanelle accomodate con lintavolatura per cantare sopra la chitarra spagnola (Rome: Guglielmo Facciotti, 1627). But the bulk of the pieces in Millioni 1661 seem to be either new or, more likely in light of the statement about the work being printed from the “true original,” from a pre-existing source that has since been lost.
7.6 In general, Millioni preferred to incorporate new and old material in his guitar tablatures. Although his works from the 1630s are usually titled as republications, they actually display this mixture of the new and old. For example, his Corona del primo, secondo, e terzo libro dintavolatura di chitarra spagnola (Rome: Guglielmo Facciotti, 1631) contains seventy-one pieces, twenty-five from Millioni 1627a, two from Millioni 1627b, three from Millioni 1627c and forty-one new to this book. Since all of these books were printed from moveable type, rather than engraved plates as in some later guitar books, each edition representing entirely new type setting and an entirely new opportunity to make changes (or introduce errors) in the musical contents. Close inspection of these later books by Millioni reveals many new works hitherto ignored by bibliographers who assume that their contents merely reprint earlier works, as well as older works transposed to different tonalities or otherwise varied. In short, the edition histories of these works are much more complex than is generally recognized in the guitar literature.33
8.1 How does the redating of Foriano Picos work affect the commonly accepted chronology of seventeenth-century guitar history? Certainly, the dismissal of Pietro Millioni as a blatant plagiarist and minor figure needs to be ended.34 The sheer number of his works, surviving and lost, indicate that he was enormously successful and influential as a guitar composer, with the clearest explanations for right-hand ornamental strums, based on his works from 1627. It is also apparent that it took the publishing world a bit longer than two years—if the date of 1608 had been verified for Pico’s book—to respond to Montesardos initial invention of alfabeto notation in 1606; and G.A. Colonnas early works in the 1620s, along with those of Sanseverino and Carlo Milanuzzi, should be regarded as the followers of this tradition. Lost works by Millioni might also fill this gap. Vertical dashes indicating strokes and stroke direction are found in Colonnas first book, and Sanseverinos book contains not only alfabeto symbols and stroke signs, but meter signs, rhythm signs, and even barlines as well, making it one of the most thoroughly notated of any of the guitar books and a convincing second step in the evolution of the notation.35 Later works tend to be less and less carefully notated—apparently assuming a basic familiarity with the music beforehand—and often contain only chord symbols and stroke signs, as in both the works under discussion.
8.2 In defense of Pico and/or Paci: theirs was certainly not the only act of plagiarism in the guitar literature of the period. The 1644 edition of Millioni and Montes Vero e facil modo (RISM, series 6/2: 585) contains an unattributed addendum (pp. 33–48) of pieces taken directly from Milanuzzi 1623 (RISM M 2744, pp. 45–8 and 52–4) in the same order. There is also another book nearly identical to the Millioni/Pico work under the name of Tomasso Marchetti.36 Plagiarism or piracy may be a bit too strong a term for such use of pre-existing material in an era when copyrights were non-existent and much of the music consisted of short chordal formulae. Certainly one would not accuse someone of “plagiarizing” a four-measure passacaglia with a straight-forward I–IV–V–I progression. Yet, the wholesale transferal of the contents of one book into that of another at a different time and place has strong implications for the correct chronological history of the guitar literature.
9.1 The evidence against an early dating for the Pico book is the following: little or nothing is known about a guitarist named Foriano Pico, while Pietro Millioni was extremely active; the church near which one could buy Picos book did not exist before 1631, and the printer was not active until the 1650s; and the four works included in Pico and not in Millioni 1661 are not in either books table of contents and are obviously anomalous later additions. In addition, Picos book is nearly impossible to read without reference to the more reliable work by Millioni; rather than theorizing that Millioni “corrected” Picos notation, it appears far more likely that errors were introduced in the Pico book based on poor typesetting of Millionis original. Aside from the omission of the true authors name, the Pico book occurs thirty-seven years afterwards, long enough for all of the original exemplars of Millionis book to have been purchased; thus Paci was making available a common guitar tutor that would no longer have been on the shelves.
I extend my thanks especially to Doug James, Ray Sinclair, Marianne Adams, and Pasquale Rucco, as well as the staff of the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III, for their assistance in securing digital photos of the Naples exemplar of Picos book. I would also like to thank Monica Hall for calling my attention to the Wolffheim catalog. Professor Caroline Bruzelius of Duke University provided crucial assistance in finding information about San Biagio Maggiore. Finally, my thanks to librarian Laurie Klein of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University for her assistance in securing a digital copy of the title page of this book.
* Gary R. Boye ([email protected]) is the music librarian for the Erneston Music Library at Appalachian State University. In 1991–2 he received a Fulbright Scholarship for research in Italy in order to write Giovanni Battista Granata and the Development of Printed Music for the Guitar in Seventeenth-Century Italy (Ph.D. diss., Duke University, 1995). Much of the information in this article originated in that research trip.
1 Répertoire international des sources musicales (RISM), Einzeldrucke vor 1800 (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1971–99), M 3437:
2 Lists of guitar tablatures can be found in the following sources: Peter Danner, “Bibliography of Guitar Tablatures, 1546–1764,” Journal of the Lute Society of America 5 (1972): 40–51 and “An Update to the Bibliography of Guitar Tablatures,” ibid. 6 (1973): 33–36; James Tyler, The Early Guitar: a History and Handbook (London: Oxford University Press, 1980); and James Tyler, The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). Suggested corrections to these lists based on my own research can be found on my web page.
3 Listed in RISM as C 3454 and S 886 respectively.
4 Johannes Wolf, Handbuch der Notationskunde II. Teil (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1919): 180.
5 Josef Zuth, Handbuch der Laute und Gitarre (Vienna: Anton Goll, 1926): 219.
6 Robert Eitner, Biographisch-Bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon (Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1960), 2:166. The first edition (Leipzig: Breitkopf and Härtel, 1898–1904) does not contain any mention of Pico.
7 Peter Danner, “Bibliography,” 47 and “Update,” 36.
8 Nigel Fortune, New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: Macmillan, 1980), s.v. “Pico, Foriano.”
9 RISM 6:496 (1976), 13:264 (1998).
10 Joseph Weidlich, “Battuto Performance Practice in Early Italian Guitar Music (1606–1637),” Journal of the Lute Society of America 11 (1978): 65.
11 Richard Hudson, The Folia, the Saraband, the Passacaglia, and the Chaconne (Neuhausen-Stuttgart: American Institute of Musicology, 1982), xxxi; Hudson introduced an incorrect place of publication, Venice, without further explanation.
12 Gary R. Boye, Giovanni Battista Granata and the Development of Printed Guitar Music in Seventeenth-Century Italy, (Ph.D. diss., Duke University, 1995), 192ff.
13 Tyler, The Guitar and Its Music, 55.
15 RISM P 2311. I was able to study both in 1992.
16Versteigerung der Musikbibliothek des Herrn D. Werner Wolfheim (Berlin: Breslauer & Liepmannssohn, 1928), 1:216–7.
17 The library confirms that their exemplar is from the Wolffheim auction and was purchased in the June 1928 auction.
18 Wolf, 211.
19 Tyler, The Guitar and Its Music, 55, maintains that the date of 1608 is “clearly printed on the title pages of two of the three surviving exemplars.” This is in error on two accounts: no third surviving exemplar exists and both of the other exemplars have incomplete dates. He also mistakenly reports yet another exemplar at I-Bc, where I studied for nearly a year; no such exemplar exists.
20 Nuova scelta di sonate per la chitarra spagnola (Geneva: Minkoff, 1981).
21 Fortune, New Grove, 14:734; Danner, “Update,” 36.
22 Gennaro Aspreno Galante, Guida sacra della città di Napoli (Naples: Società Editrice Napoletana, 1985), 130.
23 Pars secunda in qua de sacri regii consilii origine, auctoritate, praeeminentia, eiusque omnibus praesidibus, viceprotonotarijs, regijsque consiliarijs (Naples: Io. Francisci Pacii, 1659).
24 Francesco Balzano, Lantica Ercolano overo la torre del Greco (Naples: Giovan-Francesco Paci, 1688).
25 Orazione panegirica in commendazion delle gloriose vergini e martiri Archealaa, Tecla, e Susanna i miraculosissimi corpi (Naples: Giovan Francesco Paci, 1695); Mastelloni, Andrea, Sermoni ascetici (Naples: Giovan-Francesco Paci, 1696–1700); and Memorie della vita, miracoli, e culto di San Gianuario martire vescouo di Beneunto … terza impressione (Naples: Giovan Francesco Paci, 1703). The title page of the latter states: “In Napoli per Ottavio Beltrano, 1633 … E di nuovo nella stamperia di Giovan Francesco Paci, 1703.”
26 Camillo Tutini, Memorie della vita, miracoli, e cvlto di San Gianvario martire … seconda impressione. (Naples: per Gio. Francesco Paci, 1681). The title page states: “Per Ottavio Beltrano 1633, e di nuovo per Gio: Francesco paci 1681.”
27 Giovanni Battista Abatessas Intessitura di varii fiori overo Intavolatura di chitarra alla spagnola was published in Rome by “Paci” in 1652 (RISM A 6); there were also several music books printed by Antonio Pace in Rome in the early seventeenth century. None of these publishers seems to be connected to the Neapolitan Paci press.
28 Poesie varie del reverendo padre maestro fra Carlo Sernicola (Naples: Stamperia del Paci, 1698).
29 Tylers assertion that the contents of this book indicate a date of 1608 ignores the large number of reprints in the guitar repertory throughout the seventeenth century and into the eighteenth; if anything, the musical style and notation of the book argue against a date that early, as there are no other similar sources until the 1620s.
30 “Novamente ristampato secondo il vero originale di Pietro Millioni.”
31 For further discussion on the differences between the two books, see Boye, Granata, 192ff.
32 Tyler, The Guitar and Its Music, 56.
33 For example, Tyler, The Guitar and Its Music, 87, states incorrectly that Millionis prints from 1635 and 1636 are later editions of Corona del primo, secondo, e terzo libro dintavolatura (Rome: Facciotti, 1631). In actuality, the Corona del primo, secondo, e terzo libro dintavolatura di chitarra spagnola (Rome and Turin: Manzolino and Roveda, 1635) contains 9 new passacagli—completing all 24 major and minor keys—and 5 new pieces at the end of the book. The Corona del primo, secondo, e terzo libro dintavolatura di chitarra spagnola (Milan: Ghidolfi, Cerri, and Ferrardi, 1636) is incomplete in the only surviving exemplar (F-Pn), but appears to be a reprint of the 1635 edition, not the one from 1631. There is another book from 1635, [Quart]o libro din[tav]olatura di chitarra spagnola di Pietro Millioni … novamente ristampato dal medesimo Millioni con laccrescimento di molte Sonate curiose (Rome: Paolo Masotti, 1635), which reproduces material from Millionis book of the same title from 1627 with additional material.
34 Danner, “Update,” 36 and the New Grove entry by Fortune 1980 both state that Millioni plagiarized Pico; Tyler, The Guitar and Its Music, 55–6, goes the farthest in emphasizing Picos “innovations” and dismissing Millioni as a plagiarist.
35 Colonnas earliest book also contains the earliest printed use of shifted chords, such as the “G3” chord, in which the “G” or F major fingering is shifted to the third fret for a G major chord.
36 Listed incorrectly with RISM M 487 (I-Rsc), but actually a different work. The title page is almost entirely missing; within the text, there are two part titles that identify the author and describe the contents:
Fine delle Sonate ordinarie, e principio delle pas-
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“I’ve got all the money I’ll ever need if I die by four o’clock.” -Henny Youngman
Today, we are laughing with the gods at a finite metaphor’s cuckoo relationship to wealth, to love, and to life (not to say money, sex, and death). The finite metaphor is an invention of the human imagination: a metering device known as the clock.
“They took away time, and they gave us the clock.” –Abdullah Ibrahim
Once you get an inkling of what time itself is made of, its finite metaphors become seriously funny.
“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” –Douglas Adams
Time…as meted out by clocks, calendars, birthday cards, sympathy cards…is a seriously limited metaphor of life, the universe, et al. Did you know you have the power to trade it in for an infinite one?
“The power of imagination makes us infinite.” –John Muir
Just because it seems irrational to believe the passing of time in finite increments, from the Big Bang to the Sweet By and By, is powered by imagination, is no reason to consider an infinite metaphor unscientific.
“The laws of science do not distinguish between the past and future.” –Stephen Hawking
Imagine how much happier your life story could turn out, without the distinction between Once Upon a Time and That’s All She Wrote.
“Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.” –Mark Twain
But wait! Humans have a power that is mightier than the clock and all of its cuckoo relatives combined. Our mind – the seat of imagination and everything that it creates in this world – permits us to be born at any age we choose, and gradually, or instantly, approach any age we choose, at the stroke of a pen.
“You are always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past.” –Richard Bach
Can you imagine your life story unfolding without a finite metaphor ever putting the kibosh on your happiness? If so, you can grant yourself a reprieve from the life sentence that cuckoo metaphor writes, by writing your own funny story.
The sinister specter in a moldy black cloak is standing trial for mowing down all the people who ever lived, forever depriving them of wealth, love, and life; which, for the average mowee, was happiness. The judge instructs the foreman to read the jury’s verdict to the court. The foreman reads, “We find the defendant not guilty by reason of temporary insanity.”
Seriously, the power of imagination is mightier than finite metaphors, and the pen mightier than the scythe. It’s your life story…use the power to write a seriously funny one, and join us in laughing with the gods at Father Time and all of its cuckoo relatives.
“A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.” –Jean-Luc Godard | <urn:uuid:d84591c8-193d-40ce-acb1-418ef5b40c61> | {
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GENEVA — Archaeologists in the Swiss city of Zurich have unearthed a 5,000-year-old door that may be one of the oldest ever found in Europe.
The ancient poplar wood door is "solid and elegant" with well-preserved hinges and a "remarkable" design for holding the boards together, chief archaeologist Niels Bleicher said Wednesday.
Using tree rings to determine its age, Bleicher believes the door could have been made in the year 3,063 B.C. – around the time that construction on Britain's world famous Stonehenge monument began.
"The door is very remarkable because of the way the planks were held together," Bleicher told The Associated Press.
Harsh climatic conditions at the time meant people had to build solid wood houses that would keep out much of the cold wind blowing across Lake Zurich, and the door would have helped, he said. "It's a clever design that even looks good."
The door was part of a settlement of so-called "stilt houses" frequently found near lakes about a thousand years after agriculture and animal husbandry were first introduced to the pre-Alpine region.
It is similar to another door found in nearby Pfaeffikon, while a third – found in the 19th century and made from one solid piece of wood – is believed to be even older, possibly dating back to 3,700 B.C., said Bleicher.
The latest find was discovered at the dig for a new underground car park for Zurich's opera house.
Archaeologists have found traces of at least five Neolithic villages believed to have existed at the site between 3,700 and 2,500 years B.C., including objects such as a flint dagger from what is now Italy and an elaborate hunting bow.
Helmut Schlichtherle, an archaeologist for the conservation department in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, said finding an intact door was very rare, as usually only the foundations of stilt houses are preserved because they are submerged in water for millennia. Without air, the bacteria and fungi that usually destroy wood in a matter of years can't grow, meaning many lakes and moorlands in Europe are considered archaeological treasure troves.
"Some might say it's only a door, but this is really a great find because it helps us better understand how people built their houses, and what technology they had," he said.
Schlichtherle, who wasn't part of the Zurich dig, said over 200 stilt houses have been discovered in southern Germany alone, but to date no doors.
The Zurich scientists plan to exhibit their door once it has been carefully removed from the ground and soaked in a special chemical solution to prevent it from rotting. | <urn:uuid:c4d76ab1-51e3-40ba-953c-39e041a497f1> | {
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Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a disease that affects movement and motor capabilities. PD also has a variety of non-motor symptoms, of which anxiety and depression are especially common. These psychiatric disorders are referred to by healthcare professionals as affective, or mood, disorders. It is estimated that 25-75% of patients with PD will experience significant symptoms of anxiety or depression at some point during their illness [1, 2].
Depression is a common mental health issue. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2009–2012 reported that 7.6% of Americans aged 12 and over, experienced moderate or severe depressive symptoms, when polled about mood during the last two weeks .
Depression can be more difficult to identify in patients with PD. Lack of energy or inability to accomplish daily activities may be attributed erroneously to the motor symptoms of PD, rather than to a depressive episode. Some of the common signs and symptoms of depression are:
Persistent sad, anxious, or “empty” mood
Feelings of hopelessness or pessimism
Feelings of purposelessness
Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities
Decreased energy or fatigue
Excessive slowness in daily activities
Difficulty in concentrating, remembering, or making decisions
Difficulty in falling asleep, or early morning awakening
Appetite and/or weight changes
Doctors used to think that depression in patients with PD patients was an emotional response to the diagnosis of their disease. A newer theory is that the disease itself is the cause of these mood issues [5-7].
Depression is a result of chemical imbalances in the brain . There have been significant successes in mental health treatment using drugs such as fluoxetine (Prozac) or bupropion (Wellbutrin). These drugs are classified as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which means that they block the reabsorption of serotonin—a chemical in the brain that is linked to mood stability. By allowing this neurochemical to remain in the brain for longer, the mood benefits of these drugs are sustained.
Anxiety—like depression—is common in PD patients [5, 6, 9]. Along with SSRIs, which can produce anti-anxiety benefits, another class of drugs exists for treating generalized anxiety disorders and panic attacks: serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). These drugs block the reabsorption of these two neurotransmitters and should be used in preference to benzodiazepines, which have more side effects and can be habit-forming. SSRIs and SNRIs stabilize mood, and in many cases can provide satisfactory relief from depression and anxiety. Psychological counselling, in addition to a drug therapy regimen, is optimal .
It may take up to three months or so after initiation of an anti-depressant before there is a reduction of symptoms [10, 11]. Patients must allow time for the medication to work and for most patients, treatment should continue for at least a year after it begins to help.
In addition to medication, exercise is effective [12-14] in the treatment of depression. Outdoor exercise is particularly helpful as sunlight helps stimulate the brain to produce serotonin. Social interaction is also beneficial for mood and stimulates the brain .
Patients may not recognize that they are depressed. It is helpful for a spouse, partner, or close friend to accompany patients to follow-up appointments, as they can help answer questions on mood changes and level of social activity.
For patients taking carbidopa/levodopa (Sinemet), complications can arise after months or years of treatment. There may be response fluctuations, either “wearing off” effect or “on/off” periods. A “wearing off” effect is when a patient is aware of a loss of symptomatic benefit of Sinemet before the next scheduled dose. “On/off” periods are response fluctuations marked by rapidly cycling response changes—shifting between normal, under-medicated, and over-medicated states without any relationship to the timing of doses. Depression and anxiety may occur in patients with these complications, particularly when a patient is in an “off” stage. While treating the on/off motor phenomena can be difficult, the medical treatment of depression and anxiety should be the same as in any patient with a similar mood complaint.
Patients with PD should see a neurologist regularly so that their symptoms are managed optimally. Symptoms of depression and anxiety —similar to motor symptoms— should also be discussed.
1. Sagna A, Gallo JJ, Pontone GM: Systematic review of factors associated with depression and anxiety disorders among older adults with Parkinson's disease. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2014; 20: 708-715
2. Leentjens AF, Dujardin K, Marsh L, Martinez-martin P, Richard IH, Starkstein SE: Symptomatology and markers of anxiety disorders in Parkinson's disease: a cross-sectional study. Mov Disord. 2011; 26: 484-492.
3. Pratt LA, Brody DJ: Depression in the U.S. household population, 2009–2012. NCHS data brief, no 172. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2014
4. “Depression. Signs and Symptoms.” Accessed from National Institute of Mental Health, https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression/index.shtml#part_145397, on February 23, 2017.
5. Yamanishi T, Tachibana H, Oguru M, et al: Anxiety and depression in patients with Parkinson's disease. Intern Med. 2013; 52: 539-545.
6. Shulman LM, Taback RL, Bean J, Weiner WJ: Comorbidity of the nonmotor symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Mov Disord. 2001; 16: 507-510.
7. Grosch J, Winkler J, Kohl Z: Early degeneration of both dopaminergic and serotonergic axons – A common mechanism in Parkinson’s disease. Front Cell Neurosci . 2016; 10: 293
8. Frisina PG, Haroutunian V, Libow LS: The neuropathological basis for depression in Parkinson's disease. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2009; 15: 144-148.
9. Zhu K, Van hilten JJ, Marinus J: Onset and evolution of anxiety in Parkinson's disease. Eur J Neurol. 2017; 24: 404-411.
10. Thase ME, Greenhouse JB, Frank E, et al: Treatment of major depression with psychotherapy or psychotherapy-pharmacotherapy combinations. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1997; 54: 1009–1015
11. American Psychiatric Association: Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder (Revision). Am J Psychiatry 2000; 157(Suppl):1-45.
12. Motl RW: Effect of exercise on depressive symptoms in adults with neurologic disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2015; 96: 1329-1338.
13. Tuon T, Valvassori SS, Dal pont GC, et al: Physical training prevents depressive symptoms and a decrease in brain-derived neurotrophic factor in Parkinson's disease. Brain Res Bull. 2014; 108: 106-112
14. Adamson BC, Ensari I, Motl RW: Effect of exercise on depressive symptoms in adults with neurologic disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2015; 96: 1329-1338.
15. Crooks VC, Lubben J, Petitti DB, Little D, Chiu V: Social network, cognitive function, and dementia incidence among elderly women. Am J Public Health. 2008; 98: 1221-1227. | <urn:uuid:27cced38-1f3d-4d45-a976-692c87d26407> | {
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1894, New York City, New York
1944, New York City, New York
The son of a cabinetmaker, Gilbert Rohde was born and raised in New York City. He left high school and landed a job drawing political cartoons for Bronx News, a local newspaper. In 1923 he began working as an illustrator at the Abraham & Strauss department store. Inspired by a trip to the 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels, Rohde began designing furniture. His talent was almost immediately recognized by Lord & Taylor, where he sold his first pieces. A fervent modernist, Rohde augmented the Bauhaus ideal of simplicity and rationalism with Art Deco ornamentation. He worked predominantly in Bakelite and chrome, materials that celebrated the era's eye toward the future.
After a stint designing interiors for Avedon fashion stores, where his wife was part of the advertising team, Rohde began a relationship with the Herman Miller furniture company in 1931. At that point Herman Miller manufactured traditional period pieces for Sears and other clients, and was struggling through the Great Depression. In a meeting with company founder D.J. DePree, Rohde suggested that the firm shift its emphasis toward cleaner, more modern designs appropriate for smaller spaces. Herman Miller's new aesthetic direction was exemplified by Rohde's line of bedroom furniture exhibited at the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago. The partnership between DePree and Rohde would lead to Herman Miller becoming one of the largest and most influential furniture firms of the modern era.
In his later years Rohde co-directed the Design Laboratory school in New York City (1935-38), designed exhibits for the 1939 World's Fair, and taught industrial design at New York University (1939-43). | <urn:uuid:9ec400f3-bbfc-4943-9531-a8cf4f86142f> | {
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