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05.01.2017 – Old Testament: 1Ki 1.31
To read the Bible in a year, read First Kings 1–2 on May 1, In the year of our Lord 2017
By Don Ruhl
Bathsheba bowed before David, but not because he was her husband. Adonijah, one of the sons of David, had begun a rebellion like his brother Absalom. However, David had promised Bathsheba that her son, Solomon, would be king. After she and Nathan the prophet informed David of what Adonijah had done, the Bible says,
Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the earth, and paid homage to the king, and said, “Let my lord King David live forever!” (1 Kings 1.31).
Notice that she paid homage, not to David as her husband, but to David as the king of Israel. Bowing before kings, especially back then, was the protocol.
- Could you bow before a king, if the leader of your nation was a king?
- If the leader of your nation is not royalty, would you practice proper protocol before him or her? | <urn:uuid:3fa6fe1e-aeba-4cf8-8db6-778336ee2a61> | {
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Social engineering is the psychological manipulation by cyber criminals, who makes people perform actions, like clicking on a link, or divulge confidential information, like sharing files and passwords. The estimated annual cost of cybercrime to the world economy in 2015 was $450 billion dollars. That is a staggering amount in losses. The most concerning aspect is that 90-95% of all successful cyber-attacks begin with a phishing email. It’s been estimated that around 156 million emails are sent each day, 16 million make it through the lters, and 800,000 of them are not only opened, but the phishing links are clicked, and out of those who clicked it is estimated that around 80,000 share compromising information. On top of this, each quarter some 250,000 new phishing URLs are identified.
Even though phishing can be automated in mass campaigns, the most successful campaigns are those which are tailored to an organization or person – spear phishing. However, a signicant amount are successful with mass emails that appear to come from a fake or spoofed email.
A recent variant of phishing attack is the CEO fraud, or the “business email compromise”, that starts when crooks spoof or hijack the email accounts of business executives or employees. The CEO’s email gets spoofed while the CEO is travelling and employees are tasked to transfer large amounts of money out of the country.
“You can’t download a patch for human stupidity.” – Kevin Mitnick
Download the KnowBe4 whitepaper “How to transform Employees Worst Practices into Enterprise Best Practices”, an useful guide which can help in the endorsment and testing of the New-school Security Awareness Training program in your business
Getting through the mass phishing email hurdle is a breakthrough point in an individual’s or organization’s phishing awareness level. Like in the learning of a new language, a breakthrough point is a turning point when the structure of a language starts to make sense and everything from that point on becomes easier to learn. Similarly, in phishing, a breakthrough point is where one becomes clearly aware of the tell-tale signs – the red flags -, and can more easily learn and pick up on new phishing techniques. In the case of a phishing breakthrough point, once achieved, a user would consistently and systematically not click on phishing links over an extended period of time.
The New School of innovative and interactive Security Awareness Training, combined with simulated phishing attacks, that reduces from 15% to 1.2% the percentage of your Phish-prone users and will pay your ransom if you get hit with ransomware while you are a customer and your employees stepped through the training program!
Discover the best solution among today’s market wide and different encryption offerings, and look at the GDPR’s introduction as a new opportunity to improve your organization’s cybersecurity.
USB peripherals can turn into a dangerous vector of malware (the so-called BadUSB), due to an inherent vulnerability of their architecture. USB manufacturers can deal with that issue making the USB drives “secure-by-design”.
More and more sophisticated technologies and high-speed connections allow to gain access to and control machines thousand of miles far, in total security. Discover how a remote desktop software solution can improve your business.
A Windows To Go Live Drive allows your OS to boot and run from an USB flash drive or an external hard disk drive which have been certified by Microsoft as compatible, providing you with a fully manageable corporate Windows environment. | <urn:uuid:a438530c-1a0d-4a00-8e81-a223ba5645b5> | {
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In one case, it took as little as 15 minutes for the bacteria to cross the protective membrane
, researchers report October 14 in Science Immunology.
But the formulation of true liquid aspirin significantly increases the ability of drugs to cross this protective membrane
The Envelope is Key Many viruses, including flu and HIV, are covered by a protective membrane
called an envelope.
We've known for years that the protective membrane
which surrounds the brain - the bloodbrain barrier - stops anything getting through which the brain doesn't recognise, including many man-made drugs," Prof Gill said.
Doctors have previously struggled to get drugs through a protective membrane
which surrounds the brain.
Among the topics are increasing the accuracy of determining the position of a well bottom by minimizing seismic vibration finding errors, the effect of mold heating temperature on the cooling rate of the melt upon bronze crystallization, the mechanism of forming a protective membrane
on the surface of metal-bonded diamond disks, a performance assessment of carbide tooling under thermal and loading conditions, structuring data and knowledge for the information technology of road-climatic zoning, and increasing the economic efficiency of building machines by applying reconditioning technologies.
In January, the small-batch textile brand introduced Core Construction technology, in which fibers are knit directly into and around a central protective membrane
In White's words: "Once the AKP's inner circle becomes its own bounded and self-interested entity, it will encounter the tendency for those outside the group's protective membrane
to distrust and resent it.
To install an ice and water protective membrane
as you had specified, and presumably you paid for, will require removing shingles down to bare sheathing.
Bacterial meningitis is an infection of the meninges, the protective membrane
that covers the spinal cord and brain.
He was diagnosed with a non-malignant meningioma, a tumour of the protective membrane
surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
The technique accelerates the cells to a point where the protective membrane
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October is Domestic Violence Awareness month and this week the ACLU in conjunction with some of our youth clients and V-Girls, a global network of youth activists and advocates empowering themselves and one another to create the change they imagine for the world, is presenting a blog series. "Your School Your Rights – Ending Sexual Violence" is designed to highlight the many voices impacted by sexual violence and harassment in schools and the tools students, teachers and parents can use to fight back. The girls, expressing themselves in both poetry and prose, underscore the fact that kids have a RIGHT to be protected against gender-based violence in schools.
Imagine having to go to school every week fearing that a teacher or fellow pupil is going to sexually assault you. Imagine not feeling safe in an environment that you find yourself in five days a week. Imagine being deprived of the opportunity to learn because you are so fearful of gender-based violence. Unfortunately, some people don't have to imagine this. It is their reality.
Gender based violence and harassment in schools is a serious problem. You may be fortunate enough not to be a victim of sexual violence at school but chances are that you have a friend, or a friend of a friend that has been. The good news is that it can be dealt with. It is our responsibility as classmates, friends, teachers and civilians to speak out against sexual violence and provide support to those who are victims of this cruel, illegal act.
One of the first steps that need to be taken in the quest to end the violence is to educate pupils about their rights. We cannot allow the youth to remain in a state of 'blissful' ignorance about issues that affect them. People need to be aware of Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 and know that this amendment can be used as a tool to end the violence. We need to stand up for what is right and hold the school authorities liable as they are legally and in my opinion, morally responsible for each student's safety. We are ALL affected by sexual violence so let us come together, do away with taboos and put an end to sexual violence in school.
Let us be the generation that fights for justice when we see injustice. Let us be known as the loudmouths who won't just let things be because it has 'nothing to do with them'. Let us be agents of positive change. Let us be the generation of refusers. | <urn:uuid:b39e1628-3c2f-4ed2-92ce-22f6b52ea023> | {
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kkleiner writes: Kevin Warwick, once a cyborg and still a researcher in cybernetics at the University of Reading, has been working on creating biological neural networks that can control machines. He and his team have taken the brain cells from rats, cultured them, and used them as the guidance control circuit for simple wheeled robots. Electrical impulses from the bot enter the batch of neurons, and responses from the cells are turned into commands for the device. The cells can form new connections, making the system a true learning machine.
DEAL: For $25 - Add A Second Phone Number To Your Smartphone for life! Use promo code SLASHDOT25. Also, Slashdot's now on IFTTT. Check it out! Check out the new SourceForge HTML5 Internet speed test! × | <urn:uuid:cbf56bb4-4920-4747-9b3b-1dc685603029> | {
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Contnuing the tradition that Lambda Bioremediation Systems, Inc. (“LBSI”) began back in 1986 with a basic formulation for a micro-ecosystem which became the foundation for two consortia – one for soils and one for fresh water (adaptable for salt water applications), today, Alpha Omega continues to use LBSI's (Jo Davison’s) formulations and project designs for cleaning non-radioactive contaminated sites whether soil or water based.
The soil consortium contains nitrogen, phosphate and potassium fixers (stabilizers), microbes that break up clay soils, microbes that produce enzymes and co-enzymes needed by other microbes, extra waste product degraders to break down dead organic matter, microbes that fix (stabilize) required elements for soil fertility, such as iron, sulfur, manganese, etc., and additional nutrients that may be needed.
The water consortium contains additional aquatic organisms that fix (stabilize) nitrogen, phosphates, potassium, sulfates and other base elements that can cause eutrophication (over-enrichment), plus additional diatoms and green algae and protozoan that are food sources for aquatic zooplankton and phytoplankton, as well as microbes that inhibit the growth of blue-green algae and excess filamentous green algae, both of which will deplete oxygen in aquatic systems and kill aquatic life.
The water process can be adapted for use in salt water environments such as estuaries and marine ecosystems by the addition of salt-tolerant microbes and the acclimation of the processes to higher than normal salt content.
Since their inception, these processes have successfully bioremediated disturbed and contaminated soils and biologically “dead” ponds, streams, riverbanks, creeks and lagoons. Alpha Omega often combines phytoremediation and bioremediation by using plants, especially nitrogen-fixing legumes. Acid mine drainage and other waste discharges can be bioremediated in conjunction with the use of wetlands in combination with bioremediation.
ABOUT JO DAVISON
(1935 – 2011)
Jo Davison, before starting Lambda Bioremediation Systems, spent 17 years in the field of environmental sciences and microbiology as an educator, earning dual Masters Degrees in the fields of Education and Environmental Science at West Virginia University. She also studied and tested 70 mine ponds in Ohio, WV, KY and PA as part of her post graduate work at WVU. Jo spent her entire 30+ year career as President and Research Director of LBSI, developing hundreds of formulas and protocols to handle almost any hazardous, non-radioactive situation, including treatment of acid mine drainage, heavy metals contamination such as arsenic, lead, manganese and cadmium, treatment of industrial waste waters, PCBs, oil and industrial waste spills, landfill leachate, degradation of pesticides, chemicals, etc., degradation of cyanide in contaminated soil and water, industrial acid spills, algae pond treatments and other common contaminations of water and land. She also developed a microbial consortium to remove iron, sulfur, manganese, nitrates and aluminum from coal fines, increasing their BTU's in the process, as well as removing the precursors of acid rain. Jo Davison's acid mine drainage technology has been studied as part of the micro-environmental curriculum at West Virginia University.
During her 17 years as an educator, Jo developed environmental micro courses and was a specialist in environmental sciences, microbiology, limnology and wetlands. She had a total of 35 years in the environmental field and co-developed the microbiology curriculum at West Virginia University. She was awarded a lifetime membership in the West Virginia Academy of Science in recognition of her research in this area. She received the prestigious Science Teacher of the Year award ten times during her tenure in West Virginia and the state had designated an annual science award in her name. In addition, she created internship programs at Miami of Ohio University and Otterbien College in Ohio. Jo herself trained interns from such institutions as West Virginia University, Ohio State, Miami University of Ohio, W. Otterbein College, Ohio Wesleyan, Antioch, and Bowling Green. She was a member of the American Society for Microbiology.
Since 1985, Jo worked with such groups as the U.S. Dept. of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the West Virginia Academy of Science. Jo presented papers to such groups as the U.S. Dept. of Energy Conference in Las Vegas NV, Hazardous Waste Conference in Pensacola, FL and the West Virginia Academy of Science and several West Virginia Annual Surface Mine Drainage Task Force Symposiums. Papers on both the Mahoning River and U.S. Navy Superfund sites were presented on her behalf at the Eighth International In Situ and On-Site Bioremediation Symposium June 6-9, 2005 in Baltimore, MD, and at numerous national and international conferences on technology transfer of latest research developments in remediation of contaminated subsurface soil, groundwater, and industrial waste.
Her brilliance, her fierce dedication to the field of microbial bioremediation, her love of science and the ability to unravel the secrets of nature – to see the big connection - and her unique sense of humor are sorely missed. | <urn:uuid:024bd140-92a8-494d-bb0a-3eb39cfcc267> | {
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In 2008, the U.S. government placed the polar bear on the threatened species list because of the rapid decline in Arctic sea ice, becoming “the first to be designated as threatened because of global warming.”
But in 2008, media mega-star Sarah Palin was still the governor of Alaska. Fearing that protecting the polar bear would “cripple oil and gas development” off Alaska’s coasts, Palin — a well-worn climate science denier — sued the government to remove the species from the list. Palin pointed to the high population of polar bears in 2008 and dismissed climate models that predict continued loss of sea ice as “unreliable,” “uncertain,” and “unproven.”
But U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan backed the government scientists’ finding this week “that global warming is threatening the survival of the polar bear.” In a 116-page opinion, Sullivan dismissed Palin and hunting groups’ arguments as “nothing more than competing views about policy and science” and ruled on the side of science:
Notwithstanding a handful of references to uncertainty that appear in record documents, Joint Plaintiffs have failed to persuade this Court that FWS [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] implemented the ESA [Endangered Species Act] “haphazardly.” Accordingly, the Court concludes that FWS did not act arbitrarily in relying on and drawing reasonable conclusions from the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] reports and climate models in making its listing determination for the polar bear.
Under the judge’s ruling, the polar bear is still listed as “threatened,” not “endangered,” on the endangered species list. The U.S. Justice Department stated yesterday that “it was pleased that the court agreed with its argument that the decision was based on the science available at the time.”
The Center for Biological Diversity, however, noted after the decision that “even if polar bears could be considered only threatened in 2008, they are clearly endangered today.” While the estimated population of Arctic polar bears in 2008 stood at 20,000 to 25,000, the U.S. Geological Survey predicted that “two thirds of the world’s polar bears will disappear in the next 50 years because of a decline in Arctic sea ice.” Indeed, “climate change has turned some polar bears into cannibals as global warming melts their Arctic ice hunting grounds.”
Regardless of the facts, Palin said in a 2009 op-ed that she “took a stand against politicized science” in this case and “stood by my view that adding a healthy species to the endangered list under the guise of ‘climate change impacts’ was an abuse of the Endangered Species Act.” | <urn:uuid:9917eab5-4940-4407-81b6-d195f99dd98e> | {
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A recent report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that in the 15 years from 1995 to 2010, no state's diabetes rate grew faster than Oklahoma's. Stop eating that chicken-fried steak for a moment and raise your hand if you were shocked by that news.
Oklahoma's high rate of diabetes, particularly the Type 2 variety, has been making headlines for years, and with good reason. Type 2 diabetes, which can lead to other serious health problems and prove fatal, was once found primarily in adults who grew more sedentary and gained weight as they aged.
Formerly called “adult onset diabetes,” Type 2 is now found frequently in children, who through the years have grown more obese than ever. The reasons for this are varied, but generally it boils down to too little exercise and too much unhealthy food.
The CDC says 10 percent of Oklahomans had diabetes in 2010, compared with 3 percent in 1995. Dr. Kenneth Copeland, director of the Harold Hamm Diabetes Center at the University of Oklahoma isn't sure the percentage jump is as great as the CDC figures represent; nonetheless, “it's a terrible problem and it is absolutely devastating to our economy, and we have to do something about it.”
But what? Since it opened in 2006, the Hamm facility has been a leader in diabetes research in this region. Just last month, the center got a $10.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. It was a renewal of a $12 million grant awarded to the center in 2006. Five junior researchers who had projects funded by that grant were able to obtain independent grant funding for further diabetes research.
The new funding will help researchers who are focused on cardiovascular disease, vascular damage, vision loss, tissue damage and other issues related to diabetes.
Continue reading this story on the... | <urn:uuid:b1021af6-8ba5-41a8-a970-907072205d37> | {
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At Walmart, we talk a lot about learning from one another and working in partnership to create global change. A recent report, “Smart Moves,” examines some of the best practices by companies working to cut emissions from transportation.
Emissions from freight transportation are no small problem. The report’s author, Jason Mathers of the Environmental Defense Fund, points out that freight emissions are expected “to increase 74 percent from 2005 to 2035” in the U.S. Mathers’ report looks at some of the best strategies and most creative thinking at work today to cut pollution caused by shipping.
Justin Gerdes’ Forbes commentary highlights the report and notes that “any CEO concerned about his or her company’s carbon footprint must account for shipping’s growing contribution to climate change…” As Gerdes points out, the report is loaded with statistics about shipping emissions as well as examples of smart moves by companies that reduced emissions and saved money at the same time. Here’s what he highlighted about Walmart:
Wal-Mart: Direct shipment
Wal-Mart worked with Minute Maid to eliminate one stop in the chain used to deliver Minute Maid’s Simply Orange Juice to Wal-Mart distribution centers. Now, the product moves directly from a production facility in Florida to Wal-Mart distribution centers. Eliminating delivery to Minute Maid’s own distribution centers slashed CO2 emissions by 1,500 metric tons annually and added six days to the shelf life of the orange juice. | <urn:uuid:095407aa-8504-499b-b006-f52a907f9941> | {
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Post 150 -by Gautam Shah
A recent fire in Glasgow School of Art, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh has become headlines’ news. Fires in Architecture Schools are common. Many such fires have occurred due to faulty planning, inept handling of interiors and poor maintenance. These are few random examples.
FIRES AT TALIESIN “There were two major fires at Taliesin that almost completed destroyed its living quarters. The first fire happened on August 15, 1914 and was caused by an act of possible arson. The second major fire at Taliesin occurred on April 20, 1925 and Wright's account in his autobiography suggests that it was caused by an electrical problem. Wright was at the home to witness the fire, informing a fire brigade. However, the living quarters of Taliesin were once again burned to the ground within several hours. While no lives were lost in this fire, Wright lost hundreds of Asian art objects that he had collected while building the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.”
FIRE AT FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE DELFT UNI of TECHNOLOGY “On the morning of May 13, 2008, a fire that started in a coffee vending machine on the 6th floor of the 13-story Faculty of Architecture Building at the Delft University of Technology (TUD). Delft, the Netherlands, quickly developed into an extreme loading event. Although all building occupants were evacuated safely, the rapid fire spread severely impact ed fire department operations, allowing the fire to burn uncontrolled for several hours, eventually resulting in the structural collapse of a major portion of the building. With the fire continuing to burn after collapse, damage was ultimately significant enough that the building had to be demolished.”
FIRE AT ART, DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE COLLEGE IN BROOKLYN “On February 16, 2013 Friday’s early hours, a fast-moving fire ravaged the top two floors of the historic main building at the private art, design and architecture college in Brooklyn, destroying dozens of art studios and the precious student works they contained. Firefighters battled the flames for two hours after the fire was reported at 2:13 AM, propelling ladders up to the fifth and sixth floors so they could shoot water through the windows, even as parts of the roof caved in. The blaze grew to four alarms, and eventually 39 fire trucks and 168 fire-fighters were summoned to the scene, on Willoughby Avenue in Clinton Hill.
FIRE at YALE ART & ARCHITECTURE BUILDING Fire on June 14, 1969 to this building designed by Paul Rudolph (1963) was disastrous. The design quickly became a sensation, appearing on magazine covers even before it was built. The building had an “intricate essay in flowing space and weighty mass on 36 levels”. Rudolph’s created a very complex interior, a tour de force of light, mass, and space, with great design attention lavished on every quirky corner. Rudolph originally wanted to have an atrium run the entire seven-story height of the building, but fire laws prevented it. Instead he created two large open spaces, one serving as a gallery and meeting room on the main floor, the other housing the architecture studios on the fourth and fifth floor. The rooms were arranged around these open spaces in a pinwheel-like pattern.
Due to the fire, in the short term, many students lost hundreds of hours worth of work. But the greater loss came with the renovations that took place after the fire, when changes effectively destroyed the quality of continuous space Rudolph had created. New partitions went up at the behest of student committees who were struggling to fit more and more into the overtaxed building. | <urn:uuid:494108bd-c17a-4e4c-82ce-fa8c30965b06> | {
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A lot of cheer has been brought to tiger and wildlife lovers by the latest Tiger Census conducted in late 2014. There seems to have been a revival in its numbers after the dismal count of 2006 when it had registered 1411 tigers. A marginal increase to 1706 was registered in 2011. In 2014, however, the growth was robust of around 30 per cent taking the tiger tally up to 2226. Singing paeans for the conservation efforts undertaken between the last two censuses, there is apparently an environment of backslapping among the tiger bureaucracy, the tiger NGOs as well as conservationists in general.
That 2226 tigers in a country that used to host around 100,000 of them at the turn of the 20th Century and around 40000 in 1947 is nothing much to write home about does not appear to throw cold water on their enthusiasm. We have been pretty profligate in the matter, particularly after we started ruling ourselves in 1947. The tiger numbers rapidly declined because vast tracts of forests were felled for increasing food grain production, for industrial growth and to meet the needs of a rapidly rising population. Within 20 years or so after independence the number of tigers in the country was estimated to have fallen down to around the same as what it is today – about 2500. Tiger numbers were in decline even during the time of Jim Corbett, the famous hunter who used to roam around submontane region of Kumaon a district in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh and hunt down man-eaters. He had also gone on record about it. Our authorities, however, did not pay heed to what he had said and the numbers came plummeting down from around 40000 to 2500 in mere twenty-odd years.
I still remember the “grow more food” campaign initiated during the 1940s and 1950s because of general shortage of food for reasons of the after-effects of World War II and inclement weather in the then food bowl of the country in its eastern parts. Vast tracts of impenetrable jungles given over to wild animals in the Himalayan Terai region were felled to raise crops for the rising needs of an increasing population and the needs of the post-partition influx of millions of refugees from Pakistan. As was expected the country lost heavily not only its rich wildlife – from elephants to tigers to rhinos– as also varied plant life of the region. Such clearances of forests had been carried out elsewhere in other regions as well causing disappearance and/or degradation of wildlife habitat seriously impacting their numbers. Apparently a desperate act to meet the human needs, no consideration was shown towards the other living beings.
It was only in the 1960s when it was realised that there was serious decline in tiger numbers that the process of tiger conservation was initiated, culminating in 1972 when the government decided to institutionalise tiger conservation through its Project Tiger. A census that year had revealed existence of an abysmal number of only 1827 tigers in the country. Launched in 1973, Project Tiger has become one of the most successful conservation measures through creation of protected areas known as Tiger Reserves which seek to maintain a viable population of the species in each in their natural environment. And yet, despite adding to the number of Tiger Reserves, investment of enormous financial and human resources the number of tigers has fluctuated above or below the 3000 mark since 1972, having never been able to get to even 4000.
That the number is going to increase in the future regardless of the efforts made is doubtful. The current government at the Centre has won the last elections on the plank of “development” and, hence, generation of more power and setting up more industries are its prime movers. Its minister for environment and forests, Prakash Jawadekar, had declared soon after his appointment that his ministry would not function as “roadblock” for development projects, indicating that projects for mining, setting up of industries and creation of infrastructure would not be held up for vital environmental clearances. Recently he gave away environmental clearances to 50 projects. Before him, Minister Veerappa Moily of the Congress government had cleared as many as 70 development projects within 20 days. He was brought in as his predecessor Jayanti Natarajan was considered a “roadblock” and had accumulated a large pendency of developmental projects which was suspected to have caused the economic slow-down. As the previous and the current governments are greatly persuaded by the concept of economic growth reckoned in terms of rise in gross domestic product (GDP) and with the Prime Minister keen on implementing his “Make in India” slogan damage to environment and forests is certainly on the cards. Unfortunately, the natural resources for both, power and industry sit underneath dense forests – generally the habitat that is conducive to wildlife. In this energy-hungry country more and more coal is going to be mined for want of any other alternative source of energy and for industrial growth more and more minerals are going to be mined resulting in denudation of more and more forests. In such a scenario does the tiger have a chance?
Politicians in power are seldom environment-friendly. They have always at the back of their minds the votes that can be harvested. In Madhya Pradesh Panna Tiger Reserve might not have lost all its tigers in 2008 had the political executive intervened to stop poaching o tigers on the advice of the experts. The chief minister also delayed demarcation of the buffer zone of the Reserve to facilitate mining by his crony. While doing so he said that he wouldn’t put people’s livelihood on the line only to save the tigers in the reserve. e alsoHH And, for preventing relocation of resident tribal people he has refused to convert Ratapani Sanctuary near Bhopal, the capital, into a tiger reserve despite approval from the Centre. Since the sanctuary has added to its tiger numbers forests near Bhopal get the spill over threatening theirs as well as human life.
That is another threat to their survival. If more are packed into their current confines they will either fight for territory or migrate out of the reserve. In either case they expose themselves to risks.Already fights for territory have taken the lives of at least two tigers and another simply walked out of the reserve only to be brought back mercifully without coming to harm. If tiger numbers are to be raised the government must see its way through to provide more space for them.
In the Management Effectiveness Evaluation report on Tiger Reserves 2014 the reserves have been rated in four categories. Only 15 out of 39 reserves have been rated very good and just 12 as good. The rest are all satisfactory (8) or poor (4). Efforts need to be made to ensure a rating of very good for at least 24 (60%) reserves raising their economic value by the next census. It has to be brought home to the state governments concerned that there is money in tiger reserves as has been shown by the first ever economic valuation of six reserves in 2014. Their economic value has been pegged at Rs.1.50 lakh crore – a very substantial amount.
Somebody has very aptly said that man– its sole predator – is solely responsible for the current precarious numbers of the tigers and, therefore, it is only man who can save tiger in the wild. An “umbrella” species, tigers provide space for several species to flourish in the vast areas they cover. A tiger website says “In India, more than 350 rivers originate from tiger reserves. These reserves also sequester carbon, provide oxygen and slowly release ground water to regulate floods. Protecting the tiger will in turn protect these vital habitats.” Vital as these roles are for us humans what is needed is strong governance in the reserves for their all-round development, if necessary, with the help of external experts.
Clearly, the country has to treasure and value whatever it has. But, Modi’s “achchhe din” (happy times) for the tigers in the wild do not seem to be anywhere near the horizon yet.
Photo: From the Internet | <urn:uuid:5edfff78-4617-4ab1-b67b-9feca3924c2c> | {
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Federation was the joining together of the colonies to form a nation the Commonwealth of Australia. As each colony was created separately and had their own government, they didn't want to give away or lose their power and their positions. In this case, bringing all those colonies under one law or policy was a long and difficult process. Factors that helped to move the colonies towards Federation were the formation of Australia Native Association in 1871, the First Inter-Colonial Trade Union Conference in 1879 and the Inter-colonial Conference on Immigration in 1889. These processes were the main events that led all those colonies towards Federation. Furthermore, Federation highlighted the need for Australia, to develop a defence force.
The Australian Native Association (ANA) was formed in 1871 with the membership of just men born in Australia. It began to help people with health or medical expenses. The members of the ANA were part of the Australian born group who were increasing in numbers, and they thought of Australia as their own country. Therefore, they appreciated the country and what it offered to them. These people identified with Australia and they eventually started to have nationalist opinions about the country. By 1891 nearly three quarters of the population were native born, and they wanted to be an equal country with Britain. So in 1890s, the ANA was proudly supporting the 'yes' campaign supporting Federation. They helped to inform the people of the idea of the Australian identity.
Unionism in Australia began in 1879 when workers did not have rights to fixed wages, set hours or safe conditions of work. "There was no way for people to negotiate with their employers if the employer chose to ignore their requests". (Australia And The World, P, 86. Calvert, Herbst and Smith) So working people of one trade or area joined together and formed a group to achieve common goals such as a better and safer conditions of work, negotiation of wages and working rules. Wealthy people who employed them made working conditions much stricter in response to those who were forming Unions. However, as the union's population grew as a percentage of the total, so the issues they were dealing with also grew. Large numbers of workers from different trades combined to take political action on issues such as immigration, unemployment, and the conditions of work. Unions had a better chance of being successful if they joined with others in other colonies to form large unions across the country.
The Gold Rushes in Australia in 1851 led to an influx of immigration where a large number of people were coming to Australia from all over the world. By the 1889 the colonies agreed to reduce the limit of Chinese people migrating to Australia. They wanted to keep Australia white and to prevent migration of any other race than European. Colonies realized by joining together that there could be one national law or policy to make this happen. This was an important reason for colonies supporting Federation.
In summation, by 1899 the colonists of Australia, whose growing loyalty and love for their young country and culture, also wanted to establish their own nation. Each colony elected their delegates to compose the Establishment of Australia. The delegates came together for a conference. At this conference, they decided to work on a number of issues, deciding that all defence should be federally controlled, the colonies were to freely trade with one another and federal government was to manage the customs duties. Finally, there was to be a national (referendum) for the whole population in each colony. Once the election was held, it was found that the colonies were agreeing to federate and when the Commonwealth Constitution of Australia Act were signed by Queen Victoria in January 1901, people couldn't wait to celebrate the new nation. This was how the six colonial governments became six separate state governments and the Federation was made.
Calvert, H, Herbst, J, Smith, R, Australia and the World, Macmillan Education Australia, Melbourne, 2007. | <urn:uuid:b3b51214-e701-4947-ac4a-d83f0c8c5182> | {
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GEA Niro Method No. A 2 a
Revised: September 2006
The bulk density of a powder is the weight of the powder divided by the volume it occupies, normally expressed as g/ml or kg/l.
The method is to be used for milk powders and all other dried milk products.
Samples are filled into a stainless steel cylinder, weighed and tapped in a Stampf-volumeter. The results of bulk density must be identified as loose, tapped 100 times or tapped 1250 times.
4.1 Balance - sensitivity 0.1 mg.
4.2 Stainless steel cylinder with detachable top, as shown in Fig. 1. The volume of the lower cylinder is exactly 100 cm3.
4.3 Stampf-volumeter, e.g. made by Engelsmann,
6.1 Weigh the cylinder without the top cylindrical part.
6.2 Put the top on the cylinder and carefully fill up to the rim with powder using a spoon. Avoid shaking or tapping the cylinder.
6.3 Remove the top and scrape off powder until it is flush with the rim of the cylinder. Care should be taken not to compress or vibrate the cylinder. Brush off excess powder from the outside edge of the cylinder.
6.4 Weigh the full cylinder (w1). The weight of the powder indicates “loose/poured bulk density” (0x).
6.5 Repeat point 6.2 and tap the cylinder 100 times in the Stampf-volumeter. If necessary fill up with more powder.
6.6 Repeat point 6.3 and weigh (w2). The weight of the powder indicates “tapped powder bulk density” (100x).
6.7 Repeat point 6.2 and tap further 1150 times in the Stampf-volumeter.
6.8 Repeat point 6.3 and weigh (w3). The weight of the powder indicates “tapped to the extreme powder bulk density” (1250x).
The results are expressed as:
· Loose/poured bulk density - tapped 0 times.
· Tapped bulk density - tapped 100 times.
· Tapped to the extreme bulk density - tapped 1250 times.
100 = volume of cylinder in cm3
Calculate the result to 2 decimal places.
± 0.03 g/ml for loose bulk density.
± 0.01 g/ml for tapped 100 and 1250 times.
Unless other is stated, bulk density is made as single determination.
1. Bulk density depends on water content and particle size. Avoid adsorption or desorption of water before determination.
3. To obtain reliable results, make sure the powder is at room temperature when analysing.
10. Further literature
§ IDF Standard 134A:1995 - Dried milk and dried milk products - Determination of bulk density.
§ Svarovsky L., Powder Testing Guide: Methods of measuring the physical properties of bulk powders. ISBN 1851661379, Elsevier Science (1987).
Call +45 3954 5454 | <urn:uuid:edd54ad9-74ac-4cac-87ba-1f1bd52ccd49> | {
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Web edition: December 13, 2012
Print edition: December 29, 2012; Vol.182 #13 (p. 34)
According to one popular notion, everyone has a twin somewhere. Who knows, maybe the same is true for planets. Maybe there’s even a doppelgänger Earth orbiting at just the right distance from a sunlike star to support life. In his latest book, science writer Lemonick provides a behind-the-scenes look at the decades-long search for just such a planet. The endeavor, long considered a scientific backwater with little chance of success, is now one of the hottest fields in astronomy.
Like any nascent field of science, the search for exoplanets poses a challenge that has lured both established researchers and ambitious students. These pioneers aim to detect planets too distant to see directly, by discerning the subtle wobbles of stars being tugged back and forth by the planets, as well as slight dimmings that result when planets pass in front of their parent stars.
In a fascinating chronicle of camaraderie and competition, Lemonick profiles the prominent researchers in an astronomical discipline that is coming of age. He follows the twists and turns in their careers as well as the towering hurdles they faced and ultimately solved — including oft-denied funding requests and the equally daunting search for respect among scientific peers.
At first, researchers could discern only exceptionally large planets closely orbiting small stars. But techniques used to detect exoplanets are becoming more and more sensitive, and scientists may be getting close to discovering a mirror Earth — a find that might be revealed within months, not years, Lemonick contends. — Sid Perkins
Walker & Co., 2012, 294 p., $26 | <urn:uuid:c9218405-a15e-4b02-9a5e-f124aabe9c3a> | {
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Just One Hour Of Exercise Per Week Can Help Prevent Depression
We all know that one of the major benefits of exercise is how it positively affects your mood. Ever notice how runners, yogis and fitness fanatics always see the glass half full?
Signup On Our Personal Fitness App
But you don’t need to be a hardcore gym rat to reap the mental health benefits. According to a new Australian study, as little as one hour a week can make a real difference.
Published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the paper followed more than 22,000 healthy Norwegian adults with no previous history of mental illness, tracking their exercise habits, along with their symptoms of depression and anxiety, over 11 years.
While there was no relationship between exercise and anxiety, the researchers saw a link between physical activity and depression. People who said they didn’t exercise at the study’s start being 44% more likely to become depressed, compared to those who exercised at least 1 to 2 hours a week (no benefits were observed for people who worked out more), even when controlling for factors like age, gender, smoking, drinking, social support and BMI.
While the authors were careful to point out that they could not prove a cause-and-effect relationship, the study seems to suggest that almost 12% of cases of depression could be prevented with as little as one hour of exercise a week.
Furthermore, intensity of exercise didn’t make any difference when it came to reaping the mental health benefits.
“Given that the intensity of exercise does not appear to be important,” the authors wrote, “it may be that the most effective public health measures are those that encourage and facilitate increased levels of everyday activities, such as walking or cycling.”
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why one hour of exercise seemed to make such a difference, but the researchers made several hypotheses, including the fact that physical fitness likely has social benefits, is a self-esteem booster and releases “feel-good” endorphins, all of which can help stave off depression.
“There is good evidence that physical activity can help people recover from depression, though we recommend it be used in addition to the usual treatments we would prescribe for established depression, like medication and counseling,” says Harvey. “Our study takes this a bit further and shows that exercise may also have a role in preventing people developing depression in the first place.”
Exercise is one of the most effective ways to boost your mood and prevent depressive episodes. The best way to keep the blues at bay is to maintain a regular fitness routine to keep your spirits lifted. Just one hour a week is all it takes. | <urn:uuid:30717705-7b8f-4a3e-9655-67dce04af186> | {
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On May 3, Kilauea, an active volcano on the southeast corner of Hawaii island, erupted after a powerful earthquake hit its coast.
The magnitude 6.9 quake was the largest to shake the island in 42 years.
As lava seeped out of fissures and traveled onto the land, nearby residents were evacuated as quickly as possible. Since then, several more earthquakes and eruptions have been taking place. More than 35 homes have been damaged so far, but the lava continues to flow since new fissures keep opening up.
A Giant Hotspot
Under the present-day Big Island lies a giant hotspot (a weak spot in the Earth's crust) that releases hot magma from within the Earth.
The hotspot does not move, but the Pacific plate on which the islands rest is moving ever so slightly in the north-west direction. This explains why some of the other Hawaiian islands have dormant volcanoes. They were once over the hotspot millions of years ago, but have since moved away.
Kilauea is one of the youngest and the most active volcanoes in the world. It is believed to be 300-600,000 years old and has been erupting continuously since 1983. The first Hawaiians who arrived on the islands by canoes were in awe of the volcano and named it Kilauea, after the Hawaiian word for “spewing” or “much spreading.”
A Slow-Growing Volcano
You might imagine an eruption to be like a lava fountain coming out of the central vent of a volcano. But Kilauea is different.
It is a shield volcano with a flat dome shape, similar to a shield. This type of volcano is formed from lava spewing out of the sides of the volcano through many thin branching vents. This allows the lava to smoothly come out of the volcano instead of pressure building up and lava exploding from the central vent.
The lava builds up and hardens as many layers on the volcano, making shield volcanoes some of the largest ones in the world. The slow-moving lava also gives enough time for people to escape.
Other types of volcanoes are cinder cones, composite volcanoes, and lava domes.
- Cinder cones have only one central vent where the lava builds pressure and explodes out of the volcano in a huge eruption.
- Composite volcanoes or stratovolcanoes have branching vents that are thicker than those of a shield volcano. As a result, the lava bursts out of the volcano instead of oozing out slowly.
- Lava domes are created out of lava that is too thick to flow very far. The lava clumps up around the volcano, and if there is enough material, the volcano will explode violently.
If volcanologists can conclude that the lava will stabilize, people will return home in a few days. Unfortunately, fissures keep appearing, and the volcano is found to release sulfur dioxide, a dangerous gas. Residents have also been warned about volcanic smog and acid rain, and to take precautions. For now, it appears that evacuations will continue for a period of time, dislocating nearby communities.
Sources: NYT, UniverseToday, Gizmodo, Wikipedia, USGS | <urn:uuid:6cda5661-f3d5-45c7-bb42-27157289bb8a> | {
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Image by Bruce Eric Anderson
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A friend of mine is expecting her third baby very soon and she just discovered that one of her little ones has hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). Knowing that I have been learning about herbs for the last several years, she asked what natural (and pregnancy safe!) things she could do to help her son get better and help reduce the risk of her or the baby contracting it. Curious about what I’ve found?
What is Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease?
No, it’s not related to the animal disease called “Hoof and Mouth”. It is a virus (most often Coxsackie A) and it’s almost never dangerous. It is, however, highly contagious and very unpleasant. Incubation is three to seven days and is followed by mild fever, sore throat and can include appetite loss and diarrhea. A day or two later, little blisters form in the mouth and a rash develops, usually on the hands and feet, but it can be other places. The rash can be sore, but is not itchy.
Symptoms last one to two weeks, but some sources say that an infected person can still spread the virus for a few weeks after they are recovered. There is no medical treatment and since this is a virus, please don’t ask your doctor for antibiotics. They won’t help and they will damage your immune system. Since a person is most contagious during the incubation period (before you even know they are sick!), it is important to treat the entire family. I don’t recommend trying to reduce the fever, since the fever is part of the immune system’s natural response to kill the virus.
One of the things I love about herbs is that there are often many options for treating problems and each herb often has many uses! Hand, foot and mouth disease is a virus, so antiviral herbs are what we want. Since hand, foot and mouth disease almost always affects children, we need herbs that taste good!
These can be warm or cold, depending on what is more soothing for your little one’s sore mouth.
- Lemon Balm: This is sooo delicious! Dried lemon balm has a subtle lemony flavor that isn’t too strong for little ones (not fresh, though! It tastes like grass!). Brew a little and add a bit of raw honey once it’s cooled some. (Don’t use honey for babies under one year.) Buy it here.
- Peppermint: We grow chocolate mint in our herb garden and I think it makes a tea so sweet that you don’t even need honey! Don’t make this too strong, though, or most young children won’t drink it. Buy it here.
- Elderberry: Too much can cause diarrhea, but a few cups a day is delicious and wonderful for fighting viruses. Buy it here.
- Rooibos Tea: This red tea from Africa is naturally sweet and so good that I drink it often, just because I like it! It is antiviral and pairs well with the elderberry tea. Buy it here.
Your kiddos might not have much of an appetite, so broth/stock is a good option for nutrition.Use either chicken or beef broth/stock and add the ingredients below. When reheating broth, use the stove top, not the microwave!
- Garlic: Don’t you just love garlic?! It’s antiviral, antibacterial and it tastes so good! Crush or mash the garlic and let it sit in a bowl for 15 minutes before adding it to the broth. This allows air to activate the best healing properties.
- Thyme: Fresh or dried, thyme is excellent for any virus. Toss some in toward the end of the cooking time. Buy it here.
- Sage: Along with being antiviral, sage helps to reduce inflammation, heal the sores in the mouth and sooth the upset tummy that sometimes comes with HFMD. DO NOT add sage to your own broth if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. Buy it here.
- Rosemary: It is antiviral and also antibacterial, which helps to prevent secondary infections in the sores.
Soothing Antiviral Oil
Virgin coconut oil is antiviral, too! It is naturally solid at room temperature, so it can be used as a salve, or you can even put a scoop in the bathtub as a bath oil! For an extra boost, infuse it with some lemon balm and calendula (learn how here!). Apply as often as desired.
Antiviral Hand Soap
To help prevent the virus from spreading, use a liquid hand soap and add 2 or 3 drops of tea tree oil to each bottle. If your kiddos don’t wash their hands well, you might want to temporarily use an all-natural foaming hand soap and tell them to wash their hands twice every time they use the bathroom. My four-year-old thinks the foaming soap is tons of fun, so she does a much better job than with bar or liquid soap. 😉
Antiviral Surface and Air Cleaners
Plain ol’ white vinegar with several drops of tea tree oil will do a fantastic job of killing the virus on surfaces (toilets, doorknobs, light switches, etc.) and the vinegar smell goes away once it’s dry. Adding tea tree oil to a diffuser or in a pot of steaming (not boiling!) water will help kill germs and it’s good for the people who are already sick.
If one of your little ones brings home hand, foot and mouth disease, starting your entire family on these safe antiviral herbs may help to keep the rest of you from catching it and help your kiddos recover more quickly!
If you’re looking for more home remedies and practical suggestions on how to keep your children healthy, naturally, get A Practical Guide to Children’s Health. With over 300 primary sources, it’s a well-researched guide to vaccines, illnesses, allergies, sleep, feeding, and lots more. Get the PDF or the paperback.
Have any of your children had hand, foot and mouth disease? Did you use any natural remedies for comfort or to prevent spreading it?
Confused about vaccines?
Get our FREE no-nonsense vaccine guide. Answer your questions with rational, fact-based information instead of fear. | <urn:uuid:dfa49761-5992-4c1b-bf4a-f04de5e5fb4d> | {
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Boncompagno da Signa (1168?-1240?) was an important Italian scholar who wrote several treatises and other works as he moved around between cities such as Ancona, Bologna and Venice. His account of the siege of Ancona, which he wrote around 1201, is his only work of history. Although he was not present at the siege, he questioned eyewitnesses and presents information not found in other sources. He clearly takes the side of the Anconitians in this conflict, to the point where some observers have found this text to be more a panegyric than a true historical account.
The siege of Ancona takes place within the larger struggle for the control of Italy, which put Pope Alexander III, and his allies the Byzantine empire, under the rule of Manuel Komnenos, against the Holy Roman Empire and its emperor Frederick Barbarossa. In 1171, Frederick’s chancellor, archbishop Christian of Mainz, was given the command of an army to conquer Italian cities which supported Alexander, including the city of Ancona, which had previously allied itself with the Byzantine empire. The Germans were assisted by the Venetians, who had been long rivals with Ancona over the domination of Adriatic, and other Italian towns who had their own reasons to fight Ancona. The siege probably started in March of 1173, not May as Boncompagno suggests, and ended in October of the same year when armies under William of Marchisella from Ferrara and Aldruda Frangipane, countess of Bertinoro arrived to help Ancona and forced Christian of Mainz to retreat. The section below details the first events of this siege.
CHAPTER III: Beginning of the account of the siege by the Chancellor
When Frederick, who later lost his life in the River Saliph not far from Antioch, was emperor of the Romans, a Chancellor called Christian (but only in name), who was also the archbishop occupying the throne of Mainz, entered Italy with the army of the emperor, laying waste many castles, towns and villages in several regions; for he lived, like a kite, from plunder, and, like a crow, on carrion, as he sought after the property of anyone that he could find. When, however, he saw that the Anconitans were closely attached to the Greek empire, and that he could not have complete dominion in the March, if he could not break the strength of the city of Ancona, he arranged with the Venetians, who had always hated Ancona with a certain special hatred, that, at the end of the month of May (sic), when food is beginning to be scarce, they should enter the port of the Anconitans with ships and galleys, laying a siege manfully to the city on the seaward side, and that he himself should also come with the imperial army and with the surrounding cities to the same destination, promising them to destroy the city and to share the goods of the citizens among them. The Venetians also came to this destination, and entering the port with a strong force they placed ships and galleys for a siege in such a way that no one from the city dared to go to sea, since the Anconitans were not able to oppose them, on account of their great numbers. For the realm of Venice is said to be based on water, and so the doge of that city wears a golden circlet on his head, and because of the majesty of the waters he seems to possess the insignia of a king.
In fact, they placed a ship which had once belonged to Romano Mairano in the middle of the harbour. On account of its size it was hyperbolically called the Whole World by many, since, as it was reported, nowhere had a greater one ever been seen. For it was almost a castle, under the shadow and defence of which all the ships and the galleys seemed to be placed. In this ship indeed they also positioned siege engines and catapults and various different types of war engine, with which the maximum damage was inflicted upon the city from that direction each day. The Chancellor on the other hand positioned his army close to the city, destroying everywhere trees, vines, olive groves and everything which was likely to be useful to the citizens. The men of Osimo came to the siege, who always plot against the heel of the Anconitans, together with many men of the March; and in this way the limbs tried to cut off the head. For it often happens that many are eager to do what leads them afterwards into destruction and servitude, as the Lombards did, who destroyed Milan once out of envy, and as a result were held in the chains of slavery before its rebuilding. My belief leads me to conclude that I do not think that Italy could become tributary to anyone, unless this were to proceed from the ill-will and malice of the Italians; for it is contained in the laws that `Italy is not a province, but the mistress of the provinces.’ What more? Everyone, from the border of Apulia to Rimini, came to the siege. There were many Tuscans there, and men of Spoleto, men of the Romagna, and others, of whom it is difficult to make mention.
A time of shortage had preceded this, and so there was little food in the city; but the citizens hoped to gather in the harvest soon and buy from others, since cities which are situated on harbours are scarcely able to have enough grain and supplies of foodstuffs from their own labour, when most of those who dwell in them are sailors and merchants. Also many Anconitans were absent, who, for the sake of business, were in Alexandria, and in the city of Constantinople, and in Romania. The struggle took place continually, at sea as much as on land”, nor could the citizens rest even for an hour, since their besiegers were very numerous, and they came to battle in successive waves; but the warriors inside the city were obliged to wage war continually, nor could they have succour from another source. But however weary they were, they resisted each fresh attack so successfully that the attackers always brought back to their camp a sad cry of `alas!’
At the time of the beginning of the siege, the Anconitans gathered an army, which the Chancellor defeated in a battle on the plain, in which very many were captured and killed, and because of this they believed that they were losing their city. After the loss of this battle, they had sufficient food for no more than eight days, and hunger began to grow to such a degree that not enough bread could be found, for a bezant, to suffice for a single person to eat. A denarius was given for five single beans, and a fistful of spelt or barley could not be had for twelve. Eggs were sought, to serve as plasters for wounds, but at that time not a dozen could be found in the entire city. But previously, it is said, nine denarii were given for one egg, and twenty solidi were given for a small her. And at that time chickens, and the flesh of pigs and cattle, were so scarce that none could be found in the city for sale. The pestilence of famine began to appear there, because it is correctly said to be a famine at a time when a price is offered, and no one who has anything for sale can be found.
The Chancellor learned of these things from certain people; so he assembled his army and ordered battle to be joined, declaring that the citizens were so exhausted because of the famine that they could scarcely bear arms. He therefore ordered war trumpets to be sounded, drums to be struck and the army to be arrayed in battle formation; and in this way he approached the walls of the city with all his men, shouting loudly. The citizens, seeing this, and ringing their bells, left the city with a great clamour, and bravely began joining battle with them, and though they were famished and oppressed by starvation, they fought as bravely as if they were refreshed with the most delicate foods. In the battle all of them were so confused that they were unable to distinguish themselves from the enemy, and they could hardly see one another on account of the volume of dust that darkened the air. The ears of all, moreover, on account of the clangour of war-trumpets, the neighing of horses, and the voices of the fighting men, were so dulled, that no one could understand clearly what was being said.
But while the battle was continuing without a break in this way, a part of the Chancellor’s army approached the Venetians, and boarded their galleys together with them, and the Venetians approached close enough to enter the houses of some of the citizens. But when the Anconitan councillors heard this, they sent to the seaward side only those who had houses very close to the harbour. And on that day God granted victory to the Anconitans, because those who went to the seaward side put the Venetians to flight and they recovered the galleys, which they had earlier lost, most successfully; and the rest of them drove back the army of the Chancellor as far as its siege engines; and then someone threw a small cask full of resin and pitch in front of a heap of timber; but no one dared to bring fire, because the place was in the midst of the combatants. At this moment, however, there came forward a widow by the name of Stamira, who held an axe with both hands, and she split the cask, and then she ran and lit a torch and held it among the timber beams, in full view of everyone until the fire could exercise its own force. And so the siege engines and catapults were burnt, through the bravery of this female warrior, whom the cruelty of battle and the fury of men fighting could not frighten. Very many on both sides were killed and wounded there, but the besiegers gained nothing, only loss and dishonour. But that battle benefited the Anconitans greatly, because they carried back many corpses of the horses which had been killed, into the city, and did not even throw away the intestines. With the battle over, the Chancellor stood with his army a little further off than before, nor did he permit battle to be joined, believing that he could conquer the city through its famine and lack of means.
CHAPTER IV: Commendation of a certain priest
In addition, the following memorable deed must not be passed over in silence: a priest named John, a canonical of Ancona, while he sat one day near the sea, began thinking in his heart, whether he could do something for the honour of the city, and the inconvenience of the enemy; for he was a man of courage, brave and audacious. So he went to the harbour and took off his tunic, remaining only in his hose. Then both the citizens and the Venetians began to marvel at him, because it was not the time for swimming, especially since there was a strong wind in the harbour. However, he swiftly entered the sea, swimming along with a two-edged axe in his hand; and began to sever the great cable, which was tied at one end to the prow of the ship belonging to Romano Mairano, and at the other to the anchor, which the sailors had let down into the harbour.
The men who were on the ship, seeing what the Presbyter was doing, began firing at him with their bows and crossbows; and others shouted at him, hurling great rocks. He, however, in the manner of a merganser, which, with folded wings makes for the depths of the sea, would swiftly submerge himself in the water, then reappear like a dolphin afterwards, and thus severed the cable with successive blows, so that the individual strands failed, and placed all the sailors in danger of death, because the wind was so strong that it was harming a great number on the land. The priest then returned to the city by swimming, and he mocked them greatly. The ship yawed around in the harbour, until the wind died down; and had not the harbour been so safe, it would certainly have perished The sailors, nevertheless, on account of their fear, threw many useful items into the sea. And the Anconitans, seeing the courage of the priest, and the tempestuous raging of the waves, joined battle with the Venetians, bravely driving seven galleys away from the more secure part of the harbour, which the ferocity of the winds drove onto the shore, where they were at once shattered; and so the Venetians sustained no small harm to their persons and property.
This selection is from Boncompagno da Signa, The History of the Siege of Ancona, ed. and trans. by Andrew F. Stone; Archivio del Litorale Adriatico VI (Filippi Editore, 2002). We thank Andrew F. Stone for his permission to republish this section. Those interested in purchasing the entire book can contact Professor John Melville Jones at [email protected] | <urn:uuid:a60893b3-de6f-4a1f-8dd2-9c74ac36f0c7> | {
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BIRD SPECIES AND DISTRIBUTIONS IN YUKON-CHARLEY RIVERS NATIONAL PRESERVE
Varied Thrush (Ixoreus naevius)
The family Turdidae is a diverse group of birds including thrushes, Townsend's Solitaires, Northern Wheatears, bluebirds, and robins. Members of this family are eloquent songsters and may be found in various habitats from woodlands to open areas. All have narrow, notched bills used to feed on insects and fruits and the young have spotted breast plumage. The word thrush may be derived from the Greek verb "to twitter," reflecting the active nature of these birds.
Descriptions: The Varied Thrush occurs in dark, dense and moist boreal coniferous woodlands, particularly deep within mature old-growth forest. A large-sized thrush (24cm) similar in shape and habit to the American Robin, the Varied Thrush is distinguished by its orange supercilia (eyebrow) and wing bars and the prominent band across its deep orange breast. Both sexes share this distinct plumage pattern. The male bird has a grayish blue nape and back and a broad, black breast band. Female birds are drabber, with a deep brown back and nape and a fainter, dusky breast band.
Vocalizations: The song of the Varied Thrush may be heard on the breeding grounds continuously during the evening and occasionally throughout the day. Males sing for 10-15 minutes from a high perch in a live conifer before moving to another site. Much like the sound of a referee's whistle or a space ship of an early SciFi movie, the song is a prolonged, whistled note of a single pitch. The softly whistled call note is a descending, low "tshook."
Nests: Varied Thrushes require large stands of forest with dense canopy to conceal nests and minimize predation. Increased nest predation in forest fragments, small stands or along forest edges may explain the scarcity of the Varied Thrush in these areas. The female builds the cup-shaped nest deep within the forest canopy, on low branches of small conifers (spruce) near the tree trunks. Occasionally, new nests are constructed directly on top of old ones or near old nest sites. The outer layer of the nest is composed of loosely woven twigs, leaves, lichen and bark, which supports a middle layer of mud and grasses. Nests are lined with fine grasses, mosses and soft dead leaves. The clutch consists of 2-6, 21mm, sky blue eggs, unmarked or sparingly spotted in browns. Although females alone incubate the clutch for about 12 days, both parents assist in feeding the young. Young birds fledge in another 13-15 days post-hatching.
Diet: Varied Thrushes forage on the ground for insects and spiders during the breeding season. Their diet primarily includes fruits, berries, and acorns during winter and fall. They form loose flocks around winter food sources, which they aggressively defend. These birds hunt by gleaning insects from the ground as they walk along the forest floor.
Distribution: A short-distance, partial migrant, the Varied Thrush may winter throughout much of its breeding range. Most individuals spend the winter along the Pacific Coast from Alaska to southern California, but occasional birds may be seen in the western states. The breeding range spans throughout interior and southeastern Alaska, most of Yukon and British Columbia and parts of Montana. In summer, early migrants reach interior Alaska by late April and leave breeding grounds by early September. Within Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, these birds were found in fairly high abundance in almost all ecological units during the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve Bird Inventory, June 1999 and 2000. They occurred in highest density in the coniferous forests of the Ogilvie Foothills (OF), Ogilvie Lime/dolostone Mountains (OM), Charley Foothills (CF), Upper Charley Valleys (UV) and the Three Fingers Subalpine basin (TF) ecological units.
|Density of Varied Thrushes by detailed ecological unit in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Alaska, Avian Inventory, June 1999 and 2000.| | <urn:uuid:45ce25a9-f387-4bfd-9aaa-f074fc3e9c42> | {
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As a health-conscious consumer, you want to make sure that you are getting proper nutrition. If you're like many people, this means that you're likely to take some type of vitamin and mineral supplements from time to time. And you've probably also noticed that there is a wide variety of such nutritional supplements available. But have you ever wondered how you can be sure that the ones you buy really contain the things their labels say they contain? And have you ever wondered whether there's really any real difference from one brand to the next when it comes to quality? If so, your questions get right to the heart of the matter-it takes the right ingredients and processes to produce nutritional supplements that are both safe and effective. In this article, we'll provide you with a little information about Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), and how you can use them to make wise purchasing decisions. How are nutritional supplements regulated in the United States? One of the things you should know about dietary and nutritional supplements is that, unlike drugs, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not require research studies to prove that the supplements are safe before they are brought to market. If a vitamin, mineral, or nutritional supplement is found to be unsafe, or even dangerous, the FDA can take action only after it has hit the shelves of pharmacies and health food stores. Of course, by that time, there's a very good chance that many people have already purchased and used it. The responsibility for making sure nutritional products are safe ultimately rests with the manufacturer of the supplements. The same thing is true with regard to whether a given supplement is actually effective in supporting health, addressing a nutritional deficiency, or reducing the risk of developing a particular health problem. The manufacturers are not required to conduct or sponsor research studies to support their claims. You may also have noticed that this sort of language is included on the packaging of most nutritional supplements: "This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease." These simple sentences are meant to inform consumers that the regulatory protections they have grown to expect when it comes to pharmaceutical products do not apply to nutritional products. The simple truth is that you can't even be entirely certain that a bottle claiming on the label that it contains "mineral X" or "vitamin Y" actually contains it. It is simply not the FDA's job to analyze the contents of dietary supplements. So what are Good Manufacturing Practices? In 2007, the FDA established a set of requirements and guidelines for dietary supplements, detailing how they should be manufactured, prepared, and stored to ensure quality. The Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) guidelines seek to prevent manufacturers from including incorrect ingredients, to make sure they do include the ones they say are included, and to prevent possible contamination from bacteria, pesticides, and heavy metals. There are also guidelines about the packaging and labeling of products. These too are intended to ensure quality and prevent fraud. Many manufacturers have voluntarily agreed to comply with the GMP guidelines, and a few of the most reputable companies actually follow the more stringent FDA GMP guidelines for drugs, which are even stricter. However, some manufacturers ignore the GMP guidelines and attempt to substitute their own quality assurances or seals of approval, using terms like "standardized", "certified" or "verified" to describe their manufacturing processes. In many cases, these may be meaningless terms, depending on the standards or verification organization referred to (and whether or not there's a meaningful testing and enforcement program involved). Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) certification of a company's manufacturing facilities is not free, and in fact it's quite expensive to apply and qualify for this distinction. Thus if a company can prove that they are cGMP-compliant, it is usually a good indication that their products can be trusted. You can find listings of GMP-certified manufacturers at the Natural Products Association website (http://www.npainfo.org/), or in handouts provided by quality health food and supplement providers. It's important to understand that GMP certification by itself may not ensure that the vitamin or mineral supplement you take will provide the benefits you've seen or heard advertised. But it can help to make sure that you are getting what you pay for in the bottle, and that it's been handled in a manner that attempts to ensure your safety. | <urn:uuid:76ccc307-2e50-4257-ab94-bbd9726afb34> | {
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Just before the start of the 21st century, scientists spotted chickadees in Alaska with grossly deformed beaks that seriously impeded the animals' ability to do the most basic tasks for survival, such as eating and grooming. With sightings on the rise—throughout the lower 48 states and in chickadees as well as nuthatches, woodpeckers, crows, and jays—scientists report in the journal mBio that they may be close to knowing the cause. They used sophisticated RNA sequencing to identify a novel virus, which they are calling poecivirus, found in 19 of 19 affected captured birds with so-called avian keratin disorder. They aren't ready to say poecivirus is it, but they do say they have a "a strong, statistically significant correlation" on their hands.
The virus was found in two of nine controls; it's possible the two acquired it so recently their beaks haven't started to change, reports National Geographic. "It’s a gut-wrenching experience when we see these small birds with gross beak deformities," a wildlife biologist with the US Geological Survey in Anchorage says. "They’re handicapped in everything they do." The researchers named poecivirus after the black-capped chickadees’ Linnaean name, Poecile atricapillus, reports the Scientist. They're asking the general public to help keep bird feeders clean and report any sightings of birds with mangled beaks. "Take one look at a bird suffering from [this] and you'll understand the importance of stopping its spread," study co-author Jack Dumbacher says in a Science Daily news release. (These famed finches could soon be extinct.) | <urn:uuid:1246ce49-9e3f-44a0-8436-7f48f598662d> | {
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Although contemporary physicians consider many medieval practices obsolete, alternative healers and a number of medical doctors view herbal healing as viable treatment. According to Mostly Medieval, medieval healers included physicians, monks and other folk healers. Herbal healing was different than it is in modern times. For example, medieval doctors followed the Doctrine of Signatures. Mostly Medieval explains that flower colour and a plant's characteristics revealed the plant's use for healing. Yellow flowers, such as dandelions, indicated useful properties for liver ailments, the symptoms of which include jaundice. Among the many herbs physicians applied were aloe, motherwort, fennel and comfrey. Healers used herbs to treats ailments from dysentery to pneumonia.
According to Fordham University's site for the Bonnefont Cloister Herb Garden, manuscripts dating to the tenth century mention frequent use of herbs in medieval daily life. People in the Middle Ages believed that plants had magical powers, and plants were used for medical purposes as well as for spells. While herbs are no longer widely considered magical, with perhaps the exception of a lucky four-leaf clover, herbalists and medical practitioners recommend herbs for a range of ailments.
Mostly Medieval describes the most common diseases in the medieval period. Included are dysentery, influenza, smallpox, stroke and heart attack. Physicians treated patients based on ancient Greek beliefs. Basically, illness was considered to be related to imbalances of blood and the other fluid humours of the body, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm. Once a doctor diagnosed the area of imbalance, he used herbs to restore balance to the patient's system.
In the Middle Ages, as now, healers used common plants to soothe ailments. Mostly Medieval records that medieval doctors followed a physician in ancient Greece who used aloe topically for wounds and hair loss, among other conditions. Aloe was prescribed as a laxative. Motherwort was used to treat depression and to increase contractions during labour. Medieval doctors used fennel for colic, to suppress appetite and to help lactating women. Healers applied boiled comfrey in a compress for broken bones.
Mostly Medieval describes the ways herbs were used to make potions and ointments and in amulets. Medieval physicians made potions by mixing herbs with ale, milk or vinegar. Doctors mixed herbs with butter for external uses, including nose bleeds, sunburn and dog bites. People in the Middle Ages believed that herbs in amulets served as charms against mental and physical diseases and ill fortune. Mostly Medieval lists some of the more unusual herbal healing techniques, including the use of St. John's Wort on Midsummer's Eve to cure fever. However, you had to find the St. John's Wort by accident on that day. If you could capture an insane person and tie a bag of buttercups around her neck, she would be cured. Making hoops from woodbine, under which children would pass, cured them of their ills. Healing freckles was a messy business. You had to secure blood from a bull or a rabbit and cover the freckles with the blood. If that procedure did not appeal, you could apply distilled walnuts.
Medieval healers grew herbs in their own gardens. When they did not have the option to grow their own herbs or needed one they were not cultivating, doctors foraged for wild regional herbs. According to Mostly Medieval, folk healers went the extra step to assure the effectiveness of their cures by picking the herbs at the right time. Harvesters faced south and plucked herbs at dawn for maximum potency. | <urn:uuid:1a6bae1f-8829-4d18-9b9c-725d815e3d46> | {
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Mexicans celebrate the holiday season every year with the re-enactment of Mary and Joseph's journey as they looked for shelter on the eve of Jesus’ birth.
The tradition of Las Posadas dates back nearly 500 years to when Spanish missionaries wanted to tell the story of the birth of Jesus to the indigenous people of Mexico. So they created this nine-day celebration. But the ritual has been modified, slightly, for today’s Mexican Americans.
For the past 10 years, my own family and I organized Las Posadas at our home in Los Angeles. We invite close friends and neighbors and, at about 7 p.m., we walk around our neighborhood toward nearby homes asking for posada — or shelter. Tonight, there are more than 30 adults and about 10 kids walking around with us.
As we approach the first house, about five of us go inside, while the rest of our group stays outside — each holding a songbook in one hand, and a candle in the other. The group begins the posada song, singing in a call-and-response manner. One group starts singing:
In heaven's name, I ask for shelter, since my beloved wife, cannot be walking in the night
Then, inside, the smaller group responds:
This is not a hostel. Go on ahead, I will not open the door, I'm afraid it might be a thief.
As we walk from one house to the next, we sing other traditional villancicos, or Christmas carols. At our second stop, the lyrics continue the story:
We're so tired of walking, all the way from Nazareth. I'm a carpenter, my name is Joseph
Inside the house, the owners respond:
I don't care about the name, let me sleep. I insist on telling you, I will not open the door.
Continuing our journey, we sing another villancico — this time we sing "Campana Sobre Campana" or "Bell Over Bell." And finally, at our last stop, we get a different lyrical response:
Are you Joseph? Is your wife Mary? Please come in pilgrims, I did not recognize you.
As we walk in, everyone sings the welcoming verses:
Come in Holy pilgrims. Though our home is poor,we offer it to you, from the heart
The end of our journey is our own home, and inside, we host a party for everyone. In Mexico, the family hosting the Posada is responsible for feeding everyone, but since we're in the U.S., guests bring tamales or bottles of wine.
As the hosts of the Posada, it’s our responsibility to make the ponche, a warm punch that’s essential to this Mexican celebration. Ponche is made with apples, guavas and sugar cane, as well as, raisins, prunes, hibiscus, cinnamon and brown sugar. But the most important ingredient in the ponche is a special seasonal Mexican fruit called tecojote.
Finally, we get to the exciting part — it’s time to break piñatas. The piñata-breaking tradition dates back to the earliest Posadas in Mexico. Piñatas were made with seven points, to represent the seven cardinal sins: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony.
The idea is to hit each of the seven points, blindfolded, to get rid of the bad stuff in your life and usher in a new life, and a new year. Here's wishing you and your family Feliz Navidad! | <urn:uuid:08f52bab-cf34-4632-b509-92f502c7078b> | {
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Senior phase: Grade 8 and Grade 9 (Grade 8 in 2018)
Our ethos is governed by Christian values, where learners are encouraged to explore and express their individuality within acceptable boundaries, and ultimately take responsibility for their actions.
We guide them to follow their hearts and minds to develop into the best people they can be.
Our dynamic curriculum covers problem-solving, critical thinking and the development of skills and values. Both individual and group work are evaluated.
Curro Rivonia produces a community of teenagers who know how to think innovatively, express their ideas and take charge of their own lives.
Learners are prepared for the matriculation examinations set by the Independent Examinations Board (IEB).
In this phase the CAPS curriculum is implemented, with Mathematics allowing for a more focused and problem-solving approach. The same literacy principles as in previous phases are included in the home language teaching, with a bigger emphasis on language. In the Science and Technology curriculum we focus not only on 21st century technology, but also on nanotechnology and a study of the Da Vinci inventions. This is all done with CAPS and the IEB in mind. | <urn:uuid:7f843fb2-a0e8-4044-a5d5-5d4627ce2328> | {
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John Chabot, "100 Thematic Word Search Puzzles"
2002 | ISBN: 1895451450 | 130 pages | PDF | 1,1 MB
100 Thematic Word Search Puzzles is a reproducible book of, as the title suggests, 100 word search puzzles. Word search puzzles are the ones where you are given a list of words. You are also given a grid with letters on it. You must search the grid to find all the words from the list. The words camouflaged on the grid go in various directions: left to right, right to left, up and down, and diagonally in any direction. Each puzzle is based on a theme. Each puzzle has at least 40 words to be found. After all the words have been found, the puzzle has not been completed entirely. As a bonus, the remaining or extra letters on the grid can be arranged, in the order they are found on the grid, to make a sentence relevant to the topic. There is a complete Answer Key. Puzzles from 100 Thematic Word Search Puzzles can be used alone or with other thematically linked materials | <urn:uuid:a28203d3-7ec8-4240-a873-58f1476f7a3d> | {
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Nowadays we sign our documents and letters, and stamp certain documents with official seals, in order to assure their authenticity and to convey personal or official authorization. For the same purposes, people in ancient Mesopotamia sealed their clay documents, using small stone stamps or cylinder seals.
A seal was typically carved with a pictorial scene and an inscription naming the owner of the seal. When pressed or rolled onto a clay tablet, the seal left its distinctive impression in reverse on the clay. Like a signature, the seal impression uniquely identified the seal owner, and conveyed his or her authorization of what was recorded on the tablet.
Here are some examples of sealed clay tablets:
This tablet on the left records three acres to be harvested by Dada, the swineherd. The official in charge, Lugal-emahe, rolled his seal all over the tablet. Dada was to harvest a three-acre plot, planted in barley, located in a place called "Field of the Ash Trees." Assuming that ash trees did grow at that place, maybe their branches were used to make Sumerian bats and hockey sticks!
This tablet on the right is a receipt for beer, sealed by a clerk named Umani.
On both tablets, the seal was impressed most clearly in a blank space left for it on the reverse, between the month and year of the date formula.
The tablet below records numbers of laborers assigned to certain tasks, and it was sealed by the overseer, Akalla.
See the total on the left edge? It reads: "201; 7 sick." In the sexagesimal number system used in cuneiform writing, a vertical stroke or 60 stands for 1 or 60, its value depending on its place (just like our place-value notation), and an angle stroke stands for 10. So = 201.
The text on the right tablet reads: | <urn:uuid:2c8bb61d-b071-4274-9d4b-8d7e9ffbb811> | {
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The first 11 months of 2012 were the warmest January through November on record for the contiguous United States, according to new data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Drought also continues as a problem, both in Colorado and nationally, according to NOAA.
Colorado has experienced its driest January-November ever, with 9.52 inches of precipitation, which is 5.57 inches below the state's historical average for that period. Nebraska and Wyoming are also enduring their driest years to date.
According to NOAA scientists, the average temperature for the United States -- except Alaska and Hawaii -- for January-November was 57.1. That's 3.3 degrees above the 20th century average, and 1 degree above the previous record warmth for the same period, recorded in 1934, in the Dust Bowl era.
The latest statistics from NOAA indicate that it is virtually certain that 2012 will ultimately stand as the warmest year on record, exceeding 1998, when the average temperature was 54.3 degrees.
"It's significant that we're beating the previous record (for warmth), but we're beating it by a very large margin," said Jake Crouch, a climate scientist at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., which has 118 years of comparable data for the 48 contiguous United States.
"By the end of December, we will have 366 days of data for the entire United States," Crouch said. "Averaging over that large an area, for that many days, that is a lot of data, and having a difference of 1 degree, that is a large jump to make in one year."
While the record warmth is catching experts' attention, so is the drought.
"The drought is interesting because it is actually more tangible to people on the ground," Crouch said. "It has huge impacts on agriculture, now with the delayed or non-emergence of the winter wheat crop, limiting household water use, and continuing massive water shortages causing issues with commercial shipping on the Mississippi River."
Bob Glancy, a meteorologist at NOAA's National Weather Service office in Boulder, noted that Denver's November average temperature was 43.5 degrees, 5.2 degrees above normal. Daily Camera weather historian William Callahan reported that Boulder was 4 degrees warmer than usual in November.
Referring to the Fern Lake Fire in Rocky Mountain National Park, which has been burning since Oct. 9, Glancy said, "In fact, we have a person deployed on that fire, and that is the first time I ever remember that happening in December."
Glancy said that for the short term, however, a change is in store for the Boulder area.
"It does look like we're starting to see a pattern change here in December," Glancy said. "We've been under a big upper (high-pressure) ridge, and there is a series of upper troughs that are going to come down, putting the four letter 's-word' in our forecast for this weekend. We may see several opportunities for getting more seasonal weather here, in the next few weeks of December."
On Thursday, Glancy was not ready to put a potential snow total for the Boulder area's weekend forecast, beyond saying "some measurable snow" is likely Saturday night into Sunday morning.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Charlie Brennan at 303-473-1327 or [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:c7c2654c-68a7-407a-aaf7-b464d14c4098> | {
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Network Operations Center (NOC)
UEN Security Office
Technical Services Support Center (TSSC)
Eccles Broadcast Center
101 Wasatch Drive
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
(801) 585-6105 (fax)
Main Curriculum Tie:
Background For Teachers:
The wind carries only fine particles, but the force of flowing water can move much larger fragments. The faster the water flows, the larger the fragments it can carry. Water from rainfall or melting snow runs downhill, taking particles of rock and soil with it. Rocks carried along by water are gradually reduced in size and become smooth and rounded as they bounce along a riverbed or against each other.
Most of the power of wind, water, and ice that strip away rocks comes from the abrasive effect of the rock fragments they carry. In deserts, windblown sand scours rock surfaces into fantastic honeycomb shapes. Rocks carried by a river current widen the river by knocking out more material along the way. Along shorelines, the tides grind sand and pebbles against rock surfaces.
Natural erosion tends to happen very slowly. Humans speed up the process tremendously by altering the environment. When forests are cut down leaving exposed soil, erosion may be devastating. Overgrazing by animal herds and unsound farming practices also accelerate the process of erosion.
Intended Learning Outcomes:
Invite the students to think of times when it has been so windy that the air has been filled with dust. Where did that dust come from? Where does it go? Ask if they have walked along the Jordan River. Have they noticed what the water does to the bank? Where does the soil go that falls into the water?
Activity 1 - Modeling erosion
Activity 2 - Discovering erosion
Homework & Family Connections
Find examples of erosion around the yard. Make a plan outlining how to stop the erosion (put in plants, arrange rocks, etc.).
Journal entry: How did the dust bowls in Utah affect the economy? Can that kind of erosion be prevented? Explain.
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Stories from Spain/Historias De Espana Paperback
Enjoy the tales of Spain--in Spanish and in English!
In Stories from Spain/Historias de Espana, we've placed the Spanish and English stories side by side--lado a lado--so you can practice and improve your reading skills in your new language while enjoying the support of your native tongue.
This way, you'll avoid the inconvenience of constantly having to look up unfamiliar words and expressions in a dictionary.
Read as much as you can understand, and then look to the facing page for help if necessary.
As you read, you can check your comprehension by comparing the two versions of the story.
You'll also find a bilingual vocabulary list at the end of the book, so you'll have a handy reference for new words.
Stories from Spain/Historias de Espana gives you the chance to Enjoy 18 tales that will introduce you to an array of characters--kings, nobles, rogues, and pirates Fine-tune your language skills while gaining insight into the rich cultural heritage of the Spanish people Improve your reading and listening skills with free audio downloads of six chapters from the book at mhprofessional.com Genevieve Barlow and William N.
Stivers are experienced Spanish educators and authors.
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 176 pages, ill
- Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education - Europe
- Publication Date: 01/05/2010
- Category: Language readers
- ISBN: 9780071702669 | <urn:uuid:a5b818f8-d403-4df9-9ce3-7c6c5ca0a240> | {
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Ocean conservationists with Oceana expressed disappointment today in the end of session negotiations that resulted in a piece of legislation that is over 200 pages long, yet makes mostly incremental changes-some for the better, some for the worse-to the existing Magnuson-Stevens Act, the law that governs America's fisheries.
"This was a once in a decade opportunity. Two recent commissions and the scientific community agree-our oceans are in danger and we don't have much time to save them. Unfortunately, at a time when bold action is needed to manage our oceans as ecosystems and not just for money fish, this legislation takes only a few steps forward, and even makes some changes for the worse," said Dr. Michael Hirshfield, Oceana's Chief Scientist and Senior Vice-President for North America.
"Senator Stevens has again demonstrated his uncanny ability to make snowballs out of fog by passing this legislation. Senators Stevens and Inouye began this process working closely with their Senate colleagues and developed a bill that was a good step in the right direction. Unfortunately, in the flurry of activity at the close of this Congress, changes have been made that actually weaken that legislation, not strengthen it," said Jim Ayers, Pacific Vice President of Oceana. "As a result, this legislation seems to be more about who gets to catch the fish in the ocean, not about how we can make sure that there will always be enough fish for them to catch."
"One bright spot in the legislation is its call for research and protection of deep-sea corals and sponges from destructive fishing gear," said Director of Oceana's Campaign to Stop Destructive Trawling. "The Magnuson-Stevens Act has made it clear that fisheries management councils have all the authority they need to protect these valuable and vulnerable forms of ocean life. Now it is up to them to stop their destruction."
Other improvements over current law include provisions to address overfishing, greater responsibility for scientists in setting catch limits and a new emphasis on international issues.
However, the bill weakens the role of the public in managing its marine resources by raising barriers to access to data. It also tries and fails to solve a problem that did not exist with the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). Finally, it advances policies to privatize our fisheries without mandating conservation standards to protect the public's interest in maintaining healthy oceans.
Ayers added, "We look forward to working with the 110th Congress and Senator Stevens to forge necessary ocean conservation legislation to ensure that future generations enjoy America's oceans as much as previous generations have." | <urn:uuid:8e78a95d-8d87-460d-81c2-0c7c6a1a7bb7> | {
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The poems translated here belong to the category of padams —short musical compositions of a light classical nature, intended to be sung and, often, danced. Originally, they belonged to the professional caste of dancers and singers, devadasis or vesyas (and their male counterparts, the nattuvanar musicians), who were associated with both temples and royal courts in late medieval South India. Padams were composed throughout India, early examples in Sanskrit occurring in Jayadeva's famous devotional poem, the Gitagovinda (twelfth century). In South India the genre assumed a standardized form in the second half of the fifteenth century with the Telugu padams composed by the great temple-poet Tallapaka Annamacarya, also known by the popular name Annamayya, at Tirupati. This form includes an opening line called pallavi that functions as a refrain, often in conjunction with the second line, anupallavi . This refrain is repeated after each of the (usually three) caranam verses. Padams have been and are still being composed in the major languages of South India: Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada. However, the padam tradition reached its expressive peak in Telugu, the primary language for South Indian classical music, during the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries in southern Andhra and the Tamil region.
In general, Telugu padams are devotional in character and thus find their place within the wider corpus of South Indian
bhakti poetry. The early examples by Annamayya are wholly located within the context of temple worship and are directed toward the deity Venkatesvara and his consort, Alamelumanga, at the Tirupati shrine. Later poets, such as Ksetrayya, the central figure in this volume, seem to have composed their songs outside the temples, but they nevertheless usually mention the deity as the male protagonist of the poem. Indeed, the god's title—Muvva Gopala for Ksetrayya, Venugopala for his successor Sarangapani—serves as an identifying "signature," a mudra , for each of these poets. The god assumes here the role of a lover, seen, for the most part, through the eyes of one of his courtesans, mistresses, or wives, whose persona the poet adopts. These are, then, devotional works of an erotic cast, composed by male poets using a feminine voice and performed by women. As such, they articulate the relationship between the devotee and his god in terms of an intensely imagined erotic experience, expressed in bold but also delicately nuanced tones. Their devotional character notwithstanding, one can also read them as simple love poems. Indeed, one often feels that, for Ksetrayya at least, the devotional component, with its suggestive ironies, is overshadowed by the emotional and sensual immediacy of the material.
The Three Major Poets of the Padam Tradition
Tallapaka Annamacarya (1424-1503), a Telugu Brahmin, represents to perfection the Telugu temple-poet. Legend, filling out his image, claims he refused to sing before one of the Vijayanagara kings, Saluva Narasimharaya, so exclusively was his devotion focused upon the god. Apparently supported by the temple estab-
lishment at Tirupati, located on the boundary between the Telugu and Tamil regions, Annamayya composed over fourteen thousand padams to the god Venkatesvara. The poems were engraved on copperplates and kept in the temple, where they were rediscovered, hidden in a locked room, in the second decade of this century. Colophons on the copperplates divide Annamayya's poems into two major types—srngarasankirtanalu , those of an erotic nature, and adhyatmasankirtanalu , "metaphysical" poems. Annamayya's sons and grandsons continued to compose devotional works at Tirupati, creating a Tallapaka corpus of truly enormous scope. His grandson Cinatirumalacarya even wrote a sastra -like normative grammar for padam poems, the Sankirtanalaksanamu .
We know next to nothing about the most versatile and central of the Telugu padam poets, Ksetrayya (or Ksetraya). His god is Muvva Gopala, the Cowherd of Muvva (or, alternatively, Gopala of the Jingling Bells), and he mentions a village called Muvvapuri in some of his poems. This has led scholars to locate his birthplace in the village of Muvva or Movva, near Kucipudi (the center of the Kucipudi dance tradition), in Krishna district. There is a temple in this village to Krishna as the cowherd (gopala ). Still, the association of Ksetrayya with Muvva is far from certain, and even if that village was indeed the poet's first home, he is most clearly associated with places far to the south, in Tamil Nadu of the Nayaka period. A famous padam by this poet tells us he sang two thousand padams for King Tirumala Nayaka of Madurai, a thousand for Vijayaraghava, the last Nayaka king of Tanjavur, and fifteen hundred, composed in forty days, before the Padshah of Golconda. This dates him securely to the mid-seventeenth century. Of these thousands of poems, less than four hundred survive. In addition to
Muvva Gopala, the poet sometimes mentions other deities or human patrons (the two categories having merged in Nayaka times). Thus we have poems on the gods Adivaraha, Kañci Varada, Cevvandi Lingadu, Tilla Govindaraja, Kadapa Venkatesa, Hemadrisvami, Yadugiri Celuvarayadu, Vedanarayana, Palagiri Cennudu, Tiruvalluri Viraraghava, Sri Rangesa, Madhurapurisa, Satyapuri Vasudeva, and Sri Nagasaila Mallikarjuna, as well as on the kings Vijayaraghava Nayaka and Tupakula Venkatakrsna. The range of deities is sometimes used to explain this poet's name—Ksetrayya or, in Sanskritized form, Ksetrajna, "one who knows sacred places"—so that he becomes yet another peripatetic bhakti poetsaint, singing his way from temple to temple. But this explanation smacks of popular etymology and certainly distorts the poet's image. Despite the modern stories and improvised legends about him current today in South India, Ksetrayya belongs less to the temple than to the courtesans' quarters of the Nayaka royal towns. We see him as a poet composing for, and with the assumed persona of, the sophisticated and cultured courtesans who performed before gods and kings. This community of highly literate performers, the natural consumers of Ksetrayya's works, provides an entirely different cultural context than Annamayya's temple-setting. Ksetrayya thus gives voice, in rather realistic vignettes taken from the ambience of the South Indian courtesans he knew, to a major shift in the development of the Telugu padam .
If Ksetrayya perhaps marks the padam tradition at its most subtle and refined, Sarangapani, in the early eighteenth century, shows us its further evolution in the direction of a yet more concrete, imaginative, and sometimes coarse eroticism. He is linked with the little kingdom of Karvetinagaram in the Chittoor district of
southern Andhra and with the minor ruler Makaraju Venkata Perumal Raju (d. 1732). Only some two hundred padams by this poet survive in print, nearly all of them addressed to the god Venugopala of Karvetinagaram. A few of the poems attributed to Sarangapani also appear in the Ksetrayya collections, despite the palpable difference in tone between the two poets.
These names by no means exhaust the list of padam composers in Telugu. The Maratha kings of Tanjavur figure as the patron-lovers in a rich literature of padams composed at their court. Similar works were sung in the palaces of zamindars throughout South India right up to modern times. With the abolition of the devadasi tradition by the British, padams , like other genres proper to this community, made their way to the concert stage. They still comprise a major part of the repertoire of classical vocal music and dance, alongside related forms such as the kirttanam (which is never danced).
A Note on the Translation
We have selected the poems that follow largely on the basis of our own tastes, from the large collections of padams by Annamayya, Ksetrayya, and Sarangapani. We have also included a translation of Kandukuri Rudrakavi's Janardanastakamu , a poem dating from the early sixteenth century and linked thematically (but not formally) with the emerging padam tradition. An anonymous padam addressed to Konkanesvara closes the translation. To some extent, we were also guided by a list prepared by T. Visvanathan, of Wesleyan University, of padams current in his own family tradition. Some of the poems included here are among the most popu-
lar in current performances in South India; others were chosen because they seemed to us representative of the poets, or simply because of their lyrical and expressive qualities.
In general, we have adhered closely to the literal force of the Telugu text and to the order of its sentences. At times, though, because of the colloquial and popular character of some of these texts, we have allowed ourselves to paraphrase slightly, using an English idiom or expression. We have also frequently removed, as tedious in translation, the repeated vocatives that dot the verses—as when the courtesan speaks to her friend, who is habitually referred to by conventional epithets such as vanajaksiro , "woman with lotus-eyes," or komaliro , "delicate lady." Telugu is graced with a truly remarkable number of nouns meaning "woman," and these are amply represented in our texts. The heroine is sometimes referred to by stylized titles such as kanakangi , "having a golden body," epithets that could also be interpreted as proper names. For the most part, this wealth of feminine reference, so beautifully evocative in the original, finds only pale and reductive equivalents in the English.
The format we have adopted seeks to mirror the essential features of the original, above all the division into stanzas and the role of the pallavi refrain. While we have always translated both pallavi and anupallavi in full, we have usually chosen only some part of these two lines—sometimes in connection with a later phrase—for our refrains. We hope this will suggest something of the expressive force of the pallavi and, in some cases at least, its syntactic linkage with the stanzas, while eliminating lengthy repetition. The headings provide simple contexts for the poems. We have attempted to avoid heavy annotation in the translations, preferring to let the
poems speak for themselves. Where a note seemed necessary, we have signaled its existence by placing an asterisk in the text. The source for each poem, as well as its opening phrase in Telugu and the raga in which it is sung, appear beneath the translation.
Editions Used as Base Texts
P. T. Jagannatha Ravu, ed., Srngara sankirtanalu (annamacarya viracitamulu ), vol. 18 of Sritallapakavari geyaracanalu . Tirupati: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Press, 1964.
Gauripeddi Ramasubbasarma, ed., Srngara sankirtanalu (annamacarya viracitamulu ), vol. 12 of Tallapaka padasahityamu . Tirupati: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Press, 1976. (Cited as GR.)
Vissa Apparavu, ed., Ksetrayya padamulu . 2d ed. Rajahmundry: Saraswati Power Press, 1963. (Unless otherwise noted, all the Ksetrayya texts are taken from this edition.)
Mancala Jagannatha Ravu, ed., Ksetrayya padamulu . Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Sangita Nataka Akadami, 1978.
Gidugu Venkata Sitapati, ed., Ksetraya padamulu . Madras: Kubera Printers Ltd., 1952. (Cited as GVS.)
Srinivasacakravarti, ed., Ksetrayya padalu . Vijayavada: Jayanti Pablikesansu, 1966.
Veturi Prabhakara Sastri, ed., Catupadyamanimanjari . Hyderabad: Veturi Prabhakara Sastri Memorial Trust, 1988 .
Nedunuri Gangadharam, ed., Sarangapani padamulu . Rajahmundry: Saraswati Power Press, 1963. | <urn:uuid:70d40630-32d0-4c82-81b6-682ac7a6f42f> | {
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Social roboticist Heather Knight's research focuses on making robots socially expressive so they can interact with people on a more personable level than today's machines.
Knight says robots can function as a stimulator for social interactions between people, although she thinks robot designers and policymakers may need to protect users from substituting robot interaction for human contact. Knight also believes the treatment of robots should be regulated so the machines are accorded respect.
She does not agree with the contention robots are taking jobs away from people and she is optimistic about the possibilities of human collaboration with robots. "Technology revolutions of course impact humans," Knight acknowledges. "But it is less about the technology than the socioeconomic environment that welcomes the technology in."
As head of Marilyn Monrobot Labs, Knight works on art projects that seek to combine robotics and entertainment, and part of her work involves performing stand-up comedy routines with a robot to gauge a machine's responsiveness to the audience. The robot can detect how humorous the audience finds a joke and thus cue up the next one, selected from a large joke database.
From Financial Times
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2014 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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First morning of spring! I look out the window and … SNOW! Oh my. Time to breathe deep and remember how much I like maple syrup. And butterflies. And wild flowers. Okay, that worked: I have gratitude for the snow pack.
Late spring snows are often known as sugar snows because they cause fluctuations in the already non-linear rising of the sap in sugar maple trees. Technically, you can tap a whole host of trees for syrup, including other maples and sycamores, but the sugar maple has the fame and the flavor.
By stalling out the spring “sugaring” season, more sap can be collected and more syrup made. In my world view, an over abundance of maple syrup isn’t possible. That’d be like saying you had too many butterflies.
On Snow Packs and Butterfly Populations
In the Rocky Mountains, the delay of the spring is also good for butterflies, mostly because it’s good for wildflowers. The deeper snow pack, the longer it takes to melt. The longer the snow pack takes to melt, the later the wildflowers underneath start growing and blooming. If they wait long enough, the season will have progressed enough that all danger of a late frost is past.
Without a late frost, the wildflower populations thrive, blooming intensely all season and setting lots and lots of seed for next spring.
With a late frost, the baby flower buds get killed off. The plants have to start over on their blooming, which reduces the number of flowers this year and the number of seeds for next year’s flowers too.
Or, worst case scenario, there’s not enough snow pack and it melts too soon. This puts the sunlight right on the surface of the soil, where heat builds and triggers the plants to start growing. When they send their little buds up into the air, though, it’s too early: late frost after late frost clips off the ranks of flower buds. That year’s bloom cycle is seriously diminished.
Who is impacted? The butterflies. They are counting on those flowers for food. So, yeah, I wasn’t looking forward to snow this morning, but if I lived in the mountains, this extra inch or two could mean a day or more’s delay of wildflowers germinating, which might make all the difference when the butterflies come to sup. I can live with this. | <urn:uuid:fd9a80ac-e478-4e8a-b353-98896e2267f3> | {
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Emergency services across Britain are trying to put out loads of fires brought on by the hot weather. There have been 1000 gorse-fires in Northern Ireland alone.
About 60 firefighters have been tackling a massive moor fire in West Yorkshire. April 2011 was the hottest on record, and there's only been half the normal amount of rain.
These firefighters are trying to control blazes in Swinley Forest near Crowthorne in England. Lots of families have had to leave their homes.
Strong winds have caused the blazes to spread fast. This is the scene after an area of the Swinley Forest was put out.
These heath fires have been blazing in Kintail, Scotland. They've spread through an area where lots of new trees have just been planted.
Environmentalists are really worried about the plants and wildlife which have been affected by the fires.
Police are investigating whether any of the fires were started on purpose. Some firefighters have seen teenagers running from fires and think they might've started them off. | <urn:uuid:84353be9-3669-4fae-877d-201a02989a76> | {
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Establishing Real-World Connections in Projects (Keys to PBL Series Part 1)(Transcript)
Peggy: Usually by starting with an authentic problem in the community, or in the neighborhood, you anchor the unit with a driving question. So students are given this question, for example, "What's in our water? And how did it get there?" And then the students choose different paths to explore that question.
Sheela: Start to examine what's happening in your local community. What are some problems? What are some needs? Who are people that you can connect with, that perhaps can offer insight into a need or an opportunity? Very often when you are able to bring in a person or a group of people, or a representative to a community issue, a community need, it becomes very real for kids.
Lisa: It's knowing people. And knowing that the teachers in your building know people. So reaching out, sending out a mass email, "Hey, does anybody know in the community that works on this?" And then just being very persistent. Emailing, calling. A lot of the experts that we had only came because I wouldn't stop emailing them.
Sheela: We find that the best way is to take the kids out into the community. If that's not possible, then make an invitation to who from that organization can come into your classroom? If that's not feasible, we have done really well with using technology as a means of connecting with people who may not be able to find a way to come into the classroom, to the school or for us to get to them. So we found some powerful experiences through Skype, through email, through telephone conferences.
Peggy: Once you're aware of this type of approach to teaching, it's like you have little antenna out. And you start to look around, and you see things that could easily make a good driving question. You might see something in the newspaper. You might see something from a movie. Or you hear a conversation, and that is a great way to start a problem in your classroom. So usually these questions are really all around us, it's just kind of paying attention to the things people are talking about. | <urn:uuid:5bd31820-67db-464c-bd78-016841f58a2b> | {
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The key to successful gardening is "healthy soil." This basic principle of organic gardening applies to all plants. Quite simply, when you feed the soil the proper nutrients, you let the soil feed the plants. So how do you "feed" the soil? First, you need to understand some basic principles about soil and why it is so important, then you can take steps to improve it.
To start, you should determine the soil texture by moistening the soil and rubbing it between your thumb and fingers to determine it's "feel." Sands are gritty and will barely hold together; clay can be squeezed
©2019 Bumper Crop/Master Nursery Garden Centers. All rights reserved.
Site proudly designed + powered by Garden Center Solutions. | <urn:uuid:f670c85f-0233-496b-a343-6fe6d6437ae4> | {
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Elevated nitrogen levels in Cape Cod's estuaries result in lower property values, according to a Cape Cod Commission study of water quality on the Cape. An update to the Water Quality 208 Plan 8 years in the making revealed
an estimated one percent increase in nitrogen levels results in a .61 percent decrease in home values. During the study period of 2005 to 2013, scientists discovered nitrogen levels soared by 15 percent.
Experts from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth studied the hypothesis linking decreased home values to increased nitrogen in the water in the Three Bays area of Barnstable. The scientists included homes within 1000 meters, roughly a ten minute walk, from the water and accounted for differences in macroeconomics-- proximity to the water, condition of the property, etc. They discovered increased nitrogen levels in Three Bays increased by 15.8%.
The study authors claim that had nitrogen increased by 12 percent instead, homes would be valued at between $16,774 to $32,957 more per home in 2013. The entire study area in Three Bays added up to a loss of between $49 million to $86 million.
The single greatest contributor to the nitrogen on the Cape is the septic systems that nearly every property has for on-site sewage disposal, according to the authors. In fact, they claim that 80 percent of the nitrogen is attributed directly to septic systems. The Cape Cod Commission will continue to investigate ways to reduce the damage to the watershed and subsequent decline in property values in the future, the report stated. | <urn:uuid:c33daa73-25a7-4b04-a712-ce07758360cb> | {
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By Jay Holmquist | New federal regulations will have far-reaching impacts on the electric industry, and consumers, in the years ahead. There will be at least five major rules that will have a significant impact on the cost of generating electricity with our nation’s coal resources.
The EPA continues to work on rules to tighten the air quality standards for certain air pollutants. We expect to see EPA’s proposal regulating emissions of Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) from power plants sometime this year. Also expected are EPA’s proposed regulations to determine whether existing power plants will need to retrofit their cooling systems with cooling towers to minimize “entrainment and entrapment” of fish and other organisms in water intake structures.
The EPA will likely finalize the Clean Air Transport Rule (CATR) that will impact certain parts of the U.S., and may finalize new coal ash regulations in 2011, although they may get pushed into 2012. EPA will also implement its stationary source New Source Review/Prevention of Significant Deterioration climate change regulations and begin the process of setting New Source Performance Standards for “greenhouse” gases from large emitters like power plants and refineries.
The latest in a series of recent studies sounds a warning that new EPA regulations can be expected to shut down at least 50,000 megawatts of coal-fired generation capacity nationwide and impose compliance costs as high as $180 billion for the coal plants that continue to operate. This study is the fourth since last spring to reach similar conclusions. The study analyzes economic factors that will affect the choice of retrofitting or retirement for every coal plant currently operating in the U.S.
The study does not even address the cost issues related to greenhouse gas regulations! It focuses on the proposed EPA regulations that will require installation of costly new control equipment, which would likely result in the retirement of tens of thousands of megawatts. Combining all potential retirements could mean the shutdown of as much as one-fifth of installed coal capacity in the U.S.
Where will reliable supplies of electricity come from in the future if the role of coal declines as predicted? Consumers must pay close attention to this question. | <urn:uuid:3a7be804-01ee-4369-9481-60af6acad3cc> | {
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§ Motion made, and Question proposed,That this House do now adjourn.—[Jim Fitzpatrick.]9.33 am
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (Ms Sally Keeble)
The Government are determined to overcome the years of neglect that have left too many children growing up in poverty and too many neighbourhoods living without hope and without a future.
The legacy of 18 years of Conservative administration was shocking. Between 1979 and 1994–95, incomes rose by 68 per cent. for the richest 10 per cent. of the population, while the poorest 10 per cent. saw their incomes fall. In 1979, 10 per cent. of children lived in households with below half the average income. By 1994–95, that figure had risen to nearly a third. The legacy was a widening gap between rich and poor people and a widening gap between rich and poor communities.
So often, people in poverty means communities in poverty and neighbourhoods in poverty. For too many people, their personal poverty mirrors the problems of the community around them. Burglary rates are highest in the areas where people earn the least. Waiting lists are longer in places where people are the least healthy. Public transport is worse in places where fewer people can afford a car. Those living in the most deprived areas are more likely to die younger. For example, there is a 10-year difference in male life expectancy between Glasgow city and Chiltern district.
Children living in our most deprived areas suffer poverty three times higher than those of parents throughout the rest of the country. People living in our most deprived areas are far more likely to be members of black and minority ethnic groups. We know that 70 per cent. of people from all ethnic minorities live in the 88 most deprived local authority districts. Taken as a whole, ethnic minority groups are more likely than the rest of the population to live in poor areas, to be unemployed, to have low incomes, to live in poor housing, to have poor health and to be the victims of crime.
Statistics tell their own story: 41 per cent. of African-Caribbean and 84 per cent. of Bangladeshi people have incomes that are less than half the national average compared with 28 per cent. of white people, and 14.7 per cent. of Bangladeshi and 13.8 per cent. of African-Caribbean people have suffered personal thefts or assaults compared with 9.6 per cent. of white people. Residents of deprived communities have put up with poor housing, poor health, poor education, few job 1156 opportunities and higher crime rates for far too long. The Government are committed to resolving those problems. They represent considerable challenges that the Government are determined to meet, and are meeting.
The Government are determined that nobody should be disadvantaged by where they live. There is still a long way to go before we achieve that, but we are starting to make a real difference. We are putting our principles into practice and adopting some new approaches, and it is those that I want to set out
§ Linda Perham (Ilford, North)
Does my hon. Friend accept the real need for investment and regeneration in London, which has many disadvantaged areas? My borough is seen as a leafy outer-London suburb, but five of the eight wards in my constituency are in the top 50 per cent. of the index of deprivation. However, there are pots of money in various sources of funding, for which we are not allowed to apply. Does my hon. Friend agree that Londoners face huge pressures as a result of higher living costs, especially in terms of housing and transport?
§ Ms Keeble
My hon. Friend is right about the position in London. One of the appalling factors is that the wealthiest communities and the poorest live side by side. Often, little can be done to relieve the poverty of some of those areas. The approach that we are taking, which I shall set out, will deal with my hon. Friend's point about areas of great affluence, or comparative affluence, which mask some areas of acute need. One of the advantages of our approach is that all areas can make an application where they can identify the areas of greatest need, and can seek ways to resolve the problems.
The key to the delivery of our objective of ensuring that everybody should have a decent and sustainable community is our neighbourhood renewal strategy. It can apply to areas of apparent affluence as well as to some of the hardest-hit communities.
§ Mr. James Gray (North Wiltshire)
The hon. Lady is right. Will she acknowledge that there will be many areas of deprivation in other places that might be thought of as quite prosperous, such as market towns and boroughs in the countryside? She will know from her own history that Cheltenham has two of the most deprived boroughs in England. Does she agree that Cheltenham deserves as much support as many of the more obvious areas in the north of England?
§ Ms Keeble
The hon. Gentleman is right about the difficulty of targeting small pockets of disadvantage in otherwise affluent areas. We all know that virtually throughout the length and breadth of the country there are little pockets of disadvantage in areas of comparative affluence.
One of the criticisms that Labour Members always had of the approaches taken by the Conservative Government especially was that they did not target those pockets. A general improvement in the economy did not necessarily stretch to acutely disadvantaged areas. The approach that underpins our national strategy for neighbourhood 1157 renewal makes it possible even for relatively affluent areas to identify the needs of the most deprived communities, to target them and to meet them.
§ Mr. Harry Barnes (North-East Derbyshire)
Clearly, there are areas of considerable disadvantage next to areas that are not exactly well-heeled, but are relatively prosperous. That has consequences for local government finance and standard spending assessments and can lead to the loss of objective 2 status, as has occurred in my constituency, despite the massive rundown of manufacturing in north-east Derbyshire and Chesterfield. It is important to treat the problem where it exists. My hon. Friend mentioned ethnic minorities. North-east Derbyshire has one of the smallest ethnic minority populations in the country and therefore cannot draw from the funds designated for those minorities; nevertheless it is in need of assistance.
§ Ms Keeble
My hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that as long as combating disadvantage relies on bolting on new initiatives, we will not achieve the turnaround that we seek in the life chances of people living in the most deprived and disadvantaged communities. That is part of the thinking that underpins the national strategy for neighbourhood renewal. It is designed to address the problems that hon. Members have identified which affect pockets of disadvantage in areas of comparative affluence. That strategy is designed to revitalise our most disadvantaged communities and to ensure that they benefit not just from add-on measures, but from the Government's extra investment in mainstream public services. Our approach involves a radical long-term programme to help poor and excluded people lift themselves into mainstream society.
The national strategy is a series of practical initiatives involving everyone in our poorest neighbourhoods. It harnesses the enormous desire among communities, businesses, local agencies, service providers and residents to make the places where they live and work safer, friendlier and more prosperous. It is a different approach from what has gone before.
Previously, attempts to tackle area deprivation have tended to be prescriptive, top-down and short term. Too much attention was paid to small, fragmented initiatives at the expense of the main Government programmes for schools, hospitals and the police, which have such a massive impact on people's lives.
Previously, Government failed to note the importance of local economies and properly to co-ordinate their efforts. Perhaps most important, communities were never properly engaged as agents for change in themselves. There was too much emphasis on physical regeneration rather than on communities. Regeneration was something that happened to people rather than with them.
In the national strategy for neighbourhood renewal, we have learned from the mistakes of the past. We have found new and innovative ways of working based on three key principles. First, every community has its own set of problems, which no single national initiative on its own can solve. Secondly, local problems often respond best to local solutions, negotiated and implemented by local businesses, service providers and residents; and, thirdly, 1158 the best solutions are often owned by the community themselves, with everyone having a stake in the revival of their neighbourhood.
We therefore stress the need for local solutions co-ordinated and delivered by local people with the help and support of a national framework. We emphasise this area-based approach because we can map poverty. The poorest people have become more concentrated in small areas of acute need and, as has been mentioned this morning, many of the most acute differences lie within regions, cities and even boroughs. Our poorest neighbourhoods often exist in the shadow of some of the most prosperous areas. England's poorest ward, Benchill in Manchester, is only a few miles from the famously wealthy Wilmslow.
Local extremes apply to jobs as well. Some of the most deprived neighbourhoods lie only a mile or two from prosperous city centres where employers find it hard to fill vacancies. So we have to get down to the local level really to understand the problems and to deliver the right solutions for the people who live there, and that justifies a neighbourhood-based approach. It is part of the reason why the Government have applied their area-based approach to programmes such as the new deal for communities and the education and health action zones. As my hon. Friend the Member for North-East Derbyshire (Mr. Barnes) said, we have seen the value of making sure that all the mainstream programmes deliver properly for local people in ways that make a real difference. Combating disadvantage is not an add-on; some would say that it is the main purpose of public services, so mainstream services must bend to meet the needs of the most disadvantaged in our society. We have also seen the value of getting local people involved.
Those two concepts—delivering mainstream services better and involving communities—are the purpose behind local strategic partnerships that bring together residents and the public, private and voluntary sectors to identify local problems and deliver local solutions. They should not apply only to the most disadvantaged areas, but operate in areas of need in otherwise affluent areas such as Cheltenham and Redbridge.
Community involvement is crucial, not least because nobody better understands the strengths and weaknesses of an area than the local people. The private sector needs to be engaged because involving local businesses in neighbourhood renewal is key to rebuilding strong, sustainable communities with strong local economies. Improving neighbourhoods leads directly to greater business opportunities, by creating new markets and enabling employers to access better-skilled workers. So we are looking for ways to get local chambers of commerce and local businesses more involved in regeneration. We are also encouraging local communities to participate, although this can be difficult in communities which do not have a sound skills base. We are addressing this through a range of initiatives totalling some £107 million.
The neighbourhood renewal fund, worth £900 million over three years, provides extra resources for 88 of the most deprived local authority districts in England, but that does not mean that those districts should be the only ones looking to identify pockets of disadvantage and finding ways to tackle it.
§ Ms Oona King (Bethnal Green and Bow)
A good example of that is Canary Wharf, which towers above one of the most disadvantaged areas in the country. Will my hon. Friend join me in congratulating the skills match programme, a brokerage agency set up between Canary Wharf and the local council, which has brought 1,500 local people into employment? Does she agree that we need to do more, perhaps through planning gain to ensure that local people benefit more directly from very large regeneration projects?
§ Ms Keeble
I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention and I congratulate the skills match programme. It is extremely important that the business community and local authorities work together, not just to provide opportunities, but to provide a range of opportunities so that people who may be trapped in particular employment sectors have a chance to access the same job choices as the rest of society. My hon. Friend is also right to say that more needs to be done. It is a key part of the Government's strategy to make sure that the good practice in her constituency extends elsewhere.
We know that the neglect of decades cannot be swept away and that there is still much to do. That is why our national strategy has a long-term horizon over the next 10 to 20 years, but we are beginning to see some practical improvements in our poorest neighbourhoods after a very short time.
In our coalfield communities—this will interest my hon. Friend the Member for North-East Derbyshire—we are on track to deliver the £385 million national coalfields programme, with work under way or completed on almost half the sites. For example, at Sherwood energy village in Nottinghamshire we have reclaimed 37 hectares for industry, housing, education, recreation and leisure development, using renewable energy sources for heat and power; and at Shirebrook in Derbyshire, a burning slag heap is being transformed into a business park thanks to £24 million of investment.
There are also encouraging signs in the vital issue of combating crime. A community-driven package of crime-fighting measures in east Manchester has led to a 25 per cent. drop in crime in the area, including a 34 per cent. drop in burglaries, which amounts to 1,128 fewer crimes—or, to put it another way, at least 1,128 fewer victims.
A 43 per cent. reduction in domestic burglary is attributed to a partnership between wardens in Merthyr Tydfil and Homesafe, a burglary reduction project. Wardens in Sheffield have helped to reduce removal time for abandoned vehicles—a major source of crime—from 30 days to between a week and 10 days.
Those are examples of some of the many ways in which people's quality of life is being transformed. As a resident from east Manchester put it:It has been hell living here in recent years, but all that is changing. I'm really optimistic now.We are placing our confidence in local people to help themselves. We have underpinned the local strategic partnerships with a national framework for neighbourhood renewal, built on the platform of a stable economy and a remorseless drive against poverty, and against child poverty in particular.
The national strategy for neighbourhood renewal will deliver the lasting change that our disadvantaged communities need, but we still have a huge amount of 1160 work to do. However, we can and will overcome the waste of people's talents and the waste of land and resources, which have blighted too many of our communities for far too long.
We want to ensure that in future no one is disadvantaged by where they live and everyone has a chance to make choices in their lives in safe, secure and sustainable communities.
§ Mr. Paul Daisley (Brent, East)
Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for calling me to make my initial contribution in this Chamber. I thank the people of Brent, East for returning me to serve as their Member of Parliament. It is a genuine honour.
I have campaigned over many years for regeneration and the role of local government in achieving it. However, I have recently found myself engaged in a different kind of regeneration, courtesy of the national health service, spending seven months in hospital and the rest of last year convalescing. My recovery continues, which explains the length of time before making my maiden speech. That experience has taught me a lot about the unrecognised roles of carers in our society and given me a fresh outlook—values that I hope will never dim during my time in this House.
I would like to thank Mr. Speaker and the House of Commons staff for their understanding and assistance during a difficult time. They could not have been more helpful. I would also like to thank my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeen, South (Miss Begg) for making space available in her office. My time in a wheelchair gave me a new insight into and greater admiration of her achievements.
I would like to pay an especial tribute to the dedicated staff of the national health service who helped me during my illness, especially at St. Mary's, Paddington; Charing Cross, Hammersmith; and more recently at Willesden community hospital. I also want to place on record sincere thanks to my wife Lesley and my family and close friends on whom I have leant so heavily for support.
I had also thought about thanking both my physio and the Whips, but I did not think that anybody would believe me. In fact, as my regeneration continues, I am not sure which of the two is likely to cause me the most pain.
I pay tribute to my predecessor, Ken Livingstone, with whom I worked closely, especially during my five years as leader of Brent council. Ken worked hard for the people of Brent, East and was a valuable support in our efforts to stamp out council corruption. I do not want to forget, either, the contribution of Ken's predecessor, the right hon. Reg Freeson. Reg is still respected throughout the constituency, and won admiration among many hon. Friends in the House for his work on housing policy, as a Minister and as a Member for more than 20 years. I know that he has much more to contribute in the years to come.
The constituency of Brent, East is often called diverse and cosmopolitan and has a large ethnic minority population, yet the diversity defies any simple classification in a few sentences. Suffice it to say that 130 first languages are spoken or understood in Brent schools. Areas such as Kilburn, Willesden, Neasden and Cricklewood are testimony to enduring values of tolerance and acceptance across an extraordinary range of cultures. Perhaps our tolerance and appreciation of diversity are some of Brent, East's most valuable qualities.
1161 Local religious leaders have none the less expressed concern since 11 September about the rather patchy understanding between different cultures in the area, but our schools are helping to build that understanding, and I am proud that the council has sought to affirm diversity through celebrating festivals such as Eid, Diwali, Chanukah, Christmas and of course St. Patrick's day. Some of these Brent events are among the largest of their kind in Europe.
In fact, in the interests of community cohesion, we have grown quite accustomed to celebrating festivals in Brent, all of which have their own variations of consuming food and drink. My physio is helping me to prepare for the challenges that undoubtedly lie ahead.
I first became actively interested in Brent council in the 1980s. It was then infamous for being unstable, incompetent and inward-looking. It takes only moments to lose a reputation, but years to regain it. As leader of the council from 1996 until last year, I hope that we at least made some progress in that. That achievement is not only part of my personal political history: the role of local government is also critical in delivering effective and sustained regeneration. I would therefore like to take a moment to outline one or two of the council's achievements.
The council has modernised. The chief executive has referred to a "quiet revolution" in the council, with recent years of stability standing in stark contrast to the 10 years that preceded them. My successor as leader, Councillor Ann John, is continuing the transformation.
Achievements have included 11 charter marks; seven beacon schools; shortlisting in three categories for beacon status; 99 per cent. customer satisfaction with the one-stop shops; and numerous quality assurance awards, including ISO 9000 and Investors in People. The Audit Commission awarded the street cleansing and refuse collection service the highest best value rating in England and Wales. A private finance initiative project has dramatically speeded up the improvements in street lighting, reducing the previous estimated wait of 120 years to four years.
Brent's successes have been achieved via effective partnership and encouraging local people to have more of a say in decision making, including initiatives such as the citizen's panel, area forums and our award-winning websites.
Education has gone from strength to strength. School standards are rising. Staying-on rates are high and exclusions have dropped by a third.
Partnership with the police and the community over safety issues has been a council priority. Joint action against gun crime has been effective.
Brent's equalities work is acknowledged as an example of best practice identified in the recent Cantle report on community cohesion.
Brent has delivered services while maintaining the council tax below the London average. That has been achieved through careful financial management, setting tough targets and investing selectively in key services. Brent council tax payers have certainly got value for money.
A comprehensive regeneration strategy is now in place in Brent for tackling poverty and social exclusion.
1162 The council has certainly played a constructive role in seeking to bring the national stadium to Wembley, which is in the constituency of my right hon. Friend the Member for Brent, South (Mr. Boateng) and just outside my constituency, but which will open up opportunities right across north-west London.
I hope that by now I have at least convinced hon. Members that Brent is not quite the shambles that it was a few years ago, even if they are not yet all persuaded that it is the best council in London—which some of us think it is.
I have talked at length about the council's achievements, because an effective council delivering quality services is vital to regeneration. Strong working partnerships are needed between central and local government, residents, business and other stakeholders. That will be central if we are to move beyond a narrow housing-based focus and develop a more integrated regeneration strategy.
That spirit of partnership will be crucial in overcoming the difficulties facing the South Kilburn new deal for communities project in Carlton ward, which is in the top 3 per cent. of most disadvantaged wards in the country. The effective use of NDC funds has enormous potential to succeed in reconnecting this vibrant yet struggling community with the surrounding regions of north London.
The role played by the council will be critical, as will be the need to explore appropriate models of neighbourhood management. Our experience shows that local involvement is a vital component in the partnership needed for success even if it is sometimes difficult to achieve. Involving the community takes time. Training and skills development is very dependent upon effective involvement by a range of agencies.
I am sure that local authorities of all political persuasions will welcome plans in the recent White Paper to lift constraints on borrowing and give greater flexibility. It is providing a valuable and flexible framework for authorities. With another spending review on the horizon, more investment as well as more modernisation of local government will be needed. Improvements in the quality of local government service delivery in areas such as Brent are vital to regeneration. Partnerships with stakeholders, realistic time frames, sustained investment and modernisation are all important.
As the Government continue to focus on those elements, they are making a growing and lasting contribution to regeneration in disadvantaged communities. Through the effective collaboration of national policy, local council leadership, local agencies and community involvement, the quality of life and the life chances of local people can be transformed.
I firmly believe that national Government working together with local government can achieve lasting improvements for our communities.
§ 10.1 am
§ Mr. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold)
I declare an interest as a chartered surveyor, as listed in the Register of Members' interests.
I congratulate the hon. Member for Brent, East (Mr. Daisley) on a maiden speech of clarity, vision and bravery. The House will have noted carefully what he said. It was not a partisan speech, and it is good to know 1163 that Brent council is not as badly run as it used to be. I pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman for his time as leader of that council; he will be welcome in this House.
I particularly agree with the hon. Gentleman on two points. First, I agree that to have an effective regeneration scheme, there must be an efficient council, as the local authority plays a major part in such schemes. Secondly, I agree that local people must be engaged with any regeneration scheme. If such a scheme is to work, local people must have ownership of it. The hon. Gentleman made a number of sound points and the House will appreciate the genuine nature of his speech.
We are debating Government measures to regenerate disadvantaged areas. Listening to Labour Members and Ministers, one would think that all the ills of this country started in 1979 and finished in 1997, but the world simply is not like that. Furthermore, the public are rather fed up with that approach. They want constructive policies from the Government and they want the Opposition to hold the Government to account. They want to see what realistic proposals can come out of debates such as this. I hope that, this morning, we will hear some constructive suggestions. Unless we get inner-city regeneration right, our economic growth and quality of life will suffer.
My hon. Friend and neighbour, the Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray), made a pertinent point—it is not just inner cities that have disadvantaged areas. I represent the Cotswolds, a relatively prosperous area of the country. However, if one carefully examines all the villages in my area, one finds small pockets of poverty. I have gone out all night with the police in Cheltenham and seen the ward to which my hon. Friend referred. One can see that it is as disadvantaged a ward as any in our major cities. Sometimes we can get a skewed view of the "disadvantaged areas" of this country. Having said that, we must put the debate in context. The scale of the problem of disadvantaged areas in our big cities is much larger and deserves much closer attention.
I was disturbed to see some unfortunate figures showing the rise in crime in some inner-city areas. I hesitate to give these figures because one does not wish to cause alarm and despondency, but the House should be aware of them. For example, in Birmingham, crimes of violence against the person for the year until March 2001 increased by 18.7 per cent. In Nottingham, the figure is 17.9 per cent., and in Tower Hamlets, it is 10.8 per cent. Those are significant increases. Reported robberies increased in Lambeth by 38.4 per cent., in Leeds by 33.8 per cent. and in Sheffield by 46.8 per cent. It is difficult to expect those areas to be regenerated if we do not tackle the increase in crime.
§ Mr. Gray
In the light of those figures, was my hon. Friend surprised to hear the Minister apparently claim some success for the Government's policies on regenerating inner cities because the crime figures had fallen? If there were to be a direct correlation between the two, presumably—since my hon. Friend has proved that crime has gone up—the Government's policies have not worked at all.
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
My hon. Friend is right. Nobody likes crime to increase and I do not want to make this a political issue. Crime causes a detriment to the country as a whole—
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
I will give way in a second. Crime is something that we all deplore and something that we 1164 should discuss with our local police forces and local authorities. The Government must pay attention to it and see whether it can be reduced. We note almost every day stories in the Evening Standard concerning crime in London, which is getting distinctly worse, particularly gangland crime, vehicle crime and mobile phone theft.
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
I have not forgotten the hon. Gentleman; God forbid. I could never forget him. If I do not give way, he will persist throughout the debate, so it will pay me to give way to him. Suffice it to say, crime is a blight on society.
§ Phil Hope
The hon. Gentleman quotes selectively from statistics about crime increases in certain urban areas. The fact is that crime in Britain has fallen by 12 per cent. During the Tory years, crime doubled. Before the hon. Gentleman talks about not wanting crime to increase, can he explain why, during his party's time in office, crime significantly increased?
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
That is the kind of knockabout politics that I was trying to avoid. Frankly, such comments bring the House and the hon. Gentleman into contempt. Those figures hide a lot of human misery and misfortune for the victims. I hope that the speeches of Labour Members will be constructive.[Interruption.] I do not know why the hon. Gentleman is chuntering. If he cannot do better than that, he should keep quiet.
The Prime Minister once pledged:If we win the next election, I want to see us judged by how we treat the weakest as much as the strongest; to see us judged not on how the best advance, but on how far we heal the wounds in our fractured society.We would all agree with that, along with several other of the Prime Minister's pledges and statements and the high ideals that he set for his Government. The problem is that the delivery is not always quite as he portrays it.
The Government's own figures show that under Labour inequality has risen overall since 1997, and there has been little or no change in the percentage of working age adults below low-income thresholds, which vary according to median income. We all want the disadvantaged and those on low incomes to be helped on to the ladder, so that they can help themselves and play a full part in society.
We need to look at the Government's regeneration policies. During a debate in Westminster Hall the week before last, I pointed out that Labour's policy is fragmented, and I read out a list of schemes and quangos that have been introduced since the Government came to power. I do not want to make a partisan point, but the number of schemes is a major part of the problem. As practice shows, when there is a plethora of schemes and quangos, nobody knows precisely what they are and as a result their budgets are underspent. I read out some of the host of schemes in the earlier debate and I shall do so again because it is worth concentrating on this matter. They includethe neighbourhood renewal fund encompassing a national … action plan, local strategic partnerships, the new deal for communities, urban regeneration companies, the English cities fund and a host of tax incentives for regeneration."—[Official Report, Westminster Hall, 29 January 2002; Vol. 379, c. 37WH.]1165 The Opposition do not believe that such schemes are the best way forward. For example, at the last election we advocated putting one Minister in charge of regeneration. The problem is that the Department of Trade and Industry has one view, the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions has another, the Home Office has a third and the Department for Work and Pensions has a fourth, so we are not getting the joined-up government that we need. I urge the Minister to consider whether matters can be simplified and an explanation given to the stakeholders, so that everybody knows exactly what funds are available and best use can be made of them. For goodness sake, such a scheme should be for the benefit of this country. If it is not being used, let us get rid of it.
Opposition Members want a more effective and cohesive policy on urban regeneration. For example, we are particularly exercised about the new targets for building on green fields. We want to protect our green fields; we do not want the setting of housing and other development targets to result in the building of a huge number of houses and other buildings on our green fields. One of our fears is that the Government's new planning Green Papers will be used to force local authorities to undertake such development. We believe that, as the hon. Member for Brent, East said, local authorities have a democratic mandate to take decisions on schemes that affect their areas. We worry that the Government are increasingly taking democratic accountability away from local authorities and giving it to bodies such as regional development agencies. We do not want a regionalisation of planning policy, but I fear that the Government's planning Green Papers are moving in that direction.
Having said that, as a chartered surveyor I recognise only too well that planning is a major instrument of urban regeneration. We share the Government's aim, as expressed in the Green Papers, that planning needs to be streamlined and speeded up, and to be more responsive to local and business needs. As the Green Papers make clear, although there is often a great battle, 90 per cent. of all applications are eventually accepted. In other words, an extremely cumbersome system deals mainly with just the 10 per cent. of cases that are turned down.
We welcome some of the proposals outlined in the detail of those Green Papers. For example, one thing that slows down many major planning applications is the negotiation of the 106 agreement. I should explain to those who are not familiar with that procedure that under it, the developer provides reimbursement—such as a new roundabout—for damage done to the infrastructure by a large development. In that way, additional schemes can be put in place to boost the infrastructure and enable it to cope with that large development. The problem is that the existing 106 procedure is cumbersome and arbitrary and takes too long to negotiate. I am pleased that reference has been made to the levering-in of private sector funds, which we all want to see. That will help developments, which in turn will help our rural and urban communities.
For far too long, the Government and their supporters have said in debates such as this that regeneration must be undertaken by the monolithic hand of the state. We believe that the private sector has a major role to play in urban regeneration in our inner cities. Innovative schemes—for example, urban development corporations—proved very 1166 successful in docklands and in city centres such as Leeds and Glasgow. One reason why is that they brought the private sector into partnership with such companies. Private sector involvement is vital. It is interesting to note that some Labour Members are nodding. I am glad that they accept the need for private sector involvement in urban regeneration, but it is therefore odd that they do not accept its involvement in the running of public services such as the railways and the tube. That seems an odd dichotomy.
§ Mr. Robert Syms (Poole)
My hon. Friend mentioned section 106 agreements. Although it is right and proper that companies sometimes contribute to works associated with plans, there is always a suspicion among my constituents that when deals are negotiated between local authorities and companies, money is given for planning permission. Is not there a case for more transparency in such agreements, many of which are negotiated in great secrecy?
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
My hon. Friend does me a great service by bringing me back to my script. The Green Papers refer to the introduction of a tariff system, and in principle we do not object to that. A system that speeds up negotiation of the 106 agreement and makes it less arbitrary, so that the developer, the local authority and local people know exactly what they are going to get from a particular development, must be a good thing. We need better targeting and definition, and that is the big challenge for the Government. There must be some flexibility in the system, so that it does not become merely a betterment levy tax. We must ensure that it is properly reapplied to the local infrastructure, rather than dissipated into further, more general causes. It is all very well targeting such schemes properly on their introduction. That is what happened with the lottery, but the Chancellor soon cast his eagle eye over the proceeds and used them for causes that are not strictly aligned with the five for which it was originally invented.
In the spirit of this debate, I should explain what the Opposition believe should be done. First, we would stop the fragmentation of our urban regeneration policy. We initiated some successful, cohesive and large-scale projects—for example, city challenge, the single regeneration bid scheme and urban development corporations—that, contrary to what the Minister said, were very successful in the 1980s. Probably the most successful inner-city regeneration took place under those imaginative schemes during the 1980s, so we want the Government to introduce a more streamlined system.
§ Ms Oona King
Does the hon. Gentleman agree that while there were great strides in regeneration, many communities—such as those in Tower Hamlets, which is next door to Canary Wharf—felt that they did not benefit? That was a sincere feeling that is replicated today. For example, on the Will Crooks estate—the closest to Canary Wharf—only two out of 400 adults have a job. That is what regeneration in this decade has to change.
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
I entirely agree with the hon. Lady. We have seen this in docklands, and in Leeds, where there has been some very good regeneration of the city centre. However, within a mile of that city centre there is some of the worst deprivation to be found anywhere in the country.
1167 The challenge for the Government, having regenerated one or two beacon areas—including some of the worst areas, such as docklands—is that they now have to move out to the next band and apply some of the lessons learned from the urban development corporations. I agree with the hon. Lady that areas such as hers are among the worst in the country. It is a disgrace, 50 years on from the second world war, that such areas are still so deprived, and we must find schemes that lever in private money and also utilise all the resources of the local area. The voluntary sector, the private sector, the local authorities and business groups must all be levered into partnership to try to regenerate some of these areas.
The most serious question in the debate so far, and one that the Opposition want to address, is how we should move out into the next band after we have regenerated the centre. We should adopt some of the proposals that we used with the urban development corporations, which might supersede some of the local authority's powers by putting all those people together in partnership and coming up with a scheme to manage and regenerate those areas.
What else would we do if we were elected to power? I have already outlined our proposal for a single Minister to bring together all Departments to develop an effective, united strategy to regenerate some of the worst areas. It is a disgrace that a civilised country with the fourth biggest economy in the world still has some of the most deprived areas in Europe. We should all concentrate on that. A debate such as this is valuable in bringing the subject to the fore, so that we can discover what useful ideas can be culled from it.
During the election, we advocated spending at least £200 million on new tax cuts for deprived areas. Regeneration companies would be able to choose which tax cuts to implement, and fund a tax credit budget. Such tax cuts could, for example, take the form of lower VAT on brownfield development and conversion. It is a huge anomaly in our tax system that there is no VAT on new building on greenfield sites, yet the full rate is charged on the refurbishment of buildings on brownfield sites. We need to address that anomaly, because it sends out the wrong signal to developers.
Indeed, it is so much easier to develop greenfield sites than brownfield sites that the tax system should be skewed in favour of refurbishment and the cleaning up of our polluted areas. Many brownfield sites are polluted and difficult to develop, and no Government have so far come to grips with that problem. Having put the infrastructure into the dome site, for example, and having, at long last, started to regenerate it and clean it up, it would have been better to demolish the dome and use the area for much-needed social housing. For goodness' sake, we all recognise that there is a chronic shortage of social housing in London—there was a debate on the subject in Westminster Hall earlier this week—so why should an edifice such as the dome prevent much-needed building on a site that could be made suitable for housing?
§ Mr. Gray
My hon. Friend made an important point about the differential between VAT on new build and on regeneration. Lord Rogers made the same point when he suggested that VAT should be reduced to zero in areas of regeneration. Does my hon. Friend agree that to do the 1168 opposite and increase VAT on construction on greenfield sites would send out the wrong signal, and would in fact be a tax on housing that we would not want to encourage?
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
My hon. Friend is interpreting my remarks as I wished them to be interpreted. I chose my words carefully in saying that the tax differential should be closed. What I had in mind was that the tax on brownfield sites should be reduced to zero, and I would certainly not advocate a wholesale increase in tax on greenfield sites. Our 17.5 per cent. VAT rate is plenty high enough compared to that of some of our international competitors. I certainly would not want it to be increased.
We want to look at business rates for firms locating into regeneration areas. Some of our imaginative schemes during the 1980s included the single regeneration bid and the city challenge. We gave business rate holidays to a number of firms moving into such areas. When the new town of Milton Keynes was built, for example, the business rate holiday was a key factor in bringing businesses into the area, and Milton Keynes has been one of our most successful new build and regeneration projects since the war. We need to learn lessons from that and, perhaps, consider more carefully how we apply business rates.
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
I will happily give way in a minute.
It is also an anomaly that shops in many city centres pay a higher business rate per square foot than a new build development on a greenfield site would pay. That is wrong. Those who operate similar types of business, whether in a city centre or on a greenfield site, should pay the same business rate per square foot. That would help to redress the balance. I shall now give way to the hon. Lady from Shipley.
§ Ms Shipley
I am not actually from Shipley. Will the hon. Gentleman refresh my memory? Was Milton Keynes—where all those companies enjoyed a tax holiday under the Conservative Government—a greenfield site or a brownfield site?
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
Well, it was part and part. It was a new-build city, but it also took over some previously under-utilised and under-developed brownfield sites. It was not entirely green belt land. It involved a new development corporation and it has been one of our great successes. The hon. Lady may knock that, but she will probably find that her Government will come up with similar proposals. We shall have to build new towns like Milton Keynes to accommodate the increase in housing that we need, and the only way to do that will be to have a similar structure to the one developed there.
There is too much empty housing. We would consider lowering the council tax on housing that had previously been empty. There are 750,000 empty flats and houses in this country, of which 150,000 are in the public sector. That is an utter disgrace when, at a conservative estimate, at least 150,000 people are homeless. We need to come up with imaginative proposals to regenerate the empty housing in our inner cities, where row after row of flats 1169 over shops stand empty. One way of tackling the problem would be to encourage the private rented sector to let such properties by making it simpler to deal with tenants who misbehave and do not pay their rent. Every Government proposal to regulate residential lettings and make things more difficult for private landlords makes it more difficult to bring those empty properties back into use.
We have heard a lot of bluster from the Government about urban regeneration. They produced an urban White Paper, spawned by the architect Lord Rogers, which was immediately denigrated on the basis that many of his recommendations were not followed. That was a pity. The Government had employed someone who truly knows about the problems of regenerating our inner cities and it would have been nice to have seen some of his recommendations followed.
The Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions has spent £2 billion less on regeneration than the Department of the Environment spent in the last four years of the previous Conservative Administration. Expenditure on the new deal for communities has been offset by the end of programmes such as the urban development corporations and city challenge funds that were so successful in the 1980s and 1990s under a Conservative Government.
Between 1993 and 1997, the Department of the Environment spent £6.1 billion on regeneration. Between 1997 and 2001, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions and then the DTLR spent just £4.8 billion. Adjusting for inflation at 2001 prices, that is equivalent to a cut of £1.9 billion. Money in the rate support grant settlement is being taken away from London, which, as the hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Ms King) said, has some of our most deprived areas. Why are funds being taken away from London and given to the rest of the country?
We still have a huge challenge to regenerate some of our worst areas of deprivation. Conservative Members want to come up with constructive policies—we will get back to the situation that existed in the 1980s and 1990s when we had a proud record of doing just that.
§ Ms Karen Buck (Regent's Park and Kensington, North)
May I declare a non-pecuniary interest as a member of the board of the New Life for Paddington urban regeneration scheme?
I warmly congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Brent, East (Mr. Daisley) on his maiden speech. It has been some time in coming because he has been bravely battling against illness, but his speech showed the characteristic passion for his community that he has displayed for many years as a councillor and as leader of Brent council. His constituents will be extremely well served by him here.
My hon. Friend is my neighbour in parliamentary terms. I look out of my front window on to the South Kilburn estate. The fact that his constituency qualifies for a parliamentary additional cost allowance and mine does not is a scab that has never healed. To make matters worse, phone numbers in his constituency are prefixed by 0207, which, as every Londoner knows, is the true mark of metropolitan prestige. However, I will not hold that 1170 against my hon. Friend and I look forward to working with him as a neighbour and colleague on local issues as well as to seeing the contribution that he will make in Parliament.
I warmly welcome the Government's strategic approach to regeneration and the fact that it is linked, as it must be, to a strategy tackling social exclusion and poverty. The establishment and work of the social exclusion unit and the neighbourhood renewal strategies introduced an analysis into those serious social problems that had been lacking and allowed the development of an approach that considers multiple indicators as a way of tackling them. That is the only way to deal with them; social exclusion and the decline of some of our urban areas are rooted in multidimensional problems, and no single solution can turn them around.
I know from local experience that the Government have, over recent years, invested significantly and imaginatively in policies that will help us to tackle those problems. My constituency now benefits from four sure start programmes, which I regard as the single best and most imaginative regeneration tool, targeted at parents with very young children. Sadly, I do not have a new deal for communities programme, and I would love to have a few of those. However, we have the £13.5 million single regeneration budget for Paddington—as I said, I am a member of the board for the scheme—and an education action zone. We benefit in both Kensington and Westminster from neighbourhood renewal funding and from the neighbourhood nurseries initiative. So serious money has been invested, targeted particularly at wards and small areas with severe deprivation. The approach and the money are very welcome.
I want to talk particularly about the case for London. There is no doubt in my mind, from listening to colleagues and reading about the problems in the north, the midlands and in areas of low housing demand, that a catastrophe is taking place. I support those areas and wish them well in dealing with those problems. However, their problems are entirely different from those that we face in the capital, which require a different solution and at least proportionate support. We have had that in some cases, but not in every area.
We have already touched on the particular problems of communities with high levels of deprivation that exist cheek by jowl with areas of extreme wealth. My constituency probably exemplifies that more than anywhere else in the country. The Church Street ward, which is one of the most deprived in the country according to the index of multiple deprivation, is within 100 yd of St. John's Wood, which includes some of the most valuable real estate in the country. That not only enhances the residents' sense of inequality, but causes us a problem in applying for resources.
One of London's difficulties is what I have described in previous debates as the tyranny of the average. If a local authority area includes prosperous areas, prosperous wards and high value housing alongside areas of acute deprivation, the funding formulas will be worked out on the basis of an average. As a consequence, we are not able to secure the resources that I believe are necessary to deal with our problems. This is particularly the case, as my hon. Friend the Minister knows well from the representations that we have made, in respect of the index of multiple deprivation and the various sources of funding that flow from it. London Members will continue to lobby 1171 on that issue to see whether further refinements can be made to the index to recognise the reality of London's problems. Perhaps my hon. Friend will tell us when we can expect a crime domain to be introduced into the index, because that is an aspect of urban deprivation that needs to be recognised.
I want to put on record again the characteristics of London that deserve our attention. We have some of the highest indicators of poverty and deprivation in the country. In inner London, more than half of all children live in households on low income compared with one third for England as a whole. We have the highest proportion of children in workless households of any region in England. We have double the national average of lone-parent families, which we know to be a key indicator of poverty. We have an acute housing shortage; it has been rehearsed many times, so I will not talk about it other than to say that I believe it to be one of the most serious barriers to the city's continuing economic success and to overcoming the problems of urban deprivation.
Challenges as well as opportunities arise from the capital's cultural diversity. More than half the United Kingdom's ethnic minority and black populations live in London. Unfortunately, many of those communities experience levels of unemployment and poverty that are up to three times higher those of the white population. I believe that a Cabinet Office report, reported in the newspapers last summer, warned that unless further and faster action is taken, the gap in income and opportunities between the black and ethnic minority populations and the white population is set to widen over the next 20 years. That is a real challenge.
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
Given those appalling statistics, which we all condemn, how does the hon. Lady feel about the fact that £100 million has been taken away from London in the local revenue support grant settlement over the past three years? If the estimates using the current indicators are correct, that trend will continue over the next three years at the same rate. Surely the opposite should apply—London should be getting extra money compared with the major urban corporations in the rest of the country so that it can deal with some of the worst poverty and deprivation in the country.
§ Ms Buck
Yes and no. I do not disagree. It is no secret that Labour Members lobby extremely hard to make the case for London. We did not do badly in the grant settlement that was announced recently. In fact, both my boroughs received a 7 per cent. increase, which was the joint highest increase in the country. Although there is always a case to be made for London's resources—I am making it now and will continue to do so—I do not think, considering the revenue support grant settlement for the past year and the year before, that London boroughs have done badly.
London has high social mobility, and I want the Government to take on board the fact that that indicator is not properly recognised in any funding formula. Turnover in London schools is 50 per cent. higher than in the rest of the country, which puts enormous financial pressure on them and huge psychological pressure on teachers and classmates, as well has having a knock-on effect on school standards.
London also has poor health indicators, particularly because of the disproportionate concentration of people who have mental health problems. Again, almost all 1172 funding formulas fail to recognise that, but it has vast implications for the delivery of services from policing to social services. There is a strong case for London, and I want more resources to help London to deal with its problems, including those shown by the index of multiple deprivation.
Local regeneration has been a recent success story following many years of failure. I pay tribute to everyone involved: community activists and participants, and officers in highly successful schemes ranging from sure start programmes to the New Life for Paddington scheme. The latter is a marvellous example of a regeneration scheme that works with a range of public agencies and community organisations, including tenants and residents organisations, as well as the private sector.
The Paddington regeneration partnership, which represents the private businesses involved in rebuilding the Paddington basin—an urban redevelopment zone three times bigger than the dome—has been a considerable success. The private sector has helped through a local recruitment strategy, particularly with new jobs for the Heathrow express, and we are about to issue a jobs brokerage linked to the next phase, in which new companies moving into the basin will start to recruit. I hope that that will go from strength to strength. The scheme is a tribute to the Employment Service. A few years ago, it was a deadly bureaucracy, but it has genuinely been enlivened by its new responsibilities and has become a real partner in the regeneration of the Paddington area.
The Dalgarno single regeneration budget—a small project across the large estates of north Kensington—has done exciting work in partnership with youth justice boards and young offender teams. That is welcome and shows that new sets of partnerships are being built across different agencies. A small and successful scheme also operates in the Golborne ward.
The recent success of those people-based, participatory schemes stands in stark contrast to the experience of previous schemes, which, though I am not making a party political point here, were developed under the Conservative Government and implemented by Conservative councils. Two examples spring to mind. The first is the Wornington Green estate in north Kensington, which received a large funding injection from the city challenge programme. That brought about some design changes on the estate which were not properly consulted on. Those changes are the reason for the estate's downward spiral further into urban decline and high crime and youth disorder in recent years.
That investment was entirely wasted. The money might as well have been put down the drain. The estate is still seriously blighted, and we need a new partnership between Kensington housing trust and another housing association. We also need substantial funds to try to turn the estate around. I would not live there, and one of the main urban regeneration indicators has to be whether we ourselves would live on the estates to which we condemn thousands of people. I should be delighted to live on some of the redeveloped estates in my constituency; nothing would give me greater pleasure, but I cannot afford them. There are others, however, where the programmes developed during the 1980s and early 1990s have made the problems worse rather than relieving them.
The second major example is Lisson Green estate in the London borough of Westminster. To my amazement, it received investment totalling around £65 million 1173 through the estate action programme—roughly the same as the new deal for communities. Yet conditions were so bad during that programme in the mid to late-1990s that I had to write my first ever class complaint to the local authority ombudsman on behalf of the residents, who were put through a living hell as a result of bad building management.
A bricks-and-mortar solution to regeneration failed to tackle the need for community participation and social and economic regeneration. We needed to provide proper youth facilities and to get the people who live on the estate into work. A little has been done, and very welcome it is. Many people have worked hard to turn the estate around, but it was structurally badly managed from the beginning, and it is a good example of a scheme that failed.
A great deal has been achieved in urban regeneration, but we are not yet able to say that inner-city living is an attractive option, particularly for low-income households. There is a great deal to do. We need to back regeneration funding by tackling the housing crisis. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will do all that she can during the comprehensive spending review to make a case for investment in London's housing. If that housing is chronically overcrowded, all the investment in the world to improve the physical condition of the stock will not make those houses desirable and attractive places to live.
London faces complex labour market issues, which were addressed in yesterday's debates on the Tax Credits Bill, and I shall address the same points in an Adjournment debate next week. Alongside London's economic success and dynamic growth there are serious problems of poverty and unemployment. There is also a mismatch between the jobs available and the skills of the people who live in London. Several anti-poverty measures, such as those in the Tax Credits Bill, are not yet reaching London's poorest and most deprived communities. We must understand why that is so and hone our policies to help London's unemployed.
Many of the schemes to which I have referred are excellent. They are doing good and valuable work, but they are too small. I would happily double the number of regeneration schemes in my constituency and the investment that they are bringing. The bid-driven nature of those programmes can involve people too much in the paperwork of writing and monitoring bids. There is a need to streamline some bids.
Local councils have a critical role. Many are doing marvellous work across London, on their own and in partnership, including partnership with the private sector. That is not always the case, however. In Westminster, despite improvements over the past year or two, there has been a failure properly to engage in urban regeneration, in spite of huge poverty and need in the borough. Even now, when negotiations under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 are continuing for the Paddington basin, there are problems with the priority list. The refurbishment of a public toilet in Little Venice has been placed ahead of investment in a youth project in Queen's Park, one of the most deprived and poorly served wards in the whole of London.
Local councils need both to be given their heads and watched carefully by the Government office for London to ensure that authorities such as Westminster are 1174 seriously behind urban regeneration. I wish the Minister well in her negotiations over the comprehensive spending review. We could all do with a little more investment along the lines of that which has already come.
§ Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington)
I welcome the debate, and I echo the comments made by the hon. Member for Cotswold (Mr. Clifton-Brown) about the maiden speech of the hon. Member for Brent, East (Mr. Daisley). It was an excellent speech in difficult circumstances, and I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on making it. I urge his Whips to go easy on him over the coming weeks. That might give him the chance, for instance, to speak out against the public-private partnership. However, that will be up to him.
The hon. Gentleman managed to convince me that Brent has improved slightly, but he did not convince me that it is the best council in London, as that is, of course, the Liberal Democrat-controlled London borough of Sutton. I congratulate him, none the less, on the fact that he did not make a partisan speech and did not criticise Ken Livingstone. It was an entirely apolitical speech, and that is welcome.
§ Dr. Andrew Murrison (Westbury)
The hon. Gentleman has just extolled the virtues of his Liberal Democrat-controlled council, but does he agree that the Liberal Democrats' commitment to tackling deprivation in our cities is shown by the number of Liberal Democrat Members who are in the Chamber?
§ Tom Brake
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. I have no doubt that many of my colleagues are touring the most disadvantaged areas of their constituencies as this moment.
I thank the Urban Forum, Groundwork, the Centre for Local Economic Strategies, the Country Land and Business Association and the London borough of Sutton for their assistance in providing briefings for the debate. Reference to those organisations will, I hope, take away the partisan aspect of the debate, because they are actively involved on the front line in delivering regeneration. I will be inviting the Minister to respond to their comments.
Clearly, regeneration is not just about bricks and mortar but covers a range of areas: policing, access to good health services, housing and policies to tackle graffiti and to deal with abandoned cars, as well as regeneration policies. There is some optimism and there have been some success stories. The Minister and hon. Members have referred to those and I welcome them, but there are also some threats.
The Government's Green Paper on planning is perhaps one of those threats. There are proposals to abolish urban development plans. I am not sure how that will contribute to involving local communities actively in regeneration schemes. New business zones are being introduced that do not need planning consent, but I am not convinced that that is the best way to involve local communities in regeneration. Some of the organisations to which I have referred believe that one of the key problems is that it is difficult to get local communities involved in schemes such as the new deal for communities, and that there is still too great an emphasis on professionals or the local authority running schemes. I hope that the Minister will respond to that point in her winding-up speech.
1175 I do not think any other Member has referred to regeneration in the rural environment. The concern of the Country Land and Business Association is that many rural communities have been badly hit by foot and mouth. There is perhaps a need to prop up many of the rural services on which those communities depend. The association provided some interesting figures:78 per cent. of rural settlements do not have a general store, 72 per cent. do not have a small village shop and 53 per cent. are without a public house. Clearly the Government need to assist the process of ensuring the long-term viability of rural services and post offices.
Affordable housing is another of the association's key concerns. That is also an issue in the rural environment—hon. Members have already referred to it in the context of the urban environment, particularly London. According to the Countryside Agency, there is a growing problem of rural homelessness and insufficient affordable housing. The Government need to work with local authorities, private business and other providers to ensure that there is sufficient affordable housing in rural areas.
§ Mr. Atkinson
The hon. Gentleman talks about rural society and rural problems. Does he agree that rural crime is one of the big issues?
§ Tom Brake
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention, which was entirely constructive. As I said earlier, policing is a critical issue and although it does not have a direct impact on regenerating a particular area, we need to be aware of and to make constructive proposals about local communities' fear of crime.
The Urban Forum, which is an umbrella body for community and voluntary groups that have an interest in urban and regional policy and which was established in 1994, expresses concern, echoing comments by hon. Members, that Government programmes are on occasions so targeted that they exclude groups that are not geographically centred in a particular area: for example, people with disabilities and members of the black and ethnic minority communities, who are then unable to access funds. Because the targeting is so area-focused, it may end up assisting people who are less disadvantaged than people immediately outside that particular area. The Urban Forum has suggested that the focus on a very specific small area perhaps contributed to the problems last year with riots, where one community could look at another across the street, see that very large sums of money had been invested in that community but that nothing had spread literally across the road to their community. Targeting needs to be more sophisticated.
Some of the measures that the Government have put in place—for example, tax credits—can help, although the Urban Forum is concerned that the system is complex and that the interpretation of the rules varies from place to place, making it perhaps not as helpful as it could be to people on lower incomes and to disadvantaged areas.
The Government must ensure that the assessment of the viability of projects is conducted thoroughly before they or organisations such as the Housing Corporation agree to 1176 fund certain schemes. I am sure that other hon. Members will have seen the Heriot-Watt report, which talks about literally millions of pounds being spent since 1998, so it is not something that happened under a Conservative Administration. I am surprised that no Member has yet referred to this. Over the past four years, the Housing Corporation has built 10,000 affordable homes for people on low incomes, mainly in the north, but either those homes are empty or the tenants want to move out.
If there are limited funds, let us at least ensure that the money is spent in the right place and that homes are not being built that are not needed. An article on the report refers to the 20,000 to 30,000 houses that are needed in London to meet demand from key workers. I represent a London constituency, and many social workers and teachers have been to see me about the enormous difficulties they face in finding accommodation in and around the London borough of Sutton.
There are very few affordable homes. Under criteria for being able to access affordable homes, people are required to earn a certain income, which often they do not earn even though they are in work. I am sure that the Minister has studied the Heriot-Watt report. I hope she will say what the Government intend to do to ensure that what money is available is spent well and provides homes and regeneration projects that are successful.
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for mentioning that report. Does he agree that the real scandal is that the Housing Corporation had adequate evidence that the homes were not going to be wanted, yet it still carried on funding them?
§ Tom Brake
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. It is clear from the article on the report that in the area where homes were built, there was already a large number of empty homes. Had the Housing Corporation looked around the surrounding area, it could probably have easily deduced that the homes were not going to be used and would remain empty. That is a crucial point, to which I hope the Minister will respond. We need to ensure that there is effective assessment of the viability of projects before they proceed.
We also need more community involvement. A report by Cambridge university—I understand that it is available on the DTLR website—assessed the success, or otherwise, of single regeneration budget projects. It clearly demonstrates the link between the degree of local community involvement in SRBs and the benefit that communities feel they have derived from such projects. In the view of the Urban Forum, even more community involvement is needed. As a counterpoint, perhaps there should be less Government involvement, or at least less controlling, centralising influence over the projects.
The Urban Forum raised the key issue of the provision of support for voluntary groups in deprived or disadvantaged areas. I am sure that hon. Members who have an active council for voluntary service in their constituency will concur with the view of the forum that where there is an active CVS—in my case, the Sutton CVS—which has core funding, ensuring continued voluntary support for voluntary and community groups year after year after year, there is much greater involvement in and activity to assist with regeneration projects.
§ Ms Shipley
Does the hon. Gentleman agree that charities can also make a contribution? In my 1177 constituency, Barnardos has a long-term commitment to a wheels project for young men, so that they can make cars from scratch and race them. Those young men are known as the wall group, because they used to sit on walls with nothing to do, but now they are busy as part of the community.
§ Tom Brake
I agree entirely with the hon. Lady. Charities do have a major role, and they can benefit from the assistance provided by organisations such as the CVS.
Many people sit on community boards as volunteers, and the Urban Forum suggested that consideration should be given to paying them an honorarium, given the time commitment. Obviously, if people were unemployed or on benefit, that would have to be addressed, but some financial assistance might encourage people to make the necessary time commitment.
The Centre for Local Economic Strategies serves a network of local authorities, regional development agencies, partnerships and other organisations. The centre's view of the new deal for local communities is that it is not working too well. For example, in the Braunstone project in Leicestershire there seemed to be acrimony between the local community and the professionals. It is possible that the local community was not sufficiently involved—the project was top-down rather than bottom-up. Furthermore, the CLES found that the projects themselves were not imaginative enough—a point echoed by the Urban Forum.
The hon. Member for Cotswold referred to the plethora of initiatives. That was not a partisan point; it was a large list. The hon. Gentleman did not read all the names, but the list included the Millennium Commission, the new opportunities fund, green spaces and heritage organisations, Sport England and so on. I am sure that there are many more bodies on the list.
The hon. Gentleman's point was not partisan. Small organisations trying to bid for funds do not have the necessary skills and do not know what funding is available so they are not as well able to access funds as bigger organisations such as local authorities which have staff who are experienced in putting bids together. The very people whom the Government presumably want to access those funds are unable to do so, owing to the complexity of the process. We want the establishment of a one-stop shop organisation so that funds could be accessed without dealing with a variety of bodies.
The CLES felt that the single regeneration projects had worked well and that they had matured to such an extent that the bidding organisations knew what was expected and how to go about the process. The CLES was sorry that the projects were coming to an end.
I do not want to exaggerate the problems that we face in the London borough of Sutton. Statistics occasionally show that Sutton is the most affluent borough in London, although I think that may be incorrect and that Richmond might be more affluent. Sutton does not have problems on the scale that I attempted to address as a councillor in Hackney in the early 1990s. I regret that during the 12 years that have passed since then those problems do not yet seem to have been tackled.
None the less, Sutton has problems. One of the major difficulties is that so many of the schemes are narrowly targeted and miss out pockets of deprivation in a relatively 1178 affluent area. Durand Close offers a good example. The council carried out some research on the estate in the 1990s; I doubt that the housing stock has changed much since then. It is the only estate in the borough with large four or five-bedroom properties where the council can house large families. During the 1990s, the estate had the highest child density in the south-east, with many single-parent families. It needs regeneration, but of course Sutton appears nowhere on any of the requisite indices. The local authority cannot provide the funds needed to meet the requests of local residents that the estate should be demolished and rebuilt.
The Minister did not say how the Government would make the targeting system more flexible so that pockets of deprivation are not missed out. I hope that she can address that point when she sums up the debate.
We were successful in our SRB bid for the Roundshaw regeneration project—the second-largest such project in London—which will be finished in a couple of years. There is one concern, however. As the funds are time-limited and all the money has to be spent by the end of the seven-year period, the local community feels driven by a timetable that is not of its choosing or making.
By comparison, the Durand Close project has an advantage because there is no timetable. If funding is awarded, it will be made available progressively over a longer period so the community will be able to work to a timetable over which it has a certain degree of control.
It is clear from the comments of hon. Members that a simple bricks-and-mortar approach will not offer a solution. The Heriot-Watt report confirms that. Reference has been made to policies that could address the problems. We need a single regeneration grant system to get rid of that plethora of pots of money. Organisations that lack the administration to tap into the funds could then apply through a single point of contact.
As other hon. Members have said, there is a need to boost the level of policing in rural and urban areas, to address the fear of crime, which clearly has a significant, and disproportionate, impact on disadvantaged communities. Proposals such as a community safe force that would involve traffic wardens and estate and other park attendants could play a role. We would support the idea of a "safer front doors for all" initiative, which would ensure that people—[Interruption.]If the hon. Member for Corby (Phil Hope) will wait, I will tell him. Such an initiative would mean that people who lived in communities that were subject to high crime levels could at least ensure they were safe in their own home. There are other proposals such as promoting local exchange trading system schemes, and ensuring that in unemployment black spots funds are transferred to a much more local level, from the Government's equal opportunities fund to finance local initiatives.
As I said at the start of my speech, there is a degree of optimism out there, but the patchwork quilt of regeneration budgets, which has created confusion and red tape, is not helpful. It needs to be streamlined and made more flexible, so that the pockets of deprivation, in rural or urban areas, that are currently excluded from bidding for funds may have much greater access to them.
§ Ms Debra Shipley (Stourbridge)
I welcome today's debate. There can be no more compelling issue for a Labour Government than the regeneration of 1179 disadvantaged areas and there is a moral imperative to tackle the problems that our people in disadvantaged areas face in their day-to-day lives. Whole communities throughout Britain are in desperate need of regeneration. Housing, education, health, infrastructure and policing are all major components that have to be drawn together for regeneration to be achieved in the first instance and subsequently sustained.
Whole communities have been neglected for decades. In my west midlands constituency, the urban village of Lye has been blighted by the demise of manufacturing. Many traditional metal-bashing jobs, where son would follow father into the local factory, have been lost. Schools have crumbled, starved of cash and resources. Under-invested health and social services have struggled valiantly to deal with a host of problems. The infrastructure has gradually decayed, but the people have remained. The soul of the community is alive and well; Lye is still a viable urban village, and potentially a proud one.
Many of Lye's families have lived in the area for generations. The Cartwrights, the Partridges, the Newtons and the Hindleys have names that date from the industrial revolution, when the air of Lye was thick with fumes and the sky was darkened with smoke. It is a hard-working community and it has a vision for itself that I believe will surprise the House—a vision of a place of excellence in the very heart of Britain.
The people of Lye have decided that their urban village will be regenerated in a very modern way. They have rejected initial council plans for extensive housing development on brownfield sites; instead they have formed a community action group called LARA—the Lye Area Regeneration Alliance. It includes local churches, the mosque, the allotment association—many members have tended those plots for 50 years—and local children, who want to know, quite reasonably, why there are no trees where they live. It also includes plenty of individuals who are determined to improve their surroundings.
LARA is unusual in that its vision is big and it is special. Yes, its members want to see more housing, but they also want to create a place of modern architectural excellence. They want to construct a set of community buildings that will, in their words, be a "flagship for the future", not just for Lye, not just for the industrial black country and the west midlands, but for Britain. They want their new buildings to bring hope back to an area that has been neglected and blighted and they want to do it with modern architecture of the highest possible quality. As one local woman, Carol Partridge, said, "Why can't we have the best?"
Under the LARA community vision, its members' children will have a way to reach out to Britain as a whole. I am sure that hon. Members will agree that that is a very big vision, and a brave one. We in Westminster should salute it, because it will undoubtedly be a long, hard road to achieve such a landmark project.
People in Lye desperately need the investment that, as the Minister pointed out, has been denied them for decades under Conservative Governments. Moreover, they will need to be backed by an equal amount of political willpower; I wonder whether it actually exists.
The Government have said that they will champion good design in building. A Minister in every Department has been made *a design champion. We now have a 1180 ministerial design champion for health, education and so on. But with the best will in the world, can a busy Health Minister tackling myriad national health service problems really be expected to be a true champion of construction? Would such a Minister, indeed, have the expertise to read complicated plans or understand detailed specifications? Are Departments equipped to facilitate the championing of good design? I would suggest that the answer is no, and perhaps I may demonstrate why I think so.
As joint chair of the parliamentary planning and architecture group, I was interested to discover how many new schools had been built since 1997 and what would be built in the next couple of years. I was planning—there was nothing sinister in it—to visit schools that had recently been built and to keep an eye on the new ones that were built. I therefore tabled a parliamentary question about that. I was pretty surprised to receive from the Under-Secretary of State for Education and Skills, my hon. Friend the Member for Wentworth (John Healey), a written answer to say:We do not hold the information in the form requested.All that I had asked for was a list of the new schools. I was told:It is for local education authorities to determine the need for additional school places in the maintained sector and, where necessary, to build or support the provision of new schools. The Department makes available capital funding for new school places; many of these are provided in existing schools."—[Official Report, 4 February 2002; Vol. 379, c. 720W.]Well, if the Education Minister who is entrusted with delivering design excellence in new school construction cannot even locate the new schools that have been built in the past few years and has no idea where they will be built in the next few years, I fail to see how the Government can hope to ensure that design and construction is of the highest quality.
§ Mr. Mark Hoban (Fareham)
I share the hon. Lady's frustration with the answers given by the Department for Education and Skills about new schools. I have tried the same questions myself and received a similar response. What I have been able to establish is that, under the provisions of the Education Bill, there is an opportunity for new schools to be set up by new promoters. In her response to me the Secretary of State said that no more than 10 schools a year might be built.
§ Ms Shipley
The hon. Gentleman makes a supportive point to mine about trying to obtain information on new schools, but I believe that our Government should be proud that we are building schools and that we are investing—massively, as I shall show—in school buildings. It was the Conservative party, of which the hon. Gentleman is a member, that left our built education structures—schools, classrooms and the playgrounds that our children play on—in an absolutely disgraceful state. Throughout my constituency, children were literally falling over in playgrounds where the tarmac was crumbling over on itself. They were in schools where the temporary buildings were disintegrating and were damp. These are gradually being replaced by the Labour Government, but in order to reach design excellence there needs to be a much greater awareness of what that is and what is going on. Good enough is not good enough.
The Government are to be congratulated on establishing the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. CABE could point the Minister in the right 1181 direction for school buildings, because it seems to have sniffed out quite a few of them. There seems to be a particular problem with the PFI-funded school buildings initiative. According to a recent report in the journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, some 500 schools have nowexperienced life under the initiative from total rebuild to minor refurbishmentand, apparently, thegovernment has invested a further £1.2 billion in 43 further projects which are currently at planning or procurement stage.The good thing is that, at last, money is being invested in schools after years of under-investment by the Conservative party. The bad news is that the opportunity to produce buildings of architectural excellence is being squandered. According to CABE's commissioner, Richard Fielden,mediocrity is closer to the norm".It is a sad waste that communities that desperately need their schools to be replaced or refurbished are receiving buildings that, although adequate, are far from life enhancing.
In disadvantaged areas, schools may well he the only public buildings and, as such, are the community focus, but instead of a new construction providing a much-needed catalyst for rejuvenation, they are merely good enough. They are better than that which they replace, but far from good enough to enhance young lives.The Architects' Journal suggests that the Department for Education and Skills is addressing certain aspects of school-building design, but I contend that a Department that, only last week, could not supply a simple list of new schools will struggle in its task to champion design excellence in the built environment.
So what is good design? I emphasise that I am not talking about personal aesthetic taste. CABE has produced some worthwhile guidelines for good school design. To design-conscious people most of the points are extraordinarily obvious, but the truly shocking thing is that most new building work fails to address some basic principles. Those principles include, first, good, clear organisation with an easily legible plan and full accessibility; secondly, spaces that are well proportioned, efficient and fit their purposes; thirdly, circulation that is well organised and generous; fourthly, appropriate levels of natural light and ventilation; fifthly, attractiveness in design to inspire pupils, staff and parents; sixthly, good use of site; seventhly, attractive external spaces with appropriate security; eighthly, a lay-out that encourages community access and facilitates use out of school hours; ninthly, robust materials, which weather and wear well; and tenthly, scope for future adaptation. Finally—this is hugely important—the building should transcend the sum of those parts to produce genuine delight for all who use it and a sense of lasting quality.
I make a plea for environmentally sensitive construction. As I have already said, some £1.2 billion-worth of school building projects are at the planning and procurement stages. In addition, billions of pounds will go into the construction of new hospitals and housing in the next few years. That represents massive buying power, and I urge the Government to decide to require high environmental standards as part of all new 1182 building works specifications. The combined political pressures and financial considerations could be galvanised to ensure the mass production of energy-efficient devices, which would, in turn, drive down unit costs.
The Government should use their massive spending power to stimulate and support a rigorous environmental strategy. It is, frankly, scandalous that new buildings are constructed that do not utilise the best practices available to reduce energy consumption. Moreover, deprived areas surely deserve the best in terms of energy efficiency. I very much welcome the Government's fuel poverty strategy. Because of poor building insulation and inefficient heating systems, many people in Britain, particularly in disadvantaged areas, cannot afford to keep their homes warm in winter, so I am very pleased that the Government are working hard to upgrade existing housing stock.
Much stronger legislation is needed to require new buildings to be low in fuel consumption and high in insulation values. I am aware that guidelines on that matter exist, but I suggest that requirements would be more appropriate to create a level playing field. I should like the Government to commit themselves to requiring new houses, hospitals, schools and other buildings to reach the highest standards of insulation and to use alternative power sources. That would enable the Government to take a massive step towards meeting their welcome and well-meant environmental targets.
To conclude, this really is a vision thing. Could Ministers, perhaps led by the Prime Minister—the issue is as serious as that—envisage the rejuvenation of the disadvantaged urban village of Lye to the point where it becomes a centre of excellence in design and environmental standards? Could our disadvantaged areas become places of national pride, civic pride and local pride? In fact, the money is already being made available; the need is very obvious, so it is surely now a matter of political will power.
§ Mr. James Gray (North Wiltshire)
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Stourbridge (Ms Shipley) in the debate. I nearly called her the hon. Member for Shipley. She speaks with much knowledge and experience, especially of art and architecture. I took the opportunity of reading "Dod's" while she was finishing her speech, and I see that she not only has a postgraduate degree in architectural history, but is the author of 17 books, several of which are on architecture.
It is not good enough just to regenerate and provide help for the disadvantaged areas of Britain; we must find ways to do so in a decently designed environment. One of the great errors of the 1960s and 1970s was that huge tower blocks were thrown up. They were quite ghastly and horrible places in which to live. That creates some of the disadvantages that we now see in some areas, so I hope that the Minister will bear in mind what the hon. Lady said about design in the inner cities.
I was interested to hear the hon. Lady talk about Lye. In my constituency, there is a place the name of which is pronounced in the same way, but it is spelt Lea. It is probably the leafiest area in England. It is a tiny hamlet in the middle of the countryside, surrounded entirely by trees, so hon. Members may think that it would be difficult for someone from a constituency such as mine to 1183 imagine the situation in Lye, which the hon. Lady described. As I shall explain in a moment, there are definitely areas of deprivation even in a leafy area such as North Wiltshire, as well as in more obviously disadvantaged areas, such as her constituency.
Hon. Members have already asked whether we should adopt what many describe as the bricks-and-mortar approach to the disadvantaged areas of Britain, or whether there should be a much broader approach to correcting deprivation. Of course, the latter approach must be the right one to take. We must consider crime, traffic, education and health. All those are vital, and there is no point in having a regeneration strategy unless due account is taken of those difficult problems. But I fear that I shall fall into the traditional trap and address myself only to the bricks-and-mortar approach because, as the hon. Lady said, if we do not get that approach right, it is no good putting the other things in place. Hon. Members will expand on those other areas in a moment.
I should like to think from scratch for a second. The problem with planning and regeneration over the years has been that we have not paid attention to the obvious and basic physical fact that we are 55 million people living on an extraordinarily small island. We do not have the advantages of America, for example, where planning restrictions are lax and people can build and regenerate as much as they like. We cannot do that; we are incredibly short of space, especially in the south-east and south-west of England, although perhaps less so in the north. Our planning policies in the post-war years have resulted in some of the worst areas being in the north of England, as well as in the south.
The key to regeneration, not only in our inner cities but in the suburbs and rural areas, is to realise that, given the an ever-increasing population—55 million, but growing—and, more importantly, an ever-increasing number of households, we need to find a way for those people to live in the style to which they wish to become accustomed or to which they are accustomed already. They will often live in more densely populated inner cities than has traditionally been the case. We need to provide them with the sort of infrastructure, educational facilities and so on that we now all have a right to expect.
In the past 20 or 30 years, a curious mindset among town planners has prevented the regeneration and the high-density building in the inner cities that we all demand. That results from the fact that the British people seem to believe that the ideal place in which to live is a cul-de-sac. For many years, town planners have drawn their street plans and dotted the houses around the streets. The streets are therefore entirely dominated by the motor car.
In the Prince of Wales's interesting development in Dorset, that approach has been turned on its head. He has put all the houses along the streets, with facilities for the cars behind the houses. Mixed in with the houses are schools, shops, factories, churches and the rest of it. To some degree, the development has replicated the excellent model of an English village, which has a variety of different houses. There are big and small houses for rich and poor people altogether in one place. The car is not given priority; it is relegated to other places. Rather than creating more and more suburbs that consist entirely of cul-de-sacs with houses dotted round them, we should perhaps adopt the approach that the Prince of Wales's planning gurus have promoted over the years.
1184 If we adopted such an approach, we would create a mixed environment in which the young, single mothers and the elderly would be able to do what they often want, which is to live in small flats on the same level as the shops. We cannot do that at present, because our planners have traditionally expected us to leave the inner cities and to move to the suburbs and to bigger and bigger houses that we might not need. Planners do not provide the accommodation that we need in town centres.
The approach taken in this country stands in sharp contrast to what occurs in many European cities, such as Paris. The more prosperous people move into the centre of Paris. Strangely, the outer suburbs are the poorer areas while the centre of Paris is the richest part of the city. In Britain, the opposite is the case.
The figures tell us starkly what has occurred. In 1951, 19.3 million people lived in conurbations, but the figure has gone down to 17.3 million today. By contrast, the number living in out-of-town areas—in the south, in particular—has gone up from 3.4 million in 1951 to 4.8 million today. The Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions acknowledged that when it said that migration flows haveprincipally … been down the urban hierarchy"—as it rather patronisingly calls it—from the bigger urban areas to the suburbs, the smaller urban areas and the shire towns and rural areas".We are progressively allowing our people to move from the inner cities. One of the first messages that we should learn from the debate is that we should seek a way of reversing that trend if we are to save areas, such as mine, from extensive rebuilding and extensive use of greenfield sites. If we are to provide the housing that people want, we must find a way of building it in the centre of towns.
Lord Rogers clearly sent that message and one of the great disappointments of the Labour Government is that, having appointed him to produce a first-class report with about 130 recommendations, they have—principally, I suspect, because of the Treasury—decided that they are unable to implement his proposals. Ministers in the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions might argue passionately in favour of Lord Rogers' proposals in Cabinet Committees, but they are constrained by their colleagues in the Treasury. We must consider Lord Rogers' views and seek to create his image of an urban renaissance in the nation.
We should be extraordinarily worried by the destruction of greenfield sites. North Wiltshire is already suffering from Labour's regional house building policy, which means that an estimated 1.5 million buildings will be constructed on greenfield sites during the next 20 years. To put that figure into context, that is the equivalent of building 40 towns the size of Slough. I would not be as unkind as Mr. Betjeman in calling for friendly bombs to fall on Slough. However, if 40 Sloughs were replicated across the nation, friendly bombs might have a role to play.
As the hon. Lady said, we face the problems of declining schools, closing shops, rising crime and wrecked cars on the streets. We should be concerned about such problems, which form the centre of this debate. I have already mentioned the Prince of Wales's development at Poundbury in Dorset. It is an exemplar that we should follow. We must find a way of rehousing 1185 our young and elderly people in cities as much as possible. That is the first lesson that we must learn from this debate.
Docklands was mentioned earlier, but the Barbican was the first such development after the war. Different kinds of housing with the appropriate infrastructure were built on a huge bomb site. The windy corridors of the Barbican are perhaps an example of how not to solve the problem, but a good attempt was made to do so.
Another such development is likely to take place shortly and I should declare an interest in that my flat overlooks the area. I hope that the Government will act shortly to remove the ghastly Government buildings in the three huge tower blocks in Marsham street and replace them with something that can be considered best practice. It should be a mixed development with different kinds of housing, shops and business. We should try to use the development in Marsham street to show what can be done to regenerate a pretty scruffy area. The buildings have been vacant since I was a special adviser there seven years ago, but I hope that the Government will move quickly to get rid of those ghastly excrescences on the landscape and that they will construct something that will act as an exemplar for the rest of the nation.
I accept that there are problems with the approach that I have outlined and I wish to touch on a couple of them. In many inner cities and deprived areas, there is a pattern of diffuse ownership. We do not know who owns the properties. One individual may own one patch of a site and someone else may own other bits. I therefore hope that the Government will consider changing the arrangements for compulsory purchase orders so that we can find a way of bringing land together and creating a worthwhile scheme as a result.
VAT on housing constructed on the derelict areas of inner cities has been mentioned and it is an important point. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has suggested that he intends to act. If he can bring the rate of VAT for such housing down to at least 5 per cent. and if he can persuade his colleagues in the European Union to do what he has not so far allowed them to do—which is to bring the rate down to zero—that would be great. It is bizarre that our Chancellor can put the rate of VAT on a particular good or service up but, if he wishes to abolish it, he cannot do so. That is a strange aspect of European law, but he should be ready to bring the rate of VAT on regeneration projects down to zero.
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
My hon. Friend describes the situation as bizarre. It is particularly bizarre since the VAT rate for such schemes in most European countries is in single figures. This country faces a peculiar anomaly.
§ Mr. Tom Harris (Glasgow, Cathcart)
Will the hon. Gentleman remind the House which Chancellor raised the rate of VAT in this country from 15 to 17.5 per cent? That happened after the rate had been raised from 8 per cent. to 15 per cent. in 1979. Will the hon. Gentleman remind us who did that?
§ Mr. Gray
The hon. Gentleman may have misunderstood the thrust of my remarks. I was not talking 1186 about the rate of VAT, but he is right to suggest that we raised it to 17.5 per cent. He will recall that we did that to do away with the poll tax. Perhaps he would prefer the poll tax still to be in existence and VAT to be at 15 per cent. My remarks had nothing to do with the level of VAT. I was referring to the differential in the rate of VAT for rebuilding on inner-city sites and for brand-new building on greenfield sites. That differential has remarkably unfortunate effects on planning decisions.
I know that my hon. Friends will focus on other issues, but I should like briefly to focus on the problem of housing. If we can get the bricks and mortar right, we can get the rest right. The Labour party has been bold in its comments about what it will do for housing. When I was a special adviser to a Minister with responsibility for housing, we were constantly placed under pressure because people said that we were not building enough council houses. Shelter and others shouted at us, and Labour Members spent much time telling us how disgraceful our housing policy was.
However, the House will recall that, between 1993 and 1996, we built precisely 150,600 new social dwellings. In the equivalent three years between 1997 and 2000, the Labour Government have built 95,500 new social dwellings. Their provision of social housing has fallen by 37 per cent. compared with ours, but they said that the figure that we achieved was lamentably low. If that is their view, they must put their money where their mouth is.
We have housing problems throughout the nation. People with homelessness problems come to my surgery all the time. The Government are not building new housing. They say they are doing all sorts of things and they blame us for the problems. The truth is that we have a significant homelessness problem and the Government are doing nothing to address it.
§ Mr. Harris
I am delighted that the Conservative party has suddenly discovered the value of social housing. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that we have a major problem with council house stocks because his Government sold off so many council houses and refused to allow local councils to use the receipts to build new ones?
§ Mr. Gray
The country will note that the hon. Gentleman opposes the right to buy. Some 2.5 million families now live in a house that they own. Previously, they would have been tenants of pretty useless landlords in Labour local authorities. They will have heard what he said and will be thankful to the Conservative Government for allowing them to determine their own future.
§ Ms Oona King
Although everyone would agree that it is proper that people, and low-income families in particular, have the right to buy their houses, does the hon. Gentleman agree that we should move towards the equity-based approach that the Government are trying to introduce? Although 3,000 new houses were built in London last year, 11,000 were sold off through the right to buy.
§ Mr. Gray
The hon. Lady makes my point for me. It is a disgrace that the Government are building so few new houses. She is right and must address her remarks to her Front-Bench spokesmen. We cannot understand the situation. In our years in government we built countless new social housing units, but her Government are failing to do so.
§ Mr. Gray
I have taken enough interventions. Labour Members do not seem to understand that they are not building sufficient social housing.
The Labour party is also failing badly with regard to empty council houses. All the time that we were in power, we were under attack by Labour Members who said that it was scandalous that so many council houses were empty. The fact is that when they came to power, there were 81,200 empty council houses in England. In April 2000, there were 87,186 empty council houses. The figure has increased enormously. One has only to glance at the political control of the local authorities where those empty homes are to discover that in Conservative-controlled councils 1.5 per cent. of the stock is vacant and in Liberal Democrat-controlled councils, to do them a favour, 1.9 per cent. is vacant. Labour-controlled councils, however, have 2.7 per cent. management vacant, as they are called. I suspect that the local authority that covers the constituency of the hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Ms King), Tower Hamlets, is one of the worst offenders.
§ Mr. Harris
I understand the hon. Gentleman's criticisms of Labour local authorities. Does he think that they could learn from the example of Dame Shirley Porter?
§ Mr. Gray
That is the hon. Gentleman's third intervention. He seems to think that this is a party political debate. I do not think that it is. We must find a way to accommodate 55 million people in this small island of ours in the most satisfactory way. To make constant party political points reduces the level of debate unnecessarily.
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
Perhaps I can bring the debate back to a more sensible level. My hon. Friend will know 1188 that we introduced large-scale voluntary transfers, a policy that this Government have continued. Is he aware of the Library figures? They state that between 1998 and 1999, the stock transfer of 400,000 council houses has resulted in £5.9 billion of private investment being levered into the housing sector. Despite that huge amount of money, the Government have managed to build fewer social housing units than we did.
§ Mr. Gray
My hon. Friend makes a good point. The excellent Westlea housing association in North Wiltshire is a key example of what can happen when we transfer housing from bad local government landlords into the hands of true housing professionals. That was a great triumph of the Conservative Government.
We have mainly talked about inner cities, but rural areas also have problems. It is easy for people to look at North Wiltshire and think that we have it easy. They see it as full of millionaires and people who live in leafy suburbs. It is easy for them to think that people there are lucky and that people in inner-city areas are disadvantaged. Labour Members would be surprised by the cases that come into my surgery in Chippenham. They often involve problems with housing and benefits. Although we do not have as much overall deprivation, our individual cases of deprivation are as severe.
§ Ms Shipley
Will the hon. Gentleman take if from me that Labour—myself excluded, because I represent an urban constituency—is well represented by MPs for rural constituencies? I believe that we represent more rural constituencies than the Conservatives and my hon. Friends have held their seats through two general elections because their constituents know what it is like to be under a Conservative Government. It is our rural MPs who are fighting to regenerate those rural areas that the Conservative party failed so badly.
§ Mr. Gray
The hon. Lady may well be right about constituency representation. I invite Labour Members who claim to represent rural constituencies to put their hands up, because there are not an awful lot of them. Remarkably few Labour Members of Parliament truly represent rural seats. For example, on the list of so-called rural seats are my neighbouring constituencies of North Swindon and South Swindon. No one who really knows about the countryside would describe them as rural. However, Labour does represent some rural constituencies in the north of England. I welcome the fact that her hon. Friends who represent them are ready to argue the case on behalf of rural deprivation just as much as her urban colleagues are prepared to argue the case on behalf of urban deprivation. Rural deprivation is just as bad in many ways.
We know about agriculture. Tourism in my area was decimated by foot and mouth disease. As I mentioned in Prime Minister's Question Time this week, Malmesbury, which is a Cotswold town that one would think was in a prosperous area, has been decimated. Lucent Technologies has closed, with 150 jobs being laid off just before Christmas. In addition, Mr. Dyson laid off 180 at Christmas and has announced that 820 more jobs are to go because he is moving his manufacturing base to the far east. Some 1,200 to 1,500 jobs have gone in the past few months in a town with a population of 4,500. I hope that we find ways to avoid the worst effects of that, but I 1189 anticipate a significant level of poverty and difficulty in the town, which on the face of it seems an extremely pleasant place to live.
That problem is compounded by something that the Government can put right, but they are taking a lamentably long time to do so. We heard how the standard spending assessment grant in London has been reduced by £100 million, but the grant in the rural shire areas has been reduced by £300 million. North Wiltshire spends £2,500 per secondary pupil per year. The neighbouring county of Berkshire and a similar county such as Kent spend about £3,500 per pupil per year. In inner London, about £5,000 is spent per pupil per year. Although those figures are indicative rather than accurate, about twice as much is spent on educating children in central London than is spent in North Wiltshire.
The SSA system is badly skewed. It needs to be put right. The Government have said that they will do that, but the review is taking a long time. When it is complete, I hope that they will find ways to take funds back from some of the areas that do not need them, in the inner cities and elsewhere, and return them to the shire counties that have been so badly treated for such a long time.
My hon. Friends will have things to say about the fragmented nature of what the Labour party is trying to do with regard to the inner cities and funding, which is very low. After four years of a Government who came to power with such great claims that they would put right the wrongs and the ills of the inner cities, it is disappointing to see the figures that demonstrate that things are significantly worse since then. I say, "Come back, the Conservative Government. All is forgiven. What you did in the inner cities was a great deal better than what this lot are doing." All Labour Members are good at is initiatives and spin, and targets and bragging. The only regeneration that our inner cities have seen was in the 18 years when we were in power.
§ Mr. Iain Coleman (Hammersmith and Fulham)
Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for calling me in this important debate on a motion for the Adjournment of the House. I shall talk briefly about a major Government-funded regeneration scheme in my constituency, which is in year 1 of its 10-year programme, and discuss briefly the issue of regeneration for London.
The regeneration scheme that I want to talk about is one of the 39 new deal for communities projects located in various areas of the country. The NDC for north Fulham is home to a population of 8,000. It lies in the west of the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and has 4,000 households, which are predominantly in social housing. As for the exact geographical location, the area is bounded by the nice, discreet and posh Queens tennis club, Barons Court underground station to the west, Earl's Court to the east, Talgarth road to the north and Fulham broadway to the south.
The area has five quite large housing estates, which were built between 1912 and 1977. Housing tenure in the area is 67 per cent. social housing, 13 per cent. privately rented and 19 per cent. owner occupied, and the average price of a two-bedroom flat or maisonette is £190,000. 1190 That compares with a borough average of £206,000 and a rate of owner occupation of 43 per cent. Much to my regret, the area has been in long-term decline and the rate of unemployment is well over 10 per cent. Twelve per cent. of households have an annual income of less than £5,000, and 25 per cent. of households have an annual income of under £10,000.
I am talking about a highly mixed area, much like the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Regent's Park and Kensington, North (Ms Buck), where high levels of poverty and deprivation mix somewhat uneasily with wealth and significant affluence. By itself, that brings particular problems that are complex and difficult to manage. Thirty-five per cent. of households in the area have an income of over £25,000 a year, and many have a great deal more than that. That distorts the average income in the NDC area to one of £23,000 per annum per household, which is obviously well above the regional and national average.
Nearly 15 per cent. of the families living in the area are headed by single parents. The area has a significant non-white population, well above the Greater London and national average. Eighteen per cent. of the population have English as a second language, of whom 15 per cent. have no or very little English. Educational attainment in the area is significantly below the borough and the regional average. Interestingly, while at key stages 1 and 2 attainment is in line with the borough average, there is a noticeable drop in performance at key stage 3. Thirty-six per cent. of residents of working age have no recognised qualification compared with a borough average of 15 per cent.
I am trying to paint a picture of the area. Crime is high—nearly 50 per cent. higher than the regional average. Victims of crime are much more likely to be elderly, black or from an ethnic minority. Poor health is another fact of life for far too many people in the NDC area. The social services mental health case load is substantial, and the area has a disproportionately large number of children on the child protection register. As a result of poor diet, very high levels of smoking and drug and alcohol abuse, life expectancy is well below the national average.
When after careful consideration the local authority selected the area for its bid for funding under the NDC programme, the first task was to put together the key elements of the bid—the delivery plan for north Fulham. At this stage, a steering group, comprising a range of local partners, residents and tenants' representatives and other interested agencies was formed, and I chaired it. It met on a fortnightly basis for several months.
Consultants were employed by the local authority to prepare the bid and, after considerable debate and more than a few problems and interesting discussions within the steering group, the bid was submitted to the Department last year. As I have said, the bid was for a 10-year programme of £44 million. I am pleased to report that the bid was successful in achieving that level of funding.
Having secured the funding, we formed a shadow community board consisting of community representatives drawn from a number of small geographical areas. The community representatives meet monthly and elect one or two representatives to serve on the shadow board, which I now chair.
1191 A number of strategic partners who also sit on the board are drawn from key local agencies such as the local authority, the health service and the Benefits Agency, and include the chief executive of a major local registered social landlord. There is also a representative from the local black and ethnic minority forum. All those representatives have voting rights at the shadow board. Again, the board meets on a monthly basis and considers a range of issues related to the implementation of the NDC programme. These include recommendations from appraisal panels, which meet to consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of different funding proposals.
Community representatives on the board have attended training programmes to assist them with the monitoring and evaluation of those proposals. The management of the staff employed to date by the NDC has comprised consultants and secondees from agencies such as the local authority and the national health service. I am pleased to report that last week the permanent director of the programme was appointed, and the recruitment of the rest of the permanent delivery team will commence shortly.
The success or otherwise of the NDC programme for north Fulham will not be possible to evaluate for several years to come. To be frank, our early spending programme has been modest but has included the recruitment of a team of five extra police officers, headed by a sergeant, to work exclusively in the north Fulham NDC area. Their role is to act as a highly visible police presence in the area, where the fear of crime has been constantly raised as a major concern for local residents. Early signs are that the level of crime has been significantly reduced.
Three new learning mentors have been funded to work in the local primary schools that score highest on levels of deprivation. One of these primary schools has 78 per cent. of children in receipt of free school meals, and in another primary school, 39 separate languages are spoken. We have also agreed proposals to appoint special co-ordinators in the areas of health, youth and employment. The NDC, in partnership with the local authority, has funded a project called Operation Fresh Start, which has provided for projects to undertake a major clean of the streets in the NDC area, the removal of fly-tipped items and a service offering one-off removal of all unwanted household goods and the removal of graffiti. It has also provided for two refuse service enforcement officers to patrol the area, which suffers the dumping of all sorts of detritus.
Early feedback has been positive. A business network development programme has been set up and a community chest fund started for small grants for which local community groups can bid. A highly successful community carnival was held last year and a shop frontage improvement grant has been established. These are early days, but we have had a successful year in that we have spent 95 per cent. of our projected budget in the first year of the programme. In time, we will need to establish a full community board with democratic elections for all community representative posts. For the next two years we have set a much more ambitious programme of spending, including at least one major new capital scheme for the area.
The NDC programme has not been without its problems, its tensions and its rows; but so far we have been largely successful in establishing a genuine spirit of community engagement in the area. For far too long this 1192 part of an affluent area—indeed, it is one of the wealthiest in London—has been neglected. Many people have been left isolated and vulnerable and the area has fallen into decline. The NDC programme represents the best opportunity for the poor and the socially excluded to have a share of what they deserve but have been denied for too long.
Too many regeneration projects in the past dealt with the physical fabric of the local area and failed to challenge social problems in the community. Fear of crime, poor health, lack of access to proper facilities and a high incidence of drug and alcohol abuse have allowed areas such as north Fulham to lose confidence. The NDC represents a new approach to tackling decline. It genuinely seeks to allow the local community to work in partnership to challenge that sense of lethargy and helplessness. It is an exciting time to be in north Fulham.
North Fulham is a classic example of many areas in London where there are huge disparities between economic and social prosperity. Too often, out-of-date notions about the north-south divide mask the reality. It is not a matter of geography: the real issues are poverty, deprivation, unemployment and social exclusion.
The real picture on the ground is far more complex then some regional indicators may show. However, hon. Members may be surprised by a few of them. London has the highest number of unemployed people of all UK regions. There are more unemployed people in London than in Scotland and Wales combined. Of the 74 parliamentary constituencies in London, 20 have employment rates of 65 per cent. or less and nine have employment rates of less than 60 per cent. In addition, 26 per cent. of the London-employed work force have very low qualifications and 40 per cent. of the unemployed have no qualifications. Three out of the five most deprived boroughs in England are in London, and 2.7 million London residents live in one of the 20 most deprived wards in England. Those stark facts show that parts of London are far different from the exclusively affluent picture that some may wish to paint.
I recognise the problems that my colleagues representing other regions may face. I sympathise with them and I would not deny them the support that they deserve, but it is the duty of Members representing constituencies with high levels of need and deprivation to argue our case in the coming months and years, and we believe that we have the facts to back up our call for our share of the regeneration cake.
§ 12.2 pm
§ Mr. Peter Atkinson (Hexham)
Let me say in his absence how much of a pleasure it was to listen to the maiden speech of the hon. Member for Brent, East (Mr. Daisley). He need not worry about having made such a late maiden speech. Historically, new Members were told not to make a maiden speech for at least six months to a year. I do not think that the hon. Gentleman has let himself down and I appreciate why he has not spoken before. I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman shares his predecessor's fondness for toads—or newts—but I hope that he will be as independent as his predecessor and not become just another Labour toady, but we shall have to wait and see.
It is also a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Hammersmith and Fulham (Mr. Coleman). I lived happily in Fulham for many years. I enjoyed my time there 1193 greatly, but one thing I could never say about Fulham was that it was an exciting place. It was very nice, but I would hardly describe it as one of the country's hot spots. I am glad to hear that it is doing well.
The hon. Gentleman made an interesting point about the high rates of unemployment in London. This brings us to the theme of today's debate. Everyone knows that our capital city would not function without the large numbers of people coming from abroad to work here—many of them asylum seekers or refugees working illegally. New Zealanders, South Africans and Australians are found serving in many pubs in London. The city is drawing in tens of thousands of workers to help it survive, yet there is enormous unemployment among the native population. That skills gap needs to be addressed. It is nonsensical that people should come from abroad and get jobs, while people in the east end of London and other problem areas such as north Fulham remain unemployed. Solving that problem is a challenge to us all.
In reading out her prepared text, rather hurriedly, the Minister broke a convention of our Friday debates, which we try to make more thoughtful and restrained than our mid-week ones. Once again, she promoted the myth that all the problems that exist today are something to do with 18 years of Tory misrule. That is absolute nonsense. Every commentator knows that the tough economic decisions taken by Conservative Governments in that time laid the foundations for the prosperity that we have today.[Interruption.] The hon. Member for Gravesham (Mr. Pond) may laugh, but independent commentators will substantiate that.
§ Dr. Julian Lewis (New Forest, East)
Does my hon. Friend agree that the Minister's remarks are an insult to the good sense of the British people, who elected, re-elected and re-elected again Conservative Governments, presumably because they thought that they were doing rather a good job?
§ Mr. Atkinson
Indeed, that is precisely why the British people re-elected Conservative Governments. They knew that they were taking tough decisions that needed to be taken.
I can see those Governments' legacy in my region in the north-east of England. Under our stewardship, failing industries closed and derelict land was cleared. Newcastle upon Tyne now has one of the best cityscapes in this country, because of the Tyne and Wear development corporation, set up by a Conservative Government, which did so much to regenerate a rundown area on the riverside. The development corporations were good and efficient organisations, and the Government should learn some lessons from them when they redraft their regeneration projects.
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
My hon. Friend is making an important point. Labour Members always denigrate our record on urban regeneration. He has mentioned the west end of Newcastle, but many other major city sites were 1194 transformed by the urban development corporations, including the centre of Glasgow, Leeds, London docklands and the Albert dock in Liverpool.
§ Mr. Atkinson
Yes, our record is extremely good indeed, and we had a much tougher time, with much greater problems to deal with, than the present Government.
The hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Ms King) put her finger on it when she mentioned Canary Wharf. Here was a tremendously successful urban regeneration scheme cheek by jowl with pockets of extreme poverty. That is the problem that we face. It is the same in the north-east of England. People say that the north is depressed, and it is true that we have a lower than average percentage of gross domestic product and some more social problems, but to write it off as a depressed area gives the wrong impression entirely.
Much of the region is affluent, with content, healthy and well-educated people, and we have a most beautiful and wonderful landscape, but there are pockets of severe deprivation, especially in the old coalfield areas, that certainly need help. Are the Government targeting the areas of poverty efficiently? I suggest that they are not. I had hoped that the Minister would give us some better ideas about what they intend to do, but all I heard were the usual words: "top-down strategy", "framework", "planning".
§ Mr. Atkinson
Was the hon. Lady going to keep them open? She has her history utterly confused. She may remember that it was her former colleague, Tony Benn, who closed more collieries in the north-east of England than anyone else: more than 1,000 collieries were closed by a Labour Government because they were uneconomic. We did precisely the same thing. Is she saying that she and her Government would have kept all those pits open?
§ Mr. Atkinson
Nonsense again. The Minister clearly has not been to the north-east for a while; if she had she would have seen the regeneration effected under a Conservative Government in those coalfield areas. If she drives down to the coast from the city of Newcastle, she will see the industrial landscape on both sides of the Tyne, transformed as a result of Conservative initiatives. To say that we did nothing is nonsense: we did immeasurably more than the Labour Government have done. As far as I can see, we have a plethora of initiatives with very little happening on the ground.
1195 My hon. Friend the Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray) referred to rural poverty and disadvantage. I have a striking example of that in my constituency: a community called Haltwhistle, a little settlement midway between Newcastle and Carlisle. It is actually in the centre of Britain, a feature the local tourist board makes something of.
As well as being a very old border town, Haltwhistle was also a small industrial town. It made a living off the local coalfield—which more or less collapsed in the 1930s—but it had an industrial base. In the last few months, there have been job losses in the town, with the consequence that, according to the local press, nearly half the working population of a town of 3,500 people is either currently unemployed or will be unemployed in the next few months. A paint factory that has been there for generations is closing and production has been moved away. The last coal mine is closing down, with 100 jobs going, and a construction company has gone bankrupt. All the associated jobs, in transport and elsewhere, are suffering and that is devastating for a town such as Haltwhistle.
I was hoping to find out from the Minister what the Government will do to address the problems of rural areas. We have the rural development plan and the market town initiative, neither of which is capable of reviving a town such as Haltwhistle unless the Government make some proper infrastructure improvements. Isolated communities depend on infrastructure.
Because of the Government's continual refusal to upgrade main highways in the north-east of England, such communities are hugely disadvantaged. We ask for the roads to be improved but the Government reply that traffic flows do not justify it in value-for-money terms. However, it is value for money if we build roads to open up and develop areas that need that. I appeal to the Government, the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions and the Highways Agency to make the improvements to the roads for the community of Haltwhistle.
§ Mr. Tom Harris
Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the deregulation of bus services in 1996 had a catastrophic effect on the travelling public? Would he like to see some modification of that, such as the franchising of local bus routes?
§ Mr. Atkinson
I would not, and I disagree fundamentally with that idea. I know that the hon. Gentleman—who likes to intervene so much—was a Labour spin doctor for many years, but he must look at the facts. Deregulated bus services have vastly improved services in city areas, but in areas such as mine—the most sparsely populated constituency in England—running buses is an impracticality. It is not practical to leave Haltwhistle to travel 13 miles by bus to work and then return that day. Jobs need to be found for people in the areas where they need them, which the Government are singularly failing to do.
I wish to refer to the regional development agencies set up by the Government. The situation reminds me of the old joke about the lost traveller who asks the rustic for directions to the nearest town and is told, "If I were you, I would not be starting from this point." Like my right hon. and hon. Friends, I would not be starting from this point because we oppose regional development agencies.
1196 It was wrong to spread a network of agencies across the whole of the country. It is important for disadvantaged areas such as the north-east of England to get some additional advantage by having development agencies, and we used to have a development corporation. But if every area has a development agency, it simply means that other parts of the country will compete for funds out of the same pot, to the disadvantage of the genuinely disadvantaged areas.
I have no complaint about the staff or the board of my local agency, One NorthEast, which does the best job it can. However, it has no real power. Every decision it takes depends on somebody else. It has no power over education, planning, economic policy or highways. All the action needed to regenerate an area depends on somebody else doing something. The agency does not have enough priority. If we are to make the RDAs better, they should concentrate on fewer things, such as economic regeneration, and not on peripheral things that local authorities can do better.
Finally, I want to discuss regional government, which is another threat to the north-east. As we know, many Labour Members are frightfully keen on regional government. They want to balkanise England and turn it into a series of regions—an idea that is being pursued with great vehemence in the north-east. Fortunately, as I understand it, the move towards regionalism was torpedoed by No. 10 Downing street. According to leaked reports, the Government's White Paper will insist on dismantling an entire tier of local government if regional government in the north-east is to go ahead. That will involve abolishing Durham and Northumberland county councils.
I should tell the House and the hon. Member for Houghton and Washington, East (Mr. Kemp) —he is not allowed to speak because he is a Whip—that people in the north-east will not vote for a regional assembly in those circumstances. They do not want their local county councils or district councils to be taken away and replaced by a regional assembly that is located far away from their communities. We should bring government closer to people, not move it further away. In effect, the Government have sabotaged regionalism—probably deliberately—by demanding the withdrawal of an entire layer of local government.
§ Dr. Julian Lewis
In spite of what my hon. Friend said, Opposition Whips are allowed to intervene, fortunately. I recently asked the Minister for Local Government how many letters he had received requesting the introduction of regional government in the south-east, and the answer was not a single one.
§ Mr. Atkinson
There we are. That is right—the British people are not at all anxious to go down that path.
Regional government in the north-east has been a monstrous distraction. The northern assembly, which has taken on a self-appointed role as a campaigner for regional government—funded, of course, by the taxpayer—would do far better to concentrate on regenerating the region and addressing bread-and-butter problems such as under-achievement in education. That is what the people of the north-east want; they do not want regional government consisting of another talking shop, full of Labour cronies.
§ Mr. Anthony D. Wright (Great Yarmouth)
I am very pleased to be able to contribute to this debate, because the regeneration of disadvantaged areas is certainly crucial to the people of Great Yarmouth, whom I represent. My comments will probably mirror what could be said of many other seaside resorts around the country.
If this Government are to be judged, as they should be, on whether they deliver improvements to the quality of life of those in greatest need, Great Yarmouth is precisely the type of place in which they must deliver such improvements. It gives me no great pleasure to say that Great Yarmouth suffers from one of the highest unemployment levels in this country, and from some of the worst social deprivation. There are a number of reasons why, some of them historical, and others more connected to the present. Among the historical reasons are the ending of the herring fishing industry, and the decline of the traditional seaside holiday destinations in the face of competition from cheap foreign package deals. Although the offshore oil and gas industry remains a major employer in the borough, it is a mature industry, rather than the rapidly growing enterprise of the 1970s.
A shortage of skills in certain areas definitely numbers among the current reasons for economic and social deprivation in Great Yarmouth. All too often, local employers in the engineering sector have told me that they have had to look far beyond Great Yarmouth for employees with the necessary training and qualifications. However, in my view the single biggest factor negatively affecting Great Yarmouth is its totally inadequate transport infrastructure. Great Yarmouth is often referred to in terms of its peripherality, which is both real and perceived, but the fact is that poor transport links are severely hindering economic development and job creation in the town, and there is an urgent need for real improvements. I shall return to that issue later in my speech.
Before I talk about the Government initiatives that have already helped the regeneration process, and their future role in regenerating my constituency, I want to describe the current situation there. Hon. Members will be aware of the travel-to-work-area method of measuring unemployment. According to figures released by the Office for National Statistics for December 2001—the most recent figures available—Great Yarmouth had an unemployment rate of 6.6 per cent., the third highest travel-to-work-area rate in England. There, as in other towns with a large seaside holiday industry, unemployment peaks in the winter months and falls in summer.
Recent history has shown that the unemployment rate in Yarmouth usually reaches its maximum in February. When this month's figures are eventually released, we may well regain our unwanted spot at the top of the English league table for unemployment. The borough had the unwelcome distinction of being top of that table between December 2000 and March 2001. The availability of short-term summer jobs removes a number of people from the unemployment statistics who return a few months later. That undoubtedly masks the true picture of long-term unemployment in the borough.
It is now widely accepted—I certainly believe it to be the case—that unemployment and economic deprivation have a direct causal link to social problems. The 1198 Government have endorsed this view by making their drive to improve employment opportunities and to make work pay a central plank of their policy to fight poverty. I agree with that approach, but Great Yarmouth unfortunately remains a prime example of that link, and has a range of social problems to mirror its economic ones.
Those problems were highlighted by the national index of multiple deprivation drawn up by the then Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions in 1998 and in 2000. This study examined 8,414 borough council wards in England, using the following indicators: income deprivation; employment deprivation; health deprivation; education, skills, and training deprivation; housing deprivation; and geographical access to services. In the overall ranking, the borough of Great Yarmouth was the fifth most deprived borough in England, placing it alongside the worst and most deprived of the major inner-city areas that have been well documented today. In fact, I have often heard Great Yarmouth described as the equivalent of an inner-city area, but without any of the surrounding suburbs.
The situation regarding deprivation in education, skills and training is particularly acute in Great Yarmouth. Half the council wards are in the bottom 10 per cent. for education nationally, and one fifth are in the bottom 1 per cent. Our Regent ward is rated the 19th most deprived ward in England, out of 8,414, and Nelson ward is rated 37th. Great Yarmouth also has problems in areas that were not used as indicators in the DETR's study, such as drugs, crime, high rates of teenage pregnancy and environmental concerns such as litter, rubbish in the streets and abandoned cars.
I want to draw to the attention of hon. Members the disparity between Great Yarmouth and other parts of East Anglia. Much has been said recently about the disparity between regions, particularly in the context of the north and south. But a classic example of how these disparities can exist on a smaller scale within regions is the comparison between Great Yarmouth, Norwich and Cambridge.
When I draw attention to the economic and social problems of Great Yarmouth, I sometimes feel that people think I am exaggerating. After all, Great Yarmouth is part of East Anglia, and it is widely accepted that East Anglia is a relatively wealthy region with high employment and a good standard of living. However, the latest unemployment figure for Great Yarmouth is 6.6 per cent. of the population, while the figure for the county of Norfolk is only 2.6 per cent. and for East Anglia as a whole, 2.2 per cent. In other words, unemployment in Great Yarmouth is three times the rate for the rest of the region.
Conditions in the city of Norwich, only 20 miles from Great Yarmouth, are very different. Norwich is a booming city that has had hundreds of million of pounds of inward investment in the last few years and is renowned for its quality of life. A further 50 miles south-west is the city of Cambridge, whose economy is growing almost exponentially and threatening to overheat. While Great Yarmouth is the fifth worst borough in England in terms of social deprivation, Cambridge ranks 204th on the same list. I do not for a moment begrudge Norwich and Cambridge their success, but the contrast between them and nearby Great Yarmouth is indeed stark.
1199 Having spoken of the present situation in Great Yarmouth and its regional context, I also want to consider what has happened in the recent past. From the outset, it must be said that things have improved significantly in the past few years, particularly in respect of employment. For example, in January 1997, the rate of unemployment in the borough stood at more than 10 per cent., as opposed to 6.6 per cent. today. There is no doubt that the Government's new deal programme has been a major factor in reducing unemployment in Great Yarmouth in the past few years.
It is far harder to quantify the figures across the range of indicators for social deprivation. None the less, I am hopeful that when the next study is carried out by the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, the situation in Great Yarmouth will have improved.
As for education, where Great Yarmouth has had particular problems, I am happy to say that exam and test results for pupils across the borough last summer showed a step forward in quantity and quality—a tribute to both the pupils and their teachers.
The situation is far from one of doom and gloom. I wish to pay tribute to the support and resources that Great Yarmouth has received from the Government to help alleviate some of the problems that we face. The funding comes in a variety of guises, with the largest single grant being the £4.5 million that the borough received from the neighbourhood renewal fund. I know that the "no strings attached" nature of the grant was appreciated locally and that discussions are under way as to how this large sum of money can best be spent.
Another Government initiative from which Great Yarmouth has benefited has been sure start. Funding started in 1999 and has already been extended until 2004, making a total cash injection of £4.2 million. Initial research has shown that sure start in Great Yarmouth is already succeeding in its goal of working in a new way with families who have children under four to give them the best possible start in life. Next week I will be attending the opening a new £500,000 nursery on one of Great Yarmouth's most deprived estates, which is part of the sure start initiative.
Only this week it was announced that from April 2005, Great Yarmouth's education action zone will become an excellence cluster. As a result, it will receive about £1.8 million a year in funding, compared with the present total sum of £150,000. Those in charge of the education action zone are particularly pleased with this early commitment, as it allows them to plan for the long term.
There has been some controversy over the achievements of education action zones in some parts of the country, but the one in Great Yarmouth has been a great success. Key stage 3 and 4 results are now higher than the national average, attendance levels have improved at many schools and 80 per cent. of pupils have shown measurable progress in reading. The Great Yarmouth education action zone has also been successful in setting up partnerships with a number of local businesses for sponsorship and workplace training.
I have highlighted three major funding boosts that Great Yarmouth has received from the Government, but there have been many others. They have included assisted area status and single regeneration budget moneys for Regent, Nelson and Colholm and Lichfield, three of the 1200 most deprived wards in the area. In addition, the East of England development agency has invested about £3.6 million in projects in the town since 1997, with more to come.
We have also received one of the largest grants for closed circuit television in response to the need to reduce crime. It has been a huge success, and I hope that more bids from other parts of my constituency will be looked on favourably by the Minister at the appropriate time.
The borough has benefited recently from a number of major lottery funding awards, such as that given to Tower Curing Works, a museum that will celebrate Great Yarmouth's rich maritime heritage. Heritage regeneration has also been boosted by grants from the heritage economic regeneration strategy and the town heritage initiative. These, together with a range of public and private funding partners, have paid for the Nelson museum, a major new attraction which will open on the town's south quay in April.
Finally, there have been funds from Europe in the shape of objective 2 and objective 3 grants. For example, £771,000 was given in October last year under objective 2 towards the Innovation Centre, a high-quality and high-tech centre for the energy industry, currently under construction on the South Gorleston business park.
Improvement must come from within the area, and that is happening in Great Yarmouth. Perhaps the single most important example is the development of the Great Yarmouth outer harbour. Should the project go ahead, it will undoubtedly safeguard thousands of jobs in Great Yarmouth and, I hope, create hundreds of new ones. The scheme has been talked about for more than 30 years, but today I believe that it is closer to becoming a reality than at any other time.
A company called EastPort has been set up to drive the project through. It is talking with four private operators which have tendered to run the ferry service from Great Yarmouth to Holland three times a day. The bulk of the cash for the project will be raised by the private sector, with some money coming from public sources. I am pleased that the Government have agreed that public funding for the outer harbour can be considered, so long as certain conditions are met.
Great Yarmouth is closer to Amsterdam than to London, and the port has a long history of trade with Europe and Scandinavia. Development of the outer harbour will, I hope, be a catalyst in establishing Great Yarmouth as a gateway to Europe as well as creating new jobs in a regeneration area.
The sea front partnership is another important local initiative. That joint bid, under the heading "InteGreat Yarmouth", is intended to invigorate and upgrade the town's seafront and town centre, improve the local environment, and stimulate tourism. It is a comprehensive plan that covers building improvements, traffic management, public spaces, the beach, the town centre's heritage, the environment, and information and communications technology. A funding package of £32 million—again both public and private money—has been proposed, and it will, if it goes ahead, provide a massive boost for tourism and the Great Yarmouth economy.
Those are two of the major local projects but there are many others, including the Great Yarmouth recommissioning partnership, a body formed to try to 1201 ensure that Great Yarmouth has the infrastructure and skills base to deal with recommissioning and decommissioning of huge oil and gas rig structures as they reach the end of their working lives in the southern part of the North sea.
The Scroby sands wind farm project is another exciting local development. It will provide up to 38 wind turbines on a sandbank about two miles off the Great Yarmouth coast. The plan is already well advanced, and if the scheme goes ahead, it will be the largest offshore wind farm in Great Britain, generating clean, green power and creating new jobs.
In spite of Great Yarmouth's serious problems, much is being done, both by the Government and by the people of the area. An issue remains, however, that could be characterised as a spectre at the feast. Our transport infrastructure is one of the most important matters that the Government must address if they are to help with further regeneration. For many years, Great Yarmouth has been the largest seaside town and resort not to be connected to the national motorway network by a dual carriageway. That is exacerbated by the fact that the rail connection between the town and Norwich—the nearest city—is mostly single-tracked.
Improvements have been made to various parts of the road network over the past few years, but the overall picture is patchy. One section of the network has become a cause for significant local concern. The dualling of the section of the A47 that links Acle with Great Yarmouth, commonly called the Acle straight, is probably the single biggest issue facing the area. Discussions about dualling that stretch began in earnest in 1971: today, it remains a single carriageway. The overwhelming majority of my constituents feel that that is not good enough.
The Acle straight is about eight miles long. It is not much different today than it was when it was built in the 19th century. It is particularly narrow for an A road, and it is banked on both sides by water-filled dykes. It is totally inadequate for the volume of traffic that uses it. Regrettably, its safety record over the years has been poor. Judging the distance and speed of oncoming vehicles is notoriously difficult because the road is so straight and because it has no landmarks on either side to act as reference points. Accidents on the Acle straight are not a lot more common than on other roads, but when they occur, they are often head-on crashes that result in death or serious injury.
The terrible safety record is not the only concern about that stretch of road. Delays are commonplace. That is particularly true in the summer months at the height of the tourist season, but it happens at any time. The overwhelming opinion of the people of Great Yarmouth is that the report commissioned by the Government from the consultants Maunsell failed to draw a sensible balance between environmental concerns and safety, economic regeneration and social concern. Huge weight was given to the marshland environment beside the road, but little to the population of 90,000 people. I have received 177 letters about the report from people in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk and further afield. Of those, 175 supported dualling the road, and two were against it.
Among the supporters of dualling the road are all the local authorities in Norfolk as well as the local chamber of commerce and Norfolk police authority, which believes 1202 that there is a strong case on safety grounds for making the Acle straight a dual carriageway. Surely they cannot all be wrong.
Recently there have been further developments. At its meeting on 17 January, the east of England local government conference considered the issue and instead of endorsing the consultants' report in full called for further studies to consider the economic, social and environmental impact of dualling the Acle straight. Although the prospect of further delay is frustrating, I generally support that decision, because any study that objectively considers all these matters cannot fail to support dualling. I will do all that I can to continue making that case, and I hope that when the matter finally reaches my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, he will come to the same conclusion.
Much has already been done to regenerate the town of Great Yarmouth but sadly there is still much work to do. There is no better place for that work to start than on the Acle straight and the development of our new harbour.
§ Dr. Andrew Murrison (Westbury)
It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Mr. Wright). I know that part of the world very well, and I can well understand the problems to which he refers. I was particularly interested to hear his remarks about the A47. I know the stretch of road to which he refers. It is indeed a bad stretch. It reminds me of the A36 that runs through my constituency.
This debate will inevitably focus on the regeneration of disadvantaged urban areas but cities do not exist in isolation. What goes on in them affects small towns and the countryside, whether it is the middle classes relocating from decaying city centres, or highly mobile criminals fleeing closed circuit television and the lean pickings of their urban bases. We must not suppose that disadvantage is an exclusively urban phenomenon, or that the effects of urban deprivation are confined to city centres. I was pleased to hear comments to that effect by my hon. Friends the Members for Hexham (Mr. Atkinson) and for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray).
I intend to slate the Government for their unfair treatment of Wiltshire and for their failure to lift deprivation in my constituency but I am happy that the Government are attempting, so they say, to deal with urban deprivation, by which they largely mean deprivation in city centres, I think.
§ Dr. Murrison
I am grateful to the Minister for clearing up that point. In west Wiltshire, it sometimes seems that that is not the case. I shall explain our concerns over things such as homelessness, which is a particular problem in my district.
West Wiltshire does not exist in a vacuum. Our interests interdigitate with those of urban areas. To that extent I have a parochial as well as a general interest in the regeneration of large urban areas.
If cities have high crime rates, badly performing schools, unacceptable pollution, high mortality and poor morbidity, people who are able to will choose to live 1203 elsewhere, particularly when they are sold leafy life styles by developers, who will be delighted by the Government's recent Green Paper, which will give them carte blanche to develop in the countryside against the wishes of local people. Urban deprivation leads inexorably to pressure on rural areas and more concrete countryside.
In November 2000, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions put out a useful publication called "The State of English Cities". It suggested that migration trends reinforce the picture of decline in our cities, with only four moving in for every five who move out. We are told that there are two flows of migration: flows from the north to the south; and down the urban hierarchy, to which my hon. Friend the Member for North Wiltshire has already referred, from cities to suburbs to shire towns and the countryside. In most conurbations, rates of net migration are highest for high-status professional, technical and managerial workers. That is certainly evident in the south-west.
Clearly that has implications for house prices in rural areas, pricing out those who wish to live in villages not because they are searching for a developer-fuelled rural idyll but because of work or family ties. That leads to the ludicrous situation whereby poorer rural dwellers are obliged to swap places with well-off commuters from the cities. The incomer rarely gets the satisfaction that he desires from his moving, because it destroys the very thing that he is trying to achieve for himself and his family—life in a rural area. The ex-villager also loses out because he is cut off from work, family and social ties.
That all adds more grief to a creaking transport system and means that formerly healthy and vibrant communities in city centres are increasingly socially polarised. In a written answer I was informed that332 households in west Wiltshire were accepted as being homeless in 2000–01. As at 31 March 2001 there were 90 households in temporary accommodation and 15 households in bed and breakfast accommodation." —[Official Report, 14 November 2001; Vol. 374, c.731W.]Homelessness, especially priority homelessness, has risen in England during the past four years, but disproportionately so in my constituency.
The true picture may be worse than the official statistics show. Homelessness charities claim that people were put in hostels or even threatened with arrest overnight while counts were being made in order to meet Government targets. The charity Shelter observed:During the election, a lot of attention was given to improving education and health services. We hear much less about the thousands of families stuck in grotty B and Bs … The current crisis-driven approach to homelessness is not working.Homelessness charities in and around my constituency would echo those remarks.
I represent green and pleasant Wiltshire, a beautiful part of the country that many Labour Members might suppose to be untouched by their problems of homelessness and deprivation. The problem faced by my constituency, in common with many others with a similar urban-rural mix, is that although we are by and large spared the remorselessness of vast post-war estates, our deprivation is scattered. It is there for sure, but because it is diffuse it is hidden and is difficult and relatively expensive to get at, so it is ignored.
1204 The ludicrous local government funding formula that acts against the interests of shire counties in general, and mine in particular, as well as the Government's manifest failure to act—despite their admission that there is a problem—strongly suggests that the Government cannot or will not rid themselves of the mindset that holds that constituencies such as mine are populated exclusively by the well-to-do and must be tapped to distribute largesse to what are seen as more needy urban areas.
When I was listening to some of the comments of the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake) I thought that I had heard them somewhere before. Indeed, I and many hon. Members have heard them before, because they were in this morning's mailbag in a letter from the Country Land and Business Association.
The third paragraph of that letter is especially apposite, and sums up quite well the attitude towards deprivation that is held by many people who live in rural areas. It states thatrural poverty and deprivation is all too often sidelined while the inner-city slums and estates grab the headlines. Homelessness exists in rural areas, a lack of adequate (indeed a basic lack) services and facilities—education, transport, policing—pervades many rural areas. Such problems are less visible and therefore more easily ignored.I fear that that is what is happening.
A local primary school head teacher told me this week that at a recent conference she had bearded the Secretary of State for Education and Skills on the funding formula for Wiltshire. We should remember that at the beginning of last year we heard in the House that funding for Wiltshire was inadequate. When faced with my primary school head teacher the right hon. Lady apparently threw up her hands, rolled her eyes to the heavens and said, "Do not ask me to defend the indefensible with respect to Wiltshire."
Well, I ask the Government to defend their position. When Secretaries of State admit an inequity but carry on regardless, disadvantaged people in my constituency have every right to ask what on earth is going on. Is not the truth of the matter that spending Ministers, for all their warm words and good intentions, are merely onlookers who are powerless to act against the shire-county-averse long screwdriver of the Treasury?
§ Ms Oona King (Bethnal Green and Bow)
Given the crucial importance of regeneration, it is amazing how easily it can send us all to sleep. I am delighted to detect some signs of consciousness among the remaining Members in the Chamber, although I fear for those in the Public Gallery. However, I shall press on because, in my view, no British Government have ever invested as much time and energy as the present Government have in tackling, reducing and eradicating poverty and deprivation. That is reflected in the Government's regeneration policy, which leaves no stone unturned in its search for a comprehensive and effective route out of poverty.
We have learned some lessons. We have learned over the last two decades that simply changing the way that communities look will not change the way that communities live. However, failing to change the poor and brutal quality of the built environment condemns disadvantaged communities to live in concrete cages, which is equally deplorable and unacceptable. Therefore it is crucial that we have a balance.
1205 In Tower Hamlets, inner-city regeneration is make or break. Unfortunately, during the '80s and '90s, many people felt that regeneration broke apart, and even supplanted, their local communities. As the Minister said at the start of the debate, there was too much emphasis on physical regeneration and not enough on communities, and even when physical regeneration did take place it often went over the heads of local people, who remained untouched by the money that was ploughed in. In fact, the '80s and '90s were the greatest period of degeneration that this country's housing estates have ever known.
We have done two things since. First, we have massively increased investment in the fabric of those estates. Secondly, we have recognised that local problems best respond to local solutions, not Whitehall prescriptions. That means local people deciding where the money is ploughed in and having responsibility for disbursing public money. Regeneration policy also focuses on better delivery of mainstream services to disadvantaged areas, and there is no better example of that than the new deal for communities programme.
I listened with interest to the comments of the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake). However, my experience as chair for two years of the new deal for communities programme in Tower Hamlets was utterly different from that which he described, because our NDC programme genuinely engaged local communities. Do not take my word for it—obviously, the hon. Gentleman never would—but take the word of the people who have engaged in the programme themselves.
§ Ms King
I would just like to ensure that the hon. Gentleman understands that no single programme has made a bigger difference to the life of people on one of the poorest estates in the country than the NDC programme. It was introduced on the Ocean estate in Tower Hamlets to improve the life of more than 6,000 residents there. We had one of the highest rates of infant mortality in Britain, and the sure start programme—which is integrated with a range of other programmes to challenge and reverse those appalling statistics—is making inroads. I have been honoured to work with many people who used to be in permanent confrontational mode with every form of authority, and I have found it incredibly inspiring to see their energy transformed into constructive engagement in the decision-making process.
There were problems, however, and one of the biggest problems that we had in our area surrounded the right to buy. Although the Government allocated Ocean NDC £56 million, as soon as people on that incredibly run-down estate heard that literally loads of money would be pumped into their estate after they had received nothing—not a bean—for decades, the first reaction for many of them was to make a right-to-buy application because they thought that they could make money on their properties.
One estimate is that, as a result, 80 per cent. of the £25 million earmarked for the housing element of the project will have to be spent buying up houses sold under 1206 the right-to-buy scheme. I do not believe that any hon. Member—whether in the Opposition or the Labour party—could possibly think that a good idea. I hope that, in the interests of regeneration, the Minister and the Government might consider suspending the right to buy in regeneration programmes if that right negates the entire regeneration programme so that no one is enabled to have a better quality local environment.
On right-to-buy schemes, I tell Opposition Members that I agree with the sentiment behind giving people, many from low income families, the opportunity to buy their houses. I fundamentally disagree with them that the price of handing over that opportunity is to remove vast swathes of social housing. Hon. Members will know that, for whatever reason—I shall try to say this diplomatically—after 20 years during which many present Conservative Members were in government, we were left with a £19 billion repair backlog.
The hon. Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray) suggested that fewer houses have been built under Labour. That is not true. Hon. Members should remember that the right to buy is about social housing, and more social housing units are being built in London than were ever built in any comparable time frame under the previous Administration. However, we are having to spend a huge amount of money repairing the damage that occurred as a result of degeneration. That is where a lot of money is spent.
It is appalling to think that, last year, 11,000 social housing units were sold off, but only 3,000 have been built to replace them. We need to take measures to deal with that problem. The maximum right-to-buy discount could be limited to £25,000, and the time before people were able to sell on those properties for a quick buck could be lengthened. Those sales create more sink estates. For example, people in Tower Hamlets are selling on their right-to-buy properties to rather disreputable private landlords. There are many reputable private landlords, but those properties have been sold to companies that put leaflets through the door, saying, "Let us buy your property", because they know that house prices in Tower Hamlets have exploded.
A year and a half ago, a four-bedroom terraced house in Wapping sold for £600,000. The same property was inhabited by a teacher in the 1970s—not even a Member of Parliament could afford it now, never mind a teacher. So we obviously have to consider key-worker housing in our regeneration strategies. Most of all, we have to increase the provision of affordable housing, so that those people on average and below average incomes can afford to live in areas such as Tower Hamlets.
What has the council done? It has engaged in many specific regeneration projects. It has also engaged in a variety of private-public sector partnerships with Canary Wharf. I gave an example earlier of the skills match employment brokerage agency, which has helped 1,500 local people into jobs in the last year alone. I also mentioned the Will Crooks estate, which is one of the estates closest to Canary Wharf—it is within spitting distance. Of the 400 adults of employment age living there, only two have managed to obtain employment in the metropolis that overshadows them. The local Member of Parliament, my hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Canning Town (Jim Fitzpatrick)—two Members represent Tower Hamlets—is working hard to ensure that people on that estate enjoy the fruits of regeneration.
1207 That takes us back to the issue that we discussed earlier. How do we enable local people who live in the shadow of vast regeneration projects to benefit from them? One of the answers is through community-led regeneration organisations such as the Isle of Dogs community foundation and the Bromley-by-Bow centre, which is a nationally recognised social enterprise that serves as a role model for many newer voluntary and community organisations gaining a foothold on the regeneration ladder. I pay tribute to Tower Hamlets education and business partnership, which is nationally recognised as a model of good practice.
I also want to mention some of the innovation that has been taking place. There has been a great willingness to test out new approaches and take risks. For instance, networks of community-based access and vocational training providers offer courses that reflect the specialist finance, banking and knowledge economies of Canary Wharf and the City fringe. Specialist enterprise support agencies have emerged and they range from the cultural industries development agency to the ethnic minority enterprise project. Such agencies have helped more than 250 businesses to start up and grow. I also pay tribute to the work of the Prince's Trust in east London. It has helped many young people who have often been in long-term unemployment into jobs, which is a wonderful achievement.
I hope that the continuing wave of regeneration will take into account the needs and wishes of local communities. Some huge projects are involved and they have an influence far beyond Tower Hamlets or east London. For example, the Bishopsgate goods yard, to where the East London line will be extended, will open up transport opportunities for an entire region. In Spitalfields, another very large regeneration project has yet to receive the support of all residents, although many local businesses write to me to say how much they welcome such new development. However, an equal number of correspondents who are local residents are terrorised by the idea of this development project. We do not need more bland, enormous, dehumanising slabs of corporate office blocks, which add no character to the neighbourhood. We need projects that bring together the community's aspirations and reflect some of the community's character. Unfortunately, that has not happened in the past.
I want to sum up by looking at how much has been achieved. In Tower Hamlets in 1997, the unemployment rate was 16.6 per cent. As a result of the projects, local efforts—especially by the local council and the community—and the Government's strategy, our unemployment rate has fallen in five years to 11.6 per cent. That is a fantastic achievement. However, we still have one of the highest unemployment rates in London and, indeed, in the country.
My hon. Friends the Members for Regent's Park and Kensington, North (Ms Buck) and for Hammersmith and Fulham (Mr. Coleman) made the case for London. I know that people outside London get infuriated because they think that all its streets are paved with gold, but I wish that they would recognise this one fact: there are more poor people proportionately in London than in any other region. That fact seems to have been lost in the same way as Londoners once did not recognise the extent of rural poverty, which we must acknowledge. I hope that people outside the capital realise that although some of the richest people in Britain live in London, some of the poorest also 1208 live here. We must ensure that our regeneration policy takes that into account. We must use planning gain agreements—section 106 agreements—to promote the regeneration that helps the poorest people.
I hope that the comprehensive spending review will give a significant boost to investment in social housing. The Labour Government have trebled the amount of money for social housing and, as I said in a debate on Tuesday, we are millions of pounds better off under Labour. However, we also know that we need more. We have to ensure that regeneration benefits all stakeholders—residents, businesses, schools and school children, faith organisations and the voluntary sector—because we have to eradicate the poverty that stalks the capital and this country.
§ 1.2 pm
§ Mr. Robert Syms (Poole)
I declare an interest as a director of a family building and property company, in case anything that I say relates to that.
The debate is important; we know that from the number of hon. Members present and from what they have said about their communities. Regeneration impacts on all of us. Hon. Members on both sides of the House come into politics to do some good or make a difference. Political action on regeneration, especially in disadvantaged areas, can make a difference providing that it is sensible and measured and that it involves the communities.
We have heard much about the built environment and individuals in communities. The key factor is that community leaders need to have a vision and set out the way forward. We all know about cycles of decline: firms move out of an area, housing deteriorates and the most enterprising people decide to leave; public services are not at their best, and people struggle with inadequate health, education and transport infrastructures. That creates terrible problems, resulting in crime and lawlessness. It is frustrating for people who live in such areas, and who have known their communities in better times, to see that happen. Ministers and politicians have to put regeneration high up the political agenda. It must be a priority. We need to put our efforts into ensuring that we provide leadership and a vision so that communities can pull themselves out of those circumstances.
A few years ago I visited the Heritage Foundation in Washington. I talked to some fairly right-wing individuals who said that for a long time they were relaxed about the fact that most of America's problems were in the ghettos and inner cities until they realised that being indifferent to them meant that they spread. The problems had a cultural impact on adjacent districts, and the rising crime rates spread there. It is beneficial for everyone in society to tackle such problems because they can easily move into other areas. Sometimes that will require more public investment, but overall that would be to our benefit.
In most of our major cities—Manchester, Birmingham or wherever—many of the prosperous suburbs feed off what happens in the city centres. There is great interlinkage. No politician can be indifferent about the fate of people who are left in our inner cities.
The Government have a surprisingly wide range of measures to deal with the matters that we are discussing; indeed, I agree with those who say that there are probably too many measures that are too complex. Perhaps much more should be done to publicise all the grants and other 1209 schemes that are available. I was unaware of many of the schemes that could be accessed, and I suspect that many people in many communities are similarly unaware.
There are some measures that I welcome. In the past, I fought the seat of Walsall, North. In doing so, I noticed that there were many contaminated sites. The accelerated tax credit of 150 per cent. to encourage owners and investors to get contaminated land back into the system is a positive move. The private sector will not do that; however, it can take advantage of the scheme for the benefit of communities.
I welcome also the 100 per cent. capital allowance for putting flats over shops. One of the problems is that when people move out of cities, we cease to have communities. People are no longer looking down the street to see what is going on. We must repopulate some areas of our cities. Some business districts depopulate in the evenings, which is not good. Anything that encourages more people to live over the shop may be good for the general community.
I am not enthusiastic about the recent Budget announcements of reductions in stamp duty for people who buy houses in some deprived wards. It is a rough-and-ready approach. There is expensive and prosperous housing in some extremely deprived wards. People will have to apply for discounts in areas where they are likely to be available, and the scheme will be a minor part of any regeneration activity.
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
My hon. Friend has raised an important point about the reduction of stamp duty in deprived areas, which will ghettoise them. That will be one effect of the scheme. Is my hon. Friend aware that if the Government bring forward their seller's pack proposals, they will replicate the ghettoising, making it even more difficult to sell houses in some areas?
§ Mr. Syms
My hon. Friend makes an interesting point. Stigma is important. People's perceptions of an area can do an area a great deal of harm.
I have concerns about what the Government are aiming to do following publication of the White Paper on local government. For example, they are aiming to introduce corporate performance assessments of local councils. They have four classifications: high performing, striving, coasting and failing. That system takes no account of whether a council is trying to improve, for example. It is a broad-brush approach. I fear that an authority that may be improving will still be classified as failing. In an inner-city area, that in itself may lead to stigma and send out the wrong signals to a potential investor.
We must be careful about targeting measures such as tax relief on an area because that area is perceived as being deprived. We must be careful also about measures that the Government have in mind to try to improve the performance of local government. That could lead to concern that local government in some areas is not working as well as it is.
I know that the Government whom I supported were keen on league tables, but those tables and classifications can confuse as much as inform people. I have concerns about the direction the Government are taking. Although the language concerning change in local government is 1210 one of freedom of opportunity, there is still a substantial degree of ministerial control. We seem to be going down the road of rather more specific grants, which will diminish local autonomy.
I spent a long time in local government. One of my deepest regrets was that the Conservative Government did not trust local government more but sought to interfere. The present Government, despite the language, seem to be moving in the same direction. If we had let local authorities have more freedom, I doubt whether some of the problems in some major conurbations would be as great. In the great days of local government—the Victorian era—a great deal was produced and built by local business men and leaders of local communities who had a great deal of independence and authority. The way forward is to give local government a lot more support and latitude and to encourage local leaders to get involved in local government.
Like many of my hon. Friends, I am not a great enthusiast for regions. I can see no great benefit in the South West of England regional development agency. No doubt one day I shall change my mind and surprise myself. I would prefer the emphasis to be at local government level—with the people on the ground who know their communities—and I hope that the Government will give local authorities more support.
We are dealing with a complex matter. We may not be able to solve all the problems of inner cities, but we should do our best to improve local communities.The Economist has drawn attention to current trends. The economy is growing and there is evidence of repopulation of many of our inner-city areas. Houses are being done up and there is a certain vitality in many parts of central London as young people move in and there are more nightclubs and so on. There are, however, problems in certain suburban areas that are not as well served by transport links and do not offer the opportunities that people saw there 20 or 30 years ago. There is a trend whereby people are moving back into inner cities, but, as has been pointed out repeatedly today, there is a great deal of inequality. There are extremes of wealth and poverty and many local job opportunities are taken by Australians, New Zealanders and others travelling across the world. We have to do more to improve the skills base to match local potential with the jobs available, instead of looking to people who travel long distances to take advantage of the opportunities in London.
London Members have highlighted the problems facing London. London has always had high unemployment and areas of deprivation, often in areas that are a little off the beaten track—the ones that we do not see on the way into town. We have a great opportunity for the renaissance of our capital. Hon. Members see a great deal of London and we can do more to reverse these trends, but we have to make it a priority.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Mr. Atkinson) pointed out when he described the regeneration in Newcastle upon Tyne, there are many opportunities for improvement providing that there is vision, that the private sector and local communities are involved and that there is a long-term strategy so that people do not think that politicians will walk away. I do not have to tell Labour Members that politicians are often tempted to change schemes and to rebrand and relaunch 1211 them, but this can undermine regeneration schemes as people think that they are here today and gone tomorrow. Long-term commitment is required.
We are discussing an important issue. As a Conservative I feel strongly that as one nation we have to do the best for all our citizens, particularly those who do not have the ability to help themselves. With leadership, vision and Government help, and by enhancing the great talents of our people, I believe that we can create a better Britain in which all our people can be proud of their communities.
§ Phil Hope (Corby)
I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in this important debate. I represent 60 villages in my constituency, together with the town of Corby. I have often spoken on rural policy, but today I shall focus on the urban regeneration that is so desperately needed.
It was interesting to hear Conservative Members talk about a non-partisan approach, promptly criticise the Government and Labour councils for failing to tackle the problems that we have inherited and then complain when we remind them of the cause of those problems—18 years of Tory rule.
It does not help when the hon. Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray) declares himself to have been a political adviser to the Tory Government on those policies. In sharp contrast, the hon. Member for Poole (Mr. Syms), made a very different kind of one-nation Conservative speech, praising a lot of Labour policies and criticising those of the former Conservative Administration. We will not let the Conservatives airbrush out their record of abandoning our disadvantaged areas, because we, in government, now have to clear up the mess that they left behind.
I listened carefully to the proposals. Let us have some constructive options, said the hon. Member for Cotswold (Mr. Clifton-Brown). What did he offer? He said that we should streamline the money and appoint another Minister, have some more tax cuts, and protect greenfield sites. In my book that does not add up to much of a policy for improving disadvantaged areas.
Perhaps we should not be surprised that Madame Tussauds has today decided not to make or display a waxwork model of the Leader of the Opposition—arguably, we already have one here—and said, "We've always done the three party leaders, but we thought, hang on, is this guy really going to provoke any excitement in the people?" Clearly, as with the absence of any regeneration policies, the answer is no.
We must recognise the problems, and the work that the Government have done to overcome them. Our programmes are providing tremendous opportunities for towns such as Corby, hit hard in the Conservative 1980s and 1990s with massive unemployment and disinvestment in housing, health and education. The local economy is now recovering. With Labour, the spirit of Corby has come to the fore. We are all proud of our constituencies, but Corby really is special. It is the town that would not die, despite the tremendous challenges that it faced. I hope that, with Government help for regeneration, it will not just survive but flourish and grow.
We have problems, though. We have low unemployment—less than 3 per cent., as a result of the Government's policies—but we have a low-skill, 1212 low-wage economy. Public transport is still woefully inadequate: we are possibly the largest town in Europe without a passenger railway station. We have more than our share of health problems, with the highest incidence of coronary heart disease in the country. The legacy of poor 1960s urban design has left us with rundown housing estates and a town centre in urgent need of new investment.
We have done a good deal, but we cannot be complacent. I want to set out some particular highlights and challenges. As part of the massive extra public and private investment in our first term, children in Corby have benefited from the education action zone, which the Government have just extended with £5 million of extra investment targeted on schools and children in the areas of greatest need.
Education is a mixed story in Corby: we have one of the top-performing comprehensives in the country, but we also have a few schools struggling to give pupils the best start in life. The education action zone is pulling those schools together to get co-operation and common endeavour in the interests of all the children in Corby, not just a few.
I want to record my appreciation of the tremendous commitment and dedication of teachers, classroom assistants, ancillary staff, and especially the heads, who are working together to raise standards. We are now giving them the tools to do the job: repairing the roofs, providing new equipment for science laboratories and building new classrooms and facilities. Results are improving as a consequence, particularly in the primary sector, and now increasingly in the secondary sector, too.
A key feature of the debate about regeneration is having what the Deputy Prime Minister called a progressive universalism in our approach. We need to fund education and health for the whole community while taking a progressive approach and doing more for those people and areas that need it most. That is what we are doing through the new deal for communities. That targeted help is raising standards and pulling people together in a way that no other scheme has achieved.
The urban regeneration company and the neighbourhood renewal strategy are further examples of how we are doing something for everyone but more for those who need it most. Sure start has been mentioned today. We have an excellent scheme in Corby, targeted at children and families in some of our poorest neighbourhoods. We have good nursery and playgroup provision for three and four-year-olds but sure start targets the most disadvantaged areas and gives them an extra boost just when they need it most.
One of Corby's greatest success stories is the Pen Green centre—my own children went there, some 15 or 16 years ago—which is now a centre of excellence, working with children and families. Sure start is based at that centre, working in the most disadvantaged communities. I describe it as a success story, but I have concerns that my county council, in reshaping its budget, is proposing a significant reduction in funding for Pen Green. I am having a good dialogue with the council—officers and members—to ensure that they listen to my representations not to proceed with that cut and to listen to the hundreds of local parents who rely on the centre for support.
1213 In regeneration, it is the holistic approach that really counts. In Corby, we have established an urban regeneration company called Catalyst Corby. Ministers know of our regeneration plans; the Deputy Prime Minister visited Corby a year ago this month and launched the company. Since then, the Minister for Employment and the Regions, the Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh, South (Nigel Griffiths), and the Minister for Sport have visited Corby to see our successes. These include Rockingham Speedway, a massive new investment of £48 million in an Indy-style racetrack—one of the first of its kind in Europe—which is located in Corby.
Catalyst Corby is building on that investment. In every sense, it is a public-private partnership, directly involving on the board the private sector, regional government agencies, local councils and the voluntary sector. It is a board that I am proud to be a member of as well.
We have some small ambitions for our town. We want to double the size of Corby and introduce a far wider range of housing. We want to transform Corby town centre and provide a much better shopping centre and a fuller range of leisure opportunities. Crucially, we want to secure the re-opening of a good-quality train service to put Corby on the map and open up its potential as a place from which to commute to London and elsewhere. We want to widen the employment base by ensuring an adequate supply of land and by using some of the tax credits that have been mentioned by Conservative Members—another effective Government measure to promote regeneration.
We need a new image for Corby, and we need to promote it throughout the country as a place of growth and regeneration for the future. The board is up and running and we have a group of talented individuals. Our baseline study has been completed and staff are working to deliver the process.
One issue that is related to public confidence in Corby is public transport. Corby's bus services are clearly inadequate and have reached a level where they are no longer viable. I have had lengthy discussions with the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, my noble friend Lord Falconer, the Minister of State responsible for regeneration, and my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary, who is on the Front Bench today. I know that there is a willingness to assist.
I know also that there are many demands on Ministers, particularly in relation to transport, but it is absolutely vital that we get this right. I am looking to Ministers to help to make sure that the Government play their part, along with the county council, to ensure that we have a viable integrated transport network of buses and trains in the town. Without that, we cannot succeed in our endeavours.
The regeneration of a town such as Corby is a microcosm of what we want to achieve for the country. We are putting together public and private sectors; involving the community in decision making; identifying key areas for strategic investment; and backing that all the way with political will and Government resources to achieve outcomes. We are working on that in Corby and we are moving forward. I hope that we can hear good news from Ministers in the weeks to come as Corby goes into the future.
§ Mr. Mark Hoban (Fareham)
Although my constituency is not deprived and the region in which it is located is not poor, I have a particular interest in today's topic because of my background. I was born and brought up in the north-east of England. I lived there for the first 18 years of my life before coming to London to attend university, and I have a strong commitment to what I consider my home region.
The north-east is the most deprived region in this country, as measured by household disposable income. In 1998, disposable income per head was £8,080, or 86 per cent. of the UK average. The local newspaper, The Northern Echo, which was referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Mr. Atkinson), described the scale of the problem when it recorded that, according to almost every key economic and social indicator, the region is lagging behind other UK regions.
One important way to tackle the problems in deprived areas in the north-east and elsewhere is through education, which provides a ladder, enabling people to rise from a background of low skill and poor education and improve themselves. I know that the Government share the view that education is important to regeneration. In a White Paper published in July 1998, the Deputy Prime Minister highlighted the importance of education as a means of regeneration.
Reference has been made to the many schemes that the Government have introduced, such as education action zones, to which the hon. Member for Corby (Phil Hope) referred. However, my concern is that those schemes have not been successful in narrowing the gap in exam results between poor and wealthy areas of the country—a point that was highlighted in this week's report on the north-east by Ofsted. I shall quote some figures from it that perhaps illustrate the point, but I should first declare an interest, in that in 1997 I stood as a parliamentary candidate in South Shields, which formed part of south Tyneside.
In terms of 15-year-olds who achieved five or more A* to C GCSE grades, the gap between south Tyneside and the rest of England in 1997 was 9.4 per cent. By 2001, that gap had widened to 10.9 per cent. In 2001, some 39.1 per cent. of children in south Tyneside achieved five or more A* to C grades, but in England as a whole, 50 per cent. achieved the same result.
§ Mr. Andrew Love (Edmonton)
Does the hon. Gentleman agree that one of the best ways to address the regional disparities that he is outlining is through an elected regional assembly for the north-east?
§ Mr. Hoban
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for making that point. My hon. Friend the Member for Hexham made particular reference to the role of regional government, but I chose not to intervene as I did not wish to steal his thunder. I visit the north-east, where virtually all my family live, some four or five times a year and, as I said, I stood as a parliamentary candidate in South Shields in 1997. However, in my many visits I have heard nobody demand an extra layer of regional government. Nobody has told me that they want a regional assembly in the north-east. People are not rioting on the streets of the north-east, demanding a regional assembly to address the disparity in regional performance. The argument that a regional assembly can improve regional performance is bogus.
1215 I took care to check that south Tyneside was not an isolated example of those regional disparities in exam results, and was not the only area affected. In Newcastle, for example, the gap has widened from 13.5 per cent. in 1997 to 14.3 per cent. in 2001. Indeed, in the north-east as whole the gap has widened from 7.3 per cent. in 1997 to 8.5 per cent. in 2001. The gap in results between the most deprived region and the country as a whole is therefore widening.
The Government have introduced a number of schemes such as excellence in cities and the education action zones, and we hope that they will produce results. The hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Mr. Wright) identified the achievements in his constituency arising from the EAZs. I shall quote from the Ofsted report that was published earlier this week to give its perception of the success of the zones. Mike Tomlinson states:Effective initiatives have contributed to an improvement in primary schools in the zones, although attainment remains generally below the national average … the gap between schools in zones and schools nationally"—at key stages other than key stage 1—has not reduced significantly.That is a sad indictment of the policy introduced by the Labour Government to improve education in those areas. It certainly is not working for the country as a whole.
The hon. Member for Corby mentioned the success of education action zones, but we know that they have not achieved the financial results that had been hoped. They have not raised the amount of private money that they had been targeted to attract, which is why some have been closed and rolled into the excellence in cities programme. An announcement to that effect was made by the Government last year.
The excellence in cities programme has not achieved that many improvements itself. The Ofsted report states of schools in the programme:At this early stage, the initiatives had not yet resulted in rates of improvement in attainment, attendance or teaching quality significantly higher than in schools nationally, although improvement in Key Stage 3 results in mathematics were encouraging.
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
Does my hon. Friend agree that education is part of an overall picture in the inner cities, and that one of the reasons that it is so important is that it can encourage potential investors into this country? For example, Toyota created a huge number of jobs in Tyne and Wear, and the knock-on effect for the regeneration of the north-east was very large.
§ Mr. Hoban
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his intervention, although it was Nissan, not Toyota, that invested in Sunderland. The contribution that that has made to the region has been enormously beneficial, and a number of other businesses have moved to the area to service that industry. It is important, when attracting inward investment, to have a pool of talented, skilled employees. We need to focus on that, because—as my hon. Friend says—education is one of many facets of regeneration. It is a particularly important facet for individuals, but for the entire north-east it is vital for achieving economic success.
One of the problems that the Government are trying to resolve by tackling the educational problems in the north-east is the historical legacy not of 18 years of 1216 Conservative Government but of the fact that the local education authorities—all of which operated under a high degree of autonomy while we were in power, although that autonomy has subsequently been eroded by this Government—were Labour-controlled. The results in education authorities such as South Tyneside, Newcastle and Sunderland are a consequence of years of Labour control. There is much to be done to improve the results in those areas, and I am not sure that central Government initiatives are the only way of achieving that.
We need to ensure that there is more choice in schools. We must move away from a monochrome mix of schools towards more variety and innovation, to attract teachers into schools in deprived areas. The Ofsted report comments that it is difficult to attract teachers to schools in those areas. Perhaps we need to be more innovative in terms of the type of education that those schools offer, to excite and challenge teachers to come and work in them.
We also need to consider parental choice in deprived areas, where there is, unfortunately, not a wide diversity of choice in terms of the range of schools on offer. People in the north-east who can afford to do so will send their children to the private schools. I attended a comprehensive school in Durham, and I benefited from that. Escaping poor schools should not be an opportunity open only to those who can afford to go to private schools. We must therefore ensure that the state schools system is attractive and that we can offer more choice to parents on low incomes. One of the retrograde steps taken by the Government in their first term was to abolish the assisted places scheme, which had provided an opportunity for parents to escape the state sector and for those in less well-off areas to benefit from a different type of education.
In the United States, George Bush has focused on the need to allow parents in areas where schools are poor to have an effective choice in education through a form of education voucher. It will be interesting to see the product of that reform and how it will change the lives of the people in those areas.
I am conscious that time is short and many Labour Members wish to speak. I do not wish to deprive them of that opportunity, but I have one more point to make. The other aspects of policy to which we need to pay close attention are planning and development, which have been touched on frequently in the debate. Living in the south-east and representing a seat in Hampshire, which will see a great increase in its population in the next 10 to 15 years, I am acutely conscious that by building more homes in the south-east, we are in danger of encouraging economic migration from the north to the south. My hon. Friend the Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison) referred to the migration population being primarily among skilled and senior technical staff in businesses.
My concern is that by increasing significantly the number of houses to be built in the south—an increase significantly greater than that in the north-east—we are in danger of impoverishing the north-east by dragging its skilled, technically able people to the south. Although I wish my constituency to develop well economically, I do not want that to happen at the expense of the one nation to which my hon. Friend the Member for Poole (Mr. Syms) referred in his remarks. Our planning and development policies need to reflect and consider the impact of greater house building in the south-east on the impoverishment of areas in the north.
1217 The hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Ms King) referred to community-led initiatives. The Portsmouth housing association is trying to develop a bond to finance a project called Fusion. It will combine public and private investment in a wide range of skills to tackle the poverty and deprivation that exist along the south coast, in Portsmouth and the neighbouring boroughs, including Fareham. I welcome that scheme, because it demonstrates the need to look at the fabric of our environment and to provide the education and skills that people need to lift themselves out of deprivation. It also demonstrates how the public and private sectors can work together. To use a housing association as a facilitator is an excellent idea.
In conclusion, we must ensure that all the Government's policies are directed towards improving the lot of those living in deprived areas. I am concerned that their policies on education and planning will work against the interests of those people, not in their favour.
§ Mr. Tom Harris (Glasgow, Cathcart)
The hon. Member for Cotswold (Mr. Clifton-Brown) started his speech with an appeal for a bipartisan approach. I am not sure how his ancestor, whom I am informed was a former Speaker of the House, would have viewed the hon. Gentleman's definition of bipartisan. However, in the spirit of his redefinition of the word, I should like to respond to the Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray), who said that the message the Conservative party is receiving from the electorate is, "Come back, all is forgiven." I am not a theologian, but my understanding is that for forgiveness to be offered it must be asked for, and not one Conservative Member has apologised for a single policy adopted by the previous Tory Government. Therefore, I cannot see forgiveness being offered or forthcoming from the electorate.
I am one of nine Members—at the moment, anyway—representing the city of Glasgow.[Laughter.] There is no hidden agenda in my speech.
Glasgow is Scotland's first city, though not its capital. I need not go over in detail the often tragic history of Glasgow's 20th century decline from being a city of more than 1 million citizens and the home of the world's finest shipbuilding industry to a city of barely 600,000 people with high unemployment and some of the worst ill health and deprivation in the country. If poverty was Glasgow's only problem, however, the plight of some of my constituents would be less serious than it is. As Labour Members know, poverty leads to many other social ills, a fact repeatedly denied by the Conservative party when it was in Government.
Poverty leads directly to crime, drug abuse and poor health. As unemployment and poverty in Glasgow have reached new heights, so have crime, drug abuse, drug dealing, money laundering and violence. I served for three months—it felt much longer—on the Standing Committee that scrutinised the Proceeds of Crime Bill. Many of its provisions will tackle those who seek to capitalise on others' misery, but grinding poverty can be tackled only by giving people real jobs.
The House should be in no doubt about the seriousness of Glasgow's predicament. I referred earlier to Glasgow being Scotland's first city, but not its capital. I should 1218 prefer Glasgow to be the capital of Scotland, and I feel an early-day motion coming on. It may not be helpful if I go down that road now; others might follow me, and I can imagine my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Rutherglen (Mr. McAvoy) making a strong case if we give him half a chance. That said, Glasgow is the first city of Scotland, capital or not, and Scotland cannot thrive while its largest city struggles. Just one example of the problems is the fact that 19 per cent. of the working age population claimed sickness or disability benefits in August 2000.
I do not want to dwell entirely on the negative side of my city. A great deal is happening that is positive, and I pay tribute to the members of Glasgow city council and their energetic leader, Councillor Charlie Gordon. A sense of optimism can be felt in a large part of the city. The council inherited a difficult situation when it was created from the ashes of Strathclyde regional council and Glasgow city council in 1996. The administration has shown imagination and creativity in addressing Glasgow's problems. The prospective wholesale transfer of the council's housing stock is a good example of that.
Notwithstanding the mess that resulted from the then Tory Government's utterly cynical reorganisation of local government in 1996, Governments of different political persuasion have contributed to a gradual, if fitful, regeneration of the city over the past 30 years. I welcome, as did the city council, the abolition by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in November of stamp duty on all residential and business property transactions worth between £60,000 and £150,000 in designated disadvantaged areas. Castlemilk in my constituency has benefited from that, and I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his imaginative initiative.
That said, I must agree with the hon. Member for Poole (Mr. Syms) that the benefits of the initiative may not be widely felt, at least in the short term. Glasgow city council concluded thatwhile Stamp Duty exemption may be seen as an additional incentive, considerations such as access to markets and suppliers and high quality transport links, are likely to prove of more fundamental significance".Glasgow benefits from better transport links than anywhere else in Scotland. West-central Scotland has the largest commuter rail network in the UK outside London. Glasgow underground, operated by my former employer, Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive, carries 15 million passengers a year.
Even so, bus services, which are crucial to the mobility of any work force, remain the most popular form of public transport in Scotland. The Government have an opportunity to make a real difference and a major improvement in that respect. The Conservative Government's deregulation of the bus industry in 1986 was an unmitigated disaster for the travelling public, though I accept that it was not so for those who own shares in private bus companies. There is no evidence yet that quality partnerships—voluntary agreements between local authorities and private bus companies—can deliver the improvements in local bus services that are essential to the economic well-being of our country. That is a particular problem in Glasgow, where car ownership is well below the national average.
I hope that this Government—I cannot speak for the Scottish Executive—have not missed the opportunity to introduce quality contracts: exclusive franchises to give 1219 ordinary members of the public a proper, regular and dependable bus service. Glasgow is rare among post-industrial British cities in that it has inherited a decent road network, despite having depended on its rail network for many years. I welcome the building of the M74 motorway extension because of the number of jobs that it will create and because there is a missing link in the motorway network around Glasgow, which must be filled if we are to regenerate the city.
Computer models have shown that the chance of creating local jobs for local people beyond a three-mile radius decreases exponentially, so one of the keys to unlocking the potential for job creation in cities such as Glasgow—it was mentioned by the hon. Member for Poole—is derelict land reclamation. Writing in the "Oxford Review of Economic Policy", one of my constituents, the economist David Webster, points out that cities' brownfield land isthe great asset that most areas of high unemployment have in abundance.He refers to the success of Leeds, which, although it is known for its service industry, has done remarkably well in attracting manufacturing jobs. That is no accident. It is because of its proactive policy on land reclamation.
The key is bringing derelict land back into use, particularly contaminated land. Nine per cent. of Glasgow's total land area is currently vacant or derelict, yet unfortunately the importance of that issue has been downgraded by Scottish Enterprise in particular and by the Scottish Executive. It is crucial that we not only identify those parts of the city but invest enough money to rehabilitate them. That is the only way in which to get new companies to come into cities to set up factories and distribution centres that will employ local people.
As I have said, Scottish Enterprise is the main agency in that respect. It needs to push land reclamation to the top of the local economic agenda. I accept that it will involve serious amounts of money. I hope that the Government will see it as a serious enough problem to contribute that money.
I understand that there is a lack of time in this debate and I want to give colleagues a chance to speak. Not only am I extremely proud of the history of my city but I believe that it has a great future. Politicians leading it at city council and national levels are committed to it. We can look forward to a brighter economic future.
§ Mr. Chris Pond (Gravesham)
My hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Cathcart (Mr. Harris) talked about the optimism for the future of his constituency. I want to say a few words about the experience of regeneration in my constituency and some of the principles on which that is based, and to underline the optimism there.
Gravesham has a proud history. As I take every opportunity to remind the House, Dickens lived there and Pocahontas died there. It has the oldest cast iron pier in the world and the oldest chartered market in the south of England. People used to come in their droves to Gravesham to promenade along the river or in Rosherville gardens, but for much of the previous century it went through a sadder time. The older heavy industries, such as paper manufacturing and cement quarrying, declined, unemployment rose, prosperity fell and the local environment suffered. During the 1980s and 1990s the 1220 area was hard hit by both rising unemployment and negative equity. Now things are changing. There is growing prosperity in that part of north Kent, in particular in Kent Thameside. Crime has fallen by 10 per cent. in the past year alone. It has become one of the most dynamic areas of the country.
Gravesham borough council has won beacon status for its work in town centre regeneration, which was based on several principles. The first is partnership, which has been mentioned by several speakers. As my hon. Friend the Minister underlined in her opening remarks—I apologise for missing the first few moments of her speech—regeneration used to be something that was done to local people and local communities; it was not done by them and with them. Before embarking on the regeneration of Gravesham town centre, Gravesham borough council and its partners in the private sector, the voluntary organisations and the public services undertook a major public consultation exercise to find out exactly what people wanted from their town centre and their borough.
The main message that came through was that local people are proud of their history and heritage, but ambitious for their future. Regeneration of Gravesham as a whole, and of the town centre in particular, was based on plans to revitalise that heritage but also to ensure that we have a living and vibrant community, with repopulation of the town centre to bring the whole borough back to life.
We are proud of our history, but we are not nostalgic. We shall ensure that we can build that vibrant and prosperous future. Many of the challenges that we have faced recently have stimulated our determination to do that—not least the fact that two of the largest shopping centres in Europe are close to our borders. Thurrock is just across the river, while the new Bluewater shopping centre—the largest in Europe—is five miles away along the A2.
In Gravesham, we could have rolled over and said, "Well that's the end of our town centre in Gravesend." The competition with our retailers could have been seen as a threat: we saw it as an opportunity. Every year, 30 million people visit Bluewater, but the 1,750 people who work in the complex provide the mechanism for bringing regeneration and spending power into the borough.
We have worked in partnership, not only locally with the private, voluntary and public sectors in Gravesham, but with those key strategic elements that are so important in the Government's approach to regeneration. We are making sure that we build a future that meets the needs of local communities and local people.
We are not talking only about economic regeneration. The second important principle is social regeneration. In the past, regeneration too often left local communities and local people behind. Sustainable development requires the benefits to be shared throughout the community.
One of the reasons that my constituency—like those of many Members on both sides of the House—has experienced growing prosperity is due to the range of national policies that helped to ensure that the poorer sections of the community were able to share in that general rising prosperity. The national minimum wage, the working families tax credit, the new deal and the new tax credits that we debated yesterday all ensure not only that the proceeds of regeneration are more fairly shared, 1221 but that, due to the extra spending power of those sections of the community, regeneration itself becomes a driving force for sustainable economic renewal.
Economic, social and environmental regeneration are all important. Lord Rogers pointed out thaturban policies are not just about bricks and mortar, but about improving the prosperity and quality of life for the people who live there".I warmly welcome the Government's emphasis on ensuring that, wherever possible, new housing developments are on brownfield sites and we avoid developments on greenfield sites. In my constituency—as in Glasgow—we have more than enough brownfield sites for those developments. By using town centre sites for social housing and for housing for our much-needed key workers we can revitalise the town centre while ensuring that we do not eat further into greenfield sites and thus into the quality of life of people in the community as a whole.
My constituency is a mixed rural and urban community. It is mainly urban, but there are some important rural parts and many attractive villages. We need to preserve the quality of the rural areas, for both parts of the community. As many hon. Members have said, we must ensure that, in debate on this subject, we talk about rural as well as urban regeneration. There is not a trade-off between those two. To bring about sustainable regeneration, they must go hand in hand.
We also need to improve the quality of the environment and the quality of life for those living in urban areas, which is why schemes such as home zone are so important. I am pleased that a £400,000 home zone project was recently announced for one of the most deprived parts of my constituency, in Denton and the Northcourt estate. It will mean environmental improvement, better play areas, traffic calming and a general improvement in the quality of life for people living in that area.
Finally, as other hon. Members have suggested, regeneration is also about the quality of public services. Transport, as we all know, is important. One of the driving forces of regeneration in my part of the country will of course be the channel tunnel rail link. Its Ebbsfleet station, which will be in my constituency, will be a major source of economic dynamism in the years ahead. Local transport projects such as fast track will ensure that we have accessible and affordable transport links to draw together the different parts of Kent Thameside and to ensure that everyone can share in prosperity.
Regeneration is also about other forms of public services, such as the health service. Many hon. Members have spoken about education. Regeneration is about the healthy living centre that we are about to establish, the new community hospital that we are in the process of building, and the new medical centre. All these things are a way of ensuring that regeneration has a real impact on the quality of people's lives.
With the optimism that I spoke about at the start of my speech, we can look forward in our part of Kent—previously a deprived area—to real dynamism, growth and prosperity in the years ahead, and a real improvement in the quality of people's lives, assisted by £14 million of European Union urban funding. We will ensure that that 1222 funding is spent in such a way that it meets the needs of local people and communities, and ensures regeneration not only of the economy but of the environment and the community.
§ Jon Cruddas (Dagenham)
Today's discussion covers important territory in terms of the needs of the people whom I represent in Dagenham. I want to examine the issues with reference both to my constituency and developments across east London.
Let us consider some of the basic characteristics of the community that I represent. It is the lowest-wage economy in Greater London and one of the most deprived boroughs in the capital. Adult numeracy is the second lowest in the country, literacy the fourth lowest. The number of residents with higher educational qualifications is the lowest in the country. Heart and lung disease, infant mortality and life expectancy are among the worst in the capital. Fear of crime dominates all community surveys. Police numbers are chronically low.
Questions surrounding public services cannot be separated from issues of regeneration. The national public services strategy is starting to have an effect locally. The borough has some of the most improved schools in the country. The early-years agenda has resulted in major investments. A new private finance initiative hospital in Romford is expected to open in 2005. Seventy-nine new police officers are to enter the borough in the next 18 months. Overall we are starting to witness change, yet the needs of the community are immense.
However, the real challenges in east London are more profound. The analysis contained in the London development agency's London plan shows that for 30 years after the second world war, business and populations emigrated from London through new town development. By 1983, London's population had dropped by some 1.2 million. What followed was a fall in housebuilding and an abandonment of strategic planning in London. Therefore, as London developed rapidly over the past 20 years, it was ill prepared to handle growth in terms of strategic guidance, infrastructure, housing, transport and public services.
The population is set to grow by another 1 million over the next 10 to 15 years, and the London plan sets out two options: either we witness a new period of externalisation out of London or we accept that economic growth and create an adequate infrastructure to enable the city to achieve sustainable development. The plan proposes the latter.
Huge issues are thrown up by that conclusion. How do we handle some 500,000 extra households over the next 15 years? Where is the brownfield development? Where do we physically build the houses? Where are these new communities employed? What are the consequences for education, health and transport?
When we consider how London will strategically manage those changes, we see that all roads lead east. Dagenham sits at the centre of the sub-region that will have to accommodate much of that growth—the Thames gateway. East London is an exciting place to be at the moment. In terms of London's economic development, the centre of gravity is moving eastwards. The Mayor talks of shifting priorities from west to east and of building a new city to the east.
1223 In Dagenham, the sheer scale of brownfield land will lead to massive development in the next 10 years. For example, one site in the borough, Barking Reach, will handle some 6,000 new homes—a population of 12,000 to 15,000 people. To the south of the borough, including in parts of Beckton, we have a regeneration site the size of Islington. That has huge implications for public services in the borough. The new communities will require schools and health care, and they will have to be policed. Many of the people who will live in these new communities will be public sector workers. They must be transported into and throughout the city. They cannot just start their cars and turn left on to the A13.
The proposed crossrail, for example, should not just shuttle commuters in and out of London; it must link new communities in London with key job generation sites. For example, it is estimated that some 40,000 people will be employed in the Royal Docks and 100,000 in Canary Wharf in 10 years. That is only part of the regeneration agenda. So far I have mentioned housing, public services and managing growth in this city. We also have to rebuild the manufacturing and economic centre of east London.
As I have said, Dagenham sits at the centre of the Thames gateway—an increasingly integrated area covering 13 boroughs and 2 million people in some of the most deprived areas in the country. Historically, because of the location of the Ford Motor Company, Dagenham has been the centre of manufacturing for east London. We must, and we are, rebuilding that, in partnership with the Government, the devolved agencies and local authorities.
On 20 February, the last Fiesta will roll off the line in Dagenham—the end of car assembly in the area. That will be a sad day. However, as one door shuts another opens—soon, a new high technology engine manufacturing plant will be built. It will be one of the most modern manufacturing facilities in Europe. Annual engine production will rise to about 900,000 units by 2004. Car assembly will end, but more than 5,000 people will still be employed on the Dagenham estate. It will continue to be London's largest industrial centre and will become Europe's premium manufacturing facility for diesel technology.
In addition, a new supplier park will be created in Dagenham, on London development agency land, to support that new diesel facility. That will attract small and medium-sized, high-tech businesses, on top of which a new centre for manufacturing excellence on the Ford estate will provide education and training, from basic skills right through to advanced postgraduate degrees for local people.
To rebuild east London's manufacturing base, we need more infrastructure. The scarcity of river crossings over the east Thames remains a major impediment to successful economic regeneration. The proposed package of three new river crossings will have a major impact, by creating employment and development opportunities.
The channel tunnel rail link, which will go underground in Dagenham, is vital if international and domestic connections to London and the south-east are to be created and major hubs for new investment established. I hope that the docklands light railway will be extended into the borough, linking it to the major job generation sites to the north of the Thames.
Overall, we are engaged in a genuinely radical attempt to confront deprivation and boost public services in this city and this country. The task that faces us in London is 1224 massive—to build a new city with a new economic centre to the east, with the infrastructure and services needed to build strong communities. That will involve the Government working hand in hand with the devolved agencies to forge an agenda for change that will materially alter the lives of the people whom I represent.
The process cannot descend into a financial dogfight, based on simplistic assumptions of the north-south divide, while ignoring the economic outflows from London to the rest of the United Kingdom. The people whom I represent deserve mature political governance by our national figures and the devolved agencies. That should be based on a clear understanding of the economic and social problems that confront London, not on a partial analysis of its economic prosperity forged in the Westminster beltway.
There are some promising signs. For example, the strategic partnership in the DTLR for the Thames gateway is creatively confronting some of those issues. This is a key turning point for the Government and London. All the participants should rise to the challenges that will be produced, and I welcome the opportunity to contribute today.
§ 2.4 pm
§ Mr. Mark Hendrick (Preston)
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Dagenham (Jon Cruddas), who cut short his remarks, and other hon. Members for the opportunity to take part in this debate.
Regeneration in Preston requires both public and private finance along with a vision of economic development underpinned by major employment prospects, educational and skills opportunities, community development and partnership with the local authority. I pay tribute to Preston borough council—under the stewardship of its leader, Councillor Ian Hall, and the portfolio holder for regeneration, Councillor Veronica Afrin—and to the businesses, voluntary groups and local communities that have an important role to play in the regeneration process.
Preston sees its future economic growth coming from three main sources. The first is its establishment as the major regional shopping centre for the north-west outside the Manchester and Liverpool conurbations. The Tithbarn project will bring in £300 million of private investment to Preston for the development of shopping facilities and the town centre generally. The second is as the tertiary education centre for the sub-region, and the third is the establishment of the town as a centre for art, culture and design.
Preston's assets include a relatively young and expanding population, its role as an access gateway into much of the sub-region and region, and the fact that it is a private and public decision-making and administrative centre and a seat of learning that is seeking to develop its expertise in the technologies of the future and to take advantage of its locational attributes. Taken together, those assets contribute to the development of a competitive business environment and of an area that is potentially attractive to investors in the high value-added, knowledge-based sectors of the economy that are at the centre of the regional economic strategy as well as national economic policy.
Economic development and regeneration are key aspirations of the local Preston partnership. To achieve long-term and effective regeneration, it is necessary to 1225 recognise and minimise the constraints affecting economic development. The constraints include the increasing polarisation of growth in the large cities and towns. Such growth is due in part to the huge improvement in the facilities in, and the environment of, major town centres; the economic growth that acts as a magnate for the young professional and entrepreneur; the concentration of the "ideas" culture in the cities and towns; and the cosmopolitan lifestyle now available because of the rapid growth of city centre and residential areas. If those trends continue unabated, there will be a growing population and employment shift to the regional cities and that will result in the economic, social and cultural decline of their urban hinterlands.
If regional towns such as Preston are to prosper in the new century, they need to develop into micro-cities that incorporate many of the benefits of the mega-city and blend them with the unique feature of a large town. The economic regeneration of Preston in the years up to the next Preston guild in 2012 will take place in an unprecedented period of organisational change and new initiatives. The Northwest development agency's regional prospectus of October 2001 said:The Northwest Development Agency, with an office based in Preston, places the town as one of the key hubs of North West development. Regeneration is a key element of NWDA's activities.The Government, through their single regeneration budget funding and neighbourhood renewal strategy, support and will continue to support organisations throughout the community. Areas of Preston receiving significant amounts of support are Fishwick, Ribbleton, Deepdale, St. Mathew's, Brookfield, Avenham and Central wards.
An example of an agency in Preston working towards regeneration is the Avenquest community regeneration trust, the annual general meeting of which I shall attend next week on Thursday 14 February. It is a community-led organisation that is working towards the economic and social regeneration of one of the most deprived areas in the north-west, with many poor and deprived white and ethnic minority residents. The trust is developing a range of programmes, partnerships and initiatives to tackle deprivation and to build the capacity of individuals, households and communities to participate effectively in, and to benefit from, the process of regeneration.
The trust is working with Avenham ward residents to create opportunities and pathways away from poverty and disadvantage and into jobs, education and training. The trust has been in existence for almost two years and it has made significant progress. The focus of current activity is to target those communities that have not been able to access mainstream opportunities. The goals are: creating employment, promoting community education and developing training opportunities. The chief purpose of the trust is to attack the root causes of poverty by meeting the problems of unemployment and providing assistance and support to those who seek employment, together with the advancement of education, training or re-training and the provision of work experience.
The trust works in the community by providing drop-in facilities in information and communications technology, arts activities, volunteer activities, informal education, support activities and enabling opportunities. Key projects 1226 include local labour in construction, the health for all partnership, the new Avenham centre, community access to ICT and a community resource room. Success is coming from partnerships that are committed to new ways of working with different communities. The trust's future priorities are job creation and job growth; developing training opportunities; working with communities and agencies; developing volunteers and activities; becoming financially self-sufficient; and continuing to be community-based and accountable.
In addition, Preston borough council has developed a policy in pursuit of establishing Preston town centre as an economic development zone. The projects and information compiled for the bid will act as guiding messages for a 10-year action plan, whether the EDZ application is successful or not. The improved wealth shown by improvements in gross domestic product will be brought about only by the growing ambitions of existing and new start-ups and inward investing companies. The competitiveness of the Greater Preston economy depends on the concerted and co-ordinated actions of the local partners, as well as a city region that both companies and residents are proud to belong to and represent as ambassadors.
Preston is in the process of developing and consulting on targets for regeneration. Suggested starting points for discussion with partners are improvement of GDP from £9,000 to £18,000 a year over the period of the strategy; unemployment in the priority 2 area to be reduced from 1,700 to under 1,000; workspace provision to be improved by 400 workspace units; the number of creative businesses in the Preston area to increase by an agreed amount; museum visitors to increase over a fixed period by a certain amount; transport improvements to increase non-car movements by a target amount; graduate retention measures; and an inward investment measure. Those are the targets of an ambitious town hopefully, one day soon, to become a city and the third major conurbation in the north-west after Manchester and Liverpool.
Preston is a thriving town and the pockets of severe deprivation will be dealt with by the measures that I have outlined. I look forward to a bright future for that proud town.
§ Ms Keeble
With the leave of the House, I will respond to the debate.
We have heard a wide range of speeches in what has been an important and excellent debate that highlighted the policies and initiatives that the Government are using to give hope to millions. Hon. Members also set out the difficult issues with which we have to grapple as we regenerate different regions and communities. For many, protection against poverty is created by a strong and stable economy, which the Government have produced through careful economic management. Our regeneration policies will ensure that all regions and local communities benefit from that sound economy. What a contrast that is to previous policies that sometimes dealt with the symptoms but not the causes of poverty and economic disadvantage.
My hon. Friend the Member for Brent, East (Mr. Daisley) made a welcome and outstanding maiden speech. I pay tribute to his work as a council leader in which he had to deal with some of the difficult issues that have been raised today. That role will have given him an insight into the needs of disadvantaged communities and the way in which we can regenerate them.
1227 My hon. Friend spoke in particular of health and its role in regeneration. I agree that that is often overlooked, but the Government have identified it as a key policy. Our substantial efforts have included providing £100,000 to Hyndburn as part of the neighbourhood renewal fund to tackle the high level of coronary heart disease in that community. It is fundamental that sound health is the basis for a stable community and a sound economy. The Labour party has always supported that approach. That is why we set up the national health service.
My hon. Friend the Member for Regent's Park and Kensington, North (Ms Buck) was one of a number of Members who set out the case for London. London Members have been outstanding in their advocacy on behalf of their city. My hon. Friend showed the breadth of the measures that have been taken by the Government to tackle disadvantage—for example, sure start and the new deal. There are many other such programmes. She raised two specific points about the needs index, one being about crime. Currently, we have a lack of standardised data, but the neighbourhood renewal unit is working on that with the Home Office.
My hon. Friend also mentioned mobility. Sometimes mobility can be difficult to interpret. A lack of mobility can be a symptom of people being trapped in a cycle of poverty. She is right to say that the needs of London are different from those elsewhere. All Members who have contributed to the debate have spoken about the needs of their communities. The Government recognise that different communities have different needs. That is why we have proposed a strategy that ensures that particular needs are recognised and met.
My hon. Friend the Member for Stourbridge (Ms Shipley) spoke eloquently about the economic changes in the area that she represents, and the good results that are being achieved by partnership working. I assure her that the Government have a ministerial design group. We also have good practice guides to reinforce the important role that good-quality design has to play in regeneration. There are some outstanding examples, such as the library in Peckham, the art gallery in Walsall, public art in Birmingham, the new school on the Greenwich peninsula and some demonstration housing projects in Liverpool. These examples underpin the role of good design.
My hon. Friend the Member for Hammersmith and Fulham (Mr. Coleman) spoke of the excellent work that is being undertaken by the new deal for communities. He underlined the scale of disadvantage in London.
I pay tribute to the work that a number of London boroughs have done through imaginative and innovative regeneration policies and programmes. In many respects, they have pioneered some of the work in turning around disadvantaged areas. They have taken on some of the macro problems of which my hon. Friend the Member for Dagenham (Jon Cruddas) spoke, as well as some small-scale schemes that will turn their areas around.
My hon. Friend the Member for Great Yarmouth (Mr. Wright) spoke of the impact of the education action zones, sure start and European money. He demonstrated that there are a plethora of schemes, and that can itself be a problem. I shall come to that later. These schemes are designed to turn difficult areas around.
1228 The Government recognise the problems of some seaside towns. I pay tribute to the work that my hon. Friend and other Members who represent seaside towns are undertaking to find solutions to some of the problems that affect their constituencies.
My hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Ms King) made a typically eloquent speech. She rightly identified the need for community involvement. Her chairing of her local partnership for the new deal for communities is well recognised as a major factor in its success.
My hon. Friend talked about housing and its role in regeneration. She will know that today a conference is sitting that is considering the housing strategy for London. I am sure that there will be a lively and informative debate. I hope it will deal with some of the strategic needs for housing in the capital.
My hon. Friend the Member for Corby (Phil Hope), who is my close parliamentary neighbour, spoke of the success of Government strategies. He was one of several Members who identified the importance of transport for regeneration. His constituency did well in the rural bus challenge. Work is continuing to find solutions to the transport needs of the town.
My hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Cathcart (Mr. Harris) outlined developments north of the border where a social justice strategy prioritises the elimination of child poverty and the establishment of full employment. Regeneration work in Scotland is being undertaken by the new housing and regeneration agency, which emphasises, among other issues, the partnership working that we have supported so strongly in London.
I assure my hon. Friend that local authorities can introduce quality contracts. The Government recognise the importance of local transport, particularly bus transport, to regeneration, combating social exclusion and giving people access to jobs. That is one reason why we have put money into the rural and urban bus challenges, which have produced imaginative schemes.
We have also provided financial incentives for land decontamination, an important issue that was also raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Dagenham, and one that is crucial for successful brownfield site development.
My hon. Friend the Member for Gravesham (Mr. Pond) gave a good example from his own constituency of the way in which town centre development can act as a driver for regeneration. He gave a careful analysis of the role played by work undertaken in his locality in improving the whole borough. It is well recognised that retail-led regeneration can be very effective. That is one reason behind the proposals for business improvement districts, which we hope will be on stream by 2004 as they require primary legislation. In some areas people are already building partnerships and introducing measures that will pave the way for successful business improvement districts.
My hon. Friend the Member for Dagenham referred to the grim statistics of failure and underlined the need for mainstream services to address those disadvantages, setting out the enormous scale of the task of regenerating east London. Essentially, he made the case for the regional dimension in economic development and pointed out that east London represents a major development project. That has been well recognised by the Government—less so by the Conservative party—through 1229 the establishment of the regional development agencies and the careful work that is being undertaken in relation to the development of the Thames gateway. We recognise the importance of providing a sound transport infrastructure.
§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
The Minister referred to a plethora of schemes relating to regeneration. Is she therefore admitting that there are too many schemes; and if so, will she undertake to study the whole regeneration process and simplify it?
§ Ms Keeble
I shall address that in my response to the points raised by the hon. Member for Poole (Mr. Syms). There is an issue about the number of schemes. The hon. Gentleman will have noticed that in my opening speech I did not refer to them all.
My hon. Friend the Member for Preston (Mr. Hendrick) referred to the important development of the regional economy and gave an effective rationale for and defence of the regional development agencies and the important role that they can play in partnership with local authorities and the private sector.
The hon. Member for Cotswold (Mr. Clifton-Brown) said that poverty did not begin in 1979 and end in 1997 and of course he is right. We recognise that there is still too much poverty in Britain today and it is one of our primary aims to eliminate child poverty in particular. Our argument with the Conservatives is that when they were in government their policies contributed to the distress of the impoverished communities and failed to put in place policies that tackled the structural inequalities in our society. They failed to do that because it was not a priority for them, but it is a priority for us.
In 1979, 10 per cent. of children lived in households with below half the average income, and in 1994–95 that had risen to almost a third.
§ Ms Keeble
There are no quick fixes to regenerating communities, eliminating poverty or dealing with the issues that my hon. Friend the Member for Dagenham raised. We have set a 10 or 20-year target, because we recognise that it will take more than a generation to end the cycle of disadvantage that has blighted the lives of so many people and communities.
§ Ms Keeble
All the agencies that deal with child poverty and similar issues recognise that by the end of 18 years of Conservative government the proportion of children growing up in poverty was an absolute scandal. That has been well recognised by this Government, and we are determined to end it.
1230 Virtually all the policies proposed by the hon. Member for Cotswold are already in place: fiscal incentives for regeneration; use of the planning system to prioritise redevelopment of brownfield sites; involving the business community; and creating partnerships. We are very much committed to those policies. Our argument with the docklands and UDC model is not that it locked businesses in—which of course it did—but that it locked the communities out.
The hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake) talked about rural crime and disadvantage, which indeed we recognise. Throughout my opening speech, I stressed the fact that we do not say that disadvantage is the exclusive preserve of the towns and cities. It can have a terrible impact on the lives of people in rural communities, too. Our policies are designed, through the role of local partnerships and the assessment of local needs, to ensure that the needs of all disadvantaged communities are properly met.
The hon. Gentleman also outlined the impact of low demand. He was right to bring up the appalling scale of low demand and the tragedy of all those empty properties. All sectors of housing are affected in similar ways by low demand, be they housing association, council or private sector. We are currently considering proposals for a market renewal fund to deal with those issues. We are also considering targeting. We have national minimum floor standards but we are also trying to ensure that communities assess and meet their own needs.
The hon. Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray) talked about the need to get the built environment right. He is absolutely right about that, although we may disagree on the details. We are actively pursuing the urban renaissance. The Rogers report recommendations have been accepted and are being implemented.
The hon. Member for Hexham (Mr. Atkinson) also spoke about rural poverty. I remind him that we have provided extra funding for rural housing and transport and dealt carefully with issues of rural planning.
The hon. Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison) highlighted the problems of homelessness. We have set up a homelessness directorate.
I am sorry that I missed the speech of the hon. Member for Poole, who spoke about the plethora of schemes. We are working to simplify the current range of schemes and to ensure that they are better known and that the communities can get involved.
To the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) I would say that we have also recognised the importance of education in regeneration and made it one of our key targets.
It is by results on the ground that our strategy to transform our poorest neighbourhoods must be judged. We know that there is still a lot to do. We believe that our strategy and our goals are right and that, working in partnership with our poorest communities, we can defeat poverty and regenerate the most disadvantaged areas of this country.
§ It being half-past Two o'clock, the motion for the Adjournment of the House lapsed, without Question put. | <urn:uuid:259660f8-cd67-403f-92c0-3b2775a123f7> | {
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Trinidad Head Baseline Observatory Battered by Winter StormJanuary 26, 2006
The NOAA Trinidad Head Baseline Atmospheric Observatory located on the Northern California coastline (41.05 N, 124.15 W), and one of the five NOAA Global Baseline Atmospheric Observatories, was shut down for 3 days due to regional power outages produced by a severe winter storm that battered the California and Oregon coasts earlier this month. Wind speeds of 97 mph (42 m s-1) produced waves of 25 ft (8 m) and uprooted three large 150 year old Monterey Cypress trees located near the observatory, one of which moderately damaged the roof of the ozonesonde balloon launch facility. Nevertheless, the observatory was up and running within hours of power restoration.
The Trinidad Head Observatory, established in the spring of 2002, provides continuous measurements of atmospheric pollutants and climate forcing agents entering the West Coast of the U.S. from Asia. In addition to its long term monitoring mission, the facility has hosted or supported a number of large intensive studies including the NOAA 2002 Intercontinental Transport and Chemical Transformation (ITCT) campaign, the 2004 Intex Ozone Network Study (IONS) and the 2005 Altair Integrated System Flight Demonstration Project. In addition to the normal complement of baseline observatory instruments, the observatory presently supports, or has supported in the past, instruments NOAA/CSD, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), UC-Berkeley, UC-Davis, UC-San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE), operated since 1995 by SIO, is also located on Trinidad Head.
The Trinidad Head Observatory suffered only minimal damage in a severe 50-year storm, and was back in operation within hours of the resumption of power. This same storm produced significant loss of standing timber including up to 70% loss of trees just north of the observatory, presumably due to a reported funnel cloud. Funnel clouds are a very unusual phenomenon for the West Coast. The extreme wind event was the result of intense pressure gradients associated with the formation of a bent back occluded front, itself a relatively rare event on the California Coast.
To see views of the observatory, tree damage, and surfers riding huge waves coming ashore near Half Moon Bay, following the storm go to the link below and view the images in the photo gallery at the bottom of the page. | <urn:uuid:5a73c201-a922-4d51-83af-bdb3c5068156> | {
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Like many Victorian era families, the Ramseys faced medical issues both big and small. This 75 minute program explores the Ramseys' medical history, from mumps and measles, to whooping cough and mental illness. Hear excerpts from letters and journals of family members and from the physicians who treated them. Learn about symptoms, discover the cures that were used, and find out what it was like to be a patient in the Victorian era. This tour features adult content and is not suitable for children under age 18.
Minnesota Historical Society
We make every effort to ensure the accuracy of this information. However, you should always call ahead to confirm dates, times, location, and other information. | <urn:uuid:def19adc-7d14-4a90-8882-eadb78537608> | {
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Look up! In partnership with Friends of the Chicago River (FOCR) and the Forest Preserves of Cook County (FPCC), an osprey nesting platform was installed on Friday, January 29, along the North Branch Trail at the south end of the Chicago Botanic Garden near Dundee Road.
The osprey is listed as an endangered species in Illinois, which means it’s at risk of disappearing as a breeding species. Fish-eating raptors that migrate south and winter from the southern United States to South America, osprey are often seen during their migrations—yet few remain in Illinois to nest. The lack of suitable nesting structures has been identified as a limiting factor to their breeding success here.
Males attract their mates to their strategically chosen nesting location in the spring. In order for a nest to be successful, it must be located near water (their diet consists exclusively of fish, with largemouth bass and perch among their favorites), the nest must be higher than any other nearby structure, and it must be resistant to predators (think raccoons) climbing the nest pole and attacking the young.
FOCR and the FPCC sought out the Garden as a partner for an installation site, in large part owing to the Garden’s strong conservation messaging and proximity to other nearby nesting platforms that have been recently installed (two are located alongside the FPCC’s Skokie Lagoons just to the south).
The Garden’s nesting platform was installed atop an 80-foot “telephone pole,” set 10 feet into the ground and extending upwards by 70 feet. The 40-inch hexagonal nest platform atop the pole has a wire mesh on the bottom so that water can pass through the sticks and stems that the osprey will bring to construct the nest.
With the osprey nesting platform now in place, our hope is that within the next few years, a migrating male will select the site and pair with a female. Osprey generally mate for life, though they’re together only during the breeding and rearing seasons.
You can learn more about the how and why of the osprey nesting platform project at the FOCR website. Follow the links on that webpage for images, video, and a press release relating to the installation of an identical osprey platform at the Skokie Lagoons last spring.
©2016 Chicago Botanic Garden and my.chicagobotanic.org | <urn:uuid:a0531300-733a-44bf-bee2-7e20cb412658> | {
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How Our Past Informs & Enriches Our Future
What is Historic Preservation?
Why Should We Preserve?
What is Historic?
What Is Historic Preservation?
For many people, “historic preservation” means saving old buildings and a “preservationist” is someone who tries to prevent them from being altered or torn down. In practice, historic preservation means not only preventing demolition, but also seeking a viable reuse for historic buildings, sites, and structures. By restoring, rehabilitating, or renovating historic places, preservation promotes a community’s unique culture, identity, and sense of place.
Historic preservation is a movement—a collective action based on an idea or issue—rather than a set approach, formula, or collection of guidelines. Since its formal beginnings in the mid-1800s, the preservation movement has adapted to fit new ideas and situations, and become more responsive to modern culture, lifestyles, and economies. The preservation movement’s success is a result of motivated and conscientious citizens who have influenced sound public policy decisions based on preserving our irreplaceable heritage and maximizing financial investments.
Preservationists believe that the built environment represents our collective history and identity, through both its physical characteristics and historical associations. Cultures outside the U.S. typically use the term “heritage conservation” instead of historic preservation, emphasizing that the goal is not merely to preserve something that is old, but to conserve a built heritage that is passed from one generation to the next.
Why Should We Preserve?
Many people believe that our society should maintain and safeguard the historic places that contribute to our cultural identity, but others assume that preservationists want to restrict change. The preservation movement, as a whole, is not anti-progress! Instead, preservation promotes a richer diversity of buildings, allowing new and old to coexist successfully. Preserving a variety of buildings and sites from the past and present clearly displays our progress, allowing us to experience a sense of our common history as it unfolded and understand the development of our communities. By using sound criteria to identify historic places worthy of preservation, a community can make land use decisions that ensure change is progressive.
What Is Historic?
There are more reasons to preserve than simply respect and appreciation for history and culture. In today’s society, where “green” and “sustainability” are buzzwords, historic preservation should be recognized as a viable green development and construction strategy. As we search for ways to increase energy efficiency and reduce consumption, we should acknowledge the economic and environmental value in existing buildings, because both demolition and new construction require tremendous amounts of energy and waste. Adapting existing buildings for a new use, while making some modifications to improve energy savings, can be a key strategy in addressing the challenges of global climate change. Preservation is also about the wise use of our dollars and cents. Reinvesting in historic buildings creates more jobs than new construction, retains more capital in the community, reuses infrastructure already paid for by the community, and provides an attractive return on investment.
Like history itself, the preservation field is ever-changing, and the definition of what is “historic” and worth preserving has adapted, too. Many people assume that a “historic” label is the result of an arbitrary decision, or defined by personal taste. Or they mistakenly believe that only pretty places with noble histories are worthy of preservation. In fact, standards and criteria have been in place for over forty years to help communities make objective decisions about their historic places. While interpretation of these criteria has changed over time, they set a framework for evaluating a site or building’s physical integrity and historic association.
For example, to be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, a site must meet at least one of four criteria defining its historic importance, and retain a majority of its original design based on seven defined characteristics of integrity. Thus, even unassuming locations or structures with unpleasant histories may be worthy of preservation if they have historical significance and lessons to teach. Locally designated historic places often are evaluated under several additional criteria, which are specific to the history and values of a community.
A site does not need to be listed in the National Register or have local landmark designation to be worthy of preservation, and this kind of formal recognition does not necessarily ensure preservation. Ultimately, historic buildings and sites are preserved when they are continually occupied and actively used. People can support preservation in the course of their everyday lives as they decide where to live, work, go to school, and do business.
The preservation movement is supported by groups, individuals, organizations, and agencies at all levels. National, statewide, and local non-profit organizations promote historic preservation through education and advocacy. Some historic preservation non-profit organizations that are active in California include the California Preservation Foundation, the LA Conservancy and the Whittier Conservancy. Governmental agencies play a regulatory and supportive role, by administering and enforcing Federal, state, and local laws and ordinances that govern historic preservation activity. Examples of these governmental offices include the National Park Service, which maintains the National Register of Historic Places and processes Federal grants and tax incentive programs, the State Office of Historic Preservation, which initiates National Register listings, conducts historic resource surveys, and ensures compliance with state and Federal regulations, and local Whittier’s Historic Resources Commission which oversees the application of local preservation ordinances.
Most importantly, involved citizens at the local level—those who live, work, learn, and play in a community—are some of the strongest forces in the preservation movement. Preservation projects often grow from the local level because people are attached to their own communities and invest the most interest in the built heritage that best tells their own story. Preservation can work as a catalyst for revitalization and renewal, creating attractive, exciting, and thriving neighborhoods, and its benefits are most apparent to the people who experience these places daily. | <urn:uuid:532e8d51-7c11-4eee-bc17-170217970a54> | {
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Weapons of Princes, Weapons of War? An experimental analysis from pattern-welded swords from northwestern Europe, 400-1100 AD
Sebastiaan B.M. Pelsmaeker
Master’s Thesis, University of Groningen, 2010
Swords have always been considered special, especially in the early middle ages. However, what was the true value attributed to these weapons? And the famous pattern-welded blades from this period, were these mere pieces of decoration and status?
In this thesis the early medieval swords are examined in detail, using several methodologies. Both an archaeological and a historical analysis are made, compiling most of the relevant evidence regarding the creation and use of these weapons. In addition, two swords are experimentally reproduced and tested to determine their qualities. One of these swords is of a regular mono-steel type, the other is a complex pattern-welded blade.
Many conclusions and several theories are presented in this thesis concerning the use, value, construction and origin of these swords. The experiments have shown that it is very likely that pattern-welded swords were highly functional weapons, whose popularity is not merely the result of their unique beauty, but equally of their high quality.
Introduction: Tales of heroes and monsters seem to dominate the early middle ages, a period of violence and chaos, but also of art and craft. The perfect blend of both craft and violence is of course the weapon of legends: the sword. Many swords from the early middle ages still exist and these weapons are a testament to the craftsmanship of ancient metalworkers. Foremost of all is the pattern-welded sword, whose beautiful patterns have been forged into the steel itself. These blades were honored and passed down through the generations, maintaining an ever growing legend and history. The well-known Quernbiter and Hrunting are but two of these swords, famous for their hard edges and supreme flexibility. Naturally, not every warrior was able to afford such a princely weapon, which could only be crafted in a slow and painstaking process by a master-smith. These warriors made-do with simpler, mono-steel blades.
However, were these pattern-welded blades truly so wondrous or were they mere pieces of decoration; symbols of wealth and status? In this thesis a study shall be made to answer the question: “were pattern-welded blades of a higher functionality than mono-steel swords or did the patterns serve a purely decorative purpose?” The reason for examining these swords is the ongoing discussion regarding the function of these inspiring blades. Many times the evidence has been revisited, but no definitive conclusion to this argument has been reached. To present some new insight to this discussion it was decided to try an experimental approach; hence this thesis.
In addition to this main question, several secondary aspects of both ironworking and swordsmithing will be examined. Most importantly a chaîne-operatoire will be established for the creation of a sword. In addition estimations shall be presented of the time and materials involved in both bloom- and swordsmithing. Other, more direct questions which will be treated here are: “why did pattern-welding become popular and when did it fall out of use?”, “to what kind of tests were swords subjected, and how well do the replicas hold up to these?” and “might there have been other considerations to which pattern-welding owes its popularity, like for instance an established savoirfaire?”. | <urn:uuid:cc322058-9b89-4bd8-a0de-2764a10b3ed7> | {
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Is neuropathy hereditary?
The Inherited Neuropathies are those that are created when the genes create some form of metabolism interruption.
Heredity comes from the gene makeup and one thing should be mentioned is that genetic damage and alteration can be done by many factors in our environment. This damage can be from a break in the DNA strand structure, or a change in the sequence of the genes. In human cells both metabolic activities and environmental factors can cause DNA damage
Chemicals, radiation and toxins can also produce damage.
Metabolic activities producing large amounts of free radical can produce damage. (A good reason to make sure that a person has enough antioxidants. See Free Radicals and Anti-Oxidants)
Types of Inherited Neuropathy
The most common type pf hereditary neuropathy are:
Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease
Some forms of Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease are inherited. This disease creates both motor and sensory neuropathies. This is sometimes called Inherited Charcot Marie Tooth Disease. In some cases the gene mutation causing CMT disease is a new mutation which occurs due to gene damage and not passed down from parent to child.
It damages the nerves. A typical feature includes weakness of the foot and lower leg muscles, which may result in foot drop and a high-stepped gait with frequent tripping or falls
CMT is caused by mutations in genes that produce proteins involved in the structure and function of either the peripheral nerve axon or the myelin sheath. The degeneration means the nerves slowly lose the ability to communicate which results in muscle weakness and atrophy. Degeneration of sensory nerves results in a reduced ability to feel heat, cold and pain.
A rare form of genetic disorders which results in a disruption of lipid metabolism. It is a result of a malfunction of the gene that makes the enzymes that breaks down the acid, phytanic acid. In this disease there is an accumulation of these fatty acids in blood and tissues. As a result, it builds up in the body’s tissues. The nerves of the brain can fail to grow in children. This accumulation is toxic to the nerve cell.
It is characterized by a progressive loss of vision, or vision impairment. It creates degenerative nerve disease (peripheral neuropathy), failure of muscle coordination (ataxia) and bone and skin changes.
There is Adult Refsum Disease (ARD) and Classic Refsum Disease (CRD)
Symptoms may include night blindness, loss of peripheral vision, and numbness and weakness associated with failure of muscle coordination. Affected individuals may experience an unusual burning or prickling sensation (paresthesia) of arms and legs. Neurological symptoms include unsteady walking with frequent falls (ataxia), and peripheral neuropathy (characterized by sensory, motor, and reflex changes). Skin changes may include dryness, itchiness, and scaliness
Treatment with a diet low in foods that contain phytanic acid can be beneficial. Our bodies cannot make phytanic acid. Instead, it is introduced to the body in certain foods, including dairy products, beef, lamb and some seafood.
Porphyria (poor-FEAR-e-uh) refers to a group of disorders that result from a buildup of natural chemicals that produce porphyrin in your body. Porphyrins are essential for the function of hemoglobin — a protein in your red blood cells that links to porphyrin, binds iron, and carries oxygen to your organs and tissue. High levels of porphyrins can cause significant problems.
Porphyria mainly affects your nervous system, skin and other organs.
The signs and symptoms of porphyria can vary, depending on the specific type and severity. Porphyria is usually inherited — one or both parents pass along an abnormal gene to their child. But in some types of porphyria, environmental factors may trigger the development of symptoms.
Treatment depends on the type of porphyria you have. Certain lifestyle changes may help you manage it.
Also known as Anderson-Fabry Disease, Angiokeratoma corporis diffusum and alpha-galactosidase A deficiency
This is an inherited disorder that results from the buildup of a particular type of fat called gluobtriaosylceramide in the body’s cells. This begins in childhood. The buildup affects many parts of the body including the nerves.
Symptoms can be episodes of pain, particularly in the hands and feet; clusters of small, dark red spots on the skin, a decreased ability to sweat, cloudiness of the front part of the eye (corneal opacity) problems with the gastrointestinal tract, ringing in the ears (tinnitus) and hearing loss. It can also be life threatening with complications such as progressive kidney damage, heart attack, and stroke.
Some individuals have milder forms of this disease that appears later in life and affect only the heart or kidneys. It is more common in males than females.
Hereditary Neuropathy With Liability to Pressure Palsies
This is a hereditary disorder in which nerves become increasingly sensitive to pressure, injury, and use.
In this neuropathy, nerves are susceptible to damage resulting from relatively slight pressure or injury or from repetitive use. Usually, this neuropathy starts during adolescence or young adulthood, but it may start at any age. It affects both sexes equally. Only one gene from one parent is required for the disease to develop
Symptoms tend to come and go.
Peroneal nerve palsy with foot drop, ulnar nerve palsy, and carpal tunnel syndrome commonly develop. Numbness or weakness can occur.
Symptoms vary from very mild to severe. Episodes may last several minutes or go on for months. After an episode, about half of the people recover completely, and the rest have mild symptoms.
Treatment for Neuropathy
There are many medications, and other remedies that can bring you relief, you can read about them in this article Neuropathy. Go to Neuropathy Treatment Section.
What can you do:
Take a Quiz: Am I doing everything I can to daily help my neuropathy?
Find out what lifestyle changes will help, take the quiz and get our suggestions and get our assistance on what you can do.
Take Our Quiz
None of the various neuropathy treatments will build healthy nerves. You can cover up the symptoms and you can increase circulation and you can make a person feel less pain, etc., but if you build healthy nerves, there will not be any symptoms (healthy nerves don’t hurt, tingle, burn, are not numb, etc.) and the relief will be lasting.
Building Healthy Nerves:
Healthy sensory nerves mean that they are not painful. Healthy nerves means that they communicate and don’t send wrong signals such as burning, hot and cold, tingling when there is no reason for it. Healthy motor nerves mean that they relay messages from the brain to the muscle so that they move correctly. Nerves need to be healthy to function properly.
The body needs specific nutrients (vitamins) to be able to build healthy nerves.
It may not give immediate relief (although many do feel changes in the first week) as the vitamins are working at a cellular level, but it does address the actual problem, builds healthy nerves and brings lasting relief.
(For temporary relief while building healthy nerves, go to Pain Relief Formula)
What can be done for lasting relief?
Find out how to Build Healthy Nerves
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Although there is no clear-cut explanation of what exactly constitutes a vitamin megadose, according to Harvard University Medical School, it is generally a vitamin intake many times higher than the recommended amount. You can safely take some nutrients in high amounts, but do not exceed the IOM's guidelines, as taking too much of some nutrients can cause toxicity and health problems.
Water Soluble vs. Fat Soluble
Taking megadoses of water-soluble vitamins is generally safer than megadosing on fat-soluble vitamins. When you take in large amounts of water-soluble vitamins, your body uses what it needs and sends the rest to your kidneys, which purge it from your body. When you take in megadoses of fat-soluble vitamins, your body uses some of it and stores the rest for future use. In time, you may be storing toxic levels of these vitamins, putting you at risk for associated health problems.
Tolerable Upper-Intake Levels
To help the public avoid taking toxic megadoses of nutritional products, the Institute of Medicine has established tolerable upper intake levels, or ULs, determining the highest intake level that is likely to pose no adverse health effects to the general population. Although the IOM recommends that men and women, respectively, get 90 and 12 micrograms of vitamin K, 1.1 and 1.2 milligrams of thiamine, 1.1 and 1.3 milligrams of riboflavin, 2.4 micrograms of vitamin B-12, 5 milligrams of pantothenic acid and 30 micrograms of biotin daily, due to a lack of reliable data, it has not published ULs for any of these nutrients.
You need 60 milligrams of vitamin C per day if you are a woman, while men need 75. Because vitamin C is water-soluble and helps your immune system, many people think it is safe and beneficial to take in megadoses. Manufacturers of nutritional supplements add exorbitant amounts of this antioxidant to their products, but the IOM advises that you do not exceed 2,000 milligrams of vitamin C per day. Exceeding this amount can cause diarrhea and kidney stones, according to the McKinley Health Center.
Who May Benefit
Most people can get the nutrients they need from food and moderate nutritional supplementation, according to Colorado State University, but some may need more of certain vitamins. Megadosing beyond the recommended daily intake is usually safe as long as you do not exceed a nutrient's tolerable upper intake level. Older adults may benefit from taking more calcium than the recommended 1,200 milligrams per day and by exceeding their daily recommendations of vitamins B-12 and 20 micrograms of vitamin D. Iron supplementation can be beneficial for young women, who need 18 milligrams of iron a day. Vegans may need extra calcium and B-12 and could benefit from taking supplements that provide more than their recommended 8 to 18 milligrams of iron and 8 to 11 milligrams of zinc. | <urn:uuid:5f0d01dd-332a-4a77-bb72-5f7d570c31c0> | {
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Echoing the area’s inspiring history of autonomous self-organization, a community of migrant workers in Barcelona now risks being thrown onto the street.
Photography via Ground Press.
Between the 19th and early 20th century, Barcelona’s Poblenou neighborhood became the site of a fascinating transformation. Factories, processing plants and small stores blossomed as industrialization turned the swampy marshes on the banks of the Besòs River into a densely populated hub, centered on the textile industry. They also poisoned that river, and the living conditions suffered by the new inhabitants were highly toxic.
Defenseless in the anomic void of structural exclusion, the workers who had migrated from Barcelona, Aragon and Valencia to find work in the previously unpopulated area had built their own shanty houses. Hygiene was a problem, and frequent epidemics of typhoid, cholera and smallpox produced an atrocious mortality rate. Their working conditions included unthinkably long hours, low wages, insufficient meals and exposure to harmful waste.
Yet those same workers overcame these conditions through mutual aid and solidarity, using their autonomy to organize into cooperatives and associations, as well as under the flag of one of the most storied unions in the history of the labor movement: the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT).
Today, the Poblenou neighborhood remains pocked by many of those historic factories, now abandoned and waiting to be demolished in order to make way for the lumbering 22@ project, a massive urban-planning model intended to bring “innovation” to an antiquated productive base by handing over 3.2 million square meters of floor space to major construction, logistics, IT and weapons firms. Yet, just a stroll away from the shores of the Besòs, one of those factories is far from empty. It is known as Mount Zion, and it is currently the home and workplace of a community of roughly 800 immigrant workers.
Although there are people from all over the world living there, the Mount Zion community is largely made up of West African men who work collecting scrap metal all over Barcelona. Others are artists, musicians or intermittent temporary workers in sectors ranging from agriculture to construction. Just two years ago, most had precarious but formal employment, rented homes, and their documents in order. Some were even enrolled in universities. But the collapse of the housing bubble and the economic crisis that it caused ruined all of this.
“The situation of the migrants living in Poblenou is abominable,” says Mutuma Ruteere, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. “The conditions there are inhumane and degrading. The hundreds of immigrants who live there have no access to the most basic services, such as heating, clean water or health care facilities. The conditions are clearly not suited for housing people.”
The living conditions endured by the Mount Zion community are not the only aspect of their situation that resonates with Poblenou’s history. People are also coming together through a network of autonomous and local institutions, in a collective effort to defend the rights of all members of the community, regardless of their documentation status. Local assemblies, neighborhood associations and even some left-wing city council members have been collaborating through the Xarxa de Suport als Assentaments (the Settlements’ Support Network) to put pressure on the city government to find a fair solution.
The most striking examples of mutual aid and solidarity are the actions being taken by the Mount Zion community itself. While it is no secret that an undocumented status (whether it is due to undocumented entry or having expired papers) can force people to rely on the riskier work that characterizes the informal or illegal economy for sustenance, the workers who live at Mount Zion have taken a different route. In addition to the work they do collecting scrap metal throughout the city, they have started a glass recycling project. And while many of the artists in the community use the objects they collect in their art, others are musicians in Barcelona’s vibrant dub, reggae, dancehall and African music scene. All of the work they do is organized horizontally, cooperatively, and they are currently taking steps to legalize their economic activity by forming an Integrated Cooperative. They have also expressed that they would be willing to rent the space at a reduced rate.
“There is a political blockade, a marginalization being carried out by the institutions,” says Sharif, one of the current inhabitants of Mount Zion, “The citizens support us, but the politicians want to turn us into delinquents.” Until now, while the city government currently run by the right-wing nationalist Convergència i Unió party (CiU) has resorted to a soft, appeasing rhetorical style to discuss the Mount Zion community, the actual responses by public institutions have been ambiguous at best, and hostile at worst. In a recent court hearing about the future of Mount Zion, fifty residents were forced to wait outside as the judge stated that, despite the “humanitarian crisis that an eviction would create”, she must rule in favor of the owner’s right to own private property.
Meanwhile the Endesa power company, in collaboration with the Catalan police, made their contribution to the process by cutting off the power to the building, in a clear effort to pressure the residents to abandon the only shelter available to them. Finally, the CiU government rejected Mount Zion’s original proposal, offering a job-training program and 40 day stays in local shelters instead.
Mount Zion is scheduled to be evicted on July 18th. It seems hard to believe that, having seen the positive steps taken by the community and their neighbors in Poblenou, the City of Barcelona will suddenly put 800 people out on the street. The Depression-level magnitude of the economic crisis affecting Southern Europe is proving too overwhelming for both public and private social protection services, and even the mini-Guantanamos that are Spain’s Immigrant Internment Centers are incapable of dealing with such a massive influx of people.
An eviction of this magnitude would not only be a massive violation of human rights and the suppression of a tremendously commendable exercise of worker autonomy and self-management; it would also constitute the political fabrication of a social time-bomb. By blocking the institutional path towards a fair solution, an entire community of people would be forced to rely on the noxious dynamics of the underground economy.
One would think it wise for the City of Barcelona to examine the way its history still resonates in places like Poblenou.
reblogged with thanks from: http://roarmag.org/
- Autonomy in Barcelona: the Mount Zion community (roarmag.org)
- Barcelona march: Free the Facebook Five!
- Barcelona: 32 flats Occupied for Evicted Mortgage Victims
- Barcelona Prison Demo against torture and police violence
- Integral Revolution Coop takes off in Barcelona
- Barcelona: Evicted families take 6 bank-owned blocks | <urn:uuid:4979c30c-86ad-47da-9731-09f9615898b2> | {
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Definition of Tympany
Tympany: A hollow drum-like sound that is produced when a gas-containing cavity is tapped sharply. Tympany is heard if the chest contains free air (pneumothorax) or the abdomen is distended with gas. Also known as tympanites.Source: MedTerms™ Medical Dictionary
Last Editorial Review: 3/19/2012
Find out what women really need. | <urn:uuid:2bdabd76-e578-43b7-8501-16a8ce317ad4> | {
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NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising.
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Asthma and Pleurisy
can having pleurisy when you are young cause asthma a few years later?
The lungs are covered by a smooth outside layer of tissue called the "pleura." The inside lining of the rib cage/chest cavity is also covered with a smooth layer of pleural tissue. Normally, the lungs are fully expanded/inflated within the chest cavity, so that the outside of the lung and inside of the chest cavity (the two pleural surfaces) nearly touch. The only thing that keeps them from scraping against each other during the movement of breathing is a thin layer of fluid (pleural fluid) than in some ways acts like a lubricant. When all is well with this system, the lung and chest wall comfortably slide across each other during breathing.
If something causes these linings, or the fluid, to become inflamed/irritated/"roughed up," then the act of taking a breath will involved the lung and chest wall linings scraping against each other. The pain that this causes is called "pleurisy." There are many types of illness than cause pleurisy - ranging from infection (the most common reason to have it) to arthritis-like diseases to cancers.
Asthma is an illness that involves the tubing system that is deep within the lungs, and is involved with allowing passage of air from the mouth down into the alveoli/air sacs.
Although we do not know all the reasons a person develops asthma, having a problem with pleurisy (which involves a different part of the lung than asthma) is not typically linked with developing asthma later in life.
Elizabeth D Allen, MD
Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics
College of Medicine
The Ohio State University | <urn:uuid:9a63faac-3cbf-4d15-8716-e35d8472dd9d> | {
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Guide to the George Fisher Papers, 1830-1848
Early Texas settler George Fisher (1795-1873) was born Djordje Ribar in Hungary to Serbian parents. After serving in the Slavonic Legion during the Serbian Revolution from 1813 to 1814, he immigrated to America, eventually settling in Mississippi, and adopted the name George Fisher, the English variant of Djordje Ribar.
In 1825, he traveled to Mexico, becoming a citizen in 1829. That same year, he was appointed collector of customs for Galveston, Texas, and in 1830 became administrator of the port of Galveston. When Manual de Mier y Terán ordered the port suspended in 1830, Fisher became secretary of the ayuntamiento, or governing body, of San Felipe. The following year, he established the Anahuac customhouse, decreeing all ships from certain ports be cleared through Anahuac, which led to the Anahuac Disturbances and to Fisher’s move to Matamoros in 1832. He published the newspaper Mercurio del Puerto de Matamoros from 1832 until 1835, when he moved to New Orleans as commissary general and secretary for the Tampico Expedition, which unsuccessfully sought to provoke Mexican insurrection by attacking Tampico.
In 1837, Fisher became a commission agent in Houston. He also served as justice of the peace (1839), a member of the Houston City Council (1840), and president of the philanthropic society German Union. In 1843, Fisher became major of the Second Brigade in the Texas Militia. After traveling in Panama, he settled in California in 1851 and served in several civic posts in San Francisco. In 1870, Fisher became consul to Greece.
Hazlewood, Claudia. "Fisher, George."Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed November 30, 2010. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ffi16.
The George Fisher Papers, 1830-1848, consist of photocopied and typescript correspondence, a report, and an article that document Fisher’s career and life during the Texas revolutionary and republic periods. Correspondence includes letters written by Fisher to Manuel de Mier y Terán, January 8-14, 1832; a typescript of an 1835 letter from Fischer in New Orleans to Stephen F. Austin about raising troops to help Texas achieve Mexican statehood or independence; and a Photostat of an 1848 letter from Fisher in Houston to Washington D. Miller, the Texas secretary of state, concerning historically important books and documents. The photocopy of an 1830 report by Fisher as collector of customs of the port of Galveston discusses tobacco smuggling, while a Photostat of an article, entitled "Sketch of George Fisher," from John Livingston’s Sketches of Eminent Americans Now Living, Vol. III, describes the life of Fisher as an early Texas settler.
This collection is open for research use.
George Fisher Papers, 1830-1848, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light project, 2009-2011. | <urn:uuid:efece3d0-7ccb-4091-83bf-d59b80cdb3fe> | {
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Premature babies certainly need special care – and according to a new review, music may be one major component.
Whether you’re a seasoned songstress or an off-key warbler, chances are your baby loves the sound of your voice. But according to a new review, if you’re the mother of a baby born prematurely, your singing might literally help your little one catch his or her breath.
The review, which was published in Pediatrics, analyzed the findings of several studies on the topic. The data suggests that the sound of a mother’s singing voice can help stabilize a premature baby’s breathing rate while he or she is in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). What’s more, the observed infants who received musical therapy were released about three days earlier than other preemies in the NICU.
To reach this conclusion, reviewers looked at results from 14 clinical trials involving musical therapists.
While the musical therapists played key roles in these treatments, the therapy almost always involved the mothers singing directly to their babies, which might explain why the methods appeared to be so successful.
"Full-term infants can recognize the mother's voice at birth," Lucja Bieleninik, Ph.D., whose research appeared in the review, told HealthDay. "This connection is important to foster in premature infants, whose last months of gestation are instead spent outside of the womb."
Although some of the trials involved playing recordings of the mother’s voice, researchers believe direct singing is more effective, as parents can change their voices and tones, getting quieter when the baby starts to fall asleep.
The familiarity of a mother’s voice is key, but according to researcher Joanne Loewy of Mt. Sinai’s Music Health System’s Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine, other elements are important as well. She recommended using simple, predictable rhythms and periodic lulls when singing to your child. Loewy’s own study was included in the review.
This idea isn’t a new one: A few years ago, our sister publication, Parents, reported the benefits of music for premature infants. We also shared the results of a 2014 study that identified similar benefits for premature infants exposed to music. With this new review, it appears the evidence of this link is mounting.
But premature infants aren’t the only ones who stand to gain from this sort of therapy. Dr. Bieleninik and her colleagues found reason to believe this sort of musical therapy can also bring down maternal stress levels (and anyone who has ever given birth prematurely knows how stressful this experience can be).
Our takeaway from this review? There’s really no reason not to try singing to your premature infant, possibly even with the help of a certified musical therapist. The research seems promising. Of course, even if working with a musical therapist doesn’t provide a miraculous recovery for your preemie, singing to your child is certainly a beautiful way for you both to bond. | <urn:uuid:69f39fab-942c-4a92-855a-c185cbfe5ac0> | {
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We have to face it: our lives are stressful. Driving to work is stressful, working is stressful, getting home and making dinner can be stressful. Paying the bills, the rent, the mortgage, buying presents, facing the holidays, the list goes on.
Life is stressful. Stress is not good for us. We all need to find an appropriate balance between stress and our mental well being.
Effects of Stress on the Body
Stress causes a physical reaction in the body, called fight or flight, or the stress response. Stress increases adrenaline, tenses the muscles, and raises blood pressure and breathing rate. Biologically speaking, it readies the body to either fight, or run.
In today's terms, stress symptoms cause us to tense up, raises our blood pressure, then, after the situation is resolved, it leaves us exhausted in its wake.
Long Term Effects on the Body
Recurrent stress can be detrimental to our health. It can cause headaches, upset stomach, back pain, muscle tension and sleeping difficulties. It can also weaken the immune system, making us susceptible to illness. Stress also makes us moody and tense, and all these things together frequently cause weight gain.
What to do About Stress
First, it's important to figure out what causes your stress. What are the situations that make you most stressed? Next, identify ways you can relieve stress. If your job causes serious stress, maybe it's time to move to a new part of the company, or find a new job. If that's not possible, explore ways to deal with your stress. Whatever you do, try to change or eliminate the situation causing stress. Finally, find ways to relieve stress. Physical activity has shown itself to be a great way to relieve stress.
Tips to Relieve Stress
- Try a meditative exercise like yoga, pilates or tai chi.
- Cardio exercise mimics the fight or flight symptoms and relieves them at the same time.
- Leave the stressful situation by taking a walk, going to a quiet place (even if it's the restroom) and take a few deep breaths, relax, and clear your mind.
- Sleep. Sleep has been shown to have many restorative functions, allowing us to recuperate and prepare ourselves for the day ahead.
Taking control of your life can go a long ways in reducing stress. By eliminating stressful situations, finding effective ways to reduce stress, sleeping well and eating well, you can implement healthy habits to carry you through life. | <urn:uuid:94f045d7-92c5-4298-a891-73233bb55548> | {
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In this issue . . .
Q: How do dogs get their coats?
A: There is astounding variation that exists within dogs. There are different sizes, shapes, and colors. What causes this variety? How can there be so much diversity within a single species?
With the rapid accumulation of genomic data, these questions are beginning to be answered. Several different genes have been associated with variation in coat color of dogs. Now, a new study has found that three genes account for most of the variation in canine fur patterns.
The researchers of this fascinating study looked at three different coat characteristics: 1) “furnishings,” a moustache and eyebrows commonly seen in wire-haired dogs, 2) hair length, and 3) curl. After performing genome-wide association studies on more than 1000 dogs from 80 breeds, it was found that 95% of the variation in these characteristics was attributable to just three genes: RSPO2, FGF5, and KRT71.
Read more in the newest Answers in Depth article: Hairy New Findings in Dog Variation.
News to Note Quick Look
Snake: have leg, will travel: A snake with a leg—is it evidence of evolution, creation, both, or neither? Read more.
Tree-climbing Velociraptors: Velociraptor: the fearsome carnivore and . . . tree climber? Read more.
View the current prayer requests to keep track of and pray for current ministry needs. Thank you!
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Answers in Genesis
© Copyright 2009 Answers in Genesis | All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:8ef068d2-dd78-49e4-821f-ba18d670d204> | {
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Yesterday, we celebrated World Health Day. World Health Day is celebrated on April 7th to mark the anniversary of the establishment of the World Health Organization. Each year a new theme is chosen to help raise awareness of the world?s major health issues. This year?s theme is focused on addressing the global problem of high blood pressure. High blood pressure and other related conditions (such as obesity, poor nutrition, and lack of physical activity) are risk factors for chronic diseases, including cancer.
It?s important on this World Health Day that we acknowledge the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) on the world population. NCDs kill more than 36 million people each year, and almost 80% of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries. In addition to causing approximately two-thirds of all worldwide deaths, NCDs are a major barrier to development. Experts estimate that if we do nothing, NCDs will cost over 47 trillion dollars to the global economy, affecting both national GDPs and individual families. We know these diseases can lock families in cycles of poverty; often removing both the person affected and their caretakers from the workforce, while the high cost of health care drains family resources.
But solutions exist! Today is an important opportunity to raise awareness and reduce the risk factors associated with NCDs. When these efforts are combined with strengthening health systems to improve early detection and treatment, we can effectively address these diseases, save lives and break the cycle of poverty.
In May of last year, the World Health Assembly adopted the target to reduce premature deaths from NCDs by 25 percent by 2025. The Member States are finalizing global targets for 2025, including:
*Reducing avoidable, premature deaths from NCDs by 25 percent
*Decreasing risk behaviors, such as tobacco, harmful alcohol use, physical inactivity and excess salt intake
*Increasing coverage to 80% for access to essential medicines and technologies
*Reducing the number of people with raised blood pressure
These targets are steps in the right direction to address the growing burden. World Health Day is an opportunity for us to come together, recognize the toll these diseases are taking on our communities and take steps to reverse these trends.
CLAIRE NEAL, MPH, CHES
Vice President, Global Strategy | <urn:uuid:4df9ab4e-19c5-4921-b767-a3434a1bd1e2> | {
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As we approach the second anniversary of the devastating Haiti earthquake, which killed around 150,000 people and destroyed much of Port-au-Prince, there has been mixed progress. About half of the rubble has been cleared (if that sounds slow, consider it took five years to remove far less rubble in Aceh after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami). About half a million people are still living in camps in Haiti -- but that is down from closer to 1.5 million two years ago. Meanwhile cholera, introduced by U.N. peacekeeping troops, killed over 7,000 people in the aftermath of the crisis -- the infection rate has abated but the disease remains endemic.
Progress after a disaster is always slower than hoped. For all the benefits that the donor community has provided in reconstruction, one reason for the lack of progress is the often snail-like pace of heavily bureaucratized assistance efforts in the chaotic post-catastrophe conditions of weakly governed states. For example, only about half of the cash promised by donors to Haiti for 2010-2011 had been disbursed by last month -- and the figure for U.S.-given aid is only about 30 percent. There is still a huge gap between donor disbursement and impact on the ground; a lot of the resources have been disbursed only as far as implementing agencies like NGOs and international agencies, many of whom have yet to spend the cash.
Finally, even when implementing agencies do finally spend that money, much of it will go to pay foreign contractors rather than local people. According to analysis by the Associated Press, Haitian firms successfully won only 1.6 percent of the value of U.S.-funded disaster recovery contracts issued in 2010. Yes, local firms were subcontractors on many of these contracts, but a large proportion of U.S. funding disbursed to support Haitian reconstruction ended up in the U.S. bank accounts of development contractors. We need more rapid ways to get relief directly to disaster victims, including the hundreds of thousands still suffering in the aftermath of the Haiti quake.
Luckily, we already have one: migration. Immediately after the quake, about 200,000 Haitians living in the United States without proper documents were granted "temporary protected status," which allowed them to work -- and send money home -- without fear of deportation. That single step may be the greatest contribution America has made towards Haiti's reconstruction to date. That's because the 535,000 Haitian migrants in the United States send home money -- remittances -- worth as much as $2 billion a year. An early estimate by World Bank economist Dilip Ratha suggested that the temporary protected designation might have been worth as much as $360 million in additional remittances to Haiti in 2010 alone -- that's more than total U.S. aid disbursements to the country in 2010 and 2011.
Beyond being a powerful short-term recovery tool, migration is vital to the long-term development of Haiti as well. Economist Michael Clemens, my colleague at the Center for Global Development, suggests that four out of five Haitians who have escaped destitution have done so by leaving the country. Meanwhile, the potential benefit of a diaspora for Haiti's future prospects have been repeatedly demonstrated: one need only look at Indians working in Silicon Valley who were key to creating Bangalore's booming IT industry or Africans spending time abroad who are responsible for creating new export industries back home. Across countries, larger migrant populations lead to greater trade, investment, and learning.
So if the United States is really interested in helping Haiti and other countries get back on track in the aftermath of a natural disaster, it should use migration as a tool for disaster recovery. And, in addition to the temporary protected status designation, there are two other approaches that can be implemented -- despite the toxic environment for sensible immigration policy on Capitol Hill.
First, the United States has a temporary work visa for low-skilled workers. The "H-2" program admits about 100,000 migrants for seasonal employment in agriculture and vacation resorts each year. Haitians are ineligible for the program, however, because the country is not on an approved list maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. But the administration can add countries to the program list without congressional approval, if the secretary of Homeland Security deems it serves the national interest. Surely fostering recovery in a destitute neighbor counts on that score.
Michael Clemens estimates that each H-2 worker admitted from Haiti would typically raise their family's income by $19,000 a year -- and that each worker would send as much as 50 percent of their earnings back home. If there were just 2,000 Haitians in the United States under the program in 2012, that would amount to more than $20 million. That's almost twice the amount that the United States has awarded in contracts to Haitian firms and provided in direct budget support to the Haitian government combined, since the earthquake.
Second, the Department of Homeland Security can selectively grant legal entry to Haitians already approved for a green card -- a permanent residence visa -- on the basis that a family member is a U.S. citizen. A little more than 112,000 approved Haitians are still on the waiting list, however, because the total number of green cards issued to non-immediate family members is capped worldwide each year. But there is already a "parole" program for Cubans in similar situations, which allows family members to legally enter the United States and wait for the green card here, rather than in Cuba. The Secretary of Homeland Security is authorized to do exactly the same thing with other countries, and Haiti is a good candidate. Clemens suggests about 16,000 Haitians on the green-card waiting list are spouses or minor children of U.S. green-card holders, for whom the case is particularly compelling -- so let's start with them.
It is worth noting that neither of these proposals would necessarily lead to a larger migrant stock in the United States over the long term. It would simply mean that a few more of the migrants the United States was planning to admit anyway came from Haiti, rather than other countries. Surely, the desperate situation that Haiti finds itself in, and the powerful boost only a few more migrants would provide to the country's economy, justifies a small reallocation. | <urn:uuid:9eb83e35-e242-4743-b8a6-51912bd829ef> | {
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The Presidents and the National Parks
The national parks preceded the National Park Service, but the first great natural park was a state park. California’s Yo...
One hundred years ago, on August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation to establish the National Park Service, but this was not the first time a president has acted "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein... by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."1 On June 30, 1864, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation withdrawing Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove from the public domain and granting the land to the state of California.2 On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the legislation creating the world's first national park, Yellowstone. Over the next forty-four years presidents and Congress created almost forty national parks and national monuments. The War Department and some states undertook to preserve Civil War battlefields as well as the site of the British surrender at Yorktown that ended the American Revolution and to erect monuments at Bennington, Vermont, and Bunker Hill, Massachusetts. The mineral springs at Hot Springs, Arkansas, has also been withdrawn from the public domain. Many individuals and organizations were taking action to preserve places of natural and historic significance, but in an earlier, simpler time, little thought was given to providing a coordinated structure of management. Preservation had become an end in itself.
By the early years of the twentieth century, however, the issue of managing preservation, often called conservation, was becoming more pressing. In 1890 the Census Bureau had declared that a frontier no longer existed. The West held a new fascination, and the nation's 63 million people were increasingly interested in traveling by rail—the Great Norther, Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, and the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe—to national parks, almost all of which were located in the West at that time. The parks were open to all visitors, but no one was in charge of protecting them. Cavalry units of the U.S. Army patrolled some parks to limit poaching and vandalism. But the threats were larger than that. After the 1905 earthquake, San Francisco needed a dependable supply of water, and creating a reservoir in Hetch Hetchy Valley within Yosemite National Park would solve the problem. Congressional approval was needed. With no single voice to speak for Yosemite, of any other park, the approval was easier than it should have been. Conservationists saw that they must act.
[The parks were] orphans, split among three departments—War, Agriculture, and Interior. They were anybody's business and therefore nobody's business.
President Theodore Roosevelt held a conference on conservation in the East Room of the White House in 1908. He and his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot, believed that natural resources needed federal management. American lands no longer seemed vast and endless, and something had to be done so that parks would exist into the future. Among those who advocated for establishing an organization in charge of parks, two stood out: Stephen Mather and Horace Albright. They, in turn, became the first and second directors of the National Park Service.
Mather, who had made a fortune in business, arrived in Washington in 1915 to begin working with Albright. They had two goals: To overcome opponents of a National Park Service within the government (including Pinchot, who worried that a Park Service would threaten timber rights on Forest Service land) and to create public support for such an organization. They began meeting with government officials to promote the positive benefits of having one organization overseeing the national parks. The parks were "orphans," said Albright, "split among three departments—War, Agriculture, and Interior. They were anybody's business and therefore nobody's business."3 Slowly Mather and Albright won the support of influential organizations and individuals, including railroad and automobile interests, the Sierra Club, and the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. They convinced national magazines, especially National Geographic, to print articles about the national parks and encourage the public to visit them. Mather orchestrated seventeen railroads to cooperate in publishing The National Parks Portfolio, a book full of pictures and articles about the parks that was sent to each individual member of Congress. In 1916 Representative William Kent, and independent from California, and Senator Reed Smoot, a Republican from Utah, sponsored the necessary legislation, culminating in Wilson's signing of the National Park Service Organic Act. Interior Secretary Franklin Lane appointed Mather the first director, and work began on creating a system of parks.
Until he retired in 1929, Mather continued to promote the parks using
advertising and publicity methods that had proved so successful in
establishing the NPS. One avenue he pursued was to get the Post Office
to issue stamps featuring the parks. His efforts were not realized until
Franklin D. Roosevelt, an avid stamp collector, was inaugurated
president. Roosevelt's new secretary of the interior, Harold Ickes,
proved to be a tireless advocate of conservation and of the national
parks. He acted quickly. He announced that in 1934 would be National
Park Year. At a cabinet meeting on March 9, 1934, Ickes and Roosevelt,
together with James Farley, postmaster general, discussed a series of
park stamps, and by March 29, they had a definite plan.4
In the next few weeks Arno B. Cammerer, appointed NPS director August 10, 1933, asked George Grant, chief photographer of the National Park Service, to begin the process of selecting photographs from which artists would produce the designs and engravings for ten stamps. Grant was an interesting—and logical—choice. He was hired as the first official photographer for the National Park Service. Over the course of his career—he retired in 1954—he took more than 30,000 pictures of the parks. Most are credited as "National Park Service photograph," so he never became as famous as his contemporary Ansel Adams.5 Grant and several associates selected ten parks to be features on stamps ranging from one cent to ten cents. They were, in ascending order of stamp value: Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Mount Rainier, Mesa Verde, Yellowstone, Crater Lake, Acadia, Zion, Glacier, and Great Smoky Mountains. In a 1962 interview conducted by Herbert Evison, Grand said he had no idea of how many different images had been considered: "We had an awful time making those selections." 6
On May 16,1934, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was directed to prepare sample designs for the first stamp—the one-cent Yosemite—based on the photograph selected by Grant and his group. On June 15, Farley selected one of several submitted designs. He approved the proof June 28, and printing began on July 6. Ten days later the stamp went on sale.7 The remaining nine were on similar schedules; the last stamp, the ten-cent Great Smoky Mountains, went on sale October 8. Think about it: just six months from initial discussion to finished product—no sign of bureaucratic inefficiency here!
first day that the Yosemite stamp went on sale, 250,000 stamps were
sold in the park and 60,000 covers canceled. In Washington, D.C.,
285,000 stamps were sold and 26,219 covers canceled. Beside the
individual stamps, commemorative sheets of 200 and 120 stamps were also
produced along with souvenir sheets of four and six stamps. In 1937 a
special one-sheet of the ten-cent Great Smoky Mountains stamp went on
sale at the Society of Philatelic Americans annual convention in
Asheville, North Carolina, very near the park. Stamp collectors and park
advocates alike were delighted.8
Each stamp was one color, and the color for each stamp was different. Roosevelt himself selected the orange-red for the Grand Canyon stamp.9 The lettering was generally white (reversed). Six stamps are in the horizontal format, and four are vertical. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing did all the engraving work. The ten-cent Great Smoky Mountains stamp was the first U.S. postage stamp designed by a woman, Esther Richards.10 Together, with individual stamps and souvenir sheets, almost 435 million stamps were printed. That so many were printed means they are still available today, and prized by collectors. A complete set can be purchased online for about $10.
It is hard to know if the stamp series encouraged Americans to go to their national parks, but throughout the 1920s and into the early 1930s visitation had ranged between about 2 and 3 million a year. In 1933, 3,255,684 people visited the parks. The next year, National Park Year, visitation jumped to 6,095,201. Between 1934 and U.S. entry into World War II in 1941, the number of park visitors increased by at least 15 percent every year. In 2015, in a much larger population, 307,247,252 people went to a national park.11
President Roosevelt used other means to urge Americans to enjoy the national parks. Grant's photographs, printed in newspaper and magazines, made the natural beauty of American landscape features iconic. In addition, Roosevelt brought the War Department battlefields into the National Park System in a major reorganization in 1934. During his term in office the number of park units grew from 52 to 143, including, among so many others, Blue Ridge Parkway, Everglades, Natchez Trace Parkway, Dry Tortugas, Big Bend, Fort Stanwix, Joshua Tree, Manassas, Zion, Cape Hatteras, Salem Maritime, Channel Islands, Saratoga, Mount Rushmore, and Hopewell Furnace. 12
Speaking at the dedication of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, September 2, 1940, Roosevelt told his audience:
"There are trees here that stood before our forefathers ever came to his continent; there are brooks that still run as clear as on the day the first pioneer cupped his hand and drank from them. In this Park we shall conserve these trees ... for the happiness of the American people. The old frontier that put the hard fibre in the American spirit and the long muscles on the American back, lives and will live in these untamed mountains to give to the future generations a sense of the land from which their forefathers hewed their homes." 13
In other words, parks were just not about beauty and scenery; they stood for the values upon which Americans had built this nation, and they ensured that present and future generations could draw inspiration from them.
Roosevelt's impact on the parks and conservation in general was enormous.14 During his years in office not only did the number of park units practically triple but national wildlife refuges and national forests also increased in number and acreage. In 1934 he initiated a program that required hunters of migratory waterfowl to purchase a duck stamp along with a license. All the proceeds from the sale of the duck stamps, a program that continues today, go to the purchase of wetlands and migratory waterfowl habitat. The annual competition for the year's duck stamp draws hundreds of artists.
In the last hundred years presidents have made it a point to visit national parks, and they like to have themselves and their families photographed smiling against the scenic vistas. Roosevelt visited parks, too. Though he could not walk the trails, he delighted in greeting rangers and visitors from his open-air car, reaching out to shake their hands. For personal recreation, he often turned to his stamp collection. His hobby helped him to see that everyday postal stamps, in denominations everyone used—and almost everyone wrote letters in those days—would remind Americans that their national parks, monuments and battlefields, refuges and wetlands and coasts, are preserved forever for their enjoyment.
The national parks preceded the National Park Service, but the first great natural park was a state park. California’s Yo...
The White House Historical Association and the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project present this collaboration in an effort to open a...
President Franklin D. Roosevelt drives around Hyde Park with his dog Fala in the front seat. Fala, a Scottish Terrier,...
The inaugural stand built for President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.
Although the White House staff has grown large enough today to occupy much of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, small...
In May 1943 Winston Churchill visiting Shangri-La (now known as Camp David) where he had a chance to observe Roosevelt working...
President Franklin Roosevelt with U.S. Naval Academy superintendent Admiral Foote Sellers aboard the yacht USS Sequoia in 1935.
President and Mrs. Roosevelt with King George and others at Union Station.
In this black and white photograph, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's dog Fala is shown donating his toys. In a highly...
President Franklin D. Roosevelt visits a Civilian Conservation Core camp in the Shenandoah National Park. One of Roosevelt’s New De...
WASHINGTON, Sunday—A few people came in to tea on Friday afternoon. The President worked right through with the Prime Mi... | <urn:uuid:b8ebcfb6-e97f-488f-b8a0-ea5bc18aeed0> | {
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Where Did That Saying Come From?
We say a whole lotta strange phrases on a day-to-day basis…but have you ever wondered where they originated?
I’m a self-proclaimed nerd with these things…so I have! I’m also an answer-finder, so here’s what I tracked down!
- Beating Around The Bush – In hunting, sometimes ya gotta stomp around on the underbrush to scare the animals out. The term originally described an unwilling hunter…who would “beat around the bush” but not actually kill anything.
- Going Balls To The Wall – This is NOT a “dirty” saying…it means pushing yourself to the limit. It’s actually an old aviation term. The top of the levers for throttle and fuel mixtures were both shaped like a ball, and if you pushed both forward — toward the front wall of the cockpit — the plane went faster. (I’ve confirmed this with my pilot uncle…so don’t accuse me of potty mouth!)
- Biting the Bullet – Now it means “to face up to something”, but before anesthetics were available, injured soldiers would literally bite down on a bullet to get through the pain of an amputation!
- Getting Someone’s Goat – Originally this was a horseracing term, but now we tend to use it when you’re intentionally trying to irritate someone. Nervous horses sometimes relax a bit when you put a goat in the stall with them. But rival horse owners would steal the goat, so the horse would freak out overnight and lose the race.
- Making the Grade – I always thought this was about school, didn’t you? Nope, it’s an old 19th century railroad term. “Grade” is short for “gradient” (incline). Engineers had to make sure trains wouldn’t encounter inclines that were too steep, so if you “made the grade” you were within safety limits.
- Passing the Buck – Again, I thought it was about money…but it’s not. It comes from an old British card game, where a “jack knife” or “buck” was passed from player to player, to indicate whose turn it was! | <urn:uuid:e26ccc8f-f25f-47d8-bab9-e55c1edd1f4c> | {
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In ancient and medieval timesSince its earliest known history, the land corresponding roughly with modern Orissa passed under the names of Utkala, Kaliṅga, and Oḍra Deṣa, although its boundaries were sometimes much larger. These names were originally associated with peoples. The Okkalā or Utkala, the Kaliñgā, and the Oḍra or Oḍḍakā were mentioned in literature as tribes. Ancient that roughly corresponds to present-day Orissa has gone by various names, most notably Utkala (or Okkala), Kalinga, and Odra Desha (or Oddaka), which appeared in ancient literature as designations for particular tribes. The ancient Greeks knew the latter two groups as Kalingai and Oretes. Eventually the These names eventually became identified with territories. For centuries before and after the birth of Christ, Kaliṅga was a formidable political power, extending from the Ganges River to the Godāvari. Approximately between the 11th and 16th centuries the name fell into disuse; instead, the name Oḍra Deṣa was gradually transformed into Uḍḍiṣa, Uḍisā, or Oḍisā, which in English became Orissa. The language of Oḍisā came to be known as Oṛiyā or Oṛiā.specific territories.
At the dawn of Indian history, Kaliṅga Kalinga was already a famous and formidable political power. Buddhist sources refer to the rule of King Brahmadatta in Kaliṅga Kalinga at the time of the Buddha’s death, sometime between the 6th and the 4th century BCE. In the 4th century BC BCE the first Indian empire builder, Mahāpadma Mahapadma Nanda, conquered Kaliṅgafounder of the Nanda dynasty, conquered Kalinga, but the Nanda rule was short-lived. In 260 BC BCE the Mauryan emperor Aśoka Ashoka invaded Kaliṅga Kalinga and fought one of the greatest wars of ancient history. He then renounced war, became a Buddhist, and preached peace and nonviolence in and outside India. In the 1st century BC BCE the Kaliṅga Kalinga emperor Khāravela Kharavela conquered vast territories that collectively came to be called the Kaliṅga Kalinga empire.
Kaliṅga became a maritime power beginning in In the 1st century AD, and its overseas activities culminated CE, Kalinga emerged as a maritime power. Its overseas activities possibly involved the establishment in the 8th century with the establishment of the Ṣailendra empire in Java. Orissa was ruled Shailendra empire on the Southeast Asian island of Java (now in Indonesia). Kalinga was ruled by the powerful Bhauma-Kara dynasty during the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries, followed by the powerful Bhauma-Kara dynasty and in the 10th and 11th centuries by the Soma dynasty. The Temple of Liṅgarāja Soma kings until the 11th century. Construction of the 11th-century temple of Lingaraja at Bhubaneshwar, the greatest Ṣaiva Shaiva monument of India, was begun by the Soma King Yayāti.Medieval Orissa king Yayati.
Kalinga enjoyed a golden age under the Gaṅga Ganga dynasty. Its founder, Anantavarma Cōḍagaṅgadeva The Ganga ruler Anantavarma Chodagangadeva (1078–1147) , ruled from the Ganges River to the Godāvari Godavari River with Cuttack as his capital. He began the construction of the temple of Jagannātha Jagannatha (Lord of the UniverseWorld) at Puri. Narasiṃha Narasimha I (1238–64) built the Sun Temple (Surya DeuḷaDeula) of KonārkaKonarak (Konark), one of the finest specimens of Hindu architecture. In the 13th and 14th centuries, when much of India was overrun by the Muslimscame under the rule of Muslim powers, independent Orissa Kalinga remained a citadel of Hindu religion, philosophy, art, and architecture.
The Gaṅgas Gangas were succeeded by the Sūrya Surya dynasty. Its first king, Kapilendra (1435–66), won territories from his Muslim neighbours and greatly expanded the Orissan Kalinga kingdom. His successor, PuruṣottamaPurushottama, maintained these gains with difficulty. The next and the last Sūrya Surya king, PratāparudraPrataparudra, became a disciple of CaitanyaChaitanya, the great medieval saintHindu mystic, and became a pacifist. After his Prataparudra’s death (1540) Orissa’s in 1540, the kingdom’s power declined, and in 1568, when King Mukunda was killed by his own countrymen, Orissa it lost its independence to the Afghan rulers of Bengal.
It was sometime between the 11th and 16th centuries that the name Kalinga fell into disuse. In its place arose the old tribal name Odra Desha, which was gradually transformed into Odisa (or Uddisha, or Udisa), which in English became Orissa. The language of Orissa came to be known as Oriya (or Oria).
The Mughal emperor Akbar conquered wrested Orissa from the Afghans in 1590–92. When the Mughal Empire empire fell in 1761the mid-18th century, part of Orissa remained under the Bengal nawabsnawabs (provincial governors of Mughal India) of Bengal, but the greater part passed to the MarāṭhāsMarathas, who ruled much of South India between the 16th and 19th centuries. The Bengal sector came under British rule in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey; the Marāṭhā Maratha sector was conquered by the British in 1803. Although after 1803 the British controlled the entire OṛiyāOriya-speaking area, it continued to be administered as two units. It was not until April 1, 1936, that the British heeded calls for unification on a linguistic basis and constituted Orissa as a separate province; 26 Oṛiyā Oriya princely states, however, remained outside the provincial administration. After the independence of India in 1947, all these the territory of Orissa was expanded to include all of the princely states except Saraikela and Kharsāwān (which merged with Bihār) became part of OrissaKharsawan, which were absorbed by Bihar. Orissa became a state of India in 1950. | <urn:uuid:78ba10b4-b761-41e7-8a51-16392c0e714e> | {
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Lisa Delpit on Pervasive Inequities
'Multiplication Is for White People': Raising Expectations for Other People's Children
By Lisa Delpit
The New Press, 2012, 256 pp.
Teacher Book Club Dates: May 16-18, 2012
Head to the author-led discussion here.
"There is no achievement gap at birth," MacArthur "genius" award recipient Lisa Delpit affirms at the outset of her new book, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children. "If we do not recognize the brilliance before us, we cannot help but carry on the stereotypic societal views that these [African-American] children are somehow damaged goods and that they cannot be expected to succeed."
In this title, Delpit, whose previous book—the acclaimed yet controversial Other People's Children—was published 16 years ago, delves into the school factors that have contributed to the achievement gap. She makes the case that African-American students do not achieve to their potential because they're hindered by "society's deeply ingrained bias of equating blackness with inferiority," the effects of stereotype threat, and curriculum that is not meaningful to them. More simply, she argues, they are not being taught effectively.
To educate our children, Delpit writes, teachers need a deep understanding of where they come from and what knowledge they bring to class. "We must learn who our children are—their lived cultures; their interests; and their intellectual, political, and historical legacies." In addition, she writes, teachers must be "warm demanders," meaning that they need to communicate clear, high expectations and hold students accountable for their performance, but also show care and concern.
Delpit goes on to take education reform efforts to task. The recent focus on test prep and "basic skills," especially in low-performing urban schools, deprives students of opportunities to exercise their critical thinking, she writes. Charter schools find ways to "counsel out" the most challenging student populations. And, according to Delpit, the proliferation of alternative-certification programs that put high-achieving graduates from competitive universities into low-income schools—Teach for America being the "emblematic" one—has led to the displacement of veteran African-American teachers in favor of young, mostly white teachers. "Whatever else we might do, school reform must include efforts to recruit and sustain local, African-American teachers," she contends.
Through anecdotes based on her many classroom visits and her experiences with her own daughter's education, Delpit paints a picture of a system with pervasive inequities. She recounts an instance in which an African-American student asked a tutor: "Why you trying to teach me to multiply, Ms. L.? Black people don't multiply; black people just add and subtract. White people multiply." Too often, Delpit explains, African-American students respond to the notion that they will not achieve by "'disidentifying' with the institutions that think so poorly of them."
But the outlook is not all bleak. By cultivating genuine relationships with students, individual teachers are making a difference, she says. For these teachers, she writes, "their success is not because their skin color matches their students' but because they know the lives and culture of their students. Knowing students is a prerequisite for teaching them well." | <urn:uuid:a68a2196-011e-444e-88d8-115744a49392> | {
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A large cohort study from Japan found that eating mushrooms may be associated with a reduced risk for prostate cancer. The association was particularly notable among those aged 50 years and older.
“To date, an increasing number of in vivo and in vitro studies have suggested the beneficial effects of mushrooms on health, such as antioxidation, anti‐inflammation, immunomodulation, etc,” wrote study authors led by Shu Zhang, PhD, of Tohoku University School of Public Health in Sendai, Japan. “Additionally, mushrooms also reportedly have anticancer properties and effects against tumor development.”
Results from the study were published online ahead of print on September 4 in the International Journal of Cancer.
There have been suggestions that several mushroom extracts may inhibit human prostate cancer cell lines and restrict tumor progression. To better elucidate any potential connection between mushroom intake and prostate cancer, the authors conducted an analysis based on a total of 36,499 men who participated in the Miyagi Cohort Study in 1990 and the Ohsaki Cohort Study in 1994. The men were followed for a median of 13.2 years.
The participants were divided by mushroom consumption: 15,958 men consumed mushrooms less than once per week; 13,124 ate them 1 to 2 times per week; and 7,417 men ate mushrooms at least three times per week. Those who ate the most mushrooms were older, more likely to have a family history of cancer, and less likely to be current smokers or drinkers. They also were more likely to spend at least 1 hour per day walking.
The study covered a total of 574,397 person-years of follow-up, during which period there were 1,204 cases of prostate cancer (3.3% of the population). Using the lowest mushroom consumption group as a reference group, those who ate mushrooms at least three times per week had an unadjusted hazard ratio for prostate cancer development of 0.84 (95% CI, 0.72–0.98; P = 0.033).
This was confirmed in two adjusted models. In one, the researchers adjusted for family history, body mass index, education level, smoking status, and time spent walking; in that model, the HR for the highest mushroom consumption group was 0.84 (95% CI, 0.72–0.98; P = 0.025). In a second model that additionally adjusted for consumption of other foods including meat, vegetables, fruit, dairy products, coffee, and others, the HR was 0.83 (95% CI, 0.70–0.98; P = 0.023).
A stratified analysis based on age, clinical cancer stage, and other foods showed that the relationship persisted among those aged 50 years and older, while no significant relationship was seen in younger men.
This adds to previous studies suggesting mushroom intake may help reduce risk of cancer development. For example, a 2010 study found that higher mushroom consumption was related to a reduced risk for breast cancer.
“This finding suggests that habitual mushroom intake might help to reduce prostate cancer risk,” the authors of the new study concluded. “Further studies in other populations and settings are required to confirm this relationship.” | <urn:uuid:e3b115a9-7d04-4695-8a69-025db3ed6c90> | {
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Affirmative Action Brings Long-Term Benefits, Study Says
A 20-year study of tens of thousands of student records indicates that affirmative action programs are largely responsible for the supporting the black middle class and for teaching white students the importance of integration.
Written by William Bowen and Derek Bok, two former presidents of Princeton and Harvard Universities, the study examined the grades, test scores, graduation rates, attitudes, choice of majors, and future careers of 45,000 students at 28 of the nation's most selective schools.
Bowen and Bok found that blacks admitted to elite institutions with lower tests scores and grades than their white peers earned graduate degrees at the same rate as whites, were more likely than white peers to earn degrees in law, business, and medicine, and were more likely than whites to contribute to their communities by participating in civic organizations and activities.
Study authors stated that blacks admitted under affirmative action programs positively influence society by strengthening minority communities and encouraging integration and understanding. "They can serve as strong threads in a fabric that binds their own community together and binds those communities into the larger social fabric as well," read the study.
Bowen and Bok's study, The Shape of the River: Long-Terms Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions was published by Princeton University Press.
Media Resources: New York Times - September 9, 1998 | <urn:uuid:d12b8c40-c6d4-45a8-b5d5-039006efcfef> | {
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- About CDIAC
- Observing Programs
Production of CO2 from Fossil Fuel Burning by Fuel Type, 1860-1982 (NDP-006)
R. M. Rotty and G. Marland
Global carbon dioxide emissions for 1950 through 1982 were estimated by Marland and Rotty (1984) from fuel production data from the U.N. Energy Statistics Yearbook (1983, 1984). Data before 1950 came from Keeling (1973). Fuel-production data were used in these calculations because they appeared to be more reliable on a global basis than fuel-consumption data.
The data given are the year and annual global CO2 emissions (annual global total; cumulative global total since 1860; and annual global emissions from solid fuels, liquid fuels, natural gas, gas flaring, and cement manufacturing). These data provide the only pre-1950 estimates of the amount of carbon emitted to the atmosphere from fossil-fuel burning. The CO2 emission record since 1950 has been updated and revised several times with the most recent estimates being published by Marland et al. (1989).
Please note: Revised global historic fossil-fuel CO2 emissions estimates are now available through CDIAC's Trends Online. The revised pre-1950 estimates are based on energy production and trade (imports and exports) data rather than production data only, and extend back to 1751. The emissions estimates from Marland et al. and NDP006 agree well over comparable time periods but users are encouraged to access the data through Trends Online. There are no plans to ever produce any updates to NDP006. | <urn:uuid:ded8df77-0c39-46cf-8e15-9fa8583ef47f> | {
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As part of finishing primary school, all year 6 students will write a valedictorian speech. Your speech will be about your time in primary school. Think about all the experiences you have had at Moonee Ponds Primary School and all the wonderful things you have done.
The internet is full of tips for writing a valedictory speech. YouTube also has many worthwhile samples.
Here are some suggestions
- Keep it in perspective.
- Avoid trying to write something that doesn’t reflect your true self.
- Be open to what the rest of the grade is thinking.
- Create an introduction.
- Thank those people who have made a difference in your life and the lives of other students.
- Add in memories.
- Acknowledge others.
- Stay out of cliche zone.
To fully unpack each of these go to: http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Valedictorian-Speech
The website about education(http://homeworktips.about.com/od/speechclass/qt/valedictory.htm) also provides advice around:
- Know Your Purpose
- Compile a List of Highlights
- Writing the Speech
- Use Anecdotes and Quotes
- Plan for Time
- Tips for Preparing to Speak
Finally http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/style-and-usage/writing-your-valedictorian-speech.html has general tips for Valedictory Speeches including how to begin writing it, getting feedback and involving your peers.
For an example of a recent speech given at an MPPS graduation check out http://grace2012.global2.vic.edu.au/ | <urn:uuid:a949dd37-eccc-4655-8bf1-4cb492d69a0f> | {
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GOULD (Gold), JOSEPH, farmer, miller, businessman, politician, and philanthropist; b. 29 Dec. 1808 in Uxbridge Township, Upper Canada, near the present town of Uxbridge, the third of ten children of Jonathan Gold and Rachel Lee; m. 1 Jan. 1839 Mary James, and they had 11 children; d. 29 Jan. 1886 at Uxbridge.
Joseph Gould (he changed his name from Gold while he was in school) was born in the sparsely settled township of Uxbridge three years after his family arrived from Germantown, Pa. He received little education at the local school and was largely self-taught. He took up carpentry briefly before acquiring a farm with the help of a loan from a neighbour, Ezekiel James, his future father-in-law. He also bought a sawmill, and after initial difficulties it was soon operating profitably. Gould prospered as the population of the area grew over the next decades.
Always interested in the well-being of his fellow man, Gould was introduced to events in the outside world by a visit to York (Toronto) in 1830 and by the reading of William Lyon Mackenzie*’s Colonial Advocate. He became a strong supporter of Mackenzie and the Reform movement in the 1830s. In 1837, Gould, who believed in a peaceful solution to the grievances of the people, was nevertheless persuaded by approximately 50 of his neighbours to lead them to Montgomery’s Tavern on Yonge Street, headquarters for the planned attack on Toronto. He fought in the battle near the inn and was caught while fleeing to the United States. He was sentenced to transportation to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), but his sentence was reduced to nine months’ imprisonment. In October 1838 he was pardoned under the general amnesty granted by Lord Durham [Lambton*].
Once released, Gould returned to farming and business. As a farmer he built up a large holding and at one time worked between 600 and 700 acres. He also speculated in land, owned mills and commercial property in the village of Uxbridge, and ran the Whitby, Lake Scugog, Simcoe and Huron Road from 1865 to 1876, the first two years in partnership with Chester Draper. In the 1860s he supported the proposed railway from Whitby to Lake Huron and paid for a large share of the survey’s costs himself. This railway met opposition from many farmers in the county because they would have borne most of the cost without benefitting from the line. While the route was being debated, the Toronto and Nipissing Railway was built. Seeing that the Whitby and Lake Huron would fail, Gould had also promoted vigorously the Toronto and Nipissing and bought a considerable amount of stock in it as well.
Gould first held political office in 1836–37 when he served as township commissioner for Uxbridge. From 1842 to 1854 he was district councillor and, as a member of the provisional county council established in 1851, he was instrumental in the creation of Ontario County the following year. He became the first reeve of Uxbridge Township in 1853, the first warden of Ontario County in 1855, and finally reeve of the village of Uxbridge. As a Reformer, Gould campaigned three times for the seat of Ontario North in the Legislative Assembly. He defeated Ogle Robert Gowan* in 1854 and 1857 even though the riding contained many Orangemen, but lost by 99 votes to Matthew Crooks Cameron in the third attempt in 1861. He voted with the reform group of Francis Hincks and Augustin-Norbert Morin* and the Morin and Sir Allan Napier MacNab* coalition of 1854 until measures for the abolition of seigneurial tenure and secularization of the clergy reserves were passed. He then opposed such Hincksite proposals as the Grand Trunk aid bill of 1857 and became, in the main, a supporter of the policies of George Brown*. By 1861, however, he had antagonized a number of groups in his riding, including the Roman Catholics. After his defeat that year he asked that his name not be put forward again, but continued to work for the Reform cause, and he was president of the Reform Association of Ontario North for a quarter of a century.
Maintaining a concern for his fellow man, Gould aided financially troubled local farmers, made considerable donations to various denominations for church buildings (he himself was born a Quaker), and gave generously to the agricultural societies and to educational projects such as the village’s first grammar school built in 1856. He also served as chairman of the Uxbridge Township school board for 20 years. Although he supported primary schools and compulsory education, he opposed higher education which, as a self-made man, he felt to be of no use.
When Gould died in 1886, his estate was valued at approximately $250,000, despite the fact he had already given a great deal to charity and to his children. Much of his wealth had been acquired through shrewd commercial dealings which some contemporaries criticized as too cold-blooded. At his death, however, he was remembered for his service to the area, not for his hard-nosed business undertakings. | <urn:uuid:949a3d1f-55a4-40e4-9fae-32620c959f6f> | {
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Diameter: 3.200 cm
Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Gold disc brooch
Merovingian, late 6th century AD
Probably from Germany
Inlaid with garnets and a blue glass stud
The brooch is made in the cloisonné technique with garnets and glass, one adopted from Eastern Mediterranean jewellers by the Franks, Goths, Lombards and other ‘barbarians’, as well as probably in workshops of the western Mediterranean region. Secondary workshops could have been established in the Rhineland, the Moselle Valley and North Sea area. Analysis of the constituents of the backing pastes suggests that workshop techniques developed regionally. The garnets themselves were possibly obtained by sea trade from India.
In western Europe the wearing of single disc brooches replaced the use of paired brooches in the late sixth and seventh centuries, as costume fashions changed under Byzantine influence through diplomatic, religious and trade contacts. Disc brooches also noticeably increased in size over this period.
R.A. Smith, A guide to the Anglo-Saxon and (London, British Museum, 1923) | <urn:uuid:8a12a1e1-8afc-4802-ab47-8ba55feeb5ae> | {
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American Modernism: Form, History, and Narrative
Form, History, and Narrative
What are we to make of the vexed (and often vexing) relations between American modernist literature and the realm of historical events? To what extent (if any) can it accurately be said that the majority of American modernists were inclined to pursue aesthetic autonomy at the expense of political engagement? Why do modernist writers often seem intent on disrupting or evading the structures associated with conventional forms of narrative? Does the modernist aesthetic have any special connection with the unique constellation of social, political, and cultural forces that were at play in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century? What (if any) significant characteristics do the various writers regularly described as modernists have in common with each other? How do these writers contribute to forming the canon and how are the various sub-canons created? Does the difference lie in gender, race, ethnicity, etc?
With an eye to such questions, and with a tactful awareness of the unique particularities of literary form, this book shall explore an assortment of works that have often been seen to have embodied key aspects of the modernist aesthetic. In keeping with the vital and innovative flavour of recent scholarship in the field of modernist studies, the overriding emphasis will be on developing fresh ways of reading and contextualizing these unusually demanding and engaging texts. Essays could include topics on Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, E.E. Cummings, Gertrude Stein, Djuna Barnes, Robert Frost, William Faulkner, Anita Loos, TS Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, HD, Mina Loy, Jean Toomer, F Scott Fitzgerald, Pietro Di Donato, and Nathanael West, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, etc. Essays on other modern American writers are welcome. Please send essays and resumes to [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:60470b7b-92bc-45fd-a895-a4836db80431> | {
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Strengthens Your Home
4. Spray Foam Insulation Strengthens Your Home
Apart from having a clean, safe and well maintained home, it should also be strong and durable in order to protect its dwellers from various environmental elements. Spray foam insulation strengthens your home and adds durability to it.
Spray Foam Insulation in Walls
The walls in your home are its main structural component. In wood frame building, total weight of the roof, shingles, standing rainwater or snow can add weight to the structure and apply downward force on walls causing a compressive force. Strong winds and gusts from thunderstorms also subject your walls to lateral forces which results to distortions. This is commonly known as the “shearing force”.
Building codes require that your home’s walls be designed to withstand these various forces and loads. However, when walls are built to just the minimum standards, while still safe, symptoms of movement such as creaking and shaking during high winds or occupant usage often occurs. Spray foam insulation inside your walls reinforce its strength making it more durable and sturdy. With this added rigidity, there will be less wall movement due to wind, vibration, and occupant activity.
When your walls are installed with spray foam insulation, they become stronger and this means they can support the entirety of your property more efficiently. You can rest well at night knowing that you are protected from “shakes” and vibrations because you have a strong insulation material installed.
Spray Foam Insulation in Roofs
Installing spray foam insulation in your roofing can enhance the strength of your building. Because spray foam insulation conforms and adheres to the surface on which it is sprayed, it forms a powerful bond to protect the roof. It eliminates the possibility of water seeping through seams and fasteners. Also, spray foam insulation can be applied in a sloped manner to enable water to drain off the roof”.
The bond that spray foam insulation forms to the roof can raise the building’s resistance to wind uplifts. Because of this, during periods of high wind, a home with a spray foam roof insulation normally experiences less damage than a building without SPF. A prominent spray foam consultant found that “when added to the interior of a construction, spray foam ‘glues’ the entire building together, improving entire wind and pressurization resistance.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which aids in natural disasters, has classified spray foam insulation as exceptionally resistant to floodwater damage saying, “These materials can survive wetting and drying and may be successfully cleaned after a flood to render them free of most harmful pollutants. In addition, spray foam prevents moisture and condensation throughout the building envelope, thereby helping to prevent the growth of mold and mildew. Applying spray foam insulation in the cavities of the walls increases durability of the wall systembecause of the foam’s ability to mold and adhere to the surfaceupon which it is sprayed.” | <urn:uuid:e2e2fe55-79f7-497d-b75b-ae3444cefb61> | {
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Workers will build the top part of the new bridge structure next to the existing bridge while crews work on the piers and foundation underneath the existing bridge, he said.
“They'll tear out the old bridge and slide that (new structure) into the location,” White said.
Ridley said the cost of an accelerated bridge project likely will be more expensive than a traditional bridge rebuilding project. But motorists aren't affected nearly as long and the state gets a new bridge built quicker.
Other states have used the accelerated bridge-building approach, and Oklahoma transportation officials believe the method is preferable for some projects, Ridley said.
The state Transportation Department used a similar approach in 2002 to rebuild a portion of the Interstate 40 bridge over the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls in 47 days, which set a national record for a project of that size. Two barges hit the bridge, sending a 580-foot segment of the bridge, which typically carried 20,000 vehicles per day, into the Arkansas River. Fourteen people were killed when their vehicles plunged into the river.
Ridley said a speedy repair was necessary because of concerns over the high volume of big-truck traffic being rerouted to two-lane highways and unsafe bridges.
“We were running interstate traffic on narrow two-lane roads and we had at least a dozen bridges that we had serious concerns about,” Ridley said. “We had to get traffic off of those detours as quickly as we could.” | <urn:uuid:3a4dd908-210c-45ba-a051-19ab463b94db> | {
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Although social networking can often be a wonderful thing and has many positive aspects, there’s no doubt that for some it can be a problem and we’ve told before how some people can become obsessed and how it can lead to eating problems. Now it seems a new term has been coined, ‘Facebook Depression,’ and it’s something that parents are being urged to be aware of.
The latest edition of Pedeatrics Journal refers to a study of teens using Facebook and it seems that sometimes the use of social media can add to the problems that many teens face today. Teenagers spending a lot of time on Facebook could be affected by ‘Facebook Depression’ according to researchers who found that for some teens, facing the constant barrage of updates from friends who present a “false reality” of themselves, results in them beginning to suffer from low self-esteem. It’s common knowledge that we all try to present the best of ourselves on social networking sites, and this can make some people feel inadequate.
Over on NYDaily News, Nina Mandell reports on the study and notes an Associated Press report where teenager Abby Abolt spoke about ‘Facebook Depression.’ Abolt said, “If you really didn’t have that many friends and weren’t really doing much with your life, and saw other peoples’ status updates and pictures and what they were doing with friends, I could see how that would make them upset. It’s like a big popularity contest – who can get the most friend requests or get the most pictures tagged.” Even as adults many of us must surely have noticed that friends on Facebook only present a certain side of themselves and sometimes don’t seem to be the same certain that we really know at all, but for teens still unsure of themselves we can understand how this could lead to anxiety.
What are your thoughts on ‘Facebook Depression?’ Do you think this is something we’re likely to recognise more as social networking becomes ever more popular or maybe you feel that depressed teens were likely to become depressed anyway and it is too easily blamed on Facebook? Let us know with your comments.
After we published this article we were contacted by Facebook who pointed out that the term ‘Facebook Depression’ failed to be substantiated. Of course Facebook consider the safety of its users to be paramount and detailed a report which in fact countered the claims of the original study by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The later report entitled, “Pediatrics Gets it Wrong about ‘Facebook Depression’” by John M Grohal, PSYD, editor of PsychCentral, goes into detail about why the original findings were misguided and says that ‘Facebook Depression’ was an invented term. Regarding the citations in the original study Grohal stated that, “none could demonstrate a causative relationship between use of Facebook making a teenager or child feel more depressed. Zero.” Facebook also pointed us to a CNN report “Study: Facebook Helps Your Self Esteem” from Cornell University and additionally noted that the original AAP study in fact found many positives about the uses of new media in teenagers’s lives. We are happy to clarify these issues and are grateful to Facebook for letting us know the other side of this story. | <urn:uuid:c778151a-3cd1-42ea-81e2-783fb70cd849> | {
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Term meaning gathering, assembly, reunion
Synaxis (Greek: sunaksis from sunago) means gathering, assembly, reunion. It is exactly equivalent to the Latin collector (from colligere), and corresponds to synagogue (Greek: sunagoge), the place of reunion. In Christian and liturgical use the Synaxis is the assembly for any religious function, either in the abstract sense (nomen actionis) or concretely for the people assembled (cf. German Sammlung and Versammlung). The verb Greek: sunago occurs frequently in the New Testament, for gathering together a religious meeting (Acts, xi, 26; xiv, 27 etc.), as also for the Jewish services and councils (e.g. John, xi, 47). So also in the Apostolic Fathers (Didache, ix, 4; xiv, 1; I Clem., xxxiv, 7; in general for the union of the church, Ignatius, "Magn.", x, 3). We must distinguish the liturgical (eucharistic) from the aliturgical Synaxis, which consisted only of prayers, readings, psalms, out of which our Divine Office evolved. Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite uses the word only for the eucharistic service ("De eccles. bier.", iii, in P.G., III), and Cardinal Bona thinks that so it may have a mystic meaning, as referring to our union with God or Communion (Rerum liturg., I, iii, 3). But it occurs frequently for any religious assembly, and in this sense was adopted in the West by St. Benedict ("Regula Ben.", 17: "Vespertina Synaxis "Vespers) and by John Cassian ("Collat.", IX, 34: "ad concludendam synaxim"; ed. Hurter, Innsbruck, 1887, p. 315) etc. In this signification the word is now archaic in Greek and Latin. It is preserved, however, in the Byzantine Calendar as the title of certain feasts on which the people assemble in some particular church for the Holy Liturgy, and therefore corresponds to the Roman statio. Thus January 4 is the "Synaxis of the holy Seventy", that is the feast of the seventy disciples (Luke, x, 1, where the Vulgate has seventy-two, on which day the assembly was once made in some church (at Constantinople?) dedicated to them (Nilles, "Kalendarium manuale," I, 2nd ed., Innsbruck, 1896, p. 52); December 26 is the "Synaxis of the Theotokos and of Joseph the spouse and guardian of the Virgin", a feast in memory of the flight into Egypt, on which again the station was at a special church (ibid., 366). | <urn:uuid:dff7a83e-1fb6-4888-9b48-d403b9a474d6> | {
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Sharks come in many different shapes and sizes, but people are most familiar with the classic look of a Galapagos shark. Its body is solid, large and torpedo shaped—an efficient form for swimming. Dark gray above and lighter below, the Galapagos shark has no distinctive markings except for a ridge that runs between its dorsal (back) fins. If threatened by a predator or competitor, the shark arches its back, lowers its pectoral (side) fins and swims in figure-eight loops. If the intruder doesn't heed this display, the Galapagos shark will chase and attack the intruder. Although Galapagos sharks are considered dangerous, they rarely attack humans.
Sharks are often misunderstood; they're not maniacal eating machines, eager to devour anything or everything in their path. Only about 30 of the approximately 350 species of sharks are dangerous, and even these rarely attack humans. People, however, are responsible for the death of 11,400 sharks every hour, every day. Since sharks grow slowly, breed late in life and generally bear few young, the populations of many species of sharks are declining dramatically. Without more regulations, many species will become extinct.
This shark bears live young. The embryos receive nourishment from a placentalike attachment to the mother's uterine wall.
A shark's nose is superbly sensitive to some odors. It can detect blood in a concentration of only one part per million—the same as one teaspoon of blood in an average-size swimming pool.
Galapagos sharks are curious; they often gather around and bump into boats, oars, divers or anything else that seems to take their fancy.
To rid its stomach of an indigestible object, a shark pushes its stomach out through its mouth, expels the object and then pulls its stomach back into its proper place.
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MASTER GARDENER PROGRAM — MGs in the News
Published in: Columbian • April 22, 2018, 6:03 AM
By Patty Hastings, Columbian social services
Read this Columbian article online.
Earth Day evokes images of people hugging the planet and saving this big blue and green globe we call home through large-scale environmental efforts. Ending plastic pollution. Stopping deforestation. That sort of thing.
But being good to the world can start small. It can start in your own backyard.
Spring is here and gardeners are marking their calendars for the bevy of plant sales happening over the next several weeks. What they choose to put in their gardens can make a difference.
Erika Johnson coordinates the local Master Gardener Program through Washington State University Extension.
The first rule of gardening, she said, is putting the right plant in the right place. Simply listening to where a plant tag says it’ll do best can ward off pest and disease problems down the road that might require harsh pesticides or herbicides, Johnson said. For instance, a Camas lily thrives in a much different environment than a sword fern. Some basic soil care, such as leaving leaves on the ground or spreading wood chips, can prevent weeds and help build up soil nutrients. Soil microbes — beneficial fungi, bacteria and invertebrates — are the “unsung heroes” of the garden, Johnson said.
Minimizing grass can be beneficial for wildlife and rewarding for people who don’t need large lawns. Grass is limited in the group of organisms it supports, Johnson said. She squared off sections of her yard and over time added plants until eventually there wasn’t any grass left.
Johnson also recommends incorporating native plants into the landscape, such as red flowering currant, a colorful shrub that attracts hummingbirds, or Oregon grape, which is loved by birds and bees.
“You’re providing food and shelter for the animals that have evolved in this area,” Johnson said.
Meredith Hardin, president of NatureScaping of Southwest Washington, also praised the benefits of native plants. (This week is Washington’s Native Plant Appreciation Week, by the way.)
“Native plants use less water. They have acclimated to our rainy winters and dry, hot summers, so they’re not going to need as much water during the dry, hot summer,” she said.
NatureScaping, which has 10 themed demonstration gardens in Brush Prairie, is working on a new garden that will feature drought-tolerant plants and a rain garden. People can find inspiration by browsing the labeled plants at NatureScaping. Everything there is meant to be wildlife-friendly, that is friendly primarily to birds, butterflies and reptiles. Hardin noted that birds like thickets and hiding areas, a design feature used heavily at NatureScaping.
NatureScaping’s sale, happening April 28-29, is “really our only fundraiser,” Hardin said. The sale helps support the gardens, along with gardening classes and other educational programs.
She said people can check out the sale next door at the Center for Agriculture, Science, and Environmental Education, or CASEE, whose students will be selling native plants they cultivated.
Some native plants can be found at the Master Gardener Foundation’s popular Mother’s Day weekend sale. Even though last year was rainy and muddy, a lot of people still turned out for the sale, which benefits horticulture programs throughout the county.
“You can’t keep gardeners from a plant sale,” quipped Julie Carlsen, a master gardener.
She said shoppers can find native bleeding heart, fringecup, foamflower and sword fern if they’re looking to incorporate some natives into their gardens. Volunteers will be available to answer questions about the plants for sale.
Or, people can call the Master Gardener answer clinic for gardening-related questions or problems. Volunteers at the clinic can help diagnose issues and help gardeners avoid using sprays. Some people, for instance, may think a bad bug is munching away at a plant when really it’s a beneficial caterpillar trying to eat all the nutrients it needs to turn into a butterfly.
Have a gardening question? Contact the Master Gardener answer clinic at 360-397-6060, ext. 5711, or [email protected]. Otherwise, visit the clinic at 78th Street Heritage Farm, located at 1919 N.E. 78th St., between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, or 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays.
Want to volunteer? Plant flowers in Propstra Square in Esther Short Park, 605 Esther St., from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. May 19. Bring gloves, kneeling pads and trowels. Lunch will be provided. Volunteers will meet at the southwest corner of the park.
Looking for inspiration? Visit a demonstration garden. Pacific Community Park at Northeast 18th Street and Northeast 172nd Avenue, Vancouver.NatureScaping Wildlife Botanical Gardens at 11000 N.E. 149th St., Brush Prairie.
Want to learn more about native plants? Clark College’s Native Plant Propagation Center will host a talk, “Why Native Plants?”, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. May 3 in Room 201 at Anna Pechanec Hall at 1933 Fort Vancouver Way. Erin Harwood will offer planting tips and talk about why native plants are important for the wild ecosystems.
List of Plant Sales
Master Gardener Foundation
What: Hanging baskets, ornamental trees and shrubs, edibles, perennial and annual flowers, and house plants priced between $1.25 and $20. Sales support the Master Gardener Program and horticulture education in Clark County. MasterCard, Visa, cash and checks accepted.
When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 12, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 13.
Where: 78th Street Heritage Farm, 1919 N.E. 78th St., Vancouver.
NatureScaping of SW Washington and CASEE
What: Bare-root trees, shrubs and perennial sales support NatureScaping gardens and classes. Perennials start at $1, shrubs start at $5 and trees are $10 or more. MasterCard, Visa, cash and checks accepted. Next door, the Center for Agriculture, Science and Environmental Education sells Northwest native plants priced at $3, $5 and $10. Cash or check only.
When: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 28-29.
Where: Wildlife Botanical Gardens, 11000 N.E. 149th St. and CASEE, 11104 N.E. 149th St., Brush Prairie.
Info: www.naturescaping.org or 360-737-1160.
What: Sales of vegetables, houseplants and garden gifts benefit the therapeutic garden program at Stephen’s Place, an assisted living facility for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
When: 10 a.m. to noon May 5.
Where: Stephen’s Place, 501 S.E. Ellsworth Road, Vancouver.
Two Rivers Heritage Museum
What: The Camas-Washougal Historical Society hosts its annual plant fair, featuring native Camas lilies, Canterbury bells and hybridized irises, along with other local plant starts, flowers and berries. Proceeds help cover the museum’s operating costs. Cash or checks only.
When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 19, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 10.
Where: 1 Durgan St., Washougal.
All school sales accept cash or checks only.
Battle Ground High School
What: More than 15,000 plants for sale, including hanging baskets, perennial flowers, bedding plants, vegetables, berry plants and nursery stock. Sales benefit the district’s horticulture, welding and FFA programs. Customers can also check out the school’s demonstration garden that includes aquaculture, tissue culture, hydroponics, trellised fruit trees and several perennial fruits.
When: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 5-6.
Where: Greenhouses at 300 W. Main St., Battle Ground.
Clark College Environmental Field Studies
What: Native shrubs, perennials and trees such as Camas, buttercup, blanket flower, snowberry, red flowering currant and nodding onion. All proceeds go toward field-based science experiences for Clark College students.
When: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 4, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 5.
Where: Greenhouse at southeast corner of Clark College, 1933 Fort Vancouver Way. Park in Orange 2 lot near East Reserve Street and McLoughlin Boulevard.
Info: www.facebook.com/CCEnvrFieldStudies or www.clark.edu/campus-life/arts-events/plant-center/plant-sale.php
Columbia River High School
What: For sale are annuals, perennials, vegetable plants, herbs, house plants, native plants and hanging baskets that are grown in a no-spray greenhouse that uses all-organic soil. Proceeds help students participate in FFA competitions; this year Columbia River will compete in the state convention.
When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 28, 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 30-May 4.
Where: Greenhouses at 800 N.W. 99th St., Vancouver.
Fort Vancouver High School
What: The sale includes annuals, perennials, hanging baskets, sedums, succulents, houseplants, orchids, fruit plants and native plants, as well as vegetables, including organic, heirloom and hybrid tomato varieties. Prices range from $1 to $20, with most being $1 or $3. Proceeds benefit the FAA club and next year’s plant sale.
When: 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 2-4.
Where: Next to the track at 5700 E. 18th St., Vancouver.
Hudson’s Bay High School
What: Many varieties of fruits, herbs, veggies and native trees ranging from $1 to $15. Proceeds go toward the school’s natural resources classes and FFA program.
When: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 2-3, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 4.
Where: Greenhouses on the east side of the school, 1601 E. McLoughlin Blvd., Vancouver.
Info: [email protected] or [email protected]
Mountain View High School
What: Vegetables, herbs, flowers ($1.50), four-pack vegetables ($2.50), one-gallon geraniums and annuals ($3), and hanging baskets (one for $16, two for $30). Sale benefits the school’s horticulture program.
When: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 2-4.
Where: Greenhouse behind the 100 building, 1500 S.E. Blairmont Drive, Vancouver.
Prairie High School
What: Sales of hanging baskets, vegetables, flowers, grasses, herbs and succulents benefit the district’s horticulture, welding and FFA programs. Visit www.facebook.com/prairieffagreenhouse to see photos of what will be available at the sale.
When: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 5.
Where: Greenhouse at 11311 N.E. 119th St., Brush Prairie.
Vancouver Flex Academy
What: Students sell veggies, herbs, tender and hardy succulents, sun and shade hanging baskets and some landscape plants to benefit the academy’s horticulture program and launch an FFA program.
When: 4:30 to 7 p.m. May 10-11, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 12.
Where: 2901 General Anderson Ave., Vancouver.
Woodland High School
What: Florticulture and horticulture science students sell organically grown plants, including hanging baskets, geraniums, petunias and succulents. The sale also features more than 30 varieties of tomatoes and 15 varieties of peppers, along with squash, zucchini, pumpkins, broccoli and kale.
When: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. May 4, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 5.
Where: 1500 Dike Access Road, Woodland.
Camas Plant and Garden Fair
What: Plants, trees, garden art and supplies.
When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 12.
Where: downtown Camas.
Clark Public Utilities Home & Garden Idea Fair
What: Plant sale, home and garden businesses, landscaping displays and farmers market vendors. Parking is $6.
When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 29.
Where: Clark County Events Center at the Fairgrounds, 17402 N.E. Delfel Road, Ridgefield.
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If you tilt your head to one side and stand on one foot, you might see what some have seen — that baby boomers are the real cause of our high and rising federal and state taxes. More importantly, Vermont may be the harbinger of what is in store for the entire nation over the next two decades.
Between 1946 and 1964, approximately 74 million babies were born and America would never be the same again.
Even before the boomers began paying taxes, the government was spending a lot of money on taking care of them. More elementary schools were built in 1957 than in any other year, before or since. In 1967, more high schools were built than in any other year, before or since. From 1965 to 1975, 743 new colleges were opened and the college student population rose from 3.2 million to more than 9 million. During this same time, the average school enrollment for all schools rose by more than 500 percent. All that cost a lot of money and started a trend that continued as the boomers grew older.
As the boomers moved into their peak earning years from age 24 to 55, the economy exploded and taxes poured into the state and federal governments. Annual federal budgets rose from $478 billion in 1978 to $2.5 trillion for the budget in 2008.
More money came into the government coffers from other sources. In 1977, an excess $39 billion was paid into Social Security. By 2006, when the median age of the boomers was 51, the annual excess payments rose to $1.99 trillion. These excess payments are spent each year without regard for the future debt created to the soon-to-retire boomers — estimated to be $2.5 trillion per year by 2075.
Spending all that boomer-paid tax revenue is what our government does best, and it spent every last penny collected — $19 trillion between 1993 and 2003. Then it spent all the excess Social Security contributions — $14 trillion between 1993 and 2006. Then it continued to spend far more than was collected for 36 of the past 40 years — accumulating an additional $14.7 trillion in public debt.
This massive influx of tax revenue paid for more and more welfare, health care and entitlement programs, massive defense contracts and billions in pork-barrel projects. Today’s government-paid (with tax revenue) health care has risen 750 percent from 1980 levels. Total annual welfare rose 6,400 percent from 1965 to fiscal year 2005, costing taxpayers $8.29 trillion (in 2000 dollars). As the large income from the boomer tax revenues rose, the spending spree extended to hundreds of small programs. Dairy subsidies rose 673 percent, and soybean subsidies were up 501 percent between 1998 and 2003.
All this available money has established a pattern of massive spending that has pervaded our government and our cultural attitudes for more than five decades. An entire generation has grown up with a lifetime of increasing benefits and free services paid for by the government.
History has shown that such spending attitudes have a momentum of their own. It is hard for our politicians to stop or even slow the spending. It is harder for the aging boomers to reassume the responsibility for paying for what has been provided by the government for their entire lives. So the spending continues.
The problem is that beginning in 2011 and for the next two decades, we will see the boomers moving out of their peak earning years and their peak taxpaying years. Tax revenues will decline, but those persistent welfare, health care and entitlement programs and defense commitments will remain, costing us long-term obligations of increased administration, maintenance and operating costs. And soon the retiring boomers will compound this spending with their own demands for large increases for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, veterans assistance and other costs.
The boomers will also likely stop adding money to stock investments and begin to withdraw earned savings from the stock market. There is also likely to be a flood of large “empty-nest” homes put on the market as the boomers seek smaller homes and the use of their home’s equity to supplement retirement.
One other problem looms. There was a sharp decline in births after the contraceptive pill was introduced in the early 1960s, creating the lowest birth rate in the 20th century. That drop in population, earning power and tax revenue will occur at a time when the boomers are retiring and increasing their demands for government spending.
Vermont has one of the smallest and oldest populations in the entire U.S. and will see more people retiring earlier than most states. Our unique demographics magnify this pattern of spending and make us more sensitive to the effects of lowered tax revenue and higher medical costs from the retiring boomers.
For a large and growing population, the burden of our taxes outweighs many of the benefits of the government programs. Continued deficit spending is not an option and the Bush-Cheney/Republican tax reductions, and huge increases in entitlement spending have only hastened and exacerbated the problem. What politician is willing to slow or reverse a generation of spending? Will the general public give up on the extravagant, noble and excessive benefits of that spending? Will you vote for a politician who is willing to cut spending? If not, then you are part of the problem.
Tom Watkins lives in Montpelier.MORE IN Commentary
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Top Tips for PD Providers
Our tips for professional development providers include many suggestions about how to use IRIS resources and online tools. Read on or click the link to download an annotated copy of your own!
Take advantage of all the IRIS Center has to offer: Modules, Case Studies, Information Briefs, Activities, Interviews, Evidence-Based Practice Summaries, Video Vignettes, Sample Syllabi, and more!
- Use Modules in face-to-face, hybrid, or online professional development.
- Show teachers how to navigate the STAR Legacy Cycle by showing the video “Navigating an IRIS STAR Legacy Module” and by doing a Module together as an in-service activity.
- Challenge teachers to complete two Modules of their choice before the next training.
- Show teachers the Module Outline to use for notes; use it yourself to preview the Module.
- Let teachers know they should expect to spend 1-4 hours on each Module; they can break it up or do it all at once.
- Assign the Module’s Assessment questions to supplement teachers’ professional action plans.
- Remind teachers the IRIS resources are free and available 24/7.
Information Briefs, Activities, Interviews
- Use these additional resources to support inservice events by supplementing books/reading, opening with attention getters, enhancing discussions, and supporting professional development topics.
- Have teachers present Information Briefs on the professional development topic.
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Evidence-Based Practice Summaries
- Explore the IRIS-vetted Evidence-Based Practice Summaries.
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- Use the Summaries as handouts to provide more detail about practices described in textbooks.
- Model cooperative learning in your inservice by grouping teachers to work on Case Studies.
- Model differentiated instruction by assigning the Case Studies’ scenarios to different teachers based on levels of experience and grade level.
- Use one Case Study with the whole groups, then explore different levels based on individual needs.
- Use Case Studies and STAR sheets to problem solve real-life classroom challenges.
- Discuss how STAR sheets can be used in Professional Learning Communities.
- Explore videos on a variety of topics.
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- Use posted Planning Forms to integrate IRIS in your PD events.
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- Assign district level or school level needs to tailor professional development and align IRIS resources.
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- Find resources quickly under IRIS Resource Topics on the homepage.
- Remind teachers to update software before using IRIS resources by using links to the required software in Help & Support.
- Click on the Help & Support link at the top-right of the page if you need additional assistance.
- Print or save your favorite resources by selecting the printer or PDF icon at the top of the page.
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More IRIS Resources
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- Find the IRIS Module about Adult Learning Theory, Sample Syllabi, Sample Wrap-Around Concept Maps, Planning Forms, and Manuals & Answer Keys to some IRIS resources.
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China’s Low-Carbon Economy and its Target
China’s Low-Carbon Economy and its Target
The impact of climate change is global, and it demands urgent action. According to the Stern Review, “Business-As-Usual” (BAU) will cost five to ten percent of global GDP in 2050. However, if measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are taken now, the macroeconomic costs will bebetween a one percent gain to a 5.5 percent decrease of global GDP and less than an eighth of a percentage point in annual GDP, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts in its Fourth Assessment Report.
McKinsey Global Institute put these figures in perspective: if one were to view this spending as a form of insurance against potential damage due to climate change, it might be relevant to compare it to global spending on insurance, which was reached 3.3 percent of GDP in 2005. The treatment of crucial assumptions on global energy consumption scenarios and the use of top-down economic modeling (for example, estimating the effect that measures such as a carbon tax would have on a choice of energy sources) is still a controversial matter. However, the key message is clear: choices about the scale and timing of climate change mitigation must balance the economic costs of more rapid emission reductions against the medium and long term risks of delay.
Hence the term “low-carbon economy,” embraced by China’s top political think tank, National Development and Reforming Commission (NDRC). It is hard to find an NDRC equivalent outside China, since it plays the role of not only a policy advisor to the government, but also an executor of its policymaking. In the field of greenhouse emissions reductions in China, NDRC plays a pivotal role.
One of the most important measures the NDRC is using to steer the nation’s low-carbon development is the so-called Five-Year Plan, in which a compulsory, quantifiable and verifiable target of energy consumption is stipulated. In January 2011, NDRC director Zhang Ping announced that China has “basically fulfilled” its energy consumption reduction per GDP unit target as mandated in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), a 20 percent reduction in 2010 from 2005 levels. The question of whether the 20 percent target is ambitious enough or not has two sides of a coin, and this coin embodies the Chinese characteristics of a low carbon economy.
On one hand, this target is pegged to GDP, which means a significant GDP growth would still permit a significant growth of energy consumption. Given that China’s real GDP growth, adjusted for inflation, during 2005-2010 is above 60 percent, one might wonder how much energy consumption is really reduced. On the other hand, this reduction target is not an easy task, especially since China is still predominately fuelled by coal, and the transition to a less energy-intensive one will take decades. What was probably unforeseen by NDRC was the outbreak of an economic crisis that pushed the central government to adopt a basket of stimulus programs aiming to boost the nation’s economy and global competiveness — with a large part of the benefit accruing to high-energy industries such as steel and cement.
In Chinese, “basically” is understood as “more or less,” without referring to an accurate figure. But this is the first time in Chinese history that such a clear target on energy consumption has ever been announced, considering the complexity of China energy supply as well as the country’s lack of data transparency.
Furthermore, the target was issued to provincial and city governors as a top-down target, a metric on which their political performances will be evaluated. So the motivation to achieve the 20 percent through real actions is strong, as much as the motivation to present a figure as close as possible or marginally higher.In February, voices of feedback were heard from all over China in the auspicious pre-Spring-Festival atmosphere, with regional media reporting that most provinces and cities have “basically met” the target, with the only exception of Xinjiang, which fulfilled a 10.2 percent reduction.
To verify the target’s fulfillment, an Energy Saving Evaluation Group —consisting of experts from NDRC, the China Statistics Bureau and China Energy Bureau — was sent to various cities after the Spring Festival, in order to conclude with a performance score. To date, the final result is yet to be published.
But what about actions so far? The NDRC Director once criticized the simplistic action of cutting off or restricting electricity supply adopted in some Chinese regions as “improper.” Let’s switch to those proper actions, categorized by a) policy levers, b) public awareness and behavior changes and c) technological development and applications.
It is only fair to say that the NDRC target is more than a demonstrated commitment from the very top political level: it is a creative lever to augment the nation’s enthusiasm on energy saving. Campaigns and posters carrying the slogans of “low-carbon life” can be found everywhere in China, and the Shanghai Expo was also positioned as “low-carbon Expo.” Even the Beijing Olympic Games went “green.” Public awareness of the whole climate change issue is solidly established in China. Significant improvement in behavior changes is observed, such as the electricity saving of individual households, or maybe this is more induced by the increase of the electricity price. It is hard to judge the technological side. However, the huge trading volume with steady increase of Chinese import and export of environmental technologies is already solid proof that at least things are going in the right direction.
So what comes next? NDRC unveiled the twelfth Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) during this year’s “Two-Conferences” (meetings of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People Political Consultative Congress), in which a 16 percent further reduction target of energy consumption per GDP unit was announced as a compulsory task. A novelty in this blueprint is that China also commits a 17 percent reduction target of greenhouse emissions per GDP unit. The baseline for comparison is 2010, a figure yet to be concluded. | <urn:uuid:0bbcb699-4778-4399-b049-976f682edc7d> | {
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Chlorophyll - The Blood of Plant Life
Chlorophyll is the green pigment in plants that harnesses the sun's energy in photosynthesis. Chlorophyll performs metabolic functions in plants such as respiration and growth. This amazing substance possesses nutritional, antiseptic and astringent properties and helps balance the pH of the body. The alfalfa plant, from which Synergy's chlorophyll comes, is an excellent source of chlorophyll.
Interestingly, the chlorophyll molecule is chemically similar to human blood, except that its central atom is magnesium, whereas that of human blood is iron. Liquid Chlorophyll may help improve immune response, deodorize the body and help cleanse the blood of impurities.
Chlorophyll and the Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1915 was awarded to Richard Willstatter "for his researches on plant pigments, especially chlorophyll".
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1930 was awarded to Hans Fischer "for his researches into the constitution of haemin and chlorophyll and especially for his synthesis of haemin".
Synergy's Liquid Chlorophyll
High acidity can become a dangerous condition that weakens all major body system. If your body pH is too acidic, your body borrows minerals such as calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium from vital organs and bones to neutralize and remove the acid. A pH balanced environment on the other hand, allows proper metabolic functioning and gives your body resistance to disease.
Synergy's Liquid Chlorophyll contains chlorophyllin (sodium copper chlorophyllin derived from alfalfa) and spearmint oil. Chlorophyllin is a water-soluble extract obtained from green plants. Chlorophyllin has many health benefits, and spearmint oil is added for flavor.
Refined through a series of technical extraction procedures, Liquid Chlorophyll offers the benefits of chlorophyll in a convenient liquid form that is easily assimilated by the body. It is safe for use by people of all ages. Drink Liquid Chlorophyll everyday and it will help improve immune response, deodorize the body and cleanse the blood of impurities.
* Helps protect cells and builds immunity.
* Alkalizing formula assist in hydrating and detoxify the body.
* Promotes the natural blood cleansing functions of the body.
* Improves oxygen transportation and utilization in the body.
* Removes body odors and bad breath.
* Provides soothing properties.
Take one teaspoon (5 ml) in one glass (240ml) of water twice daily. Refrigerate After Opening.
Chlorophyllins (sodium copper chlorophyllin-derived from alfalfa) Methylparaben, purified water, spearmint oil (Mentha spicata and cardiaca), and propylparaben.
32 fl. oz. (946ml)
Nature's Sunshine Products, Inc.
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38. The Party of the Working Class and the Nation
|Foster in Moscow, 1961|
THE COMMUNIST PARTY AS WORKING CLASS LEADER
As the vanguard of the proletariat, the Communist Party has played a leading role in the building and functioning of the trade union movement, ever since it became an active factor in the American class struggle. Every struggle of the workers for higher wages, shorter hours, or improved working conditions has found the Communists in the front battle line. The employers and the government understand this fact very well and they have made innumerable Communist pickets and strike leaders pay dearly in jail terms, injuries, and death for their militancy. None are more effective strikers than the Communists.
In the organization of the unorganized, which was for many years the greatest immediate problem of the workers in this country, the Communists, more than any other group, were pioneer leaders and tireless workers. They fought for industrial unionism and against the treacheries and stupidities of craft unionism; they introduced new strike strategy and tactics into the workers' struggles, as against the asinine methods used by the old-line conservative trade union leaders. The Party, therefore, can well claim a large share of the credit for the building of the C.I-O. and the organization of the basic industries.
To develop working class independent political action, to liberate the workers from the employers' political domination through their two-party system, and to build an alliance between them and their natural political allies, has always been a central endeavor of the Communists. Neither a labor party, nor a farmer-labor party, nor a democratic coalition has yet been realized in strength, but this will take place in due time. The Party has always fought also for working class leadership in the political movements of the masses.
The Communists also have always been indefatigable workers for trade union unity. They were militant opponents of left dual unionism when this was a real problem; they have fought against the C.I.O.-A.F. of L. split, and they have ever since striven to achieve united action and organic unity between these two national centers. In the international sphere, the Communists have been no less ardent supporters of unity and opponents of Gompersite American trade union isolationism and disruption. They have ever sought to link up the labor movement of the United States with that of other countries. In late years this has meant active backing of such organizations as the Latin American Confederation of Labor and the World Federation of Trade Unions.
Trade union democracy is another issue which has always had strong Communist support. The Communists have steadily fought against excessive initiation fees, against overpaid officials, and especially against gangster and dictatorial reactionary control of the unions. They struggled courageously during the 1920's against the entrenched Gompers and Social-Democratic thugs, and later on they were largely responsible for the democracy that prevailed in the C.I.O. during its early years. The left and progressive unions, now independent, possess the highest types of trade union democracy ever achieved by the American working class.
The Communists also led in the workers' fight for social security in all its forms. Their fight for unemployment insurance during the great economic crisis was one of the classic struggles of American labor history. The workers' growing struggle for old age pensions and other forms of state insurance, which is a sure sign of their diminishing faith in the ability of the capitalist system to furnish them a decent living, has the most active Communist backing.
The Communists have especially championed a fighting policy for the working class. They have always been inveterate enemies of the poisonous class collaboration (working class surrender) policies of the Gompers-Green-Murray-Reuther-Dubinsky leadership, whether this was aimed at speeding up the workers, as in the 1920's, or dragging them into fascism and war in the 1950's. The Communists have fought continuously for a strong, unified trade union movement and a labor party, both operating with a fighting policy. They have also sought tirelessly to imbue the workers with a Socialist perspective. In battling for these objectives, the Communists have faced many persecutions, both inside and outside the trade unions. They have pioneered every forward movement to strengthen the working class, without counting the cost to them-selves. In all these activities the Party has played a truly vanguard role.
THE COMMUNIST PARTY AND THE NEGRO PEOPLE
In the pre-Civil War days the Marxists, led by Marx and Engels themselves, laid great stress upon the Negro question. During the period of the predominance in the left of the opportunist-led S.L.P. and S.P., from 1876 to 1919, this issue was greatly neglected. With the foundation of the Communist Party and under the influence of the teachings of Lenin and Stalin on the national question, the Negro question was restressed and raised to the highest significance. The C.P. has always considered the defense of the most abused and exploited section of the American people to be a very vital matter. Consequently, for a generation past, the Party has devoted its most determined efforts to strengthening the fight of the Negro people for jobs, union membership, union leadership, and union protection, and against lynching and the whole monstrous system of Jim Crow.
Not the least of the Party's work in this general respect has been its fight to abolish the rank discrimination against Negroes in sports, the theater, and literature. The Communist Party has unquestionably been a powerful factor in the political advance made by the Negro people during the past thirty years. It is especially proud of its work in this field.
The Communist Party has contributed a number of new and vital features to the struggle of the Negro people: (a) It has elevated this question to its proper high political status, in the realization that the oppressed Negro people are the greatest of all allies of the workers in the class struggle; (b) It has expressed boundless confidence in the feasibility of mass Negro-white co-operation, finding many forms and issues for bringing this about; (c) It has raised the theoretical level of the Negro question to that of a national question, thereby providing the Negro people with their true perspective as an oppressed nation; (d) It has singled out the insidious danger of white chauvinism in the broad working class and in its own ranks and has fought against it as no other organization has even begun to do; (e) It has considered the Negro question as a key question by which to measure the class integrity and understanding of every individual and organization in the broad labor movement.
The Communist Party, by the same token, is a tireless enemy of every form of anti-Semitism. It was only with the rise of world communism that the struggles against white chauvinism, anti-Semitism, and similar forms of national and racial discrimination became powerful political factors. International Social-Democracy, in its heyday, never even raised these vital issues.
THE COMMUNIST PARTY AND OTHER DEMOCRATIC STRATA
The Communist Party, as the Party of all the oppressed and exploited, has always devoted major attention to the struggle of the women against the load of restrictions and prejudices from which they suffer under capitalism. As we have seen during the course of this history of the Party, the Communists have supported every attack—economic, political, and social—upon the vast network of discrimination against women. One of the very greatest achievements of socialism, as the Soviet Union and the People's Democracies are daily demonstrating, is the creation of a new regime of freedom and opportunity for women. The Communist Party has always had a keen appreciation of the question. During its long struggle over this issue, the Communist Party has built up what is by far the finest corps of women political leaders possessed by any organization in the United States.
Communism, representing the society of the future, naturally makes a powerful appeal to the youth. The C.P.U.S.A., in the spirit of all Communist parties, therefore, has always made the question of the youth a central object of its attention. The Communist level of political activity in behalf of this huge category of the population is immeasurably above that of any other political party, trade union, or youth organization. The greatest achievements of the Communists in this field were made during the big youth movement of the 1930's, the period of the American Youth Congress. It is not claiming too much to state that the Young Communist League was the principal political leader in this historic struggle of the young people, the most significant of its kind that the United States has ever known.
The Communist Party has also paid major attention to the needs of the millions of foreign-born in our country. Reaction, with its never-ending plots to split the working class, is quick to direct its attack against those workers who have not been born in the United States. The harsh weapon of deportation, a splitter of families, has been used ruthlessly against them. The trade unions and the Socialist Party have grossly neglected the rights of the foreign-born, but the Communist Party has ever had this question in the center of its program.
The farmers are a vital segment of American political life and upon many occasions and over many years the poorer sections of them in the various mass organizations—the Grange, Greenback, Populist, Non-Parti-san League, and Farmer-Labor Party movements—have shown that they are powerful and dependable allies of the proletariat. Lenin, above all others, demonstrated the enormous political significance of the worker-farmer alliance. But the American Communist Party, while appreciating the great political importance of the farmers as working class allies, nevertheless has not succeeded in establishing a strong base among them. This is one of the gravest weaknesses of the Party. During the 1920's, as we have seen in the chapters covering that period, the Communists were very active, and effectively so, among the farmer movements of the Middle and Far West. But of recent years, as the sparse consideration of the agrarian question in the later pages of this book shows, Communist work in this major field has been negligible, save to a certain extent among the Negro sharecroppers in the South.
THE COMMUNIST PARTY, THE PARTY OF THE NATION
The Communist Party is the party of the working class. This it has demonstrated beyond question throughout its entire history. The Party has always been in the vanguard, fighting along with other progressive forces for every measure in the economic, political, and social interests of the workers. The time was, before World War I, when the Socialist Party, despite all the wrong policies of its opportunist leaders, could claim to be the party of the proletariat, but that time has long since passed. The S.P. both here and abroad, as this history makes clear, has identified itself with the interests of capitalism and is going down with that doomed system. The S.L.P. and the Trotskyites, following basically the same opportunist line, are scheduled for the same fate. All over the world, including the United States, the Communist Party is the basic political organization of the toiling masses.
The Communist Party is not only the Party of the working class, but also the party representing the true interests of the nation. By fighting loyally and intelligently, as it has always done, for the interests of the workers, the Negro people, women, youth, farmers, veterans, and foreign-born, the Communist Party is in actuality defending the best interests of the American people in general—minus, of course, the 10 percent or so of capitalist parasites and their hangers-on. The Socialist Party, like its Trotskyite and S.L.P. auxiliaries, has no right to speak authoritatively in the interest of the American people as a whole because of its subservience to the exploitation and war plans of Wall Street.
In addition to defending the specific interests of the workers and other broad democratic strata who make up the vast bulk of the American nation, the Communist Party always supports vigorously every general measure and cause directly beneficial to the great mass of the people of this country. The Communist Party is to be found on the progressive side of every political struggle. Thus, in the domestic sphere, the Party supports now, and always has supported, every piece of state or federal legislation of a progressive character. It militantly defends the Bill of Rights and American democratic traditions; it is the most resolute enemy of the present fascist-like attacks upon the people's democratic liberties; it opposes the current military domination of the government, the industries, and the schools; it proposes a people's peace coalition against the Wall Street warmongers; it fights against inflation and every attempt of the government, the employers, and their labor leader allies to throw the burden of the war preparations upon the workers and lower middle class; it opposes with concrete measures the present degeneration of American culture that is being fostered by the fascists and war makers.
In all these general respects Communist policy is obviously in the interests of the American people as a nation. In the international sphere, the Communist Party, in opposition to the imperialists, has always stood on the Marxist-Leninist position that the national welfare is best served by a policy of friendly co-operation with other peoples. In this sense, the very cornerstone of Communist policy has always been to establish good working relations between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. This policy is the key to world peace, and certainly it is in the most profound interest of our whole people.
The Party opposed the imperialist World War I, supported the democratic World War II, and it fights against the precipitation of an imperialist third world war—policies which were and are in the true interests of our people. Before the recent World War the Party urged a strong policy of collective security to halt and defeat fascism, and now only fools dare to assert that this historic policy was not in the American national interest. The Party, too, strives to make the United Nations into a genuine instrument of peace, which the American people certainly desire, instead of the aggressive war alliance into which Wall Street is trying to make it.
In view of the constant fight for the best interests of the nation by the Communist Party, in both its domestic and foreign policies, charges that it "takes orders from Moscow" come with very bad grace, particularly from capitalist sources which, as a matter of fundamental action, always put their class interests before the welfare of the nation. Today, as always, the true capitalist motto is Vanderbilt's "the public be damned."
SOCIALISM IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST
The eventual establishment of socialism in the United States by the working class and its democratic allies will also be supremely in the interest of the overwhelming majority of the American people. As matters now stand, the country is owned and run primarily in the interest of a group of capitalistic parasites who comprise only a very small segment of the population. The 200 major monopolies now possess 65 percent of all American non-financial corporate wealth, as against 50 percent in 1929.1 The capitalist propaganda to the effect that the people own the industries is sheer nonsense—about one percent of all stockholders own about 60 percent of all stock, with dividends in proportion.2 Big capital owns outright the press, radio, television, and motion pictures, as well as all the industries, and its agents occupy the leading posts in the decisive boards of the government, churches, colleges, fraternal and veterans' organizations. They even control the top trade union leadership. The whole vast social organization operates to funnel the products of the workers away from them and into the hands of the minority of drones who own the industries. This is how the latter are enabled to grab for themselves scores of billions of dollars yearly in profits, interest, rent, and in various other schemes for robbing the toilers.
The United States Government is what Karl Marx and Frederick Engels long ago described as "the executive committee of the capitalist class." It is the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, a tiny minority of the population. President Truman represents Wall Street, not the American people. The key government posts are held or controlled by men such as Dulles, Acheson, Lovett, Harriman, Wiggins, Wilson, Johnston, Symington, Brown—wealthy capitalists and corporation lawyers, who are tied in with big monopoly capital and are loyally serving its interests. The workers, Negroes, poor farmers, women, and youth, who make up the overwhelming mass of the American people, are virtually unrepresented in all the branches of the government—legislative, executive, or judicial. The pretenses of Truman and others that the present Administration is a "welfare state" devoted to improving the lot of the American people, is just so much demagogic nonsense. The Administration is entirely under the control of big capital, and it has no other purposes than to swell the already fabulous profits of Wall Street and to further big capital's insane fascist-war drive to dominate the world.
Socialism will drastically change this whole situation in the United States. It will put the ownership and control of the industries, the government, the press, and all other vital institutions into the hands of the overwhelming majority of the people, to serve their interest and not the greed of the profit-grabbers. It will rapidly raise the living standards of the toiling masses by reserving to the workers the many billions in interest, rent, and profits now going to the useless owning parasites; by abolishing the activities of millions of people engaged in the numberless quackeries, fakeries, and useless occupations of capitalism; by applying the newest techniques to industry and agriculture; and by doing away with the tremendous losses caused by economic crises, military armaments, and war.
Socialism in the United States will wipe out the monstrous Jim Crow system. The Negro people, for the first time, will enjoy the dignity and happiness of full equality in every sense of the word: economic, political, social. Socialism, too, will put an end forever to the dread insecurity about the morrow which now haunts the lives of the toiling masses in this country. The masses, at last, will have won their way to a situation where they can have perfect confidence that society will always provide them with a secure means for winning a good livelihood for themselves and their families. And old age will be entirely free of the economic anguish which it now holds for the vast bulk of the American people. American socialism will also develop a culture based upon science and the welfare of the people as a whole, in place of the capitalist-inspired drivel, superstition, and intellectual obscurantism of today.
By the establishment of socialism, the American people will put a final end to the war-fascist policies of Wall Street and will truly open up the way to peace, democracy and well-being on an altogether higher level than is possible under capitalism. There can be no higher national interest than all this.3
THE PARTY'S IMMEDIATE DEMANDS
The Communist Party fights for a series of immediate demands, based upon the urgent needs of the workers, the Negro people, and the mass of the people. As formulated at the Party's Fifteenth Convention (1950) and in later decisions, the chief among these demands are the following.
To guard against war, the Party demands: a five-power peace conference; the banning of the A-bomb; the end of the Korean war; liquidation of the trade embargo against the U.S.S.R., China, and the European People's Democracies; the seating of People's China in the Security Council of the United Nations and its recognition by the United States; the return of Taiwan (Formosa) to China; the withdrawal of all American armed forces stationed in foreign countries; a U.S. hands-off policy toward the peoples' struggles in Indo-China, Malaya, the Philippines, and in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, etc.; national independence for Puerto Rico; severance of all diplomatic relations with Franco Spain and the Vatican; the slashing of U.S. military appropriations to the bone; active support of world disarmament; abandonment of the policy of arming western Europe, West Germany, and Japan for an anti-Soviet war; support for the development of the United Nations into a genuine peace body instead of a U.S.-dominated anti-Soviet war alliance.
To develop safeguards against economic crisis and mass unemployment, the Party demands that America's tremendous producing power-now worse than wasted in the frantic production of war munitions—be applied to furthering the welfare of the American people. It therefore fights for radically higher wages and decreased working hours for the workers, price and profit controls, fundamental improvement of the national system of social insurance (unemployment, sickness, accident, maternity, old age, death), real protection against accidents in industry, construction of all necessary public works (slum clearance, flood control, reforestation, soil conservation, road-building, park and playground construction, etc.), extensive federal aid for the public school system, a national housing program which will provide homes for all, abolition of all taxes upon low incomes, protection for the poorer farmers on prices, credits, morgtages, and co-operatives, adequate safeguards for women and youth in industry.
To combat the increasing trends towards a police state in the United States, the Party's main demands are as follows: repeal the Taft-Hartley, Smith, McCarran, Voorhis, and Feinberg laws, together with all similar national, state, and local legislation; establish the right of the workers to strike in all industries without government interference; abolish all loyalty tests and other systems of thought control in the government services, schools, arts, and industries; liquidate the House Committee on Un-American Activities, together with the McCarran and Humphrev sub-committees of the Senate and all other witch-hunting bodies; grant full citizenship rights for Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, and other persecuted minorities; restore the right of passports and foreign travel; relieve foreign-born citizens of the fear of deportation hung over their heads by reactionary legislation; make warmongering a crime punishable by imprisonment; punish anti-Semitism, white chauvinism, and similar anti-democratic practices; halt the attempt to outlaw and destroy the Communist Party; release the Communists and other political prisoners.
To check and defeat the attacks of the white supremacists upon the Negro people, the Party makes these principal demands: complete economic, political, and social equality for the Negro people; the full right of Negroes to employment, seniority, promotion, and trade union conditions in all industries; the enactment of federal and state F.E.P.C. legislation; the passage of a national anti-lynching bill providing the death penalty for this crime; abolition of the poll tax by a federal law; liquidation of the K.u Klux Klan and all such lynch gangs; repeal of all laws against racial intermarriage; the complete wiping out of all Jim Crow legislation, as well as such discrimination on railroads, in schools, hotels, sports, the theater, the armed forces, etc.; the opening up of the highest offices in government, industry, trade unions, and all other organizations and occupations to Negroes and other persecuted minorities; work toward the right of self-determination for the Negro nation in the Black Belt of the South.
In accordance with the needs of the given situation, the Communist Party fights militantly for the achievement of these demands—in legislative bodies, trade unions, factories, and everywhere else. The Party co-operates actively with all democratic forces supporting these or other progressive measures. The heart of its immediate program is the struggle against the war danger. To this end, it works for the formation of a broad peace coalition of the organizations of the workers, the Negro people, the poorer farmers, intellectuals, and all other democratic strata, constituting the vast majority of the American people.
These major points of Communist immediate policy, outlined above, comprise a sane, practical, and constructive alternative to the present reactionary policies of the employers and the government, which are pushing the country down the chute to war, fascism, mass impoverishment, and national ruin. The Communist program, harmonizing with the best interests of the working class, the Negro people, and the great bulk of our nation, constitutes the road to peace, democracy, and the people's economic well-being.
THE PROGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY
The Communist Party is the party of socialism. The Communist parties have demonstrated this in practice in various parts of the world. The Socialist parties are parties of capitalism and are doomed with that system. This, too, as we have seen, has been clearly proved in many countries. With the general crisis of world capitalism more completely involving the capitalist system of the United States, the toiling masses— the workers, the Negro people, the farmers, intellectuals, and others-will strengthen enormously their economic and political organizations, and they will build themselves a great anti-monopoly coalition. The political leaders of this mass movement, if it is to fight effectively and eventually to challenge capitalism, must be the Marxist-Leninists, the Communist Party. Stalin was right when he said, on May 6, 1929, "The American Communist Party is one of those very few Communist parties of the world that are entrusted by history with tasks of decisive importance from the point of view of the revolutionary movement."4
It is no simple task to build a mass Communist Party in the heartland of world capitalism, the United States. During its lifetime the Communist Party of the United States has had to meet and master many difficult questions of theory and practice. The toughest and most complex of all these problems have been related to the characteristic illusion of "American exceptionalism." According to this stubborn and insidious notion, as we have remarked earlier, American capitalism is progressive in character, and is fundamentally distinct from capitalism in all other countries. This gross misconception, which has persisted for generations, falsely magnifies the secondary, specifically national features of American capitalism into qualities which supposedly make it basically different from capitalism in the rest of the world. It is in this spirit that the defenders of the current American regime proclaim that American capitalism is not imperialist; that it has no ruling class nor class struggle; that it does not exploit the workers; and that, in fact, it is not really capitalism at all. This song is sung with variations by reactionaries, liberals, and Social-Democrats. Never was this typical "American exceptionalism" more virulent and dangerous than it is at the present time. Thus aggressive American imperialism is pictured to the masses here and throughout the world not only as totally exempt from the general crisis of capitalism, but also as an all-powerful and beneficent people's regime altruistically resolved upon saving the world for democracy and peace. 5 In its long struggle against the illusion of "American exceptionalism," the Communist Party has rendered one of its greatest services to the working class.
During its generation of struggle, naturally the Communist Party has made many errors, for Marxism-Leninism is not a blueprint that can be mechanically applied, but a guide to action that must be skillfully used. Most of the Party's more serious mistakes, which we have reviewed in passing, have been in the direction of yielding to "American exceptionalism." The consequences of this error have been to overestimate the power of American imperialism and to underestimate its reactionary character. By the same token, it underestimates the power of the working class and its allies. Sometimes this characteristic American deviation has manifested itself in the Party as "left" sectarianism and sometimes as right oppdrtunism. The worst political mistake ever made by the Communist Party—its temporary toleration of Browder's revisionism—was precisely an error of "American exceptionalism." Rrowder carried this theoretical weakness, which saturates American Social-Democrats as well as bourgeois elements, to the last extreme of accepting American monopoly capital as progressive and democratic.
As we have seen, the traditional weakness of our Party and of preceding Marxist groups has been the stubborn trend toward "left" sectarianism. Historically, this sectarian tendency to use Marxism as a dogma instead of a guide has been largely an immature political reaction against right opportunism in the labor movemnt: It has militated very greatly against the development of sound political policies and the working out of broad united front movements with potential allies: the more conservative workers, the Negro people, the Catholic masses, the farmers, the progressive intellectuals, and others. The basic cure for both the right and left dangers in the Party is to raise the Marxist-Leninist theoretical level of the Party membership and leadership.
The strength of the Party, however, is that in the spirit of the great Lenin it admits its errors and learns from them. No other party does this. In this respect Lenin says: "The attitude a political party adopts toward its own mistakes is one of the most important and surest criteria of the seriousness of the party and of how it in practice fulfills its obligations toward its class and the toiling masses. Frankly admitting a mistake, disclosing the reasons for it, analyzing the conditions which led to it, and carefully discussing the means of correcting it—this is the sign of a serious party; this is the way it performs its duties, this is the way it educates and trains the class, and then the masses." 6
Another strength of the Communist Party is that it builds itself out of the best fighters of the working class. It ruthlessly cleanses its ranks of the opportunists, cowards, weaklings, confusionists, turncoats, renegades, and stoolpigeons who, from time to time and for their own peculiar purposes have infested its ranks, as they do those of all working class fighting organi. zations. In this respect the Communist Party differs fundamentally from the Socialist Party, which is a nesting ground for every kind of anti-working class element. Thus, in the course of its growth, our Party has elimi-nated the Cannons, Lovestones, Browders, and their like. The ouster of such people has meant not losses to the Party, but gains. The Communist Party of the United States, like the Communist parties of all other countries, has developed and increased in strength by its struggles against such agents of the capitalist class.
After a generation of hard struggle, the Communist Party has laid the foundation for what will eventually be a powerful mass party in the United States. It has created a solid, indestructible core of trained Marxist-Leninists. This is its most vital achievement of all. The Party, it is true, is still relatively small, but like all other Communist parties it has the capacity for swift growth when the political situation demands it. Today in many countries—in the Soviet Union, China, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and elsewhere—Communist parties stand at the head of their peoples; and in other countries like Italy and France, they are the biggest of all political parties. But the time was when these parties, too, were all very small, condemned, persecuted, and faced what superficially seemed like an invincible opposition. The Communist Party of the United States works and grows in the spirit of these Communist parties. It knows that, living up to the principles of Marxism-Leninism, it will one day lead the American working class and the nation, even as it is now the best representative of their interests. Nor can all the powers of arrogant capitalist reaction balk the C.P.U.S.A. from fulfilling this historic role.
1 Jefferson School of Social Science, The Economic Crisis and the Cold War, p. 40.
2 U.S. government figures cited in Labor Research Association, Trends in American Capitalism, p. 14.
3 See A. B. Magil, Socialism: What's in It for You, N. Y., 1946, and James S. Allen, Who Owns America, N. Y., 1946.
4 The Communist, June 1930.
5 A recent flamboyant statement of this demagogy is U.S.A.: The Permanent Revolution by the editors of Fortune.
6 Lenin, "Left-Wing" Communism-, an Infantile Disorder, p. 41.
Appendix, Index & Partial Bibliography
Appendix, Index & Partial Bibliography | <urn:uuid:065a28a4-a897-43af-ad48-d9d387334c71> | {
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Times are tough in the newspaper business. For example, The New York Times used to have a robust fact-checking department. Either the staff has been laid off or maybe they can't keep up with the errors, either of which could explain the op-ed piece "Europe Energized."
Hill's piece is classic cheerleading. He would have us believe that Europe has significantly reduced its reliance on oil, as its governments have enticed the citizenry out of cars and into mass transit and planes. Starting with the contention that Europe has the same standard of living as the United States, he indicates that Europe has made much greater progress in reducing energy use and carbon emissions.
In fact, Europe does not enjoy the same standard of living as the United States. In 2009, the gross domestic product (purchasing power parity) was approximately one-third less ($14,000 less). For most households in Europe and the United States, that is a not an inconsequential amount of money. One reason for Europe's lower rates of energy consumption is its historically lower income levels.
Hill claims substantial reductions in oil consumption relative to the United States. However, Europe has not sworn off oil. Indeed, according to International Energy Agency (IEA) data, Europe's oil consumption per capita dropped only marginally more than that of the United States between 1980 and 2006. Nor has Europe done a better job of becoming more energy efficient. Measured in tons of oil equivalence, the United States has reduced its per capita energy consumption more than Europe since 1980, again based upon IEA data. It is, of course, easier to reduce oil consumption with near static population growth.
EU data indicates that mass transit's market share in Europe has been declining for decades (like in the United States). Further, despite all the new high speed rail lines, cars and airplanes have accounted for the greatest travel increases. In 1995, airplanes carried a slightly smaller volume (passenger kilometers) than passenger railways, including high speed rail. By 2008, airlines were carrying 37% more passenger kilometers than rail, despite a huge expansion of high speed rail. Since 1995, at least 15 passenger kilometers have been traveled by car for every additional passenger kilometer traveled by rail, high speed or not. Meanwhile, Europe's truck dependent freight system is less fuel efficient than America's, which relies to a greater degree on freight railroads.
None of this is to suggest that Europe does not lead the United States in some fields. There is no question that cars get much better mileage in Europe. By 2020, new cars are scheduled to achieve more than 60 miles per gallon, which is near double the US expectation. Europe is leading the way in automobile fuel efficiency and is demonstrating the massive extent to which improved fuel efficiency can accomplish tough environmental goals.
Yet, curiously, no interest has been expressed by the Euro-Envious to implement European highway speed limits. Recently, Italy raised maximum speeds on some roads to 93 miles per hour, France, Austria, Denmark, Slovenia and others have 81 mile per hour limits and there are no speed limits on much of the German autobahn system. No US speed limits are this high.
Having happily lived both within the pre-1200 (AD) boundaries of Paris and the urban fringes of four major US urban areas, it seems that both sides of the Atlantic have their strengths and weaknesses. Detailing them requires getting the facts right. | <urn:uuid:85c2df4d-7c21-4f26-8428-dc0f0ae4ecda> | {
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This tutorial was created to teach you the basics of how to create a PowerPoint presentation and post it to the web via Blackboard. You will learn how to add multimedia elements to your presentation and ensure that these elements are included and play correctly everytime it is viewed.
Many courses at USF require students to create PowerPoint presentations to fulfill assignments. Sometimes, knowing how to use PowerPoint is a prerequisite. However, even if you've used PowerPoint before, tasks such as including multimedia and delivering your presentation over the web via Blackboard can present a challenge. The instructions provided in this tutorial will help you to avoid the frustration of uploading a presentation with a missing image or movie, or a sound that doesn't play when it should.
This tutorial will cover how to…
• save PowerPoint files to your computer (and find them again!),
• enrich your presentation with pre-designed templates - or make your own,
• include multimedia in your presentation that plays back properly no matter where you present it, and
• present your video over the web via Blackboard.
This presentation was designed using examples from PowerPoint 2002 on Windows XP. However, additional explanation is included for Mac users and those with access to a different version of PowerPoint so that anyone taking this tutorial will be able to apply the lessons to their specific platform and software. Such notes will appear in a display box just like this.
Read through the tutorial to gain an understanding of the basics of creating a PowerPoint presentation. To apply what you've learned, print the tutorial and use it as a guide when creating your next presentation.
Please direct feedback, suggestions and questions about this tutorial to [email protected].
Whenever you begin a new project, it's a good idea to first create a Project Folder in which to save your files. This will allow you to more quickly save and retrieve your work.
If you're using a windows computer, such as Windows XP, use the My Documents folder to organize project folders and other documents that you create. Windows automatically creates a My Documents folder on your computer for you. It is normally located on your C: drive. In Windows XP, you would find it within the 'C:\Documents and Settings\your username' folder. A shortcut to your My Documents folder is also normally found on your desktop (see example screen below) and via your Start menu.
Double-click on the My Documents folder on your desktop (or select it from the Start menu) to open it.
In Mac OS X you would use the Documents folder located in the Finder.
The next step is to create the project folder itself. Create a new folder named with the name of your project. Be as descriptive as possible. Your PowerPoint file will go directly into your new project folder for easy access.
Create the following subfolders that will also reside in your project folder.
archive - You will use this folder to store out dated files for your project that you don't want to throw in the trash, such as previous versions of your presentation. Doing so will help to prevent you from mixing-up an old version of your presentation with the most current version.
movies - Your digital video files will go in this folder.
pictures - Store all of your graphics, photos, illustrations and clipart for your presentation here.
sounds - Music, sound effects and narration belong in this folder.
If you follow this strategy consistently with all of your projects, you'll be better able to quickly and easily find files in the future. You'll know just where to go to find all of your project folders neatly organized, and you'll know which is which because you've named each folder descriptively.
When you open a new PowerPoint file, save it immediately. It's helpful to get housekeeping tasks, such as naming the file and deciding where to save it, out of the way first. That way, you can quickly and easily save your work often as you go along and avoid losing everything to an unexpected computer crash.
This step will be easy if you've already created a Project Folder. You'll already know where you're going to store your file - you just have to name it.
To save your PowerPoint file for the first time, begin by selecting Save from the File menu.
You will be presented with a dialog box that you can navigate with to select your save location. Locate your project folder.
If you haven't already created a project folder, select an appropriate location and create one now. Make sure the location you select is easy to remember so that you can find your project folder later. Also be sure to name your project folder descriptively to that you'll be able to distinguish it from other project folders that you keep in the same location.
Open your project folder.
Now it's time to name your presentation file. Make the name as descriptive as possible so that you can later identify exactly what that file is by name.
Click the Save button to save your file.
Let's say that you had been working on your presentation, saved and closed the file. A few days later, you want to go back into the file to complete your work. One way to open a PowerPoint file is to locate the file itself within your computer and double-click to open it from there. Another way to open the file is from within the PowerPoint application.
Launch the PowerPoint application then select Open from the File menu.
You will be presented with a dialog box that you can navigate with to select your save location. Go to your project folder, click once on your PowerPoint file, then click the Open button to open it.
If you created a project folder for your presentation in an obvious location, then it should be easy for you to find the most recent version of your PowerPoint file. If you're having difficulty locating it, use the Search feature located on your windows Start menu to look for the file before you try to open it.
Use Sherlock to search for files on a Macintosh.
If you can't remember the exact name of your file, just type a few letters that you think are in the filename and perform your search with those. This should work well if you named the file descriptively.
Using a template for your presentation will help to give it an organized, professional look. Your PowerPoint application should already have several templates from which you can choose. If you want to try a new look, download additional PowerPoint templates in the Microsoft Office Template Gallery. If your instructor provides you with a template, open the PowerPoint file with the template that he or she provides, and that template will be available for your use.
Select Slide Design... from the Format menu to view the available templates.
If you're on a Mac, or if you're using a different version of PowerPoint, your menu options may be different. For example, with previous versions of PowerPoint, you would select Apply Design Template from the Format menu instead.
Click once on the template of your choice. It will automatically be applied to your presentation.
Most templates have a specific design for the title screen (the first screen) in your presentation and a different design for the rest of the slides. Whenever you add a new slide to your presentation, normally the slide page design for the template you are using will be applied. You can not alter these templates while you are creating your slides. This is a helpful feature because it prevents you from inadvertantly moving a background image or changing a design element. However, there may be times when you need to access and change the template (e.g., you might want to customize a template using your own graphics).
To access templates, select Slide Master, from the Master sub-menu located on the View menu in PowerPoint.
Select Normal from the View menu to return to the normal view and continue editing your slides.
PowerPoint comes complete with a searchable array of drawings and photographs that you can use in your class presentations. You can download additional picture from the Microsoft Clip Art and Media Gallery. New media is added all the time!
Select Clip Art from the Picture sub-menu on the Insert menu to open the Clip Art search panel.
In the search panel, you can select different collections to search within and different media file types form which to choose. If you only want to look for pictures, you would select Clip Art and Photographs. However, if you want to look for sounds or movies, those options are available here as well.
Enter the word or words describing the type of picture for which you would like to search then click the search button.
You will then see thumbnails of all of the available media matching your specifications. When you find the picture you want, click on it once then select Insert from the drop-down menu.
What if you have your own pictures, stored on your computer or a CD-Rom, that you would like to use in your presentation?
You would select From File... from the Picture sub-menu located on the Insert menu. You would then be presented with a dialog box with which you could navigate through to locate and insert the picture(s).
PowerPoint comes complete with a searchable array of sounds that you can use in your class presentations. You can download additional sounds from the Microsoft Clip Art and Media Gallery. New media is added all the time!
Just like when you want to insert Clip Art pictures into your presentation, you would select Clip Art from the Picture sub-menu on the Insert menu to open the Clip Art search panel to search for available sounds. When you locate and insert the one you want to use, you will be presented with a dialog box asking if you want your sound to play automatically in the slide show.
If you answer Yes, your sound will play right away when the page you are on is displayed during your presentation. You would answer No if instead you want to have the sound remain silent until clicked. (You can change this setting later in the Custom Animation panel.)
What if you have your own sounds, stored on your computer or a CD-Rom, that you would like to use in your presentation?
Select Sound from File... from the Movies and Sounds sub-menu located on the Insert menu.
You would then be presented with a dialog box with which you could navigate through to locate and insert the sound(s). Select any of the following types of sounds for your presentation.
You can insert your own digital videos into your presentation.
Select Movie from File from the Movies and Sounds sub-menu located on the Insert menu.
You would then be presented with a dialog box with which you could navigate through to locate and insert the movie(s). Select any of the following types of movies for your presentation.
If you create your video on a Mac, be sure that the filename includes the file extension. For example, if your filename was myVideo.mov, then the .mov would be the file extension.
When you locate and insert the one you want to use, you will be presented with a dialog box asking if you want your movie to play automatically in the slide show.
If you answer Yes, your movie will play right away when the page you are on is displayed during your presentation. (You can change this setting later in the Custom Animation panel.)
When you want to playback your presentation anywhere but on the original computer that you used to create it, one of the most important considerations is to ensure that all of the media files are available for playback. That's one reason why uploading your presentation to Blackboard can be difficult.
There are two approaches you can take. The first is to ensure that all of the media is embedded in your presentation, so that it will playback without the presence of your original media files. The problem with this method is that there is no way to embed movies. The second method is to package your PowerPoint presentation along with the necessary media files. Doing so will ensure that wherever you open the package, all of the files that you need to view the presentation will be there. The downside to this method when it comes to Blackboard is that when you package your presentation, it will have to be downloaded and opened before it can be viewed.
So, there's no one best way to prepare your presentation for playback. You'll have to decide which method will work best for your project. You'll need to be sure to include instructions so that others who want to view your presentation from Blackboard will know whether or not they need to download and unpackage your files!
If you want your presentation to play from Blackboard without having to be downloaded, make sure all of the media files are embedded. Remember that this won't work for movie files. The following explains how to ensure your pictures and sounds are embedded.
Pictures - when you insert a picture from a file in PowerPoint. They should be embedded by default. In order to link them, you would need to select the Link checkbox when you import.
In PowerPoint 2002, there is no Link checkbox on the dialog box to insert a picture from a file. Don't worry; your file will be embedded.
Sounds - PowerPoint can only embed WAVE Audio Files (*.Wav), so be sure to create your sounds in this format if you want to embed them. PowerPoint is configured by default to link to sound files over 100 KB. You can increase that from 100 KB to accomodate your largest sound file.
Select Options from the Tools menu.
You will be presented with the Options dialog box. Click on the General tab. Enter 10000 in the entry box next to the text: Link sounds with file size greater than...
With this setting, sounds under 10 MB will automatically be embedded in your presentation. You can set that file size higher to accomodate larger sound files. Keep in mind that your PowerPoint file will be much larger as a result. Very large files can be difficult to playback over the web. If your presentation turns out to be a large file, you may want to have viewers download your presentation before trying to play it.
When you've completed your presentation, upload your single PowerPoint file (*.ppt) to Blackboard.
You can attach this file to a Discussion Board area, or upload it to a File Exchange area, the digital Dropbox, etc. You will be able to open and playback the presentation from Blackboard by clicking on the link created when you upload it.
Using the Pack and Go method will help you to ensure that all of your files are included when you playback your presentation on another computer. The PowerPoint Pack and Go wizard will walk you through the process of packaging your presentation for playback on another computer or over the web.
Select Pack and Go from the File menu.
Follow the instructions in the Pack and Go Wizard dialog box. Be sure to check the box that says: Include linked files.
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After you upload your zipped package, you can download your presentation by clicking on the link created and selecting Save. When the package is downloaded, unzip it and run the PNGSETUP.EXE. Your presentation will be extracted to a folder that you specify. After all of the files are extracted, you will be able to playback your presentation.
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Select Save As Web Page from the File menu. You will be presented with a Save As dialog box.
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You will be presented with the Publish as Web Page dialog box. Select the options you want then click Publish.
This will create an HTML (*.htm) file and a folder which will contain your media files. The file and folder will be saved in the location on your computer that you specified. This file and folder could be posted to the web and your presentation could be viewed on virtually any computer with web access. However, Blackboard will not allow you to create custom web pages as a student. Instead, you will zip the files to upload them to Blackboard in a single package. If you have Winzip, you can right-click on the files and use the Winzip sub-menu to zip them.
After you upload your zipped package, you can download your presentation by clicking on the link created and selecting Save. When the package is downloaded, unzip it and double-click on the HTML (*.htm) file to playback your presentation. | <urn:uuid:7c2a19bc-90b2-42d4-9774-b406d513861d> | {
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Text source: Mary Ann Stone
Introduction / HistoryView Turkmen in all countries.
Although the Turkmen are one of Central Asia's major people groups, they are a minority in Afghanistan, which is notable because they have formidable economic impact there. As a slight portion of the country's total population, their herdsmen supply world markets with prized Karakul sheep pelts and magnificent wool carpets from their renowned weavers. More than utilitarian or even an art form, carpet weaving is integral to Turkmen culture.
Wandering as tribal nomads for centuries, carpets laid on bare tent floors and used as tent flaps, blankets and trade items aided a family's survival in harsh climates. This skill allowed refugee Turkmen to weather recent years of war as weavers in neighboring countries. An ancient art, the technique of pile weaving is thought to have originated with the Turkmen. Their world-famous, distinctive ruby-hued rugs are considered the best oriental carpets woven in Afghanistan and by refugees in Pakistan because most are still hand-loomed and colored with natural dyes. Traditionally a family enterprise, women used hand-spun wool from their flocks to create exquisite carpets on collapsible horizontal wood looms from memorized patterns that preserved tribal history.
Cross-like designs may indicate a past history of Christian influence that left an indelible print and were preserved among time-honored symbols. Prior to the introduction of Sunni Islam by Arabs in the late 10th century, Nestorian Christianity had spread among Turkmen in the 4th century A.D. First called Turkmen in the 10th century as well, they are descended from Mongolian Oghug tribes that invaded today's Turkmenistan in the 8th century, where one tribe eventually established the fabled Ottoman Empire that lasted for seven centuries and from which evolved both Turkmen language and customs. Not until the 19th century were they forced by Russian expansion southward to begin uniting their separate tribes and only became the independent republic of Turkmenistan in 1991. Despite this, tribal identity, of which there are 7 major ones - Tekke, Ersary,Yomud, Gsklen, Salor and Chowdor - is still strong.
Turkmen groups migrated southward at various times in history from east of the Caspian Sea, settling along the rim of the Kara Kum (Black Sand) desert which extends into Afghanistan. A Turkmen legend aptly describes this habitat. "When God created the world and distributed land, Turkmen were the first to receive abundant sunshine and the last to receive water." Once feared as the infamous "children of the desert", they lived as nomadic herdsmen/warriors whose fierce raids on caravans stole plunder and slaves to sell in regional markets. Today, a relatively small population of Turkmen is concentrated in a narrow region in north Afghanistan, extending along the border with Turkmenistan. Some continue a semi-nomadic life, while others line in permanent homes or tents, farming, raising livestock and weaving carpets.
As with most of the region's peoples, hospitality is a defining characteristic. It is said Turkmen serve tea and a meal, likely including vegetables, fruit, nuts and bread, before the purpose of a visit is stated. This "red carpet" treatment reflects a host's respect for his guest.
Traditional men's dress includes supple leather boots, belted tunics, voluminous long-sleeved coats and Persian lamb hats. Now, in more urban areas, this attire is replaced by neat suits, a crisp tie and polished shoes. Turkmen pride themselves as neat dressers. Women wear long colorful, floral-patterned dresses over leggings and accessorize with a jewel-bedecked turban-like headdress and ample jewelry, particularly bracelets and anklets. Covering the face is not customary.
Ideally marriages are arranged so as to preserve appropriate tribal liaisons and are sealed by a bride price paid in cash or livestock. Interestingly, the bride's family compensates the groom's family with a small sum for raising him to manhood. Immediate pregnancy is expected and failure to conceive can lead to the extreme of divorce. Underlining the importance of children, names have specific meaning, often related to the day of birth, with a holiday birthday being especially auspicious.
Turkmen are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi School, although the designation is largely one of cultural identification. Few know or practice its beliefs, intertwining them with old shamanistic holdovers that include curses, "evil-eye" charms and magic.
Family structure is patriarchal, thus a father is accorded the highest respect with his eldest son next in line. Even so, historically Turkmen have lacked powerful chieftains or political figures. The seven major tribes maintained a neutral stance during Soviet and Taliban domination, avoided joining the Northern Alliance of Uzbek and Tajik resisters, and formed no fighting force of their own. These choices proved a great disadvantage when a new government was formed after Afghanistan was liberated by Allied forces in 2001 because they had no political leverage as did other ethnic groups. A council was formed from the Turkmen community to emphasize to government officials their eagerness to become fully engaged in re-building Afghanistan. Their official statement called for election of local councils, freedom of the press, women's rights and notably, the availability of education to all in mother tongues. The latter is especially important to Turkmen who have had to study in Dari, the official language of Afghanistan, rather than in Turkmen - a factor they cite as a barrier to full social engagement. A project now underway to provide textbooks written in Turkmen may prepare their youth as more passionate and more informed Turkmen voices in Afghanistan's future. | <urn:uuid:a921edf1-b369-4868-863b-b671ceda6cc4> | {
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How long a person can live with emphysema is determined by several factors, including how far their disease has progressed, whether they’ve stopped the behaviors or ended the exposure to toxic substances that caused the disease, and what treatment they receive.
More Info: Survival rate for any individual is impossible to predict definitively. Studies on survival rates exist but are limited. Physicians use several standards for measuring the stages of emphysema that can help with patient prognosis. The two most widely used are the GOLD emphysema staging system and the BODE emphysema staging system.
The GOLD Emphysema Staging System
This staging system was created by group the Global Initiative for Chronic Pulmonary Lung Disease. The system groups individuals into stages based on airflow obstruction using pulmonary function testing. During the testing, the patient exhales forcefully through a tube that measures airflow capacity in one second. The results are a percentage of forced expiratory volume, or FEV1.
The four stages of emphysema under this system are mild, moderate, severe, and very severe. People with mild emphysema have an FEV1 of 80% or greater. Moderate emphysema patients have an FEV1 between 50%-80%. Severe emphysema patients have an FEV1 between 30%-50%. Very severe emphysema patients have an FEV1 below 30%.
Life Expectancy: Some studies have suggested that more than half of the patients with an FEV1 below 35% will not survive beyond four years.
Though this staging system is effective at providing doctors with a standard measurement that can help with treatment recommendations, it cannot accurately predict individual life expectancy.
The BODE Emphysema Staging System
To fill the need to determine a prognosis that incorporates individual’s health and habits, some feel that the BODE emphysema staging system does a better job than the GOLD system. The BODE system also measures Body mass index, airflow Obstruction, Dyspnea, and Exercise capacity. The BODE index will measure a low BMI, how far a person can walk in six minutes, and the degree of dyspnea, or shortness of breath.
Life Expectancy: Based on living more than four years following prognosis as a group these are general observations that will vary greatly between individuals. The higher the risk, such as low BMI and inability to perform daily activities without shortness of breath, the lower the life expectancy.
Mild Emphysema: More than 80% of those categorized in this group live beyond four years.
Moderate Emphysema: 60%-70% of those categorized in this group live beyond four years.
Severe Emphysema: 50% of those categorized in this group live beyond four years.
Most cases of emphysema are caused by smoking or exposure to environmental or occupational airborne pollutants. The best way to halt the progression of the disease and extend life expectancy is to quit smoking or end the exposure to pollutants as quickly as possible. The damage already done is not reversible, but this one single act has the ability to radically slow the progression of the disease if it is still in the primary stages.
Unfortunately, emphysema is currently incurable, and treatment options focus primary on relieving symptoms and improving quality of life. There is some research to indicate that supplemental oxygen can extend the life expectancy of patients with low oxygen levels. Research indicates that while pulmonary rehabilitation does not extend life expectancy in emphysema patients, it does improve quality of remaining life. Avoiding exposure to respiratory illnesses can also significantly increase the life expectancy of emphysema patients.
Emphysema: Stages and Prognosis
Netwellness University of Cinncinati
Emphysema: Stages and Life Expectancy
Cleveland Clinic
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Georges Juvelekian
Resource: RX Med
Resource: Mayo Clinic
Quote: “COPD makes up the largest single category of patients who undergo lung transplantation. Lung transplantation provides improved quality of life and functional capacity but does not result in survival benefit. The lack of survival benefit makes the timing of transplant difficult. The patients selected to receive transplants should have a life expectancy of 2 years or less.”
Source: Berj George Demirjian, MD, Fellow, Division of Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
eMedicine from WebMD
Quote: “There have been no large studies to determine emphysema’s effect on life expectancy. The largest and best studies have only included a few hundred people. Emphysema staging is helpful, but emphysema still varies widely between two people at the same stage.
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New technology curriculum in place at Norwin
Norwin School District officials are continuing to integrate technology into the classroom for the upcoming academic year.
As students prepare to return to the district's seven buildings Monday, educators are hard at work incorporating the district's new K-12 technology curriculum. Dr. Tracy McNelly, assistant superintendent for secondary education, said a committee spent the last year writing the new curriculum and is excited to implement it now.
"We really focused, not only on technology, but also on 21st century skills," she said. "As we know, technology changes daily. So it's important that students really build those skills."
Committee members have developed model lessons that incorporate technology, with those teachers guiding fellow educators, especially those who aren't as familiar with new methods and who haven't used as much technology in the classroom previously.
Superintendent Dr. William Kerr, who joined the district July 1 following the retirement of former Superintendent Dr. John Boylan, said one of his goals is to "make certain students can compete in 21st century society.
"We want our students to have positive opportunities to grow, expand and meet future demands," he said. "A strong academic background coupled with sophisticated technical skills will provide the best opportunities in the workforce."
McNelly emphasized that technology education cannot be an "add-on" and must be incorporated throughout the curriculum.
One way teachers across the board will be able to achieve this is through Voice thread, a web-based program that provides a secure way in which teachers can post items to the web and students can comment.
"They'll be able to post through text, drawing, video and audio," McNelly said. "When we did the pilot last year, we found that all the kids had these really in-depth comments. We're excited about how this can be used in the classroom."
Parents of elementary students also will have access to additional mathematics resources as the district has added the online component that accompanies the math series textbooks.
Kerr said the district will keep up-to-date on new technology through professional development and a new partnership with Duquesne University's Center for Advancing the Study of Teaching and Learning.
He said the focus will be on formative assessment, with open lines of communication between teachers and students, building principals and teachers, and teachers and administration.
"We want to encourage not only multiple types of assessment, but also specific and instant feedback," Kerr said.
For the first time in a number of years, no parts of the district are under construction after renovations to the administration building were completed earlier this year. Other district projects included the demolition of the Shaw building in 2002 and the building of Sheridan Terrace on that site in 2003; the 2003 renovation of Hillcrest Intermediate; the construction of Hahntown Elementary in 2007; the construction of Sunset Valley Elementary in 2002; the demolition and rebuilding of Stewartsville Elementary in 2009; and renovations to Norwin Middle School in 2005 and Norwin High School in 2003.
The projects were part of a comprehensive plan to update all buildings within the district, beginning with the academic buildings.
"That's quite an accomplishment," Kerr said. "Now we get to really focus on educational issues and make sure we're advancing and providing as many resources as possible for students."
Show commenting policy | <urn:uuid:19673c9e-95e1-4e22-9343-81a1b9532623> | {
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There's a gap between child obesity rates and how parents perceive their children's weight.
A new poll shows that only 15 percent of parents consider their children "a little" or "very" overweight, even though about a third of the nation's children and teenagers are overweight or obese.
Researchers also found that among the households they surveyed, only one in five had an adult present who was concerned her or his child would be overweight as an adult. But with 69 percent of U.S. adults qualifying as overweight – and 36 percent falling into the obese category – pollsters said the other 80 percent may be underestimating their children's risk of being overweight later in life.
South Los Angeles has an especially severe problem with obesity compared to the rest of the county. Nearly 24 percent of L.A. County adults are obese, according to the latest figures; that shoots up to 33 percent on the southside.
Child obesity rates in the region aren't that much better. Data from 2008 shows that nearly 30 percent of children in South L.A. were obese, a rate that was among the county's highest; to contrast, the best rate in the county that year belonged to Manhattan Beach, where only 3.4 percent of children were obese.
Other findings from the survey on parents' perception of obesity:
- 81 percent of parents think obesity is a serious problem, but only 20 percent of children in the poll had a parent who was concerned the child would be overweight later in life.
- When parents did consider their child overweight, 60 percent said they were either "somewhat" or "very" concerned. That remaining 40 percent were "not very" or "not at all" concerned.
- Nearly nine in 10 children ate and drank in a healthy way during what researchers called "crunch time" – between 3 p.m. and bedtime. That's according to parents, anyway – even though 48 percent and 18 percent of children were reported to have eaten sweets and fast food, respectively.
Parents' perceptions, in other words, may be in major need of some fine-tuning.
Pollsters focused on that window of time after school and before bedtime, noting that even though parents have more influence over what their children eat and do during that timeframe, it's usually a time "when many are racing home from work, arranging for their children's extracurricular activities, trying to monitor homework, and getting ready for the next day."
Here's what the poll revealed about that timeframe, which surveyors dubbed "crunch time":
- Virtually all (95 percent) of children live with parents who agree that a healthy weight is important – but 44 percent of children have parents who say it's difficult to make sure their children eats healthy. Thirty-six percent of children have parents who express the same sentiment about exercise.
- During crunch time, 60 percent of children are eating something that could lead to unhealthy weight gain, according to their parents. Of those children, 79 percent did so because their parents don't "mind if they have these foods/drinks sometimes," as long they eat healthy in general.
- According to parents, 28 percent of children aren't getting enough exercise during crunch time.
Parents also report obstacles to helping their children maintain a healthy weight that go beyond crunch time:
- 33 percent say unhealthy foods are offered at lunch at school.
- 33 percent say the cost of exercise equipment, gym memberships or sports team fees are too high.
- 31 percent say there aren't good sidewalks near the family home, so the family drives instead of walking.
- 31 percent say there aren't many places for their children to hang out with friends that don't serve unhealthy food.
The poll also suggested that family events where unhealthy foods are plentiful are "fairly common" – 46 percent of parents said their children attended events like that at least once a month over the past year. | <urn:uuid:3f1dcf59-648c-413d-9a74-b3ada17bc413> | {
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1.) What is another name for IPv6?
d. None of the above
2.) IPv4 uses a 32-bit addressing scheme. What does IPv6 use?
3.) True or False: IPv6 is backwards compatible with network protection devices, such as firewalls and IDS.
4.) As a security practitioner, which autoconfiguration technique – stateful or stateless – should you be more concerned about?
a. stateful configuration
b. stateless configuration
5.) IPv6 describes rules for the following types of addressing. Which is communication between a single sender and the nearest of several receivers in a group? | <urn:uuid:3ef6d4d9-a9c8-4bb2-b6b4-263d84fb00f1> | {
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|Autonomy||The ability to do tasks without interference / help from others / outside.|
|Reasoning||The application of logical rules to knowledge.|
|Attention||The management of processing, memory, and sensory resources.|
|Meta-Cognition||The ability of a system to reason about itself.|
| The phenomenon of “understanding” has been neglected in AI and AGI. Modern AI systems do not understand.
Yet the concept seems crucial when talking about human intelligence; the concept holds explanatory power - we do not assign responsibilities for a task to someone or something with a demonstrated lack of understanding of the task. Moreover, the level of understanding can be evaluated.
Understanding of a particular phenomenon is the potential to perform actions and answer questions with respect to . Example: Is an automobile heavier or lighter than a human?
| When performed by an agent, the ability to transform knowledge about X from a formulation primarily (or only) good for execution with respect to X to a formulation good for being communicated (typically involving some form of linearization, incremental introduction of concepts and issues, in light of an intended receiving agent with a particular a-priori knowledge).
Is it possible to explain something that you don't understand?
|Acquisition of information in a form that enables more successful completion of tasks. We call information in such a form “knowledge” or “practical knowledge”. (There is also the concept of “impractical knowledge”, which sometimes people feel must be the case of “useless trivia” that seems to be useless for anything, but can in fact turn out to be useful at any point, as for instance using such trivia to wow others with one's knowledge of trivia.)|
|Life-long Learning||Incremental acquisition of knowledge throughout a (non-trivially long) lifetime.|
|Transfer Learning||The ability to transfer what has been learned in one task to another.|
|Imagination|| The ability to evaluate potential contingencies. Also used to describe the ability to predict.
Relies on reasoning and understanding.
|Creativity|| A measure for the uniqueness of solutions to problems produced by an agent; or the ability of an agent to produce solution(s) where other agents could not. Also used as a synonym of intelligence.
An emergent property of an intelligent agent that relies on several of the above features.
What it is
| A representation is what you have when you pick something to stand for something else, like the lines forming the word “cup” used in particular contexts are used to represent (implicate, point to) an object with some features and properties.
All knowledge used for intelligent action must have a representation.
What it Involves
|A particular process (computation, thought) is given a particular pattern (e.g. the text “cup” or the word “cup” uttered – or simply by the form of the light falling on a retina, at a particular time in a particular context) that acts as a “pointer” to an internal representation, an information structure that is rich enough to answer questions about a particular phenomenon that the “pointer” points to, without having to perform any other action than to manipulate that information structure in particular ways.|
Why it is Important
With the amount of information in the physical world vastly outnumbering the ability of any system to store it all in a lookup table, methods for information storage and retrieval with greater compression are needed.
- The founding fathers of AI spoke frequently of representations in the first two decades of AI research.
- Skinnerian psychology and Brooksian AI – both “representation-free” methodologies – largely outlawed the concept of representation from AI in the 80s onward.
- Post 2000s the rise of ANNs has helped continue the trend.
Good Regulator Theorem
| Meanwhile, Conant & Ashby's Good Regulator Theorem proved (yes, proved) that
every good controller (“regulator”) of a system must be a model of that system.
Good Regulator Paper
|Why That Matters||A model is by definition a representation (of the thing that it is a model of).|
|Bottom Line|| Referring to the first table above, AGI is unlikely without sophisticated methods for representation of complex things, and sophisticated methods for their creation, manipulation, and management.
This is the role of a cognitive architecture.
|What are Symbols?||Peirce's Theory of Semiotics (signs) proposes 3 parts to a sign: a sign/symbol, an object, and an interpretant. Example of symbol: an arbitrary pattern, e.g. a written word. Example of object: an automobile. Example of interpretant: what you see in your mind's eye when you read the word “automobile”. The last part is the most complex thing, because obviously what you see and I see when we read the word “automobile” is probably not exactly the same.|
|“Symbol”||Peirce used various terms for this, including “sign”, “representamen”, “representation”, and “ground”. Others have suggested “sign-vehicle”. What is mean in all cases is a pattern that can be used to stand for something else, and thus requires an interpretation to be used as such.|
|Peirce's Innovation||Detaching the symbol/sign from the object signified, and introducing the interpretation process as a key entity. This makes it possible to explain why people misunderstand each other, and how symbols and meaning can grow and change in a culture.|
|Meaning||Philosophers are still grappling with the topic of “meaning”, and it is far from settled. It is highly relevant to AI, especially AGI - an AGI that cannot extract the meaning of a joke, threat, promise, or explanation is hardly worth its label.|
|Current Approach||Meaning stems from two main sources. Firstly, acquired and tested models form a graph of relations; the comprehensiveness of this graph determines the level of understanding that the models can support with respect to a particular phenomenon. Meaning is not possible without (some level of) understanding. Secondly, meaning comes from the context of the usage of symbols, where the context is provided by (a) who/what uses the symbols, (b) in what particular task-environment, using ( c) what particular syntactic constraints.|
|Prerequisites for using symbols||A prerequisite for communication is a shared interpretation method, shared interpretation of syntax (context), and shared knowledge (object).|
|Where the Symbols “are”||When we use the term “symbol” in daily conversation we typically are referring to its meaning, not its form (sign). The meaning of symbols emerges from the interpretation process which is triggered by the contextual use of a sign: A sign's relation to forward models, in the pragmatic and syntactic context, produces a meaning - that which is signified. Thus, more than being “stored in a database”, symbols are continuously and dynamically being “computed based on knowledge”.|
|Models & Symbols||Both are representations - but models contain more than symbols; if symbols are pointers models are machines.|
|Model|| A model of something is an information structure that behaves in some ways like the thing being modeled.
‘Model’ here actually means exactly the same as the word when used in the vernacular — look up any dictionary defnition and that is what it means. A model of something is not the thing itself, it is in some way a ‘mirror image’ of it, typically with some unimportant details removed, and represented in a way that allows for various manipulations for the purpose of making predictions (answering questions), where the form of allowed manipulations are particular to the representation of the model and the questions to be answered.
|Example||A model of Earth sits on a shelf in my daughter’s room. With it I can answer questions about the gross layout of continents, and names assigned to various regions as they were around 1977 (because that’s when I got it for my confirmation ). A model requires a process for using it. In this example that process is humans that can read and manipulate smallish objects.|
|Computational Models||A typical type of question to be answered with computational (mathematical) models are what-if questions, and a typical method of manipulation is running simulations (producing deductions). Along with this we need the appropriate computational machine.|
|A 'model' in this conception has a target phenomenon that it applies to, and it has a form of representation, comprehensiveness, and level of detail; these are the primary features that determine what a model is good for. A computational model of the world in raw machine-readable form is not very efficient for quickly identifying all the countries adjacent to Switzerland - for that a traditional globe is much better.|
|Model Acquisition||The ability to create models of (observed) phenomena.|
|Effectiveness|| Creation of models must be effective - otherwise a system will spend too much time creating useless or bad models.
Making the model creation effective may require e.g. parallelizing the execution of operations on them.
|Efficiency|| Operations on models listed above must be efficient lest they interfere with the normal operation of the system / agent.
One way to achieve temporal efficiency is to parallelize their execution, and make them simple.
|Scalability||For any moderately interesting / complex environment, a vast number of models may be entertained and considered at any point in time, and thus a large set of potential models must be manipulatable by the system / agent.|
| A cooling thermostat has a built-in supersimple model of its task-environment, one that is sufficient for it to do its job. It consists of a few variables, an on-off switch, two thresholds, and two simple rules that tie these together; the sensed temperature variable, the upper threshold for when to turn the heater on, and the lower threshold for when to turn the heater off. The thermostat never has to decide which model is appropriate, it is “baked into it” by the thermostat’s designer. It is not a predictive (forward) model, this is a strict feedback model.
The thermostat cannot change its model, this can only be done by the user opening it and twiddling some thumbscrews.
|Limitation||Because the system designer knows beforehand which signals cause perturbations in and can hard-wire these from the get-go in the thermostat, there is no motivation to create a model-creating controller (it is much harder!).|
|Other “state of the art” systems||The same is true for expert systems, subsumption robots, and general game playing machines: their model is to tightly baked into their architecture by the designer. Yes, there are some variables in these that can be changed automatically “after the machine leaves the lab” (without designer intervention), but they are parameters inside a (more or less) already-determined model.|
|What Can We Do?||Feed-forward control! Which requires models.|
|Ability to Predict||With the ability to predict comes the ability to deal with events that happen faster than the perception-action cycle of the controller, as well as the ability to anticipate events far into the future.|
Greater Potential to Learn
|A machine that is free to create, select, and evaluate models operating on observable and hypothesized variables has potential to learn anything (within the confines of the algorithms it has been given for these operations) because as long as the range of possible models is reasonably broad and general, the topics, tasks, domains, and worlds it could (in theory) handle becomes vastly larger than systems where a particular model is given to the system a priori (I say ‘in theory’ because there are other factors, e.g. the ergodicity of the environment and resource constraints that must be favorable to e.g. the system’s speed of learning).|
|Greater Potential for Cognitive Growth||A system that can build models of its own model creation, selection, and evaluation has the ability to improve its own nature. This is in some sense the ultimate AGI (depending on the original blueprint, original seed, and some other factors of course) and therefore we only need two levels of this, in theory, for a self-evolving potentially omniscient/omnipotent (as far as the universe allows) system.|
|Bottom Line||AGI without both feed-forward and feed-back mechanisms is fairly unthinkable.|
2018©K. R. Thórisson | <urn:uuid:48e1e1e5-7b0c-4f5f-aa8a-822f204287bb> | {
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By Alison Moodie, GreenBiz.com, 10-9-2012
For a company like PepsiCo, which oversees more than 20 brands and hundreds of different products around the world, calculating the carbon footprint of just one of its products can take weeks, and at a signficant cost to the company. To save time and money, PepsiCo teamed up with researchers from Columbia University’s Earth Institute to create a tool that can measure the carbon footprint of thousands of products all at once.
The calculator, which lacks an official name, can calculate the carbon emissions of different materials and activities in a company’s supply chain and operations, and within minutes pinpoint which of these carries the largest carbon footprint.
‘The objective was to give companies several capabilities at once with only a single effort,’ said Christoph Meinrenken, the tool’s lead researcher and associate research scientist at the Earth Institute.
The calculator was developed to follow publicly known carbon footprinting standards such as the GHG Protocol Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) standard and PAS20:2011. The methodology and software helps businesses identify which materials or activities in their supply chain and operations have the biggest effect on the total carbon footprint of one of their products, product lines, brands or regions. The calculator also reveals the accuracy of this information and how this accuracy can be improved so a company can make better business decisions.
“We saw the opportunity to use our carbon/greenhouse gas analysis as a base for building a broader decision-making tool that could help us identify other efficiency opportunities throughout our supply chian, drive innovation and improve our overall operations,” said Rober terKuile, PepsiCo’s senior director of environmental sustainability.
The tool also provides certifiable product footprints to be used in ecolabeling and for environmental measuring groups such as The Sustainability Consortium and GoodGuide. This certification requires an intensive, bottom-up assessment of each product’s entire life cycle in order to provide the required microscopic level of detail and to be auditable outside the company, said Meinrenken.
The tool is not the first of its kind. Earlier this year, Danone announced it had developed a system, in partnership with SAP, that can calculate the carbon emissions of individual products. Meinrenken said the inner workings of the Danone tool hadn’t been made public, so it was hard to adequately compare the two. He said PesiCo’s tool was developed before Danone unveiled its calculator.
The PepsiCo tool takes inspiration from sites like Facebook and Netflix, which mine huge swaths of data to figure out what users like. It analyzes data already stored in a company’s database to infer information, like what materials are in a product and where they come from. This process saves a company time and money, said Meinrenken.
‘This is just a general argument of being smart and efficient with companies’ existing data to mine and ‘milk’ it if you will, to learn additional things from the same data, rather than hiring additional staff and building up new data,’ he said.
To learn more about this approach to carbon footprinting, finish reading the article HERE. | <urn:uuid:8ccd4f27-d39e-4bf6-b33e-906b718721e4> | {
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New! Got Nuisance Waterfowl? Techniques for problem solving; a CD available to landowners and associations. Contact your District Wildlife Biologist to request the CD.
Many wild animals in Indiana have become displaced as the result of urban growth and removal of their habitat. While some species may move to other areas where natural habitat exists, some species actually thrive in urban settings. Species such as raccoons, opossums and even red foxes are becoming more common in urban areas and are frequently seen by people. However, these animals can also cause problems when they use a person’s attic for shelter, destroy shingles and soffits, and eat their garbage.
Wild animals such as these are protected by the State of Indiana for all of the citizens of Indiana, but sometimes they cannot peaceably coexist. Because of the large number of raccoons and other species that cause a nuisance for landowners throughout the state, the DNR is unable to provide assistance to actually help remove the animals. The DNR does, however, offer some solutions and advice on how to try to prevent future problems and remove wild animals that have created a problem. The DNR also licenses individuals to provide nuisance wild animal control services to the public. Find one near you at: Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators.
Resident landowners and tenants have several options for dealing with many of these animals. A resident landowner or tenant can legally capture some species of wild animals without a permit if the animal is discovered damaging property. If the animal is going to be released after it is caught, it must be released in the county of capture. You must also have permission from the landowner before releasing any animals on their property; this includes city, county or state property. Please contact the property’s owner or manager before releasing wild animals on their property. If the nuisance wild animal is not on your own property or you wish to receive an annual permit, you can apply for a nuisance wild animal control permit. The application form and regulations are available on-line.
Live traps can often be purchased from garden supply or home improvement stores. Be careful when live-trapping wild animals in the spring because they may have young. Be sure that all of the animals are removed before installing a chimney cap or sealing a hole in the attic.
For detailed information on prevention and control of any of these species, please go to: www.icwdm.org/handbook/index.asp
DNR Contact Information:
If you need more information, please contact the DNR at (317) 232-4200 or by email at: [email protected]
If you need a nuisance wild animal control permit, please contact the DNR Permit Coordinator at (317) 232-4102 or visit our website for a permit application. | <urn:uuid:a8f857b0-c150-4b02-aa92-b272545064ec> | {
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In Europe in 2011, 3.2 million tonnes of used tyres had to be disposed of.
Recycling techniques are evolving in order to recover all the materials used to make the tyre, that includes not just the rubber but also fibres and metal
Greentech Innovations in Italy claims to have come up with an eco-friendly technique of recycling which is able to re-use many of the tyre’s components.
The process involves spraying high pressure water jets onto the old rubber to break it down into small pieces.
Greentech engineer Roberto Verri explained: “We do the reverse of what’s done during the production: when making a tyre, a skeleton is built and then rubber is put around it. What we do is nothing more than taking out the rubber from the skeleton, strip the tyre, and the clean metal is sent to the foundry.”
The metal, once separated from the rubber, is used for the production of new metal items. So almost the whole tyre is reused.
Roberto Verri from Greentech adds: “We can consider this technology entirely ecological because it works exclusively with high pressure water. There is no air pollution or ground or underground dumping.”
The rubber granules produced can be used for new products such as flooring for sport venues, bins, roofs, road paving, cycle tracks. They can even be added to a mix for the production of new tyres. | <urn:uuid:35330a44-d775-4c6c-bafc-f88cfc3bdaf0> | {
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Summary and Analysis
Romeo stands in the shadows beneath Juliet's bedroom window. Juliet appears on the balcony and thinking she's alone, reveals in a soliloquy her love for Romeo. She despairs over the feud between the two families and the problems the feud presents. Romeo listens and when Juliet calls on him to "doff" his name, he steps from the darkness saying, "call me but love."
After the two exchange expressions of devotion, the Nurse calls Juliet from the balcony. Juliet leaves, but returns momentarily. They agree to marry. Juliet promises to send a messenger the next day so that Romeo can tell her what wedding arrangements he has made. The scene concludes as day breaks and Romeo leaves to seek the advice of Friar Laurence.
The scene contains some of the more recognizable and memorable passages in all of Shakespeare. Here, in the famous balcony scene, Romeo and Juliet reveal their love to each other, and at Juliet's suggestion, they plan to marry.
Shakespeare uses light and dark imagery in this scene to describe the blossoming of Romeo and Juliet's romance. As Romeo stands in the shadows, he looks to the balcony and compares Juliet to the sun. He then asks the sun to rise and kill the envious moon. Romeo had always compared Rosaline to the moon, and now, his love for Juliet has outshone the moon. Thus, as Romeo steps from the moonlit darkness into the light from Juliet's balcony, he has left behind his melodramatic woes and moved toward a more genuine, mature understanding of love.
The scene takes place at nighttime, illustrating the way Romeo and Juliet's love exists in a world quite distinct from the violence of the feud. Throughout the play, their love flourishes at night — an allusion to the forbidden nature of their relationship. As night ends and dawn breaks, the two are forced to part to avoid being discovered by the Capulet kinsmen. Romeo and Juliet fear that they might be exposed — that the artificial light of discovery might be shone upon them, thereby forcing their permanent separation.
Shakespeare describes the natural quality of their love by juxtaposing the balcony scene with Mercutio's lewd sexual jokes in the previous scene. Romeo returns to the religious imagery used between the lovers in their sonnets at the feast when he describes Juliet as, "a bright angel" and "dear saint." The recurring use of religious imagery emphasizes the purity of Romeo and Juliet's love — as distinguished from the Nurse and Mercutio's understanding of love that is constituted in the physical, sexual aspects.
Romeo begins to display signs of increasing maturity in this scene. His speeches are now in blank verse rather than the rhymed iambic pentameter evident in his earlier sonnets and couplets. Romeo is no longer the melancholy lover of Act I. Up to this point, Romeo has expressed his emotions in a traditional, colloquial style. His behavior has been notably antisocial — he preferred to submit to the misery of his own amorous failures.
Although Romeo has matured in the brief time since the beginning of the play, he remains somewhat immature when compared with Juliet — a pattern that recurs throughout their relationship. Although Juliet is only 13, she considers the world with striking maturity. As later acts reveal, her parents do not provide an emotionally rich and stable environment, possibly forcing Juliet to mature beyond her years.
Juliet shows the beginnings of increasing self-possession and confidence that ultimately lead her to seek her own fate rather than a destiny imposed upon her by her parents. Juliet introduces the idea of marriage to Romeo. She makes the practical arrangements for sending a messenger to Romeo the next day. Juliet stops Romeo from swearing his love on the moon as it is too "inconstant" and "variable." She stops him from using traditional, colloquial poetic forms in expressing his affection. She encourages him to be genuine and to invest himself in a less traditional, more spiritual concept of love.
Juliet's soliloquy examines another of the play's themes — the importance of words and names. Juliet compares Romeo to a rose and reasons that if a rose were given another name, it would still be a rose in its essence. If Romeo abandoned his family name, he would still be Romeo. Juliet calls into the night for Romeo to "refuse thy name" and in return, she will "no longer be a Capulet." Therein lies one of the great conflicts of the play — the protagonists' family names operate against their love. While their love blossoms in oblivion to any barriers, the people who affect their lives use their familial battles to impose separation upon the two young lovers.
Juliet's promise to Romeo to "follow thee my lord throughout the world" is full of dramatic irony and foreshadows the final scene of the play, when Juliet follows Romeo into death. Interruptions from the Nurse add to the atmosphere of intense urgency as the lovers frantically say good-bye. The heightened anticipation of their forthcoming marriage continues to build further tension and increase the pace of the play.
her vestal livery chaste appearance or virginal dress.
sick and green pale and sickly. Green was the color associated with maids.
enmity hatred; hostility.
prorogued delayed; postponed.
I am no pilot . . . should adventure for such merchandise Romeo describes himself as a merchant venturer, one who would make risky voyages to be with Juliet.
perjuries the breaking of promises.
Jove king of the Roman gods.
fond tender and affectionate; loving; sometimes, affectionate in a foolish or overly indulgent way.
strange reserved, aloof.
the god of my idolatry the object of my excessive devotion.
tassel-gentle from "tiercel," a falconry term for a male hawk, especially the male peregrine.
bondage is hoarse and may not speak aloud at home, Juliet is under her father's strict discipline and must whisper as though she is hoarse to avoid detection.
a wanton's bird that is, the pet of an undisciplined, spoiled child.
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As a teacher, Willard pushed for her students to find a career after graduating, and in 1871, Willard became president of Evanston’s College for Ladies, where she continued to promote self-governance for her pupils. Evanston College for Ladies was absorbed by Northwestern following the Chicago fire, and at Northwestern, Frances Willard became the first Dean of Women in a mixed gender university
In 1879, when Frances Willard was elected President of the WCTU, she continued to push for girls to get an education. She immediately published newsletters for children, Annual Leaflets were produced aimed at young women, and she publish books, such as Occupations for Women (1897), which listed a wide variety of careers women could pursue after college. Willard used her experience as a teacher to educate WCTU members as to how all of these issues are connected, and why women fighting against temperance should care about suffrage and educating their children.
Willard’s concerns about education for women are still relevant— there are many issues today concerning the impact gender has on education. From elementary school through college, women face challenges due to their gender that affects the way they learn, interact, and excel in school and has a huge impact on girls quality of education, and if they chose to continue it in college or graduate school.
Guest blog by Sarah O’Brien, a graduating senior at DePaul University studying History of Art and Architecture with a minor in Museum Studies.
- Frances E. Willard, How to Win: A Book for Girls (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1888, 188), 27-28.
- Frances E. Willard, Glimpses of Fifty Years, 1839-1889 (Chicago: H.J. Smith & Co., 1889), 114.
- Sadker, Myra, and David Sadker. “Sexism in the Classroom: From Grade School to Graduate School.” The Phi Delta Kappan 67, no. 7 (1986): 512-15. | <urn:uuid:ce36cf3b-dcc5-475f-8af7-65cf304401ee> | {
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On the morning of Friday, February 15th, the planet Earth was once again reminded of its vulnerability to the dangers of the universe. An estimated 10,000-ton meteor exploded over the skies of the southern Russian city of Chelyabinsk, releasing nearly 500 kilotons of energy from its entry into Earth’s atmosphere to its airborne disintegration. With injury estimates exceeding 1,000 and a reported 3,000 buildings damaged, it is a staunch reminder of the dangers and risks that we carry every day.
At about 17 meters (55 feet) wide, this meteor is alarmingly small by cosmic standards, described by NASA scientists as a “tiny asteroid.” However it is the largest reported meteor since 1908, when an estimated 100-meter (330-foot) meteor – the largest in recorded history – exploded near the Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. Paul Chodas of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA said an event of this magnitude is expected to occur “once every 100 years on average.” It seems we were due for such an event, and probably should have been expecting it.
The event came less than 24 hours away from the closest approach of 2012 DA14, a 190,000-ton asteroid. 2012 DA14, discovered just last year by amateur astronomers in Spain, will swoop down towards Earth, coming within 17,200 miles of its surface. Our own communications satellites watched as it came within a hair’s breadth of Earth by astronomical standards. If this asteroid were to impact our planet, it could release an explosion around three megatons — almost 200 times more powerful than the blast from the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. While astronomers have been able to determine that 2012 DA14 will not impact us in the future, we should see this flyby as a cautionary reminder of the imminent and omnipresent dangers just outside our atmosphere.
Students for the Exploration and Development of Space calls on leaders worldwide to recognize the danger we face and provide appropriate resources to reduce the risk to all of human life. The potential likelihood of localized or worldwide destruction with humanity caught unaware is far too grave to ignore. We must not delay in developing the technologies to not only discover these objects with greater speed and accuracy, but also those to divert such destructive forces once we do detect them from our fragile pale blue dot.
SEDS-USA Public Relations Manager | <urn:uuid:01cfca4d-74b7-4977-88c4-2feb55c07db6> | {
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Kazakhstan profile - Timeline
A chronology of key events:
1st-8th centuries - Turkic-speaking and Mongol tribes invade and settle in what is now Kazakhstan and Central Asia.
8th century - Arab invaders introduce Islam.
1219-24 - Mongol tribes led by Genghis Khan invade Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Later they become assimilated by Turkic tribes that make up the majority in their empire.
Late 15th century - With the formation of the Kazakh khanate, the Kazakhs emerge as a distinct ethnic group.
Early 17th century - Kazakhs split into three tribal unions, the Elder, Middle and Lesser Zhuzes, or Hordes, which were led by Khans.
1731-42 - The Khans of the three Zhuzes formally join Russia in pursuit of protection from invasions from the east by the Mongols.
1822-68 - Despite many uprisings, Tsarist Russia retains control over the Kazakh tribes, deposing the Khans.
1868-1916 - Thousands of Russian and Ukrainian peasants are brought in to settle Kazakh lands; first industrial enterprises set up.
1916 - A major anti-Russian rebellion is repressed, with about 150,000 people killed and more than 300,000 fleeing abroad.
1917 - Civil war breaks out following the Bolshevik revolution in Russia.
1920 - Kazakhstan becomes an autonomous republic of the USSR. Until 1925 it is called the Kyrgyz Autonomous Province to distinguish its people from the Cossacks.
Late 1920s-1930s - Intensive industrialisation and collectivisation of agriculture. More than 1 million people die from starvation as a result of the campaign to settle nomadic Kazakhs and collectivise agriculture.
1936 - Kazakhstan becomes a full union republic of the USSR.
1940s - Hundreds of thousands of Koreans, Crimean Tatars, Germans and others forcibly moved to Kazakhstan.
1949 - The first nuclear test explosion is carried out at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test ground in eastern Kazakhstan.
1954-62 - About two million people, mainly Russians, move to Kazakhstan during the campaign to develop virgin lands launched by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev; the proportion of ethnic Kazakhs in the republic drops to 30%.
1961 - The first manned spacecraft launched from the Baikonur space launch site in central Kazakhstan.
1986 - About 3,000 people take part in protests in Almaty after Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev appoints Gennadiy Kolbin, an ethnic Russian, head of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan (CPK), replacing Dinmukhamed Kunayev, an ethnic Kazakh.
1989 - Nursultan Nazarbayev, an ethnic Kazakh, becomes head of the CPK; parliament adopts a new law on language, proclaiming Kazakh the state language and Russian a language of inter-ethnic communication.
1990 - The Supreme Soviet elects Nursultan Nazarbayev first Kazakh president and on 25 October declares state sovereignty.
1991 August - President Nazarbayev condemns the attempted anti-Gorbachev coup in Moscow; the CPK withdraws from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; Nazarbayev signs a decree on closing the Semipalatinsk nuclear test ground.
1991 December - Nursultan Nazarbayev wins uncontested presidential elections; Kazakhstan declares independence from the Soviet Union and joins the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
1992 - Kazakhstan admitted into the United Nations and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, the predecessor of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
1993 - A new constitution increasing presidential powers is adopted; a major privatisation programme is launched; Kazakhstan ratifies the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
1995 - Kazakhstan signs economic and military cooperation pact with Russia; nuclear-free status is obtained; President Nazarbayev's term in office is extended until December 2000 and a new constitution adopted by national referendum.
1997 - Major oil agreements secured with China. The Kazakh capital is moved from Almaty in the south to Akmola (formerly Tselinograd) in the north.
1998 - New capital is renamed Astana. Constitution amended, extending president's term in office from five to seven years and removing upper age limit for president.
1999 - Nursultan Nazarbayev re-elected president after main rival, former PM Akezhan Kazhegeldin, barred from standing. Subsequent parliamentary elections criticised by OSCE for irregularities.
Separatist plot by ethnic Russians in north east Kazakhstan fails.
2000 - Economic Security Strategy up to 2010 is adopted. World Bank praises economic reforms. Kazakhstan beefs up security on all borders following incursions by Islamist militants in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan; clampdown on Uighurs after shoot-out in Almaty.
2001 - First major pipeline for transporting oil from Caspian to world markets opens in March, running from huge Tengiz oil field in western Kazakhstan to Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.
2001 June - Kazakhstan joins China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in launching the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) which aims to fighting ethnic and religious militancy and to promote trade.
2001 November - President Nazarbayev purges government of officials accused of joining newly-formed Democratic Choice reform movement.
2001 December - President Nazarbayev, US President George W Bush meet, declare commitment to long-term, strategic partnership.
2002 January - President Nazarbayev appoints Imangali Tasmagambetov as prime minister to replace Kasymzhomart Tokayev, who quit abruptly.
2002 July - Democratic Choice co-founder and ex-energy minister Mukhtar Ablyazov jailed for alleged abuse of office.
2002 August - Opposition figure Galymzhan Zhakiyanov, co-founder of Democratic Choice movement and critic of President Nazarbayev, is jailed for alleged abuse of office as regional governor.
2003 January - Journalist and Nazarbayev critic Sergey Duvanov found guilty of raping minor and jailed. Rights groups say trial was flawed and an attempt to silence media criticism of president. He is later released on probation after serving a year of his three and a half year sentence.
2003 May - Jailed opposition leader Mukhtar Ablyazov pardoned and released.
2003 June - Prime Minister Tasmagambetov resigns over proposed land reform bill. Daniyal Akhmetov replaces him. Bill, allowing private ownership of land, is passed.
2003 December - President Nazarbayev announces moratorium on death penalty
Oil to China
2004 May - Deal signed with China on construction of oil pipeline to Chinese border.
2004 September/October - President Nazarbayev retains control over lower house of parliament as his Otan party wins majority of seats in elections which international observers criticise as flawed.
Parliament speaker Zharmakhan Tuyakbay resigns in protest at conduct of voting.
2005 January - Court orders dissolution of Democratic Choice, one of the country's main opposition parties. The party is accused of breaching state security by calling on supporters to protest against parliamentary election results.
2005 March - Opposition groups join together to form For A Just Kazakhstan movement led by Zharmakhan Tuyakbay.
2005 November - Opposition figure Zamanbek Nurkadilov, a vocal critic of President Nazarbayev, found shot dead at his home.
2004 August - Jailed opposition figure Galymzhan Zhakiyanov released from prison two years into seven-year sentence and sent into internal exile.
2005 December - Nursultan Nazarbayev returned for further term as president with more than 90% of vote. Western observers say poll flawed.
President Nazarbayev inaugurates a 1,000-km (620 mile) pipeline to carry oil to western China.
2006 January - Opposition leader Galymzhan Zhakiyanov returns home to Almaty from internal exile after being released on parole.
2006 February - Opposition figure Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, his bodyguard and driver are found shot dead outside Almaty.
2007 January - Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov resigns, giving no reason for his move. He is replaced by former deputy premier Karim Masimov.
2007 May - Parliament votes to allow President Nazarbayev to stay in office for an unlimited number of terms.
Mr Nazarbayev fires son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev in an apparent power struggle.
2007 August - Trial of 30 alleged Islamists accused of belonging to the banned group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which advocates the setting up of an Islamic state across Central Asia.
2007 August - Elections hand President Nazarbayev's Nur-Otan party all seats in the lower house of parliament. Observers say the conduct of the vote improved since the last election, but still did not meet international standards of fairness.
2008 March - President Nazarbayev's exiled former son-in-law, Rakhat Aliyev, is sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in absentia after being found guilty of plotting a coup. Aliyev denies the charges, saying they are politically motivated.
2009 April - President Nazarbayev announces his readiness to build a nuclear fuel bank to ensure other countries do not need to develop their own fuel. Idea first proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2005, and supported by both the United States and Russia.
2009 June - A law tightens control over the internet by ruling that chat rooms, blogs and public forums count as mass media. This means a blogger could break the law by expressing a view.
2009 October - A court rejects an appeal by prominent human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis against a manslaughter conviction stemming from a car accident. Mr Zhovtis and rights groups said he had not been given a fair trial.
France and Kazakhstan sign energy and business deals worth $6bn during a visit by President Nicolas Sarkozy. Kazakhstan also agreed to allow French military supplies to pass through on their way to Afghanistan.
2009 December - Chinese President Hu Jintao and President Nazarbayev unveil the Kazakh section of a natural gas pipeline joining Central Asia to China.
2010 January - Kazakhstan becomes the first former Soviet state to chair the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) security and rights group, despite criticism of its own democratic credentials. President Nazarbayev signals a change in emphasis from rights to security.
2010 February - A court overturns an earlier ruling that banned the media from publishing criticism of President Nazarbayev's son-in-law Timur Kulibayev. The OSCE had criticised the ban.
More powers for president
2010 May - Parliament approves a bill granting more powers to President Nazarbayev, granting him the title of "leader of the nation" and immunity from prosecution.
2010 July - A customs union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan comes into force after Belarus ratifies a key customs code.
2011 February - President Nazarbayev calls early presidential election, after a planned referendum on allowing him to stay on unopposed until 2020 is ruled unconstitutional.
2011 April - President Nazarbayev wins re-election in a poll boycotted by the opposition.
2011 December - Clashes between striking workers and police in western oil town of Zhanaozen leave 16 people dead. The government declares a state of emergency.
2012 January - Parliamentary elections, which international monitors say fail to meet basic democratic principles.
2012 October - Vladimir Kozlov, leader of an unofficial Alga opposition party, is jailed for seven and a half years after being found guilty of "attempting to overthrow the government" in an alleged plot with exiled politician and businessman Mukhtar Ablyazov. The authorities accuse Mr Kozlov of inciting violence during the Zhanaozen protests in December. Mr Kozlov says the sentence is politically motivated.
2013 June - David Cameron becomes the first serving British Prime Minister to pay an official visit to Kazakhstan. The UK is the third largest investor in the oil-rich central Asian nation.
2013 July - Amnesty International accuses President Nazarbeyev of making false promises to the international community about eradicating torture, and says the Kazakh security services carry out torture with impunity.
2014 January - A French court approves the extradition of Kazakh tycoon and dissident Mukhtar Ablyazov, accused of massive fraud, to Russia or Ukraine. Ablyazov is accused of stealing billions of dollars from the Kazakh BTA Bank, which also operates in Russia and Ukraine. He denies the charges and says he will appeal.
2014 May - Russia, Kazahkstan and Belarus sign an agreement creating an economic union. The Eurasian Economic Union aims to create a shared market and integrate economic policy across the three former Soviet countries.
2015 January - Eurasian Economic Union between Russia, Kazahkstan and Belarus comes into force.
2015 February - Kazakhstan's former ambassador to Austria, Rakhat Aliyev, is found dead in a prison cell in Vienna.
2015 April - President Nazarbayev is re-elected with 97.7 per cent of votes cast. Opposition parties did not field any candidates and the two other contenders were widely seen as pro-government.
2015 May - Authorities say about one-third of the endangered saiga antelope population - as many as 85,000 animals - has mysteriously died over the space of a several days possibly by a bacterial infection.
2015 August - Kazakhstan's currency, the Tenge, plunges in value by more than a third in one day precipitated by the government floating the currency after spending 28 billion US dollars propping it up.
An agreement is signed to create the world's first bank of low-enriched uranium in the northeast of Kazakhstan. The bank will be managed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
2015 September - President Nazarbayev appoints his daughter, Dariga, as deputy prime minister in a move linked to possible succession planning.
2015 December - Former Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov is sentenced to 10 years in prison for corruption including abuse of office and embezzlement of state funds.
2016 March - The government bans the use of mobile devices in government buildings - including smartphones, tablets and smart watches following cases of confidential information being leaked through the mobile messenger WhatsApp.
2016 April - Kazakhstan enacts a law allowing for the use of chemical castration on convicted paedophiles, after authorities report a 50 per cent on 2015.
2016 May - Police arrest dozens of anti-government protesters after they hold rallies against controversial land reforms.
2016 August - Vladimir Kozlov, the leader of an unofficial opposition party, is released four years into a seven and half-year prison sentence on charges of attempting to overthrow the government.
2016 December - France blocks the extradition to Russia of Kazakh banker, former energy minister and opposition figure Mukhtar Ablyazov, who is accused of embezzling up to six billion dollars.
2017 March - Parliament approves constitutional reforms that will reduce the president's powers in favour of lawmakers and the cabinet. | <urn:uuid:3bfdc2b8-13f7-4810-bc03-eee71eb0111f> | {
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I have been editing book and journal manuscripts for nearly 30 years and over the course of those years, I have noticed that certain word uses were and remain popular among authors. For example, authors usually write “over 30 years of age” rather than “older than 30 years of age.”
But the use (misuse) of about bothers me more than the use (misuse) of any other word.
It isn’t so bad in fiction. Fiction doesn’t require the precision that nonfiction requires. We expect as readers flights of fancy from fiction writers, but with nonfiction, we expect a precise, clearly communicated, and accurate message. Which is why about in nonfiction bothers me.
Consider this example: “About 50 years ago, John F. Kennedy was assassinated.” First, why approximate when it is just as easy to write, “John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963”? If a reader reads the original sentence in 2017, 50 years ago would place the assassination in 1967, clearly wrong.
Second, what does about really mean? Nearly? Around? Approximately? On the verge of? Regardless of how you define about, it lacks precision because it leaves a reader to define what is meant, which is just the opposite of what should be true of writing with the intent to communicate. If the sentence is “About the sides of the square,” then the meaning of about is precise if around all sides is meant. But what if that is not what is meant? If the sentence is, “I am about to go for a walk,” again, about is precise if what is meant is that I am on the verge of going for a walk.
Clearly, context can often provide an accurate meaning, but generally there is no accurate, laser-like precise meaning that can be supplied by a reader when about is associated with a number. Which also raises the question: If you know enough to write “about 50 years ago” or “about 100 miles,” why do you not know enough to write “51 years ago” or “103 miles”?
The imprecision of about cannot be sloughed off as acceptable colloquial English because when precision should be provided, there is no acceptable alternative to being precise. There are lots of reasons for being precise. Few writings expire after 30 days; an author who has taken the time and made the effort to write a book expects it to be read for years to come. Consequently, the author should expect that what about means today it will not mean next year, which means that today’s semicorrect information will be next year’s incorrect information.
And when it comes to measures, there is no excuse for not being precise, except, perhaps, in the case of pi, when 3.14 is acceptable imprecision. If we say a study had “about 314 participants,” why can’t we say the study had “314 participants” or whatever number of participants actually participated? Would we want our doctor to tell us to “take about 2 tablets” or would we want to know precisely how many tablets of the medicine we should take?
I find it interesting that the leading word maven, Bryan Garner, ignores the imprecision of about. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage (1994) has a different view than Garner’s Modern American Usage (2009). MW notes that about can be redundant when used with numbers (e.g., the estimate is about $150). More importantly, MW notes that “the use of about with round numbers is extremely common, and is for the obvious purpose of indicating that the number is not exact.” (p. 4) Which is precisely the problem.
To write in a novel, “he walked about 50 feet before coming to a halt,” cannot cause harm; to write in a how-to book, “cut each board about 25 inches,” could cause a significant problem when it is important that each board be 24.5 inches. On the other hand, if the length that the character walked is an important clue in a mystery, then about could be the difference between solving and not solving the mystery.
Because I generally consider the use of about as “lazy” writing, I usually query an author’s use of about. I ask if a precise number is available and suggest that if one is available, that it be used in place of the approximation that about implies. I point out to the author how meaning can change with the passage of time (in the instance when about is paired with time measures), and that it should be the author’s expectation that his book will be referenced years from now. If about is paired with a quantity measure, such as number of pills to take or the length of an object, I try to give an example of how a reader could draw the wrong conclusion or, using the author’s words, cause some harm.
In the end, the question comes down to why the author chose imprecision over precision. There are times when imprecision is a necessary element of the story being told, but I think an author has to be able to justify that imprecision. The balance should always be tilting toward precision of communication until there is justification for tilting that balance toward imprecision.
The matter, as always, boils down to communication of message. If the role of the editor is to help the author communicate a clear and precise message to the reader, a message that cannot be misunderstood by the reader, then the editor is obligated to query the use of about when the context clearly indicates that about is being used to indicate an approximation.
I know that it may appear as if this is just an editor being nit-picky, but the choice of words has implications. It is the editor’s job to help the author understand what the implications are of the word choices made and provide an opportunity for the author to make alternative choices that may better express the message that the author wants the reader to receive. It is diplomacy on the local level. I want my authors to avoid the mishaps that seem to befall politicians regularly.
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Stay on target
Pluto, the ninth not-planet from the Sun, is a puzzle astronomers continue to assemble.
The latest piece—an official validated global map and topographic maps of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon—was released this week.
The New Horizons team published their discoveries and detailed the process of creating them in two research articles published by the journal Icarus.
Researchers, led by Universities Space Research Association (USRA) senior staff scientist Paul Schenk of the Lunar and Planetary Institute, registered and assembled mosaics with painstaking accuracy.
(Imagine sitting hunched over a computer screen, trying to perfectly align surface features like craters and mountains in overlapping images.)
The maps were constructed over two years using images from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC).
“This was one of the most complex yet most exciting planetary mapping projects I’ve had the pleasure to be involved with,” Schenk said in a statement. “Every time new images came down, something new would be revealed.”
The New Horizons interplanetary space probe launched in 2006 with the primary mission to perform a flyby of Pluto before studying other Kuiper belt objects.
In the years since it’s 2015 encounter with the dwarf planet, the craft has been slowly trickling data back to Earth.
Preliminary maps of Pluto and Charon have been released before. But these final, “validated” cartographic and topographic versions, according to USRA, represent the best current understanding of the cosmic bodies.
These maps expose a variety of landforms on both orbs, confirming the highest known mountains on Pluto as the Tenzing Montes range—stiff peaks of water ice that rise nearly four miles above the ground.
“Pluto’s degree of topographic relief on the hemisphere we explored with New Horizons is truly amazing,” principal mission investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute, said. “I can’t wait to see the other side of Pluto revealed in detail by a future mission to orbit the planet.”
Maps of Charon, meanwhile, highlight deep depressions some 8.7 miles deep near the north pole.
“These and other features make Charon the most rugged mid-sized icy satellite other than Saturn’s high-contrast moon Iapetus,” according to Ross Beyer, a research scientist at the SETI Institute in California, who assisted in the mapping.
The global image and topography charts of Pluto and Charon have been archived in the Planetary Data System, and will be available to the scientific community and the public.
Let us know what you like about Geek by taking our survey. | <urn:uuid:7da506d4-8574-4373-8c71-643230c8b380> | {
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“Substance… is that which is not predicated of a subject, but of which all else is predicated” (1029a1)
This paper will attempt to briefly outline Aristotle’s concept of substance. A topic as broad and extensive as this is also formidable to tackle given many perceptions and interpretations associated with it. The concept, especially the interpretive progression has seen many ups and downs. Philosophical literature is full of contradictory interpretations and has to be looked at in its proper context such as its subsequent epochs, the emergence of non-Aristotelian philosophical orientations, etc. As an introduction, the paper will start and end with the ‘conventional’ understanding of the concept that is more or less recognized by various schools. However, given polarization within the philosophical schools, we should bear in mind the fact that there are varying interpretations of the concept substance.
The first thing to draw our attention to when we elucidate this concept is to remember that the concept in Aristotle is intrinsically related to that other concept of metaphysics, namely being. Aristotle says that metaphysics is the study of being qua being. He is explicit about the relation of the two: “what being is, is just the question, what is substance?” Study of being is the study of ousia. But what is ousia? We cannot form an unprejudiced understanding of substance without referring to this crucial term in its original form, as one of the categories of being. Ousia is the Greek word for that which is. It is etymologically derivative of the Greek verb einai – to be. The word substance is the Latin translation of ousia.
Scholars are in disagreement as to whether or not the concept substance conveys all the related meanings associated with the Greek word. The Latin “substantia” denotes something “standing under” something else. Some have argued that both etymologically and historically the concept substance conjures up all the wrong images and ideas. It does not convey what Aristotle wants to convey with ousia. It is often equated, in many non-technical contexts, with staff or material or quantity. The concept ‘Entity’ has been suggested as replacement. The suggestion, however, has not taken off the ground, and it probably would be pointless to attempt to legislate a new concept: “The practice is at this point simply too widespread and too entrenched”.
There are several senses in which a thing may be said to be. In one sense it refers to what a thing is, in another sense to its quantity or quality ‘or has some such predicate asserted of it’. This does not mean that the term being is homonymous. In Metaphysics, however, Aristotle is concerned mainly with the concept Substance, or the ‘what’ which indicates the substance of the thing. Substance is that category of being in virtue of which all other qualifications of being depend. So, for example, describing Socrates as tall says something about Socrates, namely that he is tall. But tallness as a category cannot stand on its own, it must be attached to something, in this case Socrates. Other categories, such as quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, state, action and affection are not self-subsistent or capable of standing or existing apart from the category of substance which underlies all other categories (except perhaps as pure abstractions). Substance enjoys a sort of logical autonomy, whereas all other kinds of beings are predicated of and dependent on substance. “Clearly then” says Aristotle, “it is in virtue of this category that each of the others is. Therefore that which is primarily and is simply (not in something) must be substance”.
To put it another way, Aristotle is refining the concept of substance by adding two things. First, the Substance must be primary in every sense – ‘in formula, in order of knowledge, in time’. Secondly, it must be simple or basic. A compound cannot be substance. It must remain numerically one and the same while capable of admitting contrary qualities.
Which things are substances? Aristotle recounts various answers that have been given to this question, such as bodies (animals, plants, etc), the limits of bodies or things more basic than bodies (surface, line, points, etc), Plato’s Forms and the objects of mathematics, Speusippus’ the One, etc. In Metaphysics, however, Aristotle wants to know what makes something a substance or to identify the substance of that thing.
He then applies the word Substance to four objects: essence, universal, genus and substratum (or subject). We cannot pursue here the objects to which the word substance applies. We will very briefly consider Aristotle’s consideration of matter and form.
So what makes an x a substance? Is it the matter or the form? He considers matter in some detail and rejects it as impossible; for being separate or independent and particular seem to belong to substance. And matter is neither of them. In fact, in its own right matter is nothing (not a particular, has in itself no determinate quantity…), for it depends upon form for its actual existence.
Aristotle thus argues for the primacy of form, or form as substance. ‘By form I mean the essence of each thing and its primary substance’ (1032b1). Form has all the characteristics which matter lacks, i.e., separability and this something (individuality). Form can stand as it is on its own, it can be separated from the substance in two ways: form can be a plan or a model in the mind of the artist – it is basically something intelligible; or an abstraction from the physical thing.
Form, however, is not merely an ingredient or a component among others. In that case form would not qualify as substance and we would slide into an infinite regress in trying to determine which ingredients is the most basic, i.e., substance. It is rather a principle (arche). A house, for instance, is made of bricks and stones and other materials. Although the house is compound of these components it is not identical with them. The form of the house is not one of the components of the house for the simple reason that a recipe is not identical to the list of its ingredients. It also, for example, includes instructions of how to put the ingredients together. It would be a mistake to consider that the instructions are just another ingredient. Moreover, the existence of the components of the house (the materials the house is composed of) is consistent with the non-existence of the house whose elements they are. Some other principle which is also a cause (aition) must inform the existence of the house. That principle, according to Aristotle, is form. It follows that form is primary and therefore a substance.
Shields, Christopher. 2007. Aristotle, Routledge, London and New York, p. 173.
Tollefsen, Torstein Theodor, Hva er metafysikk? Grunnleggende trek ved aristotelisk metafysikk. | <urn:uuid:504778f5-e86c-4b82-8755-99698adaeb81> | {
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- The surface of the ocean 20 degrees north and south of the equator is warm.
- 1000 meters deep, ocean waters are at 4 degrees Celsius.
- If this deep ocean fluid can be brought to the surface (using a pipe)
- combined with the warm surface fluid, electricity can be produced through the temperature differential
- this effluent from the deep is pathogen free at high mineral concentrations in the exact ratio of "fertilizer" to promote new growth in the photic zone (where the sun shines)
- under certain conditions, with the possible need to add some nitrogen, carbon dioxide can be removed from the atmosphere to reduce global warming
- as the end result is a cooling of the ocean surface, there is reason to believe that hurricane formation can be prevented
- Thus, this system can be engineered to produce a wide range of co-products in addition to electricity.
- These floating platforms powered by OTEC can ultimately become floating cities.
- Someday there should be more countries at sea than on land.
No one in our team had any experience working with Japan on cooperative research. To quickly summarize (click on this for the full story):
- Senator Matsunaga, a Democrat, voted with the Republicans on a free trade bill.
- As reward, Republican President Ronald Reagan asked Matsunaga to join him on a G8 summit meeting in Tokyo.
- Sparky could only fit-in a ride on Air Force One from DC to the West Coast, where he asked Reagan to please work out with Prime Minister Yasu Nakasone an agreement for the two countries to partner on developing OTEC. (This is a particularly interesting part of the story, involving intrigue and luck.)
- The bottom line is that PICHTR got $1 million/year for eight years from Japan, mostly to perfect OTEC. The U.S. Department of Energy provided the remainder of the funding for a $25 million open cycle OTEC facility at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii. The team succeeded in completing a 103 kW net open cycle OTEC power plant and produced freshwater as a co-product.
First International Workshop on Very Large Floating Structures in 1991. In many ways, this was the first official mention of the Blue Revolution in a conference proceeding. Senator Matsuura had a PhD in agriculture and had worked with Norman Borlaug on the Green Revolution, which won a Nobel Prize in 1970. Then in 1992 I ghost-wrote THE AMERICAN BLUE REVOLUTION for Senator Inouye in Sea Technology.
workshop sponsored by NSF and NOAA on the Blue Revolution, where the distinguished group arrived at the following conclusions:
- The optimal size of the first floating platform to conduct experiments would be abut one hectare or 2.5 acres or 100,000 square feet.
- There are huge food, energy, materials and ocean space benefits, with a potential for positively affecting the environment.
- Certainly, the Ultimate Ocean Ranch, as one of the promising ventures, could reverse the current trend where fisheries were in decline.
- International cooperation will facilitate progress.
- The enterprise would take half a billion dollars, about half the cost of a B-2 bomber.
- The key to the whole system would be an OTEC system.
- Potential for OTEC Plantships to Prevent Hurricane Formation (1993)
- Next Generation Fisheries (1997)
- International Ocean Alliance Floating Platform Summit (1998)
- First National Science Foundation Workshop on Engineering Solutions for Utilization of Exclusive Economic Zone Resources (Hawaii, October 1986)--after this gathering I joked that if Texas and Hawaii counted our EEZ space, Hawaii was twice the size of Texas
- EPA/NOAA Planning Workshop on Mitigation of Global Climate Change (Hawaii, March 1989)
- NSF and Republic of China National Science Council International Workshop on Artificial Upwelling and Mixing in Coastal Waters (Taiwan, June 1989)
- NSF and Japan Science and Technology Agency Workshop on Artificial Upwelling (Hawaii, March 1990)
- NSF First International Workshop on Engineering Research Needs for Off-Shore Mariculture Systems (Hawaii, September 1991)
- NSF Franco-American Program Development Workshop on Ocean Engineering, Marine Biotechnology and Mariculture (Maryland, October 1991)
- Huffington Post articles
- A 20-minute presentation I gave at a Seasteading Institute gathering San Francisco on the Pacific International Ocean Station.
Yet, the reality is that the Blue Revolution has actually been the Blue Evolution. My current feeling is that we might be generations away from any kind of major break out.
For now, though, I continue to fantasize, but still envision a torus, more in the conformity of a bicycle tire than the below donut, as the initial shape:
Tropical Cyclone Gita remains at 135 MPH and has battered a few low-lying islands south of Fiji. | <urn:uuid:8bfe021c-c518-43ea-8a45-a88a24f4ba63> | {
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I have a large Arts Council literature application to write, so inevitably I’m thinking about trumpets. Specifically, the kinds of trumpet that J.S.Bach had in his orchestra in the mid-eighteenth century, round about the time he was assembling his masterpiece, the B Minor Mass. And this has a lot to do with game design. Bear with me.
Instruments evolved into the current form they occupy in a standard symphony orchestra. We all know that the concert grand piano is an evolved version of instruments like the harpsichord, but it might be less clear that instruments like the trumpet had a similar genesis. Without going into the details, the history of trumpets starts with a basic hunting horn and evolved into a family of instruments that can play all of the notes in tune at very high speed. Bach’s time came about halfway through that process.
Until the twentieth century, Bach was always performed on contemporary instruments, and often substantially rewritten to suit the tastes of the day. More recently, the idea of ‘Urtext’ or ‘authentic’ or ‘historically informed performance has been in vogue’, musicians returning to the original scores and historical material to try and figure out how Bach would have done it himself. Including, finding or remaking ‘period’ instruments that might have been around at the time. Now, feast your ears on this 1985 recording of the Gloria, in which the players use period instruments. Listen out especially for the trumpet part. (nb – they don’t sound like modern trumpets, it’s a much softer tone quality, about halfway between a flute and a modern trumpet).
Here’s the thing about 18th-century trumpets – they are really, really hard to play. And in 1985, when they were still relatively new to the players using them, they were even harder. And, Bach wrote music that was at the limit of technique for any player on any instrument, let alone a 20th-century player on an 18th-century one. If you look at the picture opposite, you’ll see there are no valves. Crispian Steele-Perkins, playing lead on this recording, had to cover a tiny hole instead. I had the privilege of singing in the choir once for this piece when he was leading the trumpet section, and let me tell you, they didn’t nail it every time in rehearsal. Risk becomes an essential component of performance in this context.
Now, listen again to the recording, especially around the one minute ten second mark. Crispian goes off with and exquisite piece of ornamentation – a trill. I think you can hear in it all the tension of a brilliant performer wrangling an unreliable piece of kit into a moment of beauty. It makes the entire performance fizz with energy.
The implication that this has for me as a game designer is interesting – rather than designing perfect interfaces, I’d like to think about how imperfect ones can be vehicles for play. I feel this runs against the current design orthodoxy that interface must be perfect, seamless, invisible. Rather than the joystick, things like Doug Wilson’s installation version of Bennett Foddy’s marvellous game MEGA-GIRP springs to mind. I love the high-octane potential, and the freedom to celebrate the occasional spectacular wipeout as a natural consequence of the interface in use, rather than a failure to realise a perfect score.
I think, as Hide&Seek further investigates technology as a material and games with audiences, so this question of how we make interfaces that can act a vehicle for play and performance will become more and more central. Rather than overcoming the awkwardness of designing certain kinds of game for interfaces like a smartphone touchscreen, maybe we should foreground that awkwardness and build the play around it.
Finally, I wonder whether the predictable unreliability of an 18th-century trumpet can be recreated in digital form. The balance between risk and reward for a player clearly comes where it’s possible, with diligent practice, to consistently master it in the heat of the moment, and the way a piece of analogue technology wraps all the elements in a consistent system enables that. When digital interface and digital technology are often much more separate, can we achieve similar systems?
Mostly, just go and listen to the whole of that recording, it’s still the best there is. | <urn:uuid:df38c0cb-b250-4738-8a1f-b31f66c4cddd> | {
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Cartilage, Bone & Ossification: Cartilage
What is cartilage for?
- to form the supporting framework of some organs, such as the walls of airways (nose, trachea, larynx and bronchi), where it prevents airway collapse.
- to form the articulating surfaces of bones, and
- to form the template for the growth and development of long bones, and most of the rest of the fetal skeleton (gradually replaced by bone). In children, the cartilaginous plates at the ends of long bones can be seen on X-rays. These templates disappear when adults reach their full height.
Constituents of cartilage.
Cartilage is a strong, flexible and semi-rigid supporting tissue. It can withstand compression forces, and yet it can bend. It is made up of cells called chondroblasts and chondrocytes, (chondro - cartilage) and extracellular matrix, made up about 10% aggrecan, 75% water, and a mix of collagen fibres and other constituents.
There are three types of cartilage, which differ mostly in the type of fibres they contain.
Hyaline: Most common - has a glassy appearance (hyalos - is greek for glass).
Fibrocartilage: tendon insertions and invertebral discs: reinforced with parallel bundles of collagen fibres.
Elastic cartilage: external ear and epiglottis: flexible and resilient - has elastic fibres as well as collagen fibres.
Click here to find out more about these three types.
Importance of Extracellular matrix
This diagram shows the structure of an aggregate of Aggrecan (another name for the aggregating GAG chondroitin sulphate).
Aggrecan is only found in cartilage. The aggregates contain up to 100 molecules of chondroitin sulphate (shown in purple) are bound to one molecule of hyaluronic acid (shown in red).
The extracellular matrix soaks up water, like a sponge, (osmotic effect) due to the properties of the GAG: aggrecan, producing the high water content (75%).
The collagen fibres form a network which has a very high tensile strength, and which entraps the aggrecan molecules.
When you stand up or walk, the weight of your body is supported by the cartilagenous ends of the long bones. In this state your weight compresses the cartilage, literally squeezing the water out, until the force produced by the osmotic swelling is equal to the compressive force generated by your weight.
This is a photograph of a section of hyaline cartilage, showing the chondrocytes trapped in lacunae in the matrix.
The extracellular matrix of cartilage is secreted by chondroblasts, (chondro = cartilage), which are found in the outer covering layer of cartilage. As the chondroblasts secrete matrix and fibres, they become trapped inside it, and mature into cells called chondrocytes. (See diagram opposite)
In growing cartilage, the chondrocytes can divide, and the daughter cells remain close together in groups, forming a 'nest' of 2-4 cells. The matrix enclosed compartments that they sit in are called lacunae. (lacunae = little lakes/small pits). The active chondrocytes are large secretory cells with basophilic cytoplasm because they have lots of rough endoplasmic reticulum. Older chondrocytes contain fat droplets.
(Fixation of cartilage usually causes some shrinkage between the cell border and the lacunar wall, so that these lacunae look more prominent in fixed tissue.)
The surface of most cartilage is covered by a layer of dense irregular connective tissue called the perichondrium (peri = around). The outer layer of the perichondrium contains collagen producing fibroblasts, and the inner layer contains chondroblasts.
Growth and nourishment of cartilage:
Unlike other connective tissues cartilage is avascular (like epithelia). Cartilage is nourished by long range diffusion from nearby capillaries in the perichondrium. Therefore, cartilage can never become very thick, as diffusion would not be sufficient to supply the cartilage with nutrients and oxygen. (This is in contrast to bone, because bone has a very good blood supply).
Cartilage can grow in two ways: Interstitial growth - chondrocytes grow and divide and lay down more matrix inside the existing cartilage. This mainly happens during childhood and adolescence. Appositional growth - new surface layers of matrix are added to the pre-existing matrix by new chondroblasts from the perichondrium. | <urn:uuid:9103dff3-b7ca-4b31-b0f7-502e713b7575> | {
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As the world’s most travelled nation, China is reshaping global tourism. An industry that generates 10 percent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and provides around one in 10 jobs worldwide.
As the millennium started with 10 million trips being taken by Chinese outside the mainland, last year the figure was shy of 150 million, including visitors bound for Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau. This is the largest number for any country in history.
But since Chinese traveling overseas still amounts to just below 10 percent of China’s 1.4 billion population, there is no wonder that this market still has huge potential – even if in early October fewer Chinese went abroad during their Golden Week in favour of home destinations.
Contrary to popular belief, the growing Chinese appetite for overseas trips is not only the result of increasing disposable income.
The simplification of international travel, the relaxation of visa requirements by many countries, cheaper air fares, and the ease of moving around in the digital era, all happening at once, have cut down both the economic, administrative, and mental hurdles that not long ago made overseas travel a pastime for just a privileged few.
“Globalisation is leading to the removal of barriers for tourism,” said Altai Kulginov, mayor of Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan’s capital, during the 8th United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Summit on Urban Tourism.
But in spite of this apparent shrinking of geography, Chinese still overwhelmingly favour closer and culturally more familiar destinations when traveling overseas, with warm Southeast Asia taking seven of the top 10 spots for the most visited countries by Chinese.
A list topped by Thailand, Japan and Vietnam.
Chinese travellers are not only big in numbers, but also when it comes to the depth of their pockets. In what may well be a sign of the times, in 2012 Chinese took over Americans as the world's largest tourist spenders. However, Americans still splurge on more per person that anyone else.
According to the UNWTO, last year Chinese passport-holders were responsible for one fifth of all international tourism spending: a mind-blowing US$277 billion. This average to about US$2,000 per trip.
Changing travel tastes
The way Chinese spend their money abroad is evolving too. Beijing’s recent cut in the value-added tax (VAT) of luxury goods is expected to boost spending on these goods in China at the expense of consumption abroad.
Therefore, the archetypal image of Chinese tourists splashing out on shopping sprees around the world may soon become a by-gone stereotype.
Some of the cash that Chinese will no longer spend in foreign high-streets may well end up in operating theatres. Only last year, over 600,000 Chinese travelled abroad for health check-ups (118,000 just to South Korea) to undertake cancer treatments, heart and transplants operations, or to have cosmetic procedures.
The UNWTO points out that the younger generation in China mainly perceives travel as a way to enjoy and gain life experiences, rather than an opportunity to purchase a product.
Since millennials make up a growing segment of China’s international travellers, and they will be the big spenders of tomorrow, it is easy to see how the Chinese are gradually westernising the drivers behind their overseas trips.
Expect more Chinese solo travellers, a boom on themed tours about local lifestyles, and an expanding demand for quality of destinations – think of pricey shows topped off by fine dining –rather than quantity of places flashed at.
Another activity poised to appeal to more travellers from China is safaris, with African countries like Zambia, Tanzania, Botswana and Rwanda already making efforts to lure them.
Speaking on the side-lines of the UNWTO General Assembly in Saint Petersburg in September, Epharaim Kamuntu, Uganda’s Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, expressed his wishes to see more Chinese tourists visiting his country.
However, Mr. Kamuntu pointed out that, “we need to manage their footprint, in particular on natural resources like gorilla reserves, for which visitors need a special permission to visit.”
“The tourism sector has firmly established itself not just as a major economic force, but also as a key part of the global sustainability agenda. It is becoming increasingly important that this continued growth is managed responsibly,” said Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary-General of the UNWTO in Saint Petersburg.
As the world’s most travelled nation, China holds the lion’s share of the tourism market and it is hoped that it will use its position as a force for global good. | <urn:uuid:d47a18dd-b048-4bd6-94bb-3d8201ef1eea> | {
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Discover benefits of pomegranate, for the body, inside and out!
Pomegranate is a sweet fruit grown on the Punica Granatum, deciduous, tree. It can be as small as a lemon or as large as a grapefruit. It has a thick, reddish, skin with approximately 600 seeds inside. Each seed is enclosed in a translucent, water laden, pulp. Pomegranate is a tasty delicacy. Whether you're searching how to lower LDL, (bad cholesterol) to improving your skin condition, you'll find helpful information here! Find pomegranate recipes that are healthy for the body, inside and out!
Benefits of pomegranate are found in commercial and homemade skin care products! If make your own bath and body products, learn the cautions of using essential oils, including pomegranate oil.
Pomegranates contain polyphenols, powerful antioxidants, preventing against free radical damage. Free radicals are unstable molecules that can wreck havoc on the body, inside and out. They can damage cell membranes and DNA, risking your overall health. Pomegranate has more antioxidants than cranberries, blueberries, or even green tea!
Pomegranate contains vitamins A, C, E and K. Vitamins A & C combat colds, flu or other viral infections. They are eye, bone and heart healthy. Vitamins E & K promote blood circulation and coagulation. These vitamins initialize the healing process. They are skin and heart healthy.
Pomegranate has a high mineral content with folic acid, iron, calcium, fiber and potassium.
Be choosey when purchasing pomegranates. Find ones that are medium to deep red in color with no cracks or splits. They should have a thin, tough, skin that feel firm in the hand. Check for soft spots or weeping fluid. You want to make sure they're not spooled inside. Eat them within one to two weeks of purchase. You can store them in refrigerator, for extended use, for up to one or two months. They should only be left at room temperature for up to two to three days. Discard all spoiled fruit, since bacteria sets in, causing digestive problems.
CAUTION! Pomegranate fruit is normally safe to eat when consumed in moderation. An overdose of its seeds, oil, juice or extract can cause diarrhea or upset stomach. Rare cases may involve allergies to the fruit. Contact your health care provider immediately and discontinue use if you notice any of these symptoms: itchiness, swollen tongue or lips, difficulty swallowing or breathing.
BENEFITS OF POMEGRANATE - (Body)
Fight Heart Disease
Prevent Dental Plaque
Reduce Blood Pressure
Support Immune System
Fight Alzheimer's Disease
Lower LDL (bad cholesterol)
Raise HDL (good cholesterol)
BENEFITS OF POMEGRANATE - (Skin)
Pomegranate is skin healthy. Its seeds contain a juice with ellagic and punic alagin, that fight damage from free radicals and preserve skin collagen. It's a powerful source of phytonutrients! Improve complexion.
Balance pH Level
Improve Skin Tone
Prevent Skin Cancer
Combat Acne & Scars
Sooth Minor Irritations
Moisturize & Rejuvenate
Promote Skin Regeneration
Reverse Signs of Sun Damage; relieve sunburn
Increase Elasticity; reduce fine lines, sags, wrinkles
(Healthy Smoothies, Shake and Homemade Skin Care Tips!)
--- CIRCULATION SMOOTHIE: (By Dr. Oz) Combine 1/2 cup pomegranate juice, 1/2 banana, 5 strawberries and 1/2 cup yogurt to blender. Blend until desired consistency is reached. This smoothie will get your blood pumping and help keep your arteries clear. It is chockfull of ingredients with antioxidants!
--- PARADISE SMOOTHIE: (By Keri Glassman, R.D.) Place 1 medium ripe peach, (sliced), 2 tbsp. Hass avocado, (chopped), 1/3 cup unsweetened frozen strawberries, 3/4 cup fat-free plain yogurt, 3 tbsp. 100% pomegranate juice, 1 tsp. grape seed oil and 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract into blender. Puree about 15 seconds or until smooth. Pour into a tall glass and serve with a tall straw. This smoothie recipe will help to improve overall complexion and reveal a natural glow.
--- SKINNY SHAKE: (By Dr. Fuhrman) Blend together 4 ounces pomegranate juice, 1 cup frozen strawberries, 1 cup of ice and squeeze of lemon in a high powdered blender. This drink helps support weight loss efforts and promote detoxification. It is low in calories with disease fighting nutrients.
--- ANTI-AGING SECRET: (By Paula Abdul) Eat a half cup of pomegranate seeds each day to satisfy cravings with nutritional benefits. Avoid staining hands by submerging pomegranate in a bowl of water and break open to remove its seeds. Pomegranate seeds are low in calories packed with phytonutrients. They can help skin look radiant and youthful.
--- HOMEMADE FACE MASK: Cut or break open pomegranate to expose seeds. Remove seeds and place in container. Spread seeds over face, avoiding eyes. Leave on for approx. 15 to 20 minutes. Rinse with warm water. Gently pat dry.
If you make your own homemade skin care products, such as soaps, lotions or scrubs, pomegranate oil is a beneficial ingredient. The benefits of pomegranate are numerous! Know the cautions of using essential oils.
Essential oils contain bioactive ingredients. This means they contain natural chemicals that interact with biological systems. They're potent chemicals and should be used with care!
CAUTION! Never use large amounts of essential oils externally, or internally. Never use them straight. They must always be diluted in carrier oil, or soap, lotion, or other buffering agent. Finally, never use them without knowing what their bioactive compounds are known to do. | <urn:uuid:d79469fa-8e3e-4bcf-8a16-66a980edb16a> | {
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