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Information Literacy in Geology
(→Articles & Curricula)
Revision as of 15:50, 17 April 2009
The ACRL IS Information Literacy in the Disciplines Committee has gathered links and citations to information literacy standards and curricula developed by accrediting agencies, professional associations, and institutions of higher education.
Accrediting Agencies & Professional Associations
ALA/ACRL/STS Task Force on Information Literacy for Science and Technology. Information Literacy Standards for Science and Technology. American Library Association. 2006. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/infolitscitech.cfm (accessed April 17, 2009).
The Geological Society of America http://www.geosociety.org/educate/. (accessed April 17, 2009).
National Association of Geoscience Teachers http://www.nagt.org/. (accessed April 17, 2009).
Articles & Curricula
DeChambeau, Aimee L. and Ira D. Sasowsky. 2003. Using information literacy standards to improve Geoscience courses. Journal of Geoscience Education 51(5):490-495.
Beyond Google: strategies for developing information-literate Geoscience students. 2003. Geology Society of America Annual Meeting. 4 November 2003, Seattle, Washington. Various poster presentations http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2003AM/finalprogram/session_9674.htm. (accessed April 17, 2009).
Savina, Mary E. 2001. A skills matrix as a Geology department curriculum planning tool. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, 5-3 November 2001, Boston, MA. http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2001AM/finalprogram/abstract_18289.htm. (accessed April 17, 2009).
Yocum, Patricia and Gretchen S. Almy. 2000. Information Literacy in the Geosciences: Report of a Practical Inquiry.” In Proceedings of the 34th Meeting of the Geoscience Information Society 30: 15-22. | <urn:uuid:bdab275d-f75f-4eec-96fb-cf21e0c87971> | {
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Stands for "Logical Unit Number." LUNs are used to identify SCSI devices, such as external hard drives, connected to a computer. Each device is assigned a LUN, from 0 to 7, which serves as the device's unique address.
LUNs can also be used for identifying virtual hard disk partitions, which are used in RAID configurations. For example, a single hard drive may be partitioned into multiple volumes. Each volume can then be assigned a unique LUN. However, few modern computers use LUNs, since SCSI devices have mostly been replaced by USB and Firewire devices. | <urn:uuid:a57d0208-626b-4b35-a175-b540ed274b04> | {
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Reviewing balance sheets in detail.
Is there a difference in approach to valuation by US GAAP and IFRS?
Discuss and note two specific differences. In addition, briefly:
? Distinguish between an expense (expired cost) and an asset.
? Distinguish between current and long-term assets.
? Distinguish between current and long-term liabilities.
? Review Apple?s balance sheet and provide two examples of each of the above categories.
? Discuss retained earnings and how income or loss and dividends affect this account. Review Apple?s retained earnings account and explain how it changes between the two past years.
? Comment on at least three differences between Apple?s and Philips? balance sheets.
? Does Apple or Philips have more debt?
? Which of the two companies is the bigger one? Explain your reasoning.
Detailed Balance Sheet Analysis
US GAAP and IFRS differ in how they value some assets and some liabilities. Here are some examples:
1. RECORDING LOSSES IN VALUE
When an asset has lost value (impaired), the book value is reduced under US GAAP and IFRS. However, IFRS permits recovery of prior write downs. US GAAP does not. This can result in very different valuations or book values for long term assets.
Development costs are capitalized and amortized under IFRS. In US GAAP, new product or project development is considered a period cost. That is, it is expensed when it is incurred, without regard to the possibility of future results.
3. FINDING ASSET VALUES
When valuation is needed (because the transaction was in a prior period or bulk purchase prevents knowing the value of individual items purchased) there are differences in US GAAP and IFRS. US GAAP specifies using an "exit value." That is, the price to sell to market participants. When there are no active trades, you have to resort to either looking at similar assets that are traded or using a fair value model using internal inputs. That is, use the cash ...
Your tutorial is 597 words plus four references, There are two exhibits for the 2011 balance sheet of Apple and Philips. | <urn:uuid:07783f16-32f8-4871-9277-2259e4d5e4df> | {
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A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The objective of this activity is to appreciate that there are many definitions and ways of looking at weeds.
- Browse the library of resources provided (and any other resources you think are relevant) and make notes on definitions and appreciation of weeds.
- Research as wide a range of definitions and uses for weeds as possible.
- Write a short paragraph that captures the range of definitions that you think are useful or interesting, include references or links to resources you used.
- Feel free to add any resources that you found to the library of resources
- Send your paragraph to your learning facilitator | <urn:uuid:835b76ef-32b7-41b8-8287-62135b03714c> | {
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Any epidemic of variant CJD, the human form of the cattle brain disease BSE, may be much smaller than previously feared, according to new evidence, writes Natasha Gilbert.
In a study published in the online journal BMC Infectious Diseases , researchers from the department of primary care and population health sciences at Imperial College London say they are much more certain about the future course of the disease and predict between 40 and 100 future deaths in total.
Azra Ghani, one of the study's authors, told The THES : "Our results show a substantial decrease in the uncertainty of the future size of the primary epidemic (from cattle to humans)."
The researchers' predictions are based on the number of vCJD deaths in the UK occurring up to the end of December 2002.
Latest figures show a recent decrease in deaths due to the disease: 17 cases in 2002, compared with 20 in 2001 and 28 in 2000. Since CJD's emergence in 1995, there have been 129 reported cases, of which seven people remain alive.
The study states: "The primary vCJD epidemic in the known susceptible genotype in the UK appears to be in decline."
According to Dr Ghani, the significant drop in the number of vCJD cases over the past two years means that a large epidemic of the incurable disease is improbable.
She said: "We now feel that the very large epidemics (thousands to tens of thousands) are extremely unlikely." But the findings give no indication of the potential threat of transmission from human to human via blood products or surgical instruments.
"While we haven't yet identified anyone infected in this way, the theoretical possibility of secondary transmission remains," Dr Ghani said.
"Given these uncertainties, it is difficult at the current time to say whether this could be a problem or not in the future." | <urn:uuid:3196d2a3-c2b0-4601-9d82-1aa656c90a04> | {
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Pathe had a long history of covering club life and dancing trends – there is an excellent series called London's Famous Clubs and Cabarets from the mid-20s – but after swing culture arrived in Britain in the late 30s, it presented this frankly staid, pre-pop newsreel with problems of tone and explication.
Swing was a souped-up refashioning of 20s hot jazz that originated in African-American culture at clubs such as Harlem's Savoy ballroom. Its associated dance, the Lindy Hop – marked by the breakaway, when partners abandoned strict tempo and improvised – was first noted by the writer Carl van Vechten in 1928.
When it crossed over to white audiences, swing's dances were all lumped together by the media under the name "jitterbug". Benny Goodman clearly remembered seeing his first jitterbug in 1934, when a male dancer started to go "off his conk. His eyes rolled, his limbs began to spin like a windmill in a hurricane – his attention, riveted to the rhythm, transformed him into a whirling dervish."
Jitterbugging was still a minority style in the UK before the second world war. In January 1939, Pathe bought in an American newsreel of a dance competition in Cincinnati, Ohio and entitled it Jitterbug Mania (see above). The brief English voiceover emphasises the strangeness and indeed the madness of this US import, while the original commentary introduces the style's buzzwords: "hep cats and hep chicks", "everything's copasetic", "Cincinatti's leading rug-cutters and sharpies kick up the dust."
Swing culture became more firmly entrenched in the UK with the arrival of American GIs after 1942. At the end of 1943, Pathe produced two more films on the topic. Rhythm (see above) is an odd mixture of innovation and condescension that reflects just how bizarre American youth culture (the term was coined by the sociologist Talcott Parsons in 1942) must have seemed to British adults.
Within just over two minutes, the piece cuts from a funky jazz drama to a disgruntled adult trying to shut out the noise, from the same adult, now a doctor, measuring the drummer's heartbeat to a series of almost psychedelic electrical waves and animated diagrams. It ends with the briefest of clips showing Gene Krupa with the Benny Goodman Orchestra.
There was no doubt about it, this was an alien import – a virus, almost (hence the medical, spacey feel of Rhythm) that threatened to infect British youth. What was needed was a firm hand, and that's what we get in Jive Dance (see below) from November 1943.
Walking down the stage stairs in full evening dress, dance teacher Josephine Bradley will quite clearly brook no nonsense. As Lou Praeger's band strikes up a swing riff and the dancers begin to fling themselves around, she observes: "Well ladies and gentlemen, I think you will agree that that this is hardly a dance that will grace our ballrooms."
However "from it has evolved another dance, the jive" – and this is what Bradley and her two assistants proceed to lead us through.
It's strange to see the wildness of swing dancing approached in the style of strict tempo but the final shots, of an enthusiastic Hammersmith Palais audience, are much more like it: the exuberance of dance culture in one of its most celebrated venues.
• The British Pathe archive contains 90,000 newsreels, from 1910 until the 70s. Jon Savage's exploration of its wealth of pop material will appear on an occasional basis. | <urn:uuid:6d623f3c-4ddc-4938-bd6d-f3953e43696a> | {
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Immune and Viral Status of HIV-Infected Patients After Stopping Combination Antiretroviral Therapy
This study will examine the effects of increases in HIV blood levels on the immune system. A better understanding of how HIV alters the immune response may lead to development of effective immune-based therapies against the virus.
Patients 18 years of age or older with HIV-1 infection who have been receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) may be eligible for this study. In order to study the effect of increased levels of virus on the immune system, therapy will be stopped in these patients temporarily. Therefore, only patients who have an appropriate level of understanding of the potential benefits of therapy and the risks of stopping treatment will be considered for enrollment. Pregnant women may not participate and women of childbearing potential must agree not to become pregnant during the study. Candidates will be screened with a medical history, physical exam, blood and urine tests and possibly a chest X-ray and electrocardiogram.
Upon entering the study, participants will have blood tests to measure the amount of virus in the blood, CD4+ T cell counts, side effects of the medications, and how the patient s immune system responds to HIV in the test tube. White cells will be collected through leukapheresis. In this procedure, a needle is placed in an arm vein and blood flows from the vein through a tube (catheter) into a cell separator machine, where the white cells are separated from the rest of the blood by a spinning process. Some of the white cells are collected by the machine, and the rest of the blood is returned to the body through a second needle placed in the other arm. Patients will then have a physical examination and blood tests every 1 to 2 weeks and will be managed according to their viral load and CD4 cell counts as follows:
- If viral blood levels remain less than 5000 copies per milliliter, no medical intervention is planned.
- If viral blood levels rise to 5,000 copies per ml or higher, patients will undergo a second leukapheresis and re-start antiretroviral therapy. They will be monitored at least monthly until viral load returns to pre-study levels.
- If the CD4 count rises or remains at pre-study levels, no intervention is planned.
- If the CD4 count decreases by 10 to 25 percent of pre-study levels, the counts will be monitored every 2 weeks at least 3 times and then monthly.
- If the CD4 count decreases by 25 percent or more of pre-study values, antiretroviral therapy will be re-started and counts will be monitored until they return to pre-study levels.
If viral and CD4 levels do not return to pre-study levels promptly, patients will continue to be monitored and will be advised about possible treatment changes. Alternatively, patients whose viral and CD4 levels are similar to or better than pre-study values may be offered laboratory testing every 3 months for at least 1 year if there is a scientific reason to continue studying the patient s immune system. Patients may be asked to undergo additional leukapheresis in the future, or another interruption of therapy in the future if it is felt safe to do so.
|Official Title:||Immunologic and Virologic Characterization of HIV-Infected Patients After Cessation of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART)|
|Study Start Date:||December 16, 1998|
|Estimated Study Completion Date:||April 8, 2013|
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00001899
|United States, Maryland|
|National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike|
|Bethesda, Maryland, United States, 20892|
|Principal Investigator:||Mark Connors, M.D.||National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)| | <urn:uuid:7f9e1a34-ceb0-47a1-813f-c790ded5df53> | {
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Our opinion: Solar power is one of the energies of the future; state government policy could push it along.
The world is warming, and the days of cheap oil are gone. Those are facts, laid out by scientists, economists and others who make it their business to study these things, not just dabble in them.
Politicians who would let us go the way of the dinosaurs can ignore them. Most of us would prefer to see our government leaders, including those in New York, use the higher brain functions that ought to separate us from more helpless species and plan for tomorrow.
That means ramping up the use of renewable energy sources that don’t add to global warming. New York should seriously consider a proposal to do just that with solar energy.
New York should follow the lead of most surrounding states and set a goal of increasing the amount of energy it produces from the sun in coming years.
Not an impossible goal, but not a meek one, either. New Jersey — much smaller and with less than half the population of New York, has a goal of 5,000 megawatts by 2026. New York should strive for no less.
Where would the money come from?
There’s the rub. Just about all of us. And that is how it should be.
We all ought to play a part in preparing our state, our nation, and really, this planet, for a time when the resources we’ve been happily burning up won’t be so abundant. For a typical New York home, helping meet this goal would cost all of 39 cents a month through 2025.
That’s a pretty cheap down payment on the future.
The plan envisioned by ACENY, a coalition of renewable energy, environmental and labor groups, would create a solar credit trading system. The credits would represent megawatts of power produced by things like solar array farms and rooftop systems. Utilities would purchase the solar energy, which, to be sure, is costlier now than the most power on the grid today. But that’s expected to change as fossil fuel energy costs rise and solar technology improves.
This is not just a feel-good idea, but one that could help New York in several ways.
Adding 5,000 megawatts would relieve some of the stress on the grid during peak demand, when the state’s consumption can approach 34,000 megawatts. Solar power sources, scattered around the state rather than limited to a few large plants, could relieve local demand and reduce bottlenecks and brownouts that occur when power can’t move across long distances on the grid quickly enough.
It would also mean jobs. Solar systems require local labor. Increased demand for solar systems could also further the state’s effort to expand its technology research and manufacturing sectors.
Five years ago, the Arbor Day Foundation noticed that the weather was getting warmer and that climate data confirmed it. The changes were so great that the foundation published new maps with revised tree hardiness zones.
Yet it took the federal government another half a decade to do the same thing with planting maps.
We can’t keep moving like a brontosaurus in a tar pit. | <urn:uuid:470d7147-b1d1-4d1c-96c1-d0ef91a26c6e> | {
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A major challenge that has faced the climate movement to date is the simple fact that our greatest atmospheric adversary is colorless, odorless and shapeless. As climate scientist James Hansen once said, "If CO2 were purple we would all be running for the hills."
Though there have been thousands of peer-reviewed academic reports that all corroborate the basic facts around CO2 emissions and climate change, the public remains more or less befuddled by CO2. You can't visualize carbon jargon and, according to the newly published book, Climate Cover-Up
, this is a weakness that climate skeptics and oily politicians have done a great job of exploiting.
Now two traveling art projects hope to help out, and they take two very different shapes, literally. One is a cube and one is a sphere.
After having written for years on carbon footprints and CO2 impacts, it was refreshing to SEE for the first time what a single tonne* of CO2 actually looks like. The Danish Climate & Energy Ministry created an installation called "1 Tonne
" which replicates the equivalent volume of CO2 by filling a giant orange Planet Earth with helium (roughly 24' in diameter). Danes emit about eight such spheres per year.
Back in the States where we have a significantly larger impact (19.5 tonnes per year), a rather different approach was taken. The Carbon Cube
, a project of the nonprofit Climate Changes Art, is a 6' x 6' x 6' unit that anyone can make using fabric or cardboard. That volume is the equivalent to about 20 pounds of CO2, roughly the emissions from using a single gallon of gasoline. The average American produces six cubes worth of CO2 every day (2,190 per year), which adds up (according to my algebra) to one giant 13 x 13 x 13 cube (78' cubed).
The individual cubes are hand-painted and have traveled to dozens of conferences around the world, making a colorful statement about the importance of accounting for our own personal carbon emissions.
Both the cube and sphere will be featured at the upcoming U.N. Climate Conference in Copenhagen. The website has an open invitation for schools and communities to make their own cubes and submit them to the online gallery. Check out the cubes from China
for a little inspiration.
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7th February 2014
Writing is seen by many as a craft, but it is one that taps deep into writers’ personalities. Writers continually draw from personal experience to inform their work, using it as a basis for fiction, poetry and more. Using their memories in this way changes writers’ relationship towards them, and can have other effects on both body and mind, from physical healing to emotional catharsis.
In a survey conducted by Hour of Writes, 72% of people agreed that writing helped them to understand their own thoughts and experience, and 65% of people agreed that writing helped them to understand past events. The comment box on this question also provided some striking testimony of writing’s therapeutic role in people’s lives. With one respondent said “writing has saved my life and helped me cure my trauma,” one said, “writing has saved my life and the lives of others, like men I have worked with in prison,” and one simply stated, “it provides hope.”
The therapeutic benefits of writing have also been studied by psychologists. In their article “Emotional and physical benefits of expressive writing,” Karen A. Baikie and Kay Wilhelm describe the ways in which an applied course of expressive writing can lead to long-term benefits of reduced stress, improved lung and liver function, a feeing of greater psychological well-being, and reduced depressive symptoms.
They also found that expressive writing reduced absenteeism from work, improved working memory, lead to quicker re-employment after job loss, and altered social and linguistic behavior. In fact, after writing about traumatic experiences, the study found that participants started to use different words to describe them, showing that, through writing about it, participants arrived at a change in attitude towards the experience, often positive. By writing about the experience they helped themselves to understand it, and put it into context, so that it was less intrusive on their daily lives and psychological wellbeing.
Baikie and Wilhelm’s study was based on expressive writing, a type of writing that they defined with specific instructions: “write your very deepest thoughts and feelings about the most traumatic experience of your entire life or an extremely important emotional issue that has affected you and your life. In your writing, really let go and explore your deepest emotions and thoughts.” Whilst it is fairly incredible that writing in this way can produce a calming effect that can actually improve physical health, this was a study, and participants were pushed to reveal more and be more honest than many people may be comfortable with in writing for a wider audience or critique group, or in working on pieces that are not designed to be “expressive” as such.
The process is similar, however, in other kinds of writing, in that they involve taking experiences from life and understanding them in a different way, in the context of a piece of creative work. In the Hour of Writes survey, there were respondents who were adamant that writing was simply an end in itself: “For me, it's all about the joy of creating worlds with words--it's all about language, sentences, paragraphs. It's giving voice to something new,” said one respondent, with another echoing these remarks, “I like to play with words. I write because I enjoy playing with language."
Still, these responses were in the minority, with most respondents feeling that writing was integral to the way they processed their experiences. One respondent wrote, “Writing helps me work my way through all kinds of ideas. It is also my record of witness. At times my journal was my confidant, such as when my infant son died. Writing poetry, on the hand, is both an exploration and a satisfying craft - rather like science, now that I think of it.” This response encapsulates the varying ways that writing intersects with people’s lives; it can be a form of therapy that assists them in dealing with emotional trauma, it can be a place to explore ideas, and it can be a craft, to practice for the satisfaction it brings. | <urn:uuid:b30e6772-7d5e-43ca-9903-d8ba5b48543a> | {
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In 1802, Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton built his estate, the Grange, in Harlem Heights. As a young girl in the 1960s, I lived across the street from the house.
Beyond its historical and architectural significance, it matters symbolically that the home remains in Harlem. Hamilton was one of our earliest leaders who advocated freedom for the slaves. In his private life, he was also a member of the New York Manumission Society, an organization founded in 1785, whose purpose was to abolish slavery.
Harlem residents are proud to have his grandly restored mansion in their neighborhood. I hope they are also aware of Hamilton’s legacy. He did much to build our nation, but he also risked his reputation to help enslaved black people, many of whom have decendants living within walking distance of his beloved home. | <urn:uuid:312bde45-8a1d-4569-9daf-6b3faad8578d> | {
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Anthony P. Clevenger, PhD, Western Transportation Institute, Montana State University
Viable wolverine populations require the survival of reproductive females. Managing potentially disruptive human activity where breeding females live is of paramount importance for successful reproduction and ultimately viable populations.
Historically, it has proved challenging to identify where successful denning occurs without using invasive techniques, including live capture and equipping or implanting individuals at den sites with telemetry collars or radio tags. Denning habitat models and aerial surveys have been used in the United States; however, these techniques have proved unsuccessful and costly.
Noninvasive survey methods are growing in popularity among biologists, largely because they do not require the capture, handling or immobilization of animals. They can be applied at landscape scales, and thus are ideal for studying wide-ranging species like wolverines.
A new system was recently developed that integrates cameras with a “run-pole” to identify individual wolverines from chest markings. In our study we used the same system to determine if reproductive females could be identified through photographs, thereby providing critical information on the location of maternal areas.
We secured the approximately 4-foot-long pole horizontally to a large tree about 3 to 4 feet above the ground, with bait attached. A camera is positioned in front of the pole, so that when wolverines stand on their hind legs to access the bait, it provides a view of their chest markings and genitals.
With the help of a Christine Stevens Wildlife Award, we tested the feasibility of the pole, camera, and bait system for identifying gender and reproductive condition of wolverines in Banff and Yoho National Parks in the Canadian Rockies. Between 2010 and 2013, we surveyed wolverines using noninvasive hair traps to assess population genetics and used the genetic data to install our camera system in areas where females were detected.
During spring 2014, we set up 10 systems in areas known to be occupied by female wolverines. The camera systems were left for at least 30 days before we returned to collect the camera and disassemble the site.
Of the 10 sites, wolverines visited half. At 4 of the 5 sites, wolverines used the run-pole and stood on their hind legs, providing full view of their chest and genitals. More than 1,200 frontal-view photographs of wolverines were obtained at the sites, allowing us to identify wolverine gender and reproductive condition at 3 of the 5 sites from four different animals. We also found that photographs from white-flash cameras were superior to infrared cameras, although reproductive condition could be determined with infrared in most cases as well.
Motorized recreation and access have dramatically increased in the last decade, all impacting wolverine habitat. Conservation of this enigmatic species requires management that is informed by surveys that identify where reproductive females live. Current methods to identify maternal areas have been intrusive and marginally effective. The methodology we tested is low-cost and has the potential to allow us to create a “reproductive map” for wolverine populations and identify critical areas that require heightened management for wolverine protection. | <urn:uuid:febe2e4e-f3bb-4b0f-bd47-cbdb733190d9> | {
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Happy Mardi Gras!
It’s time to celebrate and you don’t have to be in New Orleans to partake in the festivities. While Mardi Gras is a great excuse to host a party, there is a significant history behind these masks. So grab your snacks and don’t forget to share the meaning behind this great celebration.
The origin of Mardi Gras traces back to March 2, 1699 when Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville, a French-Canadian explorer, declared a portion of land south of New Orleans to be, “Pointe du Mardi Gras.” After arriving, the explorers realized it was the eve of a holiday celebrated back home, and therefore, decided to hold a celebration.
In 1702 Bienville also established, “Fort Louis de la Louisiane,” which is now the city of Mobile, AL. America began celebrating what would become a longstanding tradition called Mardi Gras the following year in 1703.
A secret society known as the Boeuf Gras Society started the traditional parades. It wasn’t until the 1730s that the holiday was publicly celebrated by the people of New Orleans. It began with an elegant ball which set the stage for the New Orleans Mardi Gras balls held today.
Why are masks worn?
So you may be decked in your purple, green and gold – but do you know what the colors stand for? Knowing the meaning behind the colors can add to the fun. Purple represents justice, green for faith, and gold for power. These colors also had a great influence on school colors for Louisiana State University and Tulane University. The official colors of Mardi Gras were chosen in 1872 and selected in honor of Russian Grand Duke, Alexandrovich Romanoff, who chose this same color scheme for his own home. Rock these colors with a whole new meaning!
Want to catch the Mardi Gras live? | <urn:uuid:83dd3249-a609-4598-9711-996f78f3130f> | {
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Update as of December 21st, 2006
One in five species of livestock endangered: FAO
ROME (AFP) - Some 20 percent of the world's livestock species -- cattle, pigs and poultry -- are threatened with extinction, with one breed disappearing each month, the Food and Agriculture Organization warned.
Over the past five years alone, some 60 breeds of cattle, goats, pigs, horses and poultry have become extinct, the Rome-based UN agency said in a draft document, blaming globalization as the "biggest single factor" in the erosion of livestock biodiversity.
"Of the more than 7,600 breeds in FAO's global database of farm animal genetic resources, 190 have become extinct in the past 15 years and a further 1,500 are considered at risk of extinction," the draft says.
Some 150 experts from 90 countries met in Rome this week to review the findings, the first of their kind on a global scale.
"The globalization of livestock markets is the biggest single factor affecting farm animal diversity," the FAO says.
"Traditional production systems require multi-purpose animals, which provide a range of goods and services, (while) modern agriculture has developed specialized breeds, optimizing specific production traits," the report says.
"Maintaining animal genetic diversity will allow future generations to select stocks or develop new breeds to cope with emerging issues, such as climate change, diseases and changing socio-economic factors," said Jose Esquinas-Alcazar, secretary of the FAO's Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
Rearing livestock contributes to the livelihoods of one billion people in the world, the FAO says.
A final report will be published for the first International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources, to be held in Interlaken, Switzerland in September next year.
Update as of September 18th, 2006
Warming -- Signed, Sealed and Delivered
agree: The Earth is warming, and human activities are the
Oreskes, NAOMI ORESKES is a history of science professor at
UC San Diego.
AN OP-ED article in the Wall Street Journal a month ago
claimed that a published study affirming the existence of a
scientific consensus on the reality of global warming had
been refuted. This charge was repeated again last week, in a
hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
I am the author of that study, which appeared two years ago
in the journal Science, and I'm here to tell you that the
consensus stands. The argument put forward in the Wall
Street Journal was based on an Internet posting; it has not
appeared in a peer-reviewed journal — the normal way to
challenge an academic finding. (The Wall Street Journal
didn't even get my name right!)
My study demonstrated that there is no significant
disagreement within the scientific community that the Earth
is warming and that human activities are the principal
Papers that continue to rehash arguments that have already
been addressed and questions that have already been answered
will, of course, be rejected by scientific journals, and
this explains my findings. Not a single paper in a large
sample of peer-reviewed scientific journals between 1993 and
2003 refuted the consensus position, summarized by the
National Academy of Sciences, that "most of the observed
warming of the last 50 years is likely to have been due to
the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations."
Since the 1950s, scientists have understood that greenhouse
gases produced by burning fossil fuels could have serious
effects on Earth's climate. When the 1980s proved to be the
hottest decade on record, and as predictions of climate
models started to come true, scientists increasingly saw
global warming as cause for concern.
In 1988, the World Meteorological Assn. and the United
Nations Environment Program joined forces to create the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to evaluate the
state of climate science as a basis for informed policy
action. The panel has issued three assessments (1990, 1995,
2001), representing the combined expertise of 2,000
scientists from more than 100 countries, and a fourth report
is due out shortly. Its conclusions — global warming is
occurring, humans have a major role in it — have been
ratified by scientists around the world in published
scientific papers, in statements issued by professional
scientific societies and in reports of the National Academy
of Sciences, the British Royal Society and many other
national and royal academies of science worldwide. Even the
Bush administration accepts the fundamental findings. As
President Bush's science advisor, John Marburger III, said
last year in a speech: "The climate is changing; the Earth
To be sure, there are a handful of scientists, including MIT
professor Richard Lindzen, the author of the Wall Street
Journal editorial, who disagree with the rest of the
scientific community. To a historian of science like me,
this is not surprising. In any scientific community, there
are always some individuals who simply refuse to accept new
ideas and evidence. This is especially true when the new
evidence strikes at their core beliefs and values.
Earth scientists long believed that humans were
insignificant in comparison with the vastness of geological
time and the power of geophysical forces. For this reason,
many were reluctant to accept that humans had become a force
of nature, and it took decades for the present understanding
to be achieved. Those few who refuse to accept it are not
ignorant, but they are stubborn. They are not unintelligent,
but they are stuck on details that cloud the larger issue.
Scientific communities include tortoises and hares,
mavericks and mules.
A historical example will help to make the point. In the
1920s, the distinguished Cambridge geophysicist Harold
Jeffreys rejected the idea of continental drift on the
grounds of physical impossibility. In the 1950s, geologists
and geophysicists began to accumulate overwhelming evidence
of the reality of continental motion, even though the
physics of it was poorly understood. By the late 1960s, the
theory of plate tectonics was on the road to near-universal
Yet Jeffreys, by then Sir Harold, stubbornly refused to
accept the new evidence, repeating his old arguments about
the impossibility of the thing. He was a great man, but he
had become a scientific mule. For a while, journals
continued to publish Jeffreys' arguments, but after a while
he had nothing new to say. He died denying plate tectonics.
The scientific debate was over.
So it is with climate change today. As American geologist
Harry Hess said in the 1960s about plate tectonics, one can
quibble about the details, but the overall picture is clear.
Yet some climate-change deniers insist that the observed
changes might be natural, perhaps caused by variations in
solar irradiance or other forces we don't yet understand.
Perhaps there are other explanations for the receding
glaciers. But "perhaps" is not evidence.
The greatest scientist of all time, Isaac Newton, warned
against this tendency more than three centuries ago. Writing
in "Principia Mathematica" in 1687, he noted that once
scientists had successfully drawn conclusions by "general
induction from phenomena," then those conclusions had to be
held as "accurately or very nearly true notwithstanding any
contrary hypothesis that may be imagined…. "
Climate-change deniers can imagine all the hypotheses they
like, but it will not change the facts nor "the general
induction from the phenomena."
None of this is to say that there are no uncertainties left
— there are always uncertainties in any live science.
Agreeing about the reality and causes of current global
warming is not the same as agreeing about what will happen
in the future. There is continuing debate in the scientific
community over the likely rate of future change: not
"whether" but "how much" and "how soon." And this is
precisely why we need to act today: because the longer we
wait, the worse the problem will become, and the harder it
will be to solve.
Update as of September 8th, 2006
Zoroastrians Keep the Faith,
and Keep Dwindling
BURR RIDGE, Ill. — In his day job,
Kersey H. Antia is a psychologist who specializes in panic disorders. In his
private life, Mr. Antia dons a long white robe, slips a veil over his face and
goes to work as a Zoroastrian priest, performing rituals passed down through a
patrilineal chain of priests stretching back to ancient Persia.
After a service for the dead in which
priests fed sticks of sandalwood and pinches of frankincense into a blazing urn,
Mr. Antia surveyed the Zoroastrian faithful of the Midwest — about 80 people in
saris, suits and blue jeans.
“We were once at least 40, 50 million —
can you imagine?” said Mr. Antia, senior priest at the fire temple here in
suburban Chicago. “At one point we had reached the pinnacle of glory of the
Persian Empire and had a beautiful religious philosophy that governed the
“Where are we now? Completely wiped
out,” he said. “It pains me to say, in 100 years we won’t have many
There is a palpable panic among
Zoroastrians today — not only in the United States, but also around the world —
that they are fighting the extinction of their faith, a monotheistic religion
that most scholars say is at least 3,000 years old.
Zoroastrianism predates Christianity and
Islam, and many historians say it influenced those faiths and cross-fertilized
Judaism as well, with its doctrines of one God, a dualistic universe of good and
evil and a final day of judgment.
While Zoroastrians once dominated an
area stretching from what is now Rome and Greece to India and Russia, their
global population has dwindled to 190,000 at most, and perhaps as few as
124,000, according to a survey in 2004 by Fezana Journal, published quarterly by
the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America. The number is
imprecise because of wildly diverging counts in Iran, once known as Persia — the
incubator of the faith.
“Survival has become a community
obsession,” said Dina McIntyre, an Indian-American lawyer in Chesapeake, Va.,
who has written and lectured widely on her religion.
The Zoroastrians’ mobility and
adaptability has contributed to their demographic crisis. They assimilate and
intermarry, virtually disappearing into their adopted cultures. And since the
faith encourages opportunities for women, many Zoroastrian women are working
professionals who, like many other professional women, have few children or
Despite their shrinking numbers,
Zoroastrians — who follow the Prophet Zarathustra (Zoroaster in Greek) — are
divided over whether to accept intermarried families and converts and what
defines a Zoroastrian. An effort to create a global organizing body fell apart
two years ago after some priests accused the organizers of embracing “fake
converts” and diluting traditions.
“They feel that the religion is not
universal and is ethnic in nature, and that it should be kept within the tribe,”
said Jehan Bagli, a retired chemist in Toronto who is a priest, or mobed, and
president of the North American Mobed Council, which includes about 100 priests.
“This is a tendency that to me sometimes appears suicidal. And they are prepared
to make that sacrifice.”
In South Africa, the last Zoroastrian
priest recently died, and there is no one left to officiate at ceremonies, said
Rohinton Rivetna, a Zoroastrian leader in Chicago who, with his wife, Roshan,
was a principal mover behind the failed effort to organize a global body. But
they have not given up.
“We have to be working together if we
are going to survive,” Mr. Rivetna said.
Although the collective picture is
bleak, most individual Zoroastrians appear to be thriving. They are
well-educated and well-traveled professionals, earning incomes that place them
in the middle and upper classes of the countries where they or their families
settled after leaving their homelands in Iran and India. About 11,000
Zoroastrians live in the United States, 6,000 in Canada, 5,000 in England, 2,700
in Australia and 2,200 in the Persian Gulf nations, according to the Fezana
This is the second major exodus in
Zoroastrian history. In Iran, after Muslims rose to power in the seventh century
A.D., historians say the Zoroastrian population was decimated by massacres,
persecution and conversions to Islam. Seven boatloads of Zoroastrian refugees
fled Iran and landed on the coast of India in 936. Their descendants, known as
Parsis, built Mumbai, formerly Bombay, into the world capital of Zoroastrianism.
The Zoroastrian magazine Parsiana
publishes charts each month tracking births, deaths and marriages. Leaders fret
over the reports from Mumbai, where deaths outnumber births six to one. The
intermarriage rate there has risen to about one in three. The picture in North
America is more hopeful: about 1.5 births for one death. But the intermarriage
rate in North America is now nearly 50 percent.
Soli Dastur, an exuberant priest who
lives in Florida, is among the first generation of immigrants who started the
trend. Mr. Dastur grew up in a village outside Mumbai, where his father was a
priest, the fire temple was the center of town and his whole world was
He arrived in Evanston, Ill., in 1960,
where he knew of no other Zoroastrians, to attend college on a scholarship
provided by one of the Parsi endowments in Mumbai, which have since provided
scholarships to many others. He earned a Ph.D., worked as a chemical engineer
and married an American Roman Catholic he met on a blind date 40 years ago.
Mr. Dastur is a priest in much demand to
perform ceremonies because of his melodic chanting of the prayers. He and his
wife, Jo Ann, have two grown daughters. Neither married a Zoroastrian.
“They’re good human beings,” Mr. Dastur
said. “That’s more important to me.”
The very tenets of Zoroastrianism could
be feeding its demise, many adherents said in interviews. Zoroastrians believe
in free will, so in matters of religion they do not believe in compulsion. They
do not proselytize. They can pray at home instead of going to a temple. While
there are priests, there is no hierarchy to set policy. And their basic doctrine
is a universal ethical precept: “good thoughts, good words, good deeds.”
“That’s what I take away from
Zoroastrianism,” said Tenaz Dubash, a filmmaker in New York City who is making a
documentary about the future of her faith, “that I’m a cerebral, thinking human
being, and I need to think for myself.”
Ferzin Patel, who runs a support group
for 20 intermarried couples in New York, said that while the Zoroastrians in the
group adored their faith and wanted to teach it to their children, they in no
way wanted to compel their spouses to convert.
“In the intermarriage group, I don’t
think anyone feels that someone should forfeit their religion just for
Zoroastrianism,” Ms. Patel said.
Despite, or because of, the high
intermarriage rate, some Zoroastrian priests refuse to accept converts or to
perform initiation ceremonies for adopted children or the children of
intermarried couples, especially when the father is not Zoroastrian. The ban on
these practices is far stronger in India and Iran than in North America.
“As soon as you do it, you start
diluting your ethnicity, and one generation has an intermarriage, and the next
generation has more dilution and the customs become all fuzzy and they
eventually disappear,” said Jal N. Birdy, a priest in Corona, Calif., who will
not perform weddings of mixed couples. “That would destroy my community, which
is why I won’t do it.”
The North American Mobed Council is so
divided on the issue of accepting intermarried spouses and children that it has
been unable to take a position, said Mr. Bagli, the council’s president. He
supports accepting converts because he said he can find no ban in Zoroastrian
texts, but he estimated that as many as 40 percent of the priests in his group
The peril and the hope for
Zoroastrianism are embodied in a child of the diaspora, Rohena Elavia Ullal, 27,
a physical therapist in suburban Chicago.
Ms. Ullal knew from an early age that
her parents wanted her to marry another Zoroastrian. Her mother, a former board
president of the Chicago temple, helped organize Sunday school classes once a
month there, enticing teenagers with weekend sleepovers and roller-skating
The result was a core group of close
friends who felt more like cousins, Ms. Ullal said recently over breakfast.
Both of her brothers found mates at
Zoroastrian youth congresses, and one is already married. Ms. Ullal stayed on
“There were so few,” she said. “I guess
you’re lucky if you find somebody. That would be the ideal.”
Ms. Ullal’s college boyfriend is also
the child of Indian immigrants to the United States, but he is Hindu. [They
married on Saturday and had two ceremonies — one Hindu, one Zoroastrian.] But
Ms. Ullal says that before they even became engaged, they talked about her
desire to raise their children as Zoroastrians.
“It’s scary; we’re dipping down in
numbers,” she said. “I don’t want to hurt his parents, but he doesn’t have the
kind of responsibility, whereas I do."
Update as of September 6th, 2006
The World Health Organization (WHO)
today expressed concern about the emergence of virulent strains of tuberculosis
(TB) that are virtually untreatable with existing drugs and called for the
strengthening of prevention measures.
Extensive Drug Resistant TB (XDR-TB) is
resistant to not only the two main first-line TB drugs – isoniazid and
rifampicin – but also to three or more of the six classes of second-line drugs.
Recent findings from a survey conducted
by WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that
XDR-TB has been identified in all regions of the world but is most frequent in
the countries of the former Soviet Union and in Asia.
“XDR-TB poses a grave public health
threat, especially in populations with high rates of HIV and where there are few
health care resources,” said WHO in a statement issued in Geneva.
Separate data on a recent outbreak of
XDR-TB in an HIV-positive population in Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa found
alarmingly high mortality rates, said WHO. 52 out of 53 patients identified with
XDR-TB died within 25 days on average, including those benefiting from
WHO noted that its recommendations for
managing drug-resistant strains of TB include strengthening basic TB care,
ensuring prompt diagnosis and treatment of drug resistant cases, increasing
collaboration between HIV and TB control programmes, and boosting investment in
On Thursday, WHO will join other TB
experts at a two-day meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, to assess the
response required to critically address TB drug resistance, particularly in
Update as of September 4th, 2006
Global warming is affecting the
intensity of Atlantic hurricanes, according to a new study by a university
professor in Florida who says his research provides the first direct link
between climate change and storm strength. Reuters
What Is the Latest Thing to
Be Discouraged About? The Rise of Pessimism
NY Times- The early stages of the Iraq
war may have been a watershed in American optimism. The happy talk was so
extreme it is now difficult to believe it was sincere: “we will be greeted as
liberators”; “mission accomplished”; the insurgency is “in the last throes.”
Most wildly optimistic of all was the goal: a military action transforming the
Middle East into pro-American democracies.
The gap between predictions and reality
has left Americans deeply discouraged. So has much of what has happened, or not
happened, at the same time. Those who believed New Orleans would rebound quickly
after Hurricane Katrina have seen their hopes dashed. Those counting on
solutions to health care, energy dependence or global warming have seen no
progress. It is no wonder the nation is in a gloomy mood; 71 percent of
respondents in a recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll said the country is on the
These are ideal times for the release of
“Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit,” by Joshua Foa Dienstag, a U.C.L.A.
political theorist. Mr. Dienstag aims to rescue pessimism from the philosophical
sidelines, where it has been shunted by optimists of all ideologies. The book is
seductive, because pessimists are generally more engaging and entertaining than
optimists, and because, as the author notes, “the world keeps delivering bad
news.” It is almost tempting to throw up one’s hands and sign on with
Pessimism, however, is the most
un-American of philosophies. This nation was built on the values of reason and
progress, not to mention the “pursuit of happiness.” Pessimism as philosophy is
skeptical of the idea of progress. Pursuing happiness is a fool’s errand.
Pessimism is not, as is commonly thought, about being depressed or misanthropic,
and it does not hold that humanity is headed for disaster. It simply doubts the
most basic liberal principle: that applying human reasoning to the world’s
problems will have a positive effect.
The biggest difference between optimists
and pessimists, Mr. Dienstag argues, is in how they view time. Optimists see the
passing of time as a canvas on which to paint a better world. Pessimists see it
as a burden. Time ticks off the physical decline of one’s body toward the
inevitability of death, and it separates people from their loved ones. “All the
tragedies which we can imagine,” said Simone Weil, the French philosopher who
starved herself to death at age 34, “return in the end to the one and only
tragedy: the passage of time.”
Optimists see history as the story of
civilization’s ascent. Pessimists believe, Mr. Dienstag notes, in the idea that
any apparent progress has hidden costs, so that even when the world seems to be
improving, “in fact it is getting worse (or, on the whole, no better).” Polio is
cured, but AIDS arrives. Airplanes make travel easy, but they can drop bombs or
be crashed into office towers. There is no point in seeking happiness. When joy
“actually makes its appearance, it as a rule comes uninvited and unannounced,”
insisted Schopenhauer, the dour German who was pessimism’s leading figure.
As politicians, pessimists do not
believe in undertaking great initiatives to ameliorate unhappiness, since they
are skeptical they will work. They are inclined to accept the world’s evil and
misery as inevitable. Mr. Dienstag tries to argue that pessimists can be
politically engaged, and in modest ways they can be. Camus joined the French
Resistance. But pessimism’s overall spirit, as Camus noted, “is not to be cured,
but to live with one’s ailments.”
President Clinton was often mocked for
his declarations that he still believed “in a place called Hope.” But he
understood that instilling hope is a critical part of leadership. Other than a
few special interest programs — like cutting taxes on the wealthy and giving
various incentives to business — it is hard to think of areas in which the Bush
administration has raised the nation’s hopes and met them. This president has,
instead, tried to focus the American people on the fear of terrorism, for which
there is no cure, only bad choices or something worse.
Part of Mr. Bush’s legacy may well be
that he robbed America of its optimism — a force that Franklin Delano Roosevelt
and other presidents, like Ronald Reagan, used to rally the country when it was
deeply challenged. The next generation of leaders will have to resell
discouraged Americans on the very idea of optimism, and convince them again that
their goal should not be to live with their ailments, but to cure them.
Update as of September 3rd, 2006
- A New study on mice suggests
exposure to ultrasound to effect fetal brain development, researchers say
the findings should not discourage pregnant women from having ultrasound
scans for medical reasons-CNN
- Alzheimer’s drug galantamine
protects guinea pigs from the effects of compounds in pesticides and poisons
that attack the nervous system, researchers at the Univ of Maryland School
of Medicine report-CNN
- In just one meal high unsaturated
fat can quickly prevent “good” cholesterol from protecting the body against
clogged arteries, a small study shows-CNN
- A 6.7 earthquake reported off coast
of Vanuatu US geological survey says, pacific tsunami warning center reports
higher initial reading of a 7.0 magnitude but said that there is no Pacific
Ocean wide tsunami threat. – CNN
- Philippines troops and officials
evacuated tens of thousands of villagers as the restive Mayan volcano showed
more signs of an imminent eruption. CNN
- UN’s Humanitarian Chief describes
Gaza as a “ticking time bomb” the head of a key foreign and donors meeting.
- Zimbabweans express outrage at
proposed legislation to monitor telephone calls and Internet use. BBC
- Nigeria’s police are planning to
buy 80,000 new firearms ahead of New Year’s Elections, a spokesman says. BBC
- Police say that a Connecticut
lawyer has been charged with 1st degree murder for allegedly stabbing his
59-year-old neighbor to death, after being told the neighbor had sexually
assaulted his two-year-old daughter. CNN
- Rules to stop convicted pedophiles
from committed sex abuse abroad are being evaded, campaigners say. BBC
Update as of August 31st, 2006
Almanac Predicts Unusually
LEWISTON, Maine -- After one of the
warmest winters on record, this coming winter will be much colder than normal
from coast to coast, according to the latest edition of the venerable Farmers'
The nearly 190-year-old almanac, which
says its forecasts are accurate 80 percent to 85 percent of the time, correctly
predicted a "polar coaster" of dramatic swings for last winter, editor Peter
Geiger said. For example, New York City collected 40 inches of snow even though
it was one of the warmest winters in the city's history.
This year, predicts the almanac's
reclusive forecaster, Caleb Weatherbee, it will be frigid from the Gulf Coast
all the way up the East Coast.
But it'll be especially nippy on the
Northern Plains -- up to 20 degrees below seasonal norms in much of Montana, the
Dakotas and part of Wyoming, he writes.
And, he says, it'll be especially snowy
across the nation's midsection, much of the Pacific Northwest, the mountains of
the Southwest and parts of eastern New England.
Last winter was the fifth-warmest on
average in the lower 48 states. Forty-one states had temperatures above average,
according to the National Climatic Data Center. That reduced energy demand by an
estimated 11 percent, it said.
This year's retail edition of the
Farmers' Almanac is the biggest ever, at 208 pages. It includes traditional
charts on astronomy, average frost dates, and planting and gardening calendars.
It also has the usual down-home features and cornball humor.
Update as of August 26th, 2006
What is it going to
look like in the future?
Ray Kurzweil, renowned
author and futurist, tells us
that in the future, medicine will use nano-bots, blood cell sized devices to
enhance our health from the inside out. For example if you have an ulcer, a
doctor would make a small incision, insert the nano- bots into your system and
the tiny machines fix the ulcers from inside of your body.
It's only a question
of time before these devices are being used in people's bodies on a more regular
basis. A New techonology
called MIKEY (Motorized Independent Kinetic Electric Yanni) is a small chip
that’s implanted in a body part (ie, hand). Test subjects can demonstrate the
ability to unlock a deadbolt by simply waiving their hand (with the implant)
near it. Some people enjoy the idea of having computer technology integrated
into their body, while others find it repugnant.
We have scientist
friends who tell us that alongside nano-bots, it's extremely likely that there
are also nano-bugs (viruses or bacteria fused into a nano-unit) in use or
in development. These could infect the body and do God knows what. This is
cutting edge science, and one can only imagine what's actually being implemented
and tested around the globe today. There's generally a lag time between
when something hits the streets and when the public at large becomes aware of
The character of
"Data" in the later Star Trek series could actually be walking around in
prototype form right now. Ray Kurzweil states that by 2030 there wont be a clear distinction between humans and
cyborgs, or androids, whatever you want to call them, and that there will also
be (and probably already are) people who are part machine, part human.
Could E-Voting Put
Your Vote At Risk?
Is our Democracy
60% of the votes in the 2004 Presidential Election were cast or tallied by
electronic voting machines, that may hit 80% by this November’s election.
28 States have
legislation or rules for a mandatory paper record of the vote, but 22 states
completely rely on electronics to deliver their vote properly.
Now activists are suing the
government for violation of state constitutions to force legislators to
require a paper trail on all electronic votes. Some cases focus on the
unreliability of the electronic voting machines, saying they can be
hacked or tampered with. The goal is the same; to make sure that a
permanent record exists of any election held in the United States.
A successful suit in New Mexico
forced the entire state to use optically scanned paper ballots, thereby
providing a sure fire way to validate results if necessary.
It’s come to the point to where
people actually have to sue to convince their state to use a method
which provides a tangible record of votes cast, otherwise legislators
won’t do anything about it.
Update as of August 25th, 2006
Global warming is affecting the
intensity of Atlantic hurricanes, according to a new study by a
university professor in Florida who says his research provides the first
direct link between climate change and storm strength. Reuters
David Copperfield says he has
found the “Fountain of Youth” in the southern Bahamas amid a cluster of
4 tiny islands he recently bought for 50 million, he tells Reuters the
water brings dying leaves and bugs back to life.
Scientists in the United States
say that the hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica appears to have
stopped growing and may now return to normal within the next 60 years or
so. At the worst the hole is a big as North America.
The ozone layer has been worn
down by human- made chemicals (CFC’s), international agreements have
banned the harmful substances to the environment, but with the solution
has come a major problem, cheap chemicals that have replaced CFC’s are
contributing greatly to Global Warming.
Nations are being forced to
acknowledge that without more intervention the progress in the South
Pole could be in vain. BBC News
Update as of August 24th, 2006
European unions have banned any
imports from the US into Europe after Washington’s admission that
commercial rice had been contaminated with an experimental strain of
Genetically Modified rice. This strain hasn’t even been tested on
humans, or even been approved for animal feeds. The US insists that it
doesn’t pose any risk to humans or to the environment. Japan already
suspended imports of rice from the US.
High tech biometric cards were
supposed to be a fool proof way to check worker immigration status, but
evidence shows that is not the way to make sure temporary workers are in
fact temporary. Bio- metric smart cards, which contain memory chips can
be used to identify people using biologically individual markers such as
scans of a person’s iris and fingerprints. The Bush administration
claims that this could be a solution to our illegal worker problem -
creating a way for temporary workers to be identified and legally visit
the U.S. However, critics say there are may flaws to this concept.
Members of the House immigration reform caucus are promoting a
“solution” which is to create and implement a biometric social security
card. In that case, we’d all be issued new identification cards in the
form of our social security cards, but they’d have some new, extremely
personal information in a biometric data chip. The proponents of this
concept say that it will be much easier to implement, since the SS
system is already up and running.
We just saw a little blip on a
more fringe news program. It said that school children in a particular
state are forced to listen to a radio station as they ride to school on
the bus. What style of music? The quote from the news piece, said, “Not
to worry, it’s only patriotic music and chants.” Imagine that.
Update as of August 23rd, 2006
imports of US long grain rice
Brussels (dpa) - The European Commission on Wednesday slapped stringent testing
requirements on imports of American long grain rice in a bid to restrict entry
of unauthorized genetically modified foods (GMOs) into the 25-nation bloc.
The commission, the European Union's executive body, said all imports of US long
grain rice would now have to be certified as free of the unauthorized GMO LL
Rice 601 before being exported to the EU.
"The decision has been taken in light of the recent announcement by the US
authorities that this unauthorized GMO had been found in samples of commercial
rice on the US market," said a commission spokesman.
The emergency measures mean that, with immediate effect, only consignments of US
long grain rice that have been tested by an accredited laboratory using a
validated testing method and accompanied by a certificate assuring the absence
of LL Rice 601, can enter the EU, the spokesman added.
"We have strict legislation in place in the EU to ensure that any GM product put
on the European market has undergone a thorough authorization procedure based on
scientific assessment. There is no flexibility for unauthorized GMOs - these
cannot enter the EU food and feed chain under any circumstances," said Markos
Kyprianou, EU chief for health and consumer protection.
Under EU rules, national authorities are responsible for controlling imports at
their borders and for preventing any contaminated consignments from being placed
on the market.
In addition, controls will be carried out on products already on the market, to
ensure that they are free from LL Rice 601. European importers will also have to
ensure that the products they import from the US are free of the banned GMO.
The commission decision will be reviewed by national EU experts within ten days.
Once approved, the measures will remain in place for 6 months, after which the
situation will be reviewed again.
The US is a major supplier of rice to the EU, followed by India, Thailand and
US authorities informed the commission on August 18 that trace amounts of non-authorized
genetically modified rice had been detected in samples of commercial long grain
rice on the US market.
The EU decision has been criticized by environmental group Greenpeace
International as "a minimal response to a serious contamination problem."
Greenpeace said the EU should stop reacting to contamination "accidents" and
start preventing them instead.
Brussels and Washington have often crossed swords on GMOs in recent years, with
US officials complaining of overly-strict EU requirements which they say act as
a trade barrier.
The EU has argued that its hardline stance is only prompted by concerns for the
safety of consumers.
Update as of August 2oth, 2006
Long after mosquito bite,
ill effects could linger
KRISTINA HERRNDOBLER, The Enterprise
It has been
more than three years since Laura Booker was bitten by a West Nile-infected
mosquito - a bite she thinks might have caused her declining health.
A new study
suggests that Booker's ongoing health problems could be linked to West Nile
virus, an illness once thought to rarely cause long-term effects in those who
More than a year after being diagnosed with West Nile virus, half of the
patients have continuing health complaints, including fatigue, memory problems,
extremity weakness, depression, tremors and headaches, according to an article
in the current issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, a medical journal.
Booker said joint pain and tremors, among many other problems, prompt frequent
"I don't know if all of it is because of West Nile," said Booker, 47, of
Nederland. "But I was perfectly healthy. I was never sick. And now all the
sudden I have all these problems."
The new study concludes that abnormalities in motor skills and executive
functions are common long-term problems among patients who have had the West
Nile viral infection.
"Patients with milder illness are just as likely as patients with more severe
illness to experience adverse outcomes," it states.
The majority of people infected with West Nile virus develop no symptoms, but
about 20 percent experience a flu-like illness called West Nile fever, according
to the study.
About 1 percent of patients develop more severe diseases such as meningitis or
encephalitis, it states. Patients who develop meningitis or encephalitis often
are hospitalized and some die, but the fever generally is considered benign and
That might be about to change, the study suggests.
"What we found is that there is a substantial amount of ongoing symptoms, both
among those patients diagnosed with West Nile fever as well as those with the
more severe diseases, encephalitis and meningitis," Dr. Paul Carson, lead author
of the study, said in news release.
The study involved testing and surveying 49 patients, all from eastern North
Dakota, who had lab-confirmed West Nile virus infections.
Beaumont physician James Holly said the problem with long-term effects is that
they are incredibly subjective.
"It is very hard to control for those subjective symptoms," he said, adding the
study contradicts what the medical field currently thinks about West Nile virus.
Holly himself was infected with West Nile in June. He had a fever, became weak
and had severe muscle soreness before being tested for the virus, he said.
He said on the day he first experienced symptoms, he spent 66 minutes on a
treadmill. This week, he has only been able to stay on the treadmill for 30
minutes - and that was at a reduced incline and a slower pace, he said.
But Holly does not believe he will have long-term health problems because of the
illness. He said it will take up to two months to get back to his pre-West Nile
"There is no doubt there is a physiological price you pay for having this
illness," he said. "But it is not a permanent physiological price until you
allow it to change your life."
Jefferson County officials Thursday said there have been eight confirmed West
Nile cases in Beaumont this year. Five of those were in Beaumont. One person who
had West Nile died, according to the Beaumont Public Health Department. There
have been no confirmed cases of West Nile in humans in Jasper or Newton
counties, officials there said.
There have been at least a half dozen West Nile-related deaths in Southeast
Texas since 2002, when someone died in Jefferson County, according to the Texas
Department of State Health Services.
Statewide, there have been 47 confirmed cases of meningitis or encephalitis
caused by West Nile this year. There have been five deaths, according to the
Department spokeswoman Emily Palmer said these numbers only include cases
confirmed in state labs. They do not, for example, include the recent West
Nile-related death in Beaumont.
In 2005, there were 128 human cases in Texas, including 11 deaths, according to
Nationwide, there have been 388 confirmed human cases in 26 states this year,
according to the most recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
numbers, released on Aug. 15. Thirteen infected people have died.
West Nile has been confirmed in mosquitoes or animals in 40 states this year,
according to the CDC.
West Nile virus first appeared in North America in 1999, many decades after it
was first reported elsewhere, the CDC reports. It was first isolated in the West
Nile District of Uganda in 1937.
Toni Matherne, 38, of Mandeville, La., became ill with West Nile in 2002. She
spent a week and a half in the hospital, but has generally recovered, she said.
"The only thing I noticed long-term is that my immune system is not as good,"
she said. "It is a coincidence that ever since getting West Nile, it has been
Update as of August 12th, 2006
Scientists measure the 'dark
matter' of the universe
Across the tapestry of the
night sky, hundreds or perhaps thousands of stars are doing frantic dances of
death, spinning wildly around each other and shooting off waves of invisible
gravitational energy like interstellar beacons.
In one of the most exotic
observatories in the world, Fred Raab is waiting for those waves to wash up on
the shoreline of Earth. When they do, they could change our understanding of the
"We've spent 400 years since
the invention of the telescope looking at a small portion of what exists," said
Raab, head of the LIGO laboratory in the high desert of southeastern Washington.
LIGO -- the Laser
Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory -- could reveal the rest.
"This gives us an observational
tool to probe the dark, strong-gravity part of the universe, which we've never
really done," said Kip S. Thorne, a California Institute of Technology physicist
who is one of the world's foremost experts on relativity.
Like the first bathysphere
diving into deep-sea trenches, the $300 million LIGO project, conceived more
than 25 years ago, is expected to uncover exotic creatures, such as dancing
neutron stars and binary black holes, circling each other like heavyweight
fighters. Physicists also may uncover the mysterious "dark matter" that is
believed to be all around us but has never been measured. Some think they might
find gateways into extra dimensions.
What makes LIGO different from
other observatories is that it doesn't "see" the cosmos by detecting
electromagnetic energy in the form of light, radio waves or X-rays. It feels it,
measuring waves of gravity that wrinkle space-time like ripples on a lake.
One advantage to gravity-wave
science over light-wave science is that whereas light bounces off solid objects,
gravity waves go through everything -- planets, stars, people's bodies.
Raab, Thorne and about 500
other scientists around the world caught up in the race to measure the first
gravity waves are essentially giving birth to a new science.
It has been gestating 90 years,
since Einstein theorized that large bodies moving through space would give off
waves of gravity, traveling at light speed, that would shrink and expand
The problem with gravity waves
is that they are so difficult to detect that many physicists long doubted they
would ever be found. In November, however, LIGO reached a level of sensitivity
at which Thorne and other experts believe they might detect waves.
Now excitement has gripped the
scientific community as it awaits word.
It can be felt inside the LIGO
control room, where Raab studies a series of constantly changing graphs flashed
up on the wall. Like a man translating a foreign language, Raab points to one
squiggly line that he says is traffic passing on the main road a dozen miles
away. Another is construction in the nearby cities of Richland and Kennewick.
If you know what to look for,
Raab said, you can pick out the seismic signature of ocean waves hitting the
shoreline of western Washington -- 200 miles away.
In the dun-colored desert-scape
of southeastern Washington sits the Hanford nuclear site. Plutonium for the
atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki was made here. Now, the signs of decay and rust
are everywhere. The site has become a relic of the Cold War.
Down a twisting side road, LIGO
appears out of the Russian cheatgrass and mustard plants, a bulky apparition
with two tubes extending at right angles into the desert.
The 2.4-mile-long tentacles are
the heart of LIGO. They are at right angles so that incoming gravity waves will
shrink one arm while lengthening the other. An identical facility sits in a
forest in southern Louisiana, so that the readings made at one observatory can
be cross-checked almost 2,000 miles away.
The National Science Foundation
has provided the funding.
Inside the arms is a laser
interferometer, which works by splitting a laser beam and sending one of the two
resulting beams down each arm. The beams then bounce around 100 times on a set
of mirrors before being sent back to a photodetector.
The two beams should recombine
at exactly the same time because they travel an identical distance.
But if a gravity wave passes
by, the beams will be thrown off as the arms are alternately stretched and
Detecting such a minute signal
has required extraordinary steps.
Because the site had to be as
flat as possible, satellites were used to survey the land, which was eventually
graded to within three-eighths of an inch over five miles.
To get around the problem of
air molecules shaking the mirrors, workers sucked the air out of the tubes down
to a billionth of an atmosphere. But that still wasn't good enough to make sure
the speed of light would be constant throughout the tubes. So the team had to
get the tubes down to a trillionth of an atmosphere.
The surface of the four 10-inch
mirrors in the arms is so smooth it doesn't vary by more than 30-billionths of
an inch. Thirty control systems keep the lasers and mirrors in alignment. The
vibration isolation system is so sophisticated, the only thing approaching it is
the mechanics used by semiconductor chip makers to etch circuits on the chips.
Even though ground was broken
for the LIGO project more than a decade ago, it was only in November that the
facility was ready to hunt seriously for gravity waves.
"We're operating right now
where we can see changes a thousandth the size of a proton," Raab said.
Some vibrations still manage to
"A bulldozer 10 miles away
knocks us offline," he said.
One recent problem was caused
by a stunt pilot practicing loops.
Since the November data run
began, LIGO has managed to get 10 weeks of clean data.
The hunt is on.
On the wall outside Thorne's
cluttered office at Caltech are framed letters containing the bets he has made
with other prominent scientists, including two with physicist Stephen Hawking.
Thorne won both.
In fact, Thorne has lost only
two bets, and both were over gravity waves. In 1978, he bet a dinner that
gravity waves would be found within a decade. It didn't happen.
The second time, he bet a case
of good California wine that the first gravity wave would be detected by Jan. 1,
2000. Once again, he had to pay up.
Thorne is no longer taking bets
on when gravity waves will be found. But found they will be, he said.
It just might not be with this
version of LIGO. Even though LIGO is operating within the range where gravity
waves are thought to exist, it's just barely there.
"We're at a level now where we
could see one every 30 years to every three years," said Jay Marx, executive
director of the LIGO program.
Those aren't great odds. The
solution is Advanced LIGO, a $200 million upgrade that will increase the
sensitivity by a factor of 10. Among the improvements are a more powerful laser
and more sophisticated vibration isolation hardware. Work is expected to begin
sometime after 2008.
After the improvements, a
gravity wave could be detected every three weeks, Marx said.
Thorne said: "We are at a level
where we could see waves now. After the upgrade we will be operating in a domain
where we are likely to see waves."
And if they don't find waves?
"That would show something is
wrong with our understanding of the universe," he said.
Update as of July 7th, 2006
Canada Confirms 6th Case of Mad Cow
TORONTO (AP) -- Canada
confirmed on Tuesday its sixth case of mad cow disease and said it would
investigate where the cow was born and what other animals may have eaten the
The Canadian Food Inspection
Agency said test results confirmed what was suspected last week. The animal was
at least 15 years of age, and was born before Canada implemented restrictions on
potentially dangerous feed in 1997.
The agency said it was
launching an investigation.
Mad cow disease is believed to
spread through feed, when cows eat the contaminated tissue of other cattle.
Humans can get a related disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, in similar
fashion - by eating meat contaminated with mad cow. There have been more than
150 human deaths worldwide linked to the variant.
Two of the six confirmed mad
cow cases in Canada have involved animals that were infected after 1997, when a
ban was instituted on the use of cattle parts in feed for cattle, or other
ruminants such as sheep and goats.
The agency says Canada's food
supply is safe, and the level of mad cow disease in the national cattle herd is
very low. Canada has an estimated national herd of 17 million cattle.
U.S. Agriculture Department
spokesman Ed Loyd said last week trade was resumed with Canada with the
assumption that more mad cow cases would be found. Loyd said U.S. officials have
"a high level of confidence in the safeguards and mitigating measures in place
in the U.S. and Canada."
George Luterbach, an animal
scientist with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said the latest case should
not have any repercussions internationally.
"It is unwelcome news but not
necessarily unexpected news," Luterbach said, adding "it should have little or
no implications internationally."
Having tested 60,000 cattle
last year, Luberbach said the agency is confident that mad cow is not a common
in Canada or something that is growing.
Shipments of live cattle to the
United States were halted in 2003 after the first reported mad cow case in
Canada. Trade in young animals resumed last year, but there has been no word on
when the border may be reopened to older animals.
Hugh Lynch-Ftaunton, president
of the 90,000-member Canadian Cattlemen's Association, said some Asian and
European countries may wait to see the final report on the latest case before
reopening their borders to Canadian cattle.
"Some of the countries that are
on the verge of dealing with us differently will probably want to study the
report on this and that might slow it down marginally but I don't think it's
going to be make or break," Lynch-Ftaunton said.
Last month, Canada announced it
was broadening restrictions on animal feed in an effort to fight mad cow
disease. The Agency revealed measures, to be phased in over the next year, aimed
at keeping potentially risky cattle parts from all animal feed, not just feed
destined for cows.
The parts will also be banned
from pet food and fertilizers to avoid the risk of inadvertent
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ARCHEOLOGISTS FIND MASS MURDER SCENE, UNTOUCHED FOR 1,500 YEARS
I had no idea that archeology could be so gangster! A site in Sweden is the source of much dismay. But there’s excitement too. A recent study was just published in the journal Antiquity. It’s a thorough reminder just how dark and dangerous the early Middle Ages really were. Sure, we enjoy depictions like A Game of Thrones, Conan the Barbarian and even the post-apocalyptic Mad Max. But reality was just as brutal and harsh. The study gave details of what was found at Sandby-Borg. It was a 5th Century fort, lying on the shoreline of Öland island. The fort used to be a lively place, filled with dozens of homes. But someone came, they saw and they brutally killed everyone there. Men, women and children. Then they left the place untouched. No pillage. Livestock left to starve in their pens. 1,500 years of a mass murder mystery.
LOCALS SAID BURIED FORT WAS DANGEROUS, HAUNTED
This happened more than 1,500 years in the past. But the site is still regarded as a dangerous place to visit. Locals even told archeologists not to go, and definitely not to dig. But they have no idea why. The sense of a curse has lasted an aeon, but not why. And definitely not who. But so far only a limited amount has been uncovered. But the site was left pristine, untouched since the mass murder. The marauders killed the people and left them where they fell dead. The elements slowly destroyed the structures above them, which dirt eventually covered over. It may be the most pristine crime scene in history.
Don’t Kill Your Husband After Googling Murder Plan
10 PERCENT OF SITE REVEALED SO FAR, UNSPEAKABLE MURDER SCENE
Today the site is not recognizable as anything like a fort. It looks like a big green mound with rocks all around it. But what lies beneath should prove to continue to be a disturbing testament to the horrors men can do, and did do. But what happened? We don’t know. The fort used to have walls 16 feet high. But they were no protection to the raid that killed all the people who lived there. So far researchers have only explored a tenth of the site.
Researchers have worked for three years processing just that so far. They’ve found 26 bodies so far. All of them uncovered and laying where they fell dead. Some we now know died instantly. Others took some time to die. Archeologists found half eaten meals in the homes. These poor sods never knew what hit them.
KILLERS LEFT TREASURE BEHIND, ANIMALS TO STARVE AFTER KILLING ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE
But despite the time that has passed, no one has disturbed the seemingly cursed site. Gold Roman coins, jewelry and other riches were all left by the murderers. It’s as if someone wanted these people simply erased. Which is just what they did.
BREAKING: Extract the Sweet Tooth, Cancer and Sugar Are Love Made in Heaven, Research Shows
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There is no doubt that pain is one of the most important systems for survival. Even though we all feel pain, surprisingly little is known about pain mechanisms. Indeed, there are many outstanding fundamental questions in pain research, such as where acute pain is encoded in the brain, how pain competes with other processes. To further complicate matters, chronic pain is very different from acute or experimental pain. Chronic pain, defined as pain that persists longer than 3 months, and persists even after normal healing, is often associated with depression and anxiety, and abnormal brain structure and function1. One of the most important outstanding questions is how pain transitions from an acute, alarm state, to a disease chronic state.
A new study by Ren and colleagues2 in Nature Neuroscience provides novel evidence in rodents that the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), part of the ventral striatum – a region densely populated by dopamine receptors and typically associated with the processing hedonic stimuli and developing motor programs – is involved in the chronification of neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain is pain caused by nerve injury. The NAcc is a subregion of a set of brain regions called the basal ganglia – which just means a set of neurons that form structures in the core of the brain (see Figure 1). The basal ganglia are thought to be a more primitive part of the brain, and thus serve primitive functions such as sensation, emotion (limbic), motor responses. These functions are thought to be modulated by cortical inputs, and have evolved to underlie most brain functions.
The NAcc is composed of two subregions: the core and the shell. The shell of the NAcc is thought to be a limbic-motor interface, and is associated with addiction. Indeed, it receives dense input from the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC)3, which is related to depression [this is the ventral area of ACC that projects to VS (ventral striatum) in Figure 1]. It is believed that limbic pathways can modulate motor pathways through the NAcc.
Figure 1: Schematic illustrating key structures and pathways of the basal ganglia. Note: brainstem motor connections are not illustrated to simplify the figure. Cd, caudate nucleus; ACC, anterior cingulate cortex; dPFC, dorsal prefrontal cortex; GP, globus pallidus; LHb, lateral habenula; OFC, orbital frontal cortex; Pu, putamen; RMTg, rostromedial tegmental nucleus; SN, substantia nigra; STN, subthalamic n; Thal, thalamus; VP, ventral pallidum; VS, ventral striatum; VTA, ventral tegmental area. (Source 4 Suzanne Haber is the penultimate expert on the basal ganglia).
The study by Ren et al showed increased excitability only in cells specific to the shell of the NAcc (spiny projection neurons in the indirect pathway), which altered their connectivity. Furthermore, a common and widely used behavioural proxy measure of pain in rodent models of chronic pain is a withdrawal of the injured paw to a fine filament. Normally, this filament wouldn’t cause pain, and the animal wouldn’t withdraw their paw – but when injured, the paw becomes sensitive to light touch (much like a sunburn – a state called allodynia). The authors found that by ablating the shell of the NAcc, the rodents no longer withdrew their paw to the touch stimulus. To further demonstrate the link between allodynia and the NAcc, they then chemically activated these neurons and showed enhanced allodynia in rodents. This effect was blunted with a combination of an NSAID (Naproxen – also known as Aleve) and L-DOPA (a molecule that can be metabolized to make dopamine in the brain).
These findings are compelling as they corroborate recent evidence that the NAcc is involved in pain chronification of back pain in humans. However, another study in Nature Neuroscience showed that the direct and indirect striatal pathways may not be present in rodents5. So, there is converging evidence between human and rodent chronic pain mechanisms, but these should be interpreted with caution until the circuitry is established. There is, however, no doubt, that some pain behaviours engage the NAcc, and the study provides new avenues of research in neuropathic pain treatment.
- Davis, K. D. & Moayedi, M. Central Mechanisms of Pain Revealed Through Functional and Structural MRI. J Neuroimmune Pharmacol 8, 518-534 (2013).
- Ren, W. et al. The indirect pathway of the nucleus accumbens shell amplifies neuropathic pain. Nat Neurosci (2015).
- Haber, S. N., Kunishio, K., Mizobuchi, M. & Lynd-Balta, E. The orbital and medial prefrontal circuit through the primate basal ganglia. J Neurosci 15, 4851-4867 (1995).
- Haber, S. N. The place of dopamine in the cortico-basal ganglia circuit. Neuroscience 282C, 248-257 (2014).
- Kupchik, Y. M. et al. Coding the direct/indirect pathways by D1 and D2 receptors is not valid for accumbens projections. Nat Neurosci 18, 1230-1232 (2015). | <urn:uuid:aeb5ebe1-ce57-43f3-95ff-3ad7a0ad39ee> | {
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OSTIblog Articles in the extraction Topic
by Kathy Chambers 17 May, 2013 in Products and Content
If you look closely, you can find fossilized material on the banks of the Norris Lake shoreline in Anderson County, Tennessee when the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) lowers the water level. If you are really lucky, you will find traces of sea creatures or beautiful flora or fauna impressions encased between the freshly exposed layers of rock. These are ancient treasures from our country’s rich geological history.
A paleogeography reconstruction of the Earth took place some 56 to 34 million years ago during the Eocene geologic period of time . | <urn:uuid:2c0f90d1-dfc4-48fe-b433-501153c68aa8> | {
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Susanna Kaysen's account of her two-year hospitalization at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, begins in the spring of 1967. Kaysen, the daughter of Ivy League academics, witnessed firsthand the widening generation gap developing in America in the late 1960s. Older generations viewed their children's world with alarm and confusion and embraced few of the cultural changes occurring around the nation. Nearly 70 million children born to the World War II generation came of age as teenagers and young adults during this period. These “baby boomers” would have a massive impact on the American cultural identity.
The Vietnam War and the deep divide it created in American culture defined 1967 and 1968, the years of Susanna Kaysen's stay at McLean Hospital. Gritty, uncensored battle footage, widely available for the first time, riveted the nation. Draft protests became common in cities across the country. Young people marched on Washington and burned their draft cards, taking part in protests that often ended in violent clashes with police. The emergent hippie movement preached a lifestyle of peace and love through the celebration of music, sex, and psychedelic drugs. In the summer of 1967, several months after Kaysen entered McLean, San Francisco hosted the Summer of Love. Thousands of young people and curious observers converged on the city in the largest counterculture celebration to date.
While an angrier movement of antiwar protests replaced the “flower power” generation, efforts to achieve equality for women in American society were in full force. Prominent activists and writers like Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, and Mary McCarthy worked to expand the opportunities available to women in a society that favored men. The introduction of the birth control pill, legal abortions, and a general loosening of social restrictions on women embodied a fundamental shift in American attitudes.
In the midst of this turmoil, hospitals like McLean were caught in an awkward transitional period. McLean Hospital, founded in the early 19th century, had long been a refuge for the troubled members of wealthy and aristocratic families. Through the 1950s, privileged patients lived in well-appointed residence halls with fireplaces, private bathrooms, and servants. Well-known residents included poets Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath; Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted; Princeton mathematician and subject of A Beautiful Mind, John Forbes Nash; and, just prior to Kaysen's arrival, songwriter James Taylor. In the late 1960s, however, McLean had fallen into a period of benign neglect, no longer a luxurious refuge for the wealthy nor a cutting-edge mental health facility. This was due in large part to the changing face of the mental health care field.
Medical notions of mental illness had undergone a series of radical changes since the turn of the century. In the early 1900s, patients were often treated like incurable prisoners. “Talking cures,” developed by psychoanalysts like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, competed with physical therapies, such as electroshock therapy and surgical lobotomy, in which the frontal lobes of a patient’s brain are destroyed. Professionals became fierce advocates of preferred therapies and opponents of others. Controversy continued to roil the mental health field, as it does today. In the early 1950s, however, the synthesis and validation of the first clinically tested drugs to alter brain chemistry, such as Thorazine, introduced drastic changes in mental health practices. The widespread use of pharmaceutical treatments drastically reduced the demand for institutional commitment, a phenomenon that diminished the need for residential facilities like McLean. In the late 1960s, Susanna Kaysen resembled many other patients flooding mental health care facilities: young, relatively well-to-do, and very likely misunderstood by a mental health care establishment undergoing its own evolution.
Kaysen is deliberately ambiguous in addressing the issue of whether her hospitalization was medically necessary. She describes with scorn a physician’s twenty-minute diagnosis of her need for institutionalization but later recounts a number of frightening incidents that would seem to indicate that she genuinely needed help. Despite her difficulties as a teenager, Kaysen went on to a life as a successful writer. Besides Girl, Interrupted, for which she earned critical acclaim, Kaysen published the novels Asa, as I Knew Him (1987) and Far Afield (1990), as well as the memoir The Camera My Mother Gave Me (2001). A film adaptation of Girl, Interrupted appeared in 1999. Kaysen lives in Cambridge, Masschusetts. | <urn:uuid:7b309133-a231-4f5f-9239-ef15611fcae1> | {
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In 2010 the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) declared that 36% of all adult Americans and 17% of children are obese. If those numbers weren't alarming enough, a new study now asserts that the CDC methodology underestimated the number of fat adults - buy as much as 40%. How could this happen. Well the CDC uses the Body Mass Index (BMI). A mathematical equation that correlates a person's height and weight. The newer study conducted by Eric Braverman from the New York University School of Medicine compared the BMI measurement to more exacting methods of measuring a person's body fat. One of the tests is known as Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry. It measures body fat, muscle mass, bone density and leptin. Leptin is a body protein that regulates your metabolism. The researchers found that BMI underestimated obesity by 4%. This resulted in 39% of the people being reclassified as obese. The numbers for women are more frightening - 50% more should have been classified as obese.
Obesity in America is Much Worse Than We Thought
Statistics about obesity have been underestimating the number of obese Americans for years a new report found.
Body Adiposity (body fat) Index a Possible Alternative
Now in all fairness, these mis-classified people weren't told they were skinny. The classification went from overweight to obese. The BMI test is free. So it's much less expensive than the NYU researchers used. Another indicators that doctors have started to use is the Body Adiposity Index. This compares a person's height and hip measurement.
If you're at all concerned about your weight and its impact on your health, then if your BMI indicates that your overweight, you might want to request the more detailed health tests. A BMI of 30 currently indicates obesity. A BMI of 25 or under is considered healthy.
Th Body Adiposity Test is now being evaluated on Mexican-Americans and African-Americans to determine if it accurately portrays their health or obesity. Further tests will be required on White and Asian-Americans as well.
Obesity in America by State Using the BMI
Obesity in America has a distinct regional trend, with Southern States leading the way. Mississipi (34.0%) is the most obese state. Followed by West Virginia (32.5%), South Carolina (31.5%), Texas (31.0%), Oklahoma (30.4%), Kentucky (31.3%), Louisiana (31.0%), Michigan (30.9%), Missouri (30.5%), Alabama (32.2%).
Obesity in America is Costly
The CDC estimated that in 2008 obesity-related medical costs totaled $147 Billion. Obese patients spent more than $1,428 each year than people of normal weight. Obesity has also been linked to less worker productivity and more time off from work.
Diseases affected by obesity include heart disease, diabetes, liver and gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, and infertility.
Obesity in Pregnant Women Recently Linked to Autsim
A study released by the University of California at Davis suggest a strong link between women who entered pregnancy obese and the likelihood of delivering a child with autism. The way the study worked is that 1,000 children between the ages of two and five were studied. The results showed that an obese woman is 67% more likely to have a child with autism. Researchers believe that the combination of obesity, which then causes diabetes, combines to somehow affect the neurological development of the fetus. Although the study's finds said that obese women without diabetes were more than 67% likely to have a baby with autism.
Twenty percent of the mothers of children with autism were obese, while only 14% of mothers of children without autism or other developmental delays were obese.
Diabetes in and of itself might be a contributor to autism. The study determined that 9.3% of women with Type II diabetes had a child with autism and 11.6% had a child with at least developmental delay. | <urn:uuid:8a9d7ed5-b9f1-44e6-b76e-35cb318e5f82> | {
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In a new study that has found that ambient air pollution shortens human lives by more than one year, India is placed fourth among 185 countries in terms of average years of life expectancy lost due to exposure to PM2.5. Bangladesh (1.87 years), Egypt (1.85) and Pakistan (1.56) have been found to be at higher risk than India (1.53 years). The study also estimated that if PM2.5 in all countries met the World Health Organisation’s guideline for air quality (10 microgrammes per cubic metre), then life expectancy could increase by 0.6 years. In India, if PM2.5 levels were to be reduced from the current 74.1 microgrammes per cubic metre to 10, 15, 25 or 35 microgrammes/cu m, the study estimated that the potential increments in life expectancy would be between a year and about half a year (see table). The researchers used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study to measure PM2.5 exposure and its consequences in these 185 countries. They then quantified the national impact on life expectancy for each individual country, as well as on a global scale.
This Word Means — Fluoroquinolones
What do such drugs treat, why does the government want to issue labelling changes?
On Thursday, The Indian Express reported that the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) is likely to issue changes in labelling for “fluoroquinolones”, a class of antibiotic drugs. Fluoroquinolones are approved for the treatment or prevention of certain bacterial infections but, like other antibacterial drugs, they do not treat viral infections such as colds or flu. Various fluoroquinolones such as Ciprofloxacin, Norfloxacin, Ofloxacin, Levofloxacin and Moxifloxacin are available in India. For example, Norfloxacin is sold under different brand names by different companies in India: Norflox by Cipla, Enflox by Sun Pharmaceuticals, Norflot by Natco Pharma, etc. CDSCO is contemplating labelling changes following similar action taken by the United States Food and Drug Administration on July 10. The CDSCO is examining the issue in consultation with its subject expert committee. The USFDA made it clear on July 10 that pharmaceutical companies in the US would need to make labelling changes on fluoroquinolones “to strengthen the warnings about the risks of mental health side effects and serious blood sugar disturbances”, and make these “warnings more consistent across all fluoroquinolones taken by mouth or given by injection”. The USFDA added that these labelling changes have been decided “based on a comprehensive review” of the drugs’ adverse event reports and case reports published in medical literature. Edward Cox, director of the Office of Antimicrobial Products, USFDA, stated on July 10: “The use of fluoroquinolones has a place in the treatment of serious bacterial infections — such as certain types of bacterial pneumonia — where the benefits of these drugs outweigh the risks, and they should remain available as a therapeutic option.”
— DEEPAK PATEL | <urn:uuid:e9ca4b62-acbd-4c08-bbc1-38f5dfd11893> | {
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Consider your audience No matter what kind of writing you are doing, you must consider for whom you are writing it. Who’s your audience? This is a good question to ask even as you write your high school papers. If your answer is, “my teacher,” then you may not fare as well as you might if you imagined about writing a paper (about a Shakespearean play, for example, or the causes of the Civil War) for your mother. I’m serious. If you write for your teacher, you are going to presume too much knowledge on the part of your reader. You’re going to forget to tell the story, neglect to connect the analytical dots, and assume that your teacher (who already knows the causes of the Civil War) will fill in the blanks. But too many blanks make for a holey paper. So, write it for your mom. She can understand your academic point (because she’s a smart woman and she loves you), but you may have to lead her through it more methodically, and you may have to explain things a bit more carefully. And a methodical, careful paper is going to be better than a holey one. So for whom are you writing your college essays? Good question. The answer is “some anonymous reader of unknown age or life experience whose job it is to find some reason to say no to my college application.” Are you starting to tense up? Actually, you don’t have to imagine your audience in such a negative light. But you do have to keep in mind some basic characteristics of your audience. These characteristics will help you write a more methodical, careful paper (and not a holey one). Your reader is tired and easily bored. It’s the dead of winter and he is curled up in front of his space heater, drinking tea, trying to get through as many applications as he possibly can tonight before he starts all over again in the morning. Your essay is the 65th he has read today, and very few have been memorable. He yearns to be entertained. He wants to see something fresh and interesting. He wants to appreciate an creative twist on the same-old essay prompts. He wants something that reads well…like a mystery novel, a juicy gossip column, or at least a well-crafted feature in the Chicago Tribune. So punch it up. One of the best ways to do this is to pay close attention to the first and last lines of the essay. The first sentence or two, especially, is worthy of your careful consideration: give your reader some reason to sit up and take notice. Your reader may scan your essay first, just to see if it’s worth reading carefully. Again, these essays all begin to sound the same after a while. So it’s natural to imagine your reader scanning it first to discern whether this is just one more formulaic piece about the happy poor people you served at the soup kitchen one evening, or about how you saved the big game by throwing the touchdown pass in the final seconds of the game. Therefore, you can help your reader do the scanning by using some of those excellent writing devices you began learning in primary school. Clear structure: introduction, body, conclusion. Strong paragraph form. Clear transitions. Chronological sign posts: “first did this, then I did that, finally I did that other thing.” You learned these techniques years ago: now is the time to deploy them. Your reader does not have any inside information about your life. So assume nothing. If you’re writing about skiing, pretend your reader is an oboe player. If you are waxing eloquent about physics, assume your reader prefers poetry. Avoid using abbreviations or acroynms that may be perfectly clear to you and your friends, but may have no meaning beyond your circle. To tell someone that you passed through the IC building to go the LRC in order to work on your EE is to use language no one except someone who follows you around day-to-day could understand. Similarly, don’t assume that if you are writing your essay about model trains that your reader understands the difference between an STD and a HO gauge. You have to assume that your reader is educated and happy to learn new about model trains, but don’t start getting technical on him or you’ll lose him (and he’ll doze off there in front of that nice, warm space heater…).
Your reader really wants to like you. Most students imagine admissions officers as really scary people. But it’s not true. Admissions folks are an interesting breed. They generally love their jobs, and they enjoy learning about young people. They seem themselves as not as the evil gatekeepers who take delight in rejecting applicants with a villainous cackle as they scrawl a big “deny” across your file in frog bile. Rather, they want to share their community with interesting people, and they are genuinely hunting for someone interesting like you. So think of your reader as someone who is supportive and kind to young people. Thinking about the person who will ready your essay will help as you craft it. Don’t assume to much of him, positively or negatively. Just be compassionate and understanding. Know where he is coming from. This knowledge will help you structure your piece in a way that he will appreciate, and that will give him every reason to leap up out of his chair and cry, “finally, someone who understands me!” | <urn:uuid:1ae97484-882f-4902-8f0f-23b97e93f1d7> | {
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"The Important Roles Of Women In The Odyssey"
The Women of the Odyssey
Many people regard Homer's epics as war stories--stories about men; those people often overlook the important roles that women play in the Odyssey. While there are not many female characters in the Odyssey, the few that there are, play pivotal roles in the story and one can gain a lot of insight by analyzing how those women are portrayed. Homer portrays the females in contradictory ways: the characters of Athena and Eurykleia are given strong, admirable roles while Melantho, the Sirens and Circe are depicted in a much more negative way. Penelope--the central fem…
- "The Important Roles Of Women In The Odyssey"
- The portrayal of women in novels written hundreds of years ago. Speaks of "The Medea" and King Arthur
- The portrayal of women in the novels "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Marquez and "The House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende.
E-pasta adrese, uz kuru nosūtīt darba saiti:
Saite uz darbu: | <urn:uuid:f00e8438-b4ce-46da-a0c4-007f88dcb74f> | {
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Tadeusz Kościuszko, in full Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kościuszko, English Thaddeus Kosciusko (born February 4, 1746, Mereczowszczyzna, Poland [now in Belarus]—died October 15, 1817, Solothurn, Switzerland), Polish army officer and statesman who gained fame both for his role in the American Revolution and for his leadership of a national insurrection in his homeland.
Kościuszko was born to a family of noble origin and was educated at the Piarist college in Lubieszów and the military academy in Warsaw, where he later served as an instructor. Kościuszko’s outstanding abilities soon attracted the attention of King Stanisław II Augustus Poniatowski, who sent him to Paris for further study in military and civil architecture and in painting. Returning home in 1774, he taught drawing and mathematics to the daughters of a general, Józef Sosnowski; he fell in love with Ludwika, one of the daughters, and tried unsuccessfully to elope with her.
Facing the wrath of Ludwika’s father, Kościuszko fled to France, and in 1776 he went to America, where he joined the colonial forces fighting for independence from the British. That August he was transferred to the Pennsylvania Committee of Defense in Philadelphia, where he took part in planning fortifications to defend the residence of the Continental Congress against the British. For this work he was given the rank of engineer colonel. In spring 1777, he was assigned to the army of General Horatio Gates at Fort Ticonderoga, in northern New York. Beginning in July Kościuszko became active in Gates’s army, closing by fortifications all roads along the Hudson River and thus contributing to the capitulation of the British army under General John Burgoyne at Saratoga on October 17. He spent the next two years fortifying West Point, New York, where in March 1780 he was appointed chief of the engineering corps. That summer, serving under General Nathanael Greene in North Carolina, he twice rescued the army from enemy advances by directing the crossing of the Yadkin and Dan rivers. In the spring of 1781 in South Carolina, Kościuszko conducted the Battle of Ninety-Six and then a lengthy blockade of Charleston. At the end of the war he was given U.S. citizenship and was made a brigadier general in the U.S. Army. | <urn:uuid:6cac3af4-95f0-406a-9ee6-3efb2f329b4a> | {
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BS in Computer Engineering (CENG)
The computer engineering program prepares students for life-long careers by providing them with the engineering and technical education appropriate to meet modern technological challenges. The basic curriculum includes required coursework in mathematics, basic sciences, humanities, social sciences, and fundamental engineering topics in circuit analysis, electronics, electrical systems, digital systems, assembly language, data structures, operating systems, and software engineering. Computer engineering students are required to select three senior elective courses from a wide variety of subject areas to fit their particular interests. Elective subject areas include digital signal processing, microprocessor-based system design, computer networks, and computer architecture. | <urn:uuid:ae898d32-4608-4591-b3d9-e005c59079a9> | {
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In water-rich Canada, we tend to take this natural resource for granted. But water conservation, already a subject of vital importance in drier parts of the world, including much of Africa and the western United States, is becoming an issue of global concern. And as climate change concerns intensify, water conservation will become an ever bigger issue.
Because water systems consume huge amounts of energy for pumping and treatment, water conservation is directly linked to the carbon footprint of a company, city or household. Cutting water use means cutting energy use, and many companies are finding innovative ways to decrease the flow.
What's on tap?
Next month, Labatt Breweries of Canada will be get a Water Efficiency Award from the Ontario Water Works Association, the industry association for drinking-water professionals. The Canadian brewing industry has made big strides in water conservation, and, over the past decade, Labatt's brewery in London, Ont., has cut the amount of water it uses to make beer by half.
Brewing is a surprisingly water-intensive industry. There's a lot of equipment and bottles that need to be washed, steam pours off during the brewing process, and water is also used for cooling. In 2003, for every bottle of beer produced, the brewery used the equivalent of more than seven bottles of water. Labatt cut that ratio dramatically, saving enough water to fill nearly 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools every year just at the brewery in London, where the company began its brewing tradition 164 years ago.
"It's about controlling costs, but also about creating a better environment for us," says Jeff Ryan, director of corporate affairs for Labatt Breweries of Canada. "If we don't protect and save water, we might not be able to brew beer in London for another 164 years."
One of the big changes came in 2008, when the brewery started re-using water in its bottle washing process. Instead of using fresh water from the city, it would use the water from the final rinse of one batch of bottles for the pre-rinse of the next batch. Along with improving sensors on the washers, this saved 86 million litres a year, the equivalent of 34 swimming pools.
In 2009 the company took a close look at its pasteurizers and realized they weren't running as efficiently as they could. With some fine-tuning, the company saved a further 40 million litres of water annually. Last year they added another 28 million litres in savings by sending the relatively clean grey water from the pasteurizing system to their powerhouse to use for chilling liquids used in the brewing process.
Other changes were as simple as using smaller spray nozzles at higher pressure for rinsing and making sure equipment is running as efficiently as possible. Steam from the brewing process is captured and run through generators to produce electricity before being condensed and re-used. The plant has its own 4-megawatt natural gas co-generation facility to produce electricity and steam, providing about 65 per cent of the brewery's energy needs.
To ensure maximum efficiency, Labatt checks its performance against a database maintained by its parent company, Anheuser-Bush InBev, the world's largest brewer, with facilities in 23 countries. This way, the London brewery will know if, for example, its bottle washer is using more water than the same model is at one of the company's other breweries. With daily tracking, problems can be quickly identified and dealt with, Mr. Ryan says.
Most of the ideas came from workers on the brewery floor because they know the process best, he adds. Those ideas are shared on a company intranet, so if workers in London realize that they could use a smaller hose, then a brewery in Edmonton can also benefit.
While getting people to take shorter showers and buy low-flow toilets has an effect, serious water conservation programs have to involve industry. In Toronto, for example, just 1,000 users account for a third of all water consumption. At a time when the city is cutting programs everywhere, including some of its residential water conservation programs, it is continuing its Capacity Buy-Back Program, aimed at industry and large institutions, such as hospitals.
Toronto is working to reduce water consumption by 15 per cent, or 212 million litres a day. While this will have environmental benefits, it is not altruism but economics that sits behind the conservation programs.
"It's a win-win situation," says Lou Di Gironimo, general manager of Toronto Water, of the Capacity Buy-Back Program, in which the city kicks in cash when companies make and document permanent water savings.
Companies end up with lower water bills, saving them money, and it also makes them more competitive and likely to stay in the city, he says. But for the city, the savings are even more important. "We can gain back that capacity and delay future costs," he says. "We can handle population growth without huge infrastructure costs."
The program has cut demand enough that the city now rarely experiences shortages during summer peak demand periods, and Mr. Di Gironimo says it recently saved $185-million because the city didn't need to build as large a water treatment plant as it would have without the program.
Companies and governments are going to have different reasons for conserving water in different regions, but the bottom line will always be a strong motivator. As pressure on water resources intensifies, the cost of water will go up, making conservation an even bigger priority.
In Ontario, the pressure largely comes from the cost of water infrastructure, such as pipes and treatment facilities. However, across the border in the Great Lakes states, supply is a bigger issue.
A huge volume of water is diverted from the Great Lakes into thirstier parts of the U.S., most famously through the Chicago Diversion, which began with a shipping canal in 1848 and today serves some 7 million people.
In 2008, a powerful new piece of legislation called the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Compact came into effect, ratified by Canada, the U.S., Ontario, Quebec and the eight states in the basin. It requires that water taken from the basin for use must be treated and returned to the basin, and also bans new water diversions. If a city straddling the basin's border wants to grow, it will need to cut water use to free up supply.
By contrast, in the Prairies, climate change itself will make water scarcity an issue. According to The New Normal, an anthology of research about climate change and the Canadian Prairies published by the Canadian Plains Research Centre at the University of Regina, the region will not necessarily get drier. Instead, it will have more concentrated and intense bursts of rainfall between drought periods. As a result, the priority will be on improving the efficiency of reservoirs, covering irrigation canals to reduce evaporation, and conserving water in cities so reservoirs don't run dry and crops don't wither during droughts.
Keeping companies afloat
While water conservation can be driven by government policy and incentives, it is frequently the effect of the bottom line that motivates companies to invest in new technology.
WIKA Instruments in Lawrenceville, Georgia makes temperature and pressure gauges. Between 2007 and 2009, the company replaced the water chilling systems on its 15 soldering stations with new ones that recirculate the water.
"We needed to conserve some water. Bottom line is we wanted to save some money, as we'd hit the recession," says company spokesperson Melissa Smith.
The company cut daily water usage from 60,305 gallons to 13,194 gallons. The chilling units cost $29,000 (U.S.), but paid themselves off quickly, as the company's water bill went down by $39,000 in the first year alone.
Environmentally, the effect is significant. WIKA gets its water from Lake Lanier, the artificial reservoir that's the water source for Atlanta and significant portions of Georgia, Florida and Alabama. The reservoir has been severely strained during recent droughts, threatening the supply of fresh water to cities and wildlife, and leading to controversial bans on outdoor water use. Switching to recirculating cooling systems means the company draws 10.5 million gallons less from that reservoir per year.
Whether it's saving money, deferring infrastructure costs or simply making sure there's enough water to go around, companies and governments are going to be increasingly challenged to find innovative ways to conserve water in years to come. In some cases it will require new technology like the chillers WIKA installed. In others, it will be as simple as making it a priority to fix leaks or use a smaller spray nozzle.
In 2006, global food giant General Mills set a goal of cutting its water use of about 2.3 cubic metres of water per ton of product by 5 per cent. Last year, they hit 2.1 cubic metres, a solid 9 per cent reduction from 2006.
Although the company does expect water use to increase in 2011, it does have a few water-saving tricks up its sleeve. One is the "scoop shower." Ice cream scoops at Hagen Dazs shops are kept in cups that have water continuously flowing over them, in order to prevent bacteria from building up. One cup could use 250,000 litres of water in a year, and each store has two or three.
The new scoop shower cup has a button that blasts water for five or six seconds to clean the scoop. The company set up the new scoop showers at 30 of its stores and saw tap water use go down by 75 per cent.
Making eyeglass lenses doesn't use a huge volume of water, but after the plastic is cut and ground, the lenses have to be thoroughly cleaned. Then there are coatings, perhaps dozens of layers thick on high-quality lenses.
Essilor International is the world's largest manufacturer of eyeglass lenses. In 2006, it made water its environmental priority. One of the first changes was made at its factory in Dijon, France. It changed the way its cascade rinsing system works and cut water use by nearly two-thirds. It also began a company-wide analysis of water use, considering the feasibility of closed-loop systems. Essilor stated at the time that it wanted to do this before water scarcity became an issue. Last year the company used just under 2.4 million cubic metres of water, down from 2.8 million in 2006. | <urn:uuid:5cc47da5-9679-4a7f-9602-f157b09df5eb> | {
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How animals in the hydrothermal vent can live with the high temperature.
ekhatipoREMOVE at midway.uchicagoREMOVE.edu
Wed Mar 27 15:04:50 EST 2002
There is amother important issue that I believe should be considered, namely
pressure at the sea bed. Water is not boiling at 400C down there simply
because the pressure is too high. In respect to boiling point, the 400C
corrected to high pressure is in fact around 70-80C. That is why most
thermophiles have in lab conditions temperature optimum ~70C. None of these
bacteria will grow in boiling water (100C) at normal atmospheric pressure.
Of course, thermophiles have a lot of adaptations that allow them to survive
at high temperatures: heat stable proteins and special chaperons, more
viscous lipids of the membrane and other characterized and yet to be
discovered. Another factor is salinity, especially higher mineralization
near the thermal vents. Many extremophiles are halophiles as well.
"Remond" <cpc272688 at yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:890c20f2.0203090333.397c9a64 at posting.google.com...
> When someone know that the temperature in a hydrothermal vent can
> reach 400 degrees Celsius, he will think that this place(hydrothermal
> vent) is not a good place for life. But after many years of search,
> many scientists prove the existence of many forms of life live around
> these vents by using the submersible Alvin. The question is: How these
> forms of life can stand with this extreme temperature?
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Telecentre Europe Awards 2016 Entry: Best Practice
Geographical range: Brussels Capital Region, Belgium
Contact person: Veronique De Leener
1. BRIEF EXPLANATION
The Capital Digital project aims to reach two age groups: on the one hand, we want to train young people (aged 15+) in the basics of coding, but we also provide them with the necessary pedagogical skills to transfer this knowledge onto children. Our aim in the short term is to improve essential IT-skills of young people and to teach them the basics of coding. In the long term, we want to make disadvantaged target groups aware of the career paths that lead to jobs in the IT and tech sector – where they are currently underrepresented.
- training (3x/year) for young people (15 to 25 years old) to train them as e-facilitators for the coding camps for children.
- coding camps for children (3x/year) where children learn the basics of coding and learn to make a simple app or game or learn to program a robot
2. WHY IS IT A BEST PRACTICE
The main challenge addressed by the project is a lack of people from disadvantaged target groups accessing STEM career paths and particularly IT-careers because of:
1. Inadequate education
2. Vicious circle of exclusion (gender and socio-economic situation)
3. Lack of "science capital" i.e. undetermined role and importance of science at daily life of local communities (negative stereotypes, difficult access to scientific knowledge, lack of its hands-on dimension and shortages in intersectorial cooperation)
So far we have engaged with hundreds of young people and children, encouraging to engage with IT in a fun, creative and engaging way. Research has shown that building their science capital will have a positive effect on young people’s lives – not just in terms of encouraging more young people to continue into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) jobs, but more importantly, building science capital is a tool for social justice, to help improve people’s lives and life chances.
At the same time, we show the potential and enthusiasm of young people who recently became particularly stigmatized because of the neighborhoods they live in or their ethnic backgrounds. We believe the boost Capital Digital gives to their self-esteem is very valuable. The counter narrative against prejudiced media is equally important.
Add a Comment | <urn:uuid:7ff40d3c-08cc-4099-a901-451c3cadcded> | {
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New Pb 207 pp.
Subject: History & Biography,Ethnic Studies
Sejarah Melayu: The Malay Annals
From the period at which Europeans first visited these islands, their civil history may be summed up in few words; it is included in that of their commerce. The extensive trade of these islands had long collected at certain natural and advantageous emporia; of these, Bautain, Achau, Malacca and Macasser were the principal.
When we consider the extent of this unparalleled archipelago; the vanity and peculiar character of its resources; its contiguity to China and Japan, the most populous regions of the earth; and the extraordinary facilities it affords to commerce, from the smoothness of its seas, the number and excellence of its harbours, and the regularity of its monsoons; it would be vain to assign limits, or to say how far and wide the tide of commerce might not have flowed, or how great the progress of civilization might not have flowed, or how great the progress of civilization might not have been, had they been allowed to pursue their free and uninterrupted course, protected and encouraged by a more enlightened and liberal government.
-- Sir Stamford Raffle
|Zone||Weight||Delivery Fee (RM)|
|West Malaysia||First 0.50 kg||8.00|
|West Malaysia||Additional 0.25 kg||2.00|
|Sarawak||First 0.50 kg||10.00|
|Sarawak||Additional 0.25 kg||2.00|
|Sabah||First 0.50 kg||11.00|
|Sabah||Additional 0.25 kg||2.00| | <urn:uuid:490c2fd6-46af-4729-b775-5215986de8b6> | {
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Identifying Hurdles to Renewable Electricity Transmission
SOURCE: AP/Thanassis Stavrakis
This article contains a correction.
Download this report (pdf)
The next administration will face an extensive list of simultaneous policy challenges, not least of which include an international financial crisis, two wars abroad, and the growing climate crisis. While President Barack Obama navigates which issues and policies to prioritize, an essential element of our nation’s economic recovery must be investing in a clean energy economy in order to create jobs and spur economic growth and prosperity, while at the same time fighting global warming and addressing national security.
This report seeks to highlight the multiple challenges and opportunities for action to vastly increase our nation’s renewable energy generation and connect this clean energy to the grid via advanced electrical transmission construction. Identifying the significant, but by no means insurmountable, obstacles to implementing this vision is the first step toward designing policy solutions that enable investments to not only significantly reduce our nation’s global warming emissions but also to put us on a path to a clean energy future.
Our electricity grid is an integral but often overlooked element in the shift to a low-carbon economy. The current grid configuration cannot handle the growth in electricity demand expected over the next few decades unless we act quickly to modernize it. Grid modernization must be compatible with scaling up renewable energy generation, including the ability to incorporate intermittent renewable electricity generation, and carrying renewable power to city centers, which in many cases will require long-distance transmission. Additional important modernization efforts also include grid expansion, improved connectivity between different U.S. regions, increased efficiency of electricity transmission, improved security to ensure reliable supply of electricity, and adoption of smart grid technologies.
The electricity grid in the United States is often heralded as one of the world’s first great technological achievements in modern history. The grid pioneered national access to electricity and spurred prosperity, and it now represents a central piece of economic and societal infrastructure. But nearly a century after grid construction began, no major updates have occurred. In a recent publication, the Department of Energy frames the issue well: If Alexander Bell were to see his original invention—the telephone—today, he would be blown away by the progress of telecommunications. In stark contrast, not much has changed for electricity distribution and technologies since Thomas Edison’s time.
Currently, the United States derives only 2 to 3 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, excluding hydropower. A national Renewable Portfolio Standard, or RPS—which sets a target percentage of renewable energy generation by a certain year—would dramatically increase this percentage and can serve as an important step toward establishing a low-carbon economy and combating global warming. President-elect Obama has endorsed a national RPS of 10 percent by 2012 and 25 percent by 2025. In the absence of federal leadership, 27 states and the District of Columbia have established state-level RPS requirements, and six additional states have explicit renewable electricity goals. Thus, about 70 percent of the U.S. population is currently under a renewable electricity mandate or goal.
Reaching the target set by any type of renewable portfolio standard requires grid modernization and new transmission, yet how to proceed is a contentious and difficult policy challenge. A timely example is unfolding in Minnesota, where Xcel Energy and other regional utilities are working on a project called CapX 2020 to add more than 700 miles of new transmission in order to help meet the state RPS. The project is encountering a variety of obstacles, which reveal the difficulty that scaling up renewable electricity production is likely to face.
Implementation hurdles to CapX 2020 and other projects include environmental, public, and political concerns, siting authority, permit approval procedures, and environmental impact assessments. We will explore these issues here and briefly discuss other challenges that must be addressed, such as a qualified workforce, grid access, and cost recovery for new construction.
Even though new construction of renewable energy facilities and transmission lines offers significant environmental benefits—including reducing greenhouse gas emissions—any new construction risks facing public opposition for aesthetic, economic, or environmental reasons. Typical objections include charges that new construction obstructs views, reduces property values, and could harm endangered species and habitats.
One project that faced widespread public opposition is the offshore wind farm called Cape Wind in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the Nantucket Sound. The project was first proposed in 2001 and its developer spent years fighting public claims that the farm would be a visual sore, negatively affect tourism to the region, and threaten birds, bottom-dwelling fish species, and boat navigation. This type of opposition is frequently called the not-in-my-backyard syndrome, or NIMBY, which describes a common tendency for people to favor a project until it directly affects them. Six years after Cape Wind was proposed, in January 2008, the U.S. Minerals Management Service completed an environmental impact statement and approved the wind farm, concluding it would not have a significant, lasting effect on wildlife, tourism, or navigation. Efforts must be made to both integrate the public’s concern and expedite such decision-making processes.
The opportunities to modernize the grid and the added urgency to combat global warming highlight the need to act quickly. Involving constituents early in the decision-making process can help temper public opposition to renewable energy infrastructure. Working with different constituencies so that they understand the energy and global warming challenge and the employment and economic growth opportunities associated with clean energy infrastructure can generate greater support for these projects, too.
One successful case study is the western United States. Both the Western Governors’ Association and individual states like Colorado have aggressively pursued initiatives to expand renewable energy capacity on the grid. This year the WGA launched the Western Renewable Energy Zones Project to expedite the development and delivery of clean and renewable energy, and last year Colorado passed legislation (SB 100) requiring utilities to identify renewable energy resources and plan transmission lines to harness those resources. To accomplish these projects, WGA and Colorado have embarked on thorough stakeholder processes to ensure that invested voices have the opportunity to be heard. As a result, the West is making notable progress toward constructing the necessary renewable energy transmission infrastructure. In contrast, Pennsylvania and surrounding Mid-Atlantic states have seen opposition erupt over a transmission corridor designation, mainly due to the lack of sufficient consultation with the public and with state and local authorities.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires the Secretary of Energy to designate National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors, or NIETCs, in areas experiencing electricity transmission constraints or congestion. The law also grants the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission backstop eminent domain authority to grant permits for interstate transmission lines if a transmission developer is not able to site a line at the state level after a year or under certain other conditions, and the line is in an NIETC. Eminent domain authority allows the federal government to bypass or override state or local decisions on electricity transmission siting in the name of national interest, even when facing objections from states, localities, or private property owners. With this authority, the federal government has identified two NIETC corridors, one in the Southwest consisting of parts of Southern California and Western Arizona and the other in the Mid-Atlantic.
The Mid-Atlantic NIETC spans large parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, and has also drawn significant opposition. In Pennsylvania, the NIETC encompasses 50 of the state’s 67 counties, and includes historic sites, agricultural land, protected habitats, and national parks. During the public comment period, over 2,000 replies were submitted expressing concern over the corridor, and the extent of land incorporated caused Governor Ed Rendell to describe the designation “so broad as to be meaningless.” At least 14 senators representing Mid-Atlantic states are also opposed to the corridor. No fewer than three bills have been introduced in Congress to repeal or modify the federal government’s eminent domain authority in response to the Mid-Atlantic NIETC’s designation.
These examples shed light on a hurdle to new transmission and generation: The conflict over federal versus state jurisdiction over new transmission projects and authority over siting decisions. Navigating this question is proving to be politically contentious and time-consuming. Another pending conflict is in the Southwest, where Southern California Edison has launched a pre-filing consultation process with FERC in an effort to build a new transmission line between Arizona and Southern California after failing to reach agreement about this new line with Arizona.
There is still much to be done to facilitate work between federal and state authorities to determine new transmission corridors. This is especially important in light of the increasing demand for new transmission to meet new electricity demand, stabilize the grid, and facilitate connecting renewable electricity to the grid.
Permit Approval Procedures
Another hurdle to siting renewable energy infrastructure is that permit criterion, application, and review processes are inconsistent across municipalities, counties, states, and the federal government. Efforts must be ramped up to develop an integrated strategy for working across jurisdictions and federal agencies to ensure swift and comprehensive review and permitting. A wind farm proposal, for example, could fall to any one of eight federal agencies, but there is no streamlined process for coordinated action. Developing greater coordination across agencies and between state and federal government will be critical in order to reach ambitious goals for renewable energy penetration in our electrical supply.
In the three years since the Energy Policy Act of 2005 encouraged renewable energy development on federal land, the Bureau of Land Management has yet to approve a single concentrated solar or solar PV facility. Additionally, during the summer of 2008, the BLM attempted to entirely freeze solar applications on BLM-managed land until it could sort out its environmental assessment. However, the agency’s attempted moratorium was met with fervent protest and the decision was reversed within months.
Another example occured in October 2008, when the Department of Interior announced it compiled a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for geothermal applications on federally owned or managed land; however, the Environmental Protection Agency has raised concerns about groundwater and air quality impacts regarding the PEIS.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires coordinated effort by the secretaries of agriculture, commerce, defense, energy, and interior, in consultation with FERC, other governments, industries, and other interested parties to designate energy corridors for oil, gas, and hydrogen pipelines as well as electricity transmission and distribution facilities on federal lands, in part in an to attempt to reduce federal siting hurdles experienced by energy developers. Recently, the federal government designated the West-wide energy corridor, which stretches across 11 states and covers nearly 3 million acres. Western states that the corridor affects have made recent attempts to prioritize renewable energy generation and transmission, such as through the Western Renewable Energy Zones Project.
The West-wide designation has met with public opposition because of claims it should have given greater prioritization to renewable electricity, and that the involved federal agencies did not adequately consult regional or local entities before creating the energy corridors on protected federal lands, such as New Mexico’s Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and Arches National Park. This experience makes it clear that there are many priorities to consider as we develop our nation’s energy resources. While difficult choices between conflicting priorities will continue to arise, there will also be opportunities to address these challenges as efforts to scale up renewable energy proceed.
One of the goals of new renewable energy infrastructure and supporting electrical grid investments to connect areas of high renewable energy potential to regions of the country with the greatest demand is to advance the environmental goal of reducing our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions and to facilitate a shift to a low-carbon economy. The Center for American Progress has argued that federal permitting of new projects that require environmental impact statements under the National Environmental Policy Act should not only consider greenhouse gas emissions resulting from those projects, but also the projected impacts of global warming on these projects to ensure responsible spending of taxpayer dollars. Thus, when weighed against high-carbon energy development projects, renewable projects should be accelerated given global warming considerations. Yet new construction and development invariably have environmental impacts, and environmental review is indispensable to understand a project’s impact on natural habitats and wildlife, endangered species, water supply, water quality, and air quality. Decisions must be considered given regulation set by the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act, among others.
Recently the Environmental Protection Agency warned that the evaluation drafted by the Interior Department—the PEIS mentioned above—does not adequately consider geothermal energy’s effect on water quality. In the millions of acres identified by the DOI for geothermal development, there are 23 aquifers that people depend on for drinking water. Before moving forward on a large scale, the EPA argues we need a concrete understanding of if and how much water supply could be depleted (particularly in the West).
Still, the environmental impact of renewable energy is estimated to be far less than that of fossil fuels, particularly in terms of water withdrawal and land disturbance. Renewable electricity-generating technologies are estimated to use tens of billions of gallons less water than thermoelectric power plants. Coal mining is estimated to disrupt 400,000 hectares of U.S. land each year. In contrast, a Department of Energy scenario that sketches how to acquire 20 percent of our nation’s electricity from wind power by 2030 suggests that wind farms would cause a one-time disruption of 100,000 to 250,000 hectares. That is, if they cannot be sited on previously disturbed lands, such as “brownfield” sites. California has expressed a preference for siting new renewable energy generation on brownfield sites because reusing the land reduces environmental degradation, and the California Energy Commission wishes to see environmental criterion that weighs this benefit.
A qualified workforce, grid access, and the question of cost recovery are additional challenges to address.
Despite the political interest, enthusiasm, and necessity to revamp our energy and electricity infrastructure, we have not yet adequately invested in facilitating a ramped-up clean energy and transmission workforce, including engineers, manufacturers, and construction workers. A 2006 study by the National Renewable Energy Lab identified the shortage of skills and training as a leading non-technical barrier causing a bottleneck in the future growth of the renewable energy and energy-efficiency industries. This growing skills shortage is occurring even as the American Public Power Association reports that half of current utility workers will retire within the next decade. Policymakers must work to remedy this shortfall through comprehensive low-carbon energy and workforce training programs.
We have the opportunity to create a truly national electricity grid that facilitates renewable energy access. Currently, we do not have one, large grid; we have three, separate regional grids called Interconnects—the Western Interconnect, the Eastern Interconnect, and the Texas Interconnect. The current capacity to transmit electricity across interconnects is very limited. Therefore the grid’s current structure prohibits states with abundant solar or wind energy from transmitting large amounts of this power between interconnects, a technical barrier to transporting electricity to where it could be most needed.
Ensuring renewable energy access to transmission infrastructure—existing infrastructure as well as new transmission lines—is another imperative. Part of this challenge requires load integration between renewable and traditional sources. Because renewable electricity is an emerging market with fresh actors, certain energy providers have yet to prioritize renewable electricity and are in the process of learning the best techniques to integrate renewable energy, especially since it is often an intermittent source. Yet transmission lines are in high demand, and new transmission networks also need to be built out. As the example of the West-wide corridor illustrates, renewable energy still needs to emerge as a priority in planning stages so that it is not disadvantaged in terms of accessing transmission capacity.
Finally, utilities, developers, and policymakers have to decide how to distribute costs and create a plan to pay for renewable energy transmission infrastructure. Should electricity ratepayers who benefit see a slight increase in prices, or should a renewable energy-compatible overhaul be something that taxpayers help fund in the greater interest of their state, region, or nation? Here, too, we may need innovation and a national approach to problem solving.
Traditional strategies for rate recovery allocate the costs of new projects to those rate payers who benefit, but this regional allocation of costs may not be sufficient when the benefits of improved reliability and greater use of clean energy are benefits that accrue to the nation at large, or the scope of the benefits is much larger than any single utility or service area. In these cases, there may be strong reasons for a federal commitment to take on the costs of upgrading our electrical infrastructure to provide a truly national clean energy network. Regardless of the ultimate resolution of this question, it is a near certainty that innovative financing and policy tools will be important moving forward.
Our economy is in trouble, and a massive investment in clean energy must be part of the solution. We are in need of major investments to rejuvenate communities, create new markets and growing industries, and create jobs rebuilding our infrastructure. At the same time we also need to take significant steps to reduce our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
America’s electricity grid is a vulnerable intersection of our national security interests and our energy and economic security as well, yet it can be a tremendous source of inspiration for America’s spirit of innovation, and a good way to invest in a more prosperous future. A clean energy economy is not only better for the environment, but it is also more modern, more efficient, safer, and enables tremendous cost savings for American workers and their employers. As the Obama administration sets its priorities, it must take a close look at new renewable electricity generation and the advanced transmission that will be required to take wind, solar, and geothermal to a national scale. As the administration lays new plans for infrastructure, government at all stages must be engaged in finding new solutions and new opportunities for collaboration to meet our shared national interest in building a green, prosperous, and vibrant low-carbon economy.
Special thanks to Bracken Hendricks and Benjamin Goldstein.
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202.481.8119 or [email protected] | <urn:uuid:95960bc4-2bea-487f-8932-b02567fd318e> | {
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So, I decided to give it one last try and searched for more information about how Arduino writes the PWM signal. (Leonardo's datasheet, page 133: http://www.atmel.com/images/atmel-7766-8-bit-avr-atmega16u4-32u4_datasheet.pdf)
If you look in Arduino's source code (file "wiring.c") - by default the D5 and D9 ports use "Phase Correct PWM" (counting from 0x00 to 0xFF), but there are more PWM options there.
Most of them produced very distorted sounds, but "Fast PWM" (from 0x00 to 0xFF) seems to do the trick! So before any calls to analogWrite(), we need to change from "Phase Correct PWM" to "Fast PWM" like this:
#define OSCILLATOR_PORT 5
bitSet(TCCR3B, WGM32); // <---- Switch the PWM mode used by Arduino.
After switching to that mode the buzzing stopped immediately. I don't know exactly why it works, but... it works! | <urn:uuid:b0798bbf-dbce-45da-9a2b-3c4a990764b7> | {
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All you need to know about Selenium Mineral Nutrient
Selenium is an essential micro-nutrient for humans. The human body’s content of selenium is about 13–20 milligram. As it is an essential micro-nutrient, humans must consume Selenium either in dietary form or take Selenium Supplement to stay healthy.
- Physiological Function of Mineral Nutrient Selenium
- Causes of Deficiency of Mineral Nutrient Selenium
- Health concerns due to Selenium deficiency
- Assessment of Selenium Mineral Status
- Selenium Dosages for Supplementation
- Best or most Bio-Available or Active form of Selenium Supplement
- Dietary sources of Selenium
Physiological Function of Mineral Nutrient Selenium
As a trace element Selenium functions as co-factor for reduction of antioxidant enzymes. In a Selenium nutrient deficient state, oxidation of metallothionein may lead to the uncontrolled release of metals, particularly copper and cadmium, thereby contributing to toxicity.
Selenium also plays a role in the functioning of the thyroid gland and in every cell that uses thyroid hormone, by participating as a cofactor for the three of the four known types of thyroid hormone. Selenium may inhibit Hashimoto’s disease (autoimmune disease), in which the body’s own thyroid cells are attacked as alien. With dietary intake of Selenium Supplement following effect may occur:
- Reduction of TPO antibodies
- Reduction in oxidative stress
- Reduction in the effects of mercury & Arsenic toxicity
Causes of Deficiency of Mineral Nutrient Selenium
Dietary availability of Selenium depends on soil as many plants do not Selenium for their survival but the still carry Selenium if it is available in soil. Therefore lack of selenium in the soil may result into decreased intake of Selenium compound. Selenium may not be available in case of Mal-absorption in GI tract due to excess availability of Vitamin C or due to toxicity with Sulfur, Mercury or Arsenic.
Health concerns due to Selenium deficiency
Selenium deficiency affects most physiological systems, including endocrine and reproductive, hepatic, cardiovascular, immunological, gastrointestinal, and musculo-skeletal. Selenium is widely recognized as a key nutrient in cancer prevention and treatment. As selenium intake decreases, there is significant increased risk of colon, prostate, breast, ovary, lung and hematopoetic cancers.
Deficiency of Selenium can result into Compromised:
- Male & female reproductive health
- Cardiovascular health
- Inflammation regulation in asthma
- Thyroid hormone metabolism
Assessment of Selenium Mineral Status
Direct Markets: RBC, Serum, Whole Blood, Hair and Serum Selenium
Functional Biomarkers: Plasma Selenoprotein, Urinary selenosugars
Selenium Dosages for Supplementation
Children 2-12 years: 50 -150 mcg / day (2 brazil nuts per day)
Adult male: 50-200 mcg / day (4 brazil nuts per day)
Adult female: 50-200 mcg / day (4 brazil nuts per day)
Best or most Bio-Available or Active form of Selenium Supplement
Selenium is efficiently absorbed in GI in the form of mixed selenocompounds such as selenocysteine, selenomethionine or Se-methylselenocysteine
Dietary sources of Selenium
- Dietary selenium comes from nuts (Brazil nuts is the richest source),
- Meat (Kidney),
- Fish (tuna, crab, lobster),
- Broccoli and
- Brewer’s yeast. | <urn:uuid:ed2b89e9-39d4-4bbe-9e04-c4fc354d3e64> | {
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Certainly it was not impossible to cross the Mississippi River by avoiding the Union gunboat patrol in a covert manner. And regular communications between the Trans-Mississippi and Richmond, were maintained in this manner after the fall of Vicksburg. In fact the confederates had quite a little system for blockade running on the Mississippi in 1862 and '63.
But in reading Harold Simpson's "Hood's Texas Brigade, Lee's Grenadier Guards" It relates that Lee' asked Senator Wigfall on two different occation, once after Gaines Mill, and the second time after Sharpsburg/Antietum, about the need for more troops from Texas to refill the depleted ranks of that Brigade after those battles. Yet when he did have replacements in his hands by the exchange of the Arkansas and Texas troops from Arkansas Post, exchanged at City Point Virginia, available to him, the Confederate War Department did not take advantage of that situation and instead transferred them to Bragg and the A.O.T. Why?
Did it have something to do with the conditions of their parole and exchange? City Point was not the "normal" exchange point, as I said, for soldiers captured in the Trans-Mississippi. So the exchange was extraordinary it that manner. The troops were the 6th, 10th, 17th, 18th, 24th and 25th Texas, and the 19th and 24th Arkansas. The 17th and 18th were consolidated as were the 24th and 25th Texas and the 19th and 24th Arkansas.
Now, I know that Trans-Mississippi troops were not well thought of in general in the eastern theater early in the war, and that is one of the often stated reason for sending those troops to Bragg. But by mid 1863 the Texas and Arkansas troops of Hood's brigade had well proven their worth in a fight. And that reason seem childish if true. By 1864 and '65 when all practical possibility of transferring any troops from the Trans-Mississippi to the east was well past, Richmond was screaming for these troops and abandoning the west all together. In at least two Brigade histories, I have read (Kershaws Brigade history for one), the writter complains bitterly about the 55,000 troops in the Trans Mississippi who were doing nothing while Lee's army starved around Richmond.
I also realize that co-operation between the various confederate theaters were almost non existance, but that is a different matter and subject. | <urn:uuid:d99dbe56-9990-481f-a77a-a04b6ea7b2db> | {
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Geometry isn’t just angles and equations. It’s about the world you live in. With Glencoe Geometry, you get hands-on math applications to help you succeed in whatever career path you chose. Interactive personal tutors, animations, and practice problems let you review as much or as little as you need to prepare for success in college and beyond.
Tool of Geometry Reasoning and Proof Parallel and Perpendicular Lines
Congruent Triangles Relationships in Triangles Quadrilaterals
Proportions and Similarity Right Triangles and Trigonometry Transformations and Symmetry
Measurement Circles Areas of Polygons and Circles Extending Surface Area and Volume Probability and Measurement | <urn:uuid:962a148a-12f3-47ed-8e25-287f11055513> | {
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The number one resolution for Americans is to exercise. Unfortunately, for many of us, it’s a goal that goes unrealized, largely because we want immediate results. Instead of aiming for that six-pack, try these simple health tips to start you down the road to a healthier 2019.
Get More Sleep
A lack of sleep can affect your immune system, energy, concentration, mood, and can lead to anxiety and depression. How much sleep each person requires varies, but the National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours for adults. To set a goal of getting more sleep, get on a schedule. Go to bed at the same time every night and set an alarm to wake up at the same time each day. This will help your internal clock keep a regular schedule. Your body will adjust and before long you’ll fall asleep more easily, and you’ll be getting the right amount of sleep every night. Before you go to bed try shutting off your phone about an hour before you hit the sack.
Drink More Water
Drinking the recommended eight, 8-ounce glasses of water (or a half gallon) a day will prevent dehydration, which can lead to a feeling of sluggishness, headaches or more serious problems like constipation and kidney stones. Many fruits and vegetables also contain water to help keep you hydrated, so make sure to have a healthy snack each day!
Check Your Health History
Do you have an answer to your doctor when she asks for your family history? If not, start keeping tabs on what problematic health conditions and illnesses are in your family. You’ll have a better idea of your own risk factors for diseases, and you’ll give your doctor a better guide to helping you live a healthier lifestyle.
Visit Your Doctor
Once you know your family history, make sure to make an appointment to see your primary care physician. Have her check your blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, and any potential health concerns that can help prevent problems in the future. Your doctor will give you a big-picture view of how your health is doing and how you can improve it. Try making an appointment early this year with your current doctor, or find a new one in your insurance network
Move Around Regularly
Not everyone enjoys exercise, but moving your body is an important part of staying healthy. Whether that means heading to the gym for a full workout or just taking a walk, you should include 10 to 30 minutes of movement in your everyday routine. The trick is to find the type of movement you enjoy. If you don’t like running, maybe you’ll enjoy yoga. Not into yoga? Try taking a karate class. Find what works best for you. | <urn:uuid:fc059d82-b97c-45d1-8940-08652f508a3b> | {
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Pneumonia: real progress but investment urgently required
Antibiotic Resistance Analyses show that the amounts of money spent on pneumonia have been low, relative to the large worldwide number of deaths attributed to pneumonia.
Pneumonia continues to be one of the world’s ‘big killers’, with around 1 million people dying of this disease each year. Most of the deaths are in young children in poorer parts of the world, but pneumonia is also responsible for thousands of deaths each year in the UK in predominantly more elderly populations.
There are significant gaps in our knowledge in terms of how to tackle the burdens of pneumonia, and this is an area where research can help. Research will allow us to develop new tools and products (such as vaccines and antibiotics) that help prevent and cure patients, and can also provide information on how best to manage patients who develop pneumonia, especially in ‘resource-poor’ settings where there are few hospitals and poor facilities.
The UK is a big contributor to global health research, but our analyses of UK research funding trends shows that the amounts spent on pneumonia have been quite low, relative to the worldwide number of deaths. There is, for example, greater ‘investment per global death’ for influenza and tuberculosis, and we concluded that research for pneumonia should increase accordingly.
Encouragingly there have been increases in the numbers of funded pneumonia-related studies in recent years and hopefully that upward trend will continue. Interventions around the world, such as recent progress in rolling out the ‘pneumococcal’ vaccine is also very helpful but there is still a lot to learn, and a well-funded research program can help provide that knowledge and greatly reduce both deaths and numbers of new cases of this devastating disease. | <urn:uuid:6304a3f4-3cb9-4315-8223-253138a50e98> | {
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There is growing recognition that many countries face major and changing threats to their water security and thus to their ability to provide people with drinking water and food and to produce energy and sustain economic growth.
The Harvard Water Security Initiative aims at stimulating world-class inter-disciplinary research which will enable policy-makers to better understand the water threats they face, and to better mobilize the full range of tools for addressing these threats.
The Initiative will engage on two tracks.
Track One will involve major collaborative partnerships between Harvard (and MIT) scientists and inter-disciplinary groups of scientists in about six countries (initially Brazil, Pakistan, Australia, Mexico, South Africa and the United States).
Track Two will involve discrete partnerships on specific water security issues with other countries where Harvard faculty and students are engaged. These currently include Cyprus, Jordan, Bangladesh, India, China, Ghana and Mexico. A focus of the Initiative will be on engaging a new generation of scholars – undergraduates, doctoral students, post-docs and young faculty.
Research domains and Participation
The first area of focus will be on the history of water and society, since social, cultural and religious understanding form the mental terrain on which all changes in water management practices must be built. Faculty members in Harvard’s History and Anthropology Departments have done seminal work on the history of water, and will be courted to engage with their colleagues in “focus countries” in this project.
The second area of focus will be to characterize the changing exogenous water security environment. In most cases this will include the effects of climate change on hydrology. In some ways Australia is at the forefront of this process, for it has seen dramatic reductions in rainfall over the past decade. Looking forward, much of the economy of Brazil depends on benign rainfall patterns, which are likely to change, perhaps dramatically, with Amazon deforestation and die-back. And Pakistan is a country built around one river, which depends heavily on both (retreating) Himalayan glaciers and changing monsoon rainfall patterns. Harvard faculty in Earth and Planetary Sciences and Biology are deeply engaged in climate change research and keen to extend that work to deal with hydrology. A number of the partner countries have major scientific programs on climate change, but in all cases closer integration of climate change and hydrology are vital. In some countries the exogenous water security environment is also closely related to broader inter-national political circumstances. Pakistan’s water, for example, mostly comes from India, China and Afghanistan. Faculty in Harvard’s Center for International Affairs have interest in engaging on international and inter-state aspects of water security, as do major institutions in Pakistan.
The third area of focus is on tools which can be used within countries to manage water-related risks. These include: the design of crops which are better able to tolerate water scarcity and salinity (of interest to faculty in the Biology Department); the design of crop and rainfall insurance schemes (on which faculty in the Business School are engaged); the development of instruments including water markets and output-based incentive schemes (of interest to faculty in the Economics Department, Law School and Kennedy School of Government); smart infrastructure for the management of water (faculty in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and MIT faculty); mechanisms for improving water quality and protecting populations from adverse water quality (School of Public Health faculty).
The fourth area relates to the consequences of water management. This includes the economic impact of adaptation to climate change, better natural resource management and infrastructure (of interest to faculty at the Kennedy School) and the push and pull impact of water on migration (of interest to demographers in the School of Public Health).
The Initial Partner Countries
There is broad interest among faculty and students from various schools within Harvard University working in the fields of earth and planetary sciences, biology, engineering, economics, government, business, anthropology, political science, history and public health to initiate a major interdisciplinary applied research program. A major emphasis will be engagement of young faculty and graduate and undergraduate students.
Our Harvard faculty members are eager to work collaboratively with researchers and practitioners at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to address water security issues, starting with six countries: Brazil, Australia, Pakistan, the United States, South Africa and Mexico.
The potential partner countries are chosen (a) because they all have strong scientific capacity which makes a horizontal research and training partnership possible; and (b) because they all face major water challenges and (c) they represent a range of environmental challenges – including mountains (the Himalayas in Pakistan), forests (the Amazon in Brazil) and arid lands (Australia, South Africa and Mexico).
Leadership at Harvard
Under the leadership of Professor John Briscoe, Harvard is committed to bringing together outstanding faculty from the University to advance the intertwined global issues related to water including climate change, access to clean water, water quality, and technology transfer. Our mission is to work with key international, government, academic, and research partners to develop and move forward an innovative and ambitious water security agenda.
John Briscoe is Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Environmental Engineering at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, and the Kennedy School of Government. His career has focused on the issues of water, other natural resources, and economic development. He has lived in his native South Africa, India, Brazil, the United States, and Bangladesh and worked on water issues in these and many other countries. He has long experience in each of the countries of initial focus for the Water Security Initiative.
See the next Research subcategory (left column) for the latest update of The Harvard Water Security Initiative Proposal in PDF. | <urn:uuid:33a3b605-e9fd-486e-bec6-882ee9d24f90> | {
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Modern timber windows stand head and shoulders above the competition, including space-age plastics and traditional wood window frames. They are well insulated, efficient, and high-functioning. The strength and durability of wood is well known, and timber windows have the additional advantage of being easy to repair. The production of lumber and timber is eminently renewable and actually helps sequester carbon from the atmosphere to turn it into your future construction materials. If you are seeking for Earth-friendly and sustainable building materials, then timber windows are the best choice possible.
Advantages of Timber Windows
It is no rarity for scientists to borrow ideas from nature. Carbon nanotubes are no exception. You may have heard of carbon nanotubes as the miraculously strong fibres used for high-performance golf clubs and amazing modern musical instruments. It may surprise you to know that wood is literally made of natural, growing carbon nanotubes. That is precisely what gives wood its tremendous powers of strength, durability, and insulation. The tiny pipes that make up the trunk of a tree, barely a few molecules across, grow together in millions of columns that are tightly bound together and intertwined. This gives them the ability to stretch, bend, and vibrate together. It is this amazing fact that is responsible for the marvellous sturdiness and resonance of wood.
Timber windows are beautiful. They are traditional and daring at the same time, and well suited to accept practically any stain, sealant, or paint. Their strength means that slender frame sections can be used to hold the glass.
Timber is also an amazing insulator. Its unique structure makes it one of the best barriers to heat convection possible. Timber has been recognized as inexpensive and efficient insulation for thousands of years, but modern innovations have made this truer than ever before. Modern woodcutting and fitting methods mean that the frame can be joined to the glass with microscopic tolerances. Well-fitted timber windows have an energy rating of “A” from the “BFRC.”
Sustainability and Timber
All the timber sold in the EU comes from sustainable sources. The law is quite clear on this point and forest renewal is a primary concern for the long-sighted European lumber industry. Timber is the single most renewable building material conceivable. Trees capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into construction supplies, in the process generating healthy oxygen and tremendous beauty. The only problem with lumber is that it grows slowly. It takes time to do let nature do her job right. Fortunately the decades-long application of the EU’s prudent policies has ensured the supply for decades to come.
Natural production processes mean that timber is much cheaper to produce than any other construction material. Wood costs eight times less than plastic for equivalent insulation. Modern timber windows are more durable than any other window frame material. This means that they do not have to be replaced as often, which is easier on both the budget and the environment. The Forest Service Council (FSC) has implemented a series of guidelines for rating and managing the supplies, ensuring that the wood you bought is everything that it promises to be as well as making sure it will be replaced and reforested so that future generations can enjoy it as well.
Laura Swain writes for George Barnsdale & Sons, manufacturers of timber windows and doors. For more information on the use of sustainable timber in window manufacture visit: www.georgebarnsdale.co.uk/environment/certified-timber/ | <urn:uuid:948ed7ee-f75d-4150-be91-b1a623d12bc9> | {
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In 2011, Mr Arjun Singh, then an 11-year old child, Hong Kong native of Indian descent, was accused by a Chinese woman of assault (by bumping her while passing on an escalator). He alleges the woman grabbed and detained him and he called 999, seeking police help. So did the woman. But the police only detained the child, claiming they had to “find him a Punjabi-speaking interpreter” – even though he asserted that he only understood English.
Following his prolonged his detention a lawsuit was filed against Hong Kong Police for racial discrimination. The case was eventually lost.
Ms Puja Kapai, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, points to this high-profile case as an example of how the Race Discrimination Ordinance (RDO) that took effect in 2009 often has little effect in real, everyday situations.
Heading for the UN
On August 1, the United Nations Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination, formed by law experts and human rights advocates in Hong Kong, discussed racial discrimination in Hong Kong before heading to Geneva, Switzerland, to scrutinize a government report filed to the United Nations.
They committee’s findings are less than encouraging. It says the government has developed policies that are unfavorable to ethnic minorities but, ironically, the government will not be held responsible for racial discrimination.
“The government is not required to comply with the RDO (Race Discrimination Ordinance ). This is a major weakness,” says Ms Kapai. “Racial discrimination in prison or by the police will not be addressed.”
She adds that the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), the body that implements the RDO, is weak.
“It depends on government funding and its members are appointed by the government. It is ineffective and not independent,” she explains.
Mr Law Yuk Kai, a director of Hong Kong Human Rights Watch, says the RDO fails to address indirect discrimination as well.
“Ethnic minorities are required to have high proficiency in Chinese when looking for a job. This constitutes indirect discrimination, which is not included in the definition of discrimination in the RDO,” Mr Law says. By ‘high proficiency’, he explains that employers require them to show competence in understanding, for example, ancient Chinese poems – while they have perfectly adequate modern spoken Chinese for use in normal day to day situations.
Education failing minorities
Ethnic minorities are also facing discrimination in many aspects of life because of flawed government policies.
Phyllis Cheung, executive director of the non-profit Hong Kong Unison, points out the education policies are not creating racial harmony.
“Many from the ethnic minorities still do not know how to read or write Chinese. Also, 60 percent of them go to around 30 schools here, when there are 800 schools in total. This is de facto racial segregation,” Ms Cheung explains.
She adds that there is still no Chinese-as-a-second language policy and curriculum resulting in ethnic minority students not achieving adequate competence in Chinese that would enable them to fully integrate to the society.
Welcome to Hong Kong! Not really.
Ms Johan Tong, a representative at Mission For Migrant Workers, also says domestic helpers are facing discrimination regarding immigration policies.
“They come to Hong Kong on a foreign domestic helper visa, which is already discrimination itself. Also, it is difficult to change it into a work visa,” says Ms Tong.
She also cites the mandatory live-in rule and the “two-week rule”, under which a migrant domestic worker must leave Hong Kong within two weeks of end of employment, including dismissal. These rules render them vulnerable to exploitation, and make it difficult for them to escape after being exploited.
Ms Kelley Loper, law professor at the University of Hong Kong, says there are also concerns about asylum seekers in Hong Kong.
“Refugees in Hong Kong cannot work and they live on a very small amount of allowances. The authorities also do not provide reasons why asylum applications are successful or rejected,” says Ms Loper.
Ms Claudia Yip, a representative of legislator Dennis Kwok, speaks of the delay in legislating against human trafficking.
“The current laws may be applicable to certain acts, but they cannot reflect the severity of human trafficking as they usually entail lenient punishment, causing further connivance and even encouraging trafficking in Hong Kong,” says Ms Yip.
The commission says the government has been allocating funds to address these issues, but little is done.
“Funding does not guarantee an outcome. There is no information transparency, no reports submitted to the LegCo regarding how successful these measures are,” says Ms Kapai.
(Printer – R&R Publishing Limited, Suite 705, 7/F, Cheong K. Building, 84-86 Des Voeux Road Central, HK)
Latest posts by Elise Mak (see all)
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- Elevating minorities: Education, employment and incentives – November 9, 2018
- Thou shalt pay! For Garbage! Waste charging scheme finally comes to Hong Kong, almost – November 7, 2018 | <urn:uuid:0aa9f9a9-5d89-44ec-965c-df4162830111> | {
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After the downfall of Sauron, Gimli led a party of the Dwarves of Erebor to Aglarond, the Glittering Caves of the White Mountains within the realm of Rohan. There they founded a colony, and Gimli became known as the Lord of the Glittering Caves. His Dwarves performed great services for the Rohirrim and the Men of Gondor, of which the most famous was the making of new gates for Minas Tirith, forged out of mithril and steel.
We don't know exactly when Gimli established himself as Lord of the Glittering Caves, but it seems to be implied that it was not long after the Downfall of Sauron at the close of the Third Age. He would thus have been Lord for about one hundred and twenty years, until his departure from Middle-earth (or perhaps his death - sources leave room for doubt) in IV 120.
It is not established whether the title continued in use after this date. Gimli himself had no recorded heirs, but in principle another of his followers might have continued the Lordship in his place.
For acknowledgements and references, see the Disclaimer & Bibliography page.
Website services kindly sponsored by Axiom Software Ltd.
Original content © copyright Mark Fisher 2002, 2009, 2011. All rights reserved. For conditions of reuse, see the Site FAQ. | <urn:uuid:0121797c-dc10-4a50-b4c7-fdd5ac45debf> | {
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Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) is a sweet, flavorful fruit that is mainly sold in California. The vitamin C-rich fruit varies in shape and color depending on the cultivar. Or example, Fuyu and Hachiya – the most common market types – are light yellow-orange with a tomato- or pumpkin-like shape and dark orange with an acorn-like shape, respectively.
California produces 99% of the US persimmon crop. The US exported 7.4 million pounds of fresh persimmons in 2016 (valued at $3.6 million), while it also imported 7.4 million pounds (valued at $5.7 million), according to the USDA Economics Resource Service.
Scientists at ARS's Western Regional Research Center (WRRC) in Albany, CA have been exploring ways to dry persimmons and make dried chips. Working with colleagues from ARS National Clonal Germplasm Respiratory in Davis, CA, and scientists from the University of California, they have been select the best cultivars for commercial and home drying.
Our of 40 different cultivars tested, the best cultivars for making dried chip-style persimmons were Fuyu, Lycopersicon, Maekawa Jiro, Nishimura Wase, Tishihtzu and Yotsumizo, according to data published in the journal Food Science & Nutrition.
Led by Rebecca Milczarek, the scientist used hot-air drying to produce persimmon chips, and then convened a trained sensory panel to evaluate the results. The scientists also surveyed over 100 consumers of 21 unique samples.
The results indicated that flavor was secondary to taste and texture in the dried persimmon chips.
“The astringency type (astringent, nonastringent, variant) did not appear to inherently predict whether the dried chips made from a given persimmon cultivar would be preferred by consumers, since examples of all astringency types could be found throughout the ranking lists in both years,” wrote the researchers. “Thus, this attribute should not be used to screen persimmon cultivars for their suitability for hot-air drying.”
“[T]he six persimmon cultivars most suited for hot-air drying (for fruit harvested commercial ripe at any time during the season) are the following: ‘Fuyu’, ‘Lycopersicon’, ‘Maekawa Jiro’, ‘Nishimura Wase’, ‘Tishihtzu’, and ‘Yotsumizo’. This list includes cultivars that are already established in the U.S. market as well as cultivars that have not yet seen widespread commercial propagation.”
Source: Food Science & Nutrition
Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1002/fsn3.537
“Synthesis of descriptive sensory attributes and hedonic rankings of dried persimmon (Diospyros kaki sp.)”
Authors: R.R. Milczarek, et al. | <urn:uuid:8575c5a9-0252-4513-b0ee-8d0c3894ba52> | {
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How to: Create an Article
First things first
Before creating a page on Liquipedia, be it a tournament, player, team, or any other kind of page, the very first step to do is to check that it does not already exist. To achieve that, you can use the Search function to check that the page is not already there on the wiki. Even if you don’t find it immediately, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the page doesn’t exist, as it may have a different name than what you were looking for. Try with acronyms, synonyms, with full names, etc. Search thoroughly. There is no need to do the work twice, plus obviously every entry on Liquipedia must be unique, it will often, if not always, be referenced by other pages. It also should be updated only in one place.
Not everything nor everyone can have its own page on Liquipedia. The Notability Guidelines define what may or may not have an article on Liquipedia. Before creating an entry, you should make sure what you want to create actually satisfy the notability criteria. These are often different depending on the wiki you are, so make sure your new entry matches the corresponding wiki guidelines. When the notability criteria are not met, the page you created will not be deleted, however it will be moved to your userspace, and visitors to the page will see that the page is not a page curated by Liquipedia.
Forms & Page templates
The wiki is not new, and there are a lot of things that has already been defined so that a specific information is always presented the same way to the wiki’s visitors. If the information is always at the same place in a page, it makes it easier for people to find information across all pages of the wiki. The templates help with that regard, and also make it easier to format information instead of doing the layout by hand. When creating a page, be sure to use predefined template.
These exist for the most common entities on the wiki, like the Infobox template, that comes in three flavours: player, team, league. This template is used all over the wikis and contribute to establish a consistent information layout. So remember to use them. If you have doubts or do not know which templates already exist, a good approach is to inspect the wiki code of a very well known team, tournament or player, as it will most likely contain every possible template you could use for your new page, and always the basic ones. These pages tend to be the most up-to-date and are heavily edited, so what is on it is usually good practice and state of the art in terms of wiki features. Copy/pasting templates is encouraged. And the templates documentation usually provide "copy/paste ready" code to include in your page.
Be wary that the different wikis might not all have exactly the same ways of doing something. If you contribute to different wikis, be sure to do as each wiki does. Templates for example belong to a specific wikis, and even though they are most of the times duplicated between wikis, it might still exist a few differences.
And keep in mind the Preview feature of the editing tools that lets you see your page as it will appear before actually inserting it in the wiki.
The concept behind a wiki is that anyone can edit and/or create pages on it. Sources are what makes it reliable and trustworthy. So be sure to actually provide a link that readers can consult if they want to check that the information is actually true. Though not everything can be sourced, the basic requirement is that you provide, for anything that can have one, a link to a trustworthy source, like the studio that develops the game, a very well established news website, the teams’ websites, etc. Just like in real life, when you say something, people are more likely to believe you if you have a good source to back your statement.
This is a wiki. You can always edit to correct a mistake. So do not hesitate to actually push your modification on the wiki. You should not be worried about committing a modification. Of course, it is better to get it right the first time, as correcting mistakes is additional work, but you should not feel nervous and bad because a mistake may end up on the wiki. There will always be the possibility to correct it afterwards, be it you, or someone else that spots the mistake. We prefer that people contribute and let mistakes slip in, rather than sit out because they are anxious about that. We would like to correct the mistake in that page instead of not having it on the wiki.
Looking for help
The wiki is not only an encyclopedia, it is also a community of active contributors. If you don’t know how to do something, or if what you do is right, ask these people, either on the Liquipedia IRC, the Liquipedia Discord or in the feedback thread. There will always be someone who already encountered your problem, who can decide if what you do is correct, or who can try to solve with you that problem no one had before. Do not hesitate to share your ideas as well, it is not because you don’t have thousands of edits that you can’t have nice ideas that would improve the wiki! | <urn:uuid:e2c47407-b99c-4b2a-b0b4-1ccda7e8ee8a> | {
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The layout for any written work will need careful localisation treatment as many languages take up different amounts of space and some require larger fonts and characters than others. For instance Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and French have sentences that are up to 25% longer than those written in English. Allow plenty of space within edit boxes and for command buttons that will also change size depending on the language.
- Choose a font for your work that has an extended character set to include the accents and if possible the diacritics.
- Font size 12 and above works best for Arabic and other cursive scripts as this increases readability.
- Choose font styles carefully for screen reading rather than paper based reading. For example angular and serif fonts may look good on paper but reduce readability when seen on small low resolution screens such as the mobile phone. Examples of useful sans serif fonts would be Arabic Transparent and Simplified Arabic Fixed rather than Koufi or Andalus or in English Helvetica, Arial and Verdana rather than Times New Roman.
- It can help those with reading difficulties to left justify text so when viewed overall there is a jagged edge to the content and users can see where they have reached in their reading. This may not be the case in cursive script languages where there are specific elongating characters which act as connectors. By fully justifying text may make it easier for readers to recognise characters and diacritics.
- In languages where there are both spaces between characters or letters within words and between words (such as in Arabic) it ihelps to increase the space between the words to help screen reader users and those with print impairments or reading difficulties.
- Don’t forget that different short cut keys may be used in the different languages so if you wish your users to have access to text edit forms and they are keyboard only users you may find that ‘Ctrl+B’ or ‘Command+B’ does not make the text bold – in German for example it may be ‘Strg+F’ namely ‘Steuerungstaste-fett’ which would be Ctrl+F or ‘Command+F’ which is ‘Find’!
- Spaces are used after a word in English and hyphens may be used between words – Chinese, Korean and Japanese character breaks occur at any time and care is needed no to impact on meaning – spaces are not linked to words necessarily – the same may be true with Arabic sentences. Punctuation in these languages and Arabic vary in the amount used so careful proof reading is required.
- Don’t forget bidirectional languages – so for Hebrew and Arabic letters go right to left and numbers left to right or there may be a mix! This can have an impact menus as well as content especially for technical terms when coding.
- Some texts are still written vertically which means a complete change of layout such as is illustrated in the image below of a Chinese Newspaper.
- Introduction to typing and using RTL (Right to Left) text, and configuring software applications to support RTL http://dotancohen.com/howto/rtl_right_to_left.html
- “CSS Writing Modes Module Level 3” W3C Working Draft 15 November 2012
- “Requirements for Japanese Text Layout” W3C Working Group Note 3 April 2012 | <urn:uuid:75451116-b3bc-42ae-8f5d-7309a63d78ff> | {
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A History of Brit Milah
A comprehensive look at the history of the Jewish practice of circumcising baby boys on the eighth day of life--and of various attempts to end this rite.
Reprinted with permission from A Time To Be Born: Customs and Folklore of Jewish Birth (Jewish Publication Society 1998).
Abraham and his Israelite descendants were likely not unique in circumcising their sons: Others in the ancient Near East probably did so, too. The Bible refers several times to mass circumcision of adult men, hardly an individual confirmation of a divine covenant but more likely a result of social coercion to remove the disgrace of the foreskin--the Israelites clearly considered the foreskin contemptuously. Even though the generation of the desert was uncircumcised, and the operation was sometimes neglected during the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, Genesis 17:10-14 elevated circumcision into a religious rite with individual religious significance.
Prohibitions Against Circumcision
When the Greeks, and later the Romans, issued prohibitions against circumcision, the religious ritual gained renewed importance in defining who was a Jew. Antiochus IV Epiphanes (c. 215-c. 163 BCE) prohibited the rite, and mothers who had their sons circumcised were thrown off the city walls after being paraded demeaningly around the city with their infants tied to their breasts. The Roman Emperor Hadrian (76-138 CE) similarly prohibited the rite and decapitated Jews who performed it on their sons. The early Christians in Jerusalem also rejected circumcision, a step that had profound repercussions in later centuries.
The Mishnah [one of the major documents of early rabbinic Judaism, compiled c. 200 CE] explains how and when to perform the operation. In the many volumes of Jewish law formulated during the first few centuries of the Christian Era, however, no tractate is devoted to circumcision. Circumcision was discussed frequently at that time, but in the context of other Jewish laws, especially those pertaining to the Sabbath. In addition, during the talmudic period, the sages told many stories about the merits of circumcision, to stress its importance. They said that were it not for circumcision, heaven and earth would not exist. They taught that performance of this duty is proof of a Jew's acceptance of God, enables him to enter the Promised Land, and prevents him from entering Gehenna [the Jewish equivalent of hell]. At that time, non-Jews in Palestine and in Babylon viewed circumcision as a mutilation and forbade it. In response, rabbis stressed that circumcision removes a blemish (the foreskin) and enables a man to achieve bodily perfection by fulfilling a divine commandment.
The Middle Ages
The animosity toward circumcision of non-Jews continued into the Middle Ages, reinforced by the seventh-century Catholic Visigothic Code in Spain, which forced Jews to renounce the rite and further strengthened its importance for the Jewish people. This Code influenced Spanish anti-semitism for centuries.
Jews living among Muslims did not meet with the same hostility to circumcision as those living among Christians, because Islam recommends removal of the foreskin, although Islamic circumcision is not a covenant and does not have the religious significance that it has in Judaism. In Babylonia, in gaonic [post-rabbinic] times, Jews introduced the custom of circumcising an infant who died before he was eight days old, at the grave before burial, so the infant's soul would not go to Gehenna.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, rabbis compiled a new chapter of halakhah [Jewish law] headed "The Laws of Circumcision," sometimes still under the heading of the Laws of Shabbat, but increasingly as a legal topic in its own right. Here they collected all the laws pertaining to circumcision from earlier sources, discussed questions that had arisen in the practice of the ritual, and documented medieval customs for performing the ritual.
At that time, new ideas emerged about circumcision. Maimonides pointed out that everyone who was circumcised bore the same sign that he believed in the unity of God. He also said that the ritual was not performed merely to achieve bodily perfection, but also to perfect man's moral shortcomings, because removal of the foreskin counteracted excessive lust, weakened the libido, and sometimes also reduced the pleasure of sexual relations. In the 13th century, a rabbi developed this idea to counter an anti-Semitic, Christian accusation that Jews were guilty of immoderate sexual behavior, enabled by their circumcision. The rabbi emphasized that the removal of the foreskin lessened a man's sexual desire and enabled him to concentrate on the Torah.
At this time, Jews began to think of the ritual as a sacrifice, and the father who circumcises his son as a high priest. And mystics taught that circumcision enables one to find holiness in the Shekhinah, the divine presence.
From the 15th to the 19th centuries, during the Inquisition of the Roman Catholics to stamp out heresy on the Iberian peninsula and colonies (Goa in India, Central and South American colonies, the Philippine Islands, and the Canary Islands), many Jews were forced to convert to Christianity, yet some continued to practice Judaism secretly—and any Jewish man from a converted family who had himself or his son circumcised was condemned to death. Many of these "New Christians," known as Marranos, or Conversos, eventually found refuge in safe havens in the Ottoman Empire, in the Netherlands, and England, where adult men would have themselves and their sons circumcised.
Reflecting on the Importance
For Jews threatened with the Inquisition to continue to practice circumcision, and for an adult to undergo this ritual voluntarily, required a conscious awareness of its significance in Judaism. Thus, from the 15th to the 18th centuries, some of these Jews of Spanish and Portuguese origin reflected upon the importance of this ritual; their thinking reflected the society in which they lived and their familiarity with contemporary Christian views.
One example is Isaac Cardoso, who noted that circumcision differentiated God's people from others. He repeated that circumcision enabled perfection of the body and the spirit, and the absence of a foreskin lessened a man's sexual impulses; however, in contrast to the rabbinic view, he wrote that Abraham's circumcision and sacrifice of Isaac took the place of crucifixion in compensating for Adam's original sin and that, without circumcision, a Jew could not be redeemed. He also gave a kabbalistic interpretation of the Hebrew word for circumcision, milah, which in gematria [a system of equating letters with numeric value] is equivalent to a Hebrew appellation of God, Elohim. He also took a phrase in Deuteronomy 30:12 ("who among us can go up to the heavens ... ?") and pointed out that the first letter of each Hebrew word in this phrase spells milah, whereas the last letter of each word spells the tetragrammaton [the biblical four-letter name for God, whose original pronunciation is lost to us].
The Early Modern Period
In the early modern period, rabbis continued to answer practical questions that arose in the fulfillment of the duty and to document local customs. Differences evolved in details of the ritual according to the locality and ethnic origins of the community. For example, small differences were noted in the blessings, in the choice of readings, and in the songs sung in a Yemenite community, in a Sephardic community, and in an Ashkenazi community. For this reason, each community had its own preferred publication of the Order of Circumcision.
Also in the early modern period, emancipation began to affect attitudes to circumcision within the Jewish community. Emancipation led directly to a movement of Reform Judaism away from ceremony and ritual, although reformists maintained Jewish ethics and morals. In 1843, leaders of Reform Jewry in Frankfurt proposed abandoning circumcision, on the grounds that Mosaic law mentions only once the command to circumcise one's sons, and this command is not repeated in Deuteronomy. This proposal sparked an emotional controversy between reformists and traditionalists. The chief rabbis of Frankfurt and Hamburg each kept a notebook for a few years in which they blacklisted wayward parents who had not circumcised their newborn sons. The dispute raged for many years, but it had no lasting effect on the continuing practice of circumcision among Jews.
In recent years, Reform Jews have returned to celebrating this and other religious rituals, maintaining certain major differences from the Orthodox. (One is the inclusion of women in the performance of the ritual and another is the recognition of patrilineal as well as matrilineal descent. Thus, Reform rabbis accept that the son of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother can be considered Jewish if both parents are committed to raising him as a Jew, just like the son of a Jewish mother and non-Jewish father.) The Reform movement now recognizes the importance of circumcision to Jewish identity in a mixed society.
Did you like this article? MyJewishLearning is a not-for-profit organization. | <urn:uuid:46aa68e1-c851-4b7f-b91a-607612ae6f22> | {
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The cause of 1/3 of illnesses is neurosis, says psychotherapist Marat Zakaryan. According to him, the causes of neurosis are many but the main cause is stress. To the question whether neurosis can cause death, Zakaryan answered: “Neurosis can’t cause death or mental deviation.” Simply neurosis decreases the quality of life, which can result in sleep and sexual disorders.
The psychotherapist indicated that fear neurosis can come up at any age especially among the children at the age 10-15. “Children can be afraid of darkness, family tension,”-said the doctor adding that neurosis has big chance to repeat. | <urn:uuid:4eccb4b4-33e4-4f59-823b-5e7c98268b30> | {
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Understanding SIP�Part II: Protocol Capabilities
Last week's tutorial began our examination of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), supported by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), where we considered the history and architecture of SIP, and also looked at some of the related Internet protocols that have influenced the SIP design Here, we will extend that discussion to consider the functions that SIP performs within that architecture.
SIP is an application protocol; that is to say, it provides services to end users. The SIP architecture, as defined in RFC 3261, builds upon two other Internet application protocols, the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), which is defined in RFC 2821 and specifies the format for electronic mail messages, and the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is defined in RFC 2616 and specifies the format for web-based multimedia communication. Like SMTP and HTTP, SIP uses the Internet Protocol (IP), the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) for the underlying network infrastructure. As such, it could be viewed as another component or application of a comprehensive suite of Internet-related (and IETF-defined) protocols.
However, the operative application service that describes SIP is session, which could be defined as an orderly exchange of information between two or more participants. Digging deeper, SIP must first act to create the session, and thereafter, manage the session as long as communication is required. And while this charter may seem quite straightforward, a few complications can arise. The first could be the existence of more than two participants, meaning that the call would be a multipoint (or conference) call, rather than a point-to-point (or end-user-to-end-user) call. Second, the end users may not always originate the call from the same location, adding the requirement for keeping track of those end users. Third, the end users may employ a mixture of media types text, voice, and/or video all with different constraints and parameters, such as bandwidth requirements, maximum permissible transmission delays, and so on.
To support this session service, RFC 3261 describes five facets of multimedia session management for SIP:
- User location: determining which end system will be used for communication.
- User availability: determining whether or not the called party is willing to engage in communications.
- User capabilities: determining the media and media parameters to be used for this communication.
- Session setup: establishing the session parameters at both the called and calling parties.
- Session management: including the transfer and termination of sessions, the modifying of session parameters, and the invoking of session services.
We also discovered that the SIP architecture describes two functional devices: clients and servers, also similar to SMTP and HTTP. A client is a network element that sends SIP requests and receives SIP responses. A client may or may not interact with a human user. Similarly, the server is a network element that receives requests in order to service them, and then responds to those requests.
This client/server operation, modeled on the HTTP request/response paradigm, is one of the major strong suits of SIP. Within HTTP, clients send requests for network resources (such as a web page) to a server, which provides one or more responses. In the case of SIP, the client (such as a User Agent Client or a Proxy) sends a request to the server (such as a User Agent Server, a Redirect Server, or a Registrar) requesting communications resources, or some modification to existing resources. An example of a SIP request message from the client to the server would be an Invite message, which indicates that the user or service is being invited to participate in a communications session. If that request message could be completed, a Success response would be returned from the server. Of course, not all stories have happy endings, so other responses may convey error or failure conditions as well, but that is a topic for another tutorial.
Thus, with a background from other well-known protocols, such as HTTP, plus a straightforward client/server architecture, SIP is positioned to operate as an effective member of an IP-based internetwork. The specific messages that are sent between these clients and servers that facilitate SIP operation will be the subject of our next tutorial.
Copyright Acknowledgement: © 2005 DigiNet ® Corporation, All Rights Reserved
Mark A. Miller, P.E. is President of DigiNet ® Corporation, a Denver-based consulting engineering firm. He is the author of many books on networking technologies, including Voice over IP Technologies, and Internet Technologies Handbook, both published by John Wiley & Sons. | <urn:uuid:61b612f2-1f4d-4696-90d0-47ef288eb49f> | {
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Resource rich nations face unique challenges when attempting to move from low to high value added activities.
Resource sectors (such as mining and oil) tend to be highly capital intensive and offer limited employment opportunities to accommodate workers exiting from other sectors with lower average productivity, such as agriculture and informal services.
A majority of fragile and conflict-affected countries are resource-rich, so their ability to move into higher value-added activities will heavily influence the likelihood of achieving peace.
In a new IMF working paper with World Bank Senior Economist Bill Battaile and I titled Transforming Non-Renewable Resource Rich Economies we use detailed new data to benchmark growth, productivity and export patterns for resource rich countries in comparison with other developing countries.
We find that inter-sectoral growth dynamics have been frozen in time for resource rich nations, especially at lower incomes. Despite productivity convergence in mining, productivity growth in manufacturing and services was generally lower in resource rich countries. There are only a few exceptions in East Asia and the CIS countries that experienced more broad-based productivity growth. Product exports are highly concentrated and relatively less complex. However, we find increasingly diversified service export baskets from resource rich economies. Technological progress through the internet and greater trade in services may offer diversification options for the future.
Volatility of “Resource Led Growth”
Our evidence shows high volatility in resource booms and busts, by commodity and over time. Figure 1 illustrates the heterogeneous experience of the value of non-renewable commodity exports over the past 30 years. This “heat map” shows the average annual growth rate of the value of commodity exports across all countries, ranging from above 50 percent growth in red to less than -50 percent in green. Differentiation by commodity is stark. Oil and copper export values have shown high rates of growth for the majority of the period, with relatively few contractions. Iron, minerals and mining have shown more modest, yet mostly positive growth. In contrast, uranium and gold are exported in low volumes and exhibit more erratic export growth and contraction rates.
Strong GDP growth performance is clearly seen for countries like Indonesia, Botswana, and Chile but deeper structural issues persist in others. Examples of such booms in the 2000s include Zambia (copper), Bolivia (gas) and Azerbaijan (oil). The universal collapse in commodity exports in 2009 is apparent, though with differing effects on GDP growth across countries. This dependence can vary dramatically over time, such as boom years in the importance of gold in Liberia in the early 1990s or volatile oil booms in Turkmenistan in the 1990s.
Many of these economies face significant Dutch disease effects, including solely from a shift in demand following a resource discovery. Policymakers often seek a more balanced growth model, aiming for resource rents to fuel productivity gains in the non-resource sectors. Impressive growth during resource-driven booms masks structural issues.
Figure 1. Non-Renewable Resource Export Growth by Commodity
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
There are few “good” guys. Successful transformers like Indonesia, Vietnam, and Mexico have done better than others by absorbing the productive capacity and diversifying into other sectors. Resource base exports are important for these countries; however there is considerable diversification away from extractive-resources. For example, music equipment, foot-wear, garments, data processing machines etc., have been emerging new products from Indonesia.
From the vantage point of economic transformation, we could say that Syria is not so “bad” since it has been a marginally diversified economy. In spite of the current turmoil, Syria has the potential to diversify more easily and develop new sources of comparative advantage. Syria exported many farm products including apples, anise or badian seeds, potatoes and nuts before the conflict. Natural calcium phosphates accounted a greater share than crude petroleum in the most recently available statistics. Many textiles including T-shirts, sweaters, cotton yarn prominent exports from Syria in the face of conflict.
The notion of good and bad cases can be measured more clearly from product and services that are exported. Some countries like Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, and Kazakhstan also show some shifts into manufactured products and modern services. For example, wine, fish, copper wires, financial and broadband internet services from Chile are taking off.
Looking at evidence over the past two decades, the rest aren’t so lucky and the situation might even look “ugly”. Many of the resource rich economies export only one non-renewable resource. In Iraq – more than 98 percent of their exports concentrated in oil; similarly more than 98 percent of Libya’s exports concentrated in extractive resources; more than half Niger’s exports in uranium derivatives (for French nuclear companies) and remainder in tobacco. Iran, Mali, Libya show similar trends where exports remains highly concentrated.
Development and Peace
Political instability and internal conflict distort the ability to modernize these economies, and production is generally frozen in such situations. However, promoting structural shift and engaging in the global economy should be a non-negotiable part of any diplomatic peace efforts.
New technologies like the Internet bring some hope. The internet provides opportunities for increasingly diversified service exports, which may offer a channel for future growth. The deployment and distribution of high end services through ICT networks have relatively lower barriers to entry and promote faster economic transformation. Boosting productivity of service suppliers may aid long awaited movements in agriculture, manufacturing and renewable energy. This will also help create new jobs and growth.
Modernizing these economies will remain critical for global development, security and peace. | <urn:uuid:b9101367-f251-4ca0-b803-7891f64e2d69> | {
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Boldly Ilustrated. See and Do Approach... Only the Good Guitar Stuff. Free of All That Wordy Fluff. The First Stage Guitar Book,
is a must have simplified pool of guitar playing information to carry along as your trusted companion to get any beginning new guitar playing enthusiasts moving forward. For starters, it is a guitar book without a lot of words and words, but is a See and Do guitar book that presents the basics for every beginning guitar player in bold and easy to understand fingering diagram illustrations. Here is a list of some of the basic but important learning to play guitar information contained in The First Stage Guitar Book,
the source to building a great foundation for the beginning guitar playing enthusiast:
- How to tune the guitar
- How to hold and strum the guitar
- How to play chord progressions without reading music
- Learn the most commonly played guitar chords in both Open and Barre forms.
- Learn how to play the most commonly played guitar chords in all keys: Majors, Minors, Minor 7ths, Dominant 7ths, Major 7ths, 9ths along with practice chord progressions galore.
- A number of simple and boldly illustrated practice chord diagrams to show you how to move from chord to chord with ease.
- Learn the most commonly and easiest fingering patterns and the best sounding fingering patterns along with suggested tips on how to enhance the sound of a chord.
- Instantly change a chord of the same name from a major chord to a minor to a minor seventh or dominant seventh chord by just lifting a finger (i.e., an F Major to an F Minor to an F Minor Seventh to an F7).
- Kick your chord progressions into rock-n-roll by adding 7th chords in every key along with illustrated accompanying chord progressions.
- Get into the blues mood with 9th chords in every key along with accompanying illustrated chord progressions. Simple technique on how to transpose a chord progression to suit your voice.
- How to play scale patterns without reading music in both staff and ta & notation.
- Start-Up Scale Patterns With Tablature are given in easy to understand illustrated diagrams along with chord progressions to accompany the scale patterns in matching keys.
- Put your own melodies together with the easy to understand CHORD COMBINATION CHART leaving you without the guessing of which chord goes with which chord available only in The First Stage Guitar Book.
You will discover and experience immediate progress on your way to learning how to play the guitar and then use it toward your favorite style of music, rock-n-roll, blues, country, popular, folk, etc., for as long as you play the guitar. There are more than just two or three chords and scales in this simple and clearly illustrated learn how to play guitar book. The First Stage Guitar Book
contains the easiest and best sounding chord fingering patterns from every key as well as some of the most basic scale patterns suitable for the beginning guitar player. | <urn:uuid:61f2934e-0aa9-4a69-ad0f-f39389a392d6> | {
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A graphic representation of a cochlear
(Image: Kids Health)
• Dani Schlesinger
Senior Speech therapist and
audiologist, Chris Hani
082 821 3448
• Mandla Sidu
Gauteng provincial health
+27 83 602 6169
There’s new hope for the deaf community in South Africa following a batch of successful cochlear implant operations performed at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg.
All these procedures, estimated to cost about R200 000 (US$ 25 000), have been fully funded by the state.
The cochlear implant programme, established in 2006, is the first of its kind in South Africa. It is run by the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Department and the Department of Speech Therapy and Audiology, in partnership with the Department of Health.
Lavine Mokhojoa, a chef from Soweto, became the first recipient of a cochlear implant at the hospital on 29 September 2006 when he was 45.
To date seven adults and one child have undergone successful cochlear implants through this particular programme.
When the unit opened its doors to the public three years ago, the hospital was optimistic about the far-reaching effects it would have.
“Through the dedication of the highly trained support staff, in both the ENT and Audiology Departments, the selected patients will receive the highest level of post surgical care and speech rehabilitation necessary to make the programme a success,” the hospital stated when announcing the establishment of the unit.
Implants for children
The programme has recently extended its reach by opening a paediatric wing.
On 1 July 2009 the unit performed a cochlear implant on a two-year-old boy, Monthati Makofane.
During such a procedure an electronic device is inserted into the inner ear, which is accessed through a small incision made at the back of the patient’s ear. After the surgery, the wound is given about four weeks to heal.
When the doctors are satisfied the wound has healed sufficiently, the external part of the cochlear implant is fitted. The external apparatus consists of a microphone which picks up sound, a battery which runs the device and a data chip which processes sound.
Makofane’s device was switched on for the first time on 6 August. Experiencing sound for the first time in his life, the little boy was quite taken aback.
“As the device was activated, Monthati immediately reacted to the sound by screaming and crying as he heard noises for the first time in his life,” said the hospital’s senior speech therapist, Dani Schlesinger.
Makofane’s parents are ecstatic that their third child is now able to hear.
“We’re very happy and excited. We’re looking forward to him hearing and being normal,” Abel Mokofane, Monthati’s father, told the daily newspaper The Star.
Abel says he and his wife realised Monthati had a hearing problem when he was six months old.
“Whenever a noise was made, clapping or the TV, he never responded.”
After a battery of tests confirmed that their son was deaf, the Mokofanes were disappointed, but accepted their child’s condition. This was until an audiologist referred them to the Baragwanath unit and Monthati’s life changed forever.
A second child on the list has recently received the go-ahead from the hospital, while two other children have now started the application process to be a part of the programme.
Screening candidates for cochlear implants, Schlesinger explains, is a complex and involved process.
“At first, when we see a patient in the Audiology Department, we start by taking a detailed history of that person’s hearing problems to determine how they came about having a hearing impediment, especially if they used to hear normally before. We investigate how it deteriorated over time and what factors were involved.”
During the screening process potential implant recipients undergo a series of hearing tests. During these tests patients are asked to listen to sounds played at different frequencies to determine the extent of their hearing impediment.
If the tests indicate a severe hearing impediment, patients are fitted with a hearing aid, to see if the device will help them.
Speech and language tests are also conducted to assess how the patient has coped with his or her hearing impediment.
Patients are assessed on their ability to express themselves, their ability to understand others through lip-reading or hand signals, their ability to learn in a classroom situation (if the patient is a student) and their ability to read and comprehend.
When hearing tests are conducted again and the hearing aid is found to be ineffective, the department considers other options.
“Once the hearing aid is found to be ineffective in enhancing hearing, we then refer the matter to the Ear, Nose and Throat Department, where the state of the cochlear inside the ear is examined.”
“For the patient to be considered for the cochlear implant, there has to be severe to profound permanent hearing loss in both ears, in other words, hearing that cannot be treated,” Schlesinger says.
A team comprising speech therapists, audiologists, an ENT specialist and psychologist then gets together to weigh up their findings on a particular patient. If it’s decided that a cochlear implant may be the best way to assist the patient, the operation is approved.
Once approved, the patient and his or her family are taken to see a psychologist who prepares them for the emotional and somewhat stressful journey ahead.
The patient’s family is required to attend weekly consultations with doctors and therapists in preparation for the operation.
A more detailed examination of the inner ear, detecting where the damage lies, and more speech therapy takes place before the procedure.
After the implant operation, for the next six months, the patient is required to go for regular check-ups at the hospital.
During the check-up sessions the patient will receive auditory training – this includes coaching on how to identify sounds and programming the device to the patient’s hearing level.
At the moment the hospital has a long list of patients awaiting cochlear implants.
New chance in life
Agnes Sekete, 23, suffered severe hearing loss in her Grade 12 year after developing meningitis. But her story has a happy ending – she’s one of Baragwanath’s cochlear implant recipients.
After her device was switched on in September 2008, she said she felt like a completely new person.
Before the operation Sekete said she “was almost knocked down by a car because I did not hear the driver hooting behind me”.
After recovering from the operation, Sekete was granted special permission by the Education Department to write her Grade 12 exams.
She is now waiting for her final results before applying to tertiary institutions to continue with her studies.
“My life was saved by a passer-by who pulled me away from the street. Now I’m able to hear sounds, listen to radio and TV and even answer my cellphone,” she says.
How does it work?
A cochlear implant differs significantly from a hearing aid.
While hearing aids amplify sound, cochlear implants bypass the damaged areas of the ear and stimulate the nerves in the auditory region.
A person with a cochlear implant hears sounds differently to a person with normal hearing, but both are able to recognise warning signals and understand everyday noises like music, animal and car sounds.
While hearing is not restored to its natural state after a cochlear implant, the recipient will have the ability to interact with others and have a conversation like a person with regular hearing.
Overcoming hearing impairment
South Africa has a thriving deaf community that’s committed to uplifting and empowering those with hearing difficulties.
According to the National Institute for the Deaf in South Africa (NIDSA), there are more than 400 000 deaf people in South Africa.
Some 47 deaf schools across the country provide for the needs of 7 000 hearing-impaired children.
Organisations like NIDSA aim to help develop the full potential of deaf people through avenues such as basic education, training, welfare services and spiritual care.
One of the unique features of the institute is that it dispels myths that many people with regular hearing have about the deaf community.
For example, one myth is that sign language is universal.
South Africa’s sign language differs from that in America and other countries. Each country develops it’s own, unique form of sign language.
Just like any other language, sign language also has dialects. In South Africa, there are many different sign language dialects, but the various groups of deaf people, do not, in general, experience problems in understanding the different dialects, according to the NIDSA website.
Another myth is that deaf drivers are more prone to car accidents. The NIDSA says this is definitely not the case, citing increased awareness and a greater reliability on site, making deaf drivers more attentive.
Deaf TV, a channel on Digital Satellite Television, caters specifically for the deaf community in South Africa, and offers lively programmes, including movies and lifestyle features.
Deaf TV presenters and actors all use sign language but sub-titles are also provided for those who are not deaf, and wish to follow the programmes.
Schlesinger says that people who cope with communicating in sign language should carry on with it, as it is an effective way to converse with other deaf people.
“If [a deaf person] is leading a normal life, a cochlear implant would not necessarily be the best route for them, as they are already equipped with an effective communication tool. This operation is not a replacement for sign language, but is there to simply help patients where other interventions have failed.” | <urn:uuid:5cf2bda5-9d4d-44f5-86bd-219a4b623e28> | {
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Turkey’s dispatch of soldiers to the Korean War in 1950 has brought the countries closer together, developing both diplomatic and economic ties.
Sixty-eight years after the end of the war and with 61 years of formal relations, the people of the two countries continue to refer to each other as “blood siblings”.
Turkey’s participation in the war also improved its geopolitical position in the context of the Cold War.
According to Merthan Dundar, chair of the Asia-Pacific Studies Research and Application Center at Ankara University, Turkish-Korean relations must be understood within the “circumstances of the time.”
“The government of the Turkish Republic sent soldiers to Korea in order to ensure that Turkey was able to join NATO against the Russian communist threat,” Dundar told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview.
Dundar also said that the increased U.S. economic aid to Turkey following the Korean War was another “benefit”.
Turkey was the first country after the U.S. to answer the United Nations' call for military aid to South Korea after the North attacked in 1950.
The first Turkish brigade left Mersin Port in southern Turkey under the command of Brigadier General Tahsin Yazici on Sept. 17, arriving 26 days later at Busan, Korea.
Turkey was the country sending fourth most troops to Korea, with four brigades of a total 21,212 soldiers.
Turkey was third among the 16 participating countries in terms of casualties with over 900 total martyrs, veterans and missing in action. The UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan bears 462 Turkish martyrs.
Ankara and Seoul have enjoyed amicable relations since the 1950s, with each country’s leaders maintaining bilateral ties as well as dialogue within international organizations such as the UN, G20 and MIKTA (Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey, Australia).
Last year, trade volume between the two countries was recorded to be $7.2 billion, increasing by more than 10 pct. since 2013.
On the 60th anniversary of relations in 2017, 120,622 Korean tourists visited Turkey, while 27,272 Turkish tourists visited South Korea.
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When it comes to addiction myths, most people think of the urban addict. The urban addict is the dirty, homeless, dopefiend walking the streets in the hopes of finding a fix. While those addicts certainly exist—and several of us here at 449Recovery were among them—not all addicts and alcoholics fit the stereotype.
Especially today, more and more people are falling victim to drug addiction in non-urban areas. It used to be that the suburbs and rural areas were considered a safe haven from the ravages of addiction, but there are a lot of factors keeping that from being true.
Having Money Dooms/Protects Potential Addicts
You need money to get high. In one way or another, drugs cost something, and that something can always be translated into a dollar amount. It is unpalatable, but everything has its price. In rural areas, this might translate to the effort and legal risk to gather the materials to make meth, for instance. In suburban areas, there are more people, and more people makes the risk of getting caught go up, but these areas also tend to mark a middle point between urban and rural, making sure there is a constant flow of drugs in both directions.
“But I never had money, and I still got high,” someone might say. Perhaps not, but money translates in different ways. It might mean doing certain “things” for certain people, in return for a certain product. An actual exchange of physical money may not occur, but it is an unnecessary step in the transaction.
Lack of Enforcement Means No Problem
One of the other addiction myths is because urban areas generally have higher crime rates (which nearly always are a byproduct of drug addiction and alcoholism) than the suburbs or rural areas, those latter two areas do not have problems with addiction.
This just isn’t so. While it is true that law enforcement and resources tend to go to areas of higher population density, that does not exclude the less densely populated areas from the problems themselves. The reasoning goes that resources are provided to the areas most in need of them, and therefore, if resources aren’t needed, then a problem does not exist.
Again, this just isn’t so. The allocation of resources in enforcing drug laws does not mean that an area is free from the problem altogether. Actually, the opposite is true. Drug manufacturers are more likely to go to areas where they are less likely to get caught, and with fewer resources available being spent on enforcement in rural areas and the suburbs, it is a safer gamble—especially considering the lack of competition from other dealers and/or manufacturers.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether you live in a big city, a wealthy suburb, or in an area so rural that it takes a 20-minute drive to get to your neighbor. Your dollar is just as valuable as anyone else’s.
The Most Dangerous Addiction Myths Feed on Denial
Of course, addiction myths are often fueled by denial—whether that denial is intentional or not.
If Johnny is staying up for days on end, losing weight, jittery, and showing all the classic signs of crystal meth addiction, it is probably because he has a crystal meth addiction. Believe it or not, but there are a lot of people who say, “Well, that can’t happen to my Johnny. We moved out here to get away from all that.”
That is the problem, though. Drug addiction follows people wherever they go. It doesn’t mater how wealthy or poor, how educated a person is, or their background. Addiction finds, and it kills, and addiction myths are the accomplices. | <urn:uuid:65bd39bc-c8d9-43a7-949c-2ead5c816bb1> | {
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Spirituality Temporalism Multimedia About Us
Bibi Basant Lata Jee
When the Mughal forces laid siege around Anandpur Sahib, many Singhs deserted the Guru, including the 40 Singhs who later became the 40 Muktas. Guru Gobind Singh Jee told Bibi Basant Lata to leave the fort, as there would be terrible hardships in the coming months. However Bibi Jee refused, saying that she would not leave her Guru whatever the circumstances.
After some months of real difficulties and hunger, Guru Gobind Singh Jee decided to leave Anandpur Sahib at the request of his Sikhs. Evading the Mughal forces, the Guru and his Sikhs reached the River Sirsa. It was the winter months, and due to the cold weather and fast flowing river current, the Sikhs got scattered. Guru Gobind Singh Jee, Sahibzada Ajit Singh and Sahibzada Jujhar Singh got separated from Mata Gujjer Kaur, Sahibzada Zorawar Singh and Sahibzada Fateh Singh.
Bibi Basant Lata was with Mata Gujjer Kaur at this critical time, leading Mata Jee’s horse through the River Sarsa. Mata Jee’s horse led her to the other side of the river, but Bibi Basant Lata got swept away by the cold but rapidly flowing river water. As the river carried her for some distance, she fell unconscious due to the horrendously cold water. Finally her body was washed up on the side of the riverbank.
A Mughal soldier, Samund Khan, seeing Bibi Basant Lata unconscious, took advantage of her vulnerability and took her to his house. When she regained her consciousness, he asked her to accept Islam and become his wife. He said if she accepted his wishes, she would have all the material pleasures that she could ever dream of. Bibi Jee replied: “I could have left my Guru months ago and not had to endure such hardships at Anandpur Sahib. I will never leave my Guru.” Samund Khan was taken aback by Bibi Jee’s response, but thought leaving her locked up and hungry in a cell for eight days would easily break her resolve.
Bibi Basant Lata’s health was already in a bad state, but throughout her stay in the cell, she resolved to make Gurbani her Aasra. She sat cross-legged in one spot, but with deep concentration and faith in Waheguroo, she did Sukhmani Sahib da Paath for those eight days. No fears about the future could remove her concentration from Guru Jee and Gurbani.
When Samund Khan came to Bibi Jee after eight days, her resolve was nowhere near broken. This left Samund Khan seething with anger. Evil thoughts crossed his mind. He started to move towards Bibi Jee. Bibi Jee realised the situation, and started praying to Kalgidhaar Dasmesh Pita.
Samund Khan was saying in an antagonising and sarcastic manner “what’s your Guru going to do for you now? Are you ready to accept Islam now?” Bibi Jee responded “My Guru is always with me. You cannot do anything to me.” “Don’t lie … your Guru is nowhere to be seen,” he said in a taunting manner, as he moved further towards Bibi Jee. Bibi Jee started to do Ardaas to Guru Sahib with even greater pyaar and faith. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Bibi Jee said “My Guru is here.” He was now within touching distance of Bibi Jee. He said, “I cannot see him … you’re imagining things.” Bibi Jee said, “you will not be able to see him … you’re a Paapi person, full of the 5 vices. Only those with high Kamayee can see him. My Guru Jee is here with me.”
At this instance, Samund Khan tried to move further towards Bibi Jee, yet his body had now frozen. Although he could see with his eyes and speak with his mouth, all his body’s muscle had frozen, as if he was a statue. After a few moments, he was getting freaked out. Bibi Jee had realised what her Guru Jee had done. She asked, “I thought you said my Guru would not save me? I thought you said he was not here?”
After a few minutes of being frozen like a statue, he started begging Bibi Jee to do Ardaas to unfreeze him. Bibi Jee said that her Ardaas would only happen if Samund Khan promised to be a decent God-fearing person. Samund Khan readily agreed. Bibi Jee did her Ardaas, and Guru Gobind Singh Jee unfroze the Mughal soldier. For the following few weeks, having seen the Kamayee and Gursikhi Jeevan of Bibi Basant Lata, he served Bibi Jee very well whilst Bibi Jee continued doing Bhagti. He then took Bibi Jee personally to Dina Kangoor to re-unite Bibi Jee with Guru Gobind Singh Jee.
What can we learn from this episode?
Guru Jee is always with us, but only those fortunate souls with high Bhagti and Naam Jeevan realise this. Such souls can speak, feed, see and call upon their Guru all the time and at any time.
If we are to reach this stage, we must have full faith in the Guru, incorporate his his teachings into our lives and never leave the Guru … just like Bibi Basant Lata Jee.
If we become Bhagats of Waheguroo like Bibi Basant Lata Jee, Waheguroo will always preserve our honour, saving us physically whilst having mortal form and saving us forever once our soul leaves the body.
hir jugu jugu Bgq aupwieAw pYj rKdw AwieAw rwm rwjy ]
har jug jug bhagath oupaaeiaa paij rakhadhaa aaeiaa raam raajae ||
In each and every age, He creates His devotees and preserves their honor, O Lord King.
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The "hallmark" smocking technique is called English smocking, its origin obviously attributed to England. This method, along with the smocking variations that have developed over the years are described briefly below. I included photos when I found good examples.
English (or Geometric) Smocking
North American Smocking
This style of smocking appears to have originated as a way to simplify the smocking process. Iron-on dot grids were transferred onto the wrong side of fabric and then used to create the smocking pattern as it was stitched (the dots could also be used to gather the pleats with a running stitch). First distributed in the 1880s, these patterns were very popular during the early to mid-twentieth century and were commonly sold by pattern companies.
A simply smocked base design is heavily embellished with embroidery stitches to create a decorative panel. The smocking itself becomes secondary to the extra surface embellishment.
With Picture smocking, embroidery stitches (typically cable stitches) are stacked to create images on the right side of the fabric. The back side of the pleats are smocked as well to fix the pleats in place so that they will not stretch and distort the designs on the front. This eliminates the ingrained elasticity of the general smocking technique.
This type of smocking is performed on striped, gingham (checked), or dotted fabric that is pleated while being embroidered, rather than prior to embroidering. The color pattern of the fabric can be manipulated to create designs by arranging the pleats to show or obscure colors to create bands or blocks of color. Counterchange smocking is static and not stretchy like English smocking.
Grid Smocking/Italian Shirring
This type of smocking is created by lines of running stitches that when pulled up, shift the fabric into patterns. It is a bit hard to describe, but you can see an illustrated example at the blog Bubblegum4Breakfast.
Lattice smocking is done on the wrong side of the fabric to create a pattern of folds on the right side. Stitches are taken both horizontally and vertically, affecting the dimensions of the fabric in both directions. Unlike the previously mentioned smocking methods, the stitches are intended to be invisible on the front. This method of smocking is particularly effective on heavier fabrics such as corduroy or velvet. This technique seems to be used more frequently on home decor items, specifically pillows, rather than on garments.
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My children, who are 8 and 10, are five weeks into their 12 weeks of summer vacation. With the advent of summer comes an increase in their freedom. They do not have to walk out of the house to go to school at 7:30 in the morning. This means that they can stay up after 8 p.m. and sleep past 6:30 a.m.
The days of the week are no longer structured by ballet, karate, and chess. In fact, every day is different. They have been given more freedom to determine what to do, but have received additional responsibility. They are tracking their own summer reading and daily journal writing. When I am working toward meeting a deadline, they have to wait until I am done before I can answer questions or help with projects.
The overall lesson for my children this summer: The more responsible they are, the more freedom they will be given. I have a pretty good feeling that this will be my mantra for the next few years.
The opposite is also true: to retain their freedoms, they must be responsible.
Staying free involves responsibility.
This Sunday, we will celebrate the 234th anniversary of our nation's Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. While we declared ourselves free from British rule on that day, it took more than five additional years of fighting for us to win our freedom. On Oct. 19, 1781, our fighting ended with British Gen. Charles Cornwallis surrendering at Yorktown, Va.
We had our freedom; now we had to be responsible and govern.
Our founders had to decide how our country would work.
They argued for years, and finally signed the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787. It officially became our guiding document on June 21, 1788, when it was ratified by New Hampshire.
According to a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey released on June 23, 67 percent of likely voters believe that the country is heading down the wrong track. Only "28 percent of likely voters now say the country is heading in the right direction." Our country is currently not on the right track.
While two-thirds of Americans may be discouraged by the current path our country is taking, they have the perfect opportunity this weekend to reflect on our Declaration of Independence.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," it states. It also notes that governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed."
There is great importance in the self-evident truths. First, all men are created equal. That means that we all have equal value at birth. However, it does not say that all men, regardless of whether they work, shall end up equal. We are created equal and given rights by our Creator. We are a nation of believers in God. This provides us with optimism, a belief in the future, and solace and strength in times of crisis.
Our rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We are not guaranteed health care, education, houses or even happiness. Our founders acknowledge that life and liberty came from God and that he gave us the ability to pursue happiness, not the guarantee it would be achieved.
The Declaration of Independence states that we, the people, have the power, not the government. The government rules with the consent of the governed. However, it is our responsibility as citizens to remind those in government who their bosses are, who holds the power. If they do not remember, then it is our responsibility to replace them with those who understand that the people have the power.
If we are not responsible in carrying out our duties, we lose our freedom.
Our nation has an incredible history. We are a nation of risk-takers, hard workers, lovers of freedom, and believers in God.
While we might be pessimistic about the current path our country is taking, we should be optimistic about our future and remind ourselves that our country has the ability to build on our past and create a bright future. We have the responsibility to remind our government that we, the people, have the power to elect a government that listens to us and responds to us.
As with many things, showing responsibility is the way to keep our freedom. Now, I have to go help my children build a fort.
© Creators Syndicate Inc. | <urn:uuid:1af8d24d-0e1a-4b8a-b329-8b8133b4e0a4> | {
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The French established their own as well along the Mississippi River. Many settlers were dissenting Christian groups who came seeking religious freedom. The continent's first elected legislative assembly, Virginia's House of Burgesses created in , the Mayflower Compact , signed by the Pilgrims before disembarking, and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut , established precedents for the pattern of representative self-government and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies.
Cash crops included tobacco, rice, and wheat. Extraction industries grew up in furs, fishing and lumber. Manufacturers produced rum and ships, and by the late colonial period, Americans were producing one-seventh of the world's iron supply. English colonists were supplemented by waves of Scotch-Irish and other groups. As coastal land grew more expensive, freed indentured servants pushed further west. Relatively small Native American populations were eclipsed. Excluding the Native Americans , who were being conquered and displaced, the 13 British colonies had a population of over 2.
Despite continuing new arrivals, the rate of natural increase was such that by the s only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas. Although the Spanish did not land, natives paddled to the ship to trade furs for abalone shells from California.
There may also have been confusion with Nuu-chah-nulth , the natives' autonym a name for themselves. It may also have simply been based on Cook's mispronunciation of Yuquot, the native name of the place.
Violence was not a significant factor in the overall decline among Native Americans , though conflict among themselves and with Europeans affected specific tribes and various colonial settlements. Native Americans were also often at war with neighboring tribes and allied with Europeans in their colonial wars.
At the same time, however, many natives and settlers came to depend on each other. Settlers traded for food and animal pelts, natives for guns, ammunition and other European wares. European missionaries and others felt it was important to "civilize" the Native Americans and urged them to adopt European agricultural techniques and lifestyles.
He returned to Hawaii to resupply, initially exploring the coasts of Maui and the big island , trading with locals and then making anchor at Kealakekua Bay in January When his ships and company left the islands, a ship's mast broke in bad weather, forcing them to return in mid-February. Cook would be killed days later. Americans had developed an ideology of " republicanism " asserting that government rested on the will of the people as expressed in their local legislatures.
They demanded their rights as Englishmen and "no taxation without representation". The British insisted on administering the empire through Parliament, and the conflict escalated into war. The fourth day of July is celebrated annually as Independence Day.
Nationalists led the Philadelphia Convention of in writing the United States Constitution , ratified in state conventions in The federal government was reorganized into three branches, on the principle of creating salutary checks and balances, in George Washington, who had led the revolutionary army to victory, was the first president elected under the new constitution.
The Bill of Rights , forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in In the North, it energized multiple social reform movements, including abolitionism ; in the South, Methodists and Baptists proselytized among slave populations. | <urn:uuid:229905b3-609d-451c-aafb-06ff0e6fa3c8> | {
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I’m reading a story on Forbes that proposes that 3D printing, rather than regulations or climate accords, will solve the current climate crisis.
While the rambling three-pager wanders over a number of topics, the gist of the proposal is that 3D printing will resolve climate change because:
- The cost of solar panels and wind turbines will be made more efficient due to the “greater precision enabled by 3D printing”
- 3D printing “gives off less smoke and other toxic fumes”, while it “uses the same amount of energy as traditional manufacturing”
- “Companies will need much less shipping”, as “printer farms and mini-factories closer to customers”, and “Fewer goods will be shipped long distances by railroads or ocean vessels due to local supply chains”
- “Over time we’ll get lighter products throughout the economy, so we’ll need less energy to move them around.”
- Less material waste occurs during 3D printing so less energy is required
- Less product waste will occur because unsold inventory won’t be manufactured; 3D printers will make only what people want
And somehow these benefits will be used by engineers and entrepreneurs to solve climate change, driven by economic benefit, not by regulation.
I’m rather skeptical of this premise, as the points above are not always true, or certainly not yet. Climate change mitigation actions are needed now, on a large scale, not years in the future when 3D printers can “print what people want”. They want iPhones, and those are not coming out of a 3D printer anytime soon, possibly never.
Such items are best produced using traditional mass production techniques as they are not required to be unique in any way. They are identical.
I believe more energy is required to produce arbitrary objects in a 3D printer than would be consumed if using efficient mass production techniques. So there would likely be no energy savings if 3D printing was widely used.
I don’t understand the toxic fumes argument; the materials used by the printers are produced in industrial processes anyway. The same resins that are used in a mass manufactured toy are also used in 3D printing the same toy.
The production of 3D printers themselves is a mass manufacturing operation. The production of the materials used by 3D printers is a mass manufacturing operation. Those printers and their materials are often shipped great distances to the buyers, using shipping resources.
3D printing is also an extreme niche activity today when compared with all the traditional manufacturing activity taking place, which itself produces a slim portion of the world’s greenhouse gases. The biggest sources of greenhouse gases in the USA are currently electricity generation (which would likely increase if inefficient 3D printers became widespread) and transportation, which will not be significantly affected by 3D printing, as materials and equipment will still need to be shipped.
Will 3D printing solve the climate crisis? I don’t think so. That is a problem that must be solved with other means, both technological and regulatory - and quickly. | <urn:uuid:0670a4bd-9894-4829-a101-8b08e1816786> | {
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A mask is a custom user interface for a block that hides the block's contents, making it appear to the user as an atomic block with its own icon and parameter dialog box.
The Mask Editor dialog box helps you create and customize the block mask. The Mask Editor dialog box opens when you create or edit a mask. You can access the Mask Editor dialog box by any of these options:
To create mask,
In the Modeling tab, under Component, click Create Model Mask.
Select the block and on the Block tab, in the Mask group, click Create Mask. The Mask Editor opens.
To edit mask,
On the Block tab, in the Mask group, click Edit Mask.
Right-click the block and select Mask > Edit Mask.
You can also use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + M to open Mask Editor.
The Mask Editor dialog box contains a set of tabbed panes, each of which enables you define a feature of the mask. These tabs are:
For information on creating and editing a block mask from command line, see Control Masks Programmatically.
The Icon & Ports pane helps you to create a block icon that contains descriptive text, state equations, image, and graphics.
The Icon & Ports pane is divided into these sections:
Options available in the left pane are a list of controls that allow you to specify attributes on the mask icon. These options are,
Block frame. The block frame is the rectangle that encloses the block. You can choose
to show or hide the frame by setting the Block Frame
Invisible. The default is to make the block
frame visible. For example, this figure shows visible and invisible block
frames for an AND gate block.
Icon transparency. The icon transparency can be set to
Opaque with ports, or
Transparent, based on whether you want to
hide or show what is underneath the icon. The default option
Opaque hides information such as port labels.
The block frame is displayed for a transparent icon, and hidden for the
For a subsystem block, if you set the icon transparency to
Opaque with ports the port labels are
If you set the icon transparency to
Transparent, Simulink® does not hide the block frame even if you set the
Block Frame property to
Icon units. This option controls the coordinate system used by the drawing commands.
It applies only to the
patch drawing commands. You can select from among
X = [0 2 3 4 9]; Y = [4 6 3 5 8];
The lower-left corner of the block frame is (0,3) and the upper-right corner is (9,8). The range of the x-axis is 9 (from 0 to 9), while the range of the y-axis is 5 (from 3 to 8).
Normalized draws the icon
within a block frame whose bottom-left corner is (0,0) and whose
top-right corner is (1,1). Only X and Y values from 0 through 1
appear. When the block is resized, the icon is also resized. For
example, this figure shows the icon drawn using these
X = [.0 .2 .3 .4 .9]; Y = [.4 .6 .3 .5 .8];
Pixel draws the icon with X
and Y values expressed in pixels. The icon is not automatically
resized when the block is resized. To force the icon to resize with
the block, define the drawing commands in terms of the block
Icon rotation. When the block is rotated or flipped, you can choose whether to rotate or
flip the icon or to have it remain fixed in its original orientation. The
default is not to rotate the icon. The icon rotation is consistent with
block port rotation. This figure shows the results of choosing
icon rotation when the AND gate block is rotated.
Port rotation. This option enables you to you specify a port rotation type for the masked block. The choices are:
Ports are reordered after a clockwise rotation to maintain a left-to-right port numbering order for ports along the top and bottom of the block and a top-to-bottom port numbering order for ports along the left and right sides of the block.
Ports rotate with the block without being reordered after a clockwise rotation.
The default rotation option is appropriate for control systems and other modeling applications where block diagrams typically have a top-down and left-right orientation. It simplifies editing of diagrams, by minimizing the need to reconnect blocks after rotations to preserve the standard orientation.
Similarly, the physical rotation option is appropriate for electronic, mechanical, hydraulic, and other modeling applications where blocks represent physical components and lines represent physical connections. The physical rotation option more closely models the behavior of the devices represented (that is, the ports rotate with the block as they would on a physical device). In addition, the option avoids introducing line crossings as the result of rotations, making diagrams easier to read.
For example, the following figure shows two diagrams representing the same transistor circuit. In one, the masked blocks representing transistors use default rotation and in the other, physical rotation.
Both diagrams avoid line crossings that make diagrams harder to read. The next figure shows the diagrams after a single clockwise rotation.
The rotation introduces a line crossing the diagram that uses default rotation but not in the diagram that uses physical rotation. Also that there is no way to edit the diagram with default rotation to remove the line crossing. See Flip or Rotate Blocks for more information.
Run Initialization. The Run initialization option enables you to control the execution of the mask initialization commands. The choices are:
Off (Default): Does not execute the mask initialization commands. When the mask drawing commands do not have dependency on the mask workspace, it is recommended to specify the value of Run initialization as Off. Setting the value to Off helps in optimizing Simulink performance as the mask initialization commands are not executed.
On: Executes the mask initialization commands if the mask workspace is not up-to-date. When this option is specified, the mask initialization commands are executed before executing the mask drawing commands irrespective of the mask workspace dependency of the mask drawing commands.
Analyze: Executes the mask initialization commands only if there is mask workspace dependency. When this option is specified, Simulink executes the mask initialization commands before executing the mask icon drawing commands. The Analyze option is for backward compatibility and is not recommended otherwise. It is recommended that the Simulink models from R2016b or before are upgraded using the Upgrade Advisor.
For more information, see slexMaskDrawingExamples.
This section displays the preview of block mask icon. Block mask preview is available only if the mask contains an icon drawing.
When you add an icon drawing command and click Apply, the preview image refreshes and is displayed in the Preview section of Icon & Ports pane.
The Icon drawing commands text box available in the center pane enables you to add code to draw the block icon. You can use the list of commands mentioned in the Mask icon drawing commands tables to draw a block icon.
Mask icon drawing commands
|Drawing Command||Description||Syntax Example||Preview|
Change drawing color of subsequent mask icon drawing commands
Display text on the masked icon.
Display transfer function on masked icon
Display transfer function on masked icon
Display variable text centered on masked icon
Display RGB image on masked icon
To add mask icon image from the user interface, click Mask > Add Mask Icon in the context menu.
Draw color patch of specified shape on masked icon
Draw graph connecting series of points on masked icon
Draw port label on masked icon
Display text at specific location on masked icon .
You must select
Promote icon of a block contained in a Subsystem to the Subsystem mask
Here, the icon of block is promoted to its Subsystem block.
For more information, see slexblockicon.
Simulink does not support mask drawing commands within anonymous functions.
The drawing commands execute in the same sequence as they are added in the Icon drawing commands text box. Drawing commands have access to all variables in the mask workspace. If any drawing command cannot successfully execute, the block icon displays question masks .
The drawing commands execute after the block is drawn in these cases:
Changes are made and applied in the mask dialog box.
Changes are made in the Mask Editor.
Changes are done to the block diagram that affects the block appearance, such as rotating the block.
The Parameters & Dialog pane enables you to design mask dialog boxes using the dialog controls in the Parameters, Display, and Action palettes.
The Parameters & Dialog pane divided into these sections:
Parameter & Dialog Pane
|Section||Section Description||Sub-Section||Sub-Section Description|
|Controls||Controls are elements in a mask dialog box that users can interact with to add or manipulate data.||Parameter||Parameters are user inputs that take part in simulation. The Parameters palette has a set of parameter dialog controls that you can add to a mask dialog box.|
|Display||Controls on the Display palette allow you to group dialog controls in the mask dialog box and display text and images|
|Action||Action controls allow you to perform some actions in the mask dialog box. For example, you can click a hyperlink or a button in the mask dialog box.|
|Dialog box||You can click or drag and drop dialog controls from the palettes to the Dialog box to create a mask dialog box.||NA||NA|
|Property editor||The Property editor allows you to view and set the properties for the Parameters, Display, and Action controls.||Properties||Defines basic information on all dialog controls, such as Name, Value, Prompt, and Type.|
|Attributes||Defines how a mask dialog control is interpreted. Attributes are related only to parameters.|
|Dialog||Defines how dialog controls are displayed in the mask dialog box.|
|Layout||Defines how dialog controls are laid out on the mask dialog box.|
The controls section is sub divided into Parameters, Display, and Action sections. The Controls Table lists the different controls and their description.
Allows you to enter a parameter value by typing it into the field.
can associate constraints to an
Accepts a Boolean value.
Allows you to select a parameter value from a list of possible values. When you select the Evaluate check box, the associated variable holds the index of the selected item. Note that the index starts from 1, and not 0. When Evaluate is disabled, the associated variable holds the string of the selected item.
Allows you to select a parameter value from a list of possible values. You can also type a value either from the list or from outside of the list. When you select the Evaluate check box, the associated variable holds the actual value of the selected item.
You can associate constraints to a Combo box parameter.
For more information, see the Combo box example in slexMaskParameterOptionsExample.
Allows you to select a parameter value from a list of possible values. All options for a radio button are displayed on the mask dialog.
Allows you to slide to values within a range defined by minimum and maximum values. A Slider parameter can accept input as a number or a variable name. If the specified variable is a base workspace or a model workspace variable, you can tune the variable value through the Slider.You can tune the values in the linear scale or logarithmic scale using the Scale drop-down menu
You can also control the slider range dynamically. For more information, see slexMaskParameterOptionsExample.
Values specified for Slider are auto applied.
Allows you to dial to values within a range defined by minimum and maximum values. A Dial parameter can accept input as a number or a variable name. If the specified variable is a base workspace or a model workspace variable, you can tune the variable value through the Dial.You can tune the values in the linear scale or logarithmic scale using the Scale drop-down menu.
You can also control the dial range dynamically. For more information, see slexMaskParameterOptionsExample.
Values specified for Dial are auto applied.
Allows you to spin through values within a range defined by minimum and maximum values. You can specify a step size for the values.
Values specified for Spinbox are auto applied.
Enables you to specify a data type for a mask parameter. You can associate the Min, Max, and Edit parameters with a data type parameter. For more details, see Specify Data Types Using DataTypeStr Parameter.
Specifies a minimum value for the DataTypeStr parameter.
Specifies a maximum value for the DataTypeStr parameter.
Allows you to set the measurement units for output or input values of a masked block. The Unit parameter can accept any units of measurement as input. For example, rad/sec for angular velocity, meters/sec2 for acceleration, or distance in km or m. For more information, see slexMaskingUnit.
|Allows you to add tables in the mask dialog box. You can add values as a nested cell array in the Values section of the Property editor. For more information , see SlexMaskingCustomTable.|
Allows you to selectively promote block parameters from underlying blocks to the mask. Click the Type options field to open the Promoted Parameter Selector dialog box. In this dialog box, you can select the block parameters that you want to promote. Click OK to close it.
Allows you to promote all underlying block parameters to the mask. When you promote all parameters, the promote operation deletes parameters that have been promoted previously.
Container to group of dialog controls. You use a Panel for logical grouping of dialog controls.
Container to group other dialog controls and containers in the mask dialog box.
Tab to group dialog controls in the mask dialog box. A tab is contained within a tab container. A tab container can have multiple tabs.
Container to group the Edit, Check box, and the Popup parameters in a tabular form. You can also search and sort the content listed within the Table container.
Container to group dialog controls similar to Panel. You can choose to expand or collapse the CollapsiblePanel dialog controls.
For more information, see the Collapsible Panel example in Dialog Layout Options.
Text displayed in the mask dialog box.
Image displayed in the mask dialog box.
|Add a custom text or MATLAB code in the mask dialog box.|
Allows you to select a value from a list of possible values. You can select multiple values (Ctrl + click).
Allows you to select a value from a hierarchical tree of possible values. You can select multiple values (Ctrl + click).
Hyperlink text displayed on the mask dialog box.
Button controls on the mask dialog box. You can program button for specific actions. You can also add an image on a button controls. For more information, see slexMaskParameterOptionsExample.
You can build a hierarchy of dialog controls by dragging them from a Controls section to the Dialog box. You can also click the palettes on the Controls section to add the required control to the Dialog box. You can add a maximum of 32 levels of hierarchy in the Dialog box.
The Dialog box displays three fields: Type, Prompt, and Name.
The Type field shows the type of the dialog control and cannot be edited. It also displays a sequence number for parameter dialog controls.
The Prompt field shows the prompt text for the dialog control.
The Name field is auto-populated and uniquely identifies the dialog controls. You can choose to add a different value (valid MATLAB name) in the Name field and must not match the built-in parameter name.
The Parameter controls are displayed in light blue background whereas the Display and Action controls are displayed in white background on the Dialog box.
You can move a dialog control in the hierarchy, you can copy and paste a dialog control, you can also delete a node. For more information, see Dialog Control Operations.
The Property editor allows you to view and set the properties for Parameter, Display, and Action dialog controls. The Property editor for Parameter is shown:
You can set the following properties for Parameter, Action, and Display dialog controls. For more information, see the Property editor table.
Uniquely identifies the dialog control in the mask dialog box. The Name property must be set for all dialog controls.
Value of the Parameter dialog control. The Value property applies only to the Parameter dialog controls.
Label text that identifies the parameters in a mask dialog box. The Prompt property applies to all dialog controls except Panel and Image dialog control.
Type of the dialog control. You can use the Type field to change the Parameter and Container types. You cannot change any container type to Tab and vice versa.
Allows you to specify if the collapsible panel dialog control is expanded or collapsed, by default.
The Type options property allows you to set specific Parameter properties. The Type options property applies to the Popup, Radio button, DataTypeStr, and Promoted parameters.
You can add an image to a mask using the Image dialog control. You can also display an image on a Button dialog control. In either case, provide the path to the image in the File path property that is enabled for these two dialog controls. For the Button dialog control, specify an empty character vector for the Prompt property in order for the image to be displayed.
The Word wrap property enables word wrapping for long text. The Word wrap property applies only for Text dialog control.
Maximum and Minimum
The Maximum and Minimum properties enable you to specify a range for controls like Spinbox, Slider, and Dial.
Allows you to specify a step size for the values. This property applies only for Spinbox dialog control.
Allows you to specify a tooltip for the selected dialog control type. The tooltip is visible when you hover the cursor over a dialog control on the mask dialog box. You can add tooltips for all dialog controls type except for Group box, Tab, CollapsiblePanel, and Panel.
|Allows you to set the tuning scale as
Simulink uses the value of a mask parameter as you type it in the mask dialog box, or it can evaluate what you specify and use as the result of the evaluation. Select the Evaluate option for a parameter to specify parameter evaluation (the default). To suppress evaluation, clear the option.
By default, you can change a mask parameter value during simulation. To prevent the changing of parameter value during simulation, clear the Tunable option. If the masked parameter does not support parameter tuning, Simulink ignore the Tunable option setting of a mask parameter. Such parameters are then disabled on the Mask dialog box when simulating. You can specify the type of parameter where tunable is disabled. For example, the combo box parameter with the tunable mode set to run-to-run mode can change its Typeoptions property while simulated on fast restart mode.
You can also change the mask parameter value while simulating your model on fast restart mode. Depending on the value specified for the Tunable attribute and the simulation mode, the mask parameter can either be read-only or read-write.
For information about parameter tuning and the blocks that support it, see Tune and Experiment with Block Parameter Values.
Indicates that the parameter cannot be modified.
Indicates that the parameter must not be displayed in the mask dialog box.
Indicates that the parameter value never gets saved in the model file.
Allows you to add constraints to the selected parameter.
By default Enable is selected. If you clear this option, the selected control becomes unavailable for edit. Masked block users cannot set the value of the parameter.
The selected control appears in the mask dialog box only if this option is selected.
MATLAB code that you want Simulink to execute when a user applies a change to the selected control. Simulink uses the base workspace to execute the callback code.
Allows you to set the location for the dialog control to appear in the current row or a new row.
Allows you to align the parameters on the mask dialog box. This option is supported for all the Display control types except Table.
For more information, see Combo box Parameter.
Allows you to set the prompt location for the dialog control on either the top or to the left of the dialog control.
You cannot set the Prompt location property for Check box, Dial, DataTypeStr, Collapsible Panel and Radiobutton.
Allows you to specify horizontal or vertical orientation for sliders and radio buttons.
If this option is selected, the controls on the mask dialog box stretch horizontally when you resize the mask dialog box. By default, Horizontal Stretch check box is selected.
For more information, see Horizontal Stretch Property.
The Initialization pane allows you to add MATLAB commands that initialize the masked block.
When you open a model, Simulink locates the visible masked blocks that reside at the top level of the model or in an open subsystem. Simulink only executes the initialization commands for these visible masked blocks if they meet either of the following conditions:
The masked block has icon drawing commands.
Simulink does not initialize masked blocks that do not have icon drawing commands, even if they have initialization commands.
The masked block belongs to a library and has the Allow library block to modify its contents enabled.
Initialization commands for all masked blocks in a model run when you:
Update the diagram
Start code generation
Click Apply on the dialog box
Initialization commands for an individual masked block run when you:
Change any of the mask parameters that define the mask, such as
MaskInitialization, by using the Mask Editor or the
Rotate or flip the masked block, if the icon depends on the initialization commands.
Cause the icon to be drawn or redrawn, and the icon drawing depends on initialization code.
Change the value of a mask parameter by using the block dialog box or the
Copy the masked block within the same model or between different models.
The Initialization pane contains the controls described in this section.
The Dialog variables list displays the names of the dialog controls and associated mask parameters, which are defined in the Parameters & Dialog pane. You can also use the list to change the names of mask parameters. To change a name, double-click the name in the list. An edit field containing the existing name appears. Edit the existing name and click Enter or click outside the edit field to confirm your changes.
Enter the initialization commands in this field. You can enter any valid MATLAB expression, consisting of MATLAB functions and scripts, operators, and variables defined in the mask workspace. Initialization commands run in the mask workspace, not the base workspace.
This check box is enabled only if the masked block resides in a library. Selecting this option allows you to modify the parameters of the masked block. If the masked block is a masked subsystem, this option allows you to add or delete blocks and set the parameters of the blocks within that subsystem. If this option is not selected, an error is generated when a masked library block tries to modify its contents in any way.
Following rules apply for mask initialization commands:
Do not use initialization code to create mask dialogs whose appearance or control settings change depending on changes made to other control settings. Instead, use the mask callbacks provided specifically for this purpose.
Avoid prefacing variable names in initialization commands with
These specific prefixes are reserved for use with internal variable
set_param commands to set parameters of
blocks residing in masked subsystems that reside in the masked subsystem
being initialized. See Set Up Nested Masked Block Parameters for details.
The Documentation pane enables you to define or modify the type, description, and help text for a masked block.
The mask type is a block classification that appears in the mask
dialog box and on all Mask Editor panes for the block. When
Simulink displays a mask dialog box, it suffixes
to the mask type. To define the mask type, enter it in the
Type field. The text can contain any valid MATLAB character, but cannot contain line breaks.
The mask description is summary help text that describe the block's purpose or function. By default, the mask description is displayed below the mask type in the mask dialog box. To define the mask description, enter it in the Description field. The text can contain any legal MATLAB character. Simulink automatically wraps long lines. You can force line breaks by using the Enter key.
The Online Help for a masked block provides information in addition to that provided by the Type and Description fields. This information appears in a separate window when the masked block user clicks the Help button on the mask dialog box. To define the mask help, type one of these in the Help field:
Literal or HTML text
Provide a URL. If the first line of the Mask help field is a URL,
Simulink passes the URL to your default web browser. The URL can begin
Once the browser is active, MATLAB and Simulink have no further control over its actions.
web Command. If the first line of the Mask help field is a
web command, Simulink passes the command to MATLAB, which displays the specified file in the MATLAB Online Help browser. Example:
web([docroot '/MyBlockDoc/' get_param(gcb,'MaskType') '.html'])
See the MATLAB
web command documentation for
web command used for mask help cannot return
eval Command. If the first line of the Mask help field is an
eval command, Simulink passes the command to MATLAB, which performs the specified evaluation. Example:
eval command documentation
for details. An
eval command used for mask help cannot
Provide Literal or HTML Text. If the first line of the Mask help field is not a
URL, or a
web or an
Simulink displays the text in the MATLAB Online Help browser under a heading that is the value of the
Mask type field. The text can contain any legal
MATLAB character, line breaks, and any standard HTML tag, including
img that display images.
Simulink first copies the text to a temporary folder, then displays the
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In 1912, Democrats and Republicans gathered at their respective conventions to select the candidates that would square off in the general election. Unlike modern day presidential conventions, there was no clear-cut nominee selected prior to the gatherings. The lack of a definite candidate set the stage for sizeable political drama in both parties.
Democrats had to choose between House Speaker Champ Clark of Missouri and Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey. Clark seemed to have the nomination sealed — Woodrow had even prepared a concession speech — until Tammany Hall tossed its support behind the House Speaker. The endorsement by the corrupt political machine from New York City caused high-ranking Democrats to move away Clark and towards Wilson. The surprising shift made the convention one of the most action-packed gatherings in Democratic history.
Not to be outdone, the Republicans played host to a convention battle that ended up splitting the party. A power struggle between incumbent William Howard Taft and former president Theodore Roosevelt played out as the one-time friends engaged in a fierce rhetoric fight. Taft scored the nomination, but Roosevelt did not back down and launched a third-party candidacy under the Progressive Party banner.
The Progressive Party held its own successful convention a couple months later, but the Republican split cost the party the 1912 election. Wilson went on to win in November, edging out both Taft and Roosevelt.
For all the drama that went down at the party conventions, photographs of the events appear relatively calm. No candidates duking it out on stage or hat-tossing scuffles — at least none that photographers captured.
We browsed through the Library of Congress archives to find images that give us a sense of what political conventions looked like a century ago. Take a flip through the gallery above for a trip back in time. | <urn:uuid:ef0ffc7e-c2b6-449e-904f-cd8a22287bc8> | {
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|Handbook Contents...||UMSL Govt. Docs...||UMSL Libraries...||UMSL Home...|
Roman Catholic priests attend to the spiritual, pastoral, moral, and educational needs of the members of their church. A priest's day usually begins with morning meditation and mass and may end with an individual counseling session or an evening visit to a hospital or home. Many priests direct and serve on church committees, work in civic and charitable organizations, and assist in community projects.
Priests in the Catholic church belong to one of two groups-diocesan or religious. Both types of priests have the same powers, acquired through ordination by a bishop. Their differences lie in their way of life, their type of work, and the church authority to whom they are responsible. Diocesan priests commit their lives to serving the people of a diocese, a church administrative region, and generally work in parishes assigned by the bishop of their diocese. Religious priests belong to a religious order, such as the Jesuits, Dominicans, or Franciscans. Religious priests are assigned duties by their superiors in their respective religious orders. Some religious priests specialize in teaching, while others serve as missionaries in foreign countries, where they may live under difficult and primitive conditions. Others live a communal life in monasteries, where they devote their lives to prayer, study, and assigned work.
Both religious and diocesan priests hold teaching and administrative posts in Catholic seminaries, colleges and universities, and high schools. Priests attached to religious orders staff a large proportion of the church's institutions of higher education and many high schools, whereas diocesan priests are usually concerned with the parochial schools attached to parish churches and with diocesan high schools. The members of religious orders do most of the missionary work conducted by the Catholic Church in this country and abroad.
There were approximately 51,000 priests in 1994, about two-thirds of them diocesan priests, according to the Official Catholic Directory. There are priests in nearly every city and town and in many rural communities. The majority are in metropolitan areas, where most Catholics reside. Large numbers of priests are located in communities near Catholic educational and other institutions.
Preparation for the priesthood generally requires 8 years of study beyond high school in one of 349 seminaries. Priests commit themselves to celibacy, remaining unmarried. Only men are ordained as priests; women, may serve in only select church positions.
Preparatory study for the priesthood may begin either in the first year of high school, at the college level, or in theological seminaries after college graduation. Today, most candidates for the priesthood take a 4-year degree at a conventional college or university. After graduation from college, candidates generally receive 2 years of "Pre-theology" preparatory study (philosophy, religious studies, and prayer) before entering the seminary. Theology coursework in the seminary includes sacred scripture; dogmatic, moral, and pastoral theology; homiletics (art of preaching); church history; liturgy (sacraments); and canon (church) law. Fieldwork experience usually is required; in recent years, this aspect of a priest's training has been emphasized. Diocesan and religious priests attend different major seminaries, where slight variations in the training reflect the differences in their duties.
Alternatively, high school seminaries provide a college preparatory program that emphasizes English grammar, speech, literature, and social studies. Latin may be required, and modern languages are encouraged. In Hispanic communities, knowledge of Spanish is mandatory. Candidates may also choose to enter a seminary college that offers a liberal arts program stressing philosophy and religion, the study of humankind through the behavioral sciences and history, and the natural sciences and mathematics. In many college seminaries, a student may concentrate in any one of these fields.
Young men never are denied entry into seminaries because of lack of funds. In seminaries for secular priests, scholarships or loans are available. Those in religious seminaries are financed by contributions of benefactors.
Postgraduate work in theology is offered at a number of American Catholic universities or at ecclesiastical universities around the world, particularly in Rome. Also, many priests do graduate work in fields unrelated to theology. Priests are encouraged by the Catholic Church to continue their studies, at least informally, after ordination. In recent years, continuing education for ordained priests has stressed social sciences, such as sociology and psychology.
A newly ordained secular priest usually works as an assistant pastor or curate. Newly ordained priests of religious orders are assigned to the specialized duties for which they are trained. Depending on the talents, interests, and experience of the individual, many opportunities for greater responsibility exist within the church.
The job outlook for Roman Catholic priests is expected to be very favorable through the year 2005. Many priests will be needed in the years ahead to provide for the spiritual, educational, and social needs of the increasing number of Catholics. In recent years, the number of ordained priests has been insufficient to fill the needs of newly established parishes and other Catholic institutions, and to replace priests who retire, die, or leave the priesthood. This situation is likely to continue-even if the recent modest increase in seminary enrollments continues-as an increasing proportion of priests approach retirement age.
In response to the shortage of priests, certain traditional functions increasingly are being performed by permanent deacons and by teams of clergy and laity. Presently about 10,400 permanent deacons have been ordained to preach and perform liturgical functions such as baptisms, distributing Holy Communion, and reading the gospel at the mass. The only services a deacon cannot perform are saying mass and hearing confessions. Teams of clergy and laity undertake nonliturgical functions such as hospital visits and religious teaching. Priests will continue to perform mass, administer sacraments, and hear confession, but may be less involved in teaching and administrative work.
Diocesan priests' salaries vary from diocese to diocese. Based on limited information, salaries averaged about $9,000 in 1993. In addition to a salary, diocesan priests receive a package of benefits which may include a car allowance, free room and board in the parish rectory, health insurance, and a retirement plan. Including fringe benefits, the total value of a priest's compensation package averaged about $29,000 a year in 1993.
Priests who do special work related to the church, such as teaching, usually receive a partial salary which is less than a lay person in the same position would receive. The difference between the usual salary for these jobs and the salary that the priest receives is called "contributed service." In some of these situations, housing and related expenses may be provided; in other cases, the priest must make his own arrangements. Some priests doing special work receive the same compensation that a lay person would receive.
Religious priests take a vow of poverty and are supported by their religious order. Any personal earnings are given to the order. Their vow of poverty is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service, which exempts them from paying Federal income tax.
Young men interested in entering the priesthood should seek the guidance and counsel of their parish priests. For information regarding the different religious orders and the secular priesthood, as well as a list of the seminaries which prepare students for the priesthood, contact the diocesan director of vocations through the office of the local pastor or bishop.
Individuals seeking additional information about careers in the Catholic Ministry should contact their local diocese.
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Old Testament Survey
Lesson: Purpose of the Bible (OTS02)
Understand how the Bible came to be and why God gave it to us. All of Scripture has four main purposes… and they all point to Jesus. Those four purposes are; (1) To present Jesus Christ as the Savior and Redeemer of the world (2) To provide for us the historical context in which Jesus came (3) To lead the unbeliever into faith in Jesus and (4) To show believers how God wants us to live.
- Download lesson audio
- Lesson Study Booklet (Download Study Booklet ) This text document covers lessons OTS1 - OTS15
From Genesis through Revelation, the Bible is basically about Jesus Christ. The Bible is not a history of civilization or a scientific textbook on creation. Some people think that the Bible is primarily a handbook for living a good moral life; many think that Jesus was only presented as a teacher and example of this lifestyle. Jesus Christ is the Bible’s one central theme. In support of this theme, though, the Bible has four main purposes. The first of these four purposes is this: to present Jesus Christ as the Savior and Redeemer of this world. Now, for us to understand this first purpose, we need to understand why a savior is necessary. So the second purpose of the Bible is to provide for us the historical context in which Jesus came. But in Genesis 12, the story slows way down. From this chapter all the way through Revelation — all 1,178 remaining chapters — the plot line narrows. From this point on, the story is mainly about Abraham and his descendants, especially that one Descendant of his through whom all the nations of the earth are blessed, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Once we have understood those first two purposes, the second two are obvious. Number three is to lead the unbeliever into faith; and number four is to show the believer how God wants a believer to live. | <urn:uuid:e0fe3330-460e-49de-8cca-7cd4159ccdf2> | {
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(DRUSTAN, DUSTAN, THROSTAN)
A Scottish abbot who flourished about A.D. 600. All that is known of him is found in the "Breviarium Aberdonense" and in the "Book of Deir", a ninth-century manuscript now in the University Library of Cambridge, but these two accounts do not agree in every particular. He appears to have belonged to the royal family of the Scoti, his father's name being Cosgrach. Showing signs of a religious vocation he was entrusted at an early age to the care of St. Columba, who trained him and gave him the monastic habit. He accompanied that saint when he visited Aberdour (Aberdeen) in Buchan. The Pietish ruler of that country gave them the site of Deir, fourteen miles farther inland, where they established a monastery, and when St. Columba returned to Iona he left St. Drostan there as abbot of the new foundation. On the death of the Abbot of Dalquhongale (Holywood) some few years later, St. Drostan was chosen to succeed him. Afterwards, feeling called to a life of greater seclusion, he resigned his abbacy, went farther north, and became a hermit at Glenesk. Here his sanctity attracted the poor and needy, and many miracles are ascribed to him, including the restoration of sight to a priest named Symon. After his death his relics were transferred to Arberdour and honourably preserved there. The "Breviary of Aberdeen" celebrates his feast on 15 December. The monastery of Deir, which had fallen into decay, was rebuilt for Cistercian monks in 1213 and so continued until the Reformation.
The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.
Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.
No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.
Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912
Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online | <urn:uuid:f4271fae-abdb-4a31-8add-fca151cffbeb> | {
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Size and Shape of the Milky Way
The Milky Way is a large barred spiral galaxy comprising an estimated 200 billion stars (some estimates range as high as 400 billion) arrayed in the form of a disk, with a central elliptical bulge (some 12,000 light-years in diameter) of closely packed stars lying in the direction of Sagittarius. It is surrounded by a flat disk marked by six spiral arms that project from a dense, elongated concentration of stars, or bar, that runs through the bulge—four major and two minor—which wind out from the nucleus like a giant pinwheel. Our sun is situated in one of the smaller arms, called the Local or Orion Arm, that connect the more substantial next inner arm and the next outer arm. The sun lies roughly 27,000 light-years from the center of the galaxy, and in the galactic plane. When we look in the plane of the disk we see the combined light of its stars as the Milky Way. The diameter of the disk is c.100,000 light-years; its average thickness is 10,000 light-years, increasing to 30,000 light-years at the nucleus.
Certain features of the region near the sun suggested that our galaxy resembles the Andromeda Galaxy. In 1951 a group led by William Morgan detected evidence of spiral arms in Orion and Perseus. Another bright arm stretches from Sagittarius to Carina in the southern sky. With the development of radio astronomy, scientists have extended a nearly complete map of the spiral structure of the galaxy by tracing regions of hydrogen that dominate the spiral arms. The development of telescopes that could be placed in orbit led by 2005 to confirmation that the Milky Way was a barred spiral galaxy, not a spiral one as had been believed.
Surrounding the galaxy is a large spherical halo of globular star clusters that extends to a diameter of about 130,000 light-years; this is called the stellar halo. The galaxy also has a vast outer spherical region called the corona, or dark halo, which is as much as 600,000 light years in diameter and, in addition to dark matter which accounts for most of the Milky Way's mass, includes some distant globular clusters, the two nearby galaxies called the Magellanic clouds, and four smaller galaxies.
Sections in this article:
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
More on Milky Way Size and Shape of the Milky Way from Infoplease:
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Astronomy: General | <urn:uuid:92b617df-a309-48c9-a20a-3e4458929479> | {
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Piano/Keyboard - SMP Primer Level (Early Elementary)
Level 1. Arranged by Nancy Faber and Randall Faber. Faber Piano Adventures®. A collection of rock and roll classics from the 50s and 60s. Rock 'n Roll. Softcover. 24 pages. Faber Piano Adventures #FF1019. Published by Faber Piano Adventures (HL.420128).
Item Number: HL.420128
ISBN 1616770198. Rock 'n Roll. 9x12 inches.
A collection of rock and roll classics from the 50s and 60s. The selections offer fun and excitement at the lessons, while still providing practice in the basics.
About Basic Piano Adventures
Piano Adventures has set a new standard for a new century of piano teaching. It is fast becoming the method of choice at leading university pedagogy programs and major teaching studios around the world. But more importantly, Piano Adventures is bringing smiles to the faces of thousands of piano students. It can do the same for your students. | <urn:uuid:e12b9017-5dbc-4bcd-9642-b3f54c84f59d> | {
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The New England School of Architectural Woodworking has the best definition we could find for architectural woodwork as:
“…all the wood exposed to view when the building is completed. This includes residential and commercial cabinetry (kitchens, baths, storage, offices, closets), doors, windows, stairs, paneling, trim, and shelving. Almost everything made of wood, built into or attached to the interior of a building.”
Architectural mill work is not limited to built-in to a structure. It can be a free-standing piece such as a rolling kitchen island or a external decoration or visual frame for a door or window. Architectural millwork can be either stock “off-the-shelf”, semi-custom, or custom. If a builder is hoping to create a unique style for a home mill work is the easiest way to stand apart as the off the shelf trim and kitchen types are so uniform they loose personality.
Exterior architectural millwork is not part of the interior of a building. It can include exterior trim, balusters, gable decorations, and colums . Exterior millwork add visual interest to the outside of a structure and so they acquire the architectural label. In times past the craft of home building was more individualized and filled with detail. Gepetto craftsmen have renovated and restored hundreds of Richmond and Virginia historic projects bringing the detail and charm back from guilded age homes. | <urn:uuid:422debe7-faad-4555-9674-8eb5709996a3> | {
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Harry Flood Byrd was born June 10, 1887, in Martinsburg, West Virginia. He was a direct descendent of the William Byrds of colonial fame. His was a political family; his father, Richard Evelyn Byrd, a lawyer, was Frederick County's commonwealth's attorney and later Speaker of the House of Delegates and an influential member of the emerging political organization led by U.S. Senator Thomas S. Martin. His mother, Eleanor Bolling Flood, was sister of Congressman Henry "Hal" Flood, a leader of the Martin machine, and her uncle Charles James Faulkner Jr. had been a United States senator from West Virginia. The Byrd name would be further illuminated by the exploits of Harry's brother, Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (1888–1957), the famed polar explorer. His other brother, Thomas Bolling Byrd (1890–1968), was a lawyer and Harry's partner in the apple business.
The boys were reared in Winchester, a town that, while still obsessed with glorifying the Confederacy, nevertheless exemplified the trappings of New South boosterism. These two socioeconomic strains of southern life would be prominent throughout Byrd's life. He was a defender of the South—its culture, traditions, and political philosophy, which he attempted to embody as a courtly Virginia gentleman—yet he was also an entrepreneur, out to make money and advance the interests of his section. He left Winchester apple cold storage warehouses, an apple blossom festival, and the best road network of any city in the state.
The apple business was his first love and he never left it; he was always there at harvest time, picking apples and supervising operations. First and foremost, it was a business to him. He applied to it the principles of hard work, thrift, attention to detail, wise and timely investment and expansion, and adoption of new marketing techniques that he had embraced as a young newspaperman. But he was also a farmer, knowledgeable about his crop and its production; he was an innovative, nationally known orchardist, using the most up-to-date scientific methods of spraying and fertilizing, while introducing new varieties of apples to the area.
Early Political Career and the Beginning of the Byrd Organization
His youthful experiences shaped the adult Byrd. Individual initiative and effort were the essence of success. The creed of the self-made man was his guide; he lived it and believed others should do likewise. Undergirding this was a pay-as-you-go philosophy—avoid debt and put savings into expansion—which he used to revive his newspaper. Byrd was a nineteenth-century Jeffersonian liberal, who favored laissez-faire economic and political order in which government was small, debt-free, and decentralized, with state and local rights ensured.
Byrd started his political career at twenty-one when he served an appointed term on the Winchester City Council. He lost reelection to the position—the only race he ever lost—and he never took another election for granted. He became as careful a candidate as he was a businessman, being well-organized down to the precinct level and constantly sending letters to campaign workers and voters urging them to get out the vote. In 1915 he was elected to the state senate, where he served for ten years. Although he was recognized as an expert on matters of finance and highways, he left no legislative mark. He favored prohibition but opposed the woman suffrage amendment.
During World War I, Byrd served as state fuel administrator. In 1922 he succeeded his uncle, Hal Flood, as state chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee, a post that gave him statewide exposure. Advocating a pay-as-you-go system of using gasoline taxes to finance road-building, Byrd orchestrated the campaign that defeated a proposed bond issue for highway construction in 1923. This victory established his leadership of the political organization that he would reshape into his own, confirmed pay-as-you-go as the fiscal policy of Virginia, and propelled him into the governor's mansion. Byrd defeated G. Walter Mapp in the 1925 Democratic primary and Republican S. Harris Hoge in the November general election.
Byrd's leadership of his political machine was personal and direct. He mingled with the local officeholders, relishing their Brunswick stews and talk of weather and farm prices and maintaining contact with them through his many letters and energetic campaigning at election time. He cultivated friends in the business and banking communities and among journalists to whom he catered with his news releases. Rewarding with praise, jobs, roads, and legislation, he generated a firm bond of loyalty that permitted him great freedom to select his candidates for state office and implement the policies he desired. What he created was a smooth-running political organization that for more than four decades was beholden for its direction to only one man.
Byrd's policies generated a four million dollar treasury surplus. But perhaps even more remarkable was the ease with which all that he proposed won the approval of the General Assembly and the electorate—a tribute to his masterful political skills.
Byrd's "Program of Progress," meanwhile, touted Virginia as a site for industrial and tourist development, promoting roads, airports, and historical sites with his highway markers. He supported the creation of Shenandoah National Park and the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg with money from John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Byrd's governorship reflected what historian George Tindall has called the business progressivism of the 1920s in the South—no fundamental changes in the role of government, but a tinkering in the realm of economy and efficiency. Consistent with Byrd's philosophy there was much road-building and encouragement of industrial development and tourism, but little was done for education, agriculture, or the structure of county government, which was wallowing in the abusive fee system by which local officials were paid. It is fair to say, however, that Byrd was much more of a governmental activist as governor than he was later in his Senate career.
When Harry Byrd "retired" to his orchards and Rosemont, his new house outside Berryville in 1930, he was still an energetic young man with a long political career ahead of him. Although the apple business consumed most of his time, he did not give up his interest in politics, advising successor John Garland Pollard on necessary fiscal steps to combat the Great Depression, including support for the Byrd road law passed by the assembly in 1932 that turned the county roads over to the state. In that year he campaigned unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party presidential nomination won by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He also ran a protest campaign against Roosevelt in 1944 and received fifteen electoral votes in 1960 from southern Democrats dissatisfied with John F. Kennedy's nomination.
United States Senator
Byrd's Senate record for his entire career was remarkably negative. No significant legislation bears his name. He voted against aid to education, public housing, antipoverty programs, and minimum-wage increases. He compiled an antilabor record, voting against the Wagner Act but favoring the Smith-Connally and Taft-Hartley bills that restricted union power and activity. Reflecting his love of the outdoors, however, he supported conservation projects and the National Park Service in whose parks he frequently vacationed.
Although he was not an isolationist, he voted against most foreign-aid legislation, such as the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine. Advocating a strong national defense, he strongly criticized delays in Roosevelt's rearmament program prior to World War II. Just before America's involvment in the war, Byrd demanded and won creation of a Joint Committee on Reduction of Non-Essential Federal Expenditures. He chaired the committee for twenty years, handing down reports that ridiculed a bloated bureaucracy.
By the 1950s, Byrd had assumed the role of an elder statesman. He had a national reputation for economy in government and was respected for his courage, integrity, and courtliness. As chairman of the influential Senate Finance Committee he shaped tax and social legislation to suit his conservative sentiments, but as the country elected more liberal senators and presidents, he lost much of his political clout. His efforts to obstruct the election of Democratic presidential candidates with a "golden silence" that implied support for Republicans had little effect on the results.
Economic and social changes brought on by World War II and Supreme Court decisions, however, challenged his leadership in Virginia. New residents, anti-Byrd Organization candidates, African Americans, and Republicans were criticizing his failure to confront contemporary issues, calling for an end to the poll tax and more money for education. Faced with the Supreme Court's 1954 school desegregation decision (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas), Byrd pushed the state down the road of "massive resistance" and school closings—an embarrassing chapter with which to close a long career of dedicated public service.
"Massive resistance," a term coined by Byrd, was designed to maintain segregated schools and perpetuate the power of the machine that was being threatened by new political opposition. It squared with the racist attitudes of politicians and voters in Southside Virginia, the area of Byrd's greatest support. Massive Resistance was consistent with Byrd's anger at the federal government's intruding on the affairs of Virginia. His views propelled Byrd into being a spokesman for the South on this issue, which carried with it obligations to protect and defend the region from outsiders; he helped to author the 1956 "Southern Manifesto" that called for opposition to the Brown decision. He pushed for creation of the school-closing laws passed in the 1956 special session of the assembly, and he encouraged Governor James Lindsay Almond Jr. to close the schools when courts ordered their integration. Even after the courts overturned Virginia's laws, Byrd insisted that other obstructive measures be adopted.
Final Years and Legacy
The legacy of his forty-year rule in Virginia was mixed. During his governorship he provided the state with debt-free government that built good roads and stimulated economic development. But as rapid changes engulfed Virginia, Byrd was unable to adapt. Pay-as-you-go led to crowded colleges, inadequate mental hospitals, and neglected social services; Massive Resistance produced racial intolerance, bitterness, and, in the case of Prince Edward County, schoolchildren who were denied education for five years, a lost generation. Commenting on Byrd's leadership, political scientist V. O. Key stated, "Men with the minds of tradesmen do not become statesmen."
June 10, 1887 - Harry Flood Byrd is born in Martinsburg, West Virginia.
1912 - Harry F. Byrd begins leasing his first apple orchards, the beginning of a business that would later make him a millionaire.
1913 - Harry F. Byrd marries Anne Douglas Beverley.
1915 - Harry F. Byrd Sr. is elected to the Senate of Virginia.
1922 - Harry F. Byrd Sr. becomes state chairman of the Democratic Central Committee.
February 1, 1926 - Harry F. Byrd Sr. begins his term as governor of Virginia.
1930 - Harry F. Byrd Sr. technically retires, though he continues to remain active in politics for the rest of his life.
1932 - Harry F. Byrd Sr. unsuccessfully campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination.
1933 - Harry F. Byrd Sr. comes out of political hiatus to replace Claude A. Swanson in the United States Senate.
1944 - Harry F. Byrd Sr. runs a protest campaign against President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
February 25, 1956 - U.S. senator Harry F. Byrd calls for a strategy of "Massive Resistance" to oppose the integration of public schools in Virginia.
1960 - Harry F. Byrd Sr. receives fifteen electoral votes from Southern Democrats dissatisfied with John F. Kennedy's nomination.
1965 - Harry F. Byrd Sr. retires from the United States Senate.
October 20, 1966 - Harry F. Byrd Sr. dies.
1976 - A statue of Harry F. Byrd Sr. is erected in Capitol Square in Richmond.
Cite This EntryAPA Citation:
First published: February 12, 2008 | Last modified: June 22, 2014 | <urn:uuid:72a4e020-3dcd-437b-8521-069e4ad20990> | {
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Originally posted on Phys.org:
Most people think of music as more of an art than a science. Although sound is a wave, and can therefore be described by the laws of physics, understanding how certain patterns of sound waves create what we perceive as music requires a much higher-level perspective than merely understanding the properties of waves.
Lévy distributions of melodic intervals for (left) Bach’s Concerto for two violins in D minor, movement 2, and (right) Küchler’s Concertino in D major, Op. 15. Credit: Niklasson and Niklasson. ©2015 EPL
Despite the complexity of music, recent research has shown that music can be analyzed using some of the same physics models commonly used to describe more traditional physics concepts.
More evidence of this ability to describe music with physics comes from a new paper published in EPL by Gunnar A. Niklasson, an engineering professor at Uppsala University, Sweden, and Maria H. Niklasson, a musician at the Betel Music Institute in Bromma, Sweden.
The researchers found that the distribution of melodic intervals in two classical concertos and two folk songs can be modeled by a Lévy distribution. They explain that melodic intervals are the pitch intervals between successive time intervals, which are defined by the duration of the shortest note—so each note may be equal to one or more of these time intervals. (A pitch interval can also be roughly thought of as how far apart two notes are on a piano.) The Lévy distribution describes many other diverse scenarios, such as the turbulent motion of a particle in a liquid or gas, the changes in the price of a stock, earthquake activity, and the foraging paths of wild animals.
“Our work indicates a consonance between patterns in music and in nature, but how to interpret this is more of a philosophical question,” Gunnar Niklasson told Phys.org.
All Lévy motions are characterized by a mix of many short and a few long steps, and also exhibit fractal properties. For a musical melody, this basically means that there are many small intervals (just one or two notes apart) and fewer large intervals (sometimes up to 20 notes apart), and that the numbers of these intervals are distributed in the shape of a sharp peak with long tails on both sides. Previous research has implicitly assumed that melodic intervals follow a Gaussian distribution (i.e., a “bell curve”), but a Levy distribution is different from a Gaussian one, so the new results challenge these assumptions.
The researchers emphasize that the Lévy distribution is only an approximate description of the distribution of melodic intervals, as the actual distribution of intervals deviates from a perfect Lévy distribution in certain ways. One example is that, in many songs, two-note intervals are more common than one-note intervals. There are also large fluctuations in the tail regions, where the intervals are largest. The researchers suggest that some of these deviations may reflect different music styles, genres, and composers.
Besides contributing to a greater fundamental understanding of music, the findings here may also be useful for experimenting with computer-generated music.
“Computer-generated music is a very small portion of all present music,” Gunnar Niklasson said. “It is my understanding that algorithms are mainly used by some composers for generating ideas that they can incorporate into new written compositions. We have not explored the relation of our work to algorithmic composition yet. However, it is interesting to note that some of the currently used algorithms are based on fractals and chaos theory.”
In the future, the researchers hope to develop more automated methods of analysis, which is necessary in order to analyze larger numbers of music samples. This would also allow for a comparison of the styles of different composers, as well as a comparison of written music with computer-generated compositions.
Explore further: Researchers find classical musical compositions adhere to power law
More information: Gunnar A. Niklasson and Maria H. Niklasson. “Non-Gaussian distributions of melodic intervals in music: The Lévy-stable approximation.” EPL. DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/112/40003 | <urn:uuid:45695bd8-d4a7-4bdb-8a8e-1c74e8499599> | {
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An enlarged spleen (splenomegaly) is not a disease in itself but the result of an underlying disorder. Many disorders can make the spleen enlarge. To pinpoint the cause, doctors must consider disorders ranging from chronic infections to blood cancers.
Most commonly, an enlarged spleen is due to a viral infection, such as mononucleosis. But in some cases, more serious diseases such as cancer can cause the spleen to expand.
To start the diagnostic process, tour doctor will first ask you questions about your recent medical history to determine if the symptoms you experience are the result of an enlarged spleen or if they are caused by the underlying problems, such as fever or signs of an infectious disease. The doctor will also perform a thorough physical exam of your abdomen. To check for an enlarged spleen, doctors tap along the left upper quadrant of your abdomen and touch the area just under the rib cage.
Diagnostic tests for spleen disorders include:
Although an enlarged spleen usually does not present many clear symptoms, check with your doctor anytime you experience pain in the left upper section of your abdomen. Diagnosis is the first step towards identifying possible illnesses that can cause an enlarged spleen. Keep reading to learn more about how to treat a swollen spleen.
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What is Yoga?
“Yoga” or “Yog” means addition or union. In Hinduism Yoga stands for the addition of Atama(Soul) and Parmatama(GOD). Actual Yoga is more then Asanas, it is a wonderful science of life. It gives you inner peace and real happiness. Yoga is the self realization and full body workout without any impact on your joints. Our primary focus is understanding yoga from basic to advanced levels. Whether you are beginner or advanced, in our classes you will be able to understand yoga and its practices.
1. Yama: socio-ethical precepts
2. Niyama: personal ethical disciplines
3. Asana: body postures
4. Pranayama: breathing exercises
5. Pratyahara: withdrawal of the senses
6. Dharana: mental concentration
7. Dhyana: meditation or uninterrupted mental focus
8. Samadhi: union with the Supreme through deep meditation
Yoga is beneficial for people of all ages, shapes, and sizes:
- Try to bring your own Yoga mat.
- Come in loose clothing for the yoga session or wear comfortable clothes.
- Always take food before 2 to 3 hour of Yoga class.
- And come with a big smile. | <urn:uuid:0017e83c-4cf6-41d1-95ff-7a50d1515e2f> | {
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In 1821, the Hudson’s Bay Company absorbed its fur-trading rival, the Northwest Company, and acquired all the latter’s Pacific Northwest trading posts. These included Spokane House, near the present location of the city of Spokane, which had been the Northwest Company’s Columbia Department headquarters, and Fort George, near the mouth of the Columbia in present-day Oregon, which had been founded by American John Jacob Astor (1763–1848) as Astoria and renamed when Astor’s partners sold out to the British Northwest Company in 1813.
A New Headquarters
By 1824, the Hudson’s Bay Company decided to establish a new headquarters on the Columbia. Spokane House was abandoned because it was not on a navigable water route (some of its operations were transferred to Fort Colvile, which opened in 1826 on the Columbia River at Kettle Falls) and Fort George was ruled out for two reasons. First, the wet, cloudy weather at the mouth of the Columbia was not conducive to the farming necessary for adequate food supplies. Second, Fort George was on the south bank of the river, and the Company’s British owners wanted their headquarters to be on the north bank, since at the time it was thought that the Columbia River would become the border between British territory and the United States.
In November, 1824, George Simpson (1792?–1860), governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Northern Department, arrived at Fort George with Dr. John McLoughlin, whom he had selected as chief factor for the planned new post. Almost immediately, McLaughlin set out upriver to find a location for the new fort. The site he selected, about 100 miles above the mouth of the Columbia, was an opening in the forest called Jolie Prairie by the French Canadian voyageurs who worked for the Hudson’s Bay company, and Skatcutxat (Mud Turtles) by the Chinookan inhabitants of the region.
The gently sloping bank provided easy access to the river, and the benches rising from the bank offered pasture for livestock and rich soil for cultivating wheat, potatoes, and vegetables. McLoughlin immediately set about supervising construction of the new outpost. The work proceeded slowly in the heavy rains of winter, but by March McLaughlin had a 13-foot high stockade built around the perimeter, and two warehouses for merchandise erected inside. Two flat-bottomed scows were laboriously rowed upriver from Fort George with the trading merchandise, as well as supplies including two cannons, 31 cattle, 17 pigs and some work horses.
Naming the Fort
On the morning of March 19, 1825, Simpson, with McLoughlin at his side, presided over a formal christening of the new fort. A flagpole was erected, the Hudson’s Bay Company flag run up, and Simpson smashed a bottle of rum on the pole. He then declared:
"In behalf of the Hon[orable] Hudson’s Bay Co[mpany] I hereby name this Establishment Fort Vancouver God save King George the 4th" (Fort Vancouver, 27).
Simpson later explained his reason for naming the fort for British Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver (1757-1798):
"The object of naming it after that distinguished navigator is to identify our Soil and Trade with his discovery of the River and Coast on behalf of Great Britain" (Fort Vancouver, 27).
Simpson’s claims for Vancouver’s discoveries were considerably exaggerated. Not only had Chinookan-speaking peoples been living along the Columbia, which they called Wimahl (Big River), for thousands of years, but Vancouver’s 1792 expedition was not even the first non-Indian party to enter the River, having been preceded by American Captain Robert Gray (1755-1806) earlier that year. Still, the name was a reminder that Lieutenant William Broughton (1762-1821) of the Vancouver expedition had explored the Columbia to some miles above the new fort’s location (farther than Gray had), where he had named a point for Vancouver. Both the establishment of Fort Vancouver, and its name, served notice that the Hudson’s Bay Company, and Great Britain, were not giving up their claims to the Columbia River region.
For some 20 years, the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Vancouver, presided over by Dr. McLoughlin, remained the major non-Indian presence in the future Washington. Gradually, however, more and more American settlers poured into the region, many of them obtaining supplies and advice at Fort Vancouver. When the issue was finally resolved in 1846, the international boundary was established not on the Columbia River, but along the 49th parallel several hundred miles to the north, and the Hudson’s Bay Company ultimately relinquished its fort to the United States Army. | <urn:uuid:d31f36f4-5b4e-49a9-a2d3-3d0efb068424> | {
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03 Jan (THE HINDU) -There is no room for complacency that India has eliminated this crippling disease as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have recorded a high incidence of a condition symptomatic of it. Identifying children who suddenly display muscle weakness, often not moving one or more of their limbs as a result, forms the cornerstone of polio surveillance.
Such children could have “acute flaccid paralysis” (AFP) that is symptomatic of polio, a disease caused by a virus. But AFP can also arise for other reasons, including infection by non-polio pathogens. No child in India has been diagnosed with polio for nearly two years now and all the indications are that the virus responsible for it is no longer circulating here. However, the country’s polio surveillance system has indicated a sharp increase during recent years in the number of non-polio AFP cases.
Data published by the World Health Organisation show that close to 8,000 non-polio AFP cases were identified in India during 2003. They went up to over 12,000 the following year, more than 26,000 in 2005 and crossed 40,000 by 2007. In 2011, there were more than 60,000 non-polio AFP cases.
A good polio surveillance system ought to pick up all AFP cases among children so that they can be screened for poliovirus infection. On average, only about one child out of every 200 children carrying the poliovirus develops AFP. Such cases must be identified so that appropriate immunisation measures can be undertaken.
India’s polio surveillance shows that the country is polio-free. But it also indicates that the country now has the world’s highest rate of non-polio AFP cases. According to data published in WHO’s Weekly Epidemiological Record, India’s annualised non-polio AFP rate for 2011 stood at 15.06 per one lakh children below 15 years of age, compared to a global rate that year of 5.48.
Moreover, most of the country’s non-polio AFP cases occur in just two States — Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. They accounted for about 61 per cent of the 53,000-odd non-polio AFP cases identified in the country in 2012, according to data from WHO’s National Polio Surveillance Project. As a result, the two States have far higher annualised non-polio AFP rates than other States — around 34 for Bihar and about 23 for Uttar Pradesh. The rate for the country as a whole is slightly over 12.
For more information on this article go to The Hindu
More from my site
Tags: Acute Flaccid Paralysis, AFP, Christian Medical College Vellore, ICMR, Indian Council of Medical Research, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, Jacob Puliyel, N. Gopal Raj, Neetu Vashisht, OPV, Oral Polio Vaccine, St. Stephens Hospital Dehli, T. Jacob John Virologist, WHO, WHO's National Polio Surveillance Project, WHO's Weekly Epidemiological Record, World Health Organization | <urn:uuid:67ea3313-579d-4a54-99d6-47d504e38576> | {
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Posttraumatic Stress Disorder management: A role for physiotherapists and physical training instructors
Date of this Version
Posttraumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder known to affect some military personnel. Apart from impacting on mental health, this disorder is associated with a number of co-morbidities including cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease and chronic pain. Physiotherapy and physical training instruction are two health services provided by defence that may be of benefit to personnel undergoing psychological treatment for this condition. Research evidence is presented to inform potential fields of treatment that may be facilitated by these two health professions. The benefits of exercise in treating posttraumatic stress disorder and associated co-morbidities are presented and the evidence discussed. Physiotherapy specific treatments to address specific medical conditions requiring specialised interventions (chronic pain for example) are also considered. Discussed strategies include; a) the education and training of physiotherapy and physical training instructor staff in identification of behavioural features associated with PTSD, referral options and considered best practice interventions within their scopes of practice, and b) the inclusion of these health professional services in the treatment plans for military staff suffering from this condition.
This document is currently not available here.
This document has been peer reviewed. | <urn:uuid:c668c0f1-864d-4ff1-88bb-bf9f4b898f0f> | {
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Visual Arts: Watercolor
Lesson Plan: Watercolor Fish Paintings
Grade level: 6‐8
Duration: Nine 45‐minute class periods
Media Type: Watercolor
Subject Integration: Science
National Standards for Visual Arts: (see bottom of page)
Objectives: Students will create their own watercolor painting after studying the works of many local watercolor artists, namely Terry Maciej and Cheng Khee‐Chee.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of watercolor techniques inspired by local watercolor artists, incorporating a variety of textures into a completed painting.
(website for help with writing rubrics)
0 ‐ Little evidence of technique use or incomplete artwork
1 ‐ Some attempt at techniques, but less than three distinguishable textures
2 ‐ Four techniques are clearly used
3 ‐ Above, plus place for visual effect in addition to logical textures to describe surfaces
4 ‐ Above, plus exceptional use of detail and application of technique
Materials and Procedure:
- watercolor paper 9” x 12” pencil, eraser
- watercolor paint brushes
- water containers, water
- masking tape
- paper towels cut in 1” strips white crayons
- strips of cardboard, 1” wide and 3” tall
1. Give brief introduction to watercolor painting. Show PlayList video: Terry Maciej (3:38)
Show students a picture of Terry and talk about his website: http://maciejartframe.com/artist.html (making a living as an artist, etc.)
2. Discussion: What do you know about watercolor? Do you know any watercolor artists? Have you ever seen artwork by Terry Maciej or Cheng Khee‐Chee? Have you ever seen the book Old Turtle with illustrations by Cheng Khee‐Chee?
3. Show Cheng Khee‐Chee watercolor video. Ask students to take notes while watching DVD. Students write down 10 things they see/learn by watching Chee create.
Demonstrate six watercolor techniques to students: (resist with crayon, blotting with paper towel strips, printing lines with cardboard strips, salt technique, wet on wet technique, resist with masking tape) Students will create their own sample card of six techniques. Students will later use this card to refer to when creating their final painting.
Students will refer to color pictures of indigenous fish of local region. Students will create their own fish drawings, in pencil first, including at least six fish in their drawing. Students will refer to watercolor technique card always keeping in mind when and how to use various techniques (resist might be good for scales, cardboard strips might be used for creating seaweed, etc.) Students are sure to include background, such as seaweed, sand, rocks, etc. a location: near a shipwreck, net, anchor, boat, fishing line with hook, other sea life, etc.
Students continue to draw.
Students start painting process.
Students continue painting process.
Students finish painting process.
Students outline all shapes with black Sharpie marker to enhance drawing and to make objects more visible.
Students fill out rubric and grade finished work. Teacher also completes rubric for each student work.
What did you learn about watercolor painting that you did not know before? What did you learn about Terry Maciej and Cheng Khee Chee? Which watercolor technique was your favorite? Why? What did you find easy to accomplish within your artwork? What did you find difficult? What would you do different next time?
- Lake Superior Watercolor Society
- Cheng Khee‐Chee watercolor DVD
- Wendy Rouse
- Brian Minor
- Mary Beth Downs
- PIXAR film about creation of Finding Nemo (25:12)
- Old Turtle by Douglas Wood and Cheng Khee‐Chee
- Watercolor book by Cheng Khee Chee
View PIXAR making of Finding Nemo and discuss realistic watercolor fish paintings vs. animated fish drawings/paintings. Discuss how artists study their subject matter carefully. Discuss how PIXAR artists make a living at drawing and creating very ‘real’ animated characters and how their audience is very drawn to each character because they seem so “real”.
National Standards for Visual Arts:
Content Standard #1: Understanding and applying media, techniques, and processes
Students know the differences between materials, techniques, and processes. Students describe how different materials, techniques, and processes cause different responses. Students use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories. Students use art materials and tools in a safe and responsible manner.
Content Standard #2: Using knowledge of structures and functions
Students know the differences among visual characteristics and purposes of art in order to convey ideas. Students describe how different expressive features and organizational principles cause different responses. Students use visual structures and functions of art to communicate ideas.
Content Standard #3: Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas
Students explore and understand prospective content for works of art. Students select and use subject matter, symbols, and ideas to communicate meaning.
Content Standard #4: Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures
Students know that the visual arts have both a history and specific relationships to various cultures. Students identify specific works of art as belonging to particular cultures, times, and places. Students demonstrate how history, culture, and the visual arts can influence each other in making and studying works of art.
Content Standard #5: Reflecting upon and assessing the characteristics and merits of their work and the work of others
Students understand there are various purposes for creating works of visual art.
Students describe how people's experiences influence the development of specific artworks. Students understand there are different responses to specific artworks.
Content Standard #6: Making connections between visual arts and other disciplines
Students understand and use similarities and differences between characteristics of the visual arts and other arts disciplines. Students identify connections between the visual arts and other disciplines in the curriculum. | <urn:uuid:a91fa27f-d44c-472d-ab9c-ab865d4a6f3f> | {
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Organ/Types of Pipes
There are four basic groups of organ pipes that each individual stop can be sorted into, depending on their sound quality and construction. They are as follows:
- Principals (or diapasons)
The principals are the most common stops on an organ, and the backbone of almost all stop combinations. All instruments will have this type of pipe. The principals don't imitate any orchestral sounds but are the pure, basic "organ" sound.
On a console, they can be found under the name "Principal" or the German equivalent, "Prinzipal". The most common stop is an 8' one, frequently with 4' and 2' octave doublings available (which are sometimes called "Octave" and "Super-Octave" instead of "Principal on a console). Large organs will sometimes even have mutation stops like 2 2/3' and 1 3/5'. On the pedals, you can usually find the 16' and 8'.
The flutes are another common type of pipe. They are usually softer and breathier than the Principals, and higher in pitch. Common flute stops are Flute, Rohrflute, and Sifflote.
The string pipes are the softest of all the pipes.
The reed pipes are the loudest of all pipe combinations. Common reeds include the Trumpet and Bombarde.
Some organs will also feature percussion instruments. The most common is chimes, but you occasionally see things like xylophones or even bass drums (usually found on large instruments). While not technically pipes, they nonetheless merit inclusion here. They usually should not be used as part of a large chorus, but by themselves, because they don't blend in well with other organ pipes. | <urn:uuid:62da38e8-d2b8-48d7-977b-c7eeb7a2efbe> | {
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Álvaro de Bazán, Marqués de Santa Cruz, (born Dec. 12, 1526, Granada, Spain—died Feb. 9, 1588, Lisbon, Port.) the foremost Spanish naval commander of his day. He was prominent in many successful naval engagements in a century that saw Spain rise to the zenith of its power and was the first proponent and planner of the Spanish Armada, the fleet that was to attempt the invasion of England shortly after his death.
The son of a Spanish naval commander, he entered the navy at an early age and fought against the French, the Turks, and the Moors in the Mediterranean. He steadily advanced in rank and was created the Marqués de Santa Cruz in 1569. In the Battle of Lepanto against the Turks (1571), Santa Cruz, as commander of the reserve fleet, displayed excellent seamanship and played an important role in the crushing of the Turkish fleet.
In 1580 Santa Cruz commanded the fleet that aided the Duke de Alba’s conquest of Portugal. Three years later, at the Second Battle of Terceira, Santa Cruz defeated a superior French naval squadron sent unofficially to support a rebellion in the Azores against Philip II, the Spanish king. His victory was marred, however, by his execution of all French prisoners despite the protests of his own men. This act did not prevent Philip II from appointing him “captain general of the ocean.”
It was after that battle that Santa Cruz urged Philip II to undertake the invasion of England; his letter of Aug. 9, 1583, to the king is generally considered as the first step in the creation of the Spanish Armada. Philip, who scaled down Santa Cruz’s original requisition of ships and men, appointed him naval commander of the invasion force. Santa Cruz then began the task of preparing the fleet at Lisbon. In spite of difficulties in obtaining men and supplies, English raids, and Philip’s interference, Santa Cruz succeeded in assembling and fitting out nearly the entire Armada before his untimely death. The Armada then was given to the Duke de Medina-Sidonia, a man thoroughly unfamiliar with naval affairs. Whether Santa Cruz would have succeeded in the invasion of England has been a topic of conjecture for historians. | <urn:uuid:8851c930-2b37-4779-995b-87251344aa67> | {
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Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day
On Monday, April 5 at 8 p.m. EDT, PBS Teachers will host the next webinar in its PBS Teachers Live! series: “Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day.” During this event, participants will learn about two new PBS projects: “Earth Days: American Experience,” a new film by Robert Stone chronicling the history of the modern environmental movement, and Growing Greener Schools, a film and educational resources aimed at empowering students, teachers, and parents to incorporate green ideas into both school buildings and classroom curriculums. Presenters include the filmmakers and educational experts who will provide resources and strategies to help teachers celebrate this important anniversary in innovative and meaningful ways.
A Fresh Look at Teaching The Diary of Anne Frank
On Wednesday, April 7 at 8 p.m. EDT, we will host a webinar entitled, “A Fresh Look at Teaching The Diary of Anne Frank.” Webinar participants will get a sneak peek at the all-new adaptation airing on Masterpiece and review educator materials created for middle school and high school. These materials include a teacher’s guide created in collaboration with the Holocaust education organization Facing History & Ourselves as well as an omnibus Resources Listing, which collects the best existing resources on Anne Frank and her historical context and offers resources for teens interested in journaling with digital media. Speakers include the author of the teacher’s guide and an educator from Facing History and Ourselves.
Note: At the close of every live Webinar, attendees will have the opportunity to request a Certificate of Participation.
To Join Each Webinar, Click this Link April 5 & 7: Online at Elluminate Live!
Please note: If you are having problems with the above link, please cut and paste the link below into your browser bar. https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlpsid=2008350&password=M.8F821313A796D6BF881CE659E65849
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Infectious diseases are an important part of Western medicine. In the early part of the 20th century many infectious diseases were described and researched. In the second World War penicillin was introduced.
In the 1950’s great progress was made with antibiotics against tuberculosis. New antibiotics against syphilis and gonorrhea were developed, the main sexually transmitted diseases in the 1960’s and 1970’s. However, every time that progress was made the topic was getting more and more complex as antibiotic resistance developed and new plagues like AIDS and BSE emerged.
Today we have remarkable challenges as besides AIDS (a virus) and BSE (a prion) there are new strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria of malaria and tuberculosis, methicillin resistant Staph. infection (MRSA) and Vancomycin resistant enterococcus (VRE). We also have a myriad of viral diseases such as hepatitis C and others, that together with AIDS have entered into the group of people who use intravenous drugs with contaminated or shared needles. Further spread into the population at large through close contact and intercourse poses a constant challenge to the physician and society at large.
Before jumping to treatment with antibiotics only, I like to point out that it is important for the body to be detoxified so that the nutrients and supplements can access the cells and help the immune system to fight infections as well. Books like “Breakthrough” (Ref.3) by Suzanne Somers have reviewed newer insights of anti-aging medicine. This points out the importance of detoxifying the body from heavy metals like mercury, lead and cadmium. Glutathione, a natural compound active in the liver, supports the immune system in fighting infections. Some anti-aging physicians recommend to do chelation therapy with vitamin C and intravenous glutathione to strengthen the immune system.
In the following chapters I am attempting to give an overview of this complex topic. There are so many different agents of infections such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites and prions. However, in practice this scientific classification by the causing agent is not that helpful as the system in the body that is infected is more important. However, classifying by systems infected also has its weaknesses as there is an overlap between any classification system. Ref. 1 and 2, which are the authoritative texts of the American Public Health Association, have solved this dilemma by simply listing the various communicable diseases alphabetically.
I am using a compromise solution as it is my feeling that from a practical point of view a classification by infected systems is helpful, but this is supplemented by a classification by infectious agents and lots of links to other sections. The links on the left above depict this classification. Details of the various infectious diseases are explained under the chapters that are linked to the links above, which will quickly guide you to the appropriate chapter in this web site.
1. James Chin et al., Editors: Control of Communicable Diseases Manual, 17th Edition, 2000, American Public Health Association.
2. David Heymann, MD, Editor: Control of Communicable Diseases Manual, 18th Edition, 2004, American Public Health Association.
3. Suzanne Somers: “Breakthrough” Eight Steps to Wellness– Life-altering Secrets from Today’s Cutting-edge Doctors”, Crown Publishers, 2008 | <urn:uuid:e135b195-3661-4d77-a8f0-f1f4e93cbffb> | {
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Photosynthesis light reaction steps
Read on to know more about the steps of photosynthesis dependent phase of photosynthesis the light dependent reaction converts adp step a single water. Photosynthesis has two main sets of reactions light-dependent reactions need light to work and light-independent reactions, which do not need light to work. The light reactions and the calvin cycle cooperate in converting light the light reactions are the steps of photosynthesis that convert solar energy. Best answer: photosynthesis occurs in 2 parts- the light reactions and the calvin cycle the light cycle is dependent on light within the chloroplast, are. Light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis at the thylakoid membrane in photosynthesis, the light-dependent reaction takes place on the thylakoid the step h 2 o.
In this lesson, we'll learn how electrons get excited during the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis, jumping off photosystem reaction. When a leaf is exposed to full sun, the light-dependent reactions are required to process an enormous amount of the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis. The light independent process (also called dark reactions or the calvin-benson cycle) is the first step of the light independent process. Bio 231 - cell biology lab this animation of the light reactions of photosynthesis is designed to show, in 4 stages, the major events in the synthesis of atp and.
Photosynthesis can be divided into two part: light reaction is the first stage of photosynthesis, occurring only in the presence of light, during which energy. Photosynthesis is a process in which light these stages are called the light reactions chlorophyll absorbs light energy and starts a chain of steps. Light reactions of photosynthesis including location and steps for non-cyclic and cyclic photophosphorylation. Photosynthesis: crash course biology #8 light reaction/light-dependent 2:42 a photosynthesis: light reactions 1 - duration.
Step 1-light dependent the second of two major stages in photosynthesis (following the light reactions) start studying steps of photosynthesis learn. 1 outline • photosynthesis major steps of photosynthesis-light-dependent reactions-light-independent reactions alternate pathways-c4 photosynthesis. The little light that does make it here is enough for the plants of the world to survive and go through the process of photosynthesis light light dependent reaction. Learn about how light energy is converted to chemical energy during the two main stages of photosynthesis: light-dependent reactions and the calvin cycle. The light reactions occur in the grana and the dark reactions take place in the stroma of the chloroplasts overview of the two steps in the photosynthesis process.
Photosynthesis overview the light reaction and its products are an important step in photosynthesis photosynthesis is the process that harnesses light energy to. All the reactions of photosynthesis that are directly dependent upon light are known as the light reactions the light reactions occur in steps: 1 light.
The light-independent reactions, or dark reactions, of photosynthesis are chemical reactions that convert (a total of 6 carbons) in a two-step reaction. Photosynthesis the light reaction involves three stages: 1 photexcitation: the e in chlorophyll absorb photons of energy 2 electron transport: excited e are. Photosynthesis has two main stages: light reactions and the calvin cycle the calvin cycle has three stages called carbon fixation, reduction and regeneration of rubp. The two stages of photosynthesis are light reactions and the calvin cycle light reactions take place first, forming the photo portion of photosynthesis, while the. Overview of photosynthesis it is carried out through many complex steps (light-independent reactions) light-dependent reactions. | <urn:uuid:2d4363ab-e19d-49a2-b2a2-7b04af518f14> | {
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Microcoulometry – D5808
Petroleum refining processes have evolved over the years to maximize efficiency and output as crude oils are turned into finished products. One such evolution has been the increased level of quality testing done on petrochemicals such as aromatics. This shift in attention on quality and rigor makes sense, as the International Energy Agency reported in 2018 that “Petrochemicals are set to account for more than a third of the growth in world oil demand to 2030, and nearly half the growth to 2050, adding nearly 7 million barrels of oil a day by then. They are also poised to consume an additional 56 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas by 2030, and 83 bcm by 2050” 1 .
From a capacity standpoint, refineries have already begun to respond. According to the Hydrocarbon Processing 2019 Industry Outlook, petrochemical capacity expansion makes up most CAPEX projects in the refinery space at 37%. By the reported numbers, this is an expected 474 projects out of 1,312 total projects, which accounts for roughly $560B in total CAPEX spend across the globe 2 . With this in mind, refineries must continue to make difficult decisions surrounding testing methods for their petrochemical applications, such as aromatics, as these projects move through the planning phase and into the execution phase.
Today, petroleum professionals use analytical equipment to monitor for chlorine in their aromatics, which can include xylene and benzene. Aromatics and finished products testing may be included in the product specification. These tests are typically done as a quality control check. A low-level sub-ppm performance is critical in the measurement of aromatics, as most aromatics come in the form of organic chlorine, which is typically present in very low concentrations.
Fortunately, there is more than one test method to accommodate this measurement criterium; however, parameters such as test time, sample preparation, and precision can vary widely depending on the test method used. These parameters are all critical components for petroleum professionals trying to balance a wide set of analytical needs for their lab. With such parameters in place, it isn’t always simple to determine the most appropriate test method that meets a lab’s specific needs.
Two common ASTM standard test methods for chlorine are D7536, Chlorine in Aromatics by Monochromatic Wavelength Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (MWDXRF), and D5808, Organic Chloride in Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Related Chemicals by Microcoulometry. This paper will break down the differences between each of these test methods, as well as review data from the ASTM Aromatic Hydrocarbons Proficiency Testing Program (PTP).
Use of D5808 requires a liquid sample to be injected into a combustion tube for analysis. This combustion tube is maintained at a temperature of 900°C and has a flowing stream of oxygen and argon carrier gas. According to section 4.1 of the test method: “Oxidative pyrolysis converts the organic halides to hydrogen halides that then flow into a titration cell where it reacts with silver ions present in the electrolyte” 3. The silver ions are then coulometrically replaced, and this electrical work of replacing the silver ions is the measure of the organic halides in the sample.
Microcoulometry involves the use of a furnace, tubing, and syringe injection of sample for measurement. Part of this process also involves stirring, which is done magnetically by the titration cell – this parameter must be closely overseen to ensure that stirring speed does not exceed a threshold that will cause damage to the electrodes. Additionally, microcoulometry involves the consumption of gasses for sample preparation.
Monochromatic Wavelength Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (MWDXRF) – D7536 4
Alternatively, use of D7536 requires a sample to be pipetted into an X-ray sample cup. The cup is sealed with sample film, vented, and placed into the analyzer for analysis. Users enter measurement parameters which include measurement time, repeats, and selecting a calibration.
For general MWDXRF analysis, XOS has published a recorded webinar on best practices for sample preparation. This webinar was published using a sulfur analyzer, but many of the tips and recommendations apply when analyzing for chlorine content as well. xos.com/SindieBestPractices
MWDXRF works using high-intensity X-rays that excite the elements of interest within a sample. Upon exposure, fluorescent X-rays are emitted from the sample at energy levels that are unique to each element. To isolate the chlorine signal and reduce noise, traditional WDXRF utilizes a filter and a collection crystal before the sulfur signal reaches the detector. With MWDXRF, however, an additional excitation optic is used to monochromate the sample which improves noise reduction, ultimately leading to better precision. See the Technology Brief segment at the end of this paper to learn more.
ASTM PROFICIENCY TESTING PROGRAM
ASTM conducts an aromatic hydrocarbon Proficiency Testing Program (PTP) twice a year. In each PTP session, ASTM sends aromatic hydrocarbon products or feedstocks to various participant sites for analysis of multiple sample properties. Each participating laboratory performs analysis following ASTM methods for these test parameters. The ASTM PTP chlorine results using the previously-discussed MWDXRF and microcoulometry methods can be found can be found in the Study Results section.
The data used in this paper was gathered over the course of four testing sessions between the Spring of 2016 and Fall of 2018. These samples were either unknown or were doped with chlorine compounds, unbeknownst to the PTP participants. The aromatic hydrocarbon program dopes some of the samples so that there are detectible chlorides for the measurements.
As we can see in Table 1, MWDXRF method D7536 demonstrates closer or equivalent accuracy to a doped nominal value against microcoulometry method D5808 100% of the time. In one case, D7536 was an exact match with the doped value, and two other scenarios provided results with less than a 0.1 ppm difference from the value.
||0.35 (± 0.20)
||0.46 (± 0.17)
||0.9 (± 0.30)
||0.9 (± 0.30)
||0.5 (± 0.30)
||0.8 (± 0.20)
||0.3 (± 0.20)
||0.5 (± 0.20)
We can see a trend more clearly when we look at this same data graphically. The orange line, representing MWDXRF method D7536, more closely and consistently aligns with the gray line, which represents the doped value. The blue line, representing microcoulometry method D5808, demonstrates a high degree of accuracy as well, but does not align as closely with our gray line value as the MWDXRF method.
Figure 1:ASTM PTP Data
This data, obtained using XOS Clora analyzers, demonstrates that MWDXRF method D7536 provides petroleum lab professionals with a high degree of measurement accuracy, ensuring that the number reported by the analyzer is the correct number.
What about precision? Section 16 of D5808 and D7536 lists the precision criteria for each method. Tables 2 and 3 below, list the calculated precision values from each method. As seen from the method tables below, the method repeatability and reproducibility for D7536 is better than D5808 within the range of interest. As a quick reminder:
- REPEATABILITY (r):The difference between two results run by the same operator on the same analyzer for the same sample.
- REPRODUCIBILITY (R):The difference between two single and independent results obtained by different operators in difference laboratories using different analyzers on the same sample.
Looking back at our data in Table 1, we will pay closer attention to the numbers within the parentheses for both D7536 and D5808. Seeing the uncertainty ranges for each respective data set, we can see that the results for each fall within their respective test method reproducibility. Looking at two of the four sets of data, the uncertainty ranges for D7536 are tighter than those of D5808, which have a much wider range of error. The exception to this is seen for the Spring 2018 and Fall 2016 sets of data, wherein the results for both methods are identical. From here we can see that from both a precision and accuracy standpoint, XRF fares better than microcoulometry.
NOTE II: It is worth mentioning that specifications for xylene and other aromatics reference chloride and not total chlorine. Chloride refers to the outer or bonding electrons in the chlorine atom. Clora analyzers, as utilized in the PTP study, detect the presence of chlorine atoms by looking at the inner shell electrons, meaning that Clora analyzers measure total chlorine. Typically, chlorine present in the samples of interest at a refinery site are present in the chloride form. Therefore, if the only chlorine content present in the sample is in the form of chlorides, and Clora measures the total chlorine content present in the sample, then Clora, by extension, is able to report the results of chloride content in the sample of interest.
When measuring aromatics, precision and accuracy at low concentrations are critical. From the ASTM data shown, MWDXRF analyzers, particularly Clora,demonstrate excellent accuracy and precision when measuring samples against microcoulometry. The ability to measure total chlorines with minimal sample preparation and high performance, with results ready within minutes, is invaluable to refiners looking to protect their bottom line – and for these specific needs, Clora delivers on all fronts.
Clora® is a compact analyzer to measure total chlorine in liquid hydrocarbons such as aromatics, distillates, heavy fuels, crude oils, and aqueous solutions. Clora delivers unprecedented accuracy and precision for petroleum and petrochemical applications where ease-of-use, reliability and measurement speed are critical.
Technology Brief: Monochromatic Wavelength Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (MWDXRF)
Monochromatic Wavelength Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (MWDXRF) utilizes state-of-the-art focusing and monochromating optics to increase excitation intensity and dramatically improve signal-to-background ratio compared to traditional WDXRF instruments. This enables signifi cantly improved detection limits, precision, and a reduced sensitivity to matrix eff ects. A monochromatic and focused primary beam excites the sample, and secondary characteristic fluorescent X-rays are emitted from the sample. A second monochromating optic selects the chlorine characteristic X-rays and directs these X-rays to the detector. MWDXRF is a direct measurement technique and does not require consumable gasses or sample conversion, delivering robust and low-maintenance analyzers with dramatically lower detection limits and faster response times.
- ASTM D5808 – 18, Standard Test Method for Determining Chloride in Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Related Chemicals by Microcoulometry, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2018 ( http://www.astm.org/cgi-bin/resolver.cgi?D5805)
- ASTM D7536 – 16, Standard Test Method for Chlorine in Aromatics by Monochromatic Wavelength Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2016 ( http://www.astm.org/cgi-bin/resolver.cgi?D7536)
Author: Joseph Iaia, Petroleum Product Manager | <urn:uuid:b326ffa8-c367-4fa4-9e91-4a2738a8b7df> | {
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Thanks to the development of an artificial, three-layered perfused skin model, the EU research project ArtiVasc 3D is advancing into uncharted territories. An interdisciplinary team of researchers led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT has developed a 3D printing process for the production of artificial blood vessels out of innovative materials. They have created the foundation to cultivate a full-thickness skin model to a much greater layer thicknesses than previously possible. At the project’s closing event at Fraunhofer ILT from October 28 to 29, 2015, the ArtiVasc 3D researchers will present their findings in detail.
To date, it has only been possible to cultivate the upper layers of the skin – the epidermis and dermis – with a total thickness of up to 200 micrometers outside the human body. A complete skin system, however, also includes subcutaneous tissue having a thickness of several millimeters.
Macroscopic image of a fatty tissue equivalent containing seven layers.
© Fraunhofer IGB, Stuttgart, Germany
If one wishes to co-cultivate the hypodermis, blood vessels supplying this tissue are imperative since, for cell aggregates of about 200 microns thickness, the following applies: no life without blood. This is where the European research project ArtiVasc 3D starts; it has set itself the goal of enabling significantly more complex tissues to be cultivated in vitro by developing artificial blood vessels.
The Right Material in the Right Form
One of the biggest challenges the project ArtiVasc 3D faced was to develop the right material for the production of artificial blood vessels. For them to be used in the human body, these vessels must have the correct mechanical properties and biocompatibility as well as full processability. Indeed, endothelial cells and pericytes must be able to colonize the artificial blood vessels.
In order to generate these properties, the Fraunhofer scientists combined the freeform methods of inkjet printing and stereolithography. With these combined processes, the researchers were able to achieve a very fine resolution for the construction of branched, porous blood vessels with layer thicknesses of about 20 microns.
The researchers used mathematical simulations to develop data for the construction of branched structures. This data should create the conditions so that branched structures can be generated which allow uniform blood supply. The use of the acrylate-based synthetic polymer developed in the project permits the scientists to construct these optimized vessels with a pore diameter on the order of hundreds of microns. Compared to conventional methods, the ArtiVasc 3D process provides the general conditions to produce branched and biocompatible vessels in this size for the first time.
Foray into the Third Dimension
The results of ArtiVasc 3D are shaping the future. A toolbox has been developed that can respond flexibly to diverse materials, shapes and sizes. These results can be viewed as a precursor to a fully automated process chain for the production of artificial blood vessels, and which can also be integrated into existing lines. Another highlight of the project is the successful breeding of adipose tissue in a novel bioreactor. The combination of the fatty tissue with an existing skin model allowed the production of a full-thickness skin model which has a thickness of up to 12 millimeters.
The successful conquest of the third dimension need not be confined to the skin, however. The ArtiVasc 3D project has also laid the foundations for three-dimensional tissue engineering. By using the principle of blood circulation with artificial blood vessels, medical engineers will be able to build larger structures such as whole organs in the future. For full skin cultured in vitro, there are a variety of applications: quick assistance for large-area skin injuries such as burns or after tumor resection as well as a replacement model that would make animal testing in the pharmaceutical industry unnecessary.
Success Only in a Network
Not only should the blood vessels as such be developed, but also the technology that is required to cultivate the entire skin system fully automatically, within the four-year project period. This extremely ambitious challenge could only be achieved in an interdisciplinary network. All over Europe, twenty partners from the fields of biomaterial development, tissue engineering, freeform methods, automation and simulation have joined forces under the leadership of Fraunhofer ILT.
The ArtiVasc 3D Project Partners
- Aalto University
- Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg
- AO Research Institute Davos
- International Management Services ARTTIC
- Beiersdorf AG
- Berufsgenossenschaftliche Kliniken Bergmannsheil [Bergmannsheil Hospital of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum]
- Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP
- Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB
- Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT
- Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology and Automation IPA
- Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM
- INNOVENT e.V. Technology Development Jena
- KMS Automation GmbH
- Medical University of Vienna
- Unitechnologies SA
- University of East Anglia
- Loughborough University
- Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Plasma Technology IGVP, University of Stuttgart
- University of Salerno, Department of Industrial Engineering
- Vimecon GmbH
The research in the 3D ArtiVasc project has been financially supported in accordance with the grant agreement no. 263416 in the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union (FP7 / 2007-2013).
Join our final workshop and learn more about the latest ArtiVasc 3D results!
On October 28 and 29, 2015, the ArtiVasc 3D researchers will be presenting their results in detail prior to the final workshop at Fraunhofer ILT in Aachen. We would be pleased to welcome you! Please fill in the registration form at www.artivasc.eu
Dr. rer. nat. Nadine Nottrodt
Biotechnology and Laser Therapy Group
Telephone +49 241 8906-605
Dipl.-Phys. Sascha Engelhardt
Biotechnology and Laser Therapy Group
Telephone +49 241 8906-605
Dr. Arnold Gillner
Head of the competence area Ablation and Joining
Telephone +49 241 8906-148
Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT
52074 Aachen, Germany
Petra Nolis | Fraunhofer-Institut für Lasertechnik ILT
Complementing conventional antibiotics
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A research team led by physicists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has developed molecular nanoswitches that can be toggled between two structurally different states using an applied voltage. They can serve as the basis for a pioneering class of devices that could replace silicon-based components with organic molecules.
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There are videos on the internet that can make one marvel at technology. For example, a smartphone is casually bent around the arm or a thin-film display is rolled in all directions and with almost every diameter. From the user's point of view, this looks fantastic. From a professional point of view, however, the question arises: Is that already possible?
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24.05.2018 | Physics and Astronomy | <urn:uuid:95ea499a-4ed2-478c-b105-35a2374e3e04> | {
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For a week, Beijing and Tokyo have been challenging each other in the China Sea. They are playing a dangerous game in a high-risk zone. Any day now, an incident could degenerate into an armed confrontation. The U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is currently in Beijing trying to calm the waters.
We are way past a bilateral disagreement, however explosive. The crisis demonstrates the general attitude of China toward all its Pacific neighbors. It is no doubt linked to a difficult power transition in Beijing, a few weeks before the 18th party congress, in which the country's leadership will be shuffled. This mix of internal problems and nationalist hardline attitudes toward a foreign country is a political time bomb.
The reasons for the China-Japan quarrel are well known. China claims sovereignty over a small archipelago of islands, which have been under Japanese control because of historical circumstances. China calls them the Diaoyu Islands and says they have been Chinese since the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Japan calls them the Senkaku Islands. The United States put them under Japanese control in 1972, after having occupied them during the Second World War.
Today, both countries claim inalienable rights over the islands, rich in fish, and probably in oil and gas. Extremists on both sides have turned the issue into a question of national pride. This is never a good sign. The two countries have never been able to erase the painful and tragic memories of their joint history.
For several days, Beijing allowed a wave of anti-Japanese demonstrations to take place. There were violent protests against Japanese interests in China. Factories were burned or closed; there was a torrent of fury on the web. A flotilla of Chinese fishing boats is making its way toward the islands, which are protected by the Japanese coast guard.
The anger of Beijing was set off by the decision of the Japanese government to "nationalize" the islands. In fact, Japan bought them from their private owners so that the owners would not sell the islands to Japanese ultra-nationalists. Some might view this as a gesture of appeasement.
But for reasons which no doubt have much to do with internal debates of the Chinese leadership, Beijing has chosen this pretext to launch a campaign against one of its main commercial partners. Is this perhaps a pledge to the most nationalist part of the Chinese communist party?
All this gesturing is in line with the rather aggressive tone China has always used in its disagreements with its neighbors in the Pacific. China claims sovereignty over the whole region and presents itself as the preeminent regional power. Its neighbors are afraid, and are asking for help from that other great Pacific power, the United States. It is the most dangerous kind of strategic face-off. | <urn:uuid:2b2be5cd-e80c-40bc-bd4d-332b36e5388a> | {
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In March, a computer achieved what many thought impossible when it won a best of five series against world-class go champion Lee Sedol. The victory by the DeepMind computer was the most significant milestone in artificial intelligence (AI) since Deep Blue beat chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997, and once again sparked many predictable headlines about humans being knocked off our IQ perch. The question is, what do such human versus computer matches tell us about AI? Is it the harbinger of a machine-led future or are computers just very good at playing board games? To see how this might play out, we first need to look to the past.
Despite being extremely bad at playing board games as complicated as chess and go for decades, there was almost a sense of inevitability to computers eventually surpassing the abilities of their human creators in this area. When chess-playing computers started being shown in science fiction films and television programs, such as 2001: a Space Odyssey or Star Trek, they were invariably depicted as unbeatable. And that vision is now becoming a reality, with it almost taken for granted that a top-level computer can beat any human being at chess – even up to Grandmaster level.
But there's much more to computers playing boardgames than a wetware versus hardware contest to see who takes home the trophy. Such challenges are also a laboratory for understanding AI, human decision making, the nature of the games played, and the ability to handle extremely complex problems.
Go was relatively late to computer gaming, but there's history going back over 200 years of attempts to create machines that can best humans at chess. The first attempt and one of the most famous is Wolfgang Kempelen's (or von Kempelen's) Mechanical Turk, which was unveiled in Europe in 1769.
If nothing else, the Turk was an impressive bit of hardware. It consisted of a wooden cabinet filled with clockwork like a giant music box and the wooden figure of a Turk clad in robes seated behind it. The figure's left hand held a long pipe while its right was free to pick up and move the pieces on a board built into the top of the cabinet. In addition, it would rap the counter to declare check or mate, and rap even harder if its opponent made an illegal move.
For years, the Turk toured the capitals of Europe, where it played and won against such eminences as Empress Marie Therese and computer pioneer Charles Babbage, and lost a grueling match against the unofficial world chess champion François-André Danican Philidor. It even played against Napoleon Bonaparte, who was delighted when it scattered the pieces off the board after it caught him cheating.
Not surprisingly, the Turk was a conjuring trick. Hidden inside the cabinet was a very small man who was very good at chess and who used levers to operate the mechanism. When one side of the cabinet was opened to show its workings to the audience, he would squeeze himself into the other.
The Turk ended up in a museum in Philadelphia, where it was destroyed in a fire in 1854, and machine chess became largely a denizen of fiction stories from the likes of Ambrose Bierce until after the Second World War when the invention of the modern computer raised the possibility of creating a machine that could actually play a complicated game like chess.
Early computer chess
In 1948, Norbert Wiener in his classic book Cybernetics described a chess program and how it might work. Then in 1950, the mathematician Alan Turing wrote the first chess software, however, he never programmed it into a machine. Instead, he and a friend played a game, with Turing standing in for the computer as he followed the algorithm. Each move took 30 minutes, but it worked.
The next year, Dietrich Prinz programmed the Manchester Ferranti computer in Britain to play chess, but it could only manage to do very simple things like solve for mate in two moves. By 1957, Alex Bernstein at MIT programmed an IBM 704 to play the first proper game of chess by a computer.
By the early 1960s, computer chess playing had progressed in baby steps. The first chess computer programs were very simple and ran on machines that would be outclassed by a children's toy today. Until the IBM 704, computers used small boards with only a few squares and either played a simplified version of chess or concentrated on the last couple of moves in a game.
But by 1962, computer chess had taken on a form that modern programmers would recognize, as was depicted in Fritz Leiber's short story of that year, 64-Square Madhouse. Written by one of fantasy's more notorious chess enthusiasts, the story is a satirical science fiction account of the world's first chess tournament with a computer as a contender.
Along with a very good description of how computers actually play chess, it also foreshadowed a lot of the problems that computers in competition would face, such as is the human playing against the machine or its programmer, can the programmer help the computer during a game, what happens when a computer malfunctions or is given false data, and how do you keep a computer from thinking about the game when it shouldn't?
Also in 1962, Scientific American's mathematical games columnist Martin Gardner invented a simplified game called "hexapawn" and a computer that not only could learn how to play an unbeatable game, but also demystified much about how such a machine works.
Hexapawn is played on a board that only measures three squares by three and the only pieces are six pawns, three white and three black. The object of the game is to either capture all the enemy pieces, move a pawn to the far side, or prevent your opponent from making another move.
It's a simple form of fairy chess, but what's surprising is the Gardner invented for playing it. Instead of a thing of wires and transistors, it consisted of a series of matchboxes. Each matchbox corresponds to a turn in the game and printed on top of each is a diagram showing all the machine's possible moves for that turn. Inside the box are colored beads that represent a particular move. During play, the human makes a move, then selects a bead at random from the appropriate box for the machine. If the machine wins, all the beads are returned. If its loses, the last bead drawn is confiscated. If the last turn box is empty, the bead from the previous move is confiscated.
When it starts out, the hexapawn computer is hopeless and loses almost every time. But as the games proceed and the beads mount up, it gets better and better until it reaches the point where all the human can hope for is a draw.
This sounds like AI at work. The computer learns, it improves, and finally becomes unbeatable, but it's also obvious that this is purely mechanical, and very simple mechanics at that. As roboticist Rodney Brooks says about computers and chess, there's no intentionality. The computer lacks understanding or awareness of what it's doing. It also raises the question of whether even the world champion computers of today are essentially the same.
Another thing about hexapawn is that it illustrates the incredible complexity of chess and the difficulties in designing a machine that can cope with it. The reason why the early computers worked with small boards and simple moves is because chess becomes extremely complex as it scales up.
How computers play
A computer that plays chess, go, or even tic-tac-toe works by looking ahead to predict the consequences of its next move. How effective this is depends on how complex the game is. Tic-tac-toe isn't too hard to program for because there are only 26,830 possible games. But chess has 10123 possible games and it's impossible for any computer to analyze them all. If it had to calculate all possible moves, it would take many times longer than the lifetime of the universe to play a single game.
To keep the computer from having a nervous breakdown on the first move, the programmers have to find ways to simplify the problem. Historically, there have been two approaches. The first is to go for straight AI and try to imitate human decision making. Human players use what is called "ends and means" thinking. That is, the player identifies the goal and tries to figure out how best to achieve it based on a large body of acquired knowledge and experience.
The reasoning is that if there was a way to get this knowledge into the computer, then it should play well. Unfortunately, scientists haven't had much luck leaping this knowledge gap and have found that computers are very bad at emulating human thinking.
The other approach is brute force calculation, which exploits the computer's high speed and infallible memory to analyze potential future moves and discard the bad ones. It does this by weighing each possible move based on things like how much a piece is worth, control of the center of the board, and threats to and from the other player. By carrying this process through a series of moves, the computer builds up a tree of moves from which it can select the best one to play next.
Because the number of possible moves increases exponentially the further one looks ahead, most computers until recently usually only looked ahead about four moves. Even this is a massive number of potential moves to calculate, so in the late 1950s programmers started using "alpha beta pruning." Basically, this means the computer looks at possible moves, gives each one a numerical value and discards all search lines that produce a lower value. This way, the move tree is radically pruned down to a more manageable number as both bad and less-good moves are eliminated.
As chess programs or "engines" developed, other tricks were added, such as the ability to assess positions and other complexities. In addition, bits of AI started to be added by building databases of opening moves, midgames, and endgames for the computer to draw on. The latter was particularly important because toward the end of a game, the fewer pieces make evaluating the best moves that much harder and even today it isn't uncommon to see two computers playing against one another in games that end with each chasing the other around the board like idiots as they repeatedly pass up the chance of a win.
"Idiots" isn't too far off the mark to describe the chess computers of the late 1960s and it shows what Brooks meant by a lack of intentionality. Before he became famous for creating the fantasy world of Westeros, George R. R. Martin made a living as a chess correspondent and in 1972 he published an account of the first all-computer championship in the sci-fi magazine Analog , which was held in New York in 1970 by the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM).
The tournament was won by a program from Northwestern University called Chess 3.0, which ran on a CDC 6400 and took out contenders from Bell Labs, Texas A&M, the University of Graz, Carnegie Mellon University, and the US Navy. It was an historic contest that demonstrated computers still had a long way to go. Despite 20 years of work, computers were still barely capable of playing a legal game – much less winning against any but the greenest and most nervous human player.
By the time the 1980s rolled around the picture had changed dramatically. In 1981, the Cray Blitz became the first computer program to be rated a Master in tournament play and the machines progressed in leaps and bounds through the decade. By 1988, Deep Thought beat a Grandmaster and the following year IBM began work on what would become the champion-beating Deep Blue.
There were a number of reasons for this sudden leap in capabilities. Not only were computers getting smaller and more powerful as the microchip revolution gathered steam, but engineers were also building computers with bespoke chips that cranked up the processing speed specifically for playing chess.
Another facet was in the software. Chess computers were now being programmed with heuristics or the ability to learn from past mistakes. They were given rules of thumb – those imprecise but helpful rules that aid in certain situations. They were also taught to recognize patterns and their databases were expanded.
This led to a lot more computer victories, but despite other improvements, the true winning quality was that computers were simply becoming faster and could handle many times more calculations than previously. In a way, they weren't playing better, they were just less bad than the human players.
"The machines do not play good chess," Fred Hapgood wrote in New Scientist in 1982. "In fact, they play terrible chess. In a single game, a computer will make enough mistakes to illustrate a whole textbook of what not to do. Their play is clumsy, inefficient, diffuse, and just plain ugly."
He then went on to say that the reason the computers started winning was because humans make far more staggering blunders on a regular basis than they realize and that the programmers had taught the computers to seek out and exploit this fact. This exploitation is the result of the ability of the computer to analyze games at lightning speed.
By the turn of the 21st century, chess computers had gone from a curious mixture of public awe and private joke to the most formidable chess players in history. In 1996, reigning world champion Garry Kasparov took on IBM's Deep Blue in a one-on-one match in Philadelphia. Equipped with 200 processors and calculating 50 billion positions in three minutes, the computer still lost to Kasparov four games to two.
Then in 1997 an improved Deep Blue calculating 200 million moves a second using 30 IBM-RS-6000 SP processors beat Kasparov in a rematch in New York City. Deep Blue's inventors walked away with the US$100,000 Fredkin Award and shockwaves reverberated through the chess world as news stories predictably raised fears that our time at the top of the intellectual tree was coming to an end.
Then in March this year, a computer knocked down the champion of a game so complicated that many people thought it would be impossible for a computer to master – go. Google's DeepMind computer running AlphaGo beat South Korea's Lee Sedol, one of the world's best go players.
This win was notable because, though go is in many ways a simpler game than chess, it is more difficult for a computer to handle because it is played on a 19 x 19 board, whereas chess is played on an 8 x 8 board. This means that the number of possible moves is mind boggling with 1010∧48 games as opposed to chess's 10123 and to play at championship level requires a much more intuitive approach than chess as go masters "feel" their way around the board.
But what are the implications of these victories? Is this, as Newsweek called the Deep Blue/Kasparov match, "The Brain's Last Stand?" Is the ability of computers to beat humans at chess, go, and even Jeopardy a demonstration of artificial or even superhuman intelligence?
In one sense, no. Even with the development in recent years of more advanced game-playing programs, including those that incorporate learning abilities and neural networks, they are still strictly mechanical with fully understood processes that rely on brute force calculation to win.
This reinforces just how elusive artificial intelligence is. Chess computers live in a bubble with no ability to perceive the outside world. This means that they cannot comprehend, much less play, a psychological game, which is something many human players rely upon to gain an advantage.
Indeed, playing computers has been described as like playing against "a Martian" because their way of playing chess is so different from a human's – a point that has been offered to explain why they win. The humans are playing human chess, but the computers are playing computer chess.
Why make computers play games?
So is computer chess or game playing just a stunt? A sort of climb Everest on a pogo stick affair that may grab some headlines and impress the masses but doesn't really amount to anything? According to IBM, the answer is a solid "no." Computer scientists regard games like chess as a perfect laboratory for developing computers. Chess is completely logical with rigidly defined moves and rules and has been intensely analyzed by players, strategists, and mathematicians for centuries. Chess player performance is also measurable and quantifiable.
With all this, chess is an excellent way to study the limits of parallel processing and other aspects of computer design and programming. In the field of AI, it also acts as an important milestone. IBM says that if a computer can't be built along the lines of AI that can handle a limited, defined world like chess, then real-world expert systems like Watson that are intended to deal with a wider array of subjects can't be relied upon.
Computers also have implications for the chess enthusiast as well. Is chess solvable? Can a perfect game ever be found that will always guarantee at least a draw? Computers can help to find out if such a game exists or if it is demonstrably impossible. In addition, computers have gone from opponents to servants for chess masters.
Grandmasters now spar with computers to prepare for matches and they now have the previously unheard of luxury of always having an opponent of equal ability to try new ideas on at a moment's notice. Garry Kasparov has also pointed out that computers put so much chess information and experience in the hands of young people that Grandmasters are getting younger and younger.
But what would a truly intelligent chess computer of the future look like? One possible answer is one that not only plays at the level of a world champion like Bobby Fischer or Alexander Alekhine, but also plays like them. Such a "Fisher test" wouldn't mean that the computer would favor the King's Indian Defence or opt for aggressive endgames. Instead, it would measure how well it could gain advantage over an opponent by squeaking its chair, threatening to smoke a cigar, or accusing its opponent of beaming microwaves at its brain. Extra points would be added for complaining loudly about its hotel bill after the match.In other words, true chess master behavior.
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Doctor insights on:
Is Homosexuality A Risk Factor For Hepatitis B Infection
Yes: Sexuality period is a risk factor for hepatitis b, so anyone who is sexually active is at risk. Some consider homosexuality as a separate risk factor because anal intercourse has a slightly higher chance of transmission, but this line is really blurred. The main point is that all sexual practices translate a risk of hepatitis b and other sexually transmitted infections. ...Read moreSee 2 more doctor answers
Infections are invasions of some other organism (fungus, bacteria, parasite) or viruses into places where they do not belong. For instance, we have normal gut bacteria that live within us without causing problems; however, when those penetrate the bowel wall and enter the bloodstream, ...Read more
CDC Says:: "Today, most ppl become infected w Hepatitis C by sharing needles or other equipment to inject drugs. Before widespread screening of the blood supply began in 1992, [it] was also commonly spread thru blood transfusions & organ transplants... Having a sexually transmitted disease or HIV, sex w multiple partners, or rough sex appears 2 increase a person’s risk for Hep C." Source: http://ow.ly/Guikj ...Read moreSee 5 more doctor answers
More hep b info: The risk for hepatitis b has greatly decreased thanks to hepatitis b vaccine. This vaccine which prevents Hepatitis B Vaccine has been used now for years for all people beginning at birth. Please add more information to your question to be more specific about your situation. ...Read more
If contaminated: Hep c is spread by blood contamination, mostly through IV drug use, nasal drug use (shared "coke spoons"), tattoos that don't use sterile needles and sterile ink for each customer. Less commonly sexually transmitted. Potential risk for shared implements including razor blades, barber razors, manicure sets, and sex toys too (depending on where they went, who shared them, bleeding, etc). ...Read moreSee 1 more doctor answer
Viral infections is a risk factor for:: Chronic fatigue syndrome, Cryoglobulinemia, Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, Gastroparesis, Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies, Intussusception, Labyrinthitis, Miller Fisher Syndrome, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Asthma exacerbation in adults, Asthma exacerbation in children, Biliary atresia, Familial Mediterranean fever, Hypersensitivity pneumonitis, Subacute granulomatous thyroiditis, Encephalitis, Chronic bronchitis, High risk pregnancy, Transverse myelitis, Leukocytosis, Leukopenia, Low grade fever, Ataxia, Reye Syndrome, Enlarged spleen, Thrombocytopenia, Vestibular neuritis, Glossitis. ...Read more
Yes: Dark skinned individuals need more sunlight exposure compared to light skinned ones. ...Read more
If HBV DNA virus is supressed in chronic hepatitis b then we have a chance of liver complication?
Yes: yes, it is possible. majority of people's bodies are able to fight off Hep B, but if the immune system has not done the job, then low levels can remain dormant and tend to resurface/replicate with stressful situations-being mental stress, severe physical trauma or immune stress. should have regular liver function tests for monitoring. ...Read more
What is the risk/chance for hepatitis b from one time unprotected vaginal exposure with carrier with high virus load?
1984: Babies began being vaccinated for a Hep B in 1984. Are you sure you are not already immune? ...Read more
Alcoholism increases the chances of:: Breast cancer, Cervical cancer, Dupuytren's contracture, Epidural abscess, Hemorrhagic stroke, Hepatitis C, Lipoma, Liver abscess, Liver failure, Low folate (folic acid) level, Obesity in adults, Sepsis, Septic arthritis, Sporotrichosis, Status epilepticus, Toxic shock syndrome, Transient ischemic attack, Vascular dementia, Vitamin B3 deficiency, Vitamin C deficiency, Wernicke encephalopathy, Zinc deficiency, Obesity, Acute kidney failure, Chronic atrial fibrillation, Mallory Weiss tear, Hepatitis, Gingivitis, Encephalitis, Hiccups, Kidney failure, Stroke, Alcohol intoxication, Atrial flutter, Transfusion related acute lung injury, Tuberculosis, Alcoholic hepatitis, Chronic pelvic pain, Cocaine abuse, Dementia, Gallbladder diseases, Liver cancer, Nerve pain, Neuropathy, Receding gums. ...Read more
Is there a possibility of acquiring hepatitis e infection without getting prior infection of hav, HBV or hcv? What are major complcations of hev? Ty.
Unique RNA virus: ...With 4 genotypes, outbreaks of which have accounted for epidemics in europe in 18th ; 19th centuries, ; today in india and asia where the infection is endemic. Outbreaks have particularly high attack rates ; mortality among pregnant women. Fecal-oral transmission from person-to-person. See no chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, cancer but severe hepatitis with fulminant hepatic failure is possible. ...Read more
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White Fang senses change in the air. Matt believes that White Fang has caught on to Scott's plan to leave the Klondike. Scott insists that he can't take a "wolf" with him to California and entrusts him to Matt's care.
Scott believes he can't take White Fang to California, because White Fang is too wild for society. That Scott calls White Fang a "wolf," and not a dog, emphasizes his feral nature.
When White Fang sees his master's bags packed, he howls throughout the night, just as he did over the empty Indian camp. The next morning, Scott loads his bags onto the sled, says goodbye to White Fang, and locks him up in the cabin so that White Fang won't follow him on the "long trail."
White Fang's howl represents his deep attachment to his master. Just as White Fang howled because he missed man's companionship at the Indian camp, he howls now because he will miss Scott.
Scott is about to board the steamboat when White Fang appears on deck. Scott notices that there are cuts on his muzzle. Matt realizes that White Fang broke through the cabin's window to follow his master. Scott tells Matt he needn't write to him about White Fang, because he's taking the wolf with him to California.
White Fang shows his deep devotion to Scott by breaking out of the cabin, despite the pain it must have caused him. No barrier can hold back his love for his master. With this show of devotion he convinces Scott that he will listen to his master in California—that because of his devotion he can be domesticated. | <urn:uuid:fe7a65ad-3824-49af-9ae1-a056818b369f> | {
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What are shin splints? The term “shin splints” is a general term associated with sore shins either on the inside of the shin bone (tibia) or on the outside. The proper medical diagnosis for pain along the inside surface of the shin bone is “Medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS)”. This is the most common form of “shin splints”.
So, what exactly causes MTSS? Well, there is no short answer. The current consensus is that MTSS is caused by the inflammation of the periosteum. Wait a second…the peri what?. Ok heres some basic anatomy:
We (most of us at least) know that muscles originate from some bony landmark on one end, and insert into another bony landmark on the other end (usually via a tendon). Between the origin and insertion, the muscles are also connected to their respective bones via a thin layer called the “periosteum” (if not then our muscles would dangle around!). Sometimes when muscles are overused or subjected to extensive impact forces, micro tears can form in the periosteum,essentially displacing the muscle from the bone. The body’s natural defense system kicks in and causes the periosteum to become inflammed.
In the case of MTSS, two muscles have been associated with this condition. Thesoleus muscle and the tibialis posterior muscle attach on the distal end of the tibia (2-4 inches above the ankle). Exercises involving lots of running or jumping places alot of stress on the muscle-bone interface. The constant pounding of the lower extremities can result in MTSS, with symptoms including pain and tenderness. Many other factors could underlie or amplify the problem, with the most common ones being:
1) Biomechanical issues. When we strike the ground, our feet are designed to “pronate” which means to roll inwards. This helps with dampening the impact upon footstrike. Some runners, especially those who have naturally flat arches “overpronate” (ie have the foot roll too much inwards). When this happens, a tremendous amount of strain is put on the muscles.
2)Running on hard surfaces. This mostly applies to distance runners who run on concrete or hard trails. The harder the surface, the larger the impact forces.
3) weak soleus or tibialis posterior (more likely) muscles. Weaker muscles don’t dissipate impact forces as readily and therefore more strain is put on the muscle and its periosteum.
Like with most inflammatory injuries, warm up and gradual activity will cause the pain to subside. However, the pain relief is only temporary and exercising through MTSS is never the right treatment (take if from someone who had to learn the hard way)
So thats MTSS is a nutshell. The good news is there are ways to prevent or treat MTSS. The general rule is the sooner you recognize the condition and treat it, the more effective the actual treatments will be. So don’t ignore those stubborn pains, even if you can run through it! Stay tuned for information on how to treat MTSS and for my experiences with this runner’s peeve. | <urn:uuid:47f74fa7-d086-4cfa-a433-e290cafc7f52> | {
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Can you guess the fastest land animal in the world? In the wild, speed is one of the most important means of survival. If you happen to be one of the slowest animals in the world, then you have to be smart enough to outwit your predators. As such, the fastest animals in the world have a distinct advantage. These include the fastest animals in water, the fastest animal in air and the fastest animals on land. Today’s list is going to focus on the 25 fastest land animals.
The giraffe is the tallest living mammal on land and the largest ruminant. They are easy to recognize due to their really long necks, the puzzle like prints on their pelt and their outrageously long legs. But don’t let their size and awkward shape fool you; these gentle giants can still reach speeds of up to 32mph.
Bears are often romanticized as being gentle and cuddly, but bears like the grizzly are anything but that. In fact, they can be quite ferocious and downright deadly when protecting their cubs and/or pursuing their next meal. Despite their sheer size, bears on average can reach speeds of up to 34.8 mph (56 kph).
A popular canine predators in the wild specifically in some parts of Africa and south central Eurasia; the jackal is closely related to wolves, dogs and coyotes. Not surprising, they are capable of reaching speeds of up to 35 mph (56 kph).
These mammals are native to western North America but have been in later years introduced in Argentina. Their primary predators include mountain lions and bobcats, two exceptionally deadly hunters. It’s a good thing the Mule deer can reach speeds of up to 35 mph (56 kph), a speed it uses to outrun its predators.
The Whippet (also known as English Whippet or Snap dog) is a descendant of the fastest dog on earth. Though its a smaller sight hound breed, It has the ability to zoom away at 35 mph (56 kph) using a double suspension gallop.
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Mongolian Wild Ass
This endangered member of the genus Equus is a native of East Asia, particularly Mongolia and Northern China and can run up to 40 mph (64 kph).
The black and white stripes on a Zebra’s pelt has inspired not only the fashion and art world but even the color of the seats of Mbombela Stadium; one of South Africa’s most eye catching infrastructures. As a member of the African equids, they can run as fast as 40 mph (64 kph) and can outrun most of their predators.
Hyenas have always been known for the their vocalizations; such as their chattering laugh, yells and giggles, earning them the nickname “laughing hyenas”. But the laughter and giggles are not synonymous to fun or comedy. Rather, the laughter is more of a nervous laugh and is indicative of agitation and alarm. You don’t want to alarm these guys for not only do they possess the strongest jaws in proportion to body size in the mammal kingdom, they can also run at 40 mph (64 kph)…that’s right, it can run faster than you.
Named after Joseph Thomson; a Scottish geologist and explorer, this gazelle is one of the most well known subspecies with a population that exceeds 500 thousand. Grazing in the Serengeti region of Kenya and Tanzania, it can evade predators at a speed of 40.4 mph (65 kph) and perhaps even faster.
There are only 2 living members of the genus Urocyon, the Channel Island fox and the gray fox. Because of man’s fervor for advancement, the gray fox (considered one of the most primitive of the living canids) has been outnumbered by the red fox. Grey foxes can run up to 42 mph (67.5 kph) and is able to climb trees to evade predators.
The second domesticated animal on the list; the greyhound used to be primarily bred for racing, but is now more popular as a family pet. This sight-hound can reach speed of up to 43 mph (69 kph) within 30 m and bound at almost 20 mps for the race’s first 250 meters. This breed is second to the fastest animal on land, the cheetah in terms of accelerating over a short distance.
A member of the genus Equus along with horses, donkeys, mule, etc., it can run at speeds up to 43 mph (69 kph).
Also known as the American jackal; the coyote can reach speeds of up to 43 mph (69 kph) and can devour almost anything from small mammals to insects to your pets.
The fastest bird on land clocking at 43.5 mph (70 kph) is also the largest living species of bird in the world and also lays the largest eggs.
These guys can hop at speeds of up to 44 mph (71 kph) and maintain that speed for 1.2 miles (2 km). The faster it hops the lesser energy it consumes.
Cape Hunting Dog
It looks like a hyena but it’s not. The Cape Hunting Dog is called by several other names like ornate wolf and painted dog and can reach speeds of up to 45 mph (72 kph).
Don’t let its size fool you, the second largest species of deer, the elk or wapiti can reach speeds of up to 45 mph (72 kph).
Remember that fable about the hare and the tortoise? Even though it’s just a fable, there’s truth to how fast a jackrabbit can run. These little guys can outrun their predators at 45 mph (72 kph) through a combination of leaps and zigzags. It can even leap an impressive 3 m (9.8 ft) in one bound.
These mighty felines are the second largest living cat and can reach maximum speeds of up to 50 mph (80 kph).
Native to the Indian continent, this antelope has been classified as near threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and is also the last of its species in the genus Antilope. Clocking at 50 mph (80 kph), these antelopes are hunted by feral cats and wolves.
Wildebeest, also known as gnu, looks larger and slower than the usual antelope yet it can reach top speeds of up to 50 mph (80 kph).
These guys have been clocked at 55 mph (88 kph).
The Springbok can reach speeds of up to 62 mph (100 kph).
There really isn’t an accurate measurement of the pronghorn antelope’s top speed but it has been clocked at 61 mph (98 kph) with indications that it can actually run faster. Being that it has larger vital organs such as the lungs and heart, it can sustain this lightning speed longer than the cheetah. However…
The cheetah is the fastest land animal in the world and is able to reach speeds of up to 70 mph (112 kmph). The cheetah can cover distances up to 500 m and can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in five seconds (better than most sports cars). | <urn:uuid:65e429f1-d432-4bbe-b48b-87c7e49b80fb> | {
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(1) Liquid and gaseous fuels can be manufactured from solid fuels.
(2) Relatively cheap and easily available.
(3) These are easy to transport.
(4) As it has a low combustion rate and thermal efficiency, it has least risk of fire hazards compared with that of liquid and gaseous fuel.
(5) Easy and convenient storage is possible.
(1) Combustion rate is low and control on combustion is not so easy.
(2) It has low thermal efficiency.
(3) Ash is produced on combustion and its disposal is difficult.
(4) It burns with low smoke flame.
(5) It has low calorific value.
(6) It cannot be used in IC engine.
(7) Storage, transportation and handling are not economic. | <urn:uuid:2194cc64-81c5-49b5-b550-7b9b3e966baf> | {
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When most of our D’Iberville dental patients think of good oral hygiene, they think of white, straight teeth. But, did you know optimal oral health goes far beyond a pretty smile? Recent research has linked oral health to the health of the rest of your body. Making sure you schedule routine oral examinations and dental hygiene visits at Back Bay Family Dentistry can help maintain your oral health, and give your dentist an idea about how the rest of your body is functioning.
Yellow teeth and bad breath aren’t the only signs you may be neglecting your oral hygiene and health. There are various ways your body may try to tell you that you need to spend some more time on dental care. Some of the most common symptoms to look for may include:
Recent research has shown that there is a direct correlation between oral hygiene and a patient’s overall health. Poor dental hygiene and gum disease may directly increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, and even diabetic complications. Women that have poor dental health may be more susceptible to pre-term birth and giving birth to low-weight babies. Certain systemic diseases may exhibit oral symptoms as well; these symptoms may include ulcers, mouth sores, swollen gums and even dry mouth. Some examples of systemic diseases with oral symptoms include:
Want to make sure your oral health is the best it can be? Contact Back Bay Family Dentistry in D’Iberville today! We can schedule an appointment for an oral examination and dental hygiene visit. | <urn:uuid:09d70697-53a6-4e3e-a017-1d2acf86617d> | {
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The penitential season of Lent is upon us, and we Catholics, like Christians everywhere, begin preparing to commemorate the passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Just a few short weeks ago, we celebrated his birth, and now the Church begins our preparation to join him on his journey to Calvary. The church scene becomes somber, more intense, and such terms as contrition, conversion, penance, almsgiving, fasting and abstinence dominate the liturgy.
Benedictine Father Dom Prosper Gueranger wrote about Lent in “The Liturgical Year” (1887): “Lent, then, is a time consecrated, in a special manner, to penance, and this penance is mainly practiced by fasting. Fasting is an abstinence, which man voluntarily imposes upon himself, as expiation for sin, and which, during Lent, is practiced in obedience to the general laws of the Church.”
Why fast and abstain?
Pope Clement XIII in 1759 said that “penance also demands that we satisfy divine justice with fasting, almsgiving and prayer and other works of the spiritual.” The purpose of our fast is to not become physically weak or lose weight but to create a hunger, a spiritual void that only Christ can fill; in fasting from the heart, we express our love of God and acknowledge our sinfulness. Though unworthy, we pray our sacrifices will be acceptable to the one who suffered and gave his life blood for us.
Every Ash Wednesday we hear from the prophet Joel (2:12-14): “Yet even now — oracle of the Lord — return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God.” It is not our clothes but our hearts we need to rend in reflecting our sorrow. Our fast is not for man but for God.
Fasting and abstinence
Fasting and abstinence are Church-imposed penitential practices that deny us food and drink during certain seasons and on certain days. These acts of self-denial dispose us to free ourselves from worldly distractions, to express our longing for Jesus, to somehow imitate his suffering.
Abstinence traditionally has meant not eating meat and, for centuries but no longer, included meat by-products. Many may recall the calendar hanging in the kitchen that included a fish symbol on each Friday of the month. Catholics never have been compelled to eat fish on days of abstinence, but rather, to avoid meat. While abstinence refers to the kind or quality of food we eat, fasting refers to the amount or quantity of food consumed. It is contrary to the spirit of abstinence and fasting if we avoid steak but pile our plate high with fish.
Fasting in Scripture
In the Old Testament, God told Adam and Eve not to eat (abstain) from the Tree of Knowledge (Gn 2:17). Queen Esther (Est 4: 15), in a successful attempt to save the Jews, ordered a three-day fast for herself and her court. The Book of Jonah describes how the people of Nineveh fasted and were saved from God’s wrath (3:4-10).
|Pope St. Leo the Great on Fasting
“[E]nter upon the celebration of the solemn fast, not with barren abstinence from food ... but in bountiful benevolence. ... Let works of piety, therefore, be our delight, and let us be filled with those kinds of food which feed us for eternity. Let us rejoice in the replenishment of the poor, whom our bounty has satisfied. Let us delight in the clothing of those whose nakedness we have covered with needful raiment. Let our humaneness be felt by the sick in their illnesses, by the weakly in their infirmities, by the exiles in their hardships, by the orphans in their destitution and by solitary widows in their sadness: in the helping of whom there is no one that cannot carry out some amount of benevolence. For no one’s income is small, whose heart is big. ...” (Excerpt from Sermon 40)
Jesus set the example for our fasting when he went into the desert and fasted for 40 days and 40 nights (Mt 4:1-11). His entire life involved suffering and self-denial. In Mark 2:18-20, Jesus responds to the Pharisees’ accusation that his disciples do not fast: “As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.” Once Jesus was not with them, the Apostles did fast and advocated fasting to new Christians as evidenced in the books of Acts and the Epistles.
Evolution of practice
By the second century, fasting was integrated into Christian worship. Jews had long fasted on Mondays and Thursdays, but the Christians chose to fast on Wednesdays, because that was the day of Christ’s betrayal, and Fridays, the day he was crucified. By the fourth century, Saturday had replaced Wednesday as a day of fasting, and over the centuries every-Saturday fasting was dropped.
Fasting before Easter was practiced in those first centuries, but the times and extent varied. Until the ninth century, fasting meant one meal a day and then only enough food to sustain life. Those keeping a fast often would give the food not eaten to others in need.
St. John wrote in 1 Jn 3:17, “If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him?” The philosopher Aristides, around the year 128, explaining how Christians lived, noted, “And if there is among them a man that is poor or needy ... they fast two or three days that they may supply the needy with their necessary food” (Apologia, XV).
Hermes, a writer in the first and second centuries, said, “and having reckoned up the price of the dishes of that day which you intended to have eaten, you will give it to the widow or the orphan.”
Later, St. Augustine said, “What you deprive yourself by fasting, add to your almsgiving” (“Sermons on the Liturgical Seasons: Fathers of the Church,” 1959). Today we are often encouraged to calculate the funds not spent for food during Lent and put that amount in the “poor box.”
By the Middle Ages, the number of fast days during the liturgical year had increased and at times included 70 days. Sundays and solemnities have never been days of fast. Through the mid-20th century, Catholic missals identified fasting on weekdays of Lent, ember days, the vigils of Pentecost, All Saints, Immaculate Conception and Christmas. Abstinence was required on all Fridays, Ash Wednesday, the vigils of the Assumption and Christmas. This all would change.
In 1966, Blessed Pope Paul VI significantly amended the laws of fasting through his apostolic constitution Paenitemini, in which he affirmed some practices and gave certain authority to national conferences of bishops around the world. The changes by Pope Paul were incorporated into the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
Abstinence and fasting are required on both Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. On those days, one full meal is allowed along with two other smaller meals. Catholics bound by the law of abstinence include everyone age 14 and over; the law of fasting includes individuals age 18 through the beginning of their 60th year.
Canon Law, the Catechism, precepts of the Church and U.S. bishops’ document “Penitential Practices for Today’s Catholic” explain our fasting obligations. Before Lent, most every Catholic parish emphasizes the rules and rewards of fasting and abstinence. A one-hour fast is always required before receiving Communion.
In addition to Friday abstinence during Lent, every Friday is a day of penance (Canon Law, No. 1250). According to Canon 1253, the conference of bishops in each nation may “substitute other forms of penance ... for abstinence and fast.” U.S. bishops have maintained the obligation to fast and abstain on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and abstain on the Fridays of Lent. They have granted U.S. Catholics the option of doing another form of penance on Fridays outside Lent rather than abstaining from meat. The bishops focus us on Friday self-denial, along with works of charity and mercy while recalling Christ’s passion.
D.D. Emmons writes from Pennsylvania. | <urn:uuid:0fbe66e4-379a-42ea-9377-ae5f70a6a09a> | {
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Temporal range: Pleistocene
|Skeleton in the American Museum of Natural History, Manhattan|
Neanderthal fossils are only found in Europe, Asia Minor and up to central Asia. The first fossil was found in a limestone quarry near Düsseldorf: One of the workers found part of a skeleton, in a valley called Neanderthal. Experts Johann Carl Fuhlrott and Hermann Schaaffhausen said the bones belonged to an older form of modern humans. These bones are known as Neanderthal 1 today.
Recent research suggests Neanderthals became extinct about 40,000 years ago. Earlier research had suggested a later date; the problem is the dating of the archaeological sites where their remains have been found.
Neanderthals used to be classified as a subspecies of modern humans (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis). Now, they are usually classified as a separate human species (Homo neanderthalensis).
Neanderthal remains have been found in most of Europe south of land covered by ice including the south coast of Great Britain. Finds have also been made outside of Europe in the Zagros Mountains and in the Levant.
Mental capacity[change | change source]
The size of the Neanderthal brain shows that Neanderthals were probably intelligent. On average, they had larger brains than modern humans. Large brains are something of a physical weakness. That is because they consume lots of energy, make the skull more likely to be damaged, and cause difficulties during birth. These disadvantages may be less than the advantages, for example, better problem-solving, better social co-operation, language and tool-making.
Neanderthal flint tools (for example, hand axes) were more finely made than those of early man. They were much less varied and finely made than the neolithic tools of modern man. Also, the quality of cave art done by our ancestors is in a different league from anything done by Neanderthals. They did have some kind of art, though.
The Divje Babe flute[change | change source]
The oldest flute ever discovered may be the so-called Divje Babe flute, found in the Slovenian cave Divje Babe I in 1995. It is about 43,100 years old. It is from a juvenile cave bear femur at the Divje Babe site, near a Mousterian hearth. Archaeologists ask two key questions:
If it is a flute, was it made by Neanderthals? Again, this is not decided. It is on public display as a flute in the National Museum of Slovenia (Narodni Muzej Slovenije) in Ljubljana. The museum's visitor leaflet says that manufacture by Neanderthals "is reliably proven". This is not a general view, and again it is best to describe the idea as "not proven".
Capacity for speech[change | change source]
For a long time, people have wondered whether Neanderthals could talk. Many people believe they could, because the large brain size would be hard to understand if they could not. When an undamaged Neanderthal hyoid bone was discovered, it made people think Neanderthals could talk. That is because, in humans, the hyoid is a support for the voice box. Computer analysis has shown that the Neanderthal hyoid was very similar to human hyoids. Researchers say "our findings are consistent with a capacity for speech in the Neanderthals".
History of discoveries[change | change source]
In August 1856 the specimen that was to become known as Neanderthal 1 was discovered in the Neander Valley, Germany. The material was found in a limestone quarry near Düsseldorf. A skull cap was first discovered, followed by two femurs, five arm bones, part of the left pelvis, and fragments of a shoulder blade and ribs.
Actually, some remains had been found earlier, but not recognised as a separate species from us. The Engis child from Belgium was the first Neanderthal discovered, in 1829. The second discovered was the Forbes Quarry find from Gibralter in 1848.
Anatomy[change | change source]
Neanderthal men were about 164–168 cm (5.3 ft) tall and averaged 77.6 kg (171 lbs) in weight. Neanderthal women stood about 154 cm (5 ft) tall and averaged 66.4 kg (146 lbs) in weight.
Neanderthal long bones and joints are thicker than ours, and some long bones have a slight curve. Both the thickness and the curve suggest the need for more strength than our species.
Young Neanderthals[change | change source]
This research suggests much more rapid physical development in Neanderthals than in modern human children. The x-ray synchrotron microtomography study of early H. sapiens argues that this difference existed between the two species as far back as 160,000 years before present.
Fractures[change | change source]
Neanderthals seemed to suffer a high frequency of fractures. These fractures are often healed and show little or no sign of infection, suggesting that injured individuals were cared for during times of incapacitation.
Neanderthals showed a frequency of such injuries comparable to that of modern rodeo professionals, showing frequent contact with large, combative mammals. The fractures suggest they may have hunted by leaping onto their prey and stabbing or even wrestling it to the ground.
Life style[change | change source]
The skulls are slightly larger than Homo sapiens, and this implies intelligence and probably the use of language. The skeleton, on the other hand, suggests they tended to solve their problems (such as hunting) more by force than we do.
Neanderthal stone tools are called Mousterian, and are an advance on the Acheulean tools made by earlier species of Man. Homo sapiens stone tools are far more varied still, and suggest that our species relied more on tools than the Neanderthals.
Neanderthals were almost exclusively meat eaters although their diet did include cooked vegetables. They made good tools and lived in complex social groups. Research on their remains has shown that it is possible that they had a spoken language but the nature of any such language is unknown.
There are a number of theories that try to explain why the Neanderthals died out. It has been suggested that they may have been unable to adapt to the changing climate. Alternatively it has been suggested that they were unable to successfully compete with the ancestors of modern humans.
References[change | change source]
- The word is pronounced without the 'h', and sometimes spelled 'Neandertal'. how to say: /niːˈændərθɑːl/, also with /neɪ-/, and /-tɑːl/
- Tattersall I, Schwartz JH (1999). "Hominids and hybrids: the place of Neanderthals in human evolution". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 96 (13): 7117–9. PMID 10377375. Available on-line
- Amos, Jonathan 2013. Last-stand Neanderthals queried. BBC News Science/Environment.
- Ker Than 2006. Scientists decode Neanderthal genes
- Stringer, Chris and Gamble, Clive 1993.In search of the Neanderthals: solving the puzzle of human origins. Thames & Hudson, London, p81–83. ISBN 0-500-27807-5
- The human brain is about 2% of body weight, but uses about 20% of body energy.
- Rodriguez-Vidal, Joaquin et al. 2014. A rock engraving made by Neanderthals in Gibraltar. PNAS 111 (37) 13301–13306.
- Nelson D.E. Radiocarbon dating of bone and charcoal from Divje babe I cave, cited by Morley, p. 47
- Morley, Iain 2003. The evolutionary origins and archaeology of music. Darwin College Research Reports, Cambridge University.
- "Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) dating in karst environments [Določanje starosti v krasu s pomočjo elektronske spinske resonance (ESR)]". Acta Carsologica (Ljubljana: SAZU, IZRK ZRC SAZU) 35 (2): 123–153. 2006. ISSN 0583-6050. http://carsologica.zrc-sazu.si/downloads/352/bonnie.pdf.
- Morley, Iain 2006. Mousterian musicianship? The case of the Divje babe I bone. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 25 (4): 317–333.
- D'Errico, Francesco et al 1998. A Middle Palaeolithic origin of music? Using cave-bear bone accumulations to assess the Divje Babe I bone 'flute'. Antiquity. 72 (275): 65–79.
- Neanderthal flute (various contributors; not a refereed journal site).
- Edgar, Blake 1998. Could Neanderthals carry a tune?. California Wild (California Academy of Sciences) 51 (3).
- The flute from Divje Babe, National Museum of Slovenia, 2005
- Holdermann, Claus-Stephan, and Jordi Serangeli 1999. Die 'Neanderthalerflöte' von Divje-Babe: Eine Revolution in der Musikgeschichte? In German. Musica instrumentalis: Zeitschrift für Organologie 2:147–57.
- Chase, Philip G. & Nowell, April 2002. "Ist der Knochen eines Höhlenbären aus Divje Bebe, Slowenien, eine Flöte des Neandertalers?" [Is a cave bear bone from Divje Babe, Slovenia, a Neanderthal flute?]. In Hickmann, Ellen et al (eds) Studies in Music Archaeology III, Part I. The Archaeology of Sound: Origin and Organisation. Papers from the 2nd Symposium of the International Study Group on Music Archaeology at Monastery Michaelstein, 17-23 September 2000. Rahden: Leidorf. pp. 69–81. ISBN 978-3-89646-640-2.
- Hogenboom, Melissa 2013. Neanderthals could speak like modern humans, study suggests. BBC News Science & Environment.
- D'Anastasio R. et al 2013. Micro-biomechanics of the Kebara 2 hyoid and its implications for speech in Neanderthals. PLoS
- Froehle, Andrew W; Chruchill, Steven E (2009). "Energetic competition between Neandertals and anatomically modern humans". PaleoAnthropology pages=96-116. http://www.paleoanthro.org/journal/content/PA20090096.pdf. Retrieved 31.10.11.
- "Neanderthal". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/459.shtml. Retrieved 18 May 2009.
- Tafforeau P, Smith TM (2008). "Nondestructive imaging of hominoid dental microstructure using phase contrast X-ray synchrotron microtomography". Journal of Human Evolution 54 (2): 272–8. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2007.09.018. PMID 18045654.
- Smith T.M. et al. (2007). "Rapid dental development in a Middle Paleolithic Belgian Neanderthal". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (51): 20220–5. doi:10.1073/pnas.0707051104. PMC 2154412. PMID 18077342.
- Smith T.M. et al. (2007). "Earliest evidence of modern human life history in North African early Homo sapiens". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (15): 6128–33. doi:10.1073/pnas.0700747104. PMC 1828706. PMID 17372199.
- T.D. Berger and E. Trinkaus (1995). "Patterns of trauma among Neadertals". Journal of Archaeological Science 22: 841–852. doi:10.1016/0305-4403(95)90013-6. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WH8-4FRCV9P-F&_user=994540&_coverDate=11%2F30%2F1995&_fmt=full&_orig=search&_cdi=6844&view=c&_acct=C000050024&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=994540&md5=a958d2c59d5c6d934e9844f46f275e0e&ref=full. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
Further reading[change | change source]
- Stringer, Chris and Gamble, Clive 1993. In search of the Neanderthals: solving the puzzle of human origins. Thames & Hudson, London. ISBN 0-500-27807-5
- Stringer, Chris and Andrews, Peter 2005. The complete world of human evolution. Thames & Hudson, London.
- Dennis O'Neil 2004. Neandertals retrieved 12/26/2004
Other websites[change | change source]
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Homo neanderthalensis|
|The English Wikibooks has more information on:|
|Wikispecies has information on: Homo neanderthalensis.|
- Archaeology Info
- Greenwych.ca - 'Neanderthal Flute: Oldest Musical Instrument's 4 Notes Matches 4 of Do, Re, Mi Scale - evidence of natural foundation to diatonic scale (oldest known musical instrument), Greenwich Publishing
- Neanderthal DNA - 'Neanderthal DNA' Includes Neanderthal mtDNA sequences
- Neanderthal manifactured pitch
- Homo neanderthalensis reconstruction - Electronic articles published by the Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History.
- Scientists decode Neanderthal genes
- Scientists build 'Frankenstein' Neanderthal skeleton
- A Neanderthal's DNA tale
- How Neanderthal molar teeth grew | <urn:uuid:06783c80-a7a8-4617-91ce-221034d9d466> | {
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All machinery must be lubricated to ensure smooth operation and to maximize equipment life. From manufacturing to farming to wind energy applications, grease guns are one of the most common ways to achieve proper lubrication. Although use of grease guns is widespread, these tools deserve respect and should be used in accordance with the manufacturer’s safety guidelines to avoid injury.
There are four main types of grease guns on the market: manual, battery-operated, air-powered and AC electric. Each type has its own specific set of guidelines, but many general rules are applicable to all, such as training, proper tool use and care, work area safety and personal safety.
Manual grease guns include lever-action and pistol-grip models. These popular tools are widely used and are the most economical type of grease gun. Manual grease guns can achieve pressures up to 10,000 pounds per square inch (psi), while plug-valve sealant guns can reach 15,000 psi.
Battery-operated grease guns are ideal for speeding up routine lubrication tasks. Using this type of grease gun can also help to minimize operator fatigue. These grease guns are rated anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 psi, depending on the model.
Air-powered or pneumatic grease guns use compressed air to apply pressure to an air piston, which drives the grease piston and forces lubricant out of the coupler into a grease fitting. By depressing the gun’s trigger, a steady flow of lubricant is dispensed. Typically, pneumatic grease guns are rated up to 6,000 psi.
AC electric or corded grease guns provide a consistent flow of grease and are often used as an alternative to air-powered tools. AC electric grease guns generally are rated up to 7,000 psi.
Effective lubrication requires specific training, ranging from the actual physical activity of applying the lubricant to the effects of misapplication, including spills and damage to machinery. The operator should be trained on each piece of equipment to be lubricated, as well as each grease gun that will be used to accomplish the task.
“Some general rules of lubrication also should be considered,” said Alemite senior product manager Americo dos Santos. “Do not apply lubricants to a machine in operation unless the fittings are located in a safe place. Never reach over, under, through or past moving parts of the equipment to complete your task. You should maintain proper footing and balance at all times to facilitate better control of the tool in unexpected situations.”
Whether you are using a manual, battery-operated, air-powered or AC electric grease gun, the high pressure developed by the tool should be considered. High pressure can develop in different ways. A common situation when high pressure is created involves what is known as a “frozen fitting.” When a fitting is not lubricated for an extended period of time, the grease in the line may “cake.” Mineral or vegetable oil in the grease gets consumed and leaves a waxy, soap-like base. This soap thickener is what makes grease a semi-solid. Common soaps include calcium stearate, sodium stearate and lithium stearate, as well as mixtures of these components.
High-pressure injection injuries may be caused by accidental injection of grease through the skin and into the underlying tissue. Generally, fingers or hands experience this type of injury, which is most likely to occur when a hose ruptures. Also, some lubrication applications require needle-type accessories that can lead to an injury if used improperly.
“An injection injury may be very small and essentially painless, and the injured person may be tempted to continue working,” explained dos Santos. “However, if you receive any type of injection injury, you should seek medical attention immediately. The lubricant will need to be removed and treatment initiated to prevent infection. If possible, provide the medical technician with the brand of grease or oil involved so that the manufacturer can be contacted regarding the possible toxicity of the lubricant.”
Safety features are available and precautions can be taken to minimize the risk involved in using high-pressure grease guns. The key is to use the right tool for the job. Do not improvise or change the grease gun configuration for any purpose other than that which it was intended.
It is critical that all of the components utilized are rated for the amount of pressure being applied, so you should use only hoses specified by the grease gun manufacturer. For example, if your grease gun is rated at 10,000 psi and your hose is only rated at 1,500 psi, the situation can become hazardous very quickly.
“It also is essential that you inspect the hose between the grease gun and the coupler before each use,” dos Santos stressed. “If there are any signs of wear or damage on the hose, do not use it.”
When a grease cartridge is loaded into the grease gun, the follower rod should be securely latched to the end cap so it doesn’t spring back unexpectedly. Use care when removing the pull-tab on the cartridge to prevent getting cut by the tab’s sharp edges. In addition, always aim the grease coupler away from your body when loading and priming the grease gun. You don’t want to take any chances that grease may get into your eyes.
Battery-operated grease guns have a few safety guidelines of their own. For instance, the power switch should be in the off position before inserting the battery pack. The battery pack should always be disconnected from the grease gun before changing accessories or unscrewing the grease cylinder from the gun. Never attempt to open the battery pack or expose it to water.
When not in use, keep the battery pack away from metal objects such as paper clips, coins, keys, nails, screws or other small items that can make a connection from one terminal to another. Under abusive conditions, liquid may escape from the battery and should be avoided. If contact with this liquid occurs, flush with water. If the liquid contacts your eyes, seek medical attention.
When using a battery charger, use only the charger specified by the manufacturer. Ensure that the cord is situated so it will not be stepped on, tripped over or otherwise subjected to stress. Do not operate the charger with a damaged cord or plug, or if it has received a sharp blow or been dropped. You should also refrain from charging batteries or using any electrical (corded) grease gun in damp areas.
“Other workplace practices involve operating, caring for and servicing your grease gun,” dos Santos noted. “Always read and follow the manufacturer’s instructions before using your grease gun. Avoid kinking hoses, as this can weaken them and make them more susceptible to ruptures. Be sure to label your grease gun so that you can identify the type of grease in that particular gun. Also, you should wipe grease fittings and the grease coupler clean before connecting to prevent contamination.”
Battery-operated, air-powered and AC electric grease guns can build extreme pressures, which may not be evident to the user. Therefore, extra caution should be taken with these tools. Never exceed the maximum input air pressure on pneumatic tools. Most of these grease guns run at a 40-to-1 grease pressure to air ratio, so substantial pressure is created with a relatively low input air pressure.
Keep grease guns clean and avoid placing them on dirty surfaces. All repairs should be performed by a qualified technician who uses only original replacement parts. Finally, when lubrication tasks are performed, grease often gets on your hands, so be sure to wash them to remove any chemical residue.
Regardless of the type of grease gun you choose, it is important to keep your work area clean and well lit. Cluttered and dark areas invite accidents of many kinds. Oil or grease spills on floors, catwalks and ladders can cause serious falls and fire hazards. Wipe up lubricant spills immediately or use absorbent drying pads or granules. Sources of lubricant leaks should be repaired to maintain a safe environment.
“If you are using a power tool, make sure that the area is free of flammable liquids, gases or dust, which may be ignited if the tool creates a spark,” dos Santos added. “In addition, power tools should not be exposed to rain or wet conditions, and care should be taken to prevent cord damage, as this can increase the risk of electric shock.”
Minimize distractions, such as bystanders, while operating your grease gun, as they may divert your attention from the task at hand. Never play around with or use a grease gun for practical jokes.
It is recommended that you wear personal protective equipment including safety glasses, gloves and non-skid shoes or boots to help prevent injury. Refrain from wearing jewelry or loose or torn clothing that could become caught in moving parts.
Stay alert while using a grease gun. You should never operate any tool if you are tired or impaired by alcohol or medication, as a moment of inattention may result in serious personal injury.
By utilizing sound procedures, training and appropriate tool use and care, you can maximize potential bottom-line benefits received from proper grease gun lubrication techniques while maintaining worker safety. | <urn:uuid:67f87c52-8077-40c3-80a3-a5bd195afdc9> | {
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Want to help kids learn more about science and the animal world? Then enroll them in the new Jr. Animal Scientist program. The program gives kids ages 5 to 12 a chance to explore science careers and study the lives of pets, farm animals and zoo animals.
All Jr. Animal Scientists receive a full-year subscription to Jr. Animal Scientist magazine (published six times per year). The magazine contains resources for learning at home or in the classroom. The first issue focuses on the science of milk production.
Jr. Animal Scientists can also access a special section of AnimalSmart.org. This section features extra articles about animal science and graphics that complement articles in the magazine.
Members also receive a Jr. Animal Scientist water bottle and backpack.
Parents and educators can sign up for the program here. Educators can order the Jr. Animal Scientist magazine at a reduced rate. | <urn:uuid:e314bf0f-0cbf-4822-ba23-b998187a88b4> | {
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Cosmically Cool Planet Research! Day One: Prepare for Launch!
Lesson 9 of 19
Objective: SWBAT generate questions about planets that can be answered during research. SWBAT participate in presentations to build schema about planets in our Solar System, and choose a favorite planet to research, other than Earth.
Welcome to a series of ten lessons on planet research! This set of lessons is part of a larger unit my district is implementing all about the topics of space and books with great word choice. My grade level completes a research report or project for each of our six thematic units. This happens to be the fifth research project my students are completing this year.
I loved completing these lessons because none of my students' reports came out the same - even those who researched the same planet! The design of this unit was inquiry-based, so students chose the direction of their report. Some were interested in the history of their planet - how it got its name, who discovered it, etc. Others wanted to know if there were features similar to Earth, or why their planet had so many moons.
I've included the Planet Research Packet in this section of my lesson on each day. I refer to page numbers as I walk you through each day of this series of lessons, however I left page numbers off, in case there were pages you didn't want to use. You may notice that my student samples vary slightly from the packet I've provided for you. I made changes to the packet as I noticed things that could be made better. I hope you and your astronomers find these resources helpful as you research planets! Thank you! (See Resource File: Planet Research Packet)
*Clipart in my lesson picture purchased from ScribbleGarden on Etsy
An enrolling activity refers to "hooking" your students. This research project is inquiry-based, meaning that the students are deciding what they'd like to learn about, and they're not given a set of criteria that they need to research. When students have choice and control over their learning, they are much more motivated to complete work, learn, and grow!
Enrolling Activity: I explain to the students that we'll be beginning our research project for this ELA unit. I tell them that this project is different than our last research unit because it is an inquiry-based project. I explain this further that they will get to choose their favorite planet and decide what they learn about it! The students are excited to begin. I pass out Planet Research Packets to the students. I ask the students to put their names on the front, next to "Astronomer Name". I find adding little details like this get the kids excited about their projects. I have students write the names of the planets on the orbits on the front cover. We open to the first page, and I explain an overview of the project and how they will be assessed. (See Resource File: Planet Research Packet - Cover and Page One; and Cover Sample)
Question Brainstorm: Our first activity is the "Question Brainstorm". I want to activate my students background knowledge and get them thinking about what they want to learn in this inquiry-based approach. I give students the example that they may be wondering what makes a planet a certain color. Others may be more excited to find out if life can exist on other planets, or know the mythology or history about a planet. I remind students that our Language Arts Standards require us to ask questions that begin with capitals and end with a question mark. They also have to express a complete thought. I model by writing a question on the front white board: What makes a planet a certain color? I ask my astronomers to reread through the directions on the "Question Brainstorm" page, and the question stem words. I let them know that they don't have to use every question stem word, but those are there to help them begin their questions. I remind them to write the sounds they hear if they don't know how to spell a particular word. I give them "all the time in the world" (that is a funny saying I use all the time when I put a time limit on something)...about ten minutes to complete their questions. (See Resource File: Planet Research Packet - Page Two)
I did grade the questions my students generated. Please see my student samples. This was one way to assess their abilities of writing complete sentences, capitalization, punctuation, and writing questions that stayed on the topic of general planet research. If you find that you'd like to assess your students differently than me, feel free to not copy the rubric, page two, into your packets. You can always include a grade at the top of the pages you want to assess. (See Resource File: Question Brainstorm Student Samples One, Two, and Three)
Now that my students have activated their background knowledge, and generated some questions I am going to give a short PowerPoint presentation to give them some additional schema about each of the planets.
PowerPoint Presentation: I tell students before we begin, that after the presentation, I'll be asking them to add any additional questions to their "Question Brainstorm" page, and then choose a planet to research. I narrate this short presentation reading through the slides, taking additional student comments or questions about each of the planets. It's my goal to "sell" each planet as a unique planet, hoping everyone does not pick Saturn! (See Resource File: Planet Research Intro PowerPoint File)
Optional Book-Around: If you need an additional way to promote the planets, try completing a "Book-Around". During a Book-Around, you'd pass out different informational texts about each of the planets, giving one to each student. Consider using trade books, magazines, encyclopedias, iPads with digital text, etc. Give the students a short amount of time to browse the text in front of them, then have them rotate them around the room. This would give them a chance to "check-out" information about all of the planets before making their decision. My class didn't complete a Book-Around with this research project, but you can visit my Biography Research Unit Preview Day! (Day 1 of 11) to see a video of my students completing a Book-Around.
Revisit Question Brainstorm: I give students an addition few minutes to add any new questions to their Question Brainstorm page. I remind them that these questions should be able to be answered about any planet.
Choose a Planet!
Choose Planet: The moment has arrived! My astronomers are eager to chose the planet they'd like to research. Up until this point, I've asked my students to keep an "open mind" about considering all of the planets for their choice. This is why they brainstormed questions that could be answered about any planet.
We open our packets to page three, "Planet Choice Sheet". Reading through the page, I explain the text feature I've created for students at the top of the page, with the Sun and planets in order. The students choose their top three planet choices, numbering them one through three. I remind the students that they want to choose a planet that will help them build knowledge. I use the example that if they already know a lot about Saturn, then they'll want to choose a different planet.
Review: I review our day with students, telling them that I'm proud of them for beginning their inquiry-based planet research. We discussed and shared favorite questions from the Question Brainstorm sheet. I tell them how exciting it will be to have so many different reports - about the same planets - because it will be include information that they are curious about.
Tomorrow's Mission: I let students know that they will receive their planet name tomorrow, and we'll begin researching. I ask them to think about the differences and similarities of researching with digital text and print text, which will be the topic of our lesson for tomorrow. Giving students time to reflect on questions prior to lessons and activities will allow more time for reflection, and lead to more great ideas! I collect the students' packets to assess their Question Brainstorm page, as well as assign them a planet.
Here are some additional resources you may find helpful if you're working on a space-themed unit.
Do We Wish Upon a Shooting Star, or Falling Rock?: This document is an informational passage that includes multiple choice questions. My students need practice with these types of questions, including those with multiple answers, questions with Part A and Part B, and fill in the blank. I teach in Illinois, and our students will be taking the PARCC Assessment beginning next year. I hope these types of tasks will help prepare my students for these tests, as well as our end-of-unit assessments, and overall mastery of the standards. The focus of this assignment are standards RI3.1, RI3.4, and RI3.7. (See Resource File: Shooting Star, or Falling Rock MC Practice) | <urn:uuid:30d9b42e-f213-41c4-88fd-29439e1dc43c> | {
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An anonymous reader writes "Following up on earlier work in the field, researchers at MIT are developing a process to print solar cells directly onto many common forms of paper. 'The technique represents a major departure from the systems used until now to create most solar cells, which require exposing the substrates to potentially damaging conditions, either in the form of liquids or high temperatures. The new printing process uses vapors, not liquids, and temperatures less than 120 degrees Celsius. These "gentle" conditions make it possible to use ordinary untreated paper, cloth or plastic as the substrate on which the solar cells can be printed. ... The resilient solar cells still function even when folded up into a paper airplane.'" | <urn:uuid:429f4690-c992-4ab0-a8de-be07b42083a0> | {
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- Development & Aid
- Economy & Trade
- Human Rights
- Global Governance
- Civil Society
Monday, August 20, 2018
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 23 2014 (IPS) - People living in cities already outnumber those in rural areas and the trend does not appear to be reversing, according to UN-Habitat, the Nairobi-based agency for human settlements, which has warned that planning is crucial to achieve sustainable urban growth.
“In the hierarchy of the ideas, first comes the urban design and then all other things,” Joan Clos, executive director of UN-Habitat, told IPS while he was in New York for a preparatory meeting of Habitat III, the world conference on sustainable urban development that will take place in 2016.
“Urbanisation, plotting, building – in this order,” he said, explaining that in many cities the order is reversed and it is difficult to solve the problems afterwards.
According to the U.N. Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), urban population grew from 746 million in 1950 to 3.9 billion in 2014 and is expected to surpass six billion by 2045. Today there are 28 mega-cities worldwide and by 2030 at least 10 million people will live in 41 mega-cities.
A U.N. report shows that urban settlements are facing unprecedented demographic, environmental, economic, social and spatial challenges, and spontaneous urbanisation often results in slums.
Although the proportion of the urban population living in slums has decreased over the years, and one of the Millennium Development Goals achieved its aim of improving the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers, the absolute number has continued to grow, due in part to the fast pace of urbanisation.
The same report estimates that the number of urban residents living in slum conditions was 863 million in 2012, compared to 760 million in 2000.
“In the past urbanisation was a slow-cooking dish rather than a fast food thing,” Clos said.
“We have seen it in multiple cases that spontaneous urbanisation doesn’t take care for the public space and its relationship with the buildable plots, which is the essence of the art of building cities,” he added.
The former mayor of Barcelona for two mandates, Clos thinks that a vision is needed to build cities. And when he says building cities, he does not mean building buildings, but building healthy, sustainable communities.
Relinda Sosa is the president of National Confederation of Women Organised for Life and Integrated Development in Peru, an association with 120,000 grassroots members who work on issues directly affecting their own communities to make them more inclusive, safe and resilient. They run a number of public kitchens to ensure food security, map the city to identify issues that may create problems, and work on disaster prevention.
“Due to the configuration of the society, women are the ones who spend most time with the families and in the community, therefore they know it better than men who often only sleep in the area and then go to work far away,” Sosa told IPS.
“Despite their position, though, and due to the macho culture that exists in Latin America, women are often invisible,” she added. “This is why we are working to ensure they are involved in the planning process, because of the data and knowledge they have.”
The link between the public and elected leaders is crucial, and Sosa’s organisation tries to bring them together through the participation of grassroots women.
Carmen Griffiths, a leader of GROOTS Jamaica, an organisation that is part of the same network as Sosa’s, told IPS, “When access to basic services is lacking, women are the ones who have to face these situations first.
“We look at settlements patterns in the cities, we talk about densification in the city, people living in the periphery, in informal settlements, in housing that is not regular, have no water, no sanitation in some cases, without proper electricity. We talk about what causes violence to women in the city,” Griffiths added.
As the chief of UN-Habitat told IPS, it is crucial to protect public space, possibly at a ratio of 50 percent to the buildable plots, as well as public ownership of building plans. The local government has to ensure that services exist in the public space, something that does not happen in a slum situation, where there is no regulation or investment by the public.
Griffiths meets every month with the women in her organisation: they share their issues and needs and ensure they are raised with local authorities.
“Sometimes it happens that you find good politicians, some other times they just want a vote and don’t interface with the people at all,” she added.
Griffiths also sits on the advisory board of UN-Habitat, to voice the needs of her people at the global level and then bring the knowledge back to the communities, she explained.
These battles are bringing some results, especially in the urban environment. Sosa said that women are slowly achieving wider participation, while in rural areas the mindset is still very conservative.
About the relationship between urban and rural areas, Maruxa Cardama, executive project coordinator at Communitas, Coalition for Sustainable Cities & Regions, told IPS that an inclusive plan is needed.
Cities are dependent on the natural resources that rural areas provide, including agriculture, so urban planning should not stop where high rise buildings end, she explained, adding that this would also ensure rural areas are provided with the necessary services and are not isolated.
Although they will not be finalised until 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) currently include a standalone goal dedicated to making “cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.”
Edited by Kitty Stapp
This story includes downloadable print-quality images -- Copyright IPS, to be used exclusively with this story.
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Would you consider a $20.00 contribution today that will help to keep the IPS news wire active? Your contribution will make a huge difference. | <urn:uuid:a230311e-7444-4006-b189-88c659ae9718> | {
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The travel agency on Meineke Street: South America, Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Chile
“To South America (West Coast), Columbia-Equador-Bolivia-Peru-Chile”
If advertisements in newspapers reflect the main needs of society, then the Berlin Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt (Jewish Community Paper) from January 1938 can serve as a perfect example of such needs in times of crisis. By January 1938, when the majority of German Jews were preparing for emigration or actively looking for ways to leave the country, advertisements for travel agencies and shipping companies dominated the commercial space of the newspaper. The main destinations of German-Jewish emigrants were Palestine as well as North- and South America.
Vol. 28, no. 2: 7 | <urn:uuid:cf295677-acb4-4b68-b80a-04e5444430b1> | {
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Excerpted, translated and edited from Enciklopedija Jugoslavije, 2nd ed., Zagreb, 1982, by Gordon McDaniel.
© copyright 1997 by Gordon mcDaniel, all rights reserved
The Bunjevci (in German Bunjewatzen) are ethnic Croats in the area of Zrmanje, around Velebit, in Lic (all in Croatia) and in northern Backa on both sides of the Yugoslav-Hungarian border. According to linguistic characteristics, the Bunjevci lived originally along the Dinaric range and in the northern part of Svilaja. After the Turkish conquests of the 15 century, they moved into the area of Zrmanje, Zelengrad, Benkovac, Zemunik and Polesnik. It is believed that the name comes from "bunja", a type of round house.
The name is first mentioned in 1622 as a village name in Backa.
At the beginning of the 17th century the Bunjevci revolted against the Turkish governor of the Sandzak of Lika, but the uprising was put down. They began to emigrate at that time. In 1605 they went both to Lic near Fuzin and to the Danube valley, where earlier movements of Bunjevci were known from the beginning of the 16th century. After the Turks were removed from Lika and southern Hungary in the 1680s, the Bunjevci moved into those areas in greater numbers. The chief centers of the Bunjevci were Subotica and Sombor. Under the colonization policy of the Austrian court, Hungarians and Germans in particular were settled in Backa, and the Bunjevci underwent Magyarization. While they were somewhat similar in language to the Serbs of Backa, they were Catholic and thus separated from the Orthodox Serbs. | <urn:uuid:e865bbba-c588-4dbc-acf7-801719698052> | {
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Jacob Branson was one of the early settlers of Douglas County and a leader of the free-soilers. His home was at Hickory Point, about ten miles south of Lawrence on the old Santa Fe road. Many of the early settlers in that region were Hoosiers, some of whom temporarily returned to the East. Their claims were at once jumped by Missourians and other pro-slavery men, and the quarrels over these land contestants were especially fierce. Franklin Coleman, a pro-slavery man, and Charles W. Dow, who lived with Branson and was a free-state man, quarreled over their claims and on November 21, 1855, Coleman shot and murdered Dow on the road. The assassin gave himself up to Samuel J. Jones, the sheriff of Douglas County, and a friend of the pro-slavery party, but after Dow’s funeral, the settlers of Hickory Point, under the leadership of Branson, organized a committee to see that justice was done. A warrant for his arrest was sworn out by one of Coleman’s friends, and Sheriff Jones, with his posse, attempted to serve it on Branson. But the sheriff and his force withdrew when he found the extent and quality of the opposition. Branson offered to leave Lawrence to prevent the enemy from sacking the town, but that misfortune was not to be until the following year. | <urn:uuid:e9de29e0-39e9-4ac8-895f-758fd4039fea> | {
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More and more of us are choosing the organic way to live – a chemical-free approach to life that respects the planet and us.
Growing food in our own backyards means we can produce fruit and vegies the chemical-free way and save money, too. You’ll have an abundance of seasonal crops, a supply of fresh eggs, and you’ll be able to make pickles and jams for the family or to give away to friends.
On the one hand, organic gardening includes the practical side of growing fruit and vegetables. But on the other hand, it relishes the ethical side of gardening, where people are concerned with global warming, the water crisis, wildlife habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity. The organic garden solves these concerns with practical measures, such as water tanks, utilising grey water, drip irrigation, mulching, recycling of kitchen scraps and providing a suitable habitat for wildlife.
So, if you want to make a difference and you don’t know where to start, why not begin in your own backyard?
Growing food – the organic way
There are numerous delicious fruits and vegetables you can grow at home in the garden, in containers, or in no-dig plots. There are seedlings that are grown in the winter and ones that are grown in the summer. The seedlings available at nurseries will give you the best indication of what to plant at what time of the year, but don’t be afraid to ask for advice. The key to growing healthy plants is sunlight, and plenty of it! Choose a section of your garden that gets six hours of sun a day. The area will also need to be protected from strong winds and frost. To improve the fertility of your soil, you’ll need to add plenty of natural nutrients, which can be found in organic manures. Also, with regards to watering, bear in mind that if you have lots of trees surrounding your vegetable patch, they’ll be competing for the water.
To reduce the risk of soil-borne pests and diseases, it is important to plant similar plants in the one garden bed, then rotate these beds each year.
A rotation system with four garden beds could include the following:
Bed 1: corn, pumpkins, cucumbers.
Bed 2: peas, beans.
Bed 3: onions, beetroot, carrots.
Bed 4: tomatoes, eggplants, capsicums.
The fruit trees that are best to plant depends on your location, so ask your local nursery which ones would be most suitable for your area. Orange, lemon and lime trees will grow almost anywhere, kiwifruit, apple, cherry and peach trees thrive in cooler weather, while fruit varieties, such as mango, avocado and pawpaw prefer warmer, tropical climates. If you have limited space, you can make the most of it by planting multi-grafted, dwarf and espalier fruit trees.
Deterring pests with plants and animals
Instead of spraying with chemicals to rid your garden of pests, you’ll find the organic alternatives a lot more appealing. Interplant your vegetables with an array of flowers and herbs and you’ll have stronger vegetables with more resistance to pests and diseases. Basil, borage, chives, echinacea, garlic, pyrethrum daisy and nasturtium are all effective in deterring pests. Also, if you’re not spraying chemicals around the garden, it’s more likely that your local lizards will enjoy keeping the snail population down and the resident frogs will gladly cull the insects. In my garden, the lizards keep the tadpoles under control and we have reached a lovely sustainable balance when it comes to wildlife, pets and plants.
Beneficial insects will help to create a balanced garden. Ladybirds, lacewings and hoverflies will help keep down the population of aphids, scale insects, red spider mites and caterpillars, while the bees, by pollinating the flowers, will increase your fruit yield. Plants to attract insects include marigold, dill, sweet Alice, coriander, echinacea, cosmos and Queen Anne’s lace.
Chooks are great in the organic garden. They’re well behaved, quiet and resourceful. They love to eat bugs and beetles, and will cull grubs, snails and slugs. All they need is fresh water, supplementary grain and a dry place to sleep. An extended run in the fruit orchard means they’ll keep the fruit flies under control and fertilise the soil as well. I recommend ISA Brown hens, which have sweet personalities and usually produce one egg per day each.
Kitchen scraps, grass clippings, shredded paper, leaves and twigs should all go into a compost. This helps to slow landfill and recycles vital resources back into the garden. Whether you choose to build a three-bin system or buy a purpose-built compost bin, it is good to get everyone in the household recycling their scraps and being aware of green waste. Composting works by decomposing layers of material with heat and time. After three months, you should have friable compost that you can work back into the soil, negating the need for store-bought fertilisers.
Drip irrigation cuts down on evaporation and is the most efficient way to irrigate the garden. Grey water recycled from your washing machine, shower and handbasins can be stored and sent out to the garden via underground pipes. Grey-water systems should be installed by enviroplumbers, who specialise in environmentally sensitive methods.
Installing a tank is one of the easiest ways to water the garden guilt-free. Harvesting the water that falls on the roof and directing it into a tank means you can water at any time. Install the largest tank you can fit and add a pump so you can water up slopes. Other ways to save water include laying porous pathways, laying paving to direct water into beds not stormwater pipes, and covering beds with a thick layer of mulch.
Location: White’s Creek Community Garden | <urn:uuid:a35a3a4c-af5b-41ae-9b5c-782df5ea1e28> | {
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The uncertainty and danger of the Underground Railroad were re-enacted Feb. 21 by second-grade pupils and teachers at Rollins Elementary School.
With the lights off, the school's hallways became the railroad, and classrooms became safe houses. Teachers wearing straw hats, shawls and bandannas became conductors. They directed pupils, who were runaway slaves from the plantation, to the school's media center, where they found freedom.
"Don't trust everyone you see. Be very, very careful," said the first conductor the students met.
Carrying sticks with bandannas tied on the end, the pupils went through the school gathering provisions: cups, which represented water; spoons, which represented food; Popsicle sticks, which represented shelter; and cloth squares, which represented new clothes.
The pupils had to avoid safe houses where slave catchers were waiting to take their provisions in return for allowing them to continue toward freedom.
"We have to be very quiet or else we're going to get caught," volunteer Susan Baker told a group of pupils she accompanied along the journey.
"Is this a safe house? Are there slave catchers in there?" one of the pupils asked as they approached a classroom.
The group sighed with relief as a teacher opened her door and gave each of them water.
They weren't as lucky with the next house, where they encountered one of several slave catchers.
The pupils participated in the re-enactment after learning about the Underground Railroad in class, said Mollie Silver, an organizer of the activity.
"The teachers read several books to them, they watched videos about the Underground Railroad and (went) through virtual Underground Railroads on the computer," she said. "We did this so that they were really involved in the learning process themselves rather than just watching something on TV or on the computer."
When many of the pupils reached freedom, they talked about how much fun they had, but they also understood the seriousness of the activity, Ms. Silver said.
"At one point, one of the boys said to me, 'You know, this was a lot of fun, but I know that this wasn't fun back then,' " she said. "That's one of the points we wanted to get across. While it was fun to participate in the activity, we wanted them to learn how dangerous it was for runaway slaves trying to reach freedom."
Another goal of the activity was to teach pupils about teamwork and respect for others, she said.
"If someone needs help, give them a helping hand. It doesn't take anything away from you; it adds to you," she said. "Like the safe houses, for example. Many of them helped the runaway slaves gain freedom by giving them food, water or shelter. A helping hand can go a long way."
This was the second year the school has held the Underground Railroad re-enactment.
Reach Nikasha Dicks at (706) 823-3336 or [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:a2b1347b-8b88-4467-b034-549f2917bc02> | {
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July 10, 2009
Researchers to simulate massive quake
The largest earthquake simulation ever performed on a wood building could yield data on how to protect homes and apartments, U.S. and Japanese engineers said.
Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., are to participate in the July 14 simulation, to be shown live from Miki, Japan, in a webcast at www.nsf.gov/neeswood, the school said in a release.The researchers have put a seven-story wood building on the world's largest shake table, used to test the resistance of structures to shaking, and plan to expose it to the force of an earthquake so strong it might occur just once every 2,500 years, Rensselaer Professor Michael Symans said.
Results from sensing equipment and cameras should yield data that will allow researchers to develop computer models of mid-rise wood buildings, Symans said.
Right now, wood can't compete with steel and concrete as building materials for mid-rise buildings, partly because we don't have a good understanding of how taller wood-framed structures will perform in a strong earthquake, he said. | <urn:uuid:09967d1f-6519-4aea-ba07-12b532bb8efc> | {
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Street sweeping offers aesthetic, environmental benefits
Now that the snow has melted, there's a good chance you've seen this vehicle out sweeping city streets. On average, the City of Shakopee sweeps approximately 3,000 miles of street curb each year. It's a big job but important for protecting our waterways from pollutants.
Why do we sweep streets?
Street sweeping primarily occurs between spring and fall when the curb lines are exposed, construction projects are active and storm water runoff is frequent. We will even sweep streets during the winter if there is minimal snow accumulation and the street curbs do not have snow in them.
Street sweeping cleans trash, debris, sediment, salt and other pollutants that collect on streets and can build up to create hazards or wash into wetlands, lakes and streams. Street sweeping is also used to keep construction sites clean and to prepare streets for and clean up after street maintenance projects. Street sweeping is important for aesthetics, street maintenance, vehicle and pedestrian safety, water quality and environmental concerns, as well as to comply with requirements of the city’s Surface Water Management Plan and permit with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
How can you help?
Grass clippings and leaves hold nutrients that pollute storm water runoff that enters our wetlands, lakes and streams. Mow your yard so grass clippings do not end up in the street and remember to clean up grass clippings that end up on your driveway or street by blowing them back into your yard. In the fall, rake the leaves in your yard, so they don’t end up in the street and ultimately our wetlands, lakes and streams.
Did you know? Public Works crews spend an average of 850 hours each year sweeping streets. Our street sweepers travel approximately 3 miles per hour, and most streets require four passes to sweep the complete street. | <urn:uuid:9ec9c056-92a6-4773-8381-8da0750c27d7> | {
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