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A unique style of court painting, combining Persian, Indian and European elements, developed in India under the Mughal emperors in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Originally an art of book illustration, it soon gave rise to highly naturalistic portraiture and scenes of court life, among other subjects. These elegant and expressive works reflect the splendour of the Mughal empire, as well as the enthusiasm of the emperors from Akbar (1556-1605) onwards for stories of adventure and romance, for the recording of great imperial assemblies, or the meticulous depiction of the flora and fauna of India. Among the highlights of the book are the illustrations to Akbar's magnificent Baharistan manuscript of 1595, and the court scenes from the reigns of Shah Jahan (1627-58) or the pleasure-loving Muhammad Shah (1719-48).
This book reproduces many of the finest Mughal and Deccani paintings preserved in the Bodleian Library's rich and historic collection, largely formed between 1640 and 1900. These pictures range in date from around 1560 to 1800, when British influence was becoming dominant in India.
Each image is presented as a full page colour plate with facing text describing its subject and significance, while the introduction situates the works within the general context of the period and its art. A number of textual revisions have been made since the book first appeared in 2008.
- 184 pages, 210 x 154 mm
- 80 colour illustrations
- ISBN: 9781851240876
- Publication January 2008 | <urn:uuid:0e264782-c7f6-4694-a5de-036cab8e4a33> | {
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a charity supporting parents & carers of challenging children
HELPP Help Education and Learning for Parents by Parents accepts no liability for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided in this web-
Please also see these pages
Tips for parents -
Stopping behaviour you don’t want and encouraging behaviour you do want.
Stopping behaviour you don’t want
Children need to understand the rules so don’t make them up as you go along. Try to plan your house rules so that. Children know what they are.
Make rules and commands clear
Rules and commands need to be clear and precise, short and simple. Telling a child to ‘be good’ does not tell the child what is or isn’t expected of them.
Involve your children
When deciding on the house rules let your children have some input into what they think is an acceptable consequence for their unacceptable behaviour.
Only give punishments that you can carry through and don’t threaten unrealistic punishments (you’re grounded for life). Only give rewards that you can afford and make them small and immediate.
If you don’t stick to the rules, your children will learn that if they ignore them, you will probably give in.
Children need lots of praise to show them what behaviours you like. Don’t ignore your children when they are quiet and playing nicely, praise them. If you child does something nice say ‘thank you for…’
If you want your child to do something, try ‘when you have had your bath, then I will read you a story’.
Rewards need to be simple, practical and fast
Don’t expect perfection. If your child has started something, you have the choice of whether to criticise them for not finishing or praising them for starting.
Pick your battles
Does it matter if your child’s bedroom is a mess, you can always shut the door
Spend time together
Try to spend at least ten minutes a day playing with your child. Discipline isn’t enough; you need to have some good times together. | <urn:uuid:6207de53-c96d-403f-976b-520766b45641> | {
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My twelve-page research paper for English 102. The longest thing I've written to date. It turned out alright, I think, if you can make yourself care about the source material. I could easily write an entire paper just on the Pinkertons, but I'll save that idea for another assignment.
Triumph and Failure: the Dichotomy of Labor in the East and West, 1870-1920
The mechanization of industry in the United States was a necessary step in the country's history. It allowed for us to achieve the economic dominance that has served our country so well, while also allowing us to avoid the overt belligerence that eventually proved to be the downfall of the British Empire. However, it was not without its costs: it exacerbated the already-inflamed labor disputes that had been brewing since the turn of the 19th century. It wasn't until the 1870s, however, that the labor disputes became routinely violent, as “the workers rose to protest violently against what they considered to be their ruthless exploitation by employers” (Dulles 108). For the next fifty years, the country was swept up in a class struggle that affected every worker from coast to coast, from factory worker to logger to coal miner and everyone in between. The 1920s were an era of relative calm, as a series of victories by the employers of the country had demoralized and weakened the unions, and the first great wave of American consumerism temporarily obfuscated the plight of the common laborer (Dulles 232-3). While the labor disputes from 1870 to 1920 in both the East and the West contributed to the eventual adoption of fair labor policies, the disputes in the West were fundamentally less successful than those in the East, due to more government intervention and stronger negative public opinion.
The economic depression of the 1870s touched off the first national labor disputes: “The depression of the 1870s ushered in one of the most confused periods in American labor history” (Dulles 108). It was during this period that employers first started to actively combat the efforts of the labor unions. Up until this point, employers had been mostly reactive, crushing or starving strikes as they arose and doing their best to block legislation mandating ten- or eight-hour workdays (as opposed to twelve-hour or longer workdays, which were the norm at the time). However, the founding and early rise of the first major nationwide labor union, the Knights of Labor, in 1869, convinced many businessmen that they needed to take a more proactive approach against the efforts of the workingmen (Dulles 122). This, combined with the recent legislation in many states that allowed railroads to employ their own police, and with the newly-famous Pinkerton National Detective agency ready to go to work for them, resulted in many violent strikes, uprisings, and riots (Churchill 11). The 1880s were more economically stable, but the Knights of Labor were at the height of their influence during this period and “...the future of American labor in the mid- 1880s appeared to lie with the Knights of Labor” (Dulles 120).
The 1880s were just as turbulent, if not more so, than the previous decade. Membership in the Knights waned toward the end of the 1880s, but this did not dull the fervor of the labor movement going into the new decade, as “labor disputes reached a peak involving even more workers...than the strikes in 1886” (Dulles 162). The depression of the 1890s served as an impetus to the movement; this same depression fell particularly hard on Washington State and would have serious and fatal ramifications in Everett 1916, and again in Centralia in 1919. The most important labor events of the 1890s, though, were the two “great strikes” of the era: first in Homestead, Pennsylvania, and the Pullman strike, the latter of which covered a large network of railroads primarily in the West (Dulles 157).
The turn of the century marked America's first real foray into Progressivism, with many Progressives achieving real political power, especially in the West. These were men and women with the goal of “...building a better society” (Anderson 250). This era lasted until 1917, with some entrenched progressive politicians staying in office through the Great Depression (Dulles 175). Western Progressives were mostly in favor of labor reform, but when strikes occurred, “middle- and upper-class Progressives refused to support them” (Anderson 264). Significant steps toward labor reform were made during the Progressive era, but public opinion in the West was slanted against the largest unions at the time, the American Federation of Labor and the Industrial Workers of the World (colloquially called the Wobblies for reasons that are to this day unclear), and as a result, state government complicity in (or outright support of) violence against striking workers and union members became the norm. While the federal government for the most part recognized the importance of cooperating with the unions during World War I, a series of incredibly violent strikes and labor fights still rocked the nation between 1914 and 1919. The American press sensationalized these events and distorted them beyond recognition, blaming the Wobblies, foreigners, Communists and Socialists for instigating the fights, even when clear eyewitness accounts showed that the local governments or citizens were the aggressors (McClelland 88). Finally, in 1920, American business launched a concerted effort to break up the unions with an open shop movement; union membership declined and because Warren G. Harding's Presidential victory convinced most Progressives to abandon their efforts, the labor movement no longer had any friends in government (Anderson 282). The unions were forced onto the defensive, and spent the 1920s holding onto the advances they had achieved during the Progressive era. The movement had not ended, but for the first time in fifty years, it met welcome, if grudging, peace.
The Eye That Never Weeps
The late 1800s were a difficult time for law enforcement in the US; railroads made it easy for criminals to run from one state to the next, and, outside of the odd US Marshall, there were no federal police officers, as the FBI wouldn't be established until 1908. This was true across the country, but particularly so in the West, as it was only relatively recently that it had been settled. The railroad companies had had enough of their trains being robbed, and because the federal government both was the only body with the authority to enforce law over all of the land covered and had proven themselves inept at doing so, the railroads encouraged states to enact laws that would allow the railroads to hire their own police. These railroad police were given their power and authority by state governments, just as civil police, but were employed and directed by the railroads. Railroad police were mostly hired from private detective agencies; there were many of these agencies, but the true powerhouse of the market was the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. The Pinkerton symbol of an unblinking eye and their motto “We Never Sleep” would be ubiquitous in America for many years to come. As the lawlessness in the West became less of an issue, and the railroad management “[sloughed] off of dependence on Pinkerton detectives”, Pinkertons were hired more and more to combat the strikers and unions (Morn 94). A Pinkerton detective, for instance, was single-handedly responsible for destroying the Molly Maguires, an Irish radical labor group (Morn 94). The Pinkertons were, from the 1870s to the 1920s, essentially a private army directed by the railroads and any other business that could afford them.
Because they operated nationally, the Pinkertons are uniquely positioned to offer insight into the difference between Eastern and Western labor movements. The Homestead strike in Pennsylvania, for example, was particularly violent; while it was not completely successful, it was noteworthy in that it was one of few cases where the Pinkertons engaged the strikers and lost. Homestead, Pennsylvania was the site of a Carnegie Steel plant, and in 1892 the local manager tried to cut the wages of its skilled workers. They chose to strike, and in response, Carnegie Steel sent in three hundred Pinkerton detectives to act as guards for the strikebreakers they planned to bring in. This was perceived as a direct challenge by the strikers, who waited by the river for the Pinkerton barge to arrive. When it did, the strikers fired upon the Pinkertons, who attempted to return fire but, realizing the hopelessness of the situation, they eventually surrendered with the agreement that they would be given safe passage out of town. However, “When the Pinkertons came ashore, they were again attacked and had to run the gauntlet of an infuriated mob of men and women armed with stones and clubs before they were safely entrained for Pittsburgh” (Dulles 159). It is no coincidence that this event was the first of its kind to be investigated by Congress – despite the eventual breaking of the strike, it could not be ignored that a mob of citizens had felt so strongly in favor of the union that they had attacked a group of armed mercenaries (Morn 102).
Conversely, the miner strike in Northern Idaho in 1892 was a complete failure on the part of the unions, ending in their dissolution and resulting in an irrelevance that would last for years to come. This region of Idaho, the Couer d'Alene river valley, was the site of many gold and silver mines, worked by about two thousand skilled and unskilled miners (Lukas 101). Years of small wages at long hours had encouraged the miners in this area to organize unions in 1887, and the thirteen mine owners themselves formed the Mine Owners Protective Association of the Couer d'Alenes (MOA) in 1891. That year, the MOA asked the Pinkertons to send them an agent to infiltrate the union (the separate unions had agreed to organize and essentially operate as one earlier that year). The Pinkertons sent Charles Siringo, a man who had proven himself as a cowboy detective in Colorado (Lukas 102). With no support, he infiltrated the miner's union in early 1891 and reported on them until he was discovered by a former acquaintance in July of 1892; later, his testimony would be integral in the conviction of thirteen union leaders for contempt of court and conspiracy (though a federal court would later overturn all of these charges). Siringo's discovery, though, triggered an uprising among the unions, who lashed back at the owners and used dynamite to set off explosions at several of the mines. Idaho's Governor, Norman B. Willey, declared martial law and ordered the Idaho National Guard into the county, and asked President Harrison for federal troops. These two forces then proceeded to escort non-union workers into the area and to arrest anyone suspected of being in the union, most of whom were released after months without being formally charged. These men were allowed to return to work if they swore off the union completely. This would not be the only time that both local and federal governments, along with the Pinkertons, would directly oppose the miners and their unions in this area.
In 1899, tensions between unions and mine owners in the Couer d'Alenes were again rising as the threat of a strike combined with a Democratic governor in office (and Populist politicians in most local positions) convinced most mine owners to raise wages. The only holdout was the Bunker Hill mine, which refused to raise wages in addition to illegally refusing to hire any unionized miners. Then “the WFM and/or Pinkerton provocateurs responded by dynamiting and burning Bunker Hill & Sullivan property” (Churchill 26). This prompted the new governor, Frank Steunenberg, to again send in the National Guard and ask for federal troops, repeating the series of events played out in 1892. The Guard once again arrested all suspected union members, incarcerated them illegally, and forced them to renounce their ties to the unions in order to return to work. It was a bitter denouement for the workers, whose faith in the Democrat Governor Steunenberg had been proven to be unfounded. The Pinkertons would continue to work with railroads and mine owners against the labor movement even after the formation of the FBI in 1908, until the Wagner Act of 1935 necessitated a change in their business focus. As for the unions themselves, “the repression of the strike broke the WFM in the [Couer d'Alenes], and unionism remained insignificant in the area for years” (Goldstein 71).
Blood in the Forest, Blood in the Sand
The Industrial Workers of the World, (or “Wobblies”, as they came to be called for no evident reason) never had a membership that was, taken by itself, large enough to suggest social significance; their membership at the peak of their influence was only one hundred thousand, compared to the Knights of Labor membership of over seven hundred thousand (Renshaw 1-2). However, their importance is more readily represented by their vocal radicalism; they were a populist, progressive union at a time when that was an incredibly dangerous position. They represented a direct and obvious challenge to the status quo, and the public response differed by region. Extreme violence against labor groups in the West was not limited to the Wobblies, however – the unions attacked in the Ludlow massacre of 1914 were strictly local organizations. No region, though, was as hostile as Washington State.
Washington was the site of two major attacks against the Wobblies; the so-called Everett Massacre of 1916 and the Centralia attacks in 1919. Historically, the two cities could not have been more different; Everett was founded by businessmen as a prospective West coast Boston equivalent and became a dismal failure, barely surviving the depression of the 1890's, whereas Centralia was more or less created by one man, who had the foresight to claim exactly the sort of area that people would want to settle in (McClelland 3). However, the press atmosphere in Washington as a whole was largely anti-labor during the first part of the twentieth century, with many newspapers accusing the Wobblies and other unions of communism and of getting their living without work (McClelland 2). The unstable economy and press bias catalyzed the public resentment toward any perceived threat to their hard-earned way of life and ultimately led to the violence in Everett and Centralia.
Everett in particular teetered on the edge of disincorporation throughout the depression of the 1890's. The cause was simple: a group of men, John D. Rockefeller among them, had decided to build a new city, then pulled out when their Eastern interests became troubled. The town was reduced to such poverty during this period that some citizens were forced to eat garbage thrown from restaurants (Clark 36). The vast majority of Everett citizens worked very hard simply to survive; they fished, they cut firewood, and grew whatever vegetables they could in the sandy, acidic soil of the area. Their salvation, as it were, came in the same form that brought their hardest times: a new group of investors. A new mill, new infrastructure and new money brought Everett from the brink of ruin. To these people, the success of capitalism erased its failure only a decade before. Their dependence on the businessmen of the area belied their dalliances with Progressive and Socialist politicians during the early 1910's. So, when the Wobblies became active in the area in 1916, the first response from the city government was to throw any and all of them in jail. Donald McRae, the Sheriff at the time, had an arrest-first-ask-questions-later approach to any Wobblies he found; his typical action was to arrest them, hold them overnight, and ship them out of the county in the morning. Tensions rose from July 16 when a Wobbly speaker was jailed and then deported for simply speaking on a street corner; the Summer and Autumn months were heavy with police brutality and speech suppression on the part of McRae, the odd labor riot, and a strike on the part of the shingle-weaver's union. The finale to all of this unrest took place on November 5th, 1916. Two boats full of roughly 250 Wobblies (and two confirmed Pinkerton detectives) departed Seattle for Everett; the first to arrive, the Verona, was confronted by McRae and several hundred of his deputies. After some words with the foremost men on the deck, shots were fired (there is still some debate over who shot first; it is certain that at least one of the casualties on the Sheriff's side was from friendly fire). There were two casualties on the side of the deputies, five on the Wobblies, and over fifty wounded. Now, such an event would no doubt be a shock; then, after twenty years of seesawing between prosperity and poverty, the massacre was swiftly forgotten, and similar events played out in Centralia three years later (Clark 232-3).
Centralia was celebrating Armistice Day in 1919 with a Legionnaire parade when tragedy struck. Much like the events in Everett leading up to that city's own massacre, Centralia was, as the newspapers of the time might have put it, plagued with Wobblies, and their gadfly-esque demands for basic constitutional rights prompted a group of Centralia Legionnaires to raid the Wobbly hall as they marched in the parade. Unlike the Everett Massacre, witness reports are quite clear and unconflicting in regard to who fired first: it was undoubtedly the Wobblies. Because raids on Wobbly buildings had been commonplace in the state in the years up until 1919 (raids in which the aggressors “took everything that could be lifted and burned or smashed it”, according to McClelland), the Wobblies in Centralia had taken to setting armed guards in their building, so when they saw armed Legionnaires marching to their building who had publicly discussed a raid on the Wobblies only days before, they acted in defense of their property (66). Legionnaires attempted to break into the Wobbly hall and several were killed as soon as the shooting started; the rest flooded into the hall and began to overpower the men inside. One Wobbly, Wesley Everest, ran out of the back of the building, but ultimately failed to escape while killing at least three men. All of the Wobblies, Everest included, were rounded up and arrested. During the night, Everest was pulled out of the city jail by an angry mob, then beaten, castrated, and lynched. The coroner's report listed the cause of death as “suicide”. No effort was made on the part of local law enforcement to identify and prosecute those who took part in the lynching. Newspapers were unflinchingly on the side of the Legionnaires and the lynchers, with one paper in particular remarking that the lynchers displayed “commendable reserve” in not murdering more of “the assassins” (qtd. in McClelland 86). What is truly telling about the public's venom against the Wobblies is that not only did it take place after the massacre in Everett, it also took place after the massacre in Ludlow, Colorado, an event which achieved national notoriety, and convinced even John D. Rockefeller, Jr. that something had to be done to address the “labor question” (Gitelman 16).
Rockefeller owned Colorado Fuel & Iron, which operated, appropriately enough, in Colorado. Rising disputes between the operators and the miners were based on these complaints, listed succinctly by Zinn:
...that they were robbed of from 400-800 pounds on each ton of coal, that they were paid in scrip worth ninety cents on the dollar...that the eight-hour law was not observed, that the law allowing miners to elect checkweighmen of their own choice was completely ignored, that their wages could only be spent in company stores and saloons, that they were forced to vote according to the wishes of the mine superintendent, that they were beaten and discharged for voicing complaints, that the armed mine guards conducted a reign of terror which kept the miners in subjection to the company...casualty rates were twice as high in Colorado as in other mining states. (Zinn 188)
The mine operators ignored any requests for mediation. Perhaps inevitably, the miners struck, and a series of brutal attacks by mine guards and, later, National Guardsmen culminated in an attack on the Ludlow tent colony where the miners were living with their families. For roughly twelve hours, the Guardsmen (who at this point were mine guards drawing mine salaries but wearing Guard uniforms) fired a hail of bullets into the tent colony, then set it on fire. At least nineteen people were killed, most of whom were unarmed women and children. The press reaction was national but neutral; the New York Times held the strike leaders just as responsible for the deaths as the men who ordered the attack on the tent colony: “Strike organizers cannot escape full measure of blame for the labor war” (qtd. in Zinn 200). It is perhaps not altogether unsurprising, then, that in a social climate where the murder of over a dozen women and children is blamed equally upon their attackers and defenders, the same conditions in an idealistically similar setting would reap the same results.
The Relevance of the Worker's Plight
The results of all of this conflict were indeed far-reaching. Rockefeller Jr. himself recognized the importance of proper labor relations after the Ludlow debacle. Public opinion in the East had been slowly creeping toward the side of worker's rights since the dawn of the progressive era; however, it was in the West that unions found the most resistance to their efforts. It was during this time period that the West was acutely susceptible to economic depression; Eastern investors would cancel their Western ventures at the first sign of depression in the East. Risk was simply unacceptable to them when the economy dipped. This business skittishness, combined with the structures that were used for the repression itself and the public's dependence on capitalists made for an environment that was intrinsically hostile to the efforts of the labor unions. It is truly unfortunate that a region so abundant with natural resources was also built in such a way that the people who extracted those resources were also the most oppressed in the region. Geoff Mann says that “The particularity of work and workers in the U.S. West is not merely a product of geography and history; western geography and history are themselves a reflection of these workers, their work, and the way they politicized the wage relations that constituted it” (167). It is of utmost importance to understand and acknowledge this – the very history of the West was forged through these conflicts, and the truth of the matter is that they were caused by some of the things that America holds most dear: nationwide business, autonomous state governments, and capitalism. | <urn:uuid:b246ce05-06d8-4f12-ba24-47674ebf8849> | {
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A recent study published in Neurobiology of Respiration
finds that hyponatremia is common among children hospitalized with pneumonia and that the condition is associated with increased disease severity. Researchers from Poland conducted a retrospective analysis of more than 300 children aged 33 days to 16 years who had been hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia. Children with hyponatremia tended to have higher neutrophil counts, higher C-reactive protein, higher body temperature, and longer hospital stays than children with healthy serum sodium levels. However, hyponatremia was not associated with breath frequency, heart rate, capillary blood saturation, time for defeverscence, or time of antibiotic treatment.
To read the full article on this study at HCPLive.com, click here | <urn:uuid:f1a0871c-544d-4f95-b24a-f1073f08badf> | {
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The New American Plate
How it Works: Proportion and Portion Size
How does the New American Plate work? It's simple. Look at your plate. Think about the proportion of food on it and about the portion sizes you've been eating.
Aim for meals made up of 2/3 (or more) vegetables, fruits whole grains or beans and 1/3 (or less) animal protein. AICR brochures and other materials guide you through a transition from a traditional plate to new and exciting patterns for eating.
Gradually transition from the old American plate...
to a better plate...
to the New American Plate
Portion sizes in America have gradually grown too large. USDA's standard serving sizes help you assess the portions you eat. The online Serving Size Finder can help you identify standard servings. Then ask yourself how many standard servings go into the portion you regularly eat?
If you are overweight, consider gradually reducing that number. Controlling portion size at home and in restaurants makes a long-lasting difference in controlling your weight. | <urn:uuid:be57c03a-75e7-419b-9bd9-0116acf32a6a> | {
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Building support for the latest US war, Hollywood seems bound by a code to produce at least a movie a year glorifying World War II by portraying the Allied countries as bastions of human liberation. By telling the true story of Alan Turing, The Imitation Game has broken the code.
Turing was a British mathematician who worked at Bletchley Park, a secret centre for cryptographers who were trying to break the German Enigma code—allowing the Allies to read Nazi military communications. By designing a machine that could rapidly process information, Turing broke the code—which ended the war an estimated two years sooner, saving millions of lives—and through the process laid the foundation for modern computers.
How was Turing rewarded? The British state drove him to suicide, and wrote him out of history, for being gay. He was persecuted in 1952 with the same law that destroyed Oscar Wilde, avoided prison only by agreeing to be chemically castrated, and ate a cyanide-laced apple in 1954 (urban legend claims Apple’s original logo of a rainbow apple is an homage to Turing).
The Imitation Game intertwines Turing’s early life as a schoolboy, his work breaking the code, and his post-war persecution. Benedict Cumberbatch could win a well-earned Oscar for his portrayal of Turing, and took the role in order to restore Turing’s place in history. As he explained, “The feeling you have for the man after getting to know him through the duration of the film is really exacerbated by the frustration and anger, not just at the injustice served him, but also at the fact that, why don’t I know this story? It seems unbelievable that someone who is a war hero, someone who is the father of the modern computer age—and a gay icon—could remain in such relative obscurity to the scale of his achievements in his brief time on this planet. One of the main reasons I was really attracted to playing him was to try and bring his story to as wide an audience as possible.”
Bringing Turing to the big screen is a process that has taken decades. In 1983 Andrew Hodges wrote his biography, Alan Turing: the Enigma, which was adapted for the stage—and portrayed by the brilliant Derek Jacobi in the 1996 BBC film Breaking the Code (available on Youtube). In 2011 the new screenplay was voted the top of the Hollywood Black List—representing the best unproduced films in Hollywood—and was finally released this year.
Bringing Turing’s life to film has been part of a campaign to challenge his persecution. In 2009 the British government issued a posthumous apology but in 2012 refused to pardon him—and the other 49,000 gay men criminalized under the former law. Justice Minister, Lord McNally, claimed, “A posthumous pardon was not considered appropriate as Alan Turing was properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offense.” The Queen issued a royal pardon to Turing last year, but as Cumberbatch said, “It’s an insult for anybody of authority or standing to sign off on him with their approval and say, ‘Oh, he’s forgiven.’ The only person who should be (doing the) forgiving is Turing, and he can’t because we killed him. And it makes me really angry. It makes me very angry.”
The film also has a strong performance from Keira Knightly as Joan Clarke, who worked at Bletchley and was briefly engaged to Turing. (The BBC mini-series The Bletchley Circle is another recent attempt to recount the role of women cryptographers, including the sexism after WWII that drove them back into the home.) The Imitation Game has been criticized for over playing their relationship and not showing Turing’s relationships with men (unlike the 1996 film). The film also reinforces the myth of the solitary genius, ignoring the role of Polish code-breakers in providing their initial work on Enigma to the British.
WWII: the good war?
As Cumberbatch said, “To think that a society and a democracy—that Turing could save from fascism in the second World War—rewarded him with that (punishment) is the most sickening irony of all.” But this irony pervades the history of WWII. Films that glorify WWII use the horrors of Nazism to obscure an understanding of how fascism arose, whitewash the history of the Allied countries, and pave the way for more Western intervention.
Fascism did not emerge from the deranged mind of Hitler but from the economic crisis of capitalism (which has reappeared and giving rise to new fascist parties across Europe), and the defeat of the workers’ movement in challenging it. Before WWII it was clear what the Allies thought of Hitler: Ford and General Motors collaborated with the Nazis, Hitler was Time Magazine’s “man of the year,” and Germany was rewarded with the Olympics. When Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King met Hitler in 1937 he described him as “one who truly loves his fellow man.” While many on the left supported the fight against fascism in Spain in the 1930s, the future Allied powers had a policy of non-intervention—while those who went to fight fascism in Spain were labeled “premature anti-fascists.”
WWII has been called a “war for freedom and democracy,” but at the time the US was running it apartheid Jim Crow system, Canada has its concentration camps—the residential schools—and both countries interned families of Japanese descent, and turned away boats of Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust. Canada had the same homophobic laws as Britain, criminalized abortion and had eugenics programs in BC and Alberta based on forcible sterilization. Meanwhile Britain and France were repressing their colonies while sending their soldiers to die. (France belatedly acknowledged the role of Algerian soldiers, documented in the movie Days of Glory). The Allies refused to bomb the train tracks to Auschwitz, and carried out their own atrocities—from the firebombing of Dresden to the atomic bombing of Japan.
After the war the US recruited Nazi scientists like Werner von Braun, while Britain supported fascists in Greece. The WWII mythology around Churchill erases the rest of his career, including sending troops against British miners in 1910, using chemical weapons against Iraqis in 1920, and after WWII supporting fascists in Greece. As a recent article in The Guardian pointed out, Churchill “switched allegiances to back the supporters of Hitler against his own erstwhile allies.”
The Imitation Game leaves the impression that the persecution of Alan Turing was an isolated abnormality in an otherwise noble war effort—instead of a symptom of imperial rivals bombing each other while repressing their own citizens. But by breaking the official code of WWII, The Imitation Game encourages us to learn more, and to challenge the bigotry on which war depends. | <urn:uuid:cbce653e-1721-4b68-8c11-3c0d392d9477> | {
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Republican attacks on the judiciary bring to mind what unquestionably was the fiercest attack on the independence of the federal judiciary in American history — the infamous “court-packing scheme” of Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
While there certainly had been instances of government regulation and welfare prior to FDR’s presidency, the long-established American tradition had been based on free enterprise (that is, free from government regulation), wealth accumulation (especially prior to the enactment of the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913), and private charity (as compared to government welfare).
Breaking with that long tradition, Franklin Roosevelt ushered in one of the most revolutionary economic transformations in history. Under his New Deal, the primary purposes of the federal government became to regulate business enterprise and tax and redistribute wealth in the form of government welfare.
Consider, for example, his 1933 National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), which directed the heads of all major industries in the country to jointly establish codes that would set minimum prices and wages for their respective industries. All businesses within each industry were then prohibited by law from competing with lower prices and wages.
There was the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), which authorized the federal government to control the production of crops on farms all across the nation. Any farmer who refused to follow the new federal regulations was subject to federal criminal prosecution.
Later came the Social Security Act, an idea that had originated among German socialists during the regime of Otto von Bismarck, the “Iron Chancellor” of Germany. Social Security was a government welfare scheme by which money was taxed from the young and productive and distributed to the elderly.
While Roosevelt sold his New Deal as a way to “save America’s free enterprise system,” the truth was that his regulatory, taxing, and welfare schemes were directly contrary to the principles of free enterprise and private charity. Not surprisingly, many Americans, who had been raised to believe that government had no more business helping people with their economic problems than it did with their religious problems, were shocked over the new paternalistic way of life proposed by Roosevelt.
FDR’s revolutionary New Deal plan encountered two big problems: The Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court. When cases challenging the NIRA and the AAA reached the Supreme Court, it held both laws in violation of the Constitution. During Roosevelt’s first term, the Court ruled that other parts of his radical economic scheme were unconstitutional as well.
Elected by a landslide in 1936, Roosevelt did not intend to let those “nine old men” on the Supreme Court interfere with his transformation of American life. After all, he reasoned, the economic security of the nation was at stake and he wasn’t about to let the Constitution or the Court interfere with his revolutionary plan.
The obvious course would have been to seek a constitutional amendment, which would have legally authorized the transformation from a private property, free-market system to a regulated, welfare-state system. Roosevelt would have none of that, not only because that was a time-consuming process, but because successfully convincing the American people to permanently change their economic system might well have proved difficult.
Instead, he came up with a shortcut plan designed to circumvent the constitutional-amendment process and the Supreme Court decisions against his New Deal. Sold as a way to help an overburdened nine-member Supreme Court, FDR’s plan requested Congress to permit the president to appoint an additional Supreme Court justice for every justice over 70 years of age, thereby expanding the size of the Court. By enabling him to appoint new justices who were committed to his economic philosophy, Roosevelt figured that the newly aligned Court would start voting in his favor.
Despite his enormous popularity, the American people, to their everlasting credit, rose up in arms against Roosevelt’s “court-packing scheme” and, as a result, the Congress failed to enact it. Americans didn’t like their president tampering with their constitutional order.
Nevertheless, Roosevelt ended up getting what he wanted. After Justice Owen J. Roberts’ controversial vote in favor of sustaining the constitutionality of a state minimum-wage law in the 1937 case of West Coast Hotel v. Parrish, followed by Roosevelt’s appointments to replace retiring justices, never again did the Supreme Court declare his economic schemes unconstitutional. | <urn:uuid:d803f17e-256e-4289-a2a2-441c65ba7482> | {
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A total of 2,701 breaches have been reported to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) since 2009, with 138 breaches reported during the third quarter of 2019. Over 230,588,249 patient records have been affected by breaches since 2009 according to the same data. This is a staggering number. For perspective, if these were unique patient records, it would represent approximately 70% of the United States population. A breakdown of all reported breaches, including the reason for the breach can be seen below in Figure 1.
While theft represents a higher number of incidents, hacking is the reason for 77% of all patient record breaches reported to HHS. The data makes is very clear that Protected Health Information (PHI) is highly sought after by cyber-criminals. PHI can be monetized on the Dark Web for an average of $4 - $7 for each record. The value is greater than that of credit cards, for example, because the personal information contained in PHI does not expire, and thus can be used again and again for wrongdoing.
In my role as a Security Officer, I tell concerned executives that it is a matter of when, not if their organization will be negatively affected by cyber-events. All hope is not lost, however. There are important steps organizations can take to ensure they are prepared to respond when needed.
Conducting a risk analysis is a vital part of a robust cybersecurity program. This includes a thorough evaluation identifying all threats, controls, vulnerabilities, probability and impact. By conducting a risk analysis, organizations are better positioned to mitigate threats and prioritize their cybersecurity activities.
Ransomware is often reported as a type of Unauthorized Access, and is one of the most ubiquitous attacks. While there are countless ways organizations can design a layered approach to protecting against hacking and ransomware, ensuring their backups are air gapped is an absolute must. This will ensure that if ransomware is successful at infiltrating their environment, their backups will remain unencrypted and thus available. | <urn:uuid:730d8194-4a27-4d18-8652-d921cd0072b3> | {
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Water is the source of life — but when not properly managed, it can breed disease, create conflict and destroy communities. Around the world, one in nine people does not have access to the clean water they need — that's nearly 800 million people.
Mercy Corps works to increase access to safe water around the world, whether it's bringing relief during droughts or rebuilding wells in remote villages. Our large-scale water infrastructure projects in Jordan and the Democratic Republic of Congo are forging new delivery routes, reducing waste, and bringing clean water directly to 1.25 million people — and counting — who are affected by conflict in those areas.
To complement our water access programs, we also improve sanitation and help people learn proper hygiene to prevent disease; work with families and farmers to implement conservation techniques; and strengthen communities against flooding.
All stories about Water
Become a fan of ITT Watermark and bring clean water to families
In honor of World Water Day, ITT is raising funds for its nonprofit partners through a Facebook campaign. From March 22–March 26, ITT will donate $1 to safe water solutions for every new fan of the ITT Watermark Facebook fan page.
Liberia: Dish racks lead to healthier children
Of the 12 children that 50-year-old Annie Dolo gave birth to, seven are living. The other five died of malaria and measles.
Spring of hope: EPES provides emergency water to earthquake survivors
In Chile, hard work and messages of hope
Hector Reyes —a staff member for Educacion Popular en Salud (EPES), Mercy Corps' local partner here in Chile — and I returned from the earthquake-shattered city of Concepción late last night.
Indonesia: Let the children enjoy the world
It is almost midnight here in Ambon, Indonesia. I’m about going to sleep but I realized that I haven’t visited the Mercy Corps Blog today. Since morning I was too busy at the office completing some work and didn't have any chance to do my everyday ritual — reading the blog.
Haiti: Getting water to survivors
Indonesia: The hands that rock the cradle
I often wonder how a single city could be so extremely diverse, both economically and socially, as my hometown, Jakarta.
Indonesia: Can you spare a square?
I didn’t expect my first blog post from the field to be about sanitation. I thought maybe microfinance or agriculture programs or mobile commerce. Something unique, innovative, life changing. But sanitation? Toilets? Hand washing? What could be less cutting edge?
Somalia: Water flows again for a Somaliland community
Indonesia: Opening the Taps
If water is life, then Tanah Merah was dying. | <urn:uuid:5c4ec5c2-7fb4-4a96-942c-8efbc8c135d6> | {
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This fascinating book documents Upton Sinclair's famous test that he devised in an attempt to authenticate his second wife's supposed psychic abilities, who, at the time, was suffering from depression and had a keen interest in the occult. The test consisted of her attempts to accurately duplicate two hundred and ninety different pictures that her brother drew in a separate room. According to Sinclair, she was able to accurately duplicate sixty-five of them; one hundred and fifty-five he considered 'partial successes, and seventy were failures. This text comprises the results of these tests, complete with original drawings, the attempts at duplication, and a wealth of notes and comments. The original German edition of this book was prefaced by Albert Einstein, who was a friend of Sinclair, and admired the book. We are republishing this antiquarian text now in an affordable, modern edition complete with a new prefatory biography of the author.
Number Of Pages: 252
Published: 15th March 2007
Dimensions (cm): 21.59 x 13.97 x 2.46
Weight (kg): 0.55 | <urn:uuid:10f1f700-ff88-45c8-b196-5d7607acd8c2> | {
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- B. americanus home
- Breeding in pictures
- Life cycle from embryo to adult in Gosner stages
- From tadpole to toadlet in pictures
- B. americanus predators
- More pictures and videos of American toad
cellular organisms -
Fungi/Metazoa group -
DistributionAmerican toads occur in most of the eastern half of the United States and southern Canada. They are generally not present in the most southern states or, if they are, only in the northern part. Populations of B. americanus and B. fowleri often overlap and interspecies hybridization was documented.
Physical descriptionThe skin color of adult American toads is normally brown to gray with several darker spots on the back, typically with 1-2 warts per spot (as compared to 3-5 warts per spot in Fowler's toads). The bellies are a white or yellow. In American toads, the paratoid glands do not touch the cranial crest (located directly behind the eyes). Adult toads photos (new window). Tadpoles are round, almost black with somewhat long snout; large specimens may have coppery iridophores. Tadpoles photos (new window).
HabitatAdult toads are terrestrial. They can occupy a variety of habitats ranging from forests to backyards. They are common in gardens and agricultural fields. During daylight hours they seek cover beneath porches, under boardwalks, logs, wood piles, or in dense vegetation. At dusk and at night, they come out for hunting. Often they can be found on roads near source of light that attracts insects. In cold season, these toads hibernate in burrows. Unlike some other amphibians they are not freeze-tolerant and finding site where temperatures won't fall below freezing point is crucial for their survival.
Food habitsAmerican toads eat a wide variety of invertebrates, including snails, beetles, slugs, and earthworms. Tadpoles are herbivorous, detritovorous, necrophagous, and cannibalistic.
Antipredator strategiesAdult toads are protected from vertebrate predators by the presence of noxious and toxic skin secretions produced and stored in glandular glands of the skin. This toxin is secondarily deposited in the ova, and protects embryos until hatching from leeches (Batrachobdella spp.), salamander larvae (Ambystoma gracile), and fish. However, on later stages of development on stages 31-41, tadpoles loose this initial protection and become palatable to the aquatic predators frequently falling prey to fish and predaceous invertebrates such as larvae of diving beetle Dytiscus verticalis and nymphs of the giant water bug Lethocerus americanus. Metamorphosing tadpoles are clumsy, their ability to escape by swimming away is greatly impaired. To reduce losses from predation at these stages toads use two strategies: firstly, they become repulsive to predators due to developing noxious glands; and, secondly, late stages of metamorphosis progress very rapidly and are completed withing 2-3 days. Newly metamorphosed and adult toads exhibit cryptic behavior. They respond to predators by crouching and immobility (even when prodded they initially resist temptation to move away). They usually become immobile immediately after contact with predator or upon being seized. This often results in a non-capture or a subsequent release without injury. Immobility reduces the intensity of predator's attack and may prevent killing of the toad by the predator who normally would not eat the repulsive toad. Also, toads seek substrates on which they are less conspicuous and can change their skin color (darken or lighten) depending on the shade of the substrate. Photos of toad captured by a garter snake (new window).
American toad diary (Maryland)
|2010||April 4||En masse, May 26-29|
|2011||April 15||En masse, June 12-15|
- Gosner KL. 1960. A simplified table for staging anuran embryos and larvae with notes on identification. Herpetologica 16:183-190.
- Gatz AJ. 1975. Non-random mating by size in American toads, Bufo americanus. Herpetologica 31:222-233.
- Beiswenger RE. Non-random mating by size in American toads, Bufo americanus. Anim. Behav., 1981, 29, 1004-1012.
- Heinen JT. 1994. Antipredator behavior of newly metamorphosed American Toads (Bufo a. americanus), and mechanisms of hunting by eastern garter snakes (Thamnophis s. sirtalis). Herpetologica. Vol. 50, No. 2 (Jun.,1994), pp. 137-145.
- Heinen JT. 1994. Significance of color change in newly metamorphosed American toads (Bufo a. americanus). J. of Herpetology, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Mar.,1994), pp. 87-93.
- Sontag C et al. Social foraging in Bufo americanus tadpoles. Anim. Behav., 2006, 72, 1451-1456.
- Formanowicz DR, Jr. and Brodie ED, Jr. Relative palpatabilities of members of larval amphibian community. Copeia, Vol. 1982, No. 1 (Feb. 23,1982), pp. 91-97.
- Howard RD & Young JR. Individual variation in male vocal traits and female mating preferences in Bufo americanus. Anim. Behav., 1998, 55, 1165-1179.
- Brodie ED, Jr et al. The development of noxiousness of Bufo americanus tadpoles to aquatic insect predators. Herpetologica. Vol. 34, No. 3 (Sep.,1978), pp. 302-306.
- Nityananda V, Bee MA. Finding your mate at a cocktail party: frequency separation promotes auditory stream segregation of concurrent voices in multi-species frog choruses. PLoS One. 2011;6(6):e21191.
- Harper EB, Semlitsch RD. Density dependence in the terrestrial life history stage of two anurans. Oecologia. 2007 Oct;153(4):879-89.
Websites and other references
- Grossman, S. 2002. "Bufo americanus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 25, 2010 at Animal Diversity Web (ADW).
- Amphibians of Maryland (Twoson University, Biological Sciences)
- Tadpoles of the United States and Canada: A Tutorial and Key
- An Online Guide for the Identification of Amphibians in North America north of Mexico
T-shirts, mugs, office supplies, posters and even jewelry with this design and it's variations at GeoChemBio shop.
Back to top | <urn:uuid:5e307e5a-e5e4-4e67-ad31-190f20894f1a> | {
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CSO Anti Slavery Cocoa Report 2004
Oct 05 2010
Download right click "save as"
When extensive child and slave labour was found on the cocoa farms of Côte d'Ivoire in late 2000, many British consumers were shocked. Chocolate companies, cocoa suppliers, and retailers searched for a way to address this serious problem. The way forward was unclear. The immediate reaction of some consumers was a decision to stop eating chocolate altogether or to call for a boycott of exports from Côte d'Ivoire. Yet it quickly became clear that a boycott might have disastrous results for both cocoa workers and Côte d'Ivoire as a whole. What was needed was more in-depth information of the conditions and extent of enslaved labour, of how cocoa from West Africa reaches the consumer, of what would be appropriate and reasoned responses to the problem. More information about human trafficking on the website of Anti-Slavery. | <urn:uuid:77f5fad6-5e0e-43b3-a532-ec57af912a17> | {
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Condensation forms when warm, moist air touches a surface that is colder than the dew point of the warm air. As that air becomes colder and its temperature drops below its dew point, it must release excess moisture to reach its new, lower dew point. It releases moisture in the form of water, which appears on the colder surface.
A common example of moisture condensation is when a glass of ice water “sweats” when you bring it outside in the summer. When the warm, moist air touches the cold glass, the temperature of the air drops below its dew point, forcing the air to release moisture in the form of water on the sides of the glass. There are many things in our homes that put moisture into the air. Normal breathing and perspiration add 3 pints of water to the air every day for each person in your home. In fact, every activity that uses water adds more moisture to the air including cooking, taking showers, dishwashing, and doing laundry. | <urn:uuid:f6aeff8f-373b-4e8c-896c-0f2b61b45bab> | {
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8 Definitions of Indexes
The definition of indexes, the meaning of the word Indexes:
Is indexes a scrabble word? Yes!
- n. - A numerical scale used to compare variables with one another or with some reference number
- n. - A number or ratio (a value on a scale of measurement) derived from a series of observed facts; can reveal relative changes as a function of time
- n. - A mathematical notation indicating the number of times a quantity is multiplied by itself
- n. - An alphabetical listing of names and topics along with page numbers where they are discussed
- n. - The finger next to the thumb
- v. - List in an index
- v. - Provide with an index
- v. - Adjust through indexation
Indexes is worth 15 points in Scrabble, and 16 points in Words with Friends
There are 7 letters in indexes: D E E I N S X
Words that can be created with an extra letter added to indexes:
75 words found using the letters in "Indexes"
6 Letter Words
5 Letter Words
4 Letter Words
3 Letter Words
2 Letter Words
Sign up for our Free Scrabble Words newsletter. We won't send you spam or share your email address with anyone. We Promise. | <urn:uuid:d0d96c32-2bd6-4352-ba04-1b5e76b8a10c> | {
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Disparities in health outcomes, health determinants, access, and quality of health care are ongoing policy priorities in the United States. Studies have shown disparities across multiple domains for a wide range of chronic conditions, including cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, diabetes, cancers, psychiatric disorders, and musculoskeletal conditions. Behavioral risk factors, such as tobacco smoking, physical inactivity, and poor diet, are likely to play a big role in health disparities. However, health disparities are also reflected in differing levels of access to health care and the quality of medical care.
To track disparities in chronic diseases and the effectiveness of health policies in reducing them, national data alone are not sufficient. More clinically detailed and localized information is required to understand how differences in risk factors, quality of care, access to interventions, and other factors impact health at the US-county level.
The primary aim of the Monitoring Disparities in Chronic Conditions (MDCC) Study is to design and test a population-based surveillance system that integrates multiple data sources to track disparities in chronic diseases at the local level. This system will capture the complete spectrum of relevant information, from socioeconomic and health risk factors to disease incidence and the consequent cascade of hospitalizations, outpatient visits, and use of and adherence to interventions.
This project represents what we hope will be a pilot for a much larger, nationally relevant system. It is important to pilot this in a relatively data-rich environment with a heterogeneous population. King County, Washington, is our pilot location, and the project focuses on three racial and ethnic groups for which there are demonstrated disparities in health outcomes nationally: white non-Hispanics, Hispanics, and black non-Hispanics. The study is intended to resolve a series of outstanding technical measurement issues, develop operational protocols, and produce results relevant to health policy formulation.
1. Design data systems
The MDCC Study team is designing a novel, cost-effective, multisource data collection system for producing high-quality data in the four domains. In order to track race/ethnicity disparities in chronic diseases and the effectiveness of health policy in reducing these disparities, national data alone are not sufficient. In this project, our data system integrates data from emergency medical services (EMS), hospital discharge databases, outpatient care databases, Medicare databases, selective chart review and extraction, and pharmacy records.
2. Develop surveys
To supplement database and record information, the MDCC Study team has developed surveys that can be administered in one of four formats: a computer-adapted telephone interview (CATI) survey; a computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI); a Web-based survey; and a paper-based survey. These various modalities allow study participants to choose the method that works best for them and enhances the completeness and quality of the survey data. The MDCC surveys ask questions about health and well-being, demographic information (i.e., race/ethnicity, employment, income), functional health, risk factors (i.e., physical activity, weight, tobacco/alcohol use, diet), self-reported symptoms, prior diagnosis of specific chronic conditions (i.e., diabetes, asthma), and health service utilization.
3. Review medical records and conduct physical examinations
Data from hospitalization, outpatient care, and pre-hospital events are critical for tracking disparities. We will undertake a retrospective chart review of inpatient hospital records, outpatient records, pharmacy records, and pre-hospital (EMS) events records for consenting participants reporting one or more of the conditions of interest. We are primarily interested in admission and discharge dates, administration of interventions and medications, diagnostic/laboratory tests, frequency of visits, preventive care (i.e., screening), provider and payer type, and any other care specific to the chronic conditions of interest.
All of these variables will be tracked and used to determine how individuals with chronic conditions are treated within King County’s health care network. Physical examinations will be conducted by a registered nurse at King County clinics on a subsample of 750 study participants. This component is critical for validating survey responses, identifying undiagnosed conditions, measuring intervention effectiveness, and tracking other biological outcomes.
4. Link data sources
The value of each component of the surveillance data (surveys, service provider data, and physical examination data) will be enhanced through record linkage. Record linkage across these data systems will allow us to trace sequences of events for individuals, from socioeconomic contexts and risk factors to interactions with the health system and health outcomes.
Cost-effective local data collection that provides an integrated approach to the different types of needed data has not been tested. In this two-year project, we will take advantage of the commitment of King County’s public health department, the long history of innovative health research in King County, and the presence of considerable racial and ethnic diversity to demonstrate the feasibility of an integrated, linked data system.
5. Pilot test and disseminate information
Each of the components of the MDCC Study will be pilot tested in King County, and recommendations will be made for using this novel surveillance system in other counties throughout the United States. The pilot test provides an opportunity to achieve the following objectives:
- Streamline operational details (i.e., working with local health authorities and community leaders to ensure high response rates).
- Refine instruments (i.e., insure comparability across cultures and languages).
- Establish protocols for linkage and demonstrate operational feasibility.
- Enable researchers to better understand health issues among multicultural populations with varying geography and income.
- Expand the project to other race/ethnic groups and counties throughout the United States.
The methods and strategies used in King County should be applicable in diverse communities across the United States. An integrated multisource data system that is cost-effective and could be implemented across the country would provide a powerful tool to track disparities and the effect of policies on programs.
It would provide a much more precise understanding as to why there is such enormous variation within race/ethnicity groups across geographic communities. Improved information that addresses these challenges is essential to policymakers interested in targeting effective interventions.
For more information, please contact: [email protected]
This project is supported by award number RC2HL101759 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which is part of the US National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute or the National Institutes of Health. | <urn:uuid:d98ef680-94db-4819-84d6-30127ecf825a> | {
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When Peter Pan sewed his shadow onto the soles of his feet, he was amazed that the shadow followed him everywhere he went.
And now, 23 years after Agricultural Research Service (ARS) biochemist Bill Doane and coworkers first attached a synthetic polymer to starch molecules, they and others in science and industry are still amazed at the impact this piece of basic research technology has had on U.S. rural development and the broadest range of consumers.
Doane's discovery—called Super Slurper—is capable of absorbing hundreds of times its own weight in water. Based on a grafting technique pioneered by ARS chemist Charles Russell in Peoria, Illinois, Super Slurper "married starch and synthetic polymers," as Doane explains it. Super Slurper has found commercial life over the years in products as varied as seed coatings, wound dressings, automobile fuel filters, and plastic mesh barriers used at construction sites.
Joining Doane on the Super Slurper development team were ARS researchers Mary Ollidene Weaver, Edward B. Bagley, and George F. Fanta. Super Slurper netted the team the Inventor of the Year Award from the Association for the Advancement of Invention and Innovation in 1976, the year they also shared USDA's Distinguished Service Award.
Doane led plant polymer research at ARS' National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (NCAUR) at Peoria for a decade, beginning in 1984.
He retired from the agency in January of 1995 and, in November, was inducted into ARS' Science Hall of Fame—the research agency's highest honor for contributions to agricultural research. Doane is now employed by Bradley University in Peoria, working under an agreement with the Biotechnology Research and Development Corporation, which is funding the continuation of one of Doane's research projects started at NCAUR.
During his years with ARS, Doane led research that has yielded the technology behind a host of products. These include thickening agents, absorbents, starch-encapsulated pesticides, starch xanthate for recovering heavy metals from waste water, and natural components for making degradable plastics.
"More than products, Doane's transfer of starch modification technology to commercial use has created and continues to create new markets for millions of pounds of cornstarch," says Richard L. Dunkle, director of ARS' Midwest Area. "A few projects are still ahead of their time, such as degradable plastics, but current research is chipping away at some of the barriers that have slowed down their commercialization."
For much of his career, Doane worked on products and processes that had the potential to be commercialized. Some of them made it, and others didn't.
The one that made it big, Super Slurper, created wider markets for corn farmers and jobs in industry. [See "Super Slurper—Two Decades and Still Growing," Agricultural Research, January 1994, pp. 16-17.]
Born in 1973, its scientific name—saponified starch-graft polyacrylonitrile copolymers—was too cumbersome to catch on with anyone outside the scientific community. The name "Super Slurper" was coined by Dean Mayberry of ARS' Information Office. The name change, coupled with publicity, stimulated thousands of inquiries, and a multimillion-pound market for the polymer was projected. In 1975, the polymer and its inventors received the IR 100 Award from Industrial Research Magazine.
ARS granted about 40 nonexclusive licenses to make, use, or sell the absorptive polymer. As soon as these licenses were granted, Doane and other scientists at NCAUR began working actively with the licensees, providing information on the polymer's properties and how to process it.
"The products and processes created by Doane and other Peoria scientists caught the interest of the private sector," says Peter B. Johnsen, NCAUR director. "Even more than the licenses that were granted to companies using our patented technology were the many other patents developed by the companies to extend the technology. Still, the inspiration and basic science for technologies used in absorbent products such as disposable diapers came from this ARS research."
A Change in Legal Climate
Other factors have evolved historically to help increase the chance ARS scientists like Doane can have a role in getting laboratory research into the marketplace—a step that is vital to ensuring a steady flow of new uses for farm products.
The legal factors influencing technology transfer 25 years ago were entirely different from those existing today. Although ARS has always encouraged scientists to file patents and companies to license them, the agency was then limited to granting only nonexclusive licenses to businesses.
So, before 1980, both government and industry leaders traveled a rocky road from research to product development. Federal researchers were obligated to offer their technology to everyone who asked for it.
"We were unable to grant exclusive licenses for our patented inventions," says Johnsen. "That meant that no company could have the exclusive right to market—and protection while recovering the cost of developing—new-use technologies resulting from government-funded research. As a result, companies that competed with one another had no incentive to make significant financial investments to commercialize ARS technologies."
Even with the disincentive of nonexclusive licensing, Bill Doane firmly believed in product development. He always listened carefully as visitors from agribusiness discussed research and product development. He challenged his research team to come up with creative ideas to solve their problems.
The potential for commercialization of agricultural research began to blossom in 1980, when the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act—an amendment to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Laws—gave federal laboratories the authority to grant exclusive patent licenses to private industry.
"ARS quickly exploited this authority, and our technology transfer activity increased," says Johnsen. The Technology Transfer Act of 1986 encouraged the agency to enter into cooperative research and development agreements (CRADA's) that supported ARS-industry partnership. A CRADA provides a framework for collaboration between ARS and a partner and gives the cooperating company the first chance at exclusive licenses to use technology that emerges from the joint effort.
"This legislation formally changed our approach, as the private sector became much more interested in our ability to cooperate," says Johnsen.
Testimonials From Satisfied Customers
In spite of the nonexclusive licenses that were granted on the Super Slurper technology, a few companies were formed solely to produce the polymer. One of these was Super Absorbent Co. of Lumberton, North Carolina.
Super Absorbent founder Ed Kirkland read about Super Slurper in a 1975 issue of Agricultural Research magazine and contacted Doane. In 1978, Kirkland began marketing Ag Sorbent, a polymer mixture that keeps tree roots moist until trees are replanted. His clients include the growers of North Carolina's 30,000 acres of Christmas trees.
Super Absorbent's latest endeavor is a turkey feed containing microbes suspended in a polymer mix. The polymer provides moisture to sustain the microbes, which in turn will potentially help turkeys fend off disease.
"Not all the microbial blends we make use the polymer originated by ARS, but I never would have gotten into the microbe work without the information provided by Doane, Roger Eisenhauer, and George Fanta" at the Peoria facility, Kirkland says. He reports that gross sales of several of his company's products now exceed $500,000 annually.
Don L. Fisk, president of Uni-Star, Inc., also praises Doane and other scientists at the Peoria research center. Uni-Star began in Canton, Illinois, but has relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, for easier access to bulk quantities of cornstarch slurry from Cargill, Inc.
A former farmer, Fisk realized corn had other uses besides feed for hogs. Still, "I probably wouldn't be in this business today if it weren't for the support and guidance I got from Bill Doane and George Fanta. They helped enable us to make large quantities of the starch-acrylic polymer," says Fisk.
In 1992, Uni-Star began large scale testing with a Minnesota firm, demonstrating that the polymer could be blended with starch and made into a resilient, loosefill packaging material—the familiar "packing peanuts"—with degradable characteristics. Today's U.S. packaging market could easily use about 254 million pounds of starch annually.
"This success sparked my interest in studying other end-use applications for the Super Slurper polymer," Fisk explains.
When large-scale testing began Doane and Fanta were regular visitors at Uni-Star's facility 30 miles west of Peoria, meeting with Fisk and his employees to help solve the problems of polymer processing and marketing. After observing firsthand Fisk's preparation and processing steps, the scientists suggested ways to improve the work and the quality of the end products.
Uni-Star now produces 20,000 pounds of starch graft copolymers per week and sells them for loosefill. Fisk's goal is production of a half million pounds per month—with potential monthly gross sales of $350,000.
Since June of 1995, Fisk has been working under a letter of intent with Rapac, an Oakland, Tennessee, company that produces 60 percent of the polystyrene loosefill in the United States.
Fisk says, "Because of Bill Doane's and George Fanta's support and technical advice, I was able to file two U.S. patents on technology and improvements on the original work that came out of NCAUR. "I'd have given up long ago without their help and expertise," Fisk adds. "I'm still in contact with George, who is helping me with plastic film development."
An Idea Whose Time Has Come
When Doane and his research team began working on degradable plastics and products based on controlled release technology, such concepts were ahead of their time. But as market demands and concern for the environment increase and production costs decline, more of these products are finding their way into the marketplace.
"People don't realize that it isn't easy to develop a product or change an industrial process. Every day is a slugfest; there's always Murphy's law to contend with in the real world," says Steve Ayers, vice president of sales marketing for Central Illinois Manufacturing Company in Bement.
Ayers' parents founded Central Illinois Manufacturing in 1956. During the mid-1980's, the Ayers family manufactured Hydrosorb, a Super Slurper-based fuel filter media for service station gas pumps. Though Ayers says they have since switched to a synthetic polymer, "ARS research findings and the invaluable support Doane and Fanta gave us helped make us a leader in the filtration field."
Another fan of Super Slurper is Ray Mullikin, technical sales representative for Grain Processing Corporation of Muscatine, Iowa, which was among the first companies to license the technology.
Grain Processing Corporation's superabsorbent, called WaterLock, is sold to cosmetic and pharmaceutical manufacturers throughout the world. WaterLock superabsorbent polymer is a component of microbial biological control agents—as well as an ingredient in turf mats.
Getting research off the federal shelf can create new job opportunities. Just ask Richard R. Tryon, president of Agri-Tech Industries at Champaign, Illinois.
After 31 years as a printer and publisher, Tryon decided to try his hand at making degradable, starch-based plastics for American industry. Tryon's inspiration came from ARS chemist Felix Otey, who, under Bill Doane's leadership, discovered that blending cornstarch, an acrylic acid polymer, and polyethylene would form a degradable plastic film. The invention was patented by USDA and licensed by Agri-Tech in 1986.
"Bill Doane supported and encouraged us when we were first getting started. He gave freely of his time and resources," says Tryon. It's just as easy to find fellow scientists at the Peoria research center who admire Bill Doane. He is known as the kind of research leader who "taught us to care and focus on what we were doing," says Rodney Bothast, who is now leader of fermentation research at NCAUR. "Bill encouraged us to follow through with our work. And he always used a great deal of common sense in his approach to people and to research."
Doane is also remembered for letting fellow scientists enjoy the limelight, according to ARS coworker Baruch Shasha, a friend and colleague since the two attended graduate school together at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.
"He genuinely enjoys seeing others succeed and win, even if it means a smaller role for him," says Shasha, who joined the NCAUR Plant Polymer Research Unit in 1963. Doane's winnings are the fruits of his agricultural research—a benefit to American consumers, as well as to industry, says area director Dunkle.
"While the products that resulted from his research merit our admiration, so too do the larger goals he achieved: a cleaner environment, more jobs for people, and new markets for hundreds of millions of pounds of cornstarch." — By Linda Cooke, ARS.
For more information, contact Peter B. Johnsen, USDA-ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, 1815 N. University Street, Peoria, IL 61604; phone (309) 685- 4011
"One Team, One Product -- Many Uses" was published in the May 1996 issue of Agricultural Research magazine. | <urn:uuid:60fdc602-aa78-473d-8da1-12317aebdbfe> | {
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Each of the 4 tires on a vehicle has traction (the friction between rubber and ground). Lets assume for argument's sake that each tire on dry surface has a traction value of 100 - a total of 400. **
In a 2WD only the traction of 2 tires (traction value 200) is used to support forward movement. Torque of the engine is using the resistance (traction) of two tires to get you moving. Lets say 140 units of torque are needed to move the car and 200 traction units support forward movement - then a safety margin of 60 units remains.
Lets say due to slippery ground the traction value drops to 50 per tire. That gives you 100 usable units on the two powered tires - but with 140 torque units necessary to move the car, your "traction account" is overdrawn by 40. Result is spinning tires and you can't get the car moving.
If for some reason (vehicle heavily loaded and a steep grade needs to be climbed) much more torque (lets say 220 units) is needed to move the vehicle. Since only 200 units of traction are available the account will be overdrawn by 20. Tires will start spinning and the vehicle will not be able to move forward. | <urn:uuid:55882bce-6d73-4ec5-8b4e-e161393046f5> | {
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Minamata disease, sometimes referred to as Chisso-Minamata disease, is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. Symptoms include ataxia, numbness in the hands and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the field of vision and damage to hearing and speech. In extreme cases, insanity, paralysis, coma and death follow within weeks of the onset of symptoms. A congenital form of the disease can also affect fetuses.
Minamata disease was first discovered in Minamata City in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan in 1956. It was caused by the release of methylmercury in the industrial wastewater (point source pollution) from the Chisso Corporation's chemical factory, which continued from 1932 to 1968. This highly toxic chemical bioaccumulated in shellfish and fish in Minamata Bay and the Shiranui Sea, which when eaten by the local populace resulted in mercury poisoning. While cat, dog, pig and human deaths continued over more than 30 years, the government and company did little to prevent the pollution.
As of March 2001, 2,265 victims had been officially recognized (1,784 of whom had died) and over 10,000 had received financial compensation from Chisso. By 2004, Chisso Corporation had paid $86 million in compensation, and in the same year was ordered to clean up its contamination. Lawsuits and claims for compensation continue to this day.
A second outbreak of Minamata disease occurred in Niigata Prefecture in 1965. Both the original Minamata disease and Niigata Minamata disease are considered two of the Four Big Pollution Diseases of Japan.
The Chisso Corporation first opened a chemical factory in Minamata in 1908. Initially producing fertilizers, the factory followed the nationwide expansion of Japan's chemical industry, branching out into production of acetylene, acetaldehyde, acetic acid, vinyl chloride and octanol, among others. The Minamata factory became the most advanced in all Japan, both before and after World War II. The waste products resulting from the manufacture of these chemicals were released into Minamata Bay in the factory wastewater. Inevitably, these pollutants had an environmental impact. Fisheries were damaged in terms of reduced catches and in response Chisso reached two separate compensation agreements with the fishery cooperative in 1926 and 1943.
The rapid expansion of the Minamata factory spurred on the local economy and as Chisso prospered, so did Minamata. This fact, combined with the lack of other industry, meant that Chisso had great influence in Minamata. At one point, over half of the tax revenue of Minamata City authority came from Chisso and its employees, and the company and its subsidiaries were responsible for creating a quarter of all jobs in Minamata. Minamata was dubbed Chisso's "castle town", in reference to the capital cities of feudal lords who ruled Japan during the Edo period.
The Chisso Minamata factory first started acetaldehyde production in 1932, producing 210 tons that year. By 1951 production had jumped to 6,000 tons per year: over 50% of Japan's total output. The chemical reaction used to produce the acetaldehyde used mercury sulfate as a catalyst. A side reaction of the catalytic cycle led to the production of a small amount of an organic mercury compound, namely methyl mercury. This highly toxic compound was released into Minamata Bay from the start of production in 1932 until 1968 when this production method was discontinued.
On April 21, 1956, a five year-old girl was examined at the Chisso Corporation's factory hospital in Minamata, Japan, a town on the west coast of the southern island of Ky?sh?. The physicians were puzzled by her symptoms: difficulty walking, difficulty speaking and convulsions. Two days later, her younger sister also began to exhibit the same symptoms and was hospitalized. The girls' mother informed doctors that her neighbor's daughter was also experiencing similar problems. After a house-to-house investigation, eight further patients were discovered and hospitalized. On May 1, the hospital director to the local public health office reported the discovery of an "epidemic of an unknown disease of the central nervous system", marking the official discovery of Minamata disease.
To investigate the epidemic, the city government and various medical practitioners formed the Strange Disease Countermeasures Committee at the end of May 1956. Owing to the localized nature of the disease, it was suspected to be contagious and as a precaution patients were isolated and their homes disinfected. Unfortunately, this contributed to the stigmatisation and discrimination experienced by Minamata victims from the local community. During its investigations, the committee uncovered surprising anecdotal evidence of the strange behavior of cats and other wildlife in the areas surrounding patients' homes. From around 1950 onwards, cats had been seen to have convulsions, go mad and die. Locals called it the "cat dancing disease", owing to their erratic movement. Crows had fallen from the sky, seaweed no longer grew on the sea bed and fish floated dead on the surface of the sea. As the extent of the outbreak was understood, the committee invited researchers from Kumamoto University to help in the research effort.
The Kumamoto University Research Group was formed on August 24, 1956. Researchers from the School of Medicine began visiting Minamata regularly and admitted patients to the university hospital for detailed examinations. Gradually, a more complete picture of the symptoms exhibited by patients was uncovered. The disease developed with patients complaining of a loss of sensation and numbness in their hands and feet. They became unable to grasp small objects or fasten buttons. They could not run or walk without stumbling, their voices changed in pitch and many patients complained of difficulties seeing, hearing and swallowing. In general, these symptoms deteriorated and were followed by severe convulsions, coma and eventual death. By October 1956, 40 patients had been discovered, 14 of whom had died: a mortality rate of 36.7%.
Finding the Cause
Researchers from Kumamoto University also began to focus on the cause of the strange disease. They found that the victims, often members of the same family, were clustered in fishing hamlets along the shore of Minamata Bay. The staple food of victims was invariably fish and shellfish from Minamata Bay. The cats in the local area, who tended to eat scraps from the family table, had died with symptoms similar to those now discovered in humans. This led the researchers to believe that the outbreak was caused by some kind of food poisoning, with contaminated fish and shellfish the prime suspects.
On November 4, 1956 the research group announced its initial findings: "Minamata disease is rather considered to be poisoning by a heavy metal... presumably it enters the human body mainly through fish and shellfish."
Identification of Mercury
As soon as the investigation identified a heavy metal as the causal substance, the wastewater from the Chisso plant was immediately suspected as the origin. The company's own tests revealed that its wastewater contained many heavy metals in concentrations sufficiently high to bring about serious environmental degradation; these metals included lead, mercury, manganese, arsenic, selenium, thallium and copper. Identifying which particular poison was responsible for the disease proved to be extremely difficult and time consuming. During 1957 and 1958, many different theories were proposed by different researchers. Initially, manganese was thought to be the causal substance due to the high concentrations found in fish and the organs of the deceased. Thallium, selenium and a multiple contaminant theory were also proposed but it was not until March 1958, when visiting British neurologist Douglas McAlpine suggested that Minamata symptoms resembled those of organic mercury poisoning, that the focus of the investigation centered on mercury.
In February 1959, the mercury distribution in Minamata Bay was investigated. The results shocked the researchers involved. Large quantities of mercury were detected in fish, shellfish and sludge from the bay. The highest concentrations centered around the Chisso factory wastewater canal in Hyakken Harbour and decreased going out to sea, clearly identifying the factory as the source of contamination. At the mouth of the wastewater canal a figure of 2 kg of mercury per ton of sediment was measured, a level high enough to be economically viable to mine. Ironically, Chisso did later set up a subsidiary to reclaim and sell the mercury recovered from the sludge.
Hair samples were taken from the victims of the disease and also from the Minamata population in general. In patients, the maximum mercury level recorded was 705 parts per million (ppm), indicating very heavy exposure. In non-symptomatic Minamata residents, the level was 191 ppm compared to an average level of 4 ppm for people living outside the Minamata area.
On November 12, 1959 the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Minamata Food Poisoning Subcommittee published its results:
"Minamata disease is a poisoning disease that affects mainly the central nervous system and is caused by the consumption of large quantities of fish and shellfish living in Minamata Bay and its surroundings, the major causative agent being some sort of organic mercury compound."
During the investigation by researchers at Kumamoto University, the causal substance was identified as a heavy metal and it was widely presumed that the Chisso plant was the source of the contamination. Chisso came under closer scrutiny and in order to deflect criticism the wastewater output route was changed. Chisso knew the environmental damage caused by its wastewater and was well aware that it was the prime suspect in the Minamata disease investigation. Despite this, from September 1958, instead of discharging its waste into Hyakken Harbour (the focus of investigation and source of original contamination), it discharged wastewater directly into Minamata River. The immediate effect was the death of fish at the mouth of the river, and from that point on new Minamata disease victims began to appear in other fishing villages up and down the coast of the Shiranui Sea, as the pollution spread over an even greater area.
Chisso failed to co-operate with the investigation team from Kumamoto University. It withheld information on its industrial processes, leaving researchers to speculate what products the factory was producing and by what methods. In July 1959, the Chisso factory's hospital director, Hajime Hosokawa, established a laboratory in the research division of the plant to carry out his own experiments into Minamata disease. Food to which factory wastewater had been added was fed to healthy cats. Seventy-eight days into the experiment, cat 400 exhibited symptoms of Minamata disease and pathological examinations confirmed a diagnosis of organic mercury poisoning. The company did not reveal these significant results to the investigators and ordered Hosokawa to stop his research.
In an attempt to undermine Kumamoto University researcher's organic mercury theory, Chisso and other parties with a vested interest in the factory remaining open (including the Ministry of International Trade and Industry and the Japan Chemical Industry Association) funded research into alternative causes of the disease, other than its own waste.
Compensation of Fishermen and Patients, 1959
Polluting wastewater had damaged the fisheries around Minamata since the opening of the Chisso factory in 1908. The Minamata Fishing Cooperative had managed to win small payments of "sympathy money" from the company in 1926 and again in 1943, but after the outbreak of Minamata disease the fishing situation was becoming critical. Fishing catches had declined by 91% between the years 1953 and 1957. The Kumamoto prefectural government issued a partial ban on the sale of fish caught in the heavily polluted Minamata Bay, but not an all-out ban, which would have obliged it to compensate the fishermen. The fishing cooperative protested against Chisso and angrily forced their way into the factory on August 6 and August 12, demanding compensation. A committee was set up by Minamata Mayor Todomu Nakamura to mediate between the two sides but was stacked heavily in the company's favor. On August 29, the fishing cooperative agreed to the mediation committee's proposal, stating: "In order to end the anxiety of the citizens, we swallow our tears and accept". The company paid the cooperative JPY20 million (USD55,600) and set up a JPY15 million (USD41,700) fund to promote the recovery of fishing.
Since the change of route of wastewater output in 1958, pollution had spread up and down the Shiranui Sea, damaging fisheries there too. Emboldened by the success of the small Minamata cooperative, the Kumamoto Prefectural Alliance of Fishing Cooperatives also decided to seek compensation from Chisso. On October 17, 1,500 fishermen from the alliance descended on the factory to demand negotiations. When this produced no results, the alliance members took their campaign to Tokyo, securing an official visit to Minamata by members of the Japanese Diet. During the visit on November 2 alliance members forced their way into the factory and rioted, causing many injuries and JPY10 million (USD27,800) worth of damage. The violence was covered widely in the media, bringing the nation's attention to the Minamata issue for the first time since the outbreak began. Another mediation committee was set up, an agreement hammered out and signed on December 17. JPY25 million "sympathy money" was paid to the alliance and a JPY65 million fishing recovery fund established.
In 1959, the victims of Minamata disease were in a much weaker position than the fishermen. The recently formed Minamata Disease Patients Families Mutual Aid Society was much more divided than the fishing cooperatives. Patients' families were the victim of discrimination and ostracism from the local community. Local people felt that the company (and their city that depended upon it) was facing economic ruin. To some patients this ostracism by the community represented a greater fear than the disease itself. After beginning a sit-in at the factory gates in November 1959 the patients asked Kumamoto Prefecture Governor Hirosaku Teramoto to include the patients' request for compensation with the mediation that was ongoing with the prefectural fishing alliance. Chisso agreed and after a few weeks' further negotiation, another "sympathy money" agreement was signed. Patients who were certified by a Ministry of Health and Welfare committee would be compensated: adult patients received JPY100,000 (USD278) per year; children JPY30,000 (USD83) per year and families of dead patients would receive a one-off JPY320,000 (USD889) payment.
On October 21 the Ministry of International Trade and Industry ordered Chisso to switch back its wastewater drainage from the Minamata River to Hyakken Harbour and to speed up the installation of wastewater treatment systems at the factory. Chisso installed a Cyclator purification system on December 19, 1959, and opened it with a special ceremony. Chisso's president Kiichi Yoshioka drank a glass of water supposedly treated through the Cyclator to demonstrate that it was safe. However, the wastewater from the acetaldehyde plant, which the company knew still contained mercury and led to Minamata disease when fed to cats, was not being treated through the Cyclator. Testimony at a later Niigata Minamata disease trial proved that Chisso knew the Cyclator was completely ineffective: "...the purification tank was installed as a social solution and did nothing to remove organic mercury."
The deception was successful and almost all parties involved in Minamata disease were duped into believing that the factory's wastewater had been made safe from December 1959 on. Doctors no longer expected new patients to appear, resulting in numerous problems in the years to follow, as the pollution continued. In most people's minds, the issue of Minamata disease had been resolved.
The years between the first set of "sympathy money" agreements in 1959 and the start of the first legal action to be taken against Chisso in 1969 are often called the "ten years of silence". In fact, much activity on the part of the patients and fishermen took place during this period, but nothing had a significant impact on the actions of the company or the coverage of Minamata in the national media.
Despite the almost universal assumption to the contrary, the wastewater treatment facilities installed in December 1959 had no effect on the level of organic mercury being released into the Shiranui Sea. The pollution and the disease it caused continued to spread. The Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectural governments conducted a joint survey in late 1960 and early 1961 into the level of mercury in the hair of people living around the Shiranui Sea. The results confirmed that organic mercury had spread all around the inland sea and that people were still being poisoned by contaminated fish. Hundreds of people were discovered to have levels greater than 50 ppm of mercury in their hair, the level at which people are likely to experience nerve damage. The highest result recorded was that of a lady from Goshonoura island who had 920 ppm in her sample.
The prefectural governments did not publish the results and did nothing to respond. The participants who had donated hair samples were not informed of their result, even when they requested it. A follow-up study ten years later discovered that many had died from "unknown causes".
Congenital Minamata Disease
Local doctors and medical officials had noticed for a long time an abnormally high frequency of cerebral palsy and other infantile disorders in the Minamata area. In 1961, a number of medical professionals, including Masazumi Harada (later to receive an honor from the United Nations for his body of work on Minamata disease), set about re-examining children diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The symptoms of the children closely mirrored those of adult Minamata disease patients, but many of their mothers did not exhibit symptoms. The fact that these children had been born after the initial outbreak and had never been fed contaminated fish also led their mothers to believe they were not victims. At the time, the medical establishment believed the placenta would protect the fetus from toxicants in the bloodstream, which is indeed the case with most chemicals. What was not known at the time was that exactly the opposite is the case with methylmercury: the placenta removes it from the mother's bloodstream and concentrates the chemical in the fetus.
After several years of study and the autopsies of two children, the doctors announced that these children were suffering from an as yet unrecognized congenital form of Minamata disease. The certification committee convened on November 29, 1962 and agreed that the two dead children and the 16 children still alive should be certified as patients, and therefore liable for "sympathy" payments from Chisso, in line with the 1959 agreement.
As of 1999, 63 cases of congential minamata disease had been confirmed in fetuses in Japan, 13 of which resulted in death.
Outbreak of Niigata Minamata Disease
Minamata disease broke out again in 1965, this time along the banks of the Agano River in Niigata Prefecture. The polluting factory (owned by Showa Denko) employed a chemical process using a mercury catalyst very similar to that used by Chisso in Minamata. As in Minamata, from the autumn of 1964 to the spring of 1965, cats living along the banks of the Agano River were seen going mad and dying. Before long, patients appeared with identical symptoms to patients living on the Shiranui Sea, and the outbreak was made public on June 12, 1965. Researchers from the Kumamoto University Research Group and Hajime Hosokawa (who had retired from Chisso in 1962) used their experience from Minamata and applied it to the Niigata outbreak. In September 1966, a report was issued proving Showa Denko's pollution to be the cause of this second Minamata disease.
Unlike the patients in Minamata, the victims of Showa Denko's pollution lived a considerable distance from the factory and had no particular link to the company. As a result, the local community was much more supportive of patients' groups and a lawsuit was filed against the company in March 1968, only three years after discovery.
The events in Niigata catalysed a change in response to the original Minamata incident. The scientific research carried out in Niigata forced a re-examination of that done in Minamata and the decision of Niigata patients to sue the polluting company allowed the same response to be considered in Minamata. Masazumi Harada has said that, "It may sound strange, but if this second Minamata disease had not broken out, the medical and social progress achieved by now in Kumamoto... would have been impossible."
Around this time two other pollution-related diseases were also grabbing headlines in Japan. Victims of Yokkaichi asthma and Itai-itai disease were forming citizens' groups and filed lawsuits against the polluting companies in September 1967 and March 1968 respectively. Collectively these diseases came to be known as the Four Big Pollution Diseases of Japan.
Slowly but surely the mood in Minamata, and Japan as a whole, shifted. Minamata patients found the public gradually becoming more receptive and sympathetic as the decade wore on. This culminated in the establishment in Minamata of the Citizens' Council for Minamata Disease Countermeasures in 1968, which was to become the chief citizens' support group to the Minamata patients. A founding member of the citizens' council was Michiko Ishimure, a local housewife and poet who later that year published Pure Land, Poisoned Sea: Our Minamata Disease, a book of poetic essays that received national acclaim.
Official Government Recognition
Finally on September 26, 1968 — twelve years after the discovery of the disease (and four months after Chisso stopped production of acetaldehyde using its mercury catalyst) — the government issued an official conclusion as to the cause of Minamata disease:
"Minamata disease is a disease of the central nervous system, a poisoning caused by long-term consumption, in large amounts, of fish and shellfish from Minamata Bay. The causative agent is methyl mercury. Methyl mercury produced in the acetaldehyde acetic acid facility of Shin Nihon Chisso's Minamata factory was discharged in factory wastewater... Minamata disease patients last appeared in 1960, and the outbreak has ended. This is presumed to be due to the fact that consumption of fish and shellfish from Minamata Bay was banned in the fall of 1957, and the fact that the factory had waste-treatment facilities in place from January 1960."
The conclusion contained many factual errors: eating fish and shellfish from other areas of the Shiranui Sea, not just Minamata Bay, could cause the disease; eating small amounts, as well as large amounts of contaminated fish over a long time also produced symptoms; the outbreak had not in fact "ended" in 1960 nor had mercury-removing wastewater facilities been installed in January 1960. Nevertheless, the government announcement brought a feeling of relief to many victims and their families. Many felt vindicated in their long struggle to force Chisso to accept responsibility for causing the disease and expressed thanks that their plight had been recognized by their social superiors. The struggle now focused on to what extent the victims should be compensated.
Struggle for a New Agreement
In light of the government announcement, the patients of the Mutual Aid Society decided to ask for a new compensation agreement with Chisso and submitted the demand on October 6. The company replied that it was unable to judge what would be fair compensation and asked the national government to set up a binding arbitration committee to decide. This proposal split the members of the patients' society, many of whom were extremely wary of entrusting their fate to a third party, as they had done in 1959 with unfortunate results. At a meeting on April 5, 1969 the opposing views within the society could not be reconciled and the organization split into the Arbitration Group (who were willing to accept binding arbitration) and the Litigation Group (who decided to sue the company). That summer Chisso sent gifts to the families who opted for arbitration rather than litigation.
An arbitration committee was duly set up by the Ministry of Health and Welfare on April 25, but it took almost a year to draw up a draft compensation plan. A newspaper leak in March 1970 revealed that the committee would ask Chisso to pay only JPY2 million (USD5,600) for dead patients and JPY140,000 to JPY200,000 (USD390 to USD560) per year to surviving patients. The Arbitration Group was dismayed by the sums on offer. They petitioned the committee, together with patients and supporters of the Litigation Group, for a fairer deal. The arbitration committee announced their compensation plan on May 25 in a disorderly session at the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Tokyo. Thirteen protesters were arrested. Instead of accepting the agreement as they had promised, the Arbitration Group asked for increases. The committee was forced to revise its plan and the patients waited inside the Ministry building for two days while they did so. The final agreement was signed on May 27. Payments for deaths ranged from JPY1.7 million to JPY4 million (USD4,700 to USD11,100), one-time payments from JPY1 million to JPY4.2 million (USD2,760 to USD11,660) and annual payments of between JPY170,000 and JPY380,000 (USD470 to USD1,100) for surviving patients. On the day of the signing, the Minamata Citizens' Council held a protest outside the Minamata factory gates. One of the Chisso trade unions held an eight-hour strike in protest at the poor treatment of the Arbitration Group by their own company.
The Litigation Group, representing 41 certified patients (17 already deceased) in 28 families, submitted their suit against Chisso in the Kumamoto District Court on June 14, 1969. The leader of the group, Eiz? Watanabe (a former leader of the Mutual Aid Society), declared that, "Today, and from this day forth, we are fighting against the power of the state." Those who decided to sue the company came under fierce pressure to drop their lawsuits against the company. One woman was visited personally by a Chisso executive and harassed by her neighbours. She was ignored, her family's fishing boat was used without permission, their fishing nets were cut and human feces were thrown at her in the street.
The Litigation Group and their lawyers were helped substantially by an informal national network of citizens' groups that sprung up around the country in 1969. The Associations to Indict [Those Responsible for] Minamata Disease were instrumental in raising awareness and funds for the lawsuit. The Kumamoto branch in particular was especially helpful to the case. In September 1969 they set up a Trial Research Group which included law professors, medical researchers (including Masazumi Harada), sociologists and even the housewife and poet Michiko Ishimure to provide useful material to the lawyers to improve their legal arguments. In fact their report: Corporate Responsibility for Minamata Disease: Chisso's Illegal Acts, published in August 1970, formed the basis of the ultimately successful lawsuit.
The trial lasted almost four years. The Litigation Group lawyers sought to prove Chisso's corporate negligence. Three main legal points had to be overcome to win the case. First the lawyers had to show that methylmercury caused Minamata disease and that the company's factory was the source of pollution. The extensive research by Kumamoto University and the government conclusion meant that this point was proved quite easily. Secondly, could and should the company have anticipated the effect of its wastewater and should it have taken steps to prevent the tragedy (ie. was the company negligent in its duty of care)? Thirdly, was the "sympathy money" agreement of 1959, which forbade the patients from claiming any further compensation, a legally binding contract?
The trial heard from patients and their families, but the most important testimony came from Chisso executives and employees. The most dramatic testimony came from Hajime Hosokawa who spoke on 4 July 1970 from his hospital bed where he was dying of cancer. He explained his experiments with cats, including the infamous "cat 400" which developed Minamata disease after being fed factory wastewater. He also spoke of his opposition to the 1958 change in wastewater output route from Hyakken Harbour to Minamata River. His testimony was backed up by a colleague who also told how company officials had ordered them to halt their cat experiments in the autumn of 1959. Hajime Hosokawa died three months after giving his testimony. Former factory manager Eiichi Nishida admitted that the company put profits ahead of safety, resulting in dangerous working conditions and a lack of care with mercury.Former Chisso President Kiichi Yoshioka admitted that the company promoted a theory of dumped World War II explosives even though it knew it to be unfounded.
The verdict handed down on March 20, 1973 represented a complete victory for the patients of the Litigation Group:
"The defendant's factory was a leading chemical plant with the most advanced technology and ... should have assured the safety of its wastewater. The defendant could have prevented the occurrence of Minamata disease or at least have kept it at a minimum. We cannot find that the defendant took any of the precautionary measures called for in this situation whatsoever. The presumption that the defendant had been negligent from beginning to end in discharging wastewater from its acetaldehyde plant is amply supported. The defendant cannot escape liability for negligence."
The "sympathy money" agreement was found to be invalid and Chisso was ordered to make one-time payments of JPY18 million (USD66,000) for each deceased patient and from JPY16 million to JPY 18 million (USD59,000 to USD66,000) for each surviving patient. The total compensation of JPY937 million (USD3.4 million) was the largest sum ever awarded by a Japanese court.
Uncertified Patients' Fight to Be Recognized
While the struggles of the arbitration and litigation groups against Chisso were continuing, a new group of Minamata disease sufferers emerged. In order to qualify for compensation under the 1959 agreement, patients had to be officially recognised by various ad hoc certification committees according to their symptoms. Unfortunately, in an effort to limit the liability and financial burden on the company, these committees were sticking to a rigid interpretation of Minamata disease. They required that patients must exhibit all symptoms of Hunter-Russell Syndrome – the standard diagnosis of organic mercury poisoning at the time – which originated from an industrial accident in the United Kingdom in 1940. The committee only certified patients exhibiting explicit symptoms of the British syndrome, rather than basing their diagnosis on the disease in Japan. This resulted in many applicants being rejected by the committee, leaving them understandably confused and frustrated.
A key figure in the fight for the uncertified patients was Teruo Kawamoto. Born in 1931, he was the seventh son of a Chisso worker and local fisherman. From 1959 onwards, Teruo's father began to exhibit the typical symptoms of Minamata disease: numbness in his hands and feet, slurred speech, impaired walking and restricted vision. His condition slowly deteriorated until he was admitted to the mental hospital at which Teruo himself had found a job. Hallucinating and suicidal, his father eventually became unable to recognize anyone around him and died with his son at his bedside in April 1965.
As of March 2001, 2,265 victims have been officially certified (1,784 of whom have died) and over 10,000 people have received financial compensation from Chisso, although they are not recognized as official victims. The issue of quantifying the impact of Minamata disease is complicated, as a full epidemiological study has never been conducted and patients were only ever recognized if they voluntarily applied to a Certification Council in order to seek financial compensation. Many victims of Minamata disease faced discrimination and ostracism from the local community if they came out into the open about their symptoms. Some people feared the disease to be contagious and many local people were fiercely loyal to Chisso, depending on the company for their livelihoods. In this atmosphere, sufferers were understandably reluctant to come forward and seek certification. Despite these factors, over 17,000 people have applied to the Council for certification. Also, in recognizing an applicant as a Minamata disease sufferer, the Certification Council qualified that patient to receive financial compensation from Chisso. As such, the Council has always been under immense pressure to reject claimants and minimize the financial burden placed on Chisso. Rather than being a Council of medical recognition, the decisions of the Council were always affected by the economic and political factors surrounding Minamata and the Chisso corporation. Furthermore, compensation of the victims led to continued strife in the community, including unfounded accusations that some of the people who sought compensation did not actually suffer from the disease.
According to Timothy S. George, Assistant Professor of History at the University or Rhode Island and author of Minamata: Pollution and the Struggle for Democracy in Postwar Japan, the environmental protests that surrounded the disease appeared to aid in the democratization of Japan. When the first cases were reported and subsequently suppressed, the rights of the victims were not recognized, and they were given no compensation. The afflicted were ostracized from their communities due to ignorance about the disease, as people were afraid that it was contagious.
The people directly impacted by the pollution of Minamata Bay were not originally allowed to participate in actions that would affect their future. Disease victims, fishing families, and company employees were excluded from the debate. Progress occurred when Minamata victims were finally allowed to come to a meeting to discuss the issue. As a result, postwar Japan took a small step towards democracy.
Through the evolution of public sentiments, the victims and environmental protesters were able to acquire standing and proceed more effectively in their cause. The involvement of the press also aided the process of democratization because it caused more people to become aware of the facts of Minamata disease and the pollution that caused it.
Although the environmental protests did result in Japan being more democratized, it did not completely rid Japan of the system that first suppressed the fishermen and victims of Minamata disease.
Photographic documentation of Minamata started in the early 1960s. One photographer who arrived in 1960 was Shisei Kuwabara, straight from university and photo school. The first exhibition of his work in Minamata was held in the Fuji Photo Salon in Tokyo in 1962, and the first of his book-length anthologies Minamata was published in Japan in 1965. He has returned to Minamata many times since.
However, it was a dramatic photographic essay by W. Eugene Smith that brought world attention to Minamata disease. He and his Japanese wife lived in Minamata from 1971 to 1973. The most famous and striking photo of the essay, Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath, (1972) shows Ryoko Uemura, holding her severely deformed daughter, Tomoko, in a Japanese bath chamber. Tomoko was poisoned by methyl mercury while still in the womb. The photo was very widely published. It was posed by Smith with the cooperation of Ryoko and Tomoko in order to dramatically illustrate the consequences of the disease. It has subsequently been withdrawn from circulation at the request of Tomoko's family, and therefore does not appear in recent anthologies of Smith's works. Smith and his wife were extremely dedicated to the cause of the victims of Minamata disease, closely documenting their struggle for recognition and the right to compensation. Smith was attacked and seriously injured by Chisso employees in an incident in Goi, Ichihara city, near Tokyo on January 7, 1972, in an attempt to stop the photographer from further revealing the issue to the world. The 54 year-old Smith survived the attack, but his sight in one eye deteriorated and his health never fully recovered before his death in 1978.
Minamata Disease Today
Minamata disease remains an important issue in contemporary Japanese society. Lawsuits against Chisso and the prefectural and national governments are still continuing and many regard the government responses to date as inadequate.
A memorial service was held at the Minamata Disease Municipal Museum on May 1, 2006 to mark 50 years since the official discovery of the disease. Despite bad weather, the service was attended by over 600 people, including Chisso chairman Shunkichi Goto and Environment Minister Yuriko Koike.
Most congenital patients are now in their forties and fifties and their health is deteriorating. Their parents, who are often their only source of care, are into their seventies or eighties or already deceased. Often these patients find themselves tied to their own homes and the care of their family, in effective isolation from the local community. Some welfare facilities for patients do exist. One notable example is Hot House, a vocational training center for congenital patients as well as other disabled people in the Minamata area. Hot House members are also involved in raising awareness of Minamata disease, often attending conferences and seminars as well as making regular visits to elementary schools throughout Kumamoto Prefecture.
Note: This article was researched and written by a student at Boston University participating in the Encyclopedia of Earth's (EoE) Student Science Communication Project. The project encourages students in undergraduate and graduate programs to write about timely scientific issues under close faculty guidance. All articles have been reviewed by internal EoE editors, and by independent experts on each topic.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Minamata disease. The Author(s) and Topic Editor(s) associated with this article may have significantly modified the content derived from Wikipedia with original content or with content drawn from other sources. All content from Wikipedia has been reviewed and approved by those Author(s) and Topic Editor(s), and is subject to the same peer review process as other content in the EoE. The current version of the Wikipedia article may differ from the version that existed on the date of access. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License 1.2. See the EoE’s Policy on the Use of Content from Wikipedia for more information.
- Chang, Louis W. and Guo, Grace L. Minamata Disease: Congenital Methylmercury Poisoning Elsevier Inc. Accessed October 19, 2009
- Bondy, Stephen C. Minamata Elsevier Inc. Accessed November, 15 2009
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The latitude and longitude presented here is an approximation to protect the reporters identity
Object Flight Path
1)Finishing-up working on my next door neighbor's truck in the front yard & saying our goodnights.
2) My neighbor who was facing me said: "whoa -there's a purple beam on the hill!" At which point, myself and roomate turned to look.
3) A solid purple beam of light projecting down at approximately 30 degrees onto the adjacient foothill terminating in a spotlight fashion on said hill with an approximate diameter of 30'-100' based on our approximate distance of .25 miles.
4) I did not see any object -only a solid violet beam. My neighbor saw it first, then my roomate and I turned to see this beam flash on the hill for about 2 seconds. Then, we move our position to my front yard (towards hill) to get a better view. 20-30 seconds later, we saw it project another beam upwards -but in the same direction.
5) Well, we were pretty blown away considering the fact that the beam on the hill was being projected from the sky, which led us to believe that there must've been some type of aerial platform from whence it was projected. Also, it was too intense and large to possibly be any kind hand-held laser. THIS WAS BIG! My guess is that this laser could be equated to a laser-type instrumet operating in the thousands of wattage range -which means it had to be big.
6) All we saw was a beam -no object projecting it. We could not discern it's origin.
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Scientists are hoping to revitalize the lobster population off the German island of Helgoland, and are enlisting the help of a nearby offshore wind farm whose rocky foundations make a good habitat. But there's potential for trouble: These aggressive crustaceans have a tendency to eat each other.
Lobsters are not the most pleasant of creatures. "They are cannibals and behave aggressively towards one another," says Heinz-Dieter Franke of the Biological Institute Helgoland (BAH). Unfortunately, that adds complexity to efforts to boost their dwindling populations.
For centuries, lobster fishing was a thriving industry in Helgoland. In the 1930s, some 80,000 of these large marine crustaceans were caught here per season, but the local lobster population was decimated by World War II. Researchers believe that vast quantities of toxins flushed into the sea when the island was heavily bombed and mined during the fighting damaged the lobsters' sensitive sense of smell, which affected reproductive patterns.
"Since then, the population has remained stable but extremely low," explains Franke. Further obstacles to their survival rates include a rise of more than one degree in the temperature of the sea around Helgoland over the last forty years, as well as increasingly mild winters. With lobsters having difficulties mating, the local fishermen are netting merely 300 and 500 of them a year.
Laboratory scientists are therefore exploring ways to artificially breed lobsters. Female lobsters caught by the fishermen can produce up to 50,000 fertilized eggs. Once they have matured out of the larva stage, the crustaceans are stored in the BAH's freshwater breeding tanks.
Thin plastic walls ensure that each creature has its own compartment -- otherwise their cannibalistic tendencies would get the better of the project.
Expensive and Time-Consuming
In the last 10 years, the scientists have bred over 10,000 lobsters. Once a year, the young lobsters are released into the ocean. But it still isn't enough. Despite the BAH's best efforts, Helgoland's lobster population is struggling to survive. Franke and his team have calculated that some 250,000 lobsters would need to be bred over a period of five years to replenish the island's lobster population.
But breeding and feeding the crustaceans in their individual compartments is a time-consuming undertaking, and the BAH estimates that it would cost €1 million to achieve this target. "An institute of our size is not equal to this task," says Franke. But so far, it has failed to identify funding sources, even though he is optimistic that it makes commercial sense.
"Were the project to succeed, fishermen would be able to catch 30,000 to 40,000 lobsters per year and that would mean the investment had paid off," he says. But given the long-term nature of the project, he understands why sponsors are hard to find. It takes lobsters eight years to reach sexual maturity, so it will be some time before Helgoland's lobster pots are full again.
But Franke and his colleagues are hoping to attract funding with a new approach. They are planning to boost the island's populations not only on its bedrock but also in the offshore wind parks currently under construction off the North Sea coast.
The scheme will kick off in the Borkum Riffgat offshore wind farm now under construction some 15 kilometers to the northwest of the island of Borkum on the German-Dutch border. Because the wind turbines are relatively close to the coastline, project owner EWE has to pay compensation to the state of Lower Saxony for damaging the ecosystem.
A total of €700,000 of this compensation is now being funneled into the BAH's 3-year pilot project, and 3,000 lobsters are set to be released this year into the sea at the foot of the wind turbines. Crucially, lobsters' survival depends on a firm seabed, which is a rarity in the silt of the German Bight. Fortunately, some of the foundations of the 30 wind turbines are protected by rock fill which serves as an ideal habitat for the fledgling lobster populations.
Initially, just four of these rock piles, which span 400 to 500 square meters, will double as lobster habitats. The scientists calculate that each square meter can provide a home to up to five lobsters.
Lobsters play an important role within the North Sea's ecosystem. As omnivores, they top the food chain, thriving on algae, mussels, snails and worms and ensuring that other species never get out of hand. The BAH researchers will research whether the lobsters will eat each other in the restricted confines of the wind turbine foundations. But Franke is optimistic: "Lobsters recognize one another by smell. Once they have tested their strength against one another, they accept the results." | <urn:uuid:517bb655-f5ef-4043-b66c-342a17397bfc> | {
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The Cayman Islands National Archive (CINA) is dedicated to preserving the documentary history of the Cayman Islands and its people.
CINA’s operations have many facets. Not only is CINA charged with operating a Government Records Centre and providing a records management service to the Public Service, CINA is also responsible for collecting, preserving and making available the archival records that form the Historical Collections.
CINA takes a holistic approach to research. Archives pertaining to the Cayman Islands flow into the Historical Collections from Government agencies, private donations, copies of records identified within the holdings of overseas institutions & an Oral History Programme. To further enhance the researcher experience CINA has a large reference library making our facility a single place for research offering our Reader’s both primary and secondary sources for the genealogist to the academic researcher.
Locked within the documentary heritage of our island is a rich history awaiting to be discovered, embraced and revived for the benefit of community.
CINA comprises the following Sections:
CINA provides two sets of services: one to the public and one to government. For members of the public, the Archive acquires, preserves and gives access to the historical heritage of the Cayman Islands; for government departments it supports a modern records management service ensuring that official records are properly managed from the moment of their creation until they are transferred into the Historical Collections or destroyed. The two services are closely linked: today’s records are tomorrow’s archives. Only with sound records management and meticulous preservation can records be carefully maintained for future generations.
The work of CINA focuses on 2 major outcomes:
CINA comprises the following sections:
The three main functions of CINA are Archival Management, Government Records Management and Preservation Management; please see the Classes of Information section of our FOI website www.cina.gov.ky. Also, see Section 7: Categories of Information in this publication scheme.
The Cayman Islands National Archive is established under The National Archive and Public Records Law (2015 Revision). The major responsibilities of the National Archive are defined in this Law and the accompanying Regulations. The National Archive also has responsibilities to establish rules and procedures, as defined in The Financial Regulations section 43(2); The Personnel Regulations section 49(3); and The Freedom of Information Law section 52(3).
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The United States Constitution, Section 8, states that “The Congress shall have power…To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;”
The word patent originates from the Latin patere, which means "to lay open" (i.e., to make available for public inspection).
What is a Patentable?
To be patentable, an invention must be statutory, new (or “novel”), useful, and non-obvious. A novel invention must incorporate a composition of matter, process, machine, or an article of manufacture different from anything previously known. A useful invention solves a problem, improves on or proposes a new use for an existing product, or produces a desirable result. A non-obvious invention is one that would not have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made.
Should we file a patent?
An invention may be patentable but not have high commercialization potential. Thus, before we decide to proceed with apatent application, consideration is given to any patenting obligations we have to research sponsors, the commercial utility of the invention, its competitive superiority, the necessity for extensive development work, and the availability of a company willing to pay for a license.
Protecting the Technology
In the United States, a patent application must be filed within one year of public disclosure of enabling information. Therefore, if you are interested in commercializing a technology, it is important to contact OTM as early in the process as possible. It is critical that you contact us before making any enabling public disclosures (e.g., a publication or conference presentation). Making an enabling public disclosure before we have taken steps to protect the technology may preclude us from being able to obtain a patent.
In most cases, we will begin by filing a provisional patent application for the technology. A provisional application is a faster, less expensive application used to establish a priority date with the Patent Office. After filing a provisional patent application, the applicant has one year in which to file a complete application and any foreign applications (if the provisional was filed prior to any public disclosure). The provisional application enables us to evaluate the technology more thoroughly to determine whether to proceed with a full application. If a full application is not filed within 12 months of the provisional application’s filing date, the provisional application will lapse.
Not all technology disclosures submitted to OTM are appropriate for patent protection. We will work with you to determine if a patent makes sense for the technology you disclose. | <urn:uuid:5adc7968-c856-4b45-825c-b9f1c4c44fea> | {
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Scottish Rite - Statue of Freedom Medallion
This bronze medallion was minted to commemorate the Statue of Freedom which is located on the peak of the Dome to the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. In 1985 the Statue of Freedom was in need of restoration so the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, USA sold this medallion as a fundraiser to help cover the costs of restoration and repairs. It measures 1 3/4 inches in diameter.
A Brief History
The Statue of Freedom was created as the crowning feature of the new cast-iron dome of the United States Capitol authorized by Congress in 1855. Freemason Thomas U. Walter, the Architect of the Capitol, first designed the dome with a classical figure of Liberty at the top.
Thomas Crawford, an American sculptor, was working in Rome on another neoclassical sculpture for the Capitol. Montgomery C. Meigs, the Superintendent of Construction, asked Crawford to design a statue to surmount the Dome. In discussing a subject for the statue, Meigs wrote to the sculptor: "We have too many Washingtons, we have America in the pediment. Victories and Liberties are rather pagan emblems, but a Liberty I fear is the best we can get." A month later, Crawford had sketched his first design for "Freedom triumphant in War and Peace," a figure wearing a wreath of wheat and laurel and holding an olive branch and the shield of the United States.
After receiving Walter's design for the dome, Crawford prepared a small model of a figure with a liberty cap, the emblem of freed slaves in ancient Greece. The red cap had been adopted as a symbol of liberty during the American and French Revolutions.
Jefferson Davis, the Secretary of War in charge of construction of the dome, objected to the liberty cap. In a letter of January 15, 1856 he wrote: "... its history renders it inappropriate to a people who were born free and would not be enslaved." He suggested that the figure wore a helmet instead, and Crawford then devised an unusual helmet crested with eagle feathers; he also draped the figure in a heavy, fringed robe. This new design was approved in May 1856.
The Statue of Freedom is a classical female figure wearing flowing draperies. Her right hand rests upon the hilt of a sheathed sword; her left holds a laurel wreath of victory and the shield of the United States with thirteen stripes. Her helmet is encircled by stars and features a crest composed of an eagle's head, feathers, and talons, a reference to the costume of Native Americans. A brooch inscribed "U.S." secures her fringed robe. She stands on a cast iron globe encircled with the motto: E Pluribus Unum. The lower part of the base is decorated with fasces and wreaths. The bronze statue stands 19 feet 6 inches tall and weights approximately 15,000 pounds. The crest of her helmet rises 288 feet above the east front plaza.
(Here at Phoenixmasonry, this curator thinks Freedom resembles the ancient Greek God Athena. Take a look at Freedom below to see the similarities.)
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only Canadian concern is the absence of parity with Mexican access to the US refined sugar market, which is a consequence of the absence of US- Canadian agricultural liberalization. 84
Since NAFTA, Mexico has successfully adapted technology and incen- tives to boost sugarcane recovery rates. Mexican sugar exports to the United States increased in raw value from an average of 2,000 metric tons per year during 1990–93 to 32,000 metric tons in 1994–2000.85 Neverthe- less, Mexican exports have been held back by the long-standing dispute over the NAFTA side letter agreement on sugar and the sugar-sweetener dispute. Mexican sugar producers want to gain completely free access to the US sugar market, and the US sugar producers want to prevent the projected flood of Mexican sugar into the United States. 86
Similarly, US sweetener exporters want to gain free access to Mexico’s market for soft drink sweeteners (table 5.9). Sweeteners, mainly HFCS, are a sugar substitute.87 HFCS becomes progressively more popular as domes- tic policies push up the price of cane and beet sugar. Before January 2002, when the Mexican government imposed an HFCS tax, US sweetener pro- ducers successfully exported a small amount of HFCS to Mexico.88 Since then, US exports of HFCS have dwindled. These sugar and sweetener dis- putes under NAFTA are direct offshoots of domestic sugar policies.
Domestic Sugar Policies
US sugar policy is based on three mechanisms: loans that support do- mestic sugar production; TRQs, which restrict foreign sugar imports; and
84. In 1997, Canada’s refined sugar exports to the United States were capped at 10,300 tons compared with Mexico’s allocation of 27,954 tons. See Canadian Sugar Institute (2003). Both quotas gradually increase over time.
Based on US cane and beet sugar imports from Mexico. According to Haley and Suarez
at the USDA, new technologies have led sugarcane recovery rates to rise from 9.08
percent in 1992 to 10.77 percent in 1997. See also Zahniser (2002).
86. Total Mexican sugar exports to the world declined from 1.1 million metric tons raw value in 1998 to 66,000 metric tons in 2004, mainly because of rising Mexican consumption. In the same period, total US sugar exports (which are historically small in absolute terms) declined from 162,000 to 124,000 metric tons. Canada is even less of a sugar exporter than the United States, and Canadian sugar exports declined from 21,000 to 14,000 metric tons in this period. Based on USDA Production, Supply, and Distribution database, November 2003. See Haley and Suarez (2002).
87. Other sugar substitutes include crystalline fructose, and high-intensity low-calorie sweeteners (aspartame).
88. From 1991 to 2001, the value of US exports to Mexico of HFCS and crystalline fructose increased from about $5.3 million (8,634 metric tons) in 1991 to $42 million in 2001 (117,124 metric tons). See Haley and Suarez (2002). | <urn:uuid:7e718763-d9c8-4bc8-8579-5ff35ebea121> | {
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Primary sources are vital resources for educators. iTunes has collected various primary sources, including: historic film, documents, and oral histories. Many of their posted resources are free! Check it out here.
This is reblogged from my post at FreeTech4Teachers.
Stanford University’s Spatial History Project is a community that combines humanities research with “spatial, textual and visual analysis.” On their about page, they explain that as scholars, they realize the significance and importance of displaying information…
read the remainder of the story here:
These are great resources!
As more and more schools are moving away from paper textbooks and materials, teachers are working to answer the obvious question:
where can I find digital resources appropriate for kids?
If you and your building is using Mac computers or IOS devices such as iPads or iPods, at least part of the answer is the Library of Congress. The folks over there recently released six free iBooks that can be quickly downloaded and are perfect for having students interact with primary source evidence.
The Student Discovery Sets bring together historical artifacts and one-of-a-kind documents on a wide range of topics, from history to science to literature. Based on the Library’s Primary Source Sets, these new iBooks have built-in interactive tools that let students zoom in, draw to highlight details, and conduct open-ended primary source analysis.
(Aren’t an Apple school? The LOC is still an awesome place to find online…
View original post 254 more words
Docs Teach from the National Archives has a lot of great activities that incorporate primary sources and use great digital tools. A newly published activity helps students to analyze treaties through Treaty Making.
Students will read and analyze the text of six early treaties between the U.S. government and Great Britain, Russia, and several Native American tribes, and answer a few essential questions. Through close examination of the documents, students will expand their understanding of the original sovereign and separate nature of American Indian tribes, their legal status as independent governments, and the purposes of treaty-making between governments in general.
Students use the Mapping History tool to link primary sources spacialy on a map and incorporate existing treaties for analysis and discussion. Students then participate in a hands on activity that requires them to create a treaty of their own. The lesson plan is fully mapped out with Common Core alignment. Check out this great lesson here. You can explore additional lessons on Docs Teach website.
Courtesy of Open Culture check out this great 3:31 video demonstrating how WWI unfolded across the map in Europe.
The interactive tour includes 3D maps of the grounds, high definition images, video clips, and more. The colossal project of building the memorial museum and exhibit has taken nearly fifteen years to complete. | <urn:uuid:d00cc73b-0fe3-44a5-967a-02794727ca87> | {
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This year’s Hospital Guide – in both digital and printed formats – is delivered using posters. Why posters? In the era of electronic media, using one of the oldest forms of communication known to man may seem perverse. But there are good reasons why sticking information up on walls has remained popular, from ancient royal proclamations to modern marketing campaigns.
One of the most obvious features of posters is that they are, by their nature, public and transparent. Books and websites are made to be read individually and digested in private. Posters – digitally and in print – are about sharing information and messages.
Another reason is that they are concise. More than ever, in healthcare, we need to learn to boil information down into clear conclusions. We need to work hard to see the wood for the trees.
When Dr Foster first started publishing this guide more than a decade ago, we were addressing the lack of information about quality of healthcare. It was not just that the public had little or no information. Nobody inside or outside the NHS had the information they needed to tell good care from bad.
Today, for much of the NHS the problem is no longer a lack of information, it is a surfeit.
NHS hospitals are awash with data. Along with the information that Dr Foster provides, there are national reporting systems; national clinical audits; feedback from NHS Choices, from national patient surveys and from staff surveys; reports from patient safety monitoring programmes and from infection control monitoring… to name just some of the most obvious sources. Within the hospital there is an ever increasing pool of information drawn from internal information systems and electronic records. Each source is capable of providing information about different diagnoses, different patient groups as well as trends over time.
Put it all together and those running hospitals or commissioning NHS services have available to them tens of thousands of data points which relate to the cost and the quality of the service they provide. How does the board of a hospital make any decision comfortable in the knowledge that it has adequately assessed the available information?
The complexity leads some people to despair of the process. Observing that the data is of variable reliability, sometimes contradictory and never simple to interpret, they conclude that nothing can be proven beyond doubt and wash their hands of the whole exercise.
That is a cop out. Decisions about spending and care will be made one way or the other. We have seen too often the consequence of bad decisions – decisions made in the face of strong clues in the data that the actions being taken were causing harm to patients and wasting resources. The problem may be hard but it cannot be ignored or avoided.
Doctors understand this dilemma. The art and science of diagnosis requires the assessment of complex, sometimes contradictory clues to reach a view on the best way to treat the patient. Sometimes it is simple. Sometimes the only option is to proceed with treatment On the basis of uncertain conclusions on the grounds that doing nothing is likely to be worse.
The management and administration of our health services has yet to achieve an equivalent degree of skill in the way it uses information to diagnose the problems of our health system and identify the most appropriate remedies.
This may explain one of the most troubling findings in this year’s guide. This year we set out the findings of a survey of NHS hospital doctors carried out by Doctors.net.uk. Most doctors responding to the survey did not agree that their hospital always acted on concerns raised by staff. One in four expressed no confidence in the management of their hospital.
Less surprising was the finding from the survey that most doctors believe patients get a worse standard of care if they come dr foster hospital guide 2013 into hospital at a weekend. This year we have returned to the subject of hospital care at weekends and looked at a wide range of measures – mortality rates, readmission rates, access to diagnostic tests and the length of time that urgent patients wait for surgery. On every measure we looked at, the position for patients admitted at weekends was worse than for patients admitted during the week.
Each data point on its own is open to interpretation. Every number we publish is affected by confounding factors and surrounded with statistical uncertainty. No single metric could ever safely lead to a firm conclusion.
But when all the data points in one direction – when every piece of information is repeating a consistent message – it is important to draw that conclusion out clearly and share it. That is why we have used posters.
Whether it is the impact of drugs and alcohol on our health and on the NHS, the variation in mortality rates between hospitals or the way in which financial constraints are affecting services, our aim has been to draw out the important messages and provide a mechanism to communicate them.
The Hospital Guide is sent to every hospital and commissioning chief executive in England. We hope that within it they will find at least one poster that they would like to put up in their office or in the corridors of their hospital.
This does not mean, of course, that we are giving up on digital media. Here at myhospitalguide.com you can interrogate all the data in detail, link to the many examples of excellent practice highlighted in the guide, and share the report and posters with your own contacts to stimulate discussion and change. We hope that you will do that!
Co-founder, Dr Foster Intelligence | <urn:uuid:8f9a84b1-4467-4b04-8723-b2e0efe738fd> | {
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Location: Location not imported yet.Title: Plant-feeding insects harbor double-stranded RNA viruses encoding a novel proline-alanine rich protein and a polymerase distantly related to that of fungal viruses) Author
Submitted to: Virology
Publication Type: Peer reviewed journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/14/2010
Publication Date: 6/11/2010
Citation: Spear, A., Sisterson, M.S., Yokomi, R.K., Stenger, D.C. 2010. Plant-feeding insects harbor double-stranded RNA viruses encoding a novel proline-alanine rich protein and a polymerase distantly related to that of fungal viruses. Virology. 404:304-311. Interpretive Summary: In an effort to discover new biological control agents for plant feeding hemipteran pests, three cornered alfalfa hopper (TCAH, Spissistilus festinus), and beet leafhopper (BLH, Circulifer tenellus) were evaluated for presence of viral double-stranded (ds) RNA. TCAH and BLH are of economic importance and common in the San Joaquin Valley of California. TCAH has a preference for legumes and in California is mainly a pest of alfalfa. BLH has a broad host range but is primarily of concern as a vector of curtoviruses causing curly top disease and Spiroplasma citri causing citrus stubborn disease. Both insect species were found to harbor novel dsRNA viruses, designated Spissistilus festinus virus 1 (SpFV1) and Circulifer tenellus virus 1 (CiTV1). The genomes of both viruses were sequenced and shown to be distantly related to certain unclassified fungal viruses and the plant virus Curcubit yellows associated virus. As neither virus produced overt disease in their respective insect hosts, SpFV1 and CiTV1 are not considered viable biological control agents. Nonetheless, high incidence of SpFV1 and CiTV1 in populations of TCAH and BLH, coupled with substantially intraspecies sequence diversity of viruses, indicates that the two new viruses may have utility as novel genetic markers to assess population structure, gene flow, and migration patterns of TCAH and BLH.
Technical Abstract: Novel double-stranded RNAs (~8 kbp) were isolated from three cornered alfalfa hopper (Spissistilus festinus) and beet leafhopper (Circulifer tenellus), two plant-feeding hemipteran insect pests. Genomes of the two new viruses, designated as Spissistilus festinus virus 1 (SpFV1) and Circulifer tenellus virus 1 (CiTV1), were organized similarly and shared 54% nucleotide sequence identity. The presumptive positive-sense strand contained a leader sequence of 572 nts (SpFV1) or 642 nts (CiTV1) followed by an open reading frame (ORF) encoding a proline alanine rich protein (PArp). Expression of the 3’ proximal RNA directed RNA polymerase (RdRp) ORF appears to result from -1 translational frameshifting of the PArp ORF. BLASTX searches using SpFV1 and CiTV1 RdRp as queries returned as subjects the RdRp core domain of totiviruses, chrysoviruses, several unclassified fungal viruses, and Cucurbit yellows associated virus (CuYAV). Phylogenetic analysis of the RdRp indicated that SpFV1 and CiTV1 were most closely related to each other and, along with CuYAV, represent a unique lineage that may constitute a new genus not affiliated with any established family. Although BLASTX searches using PArp sequences as queries failed to return subjects with significant e values, genome organization of SpFV1 and CiTV1 resembled that of the unclassified fungal dsRNA viruses Phlebiopsis gigantea virus 1 (PgV1), Phlebiopsis gigantea virus 2 (PgV2), and Fusarium graminearum virus 3 (FgV3). Attempts to purify SpFV1 and CiTV1 virions were unsuccessful, suggesting lack of encapsidation in conventional particles, a trait shared with PgV1, PgV2, and FgV3. As SpFV1 and CiTV1 do not appear to cause disease but are common in their respective hosts, these two new viruses may be considered benign molecular symbionts. | <urn:uuid:d644bb7c-a819-4fbe-a833-dbb5b54a8201> | {
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After more than five years of claims and counter-claims about the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, President Obama is expected to make his final decision soon. So we thought it was a good time to sift through the disinformation and lay out some basic facts.
- Building the pipeline will create jobs in the U.S., but not as many as supporters have claimed, and only for a year or two. The U.S. State Department estimates that 42,100 jobs would be added during construction, but that only 50 workers would be required to operate the pipeline.
- Oil from Canadian bitumen deposits — which the Keystone would carry from Alberta to the U.S. for refining — results in 14 percent to 20 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than oil typically consumed in the U.S. at present.
- But that doesn’t mean that stopping the pipeline would prevent Canadians from extracting their crude and getting it to market to be burned, either in the U.S. or other countries. “Such a change is not likely to occur,” State concluded.
- In fact, much of that oil is reaching the U.S. already — by rail — and more tank-car capacity is being added quickly. Canadians also are proposing two other pipelines to tanker ports on the Pacific coast, and a third project to nearly double the effective capacity of an existing line to the U.S.
- Pipelines are dangerous, but tanker cars are more so. Rail accidents spilled more oil in the U.S. last year than in all the previous years on record combined. And in Canada, 47 people died in one fiery tanker-train disaster in Quebec last year.
The pipeline would be built by TransCanada Corp. and would run 1,179 miles from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City, Neb., where it would connect with existing pipelines to refineries on the Gulf Coast. The U.S. segment would be 875 miles long, running through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. The 36-inch diameter line could carry up to 830,000 barrels (nearly 35 million gallons) of oil per day.
Because it would cross the U.S.-Canadian border, it would require a finding by the Obama administration that building it is in the national interest. The State Department, after lengthy review, submitted its Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on Jan. 31, and said it would receive public comments until March 7. No date has been announced for a final decision.
The debate over the project has pitted environmentalists — who hope to block the project on grounds that it would worsen global warming and result in hazardous oil spills — against the president’s critics on the right — who say he should have approved it long ago to create jobs and lessen U.S. dependence on oil from less friendly countries.
Any big construction project requires workers to build it. How many? The U.S. State Department’s analysis says 3,900 would be employed directly if the job is done in one year, or 1,950 per year if work is spread over two. TransCanada Corp. puts the number higher, saying the project would support 9,000 construction jobs directly.
There would be additional, “indirect” work for companies supplying goods and services, including concrete, fuel, surveying, welding materials and earth-moving equipment required for the project, and “induced” jobs resulting from money spent by workers and suppliers, such as ranchers providing beef for restaurants and construction camps. Counting up everything, the State Department estimates a total of 42,100 jobs could be created. TransCanada has accepted the 42,100 figure for total employment.
Whatever the number, these jobs are temporary, lasting only for the year or two that it would take to complete the project. The number of permanent jobs is much lower. “The proposed Project would generate approximately 50 jobs during operations,” according to State’s analysis.
House Republicans are still claiming the project would create 120,000 jobs. But that’s based on outdated information. The House Energy Committee’s GOP majority website extrapolates from figures given by TransCanada two years ago — for a much longer pipeline than is now proposed.
That was before President Obama initially rejected the original Canada-to-Texas project pending changes in the route. Since then, TransCanada has completed a 485-mile segment of the original project — running from Cushing, Okla., to refineries in Texas — which did not require presidential approval because it did not cross an international border. Now named the “Gulf Coast Pipeline Project,” construction began in August 2012 and was completed this year. It went into operation on Jan. 22.
The current Keystone XL project includes 875 miles within the U.S. And, as noted, even TransCanada says it would create about 42,000 temporary jobs, not 120,000.
Critics of the pipeline are fond of saying it would carry “the dirtiest oil on the planet,” and there is no question that the oil is significantly “dirtier” than most in the sense that it results in more greenhouse gas emissions.
It comes from Alberta and parts of Saskatchewan, in what the industry calls “oil sands” and environmentalist critics call “tar sands.” By either name, they are vast deposits of bitumen — a form of petroleum so dense that at a temperature of 52 degrees Fahrenheit it is “hard as a hockey puck,” according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. It must be heated or diluted to be made to flow through pipes.
The bitumen is found mixed with sand and clay. Extracting it requires a good deal of energy — either through open-pit mining from surface deposits or by injecting steam into deeper, “in situ” (in place) sites. Refining it into useful fuels also requires more energy — and hence more emissions — than lighter forms of petroleum.
How much “dirtier” is it? The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service surveyed published scientific literature on the subject, and those studies found variously that getting Canadian bitumen produced and processed into fuel produces between 70 percent and 110 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than the weighted average of transportation fuels now used in the U.S. That’s what’s called a “well-to-tank” figure, the measure preferred by critics.
However, once it is in the tank, gasoline or diesel fuel that comes from Canadian bitumen is no different than fuel from any other form of petroleum. And burning the fuel in car and truck engines produces a lot more emissions than producing it and getting it to the pump.
So over the entire “life cycle” of a fuel — from in the ground to out the tailpipe — burning a gallon of fuel from the Canadian oil results in 14 percent to 20 percent more greenhouse gas emissions, on average, than burning a gallon of currently available fuel, according to the CRS study. That’s called a “well to wheel” figure. The State Department’s final environmental report put the well-to-wheel figure at 17 percent — squarely in the middle of the published studies surveyed by CRS.
CRS estimated that oil flowing through the Keystone pipeline would result in an increase in U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases equivalent to adding somewhere between 770,800 and 4.3 million passenger vehicles. But whether that would mean any increase at all in global emissions “remains uncertain,” CRS said. And the State Department said “such a change is not likely to occur.”
State said Canadian oil will probably end up being produced and burned anyway, even if the Keystone is not built. It said new data and analysis indicate that “rail will likely be able to accommodate new production if new pipelines are delayed or not.”
Last year the Environmental Protection Agency officially questioned a similar conclusion contained in an earlier draft of the report, and said State should “provide a more careful review of the market analysis” that supported it. State did so, conducting economic modeling of 16 different sets of supply-demand assumptions and pipeline constraints, which it said showed that “cross-border pipeline constraints have a limited impact on crude flows and prices.”
And meanwhile, more and more Canadian oil is already coming to the U.S. in tanker cars, just as State predicted.
Railroad Tank Cars: A substantial amount of Canadian oil is already entering the U.S. by rail, in tank cars, and the amount carried this way is rising sharply. No White House approval is required.
Rail shipments have skyrocketed since the time the White House rejected the original Keystone route, when the shipments were less than 20,000 barrels per day. The State Department’s final environmental report estimated that 180,000 barrels per day were already being transported by rail from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, amounting to nearly 22 percent of the volume that the Keystone could carry (830,000 barrels per day). And the industry is adding new rail capacity rapidly.
For example, on Dec. 20, plans for a new loading facility in Edmonton (Alberta’s capital) were announced. It is projected to be in operation by the end of 2014, with an eventual capacity to load 250,000 barrels per day for shipment to North American refineries. Another new rail terminal is planned for Hardisty (where the Keystone pipeline would originate) with a capacity of 140,000 barrels per day, to begin operations early this year. The international information company IHS estimates that as much as 450,000 barrels per day could be moving by rail by the end of 2014, according to CNBC.
Other Pipelines: Besides the Keystone, three other pipeline projects are being proposed to carry Alberta crude oil to market. Two would carry it across the mountains of British Columbia to ports on Canada’s Pacific coast, to be loaded on tankers and shipped mostly to China and other Asian markets (and with some going to California), while a third would nearly double the effective capacity of an existing line to the U.S.
Kinder Morgan proposes to nearly triple the capacity of its existing Trans Mountain Pipeline to carry an additional 690,000 barrels per day. The company filed its formal application with Canada’s National Energy Board on Dec. 16, and says that if approved the expanded pipeline could be operational by late 2017. The project faces a long review, but the company says 73 percent of the expansion would be built on existing right-of-way.
Opinion in British Columbia is narrowly divided. A Jan. 22 poll by the Canadian polling company Insights West found that 48 percent said they favored the project, while 43 percent said they opposed it. The poll also showed that support has grown since another poll the previous year, when the pipeline proposal was in a preliminary phase. Insights West said that between the two polls, those favoring the project jumped by 10 percentage points, while those opposing it dropped by 14 points.
Enbridge Inc. proposes to construct an entirely new Northern Gateway pipeline to carry 525,000 barrels per day to the coast, and it has already cleared a major regulatory hurdle. A review panel of Canada’s regulators recommended approval of the project on Dec. 19, finding that it would be “in the public interest” provided that Enbridge complied with 209 conditions, which Enbridge says it is “working hard” to meet. Canada’s natural resources minister, Joe Oliver, says the government will make its final decision by mid-June.
A Jan. 25 poll conducted for a Canadian news agency found the country’s public more likely to support the project (38 percent) than to oppose it (29 percent). And in British Columbia, a Jan. 5 survey by the polling company Ipsos showed 48 percent of British Columbia residents supported the project, while 32 percent opposed.
That could change, of course. A later poll commissioned by environmental groups found that 64 percent of British Columbia residents opposed “allowing crude oil supertankers through B.C.’s northern inside coastal waters” to load oil carried by the proposed pipeline. But the same poll found that 64 percent also said they “believe Enbridge will succeed in building its pipelines and tanker proposal,” while only 12 percent thought it would fail.
Enbridge also proposed March 3 to lay new and larger pipe along its 46-year-old “Line 3″ cross-border pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta, to Superior, Wisc. The company said this would have the effect of “restoring” the line’s effective capacity to 760,000 barrels per day from its current operating limit of 390,000.
The company said this would not require a new presidential permit, prompting an objection from the Sierra Club. Enbridge said the $7 billion project would be the largest in its history, and that it hopes to have it completed by 2017.
Pipelines can be hazardous. An average of 97,376 barrels (4.1 million gallons) of petroleum and other “hazardous liquids” have been spilled each year in pipeline incidents over the last decade, according to the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. These incidents have claimed an average of two lives per year, and resulted in more than $263 million in annual reported property damage as well.
Those figures include the most expensive onshore oil pipeline spill in U.S. history, caused when 30-inch pipe operated by Enbridge ruptured on July 26, 2010, near Marshall, Mich. That dumped more than 1 million gallons of Canadian diluted bitumen — the same material that would be carried in the proposed 36-inch Keystone pipeline — into the Kalamazoo River. Enbridge is still struggling to complete the cleanup, having failed to meet a Dec. 31 Environmental Protection Agency deadline for dredging remaining oil residue that settled on the bottom of the river. Although Enbridge initially put the spill at about 840,000 gallons, the EPA said last year that 1.15 million gallons had been recovered and 350,000 cubic yards of contaminated river sediment remained to be recovered. Enbridge said in August 2013 that it had spent more than $1 billion on the cleanup and remediation to date, and the figure continues to rise.
A spill from the Keystone could potentially have similar effects. The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, in its final evaluation report on the project, found that the properties of the diluted forms of bitumen that would flow through the state in the Keystone pipeline “are similar in many respects to other heavy sour crude oils.” For what it’s worth, TransCanada says it plans to make the Keystone “the safest pipeline ever constructed in the U.S.,” adding more remote shut-off valves and inspections and burying the pipe more deeply than with other pipelines.
Rail transport is even more hazardous than pipelines, however. Last July, 47 people died in a single disaster when an unattended train including 72 tanker cars loaded with crude oil rolled downhill, exploded and burned in the Canadian town of Lac-Mégantic in Quebec province. Forty buildings were demolished, and an estimated 5.6 million liters (1.5 million gallons) of crude oil spilled or burned.
And that calamity is by no means an isolated incident.
- On Oct. 19, four rail cars carrying crude oil and nine carrying liquified petroleum gas derailed in Alberta, causing a fire that burned for days and forcing evacuation of the nearby hamlet of Gainford.
- Another crude-oil tanker train derailed on Nov. 8 and burned near Aliceville, Ala., releasing up to 750,000 gallons of oil.
- And on Dec. 30, 20 cars in a mile-long train carrying crude oil ignited and burned after colliding with a derailed grain train near Casselton, N.D., sending up a giant fireball and spilling what federal investigators later estimated to be 476,000 gallons of oil.
The tempo of oil-train accidents has increased along with the sharp rise in tanker shipments, as has the amount of oil discharged. Soon after the Casselton spill, an investigative news report by the McClatchy news agency concluded, based on federal data, that last year more oil spilled in the U.S. from rail tank cars than in all the nearly 40 previous years on record combined.
The incidents continue. On Feb. 13, several cars of a train carrying heavy Canadian crude derailed in Western Pennsylvania. This time only a few thousand gallons leaked out, and there was no fire or explosion.
But later that month, on Feb. 26, a representative of the National Transportation Safety Board, Robert L. Sumwalt, told a congressional hearing that incidents such as the Casselton explosion have become an “increasingly commonplace story.” He said continued use of tanker cars built to meet current federal standards poses “an unacceptable public risk.” Meanwhile, the Association of American Railroads is pressing the federal government to impose “more rigorous standards for tank cars carrying flammable liquids, including asking for retrofitting tank cars to meet the higher standards or phasing those that cannot be made safer.”
Based on relative safety records to date, the State Department estimated that an average of six deaths per year would result if the Keystone isn’t built and the same amount of oil is shipped by rail instead. More than twice as much oil is likely to be spilled as well, State estimated.
Some proponents have claimed the Keystone project would hold down gasoline prices for U.S. motorists, while foes have claimed that it would do the opposite, at least for Midwestern motorists. We find that neither claim is valid.
The State Department’s analysis concluded that either way, the Keystone project would have “little impact on the prices that U.S. consumers pay for refined products such as gasoline.” That’s because Gulf Coast refineries that process heavy crude could continue to get it from Venezuela or the Middle East, as they do now, if they can’t get it from Canada, the report said. And even if the Keystone isn’t built, Canadian crude still “could reach U.S. and Canadian refineries by rail.”
Other independent experts have said essentially the same thing. Curt Launer, a managing director at Deutsche Bank, has been quoted as saying, “Keystone wouldn’t have a significant impact either way on overall North American energy prices.” Another expert, Morningstar analyst David McColl, was quoted in the same article saying the Keystone would have “no material impact” on gasoline or diesel prices. And even TransCanada doesn’t include lower gasoline prices in its list of the “economic benefits” it claims would result from building the pipeline.
Critics have argued, on the other hand, that Midwestern prices would actually increase, but there’s little support for that idea.
The critics have pointed to an unusual market situation in which crude oil was selling in Oklahoma — as measured by the West Texas Intermediate benchmark price — at far below the world price as measured by the North Sea Brent benchmark. That was due in part to a pipeline bottleneck at Cushing, Okla., that allowed a glut of oil to build up from booming production in the Dakotas and Canada. In 2012, the price for WTI averaged $18 per barrel less than the average world price, according to the most recent report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But that “discount” fell below $4 per barrel in July 2013. It rebounded to $14 per barrel in January, and EIA projected that it would average $11 per barrel for all of 2014.
But even when the discount was greater, the lower price of crude oil in the Midwest never translated into consistently lower prices at the pump. A look at EIA’s weekly figures shows that since the start of 2011 the average price of regular gasoline in the Midwest has been only 4 cents a gallon less than the national average, and has ranged anywhere from 20 cents a gallon less to 21 cents a gallon higher. Those who assumed that refiners were passing on their lower costs to consumers were simply wrong.
The State Department analysis came to the same conclusion, finding no correlation between wholesale gasoline prices in the Midwest and the average WTI discount. (See section 188.8.131.52 in the “Market Analysis” section.) In a footnote (number 10), the analysis commented that the cheaper Midwestern crude oil “benefited … refiners,” not motorists.
So, while building the pipeline would undoubtedly provide consumers with some measure of insurance against supply interruptions, as would any additional supply route, there’s simply no evidence that it would have any noticeable effect on prices at the pump, either up or down.
Foes of the pipeline say the State Department report reflects a pro-industry bias because of an alleged conflict of interest by a firm hired to assist in its preparation. The Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth accused the consultant, Environmental Resources Management, of having ties to the oil industry and hiding a previous connection to TransCanada.
For example, “ERM and TransCanada have worked together at least since 2011 on another pipeline project in Alaska,” Friends of the Earth stated in a July 10, 2013, news release. But ERM said that was wrong. “ERM’s affiliates performed services on the Alaska Project only on behalf of a company other than TransCanada,” the company said in a July 17, 2013, letter to the State Department.
Indeed, the State Department’s Office of Inspector General investigated, and confirmed that work was done for URS Corp., which was hired by Exxon Mobil Corp. The Alaska project was a joint venture between TransCanada and ExxonMobil, but it was ExxonMobil that paid URS, which in turn paid ERM’s affiliates. The inspector general found this didn’t violate any conflict of interest rules, and cleared the department of any wrongdoing in a report released Feb. 26.
Another issue raised by critics is that ERM employees working on the Keystone evaluation had previously worked on projects for TransCanada, and one had formerly been a TransCanada employee. But the inspector general found that didn’t violate any conflict-of-interest rules. The inspector general said the department had substantially followed all regulations for vetting consultants for conflicts of interest, and at times had been even “more rigorous” than required. Overall, the inspector general found that “the Department’s conflict of interest review was effective and that the review’s conclusions were reasonable.”
The Sierra Club and other environmental groups vowed to fight on regardless of the OIG report. On March 3, several hundred people were arrested in student-led protests in Washington, D.C., where some secured themselves to the White House fence with plastic zip ties.
— by Brooks Jackson
U.S. Department of State. “Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL Project.” 31 Jan 2014.
“Keystone XL Pipeline — Overall route map.” TransCanada Corp. website. Accessed 7 Mar 2014.
“Jobs and Economic Benefits; Keystone XL Means Jobs.” TransCanada Corp. website. Accessed 7 Mar 2014.
“Keystone XL: #TimeToBuild.” U.S. Congress; House Energy and Commerce Committee, Republican majority website. Accessed 7 Mar 2014.
“Media Advisory – TransCanada Releases Detailed Keystone XL Job Creation Data.” TransCanada Corp. news release. 10 Jan 2012.
“Obama rejects Keystone oil pipeline.” NBC News. 18 Jan 2012.
“Gulf Coast Pipeline Project.” TransCanada Corp. website. Accessed 7 Mar 2014.
Transportation Board of Canada. “Railway Investigation R13E0142: Train derailment and fire in Gainford, Alberta.” Website accessed 7 Mar 2014.
“Stopping the Keystone XL Pipeline.” National Resources Defense Council website. Accessed 7 Mar 2014.
“What Are Oil Sands?” Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers website. Accessed 7 Mar 2014.
“What are the Tar Sands?” Rainforest Action Network website. Accessed 7 Mar 2014.
“Recovering the Oil; Oil Sands Today.” Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers website. Accessed 7 Mar 2014.
Lattanzio, Richard K. “Canadian Oil Sands: Life-Cycle Assessments of Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” Congressional Research Service. 15 Mar 2013.
Lamphier,Gary. “Kinder Morgan, Imperial announce $270M rail terminal for Strathcona County.” Edmonton [Alberta] Journal. 20 Dec 2013.
“Gibson Energy Announces Hardisty Rail Terminal To Transport Crude (UPDATE).” Huffington Post. 7 Aug 2013.
Domm, Patti. “Canadian oil rides south even without Keystone pipeline.” CNBC. 4 Nov 2013.
Kinder-Morgan Canada. “Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project.” Company website. accessed 7 Mar 2014.
Williams, Nia. “UPDATE 2-Kinder Morgan applies to expand Trans Mountain pipeline.” Reuters. 16 Dec 2013.
Insights West. “Kinder Morgan Expansion Still Splits Views in British Columbia.” 22 Jan 2014.
Enbridge Inc. “Project at a glance – Northern Gateway.” Company website. accessed 7 Mar 2014.
“Northern Gateway pipeline decision expected by mid-June.” Reuters. 25 Feb 2014.
Government of Canada: Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline Project – Joint Review Panel. “Joint Review Panel recommends approving the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project.” news release. 19 Dec 2013.
Proussalidis, Daniel. “Northern Gateway backers have upper hand: Poll.” Toronto Sun. 25 Jan 2014.
Kaufmann, By Bill. “B.C. residents favour Northern Gateway pipeline: Poll.” Toronto Sun. 5 Jan 2014.
Justaston Market Intelligence, Vancouver BC. “Oil Tanker Traffic in BC; The BC Outlook Omnibus: A Survey of British Columbia Residents.” Poll conducted for the Dogwood Initiative. Jan 2014.
Enbridge Inc. “Enbridge to Undertake $7 Billion Mainline Replacement Program.” News release. 3 Mar 2014.
“Edited Transcript: Enbridge Inc Conference Call to Discuss $7 Billion Mainline Replacement Program.” Thompson Reuters. 4 Mar 2014.
Jones, Jeffrey. “Enbridge bypasses U.S. permit process for $7-billion pipeline upgrade.” Toronto Globe and Mail. 4 Mar 2014.
Hayes, Doug. “Statement on Enbridge Line 3 Tar Sands Pipeline Expansion Plan.” Sierra Club news release. 4 Mar 2014.
U.S. Department of Transportation:Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. “All Reported Pipeline Incidents:Hazardous Liquid.” Online database accessed 5 Mar 2014.
McGowan, Elizabeth and Lisa Song. ” ‘Keystone Kops’ Bungling Led to Costliest U.S. Pipeline Spill” Bloomberg News. 24 Jul 2012.
Smith, Lindsay. “Enbridge unveils new plans to dredge oily sediment from Kalamazoo River.” Michigan Radio. 13 Feb 2014.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Enbridge Begins New Dredging Project on Kalamazoo River to Comply With EPA Order.” News release. 30 Jul 2013.
Linnitt, Carol. “Official Price of the Enbridge Kalamazoo Spill, A Whopping $1,039,000,000.” DeSmog Canada. 26 Aug 2013.
Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality. “Nebraska’s Keystone XL Pipeline Evaluation: Final Evaluation Report.” 4 Jan 2014.
“Keystone XL will be the safest pipeline ever constructed in the United States.” TransCanada Corporation website. Accessed 7 Mar 2014.
Giovannetti, Justin and Grant Robertson and Jacquie McNish “As Lac-Mégantic death toll reaches 47, safety board calls for immediate rail-safety changes.” Toronto Globe and Mail. 19 Jul 2013.
Beaudin,Monique .”Lac-Mégantic oil spill even worse than first feared, investigation shows.” Montreal Gazette. 22 Oct 2013.
Commisso, Christina. “Train derailment fire will have to burn itself out before residents can go home.” CT News. 19 Oct 2013.
Salz,Allison. “Evacuation lifted after train derailment in Gainford, Alberta.” Edmonton Sun. 23 Oct 2013.
Detrhage, Stephen. “Flyover by Hurricane Creekkeeper shows extent of damage in Aliceville train derailment and oil spill (photos).” Alabama Media Group. 20 Nov 2013.
Silva, Daniella. “Mile-long train carrying crude oil derails, explodes in North Dakota.” NBC News. 30 Dec 2013.
Sumwalt, Robert. On Behalf of the National Transportation Safety Board, “Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure United States House of Representatives Hearing on Oversight of Passenger and Freight Rail Safety.” 26 Feb 2014.
Tate, Curtis. “More oil spilled from trains in 2013 than in previous 4 decades, federal data show.” McClatchy Washington Bureau. 20 Jan 2014.
Gibbons, Robert and Elizabeth Diltz. “Train carrying Canadian oil derails, leaks in Pennsylvania.” Reuters. 13 Feb 2014.
Association of American Railroads. “Transportation of Crude Oil by Rail: Advocating for Safer Tanks.” Website accessed 7 Mar 2014.
“GOP says Keystone XL would lower gas price.” UPI. 21 Feb 2013.
Steyer, Tom. “Keystone XL Pipeline Will Raise Gasoline Prices, Not Just Environmental Concerns.” Huffington Post. 16 Jul 2013.
Molon, Adam. “Will Keystone affect gas prices? No, not really.” CNBC. 26 Oct 2013.
U.S. Energy Information Administration. “WTI-Brent crude oil price spread has reached unseen levels.” 28 Feb 2011.
U.S. Energy Information Administration. “Short Term Energy Outlook.” Feb 2014.
U.S. Energy Information Administration. “Full History; U.S. All Grades, Areas and Formulations.” Data downloaded 4 Mar 2014.
“Keystone XL Report Contractor Tied to TransCanada: Evidence Mounts in Ongoing Conflict of Interest Inquiry.” Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth. Joint news release. 12 Feb 2014.
“Conflict of interest: State Department contractor on Keystone XL study lied about ties to TransCanada & oil industry.” Friends of the Earth. News release. 10 July 2013.
Mufson, Steven. “IG: State Department did not break rules when hiring consultant for Keystone report.” Washington Post. 26 Feb 2014.
U.S. Department of State; Office of Inspector General. “Compliance Follow-up Review: The Department of State’s Choice of Environmental Resources Management, Inc., To Assist in Preparing the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.” 26 Feb 2014.
“State Department Inspector General Releases Findings on Keystone XL Assessment.” Statement by Sierra Club. 26 Feb 2014.
Buford, Talia. “Hundreds arrested at White House Keystone protest.” Politico. 2 Mar 2014. | <urn:uuid:0536d071-ba03-4af4-9e8c-782c831ea6ab> | {
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Yole: What is the main benefit of SiPMs relative to other sensor technologies when applied to LiDAR?
SensL: Historically, LiDAR systems have been built with a wide variety of sensor types ranging from a simple PiN photodiode to vacuum-tube PMTs. With increasing performance demands from applications such as ADAS and drone systems, the number of available sensors that actually fulfill the requirements is limited. Generally, each sensor type will have implementation challenges, but in some cases those challenges can be met with practical system solutions.
A simple PiN photodiode has no internal gain and so requires external amplification that limits the SNR (signal to noise ratio) and bandwidth. Avalanche photodiodes (APDs) also require amplification and, in addition, suffer from sensor-to-sensor non-uniformity. Therefore SNR limits the APD and to a greater extent PiN photodiodes to only being suitable for short-range LiDAR.
SiPMs have very high internal gain and therefore do not require external amplification that would contribute additional noise to the signal. Therefore the SiPM will have a better SNR than the APD in many use cases.
Ambient light rejection needs to be carefully considered to successfully implement an SiPM based LIDAR system in order to avoid the sensor being saturated by sunlight due to it’s single photon sensitivity at 905nm wavelength. SensL has worked to solve this at a system level by using a combination of techniques. Firstly, by limiting the aperture so that the sensor field-of-view, secondly, by using a bandpass optical filter to block ambient light outside the wavelengths of interest and finally, by using a short laser pulse to provide a higher optical peak power while still being within eye-safe limits.
To illustrate the benefits of the SiPM versus an APD, SensL has taken the example of a long-range LiDAR system operating in bright light conditions. We have modeled an ADAS system at >100m with 100klux background, which corresponds to bright daylight and target reflectivity down to 5%. 10cm resolution was achieved at 100m in these conditions using an eye-safe laser. We modeled the same situation with an APD and it was only possible to range to 60m.
We think this limitation of APDs for long-distance ranging is becoming clear to the automotive companies now as well. The high gain of the SiPM when compared to an APD, and hence it’s single-photon sensitivity, is really the key factor that makes it uniquely possible to achieve long-distance ranging in a real-world situation. | <urn:uuid:24fa802f-0361-431b-bbfe-3bbed4a7cc42> | {
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The best answer to this question so far is perhaps the one given by Melina Mercouri during her famous speech to the Oxford Union in 1986:
“You must understand what the Parthenon Marbles mean to us. They are our pride. They are our sacrifices. They are our noblest symbol of excellence. They are a tribute to the democratic philosophy. They are our aspirations and our name. They are the essence of Greekness.”
Before I tell you why I think we feel so strongly about these Marbles, allow me first to digress slightly. Ex-British Prime Minister David Cameron once addressed Parliament with a remark that I simply think is the epitome of arrogance. It was about the Parthenon Marbles in response to the Greek demands for their repatriation. The infamous remark was a play on words: “Britain has no intention to lose its marbles.”
Obviously, the ex-Prime Minister attempted to appear witty by suggesting that to give the Marbles back would mean to lose one’s mind (or losing one’s marbles according to the British saying). I think however that there was no wit in that remark whatsoever. On the contrary, given the fervour of the Greek demand and knowing the things I know which he obviously does not, such insensitivity and conceit in his response render his ‘wit’ quite disgusting to my sensitive Greek ears.
But what is it about these lifeless slabs of marble that is so important? What made Thomas Hardy refer to them as “captives in exile”? Why did Melina Mercouri once declare that should they return after her death, then that day she will be reborn? What makes celebrated British actor Stephen Fry such a passionate supporter of the cause and why do his eyes twinkle when he speaks about their return to “the blue light of Greece”? What do they all see in these ancient pieces of stone that Mr Cameron still cannot grasp?
A great measure of insight can perhaps be gained by reading a short passage from my recently published novel ‘The Necklace of Goddess Athena’. One of its leading characters is Efimios; an unsung hero of Athens who has saved the city many times by undertaking time-travelling missions (as instructed by Goddess Athena) in order to protect the city from its enemies. One of his missions involved his intervention during the Greek War of Independence against Turkish rule in the 1820’s. Although the passage that follows is a work of fiction in the sense that it suggests the involvement of Efimios, the event itself is absolutely true. It happened on the top of the Acropolis hill and at the time, Elgin had already been there to loot the Parthenon temple to a devastating effect.
“At the time, the Turkish army had taken over the Acropolis and they were under siege by the Greeks led by Odysseus Androutsos. The enemy had run out of ammunition and they started to tear down the pillars of the Parthenon temple gouging out the lead inside them in order to melt it and cast bullets. The Greeks found out and the terrible news spread like wildfire among the troops. One of the few things that the average Greek has always been very sensitive about is the protection of the Parthenon from further harm.
Led by this sensitivity, the Greeks delivered to the Turks a load of lead with the famous phrase: ‘Here are your bullets; don’t touch the pillars’. Efimios was there, having carried part of the load himself after raising the alarm among the men. As Athena had guessed, the Greeks had responded in the only way possible. They had virtually redeemed the pillars from the enemy with their blood seeing that the delivered lead was meant for their own chests.
This blind valor that borders on madness is the very reason why the Gods never forsake this nation. Its people have a favorite saying: ‘God loves the Greeks’. Often, just when all hope seems lost, a handful of Greeks will come together and perform a small miracle. And in such times, although the rest of the world may watch in incredulity, the average Greek will deem it entirely normal because of the specific conviction that is etched inside his soul.”
To me, Efimios is the embodiment of the Greek spirit throughout the ages. He has sprung forth from my mind as a result of my frustration while trying to explain to my many friends abroad what it means to be Greek. He is the very DNA of Plato and Socrates that we Greeks still feel, grinding in our bones in protest as we swallow down callous and ignorant comebacks from people who fail to see our legitimate reasons for claiming our stolen treasures so persistently. What our cackling opponents in this noble cause fail to understand is that our notorious stoicism in the face of hardship through the ages renders us stronger in the long run and therefore unlikely to ever give up.
One day, Melina Mercouri will get her wish and she will be reborn when that glorious day comes; when the looted relics like the ones we once protected with our lives finally grace our shores again. There are five Caryatids in the Acropolis museum. They are five eternal maidens with long hair braided down their backs. Being made of stone, they seem tireless as they stand on their feet still, waiting patiently for the return of their sixth sister from London. There isn’t one among us that doesn’t regard them as living and breathing things while we watch them wait.
Through the ages that follow, anything is possible. Perhaps 10 Downing Street will have a true philhellene inhabitant some day; someone who will see clearly our logic behind our unwavering persistence. As for Mr Cameron, perhaps he should consider saving his lighthearted jokes for the local pub. After all, this was the venue where he once performed his most renowned joke to date (forgetting to take his own child with him on his way out, apparently!). Neither ignorance nor arrogance is an admirable quality for a man who was once elected to lead so many lives by example.
The world doesn’t need more wit or cleverness. After all, it is the scourge of worldwide ‘cleverness’ from politicians, banks and colossal institutions that has brought the world to the fine mess that it is now in. What the world needs right now is dreamers, thinkers and a good measure of common decency.
Have you enjoyed this post? You may also enjoy: Why is Lord Elgin an abomination to the Greeks?
Greek singer Hellena sings about the Parthenon Marbles. Plus, FREE short stories about the Marbles! GO HERE!
THE ACROPOLIS MUSEUM http://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/en
I AM GREEK AND I WANT TO GO HOME https://www.facebook.com/IAmGreekAndIWantToGoHome?fref=ts
STEPHEN FRY’s SPEECH DURING THE PARTHENON MARBLES DEBATE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM-aWMmkjkA
MELINA MERCOURI FOUNDATION http://www.melinamercourifoundation.org.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58&Itemid=53&lang=en
MELINA MERCOURI’S FAMOUS SPEECH TO THE OXFORD UNION IN 1986 http://www.invgr.com/melina_mercouri_speech.htm | <urn:uuid:cfe51bcd-0645-4bc1-b170-3f7087da1dad> | {
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bull mastiff (măstˈĭf) [key], breed of powerful working dog developed in England in the second half of the 19th cent. It stands from 24 to 27 in. (61–68.6 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs from 100 to 130 lb (45.4–59 kg). Its dense, short coat may be fawn, red, or brindle, with a darker shading on the ears and muzzle. Because of the increasing need to protect game preserves and large estates from poachers, English gamekeepers began to cross existing breeds in an attempt to produce a dog that would possess the required speed, strength, aggressiveness, good night vision, and the capacity to remain silent at the approach of the poacher. It would be the task of the desired dog to knock down the intruder and keep him down until he was captured, rather than simply alarming him into running away. After many breeds were tried, mastiff and bulldog stock were crossed, producing a dog with all the necessary qualities, the bull mastiff. Today it is raised as a guard and show dog and as a pet. See dog.
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Welcome to Of Note
Posted: Monday, January 13, 2014
«"Pleasing to ear and eye alike" is a motto that appears frequently on keyboard instruments of the Renaissance and Baroque. It refers to the beautiful physical decoration that adorns an instrument which, presumably, will produce beautiful music. The motto could also be used to describe the entire collection of musical instruments housed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.» The collection traces its beginning to 1889, when two important gifts were made: a collection of forty-four musical instruments assembled by Museum Trustee Joseph W. Drexel and donated by his widow, Lucy; and a donation a month later of several hundred instruments from Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Adams Brown. Mrs. Brown continued to build the collection until her death in 1919. For 125 years, generations of collectors, donors, musicians, conservators, and curators have shaped the collection into one of the world's great repositories of musical heritage that includes some of the most historically important, artistically beautiful, and musically iconic instruments in the world.
The collection includes European hallmarks such as the earliest surviving piano, made by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1720; violins by members of the Amati family and Antonio Stradivari; and guitars played by Andrés Segovia. Equally important are masterpieces that represent musical cultures from throughout the world, such as an extraordinary Ming-dynasty ivory pi'pa from China, a seventeenth-century Japanese koto complete with its lacquer box, sculptural African drums and trumpets, inlaid Persian instruments, and much, much more.
The primary mission of the Department of Musical Instruments is to preserve these musical treasures for future generations. As curators, we strive to interpret these treasures for visitors, researchers, builders, and performers. Occasionally, a specific instrument may be used for a demonstration or to make a recording that documents its acoustical functions. In the coming months, I look forward to using this blog as a space where curators and guests will share information about this extraordinary collection, its storied history, the department's public activities, and some of the audio and video recordings from our archives. Watch this blog for such items "Of Note," and come visit the Musical Instrument galleries on your next visit to the Met. | <urn:uuid:347ae7b7-d5cc-4b25-be31-a4ec34f1b768> | {
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This Declaration adopted by the General Conference unanimously and by
acclamation is evidence of the reflection and studies on the question of
race carried out by UNESCO during a period of over thirty years. It deals
with all aspects of the problem of race and racial prejudice on the basis
of the most recent findings of the social and natural sciences and so
helps to accomplish the Organization's multidisciplinary and scientific
The General Conference of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, meeting in Paris at its twentieth session, on 27 November 1978 adopted unanimously and by acclamation the following Declaration:
The General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization, meeting at Paris at its twentieth session, from 24
October to 28 November 1978,
1. All human beings belong to a single species and are descended from a common stock. They are born equal in dignity and rights and all form an integral part of humanity.
2. All individuals and groups have the right to be different, to consider themselves as different and to be regarded as such. However, the diversity of life styles and the right to be different may not, in any circumstances, serve as a pretext for racial prejudice; they may not justify either in law or in fact any discriminatory practice whatsoever, nor provide a ground for the policy of apartheid, which is the extreme form of racism.
3. Identity of origin in no way affects the fact that human beings can and may live differently, nor does it preclude the existence of differences based on cultural, environmental and historical diversity nor the right to maintain cultural identity.
4. All peoples of the world possess equal faculties for attaining the highest level in intellectual, technical, social, economic, cultural and political development.
5. The differences between the achievements of the different peoples are entirely attributable to geographical, historical, political, economic, social and cultural factors. Such differences can in no case serve as a pretext for any rank-ordered classification of nations or peoples.
1. Any theory which involves the claim that racial or ethnic groups are inherently superior or inferior, thus implying that somewould be entitled to dominate and eliminate others, presumed to be inferior, or which bases value judgements on racial differentiation, has no scientific foundation and is contrary to the moral and ethical principles of humanity.
2. Racism includes racist ideologies, prejudiced attitudes, discriminatory behaviour, structural arrangements and institutionalized practices resulting in racial inequality as well as the fallacious notion that discriminatory relations between groups are morally and scientifically justifiable; it is reflected in discriminatory provisions in legislation or regulations and discriminatory practices as well as in anti-social beliefs and acts; it hinders the development of its victims, perverts those who practise it, divides nations internally, impedes international co-operation and gives rise to political tensions between peoples; it is contrary to the fundamental principles of international law and, consequently, seriously disturbs interinternational peace and security.
3. Racial prejudice, historically linked with inequalities in power, reinforced by economic and social differences between individuals and groups, and still seeking today to justify such inequalities, is totally without justification.
Any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, ethnic or national origin or relgious intolerance motivated by racist considerations, which destroys or compromises the sovereign equality of States and the right of peoples to self-determination, or which limits in an arbitrary or discriminatory manner the right of every human being and group to full development is incompatible with the requirements of an international order which is just and guarantees respect for human rights; the right to full development implies equal access to the means of personal and collective advancement and fulfilment in a climate of respect for the values of civilizations and cultures, both national and world wide.
1. Any restriction on the complete self-fulfilment of human beings and free communication between them which is based on racial or ethnic considerations is contrary to the principle of equality in dignity and rights; it cannot be admitted.
2. One of the most serious violations of this principle is represented by apartheid, which, like genocide, is a crime against humanity, and gravely disturbs international peace and security.
3. Other policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination constitute crimes against the conscience and dignity of mankind and may lead to political tensions and gravely endanger international peace and security.
1. Culture, as a product of all human beings and a common heritage of mankind, and education in its broadest sense, offer men and women increasingly effective means of adaptation, enabling them not only to affirm that they are born equal in dignity and rights, but also to recognize that they should respect the right of all groups to their own cultural identity and the development of their distinctive cultural life within the national and international contexts, it being understood that it rests with each group to decide in complete freedom on the maintenance, and, if appropriate, the adaptation or enrichment of the values which it regards as essential to its identity.
2. States, in accordance with their constitutional principles and procedures, as well as all other competent authorities and the entire teaching profession, have a responsibility to see that the educational resources of all countries are used to combat racism, more especially by ensuring that curricula and textbooks include scientific and ethical considerations concerning human unity and diversity and that no invidious distinctions are made with regard to any people; by training teachers to achieve these ends; by making the resources of the educational system available to all groups of the population without racial restriction or discrimination; and by taking appropriate steps to remedy the handicaps from which certain racial or ethnic groups suffer with regard to their level of education and standard of living and in particular to prevent such handicaps from being passed on to children.
3. The mass media and those who control or serve them, as well as all organized groups within national communities, are urged with due regard to the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, particularly the principle of freedom of expression - to promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among individuals and groups and to contribute to the eradication of racism, racial discrimination and racial prejudice, in particular by refraining from presenting a stereotyped, partial, unilateral or tendentious picture of individuals and of various human groups. Communication between racial and ethnic groups must be a reciprocal process, enabling them to express themselves and to be fully heard without let or hindrance. The mass media should therefore be freely receptive to ideas of individuals and groups which facilitate such communication.
1. The State has prime responsibility for ensuring human rights and fundamental freedoms on an entirely equal footing in dignity and rights for all individuals and all groups.
2. So far as its competence extends and in accordance with its constitutional principles and procedures, the State should take all appropriate steps, inter alia by legislation, particularly in the spheres of education, culture and communication, to prevent, prohibit and eradicate racism, racist propaganda, racial segregation and apartheid and to encourage the dissemination of knowledge and the findings of appropriate research in natural and social sciences on the causes and prevention of racial prejudice and racist attitudes, with due regard to the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
3. Since laws proscribing racial discrimination are not in themselves sufficient, it is also incumbent on States to supplement them by administrative machinery for the systematic investigation of instances of racial discrimination, by a comprehensive framework of legal remedies against acts of racial discrimination, by broadly based education and research programmes designed to combat racial prejudice and racial discrimination and by programmes of positive political, social, educational and cultural measures calculated to promote genuine mutual respect among groups. Where circumstances warrant, special programmes should be undertaken to promote the advancement of disadvantaged groups and, in the case of nationals, to ensure their effective participation in the decision-making processes of the community.
In addition to political, economic and social measures, law is one of the principal means of ensuring equality in dignity and rights among individuals, and of curbing any propaganda, any form of organization or any practice which is based on ideas or theories referring to the alleged superiority of racial or ethnic groups or which seeks to justify or encourage racial hatred and discrimination in any form. States should adopt such legislation as is appropriate to this end and see that It is given effect and allied by all their services, with due regard to the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Such legislation should form part of a politival, economic and social framework conducive to its impelementation. Individuals and other legal entities, both public and private, must conform with such legislation and use all appropriate means to help the population as a whole to understand and apply it.
1. Individuals, being entitled to an economic, social, cultural and legal order, on the national and international planes, such as to allow them to exercise all their capabilities on a basis of entire equality of rights and opportunities, have corresponding duties towards their fellows, towards the society in which they live and towards the international community. They are accordingly under an obligation to promote harmony among the peoples, to combat racism and racial prejudice and to assist by every means available to them in eradicating racial discrimination in all its forms.
2. In the field of racial prejudice and racist attitudes and practices, specialists in natural and social sciences and cultural studies, well as scientific organizations and associations, are called upon to undertake objective research on a wide interdisciplinary basis; all States should encourage them to this end.
3. It is, in particular, incumbent upon such specialists to ensure by all means available to them. that their research findings are not misinterpreted, and also that they assist the public in understanding such findings.
1. The principle of the equality in dignity and rights of all human beings and all peoples, irrespective of race, colour and origin, is a generally accepted and recognized principle of international law. Consequently any form of racial discrimination practised by a State constitutes a violation of international law giving rise to its international responsibility.
2. Special measures must be taken to ensure equality in dignity and rights for individuals and groups wherever necessary, while ensuring that they are not such as to appear racially discriminatory. In this respect, particular attention should be paid to racial or ethnic groups which are socially or economically disadvantaged, so as to afford them, on a completely equal footing and without discrimination or restriction, the protection of the laws and regulations and the advantages of the social measures in force, in particular in regard to housing, employment and health; to respect the authenticity of their culture and values; and to facilitate their social and occupational advancement, especially through education.
3. Population groups of foreign origin, particularly migrant workers and their families who contribute to the development of the host country, should benefit from appropriate measures designed to afford them security and respect for their dignity and cultural values and to facilitate their adaptation to the host environment and their professional advancement with a view to their subsequent reintegration in their country of origin and their contribution to its development; steps should be taken to make it possible for their children to be taught their mother tongue.
4. Existing disequilibria in international economic relations contribute to the exacerbation of racism and racial prejudice; all States should consequently endeavour to contribute to the restructuring of the international economy on a more equitable basis.
International organizations, whether universal or regional, governmental or non-governmental, are called upon to co-operate and assist, so far as their respective fields of competence and means allow, in the full and complete implementation of the principles set out in this Declaration, thus contributing to the legitimate struggle of all men, born equal in dignity and rights, against the tyranny and oppression of racism, racial segregation, apartheid and genocide, so that all the peoples of the world may be forever delivered from these scourges.
The General Conference, at its twentieth session,
1. Urges Member States
2. Invites the Director-General:
||Adopted on 27 November 1978 by the General Conference of UNESCO at its
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In 2011, the new coalition government introduced five-year, fixed term parliaments in legislation passed on 15 September. This ended the incumbent’s advantage of being able to call a general election when it suited the government best as Margaret Thatcher did in 1983 or delaying it until the last minute as John Major did in 1997 and Gordon Brown in 2010. Let’s consider that we’ve had fixed-term parliaments for the last thirty years and what the possible outcomes of elections might have been.
Would the Conservatives have won the election in 1980? Probably yes, Callaghan’s government would have found it difficult to come back from the ‘winter of discontent’ and the widespread belief that ‘Labour isn’t working’. Given the rifts within Labour and the outcome of the Falklands War, a Conservative victory in 1985 was likely but, given the increasing debacle over the community charge and the increasing unpopularity of Margaret Thatcher, the Conservatives lost in 1990. With Labour under Neil Kinnock in power, the Conservatives elect Michael Heseltine as leader and he wins the 1995 election after a lack-lustre Labour government floundered. With the economy improving in the late 1990s, the Conservatives win again in 2000. Given that the modernisation of the Labour Party had begun while it was in office between 1990 and 1995, it is questionable whether Tony Blair would have risen to prominence in the party. Either way, Labour wins the 2005 election but falls victim to the global financial crisis in 2010.
If we had four-year parliaments then the electoral history could have been very different. The Conservatives again win in 1980 and 1984 and, as the community charge issue had yet to achieving toxic intensity, in 1988 as well. With John Major as prime minister from 1990, he surprisingly wins in 1992. With Tony Blair as Labour leader after 1994, Labour wins in 1996, 2000 and 2004. Gordon Brown takes over as Prime Minister in 2007 and wins the election in 2008. With his strong global leadership over the financial crisis, Gordon Brown gains in national influence and, though he does not win the 2012 election, Labour is the largest party and, with the support of the Liberal party, forms a coalition government. David Cameron, leader of the Conservatives since 2006, falls on his sword and Boris Johnson takes over as Conservative leader.
Although these scenarios are speculative, they do suggest that there is a considerable difference between the possible outcomes of having either four of five year fixed parliaments. The reason why, I assume, the decision was made to go for five year parliaments was because that was what already existed and had done since 1911. In reality, five year parliaments and there have only been four since 1945—1945-50, 1959-1964, 1987-1992, 2005-2010—are far from the norm in British politics, four year parliaments are. Whether, as some have suggested, it means that the final year of a five-year government is a zombie parliament is questionable but it is clear that in the final year of the government, the prospect of an extended general election campaign is almost self-evident. This might be less the case with four-year parliaments when the incumbent government will presumably still have aspects of its programme to complete. | <urn:uuid:24d8e6ab-ddd1-4b45-b48b-864a45ab35c5> | {
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When In Rome
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it also took three days to sack. The Visigoths ended their rampage on this day in 410.
At the time, Rome was little more than a very rich mausoleum. The Eastern–more stable–half of the Roman Empire was ruled from Constantinople. The Western, reeling half was now tenuously ruled from Ravenna. The Roman Empire had dispensed with Rome. Nonetheless, the former capital contained the accumulated treasures of Rome’s past glories, and the Visigoths wanted to pay their respects.
But where was the Roman army to prevent the barbarian rampage? Well, the barbarian horde was the Roman army–although flagrantly A.W.O.L. For some 20 years, the Visigoths had served the Empire fighting other barbarians, but it had not been the most gratifying experience. Under Roman command, they found themselves expendable and unappreciated–the heaviest casualties but the last to be paid. So the Visigoths decided that being Rome’s enemy would be more fulfilling and lucrative.
Led by Alaric, the Visigoths rampaged through Greece, the Balkans and then Italy. Of course, Rome was part of the itinerary, and there really was nothing to stop them. Yet, the old capital was surrounded by stout walls and should have withstood the barbarian attack. The Visigoths actually lacked the manpower to completely surround and besiege Rome; they only managed to blockade Rome’s gates. They also lacked the siege equipment to breach Rome’s walls. Yet, those walls did lack the real deterrent: anyone to man them. The Romans now were so craven that treachery prevailed. Someone opened a gate to the Visigoths. There was some Roman resistance; it lasted a day.
The Visigoths sacked the city: looting and rape were wholesale, and the slaughter–more limited–but still an enthusiastic demonstration of long-held grudges. Yet, the Visigoths did adhere to one restraint. They were Christian–albeit Arians who confused Jesus with Thor–and so spared the churches, which only recently had confiscated the wealth of the Pagan temples. Nonetheless, there still were government buildings and palaces to loot, and citizens to rob. The Visigoths also qualified as liberals; they freed slaves–a considerable segment of the Roman society.
Alaric died soon after sacking Rome. Let’s face it, his life would have been anticlimactic after that. He was succeeded by his kinsman Ataulf (yep, that’s the fifth century form of Adolf) who led the Visigoths into Spain, which they conquered and ruled until the Moors dropped by. There are some traces of the Visigothic presence in Spain today. Juan Carlos certainly is one; the family tree has Visigothic roots. And there is a region of Spain originally named Gothalonia; the Spanish now mispronounce it as Catalonia.
And in 455, the Vandals sacked Rome. They refrained from rape and slaughter, but they did rob the Churches. So, Visigoth or Vandal: guess who has the worse reputation? | <urn:uuid:1432cbf6-1313-4850-a18e-244e71f6d84f> | {
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Conservation genetics of Pimelea spinescens
Pimelea spinescens comprises two subspecies. The type subspecies,spinescens, is known as the Spiny Rice-Flower and the other subspecies, pubiflora, is the Wimmera Rice-Flower. Spiny Rice-Flower is widespread but uncommon in Victoria, while Wimmera Rice-Flower is restricted to two populations in western Victoria. Both subspecies are small, spreading shrubs that occur in grassland or open shrubland. They are the subject of an integrated conservation program that includes genetic studies, translocation and reintroduction of plants, and investigation of root structure. Both subspecies are listed as critically endangered under the Federal Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC) and are also listed under theVictorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988.
Wimmera Rice-Flower had not been collected since 1901, and was presumed to be extinct, until a population was discovered in 2005 in the Natimuk area. A second population has been located at Minyip, approximately 30 km from the Natimuk site. Numerous searches have been conducted to locate further populations based on existing herbarium records, but with no success to date. Plants have been sexed and are monitored regularly for flowering and seed set.
Spiny Rice-Flower is endemic to western Victoria where the 12,000 plants are found in approximately 20 populations. The expansion of urban Melbourne and changes to land use across its range impinge on populations and threaten their viability. Deborah Reynolds is undertaking a PhD study on the biology of the Spiny Rice-Flower.
Genetic markers (microsatellites) are being developed for Pimelea spinescensin collaboration with the Centre for Stress Adaptation Research and the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. These markers will provide further information on genetic variation across the species range. Leaf samples have been collected from both subspecies and DNA isolated for assessment of genetic variability.
- Elizabeth James (Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria)
- Rebecca Jordan (Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, 2011–2013)
- Pauline Rudolph (Department of Sustainability and Environment, Horsham)
- Deborah Reynolds (PhD student, Victoria University)
- Randall Robinson (Victoria University)
- Pimelea spinescens Recovery Team
- Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria | <urn:uuid:ddfbf84f-b5e5-4afb-bab5-d8691831acff> | {
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14. Livy History of Rome 9.38.2
At about this same time (310 BC) a Roman fleet commanded by Publius Cornelius, whom the senate had put in charge of the coastal area, sailed to Campania. It came ashore at Pompeii, and the marines set out to plunder the territory of Nuceria. They quickly reduced the area from which they could easily retreat to the ships, but the booty was so enticing that they eventually went too far and aroused the enemy. When they were roaming through the fields they met no resistance, although they could have been slaughtered, but when they were marching back in a careless line and had almost reached the ships the locals attacked, stripped them of their booty, and even killed some. The many who survived the slaughter were driven back to the ships in a panic. | <urn:uuid:787efebf-cdf0-4668-bfb0-ec4fb9f18d07> | {
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The surprise military takeover in Thailand has raised concerns that Southeast Asia may be returning to a period of political unrest and that democracy there may be losing ground. Elected governments in the region face the challenges of weak institutions and endemic corruption.
The ouster of the democratically elected Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinatwara, last week sent shudders across Southeast Asia. Many thought the period of military interventions in the country had ended in 1992 and that democracy had taken root in the kingdom.
"During the 1990s the (Thai) military recognized that it did not enjoy the support of large parts of the population," explains William Case, a Southeast Asia expert at the City University of Hong Kong. "And given the general trend toward democracy throughout Southeast Asia, the military decided to behave in a more professional way so we had thought that the military, while not losing really its capacity, just had come to accept the democratic rules of the game."
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in an interview with a U.S. newspaper this week said the coup was a "U-turn" for Southeast Asia.
Only seven months earlier, elements of the Philippine military attempted to oust President Gloria Arroyo. The Philippine plot failed but along with the Thai coup, has raised worries that democracy may be weakening in the region.
The 1986 "people power" protest movement that ousted Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos ushered in a wave of democratization in Southeast Asia. The Thai military, which has led 18 coups over 70 years, retreated from politics in the early 1990s in favor of elected civilian governments. Cambodia, emerging from years of conflict, held elections in 1993. In Indonesia, the resignation of President Suharto in 1998 led to its first direct presidential elections.
There are exceptions, however. Burma continues to be ruled by a military junta and Vietnam and Laos by Communist Party leaders.
But political analysts say democratically elected governments in Southeast Asia face challenges because of flawed systems that stifle reform.
"There's one thing common in all democracies in Southeast Asia - the role of money and patronage," says Patricio Abinales, a professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University. "In a lot of cases votes are won by guns, goons and gold. Political power is controlled by a very few political families. The way in which things are organized makes it difficult for new players and reformers to come in."
Among other problems, many Southeast Asian countries have weak or corrupt legal systems that often can be politically influenced. Election commissions often are ineffective in fighting election fraud or favor certain candidates.
Other analysts say the failure of governments to address issues such as corruption and poverty, and their readiness to adopt authoritarian policies and suppress human rights create disillusionment about democratic institutions. Frustrated citizens then turn to non-constitutional means to achieve reforms.
The Thai military has said it was forced to take power to reunite a divided nation. There has been little opposition to the coup.
Before his ouster, Mr. Thaksin faced months of protests demanding he resign for alleged corruption. His government was accused of human rights abuses. His Thai Rak Thai party was charged with fraud in April's elections - a poll that was meant to ease the political crisis but, because of questions over its legality, only prolonged the stalemate.
Noel Morada is a Southeast Asia expert at the University of the Philippines.
"If you understand how things have played in Thailand over the last three or four years, this situation was actually brought about because of Thaksin's high-handed approach in the political sphere," says Morada. "He antagonized so many sectors. He seemed to believe that because of his popularity he can do anything he wants, so I think this is a consequence (of those actions) rather than simply an effort on the part of the military to intervene for the sake of intervention."
President Arroyo in the Philippines also has faced accusations of corruption, electoral fraud and complicity in the deaths of dozens of political activists and journalists.
Elsewhere in Asia, dissatisfaction over Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, who is also accused of corruption, has led to frequent protests in Taipei.
It is not certain how democracy in Thailand can be revived again after last week's coup. Political analysts say much depends on whether the generals install a credible and independent civilian government.
But some analysts say a dangerous precedent has been set and Thailand can only look toward the Philippine experience to see how such interventions play out in the future.
The Philippine "people power" that has ousted two presidents was once considered a triumph of democracy. But some experts say it has weakened that country's democratic institutions because people now consider such revolts as acceptable in bringing about change.
Experts say the region could see more instability in the next few years. Indonesia's fragile democracy faces challenges from Islamic radicalism and regional separatism, and the Philippines is considering tinkering with its form of government, moving from a presidential to a parliamentary system. As different pressure points emerge, experts say, Southeast Asian democracy faces more tests ahead. | <urn:uuid:428c5411-bd63-4d54-a295-772ba89cce9b> | {
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A distributed processing framework for processing and generating large data sets and an implementation that runs on large clusters of industry-standard machines.
The processing model defines two types of functions: a map function that processes a key-value pair to generate a set of intermediate key-value pairs, and a reduce function that merges
all intermediate values associated with the same intermediate key.
A MapReduce job partitions the input data set into independent chunks that are processed by the map functions in a parallel manner. The framework sorts the outputs of the maps, which are
then input to the reduce functions. Typically both the input and the output of the job are stored in a distributed filesystem.
The implementation provides an API for configuring and submitting jobs and job scheduling and management services; a library of search, sort, index, inverted index, and word
co-occurrence algorithms; and the runtime. The runtime system partitions the input data, schedules the program's execution across a set of machines, handles machine failures, and manages the required | <urn:uuid:d800cf23-e74f-4c0a-919a-a4c21ed40dce> | {
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Mindanao, Philippines — ''The communist party told us to go out and start an armed struggle,'' a guerrilla in the Philippines recalled recently, ''but what with?. . . We had just our bare hands and a few vague ideas about military strategy.''
The communist rebellion in this Asian island nation has become more organized in the last decade, causing concern in both Manila and Washington as the communist strength increases, especially in the southern island of Mindanao.
In the 1970s, Mindanao was the scene of a Muslim revolt, waged by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) seeking independence from the mainly-Catholic Philippines. But while that war is tapering off, the communist-led guerrillas of the New People's Army (the NPA, or the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines) has enlarged.
The 1980s may well be their decade for challenging the government of American-back Ferdinand Marcos.
Both movements began to expand around the same time in Mindanao, the turbulent days just before President Marcos' declaration of martial law in September 1972 (which was offically lifted in 1980). Although neither has posed a serious threat to the Marcos regime, their role in a possibly turbulant post-Marcos period is uncertain. And with important air and naval bases in the Philippines, the United States keeps close watch on any rise in rebellion.
Mindanao is the Philippines' last frontier - an island as big as Kentucky with a striking landscape of high hills, deep gorges and extinct volcanoes. Its population, now about 10 million, has increased fourfold since 1948, squeezing the original inhabitants, animist tribes and Muslims, back to the fringes of the land they once had to themselves.
Unlike other parts of the Philippines, the land is rich and largely free from typhoons. Forests are - or were - plentiful. Coal, nickel and some gold are mined here. Pineapple is grown for the American market, bananas for Japan; but these like another major agricultural export, copra, are in a deep decline right now. A new crop, palm oil looks more promising, however. But while the island suffers the economic ills of the rest of the country, an even bigger menace looms over it: insurgency.
Shortly before the state of emergency was declared in 1972, a small group of young, Christian political radicals took to the hills just outside Davao, the country's third largest city. Many of the would-be guerrillas were quickly hunted down. Since then, however, the NPA has grown. Four years ago, it had five fronts - military-political areas. Today they claim upwards of 14 out of a potential nationwide total of 33.
The guerrillas say, however, they are not planning major military activities for several years; instead they are concentrating on consolidating the last few years' gains, and trying to establish firm links with the MNLF.
The Moros, on the other hand, had no such problems getting established. They had a tradition of fighting the government in Manila, as the US found to its cost during the early years of American occupation at the beginning of the century. (The Colt-45 is said by some historians to have been developed to answer the US Army's need for a handgun that could stop a Moro warrior in his tracks.)
And the MNLF was generously supported by its co-religionists, notably Libya. At the height of the fighting in the mid-70s, over 60 percent of the Philippine armed forces are estimated to have been committed to the war. The human cost has been great: around 60,000 people, many of them civilians, are thought to have died.
MNLF fortunes began to wane, however, in the late 1970s. Libyan aid dropped off, and some reported help, first from revolutionary Iran, then Pakistan, did not fill the gap.
Then the movement split: today there are at least two main MNLF factions, the relatively radical group led by Nur Misuari, and a smaller group led by Hashim Salamat, a former Misuari lieutenant.
In the mid-70s, the standard guess was that the MNLF had 20,000 to 30,000 men. Today the government says they have about 8,000. The NPA, which watches the Muslims closely, says they have less.
''The Moros have about 5,000 fighters today,'' said an under-ground NPA spokesman. ''That's more than us, but the gap is closing fast. And our finances and political structures are much stronger.''
''When the Moros were at the height of the revolt, they were rather patronising to us,'' said the spokesman. ''They used to say 'you handle Luzon and the Visayas [the northern and central Philippines], we'll take Mindanao.' Now they're more willing to talk.''
The NPA can offer the MNLF advice in building better political structures. In return they would like help in obtaining weapons. ''The Moros could teach us a lot of tricks,'' said the NPA spokesman. ''They have centuries of experience in smuggling weapons into the island.''
perhaps by the mid-80s we'll have a formal agreement.''
The government tends to play down the threat of insurgency, but they have taken some drastic steps recently, among them ''grouping.'' In Vietnam it was called strategic hamlets: the relocation of peasants from outlying areas into militarily-supervised settlements. About 30,000 inhabitants of San Vicente, an allegedly NPA-influenced municipality in eastern Mindanao, were affected by grouping earlier this year.
As in Vietnam, the hamlets may have temporarily limited NPA activity, but the hardship and military abuses that reportedly accompanied the move have apparently lost rather than won hearts and minds. | <urn:uuid:54b78549-1bbb-4815-b503-7f27feb49ef7> | {
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Navy Cross — Military Decorations
Navy Cross Medal and Ribbon Design Images
The medal is a modified cross pattée, a type of Christian cross, which has arms narrow at the center, and flared in a curved shape. The ends of its arms are more rounded then a conventional cross pattée. There are four laurel leaves adorned with berries in each of the cross’s arms representing achievement. In the center of the cross is a ship sailing waves leftward. The ship is a caravel, a Portuguese sailing ship from the 15th century. It is a symbol often used by the Naval Academy representing both naval service and the tradition of the sea. On the reverse of the medal are crossed anchors, from the early nineteenth century, wrapped in cables engraved with the letters USN.
What is the Navy Cross Decoration?
The Navy Cross is the second highest award in the US Navy. It can be awarded to a member of the US Navy, US Marine Corps, or US Coast Guard.
The earliest version of the Navy Cross (1919?1928) are distinguished by a narrow strip of white. The affectionately named "Black Widow" medals were awarded from 1941?1942 and are notable due to the dark color from over-anodized finish.
How Do You Earn the Navy Cross?
The Navy Cross is awarded by the Secretary of the Navy. It may be awarded to members of the other armed services and foreign military personnel who are serving with U.S. Naval Forces. The Navy Cross was established by Act of Congress (Public Law 65-253) and approved on February 4, 1919.
In order to be awarded the Navy Cross, the action must:
- In combat action while engaged against an enemy of the United States
- In combat action while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force
- In combat action while serving with friendly foreign forces, who are engaged in armed conflict in which the United States is not a belligerent party.
In order to merit the Navy Cross, the actions must be performed in the presence of great danger, or at great personal risk. Their actions must be of such moral courage and gallantry as to render the individual's action(s) highly conspicuous among others of equal grade, rate, experience, or position of responsibility. You can not receive the Navy Cross because of a multitude of minor actions. As originally authorized, the Navy Cross could be awarded for distinguished non-combat acts, but legislation of 7 August 1942 limited the award to acts of combat heroism.
Displaying the Navy Cross
The Order of Precedence of the Navy Cross is 3, and this precedence is used when placing the associated service ribbon on your uniform ribbon rack. You can see a full list of decorations in the order of precedence on the Decorations homepage.
Before 1942, The Navy Cross originally was the Navy's third-highest decoration. However, after Congressional vote, the order of precedence was revised, placing the Navy Cross above the Distinguished Service Medal. Today, the Navy Cross is worn after the Medal of Honor and before all other awards.Additional awards of the Navy Cross are denoted by gold or silver ?5/16 inch stars affixed to the suspension ribbon or service ribbon of the medal. A gold star is issued for the second through fifth awards, to be replaced by a silver star indicating a sixth award.
Navy Cross Associated Branches
Navy Cross Associated Branches
Navy Cross and the Stolen Valor Act
The Stolen Valor Act of 2013 is a federal law that makes it illegal for any person to falsely claim to be the recipient of certain military awards, "with the intention of obtaining money, property, or other tangible benefit by convincing another that he or she received the award".This decoration is apart of the stolen valor | <urn:uuid:ea3d1f7d-0d1f-43a7-a676-f3bf2f3ab0bf> | {
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Step 1: Business Alignment & Project Objectives
Project objectives are developed based on needs. The needs assessment begins with a review of the opportunity to be realized if the proposed project is implemented.
Next, the business needs are identified.
Finally, preference needs focus on how the stakeholders, including the participants, should perceive the project in terms of value and need.
The project is developed to achieve the objectives at each level. The project can be evaluated at each level, based on the objectives. The V Model illustrates this process as it presents the relationship between needs assessment, objectives, and evaluation.
Developing the Alignment of your program, project or initiative to the business is critical for a success.
Evaluation begins with the objectives of the program, project or solution. The objectives must go beyond typical learning objectives and include up to five levels of data.
Step 2: Plan for Evaluation
Planning begins as soon as it is decided that an impact/ROI study should be conducted and typically involves key stakeholders. All important decisions for the study are made early through evaluation planning. This step involves completing three documents: data collection plan, ROI analysis plan, and evaluation project plan.
Step 3: Two types of data are collected during a project’s implementation (1) Reaction and (2) Learning
Methods to collect Reaction & Learning Data
Step 4: Two types of data are collected after a project is implemented (3) Application and (4) Impact
Methods to collect Application and Impact Data
Improving response rates is a critical issue for post-project collection. When used consistently, the techniques can achieve 70-80% response rate for questionnaires, surveys, or action plans.
Step 5: Isolate the effects of your program
One of the most critical steps in the process is to isolate the effects of the project or program.
Techniques used to Isolate the Effects of Programs:
While isolating the effects of the project with other influences is sometimes difficult, it is necessary for credibility of the study. Without this step, there is no proof that the project is connected to a business measure.
Step 6: Convert data to monetary values
To calculate the ROI, improvement in business measures must be converted to money.
This step develops a monetary benefit for one or more impact measures linked to the project. It usually follows the step to isolate the impact of the project.
Methods to convert data to money:
Step 7: Intangibles
Intangible benefits are project benefits that we choose not to convert to money. They are measures that cannot be converted to money credibly with minimal resources. Intangible data should be collected for all projects.
Step 8: Tabulate the Costs
When impact studies are conducted, the total costs of the project are needed for the ROI calculation. The costs must be fully loaded, i.e., must include all direct and indirect costs.
Step 9: Calculate ROI
Return on Investment (ROI) is a financial metric, representing the ultimate measure of project success. ROI is calculated using the project benefits and costs.
Sample ROI Calculation
Benefits (isolated) = $400,000
Cost of Program (fully loaded) = $220,000
(Net Benefits ÷ Cost) x 100 = ROI
([$400,000 – $220,000] ÷ $220,000) x 100 = 82%
Step 10: Reporting the results to key stakeholders
Reporting the results of the study is an important final step in the ROI Methodology. Properly identifying the audience and providing appropriate information is essential.
By default, four audiences are always essential:
A variety of media can be used to communicate the project’s success, for example:
What is included in an ROI Study: Impact Study Outline: | <urn:uuid:c0909ebd-0873-4642-b0cd-1be0c773d40d> | {
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Learn All About Interest Rates
Those of us who have not studied in the area of finance or find the subject a little confusing, may not understand key words connected to interest rates. Words like repo rate or prime lending rate, and many of us understand it might have something to do with loans and could ultimately affect us in some way. This is especially important for those who are looking to buy property or those who already have a home loan.
Let’s first have a look at the basic definition of interest rates. You will have to do some research into applying for a home loan and what all the costs involve. Those wanting to buy property generally don’t have the entire amount to hand over straight away and will therefore need the help of a bank to afford the property. After ascertaining whether you can pay the money back, the bank will loan you the money. But, you must realize that the bank will charge you interest. The bank or other lender will want to earn something from loaning out the money and the borrower is usually prepared to pay this extra amount for the opportunity to have access to a large amount of funds.
This extra amount or rate is calculated as a percentage of your total loan amount. Your risk profile will have a direct impact on the amount of interest you will pay back. The interest rates charged for things like home loans, credit cards and other loans, is generally known as the Annual Percentage Rate or APR.
You may be categorized as a high-risk applicant, because you already have a lot of debt to your name, in which case you will pay higher interest. If you are low risk, then you will pay a lower interest.
There are some factors that influence the Interest Rate:
- Inflation can have a major impact
- Policies of the Reserve Bank
- Supply and demand for credit
Obviously, you will want a lower interest rate, as this will affect the amount you pay back to the bank at the end of the month. But who controls the interest rate? The interest rate is managed by the South African Reserve Bank or SARB. Because the Reserve Bank controls the national interest rate, this influences the repo rate. By raising or lowering the interest rate, influences the amount and way people spend and save money. For example, if the Reserve Bank increases the interest rate, this will make borrowing money more expensive and many will be discouraged from taking out big loans and getting themselves into debt. This will result in less money flowing through the economy, which can help to slow down inflation as well as to steady the economic growth in the country.
Inflation is basically the amount at which prices of goods and services increases per annum. On the other hand, if there is generally an increase in the amount of money within the economy, it will result in an increase in spending and more people will be able to easily obtain a bond on their home. This is not a very good thing, as this increases consumer debt, which will ultimately have a bad outcome on the economy.
The role of the Reserve Bank:
- The bank manages the currency in South Africa
- Helps to protect the Rand value
- Responsible to help keep the country’s economy stable as well as helping it grow, by adjusting the interest rate accordingly. This aids in controlling the movement of capital in the country.
What is the Repo Interest Rate?
You have the country’s Central Bank or SARB, which loans money to the commercial banks like FNB, ABSA, Nedbank and others, at a fixed interest rate. This interest rate is what is called the Repo Rate and is also known as the Repurchase Rate. The Reserve Bank monitors the commercial Banks and what they charge the borrower or consumer. This helps to prevent the banks from loaning too much money out, which aids in countering inflation. The current Repo Rate in South Africa is 6.5%. If the Reserve Bank influences the repo rate, this will in turn affect how the bank will loan out its money to the end consumer. This then is what determines the Prime Lending Rate.
Prime Lending Rate
The banks add an extra interest rate onto the Repo Rate, which then forms the Prime Lending Rate. This is the amount the banks are prepared to loan to the consumer, you and me. This amount can change according to the national interest rate. If the national interest rate increases, then the banks must pay more to borrow the money themselves, in which case they will then raise the Prime Lending Rate. This also occurs in reverse, if the national interest rate drops, so does the Prime Lending Rate. The current Prime Lending Rate is 10%. You can view these rates at the Reserve Bank website.
Interest Rate-How it affects the Property Market
If you, as a prospective property owner can afford to pay cash for your home, then the interest rate has no effect on your transaction. However, today most South Africans that are in the process of buying property, will be relying on a loan in order to purchase their home. It is therefore very important that you understand what the interest rate means and how it will affect your loan repayments.
For prospective home owners, the prime lending rate has a considerable effect on the property market. If you own a home and have a bond, then any increase in the interest rate will cause your monthly repayments also to increase. This in turn, if it continues to rise, can result in the owner being unable to meet his monthly bond repayments and eventually lose their home. Then again, if you are applying for a bond to purchase a home and the interest rate is high or increases, then it may force you to reconsider. This means that you may have to apply for a lower bond amount, which can have two options.
One you will have to increase your deposit to fit in with the lower bond amount you are offered. Or two you will have to rethink the home you want to purchase, and may even have to buy another home that has a lower value. Another aspect that is very prevalent today is, due to the high interest rates, it may result in many prospective home buyers not even being able to afford a home bond at all. This goes to prove that the interest rate definitely has a profound effect on the property market.
The interest rate on your bond that you are offered by the bank or any financial institution when purchasing a home is dependent on the repo rate set by the South African Reserve Bank. Whenever this repo rate decreases then all home bond owners rejoice because their bond repayment will also decrease with the same percentage. However, this also applies in reverse for all those that have money invested, who will be pleased when the interest rate increases, as their investment will also then increase. This is unfortunate for many old age pensioners who have their pension invested and who are affected by the interest rate. They will suffer financially when there is a decrease in the interest rate, as their pension wills also decrease.
It is therefore in the interest of all potential home owners to try and ensure that their bond is not linked to the interest rate. This can be achieved by ensuring that the interest rate on their bond remains fixed and is not affected by the fluctuation of the interest rate. There is however a major advantage for the home owner that has a variable interest rate attached to their bond. When there is a decrease in the interest rate, the bond repayment is also reduced. The home owner then saves money and the extra money can then be used to reduce his overall bond amount. It is amazing how a little extra paid per month, towards your bond repayment, can result in a reduction of up to 5 years in the original term of the loan agreement.
How to alter the interest you are paying on your home loan
- There are a few simple things you can do, if possible, that will help to reduce the amount you repay monthly for your home loan. The most effective thing you can do, is to raise the biggest deposit you can before applying for a home loan. By doing this you can reduce your interest rate and therefore the amount you pay every month. Effectively paying off your loan faster.
- Try to decrease the term of your bond, because the longer you pay the more it is costing you. If you are struggling with repayments, then increasing your loan term might help, but over the long run, you will land up paying more.
- Every time you have some extra cash coming in, think about using this towards paying off your home loan. Again, the quicker you pay off your loan, the less you will be paying in the long run.
More About Home Loans
Latest blog posts about home loans
The benefits of using a Bond Originator
Homework Advice For First Time Home Buyers
Tell The Truth When Applying For a Home Loan
How to get Pre-Approval for a Home Loan in South Africa
Expsenses to Consider When Buying a Home in South Africa
Advice on Choosing a Home Loan in South Africa
Using a Mortgage Originator to Help You Get a Home Loan | <urn:uuid:ce657830-b186-42dd-a5e4-aefebebc77cd> | {
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Plagiarism is the use of another writer's work without proper acknowledgment (compare credit).
There is some difference of opinion over how much credit must be given when preparing a newspaper article or historical account. Generally, reference is made to original source material as much as possible, and writers avoid taking credit for others' work.
Plagiarism should not be confused with copyright infringement, which is using another writer's work with or without full acknowledgement in a way that violates the exclusive legal rights granted to the author by copyright law.
The use of mere facts, rather than works of creative expression, does not constitute plagiarism. It does not matter whether the facts come from public domain or copyrighted works. However, the issue of public domain works versus copyrighted works is irrelevant to the concept of plagiarism. For instance, it is legal for a student to copy several paragraphs (or even pages) of text from a public domain book, such as Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, and then directly add these quotes to his or her own paper. However if these quotes were not clearly identified as to his or her source, then the student would be guilty of plagiarism, using another writer's work as if it were his or her own. High Schools, Colleges and Universities are especially sensitive to this kind of academic dishonesty, as many students claim that if an action is legal, it must be ethical. This is untrue. All high schools, college and universities have academic codes of ethics which prohibit all forms of plagiarism, whether the idea is plagiarized from public domain or copyrighted sources.
Similarly, it is plagiarism to steal the specifics of someone else's novel idea, and then present it as one's own work. This type of plagiarism is rampant in high schools, colleges and universities, when students illicitly use the analyses in "Cliff's Notes", and falsely present them as being their own original analysis.
According to some academic ethics codes and criminal laws, a complaint of plagiarism may be initiated or proven by any person. The person originating the complaint need not be the owner of the plagiarized content, nor need there be any active or passive communication from a content owner directing that any investigation or discipline process be initiated in response to the plagiarism.
It is not plagiarism when two (or more) people independently come up with the same idea or analysis.
Famous examples of plagiarism:
- Helen Keller was accused of plagiarism as a young girl for a school composition. Mortified, she determined to have all future compositions screened by her friends before submission.
- George Harrison was successfully sued for plagiarizing (though perhaps unconsciously) the Chiffons' "He's So Fine" for the melody of his own "My Sweet Lord".
- Senator Joseph Biden was forced to withdraw from the 1988 Democratic Presidential nominations when it was revealed he had failed a course in law school due to plagiarism. It was also shown that he had plagiarised several campaign speeches, notably those of British Labour leader Neil Kinnock and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
- Psychology professor René Diekstra, also well-known as author of popular books, left Leiden University in 1997 after accusations of plagiarism. Procedures are on-going in 2003, in which Diekstra fights a report about him on this matter. | <urn:uuid:91d52bbb-a701-4f55-afcc-4c210b4dfdff> | {
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Micro-finance is a very popular discussion in many emerging countires as its innovation allows impoverished people to take out loans to develop a business and begin their own personal savings. Many poor people in Africa are not involved in the traditional banking system because many believe it to be too risky and it is simply too much to pay for due to the (as many poor people would see it)extravagant initial payment it costs just to open a savings account.
Banerjee and Duflo argue from both perspectives about how there are arguments for and against micro-credits. The authors believe that micro-credits have the potential to jump start their future, as it makes people think about their long term goals and gives them more incentive to try harder. Receiving a loan takes a lot of stress off of peoples shoulders when it comes to starting a small business. It provides some leeway and possibly some psychological comfort knowing that you have the money to pay for certain expenses. Many of the impoverished people who are taking advantage of micro-credit have a great chance of getting on their way to starting a small successful business.
Although there is great opportunity that comes from micro-credit, it often requires a lot of unwanted time and energy invested into the process. Banerjee and Duflo talk about how while starting a business from loans, people must take it one step at a time to reach their long-term goal. However, it is not always that easy. It is exceptionally hard for poor people to dedicate so much time and effort when the long-term goal seems so far away. The authors explain how many people who don’t take advantage of micro-credit are unable to do so because they know that, other than time, starting a business comes with other costs. It is hard for many people to start a business when they realize all the implications that come with it, such as paying other employees and simply finding good ways to sell their product or make profit. All of this pressure takes a tole on many people psychologically and many people do not think it is worth all of the sacrifice.
It is easy to judge and wonder why people are not taking advantage of micro-credit and other “low hanging fruit”. However, when looking from a different perspective, I realize that it is much easier starting a business and living a “successful life” when everything is taught to me and I am basically steered my way through life. Banerjee and Duflo explain how many poor people do not get the same opportunity in knowledge and education. Therefor it is a lot harder for impoverished people to take such a big step towards their future when it seems so challenging and far away.
Micro credit is making a huge impact in Mali. IPA (Innovations for Poverty Action) conducted a study to determine if micro-credit was beneficial or not. Since agriculture is the primary job in Mali, The IPA organization granted loans to many agricultural farmers at the beginning of the farming and was expected to be paid back at the time of the harvest. The article states “the evaluation of this program studied whether agricultural microfinance can help relax constraints to technology investment among smallholder farmers in rural Mali through offering credit, either in loan or grant form. The results show that giving some farmers unrestricted cash grants led to significantly higher productivity and profits, suggesting farmers would invest more in their farms if they had more capital” (Innovations For Poverty Africa). The research study shows that agricultural loans attract clients with a great ability to grow their farms and is a great way to get farmers off of their feet and begin making money.
One organization that stands out is Ecova Mali. Since farming is the main occupation in Mali, Ecova Mali helps with grassroots development for farming. Ecova Mali provides teaching and loans to help get businesses started. What makes Ecova Mali so special is that it doesn’t just lend entrepreneur’s money. It provides them with ways they should go about starting their farming business. Another article explains how before 2003, micro-credit was only successful in Southern Mali as opposed to Northern Mali. However, many people, especially community leaders, are beginning to take more intelligent approaches to starting their businesses and are having success. One of the business organizations, “Association Dourey-Timbuktu (DOT)” is a microfinance institution licensed by the government that is helping communities around the city of Timbuktu that has helped establish over 500 greatly needed businesses. Implementing the proper usage of micro-credit has made a positive impact on Mali.
Digital Technology is making a big difference in Mali. In the Sahel region, Mali leads when it comes to mobile penetration as it has a rate of 119%. Over four million Malians make mobile payments, which are drivers of financial inclusion. Since technology is making a big influence in Mali, the government has implemented a plan called “Mali Digital Plan 2020” as it seeks to bring more technology into its country because it will provide more job opportunities. The government said “the policy will help reorganise the digital economy, boost economic growth and create jobs, among others. The government also said that the digital plan will focus on the following areas: expand the access to digital networks and services, develop production and digital content, diversify digital use and services, strengthen the existing legislative framework, develop human capital, and develop local digital industry” (Mali Digital Plan 2020, 2014). If the plan is successful and digital technology continues to increase, Malian businesses and economic growth will prosper.
“Mali Digital Plan 2020 to Reorganise Economy.” BiztechAfrica. N.p., 09 Dec. 2014. Web. 22 Feb. 2017.
Banerjee, A. & Duflo, E. (2011). Poor Economics.
“Agricultural Progress in Cameroon, Ghana and Mali.” Innovations for Poverty Action (2008): n. pag. IPA. Web. 21 Feb. 2017. | <urn:uuid:267ae803-b56a-4e09-a426-6c66c67d96f1> | {
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During this apprenticeship, students will learn about the Design Process. Each lesson will focus on a specific step in the Design Process and will provide students with an opportunity to implement that step. Throughout the apprenticeship, students will meet fictional clients who have hired them to solve various different problems using the Design Process. By the end of the apprenticeship, students will be able to independently use the Design Process to generate original ideas and build a product that suits a specific purpose. The apprenticeship will culminate with students working in pairs to independently implement the Design Process to solve a problem for a fictional WOW! client. Working with the Design Process will give students the tools to approach problems they encounter both in the classroom and in their daily lives. | <urn:uuid:673ee7e6-d209-4527-b0e0-d7b5f6cbe235> | {
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Men who invaded St. Augustine in 1702 had the chance to have two Christmases. Many of us are familiar with the story of the siege of St. Augustine from Nov. 14 to Dec. 30 in 1702 by English invaders from Carolina.
At Christmastime in St. Augustine, the Spanish residents of the town had been refuged inside Castillo de San Marcos for about six weeks. By Chrismastime in St. Augustine the invading troops had experienced no success in taking Castillo de San Marcos, although the Carolinians controlled the town for several weeks. Four days after Christmas, on the night of Dec. 29, the English began their retreat. They headed back to Carolina and another Christmas.
Why did the English invaders get to have Christmas twice, in a manner of speaking? In 1702, the English and the Spanish were using different calendars. In 1582, The Spanish has changed to the Gregorian calendar, which is what we use today. The English continued to use the Julian calendar for another 170 years.
Because a year is not exactly 365 days long and thus the reason for leap years, the Julian calendar became ever more out of line with the solar year. The equinoxes and solstices became increasingly earlier in the year. Pope Gregory XIII decreed the new calendar, named for him, in 1582 and it was adopted by most of the Catholic nations. Many Protestant countries, including England, objected to adopting a “Catholic invention.” But the sun just kept doing its own thing with no notice of religious disagreements.
By the time of the siege of St. Augustine, there was a difference of 10 to 11 days between the two calendars. While the unhappy residents of St. Augustine spent Christmas Day inside the fort, to the English the day was Dec. 15. For the English invaders, their two-day retreat took place before Christmas, or Dec. 19 and 20 on their calendars.
But there was no reason for the English invaders to hurry back to Carolina to enjoy Christmas. They were not able to deliver the gift that had been promised — the capture of Florida and its capital of St. Augustine.
Great Britain converted to the Gregorian calendar in 1752, wiping away 11 days in the change. | <urn:uuid:e5158ff6-734f-4bf1-a18c-8ec758ec4edd> | {
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The newspaper, that daily chronicle of human events, is undergoing the most momentous transformation in its centuries-old history. The familiar pulp-paper product still shows up on newsstands and porches every morning, but online versions are proliferating, attracting young readers and generally carving out a sizable swath of the news business. In the United States alone, 34 million people have made a daily habit of reading an online newspaper, according to the Newspaper Association of America.
It’s just the beginning. Online news will inevitably grow at the expense of its traditional counterpart because the Web not only lowers production and distribution costs, it also opens up newspapers to entirely new formats. Even run-of-the mill Web servers with access to a reasonable supply of news stories can generate thousands of different versions of a newspaper. Yet so far, few newspaper sites look different from the pulp-and-ink papers that spawned them. Editors still manually choose and lay out news stories. Often, the front page changes only once a day, just like the print version, and it shows the same news to all readers.
There’s no need for that uniformity. Every time a Web server generates a news page, for example, in response to a reader’s clicking on a link, it can create that page from scratch. An online news site can change minute by minute. And it can even generate different front pages, essentially producing millions of distinct editions, each one targeting just one person—you. Unless and until they do so, online newspapers will become increasingly irrelevant as the stories that are important to you get buried in an Internet already filled with absurdly more information than any one person can use.
The most interesting and important way to customize a site is to create a page of stories based on your unique interests culled from information about your past reading behavior. There’s already a model for that—the recommendation systems used by Amazon, TiVo, and Netflix. Using information on past purchases, movie ratings, or items viewed, these systems steer consumers to items from among the thousands or millions they have on offer. Newspapers can and should borrow this idea.
It could transform the industry. Based on articles viewed, these systems could highlight the ones they think a reader would find most interesting, even presenting them in order, with the most interesting article first. No longer would readers have to skim pages of news to find what they needed. No longer would reporters have to battle for the limited space on the front page.
In their uphill battle to stay relevant, newspapers will first have to catch up with other news sites that already customize their front pages in one way or another. Aggregators such as Google News, My Yahoo, and Netvibes allow a reader to configure the layout of his or her personal page so that it highlights the most popular or highly regarded news. These sites also cluster news by topic or category and let readers focus on the articles that interest them the most. Such innovations are useful, but they still fall short of what’s needed. My Yahoo, for example, requires users to configure the page themselves and to make changes when their interests do, instead of accurately inferring those changes from whatever has attracted the user’s attention lately.
Google News is the best of the bunch, a popular news site that does use software to automate the prioritizing and laying out of stories. It changes rapidly, clusters stories that focus on the same event, allows users to customize the site, and recommends news based on past reading habits. But news sites could do even better by automatically learning what news stories each reader wants and using that knowledge to ”print” millions of personalized editions of the newspaper.
Such features aren’t far off—they were actually part of a news aggregation Web site called Findory.com, which I ran between 2004 and 2007. Findory built a unique, personalized front page for each reader, based on what he or she had read in the past. In so doing it showed a way by which newspapers could recommend information much as Amazon recommends books.
Newspapers constitute a US $55 billion business in the United States, yet that business is invariably described as troubled. Many readers still feel loyalty to their hometown newspaper and know it is likely to contain news relevant to them, but they are increasingly reluctant to wade through all its articles to find the few that matter to them. Personalized news recommendations can be a lifesaver to newspapers that are drowning in the sea of information that washes over us all. | <urn:uuid:1c029c4b-9fb1-438d-bab2-56d3ba0786de> | {
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Glass painting is an art that once was done mostly on tableware and such art items as suncatchers and decorative lamps. However, now glass painting also refers to backpainted glass, an architectural covering that can add a modern look to kitchens and bathrooms as a backsplash. Tables, counters, and walls also can be beautified with backpainted glass. This innovative concept is similar to the making of mirrors, and indeed, the backpainted tiles are installed the same way that mirrors and mirrored tile is mounted. The only difference is that the back of the glass is painted with opaque paint rather than mirror backing. The result of backpainting is an extremely glossy, reflective colored surface that can be mounted as tiles or panels on a wall or piece of furniture.
Backpainting Glass Backsplashes
Lay a sheet of glass on plain white paper on a flat, solid surface. Wipe it clean with rubbing alcohol and a paper towel. After this cleaning, if a polyurethane paint is used, a permanent bond can be made by pretreating with a molecular activator which is sprayed on and wiped off much like a cleaner, but then the paint must be applied within a short time after the glass surface is activated. If a permanent bonding glass paint is used, this pretreatment is unnecessary. The glass is then ready for painting. The glass paint must first be poured in a mixing cup and mixed with a proportionately smaller amount of catalyst and used within the drying time. The ratio of paint to catalyst and the drying time depend on the temperature and the humidity, and can be found in the instructions. The best applicator for the glass paint is a spray gun because of the short drying time, although a roller or a brush can be used for smaller tiles. Allow to dry for 10 to 15 minutes and apply another coat, for a total of three to ten thin, even coats and allowing each coat to dry before applying the next coat. The first coat should be sprayed with a side-to-side motion, the second with an up-and-down motion, alternating coats so that they cross one another at right angles. Paint past the edges onto the paper underneath before starting a new stroke in the opposite direction to prevent the paint from being heavier at the edge of the glass. When the final coat is applied, allow to dry for at least 2 to 3 hours before handling gently. Now the glass can be cut with a glass cutter and a straightedge into tiles if desired, and if the glass was not already cut intotiles before painting. The panel or tiles can then be glued to the wall with the painted side toward the wall with a clear glazing acid-free silicone glue. The paint itself will be totally dry in 15 days.
Artistic Painting with Transparent Glass Paints
As opposed to backpainting, which uses an opaque glass paint, transparent paints are usually painted on the top surface of the glass. A line drawing used as the design can be placed behind the glass so that the pattern shows through the transparent glass substrate. This can be held in place with tape, or by filling the glass with rice. A dimensional black outliner paint is gently squeezed onto the top surface of the glass over the pattern lines. After this has dried, the outlines can be filled in one at a time with a drop of transparent paint base and a drop of tinted catalyst within the outline which is mixed with a small brush and spread to fill the outlined area. After the glass object is completely painted, it is allowed to dry. The painted glass object is then placed into a cold oven and baked according to the directions. The oven must cool completely before the object is removed. The finished glass object has the appearance of jeweled or stained glass. The design will show up nicely with a light or candle behind it, or sunlight as when hung as a suncatcher in a window. This paint can come in several effects, such as glossy, frosted, and iridescent, or dimensional, as well as simple transparent or opaque. It can be diluted with thinner to produce a drip effect on tableware. Glass mirrors can be painted with a border design. The artistic possibilities of decorative glass painting are limited only by the artist’s imagination.
Other Kinds of Glass Painting
It also deserves mention that the automotive industry uses glass paint for tinting and black-out edges on windshields. These are applied and baked on at the glass factory. For the individual who wants to decorate glass in the home, specialized glass paints generally can be found at craft stores. These paints have different qualities of permanence, translucency or opacity, color, ease of application, price and durability depending upon their intended use. To paint a design on the top surface of a car window requires a paint that is opaque, weatherproof and dries quickly, can be applied with a brush, does not require heat treating and can be removed without damaging the glass. Window decals are often used for decoration. Painting on windows that is meant to be temporary, such as window murals, requires a paint that can be washed off or peeled off easily when removed.
Sorensen, Dorris. Glass Painting for the First Time. tba: Sterling/Chapelle, 2003. Print.
Embry, Karen. Painting on Glass & Ceramic. New York: Sterling, 2008. Print.
Aimone, Katherine Duncan. New Ideas in Glass Painting. New York: Lark Books, 2002. Print. | <urn:uuid:e6679d3d-e14b-4660-9405-cc49d820ba58> | {
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SR. LOUISE ZDUNICH, NDC
June 28, 2010
Why don’t we have bells rung at the Consecration any more? It seems to me that the Consecration, said without any special emphasis, tends to blend in with the rest in such a way that it is easy to miss it, especially if one gets distracted.
First, I would like to reflect on bells and their long and venerable history for Christians. Use of bells in churches began in the fourth century, was approved by the pope in the seventh and began to be part of most churches by the eighth. New bells are prayed over and blessed with holy oils. There is an elaborate ritual for this ceremony.
Bells called worshippers to Mass. In the Middle Ages, when there were multiple bells in one church, different combinations were rung to indicate the grade of the feast, the nature of the service (Mass, Vespers, etc.), even if a sermon would be preached. Soon, no religious service would take place without the ringing of bells.
Bells were heard morning, noon and evening for the Angelus. Bells were rung to alert labourers and others, who could not attend Mass, that the Consecration was taking place so they could stop their work and pray. Millet’s painting of the field workers pausing to pray immortalized this practice.
Missionaries used hand-bells to gather people for teaching the Word of God, so these became sacred. They signaled arising and assembling in monasteries. Bells announced deaths. Each of these occasions had specific rules and rituals. Many of these customs have all but disappeared, as have bells from most modern churches.
Bells were rung for events other than those associated with religion such as the opening of the workday and curfews, joyous occasions as the crowning of kings and ending of wars. They rallied people to fight fires and warned of impending storms or disasters.
Bells were carried into battle and solemn oaths were taken on them. It was realized that those who commanded the bell, commanded the town, for ringing bells summoned armies quickly. Bells of the conquered were melted by the conquerors to make cannons.
Ringing of small bells during the Consecration at Mass began about the 13th century. They alerted worshippers who could not see the altar, especially in large churches. Some of these had raised platforms for the choir between the altar and the worshippers. The priest’s back to the people, an inaudible voice and a “foreign” language didn’t help.
After the liturgical revisions of Vatican II with the priest facing the people and Mass prayers said more audibly in the common language, there was a greater emphasis on the participation of the whole assembly.
The focus was no longer only on the words of Consecration but also on the entire Eucharistic prayer from the Preface to the Amen. Therefore, it seemed bell ringing was no longer needed since all were aware of the action of the Mass.
There is something joyful and celebratory about the sound of bells. Remember, we silenced the Mass bells during Lent and we ring the bells during the Gloria at the Easter Vigil to express joy in Christ’s resurrection. The ringing of bells expresses praise before the Real Presence of Christ as the “Holy, holy, holy” sings God’s praises.
We are made of both body and soul. Today especially, we feel the need to engage the senses by audiovisual means rather than abstract discourse. Our whole beings need to be attuned to the momentous event taking place. We use crucifixes, candles, different coloured vestments.
RICHNESS OF SOUNDS
Sounds are important too, whether in the music, the singing or the quiet of silent prayer. All of these help make the Mass richer in meaning for us.
So, too, bells enhance the dignity and joy of celebration. They add reverence and solemnity to the Mass. Their sounds reawaken wandering minds and signal children that a special moment is occurring.
Bells have always signified momentous events. Church bells were the voice of God calling people to prayer, to God. People were reminded of God in their daily lives.
Should we bring back the bells? There may be good reasons for ringing of bells during Mass, which, although not obligatory, is permitted at specific times. Perhaps we need to re-think and re-evaluate their use. It seems that bells are always rung at the Consecration in St. Peter’s in Rome.
(Other questions? Email: [email protected])
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They fell rapturously in love, despite an age and cultural difference as wide as the Atlantic Ocean, but lived happily ever after in history books, bedtime tales and a gorgeous Disney movie with a soundtrack from Vanessa Williams.
Except maybe not. For starters, her name was Amonute or Matoaka, depending on how close a person was related or acquainted with her.
The daughter of Wahunsenaca—known to most of the world as Chief Powhatan—was given the nickname of Pocahontas, which means “playful one” or “little wanton” for her mischievous nature or possibly “spoiled child” or “naughty one” given her favoured status with her father. She likely grew up away from her father for a few years, with her mother’s tribe, though very little is known of her mother.
The pivotal moment in Pocahontas’ story was likely fully misunderstood, both by historians and by Captain Smith himself.
John Smith was using some ‘alternative facts’
In his diaries decades after the fact, Smith said he was forced to the ground and his head held onto two large rocks while others prepared to “beate out his braines” until Pocahontas put her head on his to stop the pummelling.
It’s believed Pocahontas was about 10 years old when this happened, whereas Smith was in his late 20s.
Historians have determined that what Smith was saved from wasn’t so much impending death as it was a misunderstood (by him) adoption or welcoming ceremony by Wahunsenaca to bring Smith into his tribe. Of course, if you’re forced onto the ground and your head held into place on large rocks while people speak a different language in a very animated manner, you might assume the worst too.
Pocahontas likely didn’t fall madly in love with the man more than twice her age but her relationship with the English settlers did prove beneficial, as she took the settlers supplies during an awful winter in which their population dwindled rapidly. She was seen as a peaceful envoy and welcomed by the English for her role in saving Smith’s life (though, again, it’s unlikely his life was in danger).
Within a few years, the relationship between the English and the Powhatan tribes began to turn sour and at one point Pocahontas disappeared for few years, possibly married to a fellow tribesman named Kocoum with whom she had a son.
Pocahontas as a bargaining chip
In 1613, Pocahontas was lured aboard a British ship and held hostage as a way to force her father to resume trading with the settlers. By 1614, she was baptized into the Anglican church with the name Rebecca and, perhaps reluctantly, married farmer John Rolfe. The two had a son, Thomas, the following year.
Pocahontas, Rolfe and their son travelled to England with a group of about a dozen members of the Powhatan tribe and it’s believed she was quite the social butterfly during their stay. It was during this time the famous portrait of Pocahontas in the red puffy dress or coat and fashionable hat was painted, one of the earliest and most prominent illustrations of her.
The birth of an urban myth
Early in 1617, she was set to return to the colonies with Rolfe but instead remained in Gravesend, England, suffering from unknown illnesses. She died there, at roughly the age of 21, and is buried there. Her father died shortly thereafter and whatever truce had been struck between colonists and Native Americans disintegrated.
Historians also suggests Pocahontas saw her one-time rumoured love Captain Smith while in England; she’s said to have shunned and ignored him and wanted nothing to do with him. For what it’s worth, Smith didn’t write or mention anything about that aggressive and terrifying ceremony until the 1620s, when Pocahontas and her father had died and couldn’t tell their side of the story. (Then again, would anyone have asked them? Probably not.)
There was no grandmother tree, no pesky hummingbird, no impish raccoon in Pocahontas’ real life; no passionate romance between a love-struck girl and a strapping older British captain. But that doesn’t make for quite as entertaining a movie, does it? | <urn:uuid:64382ad4-3cc0-4c91-8be8-6081396beadb> | {
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The world has always been full of diseases. With the world becoming a global village, competition between different people, races and countries have also increased. The fast paced life and the hardcore competition has been taking a toll on human lives and minds. People are catching various types of diseases easily. The modern studies in the field of medicine has also attributed to the discovery of various diseases which till now remained a mystery for the human race.
Modern researches have led to the discovery of a wide number of diseases which were unheard of in the last century. The information about the various diseases are also reaching people faster. Along with the discovery of diseases, the various processes of treating those diseases have also developed drastically. Scientists and doctors have been working effortlessly to come out with treatment procedures and medicines for those diseases which remained untreated earlier.
A large number of people used to die to diseases as there were no treatment methods for them. However, nowadays such incidences have decreased massively. Previously cholera and tuberculosis were dreaded diseases which remained untreated in most of the cases. Today they are just like any other diseases and are easily curable. Surgical as well as medicinal procedures have improved by leaps and bounds.
Nowadays, most of the diseases of the world are treatable. Modern means of curing those diseases and making the procedures less painful are some of the fine steps which have been augmented in the field. People are now less scared of various diseases as they know that there are fine means of treating and curing those diseases. The drastic developments in the field of medical science have decreased the mortality rate across the world and people are now living for a much longer time than the previous era. Would you agree? | <urn:uuid:01353d4e-5fe7-455d-924b-bd90453e296a> | {
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Streetcars in the Twin Cities
Streetcar systems were ubiquitous at the turn of the last century and are uniquely suited now to serve all the high-density development underway in downtowns across the U.S. They're much cheaper than light rail, are hugely successful in promoting development and street life, and fit easily into built environments with little disruption to existing businesses, residents, and traffic. They can provide high-quality transit service to support compact, walkable, higher-density development in small and mid-sized cities that can't afford bigger rail systems – offering the potential to significantly increase the constituency for transit in the U.S.
Moreover, they are proving powerful magnets for real estate development. The magnitude of attraction was measured by a 2005 study of the Portland streetcar that showed that prior to 1997 (when the alignment was announced) buildings were constructed at 30 percent of allowable density on land where the line would be built, whereas after 1997 buildings were constructed at much higher densities – from 90 percent of FAR along the streetcar to 75 percent one block away and 40 percent at three blocks and further away.
In December 2010, the City of Minneapolis received an Alternatives Analysis Planning Grant from the Federal Transit Administration that will be used to evaluate the potential for a new streetcar line to be built on Nicollet and Central Avenues. These were identified as the best corridors to start implementing the long term vision for a streetcar network in the 2007 Minneapolis Streetcar Feasibility Study.
Visit the City of Minneapolis's streetcar planning webpage here for more information on the Alternatives Analysis Planning process and to read the Feasibility Study.
Other Streetcar Resources:
- As part of the TOD Toolkit, CTOD created a powerpoint and related pdf handout that give an overview of the history of streetcars in the Twin Cities and how new investments might create TOD opportunities while enhancing the transit network. Download PPT or View Slideshow here. Download related PDF here. | <urn:uuid:a0a41035-b68a-42aa-a298-86de8bd27dc4> | {
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Scientific name: Lactoria corneta
The horned cowfish belongs to the group of chest fish. These are called this because they have developed a protective cover of large, thick scales, which means that adult chest fish are practically immune to predators, except for the largest ones. They do not have pelvic fins, but bone protrusions may appear in their place, and it is the movement of the dorsal, anal and pectoral fins that allow them to swim slowly. This fish is yellow, with an intensity that may vary depending on its ‘mood’, with electric blue spots. Its caudal fin or tail continues to grow throughout its life and becomes as long as its body. Its maximum size is 50 cm.
This species is shy, solitary and tranquil. They swim calmly and can find problems finding food.
It is an omnivore, that is, it eats everything. Sometimes it picks at coral and sea feathers.
Its reproduction is oviparous and they spawn in the summer months. The female lays her eggs on seaweed beds.
It lives on coral reefs at depths of 10-20 m. The young live in groups in salty waters close to river mouths.
It is found in the Indian-Pacific: Red Sea, east of Africa, Indonesia and Japan.
Species not evaluated (according to the red list of endangered species).
Some chest fish species protect themselves even more by segregating a poisonous substance (ostracitoxine) in the water surrounding them.
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How is it that in America the image of Jesus Christ has been used both to justify the atrocities of white supremacy and to inspire the righteousness of civil rights crusades? In The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America, Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey weave a tapestry of American dreams and visions–from witch hunts to web pages, Harlem to Hollywood, slave cabins to South Park, Mormon revelations to Indian reservations–to show how Americans remade the Son of God visually time and again into a sacred symbol of their greatest aspirations, deepest terrors, and mightiest strivings for racial power and justice.
We have some outtakes from our original interview with Blum and Harvey that we wanted to publish as independent posts. Here, Blum and Harvey discuss the Plublius Lentulus letter, a fraudulent document that described what Jesus looked like, and its influence on Americans’ perspectives of Jesus.
Q: Just what is the “Publius Lentulus letter”? And why is it significant?
A: The Publius Lentulus letter was a fraudulent letter written sometime between the 11th and 15th centuries that claimed to come from a Roman proconsul during the time of Christ. It gave a vivid physical depiction of Jesus that described his hair as “the color of the ripe hazel-nut” that fell “straight down to his ears, but below the ears wavy and curled.” The letter described Christ’s brow as “smooth” and his face “without wrinkle or spot.” It also described his beard as “abundant, of the color of his hair, not long, but divided at the chin.”
The most fascinating thing about the letter is that before the Civil War, just about everyone knew that it was a fraud. Whenever Americans discussed it, such as the President of Yale University Ezra Stiles, they admitted that it was a fake and that the Bible said nothing of what Jesus looked like. But then between the Civil War and the Great Depression, white Americans transformed it into a believed truth. They started referencing it as a fact, started making visual imagery based upon its description, and began claiming that it proved that the white race was supreme because God made it that way.
The Civil Rights Movement convinced Americans intellectually that Jesus could not have been white, but the artwork inspired by the Publius Lentulus letter has continued on through the artistic work of Warner Sallman, Richard Hook, movies, and television shows. The Jesus of South Park or Family Guy looks like he’s taken right off the page of the Publius Lentulus letter. Because of the artistic influence, the Publius Lentulus letter has made it possible for Americans to consider Jesus white without any words to defend it.
Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey are the authors of The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America. For videos, teaching materials, reader-submitted stories, and more, visit colorofchrist.com. You can be a fan on Facebook and follow the authors on Twitter @edwardjblum and @pharvey61. | <urn:uuid:1e4ebd93-4afd-4d1d-b5de-a68e891af3b7> | {
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Until the 1980s, the focus of the EC regarding human rights primarily rested on civil and political rights, as in the overriding international context. However, the focus had shifted in the 1980s more towards the social dimension, which “was high on the European Council’s agenda at that time, as demonstrated by the declarations at the end of the 1988 summits in Hannover and Rhodes, which emphasised the importance of creating a solid social dimension to the internal market.” The Rhodes summit in particular recognised that the creation of a single market should not be a goal in itself without taking into consideration the social aspects of the Community. Moreover, the Community Charter of Fundamental Social Rights of Workers was adopted in 1989.
The Charter had not been adopted unanimously, as opposition came from Great Britain and its then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Great Britain did, however, eventually sign the Charter in 1998 after the election of Tony Blair as Prime Minister. The nature of the Community Charter is non-binding and it is a political declaration. As such it has no legal effect and cannot be enforced legally. Although it still remains a political document with a programmatic nature, “it has given flesh and bones to Community social policies.” It establishes the principles on which the European labour law model is based. The Charter specifically deals with freedom of movement; employment and remuneration; improvement of living and working conditions; social protection; freedom of association and collective bargaining; vocational training; equal treatment for men and women; information, consultation and participation of workers; health protection and safety at the workplace; protection of children and adolescents; elderly persons; and disabled persons. The supervision of the Charter consists of a reporting procedure in which an annual report on the implementation of the Charter is published by the Commission.
As has already been pointed out, the Community Charter is a non-binding declaration of intent by the Heads of State or Government of the Member States. Yet, its adoption marks a significant moment in the development of the social dimension in the EU. The former President of the Commission, Jacques Delors, who had made a commitment to addressing the social aspects of the single market, described the importance of the Community Charter in that it is a means of discovering the extent of agreement on common values by the Member States and how those commonly recognised values can be incorporated into the language of rights. Moreover, its importance “is that it clearly spells out the whole range of the Community’s social policy objectives for the 1990s, and enunciates these in terms of a series of fundamental principles in a single EC-level text.” All consequent instruments regarding social policy, such as the Maastricht Agreement on Social Policy, make reference to the Community Charter. The Treaty of Amsterdam explicitly bears reference to the Community Charter and “it is no longer unthinkable that the Court of Justice might have the power to interpret and enforce the Charter.”
Lammy Betten and Nicholas Grief, EU Law and Human Rights (Essex: Addison Wesley Longman Limited, 1998), 70.
Silvana Sciarra, ‘From Strasbourg to Amsterdam: Prospects for the Convergence of European Social Rights Policy’, in Phillip Alston (ed.), The EU and Human Rights, 499.
Betten and Grief, 72.
Policy Studies Institute, ‘The EC Social Agenda’ [online] http://www.psi.org.uk/publications/archivepdfs/Trade%20unions/TU1.pdf.
Koen Lenaerts and Petra Foubert, ‘Social Rights in the Case-Law of the European Court of Justice: The Impact of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union on Standing Case-Law’, in Eide et al (eds.), Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 161. | <urn:uuid:17160f85-1328-439e-b0d3-b538d298f230> | {
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Astrocytes are cells located in the human brain and spinal cord. They are the most abundant cells in the human brain. Shaped like stars, they provide many essential brain functions, such as holding neurons in place, getting nutrients to neurons and nervous tissue, disposal of dead neurons, maintaining the blood-brain barrier, and repairing and scarring the brain and spinal cord following traumatic injury. They are responsible for astrocytomas, or brain tumors that develop from astrocytes. This condition can occur in the brain and spinal cord, at any age, and primarily in males.
Studying astrocytes plays a huge role in neuroscience since astrocytes communicate with neurons. It is suggested that astrocytes regulate neural stem cells and may play a role in depression. | <urn:uuid:f7a4f532-371a-479c-a844-8f47a8de4cec> | {
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RECKENDORF, HERMANN (ḤAYYIM ẒEBI BEN SOLOMON):
German scholar and author; born in Trebitsch in 1825; died about 1875. Having acquired a thorough acquaintance with the Hebrew language and literature, Reckendorf devoted himself to the study of the other Semitic languages. In 1856 he went to Leipsic, where he occupied himself with the study of history; later he became lecturer in the University of Heidelberg. Influenced by Eugéne Sue's "Les Mystéres de Paris," Reckendorf planned a similar work in Jewish history. The result of his design appeared in his "Die Geheimnisse der Juden" (5 vols., Leipsic, 1856-57), a collection of sketches from Jewish history, written in German. These, though independent of one another, preserve an unbroken historical sequence covering the whole period from the time when the Jews were exiled by Nebuchadnezzar up to his own time. Reckendorf endeavored especially to show that the line of David never disappeared; that it passed from Zerubbabel, through Hillel and certain Jewish kings in Arabia, and through the Abravanels. His assertions are based on various historical works and on the Talmud, the sources being referred to in footnotes. Abraham Kaplan translated the first part into Hebrew under the title of "Mistere ha-Yehudim" (Warsaw, 1865); later the whole work was freely translated into Hebrew by A. S. Friedberg, under the title of "Zikronot le-Bet Dawid" (ib. 1893).
In 1857 Reckendorf published at Leipsic a Hebrew translation of the Koran under the title of "Al-Ḳuran o ha-Miḳra"; its preface, written by the translator, contains an essay on the pre-Mohammedan history of Arabia, a biography of Mohammed, an essay on the Koran itself, and other small treatises on allied themes. In 1868 he published at Leipsic "Das Leben Mosis," a life of Moses according to Biblical and other sources, and a French article on the Ibn Tibbons ("Arch. Isr." xxix. 564, 604).
- Allg. Zeit. des Jud. 1858, pp. 201, 398;
- Epilogue to Reckendorf's Die Geheimnisse der Juden;
- Fürst, Bibl. Jud. iii. 137, 138;
- Zeitlin, Bibl. Post-Mendels. pp. 295-296. | <urn:uuid:0ae8d8c5-09b4-481f-a47b-4113ed19b869> | {
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In the early 1920s, on a farm known as Kruisrivier on the Roggeveld escarpment near Sutherland in the Northern Cape, the landowner and his son dug up the skeletal remains of seven individuals, people who had worked the land and who had, considering the era, probably done so under duress and in dire circumstances.
These seven individuals, along with two more discovered in the area but outside of the Kruisrivier farm cemetery, were then donated to the University of Cape Town (UCT) medical school’s skeletal collection by the farmerʼs son, who was a medical student.
Almost a century later, while doing an archiving audit on the records in the skeletal collection, Dr Victoria Gibbon from UCT’s Division of Clinical Anatomy and Biological Anthropology discovered that a gross injustice had taken place: UCT had unethically obtained the skeletal remains of at least nine individuals, all of whom were San or Khoe.
Realising that this situation was totally unacceptable, Gibbon moved quickly to assemble an interdisciplinary and multi-institutional working committee from UCT, the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG) in Germany and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) in the United Kingdom.
While the goal of repatriation, reburial and restorative justice was clear, the committee’s journey would not be an easy one.
To be successful and “make good”, the Kruisrivier working committee would need to locate the burial site, find the disturbed graves, identify the individuals whose remains had been unethically exhumed and donated, and locate any living relatives.
“I think the circumstances under which this took place were ugly and it is a crime. It’s grossly unjust.”
Emeritus Associate Professor Simon Hall, from UCTʼs Department of Archaeology, rose to the challenge. With Gibbon as the team lead and biological archaeologist, joining Hall on the committee were UCTʼs Professor Nigel Penn from the Department of Historical Studies, Dr Tinashe Mutsvangwa from the Division of Biomedical Engineering and Professor Judith Sealy from the Department of Archaeology; MPGʼs Dr Stephan Schiffels and Joscha Gretzinger; and LJMUʼs Kathryn Smith and Professor Caroline Wilkinson.
“I think the circumstances under which this took place were ugly and it is a crime. It’s grossly unjust,” said Hall, whose research interest is historical archaeology.
This subfield addresses the material and cultural archaeology of the recent past using different kinds of evidence such as written documents and oral histories, in addition to physical and material evidence. The purpose is to enrich perspectives on the lives of ordinary people such as women, slaves and children.
Hall served on the working committee as the archaeologist and was tasked with locating the “scene of the crime” and the burial sites which, by this point, had all but disappeared into the arid farmland.
Fortunately, Hall knew the area well, having conducted projects there with postgraduates over some years.
Armed with the necessary geographical information, he set off to locate the disturbed graves. The current owner of the property granted access to Hall, Penn and members of the digital mapping research group, the Zamani Project, from UCT’s Geomatics division in the Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment (EBE).
Having successfully located the Kruisrivier cemetery and using the map they created of all the graves, Hall made a number of key findings.
The first was the different styles of graves. Some were clearly for Christian farm labourers, evident from the headstones and footstones. Then there were graves which featured stones, used to mark the position of the grave and packed in platforms or slightly mounted cairns.
“The assumption was [the latter] was expressive culture of [San and Khoe] belief and value,” said Hall.
This, in turn, revealed what Hall deemed a “really ugly issue” – the graves which were dug up were specially selected and included both Christian and San and Khoe individuals.
“We think what drove [the] specific selection of the bodies to exhume was the farmer knew who those individuals were.”
The landowner must have had the biographical details of the deceased, known who they were and how they ended up at Kruisrivier, as well as the racial classifications used at the time.
“So certain individuals were classified – and this is ugly stuff – as Hottentot or a true Hottentot [and] others were classified as wild bushmen,” said Hall.
“That was the paradigm under which, at that time, skeletons entered medical school collections.”
“This information has all come together to put faces – historical, physical faces, literally [and] figuratively – to these individuals.”
Hall’s work also revealed that two of the nine sets of skeletal remains were not dug up from the Kruisrivier cemetery. The working committee discovered that one of the exhumed skeletons was pre-colonial and had been found during excavation for a road cutting in the region.
The other, according to the accession records in the UCT skeletal collection archives, had been buried in the hills on the farm and, Hall assumed, was removed by the landowner’s son.
Running in parallel with Hall’s work was a public participation process for which the first objective was to find a historical link to living relatives. This process was successful and identified Sutherland’s Abraham and Stuurman families as descendants of some of the individuals whose remains were removed from the farm.
The second part of the public participation process was to repatriate the remains from the UCT collection and take them back to where they belong.
An option for the repatriation was to rebury them at the Kruisrivier farm cemetery. However, the families elected to have their ancestors’ remains reinterred at what is referred to as the old cemetery in Sutherland.
Peace and closure
Hall has nothing but praise and gratitude for the Sutherland families.
“Hopefully, [the project] is a contribution to give those families peace and closure on something that is in their memory but … [which] through this process is given more concrete history, more concrete context ...”
He said he had found the interdisciplinary team and work exhilarating and stimulating because, he said, “it is the right thing to do”.
“This information has all come together to put faces – historical, physical faces, literally [and] figuratively – to these individuals.
“It has been a privilege to be part of this and to make a contribution to getting closure for these people on this.”
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Please view the republishing articles page for more information. | <urn:uuid:81aef23c-2a7f-4bab-bf80-85308c6669c4> | {
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Photo (cc) by cagrimmett
Antioxidants: We hear about them on TV programs and read about them in the news. Doctors order us to eat them, and studies tell us they can help ward off cancers and diseases like Alzheimer’s.
But could you define the word antioxidant? Could you identify antioxidant-filled foods at the supermarket? If not, this post is for you – and your health. I’ll explain antioxidants and their importance in plain English – and leave you with a printable guide that simplifies healthy grocery shopping.
What is an antioxidant?
Merriam-Webster defines antioxidant as “a substance (as beta-carotene or vitamin C) that inhibits oxidation or reactions promoted by oxygen, peroxides, or free radicals.”
Experts at the National Institutes of Health use even more technical terms…
“Antioxidants are substances that may prevent potentially disease-producing cell damage that can result from natural bodily processes and from exposure to certain chemicals. Oxidation – one of the body’s natural chemical processes – can produce free radicals, which are highly unstable molecules that can damage cells. That damage, known as oxidative stress, is thought to play a role in the development of many diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, eye disease, heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, and rheumatoid arthritis.”
But all you really need to understand is this:
When you are exposed to cigarette smoke, air pollution, ozone, X-rays, UV radiation from the sun, and various chemicals, your body produces molecules called free radicals. Free radicals are bad because they damage your cells, leaving you more susceptible to disease. Antioxidants are good because they help counteract cell damage.
You don’t need to memorize this list to benefit from antioxidants, but it’s still helpful to know their names. Here’s a list of common antioxidants compiled from data from Johns Hopkins University, Oregon State University, and the National Cancer Institute…
Beta-carotene, part of a group of naturally occurring compounds called carotenoids, which are responsible for producing the colors in certain foods like the orange in carrots
Lutein, another carotenoid
Lycopene, another carotenoid
Vitamin A, which includes Vitamin A1 (aka retinol), Vitamin A2 (aka 3,4-didehydroretinol), and Vitamin A3 (aka 3-hydroxy-retinol)
Vitamin C (aka ascorbic acid)
Vitamin E, which comes in eight forms, all known as either tocopherols or tocotrienols
Manganese, a mineral found on the periodic table of elements
Selenium, another mineral
- Flavonoids, a large group of compounds that are found in certain foods
How to shop for antioxidants
Natural antioxidants: Because natural antioxidants occur naturally in foods – meaning they were built in by Mother Nature, not added by food manufacturers – you won’t find them listed in a food’s ingredient list. So you can’t shop for antioxidants if you don’t know which foods naturally contain them. But if you print my Antioxidant Shopping Cheat Sheet PDF (which you can also download and save for future reference), you’ll have a guide to rely on when you grocery shop. The cheat sheet lists dozens of antioxidant-containing foods along with the specific antioxidants they contain, all grouped into supermarket-based sections for speedy shopping.
Synthetic antioxidants: Taking an antioxidant-filled pill sounds easier and cheaper than hunting down antioxidant-filled foods, but some studies indicate that synthetic-antioxidant supplements don’t offer the same health benefits as natural-antioxidant foods. The one thing all experts agree on is that antioxidant supplements are meant to supplement a healthy, natural-antioxidant-filled diet, not replace it. That means you need to eat antioxidant foods regardless of whether you take a supplement. (If you’re considering a supplement, be sure to talk to your doctor about which ones are right for you.) | <urn:uuid:61182a6d-53c0-41df-9b43-77d377259bc1> | {
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The Sensory Design Framework is an adapted, humanity-inspired, industry-wide design language for spatial computing. Both computers and humans are at a nexus of multisensory acceleration. Computers are developing additional senses of their own, like computer vision, voice interfaces, and haptic controls. At the same time, users are beginning to turn to wholly multisensory experiences that move beyond the traditional two-dimensional audiovisual interface into the field of immersive spatial computing. We aim to align the human and machine senses in an intuitive, ethical manner to ensure a societal benefit through design. Just as Material Design Language became the default guide for mobile interface design, we hope that Sensory Design Language will become the default design guide for multisensory interactions beyond the screen.
Our Best Practices
Our tools need to be multi-sensory. By allowing our tools to take in and combine different senses, we will enable products to share experiences, not just information.
Physical by Nature
Our tools need to be physical by nature. Designs placed in the world will only be accepted when they act naturally and humanely.
3D by Default
We’re moving from the 2D screen to the 3D world. User interfaces and content will have to adapt to an uncontrolled environment, not the other way around. Our design tools need to be three dimensional in nature and approach.
Screens, keyboards, and mice will need to validate their existence when we can directly interact with things in our world. Removing direct interactions from our experience removes the joy of an experience. | <urn:uuid:6ede9876-9253-44a8-bafe-b584e01e8db8> | {
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GREEN BAY, Wis. -- No one is likely to dispute the advantages of farm-to-school movements, but experts say initiating a program is not as easy as gathering produce from the field and trucking it to your local school cafeteria.
Schools feed thousands of students each day, which means small local farmers may not be able to provide the bushels and pounds of tomatoes, cucumbers or fruit required for each meal. Farm-fresh deliveries also mean hours of cleaning, chopping, cooking and storing foods, requiring additional staff time and training.
The idea of farm-to-school programs is to encourage schools to buy fresh produce from local farmers as much as possible, as well as educating students about the fresh foods they are eating.
There are at least 123 farm-to-school programs in Wisconsin, according to the National Farm to School Network.
Sara Tedeschi, who works with the Wisconsin branch of the National Farm to School Network, said the mechanics of start up can be the most daunting aspects of launching a locally grown school effort. And those challenges vary depending on the size of school districts.
Larger school districts such as Green Bay - the state's fifth largest with 21,000 students - face challenges in finding enough fresh foods and the costs of hand-preparing foods on a large scale. Smaller districts may not have proper equipment or storage space, and workers may need culinary training.
The Green Bay district is piloting its farm-to-school efforts in four of its 37 schools in 2013-14. The program will introduce students to new fresh foods, create newsletters about locally grown foods and work with families to help them understand the importance of eating more produce.
Amanda Frisque, food services specialist for the Green Bay district, said change starts slowly.
Larger systems often have centralized food services centers, where meals are prepared and then shipped to schools, where kitchens may be small and lack any kind of cooking equipment, she noted. That means fresh foods need to be chopped, prepared and shipped.
The district couldn't afford to create 26 full kitchens in its elementary schools, she said. Each elementary school has a single food services worker to unpack meals and get things set up for kids to walk through lines. Middle and high schools have their own kitchens, but some foods still are prepared at the food services center.
Even if foods were prepared at the district's central building, preparation would require additional workers and additional time. Most food service workers are paid about $10 an hour.
The district serves 12,000 lunches per day, and also offers breakfast and afternoon snacks at some schools, she said. To feed hungry students, food services may go through 1,300 pounds of carrots in a week; 1,200 pounds of lettuce. It might serve 1,700 pounds of berries or 350 pounds of celery sticks in a day.
"Bringing in items that are already sliced saves a lot of time," Frisque said. "We have to look at what is most effective. We have to get it in the almost ready-to-serve stage."
Adding a penny to the cost of a meal to accommodate higher production costs may not mean much for smaller districts but could be unmanageable for larger districts, said Ashley Ponschok, a farm-to-school coordinator for Live54218, an advocacy organization working with the Green Bay district.
Still, taxpayers could decide it's worth it. A recent Wisconsin poll found 77 percent of 300 people surveyed said they were willing to pay more for locally grown foods in schools.
The federal Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 set up guidelines for schools to provide nutrient-dense and fresh foods. Foods don't need to be local, but Frisque said it pays to look for ways to provide regional items.
"Our biggest obstacle, though, is finding one farmer to source from, or even a group to source from," she said.
Other farm-to-school districts in the Green Bay area serve fewer than 6,000 students. Their smaller size means they can more readily buy foods straight from local farmers. They still face obstacles, however, such as a lack of proper equipment or proper training.
"We're so used to getting our food already processed, our apples are cut and cored, that culinary skills are not needed," Ponschok said. "Culinary training is the biggest thing, and the cutting and preparing is a whole different process. Many of our food service workers are not chefs. They're here because they like the kids.
Live54218 is using grant money to spend $11,000 in the next three years to help purchase needed equipment and other items necessary to make farm-to-school programs work. That includes culinary training in spring, in which workers may learn skills such as the best way to hold a knife to cut large quantities of certain foods.
The program will also work with schools to review or learn new recipes.
"You can't just bring in a whole squash if no one knows what to do with it," Ponschok said. "Then all you've got is a whole squash.
Each school district faces unique issues when launching a program, but much can be overcome, advocates said.
"Sometimes barriers are real, sometimes they are perceived," Farm to School Network's Tedeschi said. "There's a lot of challenges. We encourage schools to take a look at 'what are our strengths and what are our weaknesses.'
"I often encourage schools to focus on their strengths and start there. Then you're not throwing yourself against a brick wall."
Copyright 2015 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: School kitchens take fresh approach for healthier foods | <urn:uuid:b72585be-de6c-43c3-96f0-817554c2b192> | {
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This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from the USDA’s rich science and research portfolio.
Where was the food on your plate grown? Do you know in which state the apple in your lunchbox was mostly likely harvested? Or where the milk from your milk carton was mostly likely produced?
USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is helping students, parents, and teachers get revved up for a healthy school year by exploring U.S. agriculture production and the food they eat. Using the maps to display learning the most recent Census of Agriculture results, NASS is showing where foods in the five main food groups, dairy, fruits, grains, proteins, and vegetables, according to USDA’s MyPlate, are grown in the United States. And the conversation and learning opportunities continue online using the hashtag #AgCensus.
Linking Census of Agriculture data and MyPlate, this tool serves up several helpings of development opportunities for educators and students by bringing lessons in agriculture, nutrition, math, science, and geography into the classroom. From farm to fork, you can explore what most commonly eaten foods are grown right in your own state and county.
For example, did you know that out of the five main MyPlate food groups, “vegetables” is the primary food group that should take up the most room on your plate? Can you add up the acres of vegetables in your state to estimate the total acres harvested locally in 2012? And do you know which state had the most harvested acres in vegetables according to the Census? Why do you think this state grows more vegetables than any other state in the United States? Perhaps weather? Terrain? Anything else?
Let’s explore the other side of your plate for a balanced diet with proteins. Do you know that proteins, while a much smaller portion of your plate, can be found on farms in all 50 states? This includes farms that produce food such as chicken, beef, eggs, fish, and nuts. Which county closest to you has farms producing some type of protein? Are there any farms in your own county? Perhaps a field trip or visit from a farmer can be explored this school year to get an even closer look!
Learning about the food we eat and how it is produced is fundamental to building a healthy and informed future generation. Understanding what should be on your plate through MyPlate will increase enthusiasm for healthy eating and help build strong minds and bodies. And learning more about where the food on your plate comes through #AgCensus will increase appreciation for agriculture, the farmers who help feed us, and bring new math and science opportunities into the classroom.
So this school year, whether you serve it up or dish it out, bring new lessons in agriculture, math, nutrition, and more into the classroom with the #AgCensus and MyPlate! | <urn:uuid:281bb958-866f-41c6-80b6-4d7166879640> | {
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Students learn languages best by using them. If you have students constantly practicing their language skills by talking to each other, they will gain confidence and learn more quickly. The key is to create a safe environment, where it is ok to make mistakes. Kids will be embarrassed that they might say something wrong. I remind them that everyone in the room is a learner except me, and I am not going to laugh at them or ridicule them for making a mistake! Have them talk, talk, talk!
The communicative approach to language teaching stresses the importance of communication and interaction among the pupils and between the teacher and the pupils to learn a foreign language. Rather than repeating mechanically dialogues or grammar rules learnt by heart, the communicative approach encourages pupils to use the target language in semi-authentic contexts. This approach also values the pupils' personal experiences outside the classroom as a way to facilitate their learning in the lesson. So most of the tasks of this approach demand that pupils work in pairs or in groups and discuss different aspects of their lives (free-time activities, likes/dislikes, have you ever done this or that). Another common task in the communicative approach is games like guessing as students have to ask and answer questions among themselves to do them (Choose a character from Spiderman. Your class mates have to guess who you are. Use Are you ....? and the short answers Yes, I am No, I'm not). Grammar points are introduced to support the learning of the structure in question (in the previous example, the inversion between subject and be in yes/no questions)
The good thing about the communicative approach is that it makes students speak the language even at a beginner level and they are usually enthusiastic about this. One negative aspect that I can see (but I am Italian and we're obsessed with grammar) is that the study of grammar is somewhat pushed to the side and pupils find it increasingly difficult to be aware of how a language works.
We’ve answered 320,297 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question | <urn:uuid:d6b18168-60a0-47a3-874d-8da17c134ba5> | {
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A LYS Superintendent shares his notes with his principals after observing multiple classrooms during the first week of school.
I forwarding to you an email I have just sent to my principals. This is my reminder to them after visiting classrooms during this first week of school. After all, you have to model and you have to coach.
Group work and cooperative learning is hard to do right. First, the amount of time spent using this instructional method should be monitored. We get excited when we see it because it is potentially a high-yield practice, but that does not mean learning is occurring.
First, groupings should vary. Purposeful grouping is rare, but necessary. Groups of 2 to 3 are ideal. Anything larger than that tends to turn into a social gathering. Grouping a high achiever with a low achiever has obvious benefits. By grouping high and high together, the teacher can take the opportunity to teach the lower achievers in a much smaller setting and in a more intense, directed manner. Most grouping I have observed have been student selected, which only increases likelihood of purely social groupings, re: ineffective. Social grouping should be an infrequent occurrence, although I would not use the word “never.”
What is more ideal than continuous grouping is to stop teaching, have the students turn to a neighbor, and explain the concept to each other. Better yet, give them a minute to bullet point their thoughts individually, and then share with their neighbor for a couple of minutes.
The point is that as instructional leaders don’t get too giddy just because you see students in groups. Observe the grouping and groups very carefully and take that into consideration when determining the effectiveness of learning. Be wary of classes where the students remain in groups for exceedingly long periods of time. Remember that the effective teacher uses a variety of instructional strategies daily. Getting into a rut of doing cooperative and collaborative learning all day long is nearly as bad of a practice as lecturing all period long.
Next, look for the lecturer who has put students into groups. Yes, the students are in groups, but the teacher never stops talking about the lesson. This is a lecture that is simply being done without the students lined up in rows. When a teacher first starts using groups, this will naturally happen, but as instructional leaders you need to watch for this and coach the teacher to better practices.
Lastly, teachers need to understand that students don’t primarily learn by listening to the teacher talk. The students have to be doing the work. I have seen math classes where the teacher never stopped talking and the teacher worked all of the problems as the students copied the teacher’s work. This is extremely ineffective. No wonder the teacher is tired, she is doing all the work. Work the kids, not the teacher.
These are some initial thoughts that you should address with your faculty during your first meetings, or in severe cases – one on one. I am basing this memo on only a few walk-thru’s conducted during the first week of school, so this does not indicate a trend. But these are talking points that are worth continuously reinforcing with your faculty.
Think. Work. Achieve. Your turn…
- Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com! http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5
- Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com! http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook
- Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool)
- Upcoming Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations); NASSP National Conference
- Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation and like Lead Your School on Facebook | <urn:uuid:0588d761-6be1-4743-a07c-c234472618c3> | {
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Why Own a Gun? Protection Is Now Top Reason
Section 3: Gun Ownership Trends and Demographics
There is no definitive data source from the government or elsewhere on how many Americans own guns or how gun ownership rates have changed over time. Also, public opinion surveys provide conflicting results: Some show a decline in the number of households with guns, but another does not.
The General Social Survey (GSS), conducted roughly every two years by the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago, with principal funding from the National Science Foundation, provides a widely-used look at the rate of gun ownership over time. The GSS data show a substantial decline in the shares of both households and individuals with guns. When the GSS first asked about gun ownership in 1973, 49% reported having a gun or revolver in their home or garage. In 2012, 34% said they had a gun in their home or garage. When the survey first asked about personal gun ownership in 1980, 29% said a gun in their home personally belonged to them. This stands at 22% in the 2012 GSS survey.
The Pew Research Center has tracked gun ownership since 1993, and our surveys largely confirm the General Social Survey trend. In our December 1993 survey, 45% reported having a gun in their household; in early 1994, the GSS found 44% saying they had a gun in their home. A January 2013 Pew Research Center survey found 33% saying they had a gun, rifle or pistol in their home, as did 34% in the 2012 wave of the General Social Survey.
The Gallup Organization has been tracking gun ownership in their surveys over this time period as well, but their trend suggests no consistent decline. A Gallup survey in May 1972 found 43% reporting having a gun in their home. The percentage subsequently fluctuated a great deal, reaching a high of 51% in 1993 and a low of 34% in 1999 – but the percentage saying they had a gun in their home last year was the same as it was 40 years earlier (43%).
In the Pew Research Center survey conducted Feb. 13-18, 37% of adults reported having a gun in their household: 24% say they personally own a gun, and 13% say the gun or guns in their home are owned by someone else. These figures are not significantly different from the 2012 General Social Survey estimates that 34% of households have guns, and 22% of individuals own a gun.
There is a substantial gender gap when it comes to gun ownership: men are three times as likely as women (37% vs. 12%) to personally own a gun. However, women are more likely than men to live with someone else who owns a gun. Overall, 45% of men live in a gun-owning household compared with 30% of women. (Just 8% of people say that both they and someone else in their household own guns – these people are counted as personal gun owners in this analysis.)
There is also a sharp difference in personal gun ownership by age – 16% of adults under age 30 own a gun, compared with 27% of all adults age 30 and older. However, many young people live in households in which someone else owns a gun.
Roughly three-in-ten (31%) whites own a gun, which is much greater than the rates of gun ownership among blacks (15%) and Hispanics (11%).
Gun ownership also differs substantially by region and type of community. In the Northeast, 17% say they personally own a gun as do 21% in the West. Higher percentages in the Midwest (27%) and South (29%) say they own a gun. Across all regions, people living in rural areas are twice as likely as those in urban areas to own a gun (39% vs. 18%).
The general profile of gun owners in America differs substantially from the general public. Roughly three-quarters (74%) of gun owners are men, and 82% are white. Taken together, 61% of adults who own guns are white men. Nationwide, white men make up only 32% of the U.S. adult population.
Gun owners and those who do not own guns differ politically. While 37% of all adults identify with or lean toward the Republican Party, that proportion jumps to 51% among gun owners. Among those in households without guns, just 27% identify with the Republican Party or lean Republican, while a majority (61%) are Democrats or lean Democratic. | <urn:uuid:acf07d33-87f0-4466-869e-7c9c686b8cfc> | {
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New Years always prompts me to reflect as I look both backwards at the year just finished and forward to the one gearing up. And this year, with so many new terms in the air, like performance-based tasks and complexity bands, and more assessments than ever before, I’ve been feeling a need to set all those terms and assessments into the context of a bigger, more meaningful picture—what Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, the authors of the great backwards planning book Understanding by Design, might call an ‘enduring understanding’.
According to Wiggins and McTighe, an enduring understanding is an idea or concept that offers lasting value throughout life, not just in the classroom. Additionally, it should reside at the heart of the discipline, require uncovering or unpacking through inquiry, and be engaging to students. Enduring understandings abound on the internet, with a quick search on google yielding ELA samples like this: “Reading is a process by which we construct meaning about the information being communicated by an author within a print or non-print medium,” and “Language captures and records human aspirations and imagination, evoking both emotion and reason.”
Both statements do seem like big, enduring ideas that reside at the heart of English Language Arts. But neither, I fear, are particularly good examples of the way that language captures aspirations, imagination and meaning. As I’ve suggested before, I think we might do better by turning to writers like Anne Lamott who in Bird by Bird, her wonderful advice book to aspiring writers, speaks to both the power of language and the process of reading like this:
For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfold world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die . . . . My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I’m grateful for it the way I’m grateful for the ocean. Aren’t you?
For me, this goes to the heart of the discipline of English Language Arts. And as part of the backwards planning approach to curriculum development that Wiggins and McTighe prescribe, this understanding about the purpose and power of reading can be turned into essential questions that can frame students’ practice and exploration.
To be both engaging and authentic, I believe that essential questions should be truly open-ended and not loaded—that is, they should allow for real debate and disagreement, not just be our teaching points or agendas masquerading as questions. With that and Anne Lamott’s understanding in mind, those questions might sound like this:
- Can a book really comfort us or make us feel less alone?
- Can a narrative about someone else’s life really help us understand our own?
- Can a book really tell us how we might behave? Can it show us how to live and die?
- And if so, how does it do that?
The next step in the backwards planning approach would be to design assessments that would give students the opportunity to share what they thought about those questions, with evidence drawn from their reading experience as well as from texts. These assessments could take a variety of forms, from book reviews to podcasts to accountable talk circles, as well as the more traditional literary essay. But they’d all ask students to transact with a text to ultimately consider what meaning it held for them.
Of course, to do this, students will need strategies and skills, scaffolding and instruction that both models and allows them to experience for themselves how a reader enters a text knowing virtually nothing and emerges pages later with a deeper sense of what it means to be human. And this is where all those other terms and assessments come in. Knowing a students’ reading level, for instance, gives us some sense of what kind of text they have the best chance of transacting with; while instruction that provides the kind of concrete text-based strategies needed for navigating complexity bands allows students to access books that reflect the increasingly complexity of their own lives and world.
To help teachers facilitate this work, Dorothy Barnhouse and I also map out a process of reading in What Readers Really Do that helps students draft and revise their sense of what a text means as they make their way through it, with strategies and skills directly tied to meaning. We also adapt the work of the literary theorist Robert Scholes and break down the process into three distinct but related modes of thinking: comprehension, understanding and evaluation, which we define like this:
- Comprehension is the literal and inferential sense a reader makes of a text line-by-line and page-by-page.
- Understanding, by comparison, happens when a reader takes what she’s comprehended on each page to draft and revise her sense of a text’s bigger ideas or themes.
- Evaluation occurs when, having constructed an understanding of a text, a reader considers whether it has any personal or social value for him.
In the next few weeks I’ll put those words into action by using them with a short text, and I’ll share some ideas for meaningful assessments. But for now what seems important to remember is that reading levels and strategies and skills are the means to an end, not the end itself. And assessments need to be aligned to what we truly value, not just what’s easy to measure, with students asked to apply strategies and skills to some meaningful, enduring end. Only then, I think, can both we and our students begin to see the forest through the trees. And only then are we truly able to benefit from the insight reading can give us. | <urn:uuid:8831d861-2d9d-479a-b840-c76eeb791bee> | {
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Students Score Big Opportunities For Learning Using Linux
The Penguin at St. Mary's
St. Mary's School is a 450-student Pre-K through 8th grade school in Rockledge, Florida that has begun to embrace a Linux Terminal Server Project solution for their ever-expanding educational computing needs.
In a recent interview, John Baillie, St. Mary's Technology Manager, offered some unique insights into the positive effects a Linux-based Technology Lab can have on students. Baillie's tone told the whole story... he's very proud of all the students and their accomplishments in the Technology Lab.
Baillie, armed with an MCSE certification, was hired by St. Mary's as the Technology Manager about four years ago and was tasked to support the school's computer systems/network. About the same time, the new school administration took over and knew that they had to bolster their educational and administration computing infrastructure.
They looked at possible solutions, while staying on the existing systems, until about 18 months ago. Baillie and the administration knew they had to make some decisions because they faced the all-too-familiar information technology problem: little available money for expansion.
Fortunately, Baillie had been seriously exploring Linux for the last couple of years as a Linux User Group member. He even enlisted the LUG to help experiment with the Linux desktop on some of the school's donated machines. Unfortunately, StarOffice, Netscape 4.x, and other applications simply ran too slowly to be useful for St. Mary's educational workload. Then Baillie heard of the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) and thought that it would be a viable solution for the needs of St. Mary's School.
Even though the LTSP solution would provide a high-value Open Source computing resource for the educational needs of the St. Mary's students, Baillie admitted that selling it would have been much harder with a fat budget.
"With an unlimited budget we probably would have gone with Microsoft products," Baillie said.
Their current LTSP lab setup ended up being 35 Pentium IIs with a Dual Pentium III terminal server. Baillie is very happy that Linux has become the vehicle for expansion of the St. Mary's educational computing infrastructure.
From a system administration standpoint, Baillie recognized that managing the Lab desktops with a Linux Terminal Server setup would be much simpler than trying to maintain 35 standard individual Windows machines. Past experience told Baillie that the students couldn't resist customizing their individual desktop environment. They could do it at home, after all, so why not at school? Having a bunch of students rotate through 35 Technology Lab machines would have been a desktop look-and-feel nightmare without the multi-user capabilities of Linux terminals. Under an LTSP system, the students could customize and rearrange to their hearts content without affecting any other student's settings. They could even crash applications without the customary three-fingered recovery salute.
Solid state disks (SSDs) made a splash in consumer technology, and now the technology has its eyes on the enterprise storage market. Download this eBook to see what SSDs can do for your infrastructure and review the pros and cons of this potentially game-changing storage technology.
- 1Linux Top 3: GNOME 3.12 and New Betas for Ubuntu 14.04 and OpenMandriva Lx 2014.0
- 2Linux Top 3: Linux 3.10 Goes Long, Linux 3.11 Advances as LXDE Merges
- 3Linux Top 3: Linus Lashes out, Linux 3.14 Gets PIE and Ubuntu One is Done.
- 4Why Linux is Super (Computing)
- 5Linux Top 3: Ubuntu 14.04, Debian Gives Squeeze More Life and Red Hat Goes Atomic | <urn:uuid:0e1476b7-f9b5-4eb0-a9ff-f7a24b81e0db> | {
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For instance, corner "LLL" is the corner that is at the lower bound on all three graphics axes, and corner "ULU" is at the upper bound on axes 1 and 3 but at the lower bound on axis 2.
The default value is "LLL".
AST A Library for Handling World Coordinate Systems in Astronomy | <urn:uuid:ccf84a77-c70f-40c9-9ee7-30b540ff675e> | {
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Scientists have identified a link between exposure to high levels of oestrogen sex hormones in the womb and the likelihood of developing autism.
This study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, support the idea that increased prenatal sex steroid hormones are one of the potential causes of autism. It follows on from a first study in 2015, in which these same scientists measured foetal androgen levels and found that they were higher in male foetuses who would later develop autism. From these results, they tested the amniotic fluid of the same individuals, but this time focusing on oestrogen levels, with the same results: high levels of foetal oestrogens are linked to a high probability of developing autism.
The authors’ conclusion is: “We conclude that prenatal oestrogenic excess is a characteristic of autism and may interact with genetic predisposition to affect neurodevelopment.”
This study shows again that autism seems to be a pathology present before birth. This result goes along with our last paper, which showed an increase in fetal brain volume during birth in autism. It is therefore by studying this period that we can understand the causes of this pathology.
Source : Baron-Cohen, Simon, et al. “Foetal oestrogens and autism.” Molecular psychiatry (2019): 1. | <urn:uuid:3df2b02a-3aa1-4e34-b90a-059a053f6c7b> | {
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Kingston researchers provide new clues for melanoma
Melanoma is the leading cause of skin cancer-related deaths. Each year around 60,000 new cases are diagnosed in the USA and worldwide 48,000 melanoma patients succumb to the disease.
There is a strong association between this deadly form of cancer and cumulative UV exposure (sunlight or tanning salons), particularly in fair-skinned, light-haired individuals.
Dr. Victor Tron and colleagues at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario have just published fascinating research which examines the contribution of micro RNAs (mi RNAs), small RNA molecules that regulate mRNA translation, to the development of melanoma.
The study compared 470 miRNAs taken from eight benign nevi and eight metastatic melanomas. One miRNA – miR-193b – was suspected to have an important role in melanoma progression. Additional functional studies with miR-193b demonstrated that it could cause decreased expression of over 300 genes related to cell division, most notably Cyclin D1.
The authors concluded that a disruption in the function of miR-193b could underpin the development of melanoma. In other words, loss or downregulation of miR-193b removes the “brakes” from pre-melanoma cells, allowing them to quickly become cancerous.
Additional work will be conducted to confirm whether miR-193b downregulation is a common early event in the development of this disease. And then? Potential treatment ideas, of course. | <urn:uuid:566c7188-20a0-4dc9-84b0-49cb3db655bb> | {
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Four things you might not know about fall allergies
(BPT) - As most allergy sufferers will tell you, allergy symptoms can always be bothersome, turning any time of year into sneezing season. A runny nose, itchy eyes and scratchy throat can arise as the days get shorter and the leaves begin to change.
The fall can be especially difficult for people who are sensitive to mold and ragweed pollen. But these seasonal elements aren't the only triggers that can make symptoms worse this time of year. There are also a few lesser known triggers. Here are four things you might not know about fall allergies, courtesy of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology:
* Hay fever - Hay fever, a term from a bygone era, actually has nothing to do with hay. Instead, it's a general term used to describe the symptoms of late summer allergies. Ragweed is a common cause of hay fever, which is also known as allergic rhinitis
. The plant usually begins to pollinate in mid-August and may continue to be a problem until a hard freeze, depending on where you live. See an allergist for prescription medications to control symptoms or to see if allergy shots
may be your best option.
* Lingering warm weather - While most people enjoy Indian summer, unseasonably warm temperatures can make rhinitis symptoms last longer. Mold spores can also be released when humidity is high, or the weather is dry and windy. Be sure to begin taking medications before your symptoms start. Track your allergy symptoms with MyNasalAllergyJournal.org and visit with your allergist to find relief.
* Pesky leaves - Some folks might find it difficult to keep up with raking leaves throughout the autumn. But for allergy sufferers, raking presents its own problem. It can stir agitating pollen and mold into the air, causing allergy and asthma symptoms. Those with allergies should wear an NIOSH-rated N95 mask when raking leaves, mowing the lawn and gardening.
* School allergens - It's not only seasonal pollen and mold that triggers allergies this time of year. Kids are often exposed to classroom irritants and allergy triggers. These can include chalk dust and classroom pets. Students with food allergies
may also be exposed to allergens in the lunch room.Kids with exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) may experience attacks during recess or gym class. Help your child understand what can trigger their allergies and asthma, and how they can avoid symptoms. Be sure to notify teachers and the school nurse of any emergency medications, such as quick relief inhalers and epinephrine.
No matter the season, it's important for those who think they may be suffering from allergies or asthma to see a board-certified allergist. An allergist can help you develop a treatment plan, which can include both medication and avoidance techniques.
Having your allergies properly identified and treated will help you and your family enjoy the season. To find an allergist and learn more about allergies and asthma, visit www.AllergyandAsthmaRelief.org. | <urn:uuid:71c3370b-3057-495d-8f77-0f729504acc8> | {
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THE UNITED STATES OF THE WORLD
How the American government can guarantee economic and political freedom worldwide.
Daniel F. McNeill
Inter turbas et discordias pessimo cuique plurima vis, pax et quies bonis artibus indigent. Tacitus Histories Book IV I.
(In times of angry mobs and civil dissention, extreme power finds its way into the hands of the worst men; in times of peace and tranquility men skilled in the exercise of goodness are necessary.)
After the Civil War, historians began writing American history as though the domination of all Americans by the Federal Government was inevitable. Yet for a large part of our history the seat of the Federal Government, Washington DC, did not exist and when it was created, it was not located in any of our states. We chose a separate location for it taking small portions of land from the states of Virginia and Maryland. Abraham Lincoln declared in his inaugural speech of March 4th 1861 that the Federal Government was a “national” government yet it possessed no national territory except the District of Columbia which was a stateless district.
The Constitution never uses the word “national” or “nation” or “Federal Government” anywhere. It says its purpose is to form “a more perfect union…for the united states of America” and it then enumerates powers that the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the new government possess. Even the limited powers assigned to Washington troubled Americans and they attached 10 amendments to the Constitution before ratifying it. The tenth amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Clearly the Constitution is about delegating certain powers to a central government and this would certainly have been an odd way to set up a “national” government since the powers delegated are limited. Lincoln used the word “national” because his revolutionary purpose was to make the Federal Government a national government.
Historians accepted Lincoln’s revolution and then it became necessary to explain in simple terms how Washington came to possess the revolutionary power that Lincoln’s armies in the Civil War had won for it.
Historians used two concepts to help fashion their postwar version of our history, “America” and “the nation”. “America” already existed before the first appearance on the east coast of European immigrants. “America” transformed Europeans soon after their arrival on her shores into Americans. The English colonists from England who arrived in 1620 at Plymouth in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were some of the first Americans and the political compact they agreed to on their ship, the Mayflower, before settling on the land was an embryo of democratic concepts that would one day be embodied in the US Constitution that established Washington as the head of “the nation”. American colonists in Massachusetts rebelled in 1695 for independent rule and, assembling an armed force of 1500 men, drove the British governor Andros out of Boston. This was the most important rebellion in “America” in early colonial times against British rule and was clearly, according to historians, the first rumblings of volcanic forces that would one day roar forth in a fiery blast and form “the nation”. Massachusetts’ colonists fired their rifles at the British army at Lexington and Concord in 1775 and killed or wounded nearly 200 British soldiers as they drove the enemy regiments back to the safety of Boston. This allowed historians to again jump on the “America” bandwagon and announce that the Massachusetts men had revolted in “America” to set up an independent government for “the nation”. The Massachusetts men were American patriots and even before George Washington, a Virginian, came to Cambridge Massachusetts in 1775 to take command of their army, they had begun the American Revolution, the bold event that showed the world the deep strength seething within the American heart and soul to found “the nation”. Samuel Adams, the firebrand organizer of the New England rebellion, instigated the Boston Tea Party, attended the first and second continental congresses in Philadelphia, signed the Declaration of Independence, helped draft the Articles of Federation and supported the ratification of the Constitution by Massachusetts. Samuel Adams might have been elevated by historians to the level of a national hero like George Washington or Thomas Jefferson if he had not constantly and outspokenly made it clear to his fellow colonists that Massachusetts was his “country” and that he had led the rebellion against Britain in her name. We have records of him referring to Massachusetts as his “country” as far back as an essay he wrote on liberty and sedition in 1748 at a time when he could not possibly be referring to “the nation”. In another essay in the Boston Gazette in 1771, he writes about “the liberties of our country”. His country, Massachusetts, had put an army in its fields, had issued its own currency, the Pine Tree Shilling, and had fought alone for three months with an army of over 20,000 men against a powerful European nation. Adams left behind too much written evidence that proved that he was not rebelling in the name of “the nation” so historians ignored him as best they could and some even wrote books deriding him as a crank. No defined geographical area is named “America” and no nation has ever established itself, including within its borders a well-defined distinct people, on the North American continent. Samuel Adams might have admitted that he instigated the Massachusetts rebellion in “America” but he would never have admitted that he was an American patriot rather than a Massachusetts patriot or that he had rebelled against Britain in order to establish a nation with its seat in a place named The District of Columbia.
On June 16th 1858 in Springfield Illinois, Abraham Lincoln gave his famous “House Divided” speech. The “house” was “the nation” but the word “house” better suited Lincoln’s purpose. He wanted to put an end to “slavery agitation” but he complained that the Federal Government’s Kansas-Nebraska Act had not ended but increased the agitation. “I believe,” he said, “that this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” Stephen Douglas, Lincoln’s opponent in the election of 1858 for US Senator from Illinois, warned that Lincoln was calling for “a war of sections, a war of the North against the South, of the free states against the slave states”. Seven years later more than 600,000 Americans from the north and the south had died fighting one another in 8000 fights including 384 major battles all over “America” but “the nation” survived whole and now free of slavery, although the man who had first proclaimed that a division existed in the union had been assassinated. There had certainly been political division over slavery but there had been no division at all in the “house” over the question of whether the 34 states of the union were sovereign or not. In 1861 all the states were sovereign but by 1865 state sovereignty as it existed before the war was gone, wiped off the American share of the North American continent by the Civil War along with slavery. How to rationalize the brutal tragic war that Lincoln’s actions shortly after his inauguration as President on March 4th 1861 had caused?
The rationalization was crystal clear. It was a war to end slavery. Thousands and thousands of white men had maimed and killed one another in battles for four bloody years in order to free from their chains five million black African slaves. Nothing could be so false and yet so ready at hand for a simplistic explanation. It was red meat thrown into crowds of hungry historians eager to cheer for Lincoln’s actions which had made Washington supreme. Lincoln had warned in his “House Divided” speech that the “slavery agitation” in his opinion “ will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and past”. He warned that “either the opponents of slavery will arrest its further development…or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become itself lawful in all the states, old as well as new, north as well as south.” He made a clear and truthful judgment of the situation that “the nation” faced. He was right that a crisis was coming. However he did not mention that the 34 states contending with one another over the issue of whether they should be “free states” or “slave states” were sovereign states. The sovereignty of the states was itself the cause of the “slavery agitation.” Lincoln did not mention that to stop the agitation and end the crisis something big had to be done against state sovereignty. State sovereignty had to go in order for slavery north and south to go with it. When a bullet entered Lincoln’s skull in Ford’s theater on April 14th 1865, state sovereignty as it had once existed was gone, gone suddenly as though gone with the wind.
It had been a wonderful creation state sovereignty. Looking back now, at the beginning of the 21st century, state sovereignty moves few Americans and if you are bold enough to use publicly the expression “states rights”, you subject yourself to the ignominy of being associated with an old and outdated idea. It is gone state sovereignty as it once existed but back before the Civil War when Lincoln gave his “House Divided” speech it was vibrantly alive, much stronger than it is now and wonderful. The Constitution granted the Federal Government exclusive sovereign power in military and diplomatic matters and this made it a national sovereign power only when dealing with foreign states. It also granted it powers over interstate commerce and interstate justice that were substantial but very far from a grant of full national sovereignty. President Madison wrote that the powers of the Federal Government “are few and defined” and that those left to state and local governments “are numerous and indefinite”. It is implicit in the Constitution that every state is sovereign and that the sovereign powers granted Washington derived from the sovereign powers of the states. Put simply, the conundrum was that the Federal Government could not obtain limited sovereign powers unless they were obtained from some prior absolute sovereignty. Looking back, it may appear a bitter thing that the states limited their sovereignty by granting bits of it to Washington by ratifying the Constitution. But the very opposite is true: the Constitution provided each state a real substantial workable sovereignty that was much more solid than absolute state sovereignty might have been. The reality was that none of the thirteen original colonies were capable after freedom from Britain of maintaining themselves as independent nations. The Constitution, granting exclusive military power to the Federal Government, gave each state a powerful sword and a huge shield against any potential predator state that might wish to invade them and take them over. Each state was free and sovereign and by union with other states and Washington, each possessed a mighty army and navy to maintain each state’s freedom. Let Washington have exclusive power also over all diplomacy! States did not need, especially when their number had increased to 34 when Lincoln was inaugurated, the expense and effort of worldwide contacts with foreign states, some of whom had the might to subdue them and colonize them. The Constitution did not set up in Washington a government with full sovereignty and it granted each state a condition as close to local “national” sovereignty as was possible. At the time of Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech, it was generally accepted north and south that Washington did not have the power under the Constitution to decide whether a state was a “free state” or a “slave state”. Only what was called “popular sovereignty” could decide the issue. The legal basis of slavery was state sovereignty. Steven Douglas said to Abraham Lincoln in their sixth debate on October 13th 1858 at Quincy Illinois, “I hold that under the Constitution of the United States, each state of this union has the right to do as it please on the subject of slavery.” Near the conclusion of his remarks, Douglas went on to state, “This republic can exist forever divided into free and slave states.” Lincoln replied that he had no desire to argue with slavery in Kentucky or Virginia, but that Douglas would be happy to see slavery extend not just into the Western territories but into the northern states. Lincoln’s warning was just because since states were sovereign, they could decide whether their state was slave or free. Slavery could be extended even to the northern states. State sovereignty had to go if slavery was to go and only one government could be the agent of the change, the one in Washington. However Lincoln did not mention in his debates with Douglas that the government in Washington was the only tool available to pound a nail into the coffin of slavery and state sovereignty. Lincoln bided his time.
Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon river with his army, violated the sovereign authority of the Roman senate, made himself a dictator, created a new political basis for the Roman Empire, and assured the existence of the Roman Empire for 600 years under emperors with absolute power. The deification of Abraham Lincoln for the actions he took to start the Civil War and create a new “America” make the deification of Julius Caesar understandable. He killed a half million Gauls Julius Caesar and made war against whomever he wished for his own reasons, including against Romans. He had done too many unspeakable and atrocious things with superhuman cruelty to be remembered by historians as a mere mortal. He had to be deified to keep human eyes forever blind to his monstrous excesses. Deification too was necessary for Abraham Lincoln. Historians have labored for generations to portray each example of good behavior they can discover in his humdrum life before his election as president as one of many key moments of advancement towards moral and political greatness passed through by an uncouth uneducated Kentuckian born into a 16-by-18 feet log cabin with a dirt floor. They portray his character as president as unflinchingly sublime even though they all know he plotted behind the scenes like some Machiavellian renaissance prince to sandbag the state of Virginia and to force it to secede from the union so that he could invade it with a large army, annihilate its fighting men and rule over its citizens. Slavery was somehow at all stages of his moral advancement his arch enemy. He lived until the age of seven in Kentucky with slaves as natural to his surroundings as wilderness. His father and his illiterate mother moved from Kentucky, a slave state, to Indiana, a free state, and even in this picayune move cheer-leader historians have uncovered a fundamental moral commitment against slavery in the Lincoln nature that infected, they imagine, young Abraham. His astounding assent to the presidency in 1861 openly declaring his opposition to the extension of slavery to the states and territories west of the Mississippi river was rife with potential political and social tragedy. Abraham must have felt when Pinkerton detectives snuck him secretly into Washington for his inauguration to escape possible assassination that he was on a journey that no American had ever been on and that it must lead to a new “America” or else force “the nation” back to the moral darkness of the existence of slavery in some states enforced and legalized by state sovereignty. But escaping from Baltimore to the safety of Washington was just one of many anxious and ambiguous experiences on his revolutionary voyage that historians have refused to examine realistically. Abraham himself helped them by always keeping his real intentions as secret as possible. He was ready and willing even before he reached Washington to cross the Rubicon but unlike Caesar he was clever enough not to let anyone get a clear view, then or now, of his crossing.
Historians, in addition to their effort to create an imaginary comic book picture of Abraham Lincoln’s life and doings, also conveniently skip idealistically over what was at the heart of American experience during the period from the ratification of the Constitution in 1787 to the outbreak of Civil War in 1861. No one in “America” felt truly in their heart of hearts that a genuine sentiment lived in them that united them to “the nation”. Almost none of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the creators of the Constitution had ever had the experience of living in a nation because they were colonists, not nationals of any nation. The successful rebellion and the creation of the union was certainly a thrilling emotional and political adventure but the vast majority of colonists lived in poverty and obscurity and many were indifferent to both events despite their magnificence. For the leaders of the Federal Government and the leaders of the united sovereign states that were the fruit of the adventure, the emotions of revolution faded and politicians were left with an extremely complicated federal-state political apparatus that was radical and difficult to use effectively because everything was new and untried and citizens were scattered over a huge territory living at the time of the Civil War under the laws of 34 distinct sovereign states. There was no good workable name for the new political structure because it was not one simple political structure such as makes up a nation. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the New England novelist, wrote about “the anomaly of two allegiances of which that of the State comes nearest home to a man's feelings, and includes the altar and the hearth, while the General Government claims his devotion only to an airy mode of law and has no symbol but a flag.” Writing about national sentiment, he said, “I wonder that we Americans love our country at all, it having no oneness; and when you try to make it a matter of the heart, everything falls away except one’s native state;” Henry Thoreau wrote in his book Walden, “The majority of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” In 1857 when the anti-slavery anti-federal-government radical, John Brown, came to Concord Massachusetts, Thoreau listened to his lecture against slavery and said that it was the first time in his life that he ever felt he belonged to a nation. Until he was 21 in 1830 Abraham Lincoln helped his father Thomas and his family working for twenty-five cents a day clearing land, plowing fields, and building fences. He also worked daily on the farm his father had created in Indiana by chopping his way through a thick forest to clear a forty acre homestead in a wilderness 600 miles from Washington. Washington at the time was inhabited sparsely. Young Abraham had a government in Indiana and in Washington but his skill he developed with an axe to earn money splitting rails, not nationalistic sentiment, was the weapon he used to free his spirit from the quiet desperation of his life in the wilderness. The high ends and the low ends of cultural experience of the period were rooted in the need to create new forms for political and religious and moral and intellectual awakenings that would provide an escape from individual barrenness and obscurity. Political speeches generated great popular enthusiasm and campaigns featured joyous parades that provided the means for flag waving and cheering. Politicians seeking federal-government positions argued over issues that were grand in scope but far removed from the daily plodding along of farm laborers and mechanics although the issues struck chords of interest in average people’s hearts that did lift their experience for a while to a level beyond the ordinary. People scattered over a continent in small towns and lonely farms were after experiences that their ordinary lot could not generate because little derives from nothingness and obscurity except more nothingness and more obscurity. Abraham Lincoln was a champion of self-propulsion from the ordinary. With little formal education, he taught himself to read. He emigrated at 21 to Illinois and went patiently from rail-splitter to postman to land assayer to store owner and finally transcended his lot to a career as a lawyer. At the high end of cultural experience was New England Transcendentalism. Educated people in New England and elsewhere, frustrated by the lack of higher experience derived from their native circumstances, sought to enlarge their experience with anything gleaned from the past in European art, philosophy, religion and literature or from any higher experience at all available to them from worldwide cultural influences. They opened their souls to any experience that transcended their normal experience provided it was genuine. Politically, all over the north, Abolitionism was another source of escape from the ordinary. Nationalism was budding all over Europe providing inspiration for powerful nationalistic sentiments that were often substitutes for religious experience. In the United States, Abolitionism was partly a substitute for national feeling. When an Abolitionist spoke at a meeting with moral inspiration against the evils of slavery, he was speaking against a foul condition of human beings that was legal according the laws he lived under but outlawed by the laws of the nation that he so ardently desired might exist but in fact did not exist. Slaves for slave owners were living means to escape the slavery of ordinary labor that enslaved most Americans. Slave owners existed in a realm nicely above the ordinary to the same degree that their slaves lived hopelessly below the ordinary painful lot of their fellow laboring humans. The Abolitionists flew off in their minds from the low immoral realms of slavery in sovereign states to the heavenly moral enthusiasms of antislavery agitation. For ordinary white farmers toiling in their fields, Transcendentalism took the form of agitation for “free soil”. The new territories and states to the west of the Mississippi offered the enticement of free land for impoverished whites. They feared that black slaves would also transcend the Mississippi and pollute the poor white man’s Eldorado which was rooted not in gold but in free land. When Abraham Lincoln left his home in Springfield Illinois in February 1861 to be inaugurated president in Washington, he had transcended by his effort and intelligence the ordinary lot of most men in the western wilderness. He had referred many times in his speeches to “the nation” but he had never experienced genuinely what it feels like to live in a nation and he was about to start a war that he justified by a new revolutionary vision of the government he had been elected to in Washington.
The main theme of Lincoln’s debates as the Republican candidate for senator in Illinois in 1858 against the Democrat Steven Douglas was his firm position against the extension of slavery to the new territories west of the Mississippi. He was not a firebrand and he argued with humor and reason that the Federal Government had the power to restrict slavery in new states and territories. He was selected to run for president because he spoke so eloquently in favor of this position which was a radical departure from the compromise doctrine, accepted by politicians north and south, that “popular sovereignty” in present states and future states should determine whether slavery was legal or not. But before he was inaugurated on the 4th of March 1861, during the final months of Buchanan’s presidency, seven states in the deep south had seceded from the union and this meant that the issue Lincoln had run on for president was no longer an issue. Seven slave states had seceded and thus had given up the rights they had possessed formerly as members of the union to deny that the Federal Government had the right to allow only free states in the new territories west of the Mississippi. Without yet being inaugurated President, Lincoln’s issue had triumphed. Seven slave states had yielded to his position by seceding. The 34 states of the union had been reduced by seven to 27 but Lincoln and the Republican party had won the potential over time of a union of 41 states, of which only eight, Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and Delaware were slave states. Lincoln did not have to start a war to save the union because he already had a union of 19 free states and 8 slave states with 14 new free states on the horizon. He also had an army of 35000 men that he could put into military action wherever necessary. Jefferson Davis, the president of the newly formed confederation of 7 seceded states, proclaimed he was ready for war if it came. Lincoln was ready too if it came. So why did Lincoln not let it come rather than cause it? For example, something would have had to be done about free passage for Union states down the Mississippi past the seceded state of Mississippi and through the seceded state of Louisiana. For the present time, the 7 seceded states presented no problem for continued commerce among the states and if Jefferson Davis had dared to block commerce on the Mississippi, the union would have wholeheartedly backed President Lincoln and he would have had a just war instead of the unjust war that he decided to cause on April 6th 1861.
At his inauguration on March 4th, Lincoln had an opportunity to weaken slavery decisively in the seceded states. A cool and reasonable president would have seen quickly that the support for southern slavery that even some northern politicians like Daniel Webster had consistently provided was now severely weakened. The seceded states had left the union and they had also left the Constitution’s support for southern slavery. Lincoln himself had warned in his speeches that seceded states would give up the protection of the Constitution and of the Fugitive Slave Law which allowed them to pursue and capture escaped slaves in free states. If he were morally committed against slavery in new states and territories and was searching for a way like many Americans to end slavery in states where it was legal, why did he not proclaim in his inauguration address that slaves in seceded states were now free to escape across their state’s borders to states loyal to the union and become free American citizens? If that angered the 7 seceded states, so be it. He was now president of a union of 27 states with the power to crush easily the 7 seceded states if they started a war over any issue and Lincoln’s fight in such a war would have been justified.
Lincoln appeared to have no reason to start a war. The seceded states had stupidly and rashly broken their sworn allegiance to the Constitution and seceded without consulting first with their sister slave states. They were in grave danger. Florida was an easy target for predator European states. Taking it over would have been a minor operation for England or France. Texas could never have sustained on its own an invasion by Mexico. South Carolina and Georgia and other seceded slave states would have had to supply soldiers to aid Texas and this would have weakened them to the point of causing slave uprisings and wholesale slave escapes to the safety of states in Lincoln’s union. Lincoln proclaimed in his inaugural address that he would not provoke war with the 7 seceded states and that only their action against the US could cause war. “In your hands,” he said, “my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors.”. He introduced the issue of war in his inauguration address, but he said nothing about using his power as president to not allow slavery west of the Mississippi nor did he mention the antislavery agitation in northern states which were the issues that had sparked his popularity with the antislavery Republican party and had made him president.
In his inaugural address, Lincoln introduced a radical new theme. He had carefully thought out his speech and written it out well before he reached Washington and was inaugurated. He began his address and proceeded carefully exactly like a lawyer presenting a reasoned case for some client. He did not however, like the experienced lawyer that he was, reveal the specifics supporting his client’s case at the start. He first calmly proclaimed that no slave state had anything to fear from him regarding slavery. He said he would not interfere directly or indirectly with slavery in states where it already existed. He asserted that only states had the right to order and control their own domestic institutions, but this was far from asserting that every state was sovereign and, with a lawyer’s skill in skirting issues, he avoided entirely in his speech any mention of state sovereignty. He asserted that he would enforce the Fugitive Slave Law and in speaking of the law, he mentioned that the law could be enforced either by state or by national authority. After seven sentences reassuring all Americans that they need not fear any disruption of their peace and security from his administration, he again used the word “national”. “It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under our national constitution.” Here was at last the specifics of the case he was arguing: the Constitution was national, implying that the Constitution set up a nation. This was false because the Constitution set up not a nation, but “The government of the united states of America”. It was false because a nation can not be constituted from several sovereign states but, false or not, an experienced and talented lawyer like Lincoln was out to win his case anyway. He noted for the first time, referring indirectly to the seven seceded states, that there had been “a disruption in the union” and then quickly proceeded to justify his description of the Constitution as “national” by hammering home some of the nuts and bolts of his case by claiming that the union was perpetual. “I hold that, in contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitution, the Union of these states is perpetual”. He related this assertion in his next sentence to his previous assertion that the Constitution was “national”. “Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments.” Suddenly in Lincoln’s mind “America” exists and “the nation” exists because a national constitution exists and a national government exists and they not only exist but they reinforce one another because the national constitution establishes a national government located in Washington DC that has its roots in a perpetual union. Instead of declaring again that there is a “House Divided”, Lincoln explains that there is now “a disruption in the union” but there is no disruption of the union because it is perpetual. A house now exists that can not be divided by anything at all, a house perpetual and undivided, a house in which Lincoln was living and of which he was the master.
Lincoln declares in his inaugural address nothing less than the sovereignty of the Federal Government. The Federal Government is no longer a unum e pluribus, a one from many. It is now a unum contra plures, a one against many. Reinforced by his doctrine of “perpetual union”, he was declaring that as president he had for four years sovereign authority over the states in the American union like a king. Surely he knew that George Washington, like the ancient Roman general Cincinnatus, had left his army after its victory, refused to exercise sovereign power and retired to private life. Certainly he knew that such a man, living in the old and sovereign state of Virginia, would never have helped write the Constitution and then served as the first president of the united states, if he knew that there was any chance that he was creating a document that gave full sovereign authority to a government that had no national territory and had as yet no location in a city to be given his name, Washington, and to be called the District of Columbia. “The Union is perpetual,” said Lincoln in his address, “confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778”. The full title of the Articles of Confederation is in fact “Articles of Confederation and of Perpetual Union” but no mention is made in the text itself of “perpetual union”. Instead, in Article 3 it is stated that “the said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with one another…” The articles do not set up a nation nor grant congress sovereign power. All sovereignty is retained by the states. Lincoln says that the union established by the articles had already existed in the Articles of Association in 1774 and it “ was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776”. It did mature and continue “perpetual unity“ but it did so while also declaring “that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States…” Lincoln was right that the union was perpetual but it was no longer the union continued by the Constitution if the Federal Government was fully sovereign. The perpetual union as Lincoln understood it had matured to the radical point where it had no longer any need or use for “free and independent states”.
A perpetual union of sovereign states under the power of a national government is a contradiction because separate sovereign states can not synthesize and become a nation. You can have a union of sovereign states or a nation but you can not have both. Only a perpetual union of subservient states can be a nation. Secession took place because the radical republicans threatened to use the Federal Government as a national government endowed with a degree of sovereignty that it had never had previously and that was not justified by the Constitution. Lincoln declared when he was leaving his home in Springfield and traveling to Washington for his inauguration as president that he was “an instrument of history.” History was pushing him to go radically beyond the bits of sovereign power granted to him by the Constitution. The examples he cites in his inaugural address supporting perpetual union, the Articles of Association in 1774, the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and the Articles of Confederation in 1778, do not set up a nation or reduce the sovereignty of each of the united states. The Constitution does limit state sovereignty but the sovereignty that the central government is granted can operate with full power only when dealing with foreign states. The basis of perpetual union under the Constitution was perpetual state sovereignty and when the Federal Government with Lincoln elected president threatened to assume sovereignty over the American states, it broke the union.
Lincoln, “an instrument of history”, continued the revolutionary surge that was pushing himself and his fellow radical republicans forward to a new nation. In order to continue on to their new nation, he had to break the union even further. He had to destroy the sovereignty of all of the states as best he could and force on all Americans a union of states without their former sovereignty. Already on March 5th, the day after his inauguration as president, a means was presented to him to start a war against the 7 seceded states. Robert Anderson, the commander of Fort Sumter, a fort in the harbor of South Carolina, a seceded state, wrote that he had enough supplies to last only six weeks. If Lincoln sent ships to supply and defend the federal fort, which was his right under the Constitution, it might start a war and also push four slave states of the upper South, including Virginia which had a border with Washington DC, to secede. General Winfield Scott, the head of the army, an old and experienced general, strongly advised Lincoln to abandon the fort. Scott told Lincoln that to control it would require a fleet of war vessels, five thousand regular troops plus twenty thousand volunteers. Scott’s final sentence in the letter he wrote Lincoln about the matter read, “To raise, organize and discipline such an army, would require new acts of Congress and from six to eight months.” On March 18th, at a meeting of the seven members of his cabinet, Lincoln asked its members to vote on whether or not to supply and defend the fort. His Secretary of State, Seward, told Lincoln it would provoke war and voted no. Four other members voted no. The idea was defeated 5 to 2 but Lincoln now possessed an option ready at hand to start his war. By the end of March, Lincoln ordered his new Secretary of War, Cameron, to draw up plans for the relief of the fort. By this time, some of his advisors had warned Lincoln that states had too much power and the actions he took against them prove that he agreed.
On the first of April 1861, the outbreak of the Civil War was just 15 days away. Lincoln could look out the windows of the White House across the Potomac river at the green fields of Virginia. He confessed about this time just a few days before the bombardment by South Carolina of Fort Sumter that, “All the troubles and anxieties of his life had not equaled those which intervened between this time and the fall of Fort Sumter.” Despite his anxieties, as he thought of the possibility of war, he must have thought also about the best place for it to be fought. Historians always rush by these decisive days at the beginning of April and cover their rush forward with general statements about how Washington and Lincoln were in grave danger from secessionist war hawks in the south. They skip quickly by the reasons why four more southern states seceded from the union during these days and shortly afterwards and swelled the ranks of the secessionists from 7 to 11 states. Washington was in no danger at all of attack during these early days of April from the south through the state of Virginia. Virginia was in danger from an attack from Washington reinforced by northern troops and when Lincoln succeeded by his actions to force Virginians to secede, Virginia was in grave alarming danger. In a proclamation after the bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12th of April 15th, Lincoln demanded that all loyal states provide him with an army of 75,000 men. A convention in session in Richmond Virginia debating the question of secession from the union had sent a commission to Washington to meet with Lincoln to try to get assurances that they were in no danger of being attacked. They met with Lincoln on April 13th but he said nothing to them about the proclamation of April 15th that he was about to issue demanding that all loyal states furnish his government with75,000 men to help him attack the 7 seceded states. One member of the commission, Mr. William Scott, was shocked when he returned to Richmond and learned there of Lincoln’s proclamation. “I must confess”, said Mr. Scott, “that I was so entirely taken by surprise by the appearance of the proclamation, that I did not for a moment believe that it was authentic. I believed that it was a sensation document, gotten up by some mischievous persons;”. “Like my colleagues,” Mr. Scott said in conclusion, “I therefore think, in view of this communication of the President to the Convention, through this Committee, and in view of the proclamation of the President of the United States to the whole people, that there is no hope of an amicable arrangement with the Administration. I have cherished, sir, a most ardent hope that matters would be solved peaceably. If there be any man upon this floor who has cherished a more ardent, a more decided, a more, I must say, religious and sincere love for this Union than any other, I claim to be that man… I must confess that my hopes in the perpetuation of the Union, as it now stands, have been greatly weakened, if they have not been entirely destroyed.” He was aware as were others at the convention that the fervor for war in the northern states after the bombardment of Fort Sumter had gone beyond all possible restraint. Even so, William Scott still argued for Virginia not to secede from the union. Virginia would be in grave frightful danger. “What is our state of preparation?” asked Mr. Scott. “Where is our ordnance? Where is our musketry? Where are our rifles? Where, in fact, are any of the munitions of war, which are indispensable for our security? Sir, you may talk about courage, and you may talk about chivalry; but I say it is not true courage and true chivalry to rush into such an unequal contest as that. I say, in my judgment it would be folly and fool-hardiness in the extreme.” Then he went on about the frightful danger of where the war would be fought if Virginia were to secede. It would not be fought in the swamps of South Carolina or in Florida with its fierce heat. “Here is a war waging,” he said. “Here is an immense preparation made on the part of the United States Government for carrying on that war. The present seat of that war is at a remote part of the Union. It is now confined to the region about the city of Charleston and the city of Pensacola. These are the points where the war is now seated. What would be the effect of the immediate secession of Virginia? It would be to transfer the seat of war from the Gulf of Mexico, and from the extreme Southern part of our Atlantic coast, to the bosom of Virginia. Yes, sir, your county [Loudoun] that county situated upon the old highway, North and South; the county of Jefferson and the county of Berkeley, would be the Flanders in this war. I could not conceive of any greater favor that you could confer upon this Black Republican administration than to secede now. By Virginia's seceding you transfer the seat of war to this fertile and salubrious country. You transfer it to a country that furnishes every supply that is necessary for the support of the troops; to a climate that is entirely salubrious to the Northern troops who would be engaged in prosecuting the war. Yes, sir, you bring it home to your own fair cities and families. You go into this war without any aid from any quarter. We have no alliance with the Confederate States, nor our sister border States not yet seceded, and Virginia would stand alone between the Federal Government and the Confederate States of the South. She would be the battle ground.”
Virginia had no reason to secede from the union and attack Washington. Lincoln had a reason for forcing Virginia out of the union. The convention had begun in Richmond on February 13th to debate the question of secession. Virginians had been acting since then in their daily debates in a democratic manner as citizens loyal to the union and members of a sovereign state. Lincoln, Washington, Americans and the world had been listening to their daily debates about the positive and negative aspects of seceding from the union. In Maryland to the north of Washington, a slave state like Virginia, slave owners and secessionists had rioted against federal authority. Lincoln had jailed men using his military and suspended the right of habeas corpus. Using the Pinkerton detective agency, he had set up a federal police network to spy on and arrest citizens who disagreed with his policies. He was jailing anyone he pleased in Maryland for speaking in favor of secession and here before him across the fields of Virginia 125 miles away in Richmond, 3 hours away by train, intelligent and substantial men, the political and moral leaders of Virginia, were discussing secession daily just as though as citizens of a sovereign state they had the right to secede from the union and could vote for secession any day they wished. In Lincoln’s eyes, since they assumed they had the right to vote for secession, they were already acting as citizens of a fully sovereign state. An “instrument of history” like Lincoln, charged by history to make the Federal Government a fully sovereign state, endured with great difficulty the free and open democratic deliberations going on in Virginia rooted in notions of state sovereignty that in Lincoln’s eyes Virginia’s 7 sister slave states had rendered null and void by seceding. Lincoln had his response to South Carolina ready. He had his ships ready to sail to Charleston and force their way into Charleston harbor to the aid of Fort Sumter. He had a loaded gun that he was ready to send to South Carolina so that authorities there could fire it and start the Civil War. He had his chance to strike a blow to establish his government’s increased sovereignty. But he waited. He hesitated. Then at the height of the “crisis” over Fort Sumter that historians have invented and did not exist, the Virginian men at their convention in Richmond on April 4th had decided to vote on whether or not to secede from the Union. They voted 88 votes to 44 not to secede. The “crisis” was past. Washington had nothing to fear from the most powerful state in the south. War was no longer possible in the green salubrious fields of Virginia that Lincoln could see across the Potomac from the White House. His hesitation was suddenly gone. He acted decisively. But he did more than just order ships to sail to Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor because he had to be sure that they started the war. On April 6th, two days after the Virginians had voted not to secede, he sent a courier, Robert S. Chew, to inform the governor of South Carolina, Andrew W. Pickins, that he was sending ships to supply Fort Sumter and that if they were resisted, he would supply the fort with men, arms and munitions. On April 9th, 5 days after Virginians had voted not to secede, Lincoln’s fleet of ships was off with its destination Fort Sumter. On April 12th, South Carolina forces bombarded the fort and it surrendered on April 13th, nine days after Virginians had voted not to secede. On April 15th, Lincoln, without the approval of Congress which was not in session, issued the proclamation demanding that all states loyal to the union, including of course Virginia, supply the government in Washington with 75,000 volunteers for the war against the 7 seceded states. The governor of Virginia, John Letcher, immediately replied to Simon Cameron, Lincoln’s Secretary of War, who had telegraphed him on April 15th requesting troops, that Virginia would not supply them. “Your object”, wrote governor Letcher, “is to subjugate the Southern States, and a requisition made upon me for such an object - an object, in my judgment, not within the purview of the Constitution or the act of 1795 - will not be complied with. You have chosen to inaugurate civil war, and, having done so, we will meet it in a spirit as determined as the administration has exhibited toward the South.” On April 17th, 13 days after Virginians had voted in convention not to secede from the union, they again voted on the issue and voted by a vote of 85 to 45 to secede. On May 1st Lincoln wrote in a letter to Gustave Fox, the commander of the ships he had sent to supply Fort Sumter, “You and I both anticipated that the cause of the country would be advanced by making the attempt of provision Fort Sumter, even if it should fail; and it is no small consolation now to feel that our anticipation is justified by the result.” Ten weeks after the bombardment of the fort, Lincoln confessed to his friend Orville Browning, “The plan succeeded. They attacked Sumter- it fell and thus did more service than it otherwise could.” On April 18th, the day after Virginians voted to secede, a member of the convention, Mr. R. Y. Conrad of Frederick, Virginia, voiced his reaction to the events that Lincoln had set in motion on April 6th to start the war. Mr. Conrad said, “I deem this the best and the safest position which Virginia can assume at this time-to resist the President of the United States and the Federal authorities upon the ground that they are exercising or attempting to exercise usurped power over the people of this Commonwealth and the people of other States in this Union; and to hold them responsible as individuals, as lawless usurpers of power, and not acting under the Constitution of the Federal Government or any other Constitution; and I think, sir, that it is due to the people of Virginia; it is due to the safety of the people of Virginia; it is due to ourselves in some mode or other, to declare to the world that we have not chosen, by a mere voluntary act, to overturn this Federal Government, which I admit that the people of Virginia had a right to do under the circumstances. That we did not, upon a mere act of volition, destroy the integrity of this Union; but that we did it upon the ground that this Federal authority, elected temporarily under the Constitution, holding office for a short term, had undertaken to disregard all constitutional limitation, and, in violation of the Constitution and of the natural rights of the people of Virginia and of the United States, are attempting to exercise lawless, usurped authority”. On May 23rd the question of secession from the union was voted on by the whole people of Virginia. They voted for secession by a vote of 132,201 to 37,451.
Lincoln had admitted to the three commissioners from Virginia who met with him on April 13th in Washington before his proclamation of April 15th that began the war that he had read the proceedings of the convention in Richmond. He knew therefore that Virginians at the convention had voted on April 4th not to secede from the union. He was sure that he faced no danger from Virginia and then two days later he sent a letter by his courier, Robert S. Chew, to the governor of South Carolina, Mr. Pichens, informing him that he was sending ships to reinforce Fort Sumter. He provoked the attack on the fort two days after finding out that Virginians had voted not to secede from the union. On July 21st a federal army of 30,000 men from the northern states commanded by a general appointed by Lincoln crossed the Potomac river and invaded Virginia, the home state of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.
We Americans pledge our allegiance to a flag with 13 stripes representing the original 13 states of our union. The 50 stars on our flag represent the 50 states now members of the union. We pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States because our national unity is rooted in a perpetual political union of 50 states. Our loyalty to the Federal Government in Washington DC should be anchored in the wonder aroused in us when we realize that the government in Washington, by its actions both good and bad, has aided the development and established the unity of 50 independent democratic states located either on the North American continent or on the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific ocean. Nothing like our political system has ever been established on earth. Our permanent union of free sovereign states in which free men govern themselves democratically should be the object of our love and our patriotic devotion. We should not use such important words as “America” and “the nation” carelessly and in contexts that risk transforming them to meaningless abstractions. Canada and Mexico have also established unions of provinces and states but the difference is that they both are unified by central governments that are sovereign and our central government in Washington is not sovereign. A veteran of our foreign wars can say with pride that he fought for his nation because the Federal Government is a national government when it conducts foreign wars and diplomacy, but only then.
The whole continent of North America had no nation anywhere when the first European colonists arrived in the 16th century. The general disposition of humanity throughout recorded history has been the tribe at the lower end and the empire at the high end with nations scattered in between very rarely. The Europeans met no nation in North America and this made subjection of the natives and colonization easy. The Spanish conquerors of Mexico met an empire with a central government in Mexico city but some conquered tribes eagerly aided the Spaniards crush the empire. States developed in North America exactly as they had in Africa during the nineteenth century. European nations conquered the natives and outlined on maps the boundaries of their colonies. The colonies then became states when the Europeans departed. The states in Africa are now nations enclosed within frontiers established by Europeans. In North America, the Europeans left behind colonies that became at their departure provinces or states but not nations.
The nation-state is a European invention. The Romans began the long fight to establish their empire beginning as a tribe living among the 7 hills of Rome. European nations developed typically in patterns of historical experiences much like those of the Romans, but the Romans ended up with an empire, the Europeans with the nation-state. The Romans fought heroic battles to enlarge their territory. They subdued neighboring tribes and established new borders and then went beyond the borders to new conquests. So did Europeans. The Romans made a central city, Rome, the seat of their expanded territory. The Europeans did the same setting up London and Paris, Madrid and Lisbon and other European cities as the seat of some expanded territory. The Romans took their tribal language, Latin, refined it and forced it on the natives of their conquered territories. The English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and all the other leading tribes of other European areas did the same. The most powerful confederation of tribes selected one of many languages, refined it and forced it on all the remaining tribes in their nation-state. The Romans won heroic life and death struggles with enemies to confirm their conquests and their imperial identity as Romans in a settled territory with a distinct language. The Europeans did the same except that they called their newly founded empires states. The European states grew up over long periods of crises and wars into firmly established unities of peoples with racial similarities and with well developed languages protected by armies eager for glorious wars to vindicate their national honor. The African and American states never went through similar experiences. Europeans left them with the boundaries of states and with European languages but without a living inner kernel of common creative and dramatic historical experience necessary to give birth to a genuine nation.
It was a good thing that the American states did not become nation-states as in Europe, a blessing. Already in the eighteenth century, the most powerful European states were growing rich from the slave trade and establishing slave colonies on the Caribbean islands to the south of the American states to produce sugar and reap huge profits by the brutal inhuman work schedules they inflicted on African slaves. All the American states north and south also exploited the labor of African slaves and their ships made profits from the slave trade that later provided capital to revolutionize manufacturing in the north using advanced technologies. The American rebellion against the British nation-state began in the northeast in New England and could have failed if it had not been joined by Virginia and other slave colonies partly to assure for themselves the continuation of slavery. When freed from Britain, none of the 13 new American states were strong enough to become nation-states and they needed union with one another to protect themselves from warlike European states always poised for war with one another or else out on the seas searching for territories to conquer and exploit. The British were the most successful colonizers. Even after yielding freedom to the thirteen American states situated along the Atlantic coast, they still possessed Canada with a territory many times larger than the territory of the American states. The British conquest and pacification of India permitted the largesse of outlawing slavery in the British Empire in 1833. The cost of labor in India was so low it made slavery in comparison too costly. By that time, slavery had petered out in America in the northern states and the outlawing of slavery in the British Empire made the break the southern slave states had made with Britain in the American rebellion fortuitous. It was a blessing that the American states were not forced to rely only on their own military for protection. This prevented them from seeking colonies around the world and because they were unified by the Federal Government in Washington, when the peoples of the 13 states emigrated westward, instead of setting up colonies like the Europeans, they set up independent sovereign states with settled borders and democratic institutions of self-government and joined them to their perpetual union.
Washington DC was created in 1790 for the purpose of governing the union of states with strictly limited power and also to protect the union. The site along the Potomac river was selected by George Washington himself from sections of land from the states of Virginia and Maryland. The new city in a stateless location was named Washington and Washington the man was the first president of the new government of the united states established by the ratification of the Constitution by the thirteen states. Before ratification, the government set up by the Articles of Confederation was simply unable to govern and the thirteen states all went their own way as was their right as sovereign states. They refused to pay taxes to the central government which operated without any real authority and was disrespected by foreign states. The government in Washington established by the Constitution had full authority to deal with foreign states and some taxing power but its influence over its own states was marginal and at its beginnings mostly irrelevant. However its authority, although partial, was real and set up legally in a Constitution. The judicial authority established by the Constitution provided for circuit federal courts to travel through the thirteen states with the power to review and reject the decisions of state courts. The Federal Government since its beginning, although with marginal authority, nonetheless seized and used every power it possessed to give itself more power. At the top of the federal circuit courts was the Supreme Court. It asserted almost immediately its right to declare unconstitutional laws of both the states and the Federal Government. The Constitution was the supposed guide to its decisions which were supposedly to be based on a regard for the powers expressly granted the Federal Government and written down in the Constitution. By 1803 in a case before the Supreme Court, Marbury vs. Madison, the Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Government had not only expressed powers but implied powers. The decision opened up for use legal powers beyond what was granted in the Constitution and gave the Supreme Court itself expanded power. This was not necessarily bad for the union because almost all government actions went on within sovereign states initiated by governors and state legislators and in some cases laws passed by American states, just as in the case of nation-states worldwide, were unjust and in violation of universal human rights. The Supreme Court has acted throughout its history to continuously increase its powers and to use its powers to sanction by law not only the squalid and petty economic interests of individuals and corporations but also to legalize throughout the union universal standards of rights and freedoms necessary for just societies and human happiness. Historians eager to push the beginnings of “America” and “the nation” well back in time even before the ratification of the Constitution refuse to criticize power-grabbing by decisions of the Supreme Court. Powers added to Washington are always viewed as the natural and necessary supplements to the infant nation as it grew and finally budded forth gloriously when Abraham Lincoln raised up by his extraordinary acts of political opportunism the baby nation to manhood. In reality, the power-grabbing by the Supreme Court and presidents and congresses should have led keen and truthful historians to the simple realization that Washington was not given originally enough powers to act within the union like the central governments of nation-states. The Supreme Court grabbed more power when it could because it was not given much by the Constitution. Abraham Lincoln grabbed power by starting a war using his expressed power as head of the military granted him by the Constitution, but it was an illegal war because the Constitution certainly did not grant him an implied power to use his army in an all-out war against his own American people.
The union of the thirteen original states was constituted uniquely. The Constitution is generally understood to have been a masterful creation using doctrines of revolutionary European political theorists of the age of enlightenment. This is only partly true. Rationalistic philosophers in Europe railed against all the stupidities they encountered including the endless wars among their European nation-states but none of them theorized about setting up some kind of new supranational government whose purpose and being was designed to unite states rather than to be only just another national state among other national states. The government of the United States of America was just such a supranational creation. The government in Washington set up by the Constitution was “The Government of the United States”. It had a purpose and a being for the united states not over the united states. Most likely few Americans in 1787 understood the new government. The best way to describe it to them would have been to assert that Washington, located in no state, was the seat of a government of an international union of nations and that if the thirteen states acted as nations with limited sovereignty and if Washington acted as a government with its sovereign authority restricted even more than state authority, the unique new political apparatus would work well and profit all Americans.
One head of a government in Europe in 1803 was already working towards a new revolutionary union of states. Napoleon with his army had already subdued enough nation-states and empires to be well on his way towards a united states of Europe. He was preparing to invade Britain to join it by force into his empire dominated by Paris. Meanwhile, he did more to create the United States of America as the union stood at the time of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and as it stands today than anyone else. He sold the territory France possessed west of the Mississippi, from Louisiana on the gulf of Mexico to territory in the far northwest on the Pacific Ocean including territories today part of Canada, enough territory to create 14 new American states, to President Thomas Jefferson for 3 cents an acre. Napoleon failed to create a United States in Europe but he expanded the territory of the United States already existing in America on the east coast of the Atlantic extending west to the Mississippi river to twice its size.
President Jefferson was stunned when he thought of what consequences for the American political system were sure to follow from the Louisiana Purchase. Settlers from the thirteen states of the union were already moving westward towards lands east of the Mississippi to the west of the 13 states. New states of the union were being formed and their addition was already changing the nature of the union. Before, while there were just 13 states along the Atlantic coast, the Federal Government of the union was felt to be solidly in the control of leading men of the 13 states. Each state legislature voted for two men, selected from the upper educated classes, to the federal Senate in Washington composed of only 26 men. Almost all of them were Protestants of Anglo-Saxon origin. They had real power to advise the president and could vote to either block or approve foreign treaties which he was obligated to propose to them for their vote. At this time, the Federal Government was like a gentleman’s political club easily within the reach of rich men who met together periodically in Washington with their fellow English-speaking countrymen from various states ready to handle both political and economic business for their mutual profit. The incredible astonishing union of 50 democratic sovereign states that developed from this initial union, small and modest in comparison to its later size, has never found an adequate word to describe itself. “America” and “the nation” simply do not fit its ambiguous structure but certainly if they help to understand the union, and if their use inspires patriotism to maintain the union, we should welcome them in some circumstances as long as we understand that it is the concrete existence of the union with its original integrity that is sacred rather than words that fit only abstract concepts. Was the union of the original thirteen colonies a nation? It was at least as close to a nation as America ever got. The European counterparts of the rich middle-class men who met as officers in Washington assembled in Europe to create and rule nation-states. The nation-states in Europe were created by middle-class lawyers, allied if necessary with the nobility, to assure by law their class’s riches and exempt the rich from paying taxes on their wealth. In America, it was the union of states that guaranteed the position of rich men by reinforcing their state laws with supranational laws. Napoleon in Europe was doing his best with his army to exile from power the nobility in his empire and to set up in united states the rule of the middle-class universally. He was trying to create the supranational structure that already existed in America and he helped double the size of the American union by the Louisiana Purchase. The original American union did function something like a nation. Men from the thirteen states had given up for their states a national army, but they could maintain state militias and have a career in their American army. They gave up diplomacy but they could become American diplomats. All types of federal judicial and bureaucratic appointments were available as supplements to state offices of the same type. But the sense of being in control of Washington’s doings started slipping away from men in states along the Atlantic coast as settlers moved into the territory east of the Mississippi to the west. The Federal Government supported in the new territories land speculators and slave owners eager to drive Indians from their lands and to use the new territories for slave plantations. The nation-states of England, France, and Spain had also treated native Americans cruelly but their national honor at least sewed a few threads of moral fiber in their colonial administrators that lessened somewhat their harsh rule. The new American “nation” had no moral fiber when dealing with red Americans. They stole their lands and forcibly relocated them on the plains to the west of the Mississippi. The Indian Wars were one of two early sources of anti-national sentiment. Some people questioned what type of “nation” they were a part of that could treat native Americans so cruelly and greedily appropriate their vacated lands to extend the moral plague of slavery. Under President Van Buren, a treaty had been approved with the Cherokees, a civilized confederation of Indian tribes, which amounted to nothing less than their forced removal from their fertile lands in Georgia to the sterile plains west of the Mississippi. In April 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson, a celebrated Massachusetts philosopher, wrote an open letter to Van Buren questioning “the nation”. “…a crime is projected that confounds our understandings by its magnitude, a crime that really deprives us as well as the Cherokees of a country for how could we call the conspiracy that should crush these poor Indians our government, or the land that was cursed by their parting and dying imprecations our country anymore?” The union made its way all the way to California and the Pacific Ocean and later out of North America to the state of Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific, but did “the nation” make its way too along with the union? The other source of early disunion was the War of 1812 with England. Opposed to the war, the four states of the New England area held a convention in Hartford Connecticut to consider secession from the union.
Power in Washington was grasped and used from the beginning mainly at the universal level. It has always been a problem, in the past and in the present, to understand what Washington does or is supposed to do because almost all governmental business in the united states was and is done in the states by state governments. Washington has some practical concrete functions, in addition to maintaining an army and a federal judicial system, like running the post office or maintaining forts in harbors to regulate shipping and customs, but it was never given many important concrete and practical functions like control of roads or police or such important functions as the administration of education and hospitals. However, Washington’s power at the universal level was grand at its beginning and its future potential was enormous. Benjamin Franklin was the first to understand and use American power at the universal level. Born in Boston in 1706, he ran away from his family to Philadelphia, made money mainly running a newspaper and in 1757, now an accomplished figure of the Enlightenment, he jumped from concrete activities in “America” to a more universal function by traveling to London as a representative of the colony of Pennsylvania in its petitions to the British government about the control of the colony. Franklin, a loyal British citizen, remained in London until 1775. By then he was the colonial representative also of Georgia, New Jersey and Massachusetts and he had begun working actively for American independence at the international level. He was elected to the Second Continental Congress, signed the Declaration of Independence, became the American ambassador to France, and signed the Treaty of Alliance with Louis XVI which secured for the American rebels loans and French military support crucial for the victory at Yorktown in Virginia which secured American independence. He was an outstanding revolutionary Franklin at the universal level. Later, back in America, he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and signed the Constitution. All his actions proved that “America“, whatever form it took, could never amount to anything unless it had the unassailable sovereign power to act as an equal among nation-states at the universal and international level. The best the Washington government could do at this level when it was 25 years old in 1812 was go to war with England. It had the power to wage war and it used it first in wars against native Indian tribes and then against the British Empire. Americans succeeded in burning down York, a city in Canada that later was named Toronto. The English in turn burned down the city of Washington. Washington rose rebuilt from its ashes and again proved in 1846 that it was established to accomplish at least some things at the concrete and practical level by invading Mexico.
Few in the states had complained when Washington, again strutting its power on the international stage, bullied Spain into ceding to it the territory of Florida but the Mexican war aroused deep anti-union sentiment. Henry Thoreau, in Concord Massachusetts, refused to pay a local tax as a protest against Washington’s new war and went to jail. Thoreau acted concretely against the war power ceded absolutely to the Federal Government. In 1859 Thoreau wrote in his great essay Civil Disobedience, a work that has inspired passive resistance to unjust uses of political power by citizens internationally, “I heartily accept the motto, ‘That government is best which governs least;’ and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe--‘That government is best which governs not at all;’ ” Not only did many Americans protest against the war, but a question was subsumed by the new unjustified war: where was “America” located? How did it happen that “America” with 13 states could be “America” with Vermont, the fourteenth state, added? Now in 1846 President Polk was invading Mexico to grab Texas from Mexico for the union, so where was “America”? Could it be in Texas too? By 1846, 16 new states had been admitted to the union and they were already new parts of “America” but Texas had been part of Mexico and it was 1800 miles from Thoreau in Concord Massachusetts in his jail. Abraham Lincoln was a member of Congress in Washington in 1847. He also like Henry Thoreau and many others opposed the war because it was an unjustified use of the federal war power. Lincoln’s moral stand against the war hurt his popularity among voters in his home state of Illinois. Most citizens of Illinois cheered wholeheartedly for the war. Most likely it taught Lincoln that many Americans favored war and did not care whom their wars were against or who started them.
The real central moral purpose of the new government of the union established by the Constitution was for the central government neither to start wars using its war and diplomacy powers, nor to cancel state laws using its judicial power and meddle in states’ economies with Congress’s commerce power. Its duty was to obey the truly sacred command laid upon Washington in the Constitution in Article IV section 4:“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion;…” This command should be forever shouted into the ear of every federal politician interested only in expanding federal power and equally into the ear of every historian taking the high and facile road to intellectual importance by forever searching for “the nation”. Peace within each state is the nation. A democratic government in each state free to make its own laws and free to govern its own business is the nation. Freedom from invasion by all enemies, domestic and foreign, is the nation. America is nowhere because its shape should be forever protean always changing to accommodate itself to living forms embodying the acts of sovereign states necessary for vital political and personal freedoms. America exists anywhere in any of our 50 states whenever an American citizen from any racial origin and from any location anywhere in the world decides to exercise the extraordinary American right unknown anywhere else to live and to work and to become a free citizen of any state of our 50 sovereign states with the right to vote and stand for election to offices in his chosen democratic state merely by residing in it.
The Federal Government was pledged before the Civil War to support free citizens in sovereign states who believed they had rights substantial enough to contend freely with any anti-state, anti-constitutional doings from Washington. The parade of new states went on and on and on. Vermont in 1791, Kentucky in 1792, Tennessee 1796, Ohio 1803, Louisiana 1812, Indiana 1816, Mississippi 1816, Illinois 1818, Alabama 1819, Maine 1820, Missouri 1821, Arkansas 1836, Michigan 1837, Florida 1845, Texas 1845, Iowa 1846, Wisconsin 1848, California 1850, Minnesota 1858, Oregon 1859, Kansas 1861. The federal senate filled to 68 members, the House of Representatives swelled. Could such a union of states from Maine on the Atlantic ocean to California 4000 miles away on the Pacific ocean realistically be construed as a nation? In 1858 when Lincoln declared that the “house” was “divided”, there were 32 states in the house. Three years later, two more states joined the union that Lincoln described correctly as “perpetual”. He was obliged as all presidents to obey the command of Article IV section 4 of the Constitution to “guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government”. After his inauguration, he took away the right of habeas corpus and put the state of Maryland under martial law. He was also obligated with respect to states, according to the oath he took to protect and defend the Constitution, to “protect each of them against Invasion;…” When his first invasion of the state of Virginia failed in July 1861, he patiently built up his navy and army and invaded Virginia again in March 1862, this time not with 30,000 men but with 120,000. Virginians held their breath and waited to defend themselves with at most 85,000 men.
The Civil War was a life or death struggle between a fully sovereign state, Virginia, that had not wanted to be fully sovereign, and a non-state, the Federal Government, that was prohibited by the spirit and the letter of the Constitution from acting as a fully sovereign state against American states but did so anyway. Such a war between men assembling in Washington DC from all the northern states and those assembling in Virginia from seceded states was simply an impossible outcome, given the American political system, if it had not been cleverly devised by political machinations. Extremists in the northern and southern states had long been howling for war but it was strategically impossible to put a war actually in operation because America was composed everywhere of sovereign states with borders just like nation-states but without the right to declare war on anyone. Each state had a militia, a small military necessary in case of outbreaks of public disorder, but they had no armies or any need for armies. Washington alone had an army of about 35,000 men. If a state were crazy enough to expand its militia in order to go to war with another American state, Washington would immediately use its army to prevent it for the public good. If a state were nonetheless insane enough to take its militia beyond its borders, it could only realistically accomplish this if its goal was war with a neighboring state. Otherwise, it would have had to have permission from a neighboring state to pass through it and perhaps have needed permission from other states to reach the enemy American state that it planned to invade. One reason for assigning all power to make war to the Federal Government was to avoid and make impossible wars between the states. At the time of Lincoln’s journey to Washington to be inaugurated in March 1861, 7 states had seceded. Historians, looking back at the situation, have been overly eager to portray Lincoln and Washington as being in grave danger because the 7 seceded states were talking war and assembling some forces. There were riots in Baltimore against a Massachusetts regiment coming to Washington to defend the president that caused some deaths and there were other displays of tensions. But Washington DC was not threatened by invasion. Virginia and the state to its immediate south, North Carolina, had not seceded and Virginia was solidly against secession. An army from South Carolina, a seceded state, would have had to cross through North Carolina and Virginia with a supply column stretching back 500 miles to invade Washington. Lincoln was in no danger. In fact, even after his proclamation of war on April 15th, his wife Mary, after discovering funds available to her to decorate the upper floors of the White House, went on a shopping spree in May for furnishings to Philadelphia and New York, the first of eleven buying trips she would make during the war. Lincoln waited until July to send a 30,000 man force under General McDowell into Virginia. Even its defeat was easy enough for Lincoln to endure because the northern states were so stunned that they eagerly sent thousands and thousands of young men to Washington to train for another invasion of Virginia. Virginia, which had ceded power to Washington to raise a federal army by ratifying the Constitution, was now forced by Washington to raise its own army. Lincoln and Washington waited leisurely 8 months before the next invasion. Mary Lincoln held a reception in the White House for 500 guests in a renovated White House. When Lincoln’s large army was at last ready to go south, the political leaders in Virginia panicked. They decided at a meeting to abandon Richmond. Robert E. Lee was present at the meeting. He told them as firmly as possible that they must defend Richmond. General Lee, who later defeated Lincoln’s armies four times on Virginian soil, did not want to fight any American anywhere but his honor as a soldier and as a man and Lincoln’s machinations left him no choice but to use his sword, as long as he had the physical means to fight, to defend every man woman and child in Virginia from harm that might be inflicted on them by armed men.
Virginia was a sovereign state under the union and with the union broken it was natural and unproblematic for it to act with full sovereignty. Lincoln and Washington however began the war with extremely limited sovereignty and usurping more sovereignty or acting with full sovereignty was problematic. When Napoleon made his coup d’etat, he was the head of the army and he took control of a government that was already set up to rule as a fully sovereign government of a state. Cromwell as a dictator in England ruled with full sovereignty a nation that was already constituted with full sovereignty. Congress did not challenge Lincoln’s war power, even though he used it against American states, and it was the main power he had as head of a government that was not set up to be fully sovereign. It was difficult for Lincoln to act with the authority of a leader of a sovereign state because his revolutionary goal was to make a government sovereign that was not sovereign. It is debatable whether he ever reached the level of power of a Napoleon or a Cromwell but it is certain that he steadily gained power even after the early defeats of his armies and as his armies bludgeoned their way to the final victory, he became very nearly a fully endowed tyrant.
After the defeat of the Federal army’s first invasion of Virginia at Manassas, Lincoln selected George McClellan, a highly experienced soldier, to be general of the massive army he was assembling in Washington to crush Virginia and capture Richmond, the capital of Virginia and also the new capital of the Confederacy of 11 seceded states. Lincoln’s appointment of McClellan was strange both because he was commanding him to invade American states in the south with troops from American states in the north and because both men sensed that the power the president handed over to his general was unheard of with no precedent, certainly unconstitutional, and possibly treasonable. The thousands and thousands of young men assembling in Washington and training for war increased the tension that grew up between Lincoln and McClellan because the general of the northern forces felt he had become sovereign as head of the army and because he knew from his experiences in wars that the odd new sovereign authority placed on his shoulders must lead to the deaths of thousands of young men without any previous experience of war on the fields of Virginia. McClellan, a well educated man who had been an observer in 1855 at the Crimean war, treated the president who had little formal education with a kind of free and easy indifference that was certainly disrespectful and sometimes changed to contempt. McClellan hesitated and hesitated to go to war stalling month after month frustrating Lincoln over and over by delay after delay. For 8 months while McClellan hesitated to move his army into Virginia, Lincoln was assailed politely but firmly by radical republicans frustrated that he would not set the army in motion and command it to march south and capture Richmond. McClellan moved, when he finally moved on March 17, 1862, not straight ahead south where there were easily defensible rivers in his path but instead by ships down the Potomac river to a safe and easy landing of his troops on the peninsula south of Richmond. McClellan hoped and hoped that this massive display of force would somehow bring the leaders of both unions of states to their senses and compel some sudden compromise and armistice that would make armed conflict unnecessary. No general ever lead an army to war with less interest in fighting and his refusal to commit his forces fully in battle after battle against points in the defensive lines of his opponents that might have led to victory prove to anyone capable of real objectivity that McClellan both in the Peninsula Campaign in Virginia and at the next battle he fought at Antietam in Maryland did not want war because it was a useless destruction of young men’s lives and because it was a war between Americans that was unjustified and totally at odds with all their previous history together in a brotherly and perpetual union of states.
General Lee drove General McClellan’s army out of Virginia after Lincoln’s second invasion but strangely it made Lincoln’s authority stronger. McClellan was cautious in the deployment of his forces always trying to avoid the bludgeoning type of warfare that Lincoln later in the war got general Grant to wage, but he had conducted successfully a large orderly campaign on enemy territory and his troops, even though inexperienced, had fought well. When he met face to face with Lincoln who had traveled by ship down to the peninsula in Virginia to confer with him, he was no longer contemptuous and now showed respect for Lincoln. He realized that the president whom he had previously treated as a weak and unknowing federal official, had somehow put together for action a vast new assemblage of men united in state regiments and divisions in a war that now must continue to some fatal conclusion. On both sides of the battle lines, Lincoln, the enemy of state sovereignty, had created out of nowhere a deadly means for every state in the union to act because of the war for a few short years as a nation-state. McClellan’s men loved him because he had used his military knowledge to keep them in good order and avoid sometimes the useless and unnecessary shedding of blood. They loved him his men and they were from many different states and proud with something like real nationalistic sentiment to represent their state and win glory for their state. Lincoln somehow had set North Carolinians against Rhode Islanders, New Yorkers against Texans, Georgians against New Hampshire men. Men from 34 sovereign states were out on battlefields fighting state against state and yet the man who had started the deadly interstate hubbub was not located in any state and was not the head of the government of any state. Before Lincoln’s war men found an indirect outlet for the nationalistic feelings that were denied them as members of states with limited sovereignty by expressing publicly passionate sentiments for and against slavery but such protests failed to satisfy their need for some real direct outlet to ease what troubled their spirits. Men north and south felt that the union had developed so successfully and added so many states that it was out of balance. War could possibly create a new lack of balance but some wanted it anyway and Lincoln provided the war even though it had no real reason to exist. The New England writer Nathanial Hawthorne had a sharp eye and always spoke the truth. “I don’t understand what the war is about,” he said. “The southerners are not my fellow countrymen. We should just give them a good thrashing and kick them out of the union.” No one knew what the war was about better than Lincoln. He had a plan for a new nation and he needed a war to gain sovereignty for the federal government to execute his plan. General McClellan in his Peninsula Campaign had acted as the main actor in the mighty strange new drama that had unfolded itself before his eyes. He understood at last that a radical new future was on the way for the United States and that an American had to either become an actor in the drama and applaud heartily for its author and the nation he was creating or keep off the stage with no connection to the radical new historical forces pushing the union to a new form and a new future. Shortly after Lincoln ended his visit to him on the peninsula in Virginia, General McLellan wrote a letter to him expressing the extent of his changed sentiments towards his leader. Before he had been critical and disdainful of Lincoln, but now he addressed him as his sovereign, like a Roman general voicing his loyal support for his emperor. He wrote in part of his letter, “Let neither military disaster, political faction or foreign war shake your settled purpose to enforce the equal operation of the laws of the United States upon the people of every state. The time has come when the Government must determine upon a civil and military policy, covering the whole ground of our national trouble. The responsibility of determining, declaring and supporting such civil and military policy and of directing the whole course of national affairs in regard to the rebellion, must now be assumed and exercised by you or our cause will be lost. The Constitution gives you power sufficient even for the present terrible exigency.” McClellan perceived clearly what Lincoln had accomplished. He had forced South Carolina to bombard Fort Sumter. He had forced by his proclamation of April 15th Virginia and three more slave states to secede. The eleven seceded states by defending themselves against northern armies had made Lincoln the sovereign leader of a sovereign Federal Government.
General McClellan wrote his letter in the very midst of his battle against men defending Virginia. Virginia’s defense of itself was tragic not only because it could not win the war even with the extraordinary courage and zeal of its defenders but also because some of her defenders were slave owners and all of them were condemned by history to defend at the same time both state sovereignty and slavery. Any student who now at the beginning of the 21st century wishes to probe and discover the issues of the Civil War should begin his/her inquiry by simply reading the stories of the battles in Virginia. The southerners fought so fiercely and bravely that their victories against superior numbers should make any modern student start wondering why men came from 10 of the 11 seceded states to help defend Virginia and why in the world and for what reason anyway they were fighting. But the modern student can not reach the heart of the matter because his/her eyes are blurred knowing from the start of the inquiry that the men fighting in defense of Virginia were indeed fighting to continue human slavery. General Thomas Jackson, a Virginian that southerners called “Stonewall” Jackson, was the most celebrated hero of the conflict. Englishmen admired him so greatly that they collected money and set up a statue of Jackson that a student can see today on the grounds in Richmond near the Virginia statehouse. But the student can also today visit the Stonewall Jackson House, a museum in Lexington Virginia located in the house Jackson lived in with his wife when he was a professor before the war at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. Every day Thomas Jackson returned home from his teaching and read his bible. He was such a devout Protestant that one day during his successful campaign in the Shenandoah Valley against federal forces, he hesitated to fight at an opportune moment because it was the Sabbath. Jackson read and studied his bible every day but he also gave orders every day to his 10 slaves. Every day he took command of the lives of ten human beings and used them as property with a status barely above animals. It is easy to convince a student outraged by southern slavery that Lincoln’s war was a war to end slavery because the end of slavery was the indirect result. Lincoln promoted himself as an up and coming politician by appearing to be morally against slavery and he secured the Republican nomination for president by making himself a champion in his speeches against allowing slavery in the new western territories while at the same time making it clear that he was not against slavery in states where it already existed. He held the state of Maryland under martial law throughout the war and could have used his dictatorial power to proclaim slavery unlawful in a state under his control. But Lincoln did not move against slavery in places where he had power over it. Instead he cleverly issued an Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 that freed slaves in southern states who belonged to masters who had taken up arms to defend themselves from his federal armies. He had no power under the Constitution to free slaves and his Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves only in places where his war power that he was using tyrannically had no power.
General Lee took his army north into Pennsylvania to Gettysburg. He gambled that he could perhaps win a decisive victory in a northern state and end the war because he knew he could not gather sufficient men and resources in Virginia to keep defeating and pushing back large well supplied invading armies. The array of soldiers lined up for battle under the bright July sun on the open green fields of Gettysburg was splendid. In the morning before the cannons and rifles exploded forth their deadly missiles, men from all over the union, from every state in the union, stood looking across the open space between them at peace. Abraham Lincoln had assembled them there. He assembled men from every state in the union and on that morning for a few moments before the killing began they were truly the nation, they were truly in America because the nation exists and America exists wherever Americans are alive together free men among free men enjoying peace with their freedom guaranteed by a just perpetual union. Then the cannons exploded and the rifles fired and the union was dead and America and the nation were dead and peace was dead along with the Americans who were soon lying on the ground dead. If only Lincoln had found some common enemy for them to fight, they might have stood united as a nation that morning, like the ancient Greeks united as a nation by their war against Troy, united as Americans fighting an enemy. But Lincoln could find no enemy for Americans to fight against except one another.
The consequences of the war Lincoln started are still with us and we will never be truly Americans unless we look squarely and bravely at the consequences and learn what form our perpetual union should take consequently.
In 1889,William Torrey Harris was appointed US Commissioner of Education. Harris was a devotee of Hegelian philosophy and he used his knowledge of the German philosopher’s dialectic to understand the logical pattern behind changes that appeared to be illogical. A positive action, a thesis, always produced some negative reaction, an antithesis, that produced in turn a new negation that took on a positive form, a synthesis. The dialectic made a series of actions that seemed in themselves devoid of meaning meaningful. Harris, a high official of the Federal Government, would have found it simple to apply the Hegelian dialectic to understand what had lead to the Civil War. The thesis was the opening up of new territories for statehood to the west of the Mississippi. The antithesis was the refusal on the part of radical Republicans in the north to allow slavery in the new territories and the election of Lincoln as president who championed their position. The synthesis was the Civil War and the new America that resulted. Harris perceived the deep alienation in Americans after the war caused by their sense of being alone and isolated without any fixed identity on a huge continent cut off from the center of power in Washington. Their alienation might become a danger to the upper-class Anglo-Saxon society in which men like Harris lived richly and securely. “The highest ideal of a civilization,” he wrote, “is that of a civilization that is engaged constantly in elevating lower classes of people into participation of all that is good and reasonable and perpetually increasing at the same time their self-activity. Such a civilization we have a right to enforce on this earth”. His means of enforcing it was public education. To the general alienation visible everywhere in the new every-man-for-himself postwar America, he proposed no less than self-alienation in schools. "Ninety-nine [students] out of a hundred,” he wrote, “ are automata, careful to walk in prescribed paths, careful to follow the prescribed custom. This is not an accident but the result of substantial education, which, scientifically defined, is the subsumption of the individual." Alienation already existed to an extreme degree in the new America. He proposed, as US Commissioner of Education, that self-alienation should be the main business of the classroom. “The great purpose of school can be realized better in dark, airless, ugly places ... It is to master the physical self, to transcend the beauty of nature. School should develop the power to withdraw from the external world."
The upper classes withdrew from the harsh new external world of postwar unregulated unregimented free-wheeling capitalism to ships sailing to Europe where their immersion in various forms of higher culture allowed them to self-alienate themselves comfortably and enjoyably. The Americans left behind because of their meager means were condemned to self-alienate themselves at home and learn the forms of obedience necessary to produce an orderly society by submitting to the regimented way of life taught in public schools.
Self-alienation in Hegelian philosophy is a necessary moment in the development of spirit. The middle-class rationalistic philosophy of the eighteenth century was well established in Hegel’s time (1770-1831) and he tried to carry it forward to a new stage of development. For him there was no such thing as static spirit. The earlier middle-class philosophers had liked to fit spirit into nicely rationalized fixed forms that were permanent and eternal. For Hegel, rationality and spirit are the same thing and they are constantly developing through negations and affirmations and negations. William Harris understood as did many other Anglo-Saxon thinkers that middle-class values alone existed or deserved to exist in America and in order to enforce them on the lower-class masses of native Americans and on the lower-class sons and daughters of new immigrants, development of their spirit was necessary through self-alienation in schools and regimented orientations to higher forms of middle-class cultural experiences made available in popular mass educational movements like the Chautauqua movement. Begun in 1874, Chautauqua developed from the practice of camp meetings in the summer to give crowds of people religious instruction. It added secular instruction giving courses in the arts, sciences and the humanities. The movement flourished propelling Americans hungry for culture to higher levels of self-alienation and to discoveries of middle-class values that were essential for advancement and success in the new America. Droves of people desired passionately to transcend the ordinary dog-eat-dog life offered them by working regimented in the work-a-day hell caused by survival-of-the-fittest industrialized American capitalism. If you did not transcend your life by some form of self-alienation, you had to live with the kind of self natural once in the freedom and wilderness of a previous America that was now doomed to impotence.
These middle-class values were not new. In fact, they had been developing in Europe since the 11th century. In a society of nobles on the one hand and serfs on the other, men began escaping hundreds of years ago to towns which began establishing themselves all over Europe. Men living and working in the towns, burgs, became members of a new class midway between the nobles and the serfs, they were the bourgeois, the new middle class. They were producers, craftsmen, manufacturers, artists who employed workers. They established rights for themselves separate from the rights of nobles and serfs. At first, the merchants in the towns worked in harmony with their workers. Both groups had solidly established rights and were members of guilds. The prices of goods produced were strictly fixed. Wages were fixed. The church went so far as to declare profits sinful. Workers had many days off at public holidays and holydays. Even the destitute poor had rights to public lands where they could keep a cow and had the right to gather gleanings left over after harvests to feed themselves and to build themselves thatched huts. But the bourgeoisie over a long period set themselves up as a separate class because it was only by alienating themselves from fellow members of their communities that they could become rich. The main road to riches was cheating. Prices of manufactured goods were fixed and products were of equal intrinsic value so one merchant became wealthier than others in his guild by secretly lowering the quality of his product. This produced excess money in the hands of individuals, capital that they could reinvest and make more money. Townsmen with money built themselves rich homes and displayed themselves in fine new clothes that set them apart from the clothes of nobles, peasants and workers. The individual entrepreneur rose to prominence. The political power they gained as town leaders gradually allowed them to eliminate the customs with the force of law that had protected workers and peasants. The bourgeoisie made still more money by getting rid of public holidays and by gaining the right to work workers longer hours and by paying them less. In England, Anglo-Saxon law based partly on custom continued but in France bourgeois lawyers studied Roman law which had no roots in custom and was based solely on authority. Lawyers changed laws to protect the newly rich bourgeois entrepreneurs who got even richer by the protection afforded them by the laws they instituted. Culturally, the great epiphanies of middle-class culture were Protestantism and the Renaissance. Merchants in towns always searching for new technologies learned to print and spread around religious writings so that the new individualistic middle class could start examining its religious beliefs individually. Middle-class lawyers needed to know Latin to understand Roman law and apply it to revolutionary effect in their nation-states. Culturally, this need helped inspire the creative outbursts of the Renaissance based on a rediscovery of the literature and art of the ancient world. Latin was essential to the educated bourgeois because it enabled him to Latinize his native language so that he could speak with a vocabulary and a new style that was incomprehensible to the masses. Alienation from the masses in every possible way was the goal of the bourgeoisie. The new rich were unique with an unique new basis of wealth and their goal was to remain unique in blissful self-alienation The English were the first Europeans to create a nation-state with a government that integrated the nobility and the bourgeoisie with laws devoted to protecting the old rich and the newly rich. Their nation-state became powerful because its government protected by law the wealth and alienation of the rich and enabled England to be the scene of the first industrial revolution in the 17th century. In Europe the English success in creating a powerful nation-state caused a rush all over the continent to establish modern nation-states everywhere as soon as possible.
The government of the European nation-state was run by the middle class for the middle class. No attempt was ever made to make the masses of people middle class although middle-class elite schools and universities with knowledge oriented to middle-class values and towards the middle-class scientific and rational slant of knowledge did allow a scattering of men from the masses to become bourgeois. But in Europe the middle-class governments were against the masses to such en extent that in the early part of the nineteenth century a man working in France from dawn to dusk six days a week in a factory could not earn enough to feed himself and his family. The central governments in Europe were against the masses and they called up against themselves revolution after revolution which they put down brutally. In the United States, Lincoln’s revolution gave men with middle-class values solid control of the central government but the difference was that the new political rulers and their educated and rich adherents and beneficiaries understood that they could grow stronger and prosper richly in the new America by forcing all the members of the lower classes to live only with middle-class values. They could embody middle- class values in all their people, values which were revolutionary in origin and when spread universally to everyone over a large continent with 45 states must make a great revolution. In European nation-states, a small minority controlled the central government always in danger of revolution from within and attacks from enemy nation-states from without. In America, no nation-state existed and the central government was controlled mainly by rich educated middle-class Anglo-Saxons. It was isolated from any possible revolution or attack because it was surrounded by 45 states with severely reduced sovereignty and with populations with no choice but to adopt their rulers’ values because in a society without nobles or peasants no other values had any value.
Abraham Lincoln fought and killed full-blown state sovereignty. The radical republicans in power in Congress after Lincoln’s assassination stuck their knives into whatever state sovereignty survived whenever they had the chance. First they tried to impeach Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s vice-president, who succeeded him to the presidency. He was a southerner who had been against the south taking up arms. He wanted the complex new governmental apparatus created by the war to go back to as it had been before the war. He wanted to put the genie that Lincoln had let out of the bottle back in the bottle. Johnson had defied a piece of unconstitutional legislation passed by the radical republicans and survived the trial by impeachment in Congress that resulted by one vote. The republicans defied the Constitution whenever it helped establish a stronger central government. They were primarily interested in establishing the republican party as sovereign and had only a passing interest in “the nation” or “America” or even in the perpetual union which was now as unbreakable as a coffin cemented in concrete. Lincoln had used the slavery issue to gain the presidency and start a war to cripple state sovereignty. The Republicans after the war continued to use slavery as a weapon against state sovereignty. With the 11 defeated states who had seceded conquered and living under martial law without representation in Congress, the 13th amendment abolishing slavery was passed by Congress and ratified by the states who had remained faithful to the union. It was a welcome and joyous act but it was also the first amendment to the Constitution that was against state sovereignty. The 12th amendment had merely adjusted the electoral college’s procedure but amendments 1 to 11 had either increased state sovereignty or protected individual rights. In the moral joy that hopefully was universal, few noticed that the 13th amendment radically reordered the economies of 15 former slave states and opened up for the unbridled savage new capitalism 15 states with severely reduced sovereignty for pristine new economic adventures. Also the slaves granted freedom were not granted expressly in the language of the 13th amendment first-class citizenship which was their due and was vitally necessary. White men were again exploiting black men for their profit at least indirectly.
The 14th amendment does expressly guarantee former slaves and any person born in the United States citizenship in both the United States and the state where they reside. This is established in the very first sentence in Section 1., “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” The new radical approach of the Republicans begins in this line which asserts falsely that a person can be born in the United States when in reality a person can be born only in a state. It then asserts that all persons so born are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. This truth borders on falsity because while we are indeed all subject to the jurisdiction of the United States we are subject to such power only in laws created to execute the powers of Congress spelled out specifically in the Constitution and not in unspecified areas. The sentence avoids mentioning the limited jurisdiction of Congress. It establishes for its message the existence of 5 entities, “persons”, “the United States”, “the jurisdiction thereof”, “citizens” and “the State wherein they reside”. We are no longer hearing the language of the Constitution which speaks of “The government of the United States“. The language now speaks of the United States as an entity separate from the states and of “the jurisdiction thereof”. “Jurisdiction” is synonymous with “power” and here it comes as close as possible to meaning “sovereignty” without violating the letter of the Constitution. It is simply the first attack in the 14th amendment on the sovereignty of the states, a sovereignty defeated by the Civil War and now transferred to the Federal Government even though the word “sovereignty” is not used. The other radical step in the sentence is the assertion that we now have double citizenship, state citizenship and federal citizenship. The Constitution uses the word “citizens” twice and both times referring to state citizenship. Our new federal citizenship grants us privileges and immunities against the power of a state to make or enforce its laws. This is indeed a new world, this is Lincoln’s new nation. Federal cannons are again firing at men standing up for their right to live in a sovereign state. The very next sentence of Article 1. protects the former slaves, now citizens, and all persons subject to the jurisdiction of Washington, from the unjust use of sovereignty in the state where they may reside by attacking state sovereignty directly: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” We still live in sovereign states but their governments are reduced to something almost like, it seems, county governments because their citizens are protected from state authority by radically increased federal authority.
However the German philosopher Hegel has taught us to always search for an antithesis to any thesis. The thesis is very strong: the Federal Government is now the government and just as pupils in American schools must be regimented to learn new values, the states must also submit to regimentation, regimentation by Washington, and learn new values. It is hard for a student to enter a public school with a child’s vivid imagination and leave it after 12 years of regimentation with middle-class values forced into his brain. But he does leave with values, solid reasonable workable values, with large doses of universal values meshed in with pedestrian notions of how to discipline himself to take advantage of circumstances around him in the external world for his profit. It is hard for our states to be regimented too after their beginnings when they set off explosions to celebrate on July 4th 1776 their independence and after they enjoyed for almost a hundred years a political condition close to full sovereignty. But what if a just antithesis has arisen opposed to the flagrant power-grabbing that radical republicans gained for themselves by creating the 14th amendment? What if some of the new jurisdiction gained by Congress and the Supreme Court by the 14th amendment destroyed certain powers in sovereign states that might have made them tyrannical by depriving their citizens of universal rights that are due to any citizen of any and every sovereign state? Congress and the Supreme Court certainly used the “due process” clause and the “equal protection of the laws” clause of the 14th amendment to enable all kinds of money-grubbing in Washington and the Supreme Court used the amendment to endow not only freed slaves with personal freedom but also to endow corporations with the same freedom by ruling they had the same status before the law as persons. But money-grubbing and the other uncouth practices of bureaucrats, lobbyists and office holders in Washington aside, the 14th amendment does give the force of law to universal human values necessary for human happiness that should be compulsory in any sovereign state whatever located anywhere in the world. What if Washington discovered a radical new useful and far-reaching truth by enacting the 14th amendment that went far beyond the picayune radicalism of the pedestrian radical republicans: democracy can only exist truly and permanently in any sovereign state anywhere in the world if certain universal values, like those also outlined in the Declaration of Independence, are forced on them with the force of law by a supranational government whose jurisdiction is constituted not to rule states but instead to force sovereign states to govern justly?
In the midst of the Civil War, no one thought of such glorious new possibilities for democracy that might come about following the war but Abraham Lincoln did. He spoke in his Gettysburg Address of “a new nation” and of “the great task remaining before us”. He said that the men who fought on the fields of Gettysburg had “advanced” an “unfinished work”. He said that the “honored dead” should inspire the living to “ take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion”. What was the cause for which the dead had given “the last full measure of devotion”? It was “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
But how could there be “a new birth of freedom” and a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” if Washington used the power it gained by the war for itself and did little more than seek more power for itself? The glorious “new birth of freedom” could only arrive on the political battlefield if Washington alienated itself and regimented itself and allowed “a new birth of freedom” in the growing number of sovereign states that it dominated. Washington itself enjoyed “a new birth of freedom” but Lincoln wanted it not to “perish from the earth”. Washington was but a small dot on the earth. The several states were big blotches and that was where the people lived. Some new antithesis would have to rise up in history to force self-alienation and self-regimentation on Washington if governments on “the earth” were ever to be “of the people, by the people, for the people”.
The Federal Government now had increased national power but it did little to give the nation that Lincoln had spoken of in the Gettysburg Address a definite shape. The Constitution still restricted the actions of federal politicians who had no problem doing little or nothing nationally and everything they could for themselves. Federal power remained divided among the three branches of government, the President, the Congress and the Supreme Court and this prevented the easy exercise of power and created conflict and hatred among the branches. Cabinet officers hated the indecency and egotism of Senators who used their powers extravagantly in their own interest. It was clear to cabinet officers that senatorial power had to be reduced if the government was to work for some national benefit and not just for the crass benefits senators sought for themselves and their cronies. But in the give and take of the fight for power, national benefits were the last benefits politicians thought about and they thought about them rarely or not at all. As for members of the House of Representatives, a cabinet officer told Henry Adams, a New Englander who wrote his observations about postwar Washington, “You can’t use tact with a Congressman! A Congressman is a hog! You must take a stick and hit him on the snout!” Washington was not taking shape in some new form that would directly benefit the nation but most Americans had little to do with Washington anyway and they went about the business of creating their nation on their own.
A good part of the new nation was composed of English-speaking Anglo-Saxon Protestants. The first truth that took solid root in this group’s mind and soul after the Civil War was that they should go about their business as fully as possible individually and that they should never wish or hope that anything would ever be done for their individual benefit by the government in Washington ever. They wanted as little as possible to do with Washington and they considered it an expression of a grave moral weakness, almost of a sinful condition, if anyone expected anything from it. Protestants in the south lived for years under martial law imposed on them by Washington’s armies. Protestants in the north had sent their sons to their death in Washington’s armies and gained for themselves the same reduced sovereignty in their states that the radical republics imposed on the defeated slave states. They knew that nothing could come from Washington except more power for Washington and less for themselves. They knew that the only power they had was the power they found in themselves. That was where the new nation was taking root. That was where the nation existed. In the souls of Anglo-Saxon Protestants.
Nation-states in Europe thrived partly because beyond their national borders lived alien peoples speaking languages incomprehensible to their native people. The native people in America after the Civil War were soon surrounded by vast numbers of former natives of European nation-states speaking incomprehensible languages. Over 20 million European immigrants came to America between 1870 and 1910. Native Americans who were Anglo-Saxon and Protestant were already deeply united culturally and religiously and they did not need European immigrants speaking many incomprehensible languages to unite them. But foreigners living and working among them did help to unite them more solidly. American Protestants had no nation-state but they were millions strong with individualistic values that united them and gave their lives purpose as more and more Europeans crossed United States borders to work in one of the 34 states.
The national business of the Federal Government in the revolutionary industrial development of America from the Civil War to 1900 became the business not of creating national policies directing the development but of interfering in the development wherever and whenever it chose in the interest of whomever it chose. It decided to be not a national leader but a national referee. Instead of using its new authority to pass federal laws benefiting all the citizens of the nation, it used the Supreme Court to nullify state laws. It’s business was not to govern but to interfere with governments. Generally speaking, it interfered in this way mainly to aid the clever organizers and administrators of the new corporations busy exploiting the new machines that could vastly increase industrial production and extend the distribution of new products across the continent using the new intercontinental railroads. Captains of the new industries bribed state and national politicians to get laws they wanted. The Central Pacific railroad spent only $200,000 in Washington on bribes and received 9 million acres of free land plus bonds worth millions. The new monopolies of industrial, railroad and oil companies did arouse the anger of Americans and they were disturbed that Washington had its hands in on the action and was not by any means an objective and indifferent referee. Protests of all kinds rose up against the gigantic trusts and new monopolies and some politicians represented themselves as trust busters to earn election to an office in Washington and then to do nothing. In fact, there was little to do. Washington understood that it did not have enough power to unify the nation. The big corporations were unifying it and Washington sat back and merely refereed what they were doing. America was not getting a national government of the kind that set and enforced national policies. Because Washington interfered so often to aid this or that petty and selfish interest, few noticed that Washington had given itself the power to interfere in the doings of the nation rather than to be itself the tyrannical ruler of the nation. But since it had great power and it could use it as it pleased, this meant that it might or it could interfere in the doings of the nation to produce good.
Native Protestant Americans did not want anything from Washington, even good, and the millions of immigrants understood nothing about American history and politics. It is possible that some Anglo-Saxon Americans in their soul of souls never accepted even that they lived in a nation and every immigrant knew the slogan that passed among them universally and was equivalent to not living in a nation, “America is a free country”. As America rolled on through the most extraordinary industrial revolution ever witnessed on the planet ,Washington became more and more aloof from the action because only an elite few had access to federal power and the majority excluded from federal power tried to remain as indifferent to it as possible. America was a free country for immigrants and native Anglo-Saxon Protestants did not want any part of Washington, so what was Washington to do but be what both groups wanted, a referee? At home, Washington was losing the role Abraham Lincoln had bequeathed to it as the champion of a new nation. At least abroad its status as a national government was secure because Washington’s diplomats had relations with the heads of state of all the nation-states and empires in the world who accepted the United States worldwide as a nation and assumed that it was one at home too.
The key to everything in America was the bountiful existence everywhere of states with elected governors and elected legislatures in democratic assemblies. Washington had the power granted in the Constitution to regulate commerce among the states. This meant that no state could close its borders to interstate commerce. The Supreme Court used the 14th amendment 288 times in judgments in favor of corporations to assure their freedom to do business in states without excessive state regulation. Industry roared ahead savage and uncontrolled by any government. Interlocking networks of corporations developed to a degree that was simply astounding putting control of the corporate part of the American economy in the hands of a small number of men. In Europe, every nation-state limited the expansion of its industrial corporations by national borders. The major industries like steel production were duplicated in each nation-state and protected by international tariffs. In America, 14 new states were admitted to the union between 1864 and 1910. In Europe, the middle-class industrialists shut themselves up behind borders within states and created laws that enriched themselves and impoverished workers. In America, the middle-class industrialists freely seized mineral wealth in any state where it existed and expanded industrial production across a continent just as if there were no state borders anywhere. Workers’ rights were repressed by governments in America as well as in Europe but American workers with the same small portion of the pie as in Europe earned more money because the pie was bigger and growing rapidly because capitalistic greed was not imprisoned behind nation-state borders. People worldwide read about the bounteous economic expansion in America with awe. Of those who noted the expansion in America of the states to 48, few reacted to it with appropriate awe. The 48 states all had democratic governments and their governments created for their citizens the same civilized public necessities that other states in the world created for their citizens. The difference was that foreign states worldwide were fully sovereign and rarely democratic. 48 American states knew that they would never be fully sovereign and they were learning under the domination of Washington that their limited sovereignty did not mean that they could not fully enjoy democratic state governments.
America after the Civil War was developing politically in shapes that had never before appeared anywhere and that were impossible to understand because they were so revolutionary. Everyone accepted that Washington was the head of the nation but this acceptance was partly in some the hope that Washington could somehow gain control of the new shapes and fit them into meaningful forms that could be universally understood. Washington had gained greater sovereignty but it was not enough to manage the revolution. The states had lost sovereignty but they controlled the shape of things within their borders in a settled fashion. Washington learned as the century whirled out of control towards its end that it was best for its security that it act aloofly and universally. It was a solid player already in the universal interplay among nations worldwide. It decided to act universally at home too. For most of the latter part of the century, it struck the pose of an imperial government. It flew off into the higher realms of politics where rulers spoke benignly in a universal style that provided them the pretense of not ruling even though they had the power to jump into the action whenever they wished and to rule what they chose to rule. The flight of Washington to an aloof status was paralleled in American culture by the creation of two new religions. Christian Science was a latter-day development of New England Transcendentalism which had had its roots firmly in the material world. Christian Science believed that only spirit was real and the material world was an illusion. The new Mormon religion taught that rather than believe in Christ and miraculously discover the world of God, believers should instead raise the quality of their behavior to become the equal of Christ. In both cases the self was lifted to a level of spirituality that was but a vain attempt to escape the real human condition. Washington’s imperial posture lifted it above the revolution passing through the 48 states that it could interfere with but not control. It suited it for a while until the war with Spain in 1898 brought it down to reality and gave it a firm means to embody the nation concretely.
At the time of the Spanish-American war in 1898, the 45 states then in the union, just as the 13 original states, had given up the power to wage war and the power to conduct diplomatic relations with foreign states and empires. At the beginning of the union, with just 13 states stretched north and south along the Atlantic coast, it seemed evident that to give the war power exclusively to Washington was in each state’s vital interest. A central army and navy organized by the central government was necessary to secure the freedom of each state from powerful predator states like England or France. But from the beginning, Washington had used its war power offensively. It had started wars in 1812 with England and in 1846 with Mexico. Then with 34 states in the union Lincoln had used his war power against 11 American states. The Civil War shocked and stunned the people of the states north and south yet only a few brave voices had openly condemned Lincoln’s use of the federal war power against Americans. Certainly the men from Virginia and other southern states who helped write the Constitution had never imagined that the exclusive war power they granted Washington could be used against themselves. A kind of political quiet reigned after the war. People did not want to talk about it. The real political doings in Washington became a touchy subject. People knew that politicians whispered to one another in corridors making deals on the sly but they preferred that politicians whispered so that they could not be heard clearly. The only sounds that Americans enjoyed hearing in this blank time of savage industrial development were the noises of their work and those of immigrants who could not speak English working in their factories.
But even an aloof and imperial Washington secure in its national power was forever in need of more power. It could sit back at home and let things go on around it freely or else interfere but interference was an indirect usage of its power and its war power could be used directly. Looking back at the America of 1898, it is extremely difficult to understand how no observers saw the danger for the world. How could anyone at home in America or foreigners abroad not observe that a central government with no national territory located in a federal district possessed dominant political power over 45 states? Why was it not evident that a new Rome had arisen in Washington that in the Civil War had amassed a huge land army and had conquered for itself national and imperial power? It had no national territory Washington but it did not need any if it had the constitutional right and the means to declare war on whomever it wished whenever it wished. No one in the 45 American states, no one in the nation-states and empires on earth had any power at all to take away the absolute power to make war at will possessed by Washington. No doubt foreigners comforted themselves with the idea that America was just another nation among nations and that they all had the power to make war. It was no big deal. Washington had 45 states supporting it with state territories sometimes larger than most states on earth. That was no big deal either. Millions and millions of immigrants were filling American states year after year avid to join America’s roaring industrial revolution. It was a big deal for Washington. Washington without any national territory had to show from time to time its own states and the states of the world that its war power made it just as much a national power without national territory as the nations with national territory that it decided to fight.
McKinley, the American president in 1898, did not start the war with Spain for any particular reason that made the war necessary. Theodore Roosevelt, who became president in 1902, wrote a friend in 1897, “In strict confidence…I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one.” Voices were raised in America loudly against the war but it seemed no more than a clumsy entrance of America into the ranks of the European imperialists who were colonizing weaker peoples all over the earth. The Federal Government had carved out for itself the national role of governing mainly by interfering in the operations of American state governments. But it had already transferred its field of operations to worldwide interventions and by 1895 had also interfered in the affaires of countries 103 times urged on by the fact that it had not only exclusive war power but also exclusive diplomatic power. By this time, it had used military force against Argentina, Nicaragua, Japan, Uruguay, Angola, China and Hawaii. The war with Spain was its first entrance into the regular ranks of imperialist nations because it won for itself from Spain control of Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. But European style imperialism was not for Washington. It handled its control of Cuba and the Philippines badly. It released them from its political control as quickly as possible and contented itself with being free to interfere with them internally either diplomatically or militarily whenever necessary. Many condemned the United States war with Spain as an imperialist adventure, but few asked the deeper question of whether or not it had been wise to grant Washington in the Constitution absolute diplomatic and war powers. Could anyone in Washington control such powers? What would be the consequences for the world of the future in the 20th century if Washington with a rapidly expanding union of states about to reach 48 could use its enormous power to gain entrance for its hands into the internal affaires not only of its own states but of any state? Anyone who asked such a question surely would ask it fearing that Washington’s interference in the internal affaires of states could only be bad. It’s interference in its own states’ business had not always been bad and sometimes had been very good. But the possible good actions of any state never entered into thoughts about a state’s actions in a time of rough and ready worldwide imperialism and anyone in diplomatic circles would have been openly laughed at who even suggested that Washington’s power might one day be used for the good of the world. Washington at the time of the Spanish-American war was considered no more than a new junior member of the imperialist gang.
Woodrow Wilson, a democrat elected president in 1912, actively and passionately thought about using American power for good. He shared the pacifist and progressive views of 19th century reformers like La Folette and William Jennings Bryan who became his Secretary of State. Many Americans believed idealistically that America despite setbacks was rushing towards some wonderful new happy future and that America would somehow be able to transfer this glorious future to the rest of humanity. Mark Twain wrote of “the drive, and push, and rush and struggle of the raging, tearing, booming nineteenth century” but many theories abounded during the period claiming that at the end of the dark tunnel would be the light of Progress with a capital P. American soldiers and diplomats had treated the people of Cuba and the Philippines badly and denied them freedom and democracy but some even believed that such crude and inhuman treatment had a positive and civilizing effect. President Wilson sent American soldiers into Mexico to interfere in its internal politics but even this did not darken his view of the light American power could shed over darkness and when war broke out in Europe in 1914, he worked as forcefully as he could to keep America out of it. Instead of rushing into the war on the side of England and France against Germany, he stuck to his pacifist principles and using American diplomatic channels, he tried to get the three powers to negotiate an end to the war rather than to continue fighting. Theodore Roosevelt, a former president and a hero of the Spanish-American war, despised Wilson’s pacifist approach and wanted war. So did many influential men and Wilson risked being considered a coward. But the people loved him. They wanted as passionately as he to stay out of the war. He was an American president who did not jump at the chance to use his war power. A former professor of History, Wilson understood that if America entered full-scale the war in Europe, it would cause a profound change in America. For one thing, the millions of new immigrants from various European nationalities had never been urged to become Americans. They had instead been encouraged to keep their national identity and create for themselves national associations and newspapers in their native languages. When the German navy’s submarine warfare became intolerable and forced Wilson to declare war on Germany in 1917, he knew he had to use the Federal Government to try to shape America into a nation. “It is not an army that we must train and shape for war. It is a nation,” he wrote in his draft proclamation. “The whole nation must be a team.” But his practical task of nation-building did not preclude in his mind the necessity of America being at the same time a force in the world for good. He said as part of a speech he gave for a Liberty Load Drive in Baltimore on April 6th 1918, “Force, Force to the utmost, Force without stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant Force which shall make Right the law of the world, and cast every selfish dominion down in the dust.”
On the 8th of January 1918, 10 months before the end of the war, Wilson argued before Congress that he was fighting the war for a moral purpose and he outlined 14 points that he believed if accepted by belligerents and others would bring about a just peace and a world oriented towards goodness. In his 14 points, he tried to find a balance between nationalism and internationalism. Two of his points called for open covenants in dealings between nations and freedom of the seas. Ten gave specific details setting up borders and territories for national states and argued for the free development of peoples enclosed within empires towards national states. Only two of the points referred to a new internationalism. Point 3 called for, “The removal of all economic barriers and the establishment of equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.” Point 14 said, “A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike”.
Point 3 and point 14, even though among points designed to establish international peace, are none the less in broad outline a sketch of the political principals of the American union of states. The American states by consenting to the Constitution certainly assented to point 3 because by giving their central government control over interstate commerce they had removed “all economic barriers” between their states and established “equality of trade conditions” not “among all the nations” but among all the states, who had the right according to the Declaration of Independence to be “separate and independent states”. And of course as united American states they had already consented to what president Wilson wanted the nations of the world of 1918 to consent to by “consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance” because the American states had united more than a hundred years before to maintain among themselves peace. Point 14 said, “A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike”. The United States of America had certainly already done that too because by adopting the Constitution the states agreed to establish by law “mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike”. Wilson was imagining a united states of the world for the nations of the world using his own united states of America as a general model.
Aritcle IV, section 3. of the Constitution says, “New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union;” In Paris for talks in 1919 after the war, President Wilson was approached by groups seeking his aid to help establish for their people the status of independent sovereign states, people like the Irish or the Serbs who suffered under imperial controls. President Wilson could have invited any and all peoples he met with, both those already living in states and those about to achieve statehood, to apply to his Congress in Washington DC to be admitted to his union of states which already had in operation points 3 and 14 of his 14 points. If he had done so and if European states had applied to Congress and been admitted to the United States of America, the name of our union could conveniently have been changed to “The United States of America and Europe’ or, since states outside of Europe might have also applied for admission to Congress, a more suitable new name might have been simply, “The United States of the World.”
Europeans before the war had seen clearly the danger of crowding together on their continent nation-states and empires building up their military strength behind borders and ready to break out and pounce on one another. But they could not envision how a “United States of Europe” could take form. Each state and empire had their own independent economy at work separated from one another and selfishly protected by tariffs. Socialism was the hope of many Europeans because it seemed to be an economic system that could possibly be applied universally while capitalism was narrowly confined behind national borders and used foreign colonies for outlets for surplus manufactures. Also the nation-state seemed essential to democracy because any type of limited sovereignty in a state seemed to mean a state would be under an alien rule and therefore could not have a democratic government. If President Wilson had boldly proposed that all the states of the world apply to Congress for admission to his American union and that it become a “United States of the World” with Washington transforming itself from a national government to a supranational world central government, other major difficulties would have been that at the time there was no worldwide economic system and many parts of the earth had no states at all but instead were colonial territories.
Wilson’s 14 points were a public statement of a United States foreign policy that would continue for the 20th century. The policy had an inherent contradiction. On the one hand in 10 of his points Wilson argued for both the continued existence of national states already existing such as Germany, Russia, Belgium, Italy and France and for the emergence as national states of territories or empires such as Poland, Serbia, Montenegro and Turkey. He used very assertive language in these 10 points to either strengthen or create national states and then, on the other hand, in point 14, he wanted a “general association of nations” with “specific covenants” for “affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike”. He wanted to give existing nation-states and emerging nation-states each of them total absolute sovereignty which means their right to do among other nation-states whatever their power might allow them to do and at the same time he wanted to restrict their power to interrupt the peace of the world by agreeing to “covenants” to protect internationally “great and small states alike”. He wanted nation-states to continue to exist or come into existence and then agree not to act like nation-states. He wanted nation-states to have absolute sovereignty and also agree to limit it. He wanted for the states of the world something close to the limited sovereignty that Abraham Lincoln had forced on the sovereign states of America by war. Wilson wanted the war that American soldiers had helped win in France to produce sovereign nation-states all over Europe with newly drawn borders and avoid any future war by agreeing to “covenants”. He wanted the states of Europe to have the power to wage war and at the same time agree not to use the power.
President Wilson went to the peace conference in 1919 and proposed a means to unite the states of Europe and his proposal for a League of Nations was a first airy and idealistic attempt to produce a “United States of the World”. His league of nations failed for the simple reason that a “nation” and “full-sovereignty” are synonymous and one “full-sovereignty” can not unite with another “full-sovereignty”. It is like trying to make a marriage of two people who do not agree in advance to sacrifice their freedom. No substantial union of states is possible unless states agree to limit their sovereignty. Wilson’s point 3 called for “The removal of all economic barriers and the establishment of equality of trade conditions among all the nations…”. Free trade worldwide was as necessary for the happiness of the world and its peoples as the elimination of war but world trade presently was going on in spite of nations and it too could never be totally free unless nations could be convinced to limit their sovereignty because regular sovereignty generally worked against world trade and defended national economies within national borders. Wilson returned to America after the peace talks in Paris in 1919 and campaigned passionately for his League of Nations. The American Senate voted against it. American diplomats continued nonetheless to work and argue for worldwide peace and worldwide free trade even as they supported the existence of nation-states everywhere and hoped that they would be democratically constituted. Democracy and nation-states after the First World War had difficult marriages and many painful divorces. By the Second World War, the American union had grown to 48 states with limited sovereignty and all enjoyed democratic state governments that controlled 90 percent of the public governmental business of the United States. Democracy worked in America partly because Article IV section 4 of the Constitution forces the Federal Government to produce democracy in its states: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion;…” Washington accomplishes this duty by interfering in state governments using the federal judiciary to try corrupt state politicians and put them in jail. Its armies protect its democratic states from invasion. The United States works well because it is possible within a union of states with limited sovereignty to embody points 3 and 14 of Wilson’s 14 points and create at least a league of states that may if it continues to work well convince nations worldwide some day to apply to the Congress in Washington for admission as new states to our union and help us establish by loyalty to our Constitution and our written laws a real league of nations, a real united states of the world.
In 1918 the states of the world were far from being united and the economic systems within states risked being transformed in the near future to communistic systems. In Russia a communist revolution had taken place and by 1920 the Tsar’s family had been assassinated, the nobles were being expelled from their properties, the middle-class capitalistic economy was being overthrown by socialist revolutionaries, and the working class was rising to the top of the confused heap eager to try to run the economy without allowing individuals to seek wealth by competing with one another. In 1918 President Wilson, with American soldiers now fighting in the trenches in France, no longer cared very much about the war. He let the professional soldiers take care of it and withdrew more and more from public contact thinking deeply about world problems. He was afraid that the revolution that was happening in Russia could happen anywhere. In the United States before the war, anarchists and socialists had been openly threatening the middle-class capitalistic social order. To conduct the war in Europe, he began censoring the press and repressing groups who opposed his policies. New bureaucratic commissions were created in Washington run by businessmen who volunteered their expertise to transform the Federal Government into a spread of agencies ruling either directly or indirectly over industries for the national war effort. Wilson’s “nation-building” necessary to train 3,000,000 young Americans for the war in France took forms for governing in Washington that were the beginning of the vast federal apparatus of commissions and bureaus that we know today. The national government was growing bigger and stronger and the war was going well in Europe but President Wilson was still very worried about the world and the form of the world of the future. He confided in his wife’s brother, Dr. Stockton Axson, “The next president will have to be able to think in terms of the whole world. He must be internationally minded…the only really internationally minded people are the labor people. They are in touch with world movements.” He believed that after the war the world would change radically, that governments would have to take over certain industries, that power sources like coal mines and oilfields would have to be government owned. “If I should say that outside,” he exclaimed to Dr. Axson, “people would call me a socialist, but I am not a socialist. And it is because I am not a socialist that I believe these things.” At home, radicals were inspired by Bolshevik propaganda against capitalism and Wilson felt a “baneful seething” among the working class and the foreign born that bothered him deeply. He felt that only the government’s direct actions in the American economy could prevent communism arising in America. Abroad, he fought the rise of communism in Russia by sending American soldiers to Russia to fight the Bolsheviks.
In 1913, in the second year of Wilson’s presidency, his government received two weapons that in the long run eliminated or neutralized threats in America and in the world to the stability and expansion of middle-class capitalism from competing communist or socialist economic systems. Congress passed that year the Revenue Act creating a federal income tax on individual and business income and the Federal Reserve Act creating the Federal Reserve banking system. Wilson died in 1924 and did not see or understand the long-term revolutionary effects these federal laws would have on American states and states worldwide. The Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia has been described as ten days that shook the world. The Revenue Act and the Federal Reserve Act made just slight tremors at first but the tremors grew stronger and then began shaking powerfully. The shaking has never stopped. The Federal Reserve Act empowered private banks to create the public money supply of the United States and the Revenue Act started rivers of money flowing from millions of individuals and businesses to Washington. The Federal Government did not have to take over industries as Wilson thought to save capitalism. The income tax law made the Federal Government the largest richest most powerful corporation that has ever existed or can exist on the face of the earth and the new banking system that was established by law freed individuals and corporations to finance their economic ventures so easily and so profitably that they were able to send an ever increasing supply of money to Washington.
The 16th amendment to the Constitution of 1913 establishing the federal income tax and the new radical banking system established by the Federal Reserve Act produced a mighty torrent of monies flowing in many thousands of different directions in vast rivers watering and fertilizing vital ingenious enterprises in a flood of economic activity so overwhelming that, a hundred years later, today, the American economy is still a wonder on earth. Federal taxes on income and profits sent money to Washington and the freedom of private banks to create all the public money of 48 states as they saw fit set the American economy afloat on a flood of rivers of money overflowing their banks and creating new waters of opportunity everywhere. New rivers of economic opportunity kept rising up overflowing and swelling the flood for millions and millions of free citizens in a huge union of united states.
In Russia in 1921, the Bolsheviks created not thousands of banks to create locally where it was needed capital for individual economic ventures but instead one central bank, Gosbank, to impose centralized control on all industries. The central bank provided monies from on top downwards to favored individuals and enterprises wherever it saw fit without considering whether or not they were creditworthy as did middle-class capitalist bankers. The bank dictated from on high what economic activity was allowed. It did not act at all as a commercial bank and used the bank balances it allowed enterprises not to free them to pursue their individual goals but to monitor whether or not they complied with the five-year plan set for them by the Gosbank. This top-down approach of the central communist bank was a kind of bad imitation of top-down central banks in operation in middle-class run economies in European nation-states. The capitalistic central banks were top-down too. Some of them, like the Bank of England, even at one time had the power to create all the money in the English economy. The other bad banking method that was used in Europe was regulating the supply of money by relating its value to the value of gold deposits held in banks. This did little more than put a stupid brake on economic development and the English central bank by controlling the value of English money also influenced negatively the money supply in Europe and America. William Jennings Bryant, running as a Democrat for president in 1896, had used strong American sentiment against conservative banking practices for the main issue of his campaign. He railed against the repressive effect of England’s banking practice that maintained gold as the standard for controlling the value of money which in turn regulated the total supply of money. The gold standard was crippling the American economy. Bryant exclaimed at the end of his speech arguing for a radically increased money supply in America, “You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” Gosbank in Russia pressed down a crown of thorns on Russia’s economy for more than half a century. As the 20th century progressed, European central banks did find ways despite their top-down approach to free their commercial banks to increase their supplies of money using creative banking practices, but none of them reached the scope and the level of freedom that the Federal Reserve Act legally granted private banks in the American union.
From the foundation of the Federal Government, some wanted a central bank in Washington that could control top-down America’s money supply as in European states. William Jennings Bryant and the progressives wanted a central bank under public control. This would have meant the direct control of banks in all the states by the Federal Government. But since the Civil War, the Federal Government had not opted for direct control of state governments but rather for interference. It opted to remain back and above most government functions as a referee ready always to insert itself where necessary to settle disputes and decide what was valid universally. But from the beginning, bankers like state political leaders had been operating independently of Washington creating money for local enterprises just as state political leaders had been creating laws independently for their state. Most of the bankers were against federal-government intervention in the banks by political appointees in Washington. The Federal Reserve system of 1913 was a hybrid system, both public and private, both centralized and decentralized. It allowed private bankers unheard-of freedom to create money and it provided strong but very limited central control. Its structure is unique among central banking systems very much as the centralized-decentralized structure of the government of the United States is unique among nations and radically different from nation-states. Regional Federal Reserve banks are set up in major US cities and private banks elect their boards of directors. Boards of Governors of the overall system are selected by the President and confirmed by Congress, but they make decisions to support private bankers independently of the US government and they are self-financed. The whole system is set up just as though the Federal Government wished to have as little to do as possible with the nation’s money supply. The Federal Reserve system is simply astounding. Private banks invest deposits they receive from customers in an account with a Federal Reserve bank and create multiples of money through loans to businesses sometimes 900 percent greater than the value of their deposits. Bankers throughout the history of America created money for whomever and for whatever largely as they individually saw fit and now these revolutionary banking practices were solidified legally in a system independent of any government. The Treasury Department of the United States prints money but this is not creation of money. Printed money is simply made available to member banks when they need it to give to their customers who prefer printed money in hand rather than an account in their bank. The real money supply exists as accounts in banks and money is transferred largely by checks. Banks can not be chartered in Washington and must be chartered in one of the states. If the creation of money is the main tool of a democratic government, then in this case the states rule supremely and the Federal Government is but a marginal player relegated to the sidelines. Banks are free either to join the federal reserve system or not. Customers of those who join make deposits that are insured up to a certain sum by the Federal Government. The economic enterprises in any state need money to be born and more money to live. Creating money creates enterprises. The Federal Government has decided once and for all by federal law that enterprises in its union of states will be free enterprises.
A tax on individual and business income is normal in a normal state but the Federal Government of the United States is not set up by the Constitution as a state and the 16th amendment authorizing such taxes to be sent to it created another monetary revolution. Washington interferes with state governments when it desires to challenge state authority or when the Constitution or decisions against state laws by the Supreme Court give it authority to act. It must fund its military and its diplomatic corps because only here is its national authority exclusive. Congress under the Constitution has power to govern interstate commerce and as the 20th century progressed, the Supreme Court judged that just about any activity in a state could be construed as interstate commerce. This gave Congress near universal authority over commerce but it did not compel it to act to regulate commerce in a manner that would require it to fund with federal tax monies what commerce it chose to regulate. Primary, secondary and university education could be construed as interstate commerce and could therefore be regulated and funded by Congress. If so, this would be an example of an action normal in any state. A state collects income taxes and in turn finances public projects in its state that must be handled universally for the public good. In the United States political system, the Federal Government decides the uses of its tax monies and there are so many states with such varied needs that it is difficult and sometimes impossible to allocate federal funds universally for one specific public need. Washington therefore uses its income taxes to fund projects that its discretion deems worthy and that are not necessarily in the public interest. Even when Congress allocates tax monies to govern it does not govern directly within states but instead sets up departments and bureaus located both in Washington and in states that govern indirectly and from the outside with limited authority. The Department of Education, for example, does not fund or rule education but instead creates studies or projects that may or may not be adopted and used by state education departments. The Federal Government granted itself a police power not granted in the Constitution by establishing and funding the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, which aids police departments in states but the states fund and manage about 95 percent of all police activity in the union. The Federal Government’s discretion has created many federal departments to operate indirectly in the states’ business of governing and this means in practice that pools of money are sent regularly to Washington for Congress to use however it chooses and wherever it chooses, either nationally or internationally. Section 4. of the 14th amendment to the Constitution states, “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.” Before the Civil War, the Washington government had great difficulties financing its limited activities but the 14th amendment increased its revenues greatly and the new Income Tax law of 1913 gave it the legs and the pockets full of money to go where it wanted and do whatever it wanted. Washington became the world’s biggest spender and except in its military operations, there was very little it did with its money that was not good, sometimes very good, both for the world’s states and empires and for its own states.
In the 4th century AD, Saint Augustine in his great book, The City of God, the Civitas Dei, claims that in world history two states exist side by side, the civitas dei and the civitas terrena, the heavenly city of God composed of the good and the earthly city composed of the unredeemed. Humans either live in one city or the other according to whether they direct themselves towards the love of God or the love of themselves. Eventually at the end of history the two states will be separated at the last judgment. Is it possible that Washington as world history develops in the 21st century might evolve and become a central world international government and a worldwide champion promoting Augustine’s civitas dei? Is it possible that Washington could transcend completely the lowly tasks of the civitas terrena and become a powerful force promoting justice, civil decency and freedom universally?
Peoples in the past have created communities inspired by their view of the divine. Ancient Egypt was a divine empire. Every human being was considered divine even though only one, the pharaoh, could be raised beyond the human-divine to the level of the cosmic-divine. It was holy work for humans to build superhuman pyramids, temples and statues that reaffirmed for eternity both the pharaoh’s eminence and their own. Moses and the Israelites escaped the Egyptian empire and created instead a small community where the divine could live in an arc or a temple as a living presence. Ancient philosophers believed the business of governing was a divine vocation. Moses’ laws for his community taught that only moral goodness could open the door from the divine presence in temples to the divine presence in the human soul. Crossing the Red Sea and the Sinai desert to ancient Israel was a transition from an empire to a nation-state, the first known to history, that was at the same time both a political and religious revolution. The Romans, who considered themselves divine through their ancestor Aeneas’ mother Venus, allowed some democratic freedom in the city-states established throughout their empire. Rome filled its cities with magnificent temples and buildings and god-like statues of humans. A human who walked through Imperial Rome felt himself in a civitas dei but Saint Augustine in his book describes so extensively the immorality of the gods who were adored in Roman temples that there could be no doubt but that Rome was in reality a civitas terrena and its resemblance to a heavenly city but an illusion. The poet Ovid took the same position as Augustine for he proclaimed in his book The Art of Love that the goddess Venus was the fostering divinity of Rome and her city, Rome, the greatest place on earth to find and seduce women. The Emperor Augustus expected Romans to emulate the magnificence of Rome by the magnificence of their moral conduct and he rewarded Ovid’s manner of worshiping Venus with permanent exile from her favorite city. The Emperor at least believed that Roman behavior should resemble the divine and that the semblance that resulted would make mere humans super humans.
The German philosopher Hegel wrote the greatest work examining humanity’s progress towards the expression of the divine in history. He does not write of God or of the city of god and examines instead the development and progress in world history of what he calls “universal spirit”. This rationalized spirit expresses itself throughout history in a variety of finite forms all of which fail to reveal the universal spirit absolutely. Each finite and imperfect form of universal spirit is inevitably surpassed in a dialectical movement by a new finite form which reaches a higher form although still finite. In Hegel’s Philosophy of History he identifies the progress of the world towards universal spirit as progress towards freedom. The oriental world, he writes, knew only the freedom of one man, as the pharaoh in Egypt. The Greek and Roman world knew the freedom only of some men, since slavery was instituted. The Protestant Germanic states of Hegel’s time, the early nineteenth century, finally realize the freedom of all. “The essential being,” he wrote, “is the union of the subjective with the rational will: it is the moral whole, the state, which is that form of reality in which the individual has and enjoys his freedom”.
The greatest political creation of middle-class revolutionaries in Europe was the nation-state and Hegel is correct that, at least for the middle class, it was the form of reality in which they enjoyed their freedom. The states in Europe by the nineteenth century existed mainly to allow middle-class lawyers to write laws securing the properties and riches of the middle class and for the most part exempting the rich from taxes. Hegel did not wish to see what might develop in the future world beyond the European world of his time which was coalescing into the universality of nation-states. He did declare however that, “America is therefore the land of the future where in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the world’s history shall reveal itself.”. These prophetic words give us no notion of what form the new revelation will take. To discover the new form that may be possible, we must go back and discover the deficiencies of previous peoples.
The ancient Greeks failed to create a lasting empire because they could not extend citizenship universally. The Romans expanded citizenship greatly but not universally and the form of limited sovereignty that they allowed their subjects was the government of the city-state, the local civitas terrena, not the nation-state. The British Empire matched the greatness of Rome but it created a world union of colonies and could not free itself from the need to dominate and rule peoples. Neither Rome nor London discovered that transferring their central power not to a union of city-states or colonies but to a union of states with real sovereign powers in each state was the essential key to maintaining their own power. Washington universalized citizenship, universalized the American states’ sovereign powers, and when it finally, after years of struggle pro and con, gave the power of creating money to individually owned or incorporated state banks, the burden of the world’s history that Hegel wrote about seemed to be finally becoming unburdened.
In 1913 America also took the other revolutionary step necessary to begin unburdening itself. Rome and London found that financing themselves with tax monies from their subjects became more and more difficult as their empires grew. Rome had to commission tax collectors at exorbitant rates to go all over forcing money from hundreds of diverse peoples living in poverty. London lost a large portion of its empire by trying to impose taxes on Americans. Washington in 1913 coolly created the 16th Amendment to the Constitution universalizing a tax on income. Every individual or business had now to send a portion of their income or their profit to Washington. Hegel’s “universal spirit” found a home in Washington because the federal income tax gave federal politicians the freedom to act as universally as they wished and to fund both their good and bad ventures lavishly. Washington had not acted tyrannically after the Civil War as Abraham Lincoln had acted and as they could have acted. Politicians who flocked there, elected by state voters, discovered that the burden of history was light as long as they acted universally. Washington found the key to free itself from being imprisoned in a civitas terrena chained to the drudgery of national rule. Let the states rule! Let everyone born in any state have citizenship in the US and also in the state where they choose to live! Two citizenships are better than one! Let everyone be free to work and live and create wherever they will! But let every worker and every businessman send a portion of their earnings to Washington and let them not demand their contributions back! Washington learned to rule as little as possible and the citizens and the businesses of states learned not to demand back from Washington their monies. Every citizen learned he was on his own to either make it or not according to the degree of initiative and energy he could devise. Washington learned it was on its own too and it found that the safest way to keep the rivers of money flowing to it was to act as universally as possible. It found, as the 20th century developed and world history burdened it with worldwide commitments, that even in areas where the Constitution demanded that it govern, that is, in military, diplomatic and commercial matters, even here it could pursue universal ends. No one can rationally argue that the worldwide commercial, military and diplomatic activities of Washington for the second half of the 20th century were undertaken for purely national objectives. Washington’s diplomats routinely pursued goals of democracy and freedom for foreign nations globally and American corporations were soon producing more goods and services outside the US than inside. Washington learned to use the national powers granted it by the Constitution universally. Even the large sums of money that Washington borrows from rich foreigners have a universal aspect. Most of the money comes from foreign banks. Washington’s largess bankrolls bankers globally by paying them guaranteed interest on their money. Washington alone of national governments has experienced the divine sweetness of acting as little as possible as the government of a nation. It wills what it wishes and it has learned that if it wills only what the United States of America wish, it will no longer be doing the work of Hegel’s “universal spirit” and it will no longer provide a stage where federal politicians possess the resources to act like the saintly members of Saint Augustine’s civitas dei
Now, at the beginning years of the 21st century, a real united states of the world is necessary and a real political system already in operation exists for creating such a world union of states. A worldwide interplay of economic activities originating all over our globe in various states has created a global economy that can not develop to its full potential unless real democracy and positive economic development for all citizens of all nations in the world at all levels of the economic ladder can be guaranteed by law. After the First World War, peoples in Europe and elsewhere rushed avidly to create nation-states for themselves. After the Second World War, peoples in former European colonies found themselves in new nation-states with borders drawn for them by their former European rulers. Meanwhile, after the First World War, the globalization of the world’s economy began and took steps both forward and back. After the Second World War, globalization struggled through the Cold War to finally race forward after the defeat of communism to the astounding worldwide economic development we know today. States both large and small, both powerful and weak, tried as best they could to deal with world wars and globalization but none of them, even the powerful, have been successful to the degree that would have been possible if they had been states joined to one another by law and a written constitution in a union of states. President Wilson set up such a union in 1919 in his League of Nations and failed to convince US politicians to join his league. The French had a plan at the time for setting up a supranational congress for the permanent pacification of the world and the English had a plan for a Commonwealth of Nations. Both plans came to nothing. No one dared throughout the 20th century to ask nation-states to limit their sovereignty and assign the bits of sovereignty they gave up to a supranational government in a city that was not located within any state. No one dared to offer such states in exchange for agreeing to accept limited sovereignty democratic participation in the business of the supranational government by sending elected representatives from their states to the supranational congress of the new union of states. The United States of America already has such a union in operation. The Congress of the United States has the right stated in the Constitution to admit new states. Every state in the world that applies to the Congress and is admitted will take a step towards a democratic government guaranteed to its state by law and towards revolutionary economic development using advanced economic laws like the Federal Reserve Act to create modern banks. Every such state will be free forever from the tyranny of corrupt government officials in their state because the average citizen will be protected by a supranational judiciary system and will be free from civil and external wars protected by a supranational military. The states of the United States are already democratic states members of a fifty-state interstate union. The United States of America must become The United States of the World to create the just and good world of the future that humanity needs and deserves.
President Wilson, exhausted and sick, traveled by train all over the United States in 1919 wearing himself out making speech after speech to try to gain popular support for his League of Nations. He knew that the senate in Washington was against it. He tried to gain enough favor by appealing directly to the public so that the senate would be forced to ratify the treaty of Versailles. He knew as did other world leaders that there would be another world war, worse than the First World War, if no worldwide global force was set up to pacify warlike nation-states. He tried to make Americans begin to think globally. They listened to his passionate speeches patiently and sometimes enthusiastically, but Americans wanted nothing to do with globalization. They did not even know what it was globalization. The American congress had admitted two new states as recently as 1912, Arizona and New Mexico, states with combined territories larger than France. 48 states spread across a continent were globalization enough for Americans. They did not need any more of the world. They had plenty already. The Senate voted against ratification of the treaty of Versailles. President Wilson died in 1924 having given his all to set up in a preliminary form a united states of the world.
The world of independent national states settled itself back behind various national borders and the 1920s began to roar. Americans were one hundred percent nationalistic too but practically speaking they cared little about their nation, still less about globalization, and just enjoyed the postwar economic boom. The opportunities available to become wealthy were magical. American banks with their radical new powers pumped out money as though it were free and unlimited water from some secret well. A European clerk could save enough money to book an Atlantic passage in steerage and off the ship in New York he could make a week’s pay at three times what he earned in Europe. America had 48 states and no borders to interstate trade and to the free passage to any state of its people. You could go where you wanted. You could try your luck anywhere. An American already had a global reach for his interests within 48 states stretched across a continent and his government in Washington was doing little or nothing to govern him or his adventures.
The First World War made everyone in America an American. There was no doubt any longer but that the sons and daughters of recent European immigrants were Americans too. America had fought a war allied to great nations and against great nations and had proved to the world that it was a great nation too. The descendants of the Anglo-Saxons who had immigrated to America before the more recent immigrants went along with the new nationalism but they still were firmly against the Federal Government and all other American governments. They were loyal citizens like everyone else and they accepted of course that governments were necessary. But they wanted as little to do with any government as possible and they believed like a holy law written in stone that anyone who expected any aid in any form from American governments was a degenerate. Work made an American an American. Work and nothing else. There was plenty of work and plenty of money. Immigrants and their descendents should not talk about being Americans. They should work and save their money and invest their money and be the equal of Protestant Anglo-Saxon Americans by demonstrating not dependence but initiative. Anglo-Saxon Americans knew how to keep the new immigrants and their children in their place by continually hounding them to rise from it. Almost all American Protestants in the north were morally and politically attached to the Republican party.
One group of immigrants however believed that the niggardly attitude of Republicans to American governments was but one means of disguising in front of the general public the easy ascendancy behind the scenes of Anglo-Saxons to high well-rewarded positions in government, the professions and industry. The Irish-Catholic immigrants were hated by the lower uneducated and bigoted elements of Protestant society along with other European immigrants but the Irish came into America already speaking English and they easily and quickly learned what avenues in governments were open to immigrants that the bigots were helping to keep closed. The Irish at home in Ireland had been for centuries colonized by the English and deprived of access to self-government. In America they promised their fellow European immigrants that once elected mayors of big American cities they would use governments to directly benefit citizens with public works and jobs. The Irish were happy to sin against the niggardly moral and political standards of Republicans by helping create liberal governments. The immigrants from all the nationalities went along with them. The Irish became mayors of large American cities and doled out jobs and political offices to their supporters. Some of them became governors of states. Al Smith in New York, a Catholic, came from this tradition and when he became the democratic governor of New York, he introduced liberal laws and public benefits to citizens of New York state. In 1928 he ran unsuccessfully for president of the United States against Herbert Hoover, but in 1932 Franklin Roosevelt, an aristocrat running as a Democrat, ran voicing the liberal opinions of the Irish and other immigrants and was elected president. Liberalism reached Washington even though Protestant Republicans were against it. But by 1932 the New York stock market had crashed three years before and the boom of the roaring 1920s was over. Some form of liberalism was suddenly a necessity even in Washington.
After Wilson, a Democrat, and before Roosevelt, a Democrat, three Republican presidents were elected, Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover.
Coolidge was famous for his slogan, “The business of America is business.” All the federal commissions that were created to control the economy and assure wartime production were eliminated. The Federal Government promoted business and was indifferent to its citizens except when they threatened trouble for the sacrosanct middle-class free-enterprise system. In 1920, Chief Justice Mitchell Palmer, with the approval of the president, in one night carried out 33 raids against revolutionaries and arrested 4000 so-called communists. The government promoted and protected businesses. Individuals generally promoted and protected themselves by remaining silent, by working hard, and by acting as “good Americans”. Race riots broke out as African-Americans moved north to work in booming industries. The Ku Klux Klan, racist gangs waving the Confederate flag that worthy southerners had died for nobly, hunted down blacks, Jews, Catholics. But business went on booming. Another slogan of the 1920s was “America first”. From 1920 to 1930, exports of American products greatly exceeded imports and were mainly sent to a Europe weakened by the war. The Federal Government, aided by decisions of the Supreme Court, succeeded so well in aiding businesses increase profits by merging that by 1930 50 percent of the industries of the country were concentrated in 200 companies. But why worry? Why even think about politics? Between 1921 and 1929 industrial production doubled. The gross national product went from 59 billion to 88 billion. The median national income rose from $522 to $716. By 1929, the automobile industry had created more than 26 million cars or one car for every five Americans. In truth, most Americans of the period were indifferent to government and business machinations. They were nationalistic and believed in “America first” but it was difficult to feel deeply joined in sentiment to a nation with a government in Washington so distant and so detached. Americans experienced a kind of quiet awe in respect to Washington. It was a power above and beyond them that select men used in grand classically modeled buildings with majestic columns. Americans passed by daily in their cities and towns bank buildings that were classically modeled too and they inspired awe too as though banks were temples. The business of America was business and the businessmen and politicians were mainly Protestants. Some of them acted aloofly and grandly in a style that fit the grand aloof style of their classical buildings. What America was truly was not a question many people asked as circumstances forced most to be concerned only about their own business.
Herbert Hoover was president in 1929 when the stock market crashed. He was a with-it, get-things-done organizer who had had success internationally running programs to relieve hunger in Belgium and Russia. He believed the government and the economy could be made more efficient by the actions of experts identifying problems and solving them by interfering intelligently. When the crash struck in 1929, he tried to fight in with the force of intelligent government actions and public works projects like the Hoover Dam. He increased corporate taxes and increased income taxes in the top bracket from 25% to 63%. He did more to use the power of the Federal Government positively and universally than his republican predecessors. He formed the top-down government agencies in Washington that Roosevelt, elected president in 1932, would increase to carry out his New Deal federal programs. But Hoover believed strongly in the power of individual acts and volunteerism to aid the economy and that direct government aid to fight unemployment and poverty was wrong. Presidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover had the same basic message for Americans: do it yourself. In the schools students were taught that they were Americans and their history books related the great patriotic actions of Americans going all the way back to the landing in 1620 in Plymouth Massachusetts of English colonists, the first of many Americans of European origin. It was implicit in everything taught in the schools that Americans like every other people had a nation and that the nation had a national government in Washington. When Republican presidents were in the White House, they echoed the patriotic teaching in the schools but they added to the teaching by their general inaction the lesson that the government of the nation had little or nothing to do either with Americans or for Americans.
The sons and daughters of immigrants who went through the schools in the 1920s, 30s and 40s were never infused by their teachers with the passionate patriotism that might have caught fire in them if they had learned that the true majesty and glory of their nation derived from the successful union of 48 states with open borders and democratic independent governments. We were educated in those years as though it were a matter of indifference if we happened to live in Massachusetts or Louisiana. We all knew we lived in one state and not another and that there were 48 states but it meant nothing to us. We did not feel a connection with any state. We were not confused however because we were very secure being Americans and living in America. America was everywhere and nowhere but still it existed and there were people off in the blue somewhere running its government so everything was fine.
The idea of not being loyal to the American government in Washington and to America and everything we learned about America in our history books never entered our minds. The government in Washington never built and funded a public school or university in any state but we had schools and universities and we didn‘t care where they came from. Washington never built and funded a public hospital in a state but we had hospitals. It never built and sustained state roads or state transportation systems but we had them. It never established and maintained libraries outside of the District of Columbia but we had libraries in every town and city. It never established and funded police and fire services outside the District of Columbia but we had them. Washington had no power to register births and deaths so that no US citizen has ever been born or died in the US but that was something that went on everywhere anyway and was not a problem. Our national government had no power to marry couples under civil law but marriages took place all the time and what government legalized them was not a problem at all. Banks and corporations were incorporated exclusively in states by state law and states alone certified and oversaw hundreds of professions and public organizations and public activities but these again were activities for us that just somehow went on. We did not care either that the state we happened to live in had power to do just about everything necessary for the public good as in any other state anywhere in the world and it did not bother us that it had no power to wage war or conduct diplomatic activities with other states. We were Americans. We were living in America. That was what counted. That was the only thing that counted.
No one who wrote our history books dared to look realistically and intelligently at American history and tell us what had really happened. A simple look at the map of the United States with just a basic general knowledge of key events in our past should have told us all that an extraordinary revolutionary unfolding and development of humanity unlike anything in its past had somehow happened on our continent. A look at the thirteen original states stretched north and south along the Atlantic should have taught us that our rebellion and freedom from England with its super powerful navy and army would have been impossible unless England had simply decided finally to let us go and be rid of us. England had wars all over the globe to fight in the eighteenth century and she was tired of trying to conquer and rule crude uneducated swarms of white men with their black slaves scattered about in a vast wilderness. England understood that humanity’s adventure in America would never work and she let us go free to learn for ourselves that we were condemned in advance to futility. Historians tell us that George Washington and Americans won the war against England and they do not mention if possible that 4000 experienced French soldiers and the French fleet produced the victory at Yorktown. Instead of identifying the settlers in America and their hundreds of racial backgrounds, our historians focus on the devout life-style of Anglo-Saxon religious pilgrims in the northeast who planted on our shores the notion that religion and the search for material enjoyments and economic profits can work together harmoniously. We treated native Americans very badly, cruelly, and we owned black and white slaves north and south but historians quickly pass over our Indian Wars which were genocidal and they don’t emphasize that the descendants of the pilgrims made piles of money with their ships buying black slaves in Africa and selling them with great profit in Cuba. The English took Canada instead of America and were sure that something would stop the swarms of humanity to their south moving west, the wilderness or the Indians or the Mississippi river or the French and Spanish territories. We would never reach the west coast and the Pacific ocean and what kind of government could ever rule and dominate such vast swirls of humanity coming from all over the world and always on the move west in spite of the great overwhelming difficulties? There was so much history to look at and so many contradictions that historians gave us simple themes. Anglo-Saxons were the key. They gave us Anglo-Saxon common law for our courts and the English language and a tradition of political freedom. This was true. Historians’ simplifications worked and they gave us the sense in their writings that a few simple basic deeds in our past directly influenced our present and made us Americans. For heroes, George Washington was a true American hero and Abraham Lincoln was not but the lives of both were whittled down to a simplistic shape to provide recognizable figures that inspired national unity. Abraham Lincoln’s bad deeds were expunged and the image of Lincoln that reached our history books was worthy of worship and really did create national unity. The most extreme simplification was the division historians wrote about that they discovered existing just before the Civil War between the north and south. Men in the south were romantic adventurers living off the sweat of black labor and pretending to be chivalric noblemen proud of their fine and beautiful sentiments, their honor and their lofty respect for the ladies who were the object of their aristocratic affections. The south was overly agrarian and bogged down in a way of life emphasizing virtues of the past. The northerners were industrious entrepreneurs eager to escape from agrarian toil, open to new technologies, settled wherever possible in towns and cities near rivers whose power was used to run their factories’ machines. Historians went on and on constructing cultural differences between English-speaking Protestant men who north and south had the same English origins and the same middle-class drive to escape poverty any way possible using their intelligence and initiative. But the so-called differences had caused the war that Abraham Lincoln had faced so courageously. He had noted before anyone else that the “house” was “divided”. It was not his fault the war. The southerners were a people apart, rebels who had seceded from the union and were about to attack him and break up the perpetual union. He had reached deep within himself Lincoln, endured terrible years of war and suffering but his biblical inspiration and his prophetic knowledge of the nation’s future where there would be “a new burst of freedom” gave him the spiritual strength to win the war and gave our schools the lesson that we Americans could endure anything and achieve anything if we succeeded in incorporating in ourselves president Lincoln’s heroic character. He had bequeathed to us an America glorious and free. We were on our own in his new nation but he had left us by his courageous individual actions a model of how to succeeded on our own.
When Franklin Roosevelt was elected president in 1932, we second-generation and third-generation immigrants voted for him and some of us went to Washington to join the government and finally make the nation do something for its people directly and concretely. The value of the stock market had fallen 83%. Industrial production was down 40%. Salaries were 60% lower and dividends on stocks 57% lower. 13 million unemployed men were wandering the streets or standing in soup lines. “Only a crazy optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment,” said Roosevelt when he took office on March 4th 1933. “This country demands that we act and that we act right away.” The nation not only existed but it was going to act and act right away. No one saw the irony that while the state governments of 48 states were always acting for their citizens, that while the union of states always remained firm and perpetual, only a war or an economic disaster could cause the national government to act as the vital head of the nation. The Roosevelt New Deal administration created welfare programs like Social Security and created the federal bureaucracies in much like the form they have today, but even with strong government interference and public works and public job programs, the economy never rid itself of huge unemployment until the arrival of the Second World War in 1941. At the time of Roosevelt’s second election as president in 1936, 9 million men were unemployed.
Roosevelt received over 27 million votes in 1936 against 16 million votes for Landon, the Republican. Roosevelt showed Americans for the first time that they had a national government that could and would create programs for them. When the Japanese bombed the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7th 1941, Roosevelt aroused the nation in his speeches to military action and Americans followed him united for the first time with a powerful nationalistic fervor. The schools had taught us by their simplistic teachings how to be Americans and we finally at last also felt like Americans. In the schools we were taught nothing about the founding of America as a union of sovereign states. We heard sometimes talk of “states rights” but it was an idea foreign to our spirits and it was associated in our minds closely with the slavery that Abraham Lincoln had abolished and with the backward and repressive treatment of African-Americans in southern states that had followed the Civil War and was still going on. Since we did not care much that we lived in a union of 48 states, all of which were functioning democracies that governed at least 90 percent of all public business, the idea that our United States of America could somehow transform itself to a United States of the World was non-existent. The nationalistic fervor continued, increased by the war effort, and it formed the basis of the national feeling that developed and that continues. Ironically, Americans experienced for the first time their national government working with them and for them at the moment in history when their government began in earnest working globally for worldwide goals. Americans did not think about globalization even though the Second World War forced them to fight globally. Government leaders in Washington during the war had to think globally. After the war, some leaders even believed that the United States could again become isolationist and those leaders who continued the global influence of America worldwide had no inkling that they might be creating a United States of the World even though history forced them to work tirelessly throughout the rest of the century using American military and diplomatic power to unite the states of the world.
In 1941 three empires and two large unions of states had formed military alliances and were at war one group against the other globally. Whatever group won would define using its postwar power the political and economic shape of the world of the future. Of the three empires, the British was the largest ruling about 458 million people, one fifth of the world’s population, in colonies, dependencies and territories spread out over one quarter of the globe. The Japanese Empire controlled almost 3 million square miles in the Pacific-Asia region making it one of the largest maritime empires in history. It had annexed Korea, occupied Manchuria and parts of Russia and China and threatened the British Empire as far south as Singapore and Burma and even Australia. The third Empire was the European Empire that Germany under Hitler had established by invading and controlling and uniting with its military power several European states. We can think of Italy as a member of the German Empire although they joined Germany as an equal and it was a main power of the Axis alliance of the Japanese Empire with the German/Italian Empire. The United States allied itself with the British Empire against the Axis alliance even before Japan attacked it on December 7th 1941 and Germany declared war on it the same month on December 12th. Germany had invaded the Soviet Union on June 22nd 1941 and Russia fought against the German/Italian and Japanese Empires as a third ally joined to the British/American alliance.
Of the five major players in the drama, two, The Soviet Union and the American union were not empires but unions of sovereign states. The Soviet Union, a union of sovereign republics, included the huge territory we normally think of as Russia as one of the republics of the union with a total of 15. The remaining 14 were Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. It was a union designed to defend member states from imperialist capitalistic encirclement and defend economic gains that working people had made by taking communistic control of their economies. The declaration of 1922 forming the union said that it was a voluntary union of peoples with equal rights and each Soviet republic retained the right to freely secede from the union. It is debatable how much political freedom each republic had and under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin from Moscow they had little if any but in June of 1941 when an army of 4 million Europeans led by Germany attacked the union, freedom no longer mattered. Only an all-out patriotic war to save Russia mattered.
The Russian revolutionaries in setting up the Soviet Union were at least thinking of the shape of the new world of the future in terms of a union of states. They were opposed to the European and Japanese empires that ruled the world widely except in parts of South America and in North America south of Canada, a self-ruling British colony. Britain and America began their alliance even before America entered the war at the Conference of Placentia in Newfoundland in August 1941. President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met and agreed to the Atlantic Charter. Churchill understood the goal of the charter to be the defeat of Fascism and the restoration of the sovereignty of occupied states. Franklin Roosevelt understood the goal differently. He understood the alliance as a chance to put an end to imperialism. Roosevelt told Churchill, “I can't believe that we can fight a war against fascist slavery, and at the same time not work to free people all over the world from a backward colonial policy. The peace cannot include any continued despotism ... Equality of peoples involves the utmost freedom of competitive trade.” Roosevelt early in the alliance was thus restating Wilsonian principles of free peoples and free trade worldwide. The British needed the alliance with America desperately. Roosevelt was trying to trade America’s help for the end of imperialism. He wanted to include in the charter the words, “.. without discrimination to further the enjoyment by all states, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world …”. Churchill insisted that rather than the words, “without discrimination”, the charter should read instead, “with due respect to their existing obligations”. The debate and conflict in the alliance between British imperialism and the American vision of free independent states worldwide continued. After the Lend-Lease Agreement was signed five months later supplying Britain with produce from the huge American economy, Roosevelt is supposed to have told his son Elliot, “I've tried to make it clear to Winston - and the others - that, while we're their allies and in it to victory by their side, they must never get the idea that we're in it just to help them hang on to the archaic, medieval Empire ideas ... Great Britain signed [sic] the Atlantic Charter. I hope they realize the United States Government means to make them live up to it.” The Soviet union of states and the American union of states were happy to be allied with the British Empire in the worldwide war to destroy Fascism but they were both also the enemies of British imperialism.
By November of 1941 the German-led armies in Russia had reached the outskirts of Leningrad and Moscow. It was clear to everyone that the Soviet Union was on its way down and out and that after Hitler’s armies took Moscow, nothing could stop them reaching all across Siberia to the Pacific Ocean to link up with territories of the Japanese Empire. Hitler would soon have the largest empire in the world extending from France on the West to the Pacific coast of Russia in the East. In this dire circumstance, the British Empire and America joined both politically and militarily. They created de facto a new world union of British colonies and possessions and 48 American states and possessions. They had to assume Russia would soon be defeated and that Hitler with a victorious army of more than 4 million men possessing all the resources of Europe and the Soviet Union could never be opposed successfully by them in a land war in Europe. They immediately decided to oppose Hitler in the air and on the seas. Industrial production in the United States increased 150 percent by 1943. On December 7th when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, America had 1,157 combat airplanes. In 5 years, it constructed 297,000. It had about 1000 tanks and in 5 years had 86,338. Year by year it was able to double and triple the tonnage of its shipbuilding. The British and Americans were preparing to defend the empire and the union of states worldwide by air and by sea. When Hitler completed the conquest of Russia, they would be able to negotiate peace with him from a position of strength or else fight him outside of Europe and Russia with strength. It is probable that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii because they were confidant that the Soviet Union would be soon out of the war and they wished to be in a position to claim the Hawaiian Islands at a future peace conference. Three empires and the American union of states were ready to divide up the world as soon as the Soviet Union went down. But the Soviet Union did not go down and allied with the American union and the British Empire, it helped destroy the German and Japanese empires and the two victorious unions of states were the powers after the war who shaped the world of the future as it got rid of all empires worldwide and saw the rise globally of new independent states.
The British provided the logic that gave a positive slant to the end of their empire and the end of the other European empires. It was a costly business keeping colonies. The ruling European country had to build infrastructures in its colonies, roads, railroads, courts, schools etc. and provide police and military protection in order to steal the colony’s raw materials. Now, the logic went, each colony could become a nation with borders well defined on maps and as each emerged as a self-governing body paying with its currency for necessary infrastructures, rich developed nations could simply enter the new nations and buy their raw materials at bargain prices since the exchange rate between a rich country and a poor country would be highly favorable to the rich country. And any plant set up in a new nation by a foreign corporation to process locally raw materials could hire locals at dirt cheap wages and be certain that the former European state or America would enter with military force if the free enterprise of foreign corporations were threatened by communist revolutionaries. The new states could not possibly have the capacity to produce the finished products available in the rich states and these could be exported and sold in the new nations to the few who could afford them. Surely there was a cynical side to the logic but on the other hand it was a realistic logic that simply outlined in economic terms the fate of the new developing nations. In the postwar years of the 1950s and 1960s, many new states were appearing worldwide and soon the whole globe was covered with states with clearly defined borders. The existence of states worldwide meant they could be united worldwide. The British and Americans formed the United Nations at the beginning of their wartime alliance. It was established after the war in New York city. The UN was a worldwide union of sovereign states. No thought at all was yet given to the idea of a worldwide union of sovereign states who would each accept limited sovereignty and grant limited sovereignty to a central government to which they would send representatives to make universal laws for their world union.
One of the principles of such a union would be that any citizen of any state in the union would have the absolute right to move to and live and work in any state in the union and have full rights as a citizen in a new state simply by establishing residence in it. This principle was already established by law in the union of 48 states in America but the idea of limiting sovereignty in states worldwide was never suggested to them for the reason that it was a totally hostile idea. Every people wanted their state free and democratic and only full sovereignty seemed to them to guarantee freedom and democracy. America certainly was far from proposing to the new states in the postwar years that they apply to the American Congress and become new states of the American union. But America nonetheless began pursuing goals of freedom and democracy for states throughout the world that put in place piece by piece some principles that foreshadowed some of the principles of a future union worldwide of states with limited sovereignty. Another principle of such a union would be the absolute right and obligation of each member state to get rid altogether of a large national military force and at the same time be absolutely secure from invasion by a hostile state because each state would be protected by a large professional army maintained by the central government of the union.
In 1950 the state of South Korea was invaded by forces from North Korea. America immediately established under President Truman that it would not allow any state outside the control of the Soviet Union to be invaded. Truman sent the American army to Korea and aided by troops from several countries worldwide it drove the invaders out of South Korea. The principle that a state might become free from the worry of invasion and function as a democracy if it formed some kind of union with a powerful foreign government was established. A third principle of the United States of the World, a worldwide union that still no one envisioned, is that a member state freed from the expense of maintaining an army and freed from all restraints on its trade with member states worldwide, would prosper. South Korea prospered. It lost very little of its national independence by alliance with America and it prospered. It prospered mightily. It foreshadowed a condition that all states might one day enjoy if only world conditions might in the future reveal to them that full sovereignty is not the key to real democracy and prosperity and that a just limitation of their sovereignty in a world union of democratic states each forced by law to remain democratic is the key.
The full sovereignty of the new developing states included the right to create their own army to defend themselves and it meant they were free to create and build up their state’s economy in any way they wished. Only the future would tell how well they progressed under these conditions. Meanwhile three states, Japan, Germany and Italy were forced as losers in the war to live without the expense of funding military forces and to function free of the fear of invasion protected by the American military. The US after the war no longer respected the borders of nation-states and in the Cold War it was waging against the Soviet Union it considered itself free to interfere economically, militarily and politically inside states wherever necessary to form or support free-enterprise economies. It established military bases in Japan, Germany and Italy and interfered politically when necessary to keep their economies on the right capitalistic path. In Italy it worked internally by various means to defeat the elections of communists who nearly took over the national government. The three defeated nations thus enjoyed before any other states in the world by union with a powerful external government four principles of a future United States of the World: the right and obligation not to build up and maintain a large military, the right and obligation to maintain a democratic government or be forced to create one by the power of an external government, the right to be free of invasion by a foreign state, and the right to the economic prosperity that would be the result. Japan, Germany and Italy prospered mightily, astoundingly. The only right of future members of the United States of the World that the three did not enjoy was the right of their citizens to live and work and be citizens of any state in a union worldwide with the enjoyment of full political rights simply by establishing residency in the state of their choice. However, the three states did enjoy the right to sell the products of their free enterprise free of tariffs in the 48 states in America and their corporations were free to establish themselves in America or anywhere worldwide along side of American corporations who like their government no longer respected the borders of states. For the US government and American corporations any state was ripe to be penetrated for the establishment of American values and for profit.
The Soviet Union increased its political power by alliances or control over Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania. China, Yugoslavia and Albania were also communistic but free of control by Moscow. The Cold War was a struggle between the values and economic practices of the middle class and the working class. America and Russia penetrated states worldwide and tried to set up either a capitalistic or communistic system. The difference was that middle-class economies had been thriving and developing in Europe for nearly a thousand years and in America middle-class practices and values were so widespread that there was simply one class, either rich or poor, with no middle class in the middle because there was no middle. The free European states and the American states had a proven economic system that worked because it was based on initiative and greed. The Russian system was actually less revolutionary than the American system. The Russian system eliminated the drive for profits and the American system let it loose. It was virtually decided already at the beginning of the Cold War which system was more profitable and which would create after years of struggle the world of the future. In Europe the middle class had isolated itself from the other classes and struggled to gain power over them. It developed new revolutionary values based on science, rationalism and materialism. It considered itself unique and believed at the same time that its values were universal. The middle class in Europe in its pride was sure that members of other classes envied it and secretly wished to adopt its values. American economic and educational practices eliminated the exclusiveness and pettiness of middle-class bigwigs and made middle-class values revolutionary by universalizing them as a new way of life for all humanity. The worker’s paradise that bureaucrats in Moscow were creating by five-year plans that plodded along five years at a time to new five-year plans never materialized on earth and the paradise that already existed at the top of the bureaucratic ladder was common to few. The American Federal Government had no desire to govern directly its own people or any right to govern foreign peoples. Its business was to interfere in its own states to assure democratic laws and free enterprise and to penetrate foreign states to upset customary economic and political practices and force states by injecting American corporations or American business practices into their economies to rebel against their outdated policies and practices.
In the Second World War, Moscow had led the Soviet Union’s armies to Berlin and victory at a cost of 20 million dead. Now it had to wage another war worldwide to defend a new working-class economic system and working-class values. It was an all out war, truly worldwide, that echoed in its fashion the hundred years life-or-death struggle between Rome and Carthage that decided who would rule the huge empire that surrounded in the ancient world the Mediterranean Sea. During the three Punic wars between Rome and Carthage, and the Cold war between Washington and Moscow there was no free thought. You were either for what Rome represented or what Carthage represented, for what Washington represented or what Moscow represented. The middle class, the bourgeoisie, had already done all the thinking for hundreds of years and no more was necessary. In fact, any new unusual thought during the postwar period was a kind of treason against established thought and established political and economic systems that the best people in both unions of states were fighting for worldwide. Thought in the second half of the 20th century in the free world lost its individual human dimension and this was clearly reflected in the abstract art of the period. Soviet worker’s art pictured working men and women with faces so monumentally enthused for the heroic tasks they were accomplishing that it was nearly grotesque. Free thought was out. The philosopher Hegel had demonstrated over a hundred years previously that there was no free thought anyway. Thought seemed free for a while and even inspirational but it did not last. One thought was quickly overcome by some contrary thought. Hegel showed clearly in his Philosophy of History that all so called free thought was just some partial manifestation at some stage or another in world history of the universal spirit evolving and advancing through stages. The goal of history according to Hegel was not freedom to think freely but freedom itself. And this freedom could only be realized in a state controlled by bourgeois politicians with bourgeois values. “The essential being,” Hegel wrote, “is the union of the subjective with the rational will: it is the moral whole, the state, which is that form of reality in which the individual has and enjoys his freedom”. In America in the late 1940s and 1950s we enjoyed this kind of freedom as long as we took loyalty oaths and said nothing and did nothing to oppose the goons enjoying the government-approved freedom of accusing loyal Americans of being communists. The American union and the Soviet Union had gotten rid of both free thought and conventional weapons. They were threatening each other not only with opposing ideologies but with atom and hydrogen bombs. They both had plenty of these bombs in projectiles ready to fly.
The National Security Act of 1947 passed by the American Congress set up the National Security Council to advise the American president on matters of national security. The council’s members included the Central Intelligence Agency, in charge of worldwide espionage, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in charge of worldwide war. In effect, Congress set up a secret branch of the Federal Government to carry out policies conceived in secret behind the scenes. Abraham Lincoln had conceived his policy for war in secret behind the scenes. The Congress in 1947 felt America’s freedom and economic way of life so threatened by Moscow that it bestowed on the president openly the dictatorial powers that Lincoln had had to usurp. Moscow took similar extreme steps to protect its centralized power and concoct plots to overthrow capitalist systems in states worldwide. Free nations took similar steps. Britain was so allied with America against Moscow that it merged its national intelligence agency with the American Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA. Nations everywhere had to take extreme steps. They had to line up behind the new Rome or the new Carthage, behind Washington or Moscow.
Both powers in the Cold War controlled a union of states and were trying to create a union of the rest of the states in the world by penetrating them where possible and remodeling their political and economic system using their own system as a model. Strangely, as the Cold War progressed it became clear to keen observers that the competition between Washington and Moscow helped reinforce their power at home and produced in developed and developing states a clear either-or choice politically and economically that brought about a kind of stability because of the conflict. Washington penetrated states in one of three ways and often in a combination of the three. First, it offered states direct monetary aid or aided them by establishing military bases and by training their armed forces. Secondly, it penetrated them by aiding its corporations establish themselves in states to extract their natural resources. This was an altered form of the old imperialism whose goal was to mine raw minerals and ship them home to the mother country where they were scarce. The third way was to penetrate richer and more advanced countries worldwide by helping export big American corporations to establish themselves in foreign nations and compete directly with native business organizations. None of the three produced economic conditions in the developing nations that directly set in motion a system to fight the general poverty in place among the majority of a population. Frustration and anger developed as states grew richer from foreign intervention and investment but little of the riches reached the mass of the population Here was where Moscow fit in nicely. It alone offered an economic system that seemed designed to directly eliminate poverty. Moscow entered a developing country and aided revolutionaries militarily who had no choice but to be communists for immediate aid and to nourish their hope to establish a future economy that might work for all. Moscow’s military penetration or possible penetration in turn justified Washington’s military and espionage actions in states to prevent or overthrow communist governments. It was a quid pro quo. My penetration is justified because of your penetration and you are free to penetrate where I have already penetrated. Culturally and historically speaking, in the old middle-class- run nation-states of Europe, the bourgeoisie developed their riches on the backs of workers’ labor with wages lower than necessary. They did nothing at all to produce riches universally for all classes. In the Cold War, the same conflict played itself out on a global and international stage. Washington played the bourgeois, Moscow the worker. Middle-class businessmen went all over the world aided by American diplomacy and its military enriching only themselves and corrupt officials. People in states worldwide with no part in the play suffered. Moscow did its best to help them and give them hope but it had a losing role in the play because the part it played led nowhere.
The world outside the United States after the Second World War was too poor to buy the products American industry could produce. Instead of exporting its production, America decided to export instead its means of production. By the end of the 1950s, American corporations had invested 30 billion dollars to establish themselves worldwide and of the 6000 enterprises established a half of them, 3000 businesses, were in Europe. A few advanced European thinkers in the 1960s realized with amazement that American corporations were doing much more in Europe to unite European states into united economies than their Common Market. The American corporations cared little about national borders and they had invented creative ways of organizing and reorganizing the way they did business that made traditional European ways of doing business seem sterile. Stimulated by technical research funded by the Federal Government to compete with new Soviet technical advances, constant technical innovation had become the ruling activity of American corporations. In America, government administrators, industrial managers, university economists, engineers and scientists were creating new rational strategies to integrate factors of production that were constantly innovating the structures of corporations. The American corporations used the same strategies in Europe. American corporations were taking over European industries so rapidly that many Europeans feared that they would soon be producing as much in Europe as European corporations. The governments of European nation-states found themselves facing a difficult dilemma: if they allowed the American corporations to install themselves in their nation, they risked condemning their native industry to a secondary role, but if they restricted American corporations, they would move to a neighboring nation and deprive an unreceptive nation of development that it needed. Although Europeans believed American corporations invested overseas for the national benefit of the American nation, American corporations in Europe employed Europeans and very few Americans and paid them salaries significantly higher than European corporations. The American corporations installed in Europe directly reduced possible exports from the United States because those using advanced techniques produced advanced products so necessary for European consumption that Europeans would have had to import them from the US if American corporations were not manufacturing them in Europe. A saving grace to the situation was of course that Europeans could invest in the American corporations and earn money from the economic progress as stockholders. Ironically American corporations financed their enterprises with 90% of the funds coming from European investors and just 10% from Americans. What Europeans were witnessing was the first explosions of the war to create multinational corporations worldwide. In the battles of the 1960s, computers and advanced communications were being introduced as new weapons whose importance was destined to grow and aid exponentially the installation of multinational corporations worldwide. European corporations soon adopted the new American business methods and the new technologies and learned to move some of their corporations into global positions. Eventually, by the 1970s and 1980s, underdeveloped countries like China and India were able to use for free production techniques that were started and developed in America and take gigantic developmental steps quickly. Most of the smaller developing countries never realized enough capital from their small savings to invest profitably in local industry. Their rich citizens were forced by circumstances to invest their savings in multinational corporations and earn profits from industries outside their native states. Multinational corporations were alive and well globally hoping from state to state wherever the lure of profits enticed them and while the world accepted multinational corporations, no one had any thought yet of multinational citizenship. Individuals did not yet have the right to hop from nation to nation for their betterment.
The United States of America and the united states of the Soviet Union provided firm political bases at home for Washington and Moscow to operate worldwide but the base in each weakened in the 1950s and in the 1960s began to crack. In the US the people were united politically by the fear of communists somehow taking over and destroying their way of life. In the USSR the people were united by the fear of the dictator Joseph Stalin. Stalin died in 1956 and when his successor Nikita Khrushchev denounced him and his type of rule and called for liberalization, Hungarians revolted and were put down by Russian tanks but they showed that the foundation of the communist system was weak and could be shaken. In 1968 the Czechoslovakians succeeded for a while in liberalizing economic practices and were repressed by Moscow but they made the need to liberalize a continuing idea in peoples’ minds. Already in 1963 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Washington and Moscow had threatened one another with nuclear war and their leaders, Khrushchev and Kennedy, had bravely withstood their hawkish military establishments who wanted to pull the triggers. Washington and Moscow showed when real war was possible that neither of them wanted it. The compromise and the peace that resulted revealed that the Cold War was not as serious a war as it had seemed although the military hawks gained again the upper hand when events forced both Khrushchev and Kennedy from power. President Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, went full speed ahead with the war in Vietnam and when Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968, he continued the war even though in his election campaign he had suggested that he would end it. Nixon’s political career had been nourished by anticommunism. He got himself elected to Congress from California in 1946 by denouncing communism and arousing fear among his voters of traitorous American communists in their midst. There were few communists in California in 1946 but in 1968 President Nixon had real communist enemies in Vietnam in his gun’s sight and he pulled the trigger and kept pulling it. Even while American troops were leaving Vietnam, he continued bombing communists with massive air attacks. Then the last thing in the world that an habitual cold warrior like Nixon might imagine happening happened: half of the American people denounced the war in Vietnam and very directly announced to Washington in massive public demonstrations that they were sick to death of being forced to hate communism and show their loyalty to Washington by supporting wars against communists. They were telling Nixon and the world that they were totally sick of the Cold War. The war in Vietnam seemed to people who were thoroughly engrained with middle-class American values unnecessary and unjustified. They wanted a different world. Wars and ideological conflicts between states seemed out of date and on their way out. Forces independent of any particular part of the world were busy changing the world and people worldwide sensed the changes going on and wanted to be a part of them. The nation-state of the past was on the way out too but one leader, Charles de Gaulle, had tried to inspire France to become a nationalistic bulwark against the new forms of political and economic life that were emerging worldwide and transcending national boundaries. The French rebelled in May and June of 1968 with fierce anti-government protests against something they could not define to themselves except very vaguely but they tore up streets in Paris anyway and fought police behind barricades for changes they sensed already on the way in the world and that they wanted for themselves locally. De Gaulle was forced out of office by the new world in formation that suddenly blew up in his face. Meanwhile Richard Nixon kept up his massive bombing of Cambodia and Vietnam and was not forced out of power until 1974. Nixon the cold warrior and the devoted anticommunist had visited Moscow in 1972 and 1974 and tried to get the communist leaders in the Kremlin to influence their allies, the communist leaders in Vietnam, to accept peace with America on Nixon’s terms. Capitalists and communists were playing antagonistic roles on stages around the globe but behind the scenes they hobnobbed together and respected the conflicting parts each played. Nixon signed trade and arms control agreements with Moscow and gained their help in influencing Vietnamese leaders to end the war. Nixon visited Chinese communists in 1972 to see what role they might be willing to play in the global theater. Nixon’s visit to China did begin the destruction of the Chinese communist system but by the 1970s new advanced technologies for organizing the factors of production were available universally and the Chinese communists could not resist applying them to their economy which was rich already with massive supplies of local cheap human labor. Nixon merely opened the door. Multinational corporations were showing the roads to follow that lead to the new world and the Chinese rushed out through Nixon’s open door and flew down all the roads. Nixon resigned as president in 1974 forced out of office by disgraceful undemocratic operations that he had conducted behind the scenes to steal information that might have helped him suppress American freedoms. On his last day in Washington, America watched on television as he waved goodbye and got on an airplane. He was waving goodbye too to the Cold War.
But the Cold War went on for another 15 years. The global actions of Washington went on as usual. The president who succeeded Nixon, Gerald Ford, almost immediately after taking power ordered an invasion of a Cambodian island without consulting Congress. In 1976 only 53% of Americans voted. Carter, a Democrat, was elected campaigning and winning the presidency by making unfulfilled promises to a disillusioned people. The public medias grew in power and influence but they gave no direct voice to thousands of local groups campaigning for environmental protection, women’s rights, or against homelessness and military spending. American corporations in Europe, Latin America and Africa continued making billions of dollars in profits. “The world and its treasures”, to use Leo Tolstoy’s phrase, “is booty for the bold.” American corporations supported by American diplomacy and its military were the boldest of the bold. They got at least 90% of their diamonds, platinum, coffee, mercury, rubber, cobalt, manganese, chrome and aluminum from foreign states. Ronald Reagan elected president in 1980 cut federal benefits to the poor, lowered income taxes for the wealthy, increased the military budget, filled the federal court system with conservative judges, and destroyed revolutionary movements in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Reagan had to wait two years in office to invade a state but he did so in 1982 when he sent troops into Lebanon. In a survey conducted by the New York Times in 1976, over half of the respondents said that public officials didn’t care about them. They should have answered instead that the public officials in their state governments had no choice but to care about them and that the officials in the Federal Government who received trillions of dollars in income taxes were authorized by their Constitution to care about Americans very little or not at all. Washington’s interests worldwide were so extensive and so demanding of its attention because of the Cold War that the Federal Government seemed to dominate American life even more indirectly than as usual and in a way that seemed to many Americans to be equivalent to indifference. It may be that officials in Moscow ruling Russia, a nation-state, never realized that Washington was not the central government of a nation-state and that this was the source of its overwhelming power to wage the Cold War endlessly. When Michael Gorbachev proposed to begin a process to end the Cold War in 1986 in a conference with Ronald Reagan in Reykjavik Iceland, Reagan refused his offer. When George Bush was elected president in 1988, Gorbachev visited him in Washington in 1989 already having taken liberal steps within the Soviet Union to end the Cold War but Bush was not eager to end the Cold War so quickly. He wanted to go slowly. It was cash on the barrelhead the Cold War. It was painful for cold warriors to let it go.
Communism as an economic system had not been a viable system for years but when Moscow dissolved the USSR in 1991 it ended not only communism but also a union of states. It meant that the new free states in Eastern Europe and those to the south of Russia as well as China and Russia itself were now open to multinational corporations for investment. Here was an extraordinary new burst of freedom for big corporations originating anywhere in any nation to make a lot of money. All they needed to satisfy their greed was a huge military power positioned with its ships and its aircraft and its military all over the globe to make their investments secure. Washington possessing a government well-funded and freed by its Constitution from governing its people by direct actions in their states was ready and eager to secure the world now free of communist nations for multinational corporations. America had no respect for the borders of nation-states during the Cold War and in her new role as the military champion of multinational corporations she made it clear that no state anywhere had the right to invade any state and that she would defend any and all states from invasion. The dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, had been tolerated by Washington but he invaded Kuwait in 1991 violating the new rules of the international game. President George Bush went to war at once and drove Hussein’s forces back into Iraq dropping tons of bombs on his territory on a scale comparable to Richard Nixon’s bombardment of Cambodia. Other nations joined Bush’s war against Iraq showing by their actions that they agreed with the new worldwide rule that all states were now free from the threat of invasion. Old-style nation-state wars did break out in the 1990s in the Balkans but the states involved were forced to retreat behind their borders by international intervention and by an American bombardment under President Clinton. In the Near East, Israel and neighboring states still lived with the threat of invasion but this was a local matter. Universally no state was threatened by invasion and America had military bases in 177 nations and its navy around the world and over 2 million people in its military to back up the new worldwide deal. However leaders of states were still free to use their local military forces against their own people. Prevention of civil wars was not a part of the deal. As long as heads of states did nothing with their military against multinational corporations, they had a free hand to do what they wished internally and rule their own people by force. They received monies from corporations established on their national land either legitimately or corruptly and had no reason to interfere with their work.
The rich located anywhere in the world profited from investments in corporations established throughout the world. The new burst of profits gained worldwide by corporations did not reach down into the hands of the majority of people worldwide except sometimes in trickles. Voices were raised everywhere criticizing corporations but they had little effect because their criticism was wrong. Wealth no longer existed in the world as in the past in the form of raw materials or as a result of applying the technologies of the past to industrial production. A large part of the wealth now produced was the result not only of advanced technologies but also from advancements in computers and communications that allowed creative forms of business structures unknown previously. Political freedom, real political freedom, also was an essential factor in producing wealth because such freedom went hand in hand with revolutionary new types of banking practices that created money for big and small business enterprises wherever opportunities presented themselves. Political freedom in turn can exist stably only when it is supported and protected by advanced judicial and educational systems both of which are necessary to help protect individual citizens from corrupt officials and the excesses of corporations. Wealth could now be created universally in states who were developed enough to adapt the new practices used by big multinational corporations to work for the goals locally of their citizens. Corporations were greedy but not necessarily bad. Big corporations were often the best means available to produce wealth and sometimes the only means.
Corporations are here to stay and it is false and useless to criticize them as the source of the world’s evils. It is the inhuman indifference of corporations to the people they employ and to the people outside their orbit that creates the shamefully superficial forms of individual behavior that are visible everywhere and characterize the beginning years of the 21st century. People must prepare themselves mentally to work for corporations to be successful economically and this comes at a great cost to their individuality and to their openness to what is true. Corporations create by their indifference not only products and profits but an ambiance full of people constrained in their self-development to low end self-development. The United States government in its totality is a super corporation richer with its trillions of dollars of income than any government of the past ever even dreamed possible. It is made up of hundreds of agencies and departments of all sorts, public corporations financed by public taxes, with purposes outlined for them by laws created by the US Congress. They add more indifference to the immense list of private corporations also acting indifferently. But it is false and useless to criticize the Federal Government’s body of public corporations as the sources of evil. They have good goals and it is certainly true that some forms of goodness can and must be produced indifferently. It is not wrong for the US government to organize the world so that corporations owned by the rich can be free and secure worldwide to create wealth and enjoy profits. It is wrong however for the US government having the means to grant universal democracy and economic freedom guaranteed by law to all people worldwide to instead strive worldwide only for the freedom of multinational corporations. We Americans fund by our income taxes and other taxes the Federal Government’s worldwide power and we have a political and moral right to enjoy the freedoms and the fruits of its power as well as corporations.
What are we Americans going to do? Are we going to forget completely and forever because of the abusive negative acts against American states of Abraham Lincoln that we are a union of 50 independent sovereign states? We possess the most successful and the most radical political system ever created on earth for guaranteeing by law democratic governments for our states and our union of states has been the main source of exceptional economic development for our citizens. Are we going to sit back and do nothing to help the rest of the world enjoy the benefits of the system that we enjoy and that many states in the world now need?
(Washington has gone its own way since the Civil War distancing itself from us and we in our states have gone nowhere.) Washington gained enormous power for it self internally and externally in the 20th century but it is false and wrong for us to believe that this power must necessarily be used only to dominate our states and to influence openly and secretly foreign states throughout the world. Washington’s worldwide power is precisely a condition necessary to produce freedom and goodness for us and everyone else in the world because the only thing that can guarantee worldwide freedom and justice is worldwide power. What to do? We must be loyal to Washington and support its actions around the world because they are mostly designed for the world’s welfare. We must accept in good faith whatever it decides is the supreme law of our perpetual union. But we and everyone else in the world can not hide from the fact that Washington is the new Rome. We are all dependent on it to greater or lesser degrees for our world’s welfare. But our loyalty to Washington should not require us Americans to do nothing. We must act as states. We have rights as states guaranteed by our Constitution. We must make America begin listening to voices that come not only from Washington but also from the heart and soul of what American history has made us, a union of sovereign states. We must bust out of our comfortable bubble and realize that the economy of our union of states can become expansive in a revolutionary and positive way if we lighten the national responsibilities of Washington and give it instead the burden of interstate leadership on a worldwide scale. Our job is to invite all states in the world to join our union of states in order to assure by our laws and our Constitution their existence as democracies and their economic development. If foreign states, rich or poor, were to join our union, two doors to increased prosperity would open immediately. The citizens in a newly admitted state would be guaranteed a democratic government and the right to work and live as a citizen of any one of more than 50 states. At the same time, every business at any level established in any state of the union, small businesses as well as large corporations, would be guaranteed the same economic freedom and the same property rights in new states that are now enjoyed in the present 50 American states. Small banks could move an office to a new state as easily as they now move to the present member states of the union and open for business using a banking system that is the most radical and the most practical ever invented. Small construction companies could move easily without the aid of American diplomats to any new state and use their know-how to create new jobs and expansive new development. Holes would be suddenly punched in our bubble and the fresh air of new possibilities would flow in that could grow wider and wider as more and more states unburden themselves of dead nationalistic forms and reform. New states that join our union will send immediately two senators each to join in the deliberations of Washington’s senate. Their citizens elected to the House of Representatives will also go to the Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington and pass universal laws designed to establish and guarantee a whole list of unalienable human rights for all people worldwide. The federal judiciary and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, will have access by right to all states and will free all citizens of all member states worldwide from the tyrannical practices of corrupt politicians using state powers for themselves rather than for the just ambitions of their people. Multinational corporations supported by the American military and American diplomats have failed to develop economies in the states they enter at the middle and lower ends. By adopting for their states advanced banking and management practices modeled after those in the current American states and by instituting advanced educational and judiciary systems modeled also after the practices in American states, new states will assure themselves not only democratic political freedoms but also general economic development for all their citizens. Worldwide multinational corporations must not make the only waves of the future. Worldwide multistate citizenship should make the most powerful wave of all. Such a wave could produce new bursts of freedom for individual citizens and new economic opportunities because of the vastly expanded possibilities for human development that membership in our union will allow.
No officials of the Federal Government except those elected to the Congress of the United States have the right under the Constitution to vote for bills to admit or reject new states. We should never elect in the future any candidate to Congress who is not willing to vote for new states to expand our union. The President has the right to veto such bills but the Congress has the right to override his veto. Neither the Department of State nor the Defense Department nor officials of any other agency or department of the Federal Government have any right at all in the matter. Article IV section 3. of the Constitution states this power clearly, “New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union;” We Americans already live in a union of states that has been expanding by admitting new states since the union was founded with 13 states in 1787. Since then Congress has admitted 37 new states. Organizing sovereign states into a union with a duly constituted central government has been a political work in progress throughout American history. It must continue in order to continue to assure the existence of governments in our states with full democratic rights and to assure as well democratic governments to newly admitted states. Article IV Section 4. of the US Constitution states, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a Republican Form of Government, and protect each of them from invasion”.
We need to give not only the Federal Government in Washington but also the foreign states around the world the means to operate their governments and their economies in a balanced and positive manner that will surely produce more prosperity and more good for foreign peoples and for ourselves than exists now. In 2002 the second Bush elected president, George W. Bush, decided to launch an invasion of the sovereign state of Iraq without any reasonable justification. He caused the death of thousands of innocent people because he not only conquered the country but then failed completely to pacify it by establishing a judicial system backed by an appropriate and effective police force. Clearly this disaster showed once again both that the Federal Government has little interest in being only a national government of the United States and that it is in fact already operating for good or for ill as an international government. The admission of new states to our union will accomplish the stated international goals of Washington of democracy for foreign states and of free economic development for them in the global economy. This should give balance to Washington’s international behavior by giving it the means to develop the world politically and economically in a legitimate and concrete form. It should give up vague talk of freedom and democracy for foreign states and invite them all to join its union and actually experience freedom and democracy. Washington can act directly in the interests of Americans by adopting the policy of transforming itself to the central government of a world union of states. The United States of the World with Washington at its center as a duly constituted government will give every American the international opportunities for business and employment that Washington has been providing rich corporations. At the same time it will provide all corporations and all businesses at any level with far lower operating costs. No longer will expensive quid pro quo international bargaining be necessary between diplomats and businessmen and politicians in states to allow businesses and individuals to cross borders and reconcile their activities with local laws. The US government now has the power, granted it by the Constitution, to rule over interstate commerce and the wealth of the world will increase dramatically as Washington also governs indirectly new states and begins promoting interstate commerce universally.
Many new developing states are disturbed by tribal, ethnic and religious differences that thwart their political and economic development because corrupt politicians exacerbate such differences to gain power. Once admitted to the American union, this will no longer be allowed by Washington. The people of newly admitted states will have double citizenship, citizenship in the state of their choice and citizenship in the United States. The many agencies and departments in Washington established by Congress for good purposes as aids to American state governments will also aid the governments of new states. New states must agree to limit their sovereignty by giving up their right to make war on other states and to conduct diplomatic relations with them and they must obey laws passed by the Congress in Washington but by way of exchange their citizens will vote for representatives not only to the local democratic government of their state but also vote and send representatives to the Congress in Washington. We Americans have learned that the limited sovereignty of our states instead of limiting democracy and freedom produces and secures them and that they are the vital conditions of advanced economic development. We want to increase our opportunities for new economic ventures by locating in newly admitted states in our union and in turn by offering to foreign states new opportunities for their citizens to locate in states of our union by joining our union. Any new state admitted to the US union must continue as a democratic government or else form such a government. An inviolable democratic government and an absolute freedom from the threat of invasion should be the goal of all the states in the world. It should also be their goal to give their citizens the right to full citizenship in any state of their union of states simply by establishing residence in a state of their choice.
The fundamental idea of any world union of states must be that the central government possess sovereign powers that are strictly limited and defined in a Constitution. The Federal Government of America has exclusive power only over military affairs and diplomacy. It also has power to regulate interstate commerce and to maintain a federal legal system that can overturn state and federal laws and decisions of state courts, but neither of these powers are absolute and they would be necessary in any case to assure the just workings of an international union of states. No government with full national sovereignty can ever transform itself to the central government of a world union. The US government in Washington in the District of Columbia possesses neither full sovereignty nor any national territory over which it rules as a sovereign power. It acts as the national government of a nation-state only when relating to nation-states throughout the world in matters of war and
diplomacy. Within the American union of states, it acts as the hub of a large wheel of 50 states who govern themselves and also send representatives to the center of the wheel in Washington DC to make laws necessary to keep the wheel spinning justly.
No political entity called “America” exists. The united states of America are not all on the continent of North America. The state of Hawaii, admitted to the union in 1959, is composed of a group of islands near the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The correct name of the present union should be, “The United States of North America and the Pacific”. We do call one another “Americans” even though we were not born in “America” but in one of 50 states. The Federal Government located in the District of Columbia has always governed the several states very little or not at all. An American becomes a citizen of the state where he is born and automatically also a citizen of the US. However he is born in a state, educated by a state, hospitalized in a state certified hospital, transported on state roads and transportation systems, married by a state, judged mostly in state courts, guarded by state police, protected by state firemen and dies in a state with his money deposited in a state bank. What does the Federal Government do during his life that directly affects him? It gives him the means to fight in war, assures his right to interstate commerce and to citizenship in any state he may choose to live in, and tells him when the laws of his state violate the Constitution. It also absolves the state where he resides of the necessity to establish diplomatic relations with other states in the world. The most important thing the Federal Government does for states is obey the Constitution by guaranteeing a democratic government to each state. It conducts its pro democratic operations admirably. The United States Department of Justice and the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, regularly put corrupt state politicians, most of them democratically elected, in jail. The big cat from Washington is ever eager to pounce on and punish mice in state governments stealing the people‘s cheese.
On September 9th 2011, Salvatore F. DiMasi, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives of the state of Massachusetts, was sentenced in a federal court. He had been convicted in a US District Court of receiving a direct bribe of $65,000 for helping a software company get a state contract worth millions. More bribes for Mr. DiMasi were set to follow and, according to federal sentencing guidelines, he could have been sentenced to from 19 to 24 years in a federal prison. Before sentencing him, the US District Court Judge, Mark L Wolf, reasoned in this manner: “Which person is more dangerous to our country, someone who is doing what everyone he knows does, selling crack on a corner, or people who are undermining our democracy by successfully conspiring to sell their public office?” Judge Wolf sentenced DiMasi, who once held the second most powerful elected office in the state of Massachusetts, to eight years in prison. In 2011 the brave people of the nation of Tunisia rose up demanding democracy in mass protests and succeeded in throwing out of their country a corrupt tyrant who had been demanding for years as a matter of course bribes from corporations doing business in Tunisia. In a state with limited sovereignty, like the state of Massachusetts, democracy rules and corrupt politicians go to federal prisons. In states with full sovereignty, like Tunisia, corrupt politicians take bribes with no big cat ready to pounce on them and, when the people do succeed in throwing them out, they go into exile with their stolen money and live in luxury. The truth is that for most states in the world democracy, real democracy, can not exist successfully unless agencies exist outside of their state borders with the power to hunt for corrupt or tyrannical politicians and put them in jail for their abuses of power or for their crimes. States must limit their sovereignty and allow a central government to watch over their democracy if they wish to live freely and use public wealth to support human goodness and universal human rights.
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, Property, the pursuit of Happiness, and Citizenship in a democratic state of their choosing. To secure such rights, Governments should be instituted among men with limited sovereign powers in order to prevent politicians from assuming dictatorial powers. Until the present century, independent national states required unlimited sovereignty to form national armies capable of defending states from attacks by enemy states. In the 50 united states of America, state armies are both unnecessary and illegal. In independent national sates throughout the world, national armies have become less and less necessary because the American Federal Government has assumed the responsibility of protecting foreign states from interstate wars. It backs up this responsibility at a cost of nearly 600 billion dollars a year by maintaining more than two and a half million personnel in its armed forces, military bases throughout the world, and a naval fleet present in every ocean. By joining the 50 united states as newly admitted states, national armies of new states, which sometimes are used to repress the democratic rights of their people, will become obsolete. The Federal Government of the 50 united states has already assumed some duties of a world government partly to prevent laws and policies of national states from impeding the freedom of multinational corporations to conduct business worldwide unrestricted by national boundaries. As national states apply for admission to the American union to the Congress in Washington and are accepted by the Congress, the transition of the United States of America to the United States of the World would become gradually a reality. This extensive new world union would make more and more secure and more general the movement throughout the world of labor and capital wherever opportunities for employment draw them. The American Constitution states clearly that the Congress of the elected representatives of the 50 states possesses the power to admit new states. Since the United States began in 1787 with the acceptance of the Constitution by 13 states, 37 new states have been admitted. The Federal Government’s role as a national government would not change as long as some states in the world choose to remain independent and to retain their unlimited sovereignty. The people of newly admitted states would be citizens, as stated in the Fourteenth Amendment to the American Constitution, both of the United States and of the state where they choose to establish residence. However, as the world role of the Federal Government increases with more and more new states, its national role would decrease. This is happening already for, since the end of the Second World War, the Federal Government’s world responsibilities have rendered it less and less able to concentrate on purely national goals. The limitations on sovereignty that apply to the present 50 states would also apply to new states although these limitations would tend to decrease as the number of new states increases. Who does not see that dictatorial governments scattered all over the world, ruled by politicians with rapacious designs on their own national wealth and indifferent to real democracy and to glaring world problems, must go? Limitations to national sovereignty are the necessary conditions for the establishment of genuine democracy and for the establishment of a world government capable of dealing with world problems. In the future, the central world government located in Washington in the District of Columbia will guarantee unlimited democracy to states in exchange for their acceptance of limited sovereignty and all states will be guaranteed also full democratic representation in the government of the world government.
The Federal Government in Washington has never possessed any national territory because it has been located since 1790 in the District of Columbia separated by its borders from the neighboring states of Virginia and Maryland. It has never operated with full sovereignty as have other national states since the American Constitution grants it sovereign power only in selected and limited areas. All powers not specifically granted to the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the Federal Government are reserved as areas for the exercise of state sovereignty. In fact, most Americans before the American Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, regarded the Federal Government as an agency to protect them from foreign states, to assure interstate commerce and to sort out their interstate differences and conflicts. Most regarded secession from the union as a sovereign right until the victory of the northern army over the secessionist south ended the right. The defeated general of the southern army, Robert E. Lee, publicly recognized that the war ended the right of secession but he insisted that the loss of this right meant that it was the duty of the Federal Government to use its newly-won power to assure the existence of state sovereignty. In reality, since the end of the Civil War and especially since the end of the Second World War, the Federal Government has abused and extended its powers to the detriment of state sovereignty. It has also been guilty of unjustified acts of covert and open violence against various national states mainly to secure freedom for multinational corporations to pursue worldwide economic dominance. However the usurpation of power by the Federal Government at the expense of state sovereignty has never been accompanied by the establishment of dictatorial rule in state governments. In fact, the Federal Government by law must allow the existence in the states of only democratic governments. The US government is ordered by the Constitution in Article IV section 4. to “ guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government…” Some of the present states of the union have been functioning democracies continuously since 1787 and all 50 states are now solid democracies. We the people of the 50 united states have patiently endured painful limitations to our sovereignty imposed on us by the government in Washington, but these limitations are generally those that a world union of states would need to guarantee universal human rights to the citizens of all states. Both we the present states and any newly admitted states can not wage wars, can not set up state tariffs against free trade, can not deny residence and citizenship and the right to work and to vote to anyone, can not enact laws against the exercise of any religion, can not deprive any citizen of life, liberty or property without due process of law, can not deprive any citizen of equal protection of the laws, can not deprive any citizen of free public education and so forth. Thus, by something like a ruse of history, most acts of the Federal Government and the Federal Courts limiting state sovereignty have in reality created a firm basis in law for a world union of states by voiding state laws that might promote tyrannical powers. Moreover, the citizens of new states in the union would enjoy voting for representatives not only to their state legislature but also to the congressional legislature in Washington. In addition, they would elect a governor for their state and a federal president for Washington. We appeal to our brother states throughout the world to join our union of democratic states so that their own democratic liberties can be secured by the Federal Government’s powers and so that by their presence in the union the Federal Government can assume as exclusively as possible the role of a world government which humanity needs to fulfill the good destiny that its Creator has designed for it.
More than eight hundred years ago, middle-class merchants in Europe escaped from feudal oppression by establishing themselves in towns and by guarantying their new free independent way of life with written laws. Entrepreneurs from this class made technological advances in the means of production over a long period of time that radicalized economic, social and political relations. Eventually this new middle class of merchants and lawyers created national states, first as limited monarchies and then as democracies, to protect by laws and constitutions the property and riches of the few from the working class. American foreign policy since the Second World War has continued to seek this governmental protection of the rich at the world rather than just at the national level. All revolutions are destructive but it is still possible to create a positive result of the middle-class revolution of the past if we carry its momentum further by creating a new world order that protects by law not just the worldwide freedom of the rich but the worldwide freedom of everyone. We must make an orderly transition to a new glorious condition of our world by adding states to the American union whose people will send representatives to the Congress in Washington and guarantee by the power of law both the interstate inviolability of multinational corporations and the inviolable right of the workers of the world to free interstate movement and free interstate citizenship.
We the people of the present 50 united states have national patriotic sentiments like those of people of other nations. History has taught us however that a union of states free of tyrants and corrupt politicians with a central government willing to fight anywhere in the world for the survival of freedom, as President Kennedy declared in his inaugural address of 1960, is more important than nationalistic sentiment. Two hundred and thirty-nine years ago, in 1775, the state of Massachusetts on its own put an army in its fields to fight for its independence from Britain. Independent eight years later because of help from other colonies and France, John Adams of Massachusetts refused national sovereignty for his state and instead opted for limited sovereignty and interstate union. Adams, the second President of the United States, called the men who opposed his magnanimous vision of America’s future “piddling” people. No doubt people from some states, both those already united as well as those fully sovereign, will reject our vision of a future United States of the World. Some foreign states will assert that they have no need of world union with the 50 American states and other states because they already enjoy as fully sovereign states a form of world union under the protection of America. We consider their view piddling. Some people in American states, which already contain citizens of every race and religion from every nation of the globe speaking most world languages as well as English, will perhaps fear the end of the white race as a majority in America. We consider their view piddling. The world must get rid of all racism, all religious bigotry, all fanaticism, all national borders, all terrorism, all ignorance, all intolerance, all poverty, all tyrants, all corrupt politicians, all injustice or else we will all become “piddling” people and we will never have somewhere a strong central world government uniting us all under a constitution that will allow us to live magnanimously and freely in democratic states and to once again make our world green. | <urn:uuid:b9c269c5-5ef0-467e-9d7b-492c157b2fac> | {
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When you imagine your birth, you may picture (and, possibly, feel a bit nervous about) pushing baby out the vaginal way. But for one in three American women, delivery ends up via cesarean section (a.k.a. C-section). For many, the surgery is necessary due to reasons that can make a vaginal birth dangerous to attempt, like a medical condition (e.g., diabetes or high blood pressure) or a too-large baby. But for a handful of women, C-section may be done when it’s not necessary. Indeed, rates of C-section in the U.S. rose steeply in the past decades, from 18.4 percent in 1997 to 32.2 percent in 2014. Current rates worldwide vary from less than 2 percent in some countries to nearly 50 percent.
Since 1985, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that the rate of C-sections should be closer to 10 to 15 percent of all births per country globally — a rate the organization itself notes that "the international community has increasingly referenced the need to revisit." And a new study from researchers looking at data on C-sections worldwide has found that the “optimal” rate of C-sections may ideed be higher than the WHO recommendations.
The study, published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association, reviewed annual population-wide C-section rates from all 194 WHO member states between 2005 and 2012, using mathematical models to approximate C-section rates in countries where data was not available. Researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine and Ariadne Labs, a joint center of Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, then compared C-section rates with neonatal (baby) mortality rates and maternal mortality rates from pregnancy up through 42 days postpartum.
The researchers found that of the 22.9 million births in 2012, a C-section rate of up to 19 percent correlated with lower neonatal and maternal death rates. However rates above 19 percent were not associated with better outcomes for moms and babies.
"It's important to recognize that our findings do not pertain to individual patients or individual facilities," George Molina, MD, co-author and a surgical resident and research fellow at Ariadne Labs said in a statement.
Researchers also noted that rates in the U.S. varied widely. In 2009, hospital-by-hospital C-section deliveries ranged from 7.1 to 69.9 percent (some of which, the authors note, can be attributed to differences in necessity for C-section delivery). Indeed, other recent research has found that C-section rates vary a lot by state and zip code.
"On a nationwide level, our findings suggests there are many countries where not enough C-sections are being performed, meaning there is inadequate access to safe and timely emergency obstetrical care, and conversely, there are many countries where more C-sections are likely being performed than yield health benefits," wrote Alex Haynes, MD, primary investigator of the study, a surgeon and associate director of Ariadne Labs' Safe Surgery Program, in a statement. "This suggests on a policy level that benchmarks for C-section rates on country-wide level should be reexamined and could be higher than previously thought."
Other experts note that there is reason why more women need C-sections now than when the previous WHO guidelines came out.
“A lot of developed countries have changed over the past few decades in terms of who’s having babies,” says Aaron Caughey, MD, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and associate dean for Women’s Health Research and Policy, OHSU School of Medicine. “More older moms having babies, more overweight women, more high-risk pregnancies, more twins, more infertility, more conditions like diabetes — all of which are associated with an increase in C-section risk. I have colleagues in Australia who don’t know that they can get [C-section rates] below 19, 20 percent.”
C-sections, while sometimes life-saving, are still surgery. And since having one can require future C-sections as well as increase risk of placenta accreta and other complications in subsequent pregnancies, doctors in the U.S. have been aiming to reduce the number of C-sections they perform. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the group representing American OB-GYNs, released guidelines in 2014 calling for doctors to wait longer before performing C-sections.
“A lot has to do with being a little more patient — so instead saying this labor is too long, we’re going to do a C-section, reassessing when it’s really necessary," says Caughey. "What is too long, what is the risk of a delivery lasting too long, thresholds for time. Being a little more patient and thoughtful with fetal monitoring...how to turn breech babies before birth, a technique that’s been decreasingly used over the last decade.”
ACOG made a separate recommendation this year that doctors use operative vaginal procedures (including vacuum and forceps extraction) more often when possible to reduce the number of C-sections.
What this means for you
It's important to remember that C-sections can be life-saving in many circumstances. That said, there are also steps moms can take to lower their risk of C-section, Caughey notes.
“The thing that would medically most reduce the risk would be to start pregnancy at a healthy weight and to gain weight within the guidelines during pregnancy. We’ve been kind of tricked about our food, so obesity rates are one third, and another third are overweight, which means the majority of the population is overweight or obese. We’ve adjusted what is a 'normal' body size," Caughey says, noting that people are not aware of what is the healthy weight for them. Caughey suggests having a conversation with your doc about your weight before you get pregnant, and not waiting for your doctor to initiate the conversation.
And if you’re especially concerned about having a C-section, Caughey also recommends talking to your healthcare provider about your labor and delivery care, letting him or her know that you’d like to try and avoid a C-section unless it’s medically necessary. “But the vast majority in my experience are careful,” Caughey says. And he may be right: In the U.S., C-section rates leveled off from 2009 to 2012 and went down half a percent from 2013 to 2014 — “which may not sound like a lot, but means there were 20,000 fewer C-sections in the U.S.,” he says. | <urn:uuid:b619c988-c3d2-46f6-95b0-af3d86056aa7> | {
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Millions of Americans head outdoors in the summer, whether for a day at a nearby lake or a monthlong road trip. For environmental economists like me, decisions by vacationers and outdoor recreators offer clues to a challenging puzzle: estimating what environmental resources are worth.
In 1981 President Ronald Reagan issued an executive order that required federal agencies to weigh the costs and benefits of proposed major new regulations, and in most cases to adopt them only if the benefits to society outweighed the costs. Reagan’s order was intended to promote environmental improvements without overburdening economic growth.
Cost-benefit analysis has been so successful as a tool for policy analysis that every administration since Reagan has endorsed using it. However, it requires measuring benefits that are not “priced” in typical markets. Fortunately, putting a price on non-market environmental outcomes, such as safer drinking water and fewer deaths from exposure to dirty air, has proved to be possible, and highly valuable. These estimates help to make the case for actions such as cleaning up beaches and protecting scenic areas as parks.
What’s it worth to you?
According to a preliminary estimate from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, outdoor recreation adds US$373 billion to the U.S. economy yearly. That’s 2 percent of our annual gross domestic product – more than agriculture, mining or utilities, and approaching the economic contribution of national defense.
Most policymakers and local communities measure the economic value of outdoor recreation through estimates like this, which calculate how much money it adds to local economies through direct expenditures. For example, vacationers rent hotel rooms, and their spending pays employee salaries and funds local investments through hotel taxes. Visitors to national parks pay entrance fees for park upkeep, and augment local economies through employee wages and other expenditures on food and services around the park.
But recreation decisions also reveal the value that people place on the environment itself. Outdoor destinations provide services, such as opportunities to swim or hike in unspoiled settings. If high levels of harmful bacteria close a beach I was planning to visit, I may choose to drive a longer distance to a beach with clean water. By quantifying such increases in time and out-of-pocket expenditures, economists can measure people’s willingness to pay for changes in environmental quality.
NPS/Jacob W. Frank
Funding beach cleanups
In one recent study, I worked with other researchers to estimate increased travel and time expenditures that people incurred to avoid trash and debris on 31 Southern California beaches. No one wants to go to a beach littered with hypodermic needles, plastic bottles and discarded fishing nets. But cleaning up marine debris is expensive, and it is hard for communities to recover the costs, particularly for public beaches with open access. Understanding the value of cleaner beaches can help build support for funding trash collection.
To measure the amount of debris, we hired workers to walk the beaches tallying quantities of trash. Then we surveyed Southern California residents about how often and where they went to the beach, which enabled us to correlate numbers of visitors at each beach with quantities of debris. Finally, using travel time and expenses for each visitor to visit each beach, we modeled the relationship between where they chose to go to the beach, how much they spent to get there, and the cleanliness of the beach.
Using this model, we found that visitors to these beaches would be willing to incur $12.91 in additional costs per trip if each of the beaches had 25 percent less debris. This translated into a total willingness to pay $29.5 million for action to reduce marine debris by 25 percent on these beaches.
Reducing harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie
Trash on beaches is mainly an aesthetic nuisance, but some resource problems are more severe. For example, warm weather often triggers harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie’s western basin. These outbreaks, which are caused by agricultural and urban phosphorous pollution, contain freshwater toxins that are dangerous to humans and animals. They can trigger beach closures, and sometimes even drinking water bans.
Using similar techniques to the California study, I worked with another group of economists to estimate the economic value of reducing outbreaks of harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie. To model the relationship between recreation and water quality, we combined satellite data on harmful algal outbreaks in the lake in the summer of 2016 with visit patterns from a survey of Lake Erie visitors. Once again, we used travel time to each visited site and out-of-pocket expenditures to get there to represent the price of a trip. Then we correlated the price of a trip with the location of the visit and the presence of harmful algal blooms.
AP Photo/Paul Sancya
Our results showed that reducing these outbreaks through a 40 percent reduction in phosphorous runoff to the Lake Erie Basin would save swimmers, boaters and fishermen $800,000 to $970,000 per year by reducing the need for them to travel extra distance to avoid algal blooms.
Just this spring, Ohio declared the western Lake Erie watershed to be “impaired” by algal blooms, meaning it does not meet federal water quality standards. Our study provides one measurement of Ohio residents’ willingness to pay for a cleaner lake.
Avoiding a major oil spill
People can choose different destinations to avoid dirty beaches or algae outbreaks. But in the case of large-scale environmental disasters, such as the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, vacationers are more likely to cancel their trips altogether.
In a study using survey data on canceled vacation trips to Northwest Florida in the year following the BP oil spill, I worked with other economists to estimate the decrease in economic value to Northwest Florida coastal towns. We found that the spill caused a 9 percent drop in trips to Northwest Florida beaches, causing total economic losses of $252 million to $332 million across the Florida panhandle. Those losses represent decisions to spend vacation time and money in places where there was less risk of encountering polluted beaches.
The Gulf coast stretches from western Florida to Texas and has numerous beaches and fishing towns, so this sum is probably just a small fraction of economic harm caused by the spill due to canceled travel.
The value of pricing nature
Contrary to some environmentalists’ fears, putting a price on natural resources has encouraged decision-makers to recognize that natural capital is finite. Before, it was easy to assume that they were free to exploit. Now economic valuation research can help decision makers answer questions such as how much damage the BP spill did to natural resources, and whether the benefits of the EPA’s Acid Rain Program exceeded the costs. Assigning dollar values to natural resources makes it possible to use the power of markets to design policies and regulations that benefit all. | <urn:uuid:fbfa6075-1ab5-487a-9a66-9c18bcd2801c> | {
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If you're interested in science in general, or in keeping track of the latest discoveries, the online versions of magazines are a great place to look. Discover Magazine has excellent articles written for laypeople, while Scientific American gets a little more into the technical details. Science Daily is a great place to catch up on breaking news in science. National Geographic covers more than just science, but its website has an excellent section devoted to science and nature. Public television networks are also great for science information. PBS has a science and nature section of their website, while the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) has separate sections for science and nature.
Science and natural history museums also have some great websites. Some of the best are the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, home of the famous Hayden Planetarium. If you're especially interested in fossils, dinosaurs, and such, the University of California Museum of Paleontology has great online exhibits about the history of life on earth. The museum with the best online exhibits may be the Exploratorium in San Francisco, "The Museum of Science, Art, and Human Perception".
If you like watching videos about science and nature, the first place we recommend is one of the library's databases: Access Video on Demand, or AVOD. AVOD has thousands of streaming videos about all kinds of topics, including hundreds about science and nature. There are videos from BBC, PBS, Nova, National Geographic, Scientific American Frontiers, and more. If you like to hear great thinkers and scientists talk about their discoveries, TED offers hundreds of fascinating 20 minute lectures by some of the world's great minds, available for free online (and on AVOD). The people at TED have also launched a site for young people, called TED-Ed. TED-Ed's video are shorter than TED videos, and many of are beautifully animated. Here's one that explains just how small atoms are (they're really, really, really small).
The Open Culture website has links to all sorts of free educational material online. Their webpage on great science videos has enough links to free videos to keep a science buff entertained for weeks. Another great way to find science videos is to look at science channels on YouTube. National Geographic, Scientific American, and NASA all have channels with fascinating videos. If you or your kids like science experiments, Sick Science is a great channel to check out. Finally, Hulu has a page devoted to shows about science and technology. You may also be interested in their documentaries page.
Now let's look at a few of the best websites that focus on the different branches of science:
Astronomy and Cosmology
An Atlas of the Universe: This amazing site lets you see where the Earth fits into the universe; allowing you to jump to larger and larger views: from nearby stars, to galaxies, to the entire visible universe.
Eyes on the Solar System: This interactive website lets watch a "you are there" simulation of the Mars Curiosity landing, and virtually fly around all the planets in the solar system!
HubbleSite - Picture Album: Another stunning website, which lets you look through all the images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Scale of the Universe 2: This interactive animation lets you zoom inward and outward to visualize just how small atoms are, and just how stupendously gigantic the universe is.Physics
The Particle Adventure: A nice overview of particle physics from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Physics.org: A great website about general physics topics, with links to a wide range of other good sites.Chemistry
Web Elements: An online guide to all the elements in the periodic table.
What's That Stuff? If you've ever wondered what's in wasabi that makes it so hot, or what Silly String is made of, here's the place to find out.Earth Sciences
Geology.com: "News and information about geology"
Global Climate Change: A good website on the topic from NASA
Encyclopedia of Earth: An online encyclopedia covering all the earth sciences.Biology
Encyclopedia of Life: "Global Access to Knowledge About Life on Earth"
Learn.Genetics: An informative website about one of the fastest-changing areas of biology. From the University of Utah.
MolecularMovies.com: A little more technical, but this site features amazing animations of the the molecular machinery inside of us all.Brain and Behavior
The Secret Life of the Brain: A great site from PBS, with an interactive 3-D model of the brain, and amazing optical illusions.
Exploratorium: Mind: A wonderful resource for exploring the mind and its quirks.Technology
We'll cover technology websites in depth in a future blog post, but here are a couple of interesting ones.
How Products Are Made: An online encyclopedia with hundreds of articles about how everyday products are manufactured.
How Stuff Works: A good website explaining how all kinds of things work. There are a lot of ads, but many of the articles and videos are worth wading through them.This is just a small sampling of the amazing variety of science websites out there. If you look around and find some other great ones, tell us about them in the comments! Have fun exploring! | <urn:uuid:1fe6f28b-adc8-4bc3-9738-d45203ed7811> | {
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Any social studies teacher understands the importance of teaching about resources. I discuss resources----human, capital, and physical/natural----everyday in my room. The quest for resources and how we use them are at the heart of any historical event we study.
One of the reasons why Japan attacked the United States in 1941 boiled down to their need for oil. They felt our presence in the Pacific hindered them from getting what they needed. When the Spanish began their conquest of Mexico and South America they understood the need for a large labor force to man their gold and silver mines so they used the labor resource that was available, the indigenous population. Criminals and terrorists the world over have become very savvy in their need to legitimize their financial transactions and use our own laws to maintain bona fide companies that are mere fronts for nefarious activities. I guess you could say our quest for resources is what generates historical events.
One of the things I am often amazed at as an educator is the amount of resources that go untapped and unused in our own buildings. Children with enormous potential choose to do enough simply to get by and fail to use the talents that we all strive for but was theirs at birth. Teachers resist new programs and strategies simply because they are removed from their comfort zone. The software, the books, the seminar manuals all sit unused in the classroom until they are eventually placed on some dusty shelf in a closet or book room. The saying is true---out of sight, out of mind. Administrators often overlook tremendous human potential they have in their buildings as they recommend the same few people for committees and conferences or to develop solutions to real problems. There is a myriad list of reasons why this is done but it is never good for the performance of the school.
An Atlanta area high school went from last to third place in the state’s standardized writing test district scores all because a principal asked someone in the building for help, and that person analyzed the resources available to her. She discovered a writing program that had simply sat unused. By simply going out of the box and utilizing a forgotten resource her school ended up with motivated students and teachers, a beaming administrator, and scores to be proud of.
My happy dance of summer is almost up as I have to return to school for pre-planning on July 24th. As I begin to attempt to ramp up my mindset to “teacher” mode again, I am making a call for all educators to check out your resources. Take stock of your classroom and that dark hole of a book room down the hall. What is lying around that could be utilized to challenge you and your students for the coming year?
Are you already in possession of the one thing that could turn your program around and you don’t even realize it?
You can access Eschool News here for the article about Therrell High in Atlanta. | <urn:uuid:d12ec312-487f-4f5e-b5e8-5f52dec617e5> | {
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Designed by Sparano + Mooney Architecture, they embraced the idea as light as a mediator for the central organizing principle for their proposal. The new Cathedral, a delicate dance between old and new, each contributes to its role in the creation of the new. The act of covering the precious ruins with a diaphanous, copper material creates the new space and form of the Cathedral which emerges as a dialogue between existing remains and new veil. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Light, like God, is unseen but enables all things to be seen. Light is a mediator between the visible and invisible, reason and faith, present and past, earth and heaven, human and divine. The space between the ruins and the enclosure forms the space of the new Cathedral of Port-au-Prince. The original structure is presented as precious; an active component in the creation of the character of the interior space of the new Cathedral.
For the observer approaching or passing the Cathedral, the louvers serve to heighten the mystery of the role of the ruins in the creation of the new Cathedral by revealing that role incrementally. One never sees the ruins in their entirety through the louver system. The visitor is left to wonder, invited to enter the Cathedral to discover more about the mystery the louvers allude to. A metaphor of the mystery of faith, partially revealing itself and welcoming one to seek a deeper understanding of the mystery.
Entry/threshold structures are added to the 3 exiting entrances. A pair of symbolically large (6m) wood doors are placed at the center of the West entrance and are opened only for select celebrations in the Eucharistic calendar. Upon entering, the role the original structure occupies in the life of the Cathedral fully reveals itself. The louvers literally and figuratively mediate our understanding of the original structure as a part of the new Cathedral.
New chapels are created with the addition of a 4.5 meter high stone “plinth’ around the Cathedral ruins. They inhabit space between the new “plinth” and the original Cathedral walls. The proposed louver system is configured to prevent rain, even hurricane driven rain, from penetrating while still providing for passive ventilation. Hot air rises and is removed from the space via air movement through the louvers.
The image of the Assumption at the East end of the Cathedral, with the rising sun behind it, is a reference to the maternal, life affirming qualities associated with Mary and occupies a prominent place in the Cathedral that bears the name of this important event in her life and our faith.
Architects: Sparano + Mooney Architecture
Location: Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Design Team: John P. Sparano, Anne G. Mooney, Seth Striefel, Caitlin Thissen, Kristi Faught, Bradeson Brinton
Project: Competition Submittal for the rebuilding of the Cathédrale Notre Dame de l’Assomption | <urn:uuid:0808dbc9-4b6c-4628-a5aa-ad2c5fc4f71e> | {
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US scientists track what's killing golden eagles
More than four decades ago the golden eagle was awarded the same protections under US law as the country's national bird, the bald eagle. Even disturbing their nests is a criminal offence.
The raptor is not considered to be under threat but scientists are worried about a recent increase in the number of golden eagles killed by wind turbines. Eagles in flight tend to focus on the ground below as they look for prey, unaware of the fast-spinning blades in their paths until it's too late.
The wind energy industry says such deaths account for a tiny percentage of human-caused deaths of eagles. It says it is working with the government to help protect birds.
The BBC spent a day with a scientists from the US Fish and Wildlife Service in New Mexico who fit transmitters to the backs of eagles in an effort to find out more about their lives - and deaths.
Produced for the BBC by David Eckenrode
Altered States is a series of video features published every Wednesday on the BBC News website which examine how shifting demographics and economic conditions affect America on a local level.
30 Oct 2013 | <urn:uuid:27fe5ebf-6130-463e-9dfc-9da868e82c66> | {
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Make a device that identifies dangerous liquids by analyzing light – By Eric Rosenthal…
After air travel security banned bottled water and baby formula, I began wondering why they didn’t use a device to determine the contents of liquids. If a liquid was detected to be safe, security could allow it on the plane. Spectrometers can identify the chemical makeup of a material by shining light on it and analyzing the precise mix of colors that bounce back.
These devices are usually very expensive, but I’ve designed a simple and inexpensive one that can identify liquids. You can also adapt it to determine the color of a swatch of paper or cloth or to identify a gem or semiprecious stone.
I spent less than $100 on this project and it took just a few days to design, fabricate, and test the hardware, plus another two days to write and debug the source code. Collecting the liquids and building the database took one evening, and it was fun!
Arduino board from sparkfun.com. Use the Arduino NG or the latest USB version, the Arduino Diecimila.
LEDs (5) blue, green, yellow, red, and infrared Infrared
¼-watt resistors: 220 Ω (5), 1KΩ (2), 2.2KΩ, 18KΩ
Serial display I used a Crystalfontz 634 Serial LCD; you could also use the Matrix Orbital LK 204-25, or similar products from seetron.com.
Power supply 6V–12V DC, 1A– 1.5A
7805 5V voltage regulator and heat sink to drop the 12V to 5V for the display’s backlight
Case from vellemanusa.com
Push-button switches (2) momentary, normally open
Soldering iron and solder
Wiring diagram Download from makezine.com/14/diyscience_spectrometer or follow the one in this article.
SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF SPECTROMETER
An all-controlling Arduino board drives 5 colored LEDs from output pins, along with a serial LCD display. Digital inputs from buttons switch between “learn” and “identify” modes, and analog input from the phototransistor is analyzed to identify the sample. A 7805 voltage regulator powers the LCD backlight.
A Little Science Background
A spectrometer measures the properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Because all materials have a unique spectral signature, spectroscopic analysis can identify materials from the light that they reflect or emit. Mixtures of materials produce combined spectra, and by measuring the intensity of light at each wavelength, a spectrometer can determine the overall chemical makeup of a material under investigation.
When material burns, a spectrometer can detect and analyze the light it emits to determine the material’s composition. In astronomy, highly specialized spectrometers are used to determine the composition of the gases that are ionizing and emitted as light energy from a star.
How It’s Done
- 1. An Arduino board sequentially illuminates 5 different colored LEDs (light emitting diodes): blue, green, yellow, red, and infrared.
- 2. As each LED’s light passes through a vial of liquid, we measure the intensity of the light detected by a phototransistor. See the wiring diagram above to wire together this part of the spectrometer.
- 3. Our spectrometer has a “learn” mode and an “identify” mode. In the learn mode, a known sample is placed in the unit and sampled at each wavelength emitted by the LEDs. The sampled values are stored in the Arduino memory. In the identify mode, an unknown sample is spectrally scanned, and the software in the Arduino compares the values of the scan with the values stored in the database.
- 4. A simple algorithm makes a best guess to identify the liquid, which is then displayed on a serial LCD. I think you’ll be impressed by its accuracy.
- Go online to get the wiring diagram, source code for the Arduino, parts list, and other info at creative-technology.net/MAKE.html.
- See the spectrometer in action and get a peek under the hood at makezine.com/14/diyscience_spectrometer.
- More photos at makezine.com/go/spectrometer.
Eric Rosenthal is president of Creative Technology, LLC (CTech), a company specializing in new and advanced imaging technology consulting and development. | <urn:uuid:8b1c91c0-344c-4784-87d4-1c425ff4af38> | {
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Need a Kidney? Just Hit 'Print' and 3-D Bioprinter Swaps Ink for Cells
Developed for bioprinting company Organovo, the printer contains software that allows bioengineers to build model "scaffolds" on which to place, say, liver cells for a patient in need of a transplant -- all before the structure is constructed by laser-calibrated print heads. The printer then builds the tissue layer by layer, much like a traditional 3-D printer.
This will undoubtedly change the game for biotech in years to come. The technology proposes a future in which patients do not need to wait for transplants from other human hosts; instead, medical technicians will simply have tissue models ready to be customized and printed on-demand. And, of course, this will be tons of fun if it ever hits the consumer market (not likely), as we've already started fantasizing about printing out real teeth and eyeballs for next year's Halloween ghoul-fest. [From: Live Science, via: Gizmodo] | <urn:uuid:029b9bb7-dd42-457d-83ae-abf818373c9c> | {
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Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Egyptian Church Ordinance
Egyptian Church Ordinance, an early Christian collection of thirty-one canons regulating ordinations, the liturgy, and other main features of church life. It is called Egyptian because it first became known to the Western world in languages connected with Egypt. In 1677 the Dominican Wansleben first gave a brief account of these canons, which were found in the "Synodos", or what may be called the Ethiopic "Corpus Juris". In 1691 Ludolf published a fragment of this Ethiopic collection and added a Latin translation. In 1895 a further fragment, i.e. to the end of the ordination prayer for deacons, was published in German by Franz Xaver von Funk. In 1848 H. Tattam published all the canons in Bohairic (Lower Egyptian) with English translation. In 1883 Lagarde published the same canons in Sahidic (Upper Egyptian) from an excellent manuscript of A.D. 1006. This text was translated into German by G. Steindorff and this translation was published by H. Achelis (Harnack, "Texte and Untersuchungen", VI, 4). In 1900 E. Hauler discovered a very ancient Latin translation in a manuscript of the fifth or sixth century. This translation is of great value because it apparently is slavishly literal, and it contains the liturgical prayers, which are omitted in the Bohairic and Sahidic. The original text, though not yet found, was doubtlessly Greek.
The Egyptian Church Order is never found by itself, but is part of the Pseudo-Clementine Legal Hexa- or Octateuch in the form in which it was current in Egypt. In Hauler's Latin "Fragmenta Veronensia" (Leipzig, 1900) the order is: Didascalia, Apostolic Church Order, Egyptian Church Order, Book VIII of the Apost. Constit; in the Syrian Octateuch, "The Testament of the Lord", Apostolic Church Order, "On Ordinations" (by Hippolytus), Book VIII of the Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Canons; in the Egyptian Heptateuch, Apostolic Church Order, Egyptian Church Order (or Ordinance), Book VIII Apost. Constit., Apostolic Canons. The Egyptian Church Order is one of a chain of parallel and interdependent documents, viz. (I) the Canons of Hippolytus, (2) the "Canones per Hippolytum", (3) "The Testament of the Lord", (4) Book VIII of Apost. Constit. For some time a scholarly duel has been fought between two eminent men as to the relation between these documents. Document No. 3, "The Testament of the Lord" only came into consideration after its discovery and publication by Rahmani in 1899. H. Achelis strenuously maintained that the "Canones Hippolyti" are the oldest in the series and were written early in the third century; on it, according to him, the other documents depend, the Eighth Book of the Apostolic Constitutions being the latest development. Von Funk maintained the same order of documents as Achelis, only inverting their sequence, beginning with Book VIII of the Apostolic Constitutions, and ending with the "Canons of Hippolytus". Gradually, however, Funk's thesis seems to be winning almost universal acceptance, namely that Book VIII of the Apostolic Constitutions was written about 400, and the other documents are modifications and developments of the same, the Egyptian Church Order in particular having arisen in Monophysite Egyptian circles between the years 400 and 500.
COOPER AND MACLEAN, The Testament of the Lord (Edinburgh, 1902); WORDSWORTH, The Ministry of Grace (London, 1901); VON FUNK, Das Testament unseres Herrn und die verwandten Schriften (Mainz, 1901); BAUMSTARK, Nichtgriech. Paralleltexte zum VIII. Buche der Ap. Const. in Oriens Chr. (Rome, 1901); BARDENHEWER, tr. SHAHAN, Patrology (Freiburg im Br., 1908), 353-57.
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Out on a Limb...
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
1Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. 5When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." 6So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.' "
8But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."
9Jesus said to him,
"Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son
of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
Jesus wasn’t just passing through, Jesus, like his Father is always about, working, looking, seeking workers to work in His fields (Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard Matthew 20:1-16). Jesus was looking for Zaccheus and Zaccheus was looking for Jesus. If you seek Jesus – you will find Him! Jesus was looking for Zaccheus even though he was a sinner, a hated tax-collector/Roman collaborator, considered to be a dishonest traitor to the Jewish people, extorting higher taxes than required for his own personal selfish gain!
Zaccheus literally “went out on a limb” for Jesus. Zaccheus was a small man in stature, when Jesus was passing by, Zaccheus climbed up a Sycamore tree to be able to see Jesus over the crowds of people. Zaccheus may have looked silly to the crowds up in a tree, but Zaccheus didn’t care (much like Bartimaeus when he called out to Jesus as the crowd rebuked him). Zaccheus is an example of how sometimes a Christian may look silly and ridiculous to non-believers. Following Jesus may not be following the crowd or be popular. Jesus is always calling sinners to repentance.
Repentance is when we stop and turn around, to turn away from sin, to turn toward Christ, to follow Christ, and to be imitators of Christ, to be Christ-like, to continue our faith journey following, listening, obeying, and serving Christ.
The grumblers were very similar to the crowds in Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. These grumblers were judging Zaccheus harshly. They felt that Zaccheus was a “Sinner” not worthy to come to Jesus. They felt that Zaccheus had done nothing to deserve, merit, or earn this Grace, which Jesus was bestowing upon him.
We should always be thankful that God does call us to Him (Prevenient Grace) even though we have done nothing to deserve, merit, or earn this Grace, this Gift of Love. Jesus is a Friend to Sinners. TBTG.
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector story is very similar to the Calling of Levi/Matthew (they were both tax-collectors). The calling of Levi/Matthew is in all three of the Synoptic Gospels: | <urn:uuid:8bc4f4b7-63ff-4b3f-933d-190ae36c3374> | {
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Census 2010 Take10 Map for Google Earth
About the Census Take10 Campaign
In March 2010, more than 130 million addresses will receive a 2010 Census form by mail or hand delivery. The 2010 Census will document the changes in our nation since the last decennial census in 2000, and tell us how we’ve evolved as a country. Because census data affect how more than $400 billion in federal funding is distributed to tribal, state and local governments, the census also will frame the future of our country and our communities for the next 10 years.
During Census 2000, the mail participation rate was 72 percent as of the April 2000 cut-off. About $85 million is saved for every one percent increase in mail participation. For these and many other reasons, we encourage everyone to participate in the 2010 Census.
Visit the official 2010 Census “Take10″ campaign website.
About the Take10 Google Earth Map
The Take 10 Layer for Google Earth displays the same daily response data as the Google Maps-based Take 10 Map that lives on the official 2010 Census website. As most major national and dozens of local news television outlets already use Google Earth for visually appealing and highly flexible geographic information display, this layer helps the media tell the ongoing story of the decennial census count.
The layer is made available as a small downloadable KML file, which opens up in Google Earth and downloads the latest data direct from the server. Response rates are indicated per geographical region according to a color scale, with a legend at top-left. The view begins at the country level showing states, and upon zooming in, the view changes to counties, places, and finally tracts. It is recommended that moves to be made live on air be “rehearsed” as it can take a few seconds for data in a given zoom level to load in the first time, but once it’s loaded it flows very smoothly. Clicking on any geographical object brings up a bubble that shows the name of the region and a meter chart comparing the 2010 response rate to that in 2000. (Note that viewing this layer requires a copy of Google Earth.)
Google and Innovation Landscape are also making this layer available to media and the public for embedding in any website as a gadget. Go to http://maplify.com/census to preview the gadget and make custom selections, such as the default view and zoom level for the gadget to load at — a newspaper, local government, or other public-facing locally-focused website will want to specify the region of interest to grab the audience’s attention. As with the downloadable layer, the map is clickable to allow deeper exploration of the data. At the bottom of the gadget is a link back to the gadget preview page so anyone can learn how to embed it themselves. (Note that viewing the embedded version requires Google Earth Plugin, which is free, cross-platform, and installs very quickly.)
To learn more about the technology behind the Census Take10 Map for Google Earth and Innovation Landscape’s role in its design, read on …
Building the Take10 Map for Google Earth
While simple in presentation, the data behind the Take10 map is exceptionally rich and required careful assembly and processing to ensure a smooth, coherent display to the end user. This project leveraged deep Innovation Landscape experience in spatial data processing and used many different tools and API’s. The development process required obtaining the necessary source data, reducing and reorganizing the source data for processing and visualization, programmatic KML generation for visual quality and performance, and finally tying everything together into a simple map “gadget” for display and syndication.
Obtaining Raw Source Data
Spatial boundary data for the Take10 map is derived from Census TigerLine files which are publicly available at the US Census TigerLine website. Our map focuses on States, Counties, “Places” such as cities, towns, and villages, and tracts which are defined for census survey purposes. Each of these entities includes a boundary, centroid, name, and identifying number. These files are in ESRI shapefile format. Participation rate data is provided at the Take10 official website as a downloadable text file in a fixed delimited format and is updated daily during the active mail-in campaign.
The Take10 map contains over 130,000 individual geometries across states, counties, places, and tracts. Many of these geometries are quite complex in raw form. Further, tracts are only provided on a state-by-state basis in individual files. Our 1st goal then, was to simplify each geometry for suitable display in Google Earth while striking a balance between display quality and geometry size for drawing/download speed. We also needed to combine all the tract files into a single dataset. We turned to the open source postgis plugin for the postgreSQL database both tasks.
Postgis has a built-in command line ‘loader’ for shapefile import so getting the TigerLine data into the database was simple. Postgis also has a built-in ’simplify’ function for geometries with an adjustable parameter for the degree of smoothing. Different smoothing values were required at each layer level. To generate our smoothed output from postgis, we used the OGR2OGR library which is bundled in the OSGeo Open Source GIS toolset. OGR2OGR had two helpful features – the ability to source data from a postgis query and the ability to output query results directly to KML using KML’s extended data schema to preserve attribute information.
To facilitate automatic map updating on a daily basis, we generated a mySQL database on Innovation Landscape’s “Maplify.com” geo-lab website to warehouse both the static geometries for our map and the individual participation rate values for each entity. To keep things simple and allow for dynamic prototyping, we reduced all geometries to a common attribute set including Census FIPS number (essentially the unique key for each), the name, the type (state, county, place, tract), centroid in spatial point format (for ease of query), and a large text field for the KML mutlipolygon definition for each boundary (since we didn’t plan to query on boundaries – only on centroids). PHP scripts were written to initialize the database with the full set of layer geometries and initial year 2000 Census participation rates. When done, we had a database with over 130,000 rows ready for KML generation.
KML is generated daily by 1st downloading the Census participation rate file and processing this via PHP to update the mySQL geometry database. Once complete, our script builds out static KML files with updated values. We use many aspects of the KML specification to enhance both the visual quality of our map and the performance. First, the data is divided by layer and regions. The reduced state and county data is sufficiently small to keep in single files, but the place and tract data requires sub-division. Places are divided into 5 degree x 5 degree grids with tracts divided into 1 degree x 1 degree grids. Output KML files are ZIP compressed into KMZ files to reduce bandwidth requirements. Individual files are joined together into our seamless presentation via ‘region’ coded KML network links. With regionation, Google Earth dynamically loads and draws data as required by each user’s changing view of the map. In setting up our KML, we specify the relative ’switchover’ points between layers via region attributes in our network link files.
Fill colors and pop-up content is controlled via KML Styles. KML Styles apply a consistent look and feel across our data and reduce duplication in the files for faster load times. We used the Google Chart API to create our ‘meter’ icons in each balloon.
The Map “Gadget”
Following the Take10 Campaign, we plan to provide both our raw and simplified state, county, place, and tract KML files for free download to 3rd party developers. We’re already looking at additional datasets and new features in the future.
About Innovation Landscape
Innovation Landscape is a Delray Beach, FL based innovator in geo-spatial programming services for businesses, government agencies and non-profit organizations. We are a Google Qualified Maps Developer and have an extensive portfolio of map design projects. For more information about our services, please explore our website or contact us directly by phone or e-mail. | <urn:uuid:8d4d5b12-192d-48e5-ab90-059a8beb8be2> | {
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A dialog window is one of the elements that allows to input data into the program. In all GEO5 programs, dialog windows apply to conventional windows management typical for the Windows environment. A left mouse button is used when selecting objects in the window or alternatively the "Tab" function key when using the keyboard. When moving inside an object (for example input field) use the arrow buttons and the "ENTER" key.
A dialog window can contain the following items:, combo list, fields for inputting data (number, text) and command buttons. The "OK" command button confirms the selection, while the "Cancel" button leaves the input mode.
Providing the window contains a certain non-typical control element (or this element has some other than typical effect) its function is described in the corresponding data input regime.
As an example consider the following picture showing the "Edit surcharge" dialog window that contains the "OK+" and "OK+" buttons. These buttons allow the user to move within the list of input surcharges and at the same time to confirm changes made in the window. Pressing this button results in the same action as if closing the window with the "OK" button and opening it again for the next element in the list.
Dialog window example | <urn:uuid:9f7b0ff1-1d8c-4679-924d-cab14888dae0> | {
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Who was Cyril of Jerusalem?Question: "Who was Cyril of Jerusalem?"
Answer: Cyril of Jerusalem, or St. Cyril of Jerusalem, was a bishop who presided over the See of Jerusalem in the fourth century AD. (A see is an area of jurisdiction given to an episcopal leader.) Cyril of Jerusalem is known as one of the fathers of the Eastern Catholic Church, many of whom resisted parts of the Nicene Creed, especially the doctrine of homoousion (the teaching that Jesus and God the Father are of the “same substance”). Eventually, however, Cyril came to accept this doctrine and the Nicene orthodoxy. Cyril of Jerusalem attended the Council of Constantinople in 381.
Cyril of Jerusalem was repeatedly persecuted by a fellow churchman named Acacius, who was an Arian. Arianism asserts that, since God “begot” Christ, there was a time when God the Son did not exist. These differing views created a lot of conflict in the early church, most likely because the doctrine of the Trinity is not stated outright in Scripture, but its definition must be inferred from various passages (1 Corinthians 8:6; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Colossians 2:9; Isaiah 9:6; John 10:30; Matthew 1:23). Arianism was eventually declared a heresy at the Council of Nicaea, but, for a long time, both views were accepted as potentially orthodox, and Arianism was the predominate view in many parts of the world. As often happens in situations where differing theologies are trying to coexist in one body, there was some conflict.
Acacius repeatedly attempted to depose Cyril of Jerusalem. Once, during a food shortage in Jerusalem, Cyril took some sacramental items from the church and sold them in order to buy food for the people in his see. Acacius used this incident to discredit Cyril and persisted in attempts to bring Cyril to account for what he had done. He eventually succeeded in running Cyril out of town. However, the next year, an anti-Arian council reinstated Cyril, and Acacius was deposed. A year later, this was reversed, and Cyril was again exiled from Jerusalem. Many times these reversals in fortune were linked to reversals in power at the highest levels. When Emperor Julian succeeded Emperor Constantius, who had banished Cyril of Jerusalem, Cyril was allowed to come back. Unfortunately, Emperor Valens came to power seven years later, and, since Valens was an Arian, Cyril was again sent from his home and his post. Two years after that, when Emperor Gratian came to power, Cyril was again allowed to return home, and he remained there until his death eight years later, in 386.
Not much of the writing of Cyril of Jerusalem is extant. He is perhaps best known for his catechetical lectures, in which Cyril described how to find Jesus’ cross and various holy sites in Jerusalem, instructed priests on the “proper” way to hold the bread of communion, and directed Christians to make the sign of the cross “when we eat and drink, sit, go to bed, get up, talk, walk, in short, in every action” (Catechism iv, 14). Cyril stressed many doctrines that are today accepted as part of Roman Catholicism, including transubstantiation, prayers for the dead, and the idea that the Catholic Church is the “holy Mother of all” (Catechism xviii, 26).
Recommended Resource: The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation by Justo Gonzalez
More insights from your Bible study - Get Started with Logos Bible Software for Free!
Who was Clement of Rome?
Who was Athenagoras of Athens?
Who was Philo of Alexandria?
Who was Ignatius of Antioch?
What is the Letter to Diognetus?
Questions about Church History
Who was Cyril of Jerusalem? | <urn:uuid:26df8d82-3207-4fe1-8092-7c427a2d6910> | {
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Commercial vs. Industrial Applications: Focus on Cold Applications
Insulation application types can be divided into many categories. One way to define them is by market: residential, commercial, or industrial. For the purposes of this article, the comparison will be limited to commercial versus industrial. How would a contractor approach these applications differently from a materials, quote, or labor standpoint? Focusing specifically on cold applications, this article will zero in on below-ambient-temperature applications.
How Are Commercial and Industrial Applications Defined?
First, what are some examples of commercial and industrial applications? Typical commercial applications include strip malls, office buildings, hospitals, schools, churches, hotels, condominiums, supermarkets, ice rinks, and maybe even light manufacturers. Common industrial applications include manufacturing, food processing or storage, chemical, petrochemical, and power plants. Contractors tend to classify themselves as either commercial or industrial based on the type of projects they work on most. Industrial contractors may bid on commercial work when the industrial sector slows down, but most commercial contractors stay predominately within their main area of expertise. Commercial work tends to track the economy and be fairly stable, while industrial projects tend to be based on longer-term economic projections and needs, and tend to be more cyclical (feast or famine). Once allocated, they progress regardless of current conditions.
The distinction between commercial and industrial contractors is fairly clear. However, as contracting firms become larger and their need for business grows, the distinction may blur.
Often, the perception of industrial applications is that they represent mostly “hot” insulation work. Although industrial applications may have more hot work (it is estimated that 75 percent of industrial work is hot), there are certainly plenty of industrial applications that involve cold water, chilled water, refrigeration, and cryogenic applications, too. From a temperature standpoint, industrial applications cover a wider range than commercial: Below-ambient industrial applications can go from 50° to -300°F or below, while commercial work stops around -10°F. With more extreme temperatures, industrial work often involves multilayer insulation because of the thickness requirements and additional vapor barriers needed to prevent condensation or ice formation. Industrial applications also may exhibit much greater temperature cycling, which can create issues with both the insulation and jacketing.
From a performance standpoint, industrial and commercial applications attempt to accomplish the same goals:
- Reduce heat gain
- Save energy
- Reduce emissions
- Prevent condensation
- Improve equipment performance
- Improve process performance
- Reduce water consumption
- Improve personnel protection
- Control sound
- Provide freeze protection
The thermal dynamics are the same for commercial and industrial applications.
Besides temperature range, other distinctions between commercial and industrial applications include the expectations or requirements for weather resistance, chemical resistance, corrosion resistance, pipe sizes, and longevity. Commercial jobs are probably new construction and predominately indoor applications, whereas industrial projects are often retrofit or plant expansion work, with an approximate outdoor-to-indoor ratio of 60-to-40. These factors tend to make industrial jobs much more complicated. Labor and jacketing selection are key factors as well. As Ray Stuckenschmidt of Systems Undercover, Inc., notes, “When you are dealing with industrial jobs, you have to really know what you are doing.”
Commercial jobs are easier to access, the work is not as congested, and there is less need for secondary jacketing, which allows the insulation to be applied more efficiently. On the other hand, commercial work often is released in stages as a job progresses. For example, condominium projects may be released as floors are finished, so the total time to complete the work may be much longer than that of an industrial job where the time frame is tighter because the job must be completed during a shutdown period. Some industrial jobs are bid on a time-and-materials or a cost-plus basis, which would not typically be the case on the commercial side. Industrial jobs must be bid with more contingency factors built in because of the variables that may be associated with the job. The safety record of a company is also very important when bidding for an industrial job, whereas that might not be a key component for a commercial job.
Unfortunately, many commercial jobs are submitted for bid with drawings that may be as little as 60-percent complete. “Commercial applications require a high degree of knowledge of the systems involved to ensure that the estimate is complete,” says W. Paul Stonebraker of TRA Thermatech.
Materials and Thickness Requirements
From a materials standpoint, the temperature range of commercial jobs means that the most common insulation products—such as fiberglass, polyolefin, or elastomeric materials—are usually used, although there is some overlap with the industrial jobs, which often use other materials, including cellular glass and polyisocyanurate. As changes in materials occur, they may be used in applications where they were not previously considered.
In some cases, the type of pipe material being covered may limit the type of insulation used. Minimum insulation thickness requirements will be dictated by building codes for commercial jobs, but by the building owner for industrial jobs. This means the contractor is more limited in materials for commercial jobs—there may be a couple of materials to choose from, depending on the engineering specification, but the minimum thickness will be dictated by code. Industrial owners often contact insulation contractors for input on what materials perform best. Whether the job is commercial or industrial, materials cost and ease of installation (labor) will dictate what is used. From the owner’s point of view, ease of maintenance also may be a factor in material selection.
Everyone looks for an edge that will provide a lower cost, which is where ease of installation can tip material selection one way or another.
In both industrial and commercial cases, application failure can result in major costs, so shortcuts should not be taken. Best practices must be employed. Because of project size, failures on industrial jobs may be larger, but owners are generally involved in the process and more specific about the type of insulation and installation. Since commercial work involves more contact with the public, the possibility of a lawsuit as a result of a failed job is more likely. The commercial contractor also has to be flexible and adapt to changing customer expectations that may not be as well defined as those in the industrial sector.
Consider, for example, the issue of mold and mildew. Paul Sawatzke of Enervation, Inc., points out that “the issue of moisture, mold, and mildew is changing the way many contractors are looking at the material selected for commercial jobs. We need to react to the needs of the marketplace.”
There may be the mistaken concept that commercial work can be taken less seriously than industrial work. One lawsuit will convince anyone that this is not the case. Being able to seal up the insulation system and keep moisture out is the key to a good below-ambient application.
Most building codes or insulation recommendations like ASHRAE 90.1 base their insulation thickness tables on energy savings. This is due to the complexity of the tables necessary to account for all of the variables that affect energy savings, condensation formation, and the liability associated with a recommendation if it results in a failed application. However, the thickness needed to prevent condensation is often greater than the reference tables suggest. Figure 1 can be used to compare materials with different K-values to determine the thickness needed to prevent condensation for a given set of conditions. The three K-values listed represent the range of general insulation materials available.
For higher relative humidity (RH), ambient temperatures, and pipe sizes—or for lower fluid temperatures—greater thickness will be needed to prevent condensation. In conditions where the dew-point temperature is close to the ambient temperature, the surface emissivity of the insulation jacket or facing can have a major impact on the insulation thickness required for condensation control. It is recommended that 3E Plus® or a program from the material manufacturer be used to calculate insulation thickness. In addition, some materials are only available in specific sizes. As shown in Table 1, the differences in K-value are not drastically different until the temperatures become more extreme. Greater insulation thickness also means greater jacketing and pipe hanger costs.
The insulation used on a job is only part of the cost. This is particularly true of outdoor applications that must be jacketed. Jacketing provides a variety of functions, such as weather protection (including protection from ultraviolet rays); moisture and moisture vapor protection; mechanical abuse resistance; chemical resistance; added corrosion resistance; and, in some applications, fire protection. Jacketing traditionally has been aluminum, stainless steel, or polyvinyl chloride (PVC). PVC is generally limited to commercial applications.
“Because of the often required multilayered insulation and jacket requirements, industrial jobs are more technical and require a very skilled work force. I would take industrial jobs over commercial jobs every day,” says Steve Isler of Old Dominion.
The Bottom Line
So how do commercial and industrial applications compare? Surprisingly, most contractors’ opinions on the topic are very consistent. First, it is evident that commercial contractors like to do commercial work and industrial contractors like to do industrial work. Each believes their sector of the business is the best in which to operate. Because of temperature extremes and environmental factors, industrial applications tend to be more complex, which limits the number of contractors bidding on such projects. For these applications, contractors seek out the materials and practices that provide the lowest cost and fastest installation, and give them an edge in quoting and providing reliable systems that meet the technical requirements of the job. This may be in the insulation itself, the jacketing, or the installation practices.
What does the future of commercial and industrial work look like? Peter J. Gauchel of L & C Insulation, Inc. says, “The commercial sector is strong right now. The industrial sector is also extremely strong and appears to be set to stay that way for some time in the future, based on the work in the power industry.”
Besides work in traditional power plants, ethanol plants are popping up all over the Midwest, and the prospect of LNG terminals from New York to Seattle should keep the industrial sector strong into the future. As for the commercial sector, as long as the economy stays strong, it will do just fine. Although the commercial and industrial sectors use similar materials and practices, and may have similar problems such as skilled labor shortages, the markets are distinctly different in how they are quoted, installed, and billed. Contractors in both sectors can be proud of their work—saving energy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and making the world run a little better, one pipe at a time. | <urn:uuid:d92810e6-b411-4b3f-972c-4fbd51f7b622> | {
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A society is only as good as its citizens, and our intellectual contributions or lack thereof have far-reaching effects. While this short course is unlikely to make you a master of parsing information, it's a heck of a good start!
Don't Fall for Fake News Again!
Learn important terms such as fake news site, click bait, echo chamber, fallacies, and more.
Learn how our cognitive biases get in the way when it comes to accepting reality
Learn how to quickly evaluate any information source
Learn how to ask the right questions when deciding how much weight to give information
Learn how to spot when you are being misled, deceived, manipulated, or outright lied to
Learn How To Be a Responsible Consumer of Information
A fact is a fact, right? Unfortunately, it's not that simple. A "fact" is primarily defined as "a thing that is indisputably the case." The problem with that definition, is that virtually anything can be disputed, and most things are. But the legal language of "beyond reasonable doubt" applies to this definition. Many times, especially on the Internet, facts that are disputed are done so WITHOUT reasonable doubt. For example, there is an entire organization devoted to disputing the fact that the earth is NOT flat.
A secondary definition of "fact" is "a piece of information used as evidence or as part of a report or news article." These "facts" are still "things that are indisputably the case," or are supposed to be, but used in this context, facts are used to support a theory, conclusion, or opinion. For example, one might argue that the government is out to enslave its citizens. They may offer several facts to support that argument including the facts that the government can imprison people, the government HAS imprisoned people, and the government has no plans to stop imprisoning people. No reasonable person would dispute those facts, but that doesn't mean that the facts adequately support the argument or claim.
Very little information we consume is straight fact. We consume opinion, commentary, satire, gossip, conspiracy theories, marketing copy, and other forms of non-facts. Even when we are given facts, it can be done in such way to mislead, deceive, and manipulate where we are led to develop a false sense of confidence in our conclusions based on these facts.
Oh, by the way, "alternative facts," are falsehoods.
We may not have a legal obligation when it comes to being a responsible consumer of information. But one can easily argue that we do have a moral obligation. A society is only as good as its citizens, and our intellectual contributions or lack thereof have far-reaching effects. While this short course is unlikely to make you a master of parsing information, it's a heck of a good start!
Unlike most online courses unaffiliated with a university, each lesson in this course includes assignments that are manually evaluated by the instructor with detailed feedback provided (instructor evaluated course option only).
For this course, text, audio, and video resources are used. All of the resources are compatible with virtually all modern web-browsers and mobile devices.
The instructor is available for students to discuss course-specific content via e-mail, online chat, Skype, and telephone for the first six months of the course (instructor-evaluated option only).
There are no prerequisites for this course.
There are no required resources for this course.
There are no optional resources for this course.
This course begins with an introduction lesson, then the other lessons presented are in no particular order. You are free to skip around to the lessons that interest you most at the time and complete the lessons in any order.
This course is graded on a pass/redo scale. When lessons are reviewed, the student will either get a "pass" or a "redo". Students can redo assignments as many times as they like. All of the lessons are evaluated by both manual review of lesson-specific assignments and automatic grading of quizzes.
This course contains instructor-reviewed assignments, self-evaluated assignments, and multiple choice quizzes. There are no due dates or time limits on any of the assignments or quizzes.
As a self-paced course, there are no time expectations. However, student support is limited to 6 months from the start of the course date. Students are expected to communicate with instructors and other students in a professional and respectful manner.
This Syllabus May Be Updated
The contents of this syllabus may change from time to time. All students will be notified by e-mail of any significant changes.
Lessons in this Course
Click on any lesson below to see the lesson details. If you are a student and logged in, or if the lesson is a sample lesson, you will be able to go to the lesson.
We're not blank slates. We all bring to the table a lifetime of values, beliefs, and background information that play a big part in how we interpret new information. In addition, our brains are not wired for reason; they're wired for procreation and survival. This results in us taking mental shortcuts to conserve cognitive energy at the expense of reason. This phenomenon is demonstrated through what are known as cognitive biases. In this lesson, we'll go over ten of the most problematic cognitive biases when it comes to consuming information. The reason we're doing this, is because the most effective way to combat our own biases is to be aware of them.
People and media sources share information that is entertaining/interesting. Billions of things happen every day that are neither entertaining nor interesting, thus do not make the "news," yet make up our reality. In the game of information, the most entertaining/interesting information wins—not necessarily the true information. Through critical thinking and healthy skepticism, we can focus on what is true and ignore that which is not.
Lesson #3: Know When You Are Being Misled, Deceived, Manipulated, or Outright Lied To
A "lie" is only the tip of the metaphorical iceberg when it comes to things that are not true. Misinformation comes in many forms, and in this lesson, I'll show you how to spot some of the most common ways people are misled, deceived, manipulated, and outright lied to.
About Your Instructor
Bo Bennett, PhD. Bo Bennett, PhD. Bo Bennett's personal motto is "Expose an irrational belief, keep a person rational for a day. Expose irrational thinking, keep a person rational for a lifetime." Much of his work is in the area of education—not teaching people what to think, but how to think. His projects include his books, The Concept: A Critical and Honest Look at God and Religion, Logically Fallacious, the most comprehensive collection of logical fallacies, and Year To Success, a full year course in success. Bo has a podcast/blog called "The Dr. Bo Show" at http://www.TheDrBoShow.com where he takes a critical thinking-, reason-, and science-based approach to issues that matter with the goal of educating and entertaining.
Bo holds a PhD in social psychology, with a master's degree in general psychology and bachelor's degree in marketing. His complete bio along with current projects can be found at http://www.BoBennett.com. | <urn:uuid:58318252-4fc1-4804-aead-eae99ce7d882> | {
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Shaykh Faraz Rabbani untangles certain recurring misconceptions regarding insanity, suicide, kufr, how these misconceptions arise, and how to dispel them through knowledge.
I’ve been told that people who suffer from mental illness may be exempt from certain aspects of Shari‘a. If that’s the case, why is suicide punishable given that a lot of people that commit suicide surely have some sort of mental illness?
Moral Responsibility and Legal Capacity
Our religion is the religion of Allah, the Wise, the Just,the Merciful, and in that not everything is black or white. There are also gradations in between. When we look at a soul there are those who are considered morally responsible. The same adult who is an adult with full legal capacity. Then you have those who don’t have legal capacity, such as the children or the insane.
But then there are also intermediate cases, e.g. with children there’s a difference between the young child and the discerning child. The child is gradually morally responsible, without being morally accountable. It is a responsibility granted as training for when they hit adulthood. So they’re generally encouraged, then, specifically encouraged, then, commanded with respect to the obligations.
Degrees of Insanity
Similarly not all those lacking mental capacity, short of full sanity, are at the same level. You have what’s called al-majnun. Someone who is legally insane or lacking legal capacity. But then there are different cases of insanity.
Some people are bereft of sanity. Day in day out, they’re not able to discern and distinguish between benefit and harm, right and wrong. They’re not able to make informed choices. That’s one type of insanity: insanity that lasts.
Then there’s also the lunatic. There’s incapacity that affects someone such that they may be sane at times and lacking sanity at other times. For example in our times like someone who’s bipolar in intense cases could be oscillating between when they have capacity and when they don’t.
Then there’s also an intermediate state between full legal capacity and the legally insane or the one without legal capacity, which is someone with partial legal capacity. A person with partial legal capacity is treated like the discerning child. To the extent of their capacity to discern, they’re encouraged to do the good. They’re encouraged to uphold legal responsibility in the things within their capacity but they”re not ultimately legally accountable, just like a discerning child.
Suicide Is a Major Sin
Different cases differ. Allah Most High tells us: “Allah does not hold the soul responsible for more than its capacity.” (Sura al-Baqara 2:286) We have a very nuanced, balanced, fair, set of legal criteria by which to outwardly judge different types of individuals and their capacity so that we are able to guide them towards their best interests.
Ultimately, Allah knows every single person and where they are with respect to their responsibilities. When it comes to suicide, the ruling of suicide is that committing suicide is prohibited, and suicide is itself a major sin. However, committing suicide is not kufr. Sins are one thing. Disbelief is another.
Just as we preserve the lives of others the first life that we preserve is our own, and no one should willfully take their life. That has implications in terms of end-of-life issues and so on. However, if someone commits suicide, we don’t hasten to judge. We don’t know what triggered it. What was their mental state and what would we call legal capacity at the time they made that decision?
Sensitivity Is Key
We have to be sensitive, firstly, with respect to the person themselves. We don’t know what state they were in. Secondly, we also have to be sensitive to the living. Their family has suffered a serious loss and so on. But at the same that we don’t affirm the absurd.
We’re not there to judge in the accusation manner: “That was wrong. They’re going to hell.” – Well, who are you? Are you the Lord? At the same time, we don’t we don’t go into conjectural rulings as well: “O, Allah will forgive him because he was in a bad situation.” It’s not your decision to make. These are sensitive situations.
Most of the times these kinds of confusions arise when things like that happen within a within a family, within a community – the trouble arises in these kinds of difficult situations because of two reasons. One is from people who take religion directly from texts without appreciating their context and understanding.
Textual Literalism and the Need for Scholars
People say, “O, there are hadith that say the person who commits suicide will be punished forever.” No, there isn’t. That’s not what the hadith is saying. What is the understanding sound understanding of that hadith? That’s one danger. And the connecting danger is, especially, the application of specific rules to particular situations is a specialized skill. That is why communities require scholars of guidance.
When people deal with a sensitive situation, how do you deal with it with these considerations? One cannot take a ruling from a book and apply it to a specific situation just like that, without training, because it is likely that the harm would be greater. There’s likely harm.
We should heed the divine command: “Ask the people of remembrance if you know not.” This of course requires attention to supporting institutions that facilitate scholars to be teaching in their communities. We have to have people of knowledge in every community.
It is obligatory that there be jurists who have the capacity, who have learned our religious tradition soundly and reliably, and who are trained to apply that to the the social and lived context of individuals and communities that they operate in. That is critical and we have grave shortcomings in that around the world. | <urn:uuid:67e631b3-cfe7-4978-93fd-c0afc99cfbe7> | {
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According to DOE, global energy demand will increase 53 percent from 2008 through 2035. Advances in new technologies hold the promise of plentiful energy requiring little or no fuel; but significant research funding is required.
Policymakers will have to address these energy challenges– but none of them are a question of yes or no, either/or, do or do not. Instead, how the United States meets those challenges will require choices – strategic decisions about infrastructure investment, government policy, research funding, and even foreign policy.
The United States faces a series of choices that will determine how its economy is powered to meet the needs of the 21st century. How America chooses to replace and expand its energy supply will affect America’s national security, the well-being of the U.S. economy, and the health of the world’s environment.
Total energy use: 37 percent
Oil is easy and cheap to ship around the world, which means the security of its distribution network is just as important as the security of its supply. Because the U.S. imports nearly half of the oil it consumes, it is extremely vulnerable to supply disruptions in unstable regions around the world.
Total energy use: 21 percent
Coal is the largest domestically-produced source of energy. With an estimated 249 years’ worth of reserves, the U.S. is home to the largest recoverable reserves of coal in the world.
Total energy use: 25 percent
In the last decade, new technology, particularly the commercialization of hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’), has revolutionized natural gas production in the U.S. In just ten years, from 2000 to 2010, U.S. exports of natural gas have increased by over 350%.
At current rates of use the United States has reserves for 110 years of natural gas.
Total energy use: 9 percent
Today, there are a total of 104 operational reactors around the country with a capacity of 101.0 gigawatts.
Fuel—uranium—is either available from domestic mines, or from decommissioned nuclear weapons.
The biggest drawback to nuclear power plants is their potential to be the target of a terrorist attack.
Recent advances in laser and magnetic technology have raised hopes that fusion could become a new source of electricity over the medium-term. Fuel to power fusion is available in seawater, and because so little of it is required for a reaction, fuel will be virtually unlimited.
If national efforts in other countries, particularly competitor countries like China, are successful in commercializing fusion reactions, then they will sell the technology abroad, at the expense of the U.S.
Total energy use: 8 percent
Any form of renewable power presents few concerns about energy security because they do not use a fuel that has to be imported.
Unlike dependence on a commodity like oil, importing solar panels – for example – constitute a one-time-only fixed cost. Once the cost is borne, there is very little variable cost for generating renewable energy.
An economy that relies on renewable power for its energy needs will be able to manage its foreign policy independently of how it utilizes energy. | <urn:uuid:7dedc56e-ced9-487e-85ab-4624a2bb2605> | {
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Form IX verbs are extremely rare and are used only in reference to colors and to physical and mental defects. The complete conjugations are in the charts at the end of this book. The Form IX pattern is إفْعَلَّ (the hamza on the prefix is elidable just as in Forms VII and VIII). A commonly used Form IX is إحْمَرَّ which means “to turn red” and “to blush.” The present tense conjugation is يَحْمَرَّ (the stem vowel becomes a kasra whenever the suffix begins with a consonant or a sukuun, just as with other doubled verbs you have seen in Forms VII and VIII).
The same pattern works for other colors as well. Thus أسود becomes إسْوَدَّ and أصفر becomes إصْفَرَّ .
On the other hand, Form X verbs are extremely common and occur in all types (i.e. hollow, defective, impossible, doubled, etc.) We will examine them carefully here. After you have covered Form X you will only need to study the quadriliteral verbs and you will have covered all you need to know about the verb system. In fact, if all you get out of this book is a mastery of the verb system, you will still have gained a great deal.
خَدَمَ is a Form I verb meaning “to serve.” إستَخْدَمَ is a Form X verb meaning “to use” or “to employ.” The Form X is derived by prefixing إسْت (the hamza is elidable, in case you were wondering) to the three letters which comprise the Form I verb.The prefix tends to affect the meaning of the verb in two basic ways. First, it can refer to the seeking or putting to use of the meaning of the Form I. Thus, the Form X of خدم refers to the seeking of the service of something or to putting something into service. Another example is عاد which means “to return.” إستعاد means “to get back” or “to reclaim.” That is, the Form X refers to the seeking of what the Form I means. Along the same lines is the Form X إسْتَخرَجَ “to extract” from خَرَجَ “to exit.”
A second way the prefix can influence the meaning is that it denotes the deeming of something to have the qualities implied by the three letters of the root. For example, نَكَرَ means “to disavow.” The Form X إستنكر means “to disapprove.” هَجُنَ means “to be faulty,” while إسْتَهجَنَ means “to condemn” or “to reject.” حَقَّ means “to be true” or even “to be suitable or appropriate.” إسْتَحَقَّ means “to be worthy” and “to merit.”
While all Form X verbs will not fit easily into the two categories above, most of them fit in reasonably well. As with the other forms, the patterns can be used to help predict meaning and to lessen reliance on the dictionary, but you cannot always rely on the general tendencies toward meaning associated with any given form. Sometimes you will have to pick up the dictionary.
Sound Form X verbs conjugate exactly like their Form VIII counterparts in the imperfect. The prefix vowel is always a fatha and the stem vowel is always a kasra. Thus, in the imperfect the verb إسْتَخْدَمَ is يَسْتَخْدِمُ . Note also the sukuun over the س of the prefix in both tenses.
The command conjugations and the jussive conjugations should all be obvious by now. Try to generate some of these and then check the charts at the end of the book.
The verbal noun is إستخْدام The active participle is مُستَخْدِم and the passive participle is مُستَخْدَم.
Form X verbs also occur,in,the passive and conjugate just as they do in Form VIII. In the past tense, our model verb becomes أُستُخدِم and in the imperfect it is يُسْتَخْدَمُ The complete conjugations are in the charts.
Form X hollow verbs behave (with rare exceptions, to be noted below) just like Form IV hollow verbs with respect to their conjugations in both tenses. In the past tense, the alif is shortened to a fatha. In the present tense, the alif becomes a yaa’ which is in turn shortened to a kasra when necessary. For example,إستعاد (“to reclaim”) will have its alif shortened to a fatha whenever any Form IV hollow verb would. Thus “I reclaimed” is إستعدتُ The reasons for the shortening should be clear by now.
In the imperfect indicative,the alif becomes a yaa’, just as is the case in Form IV.”He reclaims” is يَسْتَعيدُ . The yaa’ shortens to a kasra whenever shortening is required. Thus, “He did not reclaim” is لم يَسْتَعِدْ
The verbal noun is very similar to that for Form IV in that it ends in ة also. The verbal noun for our model verb is إستعادة .
The active participle is مُسْتَعيد and the passive participle is مُستعاد
The passive pattern is أُستُعيدَ in the past tense and يُستَعادُ in the imperfect indicative.
Before I show you a couple of exceptions to Form X hollow verb conjugations, let’s review derived hollow verbs for a minute. Experience tells me that students get confused easily by these verbs but that a simple classification scheme can usually remove the difficulties.
Hollow verbs pose conjugation problems in Forms I, IV, VII, VIII, and X. Form I hollow verbs are in a class by themselves. You should review them separately by going over the material in Chapter One of Part II. For now we will look at only the four derived forms which pose problems.
In the past tense, the four derived forms all, all, all ALL, ALL, ALL have the alif shortened to a LITTLE TINY ITTY BITTY FATHA whenever shortening is required.
In the imperfect, keep together in your mind Forms IV and X on the one hand, and Forms VII and VIII together on the other. Forms IV and X convert the alif into a yaa’ in the present. When the yaa’ needs to be shortened it becomes a kasra.
Forms VII and VIII keep the alif in the present tense. When the alif needs to be shortened, it is shortened to a fatha.
ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND THE SPELLING AMBIGUITIES THAT TAKE PLACE WHENEVER THE SHORTENING IS DONE. If you neglect these ambiguities, you will always have a hard time with the language.
Now I want to bring up a couple of exceptions that occur in hollow verbs in Form X. The Form X verb إسْتجابَ means “to respond.” It conjugates just like our model verb إستعادَ in every single way. The root of the verb has a waaw as the middle radical. With a few Form X hollow verbs, the middle radical can sometimes be kept. In this case, there is also the verb إسْتَجْوبَ which means “to interrogate.” In the present tense the verb is يَسْتَجْوِبُ Whenever a Form X keeps the waaw, the verb will conjugate just like a sound verb. The waaw will never disappear, never. It even remains in the verbal noun, إِسْتِجواب, and in the participles مُسْتَجْوِب and مُسْتَجْوَب
There are only a very few Form X hollow verbs which will keep the waaw. Most of them, unlike إستجاب will not also have a Form X conjugation which uses an alif in the past tense and a yaa’ in the present tense. Thus إِسْتَحْوَذَ exists only as إستحوذ and does not have a regular Form X hollow manifestation of إستحاذ When such manifestations exist, they will have different meanings.
Form X assimilated verbs are regular in their conjugations. The verb إِسْتَوطَنَ means “to settle.” In the present tense it is يَسْتَوْطِنُ Note that the waaw remains and acts as a regular consonant.
The verbal noun for this verb is إسْتيطان Note that in the Form X verbal noun, the waaw changes into a yaa’ just as is the case in Form IV (أوضح becomes إيضاح, for example).
The active participle is مُستَوطِن and the passive participle is مُستَوطَن
Doubled verbs in Form X work just as their counterparts do in Form IV (what a surprise). Thus the stem vowel in the imperfect is always a kasra, just as in Form IV. إسْتَغَلَّ means “to exploit.” In the present tense it is يَسْتَغِلُّ So for doubled verbs, like hollow verbs, you should group Forms IV and X together, and group Forms VII and VIII together.
In Form X, the rules for breaking up the doubled radical are exactly the same as they are for all doubled verbs. Thus “I exploited” is إِسْتَغْلَلْتُ and “they (feminine) exploit” is يَسْتَغْلِلْنَ
When the jussive is used, you have the usual options. You can either use the subjunctive, or you can use the actual jussive. So “He did not exploit” is either لم يَسْتَغِلَّ or لم يَسْتَغْلِلْ. The former, as usual, is more common than the latter.
The verb noun is إستِغلال The active participle is مُسْتَغِلّ The passive participle is مُسْتَغَلّ
Form X defective verbs are just like defective verbs in Forms II, III, IV, VII, and VIII. Or, to put it more simply, Form X defective verbs conjugate in both tenses just like the Form I verb إسْتَلْقى , يَبْني , بنى is a Form X defective verb meaning “to he down.” “I lay down” is إِسْتَلْقَيْتُ (“I lay down,” is past tense in English. If you do not know this, you probably have not taught English as a foreign language). “He lies down,” is يَسْتلقي The same principles of shortening apply here as with all other defective verbs. So, “He did not lie down,” is لم يَسْتَلْقِ .
The verbal noun is أِستلْقاء . The active participle is مُسْتلْقٍ and the passive participle is مُسْتلْقي
You have now completed the ten forms of the triliteral Arabic verb. Practice the conjugations of the various forms and the subcategories of each form. Make sure you can do the passive voice as well. All of the material presented so far in this book must become second nature to you if you ever want to have any success in this language. This does not mean that you have to automatically know where every fatha and kasra has to be placed. But you do need to get to the point where the verb business is not intimidating you and you can produce it correctly at least eighty percent of the time. The best way for you to make this material become second nature is for you is to practice. Write out the conjugations, think about the conjugations, review the drills you have done so far. Reread sections of this book. Do not feel you are an idiot if you do not remember everything you have read up until now. Review. Review. Review.
Additionally, read new material. Listen to Arabic. Speak Arabic. Read the section in this book (in Part III) entitled “How To Be A Good Arabic Student.” And know this: If you master even just the material so far presented in this text, you will have made a great stride toward becoming proficient in this language in terms of reading. If you do not master the material presented so far in this text, you will never be able to do anything in Arabic. If you do not have the will to learn the material, which is fine, as one’s individual worth should not be based on whether one wants to be good at any one particular thing, then forget about it and go do something else. I just hope that I will not one day see you on Ted Koppel’s Nightline in the role of “The Middle East Expert” who is illiterate and unable to communicate in the language of the people on which the expert is supposedly so knowledgeable. | <urn:uuid:fd537762-4b4c-4b46-bf2e-eaa9ed514060> | {
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It generally consists of a teat (which is the part designed to be sucked) made from either silicone (a type of plastic) or latex (a form of rubber). Silicone is becoming more popular as it is more durable and easier to keep clean. The teat is mounted on a plastic plate which can vary in shape from circular, oval or butterfly shape. It can come in a variety of different colors with different designs like cartoon characters to make it look more appealing to the baby. The main purpose of the plastic mouth guard is to stop the baby from accidentally swallowing the pacifier. If for some reason the child is able to swallow it, the mouth guard is made to be too large to pass through the throat and if it should get lodged in the throat it also has holes to allow air to pass through so the child can still breathe. Finally there is sometimes a ring attached to allow the parent to remove the pacifier.
There is some concern that the use of pacifiers can affect the child's teeth so many teats now are a special shape to allow the teeth to form properly, these are called orthodontic teats. Non-orthodontic teats are sometimes called cherry teats.
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In archeology, a uniface is a specific type of stone tool that has been flaked on one surface only. There are two general classes of uniface tools: modified flakes—and formalized tools, which display deliberate, systematic modification of the marginal edges, evidently formed for a specific purpose.
While many worked stone tools can be technically designated as "modified flakes," for lithic analysis purposes a modified flake is usually defined as a lithic flake with one or more edges that were altered either through opportunistic use or through nonsystematic retouching; it is often difficult to identify the process that produced the observed edge. Opportunistic use occurs when a sharp flake is used as-is, without edge-modification. Nonsystematic retouching occurs when pressure flaking is used to remove a few trimming flakes from the edge, in no discernible or extensive pattern.
Formalized uniface tools
Some unifaces are characterized by systematic edge retouch, which was used to thin, straighten, sharpen, and smooth an artifact's edge, and were usually created with a specific purpose in mind. These formalized unifaces were often intended for woodworking, cutting, chopping, or hide-working purposes, and generally fall into easily classifiable types. While the following discussion does not cover some specialized types of unifaces, it does include the most common types.
Scrapers are unifacial tools that were used either for hideworking or woodworking. Whereas this term is often used for any unifacially flaked tool that defies classification, most lithic analysts maintain that the only true scrapers are defined on the base of use-wear, and are usually worked at their distal ends—i.e., "end scrapers." Other scrapers include the so-called "side scrapers." Most scrapers are either oval or blade-like in shape. The working edges of scrapers tend to be convex, and many have trimmed and dulled lateral edges to facilitate hafting. One important variety of scraper is the thumbnail scraper, a scraper shaped much like its namesake. This scraper type is common at Paleo-Indian sites.
Gouges (or adzes) may be either bifacial or unifacial, and are defined as tools with chisel-like working edges that were used for woodworking purposes; they may also have been used to remove marrow from bones. Gouges are generally triangular in shape, with the working edge—characteristically steep-angled—appearing at the wide base of the triangle. The opposite edge, at the point of the triangle, was the hafted end; the tool itself was generally hafted at right angles to the handle.
Denticulate tools display edges that are worked into a multiply notched shape, much like the toothed edge of a saw. Indeed, these tools might have been used as saws, more likely for meat processing than for wood. It is possible, however, that some or all of these notches were used for smoothing wooden shafts or for similar purposes. | <urn:uuid:998c4e79-6854-4cf0-80f8-64d1418f712e> | {
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Benjamin Franklin – The man who dared to fly his kite in a thunder storm! In this technical article laboratory tests and test equipment needed to assess the performance of insulating materials and equipment are discussed.
Laboratory testing attempts to simulate the voltage conditions that the apparatus may experience on the power system. These voltages include the normal AC or DC system voltages and switching and lightning impulse voltages.
In an AC network the equipment is continuously subjected to full power frequency voltage. The equipment should therefore be able to withstand power normal frequency voltage, allowing for some overvoltage.
In a high voltage laboratory the test transformers steps up the voltage from a lower voltage (220 V or 11 kV) to the desired voltage level. All laboratory tests are single phase and the low voltage side of the transformer is supplied via a regulating transformer to be able to adjust the magnitude of the output high voltage.
A typical AC high voltage set-up is shown in Figure 1.
The following features should be noted:
- Ground plane: The high voltage is generated with respect to the laboratory ground, a low impedance sheet, connected to an earth electrode.
- Voltage divider: The voltage is measured with a resistive or capacitive voltage divider.
Typical designs of high voltage test transformers are shown in Figure 2(a). In the design on the right an insulated tank (a resin impregnated paper cylinder) is used and a bushing is not required, as is shown in Figure 2(b).
Test transformers can be used in cascade connections as is shown in Figure 3. Each unit has 3 windings: a primary (low voltage), a secondary (high voltage) and a tertiary (low voltage) winding. The tertiary has the same rating as the primary winding; however, it is insulated for high voltage.
The tertiary winding is used to supply the primary of the next unit. The tanks of the second and third units are insulated for high voltage and are mounted on insulators.
The method when performing AC tests is to increase the voltage gradually until flashover occurs. The voltage just before flashover is the flashover voltage.
DC tests are used mainly to do “pressure tests” on high voltage cables. Although the cables operate with AC, AC testing is not practical. The high capacitance of the cables necessitates AC test sets with a high kVA rating to be able to supply the capacitive current. In the case of DC, once the cable is charged, only the losses have to be supplied.
DC test sets usually consist of half wave rectification, using HV selenium rectifiers. A typical DC test set-up is shown in Figure 4.
An AC high voltage test transformer is again supplied via a variac and a rectifier is used together with a filter capacitor C to limit the ripple to acceptable values. The earthing switch ES is a safety feature and closes automatically when the power is switched off to discharge the capacitor C.
Note that the peak inverse voltage required of the rectifier is 2 Vm.
Doubling and multiplier circuits (as used in TV’s and household appliances) are also used to obtain an even higher voltage. A typical Cockcroft-Walton (in Germany: Greinacher) doubling circuit is shown in Figure 5.
Power system is also subjected to single overvoltage pulses, due to lightning and switching. In the field these transients can take on many different wave shapes. Standard impulse wave has been defined as shown in Figure 7.
The actual definition is more precise, but for lightning impulses, T1 is 1.2 μs and T2 is 50 μs. The standard lightning impulse is described as a 1.2/ 50 μs wave. The standard switching impulse is a 250/ 2500 μs wave.
During transformer tests it is sometimes required to chop the impulse to obtain a high dv/dt, in order to test the inter-turn insulation.
The Impulse generator
In order to generate a wave with the required shape, circuits similar to that shown in Figure 8 are used. A capacitor C1 is charged via a current limiting resistor Rs, from a HV DC source similar to those shown in Figures 4 and 5.
As the DC voltage is raised slowly the stress across the spark gap G increases until the air in the gap breaks down. Capacitor C1 now discharges into the circuit consisting of C2, R1 and R2. The voltage appearing across the test object has the desired shape.
There are two possible positions for R1 as is shown in Figure 8.
It is possible to design a multi stage impulse generator by charging the various stages in parallel and by discharging in series. This principle was invented by Marx in 1923. A typical circuit is shown in Figure 9.
Note that it is possible to trigger the lowest gap of the generator artificially. The resulting transient causes the other gaps to flash over simultaneously. Impulse generators are specified in terms of the peak voltage and the stored energy.
The generator shown in Figure 10 is a 1.4 MV, 16 kJ generator.
Reference // High Voltage Engineering Practice and Theory by Dr JP Holtzhausen and Dr WL Vosloo | <urn:uuid:550b1c3d-2a5b-47e5-a0de-a5e5f8d0b540> | {
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Anthropology is the comparative study of humanity that focuses on people in all places throughout history. You will study beliefs, values and practices of various cultures and will compare similarities and differences among diverse groups. By analyzing other cultures, you will learn more about your own.
Research plays an important role in the study of anthropology. Along with research inside the classroom, you can participate in DePaul's summer archaeological field school that will give you hands-on experience.
Our faculty is made up of scholars who have research expertise in the geographic areas of Europe, the Middle East, Pacific Islands, Africa, the Caribbean and the U.S. Because our university is positioned in Chicago, you will gain practical experience and research opportunities that will prepare you for a future in anthropology.
We also offer a combined bachelor's in Anthropology/master's in Secondary Education Social Science degree program, which allows you to complete a bachelor's degree and a graduate degree in five years. | <urn:uuid:29517a48-9c4e-431e-acc0-9cc9f9e3e9c3> | {
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Difference between revisions of "Conservative parables"
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'''Conservative parables''' are stories that illustrate a [[conservative]] insight. The stories are typically based on real events.
'''Conservative parables''' are stories that illustrate a [[conservative]] insight. The stories are typically based on real events.
== The Broken Bicycle ==
== The Broken Bicycle ==
Revision as of 22:00, 9 February 2013
Conservative parables are stories that illustrate a conservative insight. The stories are typically based on real events.
- 1 The Broken Bicycle
- 2 The Desperate Smoker
- 3 The Fasting Woman
- 4 The Troubled Pregnancy
- 5 The Lost $40
- 6 The Flop
- 7 The Difficult Science Problem
- 8 The Prodigal Son Has Children
- 9 The Conservative Conference
- 10 The Convert
- 11 The Wall
- 12 The Fly Ball
- 13 The Story of Two Psychiatrists -- Or How To Deal With Liberal Critics
- 14 Welfare
- 15 The University Assignment
- 16 The Little Red Hen - Ronald Reagan Version
- 17 Socialism
- 18 Other Parables
The Broken Bicycle
One morning in New York City a crowd of pedestrians waited for the streetlight to change so that they could cross the intersection. The sidewalk corner was crowded with people, as it often is, and one pedestrian stepped slightly into the street in anticipation of crossing it. But at that moment a messenger on a bicycle was moving quickly through the intersection, and was thrown off balance by hitting the pedestrian's foot. The bicycle crashed, destroying it beyond repair.
The crowd gasped in horror, but the bicyclist was unharmed. His bicycle, however, had been ruined. One bystander, observing that the fault was due to the pedestrian, wanted to donate so that the bicyclist could buy a replacement. But the bystander could not afford to give him much money. So instead the bystander took out a $20 bill and handed it to the bicyclist in front of the crowd.
Others then followed that example and made donations of their own to the bicyclist. Before long he had enough to buy a replacement for his bicycle, and was back at work by the afternoon.
The Desperate Smoker
A smoker was in a drug store to purchase a pack of cigarettes. Short on cash, he emptied all his pockets in order to scrounge up with every last penny he had. The cashier counted all the change and but found it was ten cents short of the total required for the cheapest pack of cigarettes.
The smoker desperately turned to the man standing behind him and asked him for a dime. The bystander clearly had a spare dime.
Should the bystander give the smoker a dime so he can purchase the pack of cigarettes?
The bystander, who is generous by nature, did something more difficult for him: he denied the request and instead urged the smoker to "kick the habit."
The smoker then gathered all his change and left the store.
The Fasting Woman
A woman had been fasting for several days and was quite weak. It was Sunday morning, and she wondered whether she had enough strength to attend church. It would have been easy to justify not going, as she had already shown her love and devotion to God that week. But she decided to attend the services anyway. Without eating any breakfast, she prepared herself for the late morning service. She got dressed, gathered her purse and belongings, and drove off to the church.
The church was filled for the late-morning service, with many hundreds of worshipers. The woman sat near the back and watched the pews fill up with members of the community, young and old. The service was about to begin. The woman then heard an unusual commotion outside, including several loud noises and shouts. She turned around several times to look at the door to the church. Her intuition told her something was wrong.
Suddenly, a large man burst through the door and began shooting at the hundreds of worshipers, children and all. The woman mustered all her strength and pulled out her gun from her bag. She then shot the intruder. Stunned, and expecting to die from her shot, the intruder killed himself. The worshipers in the church were all saved. Afterwards, the woman said that she had been "praying to God that he direct me" in what to do in life.
The Troubled Pregnancy
A pregnant woman was doing missionary work in the Philippines. Due to contaminated drinking water in an impoverished area, the woman contracted amoebic dysentery while pregnant. This required that she take strong medications in order to recover.
The woman's doctor told her that the medication inevitably caused irreversible damage to the developing unborn child in her womb. The doctor advised the woman to have an abortion. The doctor told the woman that she would be burdened with a disabled child and it would be better to get rid of the unborn child now through abortion.
The woman refused to have the abortion and subsequently gave birth to a baby boy, whom she named Timothy.
The Lost $40
One day a teenager received $40 from his father. The teenager then had to drive somewhere, and he put the $40 on the seat of his car. After going in and out of the car several times, and driving with the windows open, the $40 was gone. He searched and searched for it, but could not find it anywhere.
He then spent dozens of hours agonizing over the lost $40, obsessed with having lost it. It bothered him for weeks, even months. He still remembered it years later.
One day he realized that, based on the prevailing wage for teenagers of $8 per hour, that $40 was worth no more than about 6 hours of his time (after taxes). If he had simply worked rather than worry, he would have quickly "found" the $40 and accomplished something in the process.
A skinny young man having limited athletic ability had a determination to do his very best and win. He picked the high jump event, but could only clear about 5' 3", nowhere near what was needed to win any competitions. But he worked tirelessly, trying all known techniques for jumping over a bar. Still, he could not improve to the point where he could win.
Yet he did not give up, and harnessed his competitive spirit to invent a revolutionary style of jumping back-first over the bar. Though lacking the athletic gifts of his competitors, the young man improved his jumping ability by a foot and more. He began to win.
His peculiar style attracted mockery and name-calling, as people derided his technique as the "flop". But that did not faze him, and he continued to jump in the direction opposite to all his competitors. Despite winning the national college high jump event, experts still considered his success to be a fluke and his approach to be a joke.
When it came time for the Olympics, no one considered the young man to have a chance, and his more athletic competitors were favorites to win the high jump event. The whole world was riveted to the television screen as the young man flawlessly cleared every height as the bar was raised again and again. When the bar was finally raised to an Olympic record height of 7' 4 1/4", only the young man and his "flop" were able to jump over it. He had won the gold medal.
The Difficult Science Problem
Physics 401 was the most difficult course in the entire college, having problem sets that would take many hours to complete each week. The students often worked on the homework together, as allowed and even encouraged by the professor. Students were also able to consult books and online resources in solving problems.
As the course progressed, the problems became increasingly difficult and complex. Some students were better than others at solving the problems. Reputations developed about which students had answers, and which ones did not.
Near the end of the course, the teacher assigned a particularly difficult problem to the class. The night before it was due, the students gathered as they had been throughout the course, and worked as hard as they could to find the answer. One student who had a reputation for not being as smart claimed he had the answer, and started to explain it to the others. But the smarter students quickly rejected his approach to the problem and told him to be quiet. Despite trying several times to describe his answer, he was ignored.
The next day the students handed in their homeworks, and the following week the professor returned their graded papers. He said that only one student had answered the difficult problem correctly. That student was the one who had tried to explain it to the others, but they would not listen.
The one student had found the correct answer in a book not used by the other students.
The Prodigal Son Has Children
A good man had two sons. One of them was defiant and insisted on ignoring and disobeying his father, leaving him, and then squandering his money on immoral living in a distant land. He refused to return to his father to ask forgiveness.
Eventually the defiant son had children of his own. Living in squalor, his own suffering children would ask him about their grandfather. One day his own children asked why they never visit Grandpa.
For the first time the man looked at himself objectively, and realized how illogical and wrong it was for him to abandon his own father. He finally returned to home to ask for forgiveness, and brought his children with him.
The Conservative Conference
A conservative conference was scheduled for Sept. 25, 2001, expecting most attendees to travel by air. Unfortunately, on Sept. 11, 2001 there was the 9/11 terrorist hijacking of airplanes and a national crisis resulting in the grounding of airplanes for a week and widespread panic.
As a result, most conferences were cancelled, and the few that were held were poorly attended. Airplanes flew nearly empty for weeks once they were allowed to fly at all.
Though he expected few others to attend, one conservative rejected the objections of his family and flew out to the conference. He saw only two other passengers on his 140-seat airplane. He checked into the hotel and felt that at least he could cheer up the conference organizers when no one else showed up.
But to his great surprise, everyone else showed up. The other attendees concluded that both logic and faith weighed in favor of traveling to the conference. There was no logical reason for staying home, and faith eliminated any anxiety. In fact, the conservatives did not even waste time discussing their decisions to attend, at a time when nearly all other travelers acted irrationally and avoided airplanes.
Born in 1910, this child suffered from a physical handicap as a youngster and could not attend regular school. He had to wear leg braces and was eventually enrolled in a school for "physical defectives." But that school was managed by the same organization that ran the school for "mental defectives" and, as he later explained, there was "some overlapping in the curriculum." As a result, he spent his days in basket-weaving classes, and was deprived of any formal academic instruction until age 10.
But he worked hard, and eventually found his way to the London School of Economics, the top school of its kind in the world.
He was an avid socialist, as were most of his fellow students. But in his senior year, he happened to take an economics seminar taught by Professor Arnold Plant. That course was devoted to the "invisible hand." It did not have any readings, and focused on stimulating discussions instead.
This young man's prior educational background may not have given him as much knowledge as his classmates, but it did give him an open mind. This single course changed his life, as he embraced the logic and power of the free market.
Later he immigrated to the United States and became an economics professor. But unlike most of his colleagues, he avoided mathematical equations and formulae, bucking the modern trend in his field.
His extraordinary insight was that the free market always reaches the most efficient level of productive activity, in the absence of transaction costs.
The leader of a nation traveled to a distant land, and planned to deliver a speech there. This leader was not known for having great intelligence, and in fact was often ridiculed within his own country. He wondered what he should say in the foreign country while he was there.
For decades, there had been a massive wall in this foreign land which denied its inhabitants the freedom to travel and visit relatives, or simply move to places having greater opportunity. Inhabitants who tried to surmount the wall were shot and killed. The region enclosed by the wall was subjected to communism; outside the wall capitalism and freedom existed.
The leader began to focus on the wall in connection with his planned speech, and proposed uttering the bold command, "tear down this wall."
But his top advisers, who were very experienced in politics and foreign policy, were adamantly against such a bold statement. They insisted on removing it from the speech. As each draft circulated these experts took the phrase out, but each time the leader inserted this phrase back in. The experts felt the phrase made the leader look foolish and hopelessly naive, and could not possibly have a positive effect. The experts were sure it would subject their leader to even more ridicule than he already endured.
But the leader did not care about the potential for ridicule, and he wanted to say what he felt was best for his audience. He ignored his experts and delivered the bold command as part of his speech.
The leader's advisers were horrified when they heard the words delivered in the actual speech. They braced for a backlash and criticism.
But two years later, to the amazement of the entire world, this wall that had stood for decades was torn down exactly as the leader courageously suggested.
The Fly Ball
One Sunday afternoon a dozen teenagers gathered for a game of coed softball against a rival team from another church. As the first team's coach assigned his players to positions in the field, he noticed a new player on his team whom he had seen only before in church services. She suffered from a severe case of cerebral palsy, making it difficult for her to walk or use her arms. But she always had a smile on her face, and she brought a softball glove to play.
The coach, against his better judgment, told her to be the right-fielder. The coach knew that in softball the ball is hit to the right field less frequent than to other positions. This was supposed to be a friendly game between churches, but turned out to be far more competitive than that.
The game went smoothly for several innings. But the other team was good, and it was hitting the ball hard.
The inevitable disaster then struck in the 6th inning, with several runners on base and two outs. A batter for the other team hit a line drive directly at the right fielder.
The coach, and indeed his entire team, turned in dreadful anticipation as they watched the ball travel at a high speed right at the player with cerebral palsy.
The player held up her glove and the ball smacked directly into its pocket. She had caught the third out. Her team erupted in cheers and her ever-present smile glowed even wider. Her team went on to win the game.
Her teammates were inspired more by her catch than by anything else they saw the entire year.
The Story of Two Psychiatrists
-- Or How To Deal With Liberal Critics
Rowland Evans, the famed columnist, was having lunch with Ronald Reagan in 1987, six years into his presidency, a milestone by which the previous five presidents had been defeated, resigned in disgrace, refused to consider reelection, or assassinated. Somehow, Reagan was shining through, making it look easy, and was enormously popular. Evans, a tough old newsman, was in awe. He looked Reagan in the eye and said, “You know, Mr. President, I’ve known you for more than twenty years. I first met you in 1966, and the amazing thing is that you don’t look any older now than you did back then, and the criticism never gets you down. How do you do it?”
In response, Reagan offered a parable. "Let me explain it this way":
Let me tell you the story of the two psychiatrists — the old psychiatrist and the young psychiatrist — who had a practice together. They’d come into their office every day just bubbling with enthusiasm, always happy, upbeat, smiling, and chipper. Then they’d go into their separate suites and have patients come in and lie on the couch all day and talk about the woes in their lives. At 6:00 p.m. they’d come out and the young psychiatrist would be devastated, wiped out by the day, with a stomachache, and just miserable. The old psychiatrist would be just as chipper and smiling and upbeat as he was when he went in that morning. This went on for a number of months.
Finally one day they came out at 6:00 p.m., the young psychiatrist devastated as usual, and the old psychiatrist just as happy and smiling as he was when went in. The young psychiatrist stopped him and said, “I don’t understand it. We do the same thing every day, and I leave wiped out by hearing patients all day, and you come out after patients have been streaming in and out of your office just as upbeat as ever. How do you do it?”
The old psychiatrist paused a minute and said, “I never listen.”
So, I was talking to this little girl Catherine, the daughter of some friends, and she said she wanted to be President some day.
Catherine replied - "I would give houses to all the homeless people."
"Wow - what a worthy goal you have there, Catherine." I told her, "You don't have to wait until you're President to do that, you can come over to my house and clean up all the dog poop in my back yard and I will pay you $5. Then we can go over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $5 to use for a new house."
Catherine thought that over for a second, while her mom looked at me seething, and Catherine replied, "why doesn't the homeless guy come over and clean up the dog poop and you can just pay him the $5?"
And I said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."
The University Assignment
A young student studying his first Politics assignment picked to answer the question - "Have we reached the end of political ideology?" The young student, as this was his first paper, studied hard and long to argue that there has been a rise in conservative thought in recent years as a response to growing globalization and encroaching liberalism. The lecturer gave the paper low marks despite solid referencing and an extensive bibliography. The young student felt slighted by this as he had put in many hours work. Instead of bowing down and re-writing the assignment according to his lecturer's standards, the student petitioned the head of department to have his paper and final mark reviewed and also got several others to back him. In the end the student got an A grade.
The Little Red Hen - Ronald Reagan Version
"About a year ago I imposed a little poetry on you. It was called "The Incredible Bread Machine" and made a lot of sense with reference to matters economic. You didn't object too much so having gotten away with it once I'm going to try again. This is a little treatise on basic economics called 'The Modern little Red Hen.'"
Once upon a time there was a little red hen who scratched about the barnyard until she uncovered some grains of wheat. She called her neighbors and said 'If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?'
"Not I, " said the cow.
"Not I," said the duck.
"Not I," said the pig.
"Not I," said the goose.
"Then I will," said the little red hen. And she did. The wheat grew tall and ripened into golden grain. "Who will help me reap my wheat?" asked the little red hen.
"Not I," said the duck.
"Out of my classification," said the pig.
"I'd lose my seniority," said the cow.
"I'd lose my unemployment compensation," said the goose.
"Then I will," said the little red hen, and she did.
At last the time came to bake the bread. "Who will help me bake bread?" asked the little red hen.
"That would be overtime for me," said the cow.
"I'd lose my welfare benefits," said the duck.
"I'm a dropout and never learned how," said the pig.
"If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination," said the goose.
"Then I will," said the little red hen.
She baked five loaves and held them up for the neighbors to see.
They all wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, "No, I can eat the five loaves myself."
"Excess profits," cried the cow.
"Capitalist leech," screamed the duck.
"I demand equal rights," yelled the goose.
And the pig just grunted.
And they painted "unfair" picket signs and marched round and around the little red hen shouting obscenities.
When the government agent came, he said to the little red hen, "You must not be greedy."
"But I earned the bread," said the little red hen.
"Exactly," said the agent. "That's the wonderful free enterprise system. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations productive workers must divide their products with the idle."
And they lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, "I am grateful, I am grateful."
But her neighbors wondered why she never again baked any more bread....
A Parable about Socialism
A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words, redistribution of wealth.
She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Conservative, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.
One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school.
Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, as she worked with other people in a group. Most of them were competent and they all worked more or less to the best of their abilities. However, due to the fact that she had formed the group, she got to distribute the grades and often saved the best for herself, based solely on the fact that she formed the group, rather than on individual performance and despite the fact that all the others worked just as hard and contributed just as much,
Her father listened and then asked, 'How is your friend Audrey doing?' She replied, 'Audrey is barely getting by. She hasn't sucked up to anyone, nor has she been particularly ruthless. As a result, I've only given her a 2.0, despite her working just as hard as me. Her wise father asked his daughter, 'Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of your GPA.'
The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, 'That's a crazy idea, how would that be fair! I formed the group! I had an idea that others, like Audrey, improved upon and then combined with their own ideas, then I took the credit and praise. I should be the one who gets the grades, even if the others are putting forth just as much if not more effort.'
The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, 'Welcome to the conservative's philosophy.'
Socialism In The Classroom
An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student, but had once failed an entire class.
The class (students) insisted that socialism worked since no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism."
"All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A," said the professor.
After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who had studied hard were upset while the students who had studied very little were happy.
But, as the second test rolled around, the students who had studied little studied even less and the ones who had studied hard decided that since they couldn't make an A, they also studied less. The second Test average was a D.
No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average grade was an F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling, all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for anyone else.
To their great surprise they all failed.
The professor told them that socialism, too, would ultimately fail because of the same basic human principles of incentive.
The harder people try to succeed the greater their reward (capitalism), but when a government takes all the reward away (socialism) no one will try or succeed.
The Drowning Man
A conservative and a liberal are walking along the beach when they see a man drowning a hundred feet off shore. The conservative throws him a 50 foot rope and shouts to the victim "You provide the other fifty feet." The liberal throws the man a 200 foot rope...and lets go of both ends.
The Missing Child
A little girl is late home from school one day. Her mother becomes increasingly worried and after 15 minutes have passed is beside herself with anxiety. Afraid to leave the house in case the child returns, and desperate to go look for her, she is on the verge of telephoning the police when the child waltzes in through the door as though nothing is amiss. Relieved and angry the mother cries: "Where have you been?! I've been so worried!"
The child answers that she had been with the woman who lived just next door, who had very recently lost her husband. "What have you been doing bothering the poor lady next door?" the mother asks crossly.
"I haven't been bothering her, I've been comforting her," says the little girl.
"Comforting her? You're just a child, what could you do to comfort her?"
"I sat in her lap and I cried with her."
Sometimes there are no solutions, no smart come-backs, no quick fixes that can be determined through intellectual reasoning or policy making. As Dreher says: Politics and economics won’t save us; if our culture is to be saved at all, it will be by faithfully living by the Permanent Things, conserving these ancient moral truths in the choices we make in our everyday lives.
The Atheist and the Believer
An atheist and a believer were having a discussion. "I don't believe in anything I can't understand!" cried the atheist. "Ah," said the believer gently. "Then your beliefs must be very small."
"How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin."
by R.W. Grant
While junketing in Africa Our senator one day A friendly tribe did gather 'round To hear what he would say.
Said he, "I bring enlightment!" "Umgawa!" they all cried "If you'd but follow our advice!" "Umgawa!" they replied.
"I'll tell you how our system works, I'll tell you how it's run: We serve the public good by force! And this is how it's done:
"If one needs what others earn No longer need one steal it! Our government now does the job And people hardly feel it!
"Umgawa!" they cried out again - The senator continued then: And we will show you how it's done, And we will show the way, So you may have Utopia As in the U.S.A.!"
Our senator was finished now. The chief rose with a smile: "Thank you for your words," he said, "Now stay with us a while!"
The senator was pleased as punch With witnessing that day The happy people at their work, The children at their play, As he was greeted all about: "Umgawa!" was the happy shout.
And now the chieftain said, "My friend, Come see our cattle which we tend!" So off across the pasture now The senator was led - But suddenly the chief said "Wait!" He took his arm and said:
"A word of caution ere we pass - Don't step before you look - Lest, my friend, you tread upon Umgawa underfoot!"
The Graduate's Gift
An arrogant young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer's showroom, and knowing his wealthy father could easily afford it, he told him that was all he wanted.
As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. Finally, on the morning of his graduation, his father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautifully wrapped gift box. Curious, and somewhat disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with the young man's name embossed in gold.
Angry, he shouted at his father and said "with all your money, you give me a Bible?" and stormed out of the house.
Many years passed and the young man had become very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father now was getting old, and thought perhaps he should go see him. He had not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care of things.
When he arrived at his father's house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart. He began to search through his father's important papers and saw the still gift-wrapped Bible, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. His father had carefully underlined a verse, Matt.7:11, "And if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father which is in Heaven, give to those who ask Him?"
As he read those words, a car key dropped from the back of the Bible. It had a tag with the dealer's name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had wanted. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words PAID IN FULL.
The Pitcher, the Chicken, and the Crow
A thirsty chicken and a thirsty crow were each given a pitcher of water. First they tried reaching into the pitchers with their beaks, but neither could reach the water. Then they tried pushing the pitchers over, but they were heavy and sturdily built so they would not tip.
The chicken began flapping its wings and strutted up to the crow. "No fair!" squawked the chicken "the greedy farmer hasn't given us enough water." The crow shrugged, and began hopping around the pitcher, looking at it this way and that.
The chicken strutted off and went to complain to the farmer. It squawked and squawked, but the farmer ignored it. It went back to the crow, who was grabbing pebbles in his beak and dropping them into its pitcher with pebbles. "Come with me!" it said, "Let's demand that the farmer give us our water!" The crow ignored it and returned to his work.
The chicken went again to the farmer and decided to take its protest to the next level. It scratched and pecked at the farmer's leg, cutting the skin, until the farmer angrily kicked it away. Indignant, the chicken went back to the crow, squawking more than ever. "That brutal farmer kicked me," it complained. "when all I was doing was demanding my rights."
By this point the crow was standing on the top of his pitcher, happily drinking. He had dropped enough pebbles into the pitcher that the water level had risen nearly to the top. The chicken saw this and walked up to the crow to complain. "Unfair!" it cried. "I want water too."
The crow looked over at the chicken and told him: "I have water because while you were complaining, I was looking for a way to get the water. The first two ways did not work, but I kept trying until I came up with something better. Then I patiently put in the hard work to put my plan into action, and now, finally, I can drink. You can do the same with your pitcher, and you will have water too. You are bigger and stronger than me, so it will be even easier for you."
The chicken strutted over to his pitcher and picked up one pebble and dropped it in and sat down. "This is hard work!" it complained "I'm thirsty and I'm tired."
The crow looked over at the chicken and said "just this one time I will be charitable. You can drink from my pitcher, but next time you must do the work yourself."
The chicken hopped up and stuck its head down. Because its beak was shorter than the crow's, it could not quite reach the water.
"You cheated me!" it cried, "I cannot reach the water!"
"I am sorry," said the crow, "but you are only a few pebbles short. Surely you can do the tiny bit of work yourself."
The crow flew off, its thirst satiated. The chicken scratched at the ground and squawked and squawked but nobody would listen and it stayed thirsty.
- God Guided Me And Protected Me. 7 News: The Denver Channel
- This parable is based on the birth and life of Tim Tebow.
- The Coase Theorem: The Greatest Economic Insight of the 20th Century
- Bob Novak, a Giant of Journalism
- Ronald Reagan By Peter J. Wallison
- Dreher, Rod. "A Crunchy Con Manifesto" National Review Online. 26 December 2007.
- Cottrell, Stephen. I Thirst. (Zondervan; Grand Rapids, Michigan; 2003.) ISBN 0-310-25069-2
- Ronald Reagan; Communism
- Essay:Greatest Conservative Parables
- New Testament understanding through the Jewish perspective Example 3 [the enacted parable] | <urn:uuid:f816c582-bd48-40b7-8e32-efa2bab63239> | {
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Like outdoor plants, indoor plants can be bothered by insect pests. In fact, it is quite common for insects to enter your home and take up residence on a houseplant. Gnats are one of the most common types of indoor plant insect pests. They often swarm around the plant in a little cloud, rising up to annoy you when you touch or otherwise disturb the plant. If not dealt with in a timely manner, they can quickly spread to other, nearby plants.
Remove the plant from other indoor plants so that it is isolated. This will prevent any of the adult gnats from moving to a safe haven.
Take the plant outside and hit it with a blast of water, if it is not a fragile indoor plant. This will knock many of the adult gnats right off the plant.
Place yellow sticky traps near the plant. These are designed to trap and kill the adult gnats. The adult gnats don't actually harm the plant, but they will continue to lay eggs unless you kill them. Place the traps on the surface next to the plant. If your plant is very tall, use a paper clip to attach the sticky trap (which is similar in size and shape to an index card) to some of the foliage at the top of the plant.
Place a slice of raw potato on top of the soil to check for the presence of gnat larvae. They will chew on the potato if they are living in the soil. Gnat larvae feed on the roots of indoor plants, damaging their ability to intake nutrients and moisture.
Let the top layer of soil dry out between waterings down to an inch or two. This will kill off much of the larvae, which need moist soil to thrive. Do not let water sit in the tray underneath the plant.
Remove plant debris, such as dead leaves, from the soil. Larvae also feed on decaying organic material.
Place a half-inch of sand on top of the soil. This will dry out the soil and suffocate the larvae as well.
Drench the soil with an insecticide, but because this can harm some indoor plants, do this step only as a last resort. | <urn:uuid:91b54647-c922-40e2-aed7-11a2e37dd8f9> | {
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Mediterranean Diet Helps Protect Aging Brain
TUESDAY, April 27 (HealthDay News) -- Eating a Mediterranean diet may help keep your brain healthy as you age, findings from an ongoing study show.
"This diet emphasizes vegetables, fruits, fish, olive oil, lower meat consumption, and moderate wine and non-refined grain intake," study author Dr. Christy Tangney, of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, said in a news release from the American Society for Nutrition.
Rather than asking people to avoid certain foods, the study found data that "adults over age 65 should look to include more olive oil, legumes, nuts, and seeds in their diet in order to improve their recall times and other cognitive skills, such as identifying symbols and numbers," Tangney said.
The study included 4,000 adults aged 65 and older who were given a series of tests to examine their cognitive (or thinking) skills every three years over a 15-year period. Those who scored highest in following a Mediterranean diet were least likely to suffer cognitive decline, the study authors found.
"We [also] want older adults to remember that physical activity is an important part of maintaining cognitive skills," Tangney added.
The findings were slated to be presented Monday at the Experimental Biology 2010 meeting in Anaheim, Calif.
The AGS Foundation for Healthy Aging offers cognitive vitality tips for older adults.
Four Unhealthy Behaviors Linked to Premature Death
MONDAY, April 26 (HealthDay News) -- A combination of four unhealthy behaviors -- smoking, lack of exercise, poor diet and substantial alcohol consumption -- greatly increases the risk of premature death, a new study has found.
The study, published in the April 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, included 4,886 people, aged 18 or older, who were interviewed in 1984-1985.
"A health behavior score was calculated, allocating one point for each poor behavior: smoking; fruits and vegetables consumed less than three times daily; less than two hours of physical activity per week; and weekly consumption of more than 14 units [one unit equals 8 grams, or about 0.3 ounces] of alcohol (in women) and more than 21 units in men," wrote Elisabeth Kvaavik, of the University of Oslo, and colleagues.
Over an average follow-up period of 20 years, there were 1,080 reported deaths among study participants: 431 due to cardiovascular disease, 318 due to cancer and 331 due to other causes. Compared to those with no bad health habits, those with all four unhealthy behaviors were about three times more likely to die of cardiovascular disease or cancer, four times more likely to die from all other causes, and had an overall death risk equivalent to being 12 years older.
"Modest but achievable adjustments to lifestyle behaviors are likely to have a considerable impact at both the individual and population level," the researchers concluded. "Developing more efficacious methods by which to promote healthy diets and lifestyles across the population should be an important priority of public health policy."
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about healthy living.
Short-Term Program for Binge Eaters Breaks New Ground
THURSDAY, April 1 (HealthDay News) -- A 12-week, self-guided program to stop binge eating is effective and can save patients money, according to U.S. researchers.
Participants in the program were asked to read the book "Overcoming Binge Eating," which includes scientific information about binge eating and includes a six-step self-help program using self-monitoring, self-control and problem-solving strategies.
The participants, average age 37, also attended eight therapy sessions over 12 weeks. During the sessions, counselors explained the reasons for cognitive behavioral therapy and helped participants apply the strategies in the book.
By the end of the 12-week program, 63.5 percent of participants had stopped binge eating, compared with 28.3 percent of control group members who received usual care. Six months later, 74.5 percent of program participants were not binge eating, compared to 44.1 percent of those in the control group. After one year, the figures were 64.2 percent and 44.6 percent, respectively.
Total costs for the program were $3,670 per person per year, compared to $4,098 for those in the control group. Patients in the control group spent $149 less than those in the control group because they spent less on weight loss programs and over-the-counter medications and supplements.
The findings appear in the April issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.
"It is unusual to find a program like this that works well, and also saves the patient money. It's a win-win for everyone," study author Frances Lynch, a health economist at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, said in a news release.
Recurrent binge eating is the most common eating disorder in the United States, affecting more than three percent of the population (nine million people).
The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about binge eating.
Popular Diet Plans Can Unclog Arteries
MONDAY, March 1 (HealthDay News) -- Any one of three heart-healthy diets -- low-fat, low-carbohydrate, Mediterranean -- can reverse the thickening of artery walls that can lead to heart attack and stroke, an Israeli study indicates.
"Once one adheres to a sensible diet, even though you experience only a moderate weight loss, if you stick to it long enough you can cause regression of atherosclerosis," explained Iris Shai, a nutritional epidemiologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and lead author of a report to be published in the March 16 print issue of the journal Circulation.
Atherosclerosis involves a thickening and narrowing of blood vessels. When narrowing leads to a full blockage of blood flow, heart attacks or strokes are the result.
Shai and her colleagues assigned 140 middle-aged, overweight men and women to one of three low-calorie diets: low-fat; low-carbohydrate; or the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes fruits, vegetables and healthy fats such as those found in olive oil.
About one-third of the participants were taking blood pressure medications and one-quarter were taking cholesterol-lowering medications, mostly statins.
The researchers tracked the participants' adherence to the recommended diet, as well as their weight and blood pressure. Using ultrasound scans to obtain three-dimensional images, the team also assessed the volume and thickness of the carotid arteries, the major vessels carrying blood to the brain.
After two years, the researchers found that dieters experienced a significant 5 percent reduction in average carotid artery wall volume and a 1.1 percent reduction in carotid wall thickness.
There were also moderate reductions in blood pressure and average weight.
"With a healthy diet and only moderate weight loss and reduction in blood pressure, you can see regression of plaque that naturally progresses over the years," Shai said.
All three diets had certain elements in common -- an increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, and decreased consumption of dangerous trans-fats, especially those found in processed foods, she said.
"The message seems to be that weight loss, no matter how you accomplish it, is good for the carotid artery," said Dr. Robert H. Eckel, professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, a past president of the American Heart Association.
While the reduction in blood pressure was perhaps the most important dietary effect, "with weight reduction many things change in the right direction," Eckel said.
Anyone undertaking to follow such a diet must be prepared to stick with it over the long run, he stressed.
"Blood pressure measured during active weight loss is bound to fall," Eckel said. "But that might not be sustained. Blood pressure must continue to be monitored, and treated to reach a goal."
Find out more about heart-healthy diets at the American Heart Association. | <urn:uuid:1e35cf26-e71d-4845-86f7-7285acdb97a5> | {
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E. Cobham Brewer 18101897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Rum and water, cold without. Admiral Vernon was called Old Grog by his sailors because he was accustomed to walk the deck in rough weather in a grogram cloak. As he was the first to serve water in the rum on board ship, the mixture went by the name of grog. Six-water grog is one part rum to six parts of water. Grog, in common parlance, is any mixture of spirits and water, either hot or cold. | <urn:uuid:04a9c292-8ef6-4b17-9805-502d7d75636d> | {
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An interactive activity which involves students choose individual blocks with single letters on to build a word which is spelt out on a singular block. Great for practising phonics with younger pupils.
Real or nonsense words or trash or treasure! You simply write letters on plastic cups (I, of course, used Red Solo Cups). I can easily switch any of the sounds out and my student can blend the new word. It works on real words and nonsense words | <urn:uuid:3fc8d302-f295-4d44-8c3c-ec6d782412ac> | {
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