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• Increase yields 10%-30%
• Increase water absorption in soil
• Increase bio-availability of water and nutrients to plants
• Increase oxygen concentration
• Improve soil pH
• Increase flow
• Increase weight and size of product
• Increase shelf life of produce
• Increase seed germination
• Reduce water use up to 30%
• Remove salinity in soil within first year
• Prevent and remove scaling
• Reduce total dissolved solids (TDS)
• Reduce fertilizer and pesticide needs
• Reduce disease in livestock and animal breeding
• Reduce disease in aquaculture industry
• Reduce electrical bills
• Reduce energy and wear on pumps that move the water
Listen to radio interview discussing Omni's benefits for Farmers.
Interviewed at the Kansas 3i Show, May 2011
Why You Get the Benefits
The Magnetic field created by the H2O ENERGIZER, when applied to normal water, restructures the water molecules into very small water molecule clusters, each made up of six symmetrically organized molecules. This hexagonal cluster is recognized by the cell as "bio-friendly" due to its hexagonal structure and inability to transport toxins, and easily enters the passageways in plant and animal cell membranes. The result provides maximum, healthy hydration with less water.
Magnetic field further breaks down minerals into smaller particles making them more bio-available to the plant cells. The bottom line results are dramatic: maximum hydration of healthy water with greater uptake of minerals results in greater yields, larger and better end product, earlier maturation, longer shelf life, and healthier plants. It allows a reduction of amount of water needed, fertilzer and pesticides.
Since the magnetic structuring breaks all minerals into smaller particles, salt in the soil is broken down by the structured water, causing it to sink deep into the soil, away from plant roots, and wash away. The desalinization happens quickly over a season, creating much healthier plants, greater yields, and better final product.
Since the hexagonal water molecule cluster won't allow the bonding of minerals to it, magnetically structured water removes scaling from pipes and won't allow new scaling to take effect.
The Omni Enviro H2O ENERGIZER is a simple flange containing powerful, specific magnetic inductions that restructure the water and minerals passing through them into a more fulfilling and productive bio-available form. | <urn:uuid:e4368edc-cb55-4e68-bde4-74314ab53e01> | {
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An article in the December issue of Scientific American gave me a new insect behavior to ponder and one that might reveal, in the insect’s biology, a distant cousin to the mathematical idea we call mapping. It seems that there are insects that have a talent for recognizing faces. Their talent has much in common with our own facial recognition abilities, except for the brain that carries it. It was a young graduate student, researching the social lives of a particular kind of wasp, who first noticed that she could distinguish individual wasps by their facial markings. Elizabeth Tibbetts (now an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan) then wondered if the wasps identified each other by these markings and began research directed at answering that question. What she found was that the wasps did respond to changes in facial markings and did use variation in facial patterns for individual recognition. Tibbetts further investigated this aspect of their behavior by trying to train them to learn to differentiate among patterns other than their own facial markings. The wasps quickly learned to accurately select among wasp faces, but had noticeably more difficulty discriminating among the other images. This is taken as strong evidence that wasps have neural systems specialized for wasp face recognition. Although honeybees do not use face recognition mechanisms in their own daily lives, researchers have successfully trained them to discriminate human faces. And further,
…although the bees learned faces slowly as compared with P. fuscatus wasps and humans, they were able to develop some ability to process faces holistically, even though they are not hardwired to do so, as P. fuscatus wasps and humans are. Second, honeybees were able to learn multiple view points of the same face and interpolate based on this information to recognize novel presentations. For example, after a bee learns the front and side view of a particular face, it will be able to correctly choose a picture of the same face rotated 30 degrees, even if it has not previously seen this particular image.
Inherent to facial recognition mechanisms is some idea of spatial arrangement as well as transformation (when presented with multiple views of the same face). So I searched out what has been understood about our own neural systems and found an article that Carl Zimmer wrote for Discover in January 2011. The article describes a model for understanding how our own facial recognition mechanisms work. The idea was first proposed 25 years ago by Tim Valentine and Vicki Bruce, two psychologists at the University of Nottingham, and it has been consistently gaining support. Zimmer reported on the work of cognitive neuroscientist Marlene Behrmann, at Carnegie Mellon University who, with her colleagues, had made some important observations when they set out to compare the brains of individuals who are face-blind to those who are face-sighted.
Valentine and Bruce argued that our brains do not store a photographic image of every face we see. Instead, they carry out a mathematical transformation of each face, encoding it as a point in a multidimensional “face space.” (emphasis added)
On a map of face space, you might imagine the north-south axis being replaced with a small-mouth- to-wide-mouth axis. But instead of three different dimensions, like the space we’re familiar with, face space may have many dimensions, each representing some important feature of the human face. Just as the ancient cosmos was centered on Earth, Valentine and Bruce argued that the facial universe is centered on the perfectly average face. The farther a face is from this average center, the more extreme it becomes.
This is not just a model for describing what happens. It is understood as a way to characterize how the brain can negotiate the infinite possibilities that emerge from our experience.
…it offers an elegant explanation for how we can store so many images of faces in our heads. By reducing a face to a point—creating a compact code for representing an infinite number of faces—our brains need to store only the distance and direction of that point from the center of face space. Face space also sheds light on the fact that we are more likely to correctly identify distinctive faces than typical ones. In the center of face space, there are lots of fairly average faces. Distinctive faces dwell far away from the crowd, in much lonelier neighborhoods.” (emphasis added)
This is exactly how our consciously defined mathematical ideas can operate in our experience. They corral infinite possibilities into well defined concepts whose behavior can be observed and interpreted. In this way it is an arrangement of ideas, that compacts experience and often extends the reach of cognition – of our ability to see and understand our world.
Another kind of learning is discussed in an excerpt from the book Incognito that also appeared in Discover in October of 2011 under the title Your Brain Knows a Lot More Than You Realize. The author of the piece is neuroscientist David Eagleman. Eagleman highlights learning that can only be accomplished with a kind of trial and error training. He describes what has come to be called chick sexing – the process of quickly determining the sex of chicks that have been hatched.
The Japanese invented a method of sexing chicks known as vent sexing, by which experts could rapidly ascertain the sex of one-day-old hatchlings. Beginning in the 1930s, poultry breeders from around the world traveled to the Zen-Nippon Chick Sexing School in Japan to learn the technique.
The mystery was that no one could explain exactly how it was done. It was somehow based on very subtle visual cues, but the professional sexers could not say what those cues were. They would look at the chick’s rear (where the vent is) and simply seem to know the correct bin to throw it in.
And this is how the professionals taught the student sexers. The master would stand over the apprentice and watch. The student would pick up a chick, examine its rear, and toss it into one bin or the other. The master would give feedback: yes or no. After weeks on end of this activity, the student’s brain was trained to a masterful—albeit unconscious—level.
Eagleman also discussed what he called flexible intelligence saying the following:
One of the most impressive features of brains—and especially human brains—is the flexibility to learn almost any kind of task that comes their way… This flexibility of learning accounts for a large part of what we consider human intelligence. While many animals are properly called intelligent, humans distinguish themselves in that they are so flexibly intelligent, fashioning their neural circuits to match the task at hand. It is for this reason that we can colonize every region on the planet, learn the local language we’re born into, and master skills as diverse as playing the violin, high-jumping, and operating space shuttle cockpits.
And a clear reference to mathematics is made in the article’s introduction:
Eagleman’s theory is epitomized by the deathbed confession of the 19th-century mathematician James Clerk Maxwell, who developed fundamental equations unifying electricity and magnetism. Maxwell declared that “something within him” had made the discoveries; he actually had no idea how he’d achieved his great insights. It is easy to take credit after an idea strikes you, but in fact, neurons in your brain secretly perform an enormous amount of work before inspiration hits. The brain, Eagleman argues, runs its show incognito. Or, as Pink Floyd put it, “There’s someone in my head, but it’s not me.
There are a few things going on here. First, I’m intrigued by the presence of what could be called ‘mappings’ in the biology of a creature so different from us. This suggests the possibility that a mathematics-like mechanism is not just the product of mammalian brain processes. I’m also impressed by the similarity between the face space model for face recognition and the conceptual compression that defines mathematical ideas in general. Finally, I’m always interested in the extent to which our sense making and even our mathematical insight happens outside of our awareness. | <urn:uuid:e45e28ae-47ce-4a15-a09a-1bb70a6ccce9> | {
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New York Times: Hazards of Storing Spent Fuel Relations
Physics Front Related Resources
This article from National Public Radio summarizes a 2011 study by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the aftermath of the Japanese nuclear reactor disaster. Conclusions: "U.S. plants need to be better prepared for what doomed the Japanese plants...."
This NOVA-created Flash interactive features an exact replica of a working nuclear power plant in New England -- the same cooling design as the failed Japanese Fukushima plant.
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The Book of Mormon and Other Translated Documents
The Book of Mormon and Other Translated Documents
In an article in his “Defending the Faith” column in the Deseret News, BYU scholar Daniel C. Peterson offers a rebuttal to an objection he says some people make against treating the Book of Mormon as an ancient book: “Some argue that since we lack the original plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, it should be read as a 19th-century English-language text rather than as an ancient one.”1 Peterson’s rebuttal consists of a litany of other texts that scholars accept as translations of ancient works even though the original-language versions are not extant. How does this defense hold up?
Restating the Objection
Before considering Peterson’s defense, something should be said about the argument he claims to be refuting. Neither in this newspaper column nor in his earlier journal article from which the column is taken2 does Peterson identify any critics who make this argument. Granted that it is possible to find individuals making the weakest possible arguments on almost any issue, Peterson’s representation of the critics’ reasoning appears to be a straw man. That is, few if any critics of the Book of Mormon’s antiquity allege that the simple “lack” of the original plates precludes accepting it as an ancient text. Rather, what most argue is that serious questions about the existence of the gold plates are collectively one of many considerations that cumulatively lead to the conclusion that the Book of Mormon is a modern fiction. One can cite many other facts about the gold plates alone that support that conclusion: their connection with Joseph Smith’s treasure seeking, his secretiveness about the plates, the fact that Joseph did not use or look at the plates when he was supposedly translating them, the lack of any clear information as to what happened to the plates when the translation was finished, and more. And of course there are other considerations pertaining to the contents and style of the Book of Mormon that persuade many people that it was composed in the nineteenth century.
Imagine two scenarios. In the first scenario, a manuscript written in early modern Italian is found in a storage room in a convent in a small town in Italy. The text purports to be a translation of an ancient letter from Alexander the Great, presumably originally written in Greek. No information is available about the source of the extant Italian manuscript; it could be a copy of an earlier Italian copy, or it could have been translated directly from a Greek manuscript, whether the original or a copy. In the second scenario, the manuscript written in Italian contains a preface by the Italian scribe, dated June 12, 1747, breathlessly claiming that he translated it directly from the original Greek letter by Alexander. The scribe further claims to have had access to a cave (the location of which he says he was sworn to keep secret) containing a small library of otherwise unknown ancient documents by the likes of Homer, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, and Plutarch. Sober historians would be much more skeptical about the document in the second scenario than about the similar document in the first scenario. To characterize the issue in both cases as simply the “lack” of any manuscripts of the Greek text would be a gross misrepresentation.
Perhaps Peterson’s argument can be reconstructed as a response to one point, more properly stated, of the cumulative case against the Book of Mormon. That is, we may restate the objection in a more appropriate fashion and then see if Peterson’s article offers an effective or cogent rebuttal to the objection. For example, we might restate the objection as follows: Given Joseph Smith’s secretiveness regarding the gold plates and their mysterious disappearance along with the fact that the earliest extant version of the Book of Mormon is the nineteenth-century English text that he dictated, its claim to be a translation of a Reformed Egyptian text completed in the fifth century is so implausible as to bear a substantial burden of proof. Stating the point in this way puts the “lack” of the gold plates in some context and avoids either overstating the case (as if the lack of the original-language text were by itself an insuperable difficulty) or understating the case (as if that lack were merely an inconvenience or mild difficulty).
Peterson indirectly points the way to such a formulation of the objection in his summary response to the objection as he had expressed it: “But scholars routinely test the claims to historicity of translated documents for which no early original-language manuscripts exist and then, if satisfied of their authenticity, regularly use them as valuable scholarly resources for understanding the ancient world.” Even without looking at Peterson’s examples, it is clear from this statement that some burden of proof is placed on such works. Yet what Peterson seems to suggest without saying so directly is that the lack of ancient original-language manuscripts never poses any particular problem. That implication or subtext is incorrect.
Criteria Relevant to the Objection
There are three core elements to the objection, properly stated, that Peterson needed to address: (1) the linguistic distance between the earliest extant text and the supposed original text; (2) the chronological distance between the earliest extant text and the supposed original text; and (3) the number of independent extant copies that may be counted as witnesses to the text in any form. Separating these three aspects of the problem results in a complete misunderstanding of the issue.
Linguistic difference has to do with how closely connected historically the two languages in question are. For example, French and Italian are much more closely related languages than French and Mandarin Chinese. If the earliest extant version of a supposedly original Spanish text is in Portuguese, that situation poses far less of a difficulty than if the earliest extant version is in Urdu. Linguistic difference may be understood as a function of the historical relationship between the two languages, the frequency with which texts in one language were read and translated by speakers of a different primary language, or both.
Chronological distance may seem to be an easier concept. The simple formulation would state that the longer the time gap between the supposed original text and the earliest extant version, all other things being equal, the less confidence one may have that the extant version authentically represents the supposed original. A gap of a century is far less of a problem than a gap of a millennium. This formulation may seem to be little more than common sense, but it requires some qualification. The significance of the chronological gap increases the closer to the present the alleged original is dated. A gap of a century between a text dated 1850 and an earliest extant version in 1950 is far more troubling than between a text dated 350 and an earliest extant version in 450. The raw chronological gap is the same in both cases but the significance of the gap is not. One reason this is so is that, in general, the survival of textual materials up to the present increases with the passing of time. Manuscripts produced ten centuries ago are far more likely to be extant today than manuscripts produced twenty centuries ago. For that reason, a manuscript produced in the year AD 1015 of a work originally written in AD 515 bears a greater burden of proof for its authenticity than a manuscript produced in the year 15 BC of a work originally written in 515 BC.
The third factor is the number of independent extant copies that may be counted as witnesses to the text in any form. Suppose the earliest extant manuscript of a work purportedly written originally in Greek in AD 15 is a Latin manuscript penned in AD 1015. Two completely different scenarios need to be distinguished. In one scenario, all later versions and copies of the work derive from that one Latin manuscript. Perhaps there is a Spanish version extant in two manuscripts dating from the fourteenth century, a fifteenth-century French translation based on the Spanish version, and so on, all of which are demonstrably based on that one Latin manuscript. In another scenario, the 1015 Latin manuscript is just one of a dozen Latin manuscripts dating from the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries, several of which clearly represent a different manuscript tradition than the 1015 manuscript, along with a Spanish version from the fourteenth century that appears to have been based on a very different edition of the Latin text than that found in the extant Latin manuscripts. The evidence for the antiquity of the text is far stronger in the second scenario than in the first. In the first scenario, the entire known history of the text begins with that one Latin manuscript from 1015. In the second scenario, the extant manuscripts represent several independent “branches” of the “tree” of the textual history of the work. Those “branches” prove that there is a “trunk” that appeared in history much earlier than even the earliest of the branches.
The combination of these three factors can work either to the credit or discredit of the text in question. A gap of a thousand years between extant version and original text is largely offset if the extant version is written in classical Latin and its supposed original-language text was classical Greek. An assortment of independent Latin manuscripts representing two or three distinct versions is even better. The difficulty increases greatly if the two languages are, say, modern German and classical (i.e., medieval) Arabic, and if there is a single German manuscript from which all known versions and copies derived.
The situation in the case of the Book of Mormon is far more extreme. The chronological gap is 1,400 years, and the two languages are modern English and an unknown language sometimes called Reformed Egyptian. No one can say precisely what Reformed Egyptian was, but if the Book of Mormon is assumed to be authentic then it was a language that owed something to both Egyptian and Hebrew of the early sixth century BC but had evolved a hemisphere away for about a millennium. The linguistic distance between English and Reformed Egyptian is undefinable but must therefore be much, much greater than the difference between modern English and ancient Egyptian or ancient Hebrew. The number of independent extant copies is one—the original manuscript (known as O) dictated by Joseph Smith to his scribes (the printer’s manuscript, P, was of course based on O).
With this preliminary analysis in place, we will next consider Peterson’s lead example to see if it establishes the precedent he claims for accepting as historical a modern document purporting to be a translation of an ancient text written in a very different (and actually unknown) language.
Slavonic Enoch (2 Enoch) and the Book of Mormon
Peterson refers to 2 Enoch as “the classic example” of a text for which the only extant manuscripts (until recently) were copies dating from many centuries later.
Coptic fragments of this work, commonly dated to the first century, have been found only recently. Although generally regarded as having been written in Greek, or perhaps even originally in Hebrew or Aramaic, the entire book survives only in Old Church Slavonic, in manuscripts dating from the 14th to 18th centuries.3
Peterson’s point here is that prior to the discovery of the ancient Coptic fragments, which were found in 2009, the antiquity of the book was not in question. That is not quite true. Prior to the discovery of the Coptic fragments, a minority of scholars argued for a medieval origin of the book. J. T. Milik famously argued in an academic study published in 1976 for a tenth-century origin of 2 Enoch.4 Now, of course, such theories have been put to rest since we are no longer dependent solely on the Old Church Slavonic translation.5 On the other hand, there is no denying that prior to the discovery of the Coptic fragments, the mainstream view was that 2 Enoch was of ancient origin. While that is true enough, a brief recitation of the facts will explain why 2 Enoch offers no precedent for accepting the Book of Mormon as ancient let alone authentic.6
First, the chronological distance between the original writing and the earliest manuscripts (prior to the discovery of the Coptic fragments) is somewhat better for 2 Enoch than for the Book of Mormon. For 2 Enoch, the gap is about 1,300 years (first to the fourteenth century); for the Book of Mormon, the gap is about 1,400 years (fifth to the nineteenth century). Again, the difference here is not merely the raw length of time but the proximity to the present of the earliest copies. While this difference is somewhat unfavorable for the Book of Mormon, it is not dramatically or radically so different as to invalidate the comparison Peterson makes. However, other factors do invalidate the comparison.
Second, the linguistic difference for 2 Enoch is extremely narrow as compared to the linguistic difference for the Book of Mormon. The book of 2 Enoch is extant primarily in Slavonic, more precisely a late form of what is known as Church Slavonic; it was evidently translated from a Greek text. Church Slavonic was a Slavic literary language developed by Greek-speaking missionaries in the ninth century for the purpose of translating the Bible and other Christian literature into a written form of the native language of the Slavs. The Slavs and the Greeks were, geographically speaking, neighbors, and their languages were both Indo-European languages. A wealth of Jewish and Christian literature written in Greek (and other ancient languages) is extant in Church Slavonic. Thus, the fact that the primary manuscript evidence for 2 Enoch comes in the form of medieval and early modern Slavonic manuscripts is absolutely no objection whatsoever to its having existed much earlier in ancient Greek.
By contrast, as has already been explained, there is no connection whatsoever, in historical linguistic terms, between modern English and whatever the alleged ancient language of Reformed Egyptian might have been, even assuming it ever existed. Only one ancient text is claimed to have been translated from Reformed Egyptian (the Book of Mormon) into English (or for that matter into any other language); the two languages are not part of the same linguistic family (English is an Indo-European language; Reformed Egyptian, if it existed, whatever it was, would have had its roots in the Afro-Asiatic language family); and no Reformed Egyptian text is extant anywhere in the world.7
Third, the number of independent extant copies (again not even counting the recently discovered Coptic fragments) is radically different in the two cases. For the Book of Mormon, as explained above, there is only the one original manuscript (O) dictated by Joseph Smith, from which all subsequent copies and printed editions of the Book of Mormon derived. By contrast, there are more than twenty Slavonic manuscripts of 2 Enoch produced over a period of some four to five centuries. The genetic relationships among these manuscripts is complex and in some ways still debated, but everyone agrees that they represent at least two very different recensions or editions of the work, one significantly longer than the other, and perhaps as many as four distinct recensions. None of the recensions attested in the extant manuscripts is directly dependent on another; rather, they represent different traditions of the Enoch material dating back centuries earlier than the earliest of the extant manuscripts. What this means is that none of the extant manuscripts was a forgery; all of them were copies of an existing work.
Finally, although the evidence shows that 2 Enoch is ancient, it does not show that it is authentic. The fact that none of the extant manuscripts was a modern forgery proves that the book of 2 Enoch is much older than the earliest of those manuscripts, and in fact the evidence shows that the book was ancient. As Peterson mentions briefly, most scholars trace the origin of the book to the first century AD. The usual view is that the earliest version of the book likely originated prior to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, while allowing that some of the material in the two or more recensions were incorporated into those recensions at later dates. However, this ancient, first-century date by no means establishes the book as historically authentic. For those who don’t know, the book is called 2 Enoch or Slavonic Enoch because it is attributed to Enoch, a patriarch mentioned in Genesis 5:18-24 living between the time of Adam and Noah. (It is possible to argue that the book claims not to have been written in its final form by Enoch but to be based on Enoch’s writings. That doesn’t make any material difference to the point here.) On any chronology of the Bible, Enoch must have lived more than three thousand years before Christ (perhaps much longer than that). Thus, all scholars agree that 2 Enoch is a pseudepigraphal text that was neither written by Enoch nor based on anything Enoch had written. (Indeed, it is questionable whether writing had even been invented by the time of the Genesis figure of Enoch.) Moving the date of origin of 2 Enoch from the fourteenth century AD (when the earliest extant Slavonic manuscript was copied) to the first century AD (when most scholars think it was written) does nothing to establish the authenticity of the content of the book. There remains a gap of more than three millennia between the supposed origin (the time of Enoch) and its actual date of origin.
Historians view the Book of Mormon as a nineteenth-century pseudepigraphal text on the basis of the same sorts of internal considerations that lead them to regard 2 Enoch as a first-century pseudepigraphal text. For 2 Enoch, these considerations include the linguistic evidence of a Greek original and likely Semitic influence, references to Jerusalem as the central place of worship and as the destination of pilgrimage, and so forth. For the Book of Mormon, such considerations include its dependence on the King James Version, its Methodist revival style of sermons, its addressing religious and cultural issues of early nineteenth-century Anglo-American society, and so forth. In both cases, the burden of proof is entirely on the side of those who might claim that 2 Enoch derives from the antediluvian figure of Enoch (which virtually no one actually does) or that the Book of Mormon was translated from ancient scriptures written by Israelites living in the Americas. One major reason for that burden of proof on the Book of Mormon is the fact that the 1829 English text is the earliest extant version—a problem exacerbated by the set of issues pertaining to the non-extant, highly dubious gold plates.
Other Translated Documents
Peterson cites several other examples of texts known only, or known primarily, in translation. We will review several of these examples in a more cursory fashion to illustrate that they also do not constitute precedent for accepting something like the Book of Mormon as historically authentic.
The Book of Enoch is extant in its entirety only in modern Ge’ez (also called Ethiopic) manuscripts. Most scholars think it originated in parts or stages between about 300 BC and AD 100 and was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic. Ge’ez was an ancient Semitic language, as were ancient Hebrew and Aramaic. As with 2 Enoch, the Book of Enoch exists in multiple manuscripts, which scholars group into two textual “families,” giving multiple and independent attestation to the book’s existence. Moreover, the book was known and quoted by various authors throughout history, including the New Testament epistle of Jude in the first century (Jude 14-15), several church fathers beginning in the second century. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has always accepted it as scripture. In short, there has never been any doubt about the antiquity of the book. On the other hand, no modern scholar thinks the Genesis patriarch Enoch had anything to do with writing the book.8
The Apocalypse of Abraham is usually dated ca. AD 70-150, that is, in the generation or two following the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70 (which it mentions). Six modern Slavonic manuscripts are extant, grouped by scholars into two families. Scholars generally agree that it was originally written in Hebrew but may also have passed through Greek translation. It is therefore part of the body of ancient literature that has come down from ancient Christianity and (in this instance) Judaism through Slavonic translations. No scholar thinks Abraham was in any way responsible for the contents of the book.9
The Gospel of Thomas, written originally in Greek, is known primarily from a fourth-century manuscript written in Coptic, a form of Egyptian in use then and for centuries later. It is one of many Coptic texts that are extant, including manuscripts of New Testament writings that were also translated into Coptic. Scholars have dated the Gospel of Thomas from the mid-first century to the late second century, but a near consensus today dates it to the first half of the second century. Thus the gap between the book’s composition and its Coptic manuscript is only about two centuries (and only a century or less for the Greek fragments). Virtually no one argues that it was written by the apostle Thomas.10
The Discourse on Abbatôn is attributed to Timothy, an archbishop of Alexandria at the end of the fourth century.11 Peterson refers to this work erroneously as the Discourse of the Abbatôn, a variant form of the title that appears to come from Hugh Nibley12 and to be used only by LDS writers (though Nibley and some LDS writers also use the usual title). Although LDS writers generally refer to Timothy as the author without any qualification, non-Mormon scholars’ assessments of the work’s attribution to Timothy range from at best uncertain to most likely spurious.13 The work is known only from a single tenth-century Coptic manuscript, which may have been translated from an earlier Greek text. It purports to be an account by the late fourth-century Timothy of a story he found in a book in the Jerusalem library. According to the account, Jesus told his disciples the story about how Abbatôn (i.e., Abaddon, also known as Apollyon), the angel of death, became the ruler of humanity following the creation and fall of Adam and Eve. Of course, no one (at least outside of Mormon circles) thinks Jesus actually told this story to his disciples.
Peterson also cites the Sepher Ha-Razim (book of the secrets or mysteries) as an instance of a text originally written in one language (Egyptian) but known only in translation (Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic fragments and a medieval Latin translation). The work probably originated about AD 400, give or take a few decades.14 What Peterson neglects to mention is that the book purports to originate from instructions in magic given by an angel to Noah, thousands of years earlier than anyone dates its origin.
Peterson lists ten other examples that will not be discussed here, in order to keep this study from getting any longer than it already is. None of these other examples are any closer to being legitimate precedents for accepting a text like the Book of Mormon as authentic. The mere fact of a work being known only or primarily in translation is not, abstracted from any context, the issue. One must place this fact in some context in order to understand its relevance as part of the overall picture for each written work. When one does this, it becomes evident that Peterson’s examples offer no precedent whatsoever for the modern translation of the Book of Mormon from a non-extant alleged ancient source (the gold plates) in an unknown language (Reformed Egyptian).
2. Daniel C. Peterson, “An Unapologetic Apology for Apologetics,” FARMS Review 22/2 (2010): xii (ix-xlviii). (The link is to a PDF document.) Indeed, in this 40-page article defending Mormon apologetics, Peterson does not mention one specific critic by name.
3. Peterson, “But Where Are the Golden Plates.”
4. J. T. Milik, The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976).
5. See New Perspectives on 2 Enoch: No Longer Slavonic Only, edited by Andrei A. Orlov and Gabriele Boccaccini, with Jacob Zurawski, assoc. ed.; Studia Judaeoslavica 4 (Leiden: Brill, 2012).
6. For the facts adduced here concerning 2 Enoch, see especially the convenient overviews of Grant Macaskill, “An Introduction to 2 Enoch,” University of St. Andrews, 2007; Andrei A. Orlov, “2 (Slavonic) Enoch,” Marquette University, 2009. Macaskill is one of the leading experts on 2 Enoch; see Grant Macaskill, The Slavonic Texts of 2 Enoch, Studia Judaeoslavica 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2013). A somewhat older but more detailed introduction is F. I. Andersen, “The Second Book of Enoch,” in Anchor Bible Dictionary (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1992), 516-22.
7. Not even the “Anthon transcript,” which is purportedly a copy of some of the characters from the gold plates (a different portion of the plates than the Book of Mormon) but which does not present a coherent language script. See Robert M. Bowman Jr., “Anthon Transcript: Did Charles Anthon Authenticate the Book of Mormon Characters or Translation?” (Institute for Religious Research, 2016).
8. See further R. H. Charles, trans., The Book of Enoch, introduction by W. O. E. Oesterley (London: SPCK, 1917), especially vii-xix; Matthew Black, The Book of Enoch or I Enoch: A New English Edition, with Commentary and Textual Notes (Leiden: Brill, 1985), 1-7; Michael A. Knibb, “The Book of Enoch or Books of Enoch? The Textual Evidence for 1 Enoch,” in The Early Enoch Literature, edited by Gabriele Boccaccini and John J. Collins, Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 121 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 21-40. There is a growing wealth of academic studies on the Enochian literature.
9. See G. H. Box and J. I. Landsman, The Apocalypse of Abraham: with a Translation from the Slavonic Text, Translations of Early Documents (London: SPCK, 1918); Alexander Kulik, Retroverting Slavonic Pseudepigrapha: Toward the Original of the Apocalypse of Abraham, Text-critical Studies (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2004).
10. There is now an enormous body of literature on the Gospel of Thomas (much of it extremely speculative); for representative academic studies reflecting different viewpoints, see Elaine H. Pagels, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas (New York: Random House, 2003); April D. DeConick, Recovering the Original Gospel of Thomas: A History of the Gospel and Its Growth, Library of New Testament Studies (London and New York: T & T Clark, 2006); Nicholas Perrin, Thomas: The Other Gospel (London: SPCK; Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007); Mark S. Goodacre, Thomas and the Gospels: The Case for Thomas’s Familiarity with the Gospels (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012); and Stephen J. Patterson, The Gospel of Thomas and Christian Origins: Essays on the Fifth Gospel, Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 84 (Leiden: Brill, 2013). For an accessible treatment of the case for dating the Gospel of Thomas to the late second century (a position argued strongly by Perrin), see also Craig A. Evans, Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 52-77.
11. E. A. Wallis Budge, Coptic Martyrdoms, etc. in the Dialect of Upper Egypt (London: British Museum, 1914); see the introductory material, x-xii, lxviii-lxxii; the Coptic text, 225-49; and the English translation, 474-96.
12. Hugh Nibley, “A Strange Thing in the Land: The Return of the Book of Enoch, Part 8,” Ensign, Dec. 1976; reprinted in Enoch the Prophet, ed. Stephen D. Ricks, Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 2 (Salt Lake City: Deseret; Provo: FARMS, 1986), 173.
13. Brian Murdoch, The Apocryphal Adam and Eve in Medieval Europe: Vernacular Translations and Adaptations of the Vita Adae et Evae (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 15, says it is probably spurious. Marinus de Jonge and Johannes Tromp, The Life of Adam and Eve and Related Literature (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997), 81, say that its authorship by Timothy “is not certain” and agree with an earlier scholar in saying that it might have been written “anywhere from the fourth to the sixth century.” Michael Eldridge observed in 2001 that the attribution is not “necessarily genuine” and that the work’s date “has not yet been investigated.” Michael D. Eldridge, Dying Adam with His Multiethnic Family: Understanding the Greek Life of Adam and Eve, Studia in Veteris Testamentii pseudepigrapha 16 (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 25. Scholars sometimes cite the book’s author as Pseudo-Timothy.
14. See Michael A. Morgan, Sepher Ha-Razim: The Book of Mysteries (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1983). | <urn:uuid:973742d6-adb2-4508-9715-5b5725c8fdc5> | {
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Darwin has been featured in a lot of books and documentaries recently in honour of his birthday 200 years ago – he was born in February 1809.
And of course there have been countless photographs of Darwin – most of them with severe expressions – like this one.
I’ve always thought that because the Photographs of Darwin seem so formal and posed they maintained the 200 year distance between us.
Somehow, they reveal very little about the man, himself.
Which is exactly what I mean. It doesn’t capture the whole man.
Because Darwin was a man of high adventure.
After all, he voyaged around the world in the famous Beagle examining the flora and fauna of our world for a period of no less than 5 years!
He met many primitive tribes all over the world too.
In fact, he put up with severe sea sickness in order to carry out his mission.
Below is another photo of Darwin.
Does it tell us much more than the fact that he was a lot older, had a beard and was even more serious than before?
There’s a Better Way
Now when you look at Darwin’s handwriting it’s a completely different story.
His handwriting brings him to life and shows us what he was really like – it’s almost like looking at his personality in 3D!
The following sample of Darwin’s handwriting is taken from a collection of his rough notes.
This is Darwin’s first diagram of an evolutionary tree
His handwriting is as lively, vibrant and vigorous as when he first wrote it. It highlights his dynamic personality as nothing else can.
It shows the fire and the passion that moved him. It sparkles with enthusiasm and fervour about his subject. He was totally inspired!
His speed of thought and high intelligence are clear to see too. Take a careful look at this sample and note the decisive strokes and the intelligent shortcuts. In the word “distinction” he crosses both t’s with one dynamic t-bar.
He is clearly impatient to get his thoughts onto paper. The last 2 words on the page are written with such excitement that they are quite illegible. And of course the sideways inserts at the top right of the page show his thoughts coming so thick and fast that the page cannot contain them.
The Dark Side of Darwin’s Personality
But there’s more. There are signs of impatience, and yes, even a violent temper. He didn’t suffer fools gladly and he was not easy to get on with. His wife must have been an angel because he could be dictatorial, overbearing and autocratic.
He clearly suffered from some form of anxiety and there is also evidence of depression.
Not only do we see clear evidence of repression but there are also signs of tremour and furriness in his handwriting which may have something to do with illness or possibly medication of some sort.
Nevertheless, despite many contradictory patterns the picture that emerges is one of enthusiasm, passion and determination. Once again this fits the pattern for genius put forward in The Mark of Genius – where passion and determination appear to be such important ingredients for genius.
I don’t want to bore you with too much detail. For those who are interested, I have given more about Darwin’s handwriting in The Mark of Genius. | <urn:uuid:809fc6f5-72a8-41ea-8dd4-180861276b04> | {
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Constitution as adopted on 26 November 1949, updated to 1996.
1. Any section of the citizens of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same.
2. No citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the state or receiving aid out of state funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language, or any of them.
1. All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
1A. In making any law providing for the compulsory acquisition of any property of an educational institution established and administered by a minority, referred to in clause 1, the state shall ensure that the amount fixed by or determined under such law for acquisition of such property is such as would restrict or abrogate the right guaranteed under that clause.
2. The state shall not, in granting aid to educational institutions, discriminate against any educational institution on the ground that it is under the management of a minority, whether based on religion or language.
1. Notwithstanding anything in Part XVII, but subject to the provisions of Article 348, business in Parliament shall be transacted in Hindi or in English:
Provided that the Chairman of the Council of States or Speaker of the House of the People, or person acting as such, as the case may be, may permit any member who cannot adequately express himself in Hindi or in English to address the House in his mother tongue.
2. Unless Parliament by law otherwise provides, this article shall, after the expiration of a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, have effect as if the words "or in English" were omitted therefrom.
1. Notwithstanding anything in Part XVII, but subject to the provisions of Article 348, business in the Legislature of a state shall be transacted in the official language or languages of the state or in Hindi or in English:
Provided that the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly or Chairman of the Legislative Council, or person acting as such, as the case may be, may permit any member who cannot adequately express himself in any of the languages aforesaid to address the House in his mother tongue.
2. Unless the Legislature of the state by law otherwise provides, this article shall, after the expiration of a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, have effect as if the words "or in English" were omitted therefrom:
Provided that in relation to the Legislature of the states of Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura this clause shall have effect as if the words "fifteen years" occurring therein, the words "twenty-five years" were substituted.
1. The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals.
2. Notwithstanding anything in clause 1, for a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, the English language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such commencement:
Provided that the President may, during the said period, by order authorise the use of the Hindi language in addition to the English language and of the Devanagari form of numerals in addition to the international form of Indian numerals for any of the official purposes of the Union...
8. Notwithstanding anything in this article, Parliament may by law provide for the use, after the said period of fifteen years of:
(a) the English language, or
(b) the Devanagari form of numerals,
for such purposes as may be specified in the law.
1. The President shall, at the expiration of five years from the commencement of this Constitution and thereafter at the expiration of ten years from such commencement, by order constitute a Commission which shall consist of a Chairman and such other members representing the different languages specified in the Eighth Schedule as the President may appoint, and the order shall define the procedure to be followed by the Commission.
2. It shall be the duty of the Commission to make recommendations to the President as to:
(a) the progressive use of the Hindi language for the official purposes of the Union;
3. In making their recommendations under clause 2, the Commission shall have due regard to the industrial, cultural and scientific advancement of India, and the just claims and the interest of persons belonging to the non-Hindi speaking areas in regard to the public services.
(b) restrictions on the use of the English language for all or any of the official purposes of the Union;
(c) the language to be used for all or any of the purposes mentioned in Article 348;
(d) the form of numerals to be used for any one or more specified purposes of the Union;
(e) any other matter referred to the Commission by the President as regards the official language of the Union and the language for communication between the Union and a state or between one state and another and their use.
Subject to the provision of Articles 346 and 347, the Legislature of a state may by law adopt any one or more of the languages in use in the state or Hindi as the language or languages to be used for all or any of the official purposes of that state:
Provided that, until the Legislature of the state otherwise provides by law, the English language shall continue to be used for those official purposes within the state for which it was being used immediately before the commencement of this Constitution.
The language for the time being authorised for use in the Union for official purposes shall be the official language for communication between one state and another state and between a state and the Union:
Provided that if two or more states agree that the Hindi language should be the official language for communications between states, that language may be used for such communication.
On a demand being made in that behalf the President may, if he is satisfied that a substantial proportion of the population of a state desire the use of any language spoken by them to be recognised by that state, direct that such language shall also be officially recognised throughout that state or any part thereof for such purpose as he may specify.
1. Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this Part, until Parliament by law otherwise provides:
(a) all proceedings in the Supreme Court and in every High Court,
(b) the authoritative texts:
(i) of all bills to be introduced or amendments thereto to be moved in either House of Parliament or in the House or either House of the Legislature of a state,
shall be in the English language.
(ii) of all Acts passed by Parliament or the Legislature of a state and of all ordinances promulgated by the President or the Governor of a state, and
(iii) of all orders, rules, regulations and bylaws issued under this Constitution or under any law made by Parliament or the Legislature of a state,
2. Notwithstanding anything in subclause (a) of clause 1, the Governor of a state may, with the previous consent of the President, authorise the use of the Hindi language or any other language used for any official purposes of the state, in proceedings in the High Court having its principal seat in that state:
Provided that nothing in this clause shall apply to any judgement, decree or order passed or made by such High Court.
3. Notwithstanding anything in subclause (b) of clause 1, where the Legislature of a state has prescribed any language other than the English language for use in bills introduced in, acts passed by the Legislature of the state, or in any order, rule, regulation or bylaw referred to in paragraph (iii) of that subclause, a translation of the same in the English language published under the authority of the Governor of the state in the official Gazette of that state shall be deemed to be the authoritative text thereof in the English language under this article.
During the period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution no bill or amendment making provision for the language to be used for any of the purposes mentioned in clause 1 of Article 348 shall be introduced or moved in either House of Parliament without the previous sanction of the President, and the President shall not give his sanction to the introduction of any such bill or the moving of any such amendment except after he has taken into consideration the recommendations of the Commission constituted under clause 1 of Article 344 and the report of the Committee constituted under clause 4 of that article.
Every person shall be entitled to submit a representation for the redress of any grievance to any officer or authority of the Union or a state in any of the languages used in the Union or inn the state, as the case may be.
It shall be the endeavour of every state and of every local authority within the state to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups, and the President may issue such directions to any state as he considers necessary or proper for securing the provision of such facilities.
1. There shall be a special officer for linguistic minorities to be appointed by the President.
2. It shall be the duty of the special officer to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities under this Constitution and report to the President upon those matters at such intervals as the President may direct, and the President shall cause all such reports to be laid before each House of Parliament, and sent to the governments of the states concerned.
It shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating, without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expression used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages.
1. Assamese. 2. Bengali. 3. Gujarati. 4. Hindi. 5. Kannada. 6. Kashmiri. 7. Malayalam. 8. Marathi. 9. Oriya. 10. Punjabi. 11. Sanskrit. 12. Sindhi. 13. Tamil. 14. Telegu. 15. Urdu.
16. Konkani. 17. Manipuri. 18. Nepali.
Note: The complete text of the Constitution and further information on the constitutional background of India are provided by the International Constitutional Law Project at the University of Wuerzburg. | <urn:uuid:86515b54-9a71-4162-a3ed-53cf41e0fb2b> | {
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The green design—good for the environment in that it makes buildings more sustainable—can be bad for lighting, as designers are incentivized to chase points that may require sacrifices to design. For lighting, it can be especially risky. Lighting power allowances in energy codes regulating new buildings have steadily declined over the last decade, enabled by advances in technology. Green rating systems, such as the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), are based on exceeding code, which may come out of design. It turns out saving energy is easy, but saving energy while achieving good lighting quality is hard. The problem is that energy-efficient lighting does not necessarily make effective lighting.
Part of the challenge stems from traditional lighting design’s focus on providing sufficient lighting levels on the horizontal task plane. In a corridor, it may be the floor or, in a classroom, the tops of the desks. In trying to squeeze every last watt out of the lighting system, these light levels may be pushed very low with a direct lighting system; the result may be highly energy-efficient but a gloomy atmosphere that does not serve architecture or people.
The solution may be wall lighting. Placing light on walls, considered best practice in contemporary lighting design, can produce two significant benefits. First, it defines the spatial form, making the area appear brighter and more expansive, while focusing attention on people and architecture. Second, when combined with high-reflectance surfaces, it produces useful inter-reflections that can enhance light levels and visual comfort.
Before discussing these solutions in detail, this article describes popular wall lighting techniques.
General lighting may include recessed general lighting placed close enough to room edges to illuminate the upper walls and mitigate the “cave” effect. Another option is volumetric-type recessed lighting, which is designed to distribute light on upper walls. And a third option is pendant-mounted indirect lighting (see Figure 1), which places light on the ceiling and walls, with visual emphasis on the ceiling as the brightest plane in the spatial envelope. While these options may be sufficient for some spaces, it may be desirable to employ dedicated wall lighting for others.
A basic lighting technique, wall washing involves placing ceiling lighting fixtures 2 to 3 feet from the wall and aimed at the wall at a wide angle, which results in a smooth wash of light from top to bottom. Because of the wide angle, small imperfections in the surface, such as tiny nicks and bumps, are washed out, making it visually flat. For large walls, linear lighting sources, such as fluorescent, are effective.
Because of the inverse square law, the fixture-mounting height would be limited to 8 to 9 feet. From the ceiling to about 2 feet down receives 80 percent of the light, while the middle to the lower wall receives 50 percent, and the area near the floor receives 20 percent. The floor area is typically obscured, so people are generally focused on the bright upper wall.
Another basic lighting technique, wall grazing, involves placing the lighting fixtures closer to the wall, resulting in a narrower angle, which in turn produces shadows that reveal texture. By moving the fixture closer or farther from the wall, the angle of light can be adjusted to make shadowing more or less pronounced and, thereby, achieve different grazing effects. Linear sources can be used, but point sources are generally preferred for strong grazing. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have great potential as an efficient grazing source.
Because grazing reveals texture and is visually arresting, it should be used with surfaces that are worth looking at and do not contain imperfections that we otherwise wish to hide. In the case of wall washing, the lighting reveals the spatial form as a luminous backdrop to people and objects. In the case of wall grazing, the wall itself is the focus of attention. As a result, grazing is typically used as accent lighting to beautify strongly textured surfaces, such as natural stone and brick, as well as artwork, such as carvings.
A grazing wash combines some of the advantages of wall washing and wall grazing (see Figure 1). This technique involves mounting linear sources in a continuous run around the edge of the ceiling (wall/slot lighting). The lighting equipment can be concealed, while the bright wash of light at the edge of the ceiling articulates that plane, resulting in a visually interesting “floating ceiling” effect. While the angle of light is narrow enough to render interesting architectural details, grazing wash is generally used similarly to wall washing—that is, to reveal the space’s dominant boundaries and produce inter-reflections.
Humans respond to light physiologically and psychologically. To understand the benefits of wall lighting, we must begin with the basic premise that brightness focuses attention. The human eye is naturally drawn to areas of brightness and brightness contrasts in the field of view. Contrast is even more important than brightness, which is why lighting designers consider darkness a very important tool in designing with light.
This basic premise is rooted in our scientific understanding of phototropism, the tendency of humans, animals and plants to seek light. People will reflexively orient themselves to squarely face sources of high brightness and strong brightness contrasts, as long as those sources are not uncomfortably glaring.
In the 1970s, Dr. John Flynn conducted experiments on people’s subjective responses to different lighting conditions. In one study, participants entered a cafeteria and were observed to have a preference to face the entrance. After wall lighting was added, participants entering the cafeteria changed their orientation and showed a preference to face the bright walls.
In another study by Taylor and Sucov in 1974, participants entered a room through a curtained entrance and read instructions on a room divider telling them to go to the other side and complete a task as part of a study of consumer product lighting. Unaware of the true intent of the study, they entered the room by choosing to go either left or right to get past the room divider. When both paths were lighted equally, seven out of 10 participants went to the right. When the path to the left received a higher light level, three out of four went to the left. Light not only focuses attention. It can help with wayfinding.
Benefits of wall lighting
Given this knowledge, it is a simple case to make that placing light on walls accomplishes two things. It highlights the spatial form, providing a pleasing luminous backdrop to people, objects and activities in the space, which is important for work spaces—while avoiding the gloomy “cave” effect exhibited by some direct lighting installations. And it places visual emphasis on vertical surfaces instead of horizontal surfaces, resulting in an emphasis on people and architecture, which is important for public spaces.
We have demonstrated that people are physically drawn to brightness and that brightness can be used to direct attention in walls and vertical surfaces in a space. But it is also true that people respond to patterns of brightness in a space psychologically, too.
This brings us back to Flynn’s research, which can be used to predict how people will respond to different lighting arrangements based on horizontal (overhead) versus vertical (perimeter) emphasis, uniform versus nonuniform distribution, bright versus dim light levels, and visually warm versus cool color tones (see Figure 2 for an illustration of these effects).
Fig. 2: Flynn’s research indicated that people form subjective impressions of built environments independently of the architectural context, categorizing them in terms of overall central or perimeter emphasis of the lighting. Shown here are eight renderings of a room, developed based on Flynn’s studies, with central, perimeter and combined lighting, bright illumination as a constant (compared to dim), and both uniform and nonuniform lighting patterns on surfaces. One can see at a glance how different lighting configurations produce different appearances of the space with different resulting subjective impressions.
In a series of simple experiments, people were exposed to different lighted spaces and asked to rate their subjective impressions on a scale between “pleasant” versus “unpleasant,” “spacious” versus “confined,” “relaxed” versus “tense,” and “visually clear” versus “hazy.”
Flynn found that brightness on walls tends to produce impressions of spaces as being “pleasant,” as people like light on walls. He also found that wall lighting can contribute to impressions of a space being “public,” “spacious,” “tense,” “open for business” or “businesslike,” and “visually clear,” particularly when light distribution is uniform.
Besides directing attention and influencing aesthetic judgment of a space, wall lighting can also contribute to visual clarity and comfort.
One of the most beneficial applications of wall lighting in applications with sustained, demanding visual tasks is to turn walls into area lighting sources, producing inter-reflections that can increase light levels, uniformity and visibility, while reducing shadows and strong contrasts. Increasing uniformity reinforces impressions of spaciousness, alertness and visual clarity. Increasing distribution on vertical surfaces increases their visibility, while improving facial recognition—which can aid face-to-face communication—and reducing visual fatigue caused by transient adaptation (the eye constantly adapting from high light levels on the task to low light levels on vertical surfaces in the area). Reducing shadows and strong contrasts, meanwhile, can increase visual comfort. A good example would be a windowed space where there may be an uncomfortable brightness contrast between the windows and adjacent wall spaces; placing light on these walls softens the contrast.
When walls are used as area light sources, it is important that the wall surfaces be as reflective as possible without being sources of glare. Avoid dark colors on walls and furniture except as minor accents and for flooring. Choose lighter colors such as white or certain pastels with a reflectance of 70 percent or higher. Choose matte finishes and avoid glossy finishes, which are strong candidates for reflected glare. Higher reflectance on ceilings and walls, particularly in spaces where those surfaces are used as area light sources—or reflecting surfaces for -lighting—can make a big difference in overall efficiency by reducing electric lighting needed to produce desired light levels.
In summary, wall lighting can help make lighting designs both energy-efficient and effective by placing visual emphasis on the spatial form, making spaces appear brighter and larger and improving visibility and visual comfort.
DILOUIE, a lighting industry journalist, analyst and marketing consultant, is principal of ZING Communications. He can be reached at www.zinginc.com. | <urn:uuid:d136fdd2-c829-43f0-acd5-6cab3b38478a> | {
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A Year of Great Third Grade Read Alouds: May & June
Summary of the Book
“Take it from Cliff, being the oldest of six kids is not easy under the best of circumstances. Who can be Mr. Reliable all the time? How do you deal with a brother who enjoys sitting under the kitchen table for punishment? Or explain to your sister that she can’t divorce herself from the family just because they eat meat? Or figure out what your baby brother wants for Christmas when he asks for a yidda yadda? Told in the first person, each lively, humorous episode from Cliff’s fifth-grade year focuses on one of the kids. Together they create a strong, satisfying story of a large, closely knit family.”
Why This Book Is Great
Fig Pudding tackles some common family issues throughout the book and then hits you with a very serious event at the end. Cliff and his siblings argue, make fun of each other, steal from another and generally drive each other a little crazy. But there are also many scenes that show how close they are and how much love there is between them. It can be confusing – just like real families. The characters are multidimensional and can be obnoxious one minute and humble the next – just like real people.
They say if you want to have great discussions with your students that you should keep the subject matter accessible and highly relatable. For most of this book that’s what you’ll get. At the end of this book, one of the siblings die and for the last three chapters we witness the Abernathy’s grief. It’s well written and could lead to some amazing comments from your students – depending on the life experiences in your class. The book ends with a lighthearted (and completely unsanitary) scene that leaves the reader with the understanding that families can get through anything when they stick together. | <urn:uuid:904a721c-dc9b-4c5d-a8ff-18eb0432d08b> | {
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Although preservice teachers are often “digital natives,” meaning they grew up with and are familiar with common computing devices, they often are not actually proficient in using them for advanced purposes. In fact, there is a lot more to technology than mere social networking websites and apps. Educators often have many types of files and data to manage and share with their students and colleagues. It is important to establish productive practices that minimize wasting time and loss of data.
Digital data comes to us in many forms that are actually rather “siloed.” For example, typically we do not have a way to reliably search all our emails, text messages, and other digital data sources all at once. Further, while ideally, software would automatically keep a log of all edits made to a file (“versioning”), including a versatile user interface to navigate through prior edits if needed, in fact this is still uncommon and if available, often impractical to use. For example, the “Track Changes” function in Microsoft Office is satisfactory for sharing edits with colleagues, but you still have to create multiple copies of a file to keep track of prior edits that have been “accepted.”
The typical teacher or professor is working many hours per week, frequently in an office setting with Windows PCs provided by their institution. In fact, they often are not even able to install software or fully configure the software available to them. For this reason and others, for practicality it is necessary to manage digital data using commonly available practices and tools. Therefore, we are often restricted to file-level management and web tools.
Organization and naming of one’s files and folders is still important to finding and maintaining data, in part because of Windows’ abysmal search functionality. Depicted right is a selection of folders for classes I have taken or been a teaching assistant for at University of Central Florida. Here, we see I have made many choices, with various pros and cons. I have chosen to organize my folders by course code, in a flat structure that includes many different semesters, thus avoiding navigating through many levels of subfolders. I have included other folders not directly related to classes, and have forced them to be displayed at the top of the list in Windows Explorer by prepending the folder names with symbols (here, “%”). For readability, I have used both capital and lowercase letters, and have included the year and semester subsequent to the course codes. I use hyphens instead of spaces because spaces in folder and file names can be problematic when data is directly uploaded to a web server. For classes I am currently enrolled in (not shown here), I prepend the folder names with “!” so they appear at the top of the list, and then remove the “!” at the end of the semester. Note that there is a tradeoff here—renaming a folder breaks shortcuts or links and forces many “dumb” applications (e.g., Google Drive, SyncBack) to delete and re-copy the entire folder.
Here, we have one of my course subfolders (EME 6646, pictured right), which contains additional subfolders to organize files related to this class. The upper six folders consist of files provided by the professor, while the module folders contain more folders and files relating to each module’s materials and assignments. The “Outdated” folder contains an older version of the syllabus subsequently replaced by the professor, and the “PRIVATE” folder contains peer evaluation assignments I did not want to share with teammates. This course had a lot of group work, so I actually shared my files for this course (minus the private folder) with teammates via Google Drive.
I use a Windows application called SyncBackFree to backup data. The Google Drive desktop application allows you to automatically synchronize folders with your Google Drive, meaning that changes that are made on one will be synchronized on the other. For example, I could save a PDF file from my web browser on my mobile phone to a Google Drive folder and it would automatically be downloaded to my PC, or vice-versa. Google Drive also allows sharing folders with friends who can also be co-editors. I used these features along with a backup profile in SyncBackFree to duplicate changes on my flash drive (“X:”) to the Google Drive EME 6646 folder (excluding the private folder). SyncBackFree offers “synchronization” as well, but I stick to backup, meaning that I am careful to only edit files in one place rather than editing in two places and having to reconcile the differences. (In this case, my peers were not adding to the Google Drive on their own—if they were, a straight backup could overwrite their files if the option to delete data present in the “destination” but not the “source” was checked.)
In the EME 6646 course, moreover, we used Google Docs to collaboratively edit our group assignments, and then at the end, I would manually copy-and-paste into a Microsoft Word file and correct formatting prior to submitting the group assignment. Of course this is inefficient, but the professor would not accept Google Docs submissions, so it was more efficient than sending many different Word files back and forth.
One might ask why I did not just edit files directly in my PC’s Google Drive folder? Well, what if Google Drive does something weird, or my colleagues accidentally delete or damage a key file? Then, my Google Drive would automatically synchronize the undesirable changes, resulting in data loss. Backing up your data regularly is important to avoid data loss. However, when synchronization occurs in the background, without user input or reversibility, your data can easily be wiped out by an undesirable change in one place being automatically propagated to another place. This is why RAID-1 disk mirroring is not backup, although it protects against failure of a hard disk drive.
Going back to educators having office PCs at work that don’t allow them to install software, this is a reason I like working from home. I work on my class files, even when at home, directly from a flash drive, while running a SyncBackFree profile frequently to backup the flash drive to one of my PC’s hard disk drives. Then, I can work directly from the flash drive in the field while assuredly having the latest copy of my files. You could also use Google Drive via the web interface, but this has disadvantages too (e.g., must log-in to Google first, cannot save files directly to Google Drive, Internet problems, limited to 15 GB for free, latency). Another piece of the puzzle that I added a year ago is BackBlaze, which securely backs up all files on my home PC (except it will not backup flash drives) for $95 per two years (or, you can pay $5 per month). Although BackBlaze will not backup my flash drive directly, because I am using SyncBackFree to backup the flash drive to a hard disk drive, all my data still gets backed up to the cloud, which is literally multiple terabytes because I am also a photographer who shoots in RAW mode, even on my Samsung Galaxy S7 smartphone (BackBlaze offers unlimited backup, even though they lose money on customers like me).
Digital asset management is the buzzword particularly for managing many thousands of photos or other non-text data, but such software is too complex and unwieldy for educators’ purposes. Basically, working directly with files and folders is your main option for types of data such as PDFs, Word, Excel, et cetera. For note-taking, I use EverNote (with reservations), which is great for writing, searching, and sorting through text or even PDFs, images, and receipts if you pay for the premium version. I would not recommend taking notes in text, Microsoft Word files, or Gmail drafts because they are harder to search, manage, and/or synchronize. I have come very much to like taking notes in EverNote on my phone with a Bluetooth keyboard to type on.
One of my big shortcomings is my complete lack of familiarity with Apple products. Some of the issues I talk about here may be Windows-specific and the situation may be much better on Mac… but nevertheless, you are much more likely to be compelled to work on a PC than a Mac. Although it is dated and no longer updated, I use Locate32 to search through files on my PC, which is much faster and better than Windows or Cortana search. It is especially useful if you give descriptive filenames, which I recommend, although it takes practice to make filenames short, consistent, useful, and quick to devise.
When naming files and dealing with different versions, a simple and effective approach is to make a copy for each editing session and then save it with the date and time (“timestamp”) in the filename, as pictured left. If you are working in Adobe Photoshop, you might use non-destructive editing techniques such as layers or parametric editing instead. However, Microsoft PowerPoint and many other applications cater toward destructive editing (where data is deleted or overwritten during the editing process), so multiple files with timestamps is the simplest compromise. Then, you can revert or borrow elements from a prior version if needed. Although this takes up additional storage space and duplicates material, you could always archive the files in a 7-zip archive afterward. For example, the pictured files are 3.5 MB but only 1.5 MB in a .7z archive.
Note in this example that I have used YYYYMMDD-HHMM format for the timestamps. If you use MM-DD-YY format, all the files from the same month are clustered together, even if they are from different years! This is why formatting the timestamp in order of declining significance (i.e., year, month, day, hour, minute) is preferable. Then, files will be sorted chronologically. Further, I recommend using and becoming familiar with the 24-hour clock, because using a 12-hour clock would end up grouping files from 5 AM with files from 5 PM. You could use YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM format for easier readability while maintaining chronological sort, albeit with slightly longer filenames. You could also use two-digit years, but I prefer all four digits because it makes it clearer that you are looking at a year, and will not be confusing in future centuries.
Here, I have put the timestamps toward the end of the filename. An alternate approach, more useful in some situations, is to put the timestamp right at the beginning. Then, all files in a folder will be sorted by timestamp. In other situations, you may want files to first be grouped by some other keyword(s), so the timestamp should be placed later in the filenames. Note that you can also use the “Date Modified” column in Windows to sort the files by when they were last edited. However, this option is not available in many settings (e.g., the Google Drive web interface).
While there are many other pieces to effectively managing your digital data (e.g., a ScanSnap ix500 scanner, LastPass or Dashlane, VeraCrypt or BitLocker, etc.), organizing and backing up individual files is a principal component and important starting point. Putting the time in to learn about this and establish good methods now will pay great dividends in the long run. | <urn:uuid:48af3f5f-7e27-413d-8940-adf823eb62bf> | {
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We’ve all seen or heard of 5w-30, 10w-40 and SAE 40 before, but for many of us we have no clue what those Viscosity Grades mean -or even that they are called viscosity grades. Let me act as your decoder ring. In this blog I will give you a little background on grades. I’ll explain how they come up with those wacky numbers and explain the basic differences between the grades.
Before I go into all the great benefits of different oils for your vehicle, let me first explain what motor oil does for your engine.
Motor oil lubricates engine components and cuts down on friction. Friction causes increased heat (which increases wear) and the engine parts to slow down. Motor oil creates a small barrier or film between the parts in order for them to slide past one another. The slippery portion of parts increases efficiency, power and performance. Another important thing to note is that a properly lubricated oil uses less fuel than one that isn’t properly lubricated.
One more piece of the puzzle to consider: when the engine isn’t running, oil drips off the engine. That’s why the majority of engine wear comes from start up. Less lubricant on the engine = more friction and More friction = more wear.
With those factors in mind, let’s talk about engine oil differences.
The main difference between basic oils is their viscosity grades. Don’t let the word overwhelm you, it is really quite simple. Viscosity is a measurement of how quickly the oil flows through your engine. Since thicker or higher viscosity oils take longer to flow, it makes sense that an oil with a higher viscosity grade would run more slowly through the engine components. This means that SAE 30 moves faster than SAE 60, for example.
Oils with a higher viscosity provide more lubrication and a greater level of protection to your engine. The downside is that these oils also take longer to initially cover the engine components after vehicle start up. And remember; start up will cause greater wear on your engine than the general running of the engine.
Oil with a lower viscosity provides a quicker flow of oil to cover the engine components, thus minimizing the amount of dry running. However, lower viscosity oils provide less lubrication during normal running of the engine.
So what are you to do- protect your engine at start up or protect your engine while it is running? Luckily, it doesn’t have to be either or. Some oils react differently in different temperatures. These oils have two numbers in its viscosity grade. You are probably familiar with 5W-30 or 10W-40, they are examples of these types of oils.
Let’s look a little more closely at 5W-30. Anytime you see a number with a W, it represents how the oil will react in colder temperatures (when the engine is just turning over versus when it has been running for a while). As you can see, it has a very low W viscosity grade. That allows a quick flow of oil when the vehicle is first started. This coats the engine components quickly so there is less dry rubbing. Then as the temperature of the oil increases it becomes thicker and more lubricative.
So there you go! The mystery of oil viscosity is now solved! | <urn:uuid:cda54850-abf9-4ed3-bf37-2eeb41d385bb> | {
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OLYMPIC Dam uranium can power Australia four times over and close all our coal mines, write Geoff Russell and Barry Brook.
FRIENDS of the Earth’s Jim Green makes important points on the Olympic Dam expansion (The Advertiser, 10/7/12).
Should BHP be given an easy ride on this project? If so, why?
Here’s some background people need before making a decision.
The expanded Olympic Dam will be a massive hole in the ground.
How big? About 12sq km in area and 1km deep.
For comparison, the proposed alpha coal mine in Queensland will be about 400sq km. The various coal mines in the Hunter Valley are also much bigger, not necessarily individually, but they are all big holes and they add up to a much bigger hole than the proposed Olympic Dam expansion.
Yet Olympic Dam is different. Most of what comes out will be copper but, at peak production, it will also be producing 19,000 tonnes of uranium oxide annually.
How much is that? Enough to power the whole of Australia four times over. Enough to close all of Australia’s coal mines for domestic consumption. So here’s the first question for Jim Green.
We could have nuclear reactors, clean electricity and one mine, just one single mine. Or we could have the whole current nightmare of the Hunter Valley, Latrobe Valley and Bowen Basin disasters, gas fracking and every other filthy deadly fossil fuel industry in Australia.
What’s his choice?
Perhaps you read Jim’s line about the headache of the radioactive tailings and are worried. What a storm in a teacup radioactive tailings are. We need some background on this little panic story.
The land being mined is naturally radioactive, otherwise it wouldn’t be worth mining. After the uranium is separated out and removed, what’s left is called tailings.
These tailings, obviously, are less radioactive than before the process, because the economically extractable uranium has been removed. They are, however, more mobile. They can blow around, contaminate water, and so on. How dangerous are the 68 million tonnes of tailings Jim describes as “through the roof”? Compared with what?
Australia has about 10,000 cases of lung cancer annually, about 1000 in non-smokers. In 1983, when the US EPA was drawing up its regulations on tailings from its uranium mines, it estimated its 175 million tonnes of tailings by the year 2000 might cause about eight lung cancer cases per year, with half being in people who live within 80km of a tailings site. This was calculated on the basis of no treatment at all.
At Olympic Dam, nobody intends to leave the tailings untreated, and few people live within 80km of Olympic Dam. If they are worried about cancer, then the big risks will be cigarettes, alcohol, red and processed meat, wood stoves and vehicle exhaust fumes. BHP will not be just leaving their tailings, and, even if the best laid plans fail from time to time, you would be hard put to measure the consequences.
Would Jim Green perhaps like to compare the risks from the Olympic Dam with the risks from all of Australia’s other coal mines?
Assuming Jim does not want nuclear reactors here, the uranium will go elsewhere. Perhaps to India. We wonder if Jim has seen an Indian coal mine, or one in China? Would you prefer those coal mines or people using our uranium?
Life is about choices. In 1994, Bill Clinton chose to shut down the US “fast reactor” program.
Now the Chinese, the Indians, the Russians and the South Koreans are building these reactors.
With a fast reactor, you get much more than 100 times the energy from the same amount of uranium. With fast reactors you can use current nuclear waste as fuel. With fast reactors, we can shut down all the world’s coal mines. We can stop ripping up the boreal forests for tar sands in Canada and elsewhere. Bill Clinton blew it.
Fast reactors will run on what is called depleted uranium, or on nuclear waste. There is enough of this already mined not only to shut all the world’s coal mines – but also to make the Olympic Dam expansion unnecessary.
So our last questions to Jim are: How worried are you about those tailings? How worried are you about climate change? Worried enough to risk the occasional deathless Fukushima accident and go with clean energy from fast reactors? Or are local scare stories more important than solving the major environmental problems and keeping our eye on the big picture?
Geoff Russell is a mathematician and long-time member of Animal Liberation in SA.
Barry Brook is professor of climate science at the University of Adelaide.
To register comments, go to the Brave New Climate Discussion Forum, here: http://bravenewclimate.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=bncblogposts&thread=289 | <urn:uuid:47089a01-9ef8-4659-9625-eba18ff46ad8> | {
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A new study examining the interactions of black and white high-achieving students in elite, private high schools reveals how today's millennial generation is negotiating race, identity and academic success. In a paper presented Aug. 8 at the 104th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in San Francisco, Michelle Burstion-Young, a University of Cincinnati doctoral student in sociology, says she is breaking new ground in sociological research – exploring culture and race in the leadership class of the millennial generation – in academically competitive environments where an achievement gap does not exist.
Burstion-Young's study focused on a survey and follow-up interviews with approximately 20 students representing three private prep high schools in the Midwest, including an all-male, all-female and co-ed school.
"Schools are one of the most important sites to study if we are to gain an understanding of how racial interaction is shaped," Burstion-Young writes in the study. "Schools are important not only because they perform the function of education, but also because they are key to how children and young adults become socialized."
"Little is known about how students negotiate the social world of school or how being labeled black (by others and/or self) may influence their social decisions, either by removing options (such as being purposefully excluded or not being included) or creating other options (such as a black social world)," she writes.
Burstion-Young's study examined what she called four coping strategies used by minority students in predominantly white schools
Assimilation – "Acting white" or "acting black" in this environment was not a question of academics, but identity. According to Burstion-Young, both black and white students were dedicated to academic excellence and there were no differences in academic standards. Contrary to previous studies which state that high achieving blacks are viewed as "acting white," Burstion-Young says the black students identified with black culture through association with consumer culture, such as fashion and music, as well as slang and social circles. The students who did not connect to black culture on these levels were viewed as "acting white" – academic achievement (or lack thereof) had little to do with it. In at least one case in this study, an African-American student became so integrated into the white community that she lost her connectedness to her own family and culture, greatly upsetting the family and, Burstion-Young says, eliminating the spirit of integration in creating a generation of bridge-builders across cultures, identifying with each other but accepting and respecting cultural differences.
Integration – Burstion-Young says she found that most of the students actually strived to be bi-cultural or integrated in their dealings with people. Almost all of them placed a great deal of value on being connected with their own black culture and also with the majority (white) culture. She states that they felt that the former was necessary in order for them to have a support system, and that the latter was necessary in order to learn how to be successful in "the real world." Because the students valued being bicultural, associating with white students was not enough to be considered "acting white." Exclusive association with whites was the determining factor.
Separation – During school visits, separation between the races was particularly noted during time spent in the school cafeteria. "Separation is an important strategy for cultivating and maintaining a sense of black culture and while many school officials and white students discourage it on principle," writes Burstion-Young, "most of the black students realize that by not engaging with the black group, they risk being completely ostracized in the long run."
Marginalization – An example would be a shy student representing the only African-American in an AP class. Yet, the same student could be included in extracurricular activities or join African-American friends for lunch in the school cafeteria.
In conclusion, Burstion-Young states that separation seems to be the most popular coping strategy for the social space of students outside of their prep school environments. "The black students in this study were very interested in spending their 'free time' with family, friends and neighbors outside of school," states Bastion-Young. "Because our most intimate connections with people tend to happen intra-racially, the family, friends and neighbors they sought during their free time were overwhelmingly of the same race as themselves."
During school hours, the study revealed that social separation was more likely to occur due to lack of access to the majority/minority, such as not being invited to parties; a lack of interest in the social majority/minority, such as displaying no interest in attending a party or event that crossed racial lines; or preoccupation with one's own culture so that students were not purposefully excluding the other race, but not actively including them.
"For all of these reasons, the terms of most of the school life of blacks seem to be dictated by the dominant culture," writes Burstion-Young. "Therefore many of the students feel they must be instrumental in seeking a black cultural space. When they do, the black students themselves are often accused of being the sole cause of racial separation which I refer to as the 'self segregation paradox,' because it obscures the role the dominant group has in maintaining social separation."
"One of the most important findings of this study," writes Burstion-Young, "is that most students simultaneously use a variety of different coping strategies, but they do so in somewhat different combinations for somewhat different reasons. At the center of their negotiations, however, is an overall concern with identity; more specifically, their coping strategies are geared towards reconciling different, and sometimes contradictory, expectations on identity."
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By Shaun McKinnon, The Arizona Republic
Researchers at Northern Arizona University think they may have found an environmentally safe and readily available weapon against the tree-eating armies of bark beetles that have chewed through millions of acres of the pine forests in the West.
It is, with apologies to the boys from Liverpool, the music of the beetles.
NAU's School of Forestry was on the hunt for ways to fight the marauding bugs, which have killed nearly 80 million ponderosa, pinyon and lodgepole pines in Arizona and New Mexico and tens of millions more across the West over the past decade.
SCIENCE FAIR: An experiment in science, space and discovery
GREEN HOUSE: Small victories... a greener life
Research assistant Reagan McGuire suggested using sounds to aggravate the beetles. The researchers tried Queen and Guns N' Roses and played snippets of radio talker Rush Limbaugh backward. None produced the desired results.
Then, the beetles were exposed to digitally altered recordings of their own calls, the sounds they make to attract or repel other beetles. The response was immediate. The beetles stopped mating or burrowing. Some fled and some attacked each other.
Most important, they stopped chewing away at the pine tree, suggesting that the scientists may have discovered a sort of sonic bullet that could help slow the beetles' destructive march.
"Our interest is to use acoustic sounds that make beetles uncomfortable and not want to be in that environment," said NAU forest entomologist Richard Hofstetter, who led the experiment nicknamed, without apology, "beetle mania."
The researchers collected tree trunks infested with bark beetles and sandwiched slices of the trees between clear plastic plates. Working in the lab, McGuire piped in the music.
He watched the reaction of the beetles using a microscope. When the rock music failed, McGuire and Hofstetter recorded the sounds of the beetles and played them back.
"We could use a particular aggression call that would make the beetles move away from the sound," Hofstetter said. When they made the beetle sounds louder and stronger than a typical male mating call, he said, the female beetle rejected the male and moved toward the electronic sound.
The researchers manipulated the sounds further and, at a certain point, the male stopped mating and tore the female apart, McGuire said.
"This is not normal behavior in the natural world," he said.
Questions remain about why and how the sonic attacks work. The lab hopes to find more funding to continue its research into acoustic pest control, Hofstetter said.
Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more. | <urn:uuid:78054262-fb95-4267-8401-8641e463e054> | {
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Quercus Publishing Plc (August 21, 2008)
A From the ancient origins of astronomy to the Copernican revolution, and from Galileo to Hawking’s research into black holes, “The Story of Astronomy” charts the discoveries of some of the greatest minds in human history, and their attempts to unveil the secrets of the stars. Peter Aughton’s trademark narrative style is to the fore, demystifying some of the biggest breakthroughs in the history of science, and packed full of fascinating nuggets such as why we have 60 minutes in an hour, how the Romans bodged the invention of the leap year and when people really discovered the Earth wasn’t flat (a thousand years before Columbus).And explaining in the most straightforward and compelling of ways what Newton, Einstein, Hubble and Hawking really achieved. Richly informative and readable, “Star Sight” is a fascinating journey through 3000 years of stargazing. Included are chapters on: The Origins of Astronomy, Finding Longitude, From Babylon to Ancient Greece, Einstein, The Almagest, Hubble’s Universe, Persian Stargazing, The Microcosm and the Macrocosm, Nicholas Copernicus, Beyond the Visible Spectrum, Tycho and Kepler, Black Holes and Quasars Galileo Stephen, Hawking Newton and The Clockwork, Universe, The Moment of Creation, William Herschel, and The Future. | <urn:uuid:9b12b3ff-0d2a-4957-b277-4c8f03e52306> | {
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The first ever vaccine for drug addiction has just been created. By combining a cocaine-like molecule with part of the common cold virus, you get a vaccine that turns the immune system against cocaine, keeping it away from the brain.
So far, the vaccine has only been tested on mice, but the results are extraordinary. Mice given the vaccine no longer exhibited any of the hyperactive signs of a cocaine high when they were next given the drug. The vaccine was created by taking just the part of the cold virus that alerts the body's immune system to its presence, and then researchers connected the signalling mechanism to a more stable version of the cocaine molecule.
Once the mice received an injection of the vaccine, they started producing anti-cocaine antibodies which targeted and destroyed any cocaine that then entered their system. Normally, cocaine does not produce an immune response, leaving it free to wreak havoc on the brain and body of whoever takes it. But the cold virus segments taught the immune system to treat cocaine like a hostile invader, offering a nearly impregnable wall of protection from the cocaine's effects.
Researcher Ronald Crystal explains what this means:
"Our very dramatic data shows that we can protect mice against the effects of cocaine, and we think this approach could be very promising in fighting addiction in humans. While other attempts at producing immunity against cocaine have been tried, this is the first that will likely not require multiple, expensive infusions, and that can move quickly into human trials. There is currently no FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved vaccine for any drug addiction.The vaccine may help [drug addicts] kick the habit, because if they use cocaine, an immune response will destroy the drug before it reaches the brain's pleasure center. | <urn:uuid:c32e4350-af55-4a8e-b3b7-bf4567463e03> | {
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52) Iceland at 65 degrees North latitude is home to 870 species of native plants and abundant various animal life. Compare this with the Isle of Georgia at just 54 degrees South latitude where there are only 18 species of native plants and animal life is almost non-existent. The same latitude as Canada or England in the North where dense forests of various tall trees abound, the infamous Captain Cook wrote of Georgia that he was unable to find a single shrub large enough to make a toothpick! Cook wrote, “Not a tree was to be seen. The lands which lie to the south are doomed by nature to perpetual frigidness - never to feel the warmth of the sun’s rays; whose horrible and savage aspect I have not words to describe. Even marine life is sparse in certain tracts of vast extent, and the sea-bird is seldom observed flying over such lonely wastes. The contrasts between the limits of organic life in Arctic and Antarctic zones is very remarkable and significant.”
15. The idea that, instead of sailing horizontally round the Earth, ships are taken down one side of a globe, then underneath, and are brought up on the other side to get home again, is, except as a mere dream, impossible and absurd! And, since there are neither impossibilities nor absurdities in the simple matter of circumnavigation, it stands without argument, a proof that the Earth is not a globe.
In Mr. Proctor's "Lessons in Astronomy," page 15, a ship is represented as sailing away from the observer, and it is given in five positions or distances away on its journey. Now, in its first position, its mast appears above the horizon, and, consequently, higher than the observer's line of vision. But, in its second and third positions, representing the ship as further and further away, it is drawn higher and still higher up above the line of the horizon! Now, it is utterly impossible for a ship to sail away from an observer, under the, conditions indicated, and to appear as given in the picture. Consequently, the picture is a misrepresentation, a fraud, and a disgrace. A ship starting to sail away from an observer with her masts above his line of sight would appear, indisputably, to go down and still lower down towards the horizon line, and could not possibly appear - to anyone with his vision undistorted - as going in any other direction, curved or straight. Since, then the design of the astronomer-artist is to show the Earth to be a globe, and the points in the picture, which would only prove the Earth to be cylindrical if true, are NOT true, it follows that the astronomer-artist fails to prove, pictorially, either that the Earth is a globe or a cylinder, and that we have, therefore, a reasonable proof that the Earth is not. a globe.
142) People claim that if the Earth were flat, they should be able to use a telescope and see clear across the oceans! This is absurd, however, as the air is full of precipitation especially over the oceans, and especially at the lowest, densest layer of atmosphere is NOT transparent. Picture the blurry haze over roads on hot, humid days. Even the best telescope will blur out long before you could see across an ocean. You can, however, use a telescope to zoom in MUCH more of our flat Earth than would be possible on a ball 25,000 miles in circumference.
Richard "Rick" Davies (born 22 July 1944) is an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as the founder, vocalist and keyboardist of progressive rock band Supertramp. He is the only original member of the band who is still active with them, and has, besides Roger Hodgson, also composed quite a few of their major hits, including "Rudy", "Bloody Well Right", "Ain't Nobody But Me", "Another Man's Woman", "Downstream", "From Now On", "Gone Hollywood", "Goodbye Stranger", "Just Another Nervous Wreck", "Cannonball", "Better Days", "Brother Where You Bound", and "I'm Beggin' You". He is generally noted for his rhythmic blues piano solos and jazz-tinged progressive rock compositions and cynical lyrics.
One of the most asked questions about the Flat Earth is how Eclipses work on the flat earth model. This topic is even more popular now because of the soon coming total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017, across North America. This article will explain different theories on how the solar and lunar eclipses work and will also address how and why they do not work on the Globe model. Even though the eclipses are proclaimed as difficult to explain on the flat earth and therefore proof that the flat earth theory is false, in actuality the Eclipses when examined closely prove the Globe model completely false and impossible and the earth to be a flat stationary plane.
77.) "Oh, but if the Earth is a plane, we could go to the edge and tumble over!" is a very common assertion. This is a conclusion that is formed too hastily, and facts overthrow it. The Earth certainly is, what man by his observation finds it to be, and what Mr. Proctor himself says it "seems" to be. flat – and we cannot cross the icy barrier which surrounds it. This is a complete answer to the objection, and, of course, a proof that Earth is not a globe.
32.) It is often said that, if the Earth were flat, we could see all over it! This is the result of ignorance. If we stand on the level surface a plain or a prairie, and take notice, we shall find that the horizon is formed at about three miles all around us: that is, the ground appears to rise up until, at that distance, it seems on a level with the eye-line or line of sight. Consequently, objects no higher than we stand – say, six feet – and which are at that distance (three miles), have reached the "vanishing point," and are beyond the sphere of our unaided vision. This is the reason why the hull of a ship disappears (in going away from us) before the sails; and, instead of there being about it the faintest shadow of evidence of the, Earth's rotundity, it is a clear proof that Earth is not a globe.
If the Earth were a globe, people - except those on the top - would, certainly, have to be "fastened" to its surface by some means or other, whether by the "attraction" of astronomers or by some other undiscovered and undiscoverable process! But, as we know that we simply walk on its surface without any other aid than that which is necessary for locomotion on a plane, it follows that we have, herein, a conclusive proof that Earth is not a globe.
In 1966 he became the organist for The Lonely Ones (best known for being one of Noel Redding's first bands, though Redding had left by the time Davies joined), who later changed their name to The Joint and recorded the soundtracks for a number of German films. He later confessed that he lied about his abilities to get into the group, admitting he couldn't actually play the organ at the time. While the band was in Munich, Davies met Dutch millionaire Stanley August Miesegaes, who offered to fund him if he started a new group.
59.) Mr. Proctor says.- "The Sun is so far off that even moving from one side of the Earth to the other does not cause him to be seen in a different direction – at least the difference is too small to be measured." Now, since we know that north of the equator, say 45 degrees, we see the Sun at mid-day to the south, and that at the same distance south of the equator we see the Sun at mid-day to the north, our very shadows on the round cry aloud against the delusion of the day and give us a proof that Earth is not a globe.
166) The “geostationary communications satellite” was first created by Freemason science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke and supposedly became science-fact just a decade later. Before this, radio, television, and navigation systems like LORAN and DECCA were already well-established and worked fine using only ground-based technologies. Nowadays huge fibre-optics cables connect the internet across oceans, gigantic cell towers triangulate GPS signals, and ionospheric propagation allows radio waves to be bounced all without the aid of the science-fiction best-seller known as “satellites.”
160) It is impossible for rockets or any type of jet propulsion engines to work in the alleged non-atmosphere of vacuum space because without air/atmosphere to push against there is nothing to propel the vehicle forwards. Instead the rockets and shuttles would be sent spinning around their own axis uncontrollably in all directions like a gyroscope. It would be impossible to fly to the Moon or go in any direction whatsoever, especially if “gravity” were real and constantly sucking you towards the closest densest body.
20. The common sense of man tells him - if nothing else told him - that there is an "up" and a "down" in -nature, even as regards the heavens and the earth; but the theory of modern astronomers necessitates the conclusion that there is not: therefore, 'the theory of the astronomers is opposed to common sense - yes, and to inspiration - and this is a common sense proof that the Earth is not a globe | <urn:uuid:d39fa5d9-2cca-4804-af84-7c656184334f> | {
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We’re on the edge of the twentieth century and Mayor James Phelan of San Francisco concludes that without abundant water and electrical power San Francisco is stymied. He fixes his thirsty gaze upon Hetch Hetchy 200 miles east,, a U-shaped glacial valley in the Sierra, flat-floored and hemmed by 2,500-foot granite cliffs. Through it flows the abundant waters of the Tuolumne river. Problem: Hetch-Hetchy lies within the bounds of Yosemite National Park, and conservationists led by John Muir vow a fight to the death to save the valley.
After an epic struggle Congress passes the Raker Act in 1913, which okays the construction of a dam that will inundate Hetch Hetchy. Muir dies the following year. Rep. John Raker, in whose district Yosemite lies, is a progressive, a profound believer in public power. Under the terms of his act the feds will waive Hetch Hetchy’s protected status to San Francisco. The dam must be used not only to store water but also to generate electric power. This power must be sold directly to the citizens of San Francisco through a municipal power agency at the cheapest possible rates. Publicly-owned water and electrical energy will free the city from one another progressive congressman calls “the thralldom … of a remorseless private monopoly.” If San Francisco does not honor the terms of the Raker Act, it will lose the federal waiver.
By the early-twenties San Francisco is watering itself with the Tuolumne, and it has built a powerhouse at Moccasin Creek to use the Tuolumne’s pent up power. It buys hundreds of miles of copper wire to run that power into the city. Pending completion of the power lines, it agrees to sell the hydro-power to a rapidly growing utility company called Pacific Gas & Electric, which will use its grid to carry the power to San Francisco, at which point PG&E would sell the power back to the citizenry at an outrageous mark-up. The city continues to construct its own grid, but by this time PG&E has city government in its pocket. The city manages to get its grid as near to San Francisco as a PG&E switching station and then the money runs out. The public’s copper wire goes into storage.
The camel’s nose is in under the tent and there it stays. In the Roosevelt era Interior Secretary Harold Ickes fights a tenacious struggle, capped by a favorable US Supreme Court decision in the early 1940s, to force San Francisco to abide by the terms of the Raker Act. PG&E’s mayors, newspapers, public utility commissioners, city supervisors and legislators steadfastly thwart the bonds required to finance a municipally owned utility.
Years go by. The Raker Act is all but forgotten. PG&E rules supreme. In the mid-1960s a young muckraker called Bruce Brugmannn comes to San Francisco. He’s grown up in Rock Rapids, Iowa, a public power town. He’s gone to school in Nebraska, thanks to George Norris a public power state. He founds the San Francisco Bay Guardian and by the late 1960s is deep into the PG&E wars. By now the utility is trying to build a nuclear power station at Bodega Bay. Joe Neilands and Charlie Smith, respectively a UC biochemist and an organizer, mount a successful battle against PG&E’s plan. In the course of this campaign Neilands disinters the hidden history of the Raker Act and Brugmann publishes the story.
Let Brugmann carry our drama forward.
“What heated me up and got me increasingly angry over the years was that this was a structural scandal of epic proportion. PG&E had stolen hundreds of millions of dollars down the years. But it was verboten to discuss PG&E publicly. The phrase is, When PG&E spits, city hall swims. The company had wired the city, put out thousands of dollars to various civic groups. It controlled the grand jury, and to a large extent the judiciary. Then the downtown boys managed to put in at-large elections in San Francisco, meaning candidates had to raise large sums. That slowed us down for a generation.
“Finally we got district elections again. That changed the rules of the game. Now we have a more progressive board of supervisors, beholden to constituents and their districts. Then we won a sunshine ordinance. We got it through in ’93 but City Hall loopholed it. In ’99 we renewed and strengthened it. Our coalition’s third element was to build a public power movement. We decided to push for a municipal utility district. The best example is the one in Sacramento. The McClatchy family’s Bee newspapers got it through there.
“All the time we were up against the entire infrastructure of the city, which still has the PG&E stamp on its logo. But we we found the right formula. Our coalition got the 24,000 signatures last year. We dealt with each and every condition the city attorney imposed. Then, in the first district elections in years, our slate won, so we suddenly have a progressive 9-2 majority. At the Guardian we’ve tied down every supe to a pledge to put MUD on the ballot and to support mud. We finally have a pro public power and anti-PG&E majority. Of course we still have to win the election. PG&E is lobbying behind the scenes, putting millions into the fight, even though tho it’s bankrupt. But forthe first time in our memory nobody is running on a pro PG&E platform.”
Act Three is unfinished at this time, but if ever there was a favorable moment, it’s surely now. When PG&E successfully pushed deregulation through the California legislature in the mid-1990s it surely slapped itself on the back for a master stroke. The public would pick up the tab for the company’s vast losses in nuclear power. Nationally, the Clinton administration was ushering in a whole new era of energy deregulation. The public power crowd were hemmed in and “green” outfits like the Environmental Defense Fund and Natural Resources Defense Council actually in the vanguard of the dereg movement.
Now we have California state attorney general Bill Lockyer pushing a criminal investigation into the conspiracy to hike energy prices in California. Among the big questions: Is PG&E a shark that got chewed by bigger sharks from Houston, like Enron, or did the utility simply shuffle its money elsewhere on the Monopoly board and then declare bankruptcy? Almost a century after Raker sought to write public power into the history of San Francisco, the tide is maybe turning, and we have long-range populist campaigners like Brugmannn and the Bay Guardian and its reporters like Tim Redmond and Savannah Blackwell to thank for it. CP | <urn:uuid:b78fa23b-1134-4361-965b-fb0319be4cdd> | {
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Satellite imagery and data are widely used in public health surveillance to provide early warning of disease outbreaks and for averting pandemics. Convergence of these technologies began in the 1970s and has gained wide acceptance in the 21st Century.
Environmental Tracking for Public Health Surveillance focuses on the expanding use of satellite sensor imagery and long-term spectral measurements for assessing and modelling Earth’s environments in context of public health surveillance. It addresses vector-borne, air-borne, water-borne, and zoonotic diseases, and explores analytical methods for forecasting environmental conditions and their potential for consequent disease outbreaks. Infectious and contagious diseases are of particular interest in this volume because once parasite-vector-human host pathways are triggered by favourable biological circumstances, pandemic diseases can spread to global scale in a matter of hours. The chapters advance readers through three sets of material. Part I reviews the 1970-2012 history of satellite Earth-science surveillance technology that led to linking natural environments to human diseases, and more generally to public health applications. Part II describes specific infectious and contagious diseases and the threat of emerging and re-emerging diseases. Part III explores the kinds of satellite data, modelling, and electronic information systems being developed to expedite health intercessions and responses at local to regional and global scales of reference. Equally important are the extensive reference sections for chapters in Parts II and III. For readers interested in tracking the development of Earth-science technology, these constitute a thorough entrée to both the health and environmental literature.
The chapters are written jointly by experts in both the health and Earth-science technologies. Each chapter is accompanied by an extensive list of citations to provide background and validation of the current state-of-the-art for a variety of high-interest human diseases and associated health and well-being issues. The importance of day-to-day weather patterns, the impacts of severe weather events and longer-term climate cycles form the basis for developing information systems that meet goals and expectations of national and international health monitoring bodies.
Environmental Tracking for Public Health Surveillance provides a state-of-the-art overview on how environmental tracking data from satellite, airborne, and ground-based sensors are being integrated into appropriate geophysical and spatial information system models to enhance public health surveillance and decision-making from local to global levels, and is intended primarily for a cross-disciplinary professional audience consisting of public health decision-makers, spatial data analysts, modelers, Earth observation specialists, and medical researchers.
"Environmental Tracking for Public Health Surveillance not only bridges the gap between the fields of satellite Earth observations and environmental and public health sciences, but also presents innovative applications of satellite-based Earth observation data in monitoring and forecasting of diverse vector-borne diseases while also highlighting efforts for better management of factors that comprise public health."
"The justification of this edition goes well beyond the need to bridge the gap betwee the fields of satellite remote sensing, environmental and public health sciences, and provide yet another book of compiled works of quality applied research. The book is well-organized and information is presented in a format to be quite ueseful as a valuable reference for anyone who is interested in the applications of satellite remote sensing in public health science research."
Mahtab A. Lodhi, University of New Orleans, in Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing journal, October 2013.
List of contributors
Part I Introduction
Earth observing data for health applications
S.A. Morain & A.M. Budge
Part II Infectious and contagious diseases in the environment
Vector-borne infectious diseases and influenza
Water, water quality and health
S.I. Zeeman & P.Weinstein
Air quality and human health
D.W. Griffin & E.N. Naumova
Emerging and re-emerging diseases
Part III Data, modelling, and information systems
Data discovery, access and retrieval
Environmental modelling for health
S.A. Morain, S. Kumar & T.J. Stohlgren
Early warning systems
P. Ceccato & S.J. Connor
Towards operational forecasts of algal blooms and pathogens
Information and decision support systems
ISPRS Book Series
The International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Book Series comprises significant scientific publications in photogrammetry and remote sensing, and related disciplines. Each volume in the series is prepared independently and focuses on a topical theme. Volumes are published on an occasional basis, according to the emergence of noteworthy scientific developments. The material included within each volume is peer-reviewed rigorously, ensuring strong scientific standards. | <urn:uuid:d6278ab2-37c0-4b1c-9fc4-dbdc9b0b7aad> | {
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Stephen Ansell, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, explains the 2 main types of patients with Waldenström Macroglobulinemia (WM), a rare type of slow-growing, non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Some types of WM present with very few symptoms and are generally only detected because the monoclonal immunoglobulin M antibody, or macroglobulin, protein that is overproduced in WM is detected. This type is generally referred to as indolent WM and may not require therapy, these patients are generally monitored without being treated and will not require treatment for many years.
Patients with WM that present symptoms, which includes weakness, swollen lymph nodes, severe fatigue, nose bleeds, weight loss, and visual and neurological problems, require treatment. Treatment will begin with plasmapheresis followed by chemotherapy plus rituximab.
An improved assay for assessing MRD status in patients with multiple myeloma is contributing to the momentum for using MRD as a surrogate endpoint for survival in clinical trials and as a tool with the potential to help guide therapy choices.
Five early-phase clinical trials exploring chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy have been suspended temporarily in response to the deaths of 2 patients with adult B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia | <urn:uuid:47fea443-61dc-4a1c-8a56-6d277dab7433> | {
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Before passage of the landmark McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act by the U.S. Congress in 1987, more than half of homeless children did not go to school on a regular basis. To see that all children were provided equal access to a free and appropriate education, the McKinney-Vento legislation was enacted that established a federal definition of a "homeless" individual and set out a number of mandates as follows:
- The U.S. Secretary of Education must provide states with grants to offer education services to homeless children
- States must ensure homeless children have equal access to a free, appropriate public education and must enact policies to fulfill this obligation
- Every state must establish an Office of Coordinator for Education of Homeless Children and Youths to oversee state activities, collect data on homeless children in the state, and adopt and carry out a state plan for provision of homeless education services. This office also is required to disburse need-based sub-grants to local education agencies (LEAs) for homeless education programs and activities, on the basis of the homeless youth enrollment within a given district and LEA capacity to provide services to this population. (All LEAs in every state must meet responsibilities specified in the act, regardless of whether or not they receive funds under this act)
- Homeless preschoolers must have a right to a free and appropriate public preschool education (added in 1994 amendment)
- Coordination must take place between school systems and housing authorities (1994 amendment).
Just as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 made substantial changes to the general K-12 education landscape in the United States, so did it modify the McKinney-Vento legislation, which was reauthorized in sections 1031-1034 of the act. Among the significant changes, the new language:
- Changes the definition of "homeless children and youths" to include those sharing housing with family (other than parent/guardian) or others due to "loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason"
- Expressly forbids homeless children from being placed in segregated classes or schools as a result of their homeless status
- Mandates states and districts to adopt language requiring homeless children, upon the parent or liaison's request, to be provided transportation to and from the child's school of origin
- When there is disagreement over school assignment of a homeless child, the child is to be placed in the district requested by the parent or guardian, at least until the dispute is resolved
- Requires school placement to be based on what is in the child's "best interest" — and, to the extent possible, schools must seek to keep the child in the school of origin as long as this is not against the wishes of the parent or guardian
- Requires every LEA, regardless of whether it receives a homeless education sub-grant, to designate a local liaison for homeless children and youth.
Homeless children generally face obvious hardship — frequent mobility, poor nutrition, substandard living conditions, emotional stress and lack of access to health care — in their lives away from school, resulting in unique and sometimes significant academic, health, developmental, psychological and emotional problems in the education setting. While these challenges are not insurmountable, state policymakers must be aware of the singular obstacles faced by this sector of the student population and strive to ensure these children receive a quality educational experience in a secure environment to mitigate, and potentially even overcome, the damage done by homelessness. | <urn:uuid:ea0ecd56-7b5e-4698-95eb-f4c0ba9dad44> | {
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Which Joe gave his name to ‘sloppy joes’? We look at five interesting sandwiches and their lexical origins.
[mass noun] A white or reddish mineral consisting of a hydrated chloride of potassium and magnesium.
- ‘Its most common ores are lepidolite, carnallite, and pollucite.’
- ‘The most common minerals of chlorine are halite, or rock salt, sylvite, and carnallite.’
- ‘The residue from the solution of the raw carnallite consists largely of kieserite mud C ~ IgS04.’
- ‘The crystal is actually a mixture of carnallite and salt with the proportions varying according to evaporation conditions and the stage of the evaporation process.’
- ‘Magnesium is found in seawater and as the mineral carnallite, a combination of potassium chloride and magnesium chloride, at the Stassfurt Mine in Germany.’
- ‘The extraction of salt and carnallite from the ponds will be done via heavy machines named Harvesters.’
Mid 19th century: named after Rudolf von Carnall (1804–74), German mining engineer, + -ite.
We take a look at several popular, though confusing, punctuation marks.
From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, discover surprising and intriguing language facts from around the globe.
The definitions of ‘buddy’ and ‘bro’ in the OED have recently been revised. We explore their history and increase in popularity. | <urn:uuid:973f62cf-b1b1-4206-ac00-7dcecc4619ba> | {
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October 10, 2008
Birds At Risk Indicate Government Inaction
The decline numbers of birds around the word is an indication that governments are at fault for failing to keep promises to reduce damage to nature by 2010, an international report announced on Thursday.
Escalating human populations and the destruction of forests for farming and biofuels are destroying natural habitation. This research is from a study conducted by Birdlife International.Even ordinary birds, like doves or skylarks, are growing scarcer in a disturbing indication of the destruction of nature. Birds are the most completely researched wildlife creature in the world and are an environmental measurement for change.
"Bird species are slipping faster than ever towards extinction," according to Birdlife's "State of the World's Birds" report at an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) congress in Spain.
In May, Birdlife International's statistics for an IUCN "Red List" of endangered species illustrated that one in eight, or 1,226 of almost 10,000 bird species, are in danger of becoming extinct with recent problems, such as the climate change issue.
The birds' decline demonstrated that governments are not living up to an obligation made at the U.N. Earth Summit in 2002 to accomplish a momentous decrease in the rate of loss of a variety of animals and plants by 2010, the report stated.
"With two years to go, birds are showing that we are falling far short of the target, and that, far from slowing down, the rate of biodiversity loss is still accelerating," it said.
Alison Stattersfield, who is the head of science for Birdlife and lead author of the report, said, "birds are a good indicator for the wider environment because we have such long records."
"People notice that there aren't so many birds around, even ones that are common," she added.
Amateur birdwatchers have assisted researchers produce accurate records more than for other creatures.
Stattersfield said the "Red List" has followed and tracked birds since 1988. Ever since then, 225 species have been added to the list as being greatly threatened, contrasting the 17 whose status has improved.
Since 2000, three species were under the threat of becoming extinct: Spix's macaw in Brazil, the Hawaiian crow and the poo-uli, also located in Hawaii.
Amongst bird families, 82 percent of albatrosses are in danger, 60 percent of cranes, 27 percent of parrots, 23 percent of pheasants and 20 percent of pigeons. Large birds that do not generate many eggs are most at risk.
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DVT Can Increase Heart Attack Risk
Patients who have had DVT — deep vein thrombosis — may be at higher risk for a heart attack or stroke, especially during the first year after diagnosis, according to a recently released Danish study that followed DVT patients for a 20-year period. Typically, doctors see heart attacks that are caused by blood clots in arteries, not veins. However, new research in the study shows DVTs can move to arteries even years after initially discovered, which then can cause heart attacks or strokes.
These studies show risk for heart attacks and strokes increase by 60 percent during the first year for DVT patients, when compared with non-DVT patients. After the first year, the increased risk for a heart attack or stroke decreases but remains between 20-40 percent higher than those of non-DVT patients.
DVT patients are encouraged to listen to their doctor and follow all guidance on how best to lower their individual chances for heart attack and stroke after a DVT.
There are many different strategies to lower the risk of having a heart attack or stroke. And with additional education to support the need to monitor this increased risk, those in the DVT-treatment community now know better how to help DVT patients. Patients should consult with their doctor immediately after they finish the initial treatment for DVT, as additional complications are more likely to arise the closer they are to the initial episode.
Here are some options doctors will recommend to patients after having a DVT:
- Start or continue taking blood thinning medications. Blood thinners will help reduce the formation of blood clots and promote better overall blood flow. If existing DVT clots transfer from veins to arteries, blood thinners can reduce the chance they will cause secondary issues.
- Use compression pumps and sleeves as prescribed by your physician. These at-home products allow patients to maintain their mobility while improving their safety and continuing to ensure proper blood flow.
- Add moderate exercise to a daily routine. Walking, light aerobics or swimming can be highly beneficial in lowering heart attack and stroke chances.
- Make healthy choices like quitting smoking or switching to a low-fat, high-fiber diet. Small lifestyle changes can cause great reductions in risk, especially over long periods of time.
- Have your doctor monitor your blood pressure regularly and report any history of blood clotting or heart attacks in your family history.
For more information, DVT patients should talk with their doctor to learn what medications, compression products, exercise and lifestyle choices will best lower their risk for additional complications. | <urn:uuid:72f8a62a-0daa-4996-9250-97be0d848eb2> | {
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New Holland Introduces Fuel Cell Tractor...Proves Even Farms Can Go Green
While alternative energy sources are most prominent when talking about the automotive industry, it has been reaching other places as well. A perfect example of this comes from New Holland Farm equipment and their new Hydrogen Fuel Cell Tractor.
The New Holland NH2 made its debut in Italy and could be the first steps in making agriculture even greener than it already is. Power for the NH2 is provided by a 106 horsepower electric motor that is routed to all four wheels. A hydrogen fuel cell located in the front provides energy for the electric motor. Obviously, the range of the NH2 will be less than a traditional diesel engine tractor, but with the proper amount of planning, it could easily pay for itself in less time than its fossil fuel burning brethren.
New Holland sees the NH2 as the first step in moving toward hydrogen powered equipment. They also see the future of farming relying heavily on hydrogen, as it is easy to produce and store hydrogen right on the farm.
New Holland does not plan on putting the NH2 into production until 2013. | <urn:uuid:bdca51ce-894f-43bd-9953-e029e25f09ea> | {
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The thesis writing is the long writing process unlike the any another paper writing. It requires in-depth knowledge of the topic and extensive research. Many college and universities require the students to submit the thesis as a part of their degree requirement. However, pupils get confused between dissertation and thesis. The main difference is that thesis is done at an undergraduate level and dissertation at post-graduate level. Thesis writing requires the formal writing with correct evidence to support the topic selected. Pupils must read the rules and guidelines carefully to understand what is required in the paper. Pupils must read the syllabus, notes, assignment rubrics and the other educational websites for the content to be included. The thesis must be clear and specific and must be relevant to the topic. The pupil must attend the lectures, workshops, and seminars provided by the universities to understand the basic significance and structure of the thesis. It plays a very important part in student’s academic life as it gives them the self-confidence to attempt the most difficult task that they have never done. The thesis should be original with the individual’s own perspective on the subject. Always proofread and edit the thesis written to make sure that it is error-free. Students find writing the thesis a very challenging task. There comes a time when the pupils face the writer’s block. Initially, pupils face difficulty in adjusting with such hard and laborious task. Due to lack of confidence pupils restrict themselves from writing the thesis paper. Poor learning and reading skills are also the challenge that the students come across. Since the thesis is written at undergraduate-level students lack the professional writing skills. Taking the deadlines too easy is the major mistake that the students make and this becomes the reason of the deduction in marks. Students are unable to do the extensive research on their own and write irrelevant information. The thesis is the most difficult task you ever have to deal with; we completely understand how hard it is to write the thesis. But no worries now, if you’re reading this page surely you are in need of help. Our thesis writing service is here to help to with all the zeal and confidence that will be reflected in our services. Our thesis help will get you the grades that you want. Our writers are professional in writing thesis holding the Ph.D. degree from reputed universities. They maintain the highest level of proficiency in all the subjects. They have access to all the academic resources, internet resources, scientific data etc. They will make your thesis look creative with the latest facts and evidence that will be completely relevant to your writing. All the papers are custom written by our writers; this means that every topic will be unique with new thesis statement and content. We put the time and effort in each order that we receive because the very client is important to us and your satisfaction is our main motive. You can communicate with your dissertation writer throughout the process. Our customer support service is there to help you 24/7. Fill the order form with your details. | <urn:uuid:ed8fa7b4-6084-44cb-ae42-b68f7f7c7f24> | {
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Understanding overtraining is important for better understanding effective training strategies. At its core, overtraining is really just an imbalance between stress and recovery. In order for an athlete to reach a higher level of performance, he/she requires a proper dose of training (biological stress) followed by adequate recovery. It is during the recovery cycle when super-compensation results and not during the training itself. Planning training, monitoring training and recovery, and measuring performance are keys to improving athletic performance and preventing overtraining.
It is not by chance that elite athletes undulate training more than non-elites. Proper planning of training means avoiding monotonous training plans and undulating both volume and intensity of training. This undulation occurs both within a week and within a training phase known as a mesocycle. Too often, when training is not properly planned, recovery cycles are forced due to fatigue or illness and performance gains are not realized. Many athletes are highly motivated, which can be a problem when they are planning their own training. They tend to rationalize excessive training practices and get caught up on meeting certain training parameters such as miles per week. Athletes can be self-destructive when their only solution to a poor performance is to train more, especially when they are increasing an already excessive training load.
Monitoring training and recovery are an important part of the equation. Training load is the product of frequency x duration x intensity. In order to follow the proper intensity, there needs to be a way to quantify it. Heart rate monitors, power meters, GPS devices, and perceived effort are all good examples. While measuring frequency and duration is pretty straight forward, in order to properly monitor intensity, it needs to be individualized. I like to use multiple parameters since there are limitations to each method. For example, pace might be an effective measure for a runner during a track workout, but not during a hilly run in the mountains.
Signs and symptoms of overtraining can be physiologic, psychologic, immunologic and endocrine, but it is important to note that symptoms alone can not diagnose overtraining. Ultimately, the only way to definitively diagnose overtraining is when the overtraining symptoms are accompanied by a prolonged, significant drop in performance. Simple field tests, competition, or lab testing are all examples of performance testing. These tests are also good ways to quantify relative intensity levels for training. Since many of the signs and symptoms of overtraining are also observed in well trained athletes during heavy training, frequent performance testing is important for preventing overtraining and assessing the effectiveness of training. A simple field test could be performing a known hill climb on the bike under the same conditions for time, or a 3 to 4 mile run on the track for time. Competitions themselves can also be benchmarks, especially if there is heart rate and/or power data available. Since the stress-recovery imbalance can be due to both training and non-training stress, overtraining is seen in both elite level athletes and recreational athletes. Lack of sleep, frequent competitions, travel, inadequate nutrition, change in environment, and sudden increase in non-training stress are examples of risk factors for overtraining. When recreational athletes are comparing their training load to that of professional athletes, it is important to factor in the non-training stress from work, family and life. More often it is the non-training stress that can tip the scale towards overtraining.
Unlike overtraining, planned overreaching (functional overreaching) can be an effective training strategy, especially for elite athletes. Proper periodization of training with planned periods of functional overreaching can result in superior performance without the risk of staleness. Functional overreaching involves a short term increase in training load, followed by adequate recovery. The result is a new, higher level of performance. Non-functional overreaching, on the other hand, is an increase in training load that is not followed by adequate recovery and leads to a decrease in performance. The difference between overreaching and overtraining is that overreaching is reversible in two to four weeks, whereas with overtraining it may take several months to recover.
Vail Valley resident Josiah Middaugh is an Xterra national champion as well as a coach and trainer at Dogma Athletica and a client at Vail Integrative Medical Group. He will speak at the first "Live It lecture series" presented by Dogma Athletica on Wednesday at Dogma Athletica in The Riverwalk in Edwards. The lecture series is complimentary to the public and will feature several of the practitioners from Vail Integrative Medical Group and trainers, coaches and exercise specialists from Dogma Athletica. | <urn:uuid:fa329f47-57b7-44bf-b0ea-39b54d7fcfcd> | {
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We want you to feel 100% comfortable at the dentist office. That’s why we are explaining some common dental terms. Last month we introduced the first eight terms – click here to read them. Today, we are here to follow up with some more explanations. .
Implants can be used to replace missing teeth. They are fixed under the gum line, into the underlying bone. If well maintained, dental implants can last for many years – often the rest of your life. Implants can also be used to improve the fit and comfort of removable dentures.
Jaw joints allow your mouth to open and close. When these joints, muscles, and teeth are not properly aligned, painful conditions such as TMJ disorders can develop. Dental appliances can be made to stabilize your bite and help determine if further dental treatments may be needed to keep you comfortable and pain free.
Leukoplakia are white patches that can develop on the tongue, mouth, or inside cheek. These patches can sometimes be precancerous. During regular dental exams, your dentist/hygienist will screen for oral cancer. Early detection boosts the survival rates of oral cancer, so keep those regular dental appointments.
Malocclusion occurs when the chewing or biting surfaces of your upper and lower teeth are not properly aligned. It can cause difficulties chewing food, problems biting your cheek, and even facial pain. Orthodontics, such as Invisalign, can be used to properly align your teeth.
Night guards are a type of mouthguard used to treat bruxism (teeth grinding) and clenching while you sleep. Many individuals are unaware that they grind or clench at night. Symptoms can include headaches, stress, anxiety, ear aches, and jaw joint pain.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea is a serious condition where people stop breathing for short periods while sleeping, causing them to wake-up briefly gasping for breath. This can have serious health consequences. Dental appliances can be used to help people sleep better and feel more energized throughout the day.
Periodontal disease (gum disease) occurs when plaque (a sticky, colourless film) is not properly removed though daily brushing and flossing. This bacteria can cause gums to inflame and can also destroy the fibres and bone that hold the tooth in place.
Quadrant is one of the four divided parts of the mouth. There are two in the upper part of your mouth, left and right, and two in the lower.
If you have any questions about any of the dental terms above or about anything that we didn’t mention, please contact our office at (514) 364-3366 or click here to visit our website. Also be sure to visit our Facebook page to keep up with information that affect your dental health and wellness. | <urn:uuid:09855a37-ac07-42d0-bde0-fd5aacb47b26> | {
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Frequently Asked Questions about insoles
What are insoles?
An insole is a contoured orthotic device which alters the characteristics and biomechanics of the foot and ankle area. Biomechanics are concerned with mechanical laws and how they affect the living body, especially the musculoskeletal system.
They are removable devices, often made from plastic, that are designed to fit inside a shoe to provide additional support for your feet. As well as offering shock absorption, an insole can help distribute the weight of your body more effectively across the foot and can be made bespoke to cover a range of biomechanical conditions.
How do I know I need insoles?
If you have symptoms in your feet, ankles, hips or your lower back that are intermittent or were not there to start with in early life, and have started to cause you pain over a period of time, bespoke orthotic insoles could be an excellent option.
If you have already tried rest, icing, compression and elevation and your feet have not recovered, we recommend a biomechanical assessment to consider the possibility of insoles. They are a non-invasive approach to treatment and in many cases, are a great option for symptoms that are not severe enough to warrant surgical intervention. Alternatively, they can be considered as an option prior to surgery.
We will send patients away when an insole is not appropriate, if a patient is suffering with iliotibial band syndrome for example, the problem can be helped with physiotherapy and a stretching programme. That’s what our biomechanical assessment is all about; determining whether there would be any benefit from altering the alignment of your feet.
Why can’t I just buy an off-the-shelf pair?
You can, and in some circumstances a non-custom pair will resolve symptoms if the main problem is mainly to do with cushioning. Bespoke orthotic insoles provide an effective alternative once you have tried off-the-shelf orthotics and you can see some improvement in your symptoms, but not enough to feel like you can go about daily activities or return to sport for example. At this point, increasing the biomechanical support of the foot could be a way forward.
What are insoles made of?
Insoles are made from varying densities of a plastic called ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) which is a plastic that can be reinforced if necessary. The density changes depending on the amount of cushioning and support required, and can be split throughout any one insole. Higher density EVA will often be used towards the back of the foot, where more support is generally required, and lower density EVA to the forefoot where more cushioning is needed.
We can also produce insoles from carbon fibre which are suited to more supportive orthoses, however carbon fibre cannot be manipulated once it has been milled out. While it provides excellent support, it is not always the most appropriate of materials.
I’ve read that insoles do not work. Why should I buy yours?
Every physical and medical intervention carries a risk of ineffectiveness, even surgery as the most extreme form can fail. There is substantially more scientific evidence for the efficacy of bespoke foot orthotics than not, and our clinicians have successfully treated countless patients for a range of conditions over the years, all using our bespoke orthotic insoles.
It is important to acknowledge the difference between custom-made insoles and pre-fabricated, ‘off-the-shelf’ insoles which can be purchased cheaply. We offer an orthotic insole service that is thorough and takes a detailed look at your feet using advanced orthotic technology and software. We believe this gives us a leading advantage over other clinics. That combined with our highly qualified team means we can design orthotic insoles of the best quality and see them through to their manufacture, all onsite, which means the chances of finding a successful resolution to the problem are greater.
I don’t have a specific condition but I have backache. Could insoles help?
Many common foot conditions can lead to irregular posture, back pain and gait (walking pattern) including plantar fasciitis, bunions, overpronation (when the foot rolls inwards as you walk) or supination (foot rolls outwards). Compromised posture in the back, particularly in the lower back, can often be a result of poor alignment in the feet.
In theory, any biomechanical malfunction in the foot or ankle can result in poor posture and back pain, as well as the knees and hips. If a bespoke insole can realign the joints and allow the soft tissue in the back to heal, this can reduce pain. Once we have carried out a biomechanical assessment, we can establish whether you would benefit from bespoke insoles.
How long do they take to make?
It largely varies dependent on the patient’s individual requirements, but often our insoles can be made on the same day or as quickly as the next.
We do offer our express insole service which takes 2 hours from initial assessment to manufacture and fitting. We open late on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings late until 19:00 to accommodate for people who would like the express service after working hours.
How long does a bespoke foot orthotic usually last?
Usually about 3 years, though this will be longer if two pairs of insoles are being used at the same time.
If symptoms change or return, that’s normally an indicator that the insoles are beginning to bear down at which point you will need them replacing. Though this varies from patient to patient, and is dependent on activity level, bone density and the problem experienced in the first place. Runners insoles are made from lower density material and will experience higher usage, so may wear down more quickly.
Do insoles need adjusting over their lifetime?
No, they do not need adjusting over their lifetime unless they become ineffective or damaged.
They may require adjustments before they are effective so we review all patients at 6 weeks and give them open access to the clinician treating them prior to that 6-week review, should any adjustments be required. At 6 weeks, we hope to have a patient who has been using the insoles continuously between 2-4 weeks and we can then establish how they are using them and evaluate their efficacy long term.
Do I wear them all day?
It depends upon when the problem occurs. If you are only having problems during high end sport it maybe that you only have to wear them during that specific activity. However often we recommend wearing them as much as you can, at least 70% of the time or more. We recommend you wear them in the shoes you typically wear for your highest level of activity or for the longest period of time. It is important to consider which shoes you wear the most often before your initial assessment.
Will my insoles fit in all my shoes?
Insoles can be made to fit into any shoe, but will be designed to be worn in one pair of shoes that you wear most of the time, or for a specific activity which aggravates your symptoms. Some shoes are easier to fit with orthotics than others, such as trainers, walking boots and flat plimsoles. Your choice of shoe also effects the way the insole is manufactured and will be discussed during your initial assessment. A men’s Italian dress shoe, for example, will require a smaller insole than that of a running shoe. We then must determine which one represents usage 70% of the time and then we can make an insole appropriate to that shoe.
Can I wear insoles with high heels?
Yes, over the years we have developed numerous insoles for those who need to wear high heels for work, or spend a lot of time in them. We have fitted insoles into ladies court shoes on several occasions, though the more fitted the shoe, the more difficult it is to wear an insole with it. The more specific the insole requirement, the more specific the insole must be. Speak to one of our clinicians if you would like advice on orthotics for a specific shoe type.
How much do your insoles cost?
Standard Insole Service: £400
This includes the cost of the initial assessment, scan, manufacture and separate fitting appointment, as well as any additional appointments required to modify them in the first 6 week period.
Express Insole Service: £480
This includes our unique, while-you-wait service which we can complete – from initial assessment to manufacture and fitting – in just two hours. There is no need for a second appointment for the final fitting.
Standard Service with Two Pairs of Insoles: £530
This includes the cost of the initial assessment, scan, manufacture and separate fitting appointment, any additional appointments required to modify them in the first 6 week period as well as an extra pair of insoles which can be designed for a separate pair of shoes.
Do you make insoles for children?
Yes. We rarely treat children under the age of two, and, normally between 2 and 5 if a child is experiencing painful symptoms, as the feet need time to develop. An insole can be used to abate symptoms if they are having a negative impact on their functional ability.
If there is a family history of foot problems or gross hypermobility, we can assess the child to see whether they are experiencing globalised pain across the whole body, at which point insoles may be able to help. When children are growing that should be considered as well. We see a lot of patients who have symptoms, particularly during an adolescent growth spurt, that become exacerbated because the feet are under a great deal more stress than they would be during early childhood, or once they become skeletally mature.
Can insoles damage your feet?
Yes – if insoles are prescribed incorrectly they can make existing symptoms worse or cause different symptoms to occur. Therefore it is essential that you have a consultation with a trained, experienced orthotist and return for a review soon after your initial fitting. And remember to contact us if your insoles start to wear out.
What’s the last appointment time I can have?
Our Kingston clinic closes at 17:00 but we are available for evening appointments late on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays until 19:00.
What are the differences between running shop insoles and those manufactured at LOC?
Most people visiting running shops are offered insoles as part of a deal when buying new trainers but often do not have anything necessarily wrong with their feet, they are asymptomatic. The insoles supplied by most running shops have standard contouring under the plantar surface – or the sole – and will be determined by looking at the foot on a treadmill. Normally you will be given one of three grades of insole that have a non-specific profile. They are designed to be more flat, so that they do not cause any problems when you start running in them.
At best, they can offer cushioning, but they are unlikely to treat any specific conditions or symptoms you may be suffering from, as ultimately runner shop insoles are not manufactured for you, they are a stock product with light customisation.
The Paromed technology and software we use at LOC uses a 3D scan to take a precise copy of the bottom of your foot to work out the exact distribution of pressure, no two insoles we produce will look or perform in the same way.
What about proprioceptive insoles?
Proprioceptive insoles have specific adaptations, like nodes, added to the top surface of the insole in order to stimulate nerve clusters on the plantar surface of the foot in a different way so that when you walk, the nerves in the foot are stimulated to provide more feedback as it is bearing weight.
Proprioceptive nodes are not required for runner’s insoles but are helpful to patients with a neurological deficit. They help with sensory feedback to improve balance, and give the brain more information about your positioning every time your foot hits the ground, which should help you walk more naturally.
Can bunions be treated with insoles?
No one fully knows what causes bunions to form, certainly family history plays a part, as do ill-fitting shoes and shoes which are too narrow but also a mechanical history of overpronation, when the foot rolls inwards as you walk, can be a factor.
The technical term for bunions is hallux valgus, and although more studies are required, anecdotally we have seen that bunions can be aided by an insole holding the medial arch up for longer while walking, which can slow the rate at which a bunion develops or worsens. Although we cannot help with the hereditary aspect, we can advise on footwear and determine if the mechanics of the foot can be improved through biomechanical assessment. | <urn:uuid:a328f22e-507e-4a33-9790-3712fc371557> | {
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Scientific name: Carterocephalus palaemon
A small fast-flying butterfly, with beautiful gold and brown checked wings, confined to western Scotland.
This small, fast-flying butterfly is now restricted to damp grassy habitats in western Scotland. Males are seen more frequently than females, perching in sheltered positions either next to wood edges or amongst light scrub or bracken. They dart out to investigate passing objects, defending their territory against other males and other butterfly species, or in the hope of locating a potential mate. Females are less conspicuous and fly low among grasses when egg-laying.
The Chequered Skipper died out from England in 1976 and re-establishment trials have taken place since 1990. In Scotland, there are thought to be about ten core areas and there have been no obvious recent changes in range.
Size and Family
- Family – Skippers
- Small Sized
- Wing Span Range (male to female) - 29-31mm
- Protected under the Nature Conservation Act in Scotland
- UK BAP: Priority Species
- Butterfly Conservation priority: High
- European status: Not threatened
- Protected In Great Britain for sale only
Caterpillar Foodplant Description
The main foodplant in Scotland is Purple Moor-grass (Molinia caerulea). In England most records were on False Brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum), though a range of grasses may have been used as they are in continental Europe.
Life Cycle Habitat
In Scotland the butterfly breeds on open damp grassland, dominated by tall Purple Moor-grass. Favoured sites are on the edges of open broadleaved woodland as richer soils produce a lusher growth of the foodplant.
Former colonies in England occurred in woodland rides and glades, and occasionally in fens or ungrazed calcareous grassland amongst scrub. It may also have bred formerly in damp coppiced woodland as it does elsewhere in northern Europe.
- Countries – England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales
- Restricted to a small area of western Scotland. Formerly occurred in woodlands in eastern England but died out there in 1976.
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On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace(amazon)
Donald Kagan (View Bio)
Hardcover: Doubleday, 1994; Paperback: Anchor Books, 1996.
This book codifies one of the most popular courses given at Yale University over the last quarter century, taught by Professor of History, Classics and Western Civilization Donald Kagan. It brilliantly compares major wars from the Greek and Roman times, the two World Wars, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and several critical periods of peace. How and why wars begin, how they can be prevented, and the importance of military preparedness and political leadership, are examined in detail — with important and cautionary lessons for the leaders of tomorrow.
"Whenever a prestigious professor distills a lifetime of erudition into a single volume, it is a significant intellectual event. An expert on Greco-Roman political history at Yale, whose eminent four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War is unmatched but by that of Thucydides himself, Kagan here refines his thoughts on hostility between world powers in five case studies: the Athens-Sparta war, the Second Punic War, World Wars I and II, and the world war that wasn't — the Cuban missile crisis. As causal factors, Kagan emphasizes the 'Thucydidean triad' of honor, fear, and interest.... An incisive series of stimulating studies." — Booklist
"Vivid and vastly informative.... One of the most incisive books written on the causes of war." — San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle
"Lucid, erudite ...ambitious ...[by] one the most renowned classical scholars of this century.... a remarkable study in historical juxtaposition and analogy. Mr. Kagan's undertaking is valuable and compelling because it distills so much history into so clear and transparent a liquid." — Richard Bernstein, The New York Times
"By examining the causes of specific ancient and modern wars, Kagan tries to determine the underlying reasons for war in general.... He presents a soberly realistic, thoughtful, and well-written look at the human race's oldest scourge. " — Kirkus Reviews
"A particularly timely masterpiece ...brilliantly examines the origins of four major conflicts." — Los Angeles Times Book Review | <urn:uuid:60f0c53b-3937-4000-8ee8-d2e0490aa865> | {
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Humanity hasn’t been to the moon in decades, but various space agencies around the globe are planning to head back. This time it’s not just for a short visit — the plan is to build a permanent base that can act a launching pad for missions further out in the solar system. The problem is how to build a moon base without transporting all the heavy materials from Earth. The European Space Agency (ESA) thinks it’s got the solution: 3D printing.
3D printing on Earth has been used to make structures, so it is believed that the same could be done on the moon with lunar soil as the raw material. Using lunar regolith analog (basaltic rock from a volcano in Italy), researchers were able to build a massive 1.5 ton building block as a proof of concept. The design would utilize an inflatable dome to hold an atmosphere with hollow closed-cell structures printed on site.
The oversized 3D printer was supplied by UK-based Monolite. It’s a D-shaped rig with an extruder nozzle on a 6-meter wide frame. Like a 3D printer on Earth, the nozzle moves around and lays down material layer-by-layer. The machine can currently build 2-meters of wall units per-hour, but the next prototype should bump that up to 3.5 meters.
The big challenge is going to be testing the process on Earth, when the conditions on the moon are going to be so different. The lack of an atmosphere is going to make working with liquid impossible. The current process involves mixing water with the volcanic basalt, but researchers believe mixing lunar soil with magnesium oxide should produce a paper-like material that can be printed. Temperature is also a concern. The lunar surface is subject to wild swings in temperature. Setting up shop at one of the poles should provide a more moderate climate. | <urn:uuid:f79da5c3-ca0c-41cc-8a54-6cb7cf935630> | {
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Gene May Suppress Lung Cancer
In Lab Tests on Mice, Lung Cancers Were More Common Among Mice Lacking GPRC5A Gene
Nov. 13, 2007 -- Scientists have discovered a gene that may block lung cancer development and make a target for lung cancer treatment.
The gene is called Gprc5a. It's the topic of a new study from researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
They found that mice with one or two copies of that gene had fewer lung tumors than mice with no copies of the gene.
All of those mice developed normally, at first.
But in the mice's second year of life, mice lacking any copies of the Gprc5a gene developed precancerous and cancerous growths at a much higher rate than the other mice.
Reuben Lotan, PhD, and colleagues also studied lung tumors and normal lung tissue in people. In most cases, tumors showed less sign of Gprc5a activity than the normal tissue.
"Gprc5a functions as a tumor suppressor in [the] mouse lung, and human gprc5a may share this property," Lotan's team writes in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
But that doesn't mean that that particular gene makes or breaks lung cancer.
Many genes are involved in lung cancer and environmental hazards -- including cigarette smoke -- worsen the odds, notes editorialist Michael Sporn of Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H. | <urn:uuid:285068c6-4cb9-44d1-bded-118812fdb75f> | {
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The Feast of Passover
"A Time to Die"
Should Christians celebrate the feast(day) of Passover?
The Apostle Paul clearly answers the question for us: "...Christ
our passover is sacrificed for us: Therfore LET US KEEP THE FEAST...(1Co
5:7,8). But how should it be celebrated and why would
this new testament writer encourage Christian believers to celebrate
this biblical memorial day? The truth is, what we commonly refer
to today as the sacrament of the "Lord's Supper" is
the New Testament rite of Passover. In all of the prophetic pictures
and demontrations of the Old Testament, none more clearly reflects
the redemptive work of the Messiah than does Passover, for He
was to be"...the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin
of the world" (Jn 1:29). It was therfore preordained that
the Messiah would die for the sins of the world on that precise
day and that it should be regarded as a "memorial"
day (Ex 12:14).
The wise man Soloman tells us: "To everything there is
a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: A time to
be born, and time to DIE..."(Ecc 3:1, 2). The purpose of
Passover was to pinpoint the "death-day" of Him who
would be the true Messiah. Jesus was crucified on that very day.
In the book of Romans it is stated that "...in due time
(appointed time) Christ died for the ungodly" (Ro 5:6).
The Messiah was appointed to die on the Passover day and Jesus
met that appointment to perfection. The scriptures reveal that
He died on the cross "In the fourteenth day of the first
month (Nisan, or Abib) ...the LORD'S Passover (Lev 23:5).
Now let us note the relationship between the "Lord's
Passover" celebration and the "Lord's Supper."
The very first communion in the New Testament was conducted by
our Lord Himself early on the day of Passover, at the last supper
(Mt 26:19-26). In Biblical times the new day began at sundown
(6:00 p.m.) and not at midnight as we reckon it today. Jesus
and His disciples actually ate the supper shortly after 6:00
p.m. on what would be Tuesday evening to us, but the beginning
of Wednesday to them; therfore He ate the supper and was crucified
on the same Biblical day (see chronology).
In essence this was both the last and the first supper. It was
to be the last time that the Old Testament order of the Passover
meal using a slain lamb, bitter herbs, etc. was to be carried
out, and the first introduction of the New Testament order of
Passover using bread and wine only (1Co 11:23-27). What we refer
to today as "Lord's Supper" "Eucharist" or
"Communion" is actually the New Testament Passover.
Paul's use of these terms in speaking to the Corinthians was
not an attempt on his part to rename this feast but simply to
clarify its purpose and order. It is now the Lord's supper instead
of Moses' supper. Therfore, the sacrament of the "Lord's
Supper" should continue to be identified as the Feast of
Passover (!co 5:7, 8). In its beginning this feast day was declared
to be a feast celebrated "forever" (Ex 12:14). In fact,
Jesus tells us that it will continue to be celebrated after His
return when the international "Kindom of God" is established
upon the earth (Ex 12:14;Lk 22:16).
Annually for nearly 2,000 years a lamb had been slain on the
day of Passover, which prophetically demonstrated what would
take place concerning Jesus at Calvary, Jesus fulfilled this
prophecy on the very same day (Passover) as the "Lamb Slain"
when he was crucified. Accordingly, Christians should honor this
day as Jesus requested; "This do in remembrance of me."
Before this time it was done in remembrance of Moses and Israel's
deliverance from Egypt, but to the Christian it celebrates Jesus
and our deliverance from sin. One may contend that is is permissible
to observe Communion (Passover) any time we feel so inspired.
This is true. Under the New Covenant, we should feel at liberty
to do this by inspiration at any time of the year, but it should
not be done at the expense of ignoring the true anniversary,
Nisan 14. The specific annual date my be easily obtained from
most calendars. By honoring the correct day we are more fully
worshiping "in spirit and truth."
It is perfectly acceptable for the Jewish community to celebrate
the Sedar Meal (Jewish order) as they did in ancient times because
it was they who were delivered from Egypt and not Gentiles. Undoubtedly
it has also proven to be a learning experience for many Gentile
Christians as well. However, all believers in Messiah (both Jew
and Gentile) should observe the communion which Jesus introduced
on that memorial feast day.
MELCHIZEDEK - JESUS
"And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth BREAD and
WINE: and he was the priest of the Most High God: (Ge 14:18).
Inherent in this scripture is the prophetic reason for Jesus'
setting aside many of the trapings of the Old Testament Passover
celebration. The Apostle Paul confirms this in his letter to
"For he testifieth, Thou (Jesus) art a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek" (Heb 7:17).
The exclusive use of bread and wine as symbols for the body
and blood of our Lord at the last supper, was an indication that
Jesus was actually reinstituting the Melchizedek order of this
celebration. Today it is known to most Christians as the "Communion"
Obviously, celebrating the Passover Feast Day is not a matter
of redemption and/or salvation but rather a matter of worship,
praise and honor. This alone should be sufficient reason for
us to respect and acknowledge it. Memorial Day celebrations are
a vital part of God's eternal worship system. Why not make the
celebration of the Passover Day a part of your spiritual value
system? Jesus is worthy of this honor!
CELEBRATION OF DELIVERANCE
Passover is God's appointed Memorial day to celebrate his
ongoing work of DELIVERANCE. As Moses delivered the children
of Israel from Egyptian bondage, so also did Christ deliver humanity
from the bondage of all sin and its associated physical and spiritual
affects. Deliverance must be a continual work in the life
of every believer:
"Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth
deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us:" | <urn:uuid:ac51e316-d376-4889-a081-ebf8dea81c3d> | {
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One-Dimensional Man was written in 1964 and can be seen as an
analysis of highly developed societies. In it, Marcuse criticizes both
communist and capitalist countries for their lack of true democratic
processes. Neither type of society creates equal circumstances for its
citizens. Marcuse discusses the factors which inhibit criticism and
analysis of society. He draws on Marx
primarily because his analysis focuses on how the economy limits
potential of people.
Marcuse believes that people are not free because they function
within systems such as the economy. If people were really free, they
would be free from these systems. For example, people would only have to
work as little as possible to provide for their needs, not an
established amount of time. He states that only when people are free
from these systems can they determine what they really need or want.
Because we are not yet free, we have "false needs"... | <urn:uuid:5a0ff952-192c-49a6-bb59-a47c84b8454c> | {
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Sudden shifts in complex systems such as the climate, financial markets, ecosystems and even the human body can be preceded by surprisingly comparable warning signals. It is crucial to be able to predict such transitions, but this is notoriously difficult. In a presentation for the 2013 AAAS meeting, Marten Scheffer presents recent work revealing that systems that are on the verge of a critical transition often emit comparable signals.
At first glance, it appears improbable that a climate shift, an epileptic seizure, the collapse of a fish population or a sudden transition in a financial system have something in common. However, Marten Scheffer from Wageningen University explains that completely different systems such as the brain, the climate and financial markets obey certain universal laws when they are at a critical transition point that make it possible to recognise early warning signals. This has to do with a phenomenon that is known in mathematics as 'Critical Slowing Down', implying that recovery from small perturbations becomes slow in the vicinity of tipping points.
Since Scheffer and colleagues postulated this idea in a Nature publication in 2009, an avalanche of studies, including eight publications in Nature and Science has provided evidence. Scheffer now makes up the balance but also show that related families of generic early warning signals exist. For instance, certain universal features determine whether complex networks such as webs of species or webs of financial institutes will be robust or fragile.
Despite the overwhelming growth of evidence for these revolutionary ideas, Scheffer emphasises that the applications for universal warning signals are still in their infancy. He has launched an interdisciplinary research program 'SparcS' (http://www.sparcs-center.org/ ) that is now exploring applications in medical sciences as well as in social sciences, ecology and climate research
|Contact: Marten Scheffer|
Wageningen University and Research Centre | <urn:uuid:e00e8df1-4a9d-46e3-be0a-07271b81bed8> | {
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- Monday - Friday
July 17, 2017 - July 21, 2017
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Mandala is the Sanskrit word for circle. They have been used in both the Hindu and Buddhist religions as tools to meditate on, both in creating them and after their creation. We will discuss the idea of mandalas and use a variety of hand building techniques to create our own mandalas out of clay. Kids will explore the art concepts of radial geometry, balance, and symmetry, and create a beautiful, colorful piece of art they can continue to meditate with as they need.
All materials will be provided.
Be sure to come dresses for mess and to bring a snack. | <urn:uuid:2255417a-da86-4890-b6e9-6d396f103357> | {
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Whenever I’m uncertain about what to prepare for dinner, I head for my garden basil supply. Before long, one of them asserts itself and I know just what to cook. Sometimes, the licorice and fennel scents of ‘Siam Queen’ stand out, inspiring me to harvest its leaves for a fresh vegetable stir-fry. Other times, the spicy notes of ‘Cinnamon’ basil put me in the mood for cinnamon basil scones. Or ‘Genovese’ basil’s mint, clove and thyme aromas might call to me, turning my thoughts to an extraordinary chicken, spinach and basil quiche.
With more than 50 varieties available in a range of colors, flavors, textures and forms, basil (Ocimum basilicum) offers rich possibilities for adventurous gardeners and cooks. Imagine the striking contrast you can create in your garden or on a dinner plate by pairing the purple-bronze leaves of ‘Red Rubin’ basil with sunny ‘Lemon Gem’ marigolds, for instance, or by mixing purple-streaked ‘African Blue’ basil with the green leaves and purple flowers of ‘Siam Queen’ basil.
Finding room to grow a bunch of basils won’t be difficult either. A member of the mint family, this exuberant annual will thrive in the kitchen garden, ornamental border, herb bed, pots and planters. Here’s all you need to know to begin your exploration of the bountiful world of basil.
• Basil Varieties: 10 Basils You'll Love
In the garden, this classic summertime herb responds to sunlight and warmth. For a bountiful crop with full-flavored leaves, choose a site that receives at least six hours of direct sun each day.
Unlike many culinary herbs, basil needs fairly rich soil. Before you plant, work a generous amount of compost or well-aged manure into the soil. This not only will provide nutrients for the plants, but also will improve drainage in clay soil and increase moisture retention in sandy soil.
Sow basil seeds directly in the ground, or set out transplants, only when nighttime temperatures remain above 50 degrees. Basil seedlings are very sensitive to frost. Plant the tiny seeds just beneath the surface, or scatter them on the soil, then cover with a thin layer (1/8 to 1/4 inch) of compost or vermiculite. Be sure to keep the soil evenly moist, because the seedlings can take up to 30 days to germinate.
Basil seeds also can be started indoors about four to six weeks before you intend to plant the seedlings in the garden. Basil is easy to transplant at most any size, but 2- to 6-inch tall seedlings work best. The exception is ‘Lemon’ basil, which should be directly seeded where it will grow, as it does not adjust well when transplanted.
Thin or transplant the seedlings to stand 6 to 12 inches apart in the garden, depending on the variety. Compact varieties even can be spaced a bit tighter to form a miniature hedge.
For those big, lush leaves we all love, see that your basil receives plenty of moisture—about the same amount needed for spinach or lettuce. Ideally, the soil will be consistently moist; basil plants can suffer if the soil remains dry for extended periods. To help keep soil evenly moist, mulch plants as soon as summer warmth settles in.
For a bountiful harvest right up until frost, give your basil a midsummer boost by side-dressing the plants with compost or a nitrogen-rich organic fertilizer.
You’ll harvest more basil from a lush, bushy plant than you will from a tall, lanky one. To help your basil attain its more productive form, pinch off the top cluster of leaves when the plant reaches 6 inches tall. Always pinch above a leaf node (the joint in the stem where the leaves grow). That way, new branches will form and grow where the nodes remain.
When the plant has several branches and is 12 to 18 inches tall, cut it back by two-thirds. (You can use that first big harvest to make several batches of pesto or other basil delights.) The remaining plant will re-grow and be ready to harvest in another two to four weeks, allowing you to harvest continually throughout the summer … and the more you harvest, the bushier and more productive your plant will become.
Basil tastes best before it blooms; after the plant flowers, its essential oils (and flavor) diminish. If your plant gets ahead of your harvest and it flowers anyway, don’t despair. You still can use the leaves in cooking until the flowers form seed. Simply strip off the flowers and toss them into salads or sandwiches. And the entire plant—leaves, stems and flowers—also can be used to make tasty basil vinegar.
The flavor of basil is always best fresh. To keep basil fresh-tasting and close at hand after harvest, put it in a glass of water on your kitchen counter—just as you would a floral bouquet. (Don’t refrigerate basil; it will darken and last only a few days at best.) Submerge the lower stems in water to just below the bottommost leaves. By changing the water daily, your basil bouquet will maintain its fresh flavor for up to 10 days.
For longer-term storage, chop or tear the leaves, then cover them with olive oil and keep in a refrigerator for up to several months.
You also can freeze chopped basil either as a homemade pesto or in ice cube trays filled with water or stock. After the cubes have frozen solid, pop them out of the tray and store them in plastic freezer bags. Remove one or more cubes as needed to flavor soups and stews, or to bring a touch of summertime flavor to winter stir-fries and sautés.
When you rustle your hands over a basil patch, the enticing aroma awakens your senses and appetite. That's because basil is rich in volatile oils, which give it fragrance and flavor. Each variety has a different chemical composition that provides its unique flavor. Mediterranean types like 'Sweet', 'Italian' and 'Genovese' usually have high concentrations of methyl chavicol, resulting in a sweeter flavor. Others contain more methyl cinnamate (cinnamon), citral (lemon), camphor, thymol (thyme) or eugenol (clove). So depending on the variety, you can taste the basil's basic flavor heightened by subtle accents of lemon, lime, clove, cinnamon, licorice or even mint.
A frequent contributor to The Herb Companion, Kris Wetherbee gardens, cooks and writes in the hills of western Oregon.
Sit in on dozens of practical workshops from the leading authorities on natural health, organic gardening, real food and more!LEARN MORE | <urn:uuid:6e8c0d12-c805-4b61-8a59-a44bb32e45d8> | {
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Chemical-free Pest Control Is Possible
Keeping pests and harsh chemical pesticides out of your building this winter and in the years to come can be achieved through prevention via exclusion.
As temperatures continue to drop this winter, remember that people are not the only ones rushing indoors to get out of the cold.
Rats, mice and other pests are relentless in their efforts to get inside, and only a comprehensive exclusion plan — creating physical barriers against rodents and pests to prevent them from entering a building — will keep them out for good.
Take the time now to identify each and every rodent access point, install an appropriate exclusion product that rodents nor time can degrade, then rest assured that your building and its occupants are protected against unwelcome pests and the harsh chemicals associated with pesticides this winter and in the years to come.
Rodents can enter a building through an opening as small as ¼-inch, and they will use any means necessary to reach the food and shelter that a heated building provides.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than 50 percent of premises experience either rat or mice activity.
And, while an accurate number of rats living in the U.S. is difficult to ascertain, some experts believe it is as high as 1.25 billion.
Protecting your building against these unwanted pests should begin long before they have made their way inside.
In fact, pest control professionals across the globe agree that exclusion is more effective than attempting to remove pests once they have taken up residence.
“The foundation of any successful rodent management program is to keep rodents out of where people reside,” said Dr. Austin Frishman, president of AMF Pest Management Services. “We call this rodent stoppage, and it is the most economical and effective step in a pest management program. It is essential to keep new rodents from invading, and proper exclusion methods provide immediate and long-term positive results for the property owner.”
A Worthy Opponent
As you survey your building for areas in need of exclusion, it’s important not to underestimate the tenacity and agility of rodents attempting to gain shelter.
In addition to squeezing through miniscule openings, rats and mice can climb wires and rough surfaces, jump considerable distances and gnaw through a variety of materials including window screens, wood, fiberglass, plastic and even concrete.
Common rodent entryways include:
- Exterior doors
- Open garage and loading dock doors
- Air vents
- Points where electrical, water, gas, sewer and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) lines enter the building.
Rats and mice can also gain entry easily through tiny cracks in the foundation by gnawing through the standard rubber and vinyl seals on most garage and loading dock doors and those beneath roofing tiles.
A One-time Investment
A comprehensive exclusion plan — one in which every possible entry point is excluded to rodents — is necessary to fully protect your building.
While this may seem like a daunting task, it should be one that you never have to repeat.
Unlike extermination methods, which may become necessary again and again as persistent pests make their way in, exclusion offers a “set it and forget it” solution.
Investing the time and resources on a proper exclusion installation will safeguard your building indefinitely.
That said, exclusion is only as effective as the barrier product installed.
Steel wool, though inexpensive and readily available at home improvement stores, faces rusting and decomposition over time.
Non-reinforced rubber or vinyl seals and spray foam products can be gnawed through easily by even the smallest of rodents.
The most effective exclusion materials include stainless steel or other permanent elements that will not degrade over time.
Some online retailers dedicated to exclusion offer a wide range of specialty products to secure even obscure problem areas, including specially designed rodent-proof garage door seals, under-door sweeps and more.
So, whether you are tackling a small problem area with a do-it-yourself installation or employing a pest control professional to safeguard an entire building, ensure the products used offer long-term, permanent protection and the accompanying peace of mind.
An Ounce Of Prevention
Rodent infestation undoubtedly takes an emotional toll on those impacted — no one is comfortable sharing their personal space with rats and mice.
But, the emotional impact of an infestation often pales in comparison to the financial damage.
By the time a rodent problem has been identified, the amount of physical damage inflicted can be devastating.
In the U.S., rats cause an estimated $19 billion in damages per year.
Given adequate food and shelter, a single pair of rats can multiply into 640 within a year.
In just six months, a pair of mice can eat more than four pounds of food and contaminate 10 times that amount.
Beyond financial destruction, rodents can trigger asthma and carry parasites such as fleas, mites and lice.
Rodent excrement and saliva carry diseases, including the rare but serious hantavirus — a life-threatening disease carried primarily by deer mice that is found throughout the U.S.
Each year, upwards of 24,000 Americans are bitten by rats.
A Greener Solution
The majority of exclusion products available are completely eco-friendly; they are chemical-free, non-toxic and safe to use around people, animals and areas where food is handled.
They also help prevent the need for noxious chemicals often associated with pesticides.
“Going green” when it comes to pest control is not only good for the environment; it’s also one more way in which exclusion can be good for your pocketbook.
Chemical-free exclusion plays a significant role in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, an accreditation offered by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to identify “green” buildings.
LEED-certified buildings have lower operating costs over time — particularly with energy savings — increased asset value, reduced waste and even potential tax benefits.
To achieve LEED certification, a pest management program must be implemented that reduces the exposure of building occupants to hazardous substances, including pest waste and the allergens pests transmit.
The plan must also create the lowest possible environmental impact.
Chemical-free exclusion is a simple step in working to achieve LEED certification and the long-term benefits that distinction provides.
Investing the resources on pest prevention now will pay countless dividends in the years to come, saving both time and money on repair and remediation and providing a safer, healthier environment for building tenants and employees. | <urn:uuid:c3408d74-ef73-4e42-b4ab-c9747bd1274a> | {
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It was early on a Wednesday morning, with most of the residents of San Francisco peacefully sleeping, when disaster suddenly struck the City by the Bay. At 5:13 a.m. on 18 April 1906 an earthquake tremor for about 20 seconds was followed by a major 7.9 magnitude earthquake that shook the city for over 40 seconds, jolting terrified residents awake as buildings collapsed around them.
Earthquake Leaves 80% of San Francisco Destroyed
Worse still, the powerful quake twisted and broke gas and water lines across San Francisco. Huge fires erupted and burned continuously for three days. Without water, firefighters were helpless to stop the blazing inferno. In their desperation they resorted to dynamiting buildings to create firebreaks, but these explosions caused additional fires, causing more harm than good.
At the time of the disaster San Francisco was the greatest city on the West Coast America’s ninth largest with a population of 410,000, a bustling center of commerce and art. Three days after the earthquake of 1906 struck, 500 city blocks—over 25,000 buildings—had been smashed or burned; the earthquake and fire combined to destroy over 80 percent of the city.
Because so many bodies burned in the fierce, towering flames that leapt from building to building, the actual death toll will never be known, but it is estimated that more than 3,000 people died in the tragedy. Around 300,000 people, or nearly three out of every four residents, were left homeless after the smoke cleared. San Francisco would of course rebuild, but many beautiful buildings and civic treasures, and thousands of residents, were gone forever.
News of the S.F. Earthquake Hits the Headlines
News of the earthquake flashed over the telegraph wires before the city’s telegraph buildings were destroyed, and made the front pages of newspapers everywhere.
This news report was published by a Rhode Island newspaper.
As this historical newspaper article reports:
Shortly after daylight, while the residence portion of the city was slumbering and the streets were practically deserted save for those whose duties required their presence at the break of day, there came a rumbling that startled the sleepers from their beds and in a moment more the buildings were crumbling about their heads.
Pandemonium ensued. Half-clad men and women rushed from their houses, many of the latter dragging shrieking children by the arms. In many cases the refugees met death in the streets.
Earthquake Survivors Tell Their Personal Stories
After some of the refugees had gotten safely out of San Francisco their stories started to appear in the press, providing many grim details of the death, destruction and panic caused by the massive earthquake and fire. This personal account of the earthquake was published by a North Carolina newspaper.
This first-person account provides the following details:
I returned to my room and got my clothing; then walked to the offices of the Western Union in my pajamas and bare feet to telegraph to my wife in Los Angeles. I found the telegraphers on duty, but all the wires were down. I sat down on the sidewalk, picked the broken glass out of the soles of my feet and put on my clothes. All this I suppose took 20 minutes. Within that time, below the Palace Hotel, buildings for more than three blocks were a mass of flames, which spread to other buildings.
People by the thousands were crowded around the ferry station. They clawed at the iron gates like so many maniacs. They sought to break the bars, and failing in that turned on each other. After a maddening delay, we got aboard the boat and crossed the bay.
Looters Pillage the City
This old news article reports that, sadly, some unscrupulous people took advantage of the earthquake victims, looting in the aftermath:
This newspaper article provides these details:
The scene at the Mechanics Pavilion during the early hours and until noon, when the injured and dead were removed because of the threatened destruction of the building by fire, was one of indescribable sadness. Sisters, brothers, wives and sweethearts searched eagerly for some missing dear one. Thousands of persons hurriedly went through the building inspecting the cots on which the sufferers lay, in the hope that they would find some loved one that was missing.
The dead were placed in one portion of the building and the remainder was devoted to hospital purposes. After the fire forced the nurses and physicians to desert the building the eager crowds followed them to the Presidio and the children’s hospital, where they renewed their search for missing relatives.
Were your ancestors impacted by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires? Along with news reports of the disaster, another way newspapers can help you research your ancestors is the steady stream of casualty reports and lists that were published for weeks after the earthquake struck.
This report, published in a Texas newspaper, tells of the fate of locomotive engineer William Burnip, 55, whose “remains were dug from the ruins of the house by his son.”
Earthquake Survivor Stories Continue to Run
Long after the disaster, newspapers published stories about the survivors. San Francisco long marked the earthquake’s anniversary with a dawn ceremony, to which all of the earthquake survivors were invited.
As the following newspaper article reports:
…the annual observance that culminates with a dawn wreath-laying at Lotta’s Fountain, a landmark that served as a meeting point for those trying to find families and friends after the disaster.
This article shows a picture of Herbert Hamrol, a survivor of the 1906 earthquake who was 102 years old in 2005.
If your ancestors were alive during a great historical event, tragedy, or natural disaster, old newspapers such as GenealogyBank’s online Historical Newspaper Archives are a great way to learn more about the times your ancestors lived in—and possibly learn details about their actual personal experiences. | <urn:uuid:e55d5b1c-340e-408d-80d2-54a8d403ecd5> | {
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Hypocrisy and its Levels
Translated by Mahboobeh Morshedian
A two-faced person whose non-verbal or verbal behaviour contradicts his inner beliefs is deemed a hypocrite. Since hypocrisy is linked to the psychological and mental state, it is mostly dealt with in Islamic ethical discussions as a trait equivalent to insincerity. Hypocrisy as stated and indicated in the Qur'an largely refers to either hypocrisy in one's beliefs or hypocrisy in politics, both resulting from intentional disbelief (kufr).
Nonetheless, hypocrites are heavily reproached in the Qur'an. Since the dawn of Islam, hypocrites, the internal enemies of Islam, held a deep rancour towards Islam and were harmful obstacles in the advancement of an Islamic society that helped everyone achieve social justice and individual growth.
This article expounds on the definition of hypocrisy, its levels, its connotation in the Qur'an and hadith, and the differences between both hypocrisy and falsehood, and hypocrisy and dissimulation (taqiyyah).
Most philologists consider the word hypocrisy (nifaq) derived from nafiqa' because nafiqa' implies expressing some belief and hiding another one. "Hypocrisy" means "accepting a religion in some ways and for some reasons and at the same time abandoning it in other ways."
The Qur'an uses the word "nifaq" to mean a two-faced person whose speech is different from what is in his heart. Hypocrisy is distinct from "falsehood" because falsehood is applied to words and refers to a mismatch between word content and reality, while hypocrisy is applied to people and refers to the disagreement between outward appearance and inner state as well as expressing what is not in one's heart.
Likewise, hypocrisy is different from "dissimulation" (taqiyyah) because hypocrisy refers to expressing faith without being a believer; while dissimulation means expressing disbelief while one is a believer. Since in the first place hypocrisy is regarded as a psychological and mental phenomenon, it is mostly dealt with in Islamic ethical discussions and is considered equivalent to insincerity. Nevertheless, the Quranic verses on hypocrisy mostly refer to hypocrisy in belief and political hypocrisy which result from disbelief and indicate it.
As mentioned in the Quran, those who are hypocritical are heavily reproached. From the very beginning, hypocrites - as internal enemies of Islam - were harmful obstacles. Also, hiding their deep rancour toward Islam, they inflicted irreparable harm on it. This blameworthy trait was not specific to that era; rather, it was a plague permanently gripping society.
Ayatullah Mutahhari said, "The more modern human life becomes, the more prone man is to becoming a hypocrite; a thousand years ago, human beings were not as one-hundredth hypocrite as today's people; and the more primitive man is, the less of a hypocrite he is. And unlike animals whom usually are not able to be hypocrites, man who has evolved more is actually more capable of insincerity1."
Therefore, the different aspects of this trait are examined, along with its tangible reflections in society and its adverse consequences to the soul and society by determining the precise literal and technical Qur'anic meanings of this word.
Determining the root of the word nifaq, Arab philologists referred to two issues. Some regard hypocrisy as derived from the nafaqa meaning "a hole in the ground as a way out to another place"; others consider it derived from the word nafiqa' meaning a place in the mouse burrow, where the mouse digs a hole in the ground down and then up toward the surface of the earth and close enough to reach it, without puncturing the surface.2
The mouse builds its home by making holes in the ground, and it proceeds as far as going back to surface of the earth, making the surface thin, but not removing it. Whenever it is endangered in its burrow, it immediately removes the shell and runs away through it.
In fact, this animal creates two holes in the ground, a manifest hole where it enters the burrow, which Arabs call the qasi’a, and a hidden hole where it exits the hole, called nafiqa'. Nafiqa' is a place in a mouse burrow that is apparently earth, but inside it is hollow, like a hypocrite who speaks of his faith, while there is disbelief in his heart.
Considering this literal meaning, philologists define hypocrisy as "embracing a religion for some reasons and in some ways, and then abandoning that religion.3" According to them, the hypocrite embraces Islam in some way and abandons it in some other ways, like a mouse which enters its burrow through one hole and exits it through the other.4
Likewise, the hypocrite speaks and acts contrary to what he hides in his heart.5
This philological investigation reveals that most philologists consider nifaq as derived from nafiqa' because nafiqa' implies expressing something while hiding something else in heart. Also, since there is a semantic similarity between nafiqa and nifaq, that is, revealing something and hiding something else, this seems to be an accurate choice.
Thus, there is relation and correlation between the literal and technical meanings of the term since nifaq both literally and technically is a disagreement between a person's outward appearance and inner state.
The Quran first used the word hypocrisy on the basis of its literal meaning, in the sense of the two-faced person. Before the Quran was revealed, there had been no such a term. Thus, the hypocrite - in the Quranic meaning - is the one whose speech is contrary to what is in his heart or mind. In other words, a two-faced person is called a hypocrite because he conceals his inner beliefs and manifests other things6.
Hypocrisy has been used in two meanings in the Quran and hadiths:
1 - Pretending to be Muslim while being an infidel at heart, called hypocrisy in belief. And almost in all cases, the Quran has used the word "hypocrisy" in this very sense. The first verse of the Chapter The Hypocrites (al-Munafiqun) demonstrates this:
When the Hypocrites come to you, they say, We bear witness that you are indeed the Messenger of Allah.' Yes, Allah knows that you are indeed His Messenger, and Allah bears witness that the Hypocrites are indeed liars. (63:1)
In the chapter The Women (al-Nisa), the inner state of the hypocrites is described as follows:
They but wish that you would reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing [as they are].(4:89)
2 - Ethical hypocrisy, or a lack of adherence to religious injunctions. Regarding this, Imam Sajjad said, "Verily the hypocrite is the one who prohibits others from doing something while doing so himself, and commands others to do what he does not do...He finishes his day and has no concern but eating dinner while he was not fasting. He gets up in the morning and has no concern but sleeping while he was not awake at night."7
Imam Sadiq quoted the Prophet Muhammad as saying, "In our view, when outward humility is greater than inner humility, there is hypocrisy."8 Accordingly, the religious scholar void of any good deed and an insincere person are among those with personal and ethical hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy refers to a contradiction between what a person says and what is in his heart. The hypocrite says something but does not believe in it himself, and the one who speaks of a school of thought in which he does not believe. Because of the contradiction between one's saying and his inner belief, this way of speaking is called hypocrisy, and the person is called a hypocrite whether the saying is true or not.
In hypocrisy, the truth of word does not matter; what counts is the disagreement between sayings and beliefs, and this hypocrisy is two-facedness. However, in falsehood,' the focus is on conflict between words and reality. That is, what is spoken does not conform to reality and is untruthful, whether the one who utters it pays attention to this aspect or not.
In other words, what hypocrisy and falsehood has in common is a kind of contradiction and disagreement in both, but the conflict in hypocrisy is the contrast between the outward appearance and the inner state. However, the conflict in falsehood refers to disagreement between what was spoken and the truth; that is, the word is not consistent with reality, without any evidence and reference for it.9
The act of the one who dissimulates (taqiyyah) may seem to resemble that of a hypocrite; he feigns something in which he does not believe in his heart.
Dissimulation and hypocrisy are substantially different, as they do not fall into one category at all. Moreover, it is not merely the case that these two differ in verdict (i.e., dissimulation is permissible and hypocrisy is prohibited); that is, one is haram, and the other mandatory in some cases. A hypocrite conceals his disbelief and expresses faith, whereas a person who dissimulates expresses disbelief and hides his faith. In the Quran, God said about the believer from among the Pharaoh's tribe:
Said a man of faith from Pharaoh’s clan, who concealed his faith, ‘Will you kill a man for saying, ‘My Lord is Allah,’ while he has already brought you manifest proofs from your Lord? Should he be lying, his falsehood will be to his own detriment; but if he is truthful, there shall visit you some of what he promises you. Indeed Allah does not guide someone who is a profligate, a liar. (40:28)
This verse – one of the verses on dissimulation – indicates that dissimulation is permissible, and is completely opposite to hypocrisy; and that the one who dissimulates hides disbelief and expresses faith.
Similarly, there is difference between dissimulation and hypocrisy in terms of aims and motives. The purpose of hypocrisy is to corrupt the society and to weaken the Islamic system, whereas the purpose of dissimulation is to reform others and to save lives and the legitimate property and authority10.
Dissimulation is protecting oneself or one’s family or innocent people from harm by doing or avoiding something or by doing or saying something which is not recommended or permissible under normal conditions. Shi‘a scholars divide dissimulation into three types: prohibited, mandatory, and permissible. Among the permissible conditions whereby dissimulation can be practiced referred to in traditions by the Ahlul Bayt are a) saving the life of the believers and b) preserving Islamic unity
As hypocrisy is primarily considered a psychological and mental phenomenon, it is mostly dealt with in ethical discussions in Islamic sources, thus having a morally-faceted classification. However, in the first and most reliable source, the Holy Quran, verses concerning the hypocrisy are often related to its social and political types that were prevalent in early Islam, and – as destructive forces – diverted people away from guidance and salvation throughout the Islamic history.
Considering this issue, Imam Khomeini in his book Forty Hadiths described the levels of hypocrisy and divided it into two types, the greater hypocrisy and the lesser hypocrisy.
This kind of hypocrisy is of two types itself, namely hypocrisy in belief and political hypocrisy. When a person pretends to believe in God, Prophet Muhammad, the Quran, and the Day of Judgment, while inwardly opposed to all or some of them, and acts against the Islamic principles and injunctions with the aim of overthrowing the Islamic government; expresses belief and faith in order to promote his interests and achieve comfort through great Islamic achievements and injunctions, and finally engages in espionage for the benefits of foreigners, he is plagued with a great deal of hypocrisy, hence, the greater hypocrisy.11
This type is seen in several verses; some people directly embark on fighting with God and want to deal with God and the believers deceptively:
They desire to deceive Allah and those who believe, and they deceive only themselves and they do not perceive.(2:9)
Surely the hypocrites strive to deceive Allah, and He shall requite their deceit to them.(4:142)
These two verses indicate that the hypocrites try to deceive God and believers. In fact, they give a clear example of the greater hypocrisy or the very hypocrisy in beliefs.
As for deceitfulness of hypocrites to God (i.e., their greater hypocrisy) and, in return, God’s deceitfulness to them, the Quranic commentators have expressed various views.
According to al-Tabarsi in Majma‘ al-Bayan,
The hypocrites’ deceitfulness to God is their expressing faith and belief by which they protect their lives and property. Likewise, God’s deceitfulness to them refers to the fact that He would punish them proportionate to their deceit12.
Fakhr Razi raised the question as to what hypocrites’ deceitfulness to God means given His knowledge of all the secrets of the universe, and responded: “God mentioned His own name, but He meant Prophet Muhammad due to his high status and grandeur.”13
The late Allamah Tabatabai wrote:
Deceitfulness (mukhada‘ah) to God refers to deceiving the Prophet and believers. Through expressing faith, hypocrites seek to skillfully and relentlessly delude Prophet Muhammad and the Muslims14.
Ayatullah Mutahhari maintained that mukhada‘ah (deceitfulness) is from mufa‘alah, and one of its meanings is that they seek to delude their Lord.15
Also, Sayyid Qutb wrote:
The reason why the target of mukhada‘ah (deceitfulness) is God is because He has taken into account the utmost connection and communication between Himself, the believers, and Prophet Muhammad, has represented their concerns and dignity as His, and has regarded their enemies as His. This threatens the Prophet’s enemies and relaxes the believers. Because God is aware of their guile and deceit and protects the believers through His grace, and based on the consensus in the Quranic commentaries, deceitfulness of God refers to His punishing them for their deceit.16
Political hypocrisy emanates from hypocrisy in belief, and both are at the same level and degree. It has been explicitly condemned in the Quran:
Inform the hypocrites that there is a painful punishment for them —those who take the faithless for allies instead of the faithful. Do they seek honour with them? [If so,] indeed all honour belongs to Allah. (4:138-139)
This verse clearly speaks of hypocrites’ relationship with enemies; they seek to satisfy those who are against faith to win worldly honour. Certainly, political hypocrisy can permeate one’s soul and faith so deeply that a political hypocrite stands against the best man in the world, namely Prophet Muhammad.
The lesser or practical hypocrisy refers to a situation in which a person turns to pretentiousness to build confidence which in turn prepares the ground to fulfil his purposes.
Although a hypocrite is a wrongdoer who pretends to be knowledgeable, pious, poor, or devout, his hypocrisy is never related to the religion itself, but he merely seeks to achieve social status in public so that his interests such as high status or betrayal of others’ property are served. In addition to confessing to faith in God, the resurrection, and prophethood, a hypocrite turns to praise and flattery and resorts to expressing unreal affection to advance his material and ephemeral worldly interests.17
Imam Khomeini termed the lesser hypocrisy in speech and actions; he believes that this kind level of hypocrisy is “insincerity” in the ethics, and this type is not the hypocritical quality meant in the Quran18.
Through the lesser hypocrisy or insincerity, a person removes the light of faith from his heart and makes his actions vain because he prefers people’s satisfaction to God’s. However, due to belief in principles of the religion, such a person is not considered as a disbeliever. Such hypocrisy has been referred to as the practical one19.
In the Quran, there is mention of insincerity, particularly by hypocrites:
Surely the hypocrites strive to deceive Allah, and He shall requite their deceit to them, and when they stand up to prayer they stand up sluggishly; they do it only to be seen by people and do not remember Allah save a little(4:142).
The late Tabards, Allamah Tabatabai and Fakhr Razi believed that in order to exhibit a self-possessed and outwardly pious personality, hypocrites act insincerely, say what they do not act upon, seek to build up an artificial good reputation to deceive people, and remember God a little.20 The Qur’an says about these people:
Who are unmindful of their prayers, who do [good] to be seen?(107:5-6)
O you who believe! Do not make your charity worthless by reproach and injury, like him who spends his property to be seen by men and does not believe in Allah and the Last Day.(2:264)
Describing those who do not believe in the Hereafter and God and spend their money in charity to pose as charitable, God said:
And those who spend their property [in charity] to be seen by the people and do not believe in Allah nor in the Last Day; and as for him whose associate is Satan, an evil associate is he.(4: 38)
Psychologically, such a person is considered to have a Machiavellian character, believing that the end justifies the means21. The other instruction is that the most important way to control people is to say what they like.
Clearly, the first instruction considers it permissible for people to achieve their goal in any possible way, whether right or wrong, legitimate or illegitimate, and legal or illegal. The second teaches hypocrisy and opportunistic attitude to people as well. Moreover, the Machiavellian character inclines to brutality, lying, distrust in others, and egotistical measures in social interactions22.
Thus, according to legal rulings, hypocrisy is of two types: one is the greater hypocrisy; that is, man pretends to believe in God, the angels, the Divine books, the prophets, and the Day of Resurrection while in heart he is opposed to some or all of them. This hypocrisy existed in early Islam and was denounced in the Qur’an, which considers hypocrites as disbelievers and dwellers of Hell.
The second type is the lesser or practical hypocrisy which refers to a situation in which one does something but intends something else. Of course, nowadays both types of hypocrisy exist at its peak and have taken on many faces.
According to the above discussion, most philologists contend that hypocrisy (nifaq) is derived from the root nafiqa’ and literally means a two-faced person; this literal meaning is used in the Qur’an. Likewise, hypocrisy is of some levels, namely the greater hypocrisy and the lesser hypocrisy.
The greater hypocrisy refers to hypocrisy in belief, and the lesser hypocrisy is the practical one. This Satanic trait has been greatly condemned in the Quran and hadiths, both of which consider its detrimental effects irreparable.
• The Holy Quran. Online: http://quran.al-islam.org/
• Imam Khomeini. Forty Hadiths, Raja cultural Publications, (1st ed.). 1368 solar. Online: https://www.al-islam.org/forty-hadith-an-exposition-second-edition-imam-...
• Esfahani, Raghib. Vocabulary (al-Mufradat) of the Quran. Translated by: Sayyid Gholam-Reza Khosrawi, Mortadawi, (1st ed.). Tehran. 1372 solar.
• Ibn Mandhur, Muhammad. Lisan al-Arab. Lebanon: Dar Sadir, Beirut (1st ed.).
• Marshad, Ali Akbar. Encyclopedia of Imam Ali. Tehran: The Center of Cultural Institute of Knowledge and Contemporary Thought (1st ed.): 1380 solar.
• Subhani, Jafar. Features of the Perfect Man in the Holy Qur’an. Qom: Publishing House of the Islamic Propagation Centre. 1377 solar.
• . The Eternal Charter. Qom: Institute of Imam Sadiq, (2nd ed.).1375 solar.
• Sayyid Qutb. Fi Dhilal al-Quran. Translated by: Mostafa Khurram-Del. Tehran: Ihsan Publications.1378 solar.
• Tabarsi, Fadl ibn Hassan. Majma’ul-Bayan, Translated by: Muhammad Mofateh, Farahani.
• Allama Tabatabai, Muhammad Hussain. al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-Quran. Translated by: Sayyid Baqir Musawi Hamadani. Islami Publication, (7th ed.). 1382 solar.
• Fakhr Razi. The Great Quranic Commentary. Dar al-Ihya a- Yumouseh al-Islamiyyah, (2nd ed.). 1410 AH.
• Frahidi, Khalil Ahmad. al-‘Ain. Uswah publications, (1st ed.). Qasam: 1414 AH.
• Karimi, Yusuf. The Psychology of Personality. Tehran: The Institute of Publishing and Editing, (6th ed.).
• Kulaini, Muhammad ibn Yaqub. al-Osul min al-Kafi. Tehran: Dar al-Kutub al-Islamiyyah, (4th ed.).1365 solar.
• Mutahhari, Murtada. An Introduction to the Quran. Tehran: Sadra Publications. 1368 solar. Online at: https://www.al-islam.org/understanding-quran-part-1-ayatullah-murtadha-m...
• Naraqi, Mohammad Mahdi. Jami‘u al-Sa’adat. Najaf: Najaf religious university, (2nd ed.). 1383 AH. Online: https://www.al-islam.org/jami-al-saadat-the-collector-of-felicities-muha...
• Naraqi, Ahmad. Mi‘raj-u-Sa‘adah. Qom: Hijrat Publications, (2nd ed.). 1374 solar.
- 1. Mutahhari, Murtadha, An Introduction to the Qur'an, vol. 1 & 2, pp.149-150.
- 2. Farahidi, Khalil ibn Ahmad, al- Ain, vol.3, p.1825
- 3. Raghib Isfahani, Vocabulary (al-Mufradat) of the Quran, vol.3, p.387.
- 4. Ibn Mandhur, Muhammad, Lisan al-Arab, vol.14, p.327.
- 5. Ibn Faris, Ahmad, Mu'jam Mqayis al-Lughah, vol. 5, pp. 454-455.
- 6. Subhani, Jafar: The Eternal Charter, vol.4, p.9.
- 7. Usul al-Kafi, vol. 2, p.396.
- 8. ibid.
- 9. Subhani, Jafar, ibid, vol.4, pp 17-18
- 10. Subhani, Jafar, ibid, vol.4, pp 21-23
- 11. Imam Khomeini, Forty Hadiths, p.135.
- 12. Tabarsi, Fadl ibn Hassan, Majma’ul-Bayan, vol.3, p. 198.
- 13. Fakhr Razi, al-Tafsir al-Kabir, vol.4, p.248.
- 14. Tabatabai, Muhammad Hussain, al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-Qur’an, vol.5, pp.116-117.
- 15. Mutahhari, Murtada, ibid., vol. 1-2, p. 152.
- 16. Sayyid Qutub, Fi Dhilal al-Quran, Vol.1, pg.46
- 17. Marshad, Ali Akbar, Encyclopedia of Imam Ali, vol.4, p. 396.
- 18. Imam Khomeini, ibid., p.28.
- 19. Naraqi, Ahmad, Mi‘raj al-Sa‘adah, p. 555
- 20. Tabarsi, Fadl ibn Hassan, ibid., vol.3, p.198; Tabatabai, Muhammad Hussain, ibid., vol.5, p.117; Fakhr Razi, The Great Quranic Commentary, vol.4, p.249.
- 21. Niccolò Machiavelli, an Italian philosopher.
- 22. Karimi, Yusuf, The Psychology of Personality, p.147. | <urn:uuid:5146622e-d124-40d5-8efe-93102d31ef49> | {
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A meaning of the term Great Power(s) (GP) in global politics from the beginning of the 16th century onward refers to the most power and therefore top influential states within the system of the international relations (IR). In other words, the GP are those and only those states who are modelling global politics like Portugal, Spain, Sweden, France, the United Kingdom, united Germany, the USA, the USSR, Russia or China. During the time of the Cold War (1949−1989) there were superpowers as the American and the Soviet administrations refered to their own countries and even a hyperpower state – the USA, after the Cold War as it is called in the academic literature. A focal characteristic of any GP is to promulgate its own national (state’s) interest within a global (up to the 20th century European) scope by applying a „forward“ policy.
A term global politics (or world politics) is related to the IR which are of the worldwide nature or to the politics of one or more actors who are having global impact, influence and importance. Therefore, global politics can be undestood as political relations between all kinds of actors in the politics, either nonstate actors or sovereign states, that are of global interest. In the broadest sense, global politics is a synonym for global political system that is „global universe of actors such as nation-states, international organizations, and thansnational corporations and the sum of their relationships and interactions“.
Originally, in the 18th century, the term GP was related to any European state that was, in essence, a sovereign or independent. In practice, it meant, only those states that were able to independently defend themselves from the aggression launched by another state or group of states. Nevertheless, after the WWII, the term GP is applied to the countries that are regarded to be of the most powerful position within the global system of IR. Those countries are only countries whose foreign policy is „forward“ policy and therefore the states like Brasil, Germany or Japan, who have significant economic might, are not considered today to be the members of the GP bloc for the only reason as they lack both political will and the military potential for the GP status.
One of the fundamental characteristics and historical features of any member state of the GP club was, is and will be to behave on the international arena according to its own adopted geopolitical concept(s) and aim(s). In other words, the leading modern and postmodern nation-states are „geopolitically“ acting in the global politics that makes a crucial diference between them and all other states. According to the realist viewpoint, global or world politics is nothing else than a struggle for power and supremacy between the states on different levels as the regional, continental, intercontinental or global (universal). Therefore, the governments of the states are forced to remain informed upon the efforts and politics of other states, or eventually other political actors, for the sake, if necessary, to acquire extra power (weapons, etc.) which are supposed to protect their own national security (Iran) or even survival on the political map of the world (North Korea) by potential agressor (the USA). Competing for supremacy and protecting the national security, the national states will usually opt for the policy of balancing one another’s power by different means like creating or joining military-political blocs or increasing their own military capacity. Subsequently, global politics is nothing else but just eternal struggle for power and supremacy in order to protect self-proclaimed national interest and security of the major states or the GP. As the major states regard the issue of power distribution to be fundamental in international relations and as they act in accordance to the relative power that they have, the factors of internal influence to states, like type of political government or economic order, have no strong impact on foreign policy and international relations. In other words, it is of „genetic nature“ of the GP to struggle for supremacy and hegemony regardless on their inner construction and features. It is the same „natural law“ either for democracies or totalitarian types of government or liberal (free-market) and command (centralized) ecomomies.
Power differs very much from one state to another likewise of the same state from historic perspective. Generally, the most powerful states enjoy and the most influential impact on international affairs either regional or global and control the majority of the power resources in the world. In practice, only several states have any real inluence on global IR while the other states can have an influence just beyond their immidiate locality. These two categories of states are named as the GP and the Middle Powers (MP) in the international system of intra-state relations. A status of the GP can be formally given and to some supranational structures like in the 19th century to the Concert of Europe or in the 20th century to the UNO, the NATO or the Warsaw Pact.
Nevertheless, the fundametal division of the world states according to their impact on global affairs is just into two basic categories:
- The category of the GP (several top-powerful states).
- The category of non-GP (MP and low- or non-influential states).
A GP state is such state that is considered to be a member of the most powerful and influential group of states in a hiarerchical order of the world state-system. Today, this term is related to the state that is regarded to be among the most powerfull states in the global political system.
The most problematic issue in categorization of the states within the world state-system is applied criteria. Nevertheless, the criteria which define one state to be or not to be a great power is usually, at least from the academic point of view, of the following basic ten-point conditions:
- A GP state is such state that is on the top-rank level of military power, having the real capacity to protect and maintain its own security and to influence the politics of other states or other actors in international relaions.
- A GP state is a state that can be defeated militarily only by another member of GP club or by alliance of some of the states coming from this club.
- A GP state is from the economic perspective a poweful state. This condition is a necessary but, however, in some cases (like today Japan or the USA at the time of its isolationist period of foreign policy) is not and sufficient condition for the GP status. This is a quantitative condition for the status of a GP. The other quantitative conditions are certain level of GDP, GNP or GDI or the size of its armed forces. The economic conditions can be and of qualitative nature like a high level of industrialization or the capability to make and to use nuclear weapons.
- A GP state has rather global, but not merely regional or continental, spheres of influence and interest. It means that a GP is such state that possesses, excercises as well as defends its own whatever interest throughout the globe.
- A GP state has to be at the front rank in regard to its military power and therefore it has to enjoy both certain privilages and duties dealing with global peace and international security.
- What is probably the most important, a GP state adopt and apply a „forward“ foreign policy having rather actual but not only potential impact on international affairs and other states or group of them. It practically means that a GP state can not adopt a foreign policy of isolationism.
- The members of the GP club tend to share a global outlook that is founded on their own national interests far from their homes.
- The GP have strongest military forces and strongest economies to support their GP status.
- The GP cannot easily lost its status in IR even after heavy military defeat due to its size, manpower and long-term economic potentials.
- The GP form alliances with smaller and weaker client (quisling) states.
A GP status to some state can be and formally recognized by the international community as it was the case by the League of Nations in the interwar time or by the United Nations Organization (UNO) after the WWII up today (five veto-rights permanent member states of the Security Council – China, Russia, France, the USA and the United Kingdom). A GP status of these five „extraordinary“ members of the UNSC is guaranteed by their practice of unanimity. In other words, a concept of the GP unanimity holds that on all resolutions and/or proposals before the UNSC, a veto by any one of these five (privileged) states can be used that practically means that one GP state can block further work of the UNSC on certain issue. Undoubtedly, one of the critical features of any GP state is its power projection that is a considerable influence, by force or not, beyond state’s borders, i.e. abroad, that less powerful countries could not match (for instance, the NATO military aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999 conducted in fact by the USA).
The GP states are inter-connected within a Great-Power System that is the set of special relationships between and among this privilaged club of the post powerful global actors in IR. Those special relations are cunducted by their own rules and patterns of interaction as the GP have very extraordinary way of behaving and treating each other. This special way is, however, not applied to other states or other actors in global politics and system of IR.
Historically, a time of the GP started in the 18th century when five European strongest states (the United Kingdom, France, Prussia, the Habsburg Monarchy and Russia) were competing against one another. Until the WWI the GP club was exclusively reserved for the European states while after 1918 two non-European states joined this club – the USA and Japan. China became after the Cold War strongly incorporated into the concert of global GP. The existence of a GP system requires that the international system of foreign affairs has to be of a multipolar nature that actually means to be composed at least by three major actors in international politics. A GP state can not be dependent on other state for security issue and it has to be militarily and economically stronger than other countries who are not members of a GP system of states. In fact, a security issue of those other states depends on one or more GP states. In addition, those other states are also usually depended politically, financially and economically on one or more GP states. The security calculations of a GP state can be threatened only by other GP member state(s) who can challenge it politically and/or militarilly. It is generally understood that to play a role of a GP, one state needs a large territory and population followed by well organized army and military sytem that is not possible without a strong, functionable and above all a successful economy.
A historical experience shows clearly that to possess only one out of all necessary GP attributes means that the state cannot maintain its influence on the international arena for some very longer period of time. That is now exactly, for instance, the case of decreasing international influence and domestic power by the USA. Sweden lost its status of a major European power in the 18th century mainly due to its small number of population or Holland in the 17th century primarilly due to its smaller territory in comparison to neighboring France followed by English supremacy in oversea trade. Contrary, a state which is possessing all of the necessary factors of GP is in a real position to successfully exercise its own political and other influences on the others for a longer period of time. The process of passing from regional isolation to the status of European GP can be well seen on the example of the Russian Empire in the 18th century. The country was at the beginning of the century isolated and underdeveloped but due to a general progress during the whole century Russia was finally in 1792 by the Jassi Peace Treaty with the Ottoman Sultanate and in 1795 by the Third division of Poland-Lithuania recognized by the other European GP as a member of their club. As a consequence, Russia was in the following period from 1798 to 1815 directly involved in the games of European GP regarding the confrontation of the French Revolution and revolutionary armies of Napoléon Bonaparte.
Nevertheless, as the 18th century was progressing, Russia was becoming gradually more stronger and influential in the international relations due to three crucial factors: a size of the land, its huge population and reach natural resources. All of these factors directly participated to the process of creation of the mighty Russian military land-force which became in 1815 strongest in continental Europe. In this year the Russian army entered Paris by crossing the whole Europe and winning battles from Leipzig (1813) to Waterloo (1815).
Contrary to the Russian case, the United Kingdom at the end of the same century became a global GP mainly due to its powerful navy that was backed by its strong economy which was very much founded on direct exploitation of the British oversea colonies. In the next century, the Brits succeeded to establish an extensive oversea empire and to became a major player in the world politics at the time of Queen Victoria but very much due to their geopolitical position as an „island nation“ whose security and colonial expansion was well protected by a powerful Royal Navy that was practically playing the role of protection wall around the United Kingdom.
Several theories of the Cold War argue, like the so-called „Freezer Theory“ for instance, that during that historical period of time both domestic and international conflicts were the products of the superpower competition in global politics. However, when the competition ended in 1989, the local and/or regional histories absorbed these conflicts where they became left transforming themselves into the territorial disputes, conflicts and open wars between the regional powers for the sake to settle historical accounts. Probably the best examples are the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh, destruction of ex-Yugoslavia, the conflicts over South Ossethia and Abkhazia or the Ukrainian crisis. All of those conflicts from the Adriatic to the Caucasus have been at the same time both the destabilizing factors of and challinge for the European integration and continental security. For the realists, post-Cold War conflicts in a new power context is simply returning back of the international relations to the normal geopolitical reality of global politics as inescapable power policy. International system once again after the Cold War became the GP state system based on the „Westphalian Order“ as the states of the GP bloc are still the key factors and actors in both their own domestic areas and international politics as it was the case from 1648 to 1945.
The primary organizing principle of IR and global politics once again became after 1989 the „sacrosanct“ principle of a state sovereignty that is only valid for the GP but not for the ordinary states („small fishes“) like for Serbia in 1999 or Libya in 2011. State-centric model of the international politics that is currently on global politics’ agenda is known in theory as „Billiard Ball Model“ which suggests that states, at least those having a rank of the GP, are as billiard (snooker) balls impermeable and self-contained actors. The model tells that the GP influence each other through external pressure either by diplomacy or direct military action. The survival is the prime concern of any state but struggling for power on global scene is the concern of only those states which are considered to be the GP. The „Billiard Ball Model“ of global politics has two fundamental implications:
- Clear difference between domestic and international politics.
- Conflict and cooperation in global politics is primarilly determine by the distribution of economic, political and military power among states.
The crucial characteristics of contemporary GP state are:
- To maintain order and carryng out regulations within its own borders only by itself without interference from outside (ex. Russia and the Chechen rebels in the 1990s) that is a focal feature of a real sovereignty status.
- To promulgate its own policy of interest in international relations by all „allowed“ means that is proving a real GP status in IR.
Therefore, it is in essence unavoidable that the state-system of international policy and relations is operating in a context of anarchy what means that external politics operates as an international „state of nature“.
A basic principle of any GP state is the principle of self-help that means as possible as a reliance on inner resources which are understood as the crucial reason that state prioritize survival and security from the outside world. Therefore, the establishment and exploitation of all kinds of colonies or/and territorial expansion of the motherland in order to obtain natural resources, labor force, market or better security conditions are seen as quite necessary imperialistic practice. If the GP state is unable to establish its own global, continental or regional hegemony, it seeks to activate a concept of balance of power that is a condition in which no one state has a predominance over others at the same time tending to create general equilibrium and prevent the hegemonic ambitions of other states.
Nevertheless, in the case that IR of the GP work on the background of a self-help principle, the power-seeking inclination of one state is a result of competing tendencies in other state(s). That is exactly how we can explain the reason of the policy of Russia’s economic, military and political inclination on the global level during the presidency of Vladimir Putin as an atavistic reaction to the US unscrupulous and Russophobic policy of a global hyper-hegemony in the 1990s after the dissolution of the USSR and disapearence of the Cold War’s bipolar world. Unfortunatelly, most often, in such cases of the IR system, conflicts and even direct wars are inevitable between the GP as the examples of both world wars are clearly manifesting.
One of the fundamental rules of the realistic view of global politics and foreign affairs is that any gain, especially territorial, by one state or side is equivalent to the loss by another competition state or enemy bloc. This is the so-called „Zero-Sum Game“ as it is added the winner’s gains and the loser’s losses the total equals zero. That was the case, for instance, with Kosovo independence in 2008 (the US victory and Russia’s loss) related to Crimean reintegration into Russia in 2014 (Russian gain and the US/NATO/EU defeat).
Nevertheless, in a global struggle for power, Realpolitik is an unavoidable instrument for realisation of national goals what means that the use of power, even in the most brutal way, is quite necessary and understandable as it is an optimal mean to accomplish foreign policy’s aims. That was, for instance, clearly expressed in 1999 during the NATO aggression on Serbia and Montenegro (from 24th of March to 10th of June).
All the post-Cold War American imperialistic wars of aggression had the same formal ideological justification which was composed by mixture of elements drawn from the Cold War time („Communist violations of human rights“) and after that. The cliché was and still is that the US as a leader of a „liberal democratic world“ is fighting against „new Hitlers“ and all other „dictators“ and „butchers“ (from S. Hussein to V. Putin) for the sake to „liberate“ the rest of the world that cannot progress under such monstrous rulers. A regional variations of the US imperialism policy explanations after 1945 are visible as, for instance, in the case of the Latin America („Wars against Drugs“) or in the case of the Middle East and Arab/Muslim world in general („War on Terror“).
Such US foreign policy, however, created many ambivalent attitudes towards the American empire by many states, movements, parties or individuals around the world including and existing feelings of embarrassment that other GP have to be essentially dependent on the USA. For instance, many Europeans are convinced that the US cannot any more act in global policy like it was at the time of the Cold War as it has to closely operate with the others. Today, it seems to be unlikely that the US will be able to keep its post-Cold War status of a hyperpower and global policeman. Surely, other GP will became more stronger and influential in IR and global politics primarily China and Russia. It only remains to be seen whether they will co-operate or not in ways that promote or undermine world order.
Alan Isaacs et al (eds.), Oxford Dictionary of World History, Oxford−New York: 2001.
Andrew Heywood, Global Politics, London−New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Bear F. Braumoeller, The Great Powers and the International System: Systemic Theory in Empirical Perspective, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Georges Castellan, History of the Balkans From Mohammed the Conqueror to Stalin, New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.
Jeffrey Haynes, Peter Hough, Shahin Malik, Lloyd Pettiford, World Politics, New York: Routledge, 2013.
Joshua S. Goldstein, International Relations, Fifth edition, New York: Longman, 2003.
Martin Griffiths, Terry O’Callaghan, Steven C. Roach, International Relations: The Key Concepts, Second edition, London−New York, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2008.
Paul M. Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery, Second edition, New York: Humanity Books, 1983.
Paul M. Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1987.
Richard W. Mansbach, Kirsten L. Taylor, Introduction to Global Politics, Second edition, London−New York: Routledge, 2012.
Stefano Bianchini (ed.), From the Adriatic to the Caucasus. The Dynamics of (De)Stabilization, Ravenna: Longo Editore, 2001.
Steven L. Spiegel et al, World Politics in a New Era, Third edition, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2004.
Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki, Steve Smith (eds.), International Relations Theories. Discipline and Diversity, Third edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Vladan Dinić, Tito (ni)je TITO: Konačna istina, Beograd: Novmark, 2013.
Zbignew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives, New York: Basic Books, 1997.
Иванка Ћуковић Ковачевић, Историја Енглеске. Кратак преглед, Београд: Научна књига, 1991.
Перо Симић, Звонимир Деспот (уредници), Тито: Строго поверљиво. Архивски документи, Службени гласник: Београд, 2010.
Перо Симић, Тито: Феномен 20. века, Треће допуњено издање, Службени гласник: Београд, 2011.
Славољуб Шушић, Пробни камен за Европу. Војно-политички коментари, Београд: Војна књига, 1999.
The term superpower was originally coined by William Fox in 1944 for whom such state has to possess great power followed by great mobility of power. At that time, he argued that there were only three superpower states in the world: the USA, the USSR and the UK (the “Big Three”). As such, they fixed the conditions of Nazi Germany’s surrender, took the focal role in the establishing of the UNO and were mostly responsible for the international security immediately after the WWII (Martin Griffiths, Terry O’Callaghan, Steven C. Roach, International Relations: The Key Concepts, Second edition, London−New York, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2008, 305).
China, with its enormous economic and man-power potentials followed by its rising military capability, will soon emerge as the most influential GP in global politics overtaking a role of a sole hyperpower from the USA. The 21st century is already a century of China but not of the USA as it was the 20th century.
Richard W. Mansbach, Kirsten L. Taylor, Introduction to Global Politics, Second edition, London−New York: Routledge, 2012, 577.
Israel is the only exception from this definition as this state has as its “West Bank” the USA. In other words, when we speak about the USA in IR, we speak de facto about Israel and the Zionist loby in the USA.
The European Union (the EU, est. 1992/1993) with its central motor, the French-German axis, became a new GP in global politics. Therefore, the USA is not anymore in a position to dictate and implement global policies like at the time of the Cold War. After the creation of the EU, the US administration seeks a multilateral action with the EU in several hot-spot areas of the conflics in Europe as ex-Yugoslavia or Ukraine.
Today, a formal GP status have the USA, Russia, China, France and Britain and MP status arguably have Canada, Italy, Brasil, Japan, Germany, Argentina, Turkey, India and/or Iran. However, if we consider the USA as a West Bank of Israel then the later is the only hyperpower in the world.
Richard W. Mansbach, Kirsten L. Taylor, Introduction to Global Politics, Second edition, London−New York: Routledge, 2012, 578.
Gross domestic product (GDP) is the total sum of goods and services that is produced by one state in a given year but not including goods and services that are produced abroad by domestic individuals or companies. Gross national product (GNP) is a total value of all goods and services produced by a country in a year, whether within the state’s borders or abroad. Gross national income (GNI) is measuring the market value of goods and services which are produced during a certain time period (usually within one calender year) and provides an estimate of a state’s total agricultural, industrial and commercial output.
Martin Griffiths, Terry O’Callaghan, Steven C. Roach, International Relations: The Key Concepts, Second edition, London−New York, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2008, 134−135; Andrew Heywood, Global Politics, London−New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, 7. On the GP, see more in (Paul M. Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1987). On the historical role of the GP in international relations, see in (Bear F. Braumoeller, The Great Powers and the International System: Systemic Theory in Empirical Perspective, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012).
However, their strongest economic status is guaranted by combination of several inter-related factors: 1. Their large population, 2. Rich natural resources, 3. Most advanced technology, and 4. Highly educated labor force (Joshua S. Goldstein, International Relations, Fifth edition, New York: Longman, 2003, 95).
In the Ancient World two the most prominent examples of client-system alliances have been Athens-led Arhe and Sparta-led Peloponnesian Alliance. These two political-military alliances fought the Peloponnesian War from 431 to 404 with the final victory of Sparta with crucial support by Persia (Alan Isaacs et al (eds.), Oxford Dictionary of World History, Oxford−New York: 2001, 486). In the contemporary history two the most prominent formal alliances to dominate the international security scene were the US-led NATO (est. 1949) and the USSR-led Warsaw Pact (est. 1955) during the Cold War. The NATO was a clear expression of the American post-WWII global imperialism when the US had “more than 300.000 troops in Europe, with advanced planes, tanks, and other equipment” (Joshua S. Goldstein, International Relations, Fifth edition, New York: Longman, 2003, 105). Its imperialistic role continued and after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991 and the formal, but not essential, end of the Cold War.
Steven L. Spiegel et al, World Politics in a New Era, Third edition, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2004, 696.
Italy and Germany became the members of the GP system after their unifications in 1861, 1871 respectively.
Georges Castellan, History of the Balkans From Mohammed the Conqueror to Stalin, New York: Columbia University Press, 1992, 213.
On the British navy, see in (Paul M. Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery, Second edition, New York: Humanity Books, 1983).
Иванка Ћуковић Ковачевић, Историја Енглеске. Кратак преглед, Београд: Научна књига, 1991, 64; Alan Isaacs et al (eds.), Oxford Dictionary of World History, Oxford−New York: 2001, 646−647.
On this issue, see more in (Славољуб Шушић, Пробни камен за Европу. Војно-политички коментари, Београд: Војна књига, 1999; Stefano Bianchini (ed.), From the Adriatic to the Caucasus. The Dynamics of (De)Stabilization, Ravenna: Longo Editore, 2001).
A concept of sovereignty refers to a status of legal autonomy (independence) that is enjoyed by states what means in practice that the government has a sole authority within its borders and enjoys the rights of the membership of the international political community. Therefore, the terms sovereignty, autonomy and independence can be used as the synonyms.
Andrew Heywood, Global Politics, London−New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, 6, 7f, 113, 215.
The Chechen Wars in the 1990s were inspired by the Islamic religious nationalism and separatism by the Chechen extremists and have been the first serious post-Cold War test for Russia to prove or not her status of the GP in the new world order created and dictated by the US. Religius nationalism is a political doctrine in which religion and nationalism have synonymous relationship (Jeffrey Haynes, Peter Hough, Shahin Malik, Lloyd Pettiford, World Politics, New York: Routledge, 2013, 52).
An ideological architect of the post-Cold War US hyper-dominance in global politics was an US extreme Russophobe Zbignew Brzezinski who is of the Jewish origin from Poland (Zbignew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives, New York: Basic Books, 1997). His doctrinal ideology of the US global hyper-dominance became the foundation of “Clinton Doctrine” that is the US foreign policy initiative under the Presidency of Bill Clinton (1993−2001), to promote democracy and human rights by using diplomatic means but in fact military aggressions, bombing (the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999), “coloured revolutions” (Serbia in October 2000) and all other non-democratic means in order to accomplish the crucial Washington’s political goal – global dominance.
This is a German term that became widespread from the time of the German Chancellor (PM) Otto von Bismarck. The term means in IR studies a cold calculation of state’s national interests regardless on the human or moral aspects of its realization. The term is usually understood as a core essence of Realism theories on global politics based on “ruthlessness” (Jeffrey Haynes, Peter Hough, Shahin Malik, Lloyd Pettiford, World Politics, New York: Routledge, 2013, 713). Realism is a political view which operates with power as the fundamental point of politics claiming, therefore, that the international politics is in essence power politics behind which is a principle of Realpolitik. The advocates of Realism argue that international politics is a struggle for power for the sake to deny other states the capacity to dominate. Subsequently, a balancing of power became a central concept in IR developed by the realists. If there is a single world hegemon, global politics is going to be just a struggle between the GP in seeking both political, military, economic, financial, etc. domination and preventing other states or actors from dominating (Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki, Steve Smith (eds.), International Relations Theories. Discipline and Diversity, Third edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, 59−93).
Such cliché was used during the Cold War, for instance, against the Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser (President of Egypt in 1956−1970) but not against the Yugoslav real dictator and the “Butcher of the Serbs” of the Croat-Slovenian origin, Josip Broz Tito (dictator of Yugoslavia in 1945−1980). The reason for such US policy on J. B. Tito was that he became the US client politician, as many dictators all over the world, after 1948 and therefore was simply “intangible” in home affairs. On J. B. Tito biography, see in (Перо Симић, Звонимир Деспот (уредници), Тито: Строго поверљиво. Архивски документи, Службени гласник: Београд, 2010; Перо Симић, Тито: Феномен 20. века, Треће допуњено издање, Службени гласник: Београд, 2011; Vladan Dinić, Tito (ni)je TITO: Konačna istina, Beograd: Novmark, 2013).
Mykolas Romeris University
Institute of Political Sciences
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Minority Health Reports
From this page you can find links to the Department's statistical
reports on the health of minority populations in Wisconsin. These reports
have been prepared as part of the Minority Health Program.
- Minority Health Report, 2001-2005
(PDF, 897 KB). This
report, released in January 2008, presents statistics on the health
of African American, American Indian, Asian, and Hispanic/Latino
populations in Wisconsin. Most of the data in this report are for the time
- Detailed source tables for 2001-2005. These tables have been
removed from the website. If you are interested in data from these
tables, please contact the
Health Program. These detailed tables provided the basis for many of
the figures in the Minority Health Report linked above. They are updated
versions of tables originally presented in The Health of Racial and
Ethnic Populations in Wisconsin, 1996-2000 (see below).
- The Health of Racial and Ethnic Populations in Wisconsin,
1996-2000. This report has been removed from the website. If
you are interested in data from this report, please contact the
Health Program. This report, released in 2004, presented
comprehensive data on the health of African American, American Indian,
Asian, and Hispanic/Latino populations in Wisconsin. Most of the data in
this report were for the time period 1996-2000.
If you have any comments about this page, suggestions for improving it, or
would like to sign up for our
please write to: Ruth DeWeese.
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|1. A style of art that includes various types of avant-garde art of the 20th century; 2. images that have been altered from their realistic/natural appearance; images that have been simplified to reveal only basic contours/forms; 3. an artwork that is based upon a recognizable object that has been simplified to show some purer underlying form (sometimes, any references to recognizable objects are removed).|
|Processes that involve adding, attaching, or joining a form to, or pulling or extending a form from, a surface.|
|1. The study of the rules and principles of art; 2. the study of the philosophies of art; 3. the branch of philosophy that deals with the study of aesthetic values, such as beauty and the sublime; 4. an outward appearance: the way something looks, especially when considered in terms of how pleasing it is; 5. an idea of what is beautiful or artistic or a set of criteria for defining what is beautiful or artistic; 6. criteria or theories used to judge art, such as imitationalism, emotionalism, formalism, functionalism, and instrumentalism.|
|A principle of design; alternating rhythm is created by repeating two or more of the elemnts of visual arts to produce an alternating pattern, such as red-blue, red-blue, red-blue.|
|Related colors; colors that appear next to each other on the color wheel and have one color in common, such as blue-green, blue, blue-violet; see color.|
|Rhythm that is created by repeating two or more lines that have straight angles and edges.|
|An adjustable opening in a camera lens that allows light into the camera; see also f-stop.|
|An embellishment made by cutting pieces of one material and applying it to the surface of another; a technique used in quilting.|
|The outcome, product, or result of using a creative process to produce or delineate objects and/or images that are intended primarily for aesthetic purposes and to communicate ideas through visual language; any of the art forms, such as drawing, painting, sculpture, or other artistic productions.|
|A person who intentionally endeavors to make artworks by composing subject matter and using the elements, principles, techniques, procedures, and materials of visual arts; see art work.|
|A three-dimensional composition made by combining (assembling) a variety of objects, often found objects. The term was first used in the visual arts during the 1950's when artist Jean DuBuffet created a series of collages of butterfly wings, which he called assemblages d'empreintes. Other well known assemblage artists are Louise Nevelson, Joseph Cornell, John Chamberlain, and Marcel Duchamp.|
|Asymmetrical balance (informal balance)|
|The type of balance that results when two sides of an artwork are equally important, but one side looks different from the other.|
|The effect on the appearance of an object of the air/space between the object and the viewer: in the foreground, colors are warmer and more intense and values are darker; in the distance, the details of an object appear to decrease, colors appear cooler and less intense, and values lighten and fade.|
|Characteristics, traits, features, aspects, and elements that are specific and particular to someone or something, such as a lion's mane or a zebra's stripes.|
|The area of an artwork that appears farthest away on a picture plane, usually nearest the horizon: a way of showing depth; background is the opposite of foreground; between the background and foreground is the middle ground.|
|A principle of design; the arrangement of elements that makes individual parts of a composition appear equally important; an arrangement of the elements to create an equal distribution of visual weight throughout the format or composition. If a composition appears top- or bottom-heavy and/or anchored by weight to one side, it is not visually balanced. Types of balance: |
Symmetrical (formal balance): the image or form is equally weighted on both sides of a center line.
Asymmetrical (informal balance): the image or form is unevenly weighted.
Radial: the weight of the image or form radiates from a center point.
|A sculpture in which forms are carved on a flat surface so they slightly project from the background.|
|A shape, form, or pattern that resembles a living organism in appearance; a painted, drawn, or sculpted form or design that is suggestive of the shape of a living organism; see organic.|
|Unglazed pottery that has been fired at a low temperature to make handling easier during glazing and to remove all physical water from the clay body; clayware that has been fired once in preparation for a surface finish, such as paint, stain, or glaze; unbisqued clay has not been fired; bisqueware refers to pottery that has been bisque fired; bisqueware is also called biscuit ware in some areas.|
|The main part of a pot, usually the largest part.|
|Leather-hard clay that has been rubbed with any smooth tool to polish and lighten the clay's surface to a fine and smooth finish.|
|A cable, attached to a camera shutter, with a push-button on one end to trip the shutter; because it minimizes the movement of the camera, a cable release is useful when photographing scenes that require long exposure times.|
|A sometimes elegant style of handwriting with precise flow.|
|A darkened enclosure in which an image is projected through a small aperture onto a facing surface.|
|Center of interest|
|The area of a composition that attracts the viewers' attention; also called the focal point.|
|Pottery and any of a number of art forms made from clay products.|
|The technique of creating a picture by using several shades of the same color.|
|A method of forming pottery from rolls of clay.|
|A way of making a work of art by gluing different objects, materials, and textures to a surface.|
|An element of visual art; the visible range of reflected light. Color has three properties: hue, value, and intensity (brightness or dullness).|
|The pure hue at its fullest intensity without white, black, or complementary color added.|
|Groupings of colors that are related on the color wheel, such as complementary, analogous, warm, and cool: |
Analogous: colors that appear next to each other on the color wheel and have one color in common, such as blue-green, blue, and blue-violet.
Complementary colors: contrasting colors; colors that are opposite on the color wheel, such as yellow/violet, blue/orange, and red/green.
Cool colors: a group of colors on the color wheel associated with coolness, such as blues, greens, and violets; in an artwork, cool colors appear to be farther away from the viewer.
Warm colors: a group of colors on the color wheel associated with warmth, such as red, yellow, and orange; in an artwork, warm colors appear to advance toward the viewer.
|The lightness or darkness of a color.|
|Colors arranged in a circle to show color relationships; there are several versions of color wheels: |
1. Traditional color wheel: a subtractive color diagram that typically includes 6—12 divisions and shows how colors are related to one another; it is a reference for the mixing of colors of pigment, such as paint or ink. The traditional color wheel includes red, yellow, and blue as primary colors.
2. Printer's color wheel: a color wheel in which the primaries include yellow, cyan, and magenta; a wheel typically used by professional designers and printers.
3. Color disk: a color wheel on which the colors blend together instead of being separated; used in printing, web design, video, and graphic arts (RGB).
4. RGB color model: an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors; the RGB spectrum is used in web design, video, and graphic arts.
|Colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel, such as yellow/violet, blue/orange, and red/green.|
|The parts of a whole composition.|
|The use of the principles of design to arrange the elements of visual arts to create a piece of artwork; the way individual design elements are combined to express a particular idea.|
|Different ways to put materials together (for example, by stapling, cutting, gluing, or taping).|
|An outline of an object or figure; the inner and outer lines and edges of an object or form; contours describe the outermost edges of a form, as well as edges of planes within the form.|
|The line that defines a form or the edge of an object's outline.|
|A line drawing that follows the visible edges of a shape or form, both exterior and interior.|
|A principle of design; a technique that shows differences in the elements of visual arts in an artwork, such as smooth/rough textures, light/dark colors, or thick/thin lines.|
|The difference between light and dark tones in an image.|
|Convergence lines or converging lines|
|Also called orthogonal lines; lines that converge or come together at a vanishing point; parallel lines that appear to converge as they move away from the viewer toward a vanishing point on the horizon; see the illustration below:|
|A group of colors on the color wheel that includes blues, greens, and violets; in an artwork, cool colors appear to be farther away from the viewer.|
|A decorative horizontal molding at the top of exterior walls, below the eaves.|
|A style of art of the 20th century, cubism emphasizes the separation of the subject into cubes and other geometric forms, which are depicted from multiple viewpoints; a style associated with the works of artists Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso.|
|Ornamental; aesthetically pleasing; providing enhancement.|
|A measurement (in feet or meters) on a camera that indicates what portions of the depth-of-field zone will be acceptably sharp at a given aperture.|
|The images or data generated by a computer.|
|A principle of design; the way an artwork shows emphasis; a way of organizing a composition so that one element or object in the composition is the strongest or most important part of the work. See also emphasis.|
|Different ways of drawing, such as hatching, stippling, contour, blending, or shading: |
Hatching: drawing repeating parallel lines to create a texture or value.
Cross hatching: drawing repeated crossing lines to create a texture or value.
Contour: drawing the outlines of a shape.
Blending: smudging to create a texture or value.
Shading: creating various gradations of value of a color.
|Elements of photographic design|
|Those parts (such as point, line, and plane) that are used to make a composition.|
|Elements of visual arts|
|The basic components that make up a work of art: color, form, line, shape, space, texture, and value:|
Color: the visible range of reflected light. Color has three properties: hue, value, and intensity (brightness or dullness).
Form: a three-dimensional object that has height, length, width, and depth.
Line: the one-dimensional path of a dot through space used by artists to control the viewer's eye movement; a thin mark made by a pencil, pen, or brush.
Shape:an element of visual arts; the area above, below, around, and within an artwork; the illusion of depth or space on a flat surface, created by means of the following techniques: rendering shapes and forms so that they overlap and using size, detail, value, color, and linear perspective.
Texture: an element of visual arts that portrays surface quality: actual texture is how something feels; visual texture is how something appears to feel.
Value: the lightness and darkness of a line, shape, or form.
|A principle of design; the importance assigned to certain objects or areas in an artwork; color, texture, shape, space, and size can be used to create a focal point or center of interest. See also dominance.|
|A wax-based paint that is fixed in place with heat.|
|Showing something in a way that makes it seem larger or more important than it is.|
|Showing an emotion or feeling in a work of art.|
|A style of painting of the 20th century, expressionism uses simplified designs and brilliant colors to express a definite or strong mood or feeling.|
|A method of shaping moist clay by forcing it through a die.|
|The setting or delineation of the opening in a camera's lens that allows light into the camera; the f-stop number is the ratio of the focal length of the lens to the diameter of the aperture; see also aperture.|
|The exterior front or side of a building or wall.|
|A technique used in drawing and painting; to feather is to blend an area or edge so that it fades off or softens; blending; smudging; the overlapping of values and/or colors in the manner of the overlapping feathers of a bird.|
|A principle of design; the repetition of wavy lines or curved shapes to suggest movement or motion.|
|The length of a lens (measured in millimeters) from the center point to the image sensor when the lens is focused at infinity.|
|The part of an artwork that is emphasized in some way and attracts the eye and attention of the viewer; also called the center of interest.|
|The maximum clarity or sharpness of an image.|
|The base of a pot upon which the pot can stand.|
|The area of an artwork or field of vision, often at the bottom of a picture plane, that appears closest to the viewer; also used to give priority to one aspect of a composition.|
|The illusion that an object that is closer to the viewer is larger than one that is farther away.|
|An element of visual arts; a three-dimensional object that has height, length, width, and depth.|
|Frame or photographic framing|
|The visible area that makes up an image: typically, the view in the viewfinder or camera's monitor; the shape of a picture as determined by a digital sensor, typically rectangular; also called format.|
|A shape or form that has an asymmetrical or irregular contour, often with a curvilinear, flowing outline; sometimes referred to as organic or biomorphic.|
|Able to stand on its own.|
|An architectural ornament or decoration consisting of a horizontal band around a room, mantel, window, cornice, etc.|
|Useful; practical; well-designed; efficient; serviceable.|
|A room, series of rooms, or building where works of art are exhibited.|
|Any shapes and/or forms that are based on math principles, such as a square/cube, circle/sphere, triangle/cone, pyramid, etc.|
|A composition of unified elements that form a whole that cannot be described by singling out its individual components.|
|An energetic type of line that captures the movement or pose of a figure.|
|Gradation (of value)|
|A range of values between light and dark.|
|Art inspired by urban graffiti; interest in graffiti art as a movement emerged in the 1970s in New York City with artists such as Keith Haring.|
|Bone-dry, unfired pottery; pottery that is ready for bisque firing.|
|A line that defines the plane on which the subject in an artwork sits.|
|Making clay forms by a non-mechanical process, such as pinching, coiling, and slab-building.|
|A principle of design; the creation of unity by stressing the similarities of separate, but related parts of the artwork.|
|An image having tones that fall mostly between white and gray, with very few dark tones.|
|The brightest area of an image that is illuminated by a light source.|
|An artwork that reflects intentional imitation and acknowledgement of or respect for a particular artist, artwork, body of work, or style; originally, such works were created by artists to honor the "masters" who trained them.|
|Based on the artist's eye level,an invisible plane that cuts through everything that exists at eye level; a line at which the sky appears to meet the earth.|
|A line that is parallel to the horizon; a horizontal line, surface, or position.|
|A picture that is specifically designed to communicate commercial ideas, such as an image created for the cover of a CD or book.|
|A person who draws or creates pictures for magazines, books, or advertising.|
|Lines that are suggested by the placement of other lines, shapes, edges, and colors, but that are not actually seen in the artwork.|
|A style of painting, popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s, that featured everyday subjects and showed the changing effects of color and light.|
|To remove (subtract) clay by cutting into the surface.|
|A line that was created by cutting into the surface.|
|Informal balance (asymmetrical balance)|
|The type of balance that results when two sides of an artwork are equally important, but one side looks different from the other.|
|The brightness or dullness of a color.|
|A color created by mixing a primary color with the secondary color next to it; also called a tertiary color; intermediate colors include red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, and red-violet.|
|To place side-by-side.|
|A sensory experience derived from the sense of touch. See tactile.|
|Relating to motion or movement.|
|The condition of a clay body when much of the moisture has evaporated and shrinkage has just ended, but the clay is not totally dry. Joining slabs, carving, or burnishing is done at this stage.|
|An element of visual arts; the flat path of a dot through space used by artists to control the viewer's eye movement; a long narrow mark or stroke made on or in a surface; a thin mark made by a pencil, pen, or brush. The repetition of lines (and/or shapes) is used to create texture, pattern, and gradations of value.|
|Line of sight|
|A type of implied line that directs the attention of the viewer from one part of a composition to another.|
|The general characteristic of a line: its weight, direction, movement, and/or other qualities.|
|The width or appearance of any line, such as thick or thin, smooth or rough, continuous or broken.|
|The variety of directions and shapes that a line may have: vertical, horizontal, diagonal, curved, zigzag.|
|In pottery, the rim of a pot.|
|An image that consists of dark tones with little contrast.|
|A small-scale two-dimensional sketch or three-dimensional model or plan of a proposed work, such as a sculpture or architectural form; used by architects and sculptors to design large-scale works.|
|Medium (plural: media)|
|The material chosen by the artist to create a work of art, such as paint, pencil, or clay.|
|The area between the foreground and background of a landscape.|
|A sculptural technique that involves manipulating a soft material into a three dimensional form.|
|Having or appearing to have only one color, which may include variations on the value of that color; a one-color plus black-and-white color scheme.|
|A repeated shape or design in a work of art; a design unit that may be repeated in a visual rhythm.|
|A principle of design; the use of the elements of visual arts to draw a viewer's eye from one point to another in an artwork.|
|A painting, generally drawn or painted directly onto an interior or exterior wall; for example, Michelangelo's frescos at the Sistine Chapel and Diego Rivera's mural at the Detroit Institute of Art.|
|A Japanese design concept that involves the placement of light against dark in art and imagery; Nōtan's use of light and dark transforms shape and form into flat shapes on two-dimensional surfaces; Nōtan is traditionally presented in cut paper, paint, and/or ink and more recently in graphic arts.|
|The empty space surrounding a shape, figure, or form in a two- or three-dimensional artwork.|
|Color that has no chromatic qualities: black, white, grays, and browns.|
|The lightness and darkness of a line, shape, or form that was created using a neutral scale: blacks, grays, and whites.|
|An artwork with no recognizable subject; artwork that uses forms that make no direct reference to external or perceived reality.|
|Original; innovative; fresh; a new idea or new purpose; a whimsical item.|
|Shapes and/or forms, often curvilinear in appearance, that are similar to those found in nature, such as plants, animals, and rocks.|
|A unique personal expression of arts knowledge and skills.|
|Lines that converge or come together at a vanishing point; orthogonal lines are parallel lines that appear to converge as they move away from the viewer toward a vanishing point on the horizon; also called convergence lines or converging lines; see illustration below:|
|A line that is defined by the outside edge or contours of an object or figure.|
|To position things in such a way that the edge of one thing appears to be or is on top of an extending past the edge of another; used as a spatial device or perspective technique in perspective drawing.|
|Beating clay, generally with a flat, fairly wide stick that is often covered with fabric, twine, or rope so that the damp clay body does not stick to the paddle; other paddles include rocks, shoes, and found or natural objects; paddling is used to strengthen joints, thin walls, alter shape, or create texture.|
|A principle of design; the repetition of the elements of visual arts in an organized way; pattern and rhythm are both created through repetition; see rhythm for examples of regular, alternating, random, and progressive rhythmic patterns.|
|A way to create the appearance of depth and three dimensions on a two-dimensional surface; types of perspective include one-point linear perspective, two-point linear perspective, and atmospheric perspective.|
|The process of forming and fixing an image of an object by the chemical action of light and other forms of radiant energy on photosensitive surfaces; the art and business of producing and printing photographs.|
|A substance used in coloring; usually, an insoluble powder mixed with a base of water, acrylic, or oil to produce paint or other similar products.|
|A method of manipulating clay by pinching with the fingers to sculpt, hollow out, and/or form clay into new forms.|
|Point of view|
|The angle from which a viewer sees an object.|
|A technique that involves the use of dots to create an artwork.|
|A flat, portable envelope or binder that is used to carry artwork or a collection of work.|
|The actual space taken up by the line, shape, or form.|
|The basic colors from which all other colors are mixed: traditionally, red, yellow, and blue; no other colors can be mixed to make primary colors.|
|Principles of design of visual arts|
|A means of organizing the elements in a work of art: balance, contrast, emphasis/dominance, harmony, movement, pattern, proportion, repetition, rhythm, unity, and variety.|
|Changing the shape or size of a motif by altering it in steps every time it repeats.|
|A principle of design; the relationship of parts to a whole or parts to one another in regards to size and placement.|
|The first of its kind; a sample; an example; a trial product; an original design for a product.|
|The process of stroking plastic clay with the hand to shape handles for a pot.|
|A type of balance that is equally symmetrical from the center point throughout.|
|A type of visual rhythm in which the same elements are repeated, but without a recognizable order, such as stars in the sky.|
|A style of art that portrays objects or scenes as they might appear in everyday life. A recognizable subject is portrayed using lifelike colors, textures, and proportions.|
|Light that is bounced back from a source.|
|A personal reaction, expressed either orally or in writing, to an artwork or to another person's question about an artwork; a reaction to something done.|
|A visual rhythm that is created by repeating the same elements again and again.|
|A type of sculpture in which forms project from a flat background; areas of relief may be concave or convex. |
Bas-relief: a low relief.
High relief: a sculptural relief that is viewed only from the sides and front.
Additive relief: a type of relief in which elements are added to and protrude from a surface.
Subtractive relief: a type of relief in which elements are carved, etched, or inscribed on a surface.
|The repeated use of particular elements of visual arts to create a pattern, movement, rhythm, or unity.|
|In art, a process that uses two or more materials that do not mix, such as crayon and watercolor or wax and ceramic glaze.|
|A principle of design; the repetition of elements of visual arts to create movement in an artwork; the following are types of visual rhythms:|
Alternating rhythm: created by repeating an element of visual arts at least twice, such as red-blue, red-blue, red-blue.
Angular rhythm: created by repeating two or more lines that have straight angles and edges.
Flowing rhythm: created by repeating wavy lines or curved shapes to suggest movement or motion.
Progressive rhythm: created by changing the shape or size of a motif incrementally so that the shape is altered every time it repeats.
Random rhythm: created by repeating the same elemnts, but without a recognizable order, such as stars in the sky.
Regular rhythm: created by repeating the same elements again and again.
|Rule of thirds|
|A rule that dictates placing the center of interest in an image on one of the cross-points of a grid:|
|Scratching the edges of clay before joining them together.|
|A method of producing patterns from contrast by scratching through a slip or glaze (layers).|
|Different ways to create three-dimensional (3-D) forms; for example; cutting, folding, rolling, twisting, curling, scoring, bending, additive and subtractive processes, attaching, joining, and carving.|
|A three-dimensional work of art.|
|A color that is created by mixing two primary colors together in equal parts: green, violet, and orange.|
|A value that is created by adding black to a color.|
|The dark areas adjacent to the illuminated (highlighted) side of an object.|
|An element of visual arts; a two-dimensional (flat) area enclosed by a line: |
Geometric: shapes and/or forms that are based on mathematical principles, such as a square/cube, circle/sphere, triangle/cone, or pyramid.
Organic: shapes and/or forms that are irregular, often curving or rounded, and more informal that geometric shapes.
|A drawing without much detail, usually completed in a short amount of time, and sometimes used as a rough draft for later work; a drawing that catches the general appearance or impression of an object or place; a drawing that blocks in a quick plan for a composition.|
|Using flat rolled-out pieces of clay to build an artwork or object.|
|A fluid suspension of clay in water that is used to join clay pieces and for surface decoration.|
|An element of visual arts; the area above, below, around, and within an artwork; the illusion of depth or space on a flat surface, created by means of the following techniques: rendering shapes and forms so that they overlap and using size, detail, value, color, and linear perspective.|
|Methods used to create the appearance of space in an artwork: foreground, middle ground, and background; overlap, placement, size, detail, color, and value:|
Foreground: the area of an artwork that appears closest to the viewer.
Middle ground: the area between the foreground and the background.
Background: the area of an artwork that appears farthest away: a way of showing space.
Color value: the lightness or darkness of a color.
Horizon line: based on the artist's eye level, the line at which the sky appears to meet the earth.
Overlap: one part partly covers another part.
|A decorative or functional clay attachment added by using a slip.|
|A piece of artwork that features a collection of nonmoving subject matter.|
|Lines that visually hold a composition or design together.|
|The distinctive use of the elements and principles of visual arts to form characteristics or techniques that are unique to an individual artist, group, or period.|
|The process of taking away; carving or cutting away from a surface.|
|The use of fantastic imagery to combine the dreamlike with the realistic.|
|An image that represents something else.|
|Having balance; exact appearance on opposite sides of a dividing line or plane.|
|Perceived by touch or related to the sense of touch; see kinesthetic.|
|A method of working with art materials to create artworks.|
|See intermediate color.|
|A pattern, often mosaic, that can be repeated in any direction to infinity without any gaps; a style of artwork that is associated with the works of M. C. Escher and Islamic architecture; a regular tessellation is made up of congruent regular polygons (with 3, 4, 5, or more sides); regular means that the sides of the polygon are all the same length; congruent means the polygons that are put together are all the same size and shape: |
The following examples are planes that have been tiled (tessellated):
A tessellation of triangles.
A tessellation of squares.
A tessellation of hexagons.
|An element of visual arts; the portrayal of the quality of a surface by using drawing techniques to create texture and patterns, such as stippling, hatching, cross hatching, scribbling, broken lines, and repeating lines and shapes (see examples below); actual texture is how something feels when touched; visual texture (also called simulated texture) is how something appears to feel. |
hatching cross-hatching stippling scribbling
repeating broken lines repeating shapes smudging/blending
|The central idea that is revealed in an artwork; focused subject matter; a topic.|
|Three-dimensional or 3-D|
|Having actual height, width, and depth and existing in three dimensional spaces; or having the illusion of existing in three dimensions.|
|To use the potter's wheel to form pieces from a plastic clay body.|
|A value created by adding white to a color.|
|A color that is created by adding gray.|
|The use of text or individual words in a visual design or presentation.|
|A principle of art; a successful combination of the elements of visual arts to create a sense of wholeness and visual completion in an artwork.|
|Useful; functional; efficient; serviceable; usable in everyday life.|
|An element of visual arts; the lightness and darkness of a line, shape, or form; a measure of relative lightness and darkness.|
|A spatial device in which two or more parallel lines appear to come together at one point.|
|The use of the elements of visual arts to create differences in an artwork for visual interest.|
|The up-and-down orientation of a line, shape, or form.|
|A container, such as a bowl, urn, or other item that holds something.|
|Creative expressions that use imagery to satisfy the human need to communicate thoughts, ideas, feelings, and beliefs.|
|Visual arts elements|
|See elements of visual arts.|
|A group of colors on the color wheel that are associated with warmth, such as red, yellow, and orange. In an artwork, warm colors appear to advance toward the viewer.|
|The distance from your camera to the object you are photographing.|
|Zone of focus|
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State now requires meningitis vaccination in grades 7, 12
Dec 1. 2015—Beginning Sept. 1, 2016, students entering seventh and 12th grades must be vaccinated against meningococcal disease in order to attend school in New York state.
The state Department of Health notified school districts on Nov. 24 that a new law, approved by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in October, requires immunizations against meningococcal disease for children at ages 11 or 12 and again at 16 years of age or older, as recommended by the national Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The law is scheduled to go into effect Sept. 1, 2016.
The New York State Department of Health plans to work with the New York State Education Department and other partners to draft regulations and create materials to help implement this new requirement. Parents can anticipate more information about which students will be affected by this law and any waiver options once details become available.
Meningococcal disease is a severe bacterial infection that can lead to meningitis (inflammation of the lining covering the brain and spinal cord) and bloodstream infections such as septicemia. Symptoms of the disease include a high fever, headache, vomiting, a stiff neck and a rash. The meningococcus bacterium is treatable with antibiotics, but each year it causes approximately 2,500 infections and 300 deaths in the United States. Those who contract the disease may experience permanent brain damage, hearing loss, kidney failure, loss of arms or legs, or chronic nervous system problems.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found the highest rates of meningococcal disease to be among preteens, teens, and young adults, as well as among infants with certain medical conditions. The new law targets many in this age group and aligns with the CDC’s recommendation to vaccinate 11- to 18-year-olds against meningococcal disease.
Learn more about meningococcal disease and the meningococcal disease vaccine at the links below:
● Meningococcal disease information (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
● Meningococcal disease fact sheet (New York State Department of Health)
● Childhood and Adolescent Immunizations (New York State Department of Health)
● Recommended vaccinations for children aged 11-19 years (New York State Department of Health)
● State law requiring immunizations against meningococcal disease (New York State Assembly)
Copyright 2015, Capital Region BOCES School Communications Portfolio; All rights reserved. For more information or permission to use, call 518-464-3960. | <urn:uuid:654b1dd5-4e19-447c-b68c-08b03d563b24> | {
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The Otterhound is British breed originally bred for hunting. It is in the same bloodlines as the Bloodhound and the Airedale Terrier. The breed has almost always been rare, even during the early 20th century when hunting was popular. The use of the breed to hunt otters ended in 1978 in Britain when it became illegal to kill otters. The breed is currently the most endangered in Britain and there are only between 350 and 400 in the United States.
The breed generally weighs between 80 and 120 pounds. It is a large breed with a massive head and a strong body. The coat of the breed is rough and oily. Its feet are large and webbed to enable it to hunt both on land and in water. The nose of the breed is sensitive and it tends to persistently explore scents.
The Otterhound is a friendly breed that can make a good family dog and an excellent hunter. The breed has a distinctive low bark and can make a good watchdog. The breed requires substantial amounts of exercise; it needs plenty of space to run, but it also needs an enclosed area with a tall fence as it can jump 5 feet or more.
The Otterhound has an average lifespan of 10 to 13 years. | <urn:uuid:33d114b6-b509-4a83-b350-8fccb2ff821f> | {
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Scientists have pieced together most of the DNA of a man who lived in Greenland about 4,000 years ago, a pioneering feat that revealed hints about his appearance, including his likely baldness.
It’s the first genome from an ancient human, showing the potential for what one expert called a time machine for learning about the biology of ancient people.
Analysis suggests the Greenland man probably had type A-positive blood, brown eyes, darker skin than most Europeans, dry earwax, a higher risk of going bald and several biological adaptations for weathering a cold climate, researchers report in today’s issue of the journal Nature.
The DNA also indicated the man had dark, thick hair — a trait the scientists observed directly, since that’s where the genetic material came from.
More importantly, comparisons of his DNA with that of present-day Arctic peoples shed light on the mysterious origins of the man’s cultural group, the Saqqaq, the earliest known culture to settle in Greenland. Results suggest his ancestors migrated from Siberia some 5,500 years ago.
It’s not clear how or why they migrated, said Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, an author of the paper. The analysis shows the now-extinct Saqqaq were not direct ancestors of today’s Inuits or Native Americans, he said.
The researchers nicknamed the man Inuk, which is Greenlandic for “human” or “man.”
The DNA was recovered from a tuft of hair that had been excavated in 1986 from permafrost on Greenland’s west coast, north of the Arctic Circle. The thousands of years in a deep freeze was key to preserving the genetic material. But most ancient human remains come from warmer places with less potential for preservation, and scientists said it’s not clear how often DNA from such samples would allow for constructing a genome.
Willerslev said he believes many hair samples from around the world, perhaps from South American mummies or in collections, probably would be usable.
“I won’t say it will become routine,” he told reporters, but “I think it will be something we will see much more of in the coming five years.”
Over the past few years, scientists have reconstructed a “draft version” of woolly-mammoth DNA from about 18,000 years ago and 58,000 years ago,
In addition, a draft Neanderthal genome unveiled last year used 40,000-year-old DNA from three individuals. | <urn:uuid:5735d2d4-87c6-44e4-bada-7827cb92e867> | {
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It is too bad those posts about the tundras being at the tipping point of methane self release from 2009 were lost. I asked admin about it and they were irretrievable. I only found one left on google some time back.
PETM was such an event, geologically. There was a period of over 10,000 years of increased vulcanism which gradually (much slower than today), drove the atmospheric CO2 levels higher. Of course, much of it was mitigated by the high atmospheric aerosols amount. With the number of volcanic events, it is assumed there were other seismic events that were increased. It is a good conjecture that a large oceanic earthquake caused a huge undersea slide to a clathrate rich area, causing an explosive release of massive amounts of methane.
Either that, or the settling out of particulates led to warmer oceans and arctic tundras which both eventually released all their methane hydrates through temperature gain.
The 2009 Norwegian oceanic results showed it vaporizing even at +1*F, but +2*F is where the vaporization becomes rapid. There is ocean bottom evidence of some clathrate fields explosive releases from seaquakes, but that is nothing compared to if the entire ocean warms up 2*F. The effect would be 1,200 feet, then deeper deposits as they warmed. The tundra releases are much greater than the present atmospheric carbon, and the oceans similar. The oceans take about 1,000 years to warm that much, or more. Still, the process today, in the Anthropocene Epoch, is at least ten times the rate of PETM.
That is where the adaptability issue comes in. The vast majority of species can not adapt to PETM type conditions in that rapid a time frame. PETM caused a species loss of 30% in ten times the time. With the already high background extinction level from human activities (considered an ELE by Leakey), this event is estimated to be up to a 90% species loss. Some articles I read estimated 80%. This is still greater than the estimated 75% species loss of the Yucatan asteroid event.
The possibility of tundra methane self release and its consequences are ignored by many climatologists and denialists. Either they ignore something so horrible or dismiss it out of lack of knowledge. Certainly even a 2*C AGW is bad enough on crop production, and extreme weather destruction. The fact is that the 2*C is also over the amount needed to cause tundra, followed by oceanic, methane self release, AETM and ELE completion.
I have written a lot about the population crash of 2050 or before. That is a bad thing, too. I think it is too late to stop. This ELE is far worse, and something we MAY be able to stop with quick sufficient action. Back in 2006, we were given 10 years to go to massive fossil fuel burning reduction. Then later, by 2020. I have read where this is still only a 50% probability of success. It would have been better odds if action was taken back when the stopping of ozone depleting chemicals was done.
You can argue all you want and put your head in the sand about what humanity is doing to the long term viability of our biosphere. Time is still running out until the hourglass top is empty, just like it did for going to 1 child families to stop the crash.
In a normal crash, the survivors would slowly build back up and stay around long term sustainable level. Passing the tundra methane self release tipping point will lead to a biosphere where humans can not survive, along with 80-90% of the species they depend on.
Humans made it through a bottleneck of several thousand years, back when Toba erupted 76K years ago. This is worse by a long shot.
I can not understand people doing what they have done, seeing we knew some of it on the first Earth Day. Around that time, I got a pass to Saigon with a friend in my unit, to investigate the stinking Black River of Saigon we had to fly high over when we had missions south. I saw houses on poles over the river with ladders/steps leading down. A woman was washing dishes and filling a rice pan, with her young son bathing nearby. Out of a hole in the bottom of the hut fell a turd about 12 feet or so away. They, supposedly intelligent humans, were using the river as a sewer, for drinking, and for washing, and it stunk bad up to 5,000 feet over it.
People all over the world, are doing something similar but not so easily seen or direct. All my proselytizing about overpopulation for over 40 years, AGW for 17 years, and building a solar house, Earthship, and composting and driving a hybrid, with one child now 24, has had no effect at all. The world is heading to hell in a hand basket because of those who deny overpopulation and AGW, et al, and refuse to act out of greed, selfishness, stupidity, or lust.
The time to act is now, to mitigate what will happen. The tipping points may be now, or get crossed, but it is in the self interest of our species to at least try.
"With every decision, think seven generations ahead of the consequences of your actions" Ute rule of life.
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”― Chief Seattle
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“minorities right to establish and administer educational institutions.. a critique”
“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.”
As starting with this quotation relevance and proximity of education in individual’ life can be counted. Indian constitution draftsman believed that in order to be a welfare state various fundamental rights should be endowed to citizens as to develop a sense of equality and unity and right to education is the best developer of these principles. But the challenge of India's plurality is enormous – eight major religions and myriad creeds, 800 languages of which 22 are 'official' languages, 8% of the population are indigenous peoples, a social mosaic of castes and sub castes and over 60 socio-cultural sub regions. In India minority generally consists of Christians (2.5%), Sikhs (2%), Jain (1%) and Muslims (12%), which is world’ third largest. In India majority consist of Hindus, their population includes more that 80% of India’ population. India is a secular state but in virtual sense it’ an utopian concept because in a country where more than 80% of population consist of one single religion, so, its quite difficult to provide equal status to minority. So, in order to provide equal status to these minorities special privileges are being accorded to them in our constitution. As taking an example of Muslims in India, have a poverty rate of 43% whereas the national average is 39% (National Sample Survey Organisation, 1999-2000). In rural areas Muslim landlessness is 51% as compared to 40% for Hindus. Literacy rates are substantially lower among Muslims, leading to deprivation of jobs in higher positions in government offices and skilled professions in the service sector. In urban areas, 60% of the Muslims have never gone to schools as against the national average of 20%. Only 5%of Muslim women have completed high school education and the income of the average Muslim is 11 % less than the national average. To this may be added the Kashmiri Muslim community, with its distinct political history and its guaranteed status of self rule in past, is a testimony to the betrayal of rights and the denial of justice to the Muslim population. So, still there is need of further implementations of new laws in order to meet their drowning standards. The constitution of India provides for special rights to both linguistic and religious minorities “to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice” under Article 30. Hence no such law can be framed as may discriminate against such minorities with regard to the establishment and administration of the educational institutions vis-à-vis other educational institutions. Article 30 is a special right conferred on the religious and linguistic minorities because of their numerical handicap and to instil in them a sense of confidence. In the St Xavier’s College case, the Supreme Court has rightly pointed out, “The whole object of conferring the right on the minorities under Article 30 is to ensure that there will be equality between the majority and the minority. If the minorities do not have such special protection they will be denied equality.”
While upholding these rights, the Supreme Court has, in the TMA Pai case, also endorsed the concept that there should be no reverse discrimination and opines that “the essence of Article 30(1) is to ensure equal treatment between the majority and the minority institutions. No one type or category of institution should be disfavoured or, for that matter, receive more favourable treatment than another. Laws of the land, including rules and regulations, must apply equally to the majority institutions as well as to the minority institutions.”
The Supreme Court has time and again, in many judgements, ruled that minority status can be decided only by taking the state as a unit. It has reasoned that since ‘religious’ and ‘linguistic’ are mentioned at the same time in Article 30 of the constitution, and since the states were carved out in India by taking language as the criterion, the classification of ‘minority’ cannot be based on some other principle. Accordingly, a state government can confer minority status on an educational institute only after considering the socio-economic backwardness of the minorities in that state. This is the reason why, even though 90 per cent of the educational institutions (aided or unaided) in Kerala are run by person(s) belonging to the minority communities, the same have not been accorded minority status.
Constitutional right accorded to Minorities -
Right of a minority to establish educational institutions –
(a) Article – 30 –
Article – 30(1) gives the linguistic or religious minorities the following two rights:
(a) The right to establish, and
(b) The right to administer educational institutions of their choice.
Article – 30(2) bars the state, while granting aid to educational institutions, from discriminating against any educational institution on the ground that it is under the management of a linguistic or a religious minority. It mandates that in granting aid to educational institutions, the state shall not discriminate against any educational institution on the ground that it is under the management of a minority, whether based on religion or language.
The minorities have been given protection under article 30 in order to preserve and strengthen the integrity and unity of the country. The sphere of general secular education will develop the commonness of boys and girls of India. This is in the true spirit of liberty, equality and fraternity through the medium of education. The minorities will feel isolated and separate if they are not given the protection of article 30 general secular education will open doors of perception and act as the natural light of mind for our countrymen to live in the whole.
The Supreme Court has pointed out in Ahmedabad St. Xaviers College v. State of Gujarat that the spirit behind article 30(1) is the conscience of the nation that the minorities, religious as well as linguistic, are not prohibited from establishing and administering educational institutions of their choice for the purpose of giving their children the best general education to make them complete men and women of the country.
(c) What is a Minority?
The expression "minority" has been derived from the Latin word 'minor' and the suffix 'ity' which means "small in number". According to Encyclopaedia Britannica 'minorities' means 'groups held together by ties of common descent, language or religious faith and feeling different in these respects from the majority of the inhabitants of a given political entity". J.A. Laponee in his book "The Protection to Minority" describes "Minority" as a group of persons having different race, language or religion from that of majority of inhabitants. In the Year Book on Human Rights U.N. Publication 1950 ed. minority has been described as non dominant groups having different religion or linguistic traditions than the majority population.
Article 30(1) uses the terms ‘linguistic’ or ‘religious’ minorities. The word ‘or’ means that a minority may either be linguistic or religious and that it does not have to be both – a religious minority as well as linguistic minority. It is sufficient of it is one or the other or both.
The constitution uses the term ‘minority’ without defining it. In re The Kerala Education Bill, the Supreme Court opined that while it is easy to say that minority means a community which is numerically less than 50 per cent, the important question is 50 % of what? Should it be of the entire population of India, or of a state, or a part thereof? It is possible that a community may be in majority in a state but in a minority in the whole of India. A community may be concentrated in a part of a state and may thus be in majority there, though it may be in minority in the state as a whole. If a part of a state is to be taken, then the question is where to draw the line and what is to be taken into consideration a district, town, a municipality or its wards.
The ruling in the Kerala Education Bill has been reiterated by the Supreme Court in Guru Nanak University case. In that case, the Supreme Court rejected the contention of the state of Punjab that a religious or linguistic minority should be a minority in relation to the entire population of India. The Court has ruled that a minority has to be determined, in relation to the particular legislation which is sought to be impugned. If it is a state law, the minorities have to be determined in relation to the state population. The Hindus in Punjab constitute a religious minority. Therefore, Arya Samajistis in Punjab also constitute a religious minority having their own distinct language and script. It is within the realm of possibility that the population of a state may be so fragmented that no linguistic or religious group may by itself constitute 50 percent of the total state population. In such a situation, every group will fall within the umbrella of Art. 30(1) without there being a majority group in the state against which minorities need to claim protection.
The Court has pointed out that if various sections and classes of the Hindus were to be regarded as ‘minorities’ under art. 30(1), then the Hindus would be divided into numerous sections and classes and cease to be a majority any longer. The sections of one religion cannot constitute religious minorities. The term ‘minority based on religion’ should be restricted only to those religious minorities, e.g. Muslims, Christians, Jains, Buddists, Sikhs, etc., which have kept their identity separate from the majority, namely, the Hindus.
(c) Establish And Administer
Article 30(1) postulate that the religious community will have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice meaning thereby that where a religious minority establishes an educational institution, it will have the right to administer that. The right to administer has been given to the minority, so that it can mould the institution as it thinks fit, and in accordance with its ideas of how the interest of the community in general, and the institution in particular, will be best served. For purpose of article 30(1), even a single philanthropic individual from the concerned minority can found the institution with his own means.
A minority institution may impart general secular education; it need not confine itself only to the teaching of minority language, culture or religion. But to be treated as a minority institution, it must be shown that it serves or promotes in some manner the interests of the minority community by promoting its religious tenets, philosophy, culture, language or literature.
It has been observed by Supreme Court in the case of Azeez Basha: “ Article 30(1) postulates that the religious community will have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice meaning thereby that where a religious minority establishes an educational institution, it will have the right to administer that. The article in our opinion clearly shows that the minority will have the right to administer educational institutions of their choice provided they have established them, but not otherwise,”
In S.P Mittal v. Union of India, the Supreme Court has stated : “ In order to claim the benefit of Article 30(1), the community must show: (a) that it is religious/linguistic minority, (b) that the institution was established by it. Without satisfying these two conditions it cannot claim the guaranteed rights to administer it.”
In Andhra Pradesh Christian Medical Association v. Government of Andhra Pradesh, it was held by the court that the institution in question was not a minority institution. The court classified that the protection of Article 30(1) is not available if the institution is a mere cloak or pretension and the real motive is business adventure.
A society consisting of minority members, or even a single member of a minority community, may establish an institution. The position has been clarified by the Supreme Court in State of Kerala v. Mother Provincial. The court stated that : “It matters not if a single philanthropic individual with his own mean, founds the institution or the community at large contributes the funds. The position in law is the same and the intension in either case must be to found an institution for the benefit of a minority community by a member of that community.”
In Ahemdabad St. Stephens College v. Government of Gujarat, it was observed by the court that : “Every educational institution irrespective of community to which it belongs is a ‘melting pot’ in our national life” and that it is essential that there should be a “proper mix of students of different communities in all educational institutions.” This means that a minority institution cannot refuse admission to students of other minority and majority communities.
(d) Regulations of Minority Educational Institutions.
The provision of article 30(1) does not however mean that the state can impose no regulations on the minority institutions. In the famous Kerala Education Bill, the Supreme Court has observed: “The right conferred on the religious and linguistic minorities to administer educational institutions of their choice is not an absolute right”. It has to be read with regulatory power of the state. Regulations which do not affect the substance of the guaranteed rights, but ensure the excellence of the institutions and its proper functioning in matters educational, are permissible.
(i) Government Grants/Recognition – At present, the situation is such that an educational institution cannot possibly hope to survive, and function without government grants, noir can it confer degrees without affiliation to a university. Although minorities establish and run their educational institutions with a view to educate their children in an atmosphere congenial to the conservation of their language or culture, yet that is not their only aim. They also desire that their students are well equipped for useful careers in life. The students of unrecognized institutions can neither get admission in institutions of higher learning nor can they enter public service. Therefore, without recognition, a minority run institution cannot fulfill its role effectively and the right conferred by Article 30(1) would be very much diluted. A meaningful or real exercise of the right under article 30(1) must, therefore, mean the right to establish effective educational institutions which may sub serve the real needs of the minorities and the scholars who resort to them. This necessarily involves recognition or affiliation of minority institutions, for without this the institutions cannot play their role effectively and the right conferred on the minorities by article 30(1) would be denuded of much of its efficacy. Article 30(2) debars the state from discriminating against minority institutions in the matter of giving grants. In Managing Board, M.T.M v. State of Bihar, the Supreme Court has emphasized that the right to establish educational institutions of their choice must mean the right to establish real institutions which will effectively serve the needs of their community and the scholars who resort to them. Clarifying the position as regards the question of affiliation of, or grant to, minority institutions, the Court observed: “There is, no doubt, no such thing as Fundamental Right to recognition by the state but to deny recognition to the educational institutions except upon terms tantamount to the surrender of their constitutional right of administration of the educational institutions of their choice is in truth and in effect to deprive them of their rights under article 30(1). We repeat that the legislative power is subject to the Fundamental Rights and the legislature cannot indirectly take away or abridge the Fundamental Rights which it could not do directly.”
(ii) Conditions For Grants/Recognition – what conditions can be imposed on these institutions as a requisite to giving grants, or according affiliation or recognition to them? This has proved to be a complex and controversial problem. These conditions may be of two kinds. One type of conditions may relate to such matter as syllabi, curriculum, courses, minimum qualifications of teachers, their age of superannuation, library, conditions concerning sanitary, health and hygiene of students, etc. The underlying purpose of such conditions is to promote educational standards and uniformity and help the institutions and help the institutions concerned achieve efficiency and excellence and are imposed not only in the interest of general secular education but also are necessary to maintain the educational character and content of minority institutions. Such conditions cannot be regarded as violative of article 30(1) and should, therefore, be followed by all educational institutions. A right to administer cannot be a right to maladminister. The matter has been succinctly explained by the Supreme Court in In re Kerala Education Bill: “The right to administer cannot obviously include the right to maladminister. The minority cannot surely ask for aid or recognition for an educational institution run by them in unhealthy surroundings. Without any competent teachers possessing any semblance of qualification, and which does not maintain even a fair standard of teaching or which teaches matters subversive of the welfare of the scholars. It stands to reason, then, that the constitutional right to administer an educational institution of their choice does not necessarily militate against the claim of the state to insist that in order to grant aid the state may prescribe reasonable regulations to ensure the excellence of the institutions to be aided…. Reasonable regulations may certainly be imposed by the state as a condition for aid or even for recognition.”
(iii) Composition of Managing Bodies – In the composition of the managing bodies Supreme Court has invariably invalidated provisions seeking to regulate the composition and personnel of the managing bodies of minority institutions. A provision interfering with the minorities’ choice of managing body for an institution has been held to violate article 30(1). The Gujarat University Act provided that the governing body of every college must include amongst its members a representative of the University nominated by the Vice-Chancellor, representatives of teaching and non-teaching staff and of the college students. In the celebrated St. Xavier’s College Case, the Supreme Court declared the provision as non-applicable to minority institutions because it displaced the management and entrusted it to a different agency; autonomy in administration was lost and new elements in the shape of representatives of different types were brought in. The court emphasized that while the University could take steps to cure maladministration in a college, the choice of personnel of management was a part of administration which could not be interfered with.
(iv) Appointment of Teachers – The selection and appointment of teachers, and the head of the institution, is regarded as pre-eminently a function of the administration. As K.K. Mathew, J., has observed supporting the majority view in Ahmedabad St. Xaviers College case: “It is upon the principal and teachers of a college that the tone and temper of an educational institution depend. On them would depend its reputation, the maintenance of discipline and its efficiency in teaching. The right to choose the principal and to have the teaching conducted by teachers appointed by the management after an overall assessment of their outlook and philosophy is perhaps the most important facet of the right to administer and educational institution.”
(v) Disciplinary Action Against The Staff And Salary of Teachers – A significant facet of the administration of an educational institution is the maintenance of discipline among the members of its staff and to decide over the salary of the teaching staff. The right of the minority institution to take disciplinary action against the teachers and decide salary of teaching staff is a very vital aspect of the management’s fundamental Right to administer the institution. Any rule taking away or interfering with this right cannot be regarded as compatible with article 30(1). Thus, while fair procedural safeguards may be laid down for the purpose, the final power to take disciplinary action and deciding the teaching staff must vest in the management of the institution and be not subjected to the control or veto of any outside body.
(vi) Admission of Students and Fee structure – In the St. Stephen’s College v. University of Delhi, the Court ruled out that college was established and administered by a minority community, viz., the Christian community which is indisputably a religious minority in India as well as in the union territory of Delhi where the college is located and hence enjoys the status of a minority institution. On the question of admission of students of the concerned minority community, the court has ruled that, according to article 30(1), the minorities whether based on religion or language have the right “to establish and administer” educational institutions of their choice and the right to select students for admission is a part of administration. On this point, the court has observed: “It is indeed an important facet of administration. This power also could be regulated but the regulation must be reasonable just like any other regulation. It should be conducive to the welfare of the minority institution or for the betterment of those who resort to it.” There is also the question of fees chargeable by the unaided minority institution from its students. It is clear that an unaided minority institution. The reason is that unaided institutions have to meet the cost of importing education from their own resources and the main source can only be the fees collected from the students. But these institutions cannot be permitted to indulge in commercialization of education. Therefore, it would not be unconstitutional for the government to issue an order which places a restriction on the amount of fee chargeable by an institution, if, on facts, the minority institutions indulge in commercialization of education and maladministration of the educational institutions.
(vii) Medium of Instruction – The right of a minority to establish and administer educational institutions of its choice also carries with it the right to impart instruction to its children in its own language. The result of reading article 29(1) and 30(1) together is that the minority has the choice of medium of instruction and the power of the state to determine the medium of instruction has, therefore, to yield ground, to the extent it is necessary to give effect to this minority right. The most significant case on this point is the D.A.V College, Bhatinada v. State of Punjab. By a notification, the Punjab Government compulsorily affiliated certain colleges to the Punjab University which prescribed Punjabi in the Gurumukhi script as the sole and exclusive medium of instruction and examination for certain courses. The Supreme Court declared that it violated the right of the Arya Samajists to use their own script in the colleges run by them and compulsorily affiliated to the University.
National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004
This act was passed in year 2004 for giving more teeth to minority education in India. This act allows direct affiliation of minority educational institutes to central universities. This act was enacted in order to provide quality education in minority institutes.
Unfortunate Aspect of this Act –
According to this bill, any minority educational institutes seeking affiliation to a central university will be granted such affiliation. The various central universities named for the purpose, in the schedule of the bill, are: University of Delhi, Pondicherry University, North Eastern Hill University, Assam University, Nagaland University and Mizoram University. If a university named in the schedule denies affiliation to an institute, a three-member commission (with all the three belonging to the minority community) would give the final and binding ruling. This committee will be headed by a High Court judge and vested with all relevant executive and judicial powers. This commission can advise the central and state governments on any question relating to the minorities’ education, which are referred to it. According to the bill, the commission can “look into specific complaints regarding deprivation or violation of rights of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice and any dispute relating affiliation to a scheduled university and report its findings to the central government for its implementation.” Only the central government shall have the powers to overrule the decisions of the commission.
The National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) mentions that minority educational institutions will be given direct affiliation to central universities. It is a known fact that during its tenure the BJP-led regime had discriminated against and harassed many minority educational institutions. This discrimination was in line with the BJP’s open opposition to the constitutional rights granted to the minorities under Article 30. It is because of the discrimination meted out to the minority institutes in BJP-ruled state like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh that the UPA incorporated the said objective in its NCMP. Unfortunately, instead of protecting the minority communities’ right to set up educational institutes of their choice and thus cater to the interests of the whole communities, the bill seeks to protect the interests of a select few. The latter are the very vested interests who run minority educational institutes on self-financing basis, without taking into account many relevant and genuine concerns raised by many concerned academics and sections over the past several years.
In a vast country like India in order to provide equality and unity among its citizens, as there is a wide difference between the minority and the majority special rights should be endowed to minorities so that they can develop their personality to the maximum. In accordance to this view various articles in our constitutions and acts are being enshrined, so, that these minorities can compete majority. Among these articles article 30(1) and National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004 provides minorities to establish, administer educational institutes and to affiliate themselves to central universities. But various lacunas are being observed since the birth of these rights and acts. It has been observed that these articles and acts are unable to clear various facet like - (1) Is there any right to create educational institutes for minorities and if so under which provision? (2) In order to determine the existence of a religious or linguistic minority in relation to article 30, what is to be the unit, the State or the country as a whole? (3) To what extent can the rights of aided private minority institutions to administer be regulated? Still answers to these questions are illusionary and ambiguous in nature. Even National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004 defines a minority institute as “a college or institution (other than a university) established or maintained by a person or group of persons from amongst the minorities.” Thus, just on account of the minority identity of the management, an institute is to be accorded the minority status, irrespective of whether or not that particular institute is serving the interests of the minority community in its entirety. It is a well known fact that majority of the institutes established in the name of minorities are not serving the real interests of the minorities, especially those of the socially and economically underprivileged sections. Students are admitted on the basis of their money power and not on the basis of their merit or minority identity. That will further fasten this process and will serve the interests of the economic minority instead of the religious and linguistic minorities. So, in order to make these articles and acts free from ambiguity and illusionary nature help from Court should be taken in a view to remove this ambiguity. It is very important as development, equality, unity of our country relies on these articles and acts.
Books referred –
(1) Prof. M.P Jain, Indian Constitutional Law, Wadhwa Publisher Nagpur, 5th edition reprint 2006.
(2) Dr. J.N. Pandey, Constitutional Law of India, Central Law Agency, 43rd edition 2006.
(3) P.M. Bakshi, The Constitution Law of India, Universal Law Publishing Company, 8th edition.
(2) http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2005/sep05/edu3.html - 14k
(3) http://www.hinduonnet.com/2002/12/17/stories/2002121700891000.htm - 20k
Cases referred –
(1) Ahemdabad St. Xaviers College v. State of Gujarat, AIR 1974 SC 1389.
(2) ASE Trust v. Director Education, Delhi Adm., AIR 1976 Del 207.
(3) Azeez Basha v. Union of India, AIR 1968 SC 662.
(4) D.A.V College Jullundher v. State of Punjab, AIR 1971 SC 1737
(5) In Re The Kerala Education Bill, AIR 1958 SC 956.
(6) Managing Board, M.T.M v. State of Bihar, AIR 1984 SC 1757.
(7) Manager, St. Thomas U.P. Schoool Kerala v. Commr. And Secy. to General Education dept., AIR 2002 SC 756.
(8) State of Kerala v. Mother Provisional, AIR 1970 Sc 2079.
(9) St. Stephens College v. University of Delhi, AIR 1992 SC 83.
(10) T.M.A PIA Foundation v. State of Karnataka, AIR 1994 SC 13
B.F Skinner, New Scientist, May 21, 1964
Ahemdabad St. Xavier’s College v. State of Guajrat, AIR 1974 SC 1389
T.M.A Pai Foundation v. State of Karnataka, AIR 1994 SC 13
Ahemdabad St. Xavier’s College v. State of Guajrat, AIR 1974 SC 1389
AIR 1958 SC 956
D.A.V. College, Jullundur v. State of Punjab, AIR 1971 SC 1737.
D.A.V College, supra, note 23, at 1744
ILI, Educational Planning (1967)
A.S.E Trust v. Director, Education, Delhi Adm., AIR 1976 Del 207
Manager, St. Thomas U.P School, Kerala v. Commr. and Secy. to General Education Dept., AIR 2002 SC 756.
S. Azeez Basha v. Union of India, AIR 1968 SC 662.
AIR 1983 SC 1.
AIR 1986 SC 1490.
AIR 1970 SC 2079.
AIR 1974 SC 1389.
AIR 1958 SC 956.
AIR 1984 SC 1757.
AIR 1974 SC 1389.
AIR 1992 SC 83.
T.M.A. Pai Foundation & others v. State of Karnataka, (1995) 5 SCC 220.
AIR 1971 SC 1731.
www.hinduonnet.com/2002/12/17/stories/2002121700891000.htm - 20k -
http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2005/sep05/edu3.html - 14k
The author can be reached at: [email protected] | <urn:uuid:dff09aa6-8f09-4c34-8c04-978d600de63d> | {
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Caribbean Hurricane Belt
The number of hurricanes in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico has been on a rise and experts say that this trend will continue for at least the following 15 years. Given that many people head to the tropical climates of Central America where life takes on slower pace temperature remains summer like year round, it is no wonder that everyone wants to make sure their vacation will not be spoiled by a vicious hurricane. Sadly, some of the most popular Caribbean islands are located within the Caribbean Hurricane Belt which makes them prone to hurricanes during the Atlantic Hurricane Season which extends from June 1st to November 30th.
There’s a steady growth in demand for up to date information and news on hurricanes, hurricane warnings, hurricane tracking, hurricane projected paths and other facts that can affect your trip to a country that lies within the Caribbean Hurricane Belt (sometimes also referred to as the Atlantic Hurricane Belt). Caribbean Hurricane Belt website will provide you with continuous, up to date news to keep you in the know when it comes to weather in the Caribbean.
What is the Caribbean Hurricane Belt?
Caribbean Hurricane Belt is an area in the Atlantic, including the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico that has a high level tendency to get hit by a hurricane.
Atlantic Hurricane Seasons
We are currently right in the middle of the “above normal Atlantic hurricane season”. Every 20+ years, hurricane activity increases, and then it drops for some 20+ years again. Hurricane activity was below normal between 1970 and 1994. Then come 1995 storm activity rapidly increased and has been above normal since. It is likely that this trend of frequent and hard hurricanes will continue for next 15 years or so before the cycle repeats and the Caribbean Hurricane Belt gets a break with below normal hurricane activity for a few decades.
Tropical Storms Outside of the Caribbean Hurricane Belt
They are called “Hurricanes” in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and Eastern Pacific. However these severe tropical storms can form in basins of oceans of any tropical climate zone. They are just called by different names outside of the Caribbean Hurricane Belt, not hurricanes:
- Typhoons – tropical storms that form in the north-west Pacific Ocean, around Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines
- Cyclones – tropical storms that form in the Indian Ocean and around Australia
Whether you call it a hurricane, a typhoon or a cyclone, they are essentially the same thing. They are severe tropical storms accompanied by strong, sustained winds, heavy rainfall, thunderstorms and center with really low pressure.
They are called “Tropical” Storms because they form in the maritime areas (in the ocean, over a large body of water) of the tropical regions of the world (close to the equator).
Islands Outside of the Caribbean Hurricane Belt?
It is important to note that no island is 100% safe from hurricanes. However these islands in south Caribbean, close to South American continent get very little rainfall and have not experienced a hurricane in decades. They are considered to be outside of the Caribbean Hurricane Belt and hence the safest bets when it comes to vacationing in the Caribbean during hurricane season (May 1st till November 30). Chances of running into a hurricane on these islands are close to none:
- Margarita Island (part of Venezuela)
- Trinidad and Tobago
Islands Within the Caribbean Hurricane Belt?
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Barbados (within the Caribbean Hurricane Belt, but hurricanes seem to avoid it)
- British Virgin Islands (including Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada and Jost Van Dyke)
- Cayman Islands (including Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman)
- Dominican Republic
- Navassa Island
- Petrel Islands
- Puerto Rico
- Serranilla Bank
- Saint Barthélemy
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Martin
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Sint Eustatius
- Sint Maarten
- Turks and Caicos Islands
- United States Virgin Islands (including Saint Croix, Saint John, Saint Thomas and Water Island)
Incoming search terms:
- hurricane belt
- caribbean hurricane belt
- hurricane belt map
- hurricane belt caribbean
- hurricane belt caribbean map
- map of hurricane belt
- map of caribbean hurricane belt
- Map of the Hurricane Belt
- islands outside the hurricane belt
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American Burying Beetle
A bright, shiny beetle with a distinctive orange-and-black pattern on its wing covers. To tell this species from other members of its genus, look for a reddish-orange mark on the shieldlike plate (pronotum) just behind the head. There are orange marks on the face and antennae tips, as well. Like other burying beetles, the wing covers are wider in back than toward the front, and they aren't long enough to cover the tip of the abdomen. In flight, they seem like bumblebees.
Similar species: Because reintroduction efforts are under way, you may hopefully start to see this species in the wild. Meanwhile, other burying beetles, such as the tomentose burying beetle (Nicrophorus tomentosus), are much more likely to be seen. There are about 15 species in the genus Nicrophorus in North America. | <urn:uuid:540718e0-e23b-4499-8e2b-512b4b9940d9> | {
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The revised Act on Special Measures for Renewable Energy, which is for revising the feed-in tariff policy for renewable energy, passed through the plenary session of the House of Councilors and was enacted May 25, 2016.
The act will be implemented in April 2017. Among the revised points, the following three items have large impacts on the power producers for renewable energy-based power plants.
(1) Foundation of a new certification system (shift from the certification of facility to the certification of project)
(2) Review of the price-setting process to enable to decide a purchasing price several years ahead
(3) Introduction of a system that enables to decide a purchasing price through a bidding process when it is effective in reducing the burden on utility customers
With (1) the new certification system, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) evaluates and certifies renewable energy-related projects first. Power producers that have obtained a "project certification" can ask a power company to conclude a contract to sell electricity at a set purchasing price and for a set period of time. Though the requirements for project certification will be specified in an ordinance of METI, the conclusion of a grid connection contract with a power company is considered to be one of the requirements.
The new certification system has a large impact because it will apply not only to new projects to be launched in the next fiscal year but also to power producers that have received the certification of facilities under the current certification system. If a project cannot conclude a grid connection contract with a power company until April 2017, it cannot shift to the new certification system and, thus, cannot keep the purchasing price acquired under the current system (See related article). | <urn:uuid:9005706b-03ea-4e63-84f4-fc024efb44c5> | {
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The first workstation features technology for people who are deaf or have hearing disabilities. Planned accommodations at this workstation include PC-TTY software and networked modem, stand-alone and compact TTY's, and several assistive listening devices.
PC-TTY's and a networked modem allow computers to emulate TTY transmission signals to allow the users to use the computer for TTY calls. These systems also provide a full screen view of telephone conversations, allow users to save or retrieve messages, and to retrieve messages from remote locations. This technology dramatically increases accessibility and productivity of TTY interactions.
Assistive listening devices include amplification devices such as infrared, FM, and loop assistive listening devices, and telephone amplifiers that amplify voices, while reducing background noise. | <urn:uuid:72ae0adf-ca7e-4529-a5e4-df324b52c50f> | {
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Allergens (pollens, weeds, chemical exposures, etc) sometimes stimulate the immune system to react, leading to symptoms like watery or itchy eyes, headaches, sneezing, nasal congestion or runny nose, and a sore throat. Allergic substances range from environmental exposures to chemical pollutants. Even tobacco exposure can contribute to nasal congestion. To treat allergies, most people need to reduce exposure to the allergen and/or take medications. Most medications including antihistamines, nasal decongestant or steroid sprays can be very effective in controlling the allergy symptoms. In some cases, allergy shots or drops (immunotherapy) may be needed to build up the body’s immune response to the allergen over time.
ExpressMD offers testing both for inhalant allergens as well as food allergens.
How is allergy testing performed?
For inhalant allergies, the most common method of testing we perform is known as skin prick testing. Allergen extracts are introduced through very tiny and superficial pricks in the skin, with minimal discomfort. The level of reactivity is then directly measured by the size of the skin welt that occurs at each test site. Most commonly, this is performed on the patient’s back. Our skin prick panel tests for 70 common environmental allergens including grasses, trees, weeds, molds and fungus, dust, and animal dander. Certain medications need to be avoided prior to skin testing. You should receive a list of medications to avoid when you schedule testing. This list can also be found here.
Certain patients, especially those with poorly controlled asthma, those who have had a previous severe reaction to skin testing, and those who are unable to discontinue any of the mediations listed, may undergo allergy testing via a blood test. This is an indirect test in that it measures antibodies in the blood rather than a direct reaction to the allergen, but it is a useful alternative to skin testing in these patients.
Food allergy testing is conducted via a blood test. We have various panels available to test for both IgE-mediated food allergies as well as IgG-mediated food sensitivities.
What are the benefits of allergy testing?
Testing for inhalant allergies helps guide treatment in several ways.
– For many patients it simply helps determine to what degree allergies may be playing a role in their symptoms. A remarkably negative allergy test in the face of significant symptoms can still be useful in that it directs additional testing and treatments toward other potential causes of these symptoms.
– Information about what substances are triggering a patient’s allergy symptoms can help the patient anticipate situations and seasons that may be especially bothersome. Efforts can be made to avoid these allergens, and medication can be started prior to times of high exposure as a prophylactic measure.
– Finally, the results of allergy testing guide individualized immunotherapy, which can desensitize a patient to the allergens and effectively cure the allergies.
Sublingual Immunotherapy (SLIT)
- A very safe treatment that uses the patient’s own immune system to achieve results. The immune system is introduced to the allergen in small and increasing doses until natural immunity is developed.
- Currently considered off-label by the FDA, but uses the same safe and FDA-approved extracts used in traditional subcutaneous immunotherapy (allergy shots).
- Allergy symptoms may potentially begin to subside as early as 1-3 months following the beginning of treatment. Most patients notice an improvement within 6-12 months. The full treatment course is 4 years and the resulting relief can last many years, if not a lifetime.
- Drops are placed under the tongue and can be taken at home
- Drops are administered on a daily basis
- Is a travel friendly treatment option
- Estimated cost is $4,500 spread out over 4 years. Your health insurance may pay for part of these costs.
- Healthcare Savings Accounts (HSA or Flex Spending) can be used to pay for expenses not covered by insurance.
- Side effects are mild and include stomach aches, irritation under the tongue, or an increase in allergy symptoms
- Most patient do not experience side effects
SUBCUTANEOUS IMMUNOTHERAY SHOTS (SCIT)
- A safe, FDA approved treatment that uses the patient’s own immune system to achieve results. The immune system is introduced to the allergen in small and increasing doses until natural immunity is developed.
- Allergy symptoms may subside as early as 3-6 months following the start of treatment. Full recovery take approximately 3-4 years and can last many years, if not a lifetime
- Shots are administered in office by a highly trained Allergist. Patient is monitored for 30min following treatment to establish that there is no reaction.
- In the first several courses of treatment, injections are administered 1-2 times a week, then gradually tapered depending on the patient’s particular response and needs.
- Estimated cost including office visits, testing, and 4 years of therapy shots is $6800-$8400
- Shots must be administered at the office
- Side effects are usually mild, but can be moderate or severe in some patients, even leading to discontinuation of therapy.
The allergy specialists at [Practice Name] are committed to providing collaborative, comprehensive care on an individual basis. Working in conjunction with the patient, our team of health care specialists provide in depth, modern health care for the well-being of the patient and their families.
Does my health insurance cover SLIT?
Insurance does typically cover all or some portion of allergy testing.
However, most insurance plans do not pay for allergy drops at this time. Call your insurance company to discuss your benefits. Even though the drops are paid for out-of-pocket, there is still substantial cost savings with allergy drops compared to allergy shots. Because fewer office visits are required with allergy drops, you can expect significant cost savings on insurance co-pays, missed work and costs for travel time for clinic visits.
What are the potential side effects from SLIT?
Thankfully, side-effects from allergy drops are rare. Most of our patients report no side effects at all. However, sometimes the following mild reactions occur:
- Mild increase in allergy symptoms
- Stomach ache
- Irritation under the tongue
These symptoms usually go away within thirty minutes after the drops are taken. All side-effects usually completely resolve within 1 week of starting the drops. If side effects seem more severe or last longer than 2 weeks, please contact our office right away. In the unlikely event that you have a severe reaction, call 911 or go to the nearest hospital emergency room right away.
What are the benefits of SLIT, and when will I start to notice improvement?
Often, symptoms decrease within a few weeks after starting allergy drops. However, it may take up to one year before you begin to notice improvement. Our goal is at least an 80% reduction in symptoms. Some patients experience 100% allergy relief, but most still experience some allergy symptoms that are less intense than before treatment.
You can take your allergy drops in the privacy of your home. Compared to allergy shots, you do not have to worry about travel expenses or the cost of missed work/school/childcare due to frequent office visit requirements. Once stable on your drops, you can sign up for auto-refill to receive your drops every 3 months by mail. Once the 3-4 year treatment course is completed, you can expect long-term, even life-long reduction of your allergy symptoms.
How is SLIT Provided?
Your personal prescription for immunotherapy is prepared based on your unique allergy test results. Allergen extracts are prepared in our office by mixing them with a glycerin-saline solution. Drops are placed under the tongue daily. The concentration of allergen extracts is gradually increased every 3-4 weeks with a new bottle until you reach your maintenance dose. The drops contain no phenol or other toxins.
Can I take allergy medications while I’m taking SLIT drops?
Yes! Allergy medications do not interfere with allergy drops. In fact, allergy medications are often used in the early stages of allergy drops. However, your need for allergy medications should decrease during the course of your treatment.
Can children use SLIT?
Yes! Allergy drops are safe and effective for children. They will appreciate not needing a shot, too!
How do I know if I am a candidate for SLIT therapy?
Allergy testing (skin prick testing and/or blood tests) is the first step to determine what you’re allergic to. Since both types of immunotherapy are effective, the decision between SLIT (drops) and SCIT (shots) often comes down to a question of safety, cost, and convenience. Our staff and providers are happy to counsel you to decide what is right for you and your family. | <urn:uuid:9793af07-31cf-4c5f-b24c-6eb20ec506dc> | {
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What are resistors I hear you cry...
A resistor is a passive two-terminal electrical component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element. In electronic circuits, resistors are used to reduce current flow, adjust signal levels, to divide voltages, bias active elements, and terminate transmission lines, among other uses.Resistor - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistor
They were so proud of their contribution that I felt I did have to have a little play to see what I could use them for...jewelry pieces such as earring, bracelet, necklace and maybe charms were my first thought (and only thought if I am honest)...the colours were maroon and beige predominantly with tiny stripes.
I got out the pliers and tried the wires which I will admit bent up well and were easy to manipulate without breaking but they were dull grey, not very shiny and they left my fingers tingling and uncomfortable just the way that curtain hooks always do, and so I decided that they were not something I would do much with. One could play with painting them, covering with paper strips etc...but the quality of the wire could not be altered in any practical way that I could think of, so no, ta, no more of these, don't bring me home any more of them. | <urn:uuid:f11c96ef-78ae-4a23-b5eb-7614eb963674> | {
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2019-08-30 14:28:59 来源：启达教育网
Imagine there are two students, one is good at getting high score in the exams and the other is good at many practical skills, so who will be popular? In school, there is no doubt that teachers like the former person, because education pays attention to the exam, and score is always the standard to judge a student. While in the job market, the latter is favored by the employers. They expect someone who has the practical skills and can make profits for the company. Score doesn't mean ability. In school, some talented kids will be ignored because of low score. They are easy to miss the chance of making differences. So we can't judge a person by score, which ability is also the important part to measure a person, even ability take over the score. | <urn:uuid:f1e9035e-c107-4a4a-acdc-f08d6ac7d6d6> | {
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You don’t feel your age, so why should you look your age? Ask almost anyone over the age of 40 to tell you what people guess their age to be. On average, it’s seven to 10 years younger than their actual, biological age. Do you know what that means? Our sense of age is changing. It’s in your power to redefine the stereotypes of your generation. Grandmothers aren’t in their rocking chairs knitting sweaters and baking cookies all day. They’re on their hands and knees with their grandchildren, cooking healthy meals, taking care of themselves, and feeling great! You can make your age just a number too.
We’ve researched the best ways to stay young at heart and keep the hands of time from turning.
Maintain a healthy lifestyle
How you look on the outside is a reflection of what’s happening on the inside. Any steps you take to improve your diet and increase your exercise will help you physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Here are some tips for a sustainable and healthy lifestyle:
- Get enough sleep. Most people need at least eight hours of sleep every night to regenerate the brain and body. Get out of sleep debt by getting eight straight hours of rest for six weeks straight.
- Eat healthy at least 90% of the time. Let’s face it, we all need a piece of chocolate cake once and a while! According to a study by the American Academy of Neurology, eating approximately one serving per day of green leafy vegetables can make you up to 11 years younger cognitively.
- Increase your physical activity. Exercise has the unique ability to reduce stress, burn calories, and re-energize our bodies. Just 30 minutes of exercise that increases your heart rate and breathing can boost your mood and help you think clearly. Strength training that focuses on your lower body and core builds stamina to help you feel younger!
Keep a positive attitude
Thinking young can actually make you feel and look younger. Defying your chronological age is all about mind over matter. Keeping an optimistic attitude will give you the positive energy to be active in youthful activities.
Follow these steps to keep your mind (and body) feeling young:
- Make goals for the future. Goals help us grow at any age. Develop aspirations for personal and professional growth. Why not learn a new language or start a new hobby?
- Exercise your mind. Do some mental training every day by playing puzzles involving numbers, sequences, and wordplay.
- Be thankful. Express gratitude for everything that happens to you, good and bad. When you focus on what you have, there will be less room for stress and anxiety.
Maintain a youthful appearance
Nearly half of all adults are not happy with their teeth. Now that your kids are self-sufficient, it’s time to invest in yourself. Cosmetic dentistry presents a reasonable, affordable, and attractive option. With technological improvements in dentistry, there’s no need to look older than you feel. Laser whitening, cosmetic bonding, crowns, and veneers, have made it possible for aging teeth to look young again.
What could hold you back from considering cosmetic dentistry?
- Aversion to dentistry. Dentistry has come a long way, but you may only remember the traumatic dental visits of the past. Don’t let your fear of dentists keep you from a radiant, healthy smile that fits your image and lifestyle. Many dental offices today are more like spas, combining the convenience of modern technology and relaxing patient comforts. If you still can’t overcome your fear, your dentist may offer sedation options to beat your anxiety.
- Concerns about cost. If your oral health has paid the price in the past at the expense of other priorities, isn’t it time to put your number one asset—your smile—first? Many cosmetic dentists offer financing options, like credit card payments or CareCredit (a healthcare financing credit card that makes the health, wellness and cosmetic procedures you want possible today).
- It won’t make a difference. You may be surprised to learn that fixing your bite and replacing missing teeth with implant-supported dentures can not only improve your oral health and quality of life but also change your profile and give you a non-surgical facelift! Only your cosmetic dentist can tell you for sure. Isn’t it worth it to find out?
Is your age just a number?
It can be if you preserve your youth through attitude, lifestyle, and, of course, by your local dentist skilled in cosmetic dentistry. You can feel attractive at any age by making minor or profound personal improvements.
Share what helps you keep your age just a number in the comments below!
Re-posted with permission: Source.
The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions. | <urn:uuid:6503b501-39bd-48a5-9303-dc4d3706184c> | {
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Noun(1) a member of a people inhabiting the northern Malay Peninsula and Malaysia and parts of the western Malay Archipelago(2) a western subfamily of Western Malayo-Polynesian languages
Adjective(1) of or relating to or characteristic of the people or language of Malaysia and the northern Malay Peninsula and parts of the western Malay Archipelago
(1) Malay :: малайӣ
Different Formsmalay, malayan, malayans, malays
English to Tajik Dictionary: Malay
Meaning and definitions of Malay, translation in Tajik language for Malay with similar and opposite words. Also find spoken pronunciation of Malay in Tajik and in English language.
Tags for the entry "Malay"
What Malay means in Tajik, Malay meaning in Tajik, Malay definition, examples and pronunciation of Malay in Tajik language. | <urn:uuid:44df4c43-34f3-46b3-be26-8e9e3f99af66> | {
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A: The two solutions are not mutually exclusive. A green tax shift will give you wind power as soon as the price of electricity goes up enough to make wind power competitive. Until then, you can guarantee that there will be cheaper ways to reduce emissions, as the following example demonstrates:
Suppose, for example, that $5 will buy you X units of electricity from a coal fired power station, and that this will result in Y tons of CO2 emissions, and that the same amount of electricity from a wind turbine costs $10. If you go with the wind turbine option, then out of each $10 you will be getting $5 worth of electricity and you will be saving Y tons of CO2 emissions at an extra cost of $5. However, you could save the same amount of CO2 emissions for only $1, by offering to pay a company $1 for every X units of electricity it saves. By reducing electricity consumption, the business will save $5 on the cost of electricity and get an extra $1 from you. Currently, that business will only reduce electricity consumption if the added costs of doing so (say, the cost of more efficient lighting) comes to less than $5 per X units of electricity saved. There will be plenty of options that cost between $5 and $6 that the company will take advantage of if they are able to. By choosing wind power, the government is forcing you to fund (through taxes or higher electricity costs) the $5 option, while ignoring the $1 option. The only effective way to take advantage of that $1 option is to make people pay for carbon emissions.
A green tax shift will give you all the options that cost less than $5 before you get a switch to wind power. If the price of carbon emissions exceeds $5, then you will also get a switch to wind power, in addition to the other energy saving options.
Obviously, this is a contrived example and the real situation is a lot more complicated. However the principle behind it still applies in all circumstances. For example, some wind turbine locations may be more cost effective than others, and they will be taken advantage of when the price is right. The only thing you can be certain of is that a green tax shift will give you the cheapest options for reducing emissions, whereas direct government intervention will give you are far more limited set of options.
A: Consider the following two scenarios:
1) Wages stay the same, income tax drops, so people’s after-tax income goes up. Some products will go up in price a lot, others only marginally. When you take people’s extra income into account, the affordability of some products increases, and that of others decreases.
2) Wages drop, cancelling out the income tax drops, so people’s after-tax income stays the same. Products that involve a lot of carbon emissions go up in price. Products that involve more labour go down in price.
In both cases, the market for products that involve more labour increases, while the market for products that require a lot of carbon emissions shrinks. This will improve the employment rate and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, while keeping people’s overall standard of living roughly the same.
The real situation will be some combination of option 1 and 2. This is where foreign competition comes in. If a business becomes uncompetitive, it will be forced to lower salaries. It will shrink as people move to the more profitable businesses offering better salaries. This may take some time, so the initial response may look more like option 1, and shift towards option 2 over time. However, remember that overall, people’s standard of living will be roughly the same.
Over the long term society will be better off. The scenarios described above indicate some change, but that on the whole people will still be just as well off. However, in the long run we will have the added benefit of less global warming (or whatever else you apply the green tax shift idea too). This is how the benefit to society arises.
Finally, consider the situation where, rather than improving efficiency and switching to labour intensive rather than energy intensive activity, we switch to renewable energy sources. The cost of electricity will go up, but the government will not get any extra revenue from that increase in price and so will not be able to lower income taxes. In this case, there will be a real cost to the economy and ‘all’ we get in exchange is a reduction in greenhouse emissions. Provided the green tax is set at a reasonable level, where the cost of emissions matches the negative value society places on climate change, we will still be getting a good deal.
The ‘real’ response of the economy will be a mixture of these three scenarios, and it is impossible to predict exactly what will happen. However, all we need to know is that we do want to reduce emissions and a green tax shift is the best way to do it.
A: Yes and no. In any change, some people will be better off, and others will be worse off. Those who will benefit most are those who can adapt quickly. The people who reduce their emissions will be rewarded. It is important not to focus on the potential downside while ignoring the benefits. Unfortunately this is how politics usually works (scaremongering), which is why we need to get the message out about the huge benefits of a green tax shift. Governments tend to go with grand schemes like wind farms because people see the benefits but not the costs. The costs are spread out over society through higher taxes and electricity prices, which causes more problems for a given reduction in emissions - it's just that the connection isn't as obvious and people don't get as scared.
The poor will not be especially worse off. You can target the income tax reduction at the lower tax brackets. In addition, our society is not one that leaves the poor to fend for themselves, even if they do not adapt quickly. We have a generous welfare system. Finally, it is the wealthy who create most of the carbon emissions, with international flights, large cars and large houses that require lots of heating, cooling and light, heated pools etc.
A: A green tax shift has several key advantages over trading schemes:
1) It allows a reduction in other taxes, thereby eliminating most or all of the cost to the economy.
2) It produces steady and ongoing reductions, whereas trading schemes require step reductions and a new political process for every reduction.
3) The legislation is far more flexible in political terms, partly because of the reduction in other taxes, which removes most of the competitive disadvantage on international markets.
With sufficient planning, you can achieve some certainty in the outcome of a green tax shift, while any uncertainty can be taken care of through the increased flexibility (ie, increasing the taxes at a later date). Given the uncertainty that still remains regarding the extent of global warming and other scientific issues, this would be the most prudent option. Any uncertainty is more likely to favour greater than expected reductions, rather than lower reductions. This is because you can plan based on known sensitivities of consumption to price. Uncertainties will arise through unknown mechanisms for reducing consumption, such as new technologies and improvements to business structure (eg the extent of centralisation).
Carbon trading will give you more certainty about the amount of carbon emissions, whereas a green tax shift will give you more certainty about the price of carbon emissions. However in the long run they will tend to be equivalent, as the political process will adjust each until society is happy with the outcome. The main differences are that a green tax shift is much more flexible and can be changed faster, and that it results in a much smoother reduction in carbon emissions. It would most likely result in a faster reduction in emissions because industry will continue finding ways to reduce emissions, even after emissions reduction targets have been met. People tend to get hung up on how much emissions are acceptable and then demand that we reach that target. However it is likely that we will be able to go beyond those targets and if it is possible we should do it. Finally, industry is more concerned with the price of carbon emissions than the total emissions, so a green tax shift scheme will provide greater certainty to industry, which should encourage investment. Under a carbon trading scheme, a company that invests in an emissions reduction technology is taking a far greater risk, because the price of emissions could plummet if targets are met easily. This has tended to be the case in Europe, where trading schemes barely got off the ground because there was no shortage of emissions rights. The efforts of governments alone was enough to meet the generous targets, and further investment in emissions reduction has largely stalled.
In other words, carbon trading does give you more certainty as you can be sure that emissions will end up being higher than if you had chosen a green tax shift.
A: No. They can achieve a similar balance between subsidised and non-subsidised options (for example, between renewable energy and coal fired power plants). However, this leaves a lot of the options out. For example, no subsidy scheme can reward reductions in consumption, which is where the easiest options for reducing emissions tend to lie. Furthermore, the end result is an imbalance in our economy. For the electricity example, you could get a reasonable balance between coal fired plants and wind farms, but the total amount of electricity supplied and used would greatly exceed what is actually needed by society. This is because renewables would by directly subsidised, whereas fossil fuel sources would be indirectly subsidised by society footing the bill for the emissions. Our society would put in a lot of effort to raise government revenue (taxes) to supply more electricity than is actually needed. You would end up with the absurd situation of charging less for products than it costs to make them, with taxpayers forking out for the difference.
Depending on the extent to which they are applied, a green tax shift will achieve the same price signal and the same 'immediate' outcome as a subsidy. The difference is that a subsidy requires an increase in the total tax burden on society (or a lost opportunity to reduce taxes or spend the money wisely elsewhere). Thus a green tax shift relies more heavily on free market mechanisms, whereas a subsidy relies more heavily on direct government control of the economy. This direct control is rarely necessary and should always be considered a second choice to a green tax shift because it damages the economy through its reliance on taxation and bureaucracy. Subsidies are always applied too narrowly. The government can never effectively subsidise all the options available to reduce a negative externality. Thus the subsidised options are overused, well beyond the point where they cease to be an economical option. Other cheaper options are underexploited. This is especially true for improvements in efficiency and changes to patterns of consumption. The significant deviation of the economy from the ideal (ie cheapest) combination of tools to reduce a negative externality results in lost productivity and an extra cost to society above that caused by the higher tax burden. Finally, a subsidy does not actually internalise a negative externality. It encourages a trade in products that facilitate the reduction, but the economic incentive to pollute or overconsume is still there.
A: Government imposed limits or quotas are a very rough tool. They will only encourage some users to reduce consumption. Once people have reduced their consumption to within the imposed limits, there is no longer any incentive for further reductions. Quotas can only be applied in a limited set of circumstances, and the reductions that it achieves are unlikely to be the 'low hanging fruit.' A trading scheme would achieve the same outcome with less impact on the economy, though it also falls short of a green tax shift (see Q4).
A: Yes, petrol is already taxed. However, most other sources of emissions are not directly taxed, and petrol only makes up a small fraction of our emissions (and would therefore not bear the brunt of price increases). Furthermore, fuel excises in Australia barely cover the cost of road maintenance and construction. The tax on petrol should cover both of these 'negative externalities'. Fuel consumption is the best proxy measure of wear and tear caused to the roads, and how much of the roads a person 'takes up,' thus increasing the need for more lanes etc. It is a far more suitable approach than tolls or registration fees. Registration fees are barely related to road wear or emissions, as they do not increase with vehicle use. Tolls cost a lot more to enforce, slow the traffic down and are a less direct measure of road use, as anyone unfortunate enough to pass through several on their way to and from work can attest. Also, they tend to penalise city users more, who have far less spent on them for roads on a per capita basis than rural dwellers. The pre-existing tax on petrol does give one benefit - the infrastructure for the tax is already in place. | <urn:uuid:4e6ca478-be41-43a7-aa26-eb6608d05d5a> | {
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South Africa’s first elected president’s health has taken a turn for the worse.
Nelson Mandela, 94, is said to be in critical condition in a hospital in Pretoria.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was recognized around the world for his fight for democracy, has been in the hospital since June 8 for a recurring lung infection. His health has become increasingly frail in the last few years.
Former Pennsylvania Congressman William Gray, who resides in South Florida, believes “when they write the history of the 20th century and talk about giants, Nelson Mandela will be in the forefront with Gandhi with Martin Luther King.
Gray, who brought Mandela to speak at his Church in the1990s, says the leader believed “all people were equal, nobody should be subjected to racism and discrimination and he fought that battle and spent 30 years in prison because of that belief.”
Gray was one of the U.S. Congressmen who authored an anti-apartheid bill to impose sanctions on South Africa that resulted in Mandela’s freedom in 1990. After being released, the Civil Rights leader toured the U.S. and made a stop in South Florida. Speaking at the African National Congress during that visit Mandela said “in jail and behind the thick prison walls we could hear loud and clear the voice calling for our release.”
But the visit would stir up controversy as Mandela’s positions on other world leaders at the time, like Fidel Castro, turned into clashes between his supporters and protestors on the streets of South Florida. Some Cuban Americans called him a communist while Jewish Americans condemned the fact that he had embraced Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The tension would later calm down and now many South Floridians remember Mandela as one of the world’s greatest civil rights activists. | <urn:uuid:8a8ade9b-f2eb-4c5a-a5ee-df0bac172a6f> | {
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As submitters, we find Quran to be the most accurate scale and the best source of enlightenment to draw crucial, fine lines between various issues, feelings and behaviors. Grief is one of the delicate human feelings that is often under attack and perceived as a conflict with our submission and trust in God. By the will of God, this reminder is to shed the perfect light of Quran on the feeling of grief in an attempt to draw its righteous boundaries as a normal human feeling validated by our Creator.
As defined in dictionaries, grief is a state of deep sorrow and mental anguish that is the result of a disaster or a loss. Its symptoms, briefly, are a variety of feelings such as anxiety, irritability, overreacting, short temper, fragility, sadness, deep sense of disappointment, awful guilt, blaming attitude, fear or worrying, remorse, depression, resentment, anger and despair.
Symptoms vary from one person to another based on personal factors. Some of these factors could be the level of faith, emotional stability and strength, level of education and knowledge, life style and culture influence.
Grief is a normal, emotional, human reaction. We, humans, are physiologically created by God Almighty to sense and react emotionally. We are granted an amazing, delicate, precise, highly sophisticated nervous system that enables us to feel, perceive and process all various emotions. The truth of the matter is that we are very superior and distinct in that sense from among all other creatures. Therefore, there is NO logic in being asked by our Creator to suppress or bury our feelings, including our grief. Please reflect on the following verses that acknowledge our normal human emotions of joy, sadness, contentment, awe, fear, resentment, anger and anxiety:
[53:42] To your Lord is the final destiny.
[53:43] He is the One who makes you laugh or cry.
[13:28] They are the ones whose hearts rejoice in remembering GOD. Absolutely, by remembering GOD, the hearts rejoice.
[6:33] We know that you may be saddened by what they say. You should know that it is not you that they reject; it is GOD's revelations that the wicked disregard.
The true believers [8:2] The true believers are those whose hearts tremble when GOD is mentioned, and when His revelations are recited to them, their faith is strengthened, and they trust in their Lord.
[5:83] When they hear what was revealed to the messenger, you see their eyes flooding with tears as they recognize the truth therein, and they say, "Our Lord, we have believed, so count us among the witnesses.
[9:92] Also excused are those who come to you wishing to be included with you, but you tell them, "I do not have anything to carry you on." They then turn back with tears in their eyes, genuinely saddened that they could not afford to contribute.
[10:57] O people, enlightenment has come to you herein from your Lord, and healing for anything that troubles your hearts, and guidance, and mercy for the believers.
[42:14] Ironically, they broke up into sects only after the knowledge had come to them, due to jealousy and resentment among themselves. If it were not for a predetermined decision from your Lord to respite them for a definite interim, they would have been judged immediately. Indeed, the later generations who inherited the scripture are full of doubts.
[30:21] Among His proofs is that He created for you spouses from among yourselves, in order to have tranquility and contentment with each other, and He placed in your hearts love and care towards your spouses. In this, there are sufficient proofs for people who think.
[11:36] Noah was inspired: "No more of your people are going to believe, beyond those who already believe. Do not be saddened by their actions.
[27:70] Do not grieve over them, and do not be annoyed by their scheming.
[9:15] He will also remove the rage from the believers' hearts. GOD redeems whomever He wills. GOD is Omniscient, Most Wise.
The question is: at what stage or under which circumstances is grief a destructive, Satanic force? Through a hasty analysis of Quran, one could easily get the false impression that grief is an emotion linked with weak & conditional faith and lack of trust in God. Some verses such as the following ones could easily be taken out of context to back up these wrong ideas:
[39:60] On the Day of Resurrection you WILL see the faces of those who lied about God covered with misery. Is Hell not the right retribution for the arrogant ones?
[39:61] And GOD WILL save those who have maintained righteousness; He WILL reward them. No harm WILL touch them, nor WILL they have any grief.
Submission: The Only Religion [2:112] Indeed, those who submit themselves absolutely to GOD alone, while leading a righteous life, will receive their recompense from their Lord; they have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve.
Minimum Requirements For Salvation [5:69] Surely, those who believe, those who are Jewish, the converts, and the Christians; any of them who (1) believe in GOD and (2) believe in the Last Day, and (3) lead a righteous life, have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve.
[2:277] Those who believe and lead a righteous life, and observe the Contact Prayers (Salat), and give the obligatory charity (Zakat), they receive their recompense from their Lord; they will have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve.
Happiness: Now and Forever [10:62] Absolutely, GOD's allies have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve.
[39:61] And GOD will save those who have maintained righteousness; He will reward them. No harm will touch them, nor will they have any grief.
[2:38] We said, "Go down therefrom, all of you. When guidance comes to you from Me, those who follow My guidance will have no fear, nor will they grieve.
Role of the Messengers [6:48] We do not send the messengers except as deliverers of good news, as well as warners. Those who believe and reform have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve.
Perfect Happiness: Now and Forever [41:30] Those who proclaim: "Our Lord is GOD," then lead a righteous life, the angels descend upon them: "You shall have no fear, nor shall you grieve. Rejoice in the good news that Paradise has been reserved for you.
[57:22] Anything that happens on earth, or to you, has already been recorded, even before the creation. This is easy for GOD to do.
[57:23] Thus, you should not grieve over anything you miss, nor be proud of anything He has bestowed upon you. GOD does not love those who are boastful, proud.
...and many more beautiful verses, sharing almost the same contexts and the same divine formula of enabling us to survive the madness around us. They GIVE good news to believers, INSPIRE them and PERSUADE them to hold fast to the rope of God in order to sense peace and contentment during the darkest times.. In these verses, God IS NOT asking the believers to stop their grief while going through adversity. These verses ARE NOT commanding the believers to quit grieving, but rather are structured in an advising and encouraging format to sympathize with those who are experiencing pain. God did not create us with an on/off switch to use and be rid of our grief!! There is no way the Most Merciful would burden us with something that is against our nature. Furthermore, these verses ARE NOT about the traits of believers that we should strive to achieve. These verses are simply offering God's comfort for the believers who are going through the tough course of grief. They represent God's gracious and psychological techniques to ease our pain by REMINDING us that we should rejoice in the fact that Him and the angels are constantly looking after the truthful and righteous and that victory eventually belongs to the believers (13:11, 3:139). They are like a pat on the shoulder to inform us that there is always ease after difficulty, and gain with the pain.
Another fact that cannot be ignored and is clearly delivered in those verses, is that absolutely, NO grief or fear will be in the lot of believers AT THEIR LORD; in the Hereafter.
Please examine the history of these role models and how the Almighty is validating their shame, grief, sadness, worries and anxiety:
[12:83] He said, "Indeed, you have conspired to carry out a certain scheme. Quiet patience is my only recourse. May GOD bring them all back to me. He is the Omniscient, Most Wise."
[12:84] He turned away from them, saying, "I am grieving over Joseph." His eyes turned white from grieving so much; he was truly sad.
[12:85] They said, "By GOD, you will keep on grieving over Joseph until you become ill, or until you die."
[12:86] He said, "I simply complain to GOD about my dilemma and grief, for I know from GOD what you do not know.
[12:87] "O my sons, go fetch Joseph and his brother, and never despair of GOD's grace. None despairs of GOD's grace except the disbelieving people."
[28:7] We inspired Moses' mother: "Nurse him, and when you fear for his life, throw him into the river without fear or grief. We will return him to you, and will make him one of the messengers."
[28:10] The mind of Moses' mother was growing so anxious that she almost gave away his identity. But we strengthened her heart, to make her a believer.
[28:11] She said to his sister, "Trace his path." She watched him from afar, while they did not perceive.
[28:12] We forbade him from accepting all the nursing mothers. (His sister) then said, "I can show you a family that can raise him for you, and take good care of him."
[28:13] Thus, we restored him to his mother, in order to please her, remove her worries, and to let her know that GOD's promise is the truth. However, most of them do not know.
[19:23] The birth process came to her by the trunk of a palm tree. She said, "(I am so ashamed;) I wish I were dead before this happened, and completely forgotten."
[19:24] (The infant) called her from beneath her, saying, "Do not grieve. Your Lord has provided you with a stream.
[19:25] "If you shake the trunk of this palm tree, it will drop ripe dates for you.
[19:26] "Eat and drink, and be happy. When you see anyone, say, `I have made a vow of silence, [to the Most Gracious]; I am not talking today to anyone.' "
[9:40] If you fail to support him (the messenger), GOD has already supported him. Thus, when the disbelievers chased him, and he was one of two in the cave, he said to his friend, "Do not worry; GOD is with us." GOD then sent down contentment and security upon him, and supported him with invisible soldiers. He made the word of the disbelievers lowly. GOD's word reigns supreme. GOD is Almighty, Most Wise.
[19:4] He said, "My Lord, the bones have turned brittle in my body, and my hair is aflame with gray. As I implore You, my Lord, I never despair.
[19:5] "I worry about my dependants after me, and my wife has been sterile. Grant me, from You, an heir.
[19:6] "Let him be my heir and the heir of Jacob's clan, and make him, my Lord, acceptable."
Moses and Aaron:
[20:77] We inspired Moses: "Lead My servants out, and strike for them a dry road across the sea. You shall not fear that you may get caught, nor shall you worry."
[20:24] "Go to Pharaoh, for he has transgressed."
[20:25] He said, "My Lord, cool my temper.
[20:26] "And make this matter easy for me.
[20:27] "And untie a knot from my tongue.
[20:28] "So they can understand my speech.
[20:29] "And appoint an assistant for me from my family.
[20:30] "My brother Aaron.
[20:31] "Strengthen me with him.
[20:32] "Let him be my partner in this matter.
[20:33] "That we may glorify You frequently.
[20:34] "And commemorate You frequently.
[20:41] "I have made you just for Me.
[20:42] "Go with your brother, supported by My signs, and do not waver in remembering Me.
[20:45] They said, "Our Lord, we fear lest he may attack us, or transgress."
[20:46] He said, "Do not be afraid, for I will be with you, listening and watching.
[20:92] (Moses) said, "O Aaron, what is it that prevented you, when you saw them go astray,
[20:93] "from following my orders? Have you rebelled against me?"
[20:94] He said, "O son of my mother; do not pull me by my beard and my head. I was afraid that you might say, `You have divided the Children of Israel, and disobeyed my orders.' "
Examining the above great examples leaves us with some questions that should help with drawing the righteous boundaries of this normal process: Can we feel peaceful and content while grieving? Should we wonder how long we are going to grieve? Does grief interfere with the process of purifying our souls? When exactly does grief transform into a negative force that could hurt our souls and classify us as disbelievers?
When grief grows wild into the feelings of irreversible despair, anger and objection to the will of God - this, with no doubt, is the negative side introduced by Satan, who is anxiously waiting for our moments of weakness and confusion. For sure, we are created weak (4:28), shortsighted, impatient (17:11) and anxious (17:92). God is fully aware of all of this. It is the knowledge, the steadfastness (3:186) , the patience (20:130) and the worship (2:153, 17:22) that keep us within the righteous confinement of grief. As indicated in the above examples of Jacob, Zachariah and others, a believer and worshiper of God alone would continue nourishing his/her soul patiently, peacefully and joyfully while grieving, without despair.. That is the difference between a true believer and a despondent angry objector to the will of God (17:83). God delivered a reminder in Quran that He rewards the patient ones who overcome their pain and stay on His straight path throughout adversities (21:83-84, 7:137).
Grief has been validated by our Creator in Quran as a normal human feeling. We will experience grief, but while grieving, true believers continue leading a righteous life and steadfastly persevere in worshiping God. They rejoice in remembering that God and His angels (41:30, 13:11) are always on the side of those who don't despair or lose their trust in Him alone. With humility and grace, they allow time to heal their wounds while they are fully appreciating God's pat on their shoulders that they should not feel sad or sense fear. They are absolutely certain that no fear or grief will touch them in the Hereafter.
[20:130] Therefore, be patient in the face of their utterances, and praise and glorify your Lord before sunrise and before sunset. And during the night glorify Him, as well as at both ends of the day, that you may be happy.
[16:127] You shall resort to patience - and your patience is attainable only with GOD's help....
[2:153] O you who believe, seek help through steadfastness and the Contact Prayers (Salat). GOD is with those who steadfastly persevere.
[47:7] O you who believe, if you support GOD, He will support you, and strengthen your foothold.
[14:27] GOD strengthens those who believe with the proven word, in this life and in the Hereafter. And GOD sends the transgressors astray. Everything is in accordance with GOD's will.
[41:30] Those who proclaim: "Our Lord is GOD," then lead a righteous life, the angels descend upon them: "You shall have no fear, nor shall you grieve. Rejoice in the good news that Paradise has been reserved for you.
[41:31] "We are your allies in this life, and in the Hereafter. You will have in it anything you wish for; you will have anything you want.
[41:32] "(Such is your) ultimate abode, from a Forgiver, Most Merciful."
Peaceful Friday, salaam and God bless. | <urn:uuid:254729a6-4ef9-4968-a46e-1c7b9c92f57f> | {
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Maple Syrup Sunday isn't too far away (March 24 for those of you in the area). As I walked my dogs down the road on Sunday I noticed that one of my neighbors has his maple syrup collection equipment in place. I love maple syrup and I bet that many of your students do too. But do they know how it's made? Learning about the process of creating maple syrup can make for a nice elementary school science lesson. Here are a few resources that you might incorporate into a lesson on making maple syrup.
Maple Syrup the Modern Way is a three minute video about the process commercial producers use to make syrup.
Pure Canada Maple has a nice little graphic illustrating the maple syrup production process.
And Visit Maine has a little promo video about Maple Syrup Sunday. The video includes some information about the process. | <urn:uuid:a56017e3-c5bb-44c9-ba5e-f9a279fdd009> | {
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reported in our February/March issue on small transit agencies in urbanized areas that face fierce competition for funding and cope with rising fuel prices and rapidly growing paratransit demands. Rural transit systems are dealing with much of the same, when providing what dwindling amount of service they can to a predominantly low-income population that depends on them for medical transportation and a way to get to jobs.
A report from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), “The U.S. Rural Population and Scheduled Intercity Transportation in 2010: A Five-Year Decline in Transportation Access,” shows that that assistance is going away. As many as 3.5 million rural residents lost access to scheduled intercity transportation between 2005 and 2010. That put the number of rural residents with access to intercity air, bus, ferry or rail transportation to 89%, down from 93% five years ago.
BTS, part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, reported that 8.9 million rural residents lacked access to intercity transportation in 2010, up from 5.4 million in 2005.
BTS defined access to transportation as living within 25 miles from a non- or small-hub airport, bus station, ferry terminal or rail station providing intercity service, and as 75 miles from a medium- or large-hub airport.
Distance, remote areas
Distance is indeed an obstacle for many rural system operators, with people in need spread out over remote areas. Western Maine Transportation Services (WMTS) serves 38 communities ranging from a couple hundred to a couple thousand people in three counties bordering New Hampshire and Canada, and provides fixed-route, paratransit, and Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Friends & Family Rides and Volunteer Rides programs, primarily for people who are Medicaid-eligible for non-emergency transportation trips.
Maine’s land mass is almost as large as the other New England states combined. The three-county area that WMTS serves is over 4,400 square miles.
“It’s a pretty daunting task trying to get service out,” Pat Christian, GM, WMTS, says. “Some areas are unincorporated, so there are not many people there. Obviously, we can’t meet everyone’s needs, but we try to meet as many as possible for these people who are most in need of mobility.”
Additionally, many of the various remote areas that St. Johnsbury, Vt.-based Rural Community Transportation Inc. (RTC) services don’t have cellphone access. GPS doesn’t always pick up and isn’t always accurate, Sandy Thorpe, transit coordinator, RTC, says.
One of the major drawbacks RTC faces is the fact that it has a two-hour headway between point A and point B, Thorpe adds.
“You have to allow two hours for a round-trip run, [even though] you only have 20 miles of travel distance but you’ve got lots of stops, and people getting on and off, and sometimes you have wheelchairs,” she says. “For a lot of people it’s very difficult, and frustrating for them to say, ‘I have to wait for two hours for the next bus before I can get back home after I finish an appointment.’ With additional funding we’d be able to run a whole other set of routes.”
Harold Jennisen, transit manager of Lowry, Minn.-based Rainbow Rider, says that the remoteness of its rural areas and the lack of sufficient funding makes expanding its service nearly impossible. For example, he adds, if a bus picks up one person, it may travel 20 miles one way to get them to major hubs for groceries and medical care. | <urn:uuid:81163eed-21a2-491e-a128-31f582e0401f> | {
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The user names of online gamers could say more about their personalities than they realised, according to researchers.
Psychologists at the University of York discovered that those using profanity in their choice of pseudonym might exhibit anti-social behaviour when interacting with other players.
The researchers, who studied the records of people playing the battle game League of Legends, say their findings could provide evidence of autism, sociopathy or addictive personality.
The developer of League of Legends, Riot Games, provided 500,000 data points for the analysis. The anonymised data contained user names, information on the in-game behaviour of players and the reaction of other gamers – the latter from the post-match ‘Honour’ and ‘Report’ feedback each player can file. The study is the first to use this method to examine player interaction in a multiplayer online battle arena game.
Prof Alex Wade, who led the research, said: “We found that people who have anti-social names tend to behave in an anti-social way within the game. Younger people behave poorly and older people less so.
“This data is like a window on individual players’ personalities so we believe that we might be able to use video games as a way of testing people’s personalities.”
PhD student Athanasios Kokkinakis added: “We think this is just the tip of the iceberg – these massive datasets offer an unprecedented tool for studying human psychology across the globe.” | <urn:uuid:56e65ddf-a41a-4ad0-8e29-c7958a2f4ba9> | {
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The Plastic Tide is rising...
The Plastic Tide is growing by 8 million metric tonnes a year. If nothing is done, it is estimated that this figure will rise to 80 million metric tonnes a year by 2025.
This tide does not recede. It consists of all sizes of plastics, with larger pieces taking at least 400 years to break down, into fragments known as microplastics, which could take hundreds of thousands of years to break down completely.
The impact of this synthetic tide is pervasive. Increasingly, studies are showing how our oceans are being swamped quicker than we had thought. From clogging the deepest depths before we have even explored them, to starving the birds that soar above the ocean surface, this is a problem that affects all marine life. But it also has increasing impact on human life too, from toxicity to rising economic costs.
The majority of us are unaware of the menace of the growing tide of plastic, with most people only catching a glimpse of the problem when they visit beaches on holiday. Even then, the popular beaches we visit will be cleaned regularly, so the biggest impacts are still hidden.
In the UK alone, a recent Marine Conservation Society report indicated a 250% increase in plastics washing up on our beaches in the past ten years. But this didn't show where, how extensively or how systematically the plastics were distributed, or how the rate of influx changes over time.
Worryingly, while we can estimate how much plastic is already in, and is entering, our ocean, we can't say for certain where it goes.
This is a major concern for scientists trying understand how plastics impact our ocean and lives. So far we can only account for 1% - the plastics on the ocean surface. | <urn:uuid:81d5c1b5-c582-4871-9f0d-3c289e0e2794> | {
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What happens during a Pap smear?
During a Pap smear, your doctor will put a special instrument called a speculum into your vagina. This helps open your vagina so the doctor can see your cervix and take a sample. Your doctor will gently clean your cervix with a cotton swab and then collect a sample of cells with a small brush, a tiny spatula or a cotton swab. Your doctor will put this sample on a glass slide and send it to a lab to be checked under a microscope.
What do the results mean?
A normal Pap smear means that all the cells in your cervix are normal and healthy. An abnormal Pap smear can be a sign of a number of changes in the cells on your cervix, including:
- Inflammation (irritation). This can be caused by an infection of the cervix, including a yeast infection, infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV), the herpes virus, or many other infections.
- Abnormal cells. These changes are called cervical dysplasia. The cells are not cancer cells, but may be precancerous (which means they could eventually turn into cancer).
- More serious signs of cancer. These changes affect the top layers of the cervix but don't go beyond the cervix.
- More advanced cancer.
If the results of your Pap smear are abnormal, your doctor may want to do another Pap smear or may want you to have a colposcopy. A colposcopy gives your doctor a better look at your cervix and allows him or her to take a sample of tissue (called a biopsy).
How often should I have a Pap smear?
- Every 3 years beginning at 21 years of age and continuing until 65 years of age
- Within 3 years of when you start having sex if you are younger than 21 years of age
- If you are between 30 and 65 years of age and you want to have Pap smears less often, talk to your doctor about combining a Pap smear with human papillomavirus (HPV) testing every 5 years
Certain things put you at higher or lower risk for cervical cancer. Your doctor will consider these when recommending how often you should have a Pap smear.
If you're older than 65 years of age, talk with your doctor about how often you need a Pap smear. If you've been having Pap smears regularly and they've been normal, you may not need to keep having them.
If you've had a hysterectomy with removal of your cervix, talk with your doctor about how often you need a Pap smear.
If you've never had a high-grade precancerous lesion or cervical cancer, ask your doctor how often you need a Pap smear.
How reliable is the test?
No test is perfect, but the Pap smear is a reliable test. It has helped drastically lower the number of women who die of cervical cancer.
Sometimes the test may need to be redone because there were not enough cells on the slide. The lab will tell your doctor if this happens.
ThinPrep, PAPNET and FocalPoint are ways to make Pap smears more accurate. ThinPrep is a way of preparing the sample of cells that makes it easier to spot abnormalities. PAPNET and FocalPoint are computer systems that help lab technicians find abnormal cells. These options may not be available in all areas, and they may increase the cost of a Pap smear.
What should I do before the test?
Plan to have your test done at a time when you aren't having your menstrual period. Don't douche, use a feminine deodorant or have sex for 24 hours before the test.
Written by familydoctor.org editorial staff | <urn:uuid:6f37f2c2-412e-43fd-88b5-8377805ac1bd> | {
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One entry found for tadpole.
Main Entry: tadĚpole
Etymology: Middle English taddepol "tadpole," from tode "toad" and polle "head" : the larva of a frog or toad that has a rounded body and a long tail, breathes with gills, and lives in water -- called also pollywog Word History A young tadpole looks like a large head with a tail. In time it will develop back legs and then front legs. Finally it will lose its tail and become a toad or a frog. Our word for this immature form of a toad or frog comes from Middle English taddepol. This word was a combination of two others, tode, meaning "toad," and polle, meaning "head." | <urn:uuid:d39d1e08-47b0-47f1-bda7-537bb7ebd151> | {
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Mohs surgery, also called Mohs micrographic surgery, is a precise surgical technique that is used to remove all parts of cancerous skin tumors, while preserving as much healthy tissue as possible.
Mohs surgery is used to treat such cancers of the skin as basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma.
Malignant skin tumors may occur in strange, asymmetrical shapes. The tumor may have long finger-like projections that extend across the skin (laterally) or down into the skin. Because these extensions may be composed of only a few cells, they cannot be seen or felt. Standard surgical removal (excision) may miss these cancerous cells leading to recurrence of the tumor. To assure removal of all cancerous tissue, a large piece of skin needs to be removed. This causes a cosmetically unacceptable result, especially if the cancer is located on the face. Mohs surgery enables the surgeon to precisely excise the entire tumor without removing excessive amounts of the surrounding healthy tissue.
Mohs surgery is performed when:
According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), about one million people in the United States are diagnosed with skin cancer every year. The two most common types of skin cancer are basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, with basal cell carcinoma accounting for more than 90% of all of skin cancers.
Melanoma is the most serious type of skin cancer. Each year in the United States more than 53,600 people are diagnosed with melanoma, and it is becoming more and more common, especially among Western countries. In the United States, the percentage of people who develop melanoma has more than doubled in the past 30 years.
There are two types of Mohs surgery: fresh-tissue technique and fixed-tissue technique. Of the surgeons who perform Mohs surgery, 72% use only the fresh-tissue technique. The remaining surgeons (18%) use both techniques. However, the fixed-tissue technique is used in fewer than 5% of patients. The main difference between the two techniques is in the preparatory steps.
Fresh-tissue Mohs surgery is performed under local anesthesia for tumors of the skin. The area to be excised is cleaned with a disinfectant solution and a sterile drape is placed over the site. The surgeon may outline the tumor using a surgical marking pen, or a dye. A local anesthetic (lidocaine plus epinephrine) is injected into the area. Once the local anesthetic has taken effect, the main portion of the tumor is excised (debulked) using a spoon-shaped tool (curette). To define the area to be excised and to allow for accurate mapping of the tumor, the surgeon makes identifying marks around the lesion. These marks may be made with stitches, staples, fine cuts with a scalpel, or temporary tattoos. One layer of tissue is carefully excised (first Mohs excision), cut into smaller sections, and taken to the laboratory for analysis.
If cancerous cells are found in any of the tissue sections, a second layer of tissue is removed (second Mohs excision). Because only the sections that have cancerous cells are removed, healthy tissue can be spared. The entire procedure, including surgical repair of the wound, is performed in one day. Surgical repair may be performed by the Mohs surgeon, a plastic surgeon, or another specialist. In certain cases, wounds may be allowed to heal naturally.
With fixed-tissue Mohs surgery, the tumor is debulked, as described previously. Trichloracetic acid is applied to the wound to control bleeding, followed by a preservative (fixative) called zinc chloride. The wound is dressed and the tissue is allowed to fix for six to 24 hours, depending on the depth of the tissue involved. This period, called the fixation period, can be painful to the patient. The first Mohs excision is performed as described; however, anesthesia is not required because the tissue is dead. If cancerous cells are found, fixative is applied to the affected area for an additional six to 24 hours. Excisions are performed in this sequential process until all cancerous tissue is removed. Surgical repair of the wound may be performed once all fixed tissue has sloughed off—usually a few days after the last excision.
An oncologist will have diagnosed the skin cancer of the patient using such standard cancer diagnostic tools as biopsy of the tumor.
To prepare for surgery, and under certain conditions (such as the location of the skin tumor or health status of the patient), antibiotics may be given to the patient prior to the procedure; this is known as prophylactic antibiotic treatment. Patients are encouraged to eat prior to surgery and also to bring along snacks in case the procedure become lengthy. To reduce the risk of bleeding, the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), alcohol, vitamin E, and fish oil tablets should be avoided prior to the procedure. The patient who uses over-thecounter aspirin or the prescription blood-thinners, brands Coumadin (warfarin, generically) and heparin should consult with the prescribing physician before adjusting the dosage of any drug.
Patients should expect to receive specific wound care instructions from their physician or surgeon. Generally, however, wounds that have been repaired with absorbable stitches or skin grafts should be kept covered with a bandage for one week. Wounds that have been repaired using nonabsorbable stitches should also be covered with a bandage that should be replaced daily until the stitches are removed one to two weeks later. Signs of infection (e.g., redness, pain, drainage) should be reported to the physician immediately.
Using the fresh-tissue technique on a large tumor requires large amounts of local anesthetic that can be toxic. Complications of Mohs surgery include infection, bleeding, scarring, and nerve damage.
Tumors spread in unpredictable patterns. Sometimes a seemingly small tumor is found to be quite large and widespread, resulting in a much larger excision than was anticipated.
Most skin cancers treated by Mohs surgery are completely removed with minimal loss of normal skin.
Mohs surgery provides high cure rates for malignant skin tumors. For instance, the five-year cure rate for basal cell carcinoma treated by Mohs surgery is higher than 99%. The frequency of recurrence is much lower with Mohs surgery is much lower than with conventional surgical excision—less than 1%.
Mohs surgery is a specialized technique that is not indicated for the treatment of every type of skin cancer, and is most appropriately used under specific, well-defined circumstances. The majority of basal cell carcinomas can be treated with very high cure rates by standard methods, including electrodesiccation and curettage (ED&C), local excision, cryosurgery (freezing), and irradiation.
See also Cryotherapy .
Cook, J. L., and J. B. Perone. "A prospective evaluation of the incidence of complications associated with Mohs micrographic surgery." Archives of Dermatology 139 (February 2003): 143-152.
Jackson, E. M., and J. Cook. "Mohs micrographic surgery of a papillary eccrine adenoma." Dermatologic Surgery 28 (December 2002): 1168-1172.
Smeets, N. W., Stavast-Kooy, A. J., Krekels, G. A., Daemen, M. J., and H. A. Neumann. "Adjuvant Cytokeratin Staining in Mohs Micrographic Surgery for Basal Cell Carcinoma." Dermatologic Surgery 29 (April 2003): 375-377.
American Society for Mohs Surgery. Private Mail Box 391, 5901 Warner Avenue, Huntington Beach, CA 92649-4659. (714) 840-3065. (800) 616-ASMS (2767). http://www.mohssurgery.org .
"About Mohs Micrographic Surgery." Mohs College. http://www.mohscollege.org/AboutMMS.html .
Belinda Rowland, Ph.D.
Monique Laberge, Ph.D.
Mohs surgery is performed in a hospital setting by highly trained surgeons who are specialists both in dermatology and pathology. With their extensive knowledge of the skin and unique pathologic skills, they are able to remove only diseased tissue, preserving healthy tissue and minimizing the cosmetic impact of the surgery. Only physicians who have also completed a residency in dermatology are qualified for Mohs surgical training. The surgery is very often performed on an outpatient basis, usually in one day. | <urn:uuid:1c38172c-5a65-4477-854b-1f313a62e2a6> | {
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December 12, 2008
CW Historic Foodways staff share secrets of the 18th-century chocolate makers
Historic Foodways journeyman Jim Gay will demonstrate how chocolate was made in the 18th century on Tuesdays, Jan. 6, Feb. 3 and March 3. The Jan. 6 program will be held at the Randolph House Kitchen and the remaining programs will be held at the Governor’s Palace Kitchen.
Gay re-creates the chocolate-making process of colonial kitchens by roasting cocoa beans, shelling them and crushing them in a large mixing bowl. Using a heated grinding stone and an iron rolling pin, the beans are ground into a liquid and mixed with sugar and spices. Gay has been featured in a special collector’s edition of “Paula Deen’s Christmas” and on “Paula’s Best Dishes” on the Food Network.
In the 18th-century capital of Virginia, chocolate was made primarily to be served as a hot beverage, the drink of choice to pair with breakfast. Chocolate, along with coffee and tea, was considered a “necessity” in the colonies and could be found everywhere in the 18th century.
In 2001, Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Foodways staff premiered a program called “Secrets of the Chocolate Maker” in the Governor’s Palace kitchen. It was the first regularly scheduled historic chocolate making program in North America using original recipes and equipment. Members of the Foodways staff are now internationally recognized authorities on historic chocolate in North America. Over the years, this program has been presented in magazines, the Food Network, colleges, museums and even the National Academy of Sciences. The chocolate produced is as close to the original 18th-century product as can be produced in the modern age.
“The Secrets of the Chocolate Maker” was the inspiration for Colonial Williamsburg and Mars Incorporated to create “American Heritage Chocolate” products. The “American Heritage Chocolates” may be purchased at the Craft House, Tarpley’s Store, Greenhow Store, Raleigh Tavern Bakery and WILLIAMSBURG Revolutions in Colonial Williamsburg’s Visitor Center. The colonial chocolate may be purchased as an authentic chocolate drink mix or chocolate sticks or bars to be melted into a hot beverage or enjoyed on the spot. The American Heritage line also is sold at Historic Deerfield, Fort Ticonderoga, Mount Vernon, Monticello and Fortress Louisbourg.
Established in 1926, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is the not-for-profit educational institution that preserves and operates the restored 18th-century Revolutionary capital of Virginia as a town-sized living history museum, telling the inspirational stories of our nation’s founding men and women. Within the restored and reconstructed buildings, historic interpreters, attired as colonial men and women from slaves to shopkeepers to soldiers, relate stories of colonial Virginia society and culture – stories of our journey to become Americans – while historic trades people research, demonstrate and preserve the 18th-century world of work and industry. As Colonial Williamsburg interprets life in the time of the American Revolution for its guests, it also invites them to interact with history. “Revolutionary City®,” a dramatic live street theater presentation, is a 2008 Rand McNally Best-of-the-Road™ Editor’s Pick. Williamsburg is located in Virginia’s Tidewater region, 20 minutes from Newport News, within an hour’s drive of Richmond and Norfolk, and 150 miles south of Washington, D.C., off Interstate 64. For more information about Colonial Williamsburg, call 1-800-HISTORY or visit Colonial Williamsburg’s Web site at www.history.org. | <urn:uuid:d2ad692a-aacd-4d15-bb68-091df65f2709> | {
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With passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 the forced
removal of Native Americans throughout the United States began. By the
Spring of 1838 almost all tribes east of the Mississippi had been relocated
further west or destroyed in battle. In Georgia The Cherokee tried to
desperately hold onto their "Enchanted Land."
Their valiant fight was not with bow and arrow or guns.
They used a printing
press and a government to keep Georgia and the United States from
taking their homeland. Georgia had successfully distributed the Cherokee
lands to her citizens in the Sixth
Land Lottery and a separate Gold
Lottery, then sent the brutal Georgia Guard to ensure its citizens
Next the state attempted to silence Christian missionaries
who had been teaching the word of Christ in the Cherokee Nation for
more than 25 years. This case ended in the Supreme Court as Worcester
v. Georgia. In it the Court held that the Cherokee Nation was sovereign,
so the state had no right to enact laws regarding the Cherokee. Only
the federal government could deal with a sovereign nation, and they
could only do it with a treaty.
The government tried desperately to negotiate a treaty.
Principle Chief, demanded $5 million dollars for part of the Cherokee
Nation, with citizenship, including the right to vote, hold political
office and testify in court, for the Cherokee who would live on the
remaining land. This was totally unacceptable to both the United States
and Georgia. Ross, with the backing of the Cherokee Nation then demanded
$20 million for the Cherokee's complete, voluntary removal to Oklahoma.
The fee was far more than the United States could afford, although it
was significantly less than the value of the land.
Instead the federal government negotiated the corrupt
Treaty of New Echota with the Treaty Party. The agreement called for
voluntary removal by 1838 in exchange for 5 million dollars. John Ross,
Principle Chief of the Cherokee, made it known to the Senate that the
Treaty Party did not speak for the Cherokee Nation, but the Senate ratified
the treaty by a single vote.
In May, 1838, federal and state troops invaded the Cherokee
Nation, moving the inhabitants into filth-ridden "forts"
until they could be moved north to the embarkation points, Ross's Landing
(now Chattanooga) or the government agency at Rattlesnake Springs (Tennessee).
Loss of life was high for the first parties heading west, so Ross asked
General Winfield Scott
for permission to lead the parties west himself in the cooler weather.
Scott granted the request.
Ross's plan worked. In spite of traveling during the
brutal winter of 1838-1839 and the indifferent attitudes of settlers
along the way, the loss of life was significantly reduced among the
parties led by the Cherokee. They arrived at their new homeland early
in 1839. Today the land route taken by the Cherokee is known as The
Trail of Tears or, as a direct translation, The Trail Where They Cried.
More information on the Cherokee Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
from About North Georgia
Trail of Tears from Our Georgia History | <urn:uuid:448adf3b-0f04-48e9-a269-eea12dca4d2d> | {
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Exhibition MaterialsExhibition teachers’ packets offer in-depth information and a variety of learning tools related to select Museum exhibitions.
Mexican ModernismThis teaching poster features Diego Rivera’s mobile mural Sugar Cane and explores muralism, slavery, and the Mexican Revolution. Download Teacher Resource
This teaching poster features an untitled painting of a dancer by Emilio Amero and explores Mexican folk arts and the democratization of art education after the Mexican Revolution.
Download Teacher Resource
Both of these teaching resources are offered in conjunction with the exhibition Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910–1950
Creative AfricaThis teaching poster features an ivory armlet from the Benin Kingdom and a cloth woven in the Ewe tradition. By comparing and contrasting, students will explore pattern, material, and process in African art. This teaching resource is offered in conjunction with the Creative Africa exhibition. Download Teacher Resource
Audubon to Warhol: The Art of American Still LifeStill life is a window onto our world. Explore the changes in American culture by comparing and contrasting two paintings of a fish bowl, one from 1867 and one from 1974. This teaching resource is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Audubon to Warhol: The Art of American Still Life. Download Teacher Resource
Ink and Gold: Art of the KanoDeveloped for K–12 educators, this teaching poster explores a magnificent set of sliding doors by Japanese master Kano Tan'yū. It includes background information about the artwork, the artist, and the Kano school of painting as well as curriculum connections. This resource is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Ink and Gold: Art of the Kano. Download Teacher Resource
Represent: 200 Years of African American ArtThis teacher resource celebrates the innovation, creativity, and determination of African American artists. It was developed for K–12 classroom teachers to use with their students before, after, or instead of a visit to the exhibition Represent: 200 Years of African American Art. Download Teacher Resource
Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392–1910This resource includes connections to educational standards, curriculum connections, glossary, resource list, and a teaching poster. It is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392-1910. Download Teacher Resource
Léger: Modern Art and the MetropolisFollowing the main themes of the exhibition Léger: Modern Art and the Metropolis, this guide was developed primarily for classroom teachers in grades 5–12 for use with their students. It contains curriculum connections with suggested classroom activities that teachers may adapt for use with younger students. Download Teacher Resource
"Great and Mighty Things": Outsider Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz CollectionWorks included in this resource appeal to diverse students and offer rich connections with the art, language arts, social studies, science, and math curricula. This teaching resource is offered in conjunction with the exhibition "Great and Mighty Things": Outsider Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection. Download Teacher Resource
Full Spectrum: Prints from the Brandywine WorkshopTwelve prints from the exhibition Full Spectrum: Prints from the Brandywine Workshop are featured in this resource designed for students and teachers. Through this resource, we hope to encourage them to explore issues of identity, both personal and cultural, as expressed by different artists. Download English Resource Download Spanish Resource
Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the QuiltThis resource guide explores the exhibition Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt as well as the African American quiltmaking traditions seen in quilts from the Museum's own collection. Curriculum connections, a glossary, and suggestions for further study are also included. Download Teacher Resource
Renoir LandscapesThis online teacher's resource includes a biography of Renoir and a timeline of his life, as well as a look at several of the artist's paintings, curriculum connections, and recommended books and websites. It is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Renoir Landscapes. View Teacher Resource
African Art, African VoicesThis teachers' packet includes curriculum resources, recommended readings, maps, and a vocabulary guide. This resource is offered in conjunction with the exhibition African Art, African Voices: Long Steps Never Broke a Back. Download Teacher Resource
Salvador DalíDiscover Dalí in this packet including images, a biography, a pronunciation guide, and suggested classroom activities. This resource is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Salvador Dalí. Download Teacher Resource
Manet and the SeaLearn about Èdouard Manet and his contemporaries through images, writing and drawing activities, and a chronology. This resource is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Manet and the Sea. Download Teacher Resource
“Shocking!” The Art and Fashion of Elsa SchiaparelliDiscover unique ideas for teaching about textiles, fashion history, and Schiaparelli's connection to Surrealism. This resource is offered in conjunction with the exhibition "Shocking!" The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli. Download Teacher Resource
Dox Thrash: An African American Master Printmaker RediscoveredLearn about the achievements of this important African American artist, who rose to national prominence during the late 1930s. This resource is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Dox Thrash: An African American Master Printmaker Rediscovered. Download Teacher Resource
Thomas Eakins: American RealistThis resource features an extensive biography of Philadelphian Thomas Eakins, as well as a closer look at three of his paintings. It is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Thomas Eakins: American Realist. View Teacher Resource
For more information, please contact Education: School & Teacher Programs by phone at 215-684-7580, by fax at 215-236-4063, or by e-mail at . | <urn:uuid:21fe0248-891e-490b-b530-ce6ef20c7c34> | {
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What are examples of genetic kidney disorders?
- Polycystic kidney disease: Cysts grow in the kidneys and increase in size, which by age 50 to 60 years can lead to kidney failure.
- Fabry disease: A deficiency of the enzyme alpha-galactosidase A that leads to abnormalities in the kidney as well as the brain, eye, heart and skin. It is found in an estimated one in 55,000 males. Symptoms like high blood pressure may not develop for 20 to 30 years.
Should I consider genetic testing?
While this is a personal decision for you and your loved ones, Henry Ford’s genetics team can help you decide as well as discuss with you the testing process and how your results may affect you and those you care about. If your family has a history of kidney disorders, genetic testing may be beneficial for the health of you and loved ones. | <urn:uuid:496dd9ce-70a2-49a7-9dfd-e022b430ad8e> | {
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In TCP/IP, connections happen by way of ports. A port is a number that uniquely identifies a connection. Some ports are well-known and usually identified with a service, e.g. port 80 for HTTP requests.
To see what ports are open, i.e., what connections your computer currently has, use the
The output will be lengthy, but we're really only interested in the top section. An example from my own computer:
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State
tcp 0 0 localhost:ipp *:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 aspire.local:49132 tc-in-f19.google.co:www TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 aspire.local:60227 tx-in-f103.google.c:www ESTABLISHED
udp 0 0 aspire.local:33954 188.8.131.52:domain ESTABLISHED
udp 0 0 *:bootpc *:*
udp 0 0 aspire.local:42088 184.108.40.206:domain ESTABLISHED
udp 0 0 *:mdns *:*
udp 0 0 *:38142 *:*
What does this say? That my computer is currently connected to web servers (the
:wwwentries) and is making DNS requests (
:domain). These are the entries which are simpler to understand. But what of the others?
:ippis the port used by the printer daemon,
:mdnsis used for local multicast DNS, and
:bootpcis for DHCP client requests. These are the ports that a default Ubuntu installation listens on.
:ippis opened by
But what of that open port 38142? How come it's not identified? You can check it by running
sudo lsof -i :38142
You'll see that it's also owned by the Avahi daemon. Just what is Avahi?
Avahi is a system which facilitates service discovery on a local network. This means that you can plug your laptop or computer into a network and instantly be able to view other people who you can chat with, find printers to print to or find files being shared. This kind of technology is already found in Apple MacOS X (branded Rendezvous, Bonjour and sometimes Zeroconf) and is very convenient. Avahi is mainly based on Lennart Poettering's flexmdns mDNS implementation for Linux which has been discontinued in favour of Avahi.
So really, in a default Ubuntu installation, you really should have just ports opened by the printer daemon and Avahi. Other usual connections are for HTTP and DNS. Anything else that you're not sure of is typically suspect. | <urn:uuid:e6fcc5f1-72da-451f-8705-65a0e00e8f09> | {
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The InterMap (also called InterWiki in some other wikis) is a system for defining links between WikiWikiWeb sites that was first developed by UseMod and Meatball (see UseMod:InterWiki and Meatball:InterWiki). The method is to use a word that stands for a path that is defined. InterMap links have the form
MapPrefix:PagePath, where the host prefix is converted to a partial URL based on entries in the site's intermap.txt and localmap.txt files.
The default intermap.txt distributed with PmWiki (in the scripts/ directory) includes the following InterMap entries:
You can map your own prefixes in your local page Site.InterMap?.
Thus, "PmWiki:Variables" becomes "http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/PmWiki/" + "Variables," a link to the PmWiki.Variables page on the official PmWiki web site, Wiki:FrontPage is a link to the front page of the first WikiWikiWeb, and Wikipedia:Stonehenge takes you to the Wikipedia article about the famous megaliths in England.
Like other links, you can use the double-bracket syntax to get different link text:
* [[Meatball:StartingPoints | starting
points]] over at Meatball
* [[starting points ->
Meatball:StartingPoints]] over at
If you want to link just to what the intermap says (e.g. http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/ for Wikipedia), then do
[[Wikipedia:. | Wikipedia's main page]], which produces Wikipedia's main page. Note the . (period) after the Map: reference.
Path: InterMap entry can be used to create "relative urls" in links.
The actual set of InterMap links at any site is defined by the site administrator via the Site.InterMap? page and the local/localmap.txt file; for more details, see PmWiki.CustomInterMaps. | <urn:uuid:9e865bfa-cc53-449f-a458-5935897efa6f> | {
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Star, light and distance. Explain EMR and the properties of light. Understand the use of spectroscopes. KEY WORDS Luminosity Spectroscope Electromagnetic spectrum. Stars - classified by age, distance, and brightness Brightness ( luminosity ) of Stars
Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author.While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server.
Star B is closer to us than Star A.
- same Absolute magnitude.
The Sun is bigger than about 95% of stars.
Low energy High energy
Red light is low energy – cool
Blue is high energy - hot
Each gas in the star absorbs unique parts of the light energy as it is released.
The black lines in the spectrum show the elements that make up the gas surrounding the star.
Absorption lines of Helium | <urn:uuid:77d843d3-63af-48c0-928c-56266e88def5> | {
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More children with dilated cardiomyopathy are surviving without a heart transplant, according to research presented this week at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2014.
Dilated cardiomyopathy occurs when the heart is enlarged (dilated) and the pumping chambers contract poorly (usually left side is worse than right). It can have genetic and infectious/environmental causes.
Researchers analyzed the clinical outcomes of children with dilated cardiomyopathy in the NHLBI Pediatric Cardiomyopathy Registry (PCMR) and divided them into two groups based upon year of diagnosis: Era One (1990-99) included 1,199 children; Era Two (2000-09) had 754 children. The median age at diagnosis was 1.6 years in the first group and 1.7 years in the second.
- Fifteen percent of patients (291) from both groups died without receiving a heart transplant.
- Era Two patients were more likely to be treated with heart failure medications: ACE inhibitors (71 percent vs. 62 percent); beta blockers (24 percent vs. 6 percent); and diuretics (89 percent vs. 84 percent).
- Era One patients were 1.5 times more likely to die than Era Two patients.
- Heart transplantation rates were not significantly different between the two periods.
“Children with dilated cardiomyopathy have better survival in the more recent era, which appears to be associated with factors other than availability of transplantation as that was equally prevalent in both eras,” said Rakesh K. Singh, M.D., M.S. the study’s lead author.
Dilated cardiomyopathy accounts for about 55 percent of all childhood cardiomyopathies. It’s detected in about one per 175,000 children each year in the United States, according to the PCMR Database.
For more information: | <urn:uuid:ea4682a0-5997-47fc-9229-328be681e290> | {
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National Red Lists - challenges and opportunities
Zoological Society of London
Date and Time
25 October 2010 13:15 - 14:45
Accurate extinction risk assessment is vital in determining conservation priorities and establishing biodiversity management plans at all governance levels. By applying the reputed IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria at the regional level, regional and national Red Lists provide the most practical means of assessing species’ conservation status, allowing countries to identify species or ecosystems at greatest risk, raise awareness of threatened species, and ultimately develop effective conservation policies and action plans. National red lists repeated at regular intervals can also be used to provide insight into biodiversity trends, and this information is critical for reporting to international conventions such as the Convention on Biological Diversity. This side event will introduce National Red Lists, discuss their use in national-level conservation planning, review what they have told us so far about biodiversity change and identify the major taxonomic and geographical gaps in National Red Lists produced globally. Speakers involved with Red Listing in Asia and South America will discuss their National Red Lists as case studies, including their motives for producing the list, the organisations involved, how the assessments were conducted, how the information was utilised and presented, how the information will be periodically updated, and finally they will consider any challenges encountered during the compilation of the National Red List. | <urn:uuid:568ed172-e2f7-459d-baa1-d7bf1ef05152> | {
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Researchers from São Leopoldo Mandic Institute and Research Center in Brazil examined the changes in calcium and phosphorus concentrations in enamel after the use of home-use and in-office bleaching treatments inside the mouth.
"A lot has been said about the effects of dental bleaching on enamel, and we need to clarify such effects in vivo," said study author Flávia Lucisano Botelho do Amaral, DDS, in a DrBicuspid.com interview.
“Saliva has an important role in teeth remineralization.”
— Flávia Amaral, DDS
The interference of dental bleaching on calcium and phosphorus concentration -- that is, the quantification of mineral loss in vivo -- has not been reported until this latest research, he added.
For this study, the researchers recruited 80 patients from the center who did not have caries and periodontal disease but had an indication for dental bleaching. The participants were randomly assigned to four groups of 20 each according to the bleaching agent used. A total of 65 participants completed the study.
The researchers required that the study participants have six maxillary and six mandibular anterior teeth and that they not have restorative material covering more than one-sixth of each buccal surface.
The bleaching techniques used included 10% home-use carbamide peroxide (Opalescence PF 10%, Ultradent), 20% home-use carbamide peroxide (Opalescence PF 20%), 35% in-office hydrogen peroxide (Pola Office With 35% HP, SDI), and 38% in-office hydrogen peroxide (Opalescence Boost PF 38% HP).
The authors evaluated the teeth before the bleaching treatment; during the bleaching treatment at seven, 14, and 21 days; and after the bleaching treatment at seven and 14 days.
The evaluation was done using enamel microbiopsies -- a method of collecting samples from enamel without causing any injuries to the dental structure -- after which they determined calcium and phosphorus concentrations in milligrams per milliliter by using a spectrophotometer.
Microbiopsies can be helpful when determining the effects of dental bleaching on the mineral content of enamel in a clinical situation, in which the teeth are constantly submitted to the remineralizing-demineralizing influence of human saliva, noted the study authors.
A buffering capacity
After analyzing each bleaching agent individually, the study authors found no differences among calcium and phosphorus concentrations at the three evaluation times (baseline, during bleaching, and after bleaching). This most likely is caused by the protective effect of saliva, which promotes dilution, supplements calcium and phosphorus ions for enamel remineralization, and has a buffering capacity, they noted.
"We can expect that saliva has an important role in teeth remineralization that can counteract the effects of dental bleaching," Dr. Amaral said.
In vivo, different dental bleaching techniques did not alter the inorganic composition of enamel, the authors concluded.
"Some in vitro studies have shown that dental bleaching causes severe mineral loss, and our study showed the contrary, which is really surprising," Dr. Amaral said.
A 2009 Ohio State University study found that teeth lost some enamel hardness after the application of several different at-home teeth-whitening products (Journal of Dentistry, March 2009, Vol. 37:3, pp. 185-190).
The authors of that study used five name-brand home whiteners on samples of human teeth and compared the effects to tooth samples that received no treatment. The products used in the study were Crest Whitestrips Premium Plus, Crest Whitestrips Supreme, Nite White ACP, Oral B Rembrandt, and Treswhite Opalescence.
"Nanohardness and elastic modulus of human enamel were significantly decreased after the application of home-bleaching systems," they found.
However, another in vivo study that examined the effect of 38% hydrogen peroxide in-office whitening agent found that the bleaching agent does not damage enamel. Researchers looked at 20 patients who received bleaching treatments with a 38% hydrogen peroxide bleaching agent (Opalescence Boost PF) four times at one-week intervals.
"The results of our in vivo study indicate that in-office bleaching with Opalescence Boost PF, applied once per week for four weeks, did not produce significant alterations in enamel surface roughness," the authors of that study concluded. "This would indicate that the appropriate use of high-concentration bleaching products has no harmful effects on enamel surface micromorphology."
Dr. Amaral emphasized that further studies are needed to confirm the findings of the current study. | <urn:uuid:942a3b76-221d-4c98-b77e-d2986690a503> | {
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Physical & Chemical
Aimi Taniguchi 6th Priod
A characteristic of a substance that can be observed without changing the substance into something else.
*Melting point of ice is 0°C.
*Boiling point of water is 100°C.
*Water is transparency.
*A bicycle get rust.
*A silver spoon tarnishes.
*Statue of Liberty tarnished by acid rain.
*Rip the paper to small pieces.
*Soild water > Liquid water > Gas water
1. Color changes
2. Gas produced
3. Temperature changes
4. New substance formed
5. Order released
*Burn the wood > turns to ashes.
*Burn a paper > turns to ashes.
*Baking a cake. | <urn:uuid:0decc57d-bc56-4b11-b1f3-f3b8af2606ea> | {
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Arthritis is a disease of the joints that often causes pain, inflammation, and loss of range of motion. It affects people of all ages, from all walks of life. Although the symptoms are fairly similar, there are many different kinds of arthritis, each with their own underlying causes. Some types of arthritis are more likely to run in families, whereas others may be linked to physically demanding jobs that involve repetitive motion or heavy lifting. Some types of arthritis are much more common in older adults, while others can affect children and adolescents. An injury or an infection can also be contributing factors in the development of arthritis.
One of the most common forms of arthritis is rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In contrast to another very common form of the disease, osteoarthritis, RA is not caused by everyday wear-and-tear, trauma, or a demanding occupation. Instead, RA leads to damage to the joint when the body’s antibodies mistakenly attack the joint capsule membrane, also known as the synovium. This leads to inflammation and the growth of fibrous tissue in the synovium, as well as excess fluid in the joint. These processes lead to the degeneration of cartilage and erosion of the bones in the joint. Although the exact mechanism of RA is not understood, it can be a debilitating disease that causes great damage to the body and severely reduces quality of life.
Treatment options for RA include physical therapy, gentle exercise, the use of special splints and braces, topical pain relief gels and creams, and the application of localized heat and cold. Additionally, there are many over-the-counter and prescription drugs that can help to reduce swelling, relieve pain, and improve range of motion. In severe cases of RA, the use of steroids can help to reduce swelling. Disease Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs (DMARDs), in contrast with drugs that simply alleviate symptoms, may actually slow the progression of joint damage in RA, and are especially useful when started soon after diagnosis.
Edison Home Health Care is happy to advise and assist you or any loved one who seek appropriate care of Arthritis problems. Give us a call at 888-311-1142, or fill out a contact form and we will respond shortly. | <urn:uuid:3f4e0a14-1004-4f7a-b73b-229881c7fa09> | {
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President Obama has pledged to combat climate change and has asked Congress to pass legislation to lower U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Concerns over economic costs have stymied attempts at federal policy in the past, and during the economic crisis it may prove even harder. The debate over U.S. climate policy comes amid lingering doubts by a majority of the U.S. public (TIME) about whether climate change should be a priority. And new studies questioning the effects of climate change -- such as a recent study that estimates the West Antarctic ice sheet will melt in thousands and not hundred of years (Nature) -- help reinforce those doubts. Despite possible hurdles, the president's first budget assumes that a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases will be up and running by 2012 and will begin generating revenues for the U.S. Treasury. CFR.org asked six experts what impact a cap-and-trade system would have on the U.S. economy if it were imposed right now.
Michael A. Levi, David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment and Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic StudiesCapping and hence pricing carbon immediately, while we're still in a recession, would be unwise, but no one is talking seriously about doing that. Passing legislation now that would cap emissions starting in a few years would probably have a small but positive net impact on the U.S. economy. A delayed cap wouldn't impose any immediate costs on U.S. consumers. It would, however, do two good things:
First, it would reduce current uncertainty about the shape of future greenhouse gas regulations. Uncertainty is a deterrent to investment. Passing cap-and-trade legislation soon would thus (at least marginally) help unlock spending.
Second, it would remove pressure to implement far clumsier regulations under the Clean Air Act, which was not designed for tackling the sort of broadly distributed and extraordinarily varied emissions sources that drive climate change. Using the Clean Air Act to regulate emissions would likely be far more expensive than using a cap-and-trade system; anything that makes the first path less likely, then, would be an economic plus.
That said, there are places where we should be cautious. There's substantial interest in Congress in including "carbon tariffs" in a climate bill. Such tariffs could have dangerous reverberations at a time when global support for trade--a critical engine of economic growth--is strained. And don't count on a cap-and-trade system to deliver a big long-term economic boost. Jobs created in new energy industries will probably be roughly offset by job losses elsewhere (both in traditional energy and in the balance of the economy). Ultimately the best economic boost will come from economic policy based on sound fundamentals. The core goal in designing climate policy should be to do the most good for the climate at the lowest price.
William Yeatman, Energy Policy Analyst, Competitive Enterprise InstituteA cap-and-trade system necessarily harms the economy because it is designed to raise the cost of energy. Given the current economic crisis, an expensive energy policy is a bad idea.
Almost all acts of economic production are powered by combusting fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas), a process that emits greenhouse gases thought to cause global warming. A cap-and-trade system is simply a mechanism to put a price on emissions in order to compel businesses and consumers to emit less. That is, it's essentially an emissions tax. But greenhouse gas emissions are virtually synonymous with energy use, so it's actually a roundabout energy tax. In fact, economists agree that the simplest, most efficient way to reduce emissions is a direct tax. Politicians, however, are terrified of the "t-word," which is why they have embraced a cap-and-trade system.
The numbers are staggering. President Barack Obama's recently unveiled cap-and-trade plan would raise $645 billion in revenue from the government-run emissions auctions over eight years. Everyone would feel the pinch. Businesses would compensate for higher production costs and diminished markets by slashing jobs. Consumers would have to pay more for energy and energy intensive goods.
Expensive energy is bad enough, but the real danger of a cap-and-trade policy is a global trade war. A cap-and-trade system would give a competitive advantage to industries in countries that aren't subject to a de facto energy tax. Jobs would flow overseas, but so would emissions, a dynamic known as "carbon leakage." To prevent this, a broad coalition of industry, labor, and environmental groups have expressed interest in a tariff that would tax the emissions content of imports from countries without stringent climate policies. Naturally, these countries would retaliate if such a tariff were enacted. Protectionism deepened the Great Depression, just as climate protectionism would worsen the current recession.
Mark Tercek, President and CEO, The Nature ConservancyContrary to what may be a developing strain of conventional wisdom, strong policies to reduce climate emissions, such as a market-based cap on U.S. greenhouse emissions (also known as "cap and trade"), can provide a form of stimulus to the U.S. economy. As during the Great Depression and other recessions, the U.S. economy is suffering from a shortfall in aggregate demand -- the collective willingness of American consumers and businesses to buy goods and services. Just one example: New car sales have fallen from roughly 17 million vehicles per year just a few years ago to just over half that number today. This phenomenon ripples throughout the economy and builds on itself. What is needed is a strong shock to the system--just the sort of shock that the president's recovery package was intended to administer.
That shock may be short-lived, however, unless there is a strong sustained basis for continued investment. As the 1930s came to a close, it was World War II that finally provided that function, with the war effort driving up demand for goods and services. Today, by driving private investment in zero- and low-carbon technologies and boots-on-the-ground conservation efforts to reduce net carbon emissions, a national market-based cap on carbon that tightens over time can act as a long-term driver for demand.
A cap-and-trade system will not only lower emissions and fight climate change, but also will stimulate the economy. In the short run, it will spur investment and create jobs; in the long run, it will accelerate the deployment of a new productive generation of capital stock.
One element that should not be neglected is our nation's natural capital. The administration has prudently suggested that a portion of money generated from the sale of carbon allowances under a cap-and-trade system should go toward critical conservation projects that will ensure our natural resources survive the impacts of climate change. Such investments will not only protect our natural resources, but contribute to generating jobs and income through fisheries, forestry, agriculture, recreation, and other industries that rely on healthy productive lands and waters.
Sergey V. Mityakov, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Clemson UniversityRestricting carbon emissions by cap and trade is probably not a good idea even in a booming economy. Many studies assessing the costs of mitigation of climate change (either through some cap-and-trade system or by means of a carbon tax) indicate that the losses in consumer welfare are likely to be enormous. At the same time the costs of climate change itself are not very well estimated to justify swift mitigation efforts; different studies produce different recommendations. Thus, there is no clear consensus among the scholars whether and when such a scheme should be implemented in the first place.
In the case of a recession, additional negative shock to the economy in a form of cap-and-trade system seems like even a worse idea. If cap and trade were created now, it would lead to higher energy prices for American consumers and businesses, as energy producers would be forced to switch from cheaper and "dirty" fuels such as coal to "cleaner" and more expensive sources of energy.
Thus, it is likely to hit American households through the following channels. On the one hand, consumers are going to suffer directly from the increased prices of the energy and energy-intensive goods they buy. On the other hand, higher energy prices will increase the production costs of American producers, making American-produced goods less competitive in the world market. This would tend to make the current recession even more severe, as businesses, which cannot compete against foreign producers, would close. Facing increased energy costs and competition from abroad, some American companies would have an incentive to shift their production overseas where no cap-and-trade system is operating. These adverse effects on producers are likely to lead to additional job losses in the United States, further increasing the costs of the recession for the American households.
I think we should carefully analyze the costs of climate change to see whether they are indeed worth such sacrifices. Probably it is a better idea to postpone this decision until the current economic downturn is over.
Rick Duke, Director, Center for Market Innovation, Natural Resources Defense CouncilAt first glance, passing carbon cap legislation in the midst of the still worsening "great recession" may appear ill-advised. In fact, moving to control global warming emissions now can help us put the world back to work while containing the growing threat of climate change.
Passing climate legislation in 2009 would not impose a price on pollution until the cap goes into effect, in 2012 at the earliest (once the administrative details have been sorted out). Upon passage, the law would reduce investor risk by clarifying long-term carbon reduction goals. This is a prerequisite for anyone contemplating capital-intensive clean energy investments, ranging from combined heat and power efficiency upgrades to scaling up the nascent wind, solar, and carbon-capture industries.
A well-designed 2009 law could also enable fiscally responsible stimulus spending during 2010 and 2011 by providing a carbon allowance revenue stream to pay back the Treasury once the cap goes into effect. For example, the legislation could extend stimulus spending for efficiency and renewables past 2010 and authorize immediate launch of a new facility to provide credit enhancement for energy efficiency and renewable energy investments.
Countering the global recession requires decisive stimulus spending paired with a long-term plan to restore fiscal balance. Otherwise we risk a Japan-style lost decade and the dual trap of zero short-term interest rates compounded by chronic deficits, leaving the government increasingly powerless to restart growth.
It is tempting to hunker down and simplify in response to the worsening economic crisis--but in this case bolder policy reduces risk. Carbon caps put essential guardrails in place to enable aggressive stimulus spending and unleash private investment that will leave a legacy of a cleaner and more secure energy economy.
Trevor Houser, Visiting Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Director of the Energy & Climate Practice at the Rhodium Group, Peterson Institute for International Economics, Rhodium GroupPresident Obama has indicated that addressing climate change is not only possible during the current economic crisis, but required to lay the foundation for future economic growth. To evaluate this claim, it's important to understand the instruments used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the timetable in which they will be implemented. The national cap-and-trade legislation that President Obama has called for and that the U.S. Congress is currently drafting wouldn't impose any costs on the economy until 2012 at the earliest, by which time we should be on more stable footing.
While the politics of passing such legislation in the midst of an economic crisis are challenging, the economic arguments in favor of doing so are compelling. Uncertainty about the health of the financial system has slowed the rate of new investment dramatically. In the energy sector, this is compounded by uncertainty about the Washington's approach to climate policy. Signaling clearly to markets the targets and timelines for U.S. emissions reductions will help provide investors with the ability to start preparing today for the transition to a low-carbon economic future.
The cost of making that transition will depend largely on the ability of firms to access low-carbon technology in time to meet the emission-reduction schedule called for in legislation. The good news is that overall U.S. emissions, as well as the cost of cleaner fuels and renewable energy equipment, has declined as a result of the current crisis, making it cheaper to meet emission-reduction goals. The bad news is that fossil fuel prices have dropped as well, eroding the incentive for further clean-tech innovation in the absence of a price for carbon. To ensure that adequate alternatives are available once that price is imposed, policymakers need to prime the pump with targeted investments in low-carbon technology and enabling infrastructure. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act made a good start on this, with roughly $100 billion in climate-friendly investment. The challenge now is ensuring this money is well spent and that emission-reduction timelines match technological reality. | <urn:uuid:96b24d9c-6126-435f-a37b-e00c9620cf67> | {
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We live in
the information age. Information technology changes civilization deeper and
faster than any technology in the past. The importance of information is very
broad - it covers the technology of the internet, the possibility of accessing enormous
quantities of data, the ease of communication, entertainment, learning, and
All this is
built on the basic ideas of the information theory, which we will learn during
this course. We will explain how to measureinformation, how to efficiently
store and share it, how to protect it against errors in the media, and how to
prevent intruders to get use of it. We will also see how modern applications
incorporate the foundations of information theory.
classes are mandatory and are being assessed. During the practical courses it
is necessary to solve five problems that are related to ideas treated in
theoretical classes. The practical part makes up to 1/3 of the final grade.
During the semester two mid-term exams are organized which bring you up to 1/6 of
the final grade. The last 1/2 of the final grade is obtained from written and
oral exam. In the case of good results from the mid-term exams, the final
written and oral exam are optional.
- nosilec: Uroš Lotrič | <urn:uuid:cad693cc-3cdc-4a55-b750-d2d04b82e9f5> | {
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Siegfried Halbreich, a survivor of four Nazi concentration camps who devoted the second half of his long life to public education about the horrors that Jews experienced during World War II, died of heart failure Wednesday at his Beverly Hills home. He was 98.
Halbreich was among the first Jews to be sent to the camps in 1939. Five-and-a-half years later, he was one of the few to emerge alive.
After moving to Los Angeles in 1960, he became one of the Holocaust's most vocal witnesses, giving talks in elementary schools, high schools, colleges, churches and synagogues. By the time he stopped, about three years ago, he had given 2,500 free lectures around the world on the abominations he lived through during Hitler's reign.
"Very few people were imprisoned as long and in as many prisons as he was," said John K. Roth, a Holocaust scholar and professor emeritus at Claremont McKenna College, who frequently invited Halbreich to speak to his classes. But he said what Halbreich accomplished after leaving the camps was also extraordinary.
"He would speak with great truthfulness about the hard things he had seen and endured. But there was always a note of determination to go forward," Roth said, "to help people remember that the world can be a brutal and nasty place, but that it doesn't have to be that way."
In 1996, Halbreich told a group of Riverside high school students that it was "not a pleasure to go . . . from place to place to talk about the horrible past we had to endure. But I feel it is my obligation to tell people what was going on and to warn them. This," he said of the Nazi's campaign of extermination, "should never happen again to anyone."
Halbreich was born Nov. 13, 1909, in the town of Dziedzice in what is now southern Poland. He had a degree from the University of Krakow and worked as a pharmacist until the war began.
In 1939, after the German army occupied Poland, he tried to escape to what was then Yugoslavia, but he was caught and deported to the Sachsenhausen camp north of Berlin, where he and 400 other prisoners were jammed into a barracks built for 100.
In 1941, he was transferred to the Gross-Rosen camp in what is now Rogoznica, Poland. A year later, he was sent to Auschwitz, where, because of his pharmacy training, he was assigned to work in the camp hospital.
Secretly he led resistance efforts, he told The Times in a 2004 interview. He sheltered younger prisoners, gave them food and medicine and helped many escape the brutality of their captors.
He was at Nordhausen-Dora, a forced-labor camp in central Germany, for a year before it was liberated by Allied forces in April 1945.
After the war, Halbreich, who spoke several languages, worked with the United States government's War Crimes Branch as an interpreter and investigator.
He testified at the trials of Nazi war criminals and gave testimony that was used in the prosecution of Adolf Eichmann, the German high official who was hanged in Israel for his role in the Holocaust.
In 1946 Halbreich immigrated to the U.S., and he spent the next 13 years in Cleveland, where he and his wife, Ruth, started a family. In addition to his wife, he is survived by a son, Jeremy, of Dallas; a daughter, Emily Tigerman, of Sherman Oaks; and two grandchildren.
He left Cleveland in 1959, in part to escape the past that came up every time a well-meaning relative asked about his wartime imprisonment. He moved to Beverly Hills and ran a custom picture framing business in Santa Monica. "Questions, questions, so many questions. I didn't want to talk much about what I had been through," he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 2000.
But in 1960, after a visit to Israel, his rabbi asked him to give a talk about the Holocaust. Halbreich agreed to tell his story -- and he told it again and again over the next 45 years.
He spoke of losing his parents and both his brothers.
He spoke of seeing Jews treated worse than cattle on trains bound for gas chambers, of a Nazi commander who sent Jews to hard labor or death with the casual flick of a thumb, of fellow prisoners shot dead for no reason other than that they turned their heads at the wrong moment.
He recalled how one day after liberation, while serving as an interpreter for Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the Allied commander noticed the "68233" that the Nazis had imprinted on his skin and asked, "Did it hurt you very much when they tattooed this number on your arm?"
Halbreich, stunned, at first didn't know what to say. He thought, "My gosh, what kind of people are the Americans? They see what's going on here, full of bodies, dead people . . . and he asked if this was hurting? But later on, I understood, he had no idea. The Americans, it was strange to them to face something like this."
He told his stories to anyone who wanted to listen, but never in a manner that was overwrought with emotion. "He was just low-key, understated. He honestly answered any question people put to him. He was masterful in that role," Roth said. | <urn:uuid:eeda8ea3-aab9-4c08-a974-af11f5bc5efa> | {
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(PRWEB) July 18, 2014
Scoliosis, a condition that causes a sideways curve of the spine, is a disorder that affects people of all ages. There is not, in fact, one single cause of scoliosis. In some cases, scoliosis is caused by injury, infection and birth defects. This condition may also be hereditary, passed down from parent to child. In many cases, the cause of scoliosis is not known. Scoliosis can cause an uneven alignment of shoulder blades, hip bones and other bones of the body. Affected patients will experience back pain and may even have trouble breathing.
Treatment for this condition varies, depending on the severity of the problem. Some cases may be so mild that doctor observation is the only action taken. Patient age, severity and cause of the scoliosis will also impact the treatments prescribed. Braces and surgery are traditional methods of treating scoliosis patients. In some cases, treatments such as exercise, chiropractic care, dietary changes, nutritional supplements and electric stimulation may be used. In this upcoming segment, Jimmy Johnson will be hosting a segment that explores recent innovations in scoliosis treatment and how these treatments are improving lives of patients today.
The Leading Edge is distributed through Public Television stations in the United States. Distribution of this series does not happen through PBS. Please visit the Leading Edge website at leadingedgeseries.com to learn more. | <urn:uuid:9b1a1206-2b06-4b0a-a5c2-11ed771fd687> | {
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I am just curious to know what the grammatical term for using adverbs to describe how the action was done, so in the examples below . . .
"please pass the sugar" she asked sweetly
"I can see your knickers" she said briefly
He was relieved to have the bathroom door fixed
how sweetly is a true description of sugar, briefs and knickers, and bathroom and relieved
Hope this makes sense and many thanks for your help
1. "Please, pass the sugar", she asked sweetly."
(adverb of manner; modifies the verb "asked"; answers the question "How (did she ask it)?")
2. "I can see your knickers", she said briefly."
(adverb of manner; modifies the verb "said"; answers the question, "How did she say it?")
3. "He was relieved to have the bathroom door fixed."
(adverb of purpose; answers the question, "Why (was he relieved)?"
All the best, :D | <urn:uuid:ffabaf15-e27e-4a2b-bf48-c5622b1d95bc> | {
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From wearing water-resistant sunblock to taking a shower instead of a bath, travelers will be reminded to be responsible consumers in the wake of a water scarcity crisis that threatens parts of the world for World Tourism Day.
For the 2013 edition of the United Nations’ World Tourism Day
, both the tourism industry and travelers alike will be asked to re-examine their water footprint — particularly given that a record-breaking 1 billion international tourists traveled in 2012 alone.
The theme was chosen to align with the 2013 United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation.
This year, the official celebrations will take place Sept. 27 in the Maldives, which consists of 1,190 coral islands.
Here are a few ways tourists are encouraged to be responsible water consumers when they travel abroad:
* Take a shower instead of a bath
* Leave your towels on the rack and hang your ‘Do not disturb’ sign on the door to let housekeeping know you don’t need to have your linens and towels changed every day. This simple gesture saves on unnecessary use of water and chemicals.
* Where possible, select green, sustainable accommodations with water-saving programs such as rainwater barrels.
* Respect the sites you visit. Leave seashells in their natural environment, for instance, and use water-resistant sunblock to avoid polluting the sea and damaging marine fauna. Scientists have shown that commonly found sunscreen ingredients can kill off coral.
World Tourism Day is Sept. 27. | <urn:uuid:d3ce76b8-26ba-46c9-bade-5c26a8df77cc> | {
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Dry steam plants use hydrothermal fluids that are primarily steam. The steam travels directly to a turbine, which drives a generator that produces electricity. The steam eliminates the need to burn fossil fuels to run the turbine (also eliminating the need to transport and store fuels). These plants emit only excess steam and very minor amounts of gases.
Dry steam power plants systems were the first type of geothermal power generation plants built (they were first used at Lardarello in Italy in 1904). Steam technology is still effective today at currently in use at The Geysers in northern California, the world's largest single source of geothermal power. | <urn:uuid:2d43739c-a9c6-41a3-b73a-1e523e3496b4> | {
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In the early 13th century, the Chishti order of Sufis was founded at Ajmer. Centuries later Akbar, a ruler who genuinely searched for universal truth and religious tolerance, acknowledged the enormous contribution made to India by the Muslim Sufis, especially by those of the Chishti order, and made frequent pilgrimages to Ajmer on food to show his reverence for them.
The term sufi is derived from the word suf (wool), which referred to the garment sometimes worn by these ascetics. The Chishtis were the best known of the dervishes, ‘poor men’, who achieved a state of ectasy through song and dance, which gave rise to the genre of Sufi Music.
Qawwali is the most well known form of Sufi music. Qawwali is a music form that streches back at least 700 years. Originally performed mainly at Sufi shrines or dargahs throughout South Asia, it has also gained mainstream popularity. Qawwali music received international exposure through the work of the late Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The poetry in a Qawwali is implicitly understood to be spiritual in its meaning, even though the lyrics can sometimes sound wildly secular. The central themes of qawwali are love, devotion and longing (of man for the Divine).
Qawwalis tend to begin gently and build steadily to a very high energy level in order to induce hypnotic states both among the musicians and within the audience. The singing style of qawwali is different from Western singing styles in many ways. For example, in words beginning with an "m", Western singers are apt to stress the vowel following the "m" rather than the "m" itself, whereas in qawwali, the "m" will usually be held, producing a muted tone. Also in qawwali, there is no distinction between what is known as the chest voice and the neck voice (the different areas that sound will resonate in depending on the frequency sung). Rather, qawwals sing very loudly and forcefully, which allows them to extend their chest voice to much higher frequencies than those used in Western singing, even though this usually causes a more noisy or strained sound than would be acceptable in the West.
A popular form of Sufi Music is the Ghazal (Or Gazal). The ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century Arabic verse. It is derived from the Arabian panegyric qasida. The structural requirements of the ghazal are similar in stringency to those of the Petrarchan sonnet. In its style and content it is a genre which has proved capable of an extraordinary variety of expression around its central themes of love and separation. It is one of the principal poetic forms which the Indo-Perso-Arabic civilization offered to the eastern Islamic world. Most ghazals can be viewed in a spiritual context, with the Beloved being a metaphor for God, or the poet's spiritual master. It is the intense Divine Love of sufism that serves as a model for all the forms of love found in ghazal poetry.
Traditionally invoking melancholy, love, longing, and metaphysical questions, ghazals are often sung by Iranian, Afghan, Pakistani, and Indian musicians. The form has roots in seventh-century Arabia, and gained prominence in the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century thanks to such Persian poets as Rumi and Hafez and later due to Indian poets such as, Mirza Ghalib. In the eighteenth-century, the ghazal was used by poets writing in Urdu, a mix of the medieval languages of Northern India, including Persian. Among these poets, Ghalib is the recognized master of the Ghazal.
Another Classical form of Sufi Music is Kafi. Some well-known Kafi poets are Baba Farid, Bulleh Shah, Shah Hussain, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Sachal Sarmast and Khwaja Ghulam Farid. This poetry style has also lent itself to the Kafi genre of singing, popular throughout South Asia, especially Pakistan and India. Over the years, both Kafi poetry and its rendition have experienced rapid growth phases as various poets and vocalists added their own influences to the form, creating a rich and varied poetic form, yet through it all it remained centered on the dialogue between the Soul and the Creator, symbolized by the murid (disciple) and his Murshid (Master), and often by lover and his Beloved.
The word Kafi is derived from the Arabic kafameaning group. The genre is said to be derived from the Arabic poetry genre, qasidah, amonorhyme ode that is always meant to be sung, using one or two lines as a refrain that is repeated to create a mood. Kafi poetry is usually themed around heroic and great romantic tales from the folkfore, often used as a metaphor for mystical truths, and spiritual longing.
Kafi singing is characterized by a devotional intensity in its delivery, and as such overlaps considerably with the Qawwali genre. Just like Qawwali, its performances often took place at the dargahs (mausoleums) of various Sufi saints in the region. However, unlike Qawwali, the musical arrangement is much simpler and may only include one harmonium, one tabla, one dholak and a single vocalist. The emphasis remains on the words rather than the music itself, since the central aim of Kafi music is to convey the essence of the mystical lyrics. The central verse is often repeated. There are no fixed styles of singing of Kafi. Traditionally dervishes in Sindh used instruments like Yaktaro, a one-stringed plucked instrument, and wooden clappers, chappars, though many contemporary singers have chosen their own variations.
Some of the early notable exponents of this form in the 1930s, when classical singing became highly popular, were Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan of the Patiala gharana, who used the dhrupad style in his rendition of Sindhi Kafis, and his contemporary in Sindhi kafi singing, Ustad Allahdino Noonari, who used the fusion form. | <urn:uuid:8247ac80-eed6-47bb-a703-abfdb2cee1b0> | {
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Whole Plant Sustainable Management Plan 2018–22
For the commercial harvest, salvage and propagation of protected whole plants
This management plan provides information about the regulatory framework for the sustainable harvesting and cultivation of protected plants for the whole plant industry in NSW. The plan covers licensing and reporting requirements under NSW legislation and aims to raise awareness about the management and conservation of protected and threatened plant species that are used commercially.
- 12 December 2017
- Office of Environment and Heritage
This management plan details the licensing and reporting requirements for the commercial use of protected plants under in the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (BC Act). It is also an educational resource designed to raise awareness among industry stakeholders and the broader community of the range of issues affecting the management and conservation of protected and threatened plant species that are used commercially.
This Whole Plant Sustainable Management Plan 2018–22 replaces the Commercial harvest, salvage and propagation of protected whole plants – Sustainable management plan 2013–17. | <urn:uuid:00af3f30-f7bc-425d-86bc-0990cf365920> | {
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Bordeaux - the Wine and the Wineries
The vine, known in Latin as vitis vinifera, has been brought to Europe by Phoenicians more than 3000 years ago. It spread from the commercial ports of Greece, Italy and Spain all over the continent.
The culture of vine flourished in the Gaul especially after a new variety, known as "Biturica" after the name of the population living at the time north of the Pyrenean Mountains "the Bituriges Vivisques", variety more resistant to cold temperature and that is the ancestor of the nowadays Cabernet was introduced.
During the Roman occupation, Emperor Domitian issued in 92 AD an edict that ordered the destruction of all the vines in the Roman provinces and their replacement with corn cultures. This restriction lasted until 280 AD when Emperor Probus invalidated the edict.
Apparently the restriction was not taken too strictly by the locals and the vine growing continued.
During the Middle Ages the marriage of Eleanor d'Aquitaine to Henri Plantagenet future King Henri II of England in 1152 makes Aquitaine, at the latter's ascension to the throne, part of the English kingdom and marks the beginning of an intensive trade between the British Isles and Aquitaine.
The history tells us that Richard the Lionheart, their son, praises especially the famous Sauternes white wines. The English nobility follows and becomes later an appreciative consumer of Bordeaux wines, chiefly of the clear colored Claret.
In the 17th century Bordeaux develops new trade links with the Dutch and the cities of the Hanseatic League. The Dutch were mainly interested in bargain priced wine for their colonies. To transport it long distances they normalize the process of burning the sulfur in the interior of the barrels - the so called "Dutch matchsticks" - before filling them, this way destroying the bacteria responsible for wine deterioration! This process of sulfurization has been known since Middle Ages and even an edict dating from 1487 was authorizing the usage of sulfur for wine preservation.
The 17th century brings also another revolution in Bordeaux with the wine dealers becoming the real makers of wine by buying it in big quantities from the Graves and Medoc areas and making its assemblage and maturing in the barrels of their cellars. (In the 18th century the council of Bordeaux - "Les Jurats" - establishes the norm of 225 liters of wine per barrel a norm that is respected to this day in Bordeaux). As a little historic anecdote: the women were forbidden to work in the cellars, their presence turning the wine into vinegar! This trend of the dealers making the wine is reversed only in the beginning of the 20th century when Philippe de Rothschild, owner the famous Mouton Rothschild winery decides to bring the wine making process back to the "chateau" in order to make sure that his excellent wine is not mixed with other ones and sold under his name… but we are jumping ahead of the story… (Rothschild has also the brilliant idea of asking the biggest artists like Picasso, Dali and Warhol to design the Mouton wine bottle labels)
In the same time with the British customers becoming more and more knowledgeable the 17th century marks the beginning of the separation of different wineries from the blanket name of Bordeaux wine.
The first wineries to be singled out for their quality are Haut-Brion in the Graves region and Margaux, Latour and Lafite in Medoc region.
These were to be considered for commercial purposes as "premiers crus" or "first grows". Due to the success of the classification more wineries followed and by 1850 there were 5 levels of grows ("crus") forming a hierarchy - with the "first grow" on top for price and quality - consisting of 60 wineries.
In 1787 Thomas Jefferson the then American ambassador to France visited Bordeaux and its region and created his own classification. Jefferson, a wine connoisseur, is credited with the introduction of the Bordeaux wines to the White House. According to Forbes Magazine one of the most expensive bottles of wine ever to be sold is a 1787 Chateau Lafite that belonged to Thomas Jefferson (the bottle has the initials TJ etched on it). The bottle was sold in 1985 at a Christie's auction for $160.000 as a Jefferson memorabilia since the wine is not drinkable anymore!
Grand Cru Classé en 1855
In 1855 with the occasion of the Universal Exhibition in Paris the Emperor Napoleon III asks the Bordeaux brokers council to establish a complete list of all the classified grows ("crus") with the name of their domains and their geographical location. The list that was compiled in April 1855 went into the wine history as the "1855 classification". The list is still a valuable indicator of the quality (and price!) of a bottle of wine. "Grand cru classé en 1855" which means that the domain was included in the 1855 list is to this day, after more than 150 years, a mark of quality.
We need to add that the list was compiled based on the constant quality of the wine from a specific domain during many years. Also the ranking included only the vineyards from the left bank of the Garonne from the region Medoc, Graves and Sauternes
The list was changed 2 times with the introduction in September 1855 of the Cantemerle domain and in 1973 with the promotion of Mouton Rothschild. For more information on Grand Crus and the list visit: www.grand-cru-classe.com
The Bad Times
Starting in late 1850s a mysterious disease hit the French vineyards. The vines were mysteriously succumbing to an unknown parasite. In 15 years the disease hit 40% of the vines and hit hardly the wine industry.
Only in the late 1860s the parasite was identified as Phylloxera an insect - native to the Mississippi River - that injects venom in the root and is feeding itself with vine sap. The story of how Phylloxera arrived in France is still foggy but it is thought to have been brought from America on steam ships when the trip across the ocean was shortened enough for the parasite to survive.
Without pesticides able to kill the bug the solution found was to graft the French vines with the American pest resisting variety that had thicker root bark.
The Phylloxera crisis had yet another undesirable effect on the wine industry. While the good vineyards were destroyed, to compensate for the lack of supply - the average annual wine production barely reaches 30 millions of Hectoliters while the demand is above 40 millions -, the commerce of counterfeit cheap wine flourished. Everything goes: the wine is made even from glycerin and …sulfuric acid or more often from sugar and raisins*. The situation became so critical that in 1889 a law (called Griffe Law) is passed stipulating that THE wine is made only from fresh grapes or fresh grape juice and later in 1911 a new law requires the merchants to disclose the origin of their wine.
As a continuation of this law in 1936 the system of "Appellations d'Origine Controle" and Institut National de Appellations d'Origine was established. Buying a bottle that has the inscription "Appellations d'Origine Controle" means that the wine was really produced in the specified geographical area, following specific methods of culture and fabrication
The Bordeaux wine appellations belong are of 3 types:
Generic: Bordeaux,Bordeaux clairet, Bordeaux rosé, Bordeaux sec, Bordeaux supérieur, Crémant-de-Bordeaux. Almost any wine (97%) produced in the Bordeaux region is entitled to this appellation, but of course the ones entitled to the more prestigious regional or communal appellations will use that one!
Regional: like Haut-Medoc, Blaye, Sauternes, Graves etc. etc. This appellation is given to wines that are produced in the specific well-known vine growing
Communal: like Barsac, Margaux, Paulliac, Saint Emilion etc.
In 1955 the wines of Saint Emilion part of the Bordeaux wine-growing region were classified as well. However this classification that initially included 13 "Premiers Grands Crus classés" and 46 "Grands Crus classes" and some "Grands Crus" is revisited every 10 years. The last reclassification of the Saint Emillion wines took place in 2006 and it was followed by 4 years of commotion mainly from the part of the vineyards demoted or not maintained in the ranking. The conflict was settled finally at the end of 2010. The newest classification includes 72 classified estates, covering 880 hectares, or 16% of Saint Emilion’s 5,500 hectares of vines.
Nowadays Bordeaux vineyards cover more than 120000 hectares divided into around 9.900 properties (the domains are somehow confusingly called "chateaux" due to the 18th centuries rich vine growers who were building on their estates magnificent manors!) and produce every year around 850 million bottles** with around 3/4 of red wine and 1/4 or white wine. Bordeaux wineries also represent according to the site www.bordeaux.fr 1.5% of the vine growing surface of the planet!
The main varieties of grapes grown are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Carmenère for red wines and Sémillon, Sauvignon and Muscadelle for white wines. The grape growing region is divided into 5 main areas: Medoc on the North of Bordeaux, Les Graves and L'Entre-deux-Mers on the South East and East of Bordeaux respectively, Le Blayais et le Bourgeais at the border between the department of Gironde and Charente-Maritime and Le Libournais that includes the Saint Emilion region. For more information check the Bordeaux Wine Map on the left.
Besides the domain a wine is coming from another criteria of quality is the vintage or in French "Le millésime" or the year the grape was harvested. Due to climate variations each year gives its wine a different character.
Every year the Préfet of the department - in collaboration with oenologists - establishes a starting datecfrom which each domain can begin the grape harvesting. By law the grape harvesting is forbidden before this date but it can start any time after. In the Sauternes and Barsac region the grapes are picked at a later date after a fungus called "Botrytis cinerea" known in French as "pourriture noble" or "noble rot" develops and feeds itself with the water of the berry rendering it sweeter. These grapes are the source of the so called "botrytised" sweet wines.
Due to the fungus affecting differently each berry the harvest is done by selective picking and the grape pickers must pass several times through the rows of vine and pick only the ripest most "rotten" fruit! The number of times the pickers go through the same place - usually between four and six - goes to up to ten in certain years at Château d'Yquem!
In Saint Emilion region the time of the grape harvest is announced by the Jurade - that ancient council of the town reinstated in 1948 as a wine promoting brotherhood - from the top of the King's Tower. In June the Jurade announces also its opinion about the new wine.
Wine Tasting Notes
The wine should always be tasted from a …glass wine meaning a glass that has a bowl, a stem and a foot. The reason is that the glass should be held by the stem as not to warm up the content of the bowl.
The simplest way to taste the wine takes 4 steps:
1. The appearance. Bring the glass to the eye level and sitting in front of a light source observe the color and the intensity of the wine. Then tilt the glass and observe the clarity of the wine.
2. The smell. Smell the wine before and after stirring it. Try to discern the aromas of the wine and to place each of them in one of the 12 groups: herbal, fruity, spicy, floral, microbiological, oxidized, pungent, chemical, earthy, woody, caramel, nutty.
3. The taste. Take a sip of wine and make it circulate in the mouth to impregnate the taste buds. Try to distinguish all the flavors that belong to any of the 4 groups: sugary, salty, sourly and bitterly.
4. The texture. Discover the sensations in each of the 3 zones of the mouth: the tip, the middle and back of the tongue. Spit the wine and with the mouth closed expire through the nose and try to distinguish its aroma in the retro-nasal part of the mouth.
Each spring the grand wine chateaux of Bordeaux - grand crus but not only - stage an event called "Les Primeurs".
During this event the "chateaux" release limited quantities of the previous year wine to professional buyers (brokers) who are willing to "bet" on the evolution
of the wine, its quality and hence its price, at its release in bottle time 12 to 18 months later.
Based on the taste of the wine after only several months after the harvest, these connoisseurs buy the wine at a certain price hoping that at its final release the price of the vintage is higher. The system - set up centuries ago - gives the wine producing chateaux an opportunity to increase their cash flow.
Obviously in no need of cash, the famous Chateau Latour - Premier Grand Cru 1855 - announced in 2012 that it is not going to participate at the "Primeurs" anymore.
The Most Expensive Bottles
And is a Saint Emilion Cheval Blanc 1947 bottle of wine that is recorded so far as the most expensive bottle ever sold. It went for US $304,375 in 2010 at a Christie's auction in Geneva.
And there is also the story of the most expensive BROKEN wine bottle. According to Forbes magazine in 1989 a New York wine merchant called William Sokolin was asking for a bottle of Chateau Margaux 1787 with Thomas Jefferson's initials as much as US $500,000! Nobody bought it, but he managed to insure it for US $225,000. After the auction Sokolin took his bottle with him to a restaurant dinner, where a waiter carrying a coffee tray bumped the bottle breaking it...
* Le Point - L'Histoire insolite du Vin 2012
**Aquitaine Michelin guide. | <urn:uuid:c0e86652-0d54-4ca0-8597-8ca7e86a098b> | {
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Study identifies pancreatic cancer genes
Cancer insight Australian scientists have identified a set of mutated genes responsible for pancreatic cancer, a finding that could lead to early detection and better treatment of the disease.
Pancreatic cancer is highly aggressive and has the highest death rate of the major cancerous diseases, with patients normally dying within months of diagnosis.
Professor Andrew Biankin of the Kinghorn Cancer Centre at the Garvin Institute in Sydney, co- author of a study appearing in the journal Nature, says treating pancreatic cancer is a race against time.
"Normally what happens when you start chemotherapy for a particular cancer ... is you have a standard [treatment] ... that might work in about 20 per cent," says Biankin.
"If that doesn't work, three months later you'd try something else."
"But unfortunately with pancreatic cancer you pretty much only get one bite of the cherry."
"If you get it wrong the first time then basically most patients don't live long enough to get the next chance of chemotherapy."
Biankin, along with Professor Sean Grimmond of the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland, led an Australian team of researchers that sequenced the genomes of 100 pancreatic tumours and compared them to normal tissue to determine the genetic changes that lead to this cancer.
"We found over 2000 mutated genes in total ... which was mutated in about 90 per cent of samples, and hundreds of gene mutations that were only present in 1 or 2 per cent of tumours," says Grimmond.
"This demonstrates that so-called 'pancreatic cancer' is not one disease, but many, and suggests that people who seemingly have the same cancer might need to be treated quite differently."
Biankin says the findings highlight the benefit of personalised medicine in treating pancreatic cancer, in which the molecular profile of a patient is matched to the best treatment.
"The idea is that you don't want to give drugs to patients that aren't going to respond because it's probably toxic and it's expensive," he says.
"[Instead] you try and match the right drug to the right patient."
Biankin says genetic sequencing of the DNA of tumours and patients will go into global database known as the International Cancer Genome Consortium.
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1.What were the three forms of English madrigals? Describe each type. - Madrigal Proper, in this form, the madrigal was through-composed. It used quite a bit of word-painting, which is the matching of music to the words in the text. There also is The Ballet, which is a piece in which dancers tell a story through their movements and the music. Lastly, there is The Ayre, with is a form of madrigal that is performed in a number of different ways, including with or without accompaniment. 2. What were chorales? Why were they popular?
- Easy to sing melodies, often based on traditional folk songs. They were popular because the printing press allowed for the publishing of hymnbooks. 3. What is a consort?
- An instrumental ensemble consisting of six instruments: flute or recorder, lute, cittern, violin or treble viola de gamba, bandore, and the bass viola de gamba. 4. Who was Guillaume Dufay? What contributions did he make to Renaissance music? - A Franco-Flemish composer who was born in Brussels, he was a prolific composer and one of the most influential of the fifteenth century. He wrote music in almost every musical form available at the time, including chants, motets, chorales, and Masses. 5. Who was William Byrd? What contributions did he make to Renaissance music? - An Englishman born in 1543; was one composer who created consort music. He is sometimes considered one of the first "geniuses" of the keyboard and many of his compositions were published in My Ladye Nevells Book and Parenthia. Critical Thinking Questions
1.How did music in the Renaissance differ from medieval music? - Medieval music refers to music written during the Middle Ages, around the time of 500AD - 1400. Most music of this time was monothonic or homorhythmic plainchant. Renaissance music refers to the period from around 1400-1600.The sound became different, in the sense of tone.... | <urn:uuid:befbbe6d-4989-4a7f-a0ea-c666172a8b9f> | {
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The work of the Holy Spirit in the world has several implications for Christians and their work. Whether working in creation or regeneration, the Spirit constantly empowers us to carry out the callings God places on our lives. Last week we explored the many stories throughout the Old Testament of the Spirit bestowing gifts of leadership, strength, skill, and speech to God’s people.
Having examined the scriptures, what implications do these stories bear for our work in the world today? There are seven major points to be drawn from these ancient examples.
1. The Spirit gives us power.
Where we have gifts of the Holy Spirit, we have power. We can fail to appropriate our gifts, we can bury them in the ground, and we can fail to fully utilize them. However, when the Holy Spirit gives gifts, they are potentially powerful. Using these gifts is our responsibility, but our failure to do so does not negate their potential power.
2. We shouldn’t separate “natural” and “spiritual” gifts.
It is wrong to depreciate or separate our natural (created) gifts and our “spiritual” gifts. Both are from the Holy Spirit. Although God can give new capacities to people at any time, in most cases he empowers or develops the potential of our created gifts for use in the Church or the world.
3. The Spirit helps us reach our true potential.
In both the Old and New Testaments, people need the Holy Spirit to overcome spiritual blindness and apprehend spiritual realities. People in both Testaments needed to be born again, and their hearts made anew. This transformation sparked by the Holy Spirit enables us to develop our potential.
4. The Spirit provides gifts when we need them.
God gave gifts to people in the Old Testament to enable them to lead the people of Israel in difficult times. For instance, the Judges were empowered to defend Israel. One of their numbers, Sampson, though in many ways unfaithful, was made stronger when the Spirit came upon him. We may be similarly equipped with gifts to lead our families and communities through difficult times, and we can pray that the Lord would provide such gifted persons in times of trouble.
5. The Spirit can increase our gifts for specific tasks.
God gave people with artistic skill even more skill through the Holy Spirit, so they could fulfill his plans to build the tabernacle and fashion its utensils. Likewise, God can unfold, redirect, or develop the potential of the gifts he has given us. This applies to people with a variety of skill sets, not just those with artistic gifts. It is appropriate to pray that the Lord unfold withered or partially developed gifts.
6. The Spirit’s gifts apply to all contexts, not just spiritual ones.
God gave prophets the ability to speak about future events, but he also gave the ability to speak persuasively about present realities. The Holy Spirit can give people power to elicit trust through their speech. The Spirit can empower effective speech in even seemingly “secular” matters. Amasai’s gifting in I Chronicles took place in a military context.
7. The gift of leadership applies on many levels.
The Spirit can give leadership not only to judges to other leaders in political power as well. This gift of leadership is still present today, and we can ask for the Spirit to grant this power in both the Church and the world.
What else can we learn from the work of the Holy Spirit? What other implications do the Spirit’s gifts have for our work? Leave your comments here.
- Part 1: Are Spiritual Gifts Intended for My Work?
- Part 2: Four Lessons About Gifts of the Spirit From the Old Testament
- Part 3: Seven Reasons the Gifts of the Holy Spirit Matter for Our Work
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The Molluscum contagiosum virus
is a species of virus in the poxvirus
family, which causes the disease Molluscum contagiosum
in humans. Virions have a complex structure and is consistent with the structure of the poxvirus family: an envelope, surface membrane, core, and lateral bodies. Virus may be contained within inclusion bodies and mature by budding through the membrane of the host cell giving rise to a large amount of viral shedding
in a short period of time. Approximate measurements of the virus are 200 nm
in diameter, 320 nm in length and 100 nm in height.
There are 4 types of MCV, MCV-1 to -4. MCV-1 is the most prevalent in human infections, and MCV-2 seen usually in adults and often sexually transmitted. Polymerase chain reaction techniques are being developed to help confirm lesions as being caused by MCV, and distinguish between strains.
The genome is a non-segmented single molecule of linear, double-stranded DNA
of 180000–200000 nucleotides
. It is covalently
linked at both ends and contain redundant, repeating sequences at both ends. 160 pudative genes have been identified. | <urn:uuid:32c2c167-dfb3-447d-a64a-95f564dc2a27> | {
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25 Russian Empire Ruble 1909 banknote details
Actually Saint-Petersbourg was the capital of the Russian Empire. But Moscow could be the place where money was issued in 19th - beginning of 20th centuries.
Russian Empire RubleThe ruble or rouble (Russian: рубль rublʹ, plural рубли́ rubli; see note on English spelling and Russian plurals with numbers) (code: RUB) is the currency of the Russian Federation and the two partially recognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Formerly, the ruble was also the currency of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union prior to their breakups. Belarus and Transnistria also use currencies with the same name. The ruble is subdivided into 100 kopeks (sometimes transliterated kopecks, or copecks, Russian: копе́йка, kopéyka, plural: копе́йки, kopéyki). The ISO 4217 code is RUB or 643; the former code, RUR or 810, refers to the Russian ruble prior to the 1998 denomination (1 RUB = 1000 RUR).
Currently there is no official symbol for the ruble, though the abbreviation руб. is in wide use. Various symbols have been put forward as possibilities, including: "РР" (Cyrillic for "RR"), an "R" with two horizontal strokes across the top (similar to the Philippine peso sign),₱, a "Р" with one horizontal strike.
According to the most popular version, the word "ruble" is derived from the Russian verb руби́ть, rubit', meaning to chop. Historically, a "ruble" was a piece of a certain weight chopped off a gold silver ingot (grivna), hence the name. Another version is that the name comes from the Russian noun рубе́ц, meaning "seam", as coins were molded and a seam was clearly visible on the side.
25 Assignation rubles of 1769
1898 Russian Empire one rouble bill, reverse
In 1768, during the reign of Catherine the Great, the Assignation Bank was instituted to issue the government paper-money. It opened in St. Petersburg and in Moscow in 1769.
In 1769, Assignation rubles were introduced for 25, 50, 75 and 100 rubles, with 5 and 10 rubles added in 1787 and 200 ruble in 1819. The value of the Assignation rubles fell relative to the coins until, in 1839, the relationship was fixed at 1 coin ruble = 3½ assignat rubles. In 1840, the State Commercial Bank issued 3, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 rubles notes, followed by 50 ruble credit notes of the Custody Treasury and State Loan Bank.
In 1843, the Assignation Bank ceased operations, and state credit notes (Russian: государственные кредитные билеты) were introduced in denominations of 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 rubles. These circulated, in various types, until the revolution, with 500 rubles notes added in 1898 and 250 and 1000 rubles notes added in 1917. In 1915, two kinds of small change notes were issued. One, issued by the Treasury, consisted of regular style (if small) notes for 1, 2, 3, 5 and 50 kopeks. The other consisted of the designs of stamps printed onto card with text and the imperial eagle printed on the reverse. These were in denominations of 1, 2, 3, 10, 15 and 20 kopeks.
Provisional Government issues
In 1917, the Provisional Government issued treasury notes for 20 and 40 rubles. These notes are known as "Kerenki" or "Kerensky rubles". The provisional government also had 25 and 100 rubles state credit notes printed in the U.S.A. but most were not issued.
In 1918, state credit notes were introduced by the R.S.F.S.R. for 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 rubles. These were followed in 1919 by currency notes for 1, 2, 3, 15, 20, 60, 100, 250, 500, 1000, 5000 and 10,000 rubles. In 1921, currency note denominations of 5, 50, 25,000, 50,000, 100,000, 1,000,000, 5,000,000 and 10,000,000 rubles were added.
Only state currency notes were issued for this currency, in denominations of 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 rubles.
As with the previous currency, only state currency notes were issued, in denominations of 50 kopeks, 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 rubles. In early 1924, just before the next redenomination, the first paper money was issued in the name of the USSR, featuring the state emblem with 6 bands around the wheat, representing the language of the then 4 constituent republics of the Union: Russian SFSR, Transcaucasian SFSR (Azerbaijani, Armenian, and Georgian), Ukrainian SSR and Byelorussian SSR. They were dated 1923 and were in denominations of 10,000, 15,000, and 25,000 rubles.
In 1924, state currency notes were introduced for 1, 3 and 5 gold rubles (рубль золотом). These circulated alongside the chervonets notes introduced in 1922 by the State Bank in denominations of 1, 3, 5 10 and 25 chervonets. State Treasury notes replaced the state currency notes after 1928. In 1938, new notes were issued for 1, 3 and 5 rubles, dropping the word "gold".
In 1947, State Treasury notes were introduced for 1, 3 and 5 rubles, along with State Bank notes for 10, 25, 50 and 100 rubles.
In 1961, new State Treasury notes were introduced for 1, 3 and 5 rubles, along with new State Bank notes for 10, 25, 50 and 100 rubles. In 1991, the State Bank took over production of 1, 3 and 5 ruble notes and also introduced 200, 500 and 1,000 ruble notes, although the 25 ruble note was no longer issued. In 1992, a final issue of notes was made bearing the name of the U.S.S.R. before the Russian Federation introduced notes for 5,000 and 10,000 rubles. These were followed by 50,000 ruble notes in 1993, 100,000 rubles in 1995 and finally 500,000 rubles in 1997 (dated 1995). Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian ruble banknotes and coins have been notable for their lack of portraits, which traditionally were included under both the Tsarist and Communist regimes. With the issue of the 500 ruble note depicting a statue of Peter I and then the 1000 ruble note depicting a statue of Yaroslav, the lack of recognizable faces on the currency has been partially alleviated. | <urn:uuid:b45f5c3b-2c30-4b44-ac57-47936c2ac92e> | {
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Sir James George Frazer (18541941). The Golden Bough. 1922.
§ 3. Kings killed at the End of a Fixed Term
IN THE CASES hitherto described, the divine king or priest is suffered by his people to retain office until some outward defect, some visible symptom of failing health or advancing age, warns them that he is no longer equal to the discharge of his divine duties; but not until such symptoms have made their appearance is he put to death. Some peoples, however, appear to have thought it unsafe to wait for even the slightest symptom of decay and have preferred to kill the king while he was still in the full vigour of life. Accordingly, they have fixed a term beyond which he might not reign, and at the close of which he must die, the term fixed upon being short enough to exclude the probability of his degenerating physically in the interval. In some parts of Southern India the period fixed was twelve years. Thus, according to an old traveller, in the province of Quilacare, there is a Gentile house of prayer, in which there is an idol which they hold in great account, and every twelve years they celebrate a great feast to it, whither all the Gentiles go as to a jubilee. This temple possesses many lands and much revenue: it is a very great affair. This province has a king over it, who has not more than twelve years to reign from jubilee to jubilee. His manner of living is in this wise, that is to say: when the twelve years are completed, on the day of this feast there assemble together innumerable people, and much money is spent in giving food to Bramans. The king has a wooden scaffolding made, spread over with silken hangings: and on that day he goes to bathe at a tank with great ceremonies and sound of music, after that he comes to the idol and prays to it, and mounts on to the scaffolding, and there before all the people he takes some very sharp knives, and begins to cut off his nose, and then his ears, and his lips, and all his members, and as much flesh off himself as he can; and he throws it away very hurriedly until so much of his blood is spilled that he begins to faint, and then he cuts his throat himself. And he performs this sacrifice to the idol, and whoever desires to reign another twelve years and undertake this martyrdom for love of the idol, has to be present looking on at this: and from that place they raise him up as king.
The king of Calicut, on the Malabar coast, bears the title of Samorin or Samory. He pretends to be of a higher rank than the Brahmans, and to be inferior only to the invisible gods; a pretention that was acknowledged by his subjects, but which is held as absurd and abominable by the Brahmans, by whom he is only treated as a Sudra. Formerly the Samorin had to cut his throat in public at the end of a twelve years reign. But towards the end of the seventeenth century the rule had been modified as follows: Many strange customs were observed in this country in former times, and some very odd ones are still continued. It was an ancient custom for the Samorin to reign but twelve years, and no longer. If he died before his term was expired, it saved him a troublesome ceremony of cutting his own throat, on a publick scaffold erected for the purpose. He first made a feast for all his nobility and gentry, who are very numerous. After the feast he saluted his guests, and went on the scaffold, and very decently cut his own throat in the view of the assembly, and his body was, a little while after, burned with great pomp and ceremony, and the grandees elected a new Samorin. Whether that custom was a religious or a civil ceremony, I know not, but it is now laid aside. And a new custom is followed by the modern Samorins, that jubilee is proclaimed throughout his dominions, at the end of twelve years, and a tent is pitched for him in a spacious plain, and a great feast is celebrated for ten or twelve days, with mirth and jollity, guns firing night and day, so at the end of the feast any four of the guests that have a mind to gain a crown by a desperate action, in fighting their way through 30 or 40,000 of his guards, and kill the Samorin in his tent, he that kills him succeeds him in his empire. In anno 1695, one of those jubilees happened, and the tent pitched near Pennany, a seaport of his, about fifteen leagues to the southward of Calicut. There were but three men that would venture on that desperate action, who fell in, with sword and target, among the guard, and, after they had killed and wounded many, were themselves killed. One of the desperados had a nephew of fifteen or sixteen years of age, that kept close by his uncle in the attack on the guards, and, when he saw him fall, the youth got through the guards into the tent, and made a stroke at his Majestys head, and had certainly despatched him if a large brass lamp which was burning over his head had not marred the blow; but, before he could make another, he was killed by the guards; and, I believe, the same Samorin reigns yet. I chanced to come that time along the coast and heard the guns for two or three days and nights successively.
The English traveller, whose account I have quoted, did not himself witness the festival he describes, though he heard the sound of the firing in the distance. Fortunately, exact records of these festivals and of the number of men who perished at them have been preserved in the archives of the royal family at Calicut. In the latter part of the nineteenth century they were examined by Mr. W. Logan, with the personal assistance of the reigning king, and from his work it is possible to gain an accurate conception both of the tragedy and of the scene where it was periodically enacted down to 1743, when the ceremony took place for the last time.
The festival at which the king of Calicut staked his crown and his life on the issue of battle was known as the Great Sacrifice. It fell every twelfth year, when the planet Jupiter was in retrograde motion in the sign of the Crab, and it lasted twenty-eight days, culminating at the time of the eighth lunar asterism in the month of Makaram. As the date of the festival was determined by the position of Jupiter in the sky, and the interval between two festivals was twelve years, which is roughly Jupiters period of revolution round the sun, we may conjecture that the splendid planet was supposed to be in a special sense the kings star and to rule his destiny, the period of its revolution in heaven corresponding to the period of his reign on earth. However that may be, the ceremony was observed with great pomp at the Tirunavayi temple, on the north bank of the Ponnani River. The spot is close to the present railway line. As the train rushes by, you can just catch a glimpse of the temple, almost hidden behind a clump of trees on the river bank. From the western gateway of the temple a perfectly straight road, hardly raised above the level of the surrounding rice-fields and shaded by a fine avenue, runs for half a mile to a high ridge with a precipitous bank, on which the outlines of three or four terraces can still be traced. On the topmost of these terraces the king took his stand on the eventful day. The view which it commands is a fine one. Across the flat expanse of the rice-fields, with the broad placid river winding through them, the eye ranges eastward to high tablelands, their lower slopes embowered in woods, while afar off looms the great chain of the western Ghauts, and in the furthest distance the Neilgherries or Blue Mountains, hardly distinguishable from the azure of the sky above.
But it was not to the distant prospect that the kings eyes naturally turned at this crisis of his fate. His attention was arrested by a spectacle nearer at hand. For all the plain below was alive with troops, their banners waving gaily in the sun, the white tents of their many camps standing sharply out against the green and gold of the ricefields. Forty thousand fighting men or more were gathered there to defend the king. But if the plain swarmed with soldiers, the road that cuts across it from the temple to the kings stand was clear of them. Not a soul was stirring on it. Each side of the way was barred by palisades, and from the palisades on either hand a long hedge of spears, held by strong arms, projected into the empty road, their blades meeting in the middle and forming a glittering arch of steel. All was now ready. The king waved his sword. At the same moment a great chain of massy gold, enriched with bosses, was placed on an elephant at his side. That was the signal. On the instant a stir might be seen half a mile away at the gate of the temple. A group of swordsmen, decked with flowers and smeared with ashes, has stepped out from the crowd. They have just partaken of their last meal on earth, and they now receive the last blessings and farewells of their friends. A moment more and they are coming down the lane of spears, hewing and stabbing right and left at the spearmen, winding and turning and writhing among the blades as if they had no bones in their bodies. It is all in vain. One after the other they fall, some nearer the king, some farther off, content to die, not for the shadow of a crown, but for the mere sake of approving their dauntless valour and swordsmanship to the world. On the last days of the festival the same magnificent display of gallantry, the same useless sacrifice of life was repeated again and again. Yet perhaps no sacrifice is wholly useless which proves that there are men who prefer honour to life.
It is a singular custom in Bengal, says an old native historian of India, that there is little of hereditary descent in succession to the sovereignty . Whoever kills the king, and succeeds in placing himself on that throne, is immediately acknowledged as king; all the amirs, wazirs, soldiers, and peasants instantly obey and submit to him, and consider him as being as much their sovereign as they did their former prince, and obey his orders implicitly. The people of Bengal say, We are faithful to the throne; whoever fills the throne we are obedient and true to it. A custom of the same sort formerly prevailed in the little kingdom of Passier, on the northern coast of Sumatra. The old Portuguese historian De Barros, who informs us of it, remarks with surprise that no wise man would wish to be king of Passier, since the monarch was not allowed by his subjects to live long. From time to time a sort of fury seized the people, and they marched through the streets of the city chanting with loud voices the fatal words, The king must die! When the king heard that song of death he knew that his hour had come. The man who struck the fatal blow was of the royal lineage, and as soon as he had done the deed of blood and seated himself on the throne he was regarded as the legitimate king, provided that he contrived to maintain his seat peaceably for a single day. This, however, the regicide did not always succeed in doing. When Fernão Peres dAndrade, on a voyage to China, put in at Passier for a cargo of spices, two kings were massacred, and that in the most peaceable and orderly manner, without the smallest sign of tumult or sedition in the city, where everything went on in its usual course, as if the murder or execution of a king were a matter of everyday occurrence. Indeed, on one occasion three kings were raised to the dangerous elevation and followed each other in the dusty road of death in a single day. The people defended the custom, which they esteemed very laudable and even of divine institution, by saying that God would never allow so high and mighty a being as a king, who reigned as his vicegerent on earth, to perish by violence unless for his sins he thoroughly deserved it. Far away from the tropical island of Sumatra a rule of the same sort appears to have obtained among the old Slavs. When the captives Gunn and Jarmerik contrived to slay the king and queen of the Slavs and made their escape, they were pursued by the barbarians, who shouted after them that if they would only come back they would reign instead of the murdered monarch, since by a public statute of the ancients the succession to the throne fell to the kings assassin. But the flying regicides turned a deaf ear to promises which they regarded as mere baits to lure them back to destruction; they continued their flight, and the shouts and clamour of the barbarians gradually died away in the distance.
When kings were bound to suffer death, whether at their own hands or at the hands of others, on the expiration of a fixed term of years, it was natural that they should seek to delegate the painful duty, along with some of the privileges of sovereignty, to a substitute who should suffer vicariously in their stead. This expedient appears to have been resorted to by some of the princes of Malabar. Thus we are informed by a native authority on that country that in some places all powers both executive and judicial were delegated for a fixed period to natives by the sovereign. This institution was styled Thalavettiparothiam or authority obtained by decapitation . It was an office tenable for five years during which its bearer was invested with supreme despotic powers within his jurisdiction. On the expiry of the five years the mans head was cut off and thrown up in the air amongst a large concourse of villagers, each of whom vied with the other in trying to catch it in its course down. He who succeeded was nominated to the post for the next five years.
When once kings, who had hitherto been bound to die a violent death at the end of a term of years, conceived the happy thought of dying by deputy in the persons of others, they would very naturally put it in practice; and accordingly we need not wonder at finding so popular an expedient, or traces of it, in many lands. Scandinavian traditions contain some hints that of old the Swedish kings reigned only for periods of nine years, after which they were put to death or had to find a substitute to die in their stead. Thus Aun or On, king of Sweden, is said to have sacrificed to Odin for length of days and to have been answered by the god that he should live so long as he sacrificed one of his sons every ninth year. He sacrificed nine of them in this manner, and would have sacrificed the tenth and last, but the Swedes would not allow him. So he died and was buried in a mound at Upsala. Another indication of a similar tenure of the crown occurs in a curious legend of the deposition and banishment of Odin. Offended at his misdeeds, the other gods outlawed and exiled him, but set up in his place a substitute, Oller by name, a cunning wizard, to whom they accorded the symbols both of royalty and of godhead. The deputy bore the name of Odin, and reigned for nearly ten years, when he was driven from the throne, while the real Odin came to his own again. His discomfited rival retired to Sweden and was afterwards slain in an attempt to repair his shattered fortunes. As gods are often merely men who loom large through the mists of tradition, we may conjecture that this Norse legend preserves a confused reminiscence of ancient Swedish kings who reigned for nine or ten years together, then abdicated, delegating to others the privilege of dying for their country. The great festival which was held at Upsala every nine years may have been the occasion on which the king or his deputy was put to death. We know that human sacrifices formed part of the rites.
There are some grounds for believing that the reign of many ancient Greek kings was limited to eight years, or at least that at the end of every period of eight years a new consecration, a fresh outpouring of the divine grace, was regarded as necessary in order to enable them to discharge their civil and religious duties. Thus it was a rule of the Spartan constitution that every eighth year the ephors should choose a clear and moonless night and sitting down observe the sky in silence. If during their vigil they saw a meteor or shooting star, they inferred that the king had sinned against the deity, and they suspended him from his functions until the Delphic or Olympic oracle should reinstate him in them. This custom, which has all the air of great antiquity, was not suffered to remain a dead letter even in the last period of the Spartan monarchy; for in the third century before our era a king, who had rendered himself obnoxious to the reforming party, was actually deposed on various trumped-up charges, among which the allegation that the ominous sign had been seen in the sky took a prominent place.
If the tenure of the regal office was formerly limited among the Spartans to eight years, we may naturally ask, why was that precise period selected as the measure of a kings reign? The reason is probably to be found in those astronomical considerations which determined the early Greek calendar. The difficulty of reconciling lunar with solar time is one of the standing puzzles which has taxed the ingenuity of men who are emerging from barbarism. Now an octennial cycle is the shortest period at the end of which sun and moon really mark time together after overlapping, so to say, throughout the whole of the interval. Thus, for example, it is only once in every eight years that the full moon coincides with the longest or shortest day; and as this coincidence can be observed with the aid of a simple dial, the observation is naturally one of the first to furnish a base for a calendar which shall bring lunar and solar times into tolerable, though not exact, harmony. But in early days the proper adjustment of the calendar is a matter of religious concern, since on it depends a knowledge of the right seasons for propitiating the deities whose favour is indispensable to the welfare of the community. No wonder, therefore, that the king, as the chief priest of the state, or as himself a god, should be liable to deposition or death at the end of an astronomical period. When the great luminaries had run their course on high, and were about to renew the heavenly race, it might well be thought that the king should renew his divine energies, or prove them unabated, under pain of making room for a more vigorous successor. In Southern India, as we have seen, the kings reign and life terminated with the revolution of the planet Jupiter round the sun. In Greece, on the other hand, the kings fate seems to have hung in the balance at the end of every eight years, ready to fly up and kick the beam as soon as the opposite scale was loaded with a falling star.
Whatever its origin may have been, the cycle of eight years appears to have coincided with the normal length of the kings reign in other parts of Greece besides Sparta. Thus Minos, king of Cnossus in Crete, whose great palace has been unearthed in recent years, is said to have held office for periods of eight years together. At the end of each period he retired for a season to the oracular cave on Mount Ida, and there communed with his divine father Zeus, giving him an account of his kingship in the years that were past, and receiving from him instructions for his guidance in those which were to come. The tradition plainly implies that at the end of every eight years the kings sacred powers needed to be renewed by intercourse with the godhead, and that without such a renewal he would have forfeited his right to the throne.
Without being unduly rash we may surmise that the tribute of seven youths and seven maidens whom the Athenians were bound to send to Minos every eight years had some connexion with the renewal of the kings power for another octennial cycle. Traditions varied as to the fate which awaited the lads and damsels on their arrival in Crete; but the common view appears to have been that they were shut up in the labyrinth, there to be devoured by the Minotaur, or at least to be imprisoned for life. Perhaps they were sacrificed by being roasted alive in a bronze image of a bull, or of a bull-headed man, in order to renew the strength of the king and of the sun, whom he personated. This at all events is suggested by the legend of Talos, a bronze man who clutched people to his breast and leaped with them into the fire, so that they were roasted alive. He is said to have been given by Zeus to Europa, or by Hephaestus to Minos, to guard the island of Crete, which he patrolled thrice daily. According to one account he was a bull, according to another he was the sun. Probably he was identical with the Minotaur, and stripped of his mythical features was nothing but a bronze image of the sun represented as a man with a bulls head. In order to renew the solar fires, human victims may have been sacrificed to the idol by being roasted in its hollow body or placed on its sloping hands and allowed to roll into a pit of fire. It was in the latter fashion that the Carthaginians sacrificed their offspring to Moloch. The children were laid on the hands of a calf-headed image of bronze, from which they slid into a fiery oven, while the people danced to the music of flutes and timbrels to drown the shrieks of the burning victims. The resemblance which the Cretan traditions bear to the Carthaginian practice suggests that the worship associated with the names of Minos and the Minotaur may have been powerfully influenced by that of a Semitic Baal. In the tradition of Phalaris, tyrant of Agrigentum, and his brazen bull we may have an echo of similar rites in Sicily, where the Carthaginian power struck deep roots.
In the province of Lagos, the Ijebu tribe of the Yoruba race is divided into two branches, which are known respectively as the Ijebu Ode and the Ijebu Remon. The Ode branch of the tribe is ruled by a chief who bears the title of Awujale and is surrounded by a great deal of mystery. Down to recent times his face might not be seen even by his own subjects, and if circumstances obliged him to communicate with them he did so through a screen which hid him from view. The other or Remon branch of the Ijebu tribe is governed by a chief, who ranks below the Awujale. Mr. John Parkinson was informed that in former times this subordinate chief used to be killed with ceremony after a rule of three years. As the country is now under British protection the custom of putting the chief to death at the end of a three years reign has long been abolished, and Mr. Parkinson was unable to ascertain any particulars on the subject.
At Babylon, within historical times, the tenure of the kingly office was in practice lifelong, yet in theory it would seem to have been merely annual. For every year at the festival of Zagmuk the king had to renew his power by seizing the hands of the image of Marduk in his great temple of Esagil at Babylon. Even when Babylon passed under the power of Assyria, the monarchs of that country were expected to legalise their claim to the throne every year by coming to Babylon and performing the ancient ceremony at the New Year festival, and some of them found the obligation so burdensome that rather than discharge it they renounced the title of king altogether and contented themselves with the humbler one of Governor. Further, it would appear that in remote times, though not within the historical period, the kings of Babylon or their barbarous predecessors forfeited not merely their crown but their life at the end of a years tenure of office. At least this is the conclusion to which the following evidence seems to point. According to the historian Berosus, who as a Babylonian priest spoke with ample knowledge, there was annually celebrated in Babylon a festival called the Sacaea. It began on the sixteenth day of the month Lous, and lasted for five days, during which masters and servants changed places, the servants giving orders and the masters obeying them. A prisoner condemned to death was dressed in the kings robes, seated on the kings throne, allowed to issue whatever commands he pleased, to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, and to lie with the kings concubines. But at the end of the five days he was stripped of his royal robes, scourged, and hanged or impaled. During his brief term of office he bore the title of Zoganes. This custom might perhaps have been explained as merely a grim jest perpetrated in a season of jollity at the expense of an unhappy criminal. But one circumstancethe leave given to the mock king to enjoy the kings concubinesis decisive against this interpretation. Considering the jealous seclusion of an oriental despots harem we may be quite certain that permission to invade it would never have been granted by the despot, least of all to a condemned criminal, except for the very gravest cause. This cause could hardly be other than that the condemned man was about to die in the kings stead, and that to make the substitution perfect it was necessary he should enjoy the full rights of royalty during his brief reign. There is nothing surprising in this substitution. The rule that the king must be put to death either on the appearance of any symptom of bodily decay or at the end of a fixed period is certainly one which, sooner or later, the kings would seek to abolish or modify. We have seen that in Ethiopia, Sofala, and Eyeo the rule was boldly set aside by enlightened monarchs; and that in Calicut the old custom of killing the king at the end of twelve years was changed into a permission granted to any one at the end of the twelve years period to attack the king, and, in the event of killing him, to reign in his stead; though, as the king took care at these times to be surrounded by his guards, the permission was little more than a form. Another way of modifying the stern old rule is seen in the Babylonian custom just described. When the time drew near for the king to be put to death (in Babylon this appears to have been at the end of a single years reign) he abdicated for a few days, during which a temporary king reigned and suffered in his stead. At first the temporary king may have been an innocent person, possibly a member of the kings own family; but with the growth of civilisation the sacrifice of an innocent person would be revolting to the public sentiment, and accordingly a condemned criminal would be invested with the brief and fatal sovereignty. In the sequel we shall find other examples of a dying criminal representing a dying god. For we must not forget that, as the case of the Shilluk kings clearly shows, the king is slain in his character of a god or a demigod, his death and resurrection, as the only means of perpetuating the divine life unimpaired, being deemed necessary for the salvation of his people and the world.
A vestige of a practice of putting the king to death at the end of a years reign appears to have survived in the festival called Macahity, which used to be celebrated in Hawaii during the last month of the year. About a hundred years ago a Russian voyager described the custom as follows: The taboo Macahity is not unlike to our festival of Christmas. It continues a whole month, during which the people amuse themselves with dances, plays, and sham-fights of every kind. The king must open this festival wherever he is. On this occasion his majesty dresses himself in his richest cloak and helmet, and is paddled in a canoe along the shore, followed sometimes by many of his subjects. He embarks early, and must finish his excursion at sunrise. The strongest and most expert of the warriors is chosen to receive him on his landing. This warrior watches the canoe along the beach; and as soon as the king lands, and has thrown off his cloak, he darts his spear at him, from a distance of about thirty paces, and the king must either catch the spear in his hand, or suffer from it: there is no jesting in the business. Having caught it, he carries it under his arm, with the sharp end downwards, into the temple or heavoo. On his entrance, the assembled multitude begin their sham-fights, and immediately the air is obscured by clouds of spears, made for the occasion with blunted ends. Hamamea [the king] has been frequently advised to abolish this ridiculous ceremony, in which he risks his life every year; but to no effect. His answer always is, that he is as able to catch a spear as any one on the island is to throw it at him. During the Macahity, all punishments are remitted throughout the country; and no person can leave the place in which he commences these holidays, let the affair be ever so important.
That a king should regularly have been put to death at the close of a years reign will hardly appear improbable when we learn that to this day there is still a kingdom in which the reign and the life of the sovereign are limited to a single day. In Ngoio, a province of the ancient kingdom of Congo, the rule obtains that the chief who assumes the cap of sovereignty is always killed on the night after his coronation. The right of succession lies with the chief of the Musurongo; but we need not wonder that he does not exercise it, and that the throne stands vacant. No one likes to lose his life for a few hours glory on the Ngoio throne. | <urn:uuid:473246d1-20fb-4696-944a-63cd13970f76> | {
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Mathematics at Irymple Secondary College
The aim of our Mathematics course is for students to be able to apply and link mathematics to aspects of their life and the careers they may choose. Our main focus is to improve student engagement with mathematics by providing more problem solving activities. With the change to a six session day we are able to offer a Mathematics lesson every day for most classes. The intention of this is for students to gain a mastery of skill level in the topics covered.
The areas of study for all year levels follow the Australian Curriculum: Number, Algebra, Measurement, Geometry, Statistics and Probability.
As students progress through each area of study the skill level becomes increasingly more challenging. Mathematical Methods Units 1 & 2, a Year 11 VCE subject, is offered to Year 10 students who have demonstrated a high level of understanding in previous years.
It is an expectation that students will complete one sheet of homework a week. This is provided in the hand out folder and students should provide their answers in an exercise book. Math teachers are happy to email the homework to parents each week if this is requested.
All homework can be downloaded from the school webpage under the Resources Tab.
There are a range of Mathematics based competitions held throughout the year which can provide an extension opportunity for students. These are listed below:
Mathematics Challenge for Young Australians
o Challenge Stage – early Term 2
o Enrichment Stage – for gifted students
o Australian Intermediate Mathematics Olympiad (AIMO)- by invitation only
Australian Mathematics Competition – This competition is generally held in Term 3. | <urn:uuid:7d61320f-86cc-400a-b676-9be3c05c2b4b> | {
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As the swine flu spreads across the Chicago area this fall, doctors at Elmhurst Clinic plan to quickly notify pregnant women, children and other high-risk patients about the need for a vaccination, using the facility's new all-electronic database.
Yet questions about the vaccine's production leave them guessing about their ability to deliver the doses.
"We know the vaccine is coming, but we don't know when or in what quantities, which makes planning difficult," said Donald Lurye, a physician and CEO of the west suburban clinic.
The development of enough safe and effective vaccine is key to preparations for combating the expected proliferation of the H1N1 virus. Around the world, the health industry is busy producing and testing it while officials race in other ways to prepare the nation's hospitals, clinics and public health agencies -- not to mention public schools and college campuses that are filling up once again.
But just as the extent of the flu's eventual spread is unpredictable, it is unknown how quickly sufficient vaccine can be produced and whether millions of people may be delayed in getting it because of nagging production complications.
The vaccine has been slower to manufacture than expected, and fewer doses are likely to be ready in October. Doctors also are warning that each patient may require more than one dose. Another unknown is the public's willingness to take the vaccine, partly due to concerns about side effects and memories of a 1976 vaccine program that was abruptly halted.
Health officials are heavily promoting the inoculations. So far this year, fewer than 600 deaths have been attributed to H1N1 in the U.S., and swine flu was less lethal than feared during the southern hemisphere's recent winter months. But federal officials say that up to 40 percent of the U.S. population could develop symptoms during the coming winter flu season, and tens of thousands of deaths could result.
"This is one of those times that we should expect the worst and hope for the best," said Kenneth Alexander, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Chicago Hospitals. "We could be called alarmists, but I would rather be called an alarmist than be called a fool for being underprepared."
Ever since the 2009 H1N1 flu strain appeared in April in Mexico and quickly traveled to the U.S., scientists have been working to formulate a vaccine. Pharmaceutical companies around the globe are gearing up to mass produce it.
In the U.S. the vaccine is now undergoing testing for efficacy and safety at eight sites. The Obama administration last month urged an expedited timetable, but experts said the slow, deliberate methodology of perfecting the vaccine called for patience.
The vaccine is made by growing the live virus in millions of chicken eggs, then killing and purifying it. This strain, though, has not been growing as quickly as others. Manufacturers, who had hoped to release 100 million individual doses in October, have scaled back their initial estimate to between 45 million and 52 million.
The government's aim is to ultimately deliver 200 million or so doses throughout the flu season. The federal government is paying for production of the vaccine and will deliver it to 90,000 health-care provider sites around the country, said Melaney Arnold, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health.
That includes just fewer than 3,000 sites in Illinois outside of Chicago, which will oversee its own distribution program. City officials have said they would be selecting "an assortment" of sites based on criteria such as "geography and types of providers."
The vaccine will be administered both in public hospitals and private clinics, Arnold said. If circumstances warrant, she said, both her department and Chicago have contingency plans for mass inoculations, probably through schools, public clinics and churches and temples.
And because the H1N1 virus is "so new and novel to us," in Alexander's words, Americans younger than 50 have no natural immunity to it and may need two inoculations, health officials said.
The second dose may come two or three weeks after the first.
"We have the possibility or even the likelihood that it will be a two-dose series for children, at least, and perhaps for others," Thomas Frieden, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, said last week.
The two-dose possibility raises the question of whether 200 million doses will be enough for everyone on the initial priority list. On its Web site, the CDC said it does not expect a shortage but that there is "some possibility that initially the vaccine will be available in limited quantities."
The CDC has identified five population segments that should get the vaccine first: pregnant women, parents and caregivers of infants, health-care workers, children and youths from ages 6 months to 24 years and anyone age 25 to 64 who has a medical condition that puts them at higher risk.
That totals about 159 million people. If there is not enough vaccine, the priority list may be reduced to as few as 42 million, primarily by limiting inoculations to children ages 6 months to 4 years and to children and adolescents ages 5 to 18 who have complicating medical conditions.
The list is far different than CDC's priority list for normal seasonal flu, which is particularly deadly, for example, for elderly people with underlying diseases. But swine flu appears to be far less so, probably because elderly people have built up immunities from previous exposure to viruses similar to swine flu.
The other challenge for health experts is persuading skeptical or skittish Americans to get vaccinated. They have battled concerns that the vaccine actually causes the flu, which doctors say is impossible, and they are grappling with persistent memories of 1976's troubled flu vaccine program.
That year, President Gerald Ford ordered a massive drive to inoculate as many Americans as possible after a swine flu virus affected soldiers at an Army post on the East Coast.
But the vaccination program was halted after about 500 people out of 45 million inoculated came down with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a serious nervous system disorder.
Ever since, people have cited fear of possible side effects as a reason for not wanting a flu shot, though subsequent studies have shown that the chances of side effects are minuscule -- and far less serious than the risk of flu-related death.
"You have to weigh the risks," Alexander said. "We can't be 100 percent certain about some things, like the slight chance of adverse side effects in a flu vaccine, but we are 100 percent certain that the vaccine will work to stave off the flu." | <urn:uuid:8ded80d0-d0c3-43b5-a4c1-ea15d0ae62b7> | {
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March 6th, 2000, 04:13 PM
OK, I've been working with MySQL/PHP for a little over an hour right now, but in all the documentation I find... there is nothing that explains how to post the complete table on a webpage. Is this a capability of MySQL? If so how do I do this? Or where can I go to find good documentation on how to do this?
March 7th, 2000, 12:50 PM
Ok, I guess that's a no...
March 8th, 2000, 12:57 AM
MySQL itself does not know anything about HTML, that is what PHP is for. You need to design some sort of interface to display your table information.
One thing you might want to do is install phpMyAdmin. This is a set of PHP scripts that let you create databases, tables and fields from your web browser. It is available from http://www.phpwizard.net/phpMyAdmin/ | <urn:uuid:bf9c402a-c13b-4f7f-97b6-f1e541d34ce6> | {
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Everyone has mucus, and according to studies, it is very important for our bodies because it acts as a barrier for particles and contains enzymes and proteins that help to get rid of stuff in the air making you sick. But sometimes with coughing, we can find mucus to be yellow or green, or our body produces too much of it which may indicate a problem.
At Smiles Tv, we decided to study the signs of too much mucus and the ways to treat this issue.
Why our body produces too much mucus
Our bodies produce mucus all the time, and if you start feeling discomfort, it likely happens because mucus has changed its consistency. It can get thicker and stickier and can start having a mass effect on you. The reasons for this could be allergies, an irritation of the nose, throat, or lungs; smoking tobacco or digestive conditions.
Normally, people with allergies have this problem. Allergies trigger your body to squeeze histamine, which is what causes the itching and sneezing. Your nose begins to run after producing leaking fluid from mucous membranes.
But there can be another serious reason. Mucus is a part of the lung’s native immune function, but you should pay attention to it because a hypersecretion and chronic cough are the signs of chronic bronchitis.
Signs of excessive mucus
At first glance, this problem may seem harmless, but when your sinuses are blocked, it causes lots of discomfort. How can you know if you may have excessive mucus? There are some signs and symptoms that are specific to this disease.
- Runny nose
- Sore throat
- Sinus headache
- Nasal congestion
Remedies and ways to get rid of excessive mucus
You can help yourself via the foods that you eat, through your overall habits, and by making changes to your lifestyle. These remedies and ways are good not only for reducing the problem, but also for helping you stay healthy in general:
1. Drink lots of fluids.
The more you drink, the more your mucus stays thin. It is very important for people with allergies. The first rule is to stay hydrated. Drink more water, but not juices or lemonades. It will help to get rid of mucus and clean your body in general.
2. Keep the air most.
This rule follows the first. Dry air irritates the nose and makes it runny. Have you noticed that people with allergies start sneezing more if the air is not humid enough? Get a humidifier and put it on every night. You can also add some essential oils to the humidifier for a good aroma or better results.
3. Gargle with salt water.
It will help your throat and make it less irritated. Just put 1 tsp of salt in a glass of warm water and gargle it several times a day.
4. Blow the nose.
Blow your nose and don’t swallow mucus. Do it gently as not to harm mucous coats. By doing this procedure, you can help yourself with better mouth hygiene and as a result, prevent dental problems.
5. Use eucalyptus.
You can apply eucalyptus on your chest or drink water with a few drops of essential oil, or take a warm bath with eucalyptus. This remedy has antibacterial properties, helps with colds and respiratory problems, acts as dental care, and can also serve as insect repellent.
6. Follow a diet.
It doesn’t mean that now you are on an extreme diet and there’s nothing left to eat. To reduce mucus you can include in your daily ration products like:
- salmon, tuna, flounder, and sardines
- pumpkin, pineapple, apple, lemon, cucumber, ginger, onion, and garlic
- camomile and decaf tea
- olive oil
7. Make a honey wrap to combat chest mucus.
For the wrap, you’ll need to mix some flour with honey so the mixture won’t stick to your hands. Add a bit of olive oil and roll it in some flour again. Take a napkin and wrap it in cheesecloth. With the use of plaster, attach it to the chest or the back. You can leave it for a whole night. If you apply it to children, leave it on for 2-3 hours before sleeping.
8. Make a drink with baking soda and honey
This is a good home remedy for those who have the flu and for those who need to get rid of some excess mucus from the lungs.
You need 1 tsp of honey, 1/2 tsp of baking soda, 2-3 drops of lemon juice, and a glass of warm water. Mix all the ingredients in a glass letting the baking soda dissolve. Now you can sip the drink.
Make it regularly to clear your lungs and help you stop coughing.
Do you know any other effective ways to treat this problem? Write a comment below about how you fight against it.
Illustrated by Natalya Tylosova for BrightSide.me | <urn:uuid:5c83bbe1-c350-47ae-a4a2-8e6f39137e38> | {
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BEHOLD THE MAN
BEHOLD THE MAN
Lecture given by Peter Deunov (Beinsa Douno) on March, 16th 1914, Sofia
Then Jesus came upon out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.
And Pilate said to them, "Behold The Man!"
The word "man" /in Bulgarian "chovek" or "chelovek"/ signifies a being, living for a whole century. But in the archaic language in which this phrase was used, the word "man" has a different meaning – Jesus, The Man, coming down to Earth, The Brother of those who suffer. What should we understand by these words? When we go into the world, would people say of us: "Behold The Man"? To deserve this name, one should possess four things: wealth, strength, knowledge and virtues. You could be surprised what wealth has to do here. Wealth is the soil, i.e. the conditions for one's development; it is the soil for cultivating strength. And the latter imparts heat and light beneficial for growth and progress.
As far as knowledge is concerned, it is the method of understanding and regulating our life. Virtue is the goal that we should strive to. Take and sow a grain of wheat, it will show you what to do. "How?" you ask. Give it moisture and the surays will point at the only possible direction which the grain of wheat will aim and follow – The Sun, the Source of Life. Like the grain of wheat we must grow and strive for God.
But someone may ask: "Does the grain of wheat reach the Sun after growing up? As to me, I want to find God. "You want to know where God is, but it is not necessary for you, you should only strive for Him. The grain of wheat knows what the Sun is and it receives what it wishes. The same law applies to people – we have to produce the small result – we should be sown. Surely, our life will be full of difficulties – the small, but indispensable obstacles as it is the case with the grain of wheat. We need a certain pressure and then we will start the process of growing up or knowledge. And when we bear fruit, it is already Virtue. Therefore we must be sown, covered with soil, put under some pressure; then we should grow up and acquire knowledge; and this knowledge, after growing up to a certain extent, should immediately be turned into a grain of wheat. After that The Master will send the reapers to yield the wheat and He will separate the worthful from the worthless, the grains from the weeds. When we were born, this was sprouting; we grow up, develop and die; burial is the threshing. And from the threshing the Lord will take what He needs. This corresponds to the barn and the granary: chaff is put into the barn while wheat – into the granary.
I read you the 19th Chapter from the Gospel of St. John, so that you could see the four things, which Christ bore on the Cross, the four things, which we have to learn. If we put Virtue on His Head that was not nailed, on the left side – Knowledge, on the right – Strength, and underneath, in the feet – wealth, we will have then a crucified person. I.e. if we nail Wealth, Strength and Knowledge, their juices will go up to the head or to Virtue. Whenever God intends to make someone a good person, He nails him to the cross – He nails his wealth, strength and knowledge. What does it mean, "nailing"? Putting into a safe, so that nobody could take and dispose of him, because God will dispose of him. God says: "Be calm, when I work." And as one does not want to stay calm, God orders: "Nail him, so that I will be calm to work..." And when we are nailed to this cross, we should not cry, for God is working then for us. Unhappy is that one, who is not nailed to the cross. Whoever wants God to deal with him, should pass through such process of development.
I am speaking to you allegorically. By all means Faith should precede this process of development – the firm faith in the universal Divine plan, concerning all living beings created by God. We should not distrust God, for God is perfect and almighty. Didn't Jesus say at one place: "Theimpossible for a human being is possible for God." The Divine paths are unrevealable. Do not admit the idea that these paths could be distorted or restrained; it is impossible. And when we have been called upon and started on the Divine path, we should have that simple faith, which children have, and we should avoid weaknesses as the one in the following story:
A great artist in England wanted to paint a picture, expressing extreme poverty. For days and months he walked around London, searching for a suitable person. Finally he found a ragged child who appealed to his heart and he thought: "This will be the model for my picture!" He approached the child, gave him his visiting card and said: "Come to my place in four days, I want to speak to you." The child, seeing this well-dressed gentleman, thought: "How could I go to him in my rags?" And it went to its friends in order to dress better and show itself as it fits before kings. New clothes were found and put on and the child went to the painter.
"Who are you?", the painter asked.
"A am so and so."
"Go away! If I wanted a well-dressed person, there were thousands of them. But I needed you as you were dressed in rags when I first saw you."
We also want to dress when Heaven invites us to do some work. But Strength is neither in our clothes, hats, gloves and shoes nor in our collars, ties and watches; these are not so important. Strength is in our minds and hearts, in our lofty wishes and strivings to do what is good. When we have these, the other things will come by themselves in proper time. Should we, when going to Heaven, take our clothes from here? When God calls us to Heaven, He takes off all our clothes here. He does not want our rags and He says: "Bring him just as he is." When someone is dying, all of us turn back to him; even those who loved him say: "Take him away as soon as possible!" But where is their love? Only God does not turn away and He says: "Bring him, I need him as he is." And when they put us into the grave and leave us, what does God do? He begins to talk with us. He asks: "Did you understand Life, did you understand the meaning of Life, which I sent you?"
During this talk God is painting His Great picture. And then comes the following process: the people who buried that person begin weeping and listing all his good features – they see the Divine picture, expressed in these qualities.
We have to bear the sufferings coming to us in order to have certain experience. Jesus through His earthly sufferings wished to give us an example of how we should submit to such a Divine process. Once He said: "Have I not the power to ask My Father to send thousands of angels to save Me? But if I do not fulfill the purpose for which I have come, how can humans be raised?" And He Himself wanted to be raised. You are here, on Earth; one day storms, difficulties and may be the same destiny will fall on you. But when this hour comes, do not in any way consider it as a misfortune, for where there is no suffering, there is no gain. And where there is a sorrow, there is a joy as well: where there is death, there is also resurrection. And who does not want to participate in the sufferings of humanity will gain nothing. After all, what are sufferings? – A consequence of the errors caused once by our incompetence. These errors namely are being corrected by the process of suffering. This process is a method of adopting and reaching those high ascending vibrations, which are there, in Heaven. We have to endure a hundred sufferings to become able to bear just one Divine Joy. Then we could appreciate this joy worthfully and preserve it. That is why God begins with the sufferings in order to temper us (in the same way as the smith strengthens the iron to become good for work), to prepare us for the Great joy, that will come later.
Everyone of us is needed, very much needed by God. For the world you may be nothing, just a nullity, but for God you are an important unit. Only God, Who has sent you down to Earth estimates our sufferings, that is why you should not worry what the world thinks of you. The One, Who has sent you, He thinks of you and appraises you. It is important for you to have the approval of God. If God is with you, you will be beautiful; the world likes Beauty too. If God is with you, you will be wealthy, strong and good – Good is always respected as well.
Now I am going to speak to you about God, but not that God presenting a Being abstract and scattered through space (as the philosophers say), Whom you do not know neither you know where He is, but about this God, of Whom I am preaching to you, Who thinks of us, Who watches our actions, Who corrects, amends, punishes, dresses and undresses us, Who makes us live and die. What is death? Performing an operation and seeing that you will lose a lot, God shortens the process of your life. "In order to avoid any more accumulation of debts, take the capital that I gave to him, as the present conditions are not beneficial, leave him for other days, bring him to me." And in this process we think that the world has forgotten us. But if the world has forgotten us, God thinks of us. And the world, at any cost, should forget us. A girl could never marry; if she loves all the boys; she has to choose one of them, saying: "This is my world." This fact is true in life as well. You should have only One God. There are many gods in the world, who wish to take you, but you must find your God, under Whom you could live, develop and grow.
The Scriptures say: "God is not only in Heaven: He also dwells in the hearts of the humble ones." Therefore, the first quality you must obtain so that God could come to dwell in you is humility. But this humility is not like the humility of a sheep: when they beat you and break your legs, you say: "What can I do?" It is not the humility, when they steal your wealth and you say: "We became humble." Humility is when you have everything: Wealth, Strength, Knowledge, Goodness, to be aware of all this and to say: "God, You dispose of all I have." And nowadays people act like this: they all preach of the Scriptures, all the time trying to settle the world right; but when God turns to their overfilled purses, they cry out: No, not there! Maybe we could give a half of it, but not everything – no!" When it comes to strength, they say: "You cannot dispose of all my strength." But when we fall in need, we wish and ask God to lead and help us. This way of human understanding of Life prevails in all philosophies for thousands of years on. And our misfortunes come for this very reason.
Jesus through His personal experience wanted to show us The Path. Many people think that when they become Christians, they should leave the world. You may give up your houses, your riches, wives and children, but still continue to think of them. You may go to some distant monastery, but still think: "How is my wife, my children, my house?" And it shows that you have not given them up, you are not free. Giving up does not mean forgetting, but leaving one free: let your wife act as she likes, let your son act as he likes. Giving up the world means to let it go, not hindering and standing in its way. Let it follow its course, for can you stop the flow of a river? We should let it follow its own way. What we can do is only making use of it. In the same way we cannot stop Life, but we can only make use of things. Jesus clearly and positively said to us: "If you love Me!" And we have to love Him. He did not say: "Woe to you, if you do not love Me!" No! God has never wanted forced sacrifices from us.
People say: "Why doesn't the Almighty God set the world right?" How should He set it right? – "He who lies, let His tongue go dry; he, who steals, let his hand wither." But then we would have a world consisting only of dumb and crippled people. How do you think? Would such a world consisting only of maimed people be pleasant for us? God, however, gives a diametrically opposite kind of ruling. He acts on the opposite, stating that who wants to be a master should become a servant. The process of ruling is expressed in the following: the strong people usually want all rivers to flow into their river, but this process in Good is just the opposite – God is flowing into little streamlets, but instead of ruling them, He lets them flow alone. You can make a small experiment at home. Try to eliminate the thought that you rule; make up your mind to become a servant in the name of God. Then you will come to the place of God. You seek God in Heaven, but He is not there; when you moan and suffer, He is just in you. And what people call growth and development is due to the participation of God in this process. God is the best worker.
Some people complain: "Why doesn't God see our sufferings?" But God replies: "I have no time; I am so engaged in your affairs, I am engaged in much more important ones; when there is time, I will deal with your external petty disagreements." This is not an allegory, but reality. God put in a verse of the Sacred Scriptures: "For Israel I was like a freight car where people constantly throw all their rubbish." However, the sufferings that we bear here are the sufferings of God. He is suffering and weeping within us. We say: "I am crying as my soul is full of sorrow", but when we say: "God, forgive me for I have caused you so many sufferings with my impure thoughts and acts," then we will come to the real Path that will save us from the present evil. Finally we should let our God become stronger within us. We have bound Him up with ropes and have nailed Him. We have to lay Him into the grave and leave Him in peace; then He will resurrect and set us free. And be sure in one thing: we, humans are those who hinder His Path; devils do not obstruct the Path of the Lord. Since He has laid down the Law of Freedom, He cannot change this law and He does not want to do it. Unless we come to the awareness to submit voluntarily to Him, He would not save us. The awareness to be like Him should penetrate deep inside us. Then we can use our wealth, strength and virtues for uplifting. Uplifting whom? – Our brothers, our fellowmen. Each one of you is to search and appreciate the souls of your neighbors and not to love just their bodies.
And I can tell you that Jesus Who came down here had not yet left the Earth. He is living among people, He is working on them and He is supposed to already resurrect in them. Let us hope for this, but not like the Jews who say: "We have no other King but the Caesar." And when a few years later the same Caesar destroyed Jerusalem and took down their Temple, they denied him. If you also say now: "The Caesar is my King", the results will be the same.
Let me go back: initially we have to live in this world in order to get prepared. We cannot live in Heaven, for the heat and light there are too intensive. In the same way as a gardener planting pinetrees that were brought from a high place will make different grafts until they get acclimatized, our Heavenly Father cannot just take us from here and plant us directly in the Paradise Garden. Even the earthly educational system is organized in similar way: in the beginning we have to pass preliminary classes, after that – secondary school, university and then we enter the world. All these methods of culture should be applied, if one wants to make progress. In my opinion Christians should not be so foolish to say every time: "Trust the chance, whatever God will give us, that is." If you have ploughed your field, you sow the wheat, and if not, what can God give you? – Weeds and thorns. Till the vineyard, plant out the vines and wait for the grapes. And it also depends what kind of vines you will plant: if you plant low-grade sticks, they will produce sour grapes. God gave your child a good mind, but what did you sow there, did you sow those germs that will give good fruits? We want to be virtuous, strong and rich; we can have all these things: Virtues, Strength and Wealth.
Moreover they are necessary for us. But the conditions, in which they can grow up and develop, are the following: the Divine germ, the Divine law and the Divine balance. The balance – this is Virtue, the Law – this is Knowledge; the conditions – this is Strength; the Germ – this is Wealth.
But you will ask me how to find God. It is very easy. A person once wanted to make fun and to tease his friend. He said to him: "Now we are in an orchard full of fine apples." "But I see nothing," answered his friend, closing his eyes. The person slapped him in the face, he looked up and saw the orchard. In the same way God will slap you sometimes in the face in order to see. Those of you, whose eyes are closed, should wish to have them open. The contemporary world argues and asks: "Where is God?" God is in the trees and in the stones, He is in the soil as well. However, if a misfortune comes, everyone looks up and sees that God is there, crying out: "My Lord!" This is the reason for the misfortunes: they are the slap of God meaning: "I have created you with eyes to see, but you stay with closed eyes." So in order to improve ourselves, we should become like children: to be seeking and receptive like them.
Now I will ask you another thing, what is the method that we should use in our work? From now on we should be always connected mentally and heartily to all human beings on Earth, because the salvation will come through our common prayers. "Power is in unity." And when all human minds and hearts become united, then the Kingdom of God will come on Earth. We should not look for the weaknesses of the friends, whom we really love; they may have them like us. The faults are the external garment, in which one is dressed. But the human soul is pure, it cannot be spoiled or destroyed in no way. No one can deprave your Divine soul; it can be stained outside, but not inside, because God dwells there. It is impossible to destroy something that is protected by God.
We can submit to the world just as Christ did, when Pilate said to Him: "I have the power to crucify you." And Christ answered: "I submit to that One, Who has given you this power, but my soul is free." We have to submit to the temporary sufferings. We cannot understand them now, but when we die and rise again, we will be able to understand the reason for them. Everyone has now been tormented by fears and trepidations in life but this is not life. Life is when one is filled with noble feelings. Happy are those who can rejoice that they have done selflessly something good. Someone offended you; for you did not take off your hat to him, you did not shake hands with him. Or perhaps you shook hands, but it was not a real shaking. You may take off your hat, but it will not be a real sign of respect. And usually we take off our hats to someone in high position as if to say: "Can you give me a higher post?"
There lives a devilish fish in the sea that greets everyone it meets. A person also takes hold of another's hand. But why? – These devilish fingers of the human hand speak a lot. For example, the little finger says: "Can you give me some money? I must set up in trade. I have losses, I am robbed. Can you help me?" The fourth finger says: "I would like the fame and knowledge of an artist. The middle finger says: "I want some rights and privileges." The forefinger says: "I need honor and respect." The thumb says "I want power and skill."
If the greeted person has the possibility and the willing, he will give that person all the things wanted. And they two will go together, later on they will become three and will form a coterie in the society, but they will not find again what they are looking for. At last Jesus will come and say: "What you want – Wealth, Strength, Knowledge and Virtue – I can give all this to you. There is no case, when someone has left his father and mother to follow Me and has not received the future Life a hundred times." Behold the Man, Who can greet us, Who can give us everything – Wealth and Strength, Knowledge and Virtue. But people cried: "Take Him away, crucify Him!" – to which Pilate noted: "You are losing Him."
Today Jesus is standing in front of you again and I tell you: "Behold the Man you are looking for, the Man Who alone can fill your hearts with peace and can give you a clear mind, health, social position. He can rise you, show you the way and enlighten your consciousness. But you doubtfully say: "Show Him to us, we want to see Him!"
I will use an analogy: if a person appears far off one night carrying a small candle and I say to you: "Behold the Man, who brings you the Light." You will see the candle, not the Man. When will you see Him? When the Sun rises. If you seek by yourselves the Light, brought by the Man, it will help you to find the Way that you should follow. This is the way you have to treat this question.
I will give you even a simpler analogy. Suppose that I take you to a rich, but dark guest room and say to you: "This room is full of beautiful decorations and great riches; there is this and that in the one corner, this and that – in the other corner." May be, but who knows, I do not see anything", you object. If I bring in a small candle, the near objects will become more visible; if I bring in a second candle, the objects will become even more visible; if the number of candles will be increased, the room will gradually become brighter and brighter; and if an electric light will be lit, the objects will become entirely visible. But only when the daylight enters the room, everything can be perfectly seen. The world is like this room where each of us should become a carrier of Light, holding a candle. And when we all come with our candles and put them together, we will increase the Light and we will see a lot. Your brains are like candles. I do not like those who carry blown-out candles, but those who carry candles lit as it is on Good Friday. Each one should be like a lit candle. It is a great mistake if someone is like a blow-out candle.
You ask what we should do. You should pray for one another, send good thoughts to your friends and ask God to bless them – and when God is blessing them, He will bless you too. But why should we pray?
In the summer of 1899 there was a great drought in the region of Novi pazar. The Turks of thirty-nine surrounding villages gathered and prayed for rain. And it started to rain. The Bulgarians thought: "If God sends rain to them, He will send rain to us too." But no rain fell on their villages and their cattle became lean of hunger. When people pray, you should also pray; you should also make your petition. God will not make a special provision for you, if you do not pray. Prayers have a great power and contemporary people should be praying people; by praying we will cultivate our minds and our hearts. But we should not pray for ourselves; that will be egotism.
I do not want you to deal with the human minds, but rather with the human hearts, for all the evil is concealed there. God Himself said: "My son, give Me your heart!" We have to start our spring-cleaning now as we do for Easter – opening the windows and cleaning the floor. We all moan under one and the same burden, disharmony reigns everywhere, husbands and wives cannot agree – they divide their houses and properties, a wife is not content when her husband keeps their money. There is no difference who will keep the money – the husband or the wife. Make an agreement who will be the cashier. The argue is who will take the first place at home – the hen or the rooster. Hens and roosters – this is not important in Life, not at all. As I said, the essence is else where.
Jesus has come and He has been working; and when the Light is coming, it is gradually, quietly, without noise. Jesus will not come like a thunder, as some expect Him. This may also happen, but Jesus will not be there. When the prophet Elijah went to the wilderness and devoted himself to fast and prayers and when storm and fire came, Elijah covered his eyes, but God was not in the storm and fire, but in the quiet voice, which was speaking to him. God is not in your sufferings, in your power, in your knowledge. Where is He? – In Love. If you love, He is in you. If you do not love, he is not there. And you have to love, that is the law. We do not love, but expect others to love us. It is like sitting by the stove and waiting for someone else to bring woods for the fire that will warm us. We ourselves should have this fuel, which the others may also use. Jesus has given us enough powers and we, who follow Him, should at last let him in.
Now I am leaving this Man to you. Will you accept Him or will you crucify Him? Will you let Him in or will you say: "We do not want Him" – this is the question you should solve. If you say: "Let Him in, He is our Lord", you will solve the problem and the blessing will come upon you. And then the words of the Scriptures will come true: "I and My father will come to make an abode in you." Then Light will be inside in us and we all will reconcile between ourselves. | <urn:uuid:ca288de2-45c3-4015-85b4-79d29db01c3e> | {
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