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Stroke threat to human life is very large, so it is necessary to understand some of our knowledge of stroke. How would you know if someone were having a stroke? Let’s investigate the early warning signs, the causes, and ways to prevent stroke.
What is a stroke?
A stroke is the result of the blood supply to part of the brain being suddenly interrupted, either by a clot blocking the blood vessel, or when a blood vessel or aneurysm in the brain bursts. What happens is that the blood spills out into the spaces surrounding the brain cells and cuts off the blood and oxygen supply to cells beyond the burst area.
What causes a stroke?
- Arteries narrowing with age (also known as ‘arteriosclerosis’)
- High blood pressure and high cholesterol
- Alcohol abuse
- An irregular heartbeat
- Haemorrhagic strokes can also be caused by treatment with blood-thinning medicines given to prevent blood clots (such as warfarin).
What are the early warning symptoms?
- Sudden confusion or trouble speaking or understanding speech
- Sudden numbness or weakness, especially on one side of the body
- Sudden trouble seeing with one or both eyes
- Sudden trouble with walking
- Loss of balance or coordination
- Sudden, severe headache with no known cause
What is the best way to prevent stroke?
Strokes can usually be reduced by making positive lifestyle changes such as:
- Make regular exercise a habit
- Eat a healthy diet
- Don’t smoke
- Only drink alcohol in moderation, if at all
- Manage cholesterol levels and high blood pressure with a healthy lifestyle and medication
- Know your family medical family and get regular check-ups
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The so-called Cleveland Massacre was the beginning of John D. Rockefeller's drive toward an oil monopoly, and it is considered one of his shrewdest operations. The fact that he carried out this campaign in the midst of the most unfortunate episode of his business career (the demise of the infamous South Improvement Company) truly shows just how focused and ruthless Rockefeller could be.
Launched in late 1871 by Tom Scott, the president of the powerful Pennsylvania Railroad, the South Improvement Company (S.I.C.) was a secret alliance between the railroads and a select group of large refiners aimed at stopping "destructive" price-cutting and restoring freight charges to a profitable level. According to the pact, the railroads would raise their rates, but would agree to pay rebates to Rockefeller and other large refiners, thus securing their steady business. In addition, the latter were to receive the proceeds of the "drawbacks" levied on nonmembers, who as a result would end up paying much higher prices for their shipments of oil.
When news of the secret deal was leaked to newspapers in Pennsylvania's Oil Region, the area most hurt by it, the independent oilmen were stunned and outraged. Fourteen-year-old Ida Tarbell, the daughter of one of them, witnessed the reaction: "At the news all Oildom rushed into the streets," she wrote 30 years later in her The History of the Standard Oil Company. "Nobody waited to find out his neighbor's opinion. On every lip there was but one word, and that was 'conspiracy.' For weeks the whole body of oil men abandoned regular business and surged from town to town intent on destroying the 'Monster,' the 'Forty Thieves,' the 'great Anaconda,' as they called the mysterious South Improvement Company. Their temper was shown by the mottoes on the banners they carried: 'Down with the conspirators'; 'No compromise'; 'Don't give up the ship!'"
Rockefeller, one of the leading members of the new alliance, thought it preposterous to deem it a conspiracy: "There is so much false pretence in all this talk about rebates!," he would argue in an interview conducted almost 50 years later. "Rebates and drawbacks were a common practice for years preceding and following this history. So much of the clamor against rebates and drawbacks came from people who knew nothing about business. Who can buy beef the cheaper -- the housewife for her family, the steward for a club or hotel, or the quartermaster or commissary for an army? Who is entitled to better rebates from a railroad, those who give it for transportation 5,000 barrels a day, or those who give 500 barrels -- or 50 barrels?"
But the secrecy and dubious legality of the pact soon earned the independents popular sympathy. Calling it "the oil war," the New York press seized on the clash between S.I.C. refiners and Pennsylvania oil producers, who had decided to boycott the new alliance.
Finally, in April of 1872, the South Improvement Company's charter was repealed by the Pennsylvania legislature before it had even conducted a single transaction. The independents were ecstatic. But Rockefeller, indifferent to the fact that he had been singled out as the villain in the Oil Regions drama, refused to dwell on the fallout from this, his first big failure. "We, the Standard Oil people, did not originate the South Improvement Company," he said years later. "It was not our idea. We did not organize it, did not think from the beginning that there was much promise in it. We acceded to it because [its leaders], we hoped, would be helpful to us ultimately. We were willing to go with them as far as the plan could be used; so that when it failed we would be in a position to say, 'Now, try our plan.'"
As it turned out, Rockefeller had been carrying out "his plan" even before the demise of S.I.C. Eager to consolidate the refining industry, he set out to eliminate what he called "ruinous" competition from his most immediate rivals. In less than six weeks, between February and March of 1872, he used the threat of the big new alliance and a sophisticated range of tactics to buy up 22 of his 26 Cleveland competitors.
While the public and many in the industry were caught up in the South Improvement Company crisis, Rockefeller had already moved beyond that momentary defeat. He now controlled what would become the foundation for the biggest industrial empire of its time. "It was really the first great step on John D.'s march to industrial supremacy," says biographer Ron Chernow, "because once he had a monopoly over the Cleveland refineries, he then marched on and did the same thing in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, and the other refining centers. So that was really the major turning point in his career, and it was really one of the most shameful episodes in his career." | <urn:uuid:df95a9b2-104a-4ca4-a158-1defe75bbd91> | {
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This species has been much confused with Indigofera articulata Gouan.[
Indigofera coerulea is a stout shrubby semi-woody herb or shrub that can grow up to 2 metres tall[
Indigo, of which this species is a secondary source, has a very long history of use as a dye. Because of its fascinating deep blue colour, its great colour fastness to light and the wide range of colours obtained by combining it with other natural dyes, it has been called 'the king of dyes' and no other dye plants have had such a prominent place in as many civilizations as this genus. It was at one time widely cultivated for this purpose but, with the advent of synthetic dyes, demand for the plant dropped dramatically[
]. It is still sometimes grown for indigo in drier areas[
Africa - Egypt, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda, Djibuti, Somalia, Kenya; through the Arabian Peninsula to Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka.
Subdesert and open Acacia - Commiphora bushland; sandy-clayey hollows, humid or flooded; dry grassland; roadsides; coastal arid plains; at elevations from 200 - 2,700 metres[
|Other Uses Rating||
|Cultivation Status||Cultivated, Wild
A plant of arid and semi-arid tropical and subtropical areas, where it is found at elevations from 200 - 2,700 metres. It can be found in areas where the mean annual rainfall is as low as 200 - 250mm[
The dried, ground up leaves and roots are used as a wound dressing[
An extract of the leaves is drunk as a remedy for constipation and is applied as a wash against infected eyes[
All the above-ground parts of the plant are a source of the dye indigo, which is used to colour textiles blue. The leaves and twigs do not actually contain indigo but colourless precursors that must be extracted and then processed in order to produce the indigo dye[
The harvested leafy branches are placed in a tank containing water to which some lime has been added, and are weighted down with planks[
]. After some hours of fermentation, during which enzymic hydrolysis leads to the formation of indoxyl, the liquid is drained off and then stirred continuously for several hours to stimulate oxidation of the indoxyl[
]. Afterwards the solution is left to rest and the insoluble indigo settles to the bottom as a bluish sludge[
]. The water is drained and after the indigo has dried, it is cut into cubes or made into balls[
To dye textiles, indigo is reduced to a soluble form by a fermentation process under alkaline conditions. In traditional preparations of the dye, various reducing agents such as molasses are used, together with coconut-milk, bananas and the leaves of Psidium guajava[
]. The alkalinity is maintained by adding lime. After the textile has been dipped into solution it turns blue when exposed to the air[
Seed - it has a hard seedcoat and may benefit from scarification before sowing in order to speed up and improve germination. This can usually be done by pouring a small amount of nearly boiling water on the seeds (being careful not to cook them!) and then soaking them for 12 - 24 hours in warm water. By this time they should have imbibed moisture and swollen - if they have not, then carefully make a nick in the seedcoat (being careful not to damage the embryo) and soak for a further 12 hours before sowing.
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“Dumping toxin-laced water into the Ottawa River must stop”
Sixteen thousand litres of water contaminated with radioactive tritium, PCBs, and other toxins – at levels hundreds of times greater than Ontario and Canadian surface water quality standards – were dumped directly into the Ottawa River in 2015 from a non-operating nuclear reactor in Rolphton, Ontario, says a report by expert hydrogeologist, Wilf Ruland.
From 1997 to 2015, an annual average of 26,000 litres of radioactive water were discharged into the Ottawa River from the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor. The report notes that these releases “appear to have been ongoing for decades, and continue.” Ruland analyzed test results published by Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, which operates the site.
Ruland is a specialist in groundwater and surface water contamination, and has served as an expert witness before the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and other environmental tribunals. His report was prepared for the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council and submitted to the CNSC as an independent review of hydrogeological issues related to the Nuclear Power Demonstration Closure Project.
“Radioactive substances, PCBs and toxic metals are accumulating in the Ottawa River,” added Norm Odjick, Director General of the Anishinabeg Council. “Millions of Canadians drink this water, including the residents of Ottawa and Montreal. These releases are shocking.”
Levels of radioactive tritium were 586 times higher than Ontario’s Provincial Water Quality Objective (PWQO) for surface water quality in the 2015 releases. The contaminated water also contained 5,450 nanograms per litre of PCBs — while the Ontario PWQO is only one nanogram per litre.
The water also contained mercury, cadmium, copper and lead at levels up to 1,720 times higher than the regulatory guidelines (Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment).
The federal government owns the Rolphton (NPD) Reactor. Located about 100 metres from the Ottawa River, it was shut down in 1987 and has since been maintained in “long-term storage.” All federal nuclear sites are run by Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), which in September 2015, was privatized to a consortium of US, UK and Canadian companies, including SNC Lavalin.
In September 2017, CNL submitted a proposal to “entomb” the NPD reactor in concrete to the CNSC, the federal agency that regulates the nuclear industry.
“Reactor entombment wouldn’t stop groundwater from penetrating cracks in the concrete walls of the reactor vault, then re-emerging and transporting contaminants down to the river,” says Dr. Ole Hendrickson, a researcher for the Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area (CCRCA); “the entombment proposal is problematic for many reasons and is not a solution to the leaking of contaminated water."
CNL is also proposing to build a landfill-type nuclear waste disposal facility at Chalk River to contain at least 1 million cubic metres of radioactive and toxic waste, domestic and imported. The CNSC is to rule on both proposals this year. | <urn:uuid:e0adc40c-36e6-42f7-97c1-5dc56956076d> | {
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You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
The Rise and Fall of the British Textile Industry
Textile production in Britain can be said to have its roots as an industry at the beginning of the 18th century, when Thomas Crotchet and George Sorocold established what is thought to be the first factory built in Britain. It was a textile mill with a waterwheel as its source of power, the latest machinery, and even accommodation for the workers. As well as possibly being the first sweatshop in the modem sense, it was the beginning of the end for traditional textile production.
For hundreds of years the spinning and weaving of cloth had been done manually by men, women and children in their own homes. The yarn would be combed and spun using a spindle, then woven on a hand loom, and what they produced would be mainly for local consumption.Technology far more sophisticated than the spindle and hand-loom would change all that.
The demand for cotton textiles had been growing since the Middle Ages, fostered by the importation of high quality cotton fabrics from the Middle East and India. So how were local producers to fight off the competition? The imported fabrics were of course expensive, so textile makers (not just in Britain but throughout Europe) produced mixed fabrics and cotton substitutes. They also had foreign textiles banned. But the key to the increased productivity needed to meet the demand, was machine production. It would be fester, cheaper and the finished products would be consistent in quality. Not least of the advantages was that it would allow manufacturers to market their goods on a large, if not yet global, scale.
The story of the growth of the British textile industry from about 1733 and for the next two hundred years is one of constant technological innovation and expansion. In 1733 John Kay invented the fly-shuttle, which made the hand-loom more efficient, and in 1764 James Hargreaves came up with the spinning jenny, which among other things had the effect of raising productivity eightfold. The next great innovator was Richard Arkwright, who in 1768 employed John Kay (of the fly-shuttle) to help him build more efficient machinery. He was a man with a vision – to mechanise textile production – and by 1782 he had a network of mills across Britain. As the water-powered machinery, though not yet fully mechanised, became more complex, Kay began to use steam engines for power.The first power-loom, however, which was invented in 1785 by Dr Edmund Cartwright, really did mechanise the weaving stage of textile manufacture.
The pace of growth quickened with the expansion of Britain’s influence in the world and the acquisition of colonies from which cheap raw materials could be imported. For example, in a single decade, from 1781 to 1791, imports of cotton into Britain quadrupled, going on to reach 100 million pounds in weight in 1815 and 263 million in 1830. The increase in exports is equally impressive; in 1751 £46,000 worth of cloth was exported and by the end of the century this had risen to £5.4 million. By the end of the 19th century the figure had soared to close on £50 million. Britain was now supplying cheaper and better quality clothing to a global market. Yet during the course of the 20th century Britain lost its position as a major textile manufacturer.
So what happened? There are a number of views on this question, not all of them conflicting, and where there is disagreement it is usually about when the decline began. Whether it began before the First World War (1914-18), or during the inter-war years (1919- 1939), or after 1945, most economists would give roughly the same reasons.To start with, there was competition from abroad, especially from developing countries in the Far East, notably Japan. It was thought by manufacturers that the best way to combat this increased competition was to modernise. However, management and the labour unions were unable to agree on how to handle this situation.
Modernisation would mean people losing their jobs and possibly a change in labour practices. Such changes as were made served only to slow down the industry’s decline rather than help regain its predominant position. Economically less developed countries, on the other hand, had the advantage of being able to provide low wage competition, without the problem of powerful labour unions.
There are, of course, many other reasons for the textile industry’s decline, two of which became particularly noticeable in the late twentieth century and are related. The first is outsourcing, when manufacturers establish factories in countries where there is cheap labour. This obviously leads to less demand for locally-produced goods. Related to this, the textile and clothing industries have acquired a bad reputation for exploiting workers, often illegal immigrants, in sweatshops where they are forced to work long hours and are paid far less than the minimum wage.
We seem to be back with Crotchet and Sorocold and their first live-in factory. The globalising trend of out sourcing, however, was a rational response to the growing competition from overseas, which, it goes without saying, does not excuse the exploitation of workers. The British industry itself, while no longer holding a key place in the global textile market, has adapted itself and now concentrates more on the world of fashion and design, where it seems to be doing quite well.
Questions 1 -6
Complete the notes below.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Begins as a cottage industry
Products hand-woven and made for 1……………………………………………
Local producers face 2…………………………………………………… from overseas
Ways found to deal with situation
Imported fabrics 3……………………………………………………… , mixed cottons produced
Machine production needed to 4…………………………………………………… for cotton fabrics
Improved technology (such as the fly-shuttle) more 5……………………………………. and productive
Machinery begins to be powered by 6……………………………………………………..
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
A the power-loom7 Which of the following innovations increased productivity by 800%?
B the steam engine
C the spinning jenny
D the fly-shuttle
8 During which period was the British textile industry at its peak?
9 Which of the following was a major cause of the British textile industry’s decline?
A the expansion of foreign textile industries
B the loss of overseas markets
C there being no demand for products
D labour becoming too expensive
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1 ?
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
10 Foreign textiles were banned because of their inferior quality.
11 Richard Arkwright built the first fully mechanised textile mill.
12 In less developed countries, the industry could rely on cheap labour.
13 Out-sourcing was one method used to compete with foreign manufacturers.
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
What is an ASBO?
Ask somebody to make a list of crimes and they will probably come up with the usual suspects that you or I would: murder, robbery, assault, burglary and so on.They might even include acts which are merely’against the law’ like parking on a double yellow line.
But if you ask them to make a list of anti social behaviours, you are getting into an area where there is going to be considerable disagreement This didn’t stop the UK government which introduced Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, or ASBOs, in 1998 as part of the Crime and Disorder Act – legislation designed to deal with practically all aspects of criminal activity and disorderly behaviour.
A subjective definition of anti social behaviour permits you to cast your net wide and include anything you find personally disagreeable; the legal definition is also widely inclusive. To quote the Crime and Disorder Act it is behaviour which ’causes or is likely to cause harassment alarm or distress to one or more people who are not in the same household as the perpetrator’. This includes, among many other things, foul and abusive language, threatening behaviour, shouting, disorderly conduct, vandalism, intimidation, behaviour as the result of drug or alcohol misuse, graffiti and noise which is excessive, particularly at night.
The idea is that ASBOs are sanctions designed to deal with issues that affect everyone in the community and as such are civil sanctions, not criminal ones, and need the cooperation of the community to be effective. For example, a private individual cannot apply for an ASBO; he or she must make a complaint to the police or local authority, who will then work together to gather more information and build up evidence. This involves getting witnesses, among whom will no doubt be neighbours and acquaintances, to make statements to the authorities. When the authorities are satisfied that they have enough evidence, the local council applies to the magistrates’court to have an ASBO imposed
We still haven’t decided what constitutes anti-social behaviour. It doesn’t have to be physical violence, of course, but is far easier to identify and deal with if it is. What about threatening behaviour? We’re not talking here about direct threats such as ‘lf you come round here again. I’ll beat you up!’, but situations perceived as threatening. Let’s say a pensioner or a person of timid disposition is on their way home and they run into a group of young people who are shouting, swearing and kicking a ball about and who happen to make a few unkind . remarks as the person passes. Let’s say the person is alarmed or feels threatened by the situation. Does it merit getting the ASBO process going?
In feet, young people merely hanging out in public places, however boisterous their behaviour might seem to be to some people, are not considered to be indulging in anti-social behaviour. However, there is a proviso. Such behaviour in its own right is not considered anti-social unless it is thought it is being done with other, more serious, behavioural attitudes involved. This, of course, can be very subjective.
A person faced with an ASBO can argue in their defence that their behaviour was reasonable and unthreatening.This too is subjective, and both sides’ claims are open to wide interpretation. Something else that has to be taken into account here is that ASBOs are made on an individual basis even if that person is part of a group of people committing anti-social behaviour. If a case reaches the magistrates’court, witnesses can be called to provide further evidence for or against the defendant. However, the magistrate, as well as considering the complaints made against the defendant, will take into account his or her family situation, welfare issues, and whether or not he or she has been victimised or discriminated against It is worth bearing in mind, though, that witnesses can be intimidated or otherwise persuaded not to appear in court and give evidence.
When the Crime and Disorder Act came into force, ASBOs were generally intended to be a measure to deal with adult anti social behaviour, yet within the Act it states that an order can be applied for against any individual over the age often years old. It is a striking fact that the majority of ASBOs imposed since the law was enacted have been handed out to young people and children.
The question is, have they been effective? The government, naturally, claims that they have brought about a real improvement in the quality of life in communities around the country. Nay-sayers, such as civil rights campaigners, claim the measures are far too open to abuse. Some say they go too far and some that they don’t go far enough and lack bite. However, a genuine impediment to their effectiveness is that to impose an ASBO takes a lot of time and paperwork, involving the cooperation of community, police and local council, and they are very expensive to implement One estimate is that an ASBO can cost in excess of £20,000. What all this means is that ASBOs are being used very rarely in many parts of the country. So the jury is still out as to how effective they really are.
Choose THREE letters A-H.
NB Your answers may be given in any order.
Which THREE of the following statements are true of ASBOs, according to the text?
A They were introduced to deal with specific crimes.
B Parking on a double yellow line could get you served with an ASBO.
C Swearing is one of the offences referred to in the Crime and Disorder Act.
D Asa private householder you can apply for an ASBO against a noisy neighbour.
E It is not illegal for young people to gather in groups in public places.
F An ASBO cannot be served on a group of people behaving in a disorderly manner.
G A large proportion of those served with ASBOs are over the age of 21.
H Most people agree that ASBOs have been effective all over the country.
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D
17 The writer suggests that
A anti-social behaviour should be seen as a crime.
B few people agree on how to define a crime.
C anti-social behaviour is difficult to define.
D the legal definition of crime is too exclusive.
18 What surprised the writer about the imposition of ASBOs?
A the number of ten-year-olds that had been given one
B that very few adults had been served with ASBOs
C that most of those served with ASBOs were youngsters
D how few ASBOs had been imposed since 1998
19 In the writer’s opinion, how effective have ASBOs been?
A There isn’t enough evidence to decide.
B They are too expensive to be effective.
C They are ineffective because they are not strict enough.
D Being open to abuse renders them ineffective.
Complete the sentences.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
20 The official_____________________________ says that anti-social behaviour is behaviour which can cause alarm or distress.
21 Along with swearing and destruction of public or private property, making ____________ noise is considered anti social behaviour.
21 ASBOs are considered to be part of _______________________ law rather than criminal law.
23 Citizens have to____________________________ to either the local council or the police before any action can be taken.
24 In their efforts to collect evidence the authorities may call on ________________ to get more information.
25 ASBOs are issued at a_____________________________ .
26 ___________________________ is the most straightforward form of anti-social behaviour to determine.
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.
The Climate Changers
The romantic notion that early humans lived in harmony with their environment has taken quite a battering lately. Modem humans may have started eliminating other species right from the start; our ancestors stand accused of wiping out mega fauna – from giant flightless birds in Australia to mammoths in Asia and the ground sloth of North America – as they spread across the planet.
Even so, by around 6,000 years ago there were only about 12 million people on earth – less than a quarter of the current population of Great Britain. That’s a far cry from today’s 6.6 billion, many of us guzzling fossil fuels, churning out greenhouse gases and messing with our planet’s climate like there’s no tomorrow. So it may seem far-fetched to suggest that humans have been causing global warming ever since our ancestors started burning and cutting forests to make way for fields at least 7,000 years ago.
Yet that’s the view of retired climate scientist William Ruddiman, formerly of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Ancient farmers were pumping climate-warming carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere long before recorded history began, he says. Far from causing catastrophe, however, early farmers halted the planet’s descent into another ice age and kept Earth warm and stable for thousands of years.
Could a few primitive farmers really have changed the climate of the entire globe? If you find this hard to believe, you’re not the only one. Ruddiman’s idea has been hugely controversial ever since he proposed it in 2003.’Most new ideas, especially controversial ones, die out pretty fast. It doesn’t take science long to weed them out,’he says. Yet five years on, his idea is still not dead. On the contrary, he says the latest evidence strengthens his case. ‘It has become clear that natural explanations for the rise in greenhouse gases over the past few thousand years are the ones that are not measuring up, and we can reject them,’ he claims.
There is no doubt that the soaring levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that we see in the atmosphere today – causing a 0.7° C rise in average global temperature during the 20th century – are the result of human activities. In the late 1990s, however, Ruddiman started to suspect that our contribution to the global greenhouse began to become significant long before the industrial age began.This was when an ice core drilled at the Vostok station in Antarctica revealed how atmospheric C02 and methane levels have changed over the past 400,000 years. Bubbles trapped in the ice provide a record of the ancient atmosphere during the past three interglacials.
What we see is a regular pattern of rises and falls with a period of about 100,000 years, coinciding with the coming and going of ice ages. There are good explanations for these cycles: periodic changes in the planet’s orbit and axis of rotation alter the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth. We are now in one of the relatively brief, warm interglacial periods that follow an ice age.
Within this larger pattern there are regular peaks in methane every 22,000 years that coincide with the times when the Earth’s orbit makes summers in the northern hemisphere warmest.This makes sense, because warm northern summers drive strong tropical monsoons in southern Asia that both encourage the growth of vegetation and cause flooding, during which vegetation rotting in oxygen-poor water will emit methane. Around the Arctic, hot summers thaw wetlands for longer, again promoting both vegetation growth and methane emission.
In recent times, however, this regular pattern has changed. The last methane peak occurred around 11,000 years ago, at about 700 parts per billion (ppb), after which levels began to fall. But instead of continuing to fall to what Ruddiman says should have been a minimum of about 450 ppb today, the atmospheric methane began to climb again 5,000 years ago.
Working with climate modellers Stephen Verves and John Kutzbach, Ruddiman has shown that if the levels of these gases had continued to fall rather than rising when they did, ice sheets would now cover swathes of northern Canada and Siberia. The world would be heading into another ice age.
So why did both methane and C02 rise over the past few thousand years? In other words, why has this interglacial period been different from previous ones? Could humans be to blame?
Agriculture emerged around the eastern Mediterranean some 11,000 years ago, then shortly afterwards in China and several thousand years later in the Americas. Farming can release greenhouse gases in various ways: clearing forests liberates lots of stored carbon as the wood rots or is burned, for instance, while flooded rice paddies release methane just as wetlands do.
To find out more about early farming, Ruddiman began to dig around in studies of agricultural history. These revealed that there was a sharp rise in rice cultivation in Asia around 5,000 years ago, with the practice spreading across China and south-east Asia. Here at least was a possible source for the unexpected methane rise.
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D
27 One of the claims Ruddiman makes is that
A population growth is responsible for global warming.
B people have affected the climate for thousands of years.
C his ideas are not in the least bit controversial.
D so far scientists have been wrong about global warming.
28 What information did the research at Vostok reveal for the first time?
A that methane levels stabilised about 11,000 years ago
B that Antarctic ice contains methane bubbles
C that the methane levels increased about 5,000 years ago
D that we are now living in a warm interglacial period
29 The climate changers’ of the title are A modem humans.
B climate modellers.
C primitive farmers.
D natural causes.
Complete the summary.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
To many people the controversial idea that our 30_____________ were responsible for global warming appears 31____________ . Yet Ruddiman believes that high levels of carbon dioxide and methane – both 32_____________ , or greenhouse, gases – were being released into the Earth’s atmosphere in times prior to 33_____________ . However, Ruddiman claims that this had a positive effect, as it may well have saved us from another 34_________________________________ .
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if the there is no information on this
35 Some mega fauna have been eliminated by humans in the past 100 years.
36 Agriculture is considered a primary cause of global warming today.
37 Ruddimans idea caused a great deal of argument among scientists.
38 New scientific evidence proves for certain that Ruddimans theory is correct.
39 The 20th century has seen the greatest ever increase in global temperatures.
40 Changes in the Earths orbit can affect global temperatures.
ANSWER KEY FOR IELTS READING PRACTICE TEST
1 local consumption
4 meet (the) demand
6 steam (engines)
7 C because it says in paragraph 4: ‘the spinning jenny, which among other things had the effect of raising productivity eightfold’.
8 D because it says in paragraph 5: ‘By the end of the 19th century the figure had soared to close on £50 million.’
9 A because it says in paragraph 6: ‘it was competition from abroad*.
10 FALSE because in paragraph 3 it describes the foreign fabrics as ‘high quality*
11 NOT GIVEN
12 TRUE because it says in paragraph 6: Economically less developed countries, on the other hand, had the advantage of being able to provide low wage competition.
13 TRUE because it says in paragraph 8: out-sourcing was a rational response to the growing competition from overseas 14-15-16 (in any order)
14 C because it says in paragraph 2: ‘foul and abusive language’
15 E because it says in paragraph 5: “young people merely hanging out in public places, however boisterous their behaviour might seem to be to some people, are not considered to be indulging in anti-social behaviour.
16 F because it says in paragraph 6: “ASBOs are made on an individual basis even if that person is part of a group.
17 C because it says in paragraph 1: “you are getting into an area where there is going to be considerable disagreement*.
18 C because it says in paragraph 7: “It is a striking fact that the majority of ASBOs imposed since the law was enacted have been handed to young people and children*
19 A because it says in paragraph 8: “What all this means is that ASBOs are being used very rarely in many parts of the country. So the jury is still out as to how effective they really are.*
23 make a complaint
25 magistrates’ court
26 Physical violence
27 B because it says in paragraph 2: ‘humans have been causing global warming ever since our ancestors started burning and cutting forests to make way for fields at least 7,000 years ago’ and in paragraph 3: ‘that’s the view of retired climate scientist William Ruddiman’.
28 C because it says in paragraph 8: ‘the atmospheric methane began to climb again 5,000 years ago’.
29 C because Ruddiman s view is that a few primitive farmers’ (paragraph 4) caused global warming when they started burning and cutting forests to make way for fields at least 7,000 years ago (paragraph 1).
33 recorded history
34 ice age
35 FALSE because it says in paragraph 1: our ancestors stand accused of wiping out mega fauna’.
36 NOT GIVEN
37 TRUE because it says in paragraph 4: ‘Ruddimans idea has been hugely controversial’.
38 FALSE because it says in paragraph 4: ‘the latest evidence strengthens his case’ not proves it correct.
39 NOT GIVEN
40 TRUE because it says in paragraph 6: ‘periodic changes in the planet s orbit and axis of rotation alter the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth’.
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How safe is your online social network? Not very, as it turns out. Your friends may not even be human, but rather bots siphoning off your data and influencing your decisions with convincing yet programmed points of view.
A team of computer researchers at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of British Columbia has found that hordes of social bots could not only spell disaster for large online destinations like Facebook and Twitter but also threaten the very fabric of the Web and even have implications for our broader economy and society.
[ The Web browser is your portal to the world -- as well as the conduit that lets in many security threats. InfoWorld's expert contributors show you how to secure your Web browsers in this "Web Browser Security Deep Dive" PDF guide. ]
Four UBC scientists designed a "social botnet" -- an army of automatic "friends." A botmaster herds its troop of social bots, each of which mimics a person like you and me. The researchers then unleashed the social botnet on an unsuspecting Facebook and its billion-plus profiles.
These social bots masquerade as online users, adding posts that seem like they came from real people. But they secretly promote products or viewpoints, and some you might friend use their new connections to siphon off your private information. When coordinated by a botmaster, these social bots can wreak havoc and steal information at a massive scale.
Traditional botnets don't pose a threat to social networks such as Facebook, where users can easily discriminate between artificial and real people. But the social bots tested at UBC imitated people well enough to infiltrate social networks.
That's not such a big issue with only one fake profile, but if the programmer can control hundreds or thousands of them, then it becomes possible to saturate large parts of the system, to gain access to massive amounts of private data, and to wreck the security model that makes online social networks safe.
Furthermore, because so many services build on top of social networks, the risk runs deeper. Many technologies, including data sharing and backups, integrate with sites like Facebook. Their authentication schemes rely on the implicit trust network that social bots are designed to break into.
The UBC researchers came up with a program that creates Facebook profiles and friends regular users. With the right techniques, it's easy for a program to add people on Facebook as friends. The results surprised the UBC team: "We saw that the success rate can be up to 80 percent. That was quite impressive," says researcher Kosta Beznosov.
Amazingly, some of the bots even got unsolicited messages and requests for friendship by people. Perhaps unsurprisingly, female social bots got 20 to 30 times the number of friend requests from people as male social bots did: 300 requests versus 10 to 15 on average.
How to fake a person on a social network
To infiltrate a network, the bots follow a sophisticated set of behavioral guidelines that place them in positions from which they can access and disseminate information, adapting their actions to large scales, and evade host defenses.
To imitate people, social bots create profiles that they decorate, then develop connections while posting interesting material from the Web. In theory, they could also apply chat software or intercept human conversations to enhance their believability. The individual bots can make their own decisions and receive commands from the central botmaster.
The bots operate in phases. The first step is to establish a believable network to disguise their artificial nature. Profiles that people consider "attractive," meaning likable, have an average number of friends. To get near this "attractive" network size, social bots start by befriending each other.
Next, the social bots solicit human users. As the bots and humans become friends, the bots drop their original connections with each other, eliminating traces of artificiality.
Finally, the bots explore their newfound social network, progressively extending their tentacles through friends of friends. As the social bots infiltrate the targets, they harvest all available private data.
UBC researcher Beznosov recalls, "We were inspired by the paper where they befriend your friends, but on a different social network. For example, they know who your Facebook friends are. They can take this information and take a public picture of you, then create a profile on a completely different social network," such as LinkedIn. "At that point, the question we had was whether it's possible to do a targeted type of befriending -- where you want to know information about a specific user -- through an algorithmic way to befriend several accounts on the social network, eventually to become friends with that particular target account that you're interested in."
That targeting of specific users didn't work, so the researchers decided to test how many people they could befriend, with the penetration expanding over waves of friendship circles. The research exploits a principle called "triadic closure," first discovered in traditional sociology a century ago, where two parties connected by a mutual acquaintance will likely connect directly to each other. "We implemented automation on top of that."
There are plenty of tools for creating social botnets
Researcher Ildar Muslukhov notes that the UBC team had to solve many CAPTCHAs, those alphanumeric visual tests of humanness. Optical character recognition products failed frequently, getting the bot accounts blocked, so the researchers turned to human-powered services. "You can buy 1,000 CAPTCHAs for $1. It's people who are working in very poor countries, and they're making $1 a day." CAPTCHA companies coordinate the human responders and automate the service.
"We were amazed by the quality of APIs they provide you. They provide you with libraries for any possible language, like C++, C#, .Net, Java, whatever," Muslukhov says. "You just import their library and you call the function with an image inside, and they return you within five seconds a string with the CAPTCHA." Accuracy is claimed to be 87 percent, but the researchers decided to do the work manually in its testing to optimize the outcomes.
The basic infrastructure costs around $30 per bot. Ready-made networks with tens of thousands of connections can provide an instant "army of bots," as Muslukhov puts it. "We chatted with one of the guys online. He responded to us with some features -- they had this already made."
It's not easy to stop the social bots
The complexity of social botnets makes it difficult to craft an effective security policy against them, the UBC researchers say. Widespread access to online services, including features such as crawling social networks and ease of participation, introduces conflicts between security and usability.
Security online relies on several assumptions. One key assumption is that fake accounts have a hard time making friends -- in other words, you can easily tell apart a real or fake account, by looking at its friendship circle. The UBC experiment proves social bots can be human enough to trump this assumption.
When the fakes ingrain themselves so well in the network that they are indistinguishable from the authentic accounts, you face a more fundamental concern: How do you rely on data in your social network? After all, many technological, economical, social, and political activities depend on that info.
For example, Facebook lets users interact automatically with the site, so outside service providers can integrate their offerings. This makes it as easy for social bots to use Facebook as it is for people. Facebook also lets users browse through extensive data sets, to make the site more convenient and useful. Social bots can take advantage of this laxity to harvest massive amounts of private data.
The UBC researchers divide the available defensive strategies into prevention and limitation. Prevention requires changing the prospects facing a potential social botnet operator. In other words, that means putting up more barriers for automated access, because such automation favors computer-driven invaders. That of course risks turning away human users who don't want to jump through the hurdles either.
Limitation means accepting that infiltrations will occur and focuses on capping the damage. Today, social networks rely on limitation to respond to adversaries: They observe differences in the structure and actions of social botnets compared to human networks, then use that detection to close down artificial accounts. But as social botnets gradually extend their tentacles into human networks, acquiring in the process a similar social structure, this limitation defense becomes less effective.
The social botnet business model
The economics also favor the botnet operators. Many cyber thieves use "zombie" PCs, systems infected with malware that turns them into free processors for the botnets; key loggers and data stealers are common uses of such "zombie" PCs today. Botnet operators could use them for powering the social bots and the botmasters, so the only significant costs are in creating the social bots in the first place.
Of course, botnet operators need enough reach to pay back their investments and make the efforts worth their while. And the cost of massively scaling the botnet -- the programming is much more sophisticated, and the costs of avoiding detection grow as well -- means there's a natural limit to how wide such infiltrations may go. The UBC researchers calculate a social botnet needs just 1,000 or so human friends to be profitable, if data theft is the business model.
That limit could be extended if botnet operators could get each social bot to befriend far more people than ordinarily possible, such as by cycling through friends as it harvests private data, maintaining an ideal-size roster of the average number of friends at any one point but changing the group over time (unlike human networks, which tend to keep the same people for years). Think of it as social climbing for social bots.
Selling Facebook friends would pull in a heftier take than data theft, the researchers found, offering another revenue stream -- or even business model.
Facebook has acknowledged that its service has tens of millions of fake accounts. Other services such as Twitter and comment sections of websites also have hefty numbers of fake accounts used by spammers and phishers. Just imagine how those numbers could grow once social bots become more than a university experiment -- and how much more effective they could be at fooling us all.
This story, "Your Facebook friends may be evil bots," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in computer security at InfoWorld.com. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter. | <urn:uuid:fee39cab-1c49-4452-ba3d-bd0ea7f66109> | {
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1 [singular also + plural verb]
a small group of people or things within a much larger group [≠ majority]:
Gaelic is still spoken in Ireland by a tiny minority.
Only a minority of people support these new laws.
Gay men are a small but significant minority.
minority report (=a report by a minority of a group who do not agree with the others)
2 [countable usually plural]
a group of people of a different race, religion etc from most other people in that country:
People from ethnic minorities often face prejudice.
the very large Russian minorities in Ukraine and Moldova
children from minority groups
the teaching of minority languages in schools
minority leader/businessman/student etc American English
a school with a high proportion of minority students
b) American EnglishSSR
someone who belongs to a group like this:
Businesses are under pressure to hire minorities and women.
to form less than half of a group:
Boys are very much in the minority at the dance class.
to be the only person in a group who has a particular opinion
5 [uncountable] lawSSC
the period of time when someone is below the age at which they become legally responsible for their actions | <urn:uuid:a9ff9a12-29c1-4478-8cb0-83d81847a492> | {
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Hello, I try to plot my graph and also do the legend. However, the legend show a different type of symbol. The example of my code is as below. However when I run my simulation, both current and voltage have symbol ro.
figure(1) hold on
for ii=1:N voltage... resistance.. .. xx(ii) = ii; plot(ii,voltage, 'ro'); end
plot(xx,current, 'rx'); legend('voltage','current',2);
This is because you are plotting data in a loop, and will make N plots with symbol 'ro'. Therefore, also the first N entries in the legend will have 'ro'.
You can fix this by collecting all voltage data in one array, and create a single plot. If that is not possible due to the structure of the data, you can set the handleVisibility to 'off' for all voltage plots with ii > 1. This means they will be skipped in the legend. | <urn:uuid:403cab96-ee93-4013-a4cb-1b17cc36da2a> | {
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Sanitary and storm pipes start to deteriorate as soon as they're put in place. The cost of rehabilitation often falls on the homeowner's shoulders. Photo: C&K Industrial Services
Cities are faced with excessive flows in aging separate sewer systems that originate from infiltration of groundwater and inflow of stormwater. Even newer housing developments can have problems with water in basements. Private property infiltration and inflow (I/I) problems have increased and will continue to increase until municipalities develop structured programs that identify the problem, define the needed rehabilitation, and oversee the repair.
During the 1980s, funding from the construction grants program was offered to municipalities to evaluate their sewer systems and rehabilitate any deficiencies. Engineers and outside contractors performed I/I studies on the mainline sewer system, which is considered public property, and most of the deficiencies found were repaired.
Sometimes problems found on private property also were repaired, but most were left to deteriorate further. Political pressures caused private property rehabilitation to be tabled with the hopes that rehabilitation of public sector or mainline sewers would solve the problem of flooded homes.
In many cases that hope has proven false. Reducing I/I to the municipal sewer system from private property requires a common-sense approach to developing and implementing a program, whether administered in-house or performed by outside consultants.Private Property
The piping network of the residential or private property sewer system is made up of small pipes, generally 4 to 6 inches in diameter. These pipes receive little preventive maintenance and, as a result, begin to deteriorate as soon as they're installed. The foundation drainage pipes and the sanitary and stormwater laterals are the main components of the private property piping network.
Foundation or footer drain: Intended to drain groundwater that accumulates near the walls of the concrete footer, the foundation drain is installed at the base of the foundation wall and generally surrounds the house or building as a perforated pipe. In some older homes this drain is connected to the sanitary lateral. When public storm sewers are installed below the basement elevation, though, the foundation drain can be connected to the storm sewer system. Newer homes have a sump pit connected to the foundation drains. A sump pump is installed and the discharge line is connected to the stormwater lateral so that groundwater can be pumped to the storm sewer system. | <urn:uuid:13a5b6c9-0df6-4fb0-bdb9-61ad6057023f> | {
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How does the perception of time come about?
How does gravity slow down time?
Does the speed of an object change the passage of time?
How has the relativity of time once again been proved in a study published in Science magazine?
How does the Qur’an refer to time as a relative concept?
The Theory of Relativity revealed that there are different time zones in space, dependent on velocity and position.
Time is a perception, just like smell or touch or sight, and is a means of comparing one moment with another. And just like other perceptions, it takes place in the brain and appears when various imaginary entities within the brain are compared. For example, when we strike an object a specific sound is given off. The same sound is given off when we hit it again 5 minutes later. One imagines that there is an intervening period between the first sound and the second and refers to that as “time.” But the fact is that when he hears the second sound, the first is merely an illusion in his mind and exists solely within his memory. One obtains the perception of time by comparing the moment in one’s memory with the present one. Were it not for that process of comparison, there would be no perception of time.
Time Changes According to the Perceiver
The relativity of time can clearly be experienced in dreams. Even if we imagine that we have been dreaming for hours, they in fact take place in just a few minutes or seconds. Almighty Allah refers to this in the Qur’an in the story of the cave. According to the Qur’an, our Lord kept a community of believers, the Companions of the Cave, in a sleep-like state for some 300 years. When He later woke them they thought they had only been there for a very brief space of time and were unable to estimate how long they had been asleep. This is revealed as follows in the Qur’an:
“So We sealed their ears with sleep in the cave for a number of years. Then We woke them up again so that we might see which of the two groups would better calculate the time they had stayed there.” (Surat al-Kahf, 11-12)
“That was the situation when We woke them up so they could question one another. One of them asked, ‘How long have you been here?’ They replied, ‘We have been here for a day or part of a day.’ They said, ‘Your Lord knows best how long you have been here. Send one of your number into the city with this silver you have, so he can see which food is purest and bring you some of it to eat. But he should go about with caution so that no one is aware of you,” (Surat al-Kahf, 19)
This example from the Qur’an shows that our knowledge regarding the passage of time is based on reference point that alters according to the person perceiving them. The reason why a person says, “I am 30 years old” is that information pertaining to those 30 years has accumulated in his brain. Were it not for his memory, he would be unable to think of the intervening space of time and would live in a constant single “moment.” We think that time is always moving forward because our brains are used to such a method of ordering events. The fact is, however, that this is a decision made in the brain, and is therefore completely relative.
Time Has Been Scientifically Proved to Be a Perception
It was Albert Einstein, regarded as the greatest physicist of the 20th century, who launched the theory of “the Relativity of Time.” According to this theory, known as the theory of relativity, time and space are perceptions. To put it another way, there is no such thing as absolute time. The way we perceive time and space depend on where we are and how we are moving:
The Passage of Time Changes According to the Effect of Gravity:
The position of a body influences time. According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, time slows down under the effect of gravity. Accordingly, the passengers on a plane flying somewhere with lower gravity will age by a few extra nanoseconds on every trip. The renowned physicist Stephen Hawking describes this using the example of twins:
“Consider a pair of twins. Suppose that one twin goes to live on top of a mountain while the other stays at sea level. The first twin would age faster than the second. Thus, if they met again, one would be older than the other.” (Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, p.54)
Einstein and Hawking’s theory that that time passes more slowly near centers of gravity has been proved by experiments conducted by American scientists. A rocket at high altitude and two separate sites with different gravitational fields were selected for the first experiment. Two very sensitive atomic clocks, capable of measuring atomic vibrations were installed in these two locations, which had different gravitational fields because of their different altitudes, and the relative nature of time was confirmed. The scope of the experiment has today been increased and relativity has been observed in daily life. Two atomic clocks hundreds of times more sensitive than the original ones were used for this experiment. But it was not the two sensitive atomic clocks that distinguished this experiment from the earlier one. The difference in elevation between the two clocks was a mere 33 cm.
According to the results of the experiment, published in the American magazine Science on 24 September, being 33 cm higher, in other words two steps higher, causes time to pass faster because pressure is slightly reduced, and someone standing above these two steps ages slightly faster. However, since Almighty Allah has not created this phenomenon in such a way as to eliminate the need for free will, the difference is only one 90 billionth of a second in a life span of 97 years, and is therefore imperceptible to anyone.
The conclusion from these scientific findings summarized very briefly here is that the fact that time is a perception has once again been confirmed. This fact was also revealed hundreds of years ago in the Qur’an. The relevant verses read:
“ ... A day with your Lord is equivalent to a thousand years in the way you count.” (Surat al-Hajj, 47)
“He directs the whole affair from heaven to earth. Then it will again ascend to Him on a Day whose length is a thousand years by the way you measure.” (Surat as-Sajda)
“The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a day whose length is fifty thousand years.” (Surat al-Ma’arij, 4)
The Velocity of an Object Affects the Passage of Time:
Time passes faster or slower depending on the velocity of an object and its position (proximity to center of gravity). The more an object accelerates (in proximity to the center of gravity), the slower the effect of time on it. In other words, time contracts as velocity increases; it passes more slowly, as if approaching a “stop” point. We can clarify this with another example from Einstein. One of two twins of the same age stays on Earth while the other sets off on a space voyage at a speed approaching that of light. When the person who goes into space returns, his twin will be older than he is. The reason is that time passes more slowly for the twin who travels at high speed in space. This conclusion that Einstein arrived at in the 1900s has been confirmed by a NASA-supported project.
NASA confirmed Einstein’s claim that large object such as the Earth bend time and space as they revolve around their own axes by taking measurements using two satellites orbiting the Earth. At the end of the study, the measurements performed showed an annual 2-meter deviation in the direction of the Earth’s movement of the satellites’ orbit around it. In other words, the satellites were being propelled 2 meters outward off their orbits. This is in 99% agreement with Einstein’s calculations regarding the interface of time and space.
The varying effect of an object’s velocity on the passage of time revealed by the NASA satellites has also been determined in daily life by NASA researchers. It appears that when one travels faster than 32 km an hour, time passes more slowly.
The scientific experiments in question prove that we can never know how or even if time passes. That, in turn, shows that time has no absolute reality, that it is simply a perception. This fact, corroborated by modern science, that time is simply a psychological perception and that it can be perceived differently depending on events, location and prevailing conditions, is revealed thus in the Qur’an:
“On the Day He calls you, you will respond by praising Him and think that you have only tarried a very short time.” (Surat al-Isra’, 52)
Time Is a Perception
Let us imagine we are sitting in a room specially designed to have just one window, and that we are spending a specific length of time there. There is a clock by which we can see time passing. We can also see the Sun rise and set periodically from that window. When asked, after a few days, how long we have been in that room, the answer we give will be a calculation based on information acquired from looking at the clock and on how many times the Sun has risen and set. For example, we calculate we have been in the room for three days. But if the person who put us in the room says, “You have actually been here for two days,” and then tells us that the Sun we saw from the window was actually created artificially and that the clock in the room had been specially designed to run fast, then our earlier calculation will be meaningless. This example also shows that our information regarding the passage of time is based on reference points themselves based on perception.
Since all events appear to take place in a specific order, we think that time always moves forward. For example, a skier always skis downward on a mountain, not upward, or a drop of water always flows down a window and not up. The skier’s state at the bottom of the run is the future, and that at the top of the mountain is the past. But if all the information in our memories began to be played backward, like rewinding a film, then the past would be his state at the bottom of the run, and the future would be the condition applying before he sets off.
Almighty Allah Is Unfettered by Time and Space. Human Beings Are Bound by Time and Space Because They Are Weak
Time and space are not absolute concepts, but rather ones with beginnings and that were created out of nothing by Allah. It has been scientifically proved that time is a relative concept, that it is not fixed and unchanging in the way that materialists believed for hundreds of years, and that it is a variable form of perception. In this way, it has totally refuted the materialist claim of “absolute time and an eternal universe.”
Almighty Allah created the “moment” in an infinitely brief moment, together with an eternal past and infinite future. Time was created subsequently, for human beings. Allah, Who created time and space, is of course unfettered by them. Allah determined every moment of time within timelessness, and then created it. That is the essence of the fact of “destiny” that materialists are so at a loss to understand. Everything that for us has happened in the past or will happen in the future, is included within the omniscience and dominion of Allah, Who is unfettered by time and Who created it out of nothing.
Modern science also confirms truths that our Lord revealed in the Qur’an 1400 years ago and that believers have believed in with all their hearts. This once again bears witness that the Qur’an is the word of Allah.
“...They said, ‘Glory be to You! We have no knowledge except what You have taught us. You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.’” (Surat al-Baqara, 32)
- http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/ abstract/ 329/5999/1630;
- http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100923/ full/news.2010.487.html#B1 | <urn:uuid:c963228a-326a-4f36-a9e3-ba8ea022c6b9> | {
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|When DNA Needs to Stand Up and Be Counted|
DNA microarrays are small metal, glass, or silicon chips covered with patterns of short single-stranded DNA (ssDNA). These "DNA chips" are revolutionizing biotechnology, allowing scientists to identify and count many DNA sequences simultaneously. They are the enabling technology for genomic-based medicine and are a critical component of advanced diagnostic systems for medical and homeland security applications. Like digital chips, DNA chips are parallel, accurate, fast, and small. These advantages, however, can only be realized if the fragile biomolecules survive the attachment process intact. Furthermore, biomolecules must be properly oriented to perform their biological function. In other words, the DNA literally must stand up to be counted. Understanding both the attachment and orientation of DNA on gold surfaces was the goal of recent experiments performed at ALS Beamline 8.0.1 by an international collaboration of scientists.
The cornerstone of molecular biology is the study of the structure and function of biomolecules in solution. Likewise, the modified behavior of biomolecules on the surface of a chip or nanoparticle is the foundation of many areas of bio- and nanotechnology. However, characterizing the interactions between biomolecules and surfaces requires new measurement techniques, because most current bioanalytical methods are hindered by the inherently small number of molecules bound to a surface. Complementary surface-sensitive spectroscopies come to the rescue. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) provides quantitative information about elemental composition and surface chemistry. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy adds molecular fingerprints and orientational information. Near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy probes electronic transitions between core levels and valence orbitals.
Short strands of synthetic ssDNA typically used in bio- and nanotechnology are called oligonucleotides or oligos. Oligos with "trivial" sequences composed of only one letter of the DNA alphabet (A, C, G, or T) provide simplified spectroscopic signatures while maintaining realistic DNA structure. Thymine (T) has the simplest nucleobase structure and provides nitrogen atoms and carbonyl groups suitable for complementary measurements by XPS, FTIR, and NEXAFS. Furthermore, features in thymine spectra allow one to distinguish DNA strands lying down on the surface from those standing up.
In excellent agreement, all three techniques showed that strands of five Ts (T5), synthesized without special "linker" groups for surface attachment, lay flat against the surface, while strands modified with a thiol (T5-SH and T25-SH) stood upright, anchored by strong sulfur–gold bonds. Furthermore, signatures of internal molecular ("secondary") structure could be observed by NEXAFS for the upright T5-SH and T25-SH strands. The nitrogen π* orbitals within the T bases could be selectively excited by photons with energies around the nitrogen absorption edge. The polarization dependence of the nitrogen π* intensities then provided information about the orbital orientations, from which the T-base orientations could be deduced. Only minimal preferential orientation was observed for Ts in T25-SH films, consistent with a random-coil-like secondary structure. The Ts in T5-SH, however, showed a surprisingly strong orientation parallel to the surface. This result was corroborated by XPS and FTIR.
The significance of these results goes beyond the structure of a few DNA oligos. For DNA, RNA, and particularly proteins, secondary structure strongly affects function and contains valuable information about molecular interactions. Therefore, the researchers are already extending these analysis methods to larger biomolecules, such as proteins, on surfaces.
The consistent structural information from all three ex situ methods can be best understood if it reflects the common initial in situ structure, thus providing an affirmative answer to the long-standing question, "Can ex situ measurements provide relevant information about biomolecules on surfaces?" Furthermore, both FTIR and NEXAFS with fluorescence detection (as used in this work) can be performed in situ, opening the possibility of studying biomolecules on surfaces using a label-free method that provides a revolutionary combination of chemically specific, structurally sensitive, quantitative results.
Research conducted by D.Y. Petrovykh (University of Maryland and Naval Research Laboratory); A. Opdahl, H. Kimura-Suda, and M.J. Tarlov (National Institute of Standards and Technology [NIST]); V. Pérez-Dieste and F.J. Himpsel (University of Wisconsin); J.M. Sullivan (Northwestern University and Naval Research Laboratory); and L.J. Whitman (Naval Research Laboratory).
Research funding: Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Office of Naval Research, National Research Council postdoctoral program at NIST, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Operation of the ALS is supported by BES.
Publication about this research: D.Y. Petrovykh, V. Pérez-Dieste, A. Opdahl, H. Kimura-Suda, J.M. Sullivan, M.J. Tarlov, F.J. Himpsel, and L.J. Whitman, "Nucleobase orientation and ordering in films of single-stranded DNA on gold," J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128, 2 (2006). | <urn:uuid:d35791ab-2831-47d8-be02-57043202e2fd> | {
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- The Southern Pacific’s Streamliner Coast Daylight was the West’s finest train into the 1950s, linking Los Angeles and San Francisco in a glorious daylight trip, streaking along the edge of the Pacific Ocean for more than a hundred breathless miles.
- Chair car passengers had full access to the Coffee Shop, Diner, and Tavern cars.
- The two Parlor cars were restricted to first class passengers.
- There was a private drawing room available.
- All seats on the train, including chair cars and parlor cars, were reserved.
- When reserving a ticket, you had to make sure to tell them if the party traveling was male or female and if you wanted an ocean or land side seat.
- The Daylight had its inaugural run on March 1, 1937, and was hauled by GS-2 steam locomotives.
- It was the first of the Daylight series that also included the San Joaquin Daylight, Shasta Daylight, Sacramento Daylight, and Sunbeam.
Passengers board the COAST DAYLIGHT in Glendale, California for the trip north to San Francisco on a rainy morning.
Chair car seating on the Coast Daylight. Seats were movable for viewing the California scenery.
Tavern and Lounge Car on the Coast Daylight.
- The Coast Daylight ran behind steam from March 1937 until it was dieselized on January 7, 1955.
- After dieselization, the train continued to run until May 1, 1971, when Amtrak took over service and rerouted their Coast Daylight to Oakland.
Passenger’s photos of travel on the COAST DAYLIGHT. Observation Parlor Car and Coffee Shop Car.
- A second train known as the Noon Daylight ran on the same route between 1940 and 1949, with a suspension during World War II. The original Coast Daylight was informally known as the Morning Daylight during this time.
Coast Daylight is announced in the 1930s…
In 1949, the Noon Daylight was replaced by an overnight train known as the Starlight using the same equipment. In 1956, coaches from the Starlight were added to the all-Pullman Lark and the Starlight was discontinued in 1957. Amtrak later revived the train name for its Los Angeles to Seattle service known as the Coast Starlight.
On August 26, 1999: The United States Postal Service issued 33-cent All Aboard! 20th Century American Trains commemorative stamps featuring five celebrated American passenger trains from the 1930s and 1940s. One of the five stamps featured an image of a GS-4 steam locomotive pulling the red-and-orange train along the California Pacific Coast.
Southern Pacific’s DAYLIGHT – The “Most Beautiful Train in the World”!
THE COAST DAYLIGHT – THE MOST BEAUTIFUL TRAIN IN THE WORLD – Southern Pacific’s famous streamliner between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
A chair car porter loads baggage aboard the Daylight in new elevated storage areas – a major innovation for passenger travel in the 1930s.
The Streamliner Daylight ready to depart from Los Angles Union Station during the 1940s.
Dining Car Steward, Bar Waiter and Waiters in COAST DAYLIGHT Coffee Shop Car.
A dome car was added in the late 1950s.
- Into the 1960s, nearly all Pullman porters, waiters, cooks, chefs, and chair car porters were African-Americans.
- For more information see more at African American history on trains. | <urn:uuid:2c43e9d8-acf1-4ba0-a16a-f0bc154d5f9f> | {
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The first 20 days of October 1805 were indeed fruitful one for Napoleon, newly crowned Emperor of France, whose land army was busily smashing the Third Coalition — Britain, Sweden, Austria, Russia and some German states — after it had so laboriously coalesced in order to smash him. Comprising long-service veterans and brilliantly led by the emperor and his Marshals, Napoleon’s Grande Armée was surely at its grand peak. So successful had he been in 1805, in fact, that Britain’s Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, hardly an alarmist, wrote, ‘Never was the probability of universal monarchy more nearly being realized than in the person of the Corsican.’
Napoleon was not without a coalition of his own. Following Spain’s lead, Bavaria, Würtemberg and other German states had signed alliances with France. Now, in October, the emperor moved against his most dangerous continental enemies, Austria and Russia. He surrounded the main Austrian army and accepted its capitulation at Ulm on October 20. In the weeks following that success, a large Russian army would withdraw rather than fight and Napoleon would seize Vienna. Next, when a joint Austro-Russian host met him at Austerlitz on December 2, Napoleon would win his most crushing Victory of the epoch.
Before all that, however, even as the quartermasters of the seemingly invincible Grande Armée were tallying the booty gained at Ulm, distant events had been set in motion, both by visions of grand strategy and by more personal concern for threatened ambition. Off the coast of Spain, a fleet under Admiral Nelson was flying cat and mouse with a power-laden Franco-Spanish armada.
At that time, it may be recalled, the wars of the French Revolution had evolved into the global Napoleonic Wars, an evolution marked by the destruction of a European generation, while a stunned Britain reposed behind the oaken walls of her great fleet, her first and her final refuge. For all of Napoleon’s great success on land, the Royal Navy in 1805 was a wonder of the world in itself. Its rigid backbone was the ship of the line, the capital ship of the epoch that came in three ‘rates,’ or classes, depending on the number of cannons carried. Britain could then boast 10 first-rates (100-120 guns), 18 second-rates (90-98) and 147 third-rates (64-84). Their actual firepower was often greater, for most of the warships carried two to 12 monstrous, short-range carronades, never counted in the gun totals. Ironically, perhaps a quarter of the Royal Navy’s first three rates had been taken from the enemy in battle and pressed into its service by the lumber-starved English. Britain could also turn to another 250 ships carrying 20 to 60 guns apiece, as fourth, fifth and sixth-rates, or frigates. Not only was Britain’s navy larger than any other nation’s in 1805, but roughly three-quarters of its warships were operational at any given moment, a radio double that of any other’s.
The French and Spanish navies were similar in most respects to the British, but imposed a discipline so ferocious that volunteer recruits were always scarce. Most vessels sailed short-handed and even then had to rely on involuntary impressments for about half of their crews, compared to perhaps 20 percent of British crews impressed.
The British, through constant drill, had by far the fastest, most accurate gunnery, but the French, and specially the Spanish, tended to build larger, broader, deeper-draft ships of the line. They not only carried more guns, but provided more stable gun platforms and could absorb a fearful amount of enemy fire without structural damage. In fact, except for a fire causing an explosion in their powder magazines, such ships were virtually unsinkable in battle. The hulking Santissima Trinidad, on a run from Manila to Acapulco in 1762, was taken by Commodore George Anson’s squadron in a running fight after 1,080 cannon balls had struck it. The British prize crew, astonished to find the ship still seaworthy after such punishment, managed to sail it half way around the world to England — it arrived with several hundred cannon balls still embedded in its sides. Santissima Trinidad‘s succeeding namesake in 1805 was the world’s largest warship and the only one with four gun decks, mounting 140 cannons and several carronades.
By 1805, the French and their Spanish allies found their combined naval assets still unable to best the Royal Navy, and therefore determined that only their superior land forces would defeat the British. Since the British neither could nor would invade the Continent, Napoleon first prepared to invade England. For him to do so, the allied Franco-Spanish navies would have to protect his proposed Channel crossing with a major fleet drawn from half a dozen ports, from Toulouse to Madrid and beyond. Yet most of those ports were under at least sporadic British blockade. Further, elaborate plans to draw off the British fleet at first looked successful, but then went awry. Finally, Napoleon felt constrained to deal with those powers of the Third Coalition gathering in Central Europe. The British invasion was called off in August 1805 and the emperor marched off to his Victory at Ulm.
Napoleon still had an allied fleet at his disposal, nominally commanded by French Vice Adm. Pierre Charles Jean Baptiste Silvestre de Villeneuve, with Spanish Vice Adm. Frederico Carlos Gravina as his second-in-command. Villeneuve bore the sobriquet ‘Lucky’ for having survived so many encounters with the Royal Navy, which was not to say that his luck applied to their outcomes. For example, he had been one of the few survivors of the French debacle at Nelson’s hands at Aboukir Bay, also known as the Battle of the Nile, in 1798.
As of mid-September 1805, the allied fleet was assembling at Cadiz to sally into the Mediterranean Sea and raid British convoys supplying Malta. In the midst of his preparations, though, Villeneuve heard disquieting news. Through friends rather than official sources, he understood that Napoleon planned to replace him with an old service rival, Admiral Franois Etienne Rosily. Rather than submit to such humiliation, the stung Villeneuve frantically speeded up the work of readying his fleet for sea — he would slip 0out of port before Rosily arrived to relieve him of command. Villeneuve’s goal was not Napoleon’s, but a personal quest that might win him glory in France. He would seek out Nelson’s fleet, which he knew to be nearby, and destroy it, while ignoring Malta and its convoys.
On October 19 and 20, then, 18 French and 15 Spanish ships of the line slipped anchor and left Cadiz, accompanied by four frigates. In the Spanish squadron were four of the world’s most powerful warships: the mighty Santissima Trinidad (140 guns), Principe de Asturias (112), Santa Ana (112) and Rayo (100). The rest of the Allied ships were third-rates carrying 74 to 80 guns, the smallest, San Leandro, armed with 64.
Confined in various ports for many months by British blockading squadron, the allied vessels were hardly in peak condition — Villeneuve’s haste to leave port had led to jury-rigged repairs, cursory maintenance and insufficient provisioning. Further, not one of the allied ships was fully manned — the last-minute impressments of hundreds of Spanish peasants detracted seriously from morale while adding nothing to efficiency. Nor, it turned out, was there to be much opportunity to train the reluctant newcomers, for the allied fleet had been spotted as it left Cadiz and the British fleet that Villeneuve hoped to meet weeks in the future was already alerted and making for him.
Admiral Nelson, Britain’s hero of half a dozen naval victories, was both ready and able to meet Villeneuve. The crews of his 27 ships of the line and five frigates had been at sea for months and were in fighting trim, especially the gunners, who, unique among the navies of the epoch, had spent a great deal of their time live-firing their guns at sea.
Nelson’s goal was to put his fleet between Villeneuve and the Mediterranean, forcing his foe to fight or retreat. While using his fast frigates to shadow the Franco-Spanish men or war, he kept his own capital ships on the far horizon, awaiting Villeneuve’s commitment. The British admiral had made his plans long before and shared them with his captains. Rather than fight the enemy in the traditional manner — pounding away at one another in long parallel lines — Nelson had split his own fleet into two divisions. He would lead one from his 100-gun flagship Victory, while the other was under the command of his old friend, Vice Adm. Cuthbert Collingwood, on the 100-gun Royal Sovereign. Collingwood and Nelson would take their divisions and, in parallel lines to one another, approach the enemy head on, breaking his line in two places and dividing it into three segments. Then, with the wind pushing the enemy’s van away from the fight, the 27 British ships could deal with their 20 or so allied opponents before the isolated van could laboriously tack around and rejoin the battle. By the time the van could arrive on the scene, Nelson calculated, he could capture or destroy the bulk of the Spanish and French ships. His original battle orders, written on October 9, were discovered by this writer in 1985, in the Manuscript Division of the Huntington Library in Pasadena, Calif. They specifically refer to Collingwood’s independence in action: ‘The second in command will have the entire direction of his line.’ Further, Collingwood would attempt to break the enemy’s line (if possible) at the 12th ship from the rear, while Nelson would penetrate eight or nine ships farther forward. Collingwood would thus be given the enemy rear, while ‘the remainder of the Enemy’s fleet….are to be left to the management of the Commander in chief.’
Villeneuve, by now aware of Nelson’s close presence and less than confident of his ships and men, did what the British admiral feared he might. During the night of October 20-21, he reversed course, intending to run for the safety of the massive Cadiz fortifications. Alerted, Nelson put on full sail to intercept, and as HMS Neptune‘s signal officer recorded, ‘At daylight discovered the Enemy’s Fleet on the lee beam keeping their wind on the larboard tack consisting of 33 sail of the line, four frigates and two brigs.’ Thus, the two naval forces would meet off the Cape of Trafalgar on Spain’s southwestern coast.
At 6:30 a.m., as crews of all ships frantically prepared their ships for battle — jettisoning empty casks and other combustible material, arranging powder charges and balls near the guns, hanging up thick nets to discourage boarders and spreading sand on the decks to provide traction amid the expected blood — Nelson ran up the signal ‘bear for the Enemy,’ then some five miles away.
While Nelson and Collingwood led their parallel divisions into a contrary and slowing breeze, they studied the allied line, an impressive, even a beautiful sight, stretching from their left to right some seven miles. Clearly visible through Nelson’s glass was the mammoth Santissima Trinidad near the center, as well as the French Bucentaure, flying Villeneuve’s command flag, the giant Santa Ana and the bright yellow Rayo, leading the van under the command of Commodore Enrique Macdonnel — Henry MacDonald, an English-hating Irishman.
As the early morning minutes turned to hours, the tension became palpable. Nelson was going to permit the enemy to ‘cross his T,’ bringing the broadside batteries of many allied ships to bear against only the few guns on his leading vessels’ forecastles. He realized that such a maneuver was as risky as it was unconventional. While he knew that the sloping prows of an oncoming warship would deflect most, if not all, incoming rounds, Nelson was concerned that enemy fire, if accurate, might rake his ships at deck level from stem to stern, decimating his crewmen, or carry away so much rigging as to leave his ships unable to maneuver. Effective range for such disabling fire was from about 2,000 yards down to 300 — closer than that would require the allied guns to be laboriously elevated. British vulnerability, then, would be limited to a distance of about a mile and to a time frame of some 15 to 20 minutes. If he could maneuver most of his ships into the allied line, Nelson knew that in the wild general melee to follow he would outnumber the enemy — and he could rely on his superb gunners to fire at least two rounds to the allies’ one. If!
As the antagonists closed, beer and rum rations were issued, and prayers were said on the quarterdecks. In the words of one British officer, ‘Finding we should not be in action for an hour or more, we piped to dinner, thinking that Englishmen would fight all the better for having a comfortable meal.’
Due to the wind pattern, Collingwood, at the lead of his division, would be the first to hit the allied line. According to a midshipman on nearby HMS Belleisle, ‘the silence on board was almost dreadful.’
At 11:40 a.m., cheers erupted from all British ships as the men saw Nelson’s signal flags hauled up Victory‘s mast to spell out their famous message: ‘England expects that every man will do his duty.’ Then, at 11:55, the terse message: ‘Engage the Enemy quite close.’
One minute later, the allied Santa Ana, Fougueux, Indomitable and perhaps Pluton and Neptuno, loosed their first broadsides at Collingwood’s Royal Sovereign, the balls and rough chunks of anti-sail iron skipping harmlessly into the ocean. That first salvo had fallen short, but as the range decreased, the irregular pieces of iron shot began to sheer away rigging, gouge huge holds in the tails and ran down on the exposed deck. Collingwood, supremely at his ease, strolled the upper gun deck, munching apples, refusing to seek shelter or return fire. Each of his heavy 32 and 24-pounders were double-shotted, his carronades were filled with ball and sacks or baskets of nails and musket balls. His first broadsides would be devastating, but only at close range.
With the allied ships obscured by dense banks of smoke from their own broadsides, Royal Sovereign came ponderously on, followed by Belleisle, Tonnant, Mars and the rear of the British division. As Collingwood closed on the allied line, aiming for a spot between Santa Ana‘s stern and Fougueux‘s bow, his ship began to take punishment — spars, rigging and sails crashed to the deck. Master William Chalmers fell dying, two lieutenants went down on the open deck and lethal splinters killed a lieutenant and several privates of the ship’s Royal Marine contingent.
Finally, Royal Sovereign was in the allied line, some 200 yards from Santa Ana‘s almost gunless stern and only slightly farther from Fougueux‘s gunless bow. At precisely that moment, Collingwood’s gunner unleashed a double broadside. It was 12:05 p.m.
The results were frightful, especially to Santa Ana. The balls from 50 British cannons and two carronades sheared through the Spaniard’s thin-skinned stern and wrought havoc on the gun deck and beyond. Splinters and glass, ball and shot, whined into the cannons and their crews, dismembering, maiming and killing more than 100 men and knocking 14 guns out of action. After the one broadside, Santa Ana‘s decks ran red with blood.
Collingwood, however, was in a vulnerable position, for Fougueux was soon upon him, swinging its own batteries into play with Indomitable, San Leandro, San Justo and other allied vessels close behind. An officer on HMS Neptune in Nelson’s division noted at 12:08 that ‘on the smoke clearing away saw the Royal Sovereign closely engaged with the Santa Ana and several of the Enemy’s ships firing into her.’ The British Tonnant, swinging past Belleisle, was also in action by then.
‘Closely engaged’ was no figure of peach, for Royal Sovereign‘s yardarms had become entangled with Santa Ana‘s, and the two ships were immobilized, locked in a sinister embrace, all but invisible in the thick, greasy smoke of their cannon fire.
Firing methodical, rapid, double-shotted broadsides into Santa Ana at a range of 20 yards or so, the British ship had all but gutted its opponent, blowing massive chinks out of its died, slaughtering the gun crews on its lower decks. At ranges so close that ‘blow back’ of splinters form the Spaniard decimated some of his own gun crews, Collingwood continued to hammer his reeling foe, which was soon replying with a mere handful of guns.
Royal Sovereign was itself hardly immune. Blue-collared, red-coated Spanish marines, high in what was left of Santa Ana‘s rigging, poured musket fire and hand grenades onto Collingwood’s gunners, while at least five passing allied ships threw broadsiides into his ship before they became otherwise engaged. The admiral, himself wounded by a shell splinter, saw that most of his marines were down, as well as a high percentage of his deck officers. Had not the friendly Tonnant, Belleisle and Mars come up rapidly, Royal Sovereign would have been a charnel house.
Tonnant, which would soon batter Algesiras and San Iledonso into surrender, broke the allied line between the former and Monarca, ‘under whose stern we passed in breaking the line and poured in a most dreadful broadside which silenced her for a long time,’ one of Tonnant‘s officers said. Most of Monarca‘s 360 casualties were casued by that one broadside — after that, the Spaniard did little more than survive.
The first ship to surrender in what had become Collingwood’s melee was the unlucky Santa Ana, which had been described earlier by an admiring Briton as ‘a superb warship’ painted a ‘magnificent black.’ It was thoroughly wrecked, most of its guns were dismounted, hundreds of its crew was dead or wounded. Vice Admiral Don Ignacio d’Alava ordered his captain to strike the colors just before 1:30. Royal Sovereign was in hardly better shape. It was dismasted, though structurally sound, and counted 47 of its crew dead and anther 94 wounded. Unable to maneuver and hence out of the fight, the game Collingwood was forced to signal for a frigate to take his ship in tow.
Victory, leading Nelson’s division, underwent even rougher treatment. This was hardly surprising, for he took his flagship through the allied line between the immense Santissima Trinidad — whose top gun deck toward above Victory — and Villeneuve’s flagship Bucentaure, a splendidly handled vessel. Victory was thoroughly raked on its approach and had taken scores of casualties before 12:10, when it belted out its own broadside into Bucentaure‘s bow and Santissima Trinidad‘s mountainous stern. Victory‘s carronades were shotted with large kegs, holding 500 musket rounds each, atop a 68-pound ball, impelled by 20 pounds of powder. Their effect on the Spanish was hellish.
As its gunner worked like automatons Victory, dismasted and largely out of control, ran its bowsprit into the rigging of the oncoming 74-gun French warship Redoubtable. Clasped together, the two ships pounded away at one another from a scant few yards’ distance. Superior British firepower — a 26-gun advantage — and rate of fire gave Victory a decided edge and soon Redoubtable‘s gun decks were awash in blood, a virtual abattoir. As per their doctrine, however, French marines swarmed into the rigging and poured musket fire and at least 200 hand grenades down on Victory‘s exposed decks. The ship’s surgery facilities were soon overflowing with anguished sailors, totaling 57 killed and 102 wounded.
Redoubtable‘s Captain Jean-Jacques Lucas, his ship splintering around him, could also see the slaughter on Victory‘s deck, some caused by his own guns, some by Santissima Trinidad‘s. A single solid shot had smashed into the Royal Marine contingent on the poop deck, killing eight and wounding a dozen. Mr. Scott, Nelson’s personal secretary, standing by the admiral’s elbow, was literally whipped away by a cannon ball in the chest. According to a French officer, Victory‘s ‘decks were strewn with dead and wounded.’ Valiantly, Lucas twice rallied his men and tried to board, all too aware that his own ship, seams sprung by repeated hits from heavy British guns, was settling in the water. The Royal Marines aboard Victory decimated the would-be boarders and boarding nets impeded their movements. Lucas, seriously wounded, called off both suicidal attempts.
Victory, mauled, dismasted and being steered by hand below decks, was suffering, but Redoubtable was being utterly eviscerated, for the British Temeraire had come up on its other side, close enough to almost touch the French ship. So dismembered was Redoubtable that many British cannon balls were passing right through it, to impact on the friendly vessel beyond. Lucas, gaining the respect of his foes, fought on, even after his lower gun deck flooded and most of his upper guns were out of action. When he finally struck his colors at about 1:40 p.m., his vessel was more a shattered hulk than a warship, with 522 of his 670 men dead or wounded.
Shortly before Lucas’ surrender, though, a French marine in the remnants of Redoubtable‘s rigging fired his musket and shattered Nelson’s spine as the admiral paces the deck. He fell, twisted an in agony — both Nelson and those around him knew the wound was fatal. He was rushed below to the surgeon’s overflowing work area, his face covered with a lace handkerchief to hide his identity and prevent demoralizing rumors. There, in the gloomy bowels of his flagship, Nelson was perfectly lucid despite his agonizing wound. He demanded and received frequent reports on the battle’s progress.
The British Neptune, following close behind Victory, passed between it and Villeneuve’s Bucentaure, soon coming up on Santissima Trinidad, whose stern was entirely exposed to Neptune‘s fire without its being able to return a single effective shot. While Neptune turned its aft quarters into a slaughter pen of lethal splinters, Africa, Leviathan and the first rate Britannia came up and mercilessly hammered the hapless Spaniard from the sides.
As the Spanish Leviathan shuddered under a storm of British shot, its huge figurehead of the Holy Trinity symbolically fell into the sea. By 1:50, Santissima Trinidad was totally dismasted and barely a quarter of its guns were slowly returning British fire. At 2:05, with more than 400 of its crew dead or wounded, the white flag fluttered above the world’s largest warship. The prize crew that took charge was appalled. As one British officer recalled: ‘the scene aboard was simply infernal….Blood ran in streams about the deck, and, in spite of the sand, the rolling of the ship carried it hither and thither until it made strange patterns on the planks.’ The Spaniard could probably have stood off any ship of any navy, but not four British foes mounting a total of 336well-served guns.
Things went no better elsewhere for the allies. Rear Admiral Pierre R.M.E. Dumanoir de Pelley, commanding the cut-off van of 12 ships, was still out of the fight, struggling to reverse course in a contrary breeze, and had to plod perhaps five miles to aid his compatriots.
Bucentaure, briefly hammered by half a dozen British ships as they passed, suffered considerable losses before HMS Conqueror approached to do serious battle. From 100 feet or so, the two ships traded broadsides, their gunners screaming, noses gushing blood form the repeated concussive blasts, their ears deafened — many permanently — from the crashing salvoes. According to one of Conqueror‘s officers, not only was the British gunnery twice as rapid as that of the French, but ‘every shot flew winged with death.’ Sailors, almost maddened by the grisly cacophony and coated with sweat and black powder dust, sprinted through wreaths of smoke like demons, swabbing red-hot gun barrels to avoid ‘cooking off,’ or exploding when the next powder charge was inserted, toting powder and ball, dragging away the wounded and throwing the dead overboard. The scene was truly hellish. Within 15 minutes Villeneuve’s flagship was both dismasted and gutted, with 209 men — one-third of its crew — down. With tears in his eyes, the admiral permitted the ship’s captain to strike the colors at about the same time as Santissima Trinidad‘s surrender. A tribute to Conqueror‘s gunners can be seen in that ship’s casualty list: three killed, nine wounded.
Spanish Admiral Gravina’s flagship, Principe de Asturias, traded half a dozen broadsides with the almost equally powerful HMS Dreadnaught, the admiral himself dying early in the clash. Rear Admiral Antonio Escano took over Principe de Asturias, which fought back with unusual efficiency — Dreadnaught, starting to take significant damage while not seeming to inflict any, abandoned the fight to tackle the weaker, already damaged San Juan Nepomuceno, whose Captain Come Churruca was soon directing the fight with a gloomy calm in spite of one leg being all but severed by a cannon ball. When Churucca finally surrendered his battered command at about 2:30, almost half his men and most of his guns were out of action. He did not live to greet the British prize crew.
As the melee continued, some ships, such as Neptune or Principe de Asturias, avoided protracted shootouts in favor of roaming about and sending a few broadsides at targets of opportunity. By 3 p.m. Dumanoir was approaching the fight with his as yet unbloodied van, which included his flagship Formidable and Macdonnel’s powerful Rayo. By then, however, the issue had largely been decided, with the majority of the other allied ships disabled or captured.
Mars, skitterring around the edges of the melee and firing whenever the smoke parted to reveal an enemy, eventually fetched up on Fougueux, which put several broadsides precisely on target before it surrendered. Among Mars‘ 98 casualties was its captain, George Duff, decapitated by a French cannon ball.
Bahama, an ably served Spanish ship, absorbed punishment from a number of passing British vessels, after which it gamely tackled HMS Bellerophon in a close-range shootout. It should not have; in a mere 20 minutes the British ship virtually shredded Bahama, killing or wounded in more than 400 of the crew and forcing its surrender. The hitherto-nearly untouched Bellerophon took 152 casualties in those minutes, its Captain John Cooke being among the 27 dead.
While Bahama was disintegrating, Dumanoir’s first ships entered the fray. Since much of the allied fleet was out of action by that time, there were many lightly damaged British ships unemployed and Dumanoir ran into the buzzsaw. In short order he lost Neptuno and San Agustin took massed British fire and soon after that, Intrepide was battered, settling and raising the white flag.
Still the battle alternately flickered and raged. The British Colossus traded fire with Formidable and several other allied vessels, suffering some 200 casualties but taking no prizes. The French Achille settled down to slug it out with Revenge at close rang. As the battle wound down, those two ships were locked within the smoke of their own batteries. Achille, taking the worst of it, soon had a fire blazing on its sail-littered decks. The fire spread along the deck and into the rigging, feeding upon the fallen sails and igniting the powder sacks laid by each gun. As the blaze spread, scattering the gun crews, HMS Defiance also came up to batter Achille. Burning splinters took the flames below, ever closer to the main powder magazine. Long after the battle was over Achille, drifting and burning brightly, literally blew apart in a majestic explosion. The only ship actually sunk at Trafalgar, it took with it all but a dazed handful of its 650-man crew.
By 4:15 or so, only sporadic firing — most of it directed at Achille — was to be heard. Dumanoir had broken off the action to save his remaining ships. Rayo, probably the only ship at Trafalgar that failed to fire a single gun, slipped away from the fight with only a few casualties caused by stray British shot. San Justo followed with even fewer losses. Almost as unscathed were San Francisco de Asis, Scipion, which suffered no casualties, Formidable, with 65 men down, Mont Blanc, Héros and Duguay Trouin. Of the rest of the allied fleet, only stout Principe de Asturias, Montanez, San Leandro, Neptuno, Indomitable, Pluton and Argonaute, some badly mauled, got away under their own flags.
Victory‘s logbook recorded: ‘Partial firing continued until 4:40, when a Victory having been reported to the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Nelson, [Knight of the Bath] and Commander-in-Chief, he then died of his wound.’
The fleeing French and Spanish left behind them some 6,000 seamen killed and captured, the detritus of sad Achille and 17 of their damaged ships as prizes. That Britannia would now rule the waves was clear to all — she was to do so for more than a century. Nelson, who had innovated so daringly and successfully before at the Battle of the Nile, at Copenhagen, had done so again. And in winning so spectacular a Victory at Trafalgar, he had changed naval tactics forever. The days of parallel lines trading broadsides in rarely decisive slugfests were over.
With no rivals left upon the seas, Britain could and did act accordingly. In 1806, it invaded and took South Africa’s Cape Colony from the Dutch. Britain briefly held Buenos Aires and Montevideo in Spanish South America. Two years later, with confidence born of overwhelming sea power, Britain landed an army in Portugal under General Arthur Wellesley — the future Duke of Wellington — and began the famous Peninsular Campaign that, with Portuguese and later Spanish help, would bleed Napoleon’s army white.
This article was written by John Hoyt Williams and originally published in the June 1986 issue of Military History magazine.
For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Military History magazine today! | <urn:uuid:bb5fd2b5-c2bb-4822-83b0-fca7935b2749> | {
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Adhesive may be used interchangeably with glue, cement, mucilage, or paste, and is any substance applied to one surface, or both surfaces, of two separate items that binds them together and resists their separation. Adjectives may be used in conjunction with the word "adhesive" to describe properties based on the substance's physical or chemical form, the type of materials joined, or conditions under which it is applied.
The use of adhesives offers many advantages over binding techniques such as sewing, mechanical fastening, thermal bonding, etc. These include the ability to bind different materials together, to distribute stress more efficiently across the joint, the cost effectiveness of an easily mechanized process, an improvement in aesthetic design, and increased design flexibility. Disadvantages of adhesive use include decreased stability at high temperatures, relative weakness in bonding large objects with a small bonding surface area, and greater difficulty in separating objects during testing. Adhesives are typically organized by the method of adhesion. These are then organized into reactive and non-reactive adhesives, which refers to whether the adhesive chemically reacts in order to harden. Alternatively they can be organized by whether the raw stock is of natural or synthetic origin, or by their starting physical phase.
Adhesives may be found naturally or produced synthetically. The earliest human use of adhesive-like substances was approximately 200,000 years ago. The first references to adhesives in literature first appeared in approximately 2000 BCE. The Greeks and Romans made great contributions to the development of adhesives. In Europe, glue was not widely used until the period 1500–1700 CE. From then until the 1900s increases in adhesive use and discovery were relatively gradual. Only since the last century has the development of synthetic adhesives accelerated rapidly, and innovation in the field continues to the present.
Adhesives are typically organized by the method of adhesion. These are then organized into reactive and non-reactive adhesives, which refers to whether the adhesive chemically reacts in order to harden. Alternatively they can be organized by whether the raw stock is of natural, or synthetic origin, or by their starting physical phase.
Types by reactiveness
There are two types of adhesives that harden by drying: solvent-based adhesives and polymer dispersion adhesives, also known as emulsion adhesives. Solvent-based adhesives are a mixture of ingredients (typically polymers) dissolved in a solvent. White glue, contact adhesives and rubber cements are members of the drying adhesive family. As the solvent evaporates, the adhesive hardens. Depending on the chemical composition of the adhesive, they will adhere to different materials to greater or lesser degrees.
Polymer dispersion adhesives are milky-white dispersions often based on polyvinyl acetate (PVAc). They are used extensively in the woodworking and packaging industries. They are also used with fabrics and fabric-based components, and in engineered products such as loudspeaker cones.
Pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSA) form a bond by the application of light pressure to marry the adhesive with the adherend. They are designed to have a balance between flow and resistance to flow. The bond forms because the adhesive is soft enough to flow (i.e., "wet") to the adherend. The bond has strength because the adhesive is hard enough to resist flow when stress is applied to the bond. Once the adhesive and the adherend are in close proximity, molecular interactions, such as van der Waals forces, become involved in the bond, contributing significantly to its ultimate strength.
PSAs are designed for either permanent or removable applications. Examples of permanent applications include safety labels for power equipment, foil tape for HVAC duct work, automotive interior trim assembly, and sound/vibration damping films. Some high performance permanent PSAs exhibit high adhesion values and can support kilograms of weight per square centimeter of contact area, even at elevated temperatures. Permanent PSAs may initially be removable (for example to recover mislabeled goods) and build adhesion to a permanent bond after several hours or days.
Removable adhesives are designed to form a temporary bond, and ideally can be removed after months or years without leaving residue on the adherend. Removable adhesives are used in applications such as surface protection films, masking tapes, bookmark and note papers, barcodes labels, price marking labels, promotional graphics materials, and for skin contact (wound care dressings, EKG electrodes, athletic tape, analgesic and transdermal drug patches, etc.). Some removable adhesives are designed to repeatedly stick and unstick. They have low adhesion, and generally cannot support much weight. Pressure-sensitive adhesive is used in Post-it notes.
Pressure-sensitive adhesives are manufactured with either a liquid carrier or in 100% solid form. Articles are made from liquid PSAs by coating the adhesive and drying off the solvent or water carrier. They may be further heated to initiate a cross-linking reaction and increase molecular weight. 100% solid PSAs may be low viscosity polymers that are coated and then reacted with radiation to increase molecular weight and form the adhesive, or they may be high viscosity materials that are heated to reduce viscosity enough to allow coating, and then cooled to their final form. Major raw material for PSA's are acrylate-based polymers.
Contact adhesives are used in strong bonds with high shear-resistance like laminates, such as bonding Formica to a wooden counter, and in footwear, as in attaching outsoles to uppers.
Natural rubber and polychloroprene (Neoprene) are commonly used contact adhesives. Both of these elastomers undergo strain crystallization. In the construction industry a specialised proprietary adhesive known as "liquid nails" is used. This also copes with tasks such as sealing artificial turf.
Contact adhesives must be applied to both surfaces and allowed some time to dry before the two surfaces are pushed together. Some contact adhesives require as long as 24 hours to dry before the surfaces are to be held together. Once the surfaces are pushed together, the bond forms very quickly. It is usually not necessary to apply pressure for a long time, so there is less need for clamps.
Hot adhesives, also known as hot melt adhesives, are thermoplastics applied in molten form (in the 65–180 °C range) which solidify on cooling to form strong bonds between a wide range of materials. Ethylene-vinyl acetate-based hot-melts are particularly popular for crafts because of their ease of use and the wide range of common materials they can join. A glue gun is one method of applying hot adhesives. The glue gun melts the solid adhesive, then allows the liquid to pass through its barrel onto the material, where it solidifies.
Thermoplastic glue may have been invented around 1940 by Procter & Gamble as a solution to the problem that water-based adhesives, commonly used in packaging at that time, failed in humid climates, causing packages to open.
Multi-component adhesives harden by mixing two or more components which chemically react. This reaction causes polymers to cross-link into acrylics, urethanes, and epoxies.
There are several commercial combinations of multi-component adhesives in use in industry. Some of these combinations are:
- Polyester resin – polyurethane resin
- Polyols – polyurethane resin
- Acrylic polymers – polyurethane resins
The individual components of a multi-component adhesive are not adhesive by nature. The individual components react with each other after being mixed and show full adhesion only on curing. The multi-component resins can be either solvent-based or solvent-less. The solvents present in the adhesives are a medium for the polyester or the polyurethane resin. The solvent is dried during the curing process.
One-part adhesives harden via a chemical reaction with an external energy source, such as radiation, heat, and moisture.
Ultraviolet (UV) light curing adhesives, also known as light curing materials (LCM), have become popular within the manufacturing sector due to their rapid curing time and strong bond strength. Light curing adhesives can cure in as little as a second and many formulations can bond dissimilar substrates (materials) and withstand harsh temperatures. These qualities make UV curing adhesives essential to the manufacturing of items in many industrial markets such as electronics, telecommunications, medical, aerospace, glass, and optical. Unlike traditional adhesives, UV light curing adhesives not only bond materials together but they can also be used to seal and coat products. They are generally acrylic-based.
Heat curing adhesives consist of a pre-made mixture of two or more components. When heat is applied the components react and cross-link. This type of adhesive includes epoxies, urethanes, and polyimides.
Moisture curing adhesives cure when they react with moisture present on the substrate surface or in the air. This type of adhesive includes cyanoacrylates and urethanes.
See also: List of polyurethane applications § Adhesives
Types by origin
Natural adhesives are made from organic sources such as vegetable starch (dextrin), natural resins, or animals (e.g. the milk protein casein and hide-based animal glues). These are often referred to as bioadhesives.
One example is a simple paste made by cooking flour in water. Starch-based adhesives are used in corrugated board and paper sack production, paper tube winding, and wallpaper adhesives. Casein glue is mainly used to adhere glass bottle labels. Animal glues have traditionally been used in bookbinding, wood joining, and many other areas but now are largely replaced by synthetic glues except in specialist applications like the production and repair of stringed instruments. Albumen made from the protein component of blood has been used in the plywood industry. Masonite, a wood hardboard, was originally bonded using natural wood lignin, an organic polymer, though most modern particle boards such as MDF use synthetic thermosetting resins.
Synthetic adhesives are based on elastomers, thermoplastics, emulsions, and thermosets. Examples of thermosetting adhesives are: epoxy, polyurethane, cyanoacrylate and acrylic polymers. The first commercially produced synthetic adhesive was Karlsons Klister in the 1920s. | <urn:uuid:7504111e-943a-42bf-88ab-053c69fbcca5> | {
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Health Literacy Part One: How Can You Prevent Home, School, and Workplace Asbestos Exposure?
Posted on October 8, 2012
Preventing asbestos exposure (Oct 8)
High-risk occupations (Oct 15)
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nearly 9 out of 10 adults have difficulty using the everyday health information that is routinely available to them. To address this problem, October is Health Literacy Month. In light of Health Literacy Month’s “Take Action” theme this year, ADAO is featuring three weekly blogs with information about preventing asbestos exposure (Oct 8), high-risk occupations (Oct 15), and early warning symptoms of asbestos disease (Oct 22). These blogs address the frequently asked questions that we have received during the last nine years.
Asbestos is still legal and lethal in the U.S., and you may have it in your home, school or office. Although safer substitutes exist, the U.S. Geological Survey reported that the U.S. consumed 1,180 metric tons of asbestos in 2011 “to meet manufacturing needs.” As our graphic says, “The only two ways to end asbestos-caused diseases are prevention and cure.” To protect your loved ones from asbestos exposure, take the following steps:
- Know that asbestos is a known carcinogen.
- Read and share the U.S. Surgeon General’s Asbestos Awareness Statement (April 2009)
- Understand where asbestos might be in your home, school, and workplace.
- Never test, remove or even sweep up asbestos yourself! Contact your EPA regional office for a list of licensed asbestos professionals in your area.
If you have any reason for concern, visit www.epa.gov/asbestos/ for more information or call the EPA’s Asbestos Ombudsman at 800-368-5888 or contact the Environmental Information Association, a multidisciplinary non-profit association, for testing and abatement inquires.
For more information about asbestos exposure at home, download our one-page flyer: “Identifying Asbestos in Your Home.”
For more on workplace exposure, visit us again next week for our second Health Literacy Month blog: High-Risk Occupations.
Also, Take Action during Health Literacy Month by completing ADAO’s Online Mesothelioma Survey. It only takes five minutes to share your recommendations, knowledge and experience. Click here to complete the “Supportive Resources in the Mesothelioma Community” Survey.
Together, change is possible.
Linda Reinstein’s Social Networks
ADAO’s Social Networks
For more information, click on any of the graphics below: | <urn:uuid:9f5b98c2-d2d2-4761-924e-25ad6cb7284a> | {
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Our little ones are exposed to far too many chemicals in their daily life and much of that exposure comes from their diet. Phthalates, endocrine disruptors known to cause hormonal changes, are present twice as often as EPA considers safe for children. Meat, poultry in particular, as well as dairy were two of the main culprits in the study, which was published in the journal of Environmental Health. Parents should consider going phthalate free as much as possible.
“When the children’s toys were being brought up, it was specifically for kids mouthing a lot of plastic toys,” said Sathyanarayana, who is also an investigator at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute. “Now that we have more information and the research has evolved, we know [there are] other sources.” In addition to diet, those would be dust tracked into homes by everyday foot traffic and the creams and lotions used mostly by women for personal care.
Researchers looked at 17 different studies on the subject and pitted four types of diets against each other: a diet high in fruits and vegetables, a meat and dairy based diet, a balanced diet, and the standard American diet. Chemical content was measured in each, and not surprisingly, the high fruit and vegetable diet had much lower, safe levels of phthalates and the high meat and dairy diet had far too many chemicals. While the standard American diet was safe for adults, it wasn’t safe for infants.
What’s the take away here? Try and go phthalate free as much as possible. Foods that are processed are full of BPA and phthalates that come from the packaging. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables rather than canned whenever possible. Use glass instead of plastic for microwave cooking, serving and packaging, especially meat and dairy. Never heat foods up in plastic containers and avoid handling receipts, which can be laden with chemicals like BPA. Additionally, buy toiletries and sunscreen that are free of chemicals like BPA, phthalates, and parabens.
Related on Organic Authority | <urn:uuid:1f647b14-9ccc-462b-8e4c-0c53fdc126e6> | {
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Experts on Topics Currently in the News
Southwestern University History Professor Talks About Nelson Mandela’s Life and Legacy
Thomas McClendon, a professor of history at Southwestern University, specializes in the history of South Africa and the anti-apartheid movement. Here are some of his thoughts about Nelson Mandela, who died Dec. 5, 2013, at the age of 95:
“Nelson Mandela was one of the most iconic and transformational figures of the latter half of the 20th century. Ordinary people make history in their daily actions and collective struggles, but some leaders come to shape and symbolize the movements ordinary people carry out. Mandela was one of those leaders as the face of the anti-apartheid struggle and the key leader of the African National Congress (ANC) during the transformation from apartheid to a new South Africa.
Mandela belongs, along with a few other crucially important figures, to the great sweep of decolonization that began after World War II with the independence of India and Pakistan. He is the equal of such outstanding leaders as Mohandas Gandhi, who galvanized the independence struggle in colonial India, and Kwame Nkrumah, who led the first sub-Saharan African nation, Ghana, to independence in 1957 and who became a resilient voice for the liberation of the remainder of the continent.
Like many other leaders of independence movements in Africa, Mandela and his generation shook up moderate and elitist organizations advocating for Africans ruled by empires or (as in South Africa) by white settlers. They helped steer these organizations toward more direct confrontation with states resisting the extension of rights to Africans. Especially in the settler-dominated colonies, and the settler state of South Africa, this generation also led their people into armed struggle to secure those rights. Mandela, later known as a leader devoted to peaceful transformation, helped create the armed wing of the ANC in 1961, and was its first commander. For all his efforts to undo apartheid, he spent 27 years in prison.
While still in prison, Mandela helped steer the ANC and the apartheid government toward negotiations. After being released in 1990, he proved to be a very skillful lead negotiator on the ANC’s behalf, and helped craft the constitutional compromises that led to the transition away from apartheid. South Africa had its first democratic elections in 1994, and Mandela became the president under a democratic constitution. During his presidency, he continued to be a prominent symbol for racial reconciliation, famously donning the uniform of the theretofore apartheid-identified Springboks (the South African national team) during the Rugby World Cup in 1995. His administration also fostered the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which revealed some of the darkest secrets of apartheid without devolving into a search for vengeance. Mandela also set an important precedent by leaving office after just one term, unlike the unfortunate ‘lifetime tenure’ record of so many independence leaders around the world.”
Professor McClendon is the co-editor of the forthcoming book, The South Africa Reader: History, Culture, Politics, which will be published in December 2013 by Duke University Press. He is available for interviews about Mandela and his legacy. Professor McClendon may be reached at 512-863-1414 or [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:ccbe2615-9239-453f-97e8-2082b5776485> | {
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Colorado River parks
When you think about the Colorado River, it's likely in connection with one of the nine national parks and recreation areas defined by the river, including Arches and Canyonlands national parks, Dinosaur National Monument and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
These natural wonders also spur economic success. For the past 40 years, counties adjacent to national parks in the Colorado River basin have outperformed the nation 3-7 times, in terms of population, employment and per-capita income.
The Bureau of Reclamation's Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study analyzed water demand and supply scenarios for the Colorado River basin through 2060. This study is crucial to understanding the future for the basin's cities, agriculture, hydropower, recreation and environment. Yet the national parks received inadequate attention.
Our national parks must be an important part of future discussions about the management of the Colorado River. Let your voice be heard before the April 19 deadline for public comments.
Attend a March 25 public meeting, 1-4 p.m., Utah Division of Water Resources, Room 1040, 1594 W. North Temple. Email: [email protected].
David Nimkin Southwest region director National Parks Conservation Association
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JMRI: Consisting Tool
What is a Consist?
There are three types of consists used on DCC systems:
- A basic or primary address consist. In this type of consist, each Locomotive is assigned the same address on the programming track, or on the main with OpsMode Programming (if supported by the command station and decoder). You can use either a long (CV17 and CV18) or short (CV1) address for a primary address consist.
A Command Station Assisted Consist (CSAC). A command station assisted consist is built using a function of your command station.
Command Station Assisted Consists go by the trade names listed in the table below. The table also lists the known limitations imposed by each manufacturer.
Manufacturer Trade Name Usage Notes Digitrax Universal Consist Limited to number of slots supported by the system. Allows any address to be used. Lenz Double Header Limited to 2 Locomotives. Allows any address but 00 to be used. NCE Old Style Consist Limited to 8 Locomotives. Allows any address but 00 to be used. EasyDCC Standard Consist Limited to 8 Locomotives. Allows any address but 00 to be used.
The common trait shared by all versions of CSAC is that a separate speed and direction command is sent to the track for each Locomotive that is in the consist.
A Decoder Assisted Consist (DAC), Which is also referred to frequently as an Advanced Consist.
The NMRA has set aside CV19 as a dedicated location for consist addresses.
If CV19 contains a value other than 0, the Locomotive will respond to speed and direction instructions on the address in CV19. Otherwise, it will respond to speed and direction commands sent only on the usual short or long decoder address.
Since the consist address is a single CV, it is limited to the range of 1 to 127. If you add 128 to the consist address, the Locomotive will run backwards (relative to it's normal direction of travel) in the consist.
For most decoders, this type of consist can be by programming operations in the same ways that a basic Consist can be. We say most here because some decoders block writing to any address CV using operations mode programming.
The NMRA has also set aside a special command to set up a Decoder Assisted Consist on the mainline. This command should be supported by all decoders that support Decoder Assisted Consisting.
The advantage to DAC, when compared to CSAC is that only one speed and direction command is sent to the entire consist.
By default, Locomotives in a DAC ignore function commands sent to the consist address. You can configure some decoders so they will respond to function commands issued to the consist address as well (through CVs 21 and 22). If supported by the decoder, The appropriate values can also be configured through DecoderPro using the Consisting Tab in the comprehensive programmer.
One final note, Advanced Consists operate in 28 speed steps (always). You may need to make sure your throttle is sending 28 speed steps to the address to avoid flickering headlights.
Consisting Support in JMRI
JMRI provides support for consists using the consist tool, which is accessible through the tools menu of any JMRI application. (There is also a NCE-specific consisting tool that works somewhat differently from the tool described here)
The Consisting tool provides a visual tool for manipulating the Decoder Assisted Consists and, on some command stations, Command Station Assisted Consists.
Backing up the consist tool is a consist manager. The consist manager is responsible for maintaining information about existing consists and for communicating the necessary information between the consist tool and the command station.Available JMRI Consist Managers
The Generic Consist Manager is used on any system which does not have it's own consist manager, but supports operations mode programming. This manager is only able to manipulate Decoder Assisted Consists.
The Generic Consist Manager bypasses any routines the command station has to set the consist address. The importance of this is that IF your command station provides a method for you to run a consist by selecting a Locomotive by it's address, this won't function. You'll need to use the short address identifier you selected for the consist ID to control the consist speed and direction.
The XPressNet Consist Manager uses support provided by XPressNet Based systems to manipulate consists. This consist manager is able to construct a Lenz "Double Header" in addition to Advanced Consists.
Since this consist manager uses the consist creation instructions provided by the XPressNet protocol, the Lenz Smart Consisting feature works with consists created by the tool. On Lenz systems, Smart Consisting refers to the ability to be able to run a consist from any of the consisted Locomotive addresses or from the consist address.
The XPressNet Consist Manager is capable of reading consist information from the command station, both for Advanced Consists and Lenz Double Headers.
The EasyDCC Consist Manager uses support provided by CVP's EasyDCC system to manipulate consists. This consist manager is able to construct EasyDCC "Standard Consists" in addition to Advanced Consists.
CVP does not provide a method to construct Advanced Consists. As a result, advanced consists are created by bypassing the command station. Unlike the Generic Consist Manager, the EasyDCC Consist Manager creates these by issuing a Consist Control packet to the track. This allows inclusion of Locomotives that do not permit writing CV19 using operations mode programming. As with the Generic Consist Manager, you must use the short address selected as the consist address to control the consist.
For EasyDCC Standard Consists, there are a couple of restrictions imposed by the EasyDCC Protocol. First, as with consists created on the command station directly, consists are limited to 8 addresses. Second, unlike consists created on the command station directly, CVP limits the standard consist address to addresses between 1 and 255.
The EasyDCC Consist Manager will read Standard Consist information for consists in the allowed range (1-255) from the command station's memory. Since the command station is bypassed to create Advanced Consists, these cannot be read from the command station.
Using the Consist Tool
When you first open the consist tool, you will see a screen similar to the following:
on the top row are used to select between an Advanced (or Decoder Assisted) Consist and a Command Station Assisted Consist. If the Command Station Assisted Consists are not supported by the tool for your system, these selections will be grayed out.
The box Next to the label Consist: is used to specify the consist ID. For Decoder Assisted Consists, this should be the short address used to identify the consist. For Command Station Assisted Consists, this value may automatically be filled in with the lead Locomotive address when you try to add it to the consist.
Adding a typical ID for a Decoder Assisted Consist should look like the following:
The second line of the consisting tool is used to add Locomotives. A Locomotive may be added either by entering it's number in the box next to New Locomotive or by selecting it's number from the roster drop down box.
Clicking the add button will add a Locomotive to the consist, and it will appear in the list below the second line.
Clicking the reset button will clear the information for this Locomotive.
The Direction Normal checkbox is used to determine if the Locomotive is traveling in forward or reverse when the consist is traveling forward.
You may notice from the previous screen shots that this box is grayed out until a lead Locomotive is selected. With subsequent Locomotives, you can check this box to indicate the direction of the Locomotive relative to the lead Locomotive.
After adding the second Locomotive to the consist, with the direction reversed, you should see something like the following:
If you made a mistake, and add a second Locomotive to the consist with the wrong direction, you can change it's direction simply by clicking on the checkbox in the Direction Normal column.
The direction of the lead Locomotive cannot be changed once added.
To delete an individual Locomotive from the consist, you can select the Del button in the right most column of the appropriate row of the table of addresses.
To delete an entire consist you can use the Delete button at the bottom of the screen.
The throttle button at the bottom of the screen can be used to bring up a JMRI throttle for this address.
To Add a new consist, you can select the blank entry in the drop-down box next to the current consist's ID.
To Recall an existing consist, you can select the appropriate entry from the drop-down box next to the current consist's ID. | <urn:uuid:5e761ca2-7ed1-4640-9bf7-a9cb3775609c> | {
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In the UK we’ve long been advised to eat at least five daily portions of fruit and veg but it is now being argued that it’s not enough.
Other countries have higher targets: in Japan 13 portions of vegetables and four of fruit is the daily goal. Without doubt we should all be eating more than five a day and I think the Australian advice is the best: that’s two fruit plus five veg.
Eating a variety of fruit and veg is one of the surest ways to get all the vitamins, minerals, fibre and plant chemicals that help to lower our risk of disease.
On top of this, people who eat four or more servings a day (a total of 350g) are reported to score higher in aptitude tests and feel generally happier.
Yet some of us find it a challenge to reach five a day, let alone seven, and are confused about what counts. The first step is to try to incorporate more fruit and veg into meals and snacks so it becomes a habit.
In the UK only about 31 per cent of us reach five a day and many of those who do are focusing on fruit rather than vegetables so they’re getting a lot of natural sugars.
Shifting the balance to vegetables is important but has to be seen as the next step. Here are seven tips to get started:
1. Start with breakfast. Get one or two portions of fruit under your belt by adding to cereal or eating en route to work.
2. Smoothies count as one daily portion as long as they contain the pulp of a whole fruit.
3. Smoothies don’t have to be just fruit. A new trend is to include vegetables which contain less sugar and more micro-nutrients.
4. Fresh is great but so is frozen. It’s convenient and pretty much available year-round.
5. Beans and pulses count as one portion. Use them in salads, stews, or as fillings for favourites such as shepherd’s pie.
6. Add bite and flavour with crunchy, lightly-cooked vegetables as a snack with a dip or as a packed lunch.
7. Hidden vegetables such as the onions you chopped for a curry, or tomatoes in a stew, all count.
For recipes and advice on how to include more fruit and vegetables in your diet, BBC Good Food’s May issue features a host of green and gorgeous seasonal vegetables. On sale now at £3.90. | <urn:uuid:11367ba7-66fb-4f37-b20e-ffd03ec29aad> | {
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by Steven Case, 2010.
NC Government & Heritage Library.
February 17, 1963 -
Michael Jordan may have been born in Brooklyn, but North Carolina claims him as one of our own. The Jordan family moved to North Carolina when Michael Jordan was very small and he grew up in Wilmington. Jordan played for Laney High School and went on to play for Dean Smith at UNC where Jordan was twice College Player of the Year.
After being picked by the Chicago Bulls in the 1984 NBA Draft, Jordan was named NBA Rookie of the Year in his first season. He broke many of the league records in scoring and steals, and in the meantime, added two Olympic Gold Medals from the 1984 and 1992 Games. He retired briefly in 1993 to try his hand at semi-professional baseball, but returned towards the end of the 1994/95 season and eventually led the Bulls to three more of their six league championships.
Though he moved to Illinois he never forgot his ties to North Carolina. He wore his North Carolina uniform shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform in every game, and in 1995 the Michael Jordan Discovery Gallery was opened with the help of the Jordan family in New Hanover County's Cape Fear Museum in Wilmington. After his retirement in 1998, he became part owner of the Washington Wizards basketball team. In 2001, he resigned his position as head of basketball operations in order to become an active player again. He retired a final time after the 2002-03 season. Jordan took over as majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats NBA franchise in 2010.
Jeffers, Kevin. "How many games did Michael Jordan win and lose?" Answerbag.com June 21, 2010. http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2156856#ixzz2MbdxfUYY (accessed March 4, 2013).
Steve Lipofsky. "Michael Jordan." http://www.basketballphoto.com.
1 April 2010 | Case, Steven | <urn:uuid:c2775429-37c6-4c16-a18c-204e2b6f5897> | {
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Orbits Within Spherical Galaxies Model Documents
This material has 2 associated documents. Select a document title to view a document's information.
The Orbits Within Spherical Galaxies model displays the two-dimensional trajectories of particles (stars) within a galaxy having a spherically symmetric mass distribution that heuristically approximates the distributions found in galaxies and bulges. The model uses a mass density proposed by Walter Dehnen to describe spatial distributions that vary as r-4 and r-g in galactic envelopes and cores where g is an adjustable power-law parameter. Units are chosen such that a typical galaxy has total mass M=1 and that the gravitational constant G=1.
The Orbits Within Spherical Galaxies model was developed using the Easy Java Simulations (EJS) modeling tool. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the ejs_mech_orbits_OrbitsWithinSphericalGalaxies.jar file will run the program if Java is installed.
- Download ejs_mech_orbits_OrbitsWithinSphericalGalaxies.jar - 1932kb Java Archive File
Last Modified June 11, 2014
This file has previous versions.
Source Code Documents
The source code zip archive contains an XML representation of the Orbits Within Spherical Galaxies model. Unzip this archive in your EJS workspace to compile and run this model using EJS.
- Download ejs_mech_orbits_OrbitsWithinSphericalGalaxies.zip - 222kb Compressed File
Last Modified January 12, 2011 | <urn:uuid:533467b3-9bd0-4faa-b1d9-fc615191784d> | {
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This web-based module is
designed to teach you about the natural epidemiology of plague
and how to manage it as both a natural disease and an intentional
attack. The content is presented to you, the participant, in a
series of 8 lessons to be completed in the order that they appear.
Please select the lesson you wish to complete from the navigation
bar on the left. Next, proceed through the lesson using the navigation
arrows at the lower right. At the end of this training module,
you may click on the Agent Modules Home link to review other agents.
At the end of this module, you should be able to:
- Identify where plague occurs naturally in order to recognize
- Identify patient symptoms that will lead to a diagnosis of
bubonic, pneumonic, or septicemic plague.
- Describe how to rule out other diseases when diagnosing plague.
- Identify the appropriate specimens to obtain in order to diagnose
- Describe the medical management of confirmed plague cases.
- Describe the public health response needed for naturally occurring
versus bioterrorist plague.
- Describe the diagnosis of plague in animals. | <urn:uuid:3f8a12bd-cf7d-40c5-9ec0-3c6ea2a0df63> | {
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I have done alot of reading and found much, often conflicting, information on this subject. Currently all plains Zebra (Grants, Chapman, Selous, Crawshay, Damara?, and Burchell) are collectively referred to as Burchells Zebra. Equus Burchelli (true Burchells Zebra) are said to have been extinct in 1918, restocked by Chapmans Zebra brought in from the north. Recent reports have indicated that there are isotated populations of true Burchells zebra still existing in KZN. Yet other reports indicate that Damara Zebra and Burchells Zebra are so closely related as to be the same species. I can find little info on Damara Zebra at all, are they another name for Chapmans Zebra? Selous Zebra? What is one to beleive? The coloration of Burchells Zebra is distinct and the foals of true Burchells Zebra are supposedly born brown and later develop stripes later on, unlike other sub-species of palins Zebra. Here is a tiny sample of the multidude of conflicting info (mis-info) out there on this subject. Plains Zebra (Equus quagga) | Wildliferanching.com Burchell's zebra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Burchell's Zebra - Back from the Brink of Extinction, But for How Long? - pictures and facts Burchell Chapman Anyone with info or opinions? Jaco, maybe this one is right up your alley. | <urn:uuid:28566870-4f22-4016-bb70-fbb180f7876a> | {
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At the beginning of the year, Recovery Plastics International (RPI), Salt Lake City, started up a line capable of handling 1,000 lb/hr of end-of-life computer plastics and another line to process a similar quantity of television housings. The two lines share a grinder; only one line can operate at a time, says Ron Kobler, president of the firm.
The computer waste consists of housings and other components primarily made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polycarbonate ABS (PC/ABS). The waste also contains metals, rubber, other polymers, ceramics, glass and even wood. The process provides about 90% recovery of the two plastics and produces three products: ABS, ABS containing flame retardant and flame-retardant PC/ABS.
The line for the television housings, which largely consist of high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) contaminated with metal and glass, offers about an 80% yield of flame-retardant HIPS, Kobler says.
In the computer-scrap process, baled waste first goes to a shredder and then a grinder. Next, the ground material is washed and rinsed. Standard gravity separation follows, producing an ABS product stream that also contains up to 10% polystyrene.
Making flotation work
Recovery of plastics from computer scrap takes advantage of the differences in hydrophobicity of flame retardants to separate materials by skin flotation.
RPI’s so-called skin flotation relies on the attachment of air bubbles to produce separation. It employs two flotation circuits in series, adding different plasticizers to each. The first recovers flame-retardant PC/ABS, and the second yields flame-retardant ABS. The PC/ABS contains less than 3% ABS, and the flame-retardant ABS includes 5-10% PC/ABS. Residue, which includes metals and other plastics, is placed in a landfill.
The products are turned into pellets and can be processed like virgin material. The plain ABS has 20-25% lower Izod impact strength, Kobler says. The recovered flame-retardant polymers suffer a 10-15% decline in physical properties, he says, but retain their original flame-retardant qualities. The physical property losses should not be a major factor, he says, because the materials likely will be used in a blend with virgin polymer.
For a plant with 20 million lb/year capacity, Kobler estimates that plain ABS pellets can be produced for 40-45 cents per lb, compared to a price of 60 cents per lb or more for virgin material. Flame-retardant ABS pellets could be made for 40-48 cents per lb versus 70 cents per lb and up for new material, while flame-retardant PC/ABS pellets run 60-65 cents per lb against $1 per lb for virgin supplies. A television scrap line would yield HIPS pellets at 45-55 cents per lb, he says, compared to more than 60 cents per lb for virgin material.
At the moment, RPI is ramping up operations to three shifts (24 hr per day, 5 days per week). The greater availability of computer plastics — 300,000 lb are on hand at the plant — means that line runs about four times as frequently as the television housing one.
The company plans to operate the lines for at least another six months as it develops applications for the products. The goal, says Kobler, is to have a plant with 20 million lb/year output operating on the East Coast in 2006.
By Mark Rosenzweig, editor in chief | <urn:uuid:85b98c1f-3a13-442e-a789-30c7a3eee961> | {
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A Brief History of Football
Football is a sport and it is also known as American Football involving two opposing teams of players competing for territory on a football field using a ball and set play with the objective being to get the ball to the goal line of the opposing team by either scoring a running touchdown or kicking the ball over the post and between the uprights of the goal. Football does not have a goal defender like soccer instead it is much similar to Rugby and Australian Rules Football where all team members play a defensive and offensive role during the game.
The Rugby sport which is the predecessor to Football was invented in England during the 1860s although its background is common to soccer and dates back to at least the middle ages when groups of rival villages would compete to score a goal using filled or inflated pigs bladders that were held and run with until the player was tackled and lost control of the ball, a goal was scored when the ball was picked or carried thru to a designated point like the a post erected in the village square.
In England during the 1860s a number of public schools, universities and working mens clubs got together to form a set of rules that would allow teams from different schools or districts to play against each other. The rules ultimately published were the forerunner of modern soccer but were not accepted by all teams who refused to join the new association and instead chose to create their own code known as rugby that allowed picking up the ball and tackling of opponents.
While the rules of football can be traced back to English parent games, American Football is in fact also indigenous to North America and older versions of the sport were played at Princeton in the early 1800s. The game was called ballown which involved passing and punching the ball along the field and past the opposing team to score. Eventually the game became known as football but the rules changed from time to time as new students took it up.
At Harvard University, a similar game was played on the first Monday of academic year by freshman and sophomore students which was a source of enjoyment for senior students, this game was called Bloody Monday and was considered a good ice breaker for letting new students get to know each other. The name Bloody Monday was no accident but was not a free for all, there was an objective to be met by scoring goals to win.
Shortly after the rules of soccer and rugby had been agreed in England, the US entered a new period of prosperity brought about by the end of the civil war. Rutgers and Princeton independently created their own rules of play and played the very first intercollegiate game of football on 6th November 1869. Princeton lost by two goals scoring only four goals to Rutger’s six goals and college football was born as a result of this.
Not long after intercollegiate games became popular and in 1873 representatives from Rutgers, Princeton, Yale and Columbia met to formulate a set of rules that would be used for future intercollegiate games. They established the intercollegiate Football Association and adopted many of the rules used in rugby, reducing the number of players per team from twenty to fifteen and setting the length of the field to 140 yards.
Football is very similar to rugby and in America had its dissenters namely Walter Camp of Yale who wanted a shorter playing field and less players fielded down to just eleven at any one time. As a senior member of the IFA rules committee Camp was influential and not long after the first rules were drawn up, Camp and Yale got their wish, the field was reduced to 110 yards and the number of players reduced to eleven.
American style football is proved more popular with American players and audiences than the older rugby styled game. Colleges all over the US adopted Camps new rules establishing American Football as the leading football code within a very short time. In 1882 Camp and the rules committee brought in the new system of three downs, it was a further change from rugby that allowed the team with possession of the ball to retain possession until the completion of their set play.
Many colleges banned the game for being too rough and brutal with horrific injuries being reported during the 1890s and despite enlarged rules committee representing over 60 colleges things didn’t improve much until President Roosevelt who was a keen follower of the game called on the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) which was the successor to the IFA to eliminate brutality from the game.
The forward pass rule for the game was instituted that almost immediately eliminated the mass scrums that had been the cause of so many injuries and opened up the game to wide running play that is the hallmark of American Football even today. The number of downs was increased to four and the distance of play between downs increased from five to ten yards.
The new changes to American Football were so successful that non college teams based around community athletic clubs formed and began to compete against each other, often players were paid their time and in 1920 the National Football League (NFL) was formed. The rules of play were the same as for college football with the noted difference that players became professional and no longer had to do a separate job.
Professional football and the NFL franchise had begun to dominate with ever increasing viewer numbers and network television broadcasting most major games by the 1950s. A rival association, the American Football League (AFL) started in areas not already serviced by NFL teams and quickly started to compete for the best players, network broadcasting contracts and viewing numbers.
The merger of the AFL and NFL in 1970 into a 26 team franchise was described as a defining moment in American Football history. A stronger league emerged and created the Super Bowl as its defining championship game but most importantly the revenue sharing model in place has meant that every team has a chance of competing in the Super Bowl, this is in stark contrast to other codes where major teams manage to dominate their league. | <urn:uuid:89b11b98-3aa8-47e7-bf62-26dca2685f27> | {
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Is your network safe? Almost all of us prefer the convenience of Wi-Fi over the hassle of a wired connection. But what does that mean for security? Our tests tell the whole story. We go from password cracking on the desktop to hacking in the cloud.
We hear about security breaches with such increasing frequency that it's easy to assume the security world is losing its battle to protect our privacy. The idea that our information is safe is what enables so many online products and services; without it, life online would be so very different than it is today. And yet, there are plenty of examples where someone (or a group of someones) circumvents the security that even large companies put in place, compromising our identities and shaking our confidence to the core.
Understandably, then, we're interested in security, and how our behaviors and hardware can help improve it. It's not just the headache of replacing a credit card or choosing a new password when a breach happens that irks us. Rather, it's that feeling of violation when you log into your banking account and discover that someone spent funds out of it all day.
In Harden Up: Can We Break Your Password With Our GPUs?, we took a look at archive security and identified the potential weaknesses of encrypted data on your hard drive. Although the data was useful (and indeed served to scare plenty of people who were previously using insufficient protection on files they really thought were secure), that story was admittedly limited in scope. Most of us don't encrypt the data that we hold dear.
At the same time, most of us are vulnerable in other ways. For example, we don't run on LAN-only networks. We're generally connected to the Internet, and for many enthusiasts, that connectivity is extended wirelessly through our homes and businesses. They say a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In many cases, that weak link is the password protecting your wireless network.
There is plenty of information online about wireless security. Sorting through it all can be overwhelming. The purpose of this piece is to provide clarification, and then apply our lab's collection of hardware to the task of testing wireless security's strength. We start by breaking WEP and end with distributed WPA cracking in the cloud. By the end, you'll have a much better idea of how secure your Wi-Fi network really is.
12:00 AM - August 15, 2011 by Andrew Ku
References in this article to WPA can be read as "WPA/WPA2." Furthermore, the techniques used in this article are unaffected by TKIP or AES encryption.
(Lenovo ThinkPad T410)
|Processor||Intel Core i5-2500K (Sandy Bridge), 3.3 GHz, LGA 1155, 6 MB Shared L3||Intel Core i5-540M (Arrandale), 2.53 GHz, PGA 988, 3 MB Shared L3|
|Motherboard||Asrock Z68 Extreme4||-|
|Memory||Kingston Hyper-X 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1333 @ DDR3-1333, 1.5 V||Crucial DDR3-1333 8 GB (2 x 4 GB)|
|Hard Drive||Samsung 470 256 GB||Seagate Momentus 5400.6 500 GB|
|Graphics||Palit GeForce GTX 460 1 GB|
Nvidia GeForce GTX 590
AMD Radeon HD 6850
AMD Radeon HD 6990
|Nvidia Quadro NVS 3100M|
|Power Supply||Seasonic 760 W, 80 PLUS||-|
|Network Card||AirPcap Nx USB Adapter||AirPcap Nx USB Adapter|
|System Software and Drivers|
|Operating System||Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit|
Backtrack 5 64-bit
|Windows Drivers||AirPcap 4.1.2|
|Linux Drivers||Catalyst 11.6|
|Cain & Abel||Version: 4.9.40|
|Elcomsoft Wireless Security Auditor||Version: 4.0.211 Professional Edition|
The majority of tests in this article were performed in the field, facilitating an exploration of network security under real-world conditions. There were a few situations where the signal strength of our target network prevented us from proceeding further in our experiments, though. In those rare cases, we used our Cisco Linksys E4200, which we set up to use 802.11g at 2.4 GHz.
Network Security: The First Line Of Defense
There's no such thing as guaranteed security for folks connected to the Internet. However, by adding additional layers of protection, it's possible to make a system increasingly difficult to compromise. Banks have multiple safeguards to prevent physical robberies, and well-built networks employ the same thinking to keep digital assets safe. You don't usually see the same thoroughness in home networks, though, because it costs a lot and requires a particular expertise in order to stay one step ahead of of the folks who'd like access to everything behind your firewall.
Instead of a tiered approach to security, most of us are only protected by our routers. That's what separates the local network from the Internet. It prevents strangers from using an IP address to access your system directly. And the router represents the first security layer in your network.
But it isn't just your first line of defense; it's also the most important. Why? Most people believe that you can enhance data security by installing a software firewall and a data encryption scheme like TruCrypt. However, most of us also make at least some of our data available to other users on our networks as a matter of convenience and easy accessibility. Perhaps we do this without even thinking that it could be seen by someone else. Regardless, when we do this, the integrity of our wireless network, protected by certain authentication technologies, is all that keeps our precious information safe from anyone in range and able to circumvent our safeguards. Adding additional security measures to keep Internet-based traffic out doesn't change that fact.
So, sure, streaming a high-def movie from your NAS to an HTPC in the living room might be easier as a result of wireless access. But anyone able to breach those invisible walls can do the same thing. And that doesn't even take into account the damage they can do on the Internet from an address that'd appear to be coming from your own little network.
In the early days of home networking, you could rely on the physicality of wired networking to restrict access. Now, with wireless technology, you have to worry about attacks coming from the Internet (hopefully being stymied by your firewall) and breaches closer to home that might allow an unsavory character right onto your network alongside other trusted devices. There is where stronger wireless security comes into play. That's the easiest way to protect your network from intrusion.
Now, we're assuming that most Tom's Hardware readers aren't setting up their access points and leaving them wide open to the pillaging of neighbors. You're using some sort of security protocol to at least discourage casual Web browsers looking to bum a ride on your bandwidth or amateur script kiddies testing their mettle.
WEP Is Dead, Haven't You Heard?
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) was the first security algorithm used by wireless networks to restrict access. It was originally introduced in 1999 as part of the 802.11 standard. However, it has long been considered to be a "broken" algorithm, and was effectively replaced by Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA).
If you're still using WEP on an older wireless router, try not to feel too safe. The Wi-Fi Alliance abandoned WEP in 2003 because it's very easy to crack. With $20 and some basic technical know-how, a neighbor can procure your WEP password in about 10 minutes using publicly-available tools. It really is time to upgrade to at least WPA.
The process of breaking a WEP password can vary, but we've seen it done enough times that there's little reason to detail this bit of deviousness here on Tom's Hardware. Think of us like AMC's Breaking Bad. We're not here to show you how to cook meth. But our story hinges on the process. An enthusiast using WEP should know how easy it is to circumvent, and we did it so that you don't have to learn the hard way. To give you an idea of what's involved, we used Cain & Abel, Aircracking-ng, and an AirPcap Nx adapter to find a nearby network's WEP key in about five minutes. The length of the key doesn't affect recovery time, either.
The fundamental problem is that it's incredibly easy to eavesdrop on a WEP network and sniff out the information needed to crack the RC4 cipher backing the protocol. Even if there aren't enough packets traveling between the router and clients inside the network, it's possible to send packets in such a way to simulate reply packets, which then can be used to find the key. It's even possible to forcibly boot users off a router in order to generate packets with authentication information. Scary stuff; avoid it at all costs if security truly matters to you.
Understanding WPA/WPA2: Hashes, Salting, And Transformations
WPA/WPA2, WinZip, WinRAR, Microsoft's native Data Encryption API, Apple's FileVault, TruCrypt, and OpenOffice all use PBKDF2 (Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2.0). The critical element here is that a password won’t directly grant access to whatever it's protecting. You need to generate a key (decryption code) from the password.
This is one of the most critical differentiators separating WEP and WPA. WEP doesn't obscure your password in an effective way. That is a huge security risk because hackers can directly extract it from packets sent during authentication. This makes it easy for those same folks to sit in parking lot or lounge around in a mall and break into networks. Once enough packets are gathered, extracting the key and connecting to the network is easy. WPA is different because the password is hidden in a code (in other words, it's hashed), forcing hackers to adopt a different tactic: brute-force cracking.
In one of our last security-oriented pieces, we noticed some confusion in the comments section where readers were asking for more clarification on concepts like rainbow tables, hashes, salting, and transformations.
There are two major parts to converting a password value to a decryption key. The first is called salting. It's possible you've heard this term used once or twice. This is a method in cryptography that prevents two systems from using the same key, even though they may share the same password. Without salting, a pair of machines using the same password, even coincidentally, end up with the same key. This is a vulnerability for rainbow tables, which are huge spreadsheets that allow you to look up the original password (provided you know the key). Salting largely nullifies the use of rainbow tables, because every password uses a random value to generate a different key. It also effectively renders password derivation a one-way function, because you can't backwards-generate passwords from keys. For example, SSIDs are used to salt WPA passwords. So, even if your neighbor uses the same password, he's going to have a different key if his router has a different name.
PBKDF2 takes things one step further by using a key derivation function (KDF). The idea itself is pretty simple, but it's a little math-heavy. There are two steps:
- Generate data1 & data2 from password and salt.
- Calculate key using transformation invocations using a loop, which looks like:
data1 = SHA1_Transform(data1, data2);
data2 = SHA1_Transform(data2, data1);
Basically, you input the password and salt (the random bits) in order to generate the first data parameter. This represents the key in it's non-final form. From there, the key is continuously hashed in a cycle, where the next calculation relies on the previous one in order to continue. For every interval, the value of the key changes. Repeat this a couple thousand times and you have the final decryption key. And because you can't go backwards, brute-force cracking requires you to "recreate" the key on every password attempt.
This process accounts for 99% of the computational overhead required in brute-force cracking, so throwing copious compute muscle at that wall is really the only way to chisel it down. Hash cracking lets you to try multiple passwords at a time because the process doesn't employ a key derivation function or salt, making it magnitudes faster. As a practical matter, the impressive speeds you see from hash cracking shouldn't scare you. This form of brute-force hacking is limited in scope, since just about everything secure utilizes salting and a key derivation function.
To give you a sense of scale, WinZip uses 2002 SHA-1 transformation invocations to generate a key. This value is constant for any password length, up to 64 characters. That's why a 10-character password is just as easy to defeat with AES-256 as it is with AES-128. WPA, on the other hand, uses 16 388 transformations to convert a master key (MK) into what's known as a Pairwise Master Key (PMK). That makes brute-force cracking in WPA 8x slower than it does with WinZip/AES.
WPA relies on a Pre-Shared Key (PSK) scheme. You may enter in a master key (the value that you see in the password field on the router), but you can only "sniff out" the Pairwise Transient Key (PTK) during what is known as a "four-way handshake."
Authentication relies on deriving the PTK from a Pairwise Master Key, which is in turn derived from a master key. It takes about five or six more transformations to go from the PMK to PTK, but WPA cracking speeds are often presented in PMK units, the most computationally-intensive portion of the brute-force attack.
WPA Cracking: It Starts With Sniffing
There are three steps to penetrating a WPA-protected network.
- Sniffing: Intercepting packets in order to get the data necessary to perform an attack.
- Parsing: Inspect the harvested packets to see if there's a valid handshake. This is the critical step. The information you're trying to capture consumes less than 1 MB, but it's important that it includes packets that contain PTK authentication information. This means that someone needs to log on to the network while you're sniffing.
- Attacking: Employ brute-force password cracking.
The entire process of sniffing, parsing, and attacking tends to be modular, but the exact procedure is a little different, depending on the operating system. At the moment, Linux is the preferred route for many networking ninjas, but there are tools in Windows that streamline the process too.
No matter what software route you take, making this happen isn't as easy as typing in the right commands. Getting past the sniffing step is perhaps the most difficult part because it requires a particular type of wireless card. Specifically, you need one that has drivers able to provide access to low-level 802.11 protocol information. The majority of wireless cards don't cut it because they use a driver that filters the RAW 802.11 packets and hides them from the upper layers of the operating system.
But the right equipment doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Many compatible wireless cards cost less than $50. Ultimately, skill is what separates the beginners from hackers. Without giving you the blow-by-blow, these screenshots give you an idea of how easy it can get. In all, I spent about 10 minutes getting the information needed to set up the password attack, which is step three.
There is one caveat worth mentioning. Capturing the authentication information (four-way handshake) requires you to monitor for the packets transmitted when a client attempts to connect with an access point (AP). The act of connecting is what generates the packets that hackers are interested in exploiting. If there are no wireless clients connected, a hacker must wait for someone to establish a connection. Checking your morning email just got a little more real, didn't it?
If a client is already connected, it is still possible to capture the requisite information by forcing a reconnection attempt. How, you ask? By targeting a specific user and booting them off the network with one simple command-line instruction.
After we're done sniffing, we have to use a cracker to brute-force every master key against the PTK. Between Linux and Windows, there are fewer than 10 programs that actually perform the brute-force attack. The majority of them, such as Aircrack-ng and coWPAtty, rely on a dictionary attack. That means you need to provide a discrete database of words to check against. In the end, there are really only two programs that perform truly random brute-force attacks: Pyrit (combined with John the Ripper in Linux) andElcomsoft's Wireless Security Auditor (Windows).
It should come as no surprise that coordinating an attack in Linux is more involved than Windows. Aircrack-ng is used to sniff and parse. Then you switch to Pyrit in pass-through mode via coWPAtty (PMK-PTK conversion) for the brute-force attack. In comparison, Elcomsoft offers a much more fluid experience with its Wireless Security Auditor. Admittedly, that app is so easy to use, a caveman could do it. It sniffs (provided you have an AirPcap adapter), parses, and attacks a WPA-protected network in no more than 10 mouse clicks.
Although cracking is slightly more complicated to pull off in Linux, it's also less expensive. The fully-automated version of WSA runs $1199, but it lets you use up to 32 CPU cores and eight GPUs, it adds sniffer support, and it features support for dedicated cracking hardware like Tableau's TACC1441 (the serious FPGA-based stuff). The standard version is more limited. It's restricted to two CPU cores and one GPU and only costs $399. You do need a third-party app for the sniffing step, though.
|OS||Linux||Windows||Windows (fully automated)|
|Sniffing||Aircrack-ng||Aircrack-ng||Wireless Security Auditor Pro Edition|
|Parsing||Aircrack-ng||Wireless Security Auditor Std. Edition||Wireless Security Auditor Pro Edition|
|Cracking||Pyrit via CoWAPtty||Wireless Security Auditor Std. Edition||Wireless Security Auditor Pro Edition|
If you want more information on how brute-force attacks work, we suggest that you read page four ofHarden Up: Can We Break Your Password With Our GPUs?. In a nutshell, brute-force attacks involve "guessing and checking" on a much larger and faster scale in an attempt to defeat passwords.
Unlike online banking passwords, WPA doesn't have any authentication restriction. If you're persistent enough, you can keep guessing passwords until hell freezes over.
|Available Characters Using The English Language||Possible Passwords, Two Characters||Possible Passwords, Four Characters||Possible Passwords, Six Characters|
|Lower-case||676||456 976||308 915 776|
|Lower- and Upper-case||2704||7 311 616||19 770 609 664|
|Lower-case, Upper-case, and Numbers||3844||14 776 336||56 800 235 584|
|All (Printable) ASCII Characters||8836||78 074 896||689 869 781 056|
Brute-force attacks are only effective when they can check passwords at a high speed, as the number of potential passwords grows exponentially with a larger character set and longer password length (possible passwords =n[password length] , where n is the number of possible characters).
Most of the time, hackers don't know the length of your password, though. That's why they have to perform an exhaustive search of all possible combinations, starting from a list of single-character options.
CPU-Based Cracking: Like Watching Paint Dry
If the guy trying to get into your network is only armed with a conventional desktop processor, don't fret about the security of your WPA-protected network. Those 16 388 SHA1 transformation invocations really bog down brute-force attacks. While we were able to crack WinZip archives at 20 million passwords per second in our previous piece, we're only able to manage about 5000 against WPA using an Intel Core i5-2500K.
|Total Search Time Search, Assuming 5000 WPA Passwords/Second||Passwords Between 1 and 4 Characters||Passwords Between 1 and 6 Characters||Passwords Between 1 and 8 Characters||Passwords Between 1 and 12 Characters|
|Numbers||Instant||4 minutes||6.5 hours||7.5 years|
|Lower-case||2 minutes||18 hours||1.5 years||662 263 years|
|Alphanumeric (including Upper-case)||52 minutes||140 days||1481 years||Next Big Bang|
|All (Printable) ASCII characters||5 hours||5 years||48 644.66 years||Next Big Bang|
How's this for a sense of futility? There's really no way to brute-force an alphanumeric password longer than six characters using our Core i5 processor. If you're using the entire (printable) ASCII set, a WPA password longer than five characters is reasonably safe.
The calculations above assume you're running WSA in Windows, because the Linux route yields slightly worse CPU performance. Using CoWPAtty and Pyrit, we're down to 3307 passwords per second.
In the pages to come, we're going to present two numbers from Linux: the result from Pyrit's benchmark command and the figure reported by CoWPAtty using the Pyrit pass-through function. The Pyrit benchmark command is commonly used to highlight GPU performance, but it doesn't figure in the last couple of transformations needed to go from PMK to PTK. There is some overhead there because the PMK-PTK conversion occurs outside of Pyrit.
CoWPAtty and Elcomsoft's Wireless Security Auditor test the speed at which master keys are checked against the PTK information contained within captured packets. As such, those are the real-world numbers you would see in mounting a brute-force attack against a WPA-protected network.
GPU-Based Cracking: AMD Vs. Nvidia In Brute-Force Attack Performance
So, what happens when we put GPUs to work on the same task?
|Intel Core i5-2500K||Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 1 GB|
|Cores||4 (no HT)||336|
|Clock Speed||3.3 GHz (base)||1350 MHz|
|Wireless Security Auditor||4752 passwords/s||18 105 passwords/s|
|Pyrit Benchmark||3949.13 PMKs/s||17 771.6 PMKs/s|
|Pyrit w/CoWPAtty||3306.85 passwords/s||19 077.15 passwords/s|
|Time To Crack Passwords Between 1 and 6 Characters (Alphanumeric)||140 days, 14 hours (WSA)||35 days (Pyrit)|
|Time To Crack Passwords Between 1 and 8 Characters (Alphanumeric)||1480 years, 311 days (WSA)||368 years, 319 days (Pyrit)|
Compared to CPUs, the performance difference is incredible. A single GeForce GTX 460 manages roughly 4x the performance of a Core i5-2500K.
That Forensic Computers, Inc. Tableau TACC1441 mentioned earlier should have been an indication that GP-GPU computation would outperform desktop CPUs. After all, the FPGA-based accelerator consists of a massively parallel array of processors that operate in concert to attack multiple types of encryption schemes. This is a problem better-addressed by many cores operating concurrently.
Now, we know how a mid-range graphics card fares against a fairly mid-range CPU. What happens when we start ratcheting up the complexity of our graphics configuration?
It's striking to see how much faster AMD's cards are than Nvidia's. The Radeon HD 6990 sports a greater number of ALUs than the GeForce GTX 590, though. Moreover, it has been shown that there are certain operations AMD's ALUs are able to execute more efficiently.
For some reason, we did have to enable CrossFire to get the second Radeon HD 6990 to appear under WSA (generally, multi-GPU configurations don't need to be running in CrossFire or SLI to operate cooperatively). Both technologies can slow down a brute-force attack because they're designed to help balance GPU workloads. In this case, CrossFire actually works to the detriment of performance. With AMD's multi-card feature disabled, we achieve the expected linear performance scaling in Linux.
Brute-force password cracking in a reasonable amount of time is wholly dependent on the number of cores you wield and the speed at which they operate.
|Time To Find Crack...||Passwords Between 1 and 6 Characters (Alphanumeric)||Passwords Between 1 and 8 Characters (Alphanumeric)|
|Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 1 GB||35 days (Pyrit w/ CoWPAtty)||368.9 years (Pyrit w/ CoWPAtty)|
|Nvidia GeForce GTX 590||11.6 days (Pyrit w/ CoWPAtty)||122.5 years (Pyrit w/ CoWPAtty)|
|2 x Nvidia GeForce GTX 590||6.5 days (WSA)||68.66 years (WSA)|
|AMD Radeon HD 6850||20.4 days (WSA)||214.75 years (WSA)|
|AMD Radeon HD 6990||5.88 days (WSA)||62.24 years (WSA)|
|2 x AMD Radeon HD 6990||3.08 days (Pyrit w/ CoWPAtty)||32.97 years (Pyrit w/ CoWPAtty)|
Though not common, a pair of GeForce GTX 590s or Radeon HD 6990s in a high-end gaming rig isn't unheard of. Clearly, passwords consisting of seven characters or more are fairly safe. But bear in mind also that we're also looking at worst-case scenarios. The numbers cited above are indicative of searching for a password between 00 and 99, and the right answer ends up being 99. The correct answer is just as likely to be 00, slashing the compute time.
Nvidia's Tesla And Amazon's EC2: Hacking In The Cloud
Cracking passwords works best on a scale exceeding what an enthusiast would have at home. That's why we took Pyrit and put it to work on several Tesla-based GPU cluster instances in Amazon's EC2 cloud.
Amazon calls each server a "Cluster GPU Quadruple Extra Large Instance" and it consists of the following:
- 22 GB of memory
- 33.5 EC2 Compute Units (2 x Intel Xeon X5570, quad-core, Nehalem architecture)
- 2 x Nvidia Tesla M2050 GPUs (Fermi architecture)
- 1690 GB of instance storage
- 64-bit platform
- I/O performance: 10 gigabit Ethernet
- API name: cg1.4xlarge
This machine is strictly a Linux affair, which is why we're restricted to Pyrit. The best part, though, is that it's completely scalable. You can add client nodes to your master server in order to distribute the workload. How fast can it go? Well, on the "master" server, we were able to hit between 45 000 to 50 000 PMKs/s.
Computed 47956.23 PMKs/s total.
#1: 'CUDA-Device #1 'Tesla M2050'': 21231.7 PMKs/s (RTT 3.0)
#2: 'CUDA-Device #2 'Tesla M2050'': 21011.1 PMKs/s (RTT 3.0)
#3: 'CPU-Core (SSE2)': 440.9 PMKs/s (RTT 3.0)
#4: 'CPU-Core (SSE2)': 421.6 PMKs/s (RTT 3.0)
#5: 'CPU-Core (SSE2)': 447.0 PMKs/s (RTT 3.0)
#6: 'CPU-Core (SSE2)': 442.1 PMKs/s (RTT 3.0)
#7: 'CPU-Core (SSE2)': 448.7 PMKs/s (RTT 3.0)
#8: 'CPU-Core (SSE2)': 435.6 PMKs/s (RTT 3.0)
#9: 'CPU-Core (SSE2)': 437.8 PMKs/s (RTT 3.0)
#10: 'CPU-Core (SSE2)': 435.5 PMKs/s (RTT 3.0)
#11: 'CPU-Core (SSE2)': 445.8 PMKs/s (RTT 3.0)
#12: 'CPU-Core (SSE2)': 443.4 PMKs/s (RTT 3.0)
#13: 'CPU-Core (SSE2)': 443.0 PMKs/s (RTT 3.0)
#14: 'CPU-Core (SSE2)': 444.2 PMKs/s (RTT 3.0)
#15: 'CPU-Core (SSE2)': 434.3 PMKs/s (RTT 3.0)
#16: 'CPU-Core (SSE2)': 429.7 PMKs/s (RTT 3.0)
Are you scratching your head at this point? Only 50 000 PMK/s with two Tesla M2050s?! Although the hardware might seem to be under-performing, the results are on the order of a single GeForce GTX 590, which of course is armed with two GF110 GPUs. Why is that?
Nvidia's Teslas were designed for complex scientific calculations (like CFDs), which is why they so prominently feature fast double-precision floating-point math that the desktop GeForce cards cannot match. Tesla boards also boast 3 and 6 GB of memory with ECC support. However, the process we're testing doesn't tax any of those differentiated capabilities. And to make matters worse, Nvidia down-clocks the Tesla boards to ensure the 24/7 availability needed in an enterprise-class HPC environment.
But the real reason to try cracking WPA in the cloud is scaling potential. For every node we add, the process speeds up by 18 000 to 20 000 PMKs/s. That's probably not what most folks have in mind when they talk about the cloud's redeeming qualities, but it does demonstrate the effectiveness of distributing workloads across more machines that what any one person could procure on their own.
Each GPU cluster instance is armed with a 10 Gb Ethernet link, restricting bidirectional traffic between the master and nodes to 1.25 GB/s. This is what bottlenecks the cracking speed. Remember that a single ASCII character consumes one byte. So, as you start cracking longer passwords, the master server has to send more data to the clients. Worse still, the clients have to send the processed PMK/PTK back to the master server. As the network grows, the number of passwords each additional node processes goes down, resulting in diminishing returns.
Harnessing multiple networked computers to crack passwords isn't a new concept. But ultimately, it would have to be done differently to be more of a threat. Otherwise, desktop-class hardware is going to be faster than most cloud-based alternatives. For example, about a month ago, Passware, Inc. used eight Amazon Cluster GPU Instances to crack MS Office passwords at a speed of 30 000 passwords per second. We can do the same thing with a single Radeon HD 5970 using Accent's Office Password Recovery.
Securing Your WPA-Protected Network
Rest easy. From a practical standpoint, WPA is fairly safe. There are far too many salted key-derived hashes to process. The Wi-Fi Alliance got that portion of the protocol right. Even with a pair of Radeon HD 6990s, we're limited to about 200 000 passwords per second, and that means any alphanumeric password longer than seven characters is almost impossible to crack in under a year. That's a long time to wait for free Internet access from the guy next door (you'd be better off using social engineering to get the password from him; try a 12-pack of Newcastles). After adding a few special keystrokes, brute-force attacks look completely infeasible on passwords longer than six characters. Though, the point is kind of moot considering WPA/WPA2 requires a password longer than eight characters.
Unfortunately, most of us use passwords that include words. As such, those passwords are vulnerable to dictionary-based attacks. The number of words in conversational English is in the tens of thousands. A single GeForce GTX 590 can manage at least 50 000 passwords per second against a WPA-protected network. Even if you add a few variations, you really only need to spend a day or two crunching passwords to break the proverbial lock. Why? Because an entire word is functionally the same as a single letter, like "a." So searching for "thematrix" is treated the same as "12" in a brute-force attack.
Ideally, you should avoid the following if you are trying to make your network more secure:
- Avoid words from the dictionary. The Oxford English dictionary contains fewer than 300 000 entries if you count words currently in use, obsolete words, and derivative words. That's nothing for a GeForce GTX 590 or Radeon HD 6990.
- Avoid words with numbers appended at the end. Adding 1 to the end of password doesn't make it a more secure. We can still crunch the entire English dictionary and numbers in half a day with a pair of Radeon HD 6990s.
- Avoid double words or simple letter substitution. PasswordPassword only doubles the number of words that we have to search. That's still fairly easy, considering how fast we can scan words. Also, p@55w0rd isn't a much more secure password. Password crackers know all the usual shortcuts, so don't take that route.
- Avoid common sequences from your keyboard. Adding QWERTY to the dictionary of tested passwords isn’t hard work. That's another shortcut to avoid.
- Avoid common numerical sequences. 314159 may be easy to remember. It's Pi, after all. But it's also something that's easy to test for.
- Avoid anything personally related, such as your license plate, social security number, past telephone number, birthday, and so on. We live in a world where a lot of information is public domain. If you have a Facebook or Twitter account, the amount of information available keeps growing.
To the average hacker, WPA holds up remarkably well. Even if you're using a short, random password, the cracking speed we see from GPUs is simply too slow as a result of the high computational requirements for the key derivation function.
The real threat is distributed computing. Buying four Radeon HD 6990s help you reach close to half a million passwords per second. But the cards alone cost nearly $3000. If we went to the trouble of tweaking the Pyrit code, it would be possible to achieve the same performance for $8 by renting 10 EC2 Cluster GPU Instances. If you're unable to scale your code for automation, you can still achieve that level of performance by manually managing the workload across multiple servers.
The current distributed offerings might not offer impressive performance, but their speed isn't what worries us. It's their low price tag. Moxie Marlinspike, a hacker, runs a service called WPACracker, which can be used to crack the four-way handshake capture of WPA-PSK using 400 CPU clusters on Amazon's EC2 cloud. This scaling allows you to crunch through a 135 million word dictionary specifically created for WPA passwords in under 20 minutes. Even though that's ~112 500 passwords per second (equivalent to a single GeForce GTX 590), you only have to pay $17.
|Total Search Time Assuming 1 Million WPA Passwords/Second|
(Cost using EC2 Reserved Rate)
|Passwords Between 1 and 4 Characters||Passwords Between 1 and 6 Characters||Passwords Between 1 and 8 Characters||Passwords Between 1 and 12 Characters|
Estimated Cost: $0.74
Estimated Cost: $0.74
Estimated Cost: $0.74
Estimated Cost: $226
Estimated Cost: $0.74
Estimated Cost: $0.74
Estimated Cost: $44.40
|Alphanumeric (including Upper-case)||Instant|
Estimated Cost: $0.74
Estimated Cost: $11.84
|7 years||103 981 388 years|
|All (Printable) ASCII characters||2 minutes|
Estimated Cost: $0.74
Estimated Cost: $159.84
|231 years||Next Big Bang|
Thomas Roth, a security expert who helped highlight the flaws of the Sony PlayStation Network, seems to be the only person that has publicly demonstrated a properly-scaled GPU distributed cracking network. His setup linearly scales the speed of individual EC2 Cluster GPU Instances by balancing the workload and reducing bottlenecks. So, even though we need about 10 Radeon HD 6990s split among three desktop systems to reach 1 million WPA passwords per second, we can do the same by spending $60 to rent 20 Cluster GPU Instances (the limit was recently increased to 64 servers). The only hurdle is optimizing code in Amazon's cloud. And no, we aren't going to share our code.
ZoomComputational clouds like Amazon's EC2 were originally intended to help developers and scientists solve complex mathematical problems without a heavy investment in building a server farm. I doubt that Amazon had hacking in mind, but the cat's out of the bag. The fact is that it can and will be done. If someone wants onto your network badly enough, your strong password might be the only thing stopping them.
And that's ultimately why you need to change your password strategy. The fact that that most of us use alphanumeric passwords to lock our Wi-Fi networks only serves to weaken them. How many of us know friends or family who never changed their default router passwords, either? We know that AT&T's U-verse routers (identified with SSIDs like 2Wirexxx, where x is a number) come with default passwords limited to numbers and are only 10 characters in length. Using a pair of Radeon HD 6990s, you can mow through every possibility in under 14 hours.
Besides using a unique SSID, a WPA password should follow the following rules:
- Fully random
- At least eight characters in length.
- Contain at least one upper-case letter
- Contain at least one lower-case letter
- Contain at least one special character, such as @ or !
- Contain at least one number
For those of you in IT, you're better off investing in an authentication server, which adds another layer of wireless security since the master key is hidden from the user and generated dynamically. This means that the PMK is a fresh symmetric key particular to the session between the client and AP. It infinitesimally increases the complexity of a brute-force attack. In fact, as an IT professional, you should worry more about someone bribing an employee or stealing an unencrypted laptop.
Whenever someone talks about security, it's easy to go overboard. We get so caught up in locking down our information that we forget to ask ourselves if we have anything worth stealing.
To some degree, everyone has information they'd prefer stayed private, which is why we think everyoneshould be putting some effort into keeping intruders out. And the fact of the matter is that most troublemakers will see your locked access point and simply move on. Users in the Netstumbler forums estimate that 10-20% of networks still use WEP encryption. If someone really wants to hijack a network, they'll likely look for a WEP-protected target first. Whether someone is willing to spend hours, days, or even years banging on your WPA-secured fortress will depend on the state secrets hiding on the other side.
The fact of the matter is that most of us aren't high-profile enough to attack, so long as the right protocol is in place. It's often said that a pump-action shotgun is the best tool for home defense, not because it's any scarier than a handgun or rifle, but because the sound of a shell cycling is enough to make any intruder turn and flee. Well, consider WPA your pump-action.
Of course, not everyone agrees that security is necessary. In fact, many people purposely run open Wi-Fi networks. According to a post at TorrentFreak, the legality of holding a network owner responsible for the actions of users remains in doubt. One defendant writes, "Not all unsecured networks are due to a lack of technical knowledge. Some of us leave them open to friends and others out of a sense of community." That's super-generous and all, but if you're using one of those networks, just be aware that you're already rubbing shoulders with the bad guys. | <urn:uuid:c97fc33e-7504-4817-9ef4-0ba735ed8252> | {
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|From: Chris (Avatar)||6/09/99 16:32:45|
|Subject: Tutorial 1 - Gravitons and virtual particles||post id: 35546|
Four fundamental interactions…
There are four fundamental interactions which are behind all of the “forces” we see today. The quantum theory attempts to model these in terms of quantum fields, and the interactions in terms of the exchange of virtual particles.
The Strong Nuclear Force is responsible for holding quarks together inside baryons and mesons (see the FAQ under the particle zoo and quark threads for explanations of these), and for holding protons and neutrons together in the nuclei of atoms. The quantum theory supposes that this force arises when quarks exchange particles called virtual gluons.
The Weak Nuclear Force is responsible for beta-decay. The quantum theory supposes that this force arises when particles exchange bosons called W+, W-, or Z bosons.
The Electromagnetic Force is probably the most familiar interaction. It is responsible for electrostatic and magnetic forces, friction, etc, etc. The quantum theory supposes that this force arises when particles exchange bosons called photons.
Then there is Gravity. We know the influence of gravity from everyday life. There is a tendency to try to model a quantum theory in the same way as the three above, ie to suppose that gravity arises when particles exchange bosons called gravitons.
To see how this works, consider the following example. Two charged particles (for example 2 electrons) “collide”. Both particles carry a negative charge, which means the e/m force is repulsive. As they near each other, one electron emits a virtual photon which is absorbed by the other electron. The virtual photon carries the momentum from one electron to the other.
/ \ time
/ \ ® space
In this case the two electrons start from the bottom left and right. They head towards each other, and the left electron emits a virtual photon (shown by Þ) which is absorbed by the photon on the right. The two head off on their separate tracks. A diagram such as the one above is called a Feynman Diagram.
For each of the first three fundamental interactions, the “force” can be modelled like the example above. The gluons, W+, W-, or Z bosons and photons are virtual particles, ie they are not “real matter”.
To see how virtual particles work, lets take a quick refresher look at Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. Mathematically the principle is written as:
dx × dpx ³ h / 4p
where h is Planck’s constant.
In words, this reads that the product of the error in measuring a particle’s position and momentum at the same time is always greater than a constant. In other words there is a limit to the precision with which you can measure position and momentum at the same time: the more precisely you know one, the more obscure the other must become. There are similar uncertainty principles for properties other than momentum and position, one such pairing is Energy and time (simply replace p and x above with E and t). This effectively means that a particle of energy E can spontaneously appear, provided it disappears again in a time given by
t £ h / 4pE.
more to come….
|From: Chris (Avatar)||6/09/99 16:39:29|
|Subject: re: Tutorial 1 - Gravitons and virtual particles||post id: 35554|
This particle has no real lasting energy, and is called a virtual particle. Quantum theories have been created for the first three fundamental interactions where the action of the “force” is described as the emitting and absorbing of the appropriate virtual particle.
more to come….
Our best theory of gravity is Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity (GR). In GR, gravity is described in terms of geometry. Basically space and time form a 4D geometrical manifold called space-time and gravity represents “warping” or “curvature” in the geometry. (see FAQ for more info on space-time, GR, etc).
GR is a very successful theory – many predictions made by (and even some written off by) einstein have since been born out. However, it is a classical theory, ie it is not a quantum theory. GR descriptions break down at very small (quantum) scales. So how do we model GR like the other three interactions?
Firstly – the differences. In GR gravity is not a force. This is an important distinction for GR, not just a matter of semantics. It means that in GR you can always do a coordinate shift which will “remove” a gravitational force. For example if you stood on the earth watching me plummet to the ground, you might think that a force is pulling me towards the ground. However in my frame of reference I’m feeling no force at all – my motion is said to be inertial. In fact Einstein came up with an equivalence principle for GR which means that any “force” which is always proportional to a mass is not a force in much the same way. So if not a force, what then? Gravity is simply geometry of space-time.
What about the similarities then? There are a lot of similarities between the way that GR models gravity mathematically and the way Maxwell’s equations model e/m (no surprise, since that was part of einstein’s conceptual drive). One strong similarity is in the way an accelerating mass can generate gravitational waves the same way an accelerating charge produces e/m waves. This behaviour is modelled excellently for e/m by the theory of Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). Unlike our Feynman diagram above, when a moving charge radiates e/m waves, the photons carrying the energy away are real (not virtual), the photons are light, or gamma rays, or X-rays, etc.
So the action of gravitational waves might provide a good point to start modelling gravitational radiation like e/m radiation. We simply say that the gravitational radiation is quantised* in the same way that light is (*quantised means there is a smallest indivisible packet – a quantum). But there are two obstacles to this line of thinking:
1) Mathematical – it is fiendishly difficult to model quantum gravity like QED. It just doesn’t work the same way. One reason is that gravity is always attractive, whereas e/m can be attractive or repulsive.
2) Conceptual – if gravity is disturbances in space-time, what does it mean to quantise space-time? Does it mean there are indivisible, smallest possible chunks of space and time?
Given the difficulties in modelling real gravitational radiation in this way, it is no surprise that we can’t model gravitational interactions in terms of the exchange of virtual gravitons. However, because we know so much about the way the theory ought to work, it is possible to predict how a graviton should behave – if only from a particle physics perspective. Such a particle should be massless (because gravity is a radially dispersive field), have a quantum spin of 2 (because gravity always attracts), have a charge of 0 (because gravity doesn't have its own e/m field).
It so happens that a particle with these same statistics as shown above is separately predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. Hence the continued interest in the graviton, despite the problems with the formalism of a quantum theory of gravity.
In the next tute we'll have a look at Black Holes and gravitation...
Hope this helps!
|From: Grant||6/09/99 17:11:54|
|Subject: re: Tutorial 1 - Gravitons and virtual particles||post id: 35575|
Just in time for the new FAQ- good work!
|From: Chris W (Avatar)||6/09/99 19:38:58|
|Subject: re: Tutorial 1 - Gravitons and virtual particles||post id: 35617|
Grant - New FAQ? Do you know something I don't about the FAQ?
|From: Grant||6/09/99 20:06:50|
|Subject: re: Tutorial 1 - Gravitons and virtual particles||post id: 35628|
Sent in a suggestion the other day & got a reply saying that they are doing "another round of FAQ revision this week" so i assumed an updated FAQ will be up late this week or early next.
|From: Ian Allen (the Lab)||6/09/99 23:55:53|
|Subject: re: Tutorial 1 - Gravitons and virtual particles||post id: 35717|
If you had any idea of how few people are behind making not just this site, but the whole of the Lab happen, you'd be amazed that it happens it all!
The next update of SSS FAQ will happen sometime this week.
Meanwhile, among other things, we've been working on getting something else to happen.. like the link between "view by order" and the thread to which the message refers. This is not easy because ABC-online programmer time is a very limited resource and we are not the only ones claiming a need for it.
But when we get there this forum is going to have brilliant functionality!
|From: Chris W (Avatar)||7/09/99 21:19:43|
|Subject: re: Tutorial 1 - Gravitons and virtual particles||post id: 35920|
|Thanks for the update Ian.|
|From: jim bashford||16/09/99 14:20:15|
|Subject: re: Tutorial 1 - Gravitons and virtual particles||post id: 38238|
| It so happens that a particle with these same statistics as shown above is separately predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. |
Sorry to be pedantic Chris, but the SM is just QCD lumped
with the Glashow-Salam-Weinberg theory.
It makes no such predictions.
Spin 2 particles become neccessary for theories with local supersymmetry. | <urn:uuid:7a4ca6d4-aad2-4d10-b6a0-ebef2f2cf8df> | {
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The Throgs Neck Bridge with a Peregrine falcon overhead. Photo via Flickr by MTA.
Since it first opened to traffic in 1961, the Throgs Neck Bridge has served as a vital link between the Bronx and Queens. Today, amidst all the congestion so characteristic to New York City, the span helps carry over 100,000 vehicles to and from their destinations every day. It might not be the most aesthetic bridge, like the Bronx-Whitestone, located two miles to the west, but it’s still has a place in the hearts of many New Yorkers who would otherwise be twiddling their thumbs on the Triborough or the Whitestone.
Photo via Wikimedia: Crispy1995
The Throgs Neck Bridge connects the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx to the Bay Terrace in Queens. The name “Throg’s Neck” or “Throggs Neck” is derived from John Throckmorton, who established his colony in the area in 1643. In referencing the land, both spellings of the name, with either one of two “G’s,” are accepted. However, the older and more established residents (pre-1960’s) generally tend to go for two “G’s.”
On the other hand, the Throgs Neck Bridge is definitely spelled with one “G” thanks to master builder, Robert Moses, who wanted to save money with sign costs. According to Bronx Historian, Lloyd Ultan, the name change meant less paint had to be used on all the signs. | <urn:uuid:5b90b940-c0a9-4746-ab21-5b2e4d9b8b6d> | {
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Check out this beginner tutorial on how to solve a sudoku intermediate number puzzle.
Each sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing. Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row must contain one of each digit. So must every column, as must every 3x3 square.
Sudoku is very simple to learn, it needs no calculations, and provides an amazing variety of logic situations. All that's required is brain power and concentration. Get the rules straight and try one out for yourself. | <urn:uuid:5646f063-09c6-42c8-883c-56c86bb20315> | {
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Bolivias forest resources are of global importance, its main forest areas are located in subtropical and tropical regions. There is severe deforestation going on in the lowlands at a rate of approximately 200,000 ha per year, whilst forest degradation mostly concerns montane forests. Cattle ranching is the most important direct driver of deforestation, followed by mechanized agriculture at medium- and large-scale level, mainly for the production of soy bean, and finally small-scale agriculture. Underlying causes of deforestation include, among others, the opening of the agricultural economy to international markets and the weakness of institutions in charge of controlling land use. From 2006 on, under the government of Evo Morales, Bolivia adopted an official position against the marketization of nature and in defense of the rights of mother earth. In consequence to its rejection of REDD, Bolivia developed an alternative proposal called Joint Mechanism of Mitigation and Adaptation for Integrated and Sustainable Management of Forests and Mother Earth. This proposal was also promoted in international negotiations on climate change. It focuses on local experiences for a sustainable and integrated management of natural resources and fosters land use planning at different levels of governance. Our analysis suggests that there is still a lack of concrete approaches to mitigate the direct threats to forests; moreover, the control of illegal deforestation is still insufficient. We also note that in parallel to policies of nature conservation, there is a contradicting political agenda being implemented promoting the expansion of the agricultural frontier. Only the future will show if the vision of Living Well in Harmony with Mother Earth will really lead to effective measures to combat the loss and the degradation of the immense richness of Bolivian forest. | <urn:uuid:30277d7b-ed4f-47ce-aeeb-f1828a485c9b> | {
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Memorial of Saint Paul Miki and companions, martyrs
(Hebrews 12:4-7.11-15; Mark 6:1-6)
There seems to be no bottom to the depths that humans can go in torturing others. Dr. Tom Dooley in the 1950s wrote of finding Vietnamese peasants with chop sticks hammered into their ears. Americans have recently used waterboarding which causes the victim to experience the sensation of drowning. At the end of the sixteenth century the Japanese shogun had St. Paul Miki’s and twenty-five others’ ears cut off. Then they were paraded through streets as a warning to their countrymen of the consequences of becoming a Christian. Finally, they were crucified with their abdomens and hearts pierced.
Although Christianity was forbidden in Japan, the faith did not die. The blood of Paul Miki and companion seemed to take root so that when Japan became open to the West in the nineteenth century, over two hundred thousand Christians were practicing the faith. The selection from the Letter to the Hebrews today reflects such a phenomenon. The author exhorts his readers not to give up the faith that their ancestors shed blood to maintain.
Although contemporary humans like to think of themselves as enlightened, an honest appraisal will note that torture and religious persecution are still prevalent. Unfortunately faith in Jesus’ message of peace and forbearance is waning. More than ever the world needs Christ, not just lip service paid to the gospel, but conversion of heart to his way. | <urn:uuid:293ffb8a-ffb5-4adb-b760-3755e50f10b3> | {
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Written by Niall Bourke (Research Assistant, Imperial College London)
Edited by Lucia M. Li
Researchers are constantly exploring new ways to try and understand the effects of traumatic brain injury on the brain. Dr James Cole used Machine Learning methods to study this question. Machine Learning is when computers are used to look for patterns in large amounts of data. The computer then derives rules based on these patterns, and then applies these rules to make predictions about other data.
A similar pattern recognition technique is used on websites such as Facebook or Google – these websites analyse your internet activity and personal information and suggest what friends to connect with or adverts to be displayed to you. For example, if many of your Facebook friends are from a particular workplace, it will suggest more people from that workplace to connect with. Or, if you often visit websites to do with pets, you will see more adverts about related things, like pet insurance.
We know that brain volume changes over time with normal aging – our brains shrink as we get older, such that older people have brains of smaller volume than compared with younger people. Some diseases, such as chronic alcoholism, can make the brain shrink faster than normal. This would mean that their ‘Brain Age’ was higher than their chronological age. A TBI may also influence the normal process of an aging brain. There may be a one off change from the injury – slightly older (stable additive effects), or this could potentially result in an accelerated processes (interactive effects) - see Figure.
There were two phases to the study.
The first phase was training the computer to identify patterns from MRI scans of 1,537 healthy participants of various ages. Each participant’s brain volume was calculated to give estimated normal brain volumes for each chronological age.
The second phase was the testing phase. Here, the computer was given new data (MRI scans) and it applied the rules from phase 1 to make predictions. In this case, the computer was asked to calculate the age of the participant’s brain based on his/her brain volumes, the ‘Brain Age’. Calculations were made for 99 TBI patients with cognitive problems, and 113 healthy controls. The ‘Brain Age’ generated by the computer could then be compared to a participant’s actual age to calculate a ‘predicted age difference’
For healthy participants, the ‘Brain Age’ calculated by the computer matched the actual chronological age very well. When this method was applied to the TBI patients it was found that the predicted ‘Brain Age’ was higher than the chronological age. On average, TBI patients were estimated to have a ‘Brain Age’ that was 4 years older than their actual age. This difference was related to the severity of the injury. Patients with mild injuries did not differ significantly from healthy controls, whereas there was a significant difference for patients who had a more severe injury. The cause of injury did not appear to influence how much a participant’s ‘Brain Age’ and actual age differed.
Also, in patients whose ‘Brain Age’ was different to their actual age, the bigger this difference, the worse their cognitive function, particularly for memory and processing speed.
Discussion &cautionary notes
This is the first study to show how TBI may lead to an acceleration of the brain shrinkage that is seen in normal ageing. This highlights some of the chronic issues often seen following an injury. It is currently unclear the exact processes involved that lead to this problem. This could be explored with follow up studies that track patients and cognitive changes and brain volumes over time.
Take home points
Using a large enough sample to train a computer to recognise patterns, it is possible to make predications when new data is provided. Using this method, Dr Cole and colleagues showed that TBI can result in a difference between actual age and ‘Brain Age’, and that this difference is related to cognitive problems. In the future, this measure could potentially be developed to become a clinical measure to assess the effectiveness of treatments. | <urn:uuid:daa67fc6-5338-47e4-9b45-48af3a63cae2> | {
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Wheat Bran is the hard outer layer of wheat that is the by product when wheat is processed to make wheat flour. They are used in cereals, muffins of cereal bars. They give a feeling of fullness since wheat bran absorbs water and may expand in the digestive system.
Wheat bran must be refrigerated. It has a sweet taste to it, but if it tastes bitter, you should throw it out because it's probably rancid.
Most grains, like wheat and oats, have a hard outer layer. When they are processed, this layer becomes a byproduct, and is called bran. In the case of processing wheat to make wheat flour, one gets miller’s or wheat bran. Wheat bran is packed with nutrition, and offers many dietary benefits. Wheat bran also aides in good digestive health.
Selecting and Buying
Preparation and Use
Wheat bran can be used in bread, pasta, bagels, crackers, cakes, and muffins just begin to describe the list of foods made with this grain.
Conserving and Storing
Wheat bran cannot be stored like regular flour. It tends to get rancid if it taste bitter so its best kept refrigerated. Alternately, it may be stored in a vacuum-sealed canister at a moderate temperature. | <urn:uuid:562533af-b2b9-4dea-b9e6-f415dd284e06> | {
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Arcadelt, Jacob (yäˈkōp ärˈkädĕlt) [key], c.1505–1568, Flemish composer, b. Liège. He spent much of his time at the Papal court in Rome. After 1555 he was in Paris in the service of the duke of Guise. Arcadelt was one of many Netherlander composers who worked in Italy. He wrote Italian madrigals, French chansons, masses, and motets.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
More on Jacob Arcadelt from Fact Monster:
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Music: History, Composers, and Performers: Biographies | <urn:uuid:f776869b-d199-48e8-b003-e84060855bb1> | {
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Mars is on course to become the fifth ringed planet in the solar system according to astronomers, who claim that its mini moon, Phobos, will one day disintegrate into a hoop of dust and rubble.
The small ball of rock is spiralling inexorably down towards Mars; when the tidal forces become too strong to withstand, Phobos will be ripped apart to leave a huge ring of material, much like that seen around Saturn, researchers say.
The act of cosmic violence would make Mars the first rocky world in the solar system to sport a ring, the others being the gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Phobos is the largest of the two Martian moons, but the cratered, dusty rock is a mere 22km across. It orbits the planet three times a day at only 6,000km above the surface. The second Martian moon, Deimos, is about half the size of Phobos and orbits much farther out.
Astronomers who track Phobos have found that the moon edges closer to Mars by 1.8cm a year. Depending on conditions, it will start to skim the top of the tenuous Martian atmosphere in 20 to 70 million years. What has been unclear was whether Phobos would break apart in orbit or slam into the Martian landscape.
To predict the fate of Phobos, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, gathered data on the moon’s density, its internal structure and the varying forces that wrench and pull it around, and fed them into a computer model.
One prominent feature on Phobos is the 10km-wide Stickney crater, the result of a massive impact in the moon’s distant past. The collision was not sufficient to destroy Phobos, but will have damaged material around the crater and potentially sent cracks running throughout the entire moon, weakening it considerably.
The models drawn up by Benjamin Black and Tushar Mittal show that Phobos is likely to survive its descent for a good while yet, but could start to break up in 20 to 40 million years’ time. But once Phobos starts to crumble, within six weeks it could produce a ring around Mars that holds much of the moon’s ten trillion tonnes of material. “In other words, ring formation will proceed very quickly,” the scientists write in the journal Nature Geoscience. Once formed, the Martian ring could last for a million to one hundred million years.
While damaged moon rock and lighter, more fractured material will fall off Phobos first, some denser lumps may survive the tidal forces and ultimately slam into the Martian surface. Those will not strike Mars with the force of typical asteroid and comet impacts, but come in much slower and at a shallower angle.
Earlier this month, Nasa scientists reported that channels on the surface of Phobos are probably the first outward signs of the moon being torn apart by the gravitational effects of Mars. Speaking at the Geological Society of America meeting in Baltimore, Terry Hurford of Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said computer models of Phobos showed that the grooves had formed along the lines of greatest stress, suggesting they could be fault lines in the moon.
Spacecraft first captured images of the long grooves on Phobos in the 1970s, when the Viking and Mariner 9 probes visited Mars. Then, in 2008, the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter revealed that rather than being a solid lump of rock, Phobos was actually a bundle of loose rubble held together by a stronger outer layer of material.
Black and Mittal say it will take more missions to Phobos to find out if their prediction is right. Scientists have proposed a number of discovery missions to explore the moon, including the Phobos Surveyor project, which aims to land small hedgehog-like rovers onto the moon’s surface. | <urn:uuid:726561f4-f404-41d9-9adc-1f470572cb96> | {
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Bedwetting, also called nocturnal enuresis, means that a child accidentally passes urine at night during sleep. Because this is normal in infants and very young children, bedwetting is not considered a medical problem unless it happens in a child who is already in elementary school or who was completely dry day and night and then began to wet the bed again during the night. By age 5, 80% to 85% of children are consistently dry throughout the night. After age 5, the number of children who continue to wet the bed decreases by about 15% per year, even without treatment. Only 1% of children still wet the bed by the time they are 15 years old.
To help make diagnosis and treatment easier, doctors sometimes classify bedwetting into two types, primary and secondary nocturnal enuresis. In primary nocturnal enuresis, the child has never been consistently dry at night. In secondary nocturnal enuresis, the child has been dry at night for at least three to six months (or one year, according to some experts) and has begun to wet the bed again. It is very important to remember that in both types, the child is not wetting the bed on purpose.
Primary Nocturnal Enuresis
This is the most common type of nocturnal enuresis. Pediatricians think it is caused by several developmental, genetic and hormonal factors acting together.
- Developmental factors. Children with prolonged bedwetting may not yet be able to recognize that the bladder is full, or may not have developed enough control over the bladder's urinary sphincter (the muscle that controls the bladder opening) to stop urinating during sleep. In some children, areas of the brain that control arousal also may be affected, allowing the child to sleep through a full bladder rather than waking up to urinate.
- Genetic (hereditary) factors. If both parents wet the bed when they were younger, 3 of 4 of their children will have bedwetting problems. If only one parent wet the bed as a child, the odds decrease to slightly less than half. If neither parent wet the bed as a child, the odds that a child will wet the bed drop to 1 of 7. Recently, researchers have pinpointed chromosome 13 as the home of the bedwetting gene. Further research continues in this area.
Recently, researchers have pinpointed two genes that are associated with bedwetting. One is located on chromosome 12 and one on chromosome 13. Further research continues in this area.
- Hormonal factors. Under normal circumstances, the body's level of a hormone that decreases the production of urine by the kidneys (antidiuretic hormone, or ADH) rises during sleep, causing the bladder to fill more slowly. In some children who wet the bed, this nighttime rise in antidiuretic hormone does not happen as expected. Therefore, the amount of urine made remains the same as during waking hours, so the bladder continues to fill as much as it would during the daytime.
- Other factors. Some children with prolonged nighttime bedwetting may simply have smaller bladders compared with their "dry" peers.
Although the specific combination of factors varies from child to child, the result is the same -- bedwetting. In a small number of cases, primary nocturnal enuresis arises from a purely medical problem, such as a physical defect in the child's urinary tract, a neurological problem related to the spinal nerves or brain, or a urinary tract infection.
Secondary Nocturnal Enuresis
When a child starts to wet the bed again after being dry for months or sometimes even years, there is often an identifiable cause. One of the most common is stress, when a sudden change rocks a child's world. Almost any change in the environment -- good or bad -- can be a trigger; for example, a new baby, a death in the family, parents' divorce or marriage problems, a new home or school, or even a long visit from relatives. Secondary bedwetting may be related to sexual abuse or to extreme bullying. Rarely, this form of bedwetting is related to a medical problem, such as a urinary tract infection or diabetes, and in these cases there are usually other obvious symptoms of medical illness.
In most children with bedwetting, soaked sheets and wet pajamas are all that parents will see. In rare cases caused by a medical illness, such as urinary tract infection or diabetes, there may be other symptoms. It is especially important to watch for such symptoms in an older child who starts wetting the bed after having been dry in the past:
- Urinary tract infection. If a child's bedwetting is being caused by a urinary tract infection, he or she may urinate more often than normal day and night. The child may complain of an uncomfortable, painful or burning feeling when urinating, and his or her urine may look cloudy or have a very strong odor. Other symptoms may include fever, chills and pain in the back or abdomen.
- Diabetes. This illness affects 1 out of every 400 to 600 children younger than 16, with many cases beginning around ages 5 to 7 or at the time of puberty. Typical symptoms include frequent trips to the bathroom to urinate, excessive thirst, being tired all the time, inactivity and weight loss, even though the child may have a healthy appetite and eat a lot.
The doctor will ask about any family history of bedwetting. If one or both parents were affected during childhood, the doctor will want to know the age when a parent's bedwetting stopped. In many cases, a child's bedwetting will stop around the same age.
The doctor will ask about your child's eating and drinking habits, especially about drinking right before bedtime and eating snacks that melt into liquids, such as ice cream or gelatin desserts. In a child who has been dry in the past, your doctor will want to know about any unusual stresses, either at home or at school, that might be triggering the bedwetting.
To rule out medical illnesses and conditions as a cause of your child's bedwetting, the doctor will ask about additional symptoms related to a urinary tract infection or diabetes. The doctor will ask whether there is anything unusual about the way your child urinates, including straining during urination or changes in his or her urine stream.
The doctor will examine your child, paying special attention to your child's belly (abdomen), genital area and lower spine, looking for any physical changes in these areas. The doctor will order a test of your child's urine (urinalysis) to look for signs of a urinary tract infection or diabetes. In most cases, your doctor can make a correct diagnosis based on your child's age, the history of bedwetting, any additional symptoms, and the results of the physical examination and urine test.
If your child has symptoms that suggest a urinary tract infection, diabetes or other problems, additional tests may be needed. Children with primary nocturnal enuresis do not routinely need X-rays or other tests that measure bladder size, shape or function.
Almost all children stop wetting the bed by the time they reach their mid-teens, even without treatment. By age 15, only 1 out of 100 children is not completely dry at night.
To help your child achieve his or her first dry night, try these suggestions:
- Provide encouragement and praise for dry nights. Never punish, shame or blame.
- Remind your child to urinate before going to bed. If he or she doesn't feel the need to urinate, tell your child to try anyway.
- Limit liquids in the last two hours before bedtime. Also, limit foods that melt into liquids, such as ice cream and flavored gelatin (Jell-O).
- Use cloth underwear rather than diapers or plastic pants. "Grown-up" pants help remind your child to stay dry.
- Try waking your child once each night for a bathroom trip. Set an alarm near your child's bed or your own.
- To make cleanup easier, place a rubber liner or large plastic bag under cloth sheets.
Even after your child has become completely toilet trained, occasional accidents will happen. It is important that you remain calm and casual as you change the bed sheets and underpants. You can do this with your child's help. Do not show disgust or disappointment.
When bedwetting is caused by a medical problem, treatment depends on the specific diagnosis.
If your child has no specific medical problem causing him or her to wet the bed, but has never been dry at night, there are several treatment options:
- Motivational therapy. Your doctor may suggest that you begin by trying a "token and reward system" to motivate your child to stop bedwetting. This typically involves using a colorful chart to keep track of your child's progress, with a gold star for every dry night. When the chart is filled, you can let your child select a treat. Many doctors encourage the use of three to six months of motivational therapy before trying other treatments.
- Behavioral therapy. After age 8, your doctor may recommend behavioral therapy with an enuresis alarm. An enuresis alarm uses sounds or vibrations to wake a child who wets the bed or his or her underwear. In some cases, behavioral therapy is combined with motivational therapy to reinforce successful behavior by rewarding the child for dry nights.
- Bladder training exercises. A few children with bedwetting respond to bladder-retention training. In this approach, the child is encouraged to hold his or her urine for longer and longer periods during the daytime.
- Medications. Several medications are available to treat primary nocturnal enuresis, though these rarely are used first.
One of the safest and most commonly used medications for treating bedwetting is desmopressin acetate (Concentraid, DDAVP, Stimate), a synthetic drug that is similar to the body's natural antidiuretic hormone. The initial treatment usually lasts for three to six months.
If desmopressin is successful in keeping the child dry during this treatment period, the drug is tapered gradually and eventually stopped. Often the problem returns after the child has stopped taking the medication. Some children can use this medication to stay dry only when needed, such as when the child is away at summer camp or at a friend's sleepover party.
- Combination therapy. In some children, a combination of medications and behavioral therapy will stop bedwetting when other treatments have failed.
- Other options. Studies show that hypnosis, diet therapy (especially cutting out caffeine) and psychotherapy work in some cases.
Call your doctor immediately if your child starts wetting the bed after being dry for several months or if your child has symptoms of a urinary tract infection or diabetes.
Call your doctor to discuss whether treatment would be recommended for your child who has never been dry at night and has started elementary school.
Because almost all children eventually outgrow bedwetting, the outlook is excellent, even without treatment.
With treatment, the success rate depends on the type of therapy. Motivational therapy succeeds in about 25% of children, behavioral therapy in about 70%, and bladder training in about 66%. The success rate of the drug desmopressin acetate may be as high as 70% but varies widely in research studies.
National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Disorders
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First pictures from the map of the universe mission
An ambitious mission by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to make a new, high resolution map of the universe has just successfully returned its first pictures, and UK team members are delighted with the success. The AKARI (formerly ASTRO-F) infrared space telescope is making its All-Sky Survey at infrared wavelengths with sharper images and a much higher sensitivity than the first infrared astronomical sky survey satellite launched in 1983. AKARI will leave a tremendous legacy for the future of astronomy. Most of the light ever emitted in the Universe was emitted in the infra-red part of the spectrum, so the range of objects that can be studied by this survey is huge.
Today (May 22nd), at a press conference in Japan, JAXA released spectacular infra-red images of the Nebula IC 4954 that show the birth of stars in their cradle of formation.
“These first images are extremely promising,” said Dr. Stephen Serjeant, Senior Lecturer in Astrophysics at the Open University, said. ”The beautiful filigree structure in the nebula was impossible to see with the previous satellite IRAS. After having worked on this for so many years, it is wonderful to see our labours rewarded so clearly. AKARI can do many things that no other telescope on the Earth or in space can.”
Glenn White, Professor of Astronomy at The Open University and The CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, adds: “The AKARI mission will redefine our view of the Universe at infrared wavelengths, achieving considerably sharper images through its improved higher spatial resolution and sensitivity over the whole sky than previously available. It offers a major new observatory facility to probe the cradles of star formation, that are normally obscured from the view of other telescopes, the formation and evolution of planetary systems, and to observe the embryonic galaxies assembling toward the edge of the observable universe. History tells us that any similar step forward in performance over what has gone before, is likely to reveal unexpected new phenomena or classes of objects that can help to redefine our understanding of the Universe”
Dr Richard Savage, postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Sussex, said "It’s wonderful to see the first images coming from the AKARI space telescope, after so much hard work by everyone on the project. It’s particularly gratifying to see how well AKARI is functioning; this bodes extremely well for the science we will be able to produce from the mission."
Michael Rowan-Robinson, Head of Astrophysics at Imperial College London, said: "The great power of the AKARI mission is that it is an all-sky survey in the far infrared with improved sensitivity and greatly improved resolution compared to the IRAS mission of the 1980s. It will be a major step forward at these wavelengths."
Dr. Seb Oliver (Reader in Astronomy at the University of Sussex) says "Dr. Richard Savage and I have just returned from Japan where we spent an exhausting time looking at the first data from Akari. We are delighted that everything appears to be performing just as we hoped and look forward to many exciting results to come."
Dr Chris Pearson, European Space Agency support astronomer to the Japanese at JAXA’s Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science (ISAS), said "It is an enormous milestone for all those involved in the AKARI mission to finally see the fruits of their years of hard labour manifested in these breathtaking images of our infrared Universe. The team is now looking forward to producing an atlas of the entire infrared sky in addition to many more such beautiful images"
The Open University, University of Sussex, Imperial College London and SRON/Groningen contribution to AKARI is in critical software involved in translating the data received from the satellite into catalogues of galaxies and stars and images of the sky, using the team’s long experience with previous space telescopes. The team is particularly pleased to be providing the star and galaxy detection software, the final link in the data processing pipe-line."
Julia Maddock | alfa
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To mark Lung Cancer Awareness Month, the Israel Cancer Association presented new statistics, courtesy of the Ministry of Health’s National Cancer Registry, showing that in in 2016, 2,695 new patients were diagnosed with lung cancer in Israel, as against 1,292 in 1996. In Jewish women, a significant annual increase of 2% was identified in incidence rates over the last two decades (1996 – 2016). The statistics further showed that the risk of developing lung cancer occurs primarily among older age groups (70 and older); and that the risk in men was far greater than in women.
According to the statistics published by the ICA and the Ministry of Health ahead of the annual Door Knock® Fundraising Campaign, a certain increase in lung cancer survival rates was reported, most likely as a result of improved treatment methods and new technologies. According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics’ Leading Causes of Death report published in December 2018, lung cancer accounted for the highest of all types cancer mortality rates among men in Israel (24.1% of total cancer mortality), yet they were significantly lower compared to OECD countries.
According to Miri Ziv, ICA Vice Chairman: “Cigarette smoking is the leading and most critical risk factor for developing lung cancer. The risk for smokers of developing lung cancer is 20 times higher than that of non-smokers, a gap which only increases the more cigarettes are smoked. It’s important to note that a person who stops smoking significantly decreases his chances of developing the disease. There has been a decrease in smoking rates among men, and we are seeing a comparable decrease in lung cancer morbidity rates. I call upon the general public, especially young adults and teenagers, to refrain from this lethal, addictive habit.”
According to Dana Frost, the Israel Cancer Association’s Health Promotion Specialist: “In the last year, we have witnessed an increase in the use of e-cigarettes among teenagers and young adults in Israel and world-wide. Research has shown, that addiction to e-cigarettes is stronger than that of regular cigarettes, and that it can serve as a gateway to using other smoking products. The ICA regards the prevention of smoking product use among teenagers and young adults as a matter of utmost importance for the prevention of future lung cancer incidence and mortality. The measure that has proven to be most effective is raising taxes on smoking products, a key strategy for reducing cancer morbidity and preventing the onset of smoking among young adults and teenagers. To date, tax regulations do not apply to e-cigarettes, which should be taxed just like other smoking products. Public health in the future depends on measures that are taken today.”
Consequently, the absolute number of patients (not the incidence rate necessarily) has increased during the last two decades across all population sectors in Israel. Notably, the rate of female patients has increased, presumably due to their having joined the smoking population.
On Wednesday, November 20, the ICA will hold a free seminar on lung cancer in Tel Aviv, with the generous support of Roche Pharmaceuticals Ltd., at the Council for a Beautiful Israel, Rokach Blvd. 80, Tel Aviv on lung cancer led by senior oncologist Dr. Natalie Maimon-Rabinovich from the Oncology Department at Meir Medical Center with a Q&A panel of top experts in the field. Pre-registration is recommended. Click here or by telephone 03-5721678.
In recent years, a scientific debate is ongoing in the Israeli health system and abroad on the topic of early detection of lung cancer amongst high-risk populations with no disease symptoms.
The debate concerns a screening program by means of CT imaging with low-dose radiation for smokers. The ICA helped professionalize this field in Israel and is in favor of implementing a screening program, provided it is executed in a manner that will bring more benefit than harm to the population screened. The equipment must be inspected for proper functioning and radiation levels, radiologists must be trained to interpret results among smokers, and general physicians must be directed to refer smokers to screening only after presenting its advantages and disadvantages. Studies conducted in the U.S. and Europe have shown that the advantage of the screening is a decrease in mortality, and the disadvantages are a high rate of false positive results, leading to invasive procedures such as biopsy, which pose a serious risk of exposure to infections by smokers whose lungs are highly sensitive. To date, and contrary to statements by various sources, there is no country in the world with public health care that has implemented such a screening program. In the U.S., where the screening is already underway, it is performed under strict guidelines so that only a small percentage gets tested. The ICA is in favor of implementing a quality-controlled pilot program for early detection of lung cancer, so that an informed decision regarding implementing a national program may be reached based on these results.
A cohort study conducted by researchers from Maastricht University, Netherlands, investigated the association between total nut intake as well as the intake of different types of nuts and the risk of developing lung cancer. For the purpose of this study, dietary and lifestyle habits of 120,852 healthy adults, men and women aged 55–69 years, on such topics. After 20 years of follow-up, 2,861 lung cancer cases were identified, most of them non-small cell (SCC, Adenocarcinoma and large cell), and a minority, as known also outside the framework of this research, of small cell subtype – characterized by fast spread and metastasizes at an early stage of the disease, mainly caused by smoking.
According to the research findings, total nut intake was not significantly associated with total lung cancer risk. For small cell carcinoma, high total daily nut intake (more than 10 grams per day, for example 3-4 walnuts, 5 cashew or pecan or 7-9 almonds versus non-consumption was associated with a 38% decrease in the risk for men of developing small cell lung cancer, a less common yet aggressive subtype, which tends to metastasize in early stages of the disease. The decrease in risk was observed more in men have never smoked or had ceased smoking up to one pack of cigarettes a day. Specifically, consumption of tree nuts (such as walnuts, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, cashew, pecan, pistachios, chestnuts and more) and of groundnuts (peanuts) was associated with a decrease in the of developing small cell lung cancer in men: for each 5 gr per day of tree nuts a 30% decrease and for peanuts a 7% decrease.
For the other lung cancer subtypes, no similar significant associations were seen, and nut intake was not found to be related to the risk of developing lung cancer in women.
High nut intake, primarily tree nuts, was associated with a reduction in the risk of developing small cell lung cancer in men.
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Cerium is a gray metal used in making many different alloys and specialty glass and it is the 26th most common element found in the Earth's crust. Cerium is the most abundant rare Earth metal; it is abbreviated as Ce and found in the sixth row of the periodic table of elements.
Isolated by Sweden's Carl Gustav Mosander in 1839, cerium received its name in honor of the asteroid Ceres, which was discovered in 1801. Its occurrence in nature is about as common as copper or zinc. Cerium must be handled with care because it is reactive to oxygen, water, hydrogen, acid, bases and metal. It is used in glass, ceramics, catalytic systems and dental materials. | <urn:uuid:30ffce06-7c1e-4966-aee6-85944678c9cb> | {
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-F.A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, Paperback edition, 1978), p.31.
- “Nowhere is freedom more important than where our ignorance is greatest—at the boundaries of knowledge, in other words, where nobody can predict what lies a step ahead. Though freedom has been threatened even there, it is still the field where we can count on most men rallying to its defense when they recognize the threat. If in this book we have been concerned mainly with freedom in other fields, it is because we so often forget today that intellectual freedom rests on a much wider foundation of freedom and cannot exist without it. But the ultimate aim of freedom is the enlargement of those capacities in which man surpasses his ancestors and to which each generation must endeavor to add its share—its share in the growth of knowledge and the gradual advance of moral and aesthetic beliefs, where no superior must be allowed to enforce one set of views of what is right or good and where only further experience can decide what should prevail.”
- “Not only is liberty a system under which all government action is guided by principles, but it is an ideal that will not be preserved unless it is itself accepted as an overriding principle governing all particular acts of legislation. Where no such fundamental rule is stubbornly adhered to as an ultimate ideal about which there must be no compromise for the sake of material advantages—as an ideal which, even though it may have to be temporarily infringed during a passing emergency, must form the basis of all permanent arrangements—freedom is almost certain to be destroyed by piecemeal encroachments. For in each particular instance it will be possible to promise concrete and tangible advantages as the result of a curtailment of freedom, while the benefits sacrificed will in their nature always be unknown and uncertain. If freedom were not treated as the supreme principle, the fact that the promises which a free society has to offer can always be only chances and not certainties, only opportunities and not definite gifts to particular individuals, would inevitably prove a fatal weakness and lead to its slow erosion.”
- “Liberty not only means that the individual has both the opportunity and the burden of choice; it also means that he must bear the consequences of his actions and will receive praise or blame for them. Liberty and responsibility are inseparable. A free society will not function or maintain itself unless its members regard it as right that each individual occupy the position that results from his action and accept it as due to his own action. Though it can offer to the individual only chances and though the outcome of his efforts will depend on innumerable accidents, it forcefully directs his attention to those circumstances that he can control as if they were the only ones that mattered. Since the individual is to be given the opportunity to make use of circumstances that may be known only to him and since, as a rule, nobody else can know whether he has made the best use of them or not, the presumption is that the outcome of his actions is determined by them, unless the contrary is quite obvious.”
- “Liberty is essential in order to leave room for the unforeseeable and unpredictable; we want it because we have learned to expect from it the opportunity of realizing many of our aims. It is because every individual knows so little and, in particular, because we rarely know which of us knows best that we trust the independent and competitive efforts of many to induce the emergence of what we shall want when we see it.”
- “Above all, however, we must recognize that we may be free and yet miserable. Liberty does not mean all good things or the absence of all evils. It is true that to be free may mean freedom to starve, to make costly mistakes, or to run mortal risks. In the sense in which we use the term, the penniless vagabond who lives precariously by constant improvisation is indeed freer than the conscripted soldier with all his security and relative comfort.” | <urn:uuid:e641e808-f960-43dd-a0f8-ab9f9ccc88ba> | {
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Applied methods have both advantages and disadvantages. The success and failure of the transplantation depends on: species of the chosen plant, present conditions, and cultivation aspects of the natural place of the plant besides the aspects of the place it will be transferred. Besides the care and attention during in all these processes, the transplantation process itself is a crucial factor in success (Zion, 1968).
1.1.1 Choosing plant
Almost all kinds of plants can be transplanted. But every plant species have a different sensitivity level. Transplantation of plant species changes according to the aspects of plants during the time period necessary for plants’ adaptation to the environment conditions. Transplantation of bushes is much easier than the tall trees. We can divide and analyze the criterion that should be taken into consideration while choosing plants during transplantation.
22.214.171.124 Species and age
Studies in the field showed that some plant species can be transplanted more successfully than others. Plants with roots closer to the stem, the one that are more fibrous can be generally transplanted more successfully than less fibrous and deep rooted plants. Besides, success in transplantation generally decreases from small bushes to tall trees.
The most easily transplanted plant species are: Acer sp. (Maple), Alnus sp. (Mountain Alder), Castanea sp. (Chesnut), Celtis sp. (Hackberry), Fraxinus sp. (Ash Tree), Malus sp. (Apple Tree), Ulmus sp. (Elm), Paulownia sp., Platanus sp. (Sycamore), Populus sp. (Poplar), Robinia sp. (Locust), Salix sp. (Willow), Tilia sp. (Lime Tree); and plants known as summergrowing plants which are: Phoenix canariensis (Palm), Washingtonia filifera (Desert Palm), Washingtonia robusta (Mexican Palm), Chamaerops excelsa (China Palm) and Olea sp. (Olive Tree). Besides these, some other easily transplanted plants are: Gleditsia sp. (Honey Locust), Abies sp. (Fir), Juniperus sp. (Juniper), Picea sp. (Spruce), Pinus sp. (Pine), Betula sp. (Birch), Cornus sp. (Cornelian Cherry), Eleagnus sp. (Elaeagnus), Ginkgo biloba (China Gingko Biloba), Quercus palustris (Swamp oak) and Pyrus sp. (Pear) (Turhan, 1994).
Juglans sp. (Walnut), Quercus sp. (Oak), Carya sp. (American Walnut) and Fagus sp. (Beech Tree) are the plants that are known to be difficult to transplant. While there are different opinions on the transplantation of Aesculus sp. (Horse Chestnut) species, there has been some successful transplantation of medium-sized Aesculus sp. (Horse Chestnut) species (Urgenq, 1998).
The species whose transplantation can be easily done are: Malus sp. (Apple Tree), Fraxinus sp. (Ash Tree), Ulmus sp. (Elm), Tilia sp. (Lime Tree), Platanus sp. (Sycamore), Populus sp. (Poplar), Salix sp. (Willow) and Celtis sp. (Hackberry). Mild-climate plants are not included in this study. Some of the plants which are the most difficultly transferred are Juglans sp. (Walnut), and some Pinus sp. (Pine) species. Another important point that should be paid attention is that plants that have soft roots generally are not strong enough to be carried by frozen root skein too (Himelick, 1981).
As a general rule, no matter how big their sizes are, bushes can be much easily and successfully transplanted than trees; and deciduous trees can much easily be transplanted than evergreen trees and coniferous trees. But the success of transplantation is also related with the health of the plant (Turhan, 1994).
In order to successfully transplant the tall plants, necessary information about their root systems, root distribution depths, distribution styles, roots’ activity times should be known. Plants’ root systems are divided into 3 groups as taproot, heart root, shallow root (Figure 1).
Fig. 1. Different root systems of plant species (a: taproot, b: heart root, c: shallow root).
Taproot System: Juglans sp. (Walnut), Quercus sp. (Oak), Pinus sp. (Mountain Pine), Castanea sp. (Chesnut tree) and Cedrus sp. (Cedar). Heart root system: Fagus sp. (Beech Tree), Acer sp.
(Maple), Tilia sp. (Lime Tree), Magnolia sp. (Magnolia), Liriedendron sp. (Tulip Tree), Robinia sp. (Locust), Quercus coccifera (Red Oak), Finns strobus (Vermouth Pine). Shallow Root System: Betula sp. (Birch), Abies sp. (Fir), Picea. (Spruce), Acer saccarinum (Sugar Maple) and Salix sp. (Willow). But besides the differences between the species in the same system (for instance Abies sp. (Fir), species belong to shallow root system while their roots aren’t as shallow as Picea. (Spruce) species) there are some differences in the same species. For example although natural Quercus sp. (Oak) species have deep and taproot system, Quercus rubra (Red Oak) have the heart root and Quercus palustris (Swamp Oak) have the shallow root system. Surely the environment they grow has a big impact on this situation. Quercus palustris (Swamp Oak) grows in humid climate and has shallow root in order to ease the oxygen intake. All these factors should be taken into consideration while determining the plantation field. Especially roots’ growth periods should be known in order to know if the plantation time is appropriate or not. So, these growth periods should be evaluated in terms of the region’s aspects and years (Urgeng, 1998).
Almost all plants can be transplanted, but some requires more time and attention. In addition, it should be kept in mind that young plants’ transplantations are more successfully made when compared to older ones. | <urn:uuid:75f5a2c7-3fa9-4c61-8972-a7b858884c26> | {
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By STEVE DALE
Tribune Media Services
Loads of Americans have developed spare tires around their middles, and so have many of our pets. Cats are particularly portly; about 55 percent of tabbies are tubby, says the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. Some suggest this is a conservative number.
According to the Banfield Pet Hospital 2012 State of Pet Health Report, there's been a whopping 90 percent rise in overweight and obese cats since 2007. Yet, nearly 70 percent of cat owners say their purring pal is purr-fectly svelte. Cats don't become hefty overnight, so some owners just can't tell; without visiting a veterinarian, they have no idea what their pet weights. Other owners have a skewed idea of what cats should look like, thinking tubby is cute. Still other owners are simply in denial.
In any case, the rise of portly cats has become epidemic, and the impact is undeniable. Diabetes and arthritis have never been so prevalent in cats. In fact, behavior problems -- which can lead to euthanasia -- may be more common in overweight cats. For example, weight gain may contribute to arthritis, so it hurts kitty to step into the litter box or walk up/down the stairs leading to the box. Some pudgy cats can barely fit into a litter box. As a result, some have accidents and are relinquished to shelters or simply left outdoors to fend for themselves.
Some cancers are associated with obesity, and a lack of mental and physical exercise may heighten the probability of cognitive dysfunction (dementia) in older cats. Obese cats also have difficulty grooming themselves.
So, why are there so many tubby tabbies today? There are several explanations:
1. Spay/neuter: More cats than ever are being spayed or neutered (about 90 percent), which is good. However, there's a consequence to these procedures, which is seldom discussed. Cats who've been "fixed" do experience a drop in energy needs, yet tend to be hungrier. As a result, they have a tendency to beg for table food, or even cat food, often "training" their people to give it to them. This eventually becomes a vicious cycle: The cats pack on pounds as their metabolism slows, making exercise less likely, further boosting weight gain.
2. Free feeding: Leaving food out 24/7 in multi-cat homes makes it impossible for owners to keep track of which cat has eaten what. Cats do train us very well as their automatic food dispensers.
3. Indoors only: Studies show outdoor cats spend about 17 percent of their time traveling/hunting. Indoor-only cats are safer, but do spend far more time napping.
So, what to do? Exercise isn't only important for dogs and people. Use an interactive toy to engage your kitty. Hide food treats in puzzle balls and toys around the house when you're not home so your little lion can "hunt." Enrich your cat's environment by providing toys and lots of places to climb and scratch. Note: Toys can be as simple as an empty box or plastic cap from a milk bottle.
Some indoor cats enjoy walking outside on a leash and harness. "Catios" are the cat's meow -- a trend in New York City and elsewhere whereby patios and porches are enclosed, keeping felines in and potential predators out. Learn more about enriching your pet's environment in a free handout from Dr. Tony Buffington's Indoor Pet Initiative: http://indoorpet.osu.edu/
For spayed/neutered cats yet to win the battle of the bulge, there's good news. The new Spayed/Neutered cat food from Royal Canin provides a unique blend of appetite-curbing fibers, and the donut-shaped kibble slows down cats' eating, (There's a Spayed/Neutered diet available for kittens to senior cats.)
Remember that a year in a cat's life is equivalent to about four or six human years. Make sure your pet sees a veterinarian at least once a year for preventive care, which includes being weighed. Owners are often unaware their cat has become plump. Veterinarians are the best source of advice on weight loss. Beware: Crash diets may cause fatty liver disease, which can be fatal.
Diabetes can be difficult for pet owners to recognize (another reason for veterinary visits). Diabetic cats do require insulin, such as ProZinc, specifically created for cats. It turns out that with exercise and a high protein/low carbohydrate diet, weight loss may follow, and some cats then go into remission.
Through diet and scheduled feedings, even spayed/neutered cats may not be so determined to eat. And for those who are already rotund, veterinarians can create a plan to enhance your cat's quality of life, and maybe even extend the pet's life.
Steve Dale welcomes questions/comments from readers. Although he can't answer all of them individually, he'll answer those of general interest in his column Send e-mail to PETWORLD(at)STEVE DALE.TV. Include your name, city and state. Steve's website is www.stevedalepetworld.com; he also hosts the nationally syndicated "Steve Dale's Pet World" and "The Pet Minute." He's also a contributing editor to USA Weekend.
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This project was first developed in 2008 in partnership with Inspiring Scotland. It was set up in response to West Dunbartonshire’s poor statistics in relation to the number of young people who were not engaging in school and the low numbers of young people progressing from school into further education, employment and training. It was identified that the majority of the young people caught up in these statistics lived in some of the most deprived communities within the Region.
Today Inspiring Scotland is firmly established as an early intervention project that provides a prevention and informal education programme with a strong employability theme. The project is working with 200 young people across the West Dunbartonshire region.
In School group support sessions. Within 5 West Dunbartonshire High Schools, we deliver a number of SQA Awards including the SQA Employability Award and the SQA Wellbeing Award along with other youth development activities aimed at increasing young people’s skills and confidence and increasing the likelihood of young people moving into further education, training and employment.
Diversionary Activities. During the school holidays we offer a number of activities as part of our holiday programmes. Along with outdoor activities and day trips, we deliver a number of activity blocks from our Tullochan offices during the school holidays including the John Muir Award at Discover and Explorer level, Drama and Film blocks and also Photography groups. All activities are designed to break down territorial barriers by mixing young people from all areas along with allowing the young people to build confidence and learn new skills while taking part in challenging and fun pursuits
Our aim is to increase the young people’s chances of achieving a positive destination as well as raising their aspirations and improving their self-esteem. We support them to develop the personal qualities, knowledge, social and employability skills to enable them to succeed in life. Ultimately, we aim to help them become successful learners, confident individuals, enterprising citizens and effective contributors to their community.
WHAT THE SCHOOLS SAY
“ Tullochan continues to provide a valuable service to the school. They engage with a number of our most disenfranchised young people and offer them outstanding supports both within school and the wider community. They provide a tailored programme for all associated year groups which contributes to the personal development of each young person. This in turn allows our students to gain wider opportunities within their school curriculum.”
The school greatly appreciates the quality of support that is offered to our young people by Tullochan and we look forward to developing this partnership in future years.”
Our Lady & St. Patrick’s High School
“Tullochan have had a very positive impact on the pupils in St Peter the Apostle High School. They have been able to engage pupils in a way in which we would struggle to do through our school curriculum. Pupils are given a variety of opportunities to be active, responsible and engage in a variety of team building activities which develop their confidence, self-esteem and communication skills. Pupils speak very highly of their time with Tullochan and form extremely positive relationships with the Tullochan staff. Tullochan have become an important part of our school’s implementation of a Curriculum for Excellence by allowing a much wider curriculum designed to meet the needs of every pupil.
“If Tullochan were to withdraw their services from St Peter the Apostle it would have a substantial impact on the learning experience of the pupils who participate in the Tullochan programme.”
Pastoral Care Teacher
St Peter the Apostle High School
“In CHS we have had a long and very successful relationship with Tullochan in all its different guises.
At present Tullochan work with 32 young people in S2 (13/14 years old) who are working through the Heads Up program, 26 S3 and 24 S4 young people who are working with the Inspiring Scotland program (COPE or PDA awards).
The young people in all the groups have a mixture of backgrounds and needs (behaviour in school, family issues, social interactions, self-esteem etc).
There is an absolutely fabulous atmosphere/ethos in all the groups. For many of the young people it is the highlight of their school week.
Without the option of Tullochan groups the breadth of our educational opportunities/experiences would be detrimentally affected. The ability to work in the “stress free” environment and in small groups allows pupils to develop skills that just can’t be “taught” in “normal” classrooms.
The workers who take the groups expect and get high standards of behaviour from all the pupils and really give 110% to all the young pupils. They also attend parents’ evening and report on progress. This is enormously positive for both young people and parents.
Tullochan provides a unique service that extends well beyond the classroom and the school into the heart of the community.
To sum up Clydebank High School would be a less inclusive and poorer place without Tullochan.”
MCMC Coordinator/PT Pastoral Care
Clydebank High School
WHAT YOUNG PEOPLE SAY
“I can trust and depend on them (Tullochan staff)”
“They (IS team) listen and support me”
“The staff are helpful, nice and patient”
“Tullochan has helped me make more friends and manage my anger” | <urn:uuid:d61cddec-348a-4938-82ab-0dea4d4bd754> | {
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Chemicals in our food are causing obesity
British television presenter and lifestyle coach Amanda Hamilton shares her expertise on lifestyle, health, nutrition and detox. The middle-age spread is going downwards. Down in years that is. No longer the domain of the mid-40 to 50-year-olds, the expanding waistline and bulging belly has become so normal among our society's teenagers that they coined their own phrase to describe the dreaded trouser overhang. People, look down and prepare to meet your "muffin top".
The fact is we don't gain weight like we used to. A healthy weight gain is all over the body, a women's voluptuous pear-shape a good example of this. Curvaceous TV stars such as Nigella Lawson often eat healthily and look healthy, even with "extra" pounds. This used to be the norm in the days of Rita Hayworth. These days, you can count calories and still gain weight. Sure, gluttony will always have an impact, but what about the majority of people, women especially, on a permanent diet with no real effect?
The truth behind this growing problem is caused, at least in part, by something so small it cannot be detected by the naked eye. Chemical calories - ever heard of them? If you haven't yet, chances are you will soon. It is the so-called "cocktail" effect of these chemicals that is behind the changing pattern of our bodies. The reason these chemicals hit below the belt is that a hefty percentage of these chemicals are actually designed to promote weight gain and rapid growth.
Farmers feed their livestock growth-promoting additives that force animals to gain weight fast. These chemicals improve the efficiency of food by changing the animal's metabolism in such a way that less food goes further; bigger livestock equals bigger profits. However, when the chemicals make it down the food chain, not surprisingly, they have the same effect. You don't need to be standing open mouthed at the edge of a field to be affected. A minute dose of a chemical does not create any significant problem. They would never be deemed safe enough to leave the lab otherwise.
However, when you consider that 20,000 new chemicals are added into our environment each year, it becomes more worrying. Multiply many minute doses and voila - your own chemical cocktail. These chemicals work in several ways. They damage the natural appetite 'switch', which tells us when to stop eating, and they make us store fat more effectively - after all, that is exactly what the farmer wants from his prize bovine.
Veggies don't receive a get out of jail free card either. It's not just meat that's contaminated. The same chemicals that promote weight gain in animals and humans are sprayed on vegetables and used in medicines, cosmetics, toiletries, metals, plastics and household products. The net result is that far from the "fat epidemic" being explained away by tales of excessive eating and laziness, the increasing use of chemicals in food production can be measured with shocking accuracy with the rise in levels of obesity across westernised societies.
You might be wondering why everyone isn't fat. It is actually pretty simple. There have always been people who are more chemically sensitive. Those with allergies, asthma, hay fever or digestive problems often struggle where others prevail. Moreover, if your detox systems are working well your body will remove most of the offending chemicals. However, if you are one of the many whose diet is low in the nutrients needed to keep your detox organs working optimally and is rich in chemical calories, then you have a double-whammy. Chuck in a resistance to exercise (which boosts detoxification) and you have a pretty clear picture.
So, what's the answer from über-healthy and wealthy folk who have been in on the game for several years? Take a leaf out of the delectable Gwyneth's Paltrow's book and learn that it is all about getting a "clean" diet. It forces the old diet world order to do an about-turn. Rather than looking at food in terms of fat or calories, think in terms of its organic status and nutrient value. The humble avocado, denied by dieters the world over, becomes a fat-fighting food par excellence due to its protective oils and durability over more fragile foods. Diet drinks and low-calorie processed foods become resigned to the sin-bin.
Every chemical source in your life from skincare to shower cleaner gets a detox. Luckily for us, celebrity endorsed lines of natural, organic and free-range are everywhere now. Like I said, they have been in on this game for years. Before you panic, let me tell you what I tell my clients to help keep things simple. If you can't pronounce what is says on the label you probably shouldn't be eating it, at least not all the time.
Go organic with animal products that have not been subject to the growth-inducing chemicals. And next time you need a refill or a new shampoo, try out the organic one. | <urn:uuid:bfe10236-18a7-476e-8a91-6fe35e13065b> | {
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World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Sri Lanka : Overview
|Publisher||Minority Rights Group International|
|Cite as||Minority Rights Group International, World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Sri Lanka : Overview, 2007, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4954ce2c23.html [accessed 3 August 2015]|
|Disclaimer||This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.|
The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon) comprises one large, compact island and several islets, separated from the Indian subcontinent by a strip of sea which at its narrowest point is 40 kilometres wide, and centrally located in the Indian Ocean, lying off the southern tip of India. Sri Lanka is strategically placed in the Indian Ocean, alongside major trading routes from the Far East, Europe as well as from Africa. In contrast to other South Asian countries, Sri Lanka's population has not shown an excessive growth since independence and the country boasts of high social development indicators, including a high literacy rate (by some accounts 96 per cent).
Main languages: Sinhala (official and national language), Tamil (national language), English
Main religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity
Minority and indigenous groups include Sri Lankan Tamils (12.7%) (1981), Indian Tamil (5.5%) (1981) Muslims (7.4%) (1981), Veddhas 2,000 (1981 Census), and Burghers (0.3%) (1981). A census was conducted in 2001 however it was not carried out in 7 districts in the conflict area which are all minority populous areas.
Sri Lanka has a plural society. The majority group, the Sinhalese, speak a distinctive language (Sinhala) related to the Indo-Aryan tongues of north India, and are mainly Buddhist.
There are two groups of Tamils: 'Sri Lankan Tamils' (also known as 'Ceylon' or 'Jaffna' Tamils) are the descendants of Tamil-speaking groups who migrated from south India many centuries ago; and 'Up Country Tamils' (also known as 'Indian' or 'estate' Tamils), who are descendants of comparatively recent immigrants. Both Tamil groups are predominantly Hindu with a small percentage of Christians. They also speak their own distinct language called Tamil.
More than one-third of Muslims ( includes Sri Lankan Moors, Malays and other smaller religious sects like Bhoras and Khojas) live in the north and east. The majority of these live in the east, where they constitute about a third of the population. The remaining Muslim community is dispersed throughout the urban centres of Sri Lanka. Muslims are also divided between mainly agriculturists living in the east, and traders who are dispersed across the island. Muslims speak both Tamil and Sinhalese depending on the area they live in.
Veddhas or Waaniy-a-Laato (forest-dwellers) comprises a very small community of indigenous peoples. The entire community is in danger of extinction. Sri Lanka also has other, smaller communities, such as the Burghers who are of Dutch and Portugese origin.
The country gained independence from British rule on 4 February 1948. The first Prime Minister, Don Stephen Senanayake, sought to reconcile the legitimate interests of the majority and minority ethnic and religious groups within the context of a parliamentary form of government. His United National Party (UNP) entrenched its position within a year of the gaining of independence and strengthened its hold on Parliament.
The first major challenge to the UNP came from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), formed in 1951 under the leadership of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike. The SLFP contesting under the coalition Mahajana Eksath Peramma (MEP, People's United Front) swept the UNP government out of power in 1956.
Growth of Sinhala nationalism
Bandaranaike came into power on the Sinhala nationalist card and his government was responsible for making Sinhala the country's official language, isolating the Tamil speaking ethnic Tamils and Muslims. However, in view of the political pressure emanating from the Tamil Federal Party, the main minority party, the-then prime minster proposed plans for preferential treatment for Tamils, and the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam pact of 1957 also promised 'recognition of Tamil as the language of a national minority'. The pact earned the wrath of the majority Sinhalese, which in September 1959 resulted in Bandaranaike's assassination by a Buddhist monk.
His widow Sirimavo Bandaranaike succeeded him. She too continued with majoritarian policies. Her government introduced a new constitution, which established the country as a republic, severing constitutional links with the United Kingdom. While pursuing the 'Sinhala only' policy with great vigour and establishing the religious pre-eminence of Buddhism, the new republican constitution did away with the earlier constitution's safeguards for minorities. That same year a system of 'standardization' was introduced in the universities, which in practice meant that Sinhalese were given a better chance of admission than many highly educated Tamils. Tamil political parties were increasingly becoming disillusioned and slowly moving towards militancy. Tamils were also becoming victims of rising human rights violations including random mob violence.
Bandaranaike during her regime also faced a southern insurrection by mainly unemployed Sinhala youths. Several thousand young people, mainly university students are believed to have been killed or disappeared in the government sponsored crushing of this insurrection.
Economic upturn amidst increasing violence against minorities
The UF lost power in the 1977 general election and the UNP administration of Prime Minister J.R. Jayewardene took over. Jayewardene replaced the 1972 constitution and assumed unprecedented power as executive president, becoming both head of state and head of government. He was elected to a second six-year term in October 1982, and in a referendum won a mandate to extend parliament to 1989.
Jayawardane's UNP is largely recognized for taking Sri Lanka away from restrictive socialist policies practiced by his predicessors and for opening the country's economy to international trade and investment. But the situation for minorities hit a new low during his period. Festering tension amongst minorities, particularly the Tamils over continuous marginalisation and human rights abuses led to increasing militant attacks against State targets. The state backed pogoram against Tamils in the capital city Colombo and in other urban areas in July 1983 resulted in thousands of killings and several hundred thousands displaced. This is seen as a turning point in the Sri Lankan conflict leading to a full blown out war between Tamil militant groups and the largely Sinhala Buddhist Sri Lankan army.
In 1987 in a bid to appease the Tamils Jayawardene signed an accord with Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that saw the disarming of Tamil militants in exchange for greater decentralization. Indian armed forces were brought into monitor the peace accord. All militant groups except the Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam (LTTE) disarmed, leading Indian forces into bloody battles in the north and east of Sri Lanka (see details under historical context of Tamils)
In late 1988, Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa was elected executive president, and in 1989 the UNP won a large majority in parliamentary elections. Premedasa ordered the Indian forces out and began negotiations with the LTTE, which lasted just a few months. Premedasa also faced a southern uprising, led by the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), propelled by unemployment and rising social problems. His heavy-handed use of armed forces to crush the uprising resulted in thousands of killings and some 30,000 disappearances and is considered one of the blackest periods for human rights in the country's post independence history. In May 1993, however, President Premadasa was assassinated by a LTTE suicide bomber, and was succeeded by Dingiri Banda Wijetunga.
Parliamentary elections held in August 1994 saw the UNP government narrowly defeated by a coalition People's Alliance (PA), led by the SLFP under the leadership of Solomon and Sirimavo Bandaranaike's daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga.
New hopes for minorities
For three months Chandrika Kumaratunga remained prime minister as Wijetunga held the office of president. However, in November 1994 Chandrika Kumaratunga was elected president by an emphatic 62 per cent of the vote. Kumaratunga came into power with strong minority backing and one of her first tasks after assuming office was to start negotiations with the LTTE. She also pursued a parliamentary consultative process to produce consitutional reforms offering greater devolution of power to minorities. However this period of peace was short lived and once the peace talks collapsed Kumraratunga pursued a stringent military strategy. Years of battles in northern Sri Lanka left several thousands dead on both sides. Kumaratunga's most notorious military victory was the capture of the northern LTTE strong-hold Jaffna, where the rebels had been running a defacto state. Jaffna however turned into a hotbed for human rights violations particularly disappearances and torture of minority Tamils.
Kumaratunga was reputed for pursuing a tough line against the LTTE, including incessantly pursuing an international ban on the organization in countries like the US and UK. She won a second term in 1999, propelled by some element of sympathy having survived a LTTE suicide bomb attack that left her injured and blind in one eye. She continued her military strategy throughout her second term but towards the end she requested the Norwegian government to facilitate peace talks with the LTTE, though a new round of negotiation did not take place whilst her party was in government.
Consentual politics and new round of peace talks
In the 2001 parliamentary election the Sri Lankan public voted in the United National Party on a largely pro-peace platform while Kumaratunga who belonged to the opposition political party the Peoples Alliance remained as President. It was unprecedented for an elected President to be off a different party to her government and opened new avenues of reconciliatory politics between the country's two major political parties.
Ranil Wickremasinghe was appointed Prime Minister in 2001 and with Kumaratunga's backing went in for talks with the LTTE. A cease-fire was declared in April 2002 and the main road linking the rebel controlled north to the rest of the country was opened up for the first time in more than two decades facilitating free movement of people and goods across the country. The peace process was internationally hailed and saw a relatively secure period for minorities and a general economic boom throughout the country.
However by 2003 incidents of violence and cease-fire violations were rising and in 2003 the LTTE formally pulled out of the negotiating process. While the cease-fire was under threat politics in the capital city Colombo was also becoming turbulent. As relations between the President and her government soured Kumaratunga in 2004 dissolved parliament mainly blaming the UNP for poorly handling the peace process. On 23 April Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected as Prime Minister. In August 2005, it was decided by the Sri Lankan Supreme Court that Presidential elections would be in held November 2005. Mahinda Rajapaksa emerged as the fifth executive President of Sri Lanka in a closely contested election. Mahinda Rajapaksa's victory has been attributed to large-scale support from the Southern Sinahala Buddhist voters.
Politics in Sri Lanka over the years has been dominated by the question of resolving the rights of minorities, in particular the Tamil population. The conflict between the majority Sinhalese and the Tamils has been the root cause of widespread violations of human rights and ethnic unrest. The future of all Sri Lanka's peoples depends on resolution of the long-running civil war. The conflict between the Sinhalese-dominated government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or the LTTE has resulted in an estimated 65,000 deaths and displacement of over a million people.
The inability or unwillingness of successive governments to devise a formula guaranteeing genuine autonomy to minority groups, in particular the Tamils, has initiated communal discord and ethnic unrest The Kumaratunga government's proposals to devolve power to minority areas was far reaching but did not received majority political backing and was not implemented. Mahinda Rajapakshe created a similar all-party consultative body, but this forum did not receive support from the opposition UNP and is saddled with basic problems of deciding the status of the country (unitary or federal) and the unit of devolution. Sri Lankan southern political block has also seen a rise in nationalist elements including a new Buddhist monks' party that managed to secure parliamentary seats. The current government of Mahinda Rajapakshe is also seen as hard-line Sinhala nationalist and his coalition partners include two major nationalist political parties.
Poor human rights record
Sri Lanka's post-independence history has also been marred by several large-scale accounts of human rights violations. The country has a history of state-led brutal human rights assaults indiscriminate of ethnic origin. However minority Tamils and to some extent Muslims have faced targeted human rights violations including extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, torture of opponents, denial of political aspirations and negation of civil and political rights.
LTTE abuses against minorities
The LTTE has also been responsible for large scale violations against minorities. The rebel group has been proscribed in several countries including the US, EU, UK and India mainly for its terror assaults on civilian targets including the common use of suicide bombers, which the Tigers are reputed to have pioneered. Other large-scale human rights violations by the organization include child conscription, killing and torture of political opponents and 'ethnic cleansing' of Muslims from the north. In one of its most horrendous acts the Tigers in 1990 drove some 70,000 Muslims out of the north of Sri Lanka and many of them continue to remain in displaced camps. The Muslims have particularly been targeted by the Tigers including land grabbing, evictions, killings, torture, abductions and extortion. The rebels are also known for their lack of tolerance of Tamil political opponents.
Since 2004 the cease-fire has slowly broken down and in 2006, the two parties moved onto fully-fledged fighting. The situation was further exacerbated by the split within LTTE itself. Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, the eastern commander, broke ranks with the main party on 3 March 2004, claiming neglect and poor treatment of eastern Tamils, and formed the Karuna group. Fighting between the two LTTE groups erupted in early April 2004 and continued intermittently for several months leading to large scale human rights abuses.
Current state of minorities and indigenous peoples
Sri Lanka faces a substantial crisis of human rights and group rights protection. A further catastrophe was visited upon through the Tsunami of 26 December 2004 – effects of this disaster continue to haunt all communities of Sri Lanka. As a consequence of the Tsunami thirty thousand people were killed and over eight hundred thousand displaced. Minorities were significantly affected by the tsunami, far more disproportionately to their population distribution. Ethnic interests and loyalties were pronounced during the aid distribution scheme as well as the recovery and rehabilitation efforts.
Resumption of fighting
During 2006, with an increasingly worsening political situation, the fragile peace between the LTTE and the government has disintegrated altogether. Since the return to conflict in December 2005 some 4000 people have lost their lives. In August 2006 the Sri Lankan forces and LTTE were locked in battles in eastern Sri Lanka prompted by the rebels' blocking of water supplies to farmers in the east. The Sri Lankan military was successful in securing the area from the rebels and recommenced water. Immediately afterwards, the military pursued a violent and forceful offensive to take-over territory from the rebels in the country's contentious eastern province. In July 2007 the government declared they had cleared the entire eastern province from rebel control. More than 250,000 people were displaced in the fighting. Most are in displaced camps. A significant number were returned or resettled but the process was blackened by reports of forcible action taken by the government forces.
In January 2007 the Sri Lankan government announced it was formally pulling out of the cease-fire agreement. Immediately after the announcement was made the Scandinavian cease-fire monitors said they would cease operations on 16th January 2007. MRG in a statement issued on January 11th warned that the latest incidents could lead to more violence and abuses against minorities.
Worsening human rights situation
Sri Lanka's minority communities, especially ethnic Tamils, have been worst affected by the increase human rights violations. 2006 and 2007 have seen hundreds of Tamils being abducted and many of them have disappeared. The same period has seen some 546 killings of which 70 percent of the victims have been Tamils. In December 2006, the government slapped tough new anti-terror laws under which several Tamils have been arrested and detained. Very rarely is information available on the numbers arrested and detained but in February 2007 a government spokesman said 372 Tamils were amongst 452 arrested under these new laws. Thousands of Tamils have also lost their lands and employment to high security zones created by the government.
Many Tamils have also lost their lives or have been abducted and tortured and a result of conflict between the LTTE and their breakaway Karuna group. In 2006 a top UN official accused the government of colluding with the Karuna group on child abductions. The government strictly denied this claim.
The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons, a panel convened by Sri Lanka's president in 2006, resigned in March 2008, saying that it could not fulfil its mandate to oversee government investigations of human rights abuses. In the following month, Sri Lanka lost its bid for re-election by the UN General Assembly to membership in the UN Human Rights Council. In June and July 2008, domestic and international journalists and media advocacy groups raised the alarm over the plight of journalists in Sri Lanka, noting that at least 12 had been killed since August 2005. In a plea to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to speak out on journalists' behalf, they noted that earlier in 2008 the Sri Lankan Defense Minister had called journalists 'traitors' for alleged imbalanced reporting of the conflict with the LTTE.
The country's Muslims have also had to bare the brunt of increasing human rights violations. Muslims too were displaced in the fighting in 2007. They too continue to be affected by security restrictions including high security zones in the conflict areas. Muslims displaced in the LTTE ethnic cleansing 17 years ago remain in camps and have not been compensated. Muslim lands are also coming under increasing threat mainly to Sinhala nationalist projects. In 2007 Muslims were targeted in a spate of abductions and extortions of businessmen in the capital Colombo and other urban areas. Muslims are also victims of human rights violations committed by the LTTE and Karuna group, including killings, abductions, extortion, intimidation and harassment.
These continuing abuses have been criticised by international human rights bodies as well as Sri Lanka's main donor countries. During 2006, Philip Alston, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Executions condemned the killings and 'disappearances'. Similar concerns were raised by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour. The Co-Chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference – EU, the US, Japan and Norway – also expressed alarm at the human rights violations. However, as the events of 2007 reflect, no effective response has been formulated by the Sri Lankan government to the concerns raised by the international community on investigating continuous human rights violations. | <urn:uuid:b9f464fe-380c-4f59-85e3-b6e37a8f7d13> | {
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Müritz National Park hugs the long eastern shoreline of Lake Müritz, which is by far the largest of the Mecklenburg Lakes in north-east Germany. A 660-kilometre network of trails leads through an enchanting landscape characterised by ancient beech forests, mysterious marshes and huge expanses of water – including more than 130 lakes.
Müritz National Park in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is a stunningly beautiful region with countless lakes. It is also an important breeding ground for rare and endangered large birds – ideal for nature lovers and ornithologists.
The chance of seeing rare animals close up, such as the endangered white-tailed eagle, pairs of ospreys in Federow and cranes, makes any excursion along the numerous cycle and walking trails a voyage of discovery. In the eastern part of the national park near Serrahn there are even specially constructed hides where visitors can watch the wildlife. Swedish hornless cattle have been grazing near Müritzhof since 1969 as part of a trial, with Gotland sheep being added in the 1980s.
There are a large number of cycle trails on which to explore the region, and the national park office regularly conducts guided walks. But visitors are not restricted to cycling or walking when it comes to discovering the new and unexpected, as boats and canoes provide excellent alternatives. Larger pleasure boats are often able to accommodate bicycles on board. Canoeing trips on the Havel river and the 'Alte Fahrt' circular route are an excellent way to get to know this rich and varied landscape. The Heinrich Schliemann Museum in Ankershagen is dedicated to the life and work of this famous archaeologist. The town of Waren with its old quarter and steamboat cruises is also well worth a visit.
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For further assistance from your browser provider click the icon: | <urn:uuid:dfb408c2-2ec6-4f43-a566-3f0a08437159> | {
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with all other working dogs, there are certain basic features about the
that judges must keep in mind at all times. In particular, they must be
very clear in
distinguishing the Cattle Dog from the Kelpie.
This is a sturdy tough working dog with strength and endurance possibly
any other dog of similar size. Although its height, length and proportion
are similar to
the Kelpie, it has much heavier bone and, over all, far greater substance.
In looking for the correct type with strength and substance, the judge
must be careful
not to be misled by dogs which have been fattened up to give the impression
substance. The Standard calls for “Hard muscular condition”
and a dog capable of
quick and sudden movement.. Fat dogs with clumsy, sluggish movement must
Although this dog is renowned for his strength and aggression (at the
judges should not tolerate unreliable behaviour in the show-ring. If the
dog has the
intelligence and temperament required, he should respond to the control
of his handler and be tractable at all times whilst the judge is examining
The head is a feature of the breed and must clearly reflect the dog’s
his ability to move cattle with the power of his jaws. It is this ability
to bite, which
enables him to shift a stubborn beast, and great strength of jaw is required.
The expression can only be described as hard and strong with a look that
tells strangers clearly to be beware. It is probably in expression rather
than any other feature that his Dingo ancestry is demonstrated.
A judge wishing to perfect his knowledge of the breed should make a detailed
comparison of the ears with other dogs in the Working Group, particularly
Shepherds, Corgis and Kelpies. There are many points of similarity, but
it is the vital
differences which a judge must know. Soft ears have been a problem at
are generally associated with oversize. Remember the Standard specifies
size but rather small than large.
Extended Breed Standard of the Australian Cattle Dog – Page 16
The chest is moderately broad and, with ribs well sprung, gives the Cattle
Dog a much
more rounded chest and body than we find in the Kelpie. With his strong
and loins and ribs carried well back, he should present a picture of compact,
Although a slight spring of pastern is required, we find generally the
down into the feet, which are compact, strong.
Colour is important and spelled out in great detail in the Standard. There
is a trite old
saying that “a good dog cannot be a bad colour” but this becomes
our age of carefully laid down Standards that clearly make certain colours
Note that the colours are blue, blue speckled or blue-mottled and red
dogs are not permissible and black marks on the body are undesirable.
Finally, where you are in doubt as to a decision between two dogs, move
around the ring once more and decide which is better fitted for the task
cattle. This is why the dog developed to work cattle under Australian
the dog best equipped to do this should be your winner.
Puppies are born white but very soon develop their blue mottle or red
usually the colour of their pads indicates their future colouring. They
have drop ears
as babies; these become erect at any age up to 6 or 7 months.
They inherit the instinct to bite and work, so care must be taken not
to expose the
puppy to danger and it should not be allowed near cattle or horses until
it can look
after itself. The puppies when penned together spend much of their day
Most are easy to train and the first lesson should always be to obey commands.
When heeling cattle, they bite low on the back leg, selecting the hoof
on the ground
and immediately crouch to allow the resulting kick to pass over their
heads. If they
were to bite the leg which is off the ground, they would almost certainly
dangerous kick on the head which could prove fatal. | <urn:uuid:467be932-1b2e-4cce-b7f4-0c73a62d0d83> | {
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|Year 2, warming themselves around a fire pit|
In English, the children have continued their work on ‘Lost and Found’. They have changed the animal the boy finds on his doorstep ready to write their own version.
In Maths, Miss Mead’s group have been measuring using cm. The children were very careful using the rulers and are able to measure very accurately. In Mrs Halstead’s group, the children have been adding two two-digit numbers using a 100 square.
For homework this week the children are bring home ‘number bond’ cards. They are encouraged to play games with these cards such as one person holding the card and the other saying what you need to add to that number to make 10. We are continuing our work on the Christmas performance, so could children please continue to work on learning their lines and the songs.
It is our trip to the Christmas market on Tuesday. If you have not handed in your permission slip yet, please do so by Monday. It is going to be very cold, so please ensure your child is wrapped up warm. They will also need a packed lunch on that day.
Thank you for your continued support
Miss Mead, Mrs Halstead and the Year Two team | <urn:uuid:91534ffe-955f-4dbf-97cb-0fb913ac45ba> | {
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Kathy Dahl shows the location of the grave of Civil War veteran Taylor Bowen, an African American, July 12 in Wesleyan Cemetery in Cincinnati. Dahl, a retired naturalist with Cincinnati's parks department, has led history tours through the cemetery, and she is trying to get the VA to provide markers for the graves. (Patrick Reddy / The Cincinnati Enquirer via USA To)
- Filed Under
CINCINNATI — John Yates, an African-American soldier who enlisted in the Union Army at 13, lies in an unmarked grave in the 170-year-old Wesleyan Cemetery in Cincinnati.
Civil War Capt. William Peter Strickland, a chaplain for the 48th New York Infantry, rests in the historic Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, N.Y. Thousands of other veterans of long-ago wars share a similar fate.
And under a recent policy change by the Veterans Affairs Department, those buried in these graves will remain without official recognition of their service.
Supporters of historic cemeteries have launched a national campaign to change the policy, which says only next-of-kin may apply for markers and tombstones for veterans in unmarked graves. Several Northern Kentucky cemeteries founded before the Civil War also are backing the change.
Those working to preserve Civil War-era cemeteries and members of historical groups say they learned of the policy change, made in 2009 but not consistently enforced until last year, as they documented the gravesites of veterans in unmarked graves and applied for government-issued markers or tombstones. The markers, provided free to U.S. veterans, had been provided in the past but were turned down this time because the applicants weren’t direct descendants of the veterans.
“This is having an impact all across America,” said Jeff Richman, Green-Wood Cemetery’s historian and leader of a committee behind a national online petition to remedy the situation. Green-Wood Cemetery is the final resting place of more than 3,300 Civil War veterans. “If you look at the comments on our petition, you’ll see that people from all across the country have signed it.
“This (VA regulation) creates an impossible and unnecessary burden for groups seeking to honor veterans who served generations ago in conflicts like the Civil War, Spanish American War and even World War I.”
Rep. Steven Stivers, R-Ohio, has introduced legislation to change VA policy on who can request a marker.
In testimony before a House subcommittee April 10, Steve Muro, undersecretary for memorial affairs at the Veterans Affairs Department, acknowledged that the VA’s headstone and marker process appeared to be “too restrictive.” Muro said his agency was willing to revise the regulation and accept public comment, but he gave no timetable for doing so.
In an email response to The Cincinnati Enquirer, Jo Schuda, a spokeswoman for the VA’s Office of Public Affairs, forwarded responses from the VA’s National Cemetery Administration that essentially said the same thing.
The “VA understands some people are concerned that the current definition of ‘applicant’ is too limiting,” the email said. “VA’s National Cemetery Administration is reviewing the regulation that defines eligible applicants,” and that agency will allow the public to offer input on proposed changes.
The VA’s National Cemetery Administration wrote that the current definition of “applicant” was intended to prevent “a person lacking familial relationship to the veteran (to) alter the veteran’s graveside in a manner the veteran’s family does not desire.”
When staff at Green-Wood Cemetery started researching how many military veterans were in unmarked graves in 2002, they expected to find 200, Richman said. Instead, they’ve found 5,000 veterans “of virtually every war that America’s been involved in” who were interred in unmarked graves, he said. So far, 1,950 of those have gotten granite VA gravestones, Richman said, and 50 have gotten bronzed plaques.
The “Mark Their Graves” petition asks that the VA make the new regulation inapplicable to veterans who served more than 62 years ago. The petition had collected 1,950 signatures as of Thursday.
Stivers’ proposed legislation stipulates that if next-of-kin can’t be found for a deceased veteran who served in the Armed Forces at least 62 years before the date on which the headstone or marker is requested, that others be allowed to apply for one.
Veterans' Unmarked Graves
Among those lobbying to change the policy are supporters of historic Linden Grove Cemetery in Covington, Ky., and Wesleyan Cemetery in Cincinnati’s Northside neighborhood — where family connections are no longer a viable option.
“Nobody wants to see veterans’ graves unmarked,” said Tom Honebrink, general manager of 142-year-old Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell. He added that Highland Cemetery has a soldier from every U.S. war buried there, including a Revolutionary War soldier. However, there are military graves there that remain unmarked.
Kathy Dahl, a retired naturalist with the Cincinnati Park Board, became interested in the issue after leading tours through Wesleyan Cemetery. She has been a leader in the ongoing fight by the city of Cincinnati and nearly a dozen historical groups and Masonic lodges to get VA markers for six African-American Civil War veterans who’ve been in unmarked graves for more than a century.
The six Union soldiers are buried near a large maple tree in the “Colored Grounds” section of Wesleyan Cemetery, Hamilton County’s oldest integrated cemetery. Their final resting places lie near a solitary marker for Daniel Robison, the only African-American Civil War veteran in that corner of the 170-year-old cemetery with a tombstone — albeit weathered — to mark his grave.
The Sons of the American Revolution also hopes to get a VA marker or gravestone to mark the Wesleyan Cemetery plot that serves as the resting place of a Revolutionary War soldier by the name of Andrew Cox, but members are waiting to see if policy changes.
During the past year, the VA has twice rejected the city of Cincinnati’s application for grave markers for the six Civil War veterans.
For six months, genealogists with the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County and researchers with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center looked for descendants of six African-American Civil War veterans in unmarked graves, but could find next-of-kin for only two, Dahl said.
Local history lovers are hopeful they’ll get a marker for the two veterans with next-of-kin — Taylor Bowen and Henry Clay — but are doubtful about the other four. The National Cemetery Administration has indicated as much.
This is despite that fact that Sons of the Union Veterans of The Civil War and the Hamilton County Recorders office have provided certified Wesleyan Cemetery burial records for each. Also, 165 Masons representing 65 lodges have raised funds to pay for footers and installation of markers.
“Cincinnati’s unique because of the amount of organizations and the number of government officials and the top-ranked genealogy experts that we threw at this issue,” Dahl said. Despite all the research, “the VA’s still saying, ‘Not good enough.’
“So what chance does anyone else have?” | <urn:uuid:55cb212c-c145-4825-9331-02c2346dc3d2> | {
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World HeritageThe ancient city of Ayutthaya, or Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, The Thai capital for 417 years, was ruled 33 kings of different dynasties until it was sacked by the Burmese in 1767. Many ancient ruins and art works can be seen in a city that was founded in 1350 by King U - Thong when the Thais were forced southwards by northern neighbours.
Ayutthaya is 76 kilometres north of Bangkok and boasts numerous magnificent ruins. Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Historical Park, a vast stretch of historical site in the heart of Ayutthaya city, has been included in UNESCO??s list of world heritage since 13 December, 1991. More info | <urn:uuid:b95b0795-a675-4546-8be4-2bc7d34f6e46> | {
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At the start of the novel, House Montmorency is the oldest and most respected house in France. Although they lack extensive holdings, House Montmorency rules just north of Paris, giving them close ties to the royal House. For Centuries, Montmorency lords served as the Marshall of France, and are often the same age as the French Kings. With the Italian Wars over and the Royal House crumbling, Montmorency’s prestiege has begun to falter. To the South, protestant Lords openly disregard the summons of the marshal. To the East, House Guise is always eager to challenge Montmorency’s dominance of the Capital. In Paris itself, boy kings grow increasingly alienated from their traditional allies. | <urn:uuid:320648da-107e-47e8-b6ed-7c779b1be9f7> | {
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Make a concept map (a tree diagram or a Venn diagram) to organize these quadrilaterals: rhombus, rectangle, square, trapezoid.
Draw and label the following:
Rhombus EQUL with diagonals EU
and QL intersecting at A.
What type (or types) of quadrilateral has only rotational symmetry?
Consider the parallelogram shown alongside. Complete the statement given below, giving reasons.
ΔOAD is congruent to?
Draw a pair of parallel lines by tracing along both edges of your ruler. Draw a transversal. Use your compass to bisect each angle of a pair of alternate interior angles. What shape is formed? Can you explain why?
Parallelogram ABCD is shown in the figure. Find the values of a, b, x, and y.
The figure shown is a parallelogram. Obtain the values of a, b, and c.
The figure shown consists of two parallelograms, WXYZ and ABCD. Find the measure of angle WAD.
If both pairs of opposite sides of a quadrilateral are congruent, then the quadrilateral is a parallelogram.
Sketch and label a diagram. List what is given and what is to be proved. Then write a two–column proof of the above statement.
Consider rectangle JKLM shown in the figure.
If JL = 6y – 21 and MN
= 2y + 9, find y.
If the quadrilateral shown is a parallelogram, what must be the values of a and b?
Find the perimeter of quad. LNOK if L, M, and N are the midpoints of the sides of ΔTKO in the given figure.
The angles of a quadrilateral measure 2x, x + 30, x + 50, and 2x – 20. The quadrilateral could be:
(a) square (b) parallelogram (c) trapezoid
I. (a) or (b)
II. (b) or (c)
III. (a) alone
IV. (b) alone
V. (c) alone
Quadrilateral PQRS has vertices P(–2, 2), Q(5, 9), R(8, 6), and S(1, –1). Is PQRS a rectangle? Determine using slopes.
Consider rectangle JKLM shown in the figure. If m5 = 15, find m3.
Using straightedge and compass, construct an isosceles trapezoid PQRS with legs of length y units.
In kite ABCD, AB = 13, BC = 6, and BD = 10. Find AE,EC, and AC.
Consider rhombus JKLM shown in the figure. Find mJLK, given that mJKL is 145.
The vertices of quadrilateral ABCD are
A = (–2, –4), B = (2, –7), C = (6, –4), and D = (2, –1). Determine whether ABCD
is a square, a rhombus, a rectangle, or a parallelogram. List all names that apply.
is a rhombus. Find RS and the coordinates of the midpoint of .
In the figure, and are the bases of trapezoid ABCD. Find the coordinates of median for ABCD. Show that ||.
In the figure shown, and are the bases of trapezoid PQRS and . Prove that PQRT is a parallelogram.
A,B, C, and D are the midpoints of the sides of isosceles trapezoid PQRS. What type of quadrilateral is ABCD?
Verify whether the polygons satisfy the given property. If yes, then put check marks in the appropriate spaces in the table.
Draw a rectangle. Join the midpoints of the sides in order.
Identify the special kind of quadrilateral you appear to get. | <urn:uuid:20e6f968-5d1d-44c1-9f2b-cd4bf4b2fd43> | {
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Picture this: you are the logistics director of Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain tasked with distributing goods to thousands of stores across the country. You have many different types of vehicles in your fleet and many routes to use. What can you do?
This was the situation Swiss supermarket giant Migros faced in 2002, leading the retailer to ant colonies for inspiration. When ants forage alongside thousands of others, they can find the shortest, most efficient routes to food despite their relative weakness as individuals. Modelling Migros’ transport problem as foraging ants provided near-optimal daily delivery plans for 1,200 trucks in 15 minutes, as opposed to days with deterministic algorithms. The ant-inspired method also accounted for different vehicle types and provided better capacity utilisation.
Research into the behaviour of ants, bees and other social insects has resulted in novel solutions to optimise business processes. Though individually weak and unintelligent, these insects can form impressive structural mounds, forage effectively and divide labour efficiently when working as a group. By following simple rules, their collective behaviour yields useful work despite a lack of supervision or central command. This behaviour is called ‘swarm intelligence’.
Key Characteristics of Swarm Intelligence
|Flexible||Adaptive and agile to changes|
|Robust||Continues to work even if parts malfunction|
|Self-organising||Decentralised and unsupervised|
While businesses often strive for the first two characteristics, it is the self-organising nature of swarm intelligence that managers find hard to adopt. However, there is much to learn from this trait. With self-organisation, solutions emerge organically rather than being rigidly pre-defined, with creative applications in optimisation.
Businesses can learn many lessons from swarm intelligence. We unpack three below:
- employing simple rules,
- foraging, and
- the division of labour.
1. From Simple Rules to Complex Behaviour
The idea that an army of ants can exhibit complex behaviour by only following simple rules underlies how swarm intelligence works. Consider the following situation.
A predator (or aggressor) is hunting its prey, but a ‘protector’ stands in between. The predator and prey move in such a way that the protector is always between them (see fig. 1). If there were hundreds of creatures nearby, all having an aggressor and protector and following this simple rule, then they will all never stop moving. However, if instead, each creature had another creature to protect (see fig. 2), the whole group would eventually clump to a standstill.
Fig. 1: you keep a designated person between you and a specific aggressor.
Fig. 2: you stand between two designated others.
In both cases, each creature followed the same simple rule. The first resulted in complex and chaotic behaviour, while the second differed very slightly, yet resulted in an entirely different outcome.
An example in small business is a sales incentive scheme, where just one or two simple KPIs can lead to productive, desired behaviour. For example, basing commissions as a percentage of revenue generated will motivate sales team members with a core focus. Such a KPI drives staff to align their behaviours at intermediate steps with their overall goal – from working with leads, making calls and closing sales.
2. Foraging, Routeing and Transportation
The foraging behaviour of ants has inspired solutions in vehicle routeing (like with Migros), telecommunications, cargo transport and other supply chain processes. By following some simple rules employed by ants, it is possible to achieve optimal or very nearly optimal paths.
Suppose that there are two ants. They start from the same nest but travel along different paths to the same food source. As they walk, they release pheromones, a chemical marking their trail which other ants can detect (fig. 3). All else being equal, the ant along the shorter path will return first, having covered its trail with twice the amount of pheromones than the other route. This would attract other ants in the nest to follow the shorter path. Over time, it would get more marked and traversed than the longer one. Pheromones will eventually evaporate on the longer route.
Fig. 3: ants leave pheromones where they travel, marking their trail.
The analogy to vehicle routing for a food delivery service is the clearest to see. However, in the same way, one can model data packets over the Internet as ants. These packets get from one place to another by traversing a landscape of paths, represented by fibre optic cables and servers. With digital ‘pheromones’ that can be programmed to evaporate after a given period, packets can leave traces along routes that allow Internet providers to gauge their optimality and manage demand.
Similarly, telecommunication companies can determine the shortest paths between reception towers for mobile users and manage traffic flow, even as demand changes in real-time.
In a small business context, this also applies to job scheduling, such as finding the most efficient way of assigning jobs to employees. When a manager first hires a group of workers, they might assign any job to any employee. Over time, specific employees will excel at certain jobs, a pheromone-like signal for them to specialise in that area. By being more aware of different employees’ strengths, one can more accurately choose the right person for complex jobs, and efficiently assign jobs that the business has never done before.
3. Division of Labour
Harvester ants transport food from a source to their nest in a relay fashion. The sandwich franchise Subway is a retail example – one person prepares the bread, another picks the meat, and a third selects the salad.
In a variation of a method known as zone picking, several relayers or ‘pickers’ are sequentially assigned different parts of an order to pick – or sandwich portion to make – but can’t start picking until the previous picker has finished. This rule is problematic because faster pickers are underused while slower pickers are unnecessarily frustrated, leading to inefficiencies and congestion at different points in the chain.
In contrast, harvester ants employ another method known as a bucket brigade, where they form a line to relay food to their nest (fig. 4). The ant at the food source carries a seed along until it encounters the next ant in the line and hands it over. Each subsequent ant takes the seed from the previous ant and passes it on. Ultimately, the last ant deposits the seed in the nest.
Fig. 4: ants are forming a bucket brigade, with each ant covering some portion of the whole path.
In the 1990s, researchers conducted a study at a large distribution centre at Revco Drugstores, which employed the zone approach. Borrowing from the bucket brigade method, they implemented a new rule: each worker was to continue picking until the person ‘closer to the nest’ took over their work, at which point they were to head back to the previous person – ‘closer to the food source’ – and take over their work. The new method increased throughput by 34%.
In the Subway example, this would involve the salad picker helping out with the meat once they had no more salads to make, and the meat picker helping out the bread when there was no more meat to prepare. This differs from the zone approach as the zone boundaries of ‘bread’, ‘meat’ and ‘salad’ are blurred. With all pickers following this rule, no one would ever be out of work, and the faster workers would help the slower ones.
One can apply the bucket brigade concept to employee utilisation in the different stages of a customer journey, especially in the early stages of business growth. Raiding the ‘food source’ is the equivalent of acquiring leads. These are passed from the sales team to the marketing team, then to the product team and finally the accounting team. When one team has capacity, they can look to adjacent teams to help. It is then beneficial to develop skills in adjacent teams, a characteristic that is prevalent in newly formed businesses.
Ants and other insects have shown time-tested methods of efficient and dynamic self-organisation resulting in optimised outcomes from simple rules. Their collective behaviour inspires many other applications, from bankruptcy prediction to nanoelectronics. From foraging to labour division and more, swarm intelligence is a radical model of organisation that has much potential for businesses to explore.
What organisational structures do you use within your business? Let us know on Twitter or LinkedIn.
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For over 30 years, Barry Fox has trawled the world’s weird and wonderful patent applications each week, digging out the most exciting, intriguing and even terrifying new ideas. His column, Invention, is available exclusively online. Scroll down for a round-up of previous Invention articles.
A drone aircraft powered by a 200-year-old engine design is the latest concept under wraps at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, US.
The Stirling engine – invented in 1816 by clergyman Robert Stirling – uses temperature difference to activate its gas-filed pistons. The engine is efficient at generating mechanical power, although slow. But the US research lab thinks it could be ideal for use in a solar-powered aircraft that needs to fly throughout the night on stored energy.
Instead of using solar cells to convert sunlight to electricity, and storing this in rechargeable batteries, the new plane will use a thermal battery that stores heat in order to drive its Stirling engine.
During the day, sunlight will be used to heat a mix of lithium and lithium hydride and a moving parabolic mirror will keep track of the Sun to focus its rays on the thermal store. While the Sun’s rays will provide heat for the engine’s gas, the cold air outside the plane will provide an ideal way of lowering its temperature.
Read the hot-air plane patent here.
Pursuing a suspect through an underground tunnel or cave is dangerous work for the police or military. But a system being developed at the University of Denver, Colorado, US, could make their lives a whole lot easier. Revealed in a recent patent finding, the system uses faint sound resonances to build a map of a hidden chamber and locate anyone hiding inside.
Low frequency noise – between 1 and 200 hertz – is fed into the tunnel from a loudspeaker placed at its mouth. The cavity will then resonate at different strengths and frequencies depending on its shape. A microphone detects these resonances and a connected computer converts the audio information into a map showing the size and shape of the chamber on a screen.
If anyone is hiding inside, their movement should alter the reflection pattern and thus changes the resonant spectrum. Tests show that the system works even when the person hiding is just 1/500th of the volume of the entire chamber. And the system should get more accurate with the creation of a database of resonant patterns relating to different cavity shapes.
Read the cave mapping patent here
Surveillance cameras often capture only a blurred mug shot of a suspect, either because they are moving or because the camera is not focused correctly.
But IBM has developed a solution. Instead of using a single camera to monitor a scene, IBM has patented a system that uses several cameras at once.
The idea is that a fixed camera takes a series of shots of a person, enabling a computer to then calculate their direction and speed of motion. This information will then be used to make movable cameras follow the target’s path, enabling them to focus accurately. The result should be crystal clear pictures, no matter how fast the subject is moving and should also be able to follow more than one target.
The system may be good for more than security surveillance too. IBM reckons it could also be used at airports to rapidly identify passengers standing in line, if combined with face recognition software.
Read about the smarter surveillance patent here.
Read previous Invention columns:
Soldiers obeying odours, Coffee beer, wall-beating bugging, Eyeball electronics, phone jolts, Personal crash alarm, Talking tooth, Shark shocker, Midnight call-foiler, Burning bullets, A music lover’s dream, Magic wand for gamers, The phantom car, Phone-bomb hijacking, Shocking airport scans, Old tyres to printer ink and Eye-tracking displays. | <urn:uuid:e4571c6a-0230-428a-aa66-adb7c3fcfcda> | {
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Input devices are simply the components that a person uses get data into a computer. The most basic input devices are a mouse and keyboard.
In the following image, you can see a keyboard with a relatively standard 104 button layout.
The next keyboard is called a multimedia keyboard. They are designed to allow quick access to various options through special buttons. This keyboard has more features and is worth the extra expense (approximately $20 total) if you listen to music often on your computer.
On this site, there are items that produce pop-up windows. Don't mistake these for the annoying ads that pop up on some sites. Generally, it's a relevant link that gives you a photo example to help you to better understand the current topic. For text links (typically underlined or otherwise highlighted), the pop-up will be a new image. If you click on an image, it typically brings up a larger, higher resolution image. In either instance, you need to close the pop-up window manually. Clicking on an area outside of the pop-up will make it disappear but could cause some confusion later. If you don't close it, it will fall behind the main window. When you click on another link or image that needs to pop-up, it will actually pop-under into the window that has fallen behind the main window and you'll assume that the link simply didn't work. When you're finished viewing the image in the pop-up window, click the X in the top-right corner of that window. This is the way the pop-up windows function throughout the site.
The image at the right (click for a larger image) shows the number keypad and the 'calculator' button (not an option on all keyboards). For the number keypad to produce numbers, the 'number lock' must be active (LED indicator will be lit when it's active). This is the default mode for most computers and can be changed in the BIOS (to be covered later) if it's not the default on your computer. If the number lock isn't active, the alternate function will be performed when the various keys are depressed. Since most of those functions can be performed by other keys on the keyboard, there's generally no reason to set the number lock to inactive. The calculator button will bring up an on-screen calculator that you can use either with your mouse or with the number keypad.
The following mouse is called a wheelmouse. As you can see it has 2 visible buttons (the areas on each side of the front of the mouse) and a center-mounted scroll wheel. The left button is used to select various objects on the screen, The right button will bring up a dialog box to allow you to select several other options/functions. THIS is one example of a dialog box. It's what pops up when I right-click the desktop of this computer. As was mentioned before, this mouse has 2 'visible' buttons. It also has a 3rd button. It's located 'under' the wheel. If you press the wheel down, the mouse produces a third function. There are typically several selectable functions for the center button. I usually set it to double-click. The 'wheel' on the mouse is typically for scrolling down a page but its function can change depending on the application (program) you're running. For example, if you're watching a video, the scroll may act as a volume control (since there is no need to scroll in a video). Sometimes, the software allows you to select the function of the wheel (volume, zoom, fast-forward/rewind speed...). This is a very basic mouse. There are others that have many more features. The Logitech G500 is one example. You can download the owner's manual HERE to see what's available on a more advanced mouse. These are mainly purchased for gaming (playing video games on your computer) but can be used like a normal mouse for normal computer operation.
The mouse above is a wireless optical mouse. Being wireless, it has no... wires. It has a USB receiver that plugs into your computer. The mouse uses two AA batteries for power. It's optical because it uses an LED to illuminate the desktop and then read what's reflected to sense motion.
If you remove the top cover of the mouse, you can see the two batteries. Also provided is a storage area for the USB receiver just behind the batteries. Ordinarily, you'd leave it plugged into your computer but if you used the mouse on a public computer (coffee shops, libraries...), you would store the receiver in the mouse when you weren't using it.
Looking at the bottom of the mouse, you can see something that's not found on hard-wired mice. The on-off switch is used to switch the mouse off if it's not going to be used for an extended period of time. The 'connect' button is used if the mouse, for some reason, doesn't immediately connect with its receiver.
If the top surface of your desk is featureless or is covered with a thick piece of glass, an optical mouse may not work properly. To use an optical mouse on that type of surface, you will need to use some sort of mousepad. A mousepad is typically a smooth neoprene backed mat that's approximately 8" x 8". The surface is designed to make the mouse move smoothly and it typically has a texture that allows an optical mouse to work properly. The one below is a bit fancier than a standard mousepad but it serves the same purpose. The back part of the mousepad has a raised, cushioned area which will make it a bit more comfortable to use if you need to use it for extended periods of time.
Trackballs aren't very common but they're good if you don't have a solid surface on which to use a mouse or don't have the space to use a mouse on your desktop. They work much like a mouse but instead of moving the trackball on the desk, you roll the ball with your thumb.
Below, notice that there is a rather large adapter on the end of the trackball cable. This trackball is a USB device and if you didn't want to take up one of the few USB ports on a computer, you could use the adapter. This allowed it to be plugged into the PS/2 port. If you wanted to connect the trackball to a USB port, you'd unplug it from the adapter and plug it directly into the USB port. This type of adapter can be used to convert most input devices (keyboards, mice, trackballs...) from USB to P/S2. The various types of input and output ports will be covered later in the tutorial.
Most laptop/notebook computers have touch pads (slightly recessed rectangular area above the two large buttons in the image below). These can be used with your finger or a stylus (pencil-like device with a rounded point). If you're using a laptop computer and hate the touchpads as much as I do, you should know that you can use a standard mouse with the computer. When using the touchpad, you move the cursor by moving your finger on the pad. You use the buttons below the pad as you would the left and right mouse buttons. If you want to select an item on the screen, you can use either the left button or double-tap the touch pad at the same location on the touchpad. The scroll wheel functions just like the scroll wheel on a mouse.
The cursor will change its appearance in relation to it's function. If you place the cursor on a vacant/blank part of the desktop, the cursor will be an arrow pointer (unless the cursor has been changed from the default).
If you place the cursor over plain text, the cursor will change to an I-beam. When it's in that mode, you can click and hold down the left mouse button and then drag the mouse to select text (generally done when you want to copy and paste that section of text). Try it now on this page. Clicking the mouse anywhere on the desktop will deselect the highlighted text. In some instances, you can copy both text and graphics but you have to paste it into a program that can accept the image. For example, Notepad (a text editor) cannot accept images but Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Writer (both are more capable text editors) can accept the image.
If you click the mouse cursor in the address bar at the top of the browser window (where is currently has "http://www.bcot1.com/"), it will (should) highlight the text in the address bar. If you click once more, the highlighting will be removed and the cursor will change to a pipe (straight vertical line - the character produced when you press shift-backslash on the keyboard). At that point, the cursor becomes a placeholder that shows you where the text will be placed when you begin typing. Generally, when you click in the address bar, you will do so to type in an address or begin a search. As an exercise, if you know someone struggling to use their computer and think they could benefit from this site, click in the address bar to highlight the address of this site. Right-click (right mouse button instead of the left mouse button) in the address bar and select copy from the dialog box that pops up. Email that friend (someone who won't mind the email) and send them the link. All you generally need to do is paste the link in the body of the email. If the address doesn't highlight when you click in the address bar, click anywhere in the body of this page, then click once in the address bar and it should highlight the address.
If you have a friend who you think would benefit from this site, practice copying and pasting the following link into your next email to your friend. There are several ways to copy and paste but for now, let's keep it simple. Highlight the text link below and right-click on the highlighted text. When the dialog box pops up, select COPY from the menu. In the body of the email, right-click again and this time, select paste. The link will be dropped into the body of the email. Leave one blank line above and below the link to ensure that it doesn't get mixed with the other text in the body of the email. Please only send this to someone who would appreciate the link.
If you place the cursor over a LINK (one of my other sites), the cursor will change to a hand with an extended index finger. The tip of the index finger is what you want over the item you're going to select when you click the left mouse button. When selecting a link, it's important that the body of the mouse doesn't move. If the mouse is moved when you click on the item, it will not have the desired action. It will either select text or be ignored by the computer.
Output devices are simply the devices that allow you to 'see' the data being produced by the computer. The most basic output device is the monitor. The printer is also an output device. For early computers, printers or plotters were the only output devices.
Note: The keyboard shown above has functions not available on a standard keyboard. The 'F' keys on most keyboards don't perform functions such as 'Undo' and 'Redo'.
- The CTRL Key:
The 'control' key provides extended operations to several of the keys. In the following image, you can see many of the most common functions. To activate the function, you press and hold the control key and hit the appropriate button. For example, if you want to copy something, you would press and hold the control key and hit the 'c' on the keyboard (then release both buttons).
The F1 button is almost universally the 'help' button. Pressing it will bring up the help dialog box for the program you're currently using.
The Shift key gives you the upper-case of whatever key is pressed while you're holding the shift key down. It also gives you the characters above the numbers that lie along the top of the letters on the keyboard.
- Cap Lock:
The Caps Lock key makes all letters that you type appear in upper-case form. It does not, however give you the characters above the numbers as the shift key does.
When pressed, the delete key deletes the character just to the 'right' of the cursor.
When pressed, the backspace key deletes the character just to the 'left' of the cursor.
- Scroll Lock:
This button is not used much anymore and only works in a few programs. The only program that I have that uses it is Excel. In Excel, if the scroll lock is ON, the arrow keys can be used to scroll the page without changing the 'active' or highlighted cell.
- Number Lock:
When active, this enables the numbers on the keypad. When the num-lock is not enabled, the numbers act the same as the keyboard 'arrows'. The indicator lamp on the keyboard will let you know if it's on or off.
On newer keyboards, you will have a 'Windows' button. It opens the start menu.
The Alt button acts similarly to the Ctrl button. It provides extended functions to some of the keys. For example, the 'PrtScn' button copies the screen to the clipboard (to be covered later). If you use Alt-PrtScn, you will copy only the active window to the clipboard. The Alt-PrtScn function is how I captured many of the sample windows in this tutorial.
- Page Up/Page Down:
These buttons scroll one full screen at a time.
These buttons send the text cursor to the left or the right of the line of text in which your text cursor is flashing. This only works in editable text areas.
Cleaning a Ball-Type Mouse:
On the ball-type mice, you will eventually have problems with tracking. Assuming that nothing on your desktop has changed, the problem will likely be that the rollers inside the mouse have become contaminated. The rollers transfer motion from the ball to the encoders. When they get dirty, they fail to roll properly and therefore, the encoders will not 'see' the motion properly. Luckily, the problem is easily corrected. What you need to do is remove the ball retaining cover. It typically either slides off or unscrews ~1/4 turn. There should be some sort of arrow on the cover to tell you what to do. When you remove the cover, the ball will be free to fall out (just letting you know so you don't have to bend down and pick it up off of the floor). When you get it open, you will see three rollers. Two of the rollers are active. The third is spring-loaded and is used to keep the ball in contact with the other rollers. All three rollers need to be free of foreign material. If you look at the following picture (a little disgusting, I know), you can see that the black roller has some gray material on it. It's a combination of cloth and paper fibers and oil from the users hands. To clean it, use a dry paper towel and wipe sideways while rolling the roller a little on each pass. It may take quite a few passes to get it clean. When you think it's clean, turn it by hand and make sure that it is actually clean. Do this on all three rollers. When finished, simply replace the ball and the retainer cover.
You May Be Interested in My Other Sites
This site was started for pages/information that didn't fit well on my other sites. It includes topics from backing up computer files to small engine repair to 3D graphics software to basic information on diabetes.
This site introduces you to macro photography. Macro photography is nothing more than the photography of small objects. It can take quite a while to understand the limitations associated with this type of photography. Without help, people will struggle to get good images. Understanding what's possible and what's not possible makes the task much easier. If you need to photograph relatively small objects (6" in height/width down to a few thousandths of an inch), this site will help.
If you're interested in air rifles, this site will introduce you to the types of rifles available and many of the things you'll need to know to shoot accurately. It also touches on field target competition. There are links to some of the better sites and forums as well as a collection of interactive demos.
This site is for those who want to install or update their car stereo. It begins with the most basic electronics theory, progresses into basic transistor theory as well as covering virtually everything associated with car audio. | <urn:uuid:d97a15d1-5f72-4406-863c-d03063365a9d> | {
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This elusive species has been uplisted to Critically Endangered as its population is now thought to be very small, and is believed to be undergoing a very rapid continuing decline in extent, area, and habitat quality, owing to the high rate of loss and degradation of its preferred habitat, seasonal marshland. Populations in both Ethiopia and South Africa are now thought to be extremely small, and it remains uncertain whether the species migrates between the two countries.
del Hoyo, J.; Collar, N. J.; Christie, D. A.; Elliott, A.; Fishpool, L. D. C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge UK: Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International.
Distribution and populationSarothrura ayresi
14 cm. Tiny rail. Adult male has chestnut head. Both sexes have black-barred chestnut tail and white wing-patches (very obvious in flight, not visible at rest). Similar spp. No other flufftail Sarothrura has white wing-patches. Female paler below than other female flufftails Voice Was believed to make a soft, double-noted hooting, but it has been proposed that these calls may in fact refer to nocturnal calls of Grey Crowned-crane Balearica regulorum. Hints Best chance of seeing this secretive bird is during the wet season in upland marshes in central South Africa and Ethiopia.
occurs in Ethiopia
(three known sites in the central highlands, the only known breeding area for this species) (Taylor and van Perlo 1998, Taylor 1998, 1999), Zimbabwe
(one record in 1988 [Hustler and Irwin 1995], two records in the 1970s [Taylor and van Perlo 1998], and a possible breeding record in the 1950s [Taylor and van Perlo 1998, Taylor 1999]), and South Africa
(ten sites in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga [De Smidt 2003]). Claimed records from Zambia and Rwanda are unproven (Taylor and van Perlo 1998, F. Dowsett-Lemaire and R. J. Dowsett in litt.
1999, P. Leonard in litt.
1999). In South Africa, the total population was estimated to be 235 birds by Taylor and van Perlo (1998), but the Area of Occupancy has since been estimated at 3.92km2
in South Africa (72 ha suitable habitat at Middlepunt and 320 ha at Wakkerstroom, the only two recently reliable sites; H. Smit-Robinson in litt.
2013), and due to low confidence in past estimates and continued threats to the species and its habitat over the past 10 years, the regional population in South Africa is thought to be fewer than 50 birds (H. Smit-Robinson in litt.
2013, Evans 2013).
In the Ethiopian highlands, 10-15 pairs bred at Sululta in the late 1990s (Atkinson et al.
1996a, Anon. 1997c, J. S. Ash in litt.
1999) and c.200 pairs were discovered at a new breeding site (Berga floodplain) in 1997 (Anon. 1997c, A. Shimelis in litt.
1998, M. Wondafrash in litt.
2007). In 2005, a small breeding population was discovered at Bilacha in Ethiopia (M. Wondafrash in litt.
2007), with three adults recorded initially in July, followed by the location of three eggs in August and 19 nests in September (Anon. 2006). However, surveys at Bilacha and Weserbi since 2007 have found no evidence of breeding at either site. Bilacha in particular is highly overgrazed, with one bird seen in 2010 the only recent record, and Weserbi is thought to support a maximum of 1-2 pairs (Y. D. Abebe in litt.
2013). At Berga, the average number of birds flushed annually since 2007 was just four, and two days of intensive searching in August 2013 located only 12 individuals in suitable habitat now limited to c.300 ha (Y. D. Abebe and G. Gebreselassie in litt.
2013). Although there are many wetlands in the Ethiopian highlands similar in altitude and vegetation to Berga, almost all have become unsuitable owing to overgrazing, and monitoring of wetlands in the vicinity of Berga and Woserbi has failed to produce any records (Y. D. Abebe and G. Gebreselassie in litt.
2013). The Area of Occupancy is estimated at just 5.5 km2
at the three Ethiopian breeding sites in 2013 (based on 150 ha of suitable habitat at Weserbi, 100 ha at Bilacha, and 300 ha at Berga; H. Smit-Robinson in litt.
2013), and searches of apparently similar sites nearby have failed to find the species (Y. D. Abebe and G. Gebreselassie in litt.
Whether a single population migrates between Ethiopia and South Africa, or each country hosts its own subpopulation, is still not known (Taylor and van Perlo 1998, Barnes 2000
), although observations from a breeding site in Ethiopia discovered in 2005 show that birds continue to breed into the dry season and may remain in Ethiopia after breeding, rather than migrate (A. Tefera per
Anon. 2006). Suggestions that the non-breeding grounds for the Ethiopian population could be within south-west Ethiopia have not been subtantiated; seven days of intensive surveys in the Kaffa area in April 2013 found no evidence of the species at seven major wetlands (M. Ewnetu in litt.
2013). Population justification
The population in South Africa was previously estimated to be 235 birds, with at least a further 210-215 pairs in Ethiopia (A. Shimelis in litt.
1998), i.e. probably 700 mature individuals in total. The species can only be reliably surveyed in the breeding season, but surveys risk disturbing nesting and thus have been avoided in the past (Y. D. Adebe in litt.
2013). Nevertheless, the lack of recent records and tiny area of remaining habitat suggest that the total population is now almost certainly fewer than 250 mature individuals, with both the Ethiopian and South African populations numbering fewer than 50 mature individuals each (Y. Adebe, M. Ewnetu, G. Gebreselassie and H. Smit-Robinson in litt.
This species's population is suspected to be decreasing very rapidly in line with levels of disturbance, habitat loss and degradation in Ethiopia and South Africa (Atkinson et al. 1996a, Taylor and van Perlo 1998, P.B. Taylor in litt. 1999, De Smidt and Evans 2003, Taylor and Grundling 2003, M. Drummond in litt. 2005, Y. Adebe, M. Ewnetu, G. Gebreselassie and H. Smit-Robinson in litt.
The movements of this species are not fully understood. Lack of subspeciation has been interpreted to imply that the birds migrate between the two range areas (del Hoyo et al
. 1996, Taylor and van Perlo 1998), and this is supported by the fact that breeding has not been observed in South Africa where it is considered by many to be a non-breeding summer visitor (Urban et al.
2005). However the fact that there are overlaps in occurrence has prompted suggestions that strict migration is unlikely (Taylor and van Perlo 1998). One suggestion is that long-distance dispersal occurs when numbers are high (del Hoyo et al
. 1996, Taylor and van Perlo 1998), with local movements being predominant at other times. In Ethiopia birds that breed in the central highlands in June-September may move to lower-level habitats during the non-breeding season when the highland areas becomes unsuitable (del Hoyo et al
. 1996, Taylor and van Perlo 1998). In South Africa the species is thought to be nomadic, moving in search of its transient habitat (del Hoyo et al
. 1996, Anon. 1997c, J. S. Ash in litt.
1999). Birds in Ethiopia are present between June and October (J. S. Ash in litt.
1999), while non-breeding birds in South Africa are present from November to March (P. B. Taylor in litt.
1999), with a few records in May, August and September (Urban et al.
2005). Breeding occurs in July-August (Taylor et al.
2004). Breeding birds occur at a density of 2-4 pairs per hectare (Taylor and van Perlo 1998). Non-breeding birds occur in loose associations (Taylor and van Perlo 1998).
The species breeds in high-altitude seasonal marshes (between 2,200 and 2,600 m) with dense, rapidly growing vegetation dominated by sedges, grasses and forbs (Taylor 1996, Taylor and van Perlo 1998). It occurs here when vegetation has reached 20-40 cm in height and the ground has not yet become entirely flooded (Taylor et al.
2004). Very soon after hatching, it appears to move its chicks to areas of denser vegetation where the ground is more deeply and continuously flooded (Taylor et al.
2004). The species may have specific microhabitat requirements that have not yet been established. Non-breeding
In South Africa it inhabits moist to flooded peat-based habitats (Urban et al.
2005) (mostly at 1,100-1,900 m) where vegetation is dense and dominated by sedges (Carex
(Urban et al.
2005), although it is occasionally found in pure stands of Bulrush and reeds (Urban et al.
2005). It forages in mud at the edges of reed beds, in shallow water, in floating mats of aquatic vegetation and occasionally on dry ground (Urban et al.
2005). Of the 10 important sites for the species in South Africa, 9 are within the Eastern Uplands, Great Escarpment Mountains and Highveld peatland ecoregions, emphasising the importance of peat-based habitats (Taylor and Grundling 2003). In 2002, a new site was discovered in northern coastal KwaZulu-Natal following speculation that the species no longer occurred in coastal areas (Taylor and Grundling 2003).
It feeds on seeds and vegetation (De Smidt 2003) as well as insects, spiders, earthworms, small frogs and small fish (Urban et al.
2005). The stomach contents of a deceased chick included coleoptera (Dystiscidae) imagines, Diptera larvae (Tipulidae and Tabanidae), and the remains of small crustaceans. Breeding site
Nests found in Ethiopia are described as a ball of woven live sedge, Eleocharis
, and other plant stems and vegetation, with clutches of 4-6 eggs (Allan et al.
2006, Taylor et al.
2004). Observations at a nest found in August 1999 resulted in an estimated incubation period of 15-16 days. Threats
Seasonal marshes are threatened by drainage (for cultivation and forestry), flooding by dams, catchment erosion, water abstraction, human disturbance, too-frequent burning, and excessive trampling and grazing by livestock and cutting of marsh vegetation for fodder (Atkinson et al.
1996a, Taylor and van Perlo 1998, P. B. Taylor in litt.
1999). Observations in Ethiopia suggest that it moves its chicks very soon after hatching to areas of denser vegetation and deeper flooding before the vegetation at nest sites has grown enough for cutting by local people (Taylor et al.
2004). Grasses and sedges are cut for the culturally important Ethiopian coffee ceremony (De Smidt 2003). In Ethiopia, a serious problem is the rapid growth in the numbers of livestock at around 2.4% per annum, and the resultant grazing of breeding habitat to a very short sward length (M Drummond in litt.
Bilacha wetland has already been largely converted into agriculture, settlement and grazing land. Suitable habitat at Weserbi wetland has been reduced to almost zero and housing is spreading close to the remaining small patch of wet grassland (M. Ewnetu in litt.
2013). Even the remaining site at Berga is highly threatened as habitat degradation and destruction continue unchecked despite attempts to improve the conservation status of the area. In addition to the existing overgrazing, trampling and grass cutting, local people are encroaching further down to the wetland, converting grassland for susbsistence agriculture and dividing up small plots of land for grazing. Suitable habitat here has already been reduced from c.400 ha to only 200 ha (M. Ewnetu in litt.
The peatlands of South Africa are threatened by cultivation, afforestation, grazing, water abstraction, horticulture, peat fires, draining, headcut and donga erosion, siltation, fences and developments such as roads and dams (Taylor and Grundling 2003). The construction of the Braamhoek pumped storage scheme at Bedford Chatsworth marsh in eastern Free State, South Africa, may have caused disturbance and damage to habitat (De Smidt 2003). The primary current threat in South Africa is development pressure from the mining industry (H. Smit-Robinson in litt.
2013). Conservation Actions Underway
CMS Appendix I and II. Some South African sites have some legal protection, and at least four sites are protected by the landowners (Barnes 2000). At the largest Ethiopian breeding population, the vegetation is not cut for fodder until October-November (M. Wondafrash in litt.
2007), thus giving the birds time to breed without disturbance (Anon. 1997c). In South Africa, the Middelpunt Wetland Association was formed in 1994 with the main objective of conserving the species (De Smidt 2003, M Drummond in litt.
2005). One of the Ethiopian sites, Berga, is on a state-run dairy farm, and formerly so was Weserbi. The farm at Weserbi has been privatised, but the marsh still remains under the control of the central Dairy Farm Enterprise based in Addis Ababa (M. Wondafrash in litt.
2007). There is a Site Support Group at Berga, formed by the Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society (De Smidt 2003).
In 2003, a partnership was formed to mitigate the effects of the Braamhoek pumped storage scheme. In June 2003, a national Species Action Planning stakeholder workshop was held in Wakkerstrom, South Africa, to assess the threats facing the species in this country, and concluded with the agreement that a South African White-winged Flufftail Action Group be established (De Smidt 2003). An International Species Action Plan was published in 2008 (Sande et al.
2008). A proposal was put forward in 2006 to initiate a captive breeding programme in August that year, based in Pretoria Zoo, and using eggs taken from Berga marsh, Ethiopia (Tarboton and Wondafrash in prep.). The aim would be to study the species's life history and behaviour (Tarboton and Wondafrash in prep.). However, there were concerns that the programme should be carried out in Ethiopia, where it is known to breed, and that releasing birds into its non-breeding range could result in hybridisation with similar species (P.K. Ndang'ang'a in litt.
2006). The captive breeding programme is not currently going ahead (M. Wondafrash in litt.
2007). Conservation Actions Proposed
Maintain and restore suitable habitat at breeding areas in Ethiopia through sustainable use under community-based conservation programmes (Atkinson et al.
1996a, Taylor and van Perlo 1998). Protect additional sites in South Africa (Barnes 2000)
. Continue surveys in Ethiopia and southern Africa to better define its range, population, seasonal movements and habitat requirements (Atkinson et al.
1996a, A. Shimelis in litt.
1998, Barnes 2000). Locate new breeding sites (Taylor et al.
2004, M Drummond in litt.
2005). Rehabilitate degraded wetlands (Taylor et al.
2004). Conduct research to determine the extent of the species's dependency on mire habitat in South Africa (Taylor and Grundling 2003)
. Ensure integrity of known and suspected sites in South Africa by 2008 (De Smidt 2003). Reduce disturbance at eight sites in South Africa by 2008 (De Smidt 2003). Confirm that the species migrates between Ethiopia and South Africa (De Smidt 2003). Determine and record its principal calls for field studies (De Smidt 2003).
Related state of the world's birds case studies
Allan, D. G.; McInnes, A. M.; Wondafrash, M. 2006. White-winged Flufftail Sarothrura ayresi in Ethiopia: notes on habitat, densities, morphometrics, nests and eggs, and associated waterbirds. Bulletin of the African Bird Club 13: 28-36.
Anon. 1997. White-winged Flufftail sightings. World Birdwatch 19(4): 2.
Anon. 1999. White-winged Flufftail (Sarothrura ayresi).
Anon. 2006. Local group discovers new flufftail site. Africa - Birds & Birding 11: 10.
Anon. 2006. New flufftail site discovered. World Birdwatch 28(1): 10.
Atkinson, P.; Robertson, P.; Dellelegn, Y.; Wondafrash, M.; Atkins, J. 1996. The recent rediscovery of White-winged Flufftails in Ethiopia. Bulletin of the African Bird Club 3(1): 34-36.
Barnes, K. N. 2000. The Eskom Red Data Book of birds of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. BirdLife South Africa, Johannesburg.
Collar, N. J.; Stuart, S. N. 1985. Threatened birds of Africa and related islands: the ICBP/IUCN Red Data Book. International Council for Bird Preservation, and International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Cambridge, U.K.
De Smidt, A. 2003. Ethiopian White-winged Flufftail (Sarothrura ayresi) action plan.
del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J. 1996. Handbook of the Birds of the World, vol. 3: Hoatzin to Auks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain.
Hustler, K.; Irwin, M. P. S. 1995. Fifth Report of the OAZ Rarities Committee. Honeyguide 41: 103-106.
Sande, E.; Ndang’ang’a, P. K.; Wakelin, J.; Wondafrash, M;, Drummond, M;, Dereliev, S. (compilers). 2008. International Single Species Action Plan for the Conservation of the White-winged Flufftail (Sarothrura ayresi). CMS; AEWA, Bonn, Germany.
Tarboton, W.; Wondafrash, M. in prep. Project proposal to establish a captive-breeding population of the White-winged Flufftail.
Taylor, B. 1998. Rails: a guide to the rails, crakes, gallinules and coots of the world. Pica Press, Robertsbridge, UK.
Taylor, B. 1999. First White-winged Flufftail nest found. World Birdwatch 21(4): 3.
Taylor, B.; Wondafrash, M.; Demek, Y. 2004. The nest, eggs and chicks of the White-winged Flufftail Sarothrura ayresi. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 124: 233-238.
Taylor, P. B. 1996. Rallidae (Rails, Gallinules and Coots). In: del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J. (ed.), Handbook of the birds of the world, pp. 108-209. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain.
Taylor, P. B. 1998. The ecology and conservation of the White-winged Flufftail, and the sustainable utilisation of Ethiopian high-altitude palustrine wetland habitats: report on fieldwork in Ethiopia from 27 November to 12 December 1998.
Taylor, P. B.; Grundling, P. L. 2003. The importance of South African mires as habitat for the endangered Whitewinged Flufftail (Sarothrura ayresi). International Mire Conservation Group Newsletter: 8-12.
Wetlands International. 2002. Waterbird population estimates. Wetlands International, Wageningen, Netherlands.
Further web sources of information
African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) International Action Plan 2007
Explore HBW Alive for further information on this species
Search for photos and videos, and hear sounds of this species from the Internet Bird Collection
South African White-winged Flufftail (Sarothrura ayresi) Action Plan
Text account compilers
Benstead, P., Ekstrom, J., Evans, M., Pilgrim, J., Shutes, S., Symes, A. & Taylor, J.
Ash, J., Dowsett, R., Dowsett-Lemaire, F., Drummond, M., Kariuki Ndang’ang’a, P., Leonard, P., Robertson, P., Shimelis, A., Taylor, P., Wondafrash, M., Tarboton, W., Madden, S., Gebreselassie, G., Gerrans, C., Pretorius, R., Lawlor, R. J., Nel, O., Abebe,
BirdLife International (2014) Species factsheet: Sarothrura ayresi. Downloaded from
http://www.birdlife.org on 23/11/2014.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2014) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from
http://www.birdlife.org on 23/11/2014.
This information is based upon, and updates, the information published in BirdLife International (2000)
Threatened birds of the world. Barcelona and Cambridge, UK: Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, BirdLife International (2004)
Threatened birds of the world 2004 CD-ROM and BirdLife International (2008) Threatened birds of the world 2008 CD-ROM. These sources provide the information for species accounts for the birds on the IUCN Red List.
To provide new information to update this factsheet or to correct any errors, please email BirdLife
To contribute to discussions on the evaluation of the IUCN Red List status of Globally Threatened Birds, please visit BirdLife's Globally Threatened Bird Forums. | <urn:uuid:a37a13dd-79c0-4086-80d8-7c98610a55ec> | {
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Newly Discovered Organ Helps Koalas Bellow At Elephant Pitch
by Ed Yong
Koalas may look cute and placid but come the mating season, the males produce a bellow that… well… is not the sound you expect them to make. As they inhale, they sound like a loud, creaky door. As they exhale, they sound like someone belching vigorously. Put these together, and you get a continuous racket that sounds like an angry Wookiee.
The bellows are surprising to passers-by, but they perplex scientists too. Koalas just shouldn’t be able to make a sound that low.
Mammals make calls using an organ in our throats called the larynx, or voicebox. When air passes through the larynx, it vibrates a pair of membranes called the vocal folds (or vocal cords). These create sound waves in our nose and mouth. We can control the pitch of those waves by using muscles in the larynx to change the tension in the vocal cords. The size of the cords also matters—it sets the lowest possible noise that we can make. This is why small mammals can only manage high-pitched squeaks, while big species can produce rumbling bass… | <urn:uuid:a61144c0-81c7-4d62-9c52-b15635bd7c7b> | {
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Land of Goshen
The Land of Goshen (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ גֹּשֶׁן or ארץ גושן Eretz Gošen) is named in the Bible as the place in Egypt given to the Hebrews by the pharaoh of Joseph (Genesis 45:9 - 10), and the land from which they later left Egypt at the time of the Exodus. It was located in the eastern Delta.
Meaning of Name
If the Septuagint reading "Gesem" is correct, the word, which in its Hebrew form has no known meaning, may mean "cultivated"—comparing the Arabic root j-š-m, "to labor." Egyptologists have suggested a connection with the Egyptian word qas, meaning "inundated land" because Goshen was apparently the same region, called by the Greeks the "Arabian nome," which had its capital at Phakousa representing the Egyptian Pa-qas (Brugsch, Geog., I, 298), the name of a town, with the determinative for "pouring forth". (Donald Redford, while not disputing the location of Goshen, gives a different origin for the name, deriving it from "Gasmu," the rulers of the Bedouin Qedarites who occupied the eastern Delta from the 7th century BC, but John Van Seters thinks this unlikely). Though many have searched for an Egyptian meaning to Goshen, it seems that there is only meaning through Hebrew, as if it were a word meaningful only to the Hebrews who settled there. The ancient rabbis who divided the Torah into weekly portions emphasized that they saw the name Goshen as connected to the verb NaGaSh (נִגַּשׁ), to approach. The Torah portion (Genesis 44:18—47:27) in which Goshen is first mentioned is known by its first Hebrew word, vaYi(n)gash, וַיִּגַּשׁ , "Then Judah approached (Joseph)..." Just a few verses later (45:10) Goshen is mentioned, for the first time in the Bible, when Joseph sends word to Jacob, saying "...live in the land of Goshen, and you will be near me..." It is as if to say, "you'll live in the approaches to Egypt, not all the way in, so that when it is time to leave, you'll be able to leave quickly.``' The last verse of this portion is, (47:27) "Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen..."
Goshen in Egypt
According to the Joseph narrative in the Book of Genesis, the sons of Jacob (Israel) who were living in Hebron, experienced a severe famine that lasted seven years. Since word was that Egypt was the only kingdom able to supply food, the sons of Jacob (Israel) journeyed there to buy goods. In the second year of famine, the Vizier of Egypt, Joseph, invited the sons of Israel to live in Egyptian territory. They settled in the country of Goshen. Goshen is described as the best land in Egypt, suitable for both crops and livestock. It has been suggested that this location may have been somewhat apart from Egypt, because Genesis 46:34 states, "Ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians." After the death of Joseph and those of his generation, the following generations of Israelites had become populous in number. The Egyptians feared potential integration or takeover, so they enslaved the Israelites and took away their privileges.
Approximately four hundred and thirty years later, Moses was called to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, from Goshen to Succoth, the first waypoint of the Exodus. They pitched at 41 locations crossing the Nile Delta, to the last station being the plains of Moab.
In 1885 E.H. Naville identified Goshen as the 20th nome of Egypt, located in the eastern Delta, and known as "Gesem" or "Kesem" during the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt (672-525 BC). It covered the western end of the Wadi Tumilat, the eastern end being the district of Succoth, which had Pithom as its main town, extended north as far as the ruins of Piramesse (the "land of Rameses"), and included both crop land and grazing land.
- "www.Bibler.org - Dictionary - Goshen". 2012-10-08.
- Donald Redford, "Perspective on the Exodus", pp.139-140, quoted in John Van Seters, "The Geography of the Exodus," in Silberman, Neil Ash (editor), The Land That I Will Show You: Essays in History and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East in Honor of J. Maxwell Miller (Sheffield Academic Press, 1997) fn.37, p.269
- Genesis 45:11
- Mehler, S. From Light Into Darkness: The Evolution of Religion in Ancient Egypt, (ISBN 978-1-931882-49-1), 2005, p. 133
- Joseph may also have been Co-regent with the Pharaoh as indicated by Genesis 44:18 - Josephus. The Antiquities of the Jews, Book II, 7.1.168
- Genesis 46:34,47:27
- Ex.12:40-41, Gal. 3:17
- Numbers 33:5
- numbers 22:1,33:48-50
- John Van Seters, "The Geography of the Exodus," in Silberman, Neil Ash (editor), The Land That I Will Show You: Essays in History and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East in Honor of J. Maxwell Miller (Sheffield Academic Press, 1997) P. 267-269, ISBN 978-1850756507 | <urn:uuid:ab87367e-c9e7-42f2-9354-dae3ff0c7e5f> | {
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This summer, a group of scientists are studying five large rivers in the Midwest… including the St. Joseph, the Muskegon and the Manistee rivers in Michigan. It’s part of a three year study of how large rivers process fertilizers – and how things like farming and wastewater affect the rivers.
Tom Kramer spent some time with this group that calls themselves “The River Gypsies” - here's his story:
The forecast says there is a 50/50 chance of thunderstorms, but the River Gypsies can’t slow down for a little rain.
This group of 13 scientists, PhDs, grad students and undergrads has had three weeks to study five rivers in two states – packing up and moving to a new campground every three or four days. Picnic tables have become temporary laboratories.
Jennifer Tank, a professor at Notre Dame, says one of her students wasn’t all that prepared for this nomadic lifestyle.
“Now he did bring a Samsonite suitcase that weighs about 100 pounds into the field with him, but I know that next year he’ll have a great dry bag… so he’s learning as he goes along.” | <urn:uuid:e6d3092f-c37c-4df8-af35-1ee6bf89ce36> | {
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Possibilities and Perils of Voting in An Electronic Age
by Ann Williams — Georgia State University
November 05, 2010 – 00:01
With the election just passed, as happy or unhappy campers, we forge forward as our newly elected representatives strive to govern responsibly. But this clip makes me wonder… Are these "winners" really the representatives we elected or are the threats posed by voting fraud, electronic voting, and computer hacking challenging one of our most basic freedoms – the right to vote.
I am proud to be a University of Michigan graduate and pleased as punch to know that a group of bright, talented, and energetic students could so easily “pick the lock” on electronic voting, but I am not sure I want them to cast my vote.
Hacking is but one of the many perils encountered in the Digital Age. In response to the advent and unveiling of electronic voting machines, early concerns were raised about potential technological shortcomings. Ongoing concerns about the usability of electronic voting machines persist, particularly in connection with questions about user skill divides – whether voters are able to accurately register intended vote when voting through electronic interfaces that they may not be familiar with or do not feel comfortable operating.
In research I assisted with while working on my doctorate in Communication Studies at the U of M, we looked at how voters interacted with electronic voting machines and observed that the correspondence between a voter’s intended vote and a voter’s registered vote was not always a perfect match. Rather, the outcome often depended upon the type of voting interface and the voter’s ability to interact with that interface. Some interfaces were not as user friendly as others and some machines left some participants struggling to cast their votes, which increased the likelihood of casting incomplete or invalid ballots.
While I suspect more direct forms of voting fraud have existed since the first one of us was voted off the island, one need only look to the Bush/Gore presidential election to wonder how a few chads may have changed history. Many of you will remember the 2000 election and the subsequent Diebold fiascos of 2004 and 2008. This catchy video parody may ring a bell, while this video of Princeton researchers may make you cry. All joking aside, however, controversial electronic voting machines are still used in many states, including my current home of Georgia, where debates over auditing and verification of election returns continue.
Stepping away from real-life, real-time, real-ballots and into the realm of cyberspace voting, what are the challenges that we will face next?
I have my ideas, but I would really like to hear some of yours. So stand up and be counted and vote with your words by entering into a hopefully spirited discussion on this topic. | <urn:uuid:d74c930b-ce71-453c-a76b-f15c1ed59506> | {
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Scientists at Disney have taken the touchscreen experience to the next level by creating a textured screen that allows viewers to feel videos and images.
An algorithm developed by Disney Research can be used on touch devices such as desktops, mobile phones and tablets, to simulate 3D features on screen including ridges, edges, protrusions and texture.
The virtual bumps are mapped in a way that controls the friction a user feels as their finger slides across the otherwise smooth flat-screen surface.
Examples of how the technology has been harnessed include users interacting with fossilised bones, a bunch of apples, a map of a mountain, a video stream of a swimming jellyfish, and the contours of a kettle.
Vibrations from devices fool the body by mimicking the stretch and push on skin that would happen when a person encounters an object in real life.
Ivan Poupyrev, the director of Disney Research, Pittsburgh Interaction Group, said: "Our brain perceives the 3D bump on a surface mostly from information that it receives via skin stretching. Touch interaction has become the standard for smartphones, tablets and even desktop computers, so designing algorithms that can convert the visual content into believable tactile sensations has immense potential for enriching the user experience".
Scientists calculated the relationship between the voltage applied to the display and the amount of pressure different touchscreen users apply, and used this to make resistance felt on screen correspond to the sloping of objects on screen.
The study shows that viewers are at least three times more likely to prefer a textured screen to models already on the market.
The technology was being presented at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology in St Andrews, Scotland. | <urn:uuid:c46327e2-6423-4282-b1a9-f4af3fb96f54> | {
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On September 21, 40,000 students from 100 Ontario schools walked out to challenge the decision of Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government to scrap both the updated sex ed curriculum and Indigenous content in the curriculum.
This provokes important questions about how effective student activism is in terms of producing tangible impacts on education policy. It also highlights the significant challenges that secondary school activism faces due to a lack of advocacy structures to organize collective action.
Historically, student activism has had significant societal impact. Collective student action has led to significant changes to existing social structures. In the 1960s, student movements in the United States brought critical dialogues to the forefront and prompted university heads to resign, while in countries like Brazil, Czechoslovakia, and the more recent Arab Spring, students protested authoritarian regimes, often in the face of lethal violence, setting in motion paradigm shifts that eventually saw the regimes topple.
Even in Canada, tens of thousands of Québec students took to the streets in 2012 in response to proposed tuition hikes. Six years later, Québec tuition fees generally have remained low — about half that of the rest of Canada.
However, the caveat is that policy battles are not won in a single demonstration. Advocacy campaigns require resources, organization, and, perhaps most importantly, time. Many students have school, work, extracurricular, and personal commitments that prevent them from investing weeks, months, or years into student activism to see changes in legislation.
This is even truer for Ontario high school students. They lack the student government structures that their postsecondary counterparts enjoy — the student unions that receive millions of dollars each year via student levies to make the student voice heard and coordinate activism efforts.
Secondary student government is limited in comparison, with student councils focused on extracurricular activities and often dominated by unelected staff members or other non-student actors who control operations behind the scenes. School board student senates consisting of student council representatives from multiple high schools do not collect levies and often act as little more than advisory panels to school board officials. Even the student trustees these student senates elect to attend school board meetings do not have a binding vote on decisions, leaving their voices to be heard, but not necessarily acted upon.
Similarly, the Ontario Student Trustees Association, which represents about two million secondary and elementary students, has few resources to communicate its existence to the average Ontario student, let alone mobilize its constituents to collective action. It is not that students are apathetic as the stereotype suggests. Rather, they lack a proper place in the Ontario education system to participate in decision-making processes as stakeholders. This forces them to fight from the outside with resource-demanding tactics of public resistance.
What secondary students need to think about is how to cement a long-term political movement that will provide them with more advocacy options to supplement public demonstrations. These students need to also protest the fact that education administrators and provincial policymakers are refusing them official representation in their schools and school boards. They need student input on curriculum changes so that setbacks to critical issues like sex ed can be lessened or prevented in the future. Students also need control over decisions on their own extracurricular activities.
Student councils, student senates, and the Ontario Student Trustees Association need to be recognized as legitimate representative organizations, and the former two need to be rooted in sound policies that enshrine student democracy and decision-making capability. Ontario, as well as educators, administrators, and other education stakeholders, need to give students a place in consultations.
Moving forward, secondary students need to keep the momentum from Friday’s protest going by questioning education structures and how they can sustain the fight to the point where policy change can be a tangible and realistic goal.
But it is not only secondary students who need to take the initiative. Postsecondary students have a leadership role to play in the student movement and should offer support to students in other levels of education who may soon join their ranks. Coalitions can be formed between secondary and postsecondary student organizations to advocate for common goals. Resources can be extended to assist secondary students, not only in activism, but in building democratic organizations that empower the secondary student voice to overcome the limitations of existing structures.
Justin Patrick is a first-year master’s student in Political Science. | <urn:uuid:076d99a8-3a8e-41b3-b2ec-51fadac580f6> | {
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Staying clear of hydroelectric stations and dams is the recipe for staying safe
Thin ice and winter recreation are a dangerous mix
TORONTO, Jan. 11, 2013 /CNW/ - With the unseasonably warm weather expected this weekend in parts of Ontario, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is warning people to stay clear of the areas near generating stations and dams.
"Thin ice and winter activities don't mix. Our message is a simple one - stay clear, stay safe," said OPG's Senior Vice President Hydro-Thermal Operations Frank Chiarotto.
The waterways near hydroelectric dams and stations are not safe places for recreation at any time of the year. In winter, ice forming near a dam or hydroelectric station can be thinner and less consistent than ice in other locations because of changing water flows beneath it.
Areas near OPG dams and hydroelectric stations have warning signs, buoys, fences, booms and barriers to warn people of the dangers of coming too close. Please obey them.
Visit www.stayclearstaysafe.ca/ for an online game about the dangers of thin ice near hydro dams and view a public service announcement from the Ontario Provincial Police and OPG.
SOURCE: Ontario Power Generation Inc.For further information:
Ontario Power Generation
416-592-4008 or 1-877-592-4008
Follow us @ontariopowergen | <urn:uuid:6d0e9dd6-882d-42ce-8053-2dd3f24fdcc0> | {
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"We have absolutely no biological requirement for sugar in our bodies at all," nutritionist Sarah Ann Macklin tells us. "We should only be consuming maximum seven teaspoons per day - but we're consuming over double that."
Avoiding chocolate, donuts and other such sweet treats is one thing - but the problem is that many of those sugars we're eating aren't obvious, disguised within foods that, at first glance, might not seem 'sugary' at all.
"Today, many food products add sugar and take out fat, to make the product tastier - but this also makes us more hungry, because there's no fat in it," she explains. "Sugar has a huge impact on our health and wellbeing... and contributes to weight gain. Many of us aren't aware of how much sugar we're actually consuming."
In the video above, Macklin reveals 10 foods that have more sugar in them than you might expect. (Fans of baked beans, look away now...)
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- Additional Details
- Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
- Rating: Not Rated
- Number of Discs: 1
- Run Time: 50 Minutes
- Region: Region 1
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Language: English
- Studio: History Channel
- DVD Release Date: January 20, 1998
It was supposed to be the first permanent English settlement in the New World. It became one of the most enduring, tantalizing mysteries in American history.
In 1587, a ship with 117 English men, women and children arrived in what is now the Outer Banks of North Carolina to start the first British colony in the New World. But they would enter history as one of the most tantalizing mysteries of early America.
Three years after leaving the settlement, Governor John White returned from what was supposed to be a six month supply trip to find the colony gone. Nothing remained but five chests of books and papers buried in the sand and a post with the word "Croatoan" carved on it. White knew Croatoan as an Indian village, but problems with his ship forced him to return to England without seeing if the Roanoke colonists had ventured there.
LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE explores the possible fate of the vanished settlement. Were they killed by disease, storms, or possibly even Spanish adventurers? Did they abandon the coast and settle in the mountains? Persistent rumors link a reclusive group known as the Melungeons to the lost colony. Did they mingle with the Native Americans?
From far-fetched theories to an underwater archaeological expedition going on today, this is a fascinating look at one of the most enduring mysteries in American history. | <urn:uuid:fcf60e86-ae89-45f0-a9b3-30b8e12e301f> | {
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Christina Sarich, Staff Writer
Pseudoscience is defined as a belief or idea, accepted as true, that has not been proven by the scientific method. While science has been invaluable in helping to promote our ever-expanding knowledge of the Universe, it cannot be held as a hard-and-fast rule to determining Truth. In many instances the scientific method, and peer reviewed articles have acted as a sieve to bring only the highest learning to the forefront of humankind’s imagination, but in some instances, science, in it’s strictest sense, turns out to be nothing more than an arbitrary, and limited view of a Universe who’s laws are far too vast for our Newtonian, materialistic measurements to define.
Frank Wolfs, Professor of Physics at the University of Rochester, provides his undergraduate physics students with a good working definition of the scientific method: “the process by which scientists, collectively and over time, endeavor to construct an accurate (that is, reliable, consistent and non-arbitrary) representation of the world.”
“I don’t know, so maybe I’m not.” ~ Bumper Sticker
In fact, we are only now learning just how much our current level of consciousness affects even the outcome of scientific experimentation. We already know that stereotypes and the current ‘accepted’ paradigms sway the outcome of scientific experimentation, even without scientists’ conscious awareness. Our subconscious beliefs are like the vast ocean shaping our reality, and the conscious experience only a sea foam floating atop a great depth of larger understanding.
In Joseph E. LeDoux’s book, Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are, he states, “your ‘self,’ the essence of who you are, reflects patterns of interconnectivity between neurons in your brain. Most of what brain does is accomplished by synaptic transmission between neurons, and by calling upon the information encoded by past transmissions across synapses.”
This brings up an interesting question, then, in the discussion of science vs. pseudo-science. If our brains are largely projecting a reality based primarily on past neuronal pathways, then it would easily follow that future understanding of the world would be based on the most frequent pathways developed in our minds. In other words, a totally, radically, new idea is probably going to be rejected, much like imaginal cells are in the body of caterpillar becoming a butterfly.
New ideas are like a foreign invader to our current, accepted paradigms. There is a reason why the collective powers in control of the world in the time of Copernicus refused to believe the world was round. In a sense, anything or anyone that challenges our current world view, even today can be seen as part of the ‘Flat World Society.’ Altering our world view can be a radical shift, one that is unsettling and confusing, so it is no wonder that it takes a heroic individual, willing to put his or her life and reputation on the line to promote new paradigms which will radically shift our views.
No wonder it is hard to accept that wisdom could be downloaded straight from the larger consciousness which we are all a part of. It is difficult to accept that a T’ai Chi Chuan master, for example, could understand complex laws of physics just by meditating in the Wu Dang mountains, or that an Indian sage could understand fractal geometry without having ever studied math, simply by achieving non-dualistic consciousness via the attainment of Samadhi. These are not levels of awareness which our current scientific ‘laws’ permit.
There is in fact, an intelligence that far super-cedes our limited ‘scientific methods.’ It doesn’t care if we understand its laws or not. Just because we call it pseudo-science, does not make it untrue.
Visionary, Terence McKenna has said:
“The planet is some kind of organized intelligence. It’s very different from us. It’s had 5- or 6-billion years to create a slow moving mind which is made of oceans and rivers and rain forests and glaciers. It’s becoming aware of us, as we are becoming aware of it, strangely enough. Two less likely members of a relationship can hardly be imagined – the technological apes and the dreaming planet. And yet, because the life of each depends on the other, there’s a feeling towards this immense, strange, wise, old, neutral, weird thing, and it is trying to figure out why its dreams are so tormented and why everything is out of balance.”
How does one explain this with conventional scientific tools?
It doesn’t mean that science is not important. It allowed us to understand that the body was made up of quarks and then neutrinos and then even waves and particles, instead of just skin and bones. It brought us to many of the paradigm-shifting ideas which will now serve us as we shift into an even greater understanding of our world, and even greater understanding of the consciousness behind it. However, science alone cannot give us the whole Truth.
Quantum theory, which many consider the highest current science, has proven that there is a basic oneness which joins all things. Over 20 years ago, Fritjof Capra said, in the Tao of Physics,
“. . . It shows that we cannot decompose the world into independently existing smallest units. As we penetrate into matter, nature does not show us any isolated “building blocks,” but rather appears as a complicated web of relations between the various parts of the whole. These relations always include the observer in an essential way. The human observer constitutes the final link in the chain of observational processes, and the properties of any atomic object can be understood only in terms of the object’s interaction with the observer.”
You can call it psuedo-science when a Shaman sees other realities, or a Kung Fu artist learns how to defy gravity and jumps onto a second story roof after learning how to make his body ‘lighter,’ but this is simply a different acceptance of what is, and if anything, science is proving that we are only limited by whatever we think limits us.
As we observe, so we are. Stick that in your scientific method, and see what comes out the other end.
About the Author
Christina Sarich is a musician, yogi, humanitarian and freelance writer who channels many hours of studying Lao Tzu, Paramahansa Yogananda, Rob Brezny, Miles Davis, and Tom Robbins into interesting tidbits to help you Wake up Your Sleepy Little Head, and See the Big Picture. Her blog is Yoga for the New World. Her latest book is Pharma Sutra: Healing the Body And Mind Through the Art of Yoga.
This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.
~~ Help Waking Times to raise the vibration by sharing this article with the buttons below… | <urn:uuid:bf014928-f6ad-43b9-9e9b-eacb21fac65d> | {
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What impact has globalisation had on transport? And what have been the consequences for the environment? This book aims to answer these questions and more. It looks in detail at how globalisation has affected activity levels in maritime shipping, aviation, and road and rail freight, and assesses the impact that changes in activity levels have had on the environment. The book also discusses policy instruments that can be used to address negative environmental impacts, both from an economic perspective and from the point of view of international law.
Environmental Outlook to 2030 (2008)
The Economics of Climate Change Mitigation: Policies and Options for Global Action beyond 2012 (2009) | <urn:uuid:cb958c5e-b396-488f-bc86-a420609371b2> | {
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Two-Way Immersion Bilingual Education
MetadataShow full item record
Over 300 languages are spoken in the United States. As of 1990, 31.8 million Americans spoke a language other than English at home, and the country's population included 6.7 million non-English speakers. Nationwide, one-third of the children enrolled in urban schools speak a language other than English at home as their first language. Around 2.6 million schoolchildren throughout the country do not speak English at all. The language rights of ethnic minorities in the United States have been a source of public controversy for close to two decades. To accommodate this dramatic surge in the nation's population of foreign language speakers, language assistance has been mandated on the federal, state, and local levels in the areas ranging from voting and tax collecting to education, social services, and consumers rights. The author surveys the growth of bilingual education programs in the US, focusing on his own student teaching experience in a Two Way Immersion program. | <urn:uuid:ccd18c7a-ecf0-45a6-8176-3c9e21950449> | {
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Total Lunar Eclipse On Saturday, Western States Get Rare View
The last total lunar eclipse of 2011 — and the last one until April 15, 2014 — occurs Saturday morning.
And though those of us in the eastern U.S. won't really be able to enjoy it, NASA says that some folks in western states will have "a rare way to begin the day." If the sky is clear, they'll be able to "face west to see the red [eclipsed] moon sinking into the horizon" as the sun rises behind their backs to the east.
The best part of the show should be between 6:06 a.m. and 6:57 a.m. Pacific time.
The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang blog notes that it might not seem possible for anyone to be able to see a rising sun and a fully eclipsed moon at the same time because "by definition, a lunar eclipse occurs when the sun and moon are 180 degrees apart, with Earth moving between them to form a straight line."
But, thanks to atmospheric refraction, the rare view will be available if you're in the right place.
"Atmospheric refraction causes astronomical objects to appear higher in the sky than they are in reality. For example: when you see the sun sitting on the horizon, it is not there really. It's actually below the edge of the horizon, but our atmosphere acts like a lens and bends the sun's image just above the horizon, allowing us to see it. ...
"The same holds true with the moon, as well."
There's even a name for when an eclipsed moon sets just as the sun rises: it's a selenelion (or selenehelion, Space.com says).
Among cities where Space.com says the effect should be visible, assuming the skies are clear: Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver and Winnipeg. It has a chart showing some cities and their selenelion times posted here.
Other good views of the eclipse (though not a rising sun at the same time), says ABC News, will be "from places like Hawaii, Alaska and Guam, where it will be the middle of the night, and from eastern Asia and Australia, where (remember, they're on the other side of the International Date Line) it will be Saturday evening."
Regular Two-Way readers know we do enjoy a lunar eclipse. | <urn:uuid:5895cfac-23c0-4d8a-8a60-2cd7f83d7043> | {
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Six Teaching Tools for Black History MonthJanuary 28, 2013 | Matt Davis
Editor's Note: In addition to 6 great resources from last year, we've updated this post to include new tools for the 2014 Black History Month theme, "Civil Rights in America." Here are some of the best virtual museum tours, lesson plans and digital multimedia packages from a variety of sources. (Updated 01/2014)
Black History Month provides a great opportunity for students to explore the history of Civil Rights in America. But it's important that teachers "reinforce that 'black history' is American history," writes Pat Russo in Dos and Don'ts of Teaching Black History Month. Russo's article is a great place to start when determining how to best incorporate black history into your lesson plans. Really, it's a topic that should be incorporated throughout the year, Russo writes, but in February, teachers can dig deeper, provide students with more context, and connect the past to the present.
Each year since 1928, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History has provided a theme for Black History Month. This year's theme, "Civil Rights in America," allows students to research and explore the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and examine how the movement has continued to develop into the present.
To help celebrate Black History Month 2014, there are a plethora of valuable teaching resources on the Web, from interactive timelines and rich multimedia to lesson plans and study guides. Here are some suggestions for teaching Civil Rights, along with general resources from last year's blog:
Civil Rights in America: Resources for Teachers
- Lessons and Teaching Resources from the National Civil Rights Museum: Located in Memphis, the National Civil Rights Museum offers an up-close look at the Civil Rights Movement. But if you're not nearby, the museum features a wealth of resources online, including lesson plans, suggested reading and Web exhibits. Also, take a look at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute's website, where you'll find rich multimedia exhibits, including an engaging oral history project.
- The Civil Rights Collection from PBS LearningMedia: PBS has curated a valuable collection of teaching resources. The focus is primarily on upper grades -- 6-12 -- with lesson plans and source collections corresponding to different themes. Last year, PBS also published, "10 Resources for Teaching the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington," which provides videos and other resources to help teachers cover the history of the Civil Rights Movement.
- Civil Rights Teaching Resources from the Library of Congress: There's plenty for students to discover in this collection from the LOC. In addition to lesson plans for teachers, there's also a cache of primary sources for students to explore, including artwork, baseball cards, political cartoons and photographs. The LOC also hosts a more general Black History Month page with plenty of additional resources.
- The Best Websites for Teaching Black History: Here's one from EdTechTeacher's Best History Website series. This page provides an in-depth listing of free teaching resources, covering many different facets of the Civil Rights Movement. For teachers, there's a really great lesson plan section, as well as a section for general Black History Month resources.
- Civil Rights Lessons from the Smithsonian: Smithsonian Source offers a smaller package of document-based question (DBQ) activities and lesson plans with links to source material. There are resources here for all grades, including two elementary school plans and both high school and middle school DBQs.
General Resources for Black History Month
- Beyond Black History Month from Learn NC: This article from the University of North Carolina's School of Education offers ways teachers can "shift the lens" and explore African American history from new perspectives. The school has also produced a long list of lesson plans and related resources for teaching black history.
- Black History timeline from Biography: This interactive timeline from Biography follows African American history in the United States from 1619 to the present, featuring fast facts, quizzes, and discussion starters. Biography also hosts a larger collection of black history resources, including study guides, videos, and games.
- Celebrate African American Heritage with Scholastic: This rich collection of teaching resources covers a lot of ground, including The Civil Rights Movement, African American contributions to the arts, and slavery in America. Each topic is covered with lesson plans, multimedia, and reading lists.
- Black History Resources from the New York Times Learning Network: Students can explore African American history using an archive of newspaper front pages from important dates in Civil Rights history. Other resources include lesson plans, crosswords, and updated lessons using current Times content.
- Black History Month Lessons and Resources from the NEA: The National Education Association produced this exhaustive collection of teaching resources for Black History Month. Lesson plans are provided for all grade levels, and they include quizzes, discussion topics, and background information.
- Smithsonian Education's Black History Month Teaching Resources: These resources from Smithsonian Education feature various collections, from 'The Blues and Langston Hughes' to 'Harlem Renaissance: A Reading List'. There is something for students of any grade level here.
There are many wonderful resources online for Black History Month, and unfortunately, we could just cover a few. Did we miss anything? What resources do you use in your classroom during Black History Month? | <urn:uuid:5f1df24c-22e6-4d86-9b10-68416ccf3b99> | {
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Embedding Null Code
The Embedding NULL Bytes/characters technique exploits applications that don’t properly handle postfix NULL terminators. It is used as a technique to perform other attacks, like directory browsing, path traversal, SQL injection, execution of arbitrary code, among others. It can be found lots of vulnerable applications and exploits available to abuse systems using this technique.
This technique includes several variations to represent the postfix NULL terminator:
PATH%00 PATH[0x00] PATH[alternate representation of NULL character] <script></script>%00
Example1 – PHP Script
In the following example, it’s shown the use of this technique to modify an URL and access arbitrary files on a filesystem due a vulnerability on PHP script.
$whatever = addslashes($_REQUEST['whatever']); include("/path/to/program/" . $whatever . "/header.htm");
By manipulating the URL using postfix NULL bytes, one can have access to UNIX password file:
Example2 – Adobe PDF ActiveX Attack
Another know attack, consists in the exploitation of buffer overflow in the ActiveX component (pdf.ocx) that allows remote execution arbitrary code.
The problem happens when a link is requested as:
GET /some_dir/file.pdf.pdf%00[long string] HTTP/1.1
In this case, the request must be made to a web server that truncates the request at the null byte (%00), as Microsoft IIS and Netscape Enterprise web servers. Though the requested URI is truncated for the purposes of locating the file, the long string is still passed to the Adobe ActiveX component. This component triggers a buffers overflow within RTLHeapFree() allowing for an attacker to overwrite an arbitrary word in memory.
This attack can be performed by adding malicious content to the end of any embedded link and referencing any Microsoft IIS or Netscape Enterprise web server. It is not necessary to establish a malicious web site to execute this attack.
For more details about this attack, see External References topics. | <urn:uuid:12f68424-d912-46c2-9918-277c50eda588> | {
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In the 3rd and final article in this series we’ll examine the national unemployment rate by various demographic factors. Earlier we had seen how widely the unemployment rate varied by state and yet while all states have had increases in unemployment rates since this recession started, many states are showing signs of a leveling off of the unemployment rate. Here we’ll examine the unemployment rate by Age, Gender and Education.
Before I present the data a little background is necessary. The Bureau of Labor Statistics website is a wonderful resource for examining these trends. You can slice the data in a bunch of different ways, age, gender, race, education level, etc. It is precisely because I’m slicing this batch of data by education level that I’m forced to write this caveat. As of April 2009 the national unemployment rate is 8.9%. This means that 8.9% of all people in the workforce age 16 and older are unemployed. But if you want to examine the unemployment rate based on educational level, the BLS’s website forces you to examine workers age 25 and older. (Probably because there are very few 17 year old college graduates.) Thus for all the graphs in this article to be comparable to each other we need to look at workers age 25 and older. To state this another way, in April 2009 the national unemployment rate for workers age 25 and older was 7.5%. To help keep this clear each graph in this article will also show a line for the national unemployment rate (for workers age 25 and older).
First we’ll look at gender. Below is a graph from Jan 2007 to Apr 2009. There is little new news here. Recent reports have been indicating that this recession has been hitting men harder than women and the chart corroborates that. It is somewhat more interesting to see the unemployment rate for men and women to be approximately the same from Jan 2007 thru Apr 2008 when they start to diverge. Also, unlike the various states unemployment rates from last time, the rate for men doesn’t seem to be slowing down much from March to April. Bottom line here though, is that if you’re a woman your unemployment rate is significantly better than the national average.
Next we’ll look at age. I personally find this one a little bit surprising as older workers seem to be getting more press coverage on their plight than younger workers. However the unemployment rate for workers 45 years and older is significantly lower than the national average. This age group also seems to be leveling off in its unemployment rate or indeed reversing for the 45 to 54 age range. Note, the national unemployment rate almost exactly traces the unemployment rate for ages 35 to 44 (in case it’s hard to see the line).
Those last 2 graphs are all well and good. If you’re a woman age 45 or older your unemployment situation is significantly more favorable than if you’re a man age 25 to 34. However, you are who you are, you can’t change your gender or age. This 3rd and final graph shows something you can influence, your education level. In some sense there is little new news here. We’ve all heard that your employment prospects are better if you go to college, but few of us have actually had that old saying quantified. The graph below illustrates just how true that adage is. If you have less than a high school education your unemployment rate is almost twice the national average. If you finished high school but didn’t go to college your unemployment rate is about 2 percentage points higher than the national average. Somewhat surprisingly if you have less than a bachelors degree (either some college or an Associates degrees) your unemployment rate is practically the same as the national average and has been so in good times and bad. But the best news of all (such as it is) is for college graduates. Their unemployment rate is 3 percentage points below the national average.
To be sure every group above is hurting. All have seen their individual unemployment rates double or more since Jan 2007. However, if you’re wishing for the days when the unemployment rate was 4.5% the good news is that you’re already there if you’re a college graduate. | <urn:uuid:23012303-4e62-4eee-a009-1975b1deec38> | {
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ArticlesMultiple Births Delivery
Interactive ToolsMultiple Births Quiz
Diseases and ConditionsCare and Management of Multiple Pregnancy
Complications of Multiple Pregnancy
The following are the most common symptoms of multiple pregnancy. However, each woman may experience symptoms differently. Symptoms of multiple pregnancy may include:
Uterus is larger than expected for the dates in pregnancy
Increased morning sickness
Excessive weight gain, especially in early pregnancy
Fetal movements felt in different parts of abdomen at same time
Many women suspect they are pregnant with more than one baby, especially if they have been pregnant before. Diagnosis of multiple fetuses may be made early in pregnancy, especially if reproductive technologies have been used. In addition to a complete medical history and physical examination, diagnosis may be made by:
Pregnancy blood testing
Levels of human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) may be quite high with multiple pregnancy.
Levels of a protein released by the fetal liver and found in the mother's blood may be high when more than one fetus is making the protein.
A diagnostic imaging technique which uses high-frequency sound waves and a computer to create images of blood vessels, tissues, and organs. Ultrasounds are used to view internal organs as they function, and to assess blood flow through various vessels - with a vaginal transducer, especially in early pregnancy, or with an abdominal transducer in later pregnancy. | <urn:uuid:0e76de5b-f5df-46e3-9d3f-6dbb0e6c91d6> | {
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1. Super pixel fonts are a special kind of pixel fonts. They combine the advantages of the pixelfonts and normal outline fonts. Super pixel fonts are clear and readable in small size and they can be as smooth as an outline font.
Superpixel or grayscale font differ from normal pixel font, because they include special elements called super pixels. The grid units which are not fulfilled by black color will shown as transparent gray pixels. The gray level of these pixels depends on the proportion of the occupied area of the grid unit.
|Structure of super pixels in SimpleFont|
2. To create super pixel fonts create a normal pixel font at first (read more in tutorial 1). While creating or editing a pixelfont, in SimpleFont the pixels and superpixels are represented as separated elements. These elements will be connected to continous shapes when exporting the font to TTF file. The relation between normal pixels and super pixels are parent child relations. It means that you can create superpixel by attaching it to a normal pixel. Later any movement or transformation of the normal pixel also affects the attached superpixel.
|Super pixel tools|
3. To create or modify super pixels use the super pixel tools found on the super pixel toolbar. If you want to edit characters one by one, use the draw superpixel element to add super pixel elements to normal pixels. The red area shows the place, where the super pixel element will be placed.
|Attaching super pixel elements|
4. If you want to add super pixel elements automatically to the whole font, use the superpixelate all command found on the character menu. It lets you to extend your font with four different kind of super pixels:
- Level 1 superpixels are attached to one side of a normal pixel
- Level 2 superpixels are attached to two neighbouring normal pixels
- Level 3 superpixel are attached to three neighbouring normal pixels
- Level 4 superpixel are attached to four neighbouring normal pixels
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When Google+ first arrived on the social media scene, skeptics questioned whether a website so similar to Facebook would succeed in a competitive market. However, Google+ quickly set itself apart from existing social media platforms by offering features different from those available on other sites. The number of users grew quickly, and Google+ claimed a prominent position in the social media food chain. The platform is becoming especially popular among college-level students and educators incorporating virtual learning techniques with many of the features it offers.
In the past, students and instructors have utilized other social media platforms, such as Facebook, to support learning and instruction. Though these platforms are still in use, some educators have made the move to Google+ because its features are more compatible with their objectives. Google+ eliminates many of the privacy concerns associated with other platforms, and it offers several advanced features that aren’t available from any other site. Furthermore, though not all users were immediately onboard with the recent changes to the Google+ interface, most users still believe that Google+ is easier to use than other platforms.
How Universities Use Google+
- Tutoring. Using the Hangout feature, professors can host tutoring or study sessions for students who are struggling with course material.
- Engaging students. Using Google+, students can interact with instructors and peers before they attend their first class. Instructors can use this to their advantage by engaging students in the material before formal sessions begin.
- Encouraging virtual learning. Using this platform, teachers can share links to helpful online resources students can use to enhance their understanding of course topics.
- Office hours. With the Hangout feature, instructors can conduct online office hours. This allows instructors to hold their office hours regardless of the weather. It also allows students to speak with the instructor without traveling to campus.
- Student feedback. Instructors can use Google+ to solicit regular feedback from students about exams, classroom instruction and course topics.
- Professional collaboration. Instructors can use the Hangout feature to discuss lesson plans, class projects and possible assignments with one another.
- General communication. Much like other social networks, Google+ can be used to transmit information from instructors to students. An instructor can have a conversation with only one student, a small group or the entire class. Using this feature, the instructor can share information about scheduling, assignments and upcoming exams. Unlike other networks, Google+ allows users to access posts by date, which prevents important course communications from becoming buried over time.
Google+ is still a relatively new platform, but it already provides many benefits to students and instructors in higher education. The platform not only encourages practical communication between students and teachers, but it also facilitates professional collaboration and student feedback. In addition, Google+ can be used to engage students in course material, support independent study, and increase the availability of individualized attention from the instructor. As time goes on and Google+ continues to evolve, it is likely that its features will become even more user-friendly for educators and students alike. | <urn:uuid:ffb7c4d9-4305-469a-aaad-591d19152267> | {
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Digital Imaging Lab
In 1987 the Library’s Photography Department merged with the Conservation Department to care for the extensive collection of negatives and to oversee the handling of materials for reprographic services. Darkroom processing was replaced by digital imaging in 1999, and the Lab has continued to expand and improve its digital preservation services. Digitizing the Library’s materials for preservation and access is driven by special projects and reprographic requests.
The Digital Imaging Lab is equipped to capture all forms of print and photographic materials. The Lab provides expertise on the Library’s digital projects, including liaising with vendors and the IT department, digitization, metadata creation, ingesting digital content, and long-term storage of digital assets. The digital lab also oversees the administration of the Xinet Digital Asset Management system, the Red Hat Linux production server, and Quantum Scalar tape backup system.
Digitizing images, catalogues, books and ephemera from the photoarchive, archives, and books collections has resulted in more than 120,000 scanned images. Currently, the digital lab scans approximately 2,000 negatives and 4,000 pages of rare or archival material each month. Access to the digital collections is available at images.frick.org. | <urn:uuid:e9f98981-80a3-40d3-a245-31c0759285a3> | {
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Delivery in day(s): 3
BSBMGT617 Develop and Implement a Business Plan Assignment Help
This assignment explains about the knowledge and skills required to run business operations and cover different steps required to develop and implement a business plan. This plan can be applied to individuals who are running an organization.
1. This project consist of two main sections, as
Part A – It require the students to evaluate, plan and develop a business plan for your workplace, determined by your tutor.
Part B – It require students to provide an overview of performance monitoring based on the business plan during the implementation and allow them to understand how will they respond to the performance data once the business plan has been implemented.
2. This assignment helps to collect the evidence towards gaining different competencies.
3. In order to demonstrate the competencies, each question must be answered by the students.
4. You are required to plan and develop a complete business plan in this assessment.
5. You have to access the appropriate resources and documentation.
6. You have to use the existing business plan in your workplace with the financial details and recent trading figures in order to review the business operations.
Note – Ask your teacher for a business plan to be applied in the business operations
Additional resources for the purpose of this assessment:
1. A business plan template can provide detailed instructions for the completion of each section of business plan
2. A template for a 5 year balance sheet forecast can be used if needed.
3. A sample business plan can be outsourced from important websites
4. An online template with instructions to prepare a step-by-step business plan can be used for free registration.
Part A – Plan and develop the business plan
Students have to review the existing or available business plan and develop new plan for the organization by addressing the criteria mentioned below:
Q1. Where the organization has an existing business plan, review and evaluates the following documentation, if no existing business plan needs to be developed using examples that could provide different resources. You have to create a draft and consult with your selected stakeholders to clarify or verify each aspect.
Q2. Students have to attach a brief document which outlines with whom you have consulted and details of what was discussed.
Note – You can take the reference of each source you are accessing for research information like products, statistics and legislation, etc. Also, attach this as a bibliography to completed work.
The following key points need to be addressed, however format may vary:
Summary – It includes business, market, future and finances.
a. The Business – It includes business details, registration details, Business premises, Organization chart, Management & ownership, Key personnel, Products/services, Innovation, Insurance, Risk management, Legal considerations, Operations and Sustainability plan.
b. The Market – It includes research and target of markets, Environmental/industry analysis, your customers, S.W.O.T. analysis, your competitors and Advertising & sales.
c. The Future – It includes Vision statement, Mission statement, Goals/objectives and Action plan.
d. The Finances – It includes Key objectives & financial review, Assumptions, Start-up costs for [YEAR], Balance sheet forecast, Profit and loss forecast, Expected cash flow, Break-even analysis and supporting documentation.
Part B - Monitoring the performance and responding to performance data post implementation
In this section, you have to answer a series of questions and scenarios related to monitoring performances and responding to the data of the performance.
Q1. Using your completed business plan, who are the relevant parties to whom you need to communicate the business plan? Which details does this need to include for each party in terms of performance requirements and timeframes?
Q2. What are the skilled labor requirements in the organization to implement the business plan? Provide an overview of skilled labor in each department.
Q3. Provide 2 examples how you could test the performance measurements you have set for your business plan.
Q4. List 5 examples for reports and when these would have to be provided to the various departments in your organization in terms of timelines and importance.
Q5. You have noticed that an important product line offered by your organization becomes inconsistent due to supply issues. Which actions do you need to take?
Q6. On occasion it may be necessary to refine performance indicators as the set target is exceeded or can no longer be achieved. List 2 examples where a performance indicator needs to be refined.
Q7. Your Food and Beverage department showed an underperformance of targeted sales by 5 % last month and again by 7 % this month. The occupancy rate at the hotel for the same period showed an increase of average 4% with high profile customers and the number of covers in the restaurant increased on average by 7 %. There have been also a number of indications from customers that service attendance is average. Which potential factors for training could this indicate?
Q8. What is the purpose of continuous improvement? How would this be reflected in a business plan? Provide 2 examples.
Challenges students might face
Students may face several problems or challenges in the completion of BSBMGT617 Develop and implement a business plan Assignment Help like skills required to run a business operations and many more. Experts and professionals at OZ Assignments provide assistance and guidance to the students in order to complete the assignments based on different topics at different academic level. Students can increase their grades by exploring and studying the topic deeply. With OZ Assignments, get necessary academic guidance and tutorial help in BSBMGT617 Develop and implement a business plan Assignment Help. Get feedback amendment without any additional cost.
Note: Price given for this assessment is valid only for this part. It will not work for other parts. | <urn:uuid:58e0cd21-4fea-4156-8598-5c78ced9c102> | {
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Just as The Web We Want was developed by young people for young people, the lessons in the Web We Want handbook for educators have been designed by teachers for teachers across Europe and beyond. The lesson plans propose ideas and activities to encourage young people to develop the creative and critical thinking skills essential for a fulfilled life in the world of tomorrow.
This handbook helps teachers integrate issues related to the online activities of young people into their teaching through interactive lesson plans and worksheets that link to national competency frameworks. The topics and objectives of each activity are presented in a comprehensive index for ease of use.
By using the materials, students:
- Develop their understanding of challenges and opportunities raised by the Internet, and
- Acquire skills needed for their future careers and life.
All the lesson plans align with the European e-Competence Framewok, a guide which helps identify and describe ICT-related competences according to the European Qualification Framework approach and outlines the methodological choices behind1 it. Contact us with your own lesson plan suggestions and resources at [email protected].
Contact us with your own lesson plan suggestions and resources at [email protected] | <urn:uuid:724c8ac8-c61d-427b-ab00-0ee718285813> | {
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for National Geographic News
Men in many cultures sometimes experience "sympathy pains"signs of pregnancy, such as body aches, nausea, and altered food preferenceswhen their partner is expecting.
New research demonstrates that marmoset and tamarin monkey dads do something very similar. As their mates' pregnancies progress, they start to gain weight.
Tamarins and marmosets, both small monkeys native to Brazil, are monogamous, according to Toni Ziegler, the study's lead author. Tamarins are particularly devoted, while marmosets are slightly less so.
"Some of [the marmosets] are high responders," Ziegler said, "and others, well, it's, I'll take the baby if you want me to. They're more like humans in that sense."
Ziegler and her colleagues at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center in Madison found that monkey fathers gain, on average, about 10 percent of their body weight by the time their mates give birth.
Their findings appear in the January 31 issue of Biology Letters.
Adaptive Weight Gain
"The weight gain is an adaptive mechanism," Ziegler explained. "These males that are gaining weight are picking up some type of signaling from the female."
What's more, other physiological changes are occurring at the same time.
"During the last half of pregnancy, [the female] puts off high levels of cortisol"a stress-fighting hormone"due to the growth in the fetus's adrenal gland," Ziegler said.
"Right after she shows that increase, the male has a spike in his cortisol level too."
This hormonal change, Ziegler believes, makes the male more responsive to infants.
SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES | <urn:uuid:d66a6749-b6b5-4267-87d8-696b3a140f02> | {
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The number of prescription drugs that can interact with grapefruit has risen to at least 85, and half of those can cause serious side effects, including death.
That’s according to a study published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal by David Bailey, a clinical pharmacologist at the Lawson Health Research Institute in London, Ontario, and his team of researchers.
In their review of published studies of drug interactions with grapefruit, they discovered that between 2008 and 2012, the number of drugs that could cause serious interactions jumped from 17 to 44. Other citrus fruits such as Seville oranges and limes also can cause interactions.
Scientists with the Florida Department of Citrus immediately responded to the study, saying there’s no valid evidence of serious adverse events.
Grapefruit Can Affect Drug Effectiveness
Bailey first recognized the correlation between grapefruit juice and medication more than 20 years ago, and now he reviews new products and prescribing information for the Canadian Pharmacists Association.
“What I’ve noticed over the last four years is really quite a disturbing trend, and that is the increase in the number of drugs that can produce not only adverse reactions but extraordinarily serious adverse drug reactions,” he said.
Lawson said patients and physicians need to be the lookout for the dangerous adverse effects, which can include acute kidney failure, gastrointestinal bleeding, bone marrow suppression in immunocompromised people, respiratory failure and renal toxicity.
By blocking enzymes, grapefruit can increase a drug’s effectiveness, or by blocking transporters, grapefruit can decrease the amount of medication absorbed. Either of these interactions is potentially harmful.
For example, drinking a 200 mL glass of grapefruit juice once a day for three days produces a 330 percent increase in the concentration of Zocor (simvastatin), a commonly used statin, compared with taking the medication with water, according to published reports.
“Taking one tablet with a glass of grapefruit juice is like taking 20 tablets with a glass of water,” Bailey said. “This is unintentional overdosing. So it’s not surprising that these levels go from what we call therapeutic to toxic.”
The researchers also noted that people older than 45 take the most prescription drugs and are less able to handle excessive concentrations of drugs, making them most vulnerable to adverse events with grapefruit juice.
FDA Consumer Update on Grapefruit
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an update on the matter in February 2012, informing consumers that grapefruit may not mix well with certain medications and explaining the mechanisms involved.
The FDA warns that consuming grapefruit at a different time than taking medication does not prohibit adverse reactions.
“Drinking grapefruit juice several hours before or several hours after you take your medicine may still be dangerous,” said Shiew Mei Huang, acting director of the FDA’s Office of Clinical Pharmacology. “It’s best to avoid or limit consuming grapefruit juice or fresh grapefruit when taking certain drugs.”
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Joan Of Arc
Catherine De Medici
Read More Articles About: Famous Women
( Originally Published Early 1900's )
B. C. 650
SUBLIME COURAGE SUSTAINED BY FAITH
Some twenty-three hundred years ago a tale was written in the Hebrew language, picturing a feat of womanly courage so noble, so devoted, and so successful that it charmed the world. By its intrinsic beauty alone this tale eventually took the place of history and became a chapter in the sacred Scriptures.
In a word, the illustrious widow Judith, the most beautiful woman of Bethulia, mourning for her dead husband, heard that the King Nebuchodonosor, reigning at Nineveh, had proclaimed himself God, and offered peace to the Jews only on condition that they should offer sacrifice to him rather than to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Assyrian general, Holofernes, was at the pass in the mountains, with a vast army. She robed herself in her finest garments and went forth sustained by the Lord. She insinuated herself into the good graces of Holofernes, and obtained permission to remain in his tent. She plied him with wine, and, while he slept in stupor, she drew his own sword and cut off his head, carrying that bloody trophy to Bethulia. With that, the Jewish warriors beset the Assyrians, and they, while waiting for commands from the general's tent, were wholly overcome and put to flight.
We have no mention of Judith in Josephus or Philo the Jew. Herodotus does not speak of her. Nebuchadnezzar did not reign at Nineveh, nor was he called King of the Assyrians. There was no city of Bethulia, or Betylia, near Jerusalem, although the father of Rebecca was named Bethuel.
It is probable that the Book of Judith was written by a Hebrew poet of fine imagination, who possessed but little knowledge of the outside world, or the state of the arts at the period in which he placed his drama.
But notwithstanding these things, the apostolic fathers of the Christian church accepted the Book of Judith as canonical. It was translated by the Seventy along with the rest of the Old Testament. It was translated into Latin from the Chaldee by St. Jerome. It was accepted as canonical by the Council of Carthage and by Pope Innocent I. of Rome, and cited as Scripture by Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Ambrose and Augustine. The earliest express reference to Judith is in Clement of Rome, a father and perhaps a martyr of the first century of the Christian era.
Thus highly indorsed, the story of Judith passed over Europe along with the Christian religion, a part of the faith of the Caucasian world, and it was not until the Protestant rebellion against the church that the contention of the Jews themselves, that Judith was not historical, began to take hold of men's minds. While the tale was undergoing criticism among the philosophers, and long after it had been rejected in the Protestant Bible, the Catholic world was edified with learned dissertations, of which Mr. Gibert's is an example (Academy of Inscriptions, Vol. 22) whereby it was shown that Diodorus of Sicily had an account of a Holofernes who was brother of the King of Cappadocia; that this Holofernes became commanding general of the army of Ochus, King of Persia, in his expedition against the west; that Nebuchadnezzar was a title like Caesar or Augustus, to be assumed by any sovereign, and that the kings of those regions moved their seats with the seasons, seeking the mountains at Nineveh in the hot months and coming nearer the sea in cooler weather.
Joined with the great age of the recital of Judith's heroism, was the enduring sense of its beauty, and it is not to be wondered at that the Christian people of the most highly civilized quarters of Europe clung to the Book of Judith for its power of inspiration; and if Judith, her-self, never lived, we should not the less have a place for her story, because of the direct effects which that story has wrought upon real history itself.
When Mr. Fronde was in the cabin of a sailing vessel, on his way to Australia, he tells us, in his "Oceana," he fell a-thinking whether, after all, there were any difference to him between Julius Caesar, the conqueror, who lived, and Hamlet, the melancholy Dane, who appeared only in the imagination of William Shakespeare. And Froude thought that perhaps Hamlet, to him (Froude), was the more important personage.
And to those readers whose sense of historical accuracy might be disturbed by the doubts attaching to the canonicity of the Book of Judith, it is only necessary to say that the drama itself, because the Book of Judith existed, has been played on the stage of modern events.
A young and beautiful girl, living in a peaceful French village, reading daily from her Bible, heard that rebels at Paris had slain her lord the King, had overthrown and forbidden the worship of God, and had violated the holy sanctuaries, before whose doors the bravest knights, in hottest pursuit, had ceased to advance upon their fleeing enemies. She heard there was a chief monster at Paris named Marat, who, covered with the eruptions of a loathsome disease, wreaked his vengeance on the world by devoting the pure, the good, and the noble to slaughter at the guillotine.
She laid down her Bible, open at a marked passage in the fourth chapter of the Book of Judith, containing the prayer of the ancients of the city that God would prosper the enterprise of Judith for the deliverance of her people. She took the diligence for Paris, her project absolutely unknown to men, and arrived there on the 11th of July, 1793. The next day she penetrated to the inner apartments of Marat and found him in a bath, where he was compelled to stay in extremely warm weather. He wrote while partly immersed in the tub and took down names at her dictation, noble families whom he would at once send to execution. Having thus with her own eyes seen the proof of his sanguinary character, she drew a great knife and plunged it into his neck, killing him almost instantly. Her bearing, while the insane city was learning of her deed and inquiring of her motives, was lofty and heroic. She was quickly adjudged, and her execution followed a few days after her descent on Marat, and was probably delayed because of the festival of the 14th of July, which commemorated the capture of the Bastile by the people.
Such was the sublimely heroic deed of the beautiful Charlotte Corday, who implicitly believed that Judith had lived before her. Such was the historic act, which for its consequence caused the slaughter of 200,000 aristocrats by avengers of Marat. If Judith were not real, what could be more real than the bloody chapter of Charlotte Corday, in which Judith stands fully revealed? "There are deeds," says Lamartine, "of which men are no judges, and which mount without appeal direct to the tribunal of God. There are human actions so strange a mixture of weakness and strength, pure intent and culpable means, error and truth, murder and martyrdom, that we know not whether to term them crime or virtue. The culpable devotion of Charlotte Corday is among those acts which admiration and horror would leave eternally in doubt, did not morality reprove them. Had we to find for this sublime liberatrix of her country and generous murderess of a tyrant a name which should at once convey the enthusiasm of our feelings toward her and the severity of our judgment on her action, we should coin a phrase combining the extreme of admiration and horror and term her the Angel of Assassination."
Inasmuch as the history of Judith has been omitted from the ordinary Protestant Bible of the home and as the great episode of Charlotte Corday has given to the Hebrew poem a new meaning and interest, we shall now proceed to give an extended account of Judith's deed, taken directly from the book as it appears in the Apocrypha of the Douay Bible. "The Hebrews and the heretics of these times," says Moréri, bitterly, in his Grand Dictionary, "refuse to place the Book of Judith among the canonics, although it has always been received as such." And he refers to the Council of Nice, the Council of Trent and many authorities that we have not named on the preceding page. (See Moréri's Dictionary, Article Judith.) B. Gibert also finds in Diodorus of Sicily a Bagaos, or Vagaos, who rose from the condition of a slave to be the chief ruler of Persia. Modern French scholars of the highest class, like Lenormant, whose Christianity is not questioned, pass the Book of Judith without mention, thus condemning it as a work without historical value. It is because of its moral power and its hoary historical place in the minds of four hundred millions of people that we confidently offer it in this volume.
Portions of the Book of Judith were written as hymns to be chanted at public festivals. For many hundred years these hymns were so used in the great meetings of the chosen people. Their language, therefore, is often recitative, for the purpose of completing the musical phrase in a symmetrical manner. In a prose relation, these repetitions especially, as they must be in a language foreign to the original poet, will only be followed where they carry singular euphonious beauty. Yet the reader will perhaps be agreeably surprised in noting that, after two thousand years, with translations and recensions through the Chaldee, Syro-Chaldee, Arabic, Greek, Latin, French and English, the poems still retain passages of undoubted majesty and many charming sentences where pure euphony has been the desire of the poet and the result of his labors.
Arphaxad, King of the Medes, had built a very strong city, which he called Ecbatana. In the twelfth year of the reign of Nebuchodonosor, King of Assyria, who reigned at Nineveh, the great city, he went out against Arphaxad and overcame him. And Nebuchodonosor, needing allies for the taking of Ecbatana, sent out messages to all the nations westward, passing Jerusalem and going as far as the borders of Ethiopia. But these messengers came back empty-handed, thus mortally offending the Assyrian King. And in the thirteenth year of his reign Nebuchodonosor put Holofernes in command of an army of one hundred and twenty thousand infantry and twelve thousand horse-men, who, with a grand caravan of camels, heads of oxen, flocks of sheep, stores of wheat, and cash out of the treasury of the King's house, set out for the west to bring every strong city at once under subjection to the King.
Holofernes marched westward, destroying and devastating, and city after city fell before him. There came upon the western world, even at the ancient and powerful city of Damascus, a fear that unless peace could be made with the King of Assyria, not a soul would be left alive. Therefore the kings of the cities of Assyria, Mesopotamia, Syria-Sobal, Lydia and Cilicia, sent deputations to Holofernes, with offers of their subjection, and Holofernes, after entering their cities, gathered auxiliaries of valiant men, and increased his armies until they became as the locusts on the face of the earth.
Wherever Holofernes went, he had orders to destroy the worship of the local deities and set up statues of the Assyrian King, who proclaimed himself to be the only Lord of Heaven and Earth. And as Holofernes approached those of the Children of Israel who dwelt in the land of Juda, they heard with horror of what he pro-posed to do with the Holy Temple of Jerusalem, for they knew what had happened to the temples of other cities. While they might have subjected their bodies to the rule of the Assyrian, they saw no way to make peace with him, and Eliachim, the priest, wrote to all the Jews in the strong places of the mountains, by which ways Holofernes must pass if he penetrated to Jerusalem, and all the people fortified their souls with continued prayer and sacrifice.
When it was told to Holofernes that the Jews had shut the passes, he was transported with exceeding great fury and indignation. And he called the Princes of Moab and the leaders of Ammon and demanded to know of them what manner of people had dared to stand apart and refused the terms of peace which he was extending to the rest.
Then Achior, captain of all the Children of Ammon, recited the history of the Jews to Holofernes : That they were an offspring of the Chaldaeans; that they had separated for religious reasons, and dwelt in Charan; that because of famine they had gone into Egypt and dwelt four hundred years; that they had miraculously escaped from Egypt, evidently through the power of the unseen God whom they worshiped; that no nation could triumph over these Jews except at the times they had departed from the worship of the Lord, their God. In this way they had overthrown the Kings of the Canaanites, the Jebusites, the Pherezites, the Hittites, the Hevites, the Amarites, and many other captains, who, until the coming of the Jews, had been renowned for their power.
And now Achior counseled the haughty Assyrian to search well to find if there were any iniquity of the Jews in the sight of their God, which Achior conceived to offer the only practicable plan of overwhelming them.
But this manner of attributing power to the God of the Hebrews angered not only Holofernes, but all of the Assyrian leaders, who feared that their worship of Nebuchodonosor might be suspected. And Holofernes said to Achior : "Because thou hast prophesied unto us saying, that the nation of Israel is defended by their God, to show thee that there is no God but Nebuchodonosor when we shall slay them all as one man, then thou shalt die with them by the sword of the Assyrians, and all Israel shall perish with thee. But if thou think thy prophecy true, let not thy countenance sink, and let the paleness that is in thy face depart from thee."
Then Holofernes commanded his servants to take Achior, and to lead him to Bethulia, a strong place in the mountains, which was something more than a mere fortress, having inhabitants and houses where peaceful people permanently resided. There Achior was to be delivered to the Jews to share their destinies. And eventually Achior found himself before the ancients of the city, and he related faithfully to them all that had happened. And all the people fell upon their faces, adoring the Lord, and all of them together, moaning and weeping, poured out their prayers with one accord to the Lord, saying, "O, Lord, God of Heaven and Earth, behold the pride of the Assyrians, and look Thou on our low condition, and have regard to the face of Thy saints, and that Thou forsakest not them that trust in Thee; and that Thou humblest them that presume of themselves and glory in their own strength." And when their meeting was ended, they comforted Achior.
But the siege of Holofernes progressed in a manner foreboding great evil to the Jews, for he was able to stop their supplies of water, so that at last the people surrounded Ozias, and demanded that he should surrender the city. But he craved five more days, in which the Lord might deliver them.
Now there was shut in the chamber of a house in Bethulia, a widow named Judith (the word in Greek and Hebrew means "Jewess"), whose husband had been dead three years and six months, and she had fasted every day except the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the feasts of the House of Israel. She was exceedingly beautiful, and her husband left her great riches, very many servants, and large possessions of herds of oxen and flocks of sheep. She was greatly renowned among all because she feared the Lord very much, neither was there any one that spoke an ill word of her.
And to this beautiful woman, thus immured in her private chamber in Bethulia, came the word that Ozias, the Prince of Juda, would surrender the city in five days, unless the Lord should intervene for the deliverance of His people. Whereupon she sent for two of the ancients, and said to them : "Who are you, that tempt the Lord? You have set the time for the mercy of the Lord. Now, with many tears, let us beg His pardon. Let us ask the Lord with tears, for we have not followed the sins of our fathers who forsook their God and worshiped strange Gods. Let us humbly wait for His consolation, and He will humble all the nations that shall rise up against us, and bring them to disgrace."
And after many words of devotion she closed her speech, and Ozias and the ancients were convinced, and answered : "All things which thou hast spoken are true, and there is nothing to be reprehended in thy words. Now, therefore, pray for us, for thou art a holy woman." "As you know," replied Judith, "that what I have been able to say is of God, so that which I intend to do, prove ye if it be of God, and pray that God shall strengthen my design. You shall stand at the gate this night, and I will go out with my maid-servant; and pray ye that, as you have said, the Lord may look down upon his people of Israel. But I desire that you search not into what I am doing, and till I bring you word, let nothing else be done but to pray for me to the Lord, our God."
And Ozias said to her, "Go in peace, and the Lord be with thee; take revenge of our enemies." And when they were gone, Judith prayed in her oratory : "O, Lord, God of my father Simeon, look upon the camp of the Assyrians now, as Thou wast pleased to look upon the camp of the Egyptians when they pursued, armed, after Thy servants, trusting in their chariots, and in their horsemen, and in a multitude of warriors; but Thou lookedst over their camp and darkness wearied them; the deep held their feet, and the waters overwhelmed them. So may it be with these also, O, Lord, who trust in their multitude, and in their chariots, and in their pikes, and in their shields, and in their arrows, and glory in their spears; lift up Thy arm as from the beginning, and let it fall upon them that promise themselves to violate Thy sanctuary and defile the dwelling-place of Thy name. Bring to pass, O, Lord, that the pride of Holofernes may be cut off with his own sword; let him be caught in the net of his own eyes in my regard, and do Thou strike him by the basis of the words of my lips. Give me constancy in my mind that I may despise him, and fortitude that I may overthrow him. For this will be a glorious monument for Thy name, when Holofernes shall fall by the hand of a woman.
"O, God of the Heavens, Creator of the waters, and Lord of the whole Creation, hear me, a poor wretch, making supplication to Thee, and presuming of Thy mercy. Remember, O, Lord, Thy covenant, and put Thou words in my mouth, and strengthen the resolution in my heart, that Thy temple at Jerusalem may continue in Thy holiness."
When Judith rose from the place wherein she lay prostrate before the Lord she called her maid and put away the garments of her widowhood. And she washed her body and anointed herself with the best ointment, plaited the hair of her head, put on her head-dress, clothed herself with the garments of her gladness, put sandals on her feet, and took her bracelets, earlets, and rings, and adorned her-self with all her ornaments. And the Lord also gave her more beauty, because all this dressing-up proceeded only from virtue, so that she appeared to all men's eyes incomparably lovely.
She gave to her maid a bottle of wine to carry, and a vessel of oil, parched wheat, dry figs, bread and cheese, and went out. And when the twain came to the gate of the city, they found Ozias and the ancients of the city waiting. When they saw her they were astonished, and admired her beauty exceeding. They asked her no questions, but let her pass, saying : "The God of our fathers give thee grace, and may He strengthen all the council of thy heart with His power, that Jerusalem may glory in thee, and thy name be in the number of the Holy and Just."* And as Judith passed silently out, the multitude with one voice repeated : "So be it ! So be it !"
And at break of day, the watchmen of the Assyrians stopped her, and she said to them : "I am a daughter of the Hebrews, and I am fled from them because I knew they would be made a prey to you, because they despised you and would not of their own accord yield themselves, that they might find mercy in your sight. For this reason I said to myself : I will go to the presence of the Prince Holofernes, that I may take him their secrets, and show him by what way he may take them without the loss of one man of his army."
And when the watchmen had heard her words they beheld her face, and their eyes were amazed upon seeing her great beauty.
Therefore they assured her, saying: "Thou hast saved thy life by taking this resolution to come down to our Lord, for when thou shalt stand before him, he will treat thee well, and thou wilt be most acceptable to his heart."
And they brought her to the tent of Holofernes, telling him of her. And when she was come into his presence, forthwith Holofernes was made captive by her eyes, so that his officers said to him: "Who can despise the people of the Hebrews, who have such beautiful women, that we should not think it worth while for their sakes to fight against them ?"
Now, Holofernes was sitting in such state under a canopy, which was woven of purple and gold, with emeralds and precious stones, that Judith, after she had looked upon his face, bowed down to him, prostrating herself to the ground, and the servants of Holofernes lifted her up, by the command of their master. Then Holofernes said to her : "Be of good comfort, and fear not in thy heart; for I have never hurt any one that was willing to serve Nebuchodonosor, the King, and if thy people had not despised me, I would never have lifted up my spear against them. Now, tell me for what cause hast thou left them, and come to us?"
And Judith replied : "Receive the words of thy hand-maid, for if thou dost follow them, the Lord will do thee a perfect thing, for as Nebuchodonosor, the King, liveth, then his power liveth in thee for chastising all straying souls. Not only men serve him when they serve thee, but also the beasts of the fields. For the industry of thy mind is spoken of among all nations, and it is told to the whole world that thou only art excellent and mighty in all his kingdom, and thy discipline is extolled in all provinces. It is known also what Achior said to thee, nor are we ignorant of what thou hast commanded to be done to him. It is so certain that our God is so offended with our sin that He hath sent word by His prophets to the people that He will deliver them up for their sins. And because the Children of Israel know they have offended their God, dread of thee is upon them. Moreover, a famine hath come upon them, and, for drought of water, they are ready to be counted among the dead. They are pressed to kill their cattle and drink their blood, and to eat the consecrated things of the Lord, their God, which God forbids them to touch, in wheat, wine and oil, therefore, because they do these things, it is certain they will be given up to destruction; and I, thy handmaiden, knowing this, am fled from them, and the Lord hath sent me to thee to tell thee these very things, for I, thy handmaiden, worship God even now that I am with thee, and I will go out and pray to God. He will tell me when He will repay them for their sins, and I will come and tell thee, so that I may bring thee to the midst of Jerusalem, and thou shalt have all the people of Israel, as sheep that have no shepherd, and there shall not be so much as one dog bark against you. Because these things are told me by the providence of God, and God is angry with them, I am sent to tell these very things to thee."
And all these words pleased Holofernes and his servants. They admired her wisdom, and they said one to another : "There is not such another woman upon earth, in look, in beauty, and in sense of words." And Holofernes said to her : "Thy God hath done well who sent thee out before thy people that thou mightest give them into our hands. And because thy promise is good, if thy God shall do this for me, He shall also be my God and thou shalt be great in the house of Nebuchodonosor, and thy name shall be renowned through all the earth."
Then Holofernes ordered that Judith should go in where his treasures were laid up, and bade her tarry there, and he appointed what should be given her from his own table; but Judith answered him, saying: "I cannot eat of these things which thou commandest to be given me, lest sin come upon me; but I will eat of the things which I have brought."
But Holofernes asked : "If these things which thou hast brought with thee fail thee, what shall we do for thee?" "As my soul liveth, my Lord, thy handmaiden shall not spend all these things till God do by my hand that which I have proposed."
And the servants of Holofernes brought Judith into the tent which he had commanded for her. But when she was going in, she desired that she might have liberty to go out at night and before day to prayer. And he commanded his chamberlain, that she might go out and in, to adore her God as she pleased for three days. There-fore she went out in the night into the valley of Bethulia, and washed herself in a fountain of water. And as she came up she prayed to the Lord, God of Israel, that He would direct her ways to the deliverance of His people.
On the fourth day Holofernes made a supper for his servants and said to Vagaos, his eunuch : "Go and persuade that Hebrew woman of her own accord to dwell with me."
Then Vagaos went to Judith, and said: "Let not my good maid be afraid to go before my lord, that she may be honored before his-face, that she may eat with him, and drink wine and be merry."
And Judith answered him : "Who am I, that I should gainsay my lord? All that shall be good and best before his eyes, I will do. Whatsoever shall please him, that shall be best to me, all the days of my life."
And she arose and dressed herself out with her garments, and going in she stood before his face. And the heart of Holofernes was deeply smitten with love of her, so that he said to her : "Drink now, and sit down and be merry; for thou hast found favor before me."
And Judith said : "I will drink, my lord, because my life is magnified this day above all my days."
And she took and ate and drank before him what her maid had prepared for her. And Holofernes was made merry, and drank exceeding much wine, more than he had ever before drunk in his life. And when it was grown late, his servants went to their lodgings, and Vagaos shut the chamber doors and went his way. And all the Assyrians were overcharged with wine, Holofernes lying on his bed, fast asleep and drunk with wine, and Judith was alone in his chamber. Therefore she spoke to her maid to stand outside and to watch.
And Judith stood before the bed, praying with tears, and the motion of her lips in silence, saying : "Strength-en me, O, Lord, God of Israel, and in this hour look on the work of Thy hands, that as Thou hast promised Thou mayst raise up Jerusalem Thy city; and that I may bring to pass that which I have purposed, having a belief that it might be done by Thee."
And when she had thus prayed, she went to the pillar that was at his bed's head and loosed his sword that hung tight upon it. When she had drawn it out, she took Holofernes by the hair of his head, and prayed, "Strength-en me, O, Lord, God, at this hour;" and she struck twice upon his neck and cut off his head, and took off his canopy from the pillars and rolled away his headless body. And after a while she went out and delivered the head of Holofernes to her maid, bidding her to put it in her wallet. And the twain went out, according to their custom, as if it were to prayer, and they passed the tent, and having compassed the valley they came to the gate of the city. And Judith from afar off cried to watchmen upon the walls : "Open the gates, for God is with us, who hath shown His power in Israel."
When the men heard her voice, they called the ancients of the city, and all ran to meet her, from the least to the greatest; for they had abandoned hope that she would return. And lighting up lights, they all gathered round about her. She, going to a higher place, commanded silence to be made, and when all had held their peace, Judith cried, "Praise ye the Lord, our God, who hath not forsaken them that hope in Him. By me, His handmaiden, He hath fulfilled His mercy which He promised to the House of Israel, for He hath killed the enemy by my hand this night."
Then she brought forth the head of Holofernes out of the wallet and showed it to them, saying : "Behold the head of Holofernes, the general of the army of the Assyrians, and behold his canopy, wherein he lay in his drunkenness, where the Lord, our God, slew him by the hand of a woman. As the same Lord liveth, His angel bath been my keeper, both going hence and abiding there and returning from thence hither; and the Lord hath brought me back to you without pollution of sin, rejoicing for His victory, for my escape, and for your deliverance. Give all of you glory to Him because He is good, because His mercy endureth forever."
And they all adored the Lord, and said to her : "The Lord hath blessed thee by His power, because by thee He bath brought our enemy to nought." And Ozias, the prince of the people of Israel, said to her : "Blessed art thou, O daughter, by the Lord, the Most High God, above all women upon the earth. Blessed be the Lord who made Heaven and earth, who hath directed thee to the cutting off of the head of the prince of our enemies; because He bath so magnified thy name this day that thy praise shall not depart out of the mouth of men, who shall be mindful of the power of the Lord forever, for that thou hast not only risked thy life to lessen the distress and tribulation of thy people, but hast prevented our ruin in the presence of our God." And all the people said: "So be it! So be it!"
Then they called for Achior, captain of all the children of Ammon, who had been delivered to them by Holofernes, and Judith said to him : "The God of Israel, to whom thou gayest testimony, He hath cut off the head of all the unbelievers this night by my hand, that thou mayst find that it is so, who in the contempt of his pride despised the God of Israel and threatened thee with death."
Then Achior, seeing the head of Holofernes, fell on his face upon the earth and his soul swooned away, but after he had recovered his spirits he fell down at her feet, reverencing her, and said : "Blessed art thou by thy God in all the dwellings of Jacob, for in every nation they shall hear thy name, the God of Israel shall be magnified because of thee." And Achior and all the succession of his kindred were joined to the people of Israel.
And following the command of Judith they hung the head of Holofernes on the wall, and at break of day every man took his arms and then went out with a great noise and shouting. The Assyrian watchmen, seeing this, ran to the tent of Holofernes. And the great officers that were in the tent made a noise before the door of his chamber, hoping thus to awaken him; for no man durst knock, or open and go into the chamber of the general of the Assyrians. But when his captains and tribunes were come, and all the chiefs of the army, they said to the chamberlain : "Go in and wake him, for the mice, coming out of their holes, have presumed to challenge us to fight."
Then Vagaos, going into the chamber of Holofernes, stood before the curtain and made a clapping with his hands, but when with hearkening he conceived no notion of one lying, he lifted the curtain, and, seeing the body of Holofernes lying on the ground, without the head, weltering in his blood, he cried out with a loud noise with weeping, and rent his garments. And he went into the tent of Judith, and not finding her, he ran out to the people and said : "One Hebrew woman hath made confusion in the house of King Nebuchódonosor; for behold Holofernes lieth upon the ground, and his head is not upon him."
When the chiefs of the Assyrians heard this, an intolerable fear and dread fell upon them, and when all the army heard it, courage and councils fled from them. And because the Assyrians were not united together under the attack of the Hebrews, they came with loud noise, as of a vast multitude, they went without order in their flight. And Ozias sent messengers through all the cities and countries of Israel, and every city sent chosen young men after the Assyrians and they pursued them out of Israel with the edge of the sword. And they that returned conquer-ors to Bethulia brought with them all things that were the Assyrians', so that there was no numbering their cattle and beasts, and all their movables, insomuch that from the least to the greatest all were made rich by their spoils. All those things that were proved to be the peculiar goods of Holofernes they gave to Judith, in gold and silver and garments, and precious stones, and all household stuff.
And Joachim, the high priest, came from Jerusalem to Bethulia with all his ancients, to see Judith. And when she was come out to them, they all blessed her with one voice, saying : "Thou art the glory of Jerusalem; thou art the glory of Israel; thou art the honor of our people!"
And all the people rejoiced with the women and virgins and young men, playing on instruments and harps. And Judith sang a canticle to the Lord, which occupies the greater portion of the last chapter of the Book of Judith.
And when all the people came up to Jerusalem to adore the Lord, Judith offered for an anathema of oblivion that is, an offering to the Lord, as an everlasting monument to prevent forgetfulness of His benefits all the arms of Holofernes, and the canopy that she had carried out of his chamber. For three months the joy of this victory was celebrated with Judith. And Judith was made great in Bethulia and she was most renowned in all the land of Israel. Chastity was joined to her virtue, and on festival days she came forth with great glory. She abode in her husband's house a hundred and five years, and died and was buried with her husband in Bethulia, and all the people mourned for her seven days. During all her life there was none that troubled Israel, nor many years after her death.
The painting of "Judith and Holofernes," by Horace Vernet, hangs in the museum of the Louvre, at Paris, and has been copied in countless engravings, as Vernet was in his day, doubtless, the most popular of French painters, always choosing subjects in which the people took a deep interest and representing them, if not with genius, at least with the dramatic spirit highly pleasing to the people. Boethius, the last of the great Roman authors (he whom King Alfred and Queen Elizabeth held in so high esteem), has left a musical rendition of the story of Judith. The lines are very short. The Latin writer was able to give some color of luxury to the scene of the tent of Holofernes, his golden fly-net and other trappings being evidently unknown to the Hebrew author.
In 1 565 there was printed at London an octavo volume entitled : "The Famous History of the Vertuous and Godly Woman Judeth."
The Abbot de la Chambre, in the funeral oration over the Queen of France in 1684, took for his text the passage in the Book of Judith wherein it is stated that "She made herself famous in all things, and there was none that gave her an ill word," said that it was perhaps the first commendation that was ever given to a woman; for notwithstanding the prodigious detraction that has prevailed so long in the world, there are some women that remain untouched by that implacable monster; yet this good fortune rarely happens to those who have otherwise a shining reputation, so that we may boldly challenge all the Greeks and Romans to show us a passage in their books that in so few words gives us so great an idea as that which the Book of Judith gives us in the words beforementioned. The address that Homer made use of to give his reader a great notion of the beauty of Helen is certainly inferior to the plainness and simplicity of the Jewish author, and that which is most excellent in his way of praising is that he has included in his elegy the true cause and source of the virtue he has described. "She had," says he, "a great reputation in all things, and was secure from every evil challenge, because she was sensibly touched with the fear of the Lord."
The Book of Judith is a shining picture of the possible courage in woman; it found its exact human exemplification in Charlotte Corday young, devout, beautiful, lion-hearted. "Courage," says Aaron Hill, "is poorly housed that dwells in numbers; the lion never counts the herds that are about him nor weighs how many flocks he has to scatter." | <urn:uuid:aab37346-9c66-4b0b-b071-4c97720ceb3e> | {
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The history of the Netherlands is the history of seafaring people thriving on a lowland river delta on the North Sea in northwestern Europe. Records begin with the four centuries during which the region formed a militarized border zone of the Roman empire. This came under increasing pressure from Germanic peoples moving westwards. As Roman power collapsed and the Middle Ages began, three dominant Germanic peoples coalesced in the area, Frisians in the north and coastal areas, Low Saxons in the northeast, and the Franks in the south. During the Middle Ages, the descendants of the Carolingian dynasty, came to dominate the area and then extended their rule to a large part of Western Europe. The region of the Netherlands therefore became part of Lower Lotharingia within the Frankish Holy Roman Empire. For several centuries, lordships such as Brabant, Holland, Zeeland, Friesland, Guelders and others held a changing patchwork of territories. There was no unified equivalent of the modern Netherlands....
Requires iOS 7.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Netherlands - the country's history is a free trial software application from the Reference Tools subcategory, part of the Education category.
The app is currently available in English and it was last updated on 2016-04-24. The program can be installed on iOS.
Netherlands - the country's history (version 1.0) has a file size of 29.99 MB and is available for download from our website.
Just click the green Download button above to start. Until now the program was downloaded 0 times.
We already checked that the download link to be safe, however for your own protection we recommend that you scan the downloaded software with your antivirus. | <urn:uuid:8cb915f5-667e-4b3f-a026-6532254aeb7d> | {
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How can educational policymakers, administrators and parents make sense of the promise and pitfalls of technology-led innovation?
New digital technologies disrupting whole industries is nothing new. From the all-pervasive ‘world at your fingertips’ smartphones and tablets through to the Internet of Things, workplace automation and outsourcing, technology will continue to reshape the world. There are many points to consider when assessing the impact of new technology on education.
Learning from recent history
There have been a number of recent attempts at technology-led innovation in education. Some have fallen well short of the mark, while others have simply proven to be expensive failures - both in terms of educational outcomes for students as well as education budgets. Examples include:
- The Australian Government’s ‘one laptop per child’ $2.4 billion program, now considered to be a failure. This mirrors experiences elsewhere in the world, but the jury is still out on the optimal approach to utilising in-classroom technology.
- In the 2015 Students, Computers and Learning report, Andreas Schleicher, OECD director for education and skills, concludes that school students who use computers extensively at school do a “lot worse in most learning outcomes, even after accounting for social background and student demographics”.
- The MOOC, or massive online open course, is an extension of the e-learning model – learning via the internet. These models are based on the principle of develop once and accomplish unlimited delivery over the internet. Despite the initial hype, the evidence consistently shows that the course-completion rate is stubbornly low – in the order of 10 per cent, on average. Additionally, recent research has identified that the dual underlying challenges of ensuring the quality of (i) MOOC education materials and (ii) assessment processes remain unresolved. These two factors underpin the entire rationale for MOOCs - the ‘democratisation of education’ for the disadvantaged.
Innovate now, pay later?
The real challenge facing educators lies in determining how best to use innovative, rapidly evolving technologies and related services now to deliver improved educational outcomes in the future. The speed of technological change is such that attempts at optimising technology, innovation and educational pedagogies only exacerbate the challenge. No sooner has the latest technology been implemented that it risks being superseded by the next ‘big thing’. Education is an environment where the impacts – either positive or negative – of any technology-led innovation will not be known with certainty for some time.
One of the demands placed on today’s education system is to prepare students for the new digital world. Today’s students are expected to be not only digitally competent, but have the skills to participate in an employment landscape that is itself undergoing fundamental technology-led change. Students will be competing for jobs in an increasingly globalised marketplace. The influences of outsourcing, offshoring or even open workplaces such as Freelancer, Airtasker or Upwork are subjecting new entrants to the workplace with unprecedented challenges and competition.
However, research suggests that the relatively low digital skill level of many Australian teachers contributes to students’ low digital literacy levels. The case for re-skilling teachers with the necessary ICT competencies is no small task, and is a beyond the scope of this article.
In-classroom technologies: Help or hindrance?
Teachers are there to teach students, not wrangle with poorly set-up or unreliable in-classroom technology. Additionally, school administrators often have to deal with the costs and challenges of configuring, maintaining and operating on-site technologies. The rapid evolution of technology itself potentially solves this problem. When cloud technologies are used, the need for on-site support services largely disappears. The focus then shifts from the technology itself to how the technology supports educational outcomes.
Additionally, the increasing adoption of BYOD further reduces the need for schools to support in-classroom technologies. Parents and students are bearing the cost of providing laptops, tablets and smartphones.
IT innovation in education: Key points to consider
When educational policymakers, institutions and parents alike attempt to strike the right balance of using new and innovative technologies to improve educational outcomes, what key factors should they consider? Here are a few pointers.
1. Don’t put the cart before the horse
Evidence is that adopting a ‘technology-first’ approach to education is unlikely to provide across-the-board benefits in student outcomes. Be willing to invest time and effort to test the benefits of any new innovation in evidence, not opinion. This will mitigate the future risks of failed initiatives.
2. Question the hype
The educational technology industry is big business, and getting bigger. Analysts are projecting global tech spend in education to more than double over the next five years, reaching almost US$94 billion by 2020. Getting a slice of this lucrative market is the main game for the tech vendors. The persistent promotion of the benefits of any new and innovative technologies is fuelled by technology evangelists and tech vendors alike. Recognise that it often takes some time for a new technology to pass the peak of inflated expectations, only after which its real value emerges.
The bottom line is what’s good for the technology vendor may not be good for the student’s educational outcomes.
3. Recognise that it’s complicated
When modern technology meets the human brain, the difference in evolutionary timelines is stark. Digital technologies have been around for less than a generation, while our human brains have taken eons to evolve. While our living, working and learning environments are being dramatically redefined by technology, it is also affecting our brains. This adds a level of complexity to the interplay of technological innovation and education. The bottom line is that there is unlikely to be a silver bullet to resolve the tension between technology-led innovation, disruption and education.
How then, does the ‘innovation’ agenda fit in with the real world of education? Put this another way: will innovation result from modern education outcomes, or will it drive improved educational outcomes?
The time for careful consideration is now.
Hew, K. and Cheung, W., (2014), Students' and instructors use of massive open online courses (MOOCs): Motivations and challenges., Educational Research Review, 2014, vol:12 pg:45-58
Lenovo® ThinkPad® and ThinkCentre® products, powered by Intel® processors, are optimised for long, worry-free hours of superior productivity which provide a better teaching and learning experience for all. Speak with a Lenovo education specialist today to learn more. | <urn:uuid:bcda909e-89ac-4142-abaf-02d8979bc99b> | {
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The Washington Post:
The federal government’s industrial organizational psychologists, or I-Os as they are known, aren’t exactly what people might think of when they hear the word “psychologist.”
They don’t provide traditional therapy, meaning one-on-one talk in a warmly lit room, tissue boxes at the ready, a parent figure ready to blame.
One example is when an I-O makes sure testing questions for a department’s hiring and promotions are fair and comply with employment laws and Civil Rights Acts. They also ensure that the testing questions are legally defensible, designing ways to measure performance and understanding the implications and caveats for each performance measure.
“The work of an I-O psychologist is very different from that of a therapist with a client on the couch,” said Tammy Allen, president of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology or SIOP, which was established in 1982 and has 8,000 members dedicated to applying psychology to people in the workplace. “We are a completely different branch of psychology.”
Alyssa McGonagle, an assistant professor of Industrial-Organizational Psychology at Wayne State University in Detroit, studies worker health and safety on the job: what causes workers to be injured on the job (including safety climate, or how much managers and employees value safety over production) and what I-O’s can do about it to make workplaces safer.
Read the whole story: The Washington Post
Leave a comment below and continue the conversation. | <urn:uuid:1a0efd8d-6374-4a60-ad1c-eb86354d0193> | {
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It’s easy to romanticize a child’s life.
For adults juggling responsibilities at work and home, it’s tempting to see childhood as an idyllic time, when the biggest worry is your next spelling test or last strikeout. Anxiety? That’s something for adults.
Of course, beneath that rosy image lies a truth children know well: Being a kid involves lots of challenges. And those challenges, depending on the event or the child’s makeup, cause varying amounts of anxiety. For some, that anxiety can be crippling.
About 8 percent of teens 13-18 have anxiety disorders, which can interfere with their ability to function at home or school, according to National Institute of Mental Health. Most of them trace the symptoms to age 6.
“Probably another 20 percent has significant anxiety that’s not gotten to the point where it’s a diagnosable condition,” said Steve Pastyrnak, a psychologist at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.
That’s a lot of anxious kids.
The good news, therapists say, is children can be taught coping skills to help them through challenges big and small. For children with a genetic predisposition for anxiety, those coping skills can help prevent an anxiety disorder. And the skills can benefit all children, even those who seem to go through life without a lot of worries.
“We’re really working on what makes people resilient,” said Pam White, a psychologist with Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services.
Children show, rather than tell
“Anxiety is a very normal thing everyone goes through,” Pastyrnak said. But recognizing it in children can be tricky because they often cannot put a name to their feelings.
Anxiety affects people physically as well as psychologically, so the child who has a tummy ache when he’s upset isn’t faking it. Anxiety, as part of the body’s defense mechanism, triggers the flight-or-fight response when danger is perceived.
For children, “flight” might mean withdrawing or avoiding a situation, Pastyrnak said.
“Fight” might mean irritability, defiance or a tantrum. Sometimes, when children are referred to Pastyrnak for behavioral problems, he finds anxiety at the root of their problems.
“We treat the anxiety rather than the behavior, and the behavior improves,” he said.
Resources for kids
These books help explain stress and anxiety at a child’s level:
• “Be the Boss of Your Stress,” by Timothy Culbert and Rebecca Kajander
• “What To Do When Good Enough Isn’t Good Enough, The Real Deal on Perfectionism,” by Thomas S. Greenspon
SOURCE: Pam White, psychologist with Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services
• A study by Johns Hopkins Children's Hospital found a family-based program for parents who have anxiety disorders was effective in preventing anxiety in their children.
• Brain scans show children with anxiety disorders have heightened activity in the structures associated with fear processing and emotion regulation, according to one small study. In another study, young people with generalized anxiety disorders had unchecked activity in the brain’s fear center when they looked at angry faces so quickly they were hardly aware of seeing them.
• Researchers are investigating predictive markers, such as hormone levels and genes, to identify those at risk for developing post-traumatic stress disorder after a traumatic event.
Sources: National Institute for Mental Health, PsychCentral
In evaluating a child’s fears, it’s essential to see them through a “developmental lens,” White said.
Behavior that is common for a 5-year-old — such as clinging to Mom at school or being afraid of monsters — might warrant attention when it happens with an 8- or 10-year-old.
On the other hand, some children develop adult-type fears. They worry if the bills are paid, the garbage is taken out or if the younger children go to bed on time. In some cases, that happens after a divorce or a parent’s death, and the children feel they must take on parental roles. But in other cases, the children just “come into the world that way,” White said.
How to help kids cope
Parents can help their children cope with anxiety — and build confidence to face future challenges — by teaching them how to control it, Pastyrnak said. Here are some tips he provides:
• Acknowledge their fear, rather than trying to talk them out of it. But reassure them that in time they will be OK.
• Don’t let them avoid the fear completely. A child who is afraid of elevators will not overcome it by simply avoiding all elevators. Also, he will not have ways to handle his fear when the day comes that he has to ride in an elevator.
• Slowly introduce children to whatever makes them nervous. Visit a new school in advance. Ask an older sibling or friend to tell the child about camp.
• Help children take safe risks. A child who is afraid of speaking to others could order a meal in a restaurant.
• Prepare them for events they fear, such as a vaccination at the doctor’s office, rather than springing it on them. “At least they will learn how to cope with it. If you don’t tell them, there is no sense of coping and they don’t have trust,” Pastyrnak said.
• Take the approach you would take if coaching another person’s child. Be encouraging and positive, rather than yelling or letting a child avoid a situation.
When children have experienced a frightening situation, talking about it can help them master the fear, White said. “I wouldn’t push them to talk about it, but when they want to talk, I would certainly have an open ear,” she said.
When a child’s anxiety is intense and affects her daily life, the psychologists recommend talking to a school counselor, doctor or therapist. Treatment will vary depending on the child’s age, White said, but might include several strategies:
Parent training: The parents are taught how to respond and contain the children when they are unable to contain themselves.
Play therapy: An event might be acted out several times to help the child find mastery of the situation.
Cognitive behavior therapy: The children learn how anxiety affects their bodies and what they can do to relieve that. They are taught deep-breathing exercises and progressive muscle relaxation.
Those exercises are presented in a fun, playful way for younger children, White said. They pretend they are blowing out birthday candles for a deep cleansing breath. For muscle relaxation, they pretend they are a muscle man, tensing their muscles and making a face, then “Koosh out” as they flop onto a chair.
“So many of these ideas work for everybody,” White added. “Parents can teach these things.”
She encourages parents to model coping skills by taking deep breaths when they are anxious or discussing at the dinner table how they handled difficult situations during the day.
Therapists also will help a child face a fear in a step-by-step process, Pastyrnak said. Children who have developed a school phobia, for example, might start off by visiting the school playground after school hours. They later will visit the school entrance and walk around the empty building. Eventually, they will start attending classes for short periods of time.
Through each step, they will practice relaxation techniques and positive thinking — telling themselves, “I like school. I’m going to be OK. I’m strong.”
Positive thinking “actually will change your line of thinking, even if you don’t initially believe what you’re telling yourself,” Pastyrnak said.
Coping with anxiety involves acknowledging it, rather than avoiding it.
“We teach kids to own their anxiety,” Pastyrnak said. “It’s not going to go away right away. But once we stop avoiding it, we can learn how to control it.”
E-mail Sue Thoms: [email protected] | <urn:uuid:949f88a0-6d71-4d4c-8fc1-8ab6d2c9f5e5> | {
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Rosella Growing Information
© Frances Michaels
Botanical Name: Hibiscus sabdariffa
asam balanda, bissap, edible hibiscus, flor de jamaica, grosella,
karkade, lumanda, luo shen hua, meshta, omutete, paya, queensland jam plant, rajeab, rosela, roselle, saril,
A native of tropical West Africa, it prefers warm climates. Rosella is an attractive annual shrub to 1.5 m high
with large, lobed reddish leaves and attractive yellow hibiscus-like flowers. Rosellas are easy to grow, with
few pest problems, hardy and productive. Most soil types are suitable, provided they are rich and well-drained.
Plenty of water is needed to maintain growth, flowering and fruit development, mulching is beneficial. Three to
four plants is all that is needed to produce a good crop. Plants normally begin to crop when about 3 months old
and cropping may continue for 9 months or until the first frost. The fruit is ready to pick about 3 weeks after
flowering, when they'll be 2 - 3 cm across at their widest part.
Sow in early spring in tropical areas, rosellas need at least 5 months
frost-free to bear. Rosellas need a very warm soil to germinate, preferably over 25°C. In southern areas of
Australia this would be as late as October outside. Some years the soil might take even longer to warm up. So
gardeners in cooler areas need to start seed indoors using a small bottom-heat unit, or the top of the water
Cover seed with 12 mm of fine soil.
Plant several seeds 50 cm apart and thin seedlings to the strongest.
the fleshy calyx is used in salads, jellies, cranberry-like sauces,
jam and cordial
, syrups and wine. Dried the red calyx is used for tea
and it is an important ingredient in the commercial Red Zinger
tea is very similar in flavour to rose-hips and high in vitamin C. Seeds are roasted and ground into flour. Young
leaves can be steamed or stir-fried and are known as Red Sorrel in the Pacific.
Rosella is an attractive annual hedge or windbreak for the summer garden.
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Study Guide Question 3 - 4
1. For what does Katzcinsky have a reputation?
He has a reputation for having a six sense
2. How does Kropp think wars should be fought?
The leaders of each country battle it out in a ring with clubs and the last one standing wins
3. What were Himmelstoss's drill exercises?
Running and jumping in mud and “change in Lohne”
4. What had been Himmelstoss's profession before the war?
5. What does Kropp say happens to little men like Himmelstoss when they get stars or stripes?
Kropp said “As sure as they get a stripe or a star they become different men, just as though they’d swallowed
6. What reason does Kropp give for officers' making drill exercises so difficult?
Kropp says that the difficult drills the officers give are to strengthen the bonds of the soldiers.
1. What is the importance of the "earth to a soldier?"
The earth is like a caring mother, a solider will dig his body into her soil and she protects the soldiers from shell-fire.
2. What influence does the front have on soldiers?
Paul says “To me the front is a mysterious whirlpool. Though I am in still water far away from its centre, I feel
the whirl of the vortex sucking me slowly, irresistibly, inescapably into itself.”
3. What two situations in battle serve a comic relief from the grim battle being waged?
The “fireworks” and the young solider who soiled himself during combat
4. What does the death of the horses represent?
The deaths of the horses represent the soldiers fighting along side with them
5. What does the graveyard scene say about the value of human life?
The graveyard scene shows the irony of human life because the coffins were meant for the dead but the troops crawl inside
for cover from death.
6. Why is this such an important chapter in the novel?
It was the first time Paul and Kat had to kill their own comrade so he wouldn’t suffer the agonizing pain in the future | <urn:uuid:8111bdb5-5353-4a0c-9ccc-5a8122ea6dd3> | {
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|According to the Buddha, there are eight disciplines that one
must cultivate in order to reach Nirvana:
Right understanding/belief : Accept the validity of the
four noble truths.
Make sure that your actions, however good they may seem, are
not motivated by fear, selfishness
Avoid gossip and harsh words. Be positive in your speech to
others - and to yourself.
These include five precepts that all Buddhists are expected
- Do not destroy life
- Do not steal
- Do not engage in immoral conduct
- Do not
- Do not use intoxicants)
- Right Livelihood: Your way of making living should not
violate 5 precepts.
Right Effort: One must work continually to overcome
selfish desire and damaging thought processes.
Right Mindfulness: This involves being aware of
one's thoughts and feelings at every moment. It also involves
realizing that thoughts and emotions are impermanent.
Right Meditation: One must practice quieting of the mind itself so that the
true nature of everything comes into focus. Quieting and controlling the
mind is perhaps the most difficult of the 8 disciplines.
|Notice that an individual does not necessarily have to begin
with the first component, master it and then move to the next
discipline; rather one is able to make progress simultaneously on
several disciplines. A spiritual guide or mentor may prescribe a
specific order, but that order will vary according to the needs of
You should also see that the Eightfold Path divides into three
- Virtue: (speech, action, livelihood)
- Concentration (effort, mindfulness, meditation)
- Discernment: (right view, understanding)
|Taken together, the eight disciplines are a practical means for
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He preferred to be seen as an artist within the great European tradition of Juan Gris and Georges Braque, while his bold paintings based on the everyday celebrated the arrival of colour, food, fun and a sense of the exotic into the British cultural landscape
Patrick Caulfield (1936–2005) is known for his vibrant paintings of modern life that reinvigorated traditional artistic genres such as the still life. His work came to prominence in the mid-1960s after studying at the Royal College of Art, where fellow students included David Hockney. Through his participation in The New Generation exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1964, he became associated with Pop Art – a label he resisted throughout his career. Caulfield preferred to see himself as a ‘formal artist’ and an inheritor of European painting traditions from modern masters such as Georges Braque, Juan Gris and Fernand Léger, who influenced his composition and choice of subject matter.
The 1960s was a period of radical and far-reaching change in Western culture, perhaps the key historical turning point of the twentieth century. London’s skyline was transformed by new buildings such as the Hilton on Park Lane and the South Bank Centre and Millbank Tower on the Thames. While the government continued to stimulate commercial redevelopment, art was considered to be a vital part of social change. Film, television and magazines created an interest in the wider world as well as serving as a showcase for consumer goods, and by 1960 transatlantic air travel was no longer the preserve of the elite, opening up new horizons to all. The turn of the decade was characterised by optimism that corresponded to increased affluence, but also to altering concepts of class, taste and status, and to new forms of social aspiration in Britain. A new generation of artists that included Caulfield developed ways of dealing with modernity in their work that was radically innovative. Their engagement with the world secured an unprecedented position for art, and for many of the artists themselves, in the eyes of the public.
Prior to taking up his place as a student at the Royal College of Art, Caulfield spent the summer of 1960 travelling in Europe. With seven fellow students, including Pauline Boty, he went by train to Greece, later hitch-hiking his way back to London through Italy and France. It was his first trip abroad. He collected postcards including pictures of Minoan frescos because he ‘liked the simplicity and directness’ of the images. At the time he didn’t realise that the black lines had been added by the printer, ‘but these cards struck me as being very amusing and quite strong imagery. So I thought about using lines around my own work’. Caulfield appreciated their exotic, decorative qualities, which were to inspire the composition of early works such as Still Life with Dagger 1963, where the Mughal (Indian) dagger with a horse’s head and scabbard were drawn in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Still Life with Necklace 1964 – a complex arrangement of Turkish pots, jewelled knives and a necklace patterned with a filigree of fine lines set against a stark, geometric background.
Both of these works are characteristic of Caulfield’s approach to painting in the 1960s. Early on in his career he rejected gestural brush strokes for the more anonymous technique of signwriter and developed his own flat description of three-dimensional form. In the two paintings, images of objects are paired with angular geometric shapes, isolated against vivid areas of flat colour, which highlight his use of gloss paint on board and his hard, linear technique. They make direct reference to the still lifes of the Cubist painter Juan Gris, who was to prove so influential to him. Caulfield’s admiration for Gris’s work gave him the excuse to paint Portrait of Juan Gris 1963, one of the very few images of a figure he made. As he explained:
What I like about Juan Gris’s work is not that he’s dealing with different viewpoints, it’s the way he does it. It’s very strong, formally, and decorative.
While Caulfield’s imagery is rooted in daily experience or in images that are equally familiar through postcards, French recipe cards, advertisements or travel brochures, they are often underpinned by a sense of the exotic. This is reflected in a work such as Santa Margherita Ligure 1964 with its picture-postcard prettiness. It is the first of many paintings based on a Mediterranean theme, and in the context of his experience of the austere post-war world, the artist’s fascination with this seems an understandable response.
The terms ‘exotic’ or ‘exoticism’ are today often treated as synonymous with orientalism and other colonialising discourses, perhaps best exemplified by the Great Exhibition of 1851, where artefacts of the British Empire were displayed as a spectacle for the crowds. In contrast, the Festival of Britain, which took place in 1951 when Caulfield was a teenager growing up in Acton, west London, celebrated the country’s recovery after the Second World War. Billed as ‘a tonic for the nation’, it was a showcase of Britain’s finest architecture, design, fashion, science, arts, manufacturing and creative industries. Everyday life was still drab and grey, with many things continuing to be rationed: the everyday exotic was just out of reach for the majority. The festival aimed to convince everyone that they were entering the age of modernity. While it took pride in Britain’s past, most of the exhibits looked to the future, and science and technology featured strongly. Indeed, in one of the pavilions many Londoners saw their first ever television pictures. Thus, at this time the modern could be seen to be both exotic and everyday. The sense of the exotic in Britain in the post-war period was not so much an exoticism of the tropics, of oriental luxury and distant horizons, but rather a rediscovery of a European and American otherness, exotic yet within easy reach, well-illustrated by the impact of cookery writer Elizabeth David’s A Book of Mediterranean Food 1950, with its cover designed by John Minton, which is typical of a particular sense of the exotic that Caulfield was to react to.
However, as the art historian Anne Seymour wrote in 1969, Caulfield ‘never felt the romantic interest in America which affected so many artists’. He had less of a celebratory attitude to the modern world, even though he was fascinated by style. His subject matter can also be understood as being grounded in European culture and the tradition of still life painting. He was interested in art history and how images are used to construct a visual language. For example, much of the source material for his paintings follows that of the Cubist still life, which deals principally with the café. And yet, in the whirl of new experiences and their mediation by mass media, Caulfield remained distanced.
This distance was not just playful but a melancholy, romantic irony, perhaps best highlighted by his architectural pictures and interiors of the 1970s and 1980s that directly engage with the contemporary social landscape and the representation of modern life. There is a recurrence of images of drinking and eating in bar and restaurant interiors which have a sense of the new, post-war world, tinged with an abiding melancholy. As Caulfield wrote in 1970: ‘The subjects are imaginary, so that they are particular yet stereotyped images.’ In After Lunch 1975 the scene takes place in the afternoon when the lights have been turned off and a waiter surveys the empty restaurant. The variation of tone contributes to the atmosphere by suggesting a shadow thrown across the imaginary space that is reminiscent of Edward Hopper’s treatment of light and shade and the frozen time quality of his interiors – an artist he also greatly admired.
Caulfield’s ability to animate interior spaces, to elicit an atmosphere, or to suggest a sense of place shot through with emotional resonance is present in the majority of his work. With extreme subtlety and finesse, he explored paradoxes of presence and absence, transience and permanence and the uncanny mix of pleasure and unease encountered in modern life. The character of contemporary living is captured in the paintings Foyer 1973 and Café Interior: Afternoon 1973, both of which focus on the subject of the interior, updated and reconfigured in Caulfield’s trademark style, and in Springtime: Face a la Mer 1974, which like the earlier Santa Margherita Ligure contains suggestions of continental holidays. Likewise, Dining Recess 1972 takes its imagery from books on interior design published in the 1960s. The entire work is in sombre grey except for the blue of the sky seen through a high window and the perfect sphere of a globe lamp in pale yellow positioned directly above Tulip chairs and table designed by Eero Saarinen. Elsewhere, Dining/Kitchen/Living 1980 highlights Caulfield’s experimentation with pictorial language where he inserts an element of trompe l’œil – in this instance his family’s casserole – to contrast with the rest of the picture. This combination of styles and subject matter (a key feature of his work of the mid-1970s and 1980s) mixes high art and low or kitsch art with a cool eye that refuses to either valorise or denigrate one element or the other. The lovingly detailed advertisement-style rendering of a chicken kiev or a bowl of mussels, the carefully reproduced William Morris wallpaper, the fondue dish, or office paraphernalia all reflect his interest in the mundane and the ordinary. There is no snobbishness in his choice. Just as in an early painting Sculpture in a Landscape 1966, which depicts a Barbara Hepworth-like sculpture placed in an anonymous landscape, a sense of irony towards the topic is often tempered by a sense of humour and affection. He neither uncritically champions popular culture as did some of his contemporaries, nor retreats to a high art position that could not truly represent the contemporary world. Caulfield thus remains true to his vocation as a painter of modern life; his pictures refuse judgment by revealing a concern with the everyday that makes visible its enigmatic core.
Clarrie Wallis is a curator (modern and contemporary British art) at Tate Britain | <urn:uuid:ba6dc27d-0fcd-456e-aff8-4d5ed075444d> | {
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Everyone should plan
their expenses by having a budget. A budget is a simple financial
that helps individual or family spending. Budgeting allows you to
track your monthly expenditures so that you can plan key savings strategies
for important short and long term goals. You will know how much you
earn and how much you spend and the balance available you can save.
There is no limit that you should save this much per month. You yourself
set some target to save per month and follow it consistently.
Savings might be in any form, like depositing in Bank, investing in
shares, or FD, etc., Savings such as putting a set amount of money
into a Bank each month; saving the income of one family member while
living off another member's income; or putting any "bonus" or non-regular
income into a savings account instead of spending it are really worth
savings. For many people, it's difficult to exercise self-control.
The most frequently cited savings goals are retirement, emergencies,
children's education , saving for one's own education, and saving
for a house .
In each and every family
there should be some sort of savings. So that you can run without any
problems in the case of any emergency. The savings will be useful in
the case of emergencies like health problems, job loss, company lay
For secured savings invest in shares, mutual
funds, bonds etc., It is better to take insurances like life insurance,
accident insurance and health insurance.
Be disciplined about your extra saving. Decide on a percentage or monthly
amount, then stick to it. The easiest way to maintain your saving strategy
is to opt for a stop order, which transfers money directly from your
bank account and into your chosen savings vehicle.
If you’ve been investing and saving extra for several years but
your strategy hasn’t worked, take a close look at where you’ve
invested. If there are any funds which have performed poorly from the
start, consider switching your money into another fund.
We have to keep in track
with the trend so that it will be very useful in helping you weed out
the genuine duds in your portfolio. Take a close look at how it’s
done over several time periods, say three and five years and compare
it to other investments in its category before going for other.
Spread your income in various forms like shares, property, bonds and
perform in different ways, depending on market conditions and economic
trends. It’s impossible for even the so called experts to say
in advance with absolute certainty which ones will do well. That’s
why it’s essential to work on a spread of investments. This is
also called diversifying your portfolio. This is one of the easiest
ways to reduce your risk of losing all your hard-earned savings at a
Avoid gambling with savings. Avoid taking bets on company shares. It
sometimes works and many times fail.
The minimum requirements for a financially "healthy" family are
- One should have savings in cash (for
atleast 6 months of expenses)
- Savings in real estate (for secure
income, capital growth)
- Savings in shares/ mutual funds /
bonds (for capital growth at faster rate)
- Insurance cover for life, acccident
- Insurance of property such as home,
real estate, other assets like automobiles etc.
- Loans towards creation of assets
are good such as housing loan, study loan, etc.,
- Loans that are taken for travel or
to buy household articles like TV, Fridge, etc., are said to be | <urn:uuid:cab64eef-a36e-4969-b487-0c6727986966> | {
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"int_score": 3,
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The tiny parish of Borley is
located in a desolate, sparsely populated area near the east coast
of England, near the Suffolk border. It is a lonely place and would
be largely forgotten if not for the fact that it is the location
of what came to be known as “The Most Haunted House in England”.
Local legend had
it that a monastery had once been located on the site and that
a 13th century monk and a beautiful young novice were killed while
trying to elope from the place. The monk was hanged and his would-be
bride was bricked up alive within the walls of her convent.
got involved in the case after a newspaper carried a story about
a phantom nun at the house on June 1929.
Price was asked by the paper to investigate and he was told about
various types of phenomena that had been reported there, like
phantom footsteps; strange lights; ghostly whispers; a headless
man; a girl in white; the sounds of a phantom coach outside; the
apparition of the home's builder, Henry Bull; and of course, the
spirit of the nun.
This spectral figure was said
to drift through the garden with her head bent in sorrow.
It would be during his investigations
of Borley Rectory that he would become the best known and most accomplished
of the early ghost hunters. He coined the idea of the “ghost hunter's
kit”; used tape measurers to check the thickness of walls and to
search for hidden chambers; perfected the use of still cameras for indoor
and outdoor photography; brought in a remote control motion picture camera;
put to use a fingerprinting kit; and even used portable telephones for
contact between investigators.
Many of Price's accounts
from Borley were obtained firsthand, as he claimed to see and hear much
of the reported phenomena like hearing bells ring, rapping noises and
seeing objects that has been moved from one place to another. In addition,
he also collected accounts from scores of witnesses and previous tenants
of the house, even talking to neighbors and local people who had their
own experiences with the rectory.
Even the original tenants
of the house, the Rev. Henry Bull family had encountered the spirits.
He had become pastor of Borley Church in 1862 and despite local warnings,
had built the rectory on a site believed by locals to be haunted. Over
the years, Bull's servants and his daughters were repeatedly unnerved
by phantom rappings, unexplained footsteps and the appearance of ghosts.
Reverend Bull seemed to regard these events as splendid entertainment
and he and his son, Harry, even constructed a summer house on the property
where they could enjoy after dinner cigars and watch for the appearance
of the phantom nun who walked nearby.
Harry Bull inherited the
rectory and the job as parson when his father died in 1892 and stayed
on until his death in 1927.
However, Bull's successor,
Rev. Guy Smith, quit the rectory just one year after moving in, plagued
by both the ghosts and the house's deteriorating state.
Messages on the walls
The ghosts at the rectory had
been relatively peaceful, but all that would change in October 1930
when Smith was replaced by the Reverend Lionel Foyster and his wife,
Marianne. Their time in the house would see a marked increase in
the paranormal activity. People were locked out of rooms, household
items vanished, windows were broken, furniture was moved, odd sounds
were heard and was only the beginning.
However, the worst
of the incidents seemed to involve Mrs. Foyster, as she was thrown
from her bed at night, slapped by invisible hands, forced to dodge
heavy objects which flew at her day and night, and was once almost
suffocated with a mattress.
Soon after, there
began to appear a series of scrawled messages on the walls of
the house, written by an unknown hand. They seemed to be pleading
with Mrs. Foyster, using phrases like “Marianne, please
help get” and “Marianne light mass prayers”.
Because most of
the poltergeist activity occurred when Mrs. Foyster was present,
Price was inclined to attribute it to her. However, he did believe
in the possibility of the ghostly nun and some of the other reported
phenomena. To him the rectory did not fit into preconceived notions
of a haunted house, which was one of the reasons that it would
go on to gain such a reputation.
Despite the implications of the
phenomena centering around Marianne, Price maintained that at least one
of the spirits in the house had found the rector's wife to be sympathetic
to its plight. This was the only explanation he could find for the mysterious
The house after a fire in 1938
He believed the writings had
come from another young woman, one who seemed to be from her references,
a Catholic. These clues would later fit well into Price's theory
that the Borley mystery was a terrible tale of murder and betrayal
in which the central character was a young nun, although not the
one of legend.
The Foysters moved
out of the house in 1935 and with the place now empty, Price leased
the house for an extended, around the clock, one year investigation.
He ran an advertisement in the personal column of the Times on May
25, 1937 looking for open minded researchers to literally “camp
out” at the rectory and record any phenomena which took place
in their presence.
more than 40 people, he then printed the first ever handbook on
how to conduct a paranormal investigation. A copy was given to
each investigator and it explained what to do when investigating
the house, along with what equipment they would need. The researchers were allowed a wide latitude when it came to searching
for facts. Some of them employed their own equipment, others kept
precise journals while others turned to sťances.
During the year that Price leased
the rectory, several breakthroughs were made in communications with the
spirits. One sťance would later give Price the material that he needed
to solve, he believed, the mystery of the haunting.
During a sitting, an alleged
spirit named Marie Lairre related that she had been a nun in France but
had left her convent to marry Henry Waldegrave, a member of a wealthy
family whose manor home once stood on the site of Borley Rectory. There,
her husband had strangled her and had buried her remains in the cellar.
The story went well with
most of the Borley phenomena, namely the reported phantom nun and the
written messages. Price theorized that the former nun had been buried
in unconsecrated ground and was now doomed to haunt the property seeking
The Borely Rectory as it is today. The house
no longer stands.
In March of 1938, five
months after Marie's first appearance, another spirit promised that
the rectory would burn down that night and that the proof of the
nun's murder would be found in the ruins. Borley Rectory did not
burn that night, but exactly 11 months later, a new owner, Captain
WH Gregson was unpacking books in the library when an oil lamp overturned
and started a fire. The blaze quickly spread and the rectory was
Price took this
opportunity to excavate in the cellar of the house and discovered
a few fragile bones which turned out to be that of a young woman.
Possible evidence? Price concluded, there was something to the
story of the murdered nun.
A Christian burial
for the bones appeared to provide the ghost with the rest she
had long sought and a service was later conducted by the Rev.
AC Henning in the small village of Liston, less than two miles
from the rectory.
Price wrote about Borley Rectory
in two books entitled The Most Haunted House in England (1940) and
The End of Borley Rectory (1946)
The photo on the
left appeared in LIFE magazine in 1944, during the final demolition
of Borley Rectory. It is an enlargement from a larger photograph
and shows what some claim is a "floating brick", suspended in
the air by the spectral occupants of the rectory. Skeptics say
that it was merely a brick thrown by a workman that was accidentally
captured by the LIFE photographer.
The building itself
was finally demolished in 1944. However, its legacy still continues
today and it retains its reputation as one of the world's most
famous haunted houses.
The history begins at the height
of the Civil War when Sarah Pardee met and married William Wirt Winchester,
the son of the manufacturer of the famous Winchester Repeating Rifle.
They had one child, Annie Pardee, who died of marasmus about one month
after birth. Then, about 15 years later, William died of pulmonary tuberculosis
(March 7, 1881).
Mrs. Winchester was deeply
upset by the deaths of her husband and daughter and seems to have consulted
a spiritualistic medium. Reportedly, the medium explained that the spirits
of all those who had been killed by the rifles her family had manufactured,
had sought their revenge by taking the lives of her loved ones. Further,
these spirits had placed a curse on her and would haunt her forever. But
the medium also stated that she could escape the curse by moving west,
buying a house, and continually building on it, as the spirits directed.
In this way, she could escape them and, perhaps find the key to eternal
The only known photograph of Sarah
Whether Mrs. Winchester
believed the medium or not is unclear, but she did move to what
is now San Jose, California in 1884 and purchased an eight room
farmhouse from Dr. Robert Caldwell. Dr. Caldwell came to San Jose
from Kentucky by wagon train. He built the farmhouse in San Jose
and lived there with his family (wife and 9 children) until he sold
it to Mrs. Winchester. The family remained in San Jose from 1848
until at least 1932, when Dr. Caldwell's daughter Caroline died.
immediately began her never ceasing building project. With a great
deal of money and very few responsibilities, she satisfied her
every whim and notion by keeping a staff of 18-20 domestic servants,
10-22 carpenters and 12-18 gardeners and field hands constantly
busy. She had no master plan for a house and according to her
carpenters, built whenever, wherever, and howsoever she pleased,
always directed by the spirits. As
a result of the constant building, tearing down and remodeling,
the mansion's form shouldered its way ever higher into the skyline
as its great bulk crept over the surrounding acres, engulfing
several outlying structures over the southeast section of her
161 acre estate. She built steadily, 24 hours a day for 38 years,
until her death in 1922.
During the 38 years Mrs. Winchester
worked on her mansion, local people would pass by the estate and would wonder
at the strange and mysterious construction. Many would try to explain it
to others. From one telling to the next, many strange stories would arise.
Frequently, these stories
would be recounted to Mrs. Winchester and, according to her niece, Mrs.
Marion Marriott, would upset her very greatly. Many of these stories have
been retold so many times, they have become part of the legend of the
Some feel Mrs. Winchester
was a very sane, although eccentric, person. If she had actually believed
that she would have eternal life if she kept building, why did she leave
a will? Those who worked for her usually stayed for 15 or 20 years. One
carpenter stayed and worked for 36 years.
Most would say that
such a place must still harbor at least a few of the ghosts who
came to reside there at the invitation of Sarah Winchester. The
question is though, do they really haunt the place? Some would
say that perhaps no ghosts ever walked there at all.... that the
Winchester mansion is nothing more than the product of an eccentric
woman's mind and too much wealth being allowed into the wrong
There is no question
that we can regard the place as one of the world's "largest haunted
houses", based on nothing more than the legend of the place alone.
Is this a case where we need to draw the line between what is
a real haunted spot .... and what is a really great story?
Is the Winchester
Mansion really haunted? You will have to decide that for yourself,
although some people have already made up their minds.
There have been a number of strange
events reported at the Winchester House for many years and they continue
to be reported today. Dozens of psychics have visited the house over the
years and most have come away convinced, or claim to be convinced, that
spirits still wander the place. In addition to the ghost of Sarah Winchester,
there have also been many other sightings throughout the years.
In the years that the house has
been open to the public, employees and visitors alike have had unusual
encounters here. There have been footsteps; banging doors; mysterious
voices; windows that bang so hard they shatter; cold spots; strange
moving lights; doorknobs that turn by themselves.... and don't forget
the scores of psychics who have their own claims of phenomena to
Reports of ghosts
and spirits to continue the tradition of Sarah Winchester's bizarre
legacy? Or could the stories be true? Was the house really built
as a monument to the dead? Do phantoms still lurk in the maze
like corridors of the Winchester Mystery House?
Having noticed Alcatraz's
potential as a fortress to protect America's new acquisitions,
American Military Governor John Charles Fremont purchased the
island from Francis Temple. Fremont expected a sizable compensation
from the U.S. government in exchange for the island, but the government
invalidated the sale and seized the island without paying Fremont
anything. Fremont and his heirs filed countless lawsuits over
the matter, but were never victorious.
U.S. Army surveyed Alcatraz numerous times, possession of the
island did not occur until 1848, when the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo ended the Mexican American War and
ceded California to the U.S. On November 6, 1850,
President Millard Fillmore signed an executive order that established
Alcatraz as a military
fort to protect the new boom city of San Francisco from possible
invasion by hostile seafaring vessels.
Plans for defenses on Alcatraz
were approved with 53 guns drafted into the plans. The plans included blasting
away chunks of the perimeter of the island to create steep slopes thereby
making the fortress difficult to invade on foot.
$500,000 was budgeted to
complete the building of defenses on Alcatraz. Shortly after building
began in early 1854, however, it was decided that an additional 155 iron
seacoast cannons needed to be added to the final construction plans to
make the island a topnotch fortress.
On June 1, 1854, the lighthouse
on the island was completed and became fully operational. This was the
first lighthouse to be built on the Pacific coast. At the outbreak of
the Civil War, it was decided that Alcatraz needed to increase its weaponry
in order to be an effective fort. 124 cannons were added to the defense
It was also during the Civil
War that Alcatraz became a military prison. Its first inmates were two
naval officers and two soldiers that would not take an oath of loyalty
to the U.S.
During its use as a prison,
Alcatraz held many military offenders, as well as several notable civilian
April 15, 1865- When news
of President Lincoln's assassination reached San Francisco, altercations
broke out between defenders of Lincoln and those who were celebrating
the news. An order was put out that anyone publicly cheering Lincoln's
assassination would be arrested. A total of 39 civilians were jailed on
Alcatraz under these pretenses. They were released after serving two months
on the island.
Things ran smoothly on Alcatraz
until the outbreak of the Spanish American War in 1898 brought about a
huge increase in prisoners on the island. It was decided upon that Alcatraz
needed major renovations in order to accommodate large numbers of prisoners
in secure structures.
In preparation for the planned
renovations, the armaments on Alcatraz were slowly removed until, by 1901,
there were no fully functional weapons remaining on the island. In all
its years as a military post, the weapons on Alcatraz had never been fired
In 1933, the prison facility
was formally turned over to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. During 1934,
Alcatraz became an escape proof, maximum security prison, where only the
most hardened convicts were brought.
The first residents of the
newly created Alcatraz received numbers 1-32, with Frank Bolt having the
distinction of being Federal Prisoner #1 while serving a five-year sentence
for Sodomy. He was followed by Charles Copp (Robbery and attempted Assault);
Leon Gregory (Robbery, Assault and AWOL); Joseph Harrison (Sodomy); Forrest
Henry (Robbery and Assault); Clyde Hicks (Sodomy); Ralph Hills (Robbery
and Assault); Albert Hoke (Robbery); Alan Hood (Sodomy); and Frederick
Holme (Sodomy and False Enlistment) to round out the first ten inmates.
Al Capone was the first celebrity on the first train to Alcatraz, arriving
in August 1934. He was given number 85.
Guards armed with
machine guns, insured there were no escapes. Many convicts found Alcatraz
the end of their career in crime, as well as the end of their lives.
For 29 years, the fog enshrouded
island, with its damp, cold winds and isolation, made Alcatraz one of
America's safest prisons.
The shell of steel and reinforced
concrete confined ruthless men to a life of deprivation, rules and routines
that proved almost intolerable. When one adds the fact that the convicts
could hear the party boats pass by, and see some of the San Francisco city
lights, it is little wonder that some preferred death to this kind of isolation.
Failure to acquiesce to prison rules resulted in confinement in ‘D’
block, the treatment unit. Here, men could leave their four-by-eight cells
only once in seven days for a brief, ten-minute shower.
Life was hard on
Alcatraz, just the way that Warden Johnson envisioned it. His motto
was "Take each day of your sentence, one day at a time. Don't think
how far you have to go, but how far you've come." For many prisoners,
Alcatraz became synonymous with hell.
a number of escape attempts from Alcatraz, but the bloodiest occurred
on May 2, 1946, involving Bernard Coy, Joseph Cretzer, Sam Shockley,
Clarence Carnes, Marvin Hubbard and Miran Thompson. It
cost the lives of three inmates and two guards, with 17 guards
and one prisoner wounded. The trial afterward, resulted in the
execution of two more convicts who took part in the aborted escape.
Attorney General Robert
Kennedy officially closed the doors of Alcatraz on March 21, 1963. From
1963 to 1969, the prison was unoccupied. Today, it is maintained by the
Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
Some of the more haunted
locations on Alcatraz appear to be the Warden’s house, the hospital,
the laundry room and the cell block ‘C’ utility door where
convicts Coy, Cretzer and Hubbard died during their escape attempt in
The most haunted area of
Alcatraz is the ‘D’ cell block, or solitary, as it was often
called. To most of those who go there, a feeling of sudden intensity pervades
the cells and corridor. Some rangers refuse to go there alone. It is intensely
sold in certain cells, far colder than normal -especially in cell 14-D.
This cell is oftentimes so cold, that wearing a jacket barely helps -even
the surrounding area is twenty degrees warmer. It is no wonder the area
is called ‘the Hole’.
A former guard related his
stories about cell block ‘D’, particularly cells 12 and 14,
and the frightening remnant energy lingering in the subterranean portion
of the prison. During his stint in the mid-1940’s, convicts were
often confined in one of the 14 cells in ‘D’ blocks. Cells
9-14 were called ‘the Hole’, because they contained no windows,
and only one light which could be turned off by the guards. The darkness
made it seem like a hole in the ground -hence the name. On one occasion,
an inmate was locked in ‘the Hole’. Within seconds, the inmate
began screaming that someone with glowing eyes was in there with him.
Tales of a ghostly presence wandering the darkened corridors in clothing
from the late 1800’s were a continual source of practical joking
among the guards, so the convict's pleas of being ‘attacked’
The man's screaming continued
well into the night, until there was silence. The following day, the guards
inspected the cell -the convict was dead, a horrible expression etched
on his face and noticeable hand marks around his throat. The autopsy revealed
that the strangulation was not self inflicted. Some say he was strangled
by a guard who had enough of the man's screaming, although no guard ever
admitted it, even to the other guards.
A number of guards who worked
on Alcatraz from 1946 through 1963 experienced something that was possibly
paranormal at one time or another. From the outer rim on the grounds
to the depths of the prison, there was constant talk of people sobbing
and moaning, horrible smells, cold spots and seeing the ‘Thing’
with the glowing eyes. Even groups of phantom prisoners and soldiers have
appeared in front of startled guards, guests and the families who lived
on the island.
Sometimes the old lighthouse,
long since demolished, seemed to appear out of a dense fog, accompanied
by a ghostly whistling sound and a green flashing light which passed slowly
around the island. The spectacle would then vanish before the startled
eyes of guards and visitors. Phantom cannon shots, gun shots and screams
often sent seasoned guards falling flat on their stomachs thinking that
prisoners had escaped and obtained weapons. Each time, there was no explanation.
A deserted laundry room
would sometimes emanate a strong scent of smoke, as if something was on
fire. The sensation of the choking smoke would drive guards out of the
room, only to return a few minutes later, the area now completely smoke
free. The phantom smoke occurred many times over the years.
These are but a few of the
stories from Alcatraz. | <urn:uuid:14dc2abb-f6ce-46ba-a222-9de7a78794bf> | {
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And there were you, thinking that you had big things to deal with. Today the International Astronomical Union (IAU) makes a decision that shapes the very solar system in which you live. Today, you woke up with nine planets orbiting around our sun. By the time that self-same sun sets this evening, there could be 12 planets instead. It's time to ... Meet the Planets.
First up, it's Ceres, a lovely little orb cheekily nestling in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. With a diameter of about 950km (compared with our very own moon's 3,476 km), Ceres is very much the baby of the family and for many years has been called an asteroid. But its mass alone accounts for about a third of the entire asteroid belt, so careful who you call baby, mister! A rock needs to have a mass of about 5 x 1020kg for gravity to give it the nice round planet-y sort of shape that the IAU says a planet ought to have: so, with almost twice that critical mass, let's salute Ceres as the smallest of all the planets!
Next up, Pluto, which is still a planet, despite the critics. He may have been the smallest until today, with a diameter of only 2,306km (only 18% of the Earth's), but Pluto has given his name to a whole new type of planet ... the Plutons! Plutons take more than 200 years to orbit the sun, and have unusually long, thin orbits. Pluto's orbit takes 90,613 days - 83 earth years longer than its neighbour Neptune. But Pluto can sometimes creep inside Neptune's orbit for as long as 20 years, becoming the eighth planet from the Sun. (Though Pluto has been back the other side of Neptune, where he belongs, since 1999
Cuddling up to Pluto, with just over half his diameter, at 1207km, but only 11.65% of his mass, is Charon. The average distance between these two love-birds is 19,570km - just a tiny bit shorter than the distance from Auckland, New Zealand to Madrid, Spain. Although up until now Charon has been thought of as Pluto's moon, IAU legislation will give them equal status as a double planet. This cute couple are locked in orbit with each other, so they'll never turn their backs. Aaaaahhh. And for eagle-eyed readers who wonder why our moon is not defined as a planet, despite being larger than either Pluto or Charon, it's because the point around which the moon orbits is actually inside the Earth itself, whereas Pluto and Charon's so-called "barycentre" is located somewhere in between them.
Last but not least, it's kooky, zany 2003 UB313! What a name! What a planet! Nicknamed Xena, but still officially nameless - she orbits the sun once every 557 earth years (or 203,500 days) and is just that bit larger than Pluto, which is why the IAU have spent two years redefining what planets are in the first place. But before you go booking a holiday, don't forget that it is up to 97.5 times further away from the sun than our own green Earth is, and with a chilly average temperature of -243C, don't forget a woolly!
· Gavyn Davies is away | <urn:uuid:21fc54b1-6be1-4102-b6f1-16a5a26f3ab1> | {
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Most widely held works by Craig Kallendorf
Virgil and the myth of Venice books and readers in the Italian Renaissance by Craig Kallendorf ( Book )
10 editions published between 1998 and 1999 in English and held by 1,012 libraries worldwide
Humanist educational treatises ( Book )
9 editions published between 2002 and 2008 in English and held by 482 libraries worldwide
"The cycle of disciplines now known as the humanities emerged in their modern form during the Italian Renaissance as the result of an educational movement begun by humanist teachers, writers, and scholars of the early Quattrocento. The movement argued for the usefulness of classical literature as an instrument for training young men and women, not only in the arts of language and eloquence, but also in civic virtue and practical wisdom. This volume contains four of the most important theoretical statements that emerged from the early humanists' efforts to reform medieval education."--BOOK JACKET.
A companion to the Classical tradition ( Book )
18 editions published between 2006 and 2010 in English and held by 370 libraries worldwide
A Companion to the Classical Tradition accommodates the pressing need for an up-to-date introduction and overview of the growing field of reception studies. A comprehensive introduction and overview of the classical tradition - the interpretation of classical texts in later centuries. Comprises 26 newly commissioned essays from an international team of experts. Divided into three sections: a chronological survey, a geographical survey, and a section illustrating the connections between the classical tradition and contemporary theory.
In praise of Aeneas : Virgil and epideictic rhetoric in the early Italian Renaissance by Craig Kallendorf ( Book )
8 editions published between 1985 and 1989 in English and Spanish and held by 302 libraries worldwide
Latin influences on English literature from the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century : an annotated bibliography of scholarship, 1945-1979 by Craig Kallendorf ( Book )
6 editions published in 1982 in English and held by 277 libraries worldwide
The other Virgil : 'pessimistic' readings of the Aeneid in early modern culture by Craig Kallendorf ( Book )
13 editions published in 2007 in English and held by 262 libraries worldwide
Tells the story of how a classic like the Aeneid can say different things to different people. As a school text it was generally taught to support the values and ideals of a succession of postclassical societies, but between 1500 and 1800 a number of unusually sensitive readers responded to cues in the text that call into question what the poem appears to be supporting. This book focuses on the literary works written by these readers, to show how they used the Aeneid as a model for poems that probed and challenged the dominant values of their society, just as Virgil had done centuries before. Some of these poems are not as well known today as they should be, but others, like Milton's Paradise Lost and Shakespeare's The Tempest , are; in the latter case, the poems can be understood in new ways once their relationship to the 'other Virgil' is made clear.
Vergil ( Book )
6 editions published in 1993 in English and Undetermined and held by 258 libraries worldwide
Landmark essays on rhetoric and literature ( Book )
5 editions published in 1999 in English and held by 209 libraries worldwide
The Virgilian tradition : book history and the history of reading in early modern Europe by Craig Kallendorf ( Book )
5 editions published in 2007 in English and held by 141 libraries worldwide
The essays in this collection approach the reception of the Roman poet Virgil in early modern Europe from the perspective of two areas at the centre of current scholarly work in the humanities: book history and the history of reading.
Aldine Press books at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin : a descriptive catalog by Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center ( Book )
4 editions published between 1998 and 2010 in English and held by 130 libraries worldwide
A bibliography of Venetian editions of Virgil, 1470-1599 by Craig Kallendorf ( Book )
6 editions published in 1991 in 4 languages and held by 113 libraries worldwide
A bibliography of Renaissance Italian translations of Virgil by Craig Kallendorf ( Book )
9 editions published in 1994 in English and Italian and held by 112 libraries worldwide
The books of Venice ( Book )
2 editions published between 2008 and 2009 in English and held by 87 libraries worldwide
"Most of the papers given at [an international conference that took place in Venice on 9-10 March 2007] are published in expanded form here--P. [xi].
A catalogue of the Junius Spencer Morgan Collection of Virgil in the Princeton University Library by Craig Kallendorf ( Book )
1 edition published in 2009 in English and held by 72 libraries worldwide
"A complete catalogue of Princeton University Library's Junius Spencer Morgan collection of the Roman poet Virgil, which contains over 700 titles. Includes editions in Latin and other vernacular languages published from 1497 through today, with a focus on material from the early modern period. Illustrated in color"--Provided by publisher.
Selected letters by Francesco Petrarca ( Book )
4 editions published between 1986 and 2002 in Latin and held by 69 libraries worldwide
Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans by Craig Kallendorf ( Book )
2 editions published in 1991 in English and held by 52 libraries worldwide
The books of Venice = Il libro veneziano ( Book )
1 edition published in 2008 in Italian and held by 9 libraries worldwide
Aldine Press books at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin : a descriptive catalogue by Tex.) Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (Austin ( Book )
1 edition published in 1998 in English and held by 5 libraries worldwide
Petrarch selected letters by Francesco Petrarca ( Book )
1 edition published in 1986 in Latin and held by 4 libraries worldwide
The other Virgil "pessimistic" readings of the "Aeneid" in early modern culture ( )
1 edition published in 2008 in English and held by 3 libraries worldwide
Aeneas (Legendary character) Aeneis (Virgil) Agriculture Art appreciation Authors and readers Bibliography Bibliography--Catalogs Books and reading Catalogs Civilization Civilization, Classical--Study and teaching Civilization--Roman influences Classical education Classical philology--Study and teaching Classicism Conference proceedings Criticism, interpretation, etc. Didactic poetry, Latin Early printed books Education Education, Humanistic English literature English literature--Roman influences Epic poetry, Latin Europe Great Britain Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center History Humanists Incunabula Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.) Intellectual life Italy Italy--Venice Latin language, Medieval and modern--Rhetoric Latin literature Latin poetry, Medieval and modern Latin poetry--Appreciation Laudatory poetry, Latin (Medieval and modern) Literature Manuzio family Neoclassicism (Literature) Pastoral poetry, Latin Praise Reader-response criticism Renaissance Rhetoric Rome Sources Virgil
Kallendorf, Craig W.
Kallendorf, Craig W., 1954-
Kallendorf, Craig William 1954- | <urn:uuid:afc18ae7-c9f6-4ccc-9054-312bf5f622ce> | {
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Years ago, I had the privilege of rubbing eyeballs with royalty. Flanked by an impressive retinue of distinguished figure heads, the curly-haired king stood before a hushed audience at my university and delivered a cultural manifesto on the artist’s role in creating the juxtaposition of political and religious imagery to benefit and protect society.
But I was more interested in that king’s shoes.
Because they didn’t appear to touch the ground. They hovered like flattened, almost cartoonish, alligator heads, and they obliged me to reevaluate my sense of space and time.
Indeed, my first meeting with King Justinian during an art history course served as a befuddling introduction into the realm of Byzantine abstraction. Why did his feet hang down like a dead man’s? Why did his legs take up so much space, creating a royal disturbance of proportion? And why had someone chosen to gift-wrap someone’s head with a golden halo? Seriously. What happened to the taut, rippling muscles of the classical tradition?
Had art really allowed itself to atrophy into a two-dimensional space? Why? Was something wrong in the kingdom?
And yet, Justinian has managed to stand there, for 2, 500 years, as a brilliant mosaic, reflecting the medieval light of a larger culture inside the sacred space of San Vitale. Each tesserae was hammered into place, with purpose, and each angle still points toward some deeper definition, which can only be fully pondered within the mysterious glow of the cathedral.
Using millions of pieces of glass, the artists made sure each one mattered and belonged to a larger idea.
This Smarthistory video about “Justinian and His Attendants” provides a brief overview of how a mosaic of thought can change the way we see the world. It adds some proof that some of the world’s most intriguing and breathtaking visions can be arranged, piece by piece, by a culture of artists who work together to explore the juxtaposition of our disparate perspectives.
Let’s Build July Mosaics!
All month long we’re arranging poems at Tweetspeak. We call it July Mosaics. We write found poems and share them on Facebook, Twitter and personal blogs, though we always link back to here. Last week we wrote poems by using words from “Democracy” by Todd Davis. In the poem, we watch as “more than five hundred juncos” form a shifting mosaic of thought, inviting us to
“wonder at the way everything
changes, on account of one bird’s decision,
all of us avoiding what we thought
was a certain end.”
Maureen Doallas couldn’t avoid playing with the pattern. She wrote,
The Awful Avoiding
This is about more
than the motion
of the hand itself,
the way it comes
winging at everything,
gathering the storm
in our direction. One
of us changes
the other. The way
the light tips and shifts
would have no meaning
without the awful avoiding.
Rosanne Osborne watched the pattern move from another point of view. She wrote,
Flocks of juncos in flight
like synchronized swimmers
account for space, wing tips
and beaks in perfect symmetry.
Connected but not connected,
invisible threads bring meaning
to motion, avoidance without thought.
Cooperation beyond decision,
decision beyond wonder,
the awful reality that certainty
hangs on meaning that heads
cannot comprehend. When
Robert Penn Warren’s Jack Burden
bit into a persimmon, on a hot day
in Louisiana, a Tibetan tinker’s teeth
were set on edge a world away.
How Do I Build July Mosaics?
If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to Every Day Poems.
1. On Mondays, the Every Day Poem in your inbox becomes a pile of raw material. Sort through the words and find a few gems. Rearrange as many as you want into a new found poem. You’re free to mix in your own words.
2. Tweet your poems to us. Add a #tsmosaics hashtag so we can find it and maybe share it with the world.
3. Or leave your found poem here in the comment box.
We’ll read your tweets and share some of your weekly play each week. At the end of the month, we’ll choose a winning poem and ask the playful poet to record his or her poem to be featured in one of our upcoming Weekly Top 10 Poetic Picks.
Here’s today’s Every Day Poem. Now go play with some juxtaposition.
Buy a year of Every Day Poems, just $2.99— Read a poem a day, become a better poet. In July we’re exploring the theme The Cento. | <urn:uuid:85a340c0-38b9-42d8-ba34-2c3bf9f3953c> | {
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Pumped-up radio telescope seeks new moniker
Public help sought for unimaginative boffins
The prosaically named Very Large Array radio-telescope installation is getting a substantial upgrade – and the boffins who tend it have decided that it needs a new name to go with its formidable facelift.
The Very Large Array – or VLA, for short – is a group of 27 radio antennas located in the desert about 50 miles west of Socorro, New Mexico, operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).
The VLA is VL, indeed. Each antenna is 25 meters in diameter, and weighs approximately 230 tons. The array operates as an interferometer, effectively increasing each dishes resolving power through the interactions of the antennas, which can be moved into different configurations ranging from tightly packed to as far as 13 miles from the center of the three-spoke setup.
The first antenna was installed in 1975, and the complex as a whole was dedicated in 1980. Since that time, of course, massive changes in computing and electronics have made the VLA's original equipment somewhat quaint, to put it kindly.
An upgrade was clearly needed, and a two-phase project was proposed. Phase I, the "Ultrasensitive Array" (PDF), focused on the upgrading the capabilities of the existing array's infrastucture. Substantial components of the new equipment was fired up this March, with the full panoply expected to be up and running next year.
If, by the way, you're concerned about the competition – or, for that matter, duplicative efforts and funding – of the upgraded VLA with NRAO's immense ALMA telescope now coming online in Chile's Atacama desert, there's nothing to worry about. ALMA will only cover the frequency range between 30 and 950 gigahertz, "where thermal emission processes are dominant", the NRAO explains, while the upgraded VLA will cover the frequencies between 1 and 50 gigahertz.
A proposed Phase II, originally dubbed the "New Mexico Array", would add ten more dishes, some as far away from the core cluster as 350 kilometers, thus greatly increasing the array's resolution. Funding for Phase II is still up in the air.
But even with the $98m Phase I being the only upgrade, the capabilities of the VLA are greatly increased, with bandwith being 80 times greater, spectral resolution improved by a factor of over 1,600 times, and a vast – ahem – array of other enhancements.
Such improvements are transforming the VLA into an entirely new instrument, even though it's based on the same physical infrastructure. A new instrument needs a new name, and – boffins being boffins – the upgrade was to be named the Expanded Very Large Array.
Some bright light at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, however, apparently decided that it might be time for a entirely new name, one with a bit more pizzazz – and, not incidentally, one which might bring a bit more love and funding to the installation.
And so the public at large is now requested to submit suggestions, with the winner to be announced on January 10, 2012. "You may," the NRAO helpfully instructs, "enter a free-form name, or a word or phrase to come as a prefix before 'Very Large Array,' or both."
We can only assume that Reg readers can come up with something snappier than Expanded Very Large Array. Don't dawdle, though: "Entries will be accepted until 23:59 EST on December 1, 2011," the NRAO release notes with scientific precision. ®
It might also be time for the folks at the European Southern observatory to poll their fans for a new, less thud-like name for the European Extremely Large Telescope.
Sponsored: Today’s most dangerous security threats | <urn:uuid:86224873-930e-49d8-83fe-1f0bd6a2799c> | {
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EPA Announces Finalists for Gulf of Mexico Improvement Grants
Total of $3.7 million available to help reduce pollutants in the Gulf’s oxygen-depleted zone
A total of $3.7 million is available to help selected organizations reduce pollutants that contribute to the oxygen-depleted zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The 10 finalists will support agricultural conservation measures, restore wetlands and riverbanks, monitor water quality and create a variety of innovative, market-based programs to improve water quality.
"This seed money will grow innovative, cost-effective solutions to speed up the cleanup of impaired watersheds in the Mississippi River Watershed and cut the size of the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Benjamin H. Grumbles, EPA’s assistant administrator for water.
These projects under the EPA’s Targeted Watersheds Grants Program will reduce the sources of pollutants, including runoff from developed land, soil erosion, agricultural fertilizers, and sewage and industrial discharges. Parts or all of 31 states drain into the watershed that flows into the Gulf of Mexico.
The organizations are:
• Conservation Technology and Information Center (West Lafayette, Ind.) for the Wabash River Watershed;
• Electric Power Research Institute (Palo Alto, Calif.) for the Ohio River Basin;
• Iowa State University (Ames, Iowa) for the Raccoon River Watershed, Walnut Creek Watershed and Boone River Watershed;
• The Miami Conservancy District (Dayton, Ohio) for the Great Miami River Watershed;
• The Nature Conservancy (Nashville, Tenn.) for the Lower Hatchie River Watershed, Loosahatchie River Watershed and Wolf River Watershed;
• The Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio) for the Upper Scioto Watershed;
• The Wetlands Initiative (Chicago) for the Lower Illinois River-Lake Senachwine Watershed;
• University of Kentucky (Lexington, Ky.) for the Green River Watershed and Kentucky River Watershed;
• West Virginia University (Morgantown, W. Va.) for the Kanawha River Watershed; and
• World Resource Institute (Washington, D.C.) for the Ohio River Basin, Upper Mississippi River Basin and Lower Mississippi River Basin
Since its establishment in 2002, EPA’s Targeted Watersheds Grant Program has encouraged successful community-based approaches to protect and restore the nation's watersheds. Watershed health is important to providing clean, safe water where Americans live, work and play. To date, more than $55 million has been provided through targeted watersheds grants.
More information on EPA’s Targeted Watersheds Grant Program is available at: www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/trading/twg/.
More Like This
- Stream Size Major Factor in Nitrogen Reaching Gulf of Mexico
- Action Plan to Reduce Nutrients to Mississippi River Released
- Bush Administration Commits $15 Million to Protect and Restore America's Watersheds
- States Develop Strategies to Reduce Nutrient Levels in Mississippi River & Gulf of Mexico
- Public Can Comment on Plan to Protect Mississippi River | <urn:uuid:056309fb-32f2-42d6-9bc6-b8494c9ed413> | {
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Characters: Pyramus and Thisbe (Protagonist) , Parents of Thisbe and Pyramus (Antagonist) Internal Conflict:Thisbe and Pyramus want to be with each other External Conflict:Man vs. nature, Man vs. Man Setting: Babylonia, Ancient times, Night time
Falling Action/ Resolution
Inciting Incident: They were forbidden love for each other due to their parents history. Rising Action: 1) Pyramus and Thisbe fund a crack between their house as an only way for communication. 2)They meet up at their spot and plan to meet at the Ninus. 3)Thisbe arrives and notices a lioness and fled the scene dropping her bloody veil. 4) Pyramus arrives and sees the bloody veil.
Symbolism/ Dramatic Irony
Pyramus assumes Thisbe was killed by the lioness. So, he kills himself.
After fleeing the accident, she arrives back from the cave and sees Pyramus hopeless body.Thisbe then kills herself. Resolution: There parents bury them together
Dramatic Irony: The readers knew Tisbe escaped the lioness, and was still alive. Symbolism: The wall that they communicate through in the beginning of the story represents separation. | <urn:uuid:41c01e8b-c821-4f11-b647-cbc6f2586e11> | {
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Contesting water injustice: The Santa Cruz declaration on the global water crisis
August 26th, 2014
Prof. Ben Crow, University of California Santa Cruz, United States
In this paper, I argue that inequality and injustice in water access, use and control should be matters of collective concern. There is recognition in most societies that stark inequalities in wealth and income require public action. So it should be with access to water, particularly in the global South. Why? There are three main reasons.
First, water is implicated in the making of wealth and poverty. For example, control over water to irrigate agricultural crops increases farm output and raises land values enabling some farmers to accumulate wealth. At the same time, lack of control over water may edge other farmers onto a slope leading to dispossession and deprivation.1,2,3
Second, water, and the institutions built around water are pivotal in the making of society, its achievements, inequalities and exclusions.4,5,6
Third, a wide range of human capabilities and freedoms arise from the utilisation of water. Easier access to domestic water frees women and children from the drudgery of collecting water to attend school, start small enterprises, undertake more effective domestic work and enjoy leisure.7,8 Statistician Hans Rosling has described how the Magic Washing Machine freed his Swedish grandmother, and many others, to read books and do many things.9 Easy access to domestic water is a prerequisite for such labor saving devices, and provides a valuable set of freedoms even before washing machines are widely feasible.
A focus on water inequality and injustice may illuminate new opportunities – spaces, pathways, collective actions – to address deprivation and exclusion. The Santa Cruz Declaration on the Global Water Crisis10 seeks to focus global attention and concern beyond simple or technocratic notions of scarcity towards consideration of the water inequalities that constrain the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of poor people. The Declaration drew upon the work of participants in a U.S. National Science Foundation-supported workshop on Equitable Water Governance held at the University of California Santa Cruz in February 2013. Comments, both critical and constructive, from a range of prominent water researchers and practitioners were published with the Declaration.
The re-framing of water scarcity or deprivation as a problem of justice highlights and supports possibilities for action ‘from below’ in addition to common top down initiatives of international agencies and national governments.11 The approach of contesting water injustice differs from the promotion of a human right to water in both its goals and its origins. The human right is conceptualised as a universal set of water goals and it is promulgated from above. Water injustice contestation emerges from popular action and marginalised groups locally determine its goals. The two approaches may, nonetheless, be compatible and mutually reinforcing.
In practice, a number of collective actions (briefly described below) taken by marginalised groups of people in coalitions with others have successfully contested water injustices. In addition, there are alliances that support these bottom-up initiatives such as the Water Justice Alliance (Justicia Hídrica); the Latin American Water Tribunal; and the Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India.
The Declaration suggests that water injustices should be open to arbitration and dialog among all affecting and affected groups. It describes significant processes that lead to injustice in, for example, cases of irrigation and mining in rural areas, injustice in access to household water in urban areas, injustices that result from land-grabbing, and injustices in the management of international rivers. Then, the Declaration proposes a criterion for water justice, “water justice can be conceived as equitable or comparable access for particular water uses and deliberated fairness between uses”.F1
This criterion suggests, for example, that large disparities in household water access across a city could be examined to establish equitable water access. Thus, the conditions of access in a fully serviced residential area could be contrasted with those in for example a shanty town or other informal settlements. From a justice perspective, conditions of access refer to the time, cost and labor to obtain adequate water. Large disparities in these conditions could be subject to some form of adjudication, by the law, government or citizen action. A deliberative process involving just representation to ensure comparable water access across a city, town, village or region is an example of what is meant by equitable or comparable access for particular water uses.
Between water uses, such as agricultural irrigation demands and urban demands, the criterion for justice is less obvious. Here, the Declaration suggests that deliberated fairness should be sought. To do this, informed discussion is required to establish a fair division of water in light of national and local goals. Here, too, adjudication is required. Fairness between agriculture and urban interests, for example, requires a deliberative democracy involving a wide set of social groups. This informed dialog should enable less powerful groups (poor farmers, agricultural labor, industrial workers, women’s groups, community groups and others) to voice their concerns and have them acted upon by the more powerful groups (industry and large farmers).
Even in the advanced industrial world, examples of fair or just deliberation processes are rare. In the current drought in California, for example, there is no forum in which the competing stakes of urban and agricultural water users for scarce water can be given appropriate consideration. Courts, water districts, and the legislature stumble through an uneven political and institutional field, shaped by incomplete information and established and competing power relationships. Public institutions seem unable, for example, to regulate and monitor the water flowing to big farms. Such users, with rarely challenged historical water rights, have a powerful voice in courts, districts and the legislature.
There is, nonetheless, a growing body of cases that illustrate the successful contestation of water inequity. In the Andes, peasant and indigenous struggles for water have arisen mostly in rural areas, but with connection to urban water concerns. There are also cases in urban and rural India where mass protest and everyday resistance are beginning to bring some measure of justice.
Ecuador, irrigation and household water: A federation of 320 indigenous water user collectives protested against corruption, discrimination and arbitrary action in provision of water to their fields and households. Protracted action, documentation and protest led to the removal of the Director of the Ecuadorian water agency. Then, with oversight by the federation, a new director was appointed, other staff were replaced, and new transparent agency procedures visible to all users were established. Boelens et al. report that popular involvement in governance led to a drastic reduction in discrimination.12
Andes, mining: Large federations and confederations of peasant and indigenous groups in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia have successfully challenged mining-induced water injustice. In the case of Peru, the Ombudsman, (Defensoria del Pueblo) has adjudicated water justice claims, and Bebbington et al. note that there is a, “vital role [for] competent, autonomous and legitimate public institutions”. While pressure from below generated demands and proposals for redistribution, changing the institutions and practices of water allocation required collaboration with national and international conservation groups able to leverage change from their proximity to governmental power.13
India, rural: Over the last two decades, tens of thousands of people have been mobilised in a ‘water struggle movement’ led by the Landless Labourers and Toiling Peasants Organisation (SKSS) in southern Maharashtra. Amongst several achievements, the movement has influenced the state government to redesign and reassign water distribution from the large Tembhu lift irrigation scheme so that a much larger number of poor households in three Talukas can receive water.14,15
India, urban: Action for water justice in urban areas may often take hidden or unrecognised forms. The ‘informal sector’ of small scale water supply in cities across the global South contains intricate networks of illicit water connections and unregulated systems of water trading. The construction and operation of these networks can be seen as resistance against and adaptation to water injustice. Careful ethnographic studies in Bangalore and Mumbai have illuminated forms of insurgent action on water supply in those cities. In Bangalore, payments by the ‘peripheralised middle class’ to install piped water connections enables users with little power to bargain for greater political recognition and citizen rights.16
Recognition of low-income user’s rights may give more leverage for political action and investment. Settlers on the outskirts of Mumbai are able to improve their water supplies and obtain some improved citizenship rights through organising and voicing consistent demands on municipal and private engineers and councillors. This in turn increases the chances that water arrives on ‘time’ and with adequate ‘pressure’.17 However, Muslim settlers in adjacent areas deal with poor water access and quality in dismal living conditions due to, “the deliberate inaction of city engineers and technocrats”.18
The Santa Cruz Declaration seeks to open dialogue, and facilitate support for, new forms of collective action on a range of water deprivations and injustices. Re-framing a lack of access to, and control over, water as an injustice illuminates new terrain to recognize and understand emerging forms of popular action. The Declaration also highlights the need for transparent and legitimate forms of arbitration, representation, and deliberation, and the importance of support from national and international agencies and researchers.
In Ecuador, documenting discrimination was a key step in building the momentum and legitimacy of legal and popular action for change. In Peru, the existence of an autonomous public Ombudsman enabled water injustice to be challenged by marginalized groups. Across the Andes, popular movements often depend on the support of national and international agencies. In, India, the role of committed researchers and the construction of ‘multi-stakeholder’ coalitions has often been key to success.19
The Declaration recognises that
“ contemporary water allocations have come about through long, winding, co-evolutionary processes consisting of interactions between different actors, technologies and institutions in relation to overlapping land and wildlife management practices that can be occurring at the same time and place but carried out by different stakeholders, under different governance regimes, and assigned to different institutions…”
These long winding co-evolutionary processes help to explain historic, national and everyday forms of power that make and sustain water injustice. To redress the deprivation and water injustices that marginalised people face, the Declaration seeks to encourage policy dialog, organised local action, multi-scalar mobilisations, academic research, and engaged journalism to support grassroots action for water justice.
F1. Veena Srinivasan suggested this formulation drawing on Lele et al.20, see also Joy et al.21
- Hussain, I. and M. A. Hanjra (2004). Irrigation and poverty alleviation: a review of the evidence. Irrig. and Drain. 53: 1-15 (2004).
- Namara, R. E., et al. (2010). Agricultural water management and poverty linkages. Agricultural Water Management 97 (2010) 520-527.
- Crow, Ben and Brent Swallow (forthcoming). Water and poverty: pathways of escape and descent. In Oxford Handbook on Water Politics, Ken Conca and Erika Weinthal, editors. Oxford University Press.
- Brown, F. L. and H. M. Ingram (1987). Water and Poverty in the Southwest: Conflict, Opportunity, and Challenge, Arizona: University of Arizona Press.
- Gandy, M. (2002). Concrete and Clay: Reworking Nature in New York City. Cambridge, MA, MIT.
- Molle, F., et al. (2009). “Hydraulic bureaucracies and the hydraulic mission: Flows of water, flows of power.” Water Alternatives 2(3): 328?349.
- Mehta, L. (2014). “Water and human development.” World Development, Vol. 59, pp. 59-69, 2014.
- Goff, Matt and Ben Crow (2014) What is water equity? The unfortunate consequences of a global focus on ‘drinking water’. Water International v 39, issue 2.
- Rosling, H. (2011) The magic washing machine. Talk to the Technology Entertainment and Design conference. http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_and_the_magic_washing_machine.
- Santa Cruz Declaration on the Global Water Crisis (2014). Water International, 39:2, 246-261. And at this website: http://www2.ucsc.edu/scdeclaration
- Zwarteveen, M. and R. Boelens (2014). “Defining, researching and struggling for water justice: some conceptual building blocks for research and action.” Water International 39:2, 143-158, DOI: 10.1080/02508060.2014.891168.
- Boelens, R., et al. (2013). “Water reform governmentality in Ecuador: Neoliberalism, centralization, and the restraining of polycentric authority and community rule-making.” Geoforum.
- Bebbington, A., et al. (2010). Federating and Defending: Water, Territory and Extraction in the Andes. Out of the Mainstream: water rights, politics and identify. R. Boelens, D. Getches and A. Guevara-Gil (eds). London and Washington DC, Earthscan.
- Phadke Anant and Bharat Patankar, 2006, “Asserting the rights of the toiling peasantry for water use: The movement of the dam oustees and the drought-affected toilers of South Maharashtra”, in Mollinga Peter P., Ajaya Dixit, Kusum Athukorala (eds.), Integrated Water Resources Management: Global Theory, Emerging Practice and Local Needs, Sage, pp: 352-388.
- Joy K. J. and Seema Kulkarni, 2010, Engaging with the Changing Water Policy Discourse in Maharashtra,, Globalisation Governance Grassroots Series No. 12, National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), Pune.
- Ranganathan, M. (2014). “‘Paying for Pipes, Claiming Citizenship: Political Agency and Water Reforms at the Urban Periphery’.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Volume 38.2 590-60
- Anand, N. (2011). “Pressure: The PoliTechnics of Water Supply in Mumbai.” Cultural Anthropology 26(4): 542-564
- Anand, N. (2012). “Municipal disconnect: On abject water and its urban infrastructures.” Ethnography, vol. 13 no. 4 487-509.
- Joy, K. and S. Paranjape (nd). Understanding water conflicts in South Asia. Ms posted at SaciWaters: URL. Accessed 7/31/1
- Lele, S., Srinivasan, V., Jamwal, P., Thomas, B., Eswar, M., & Zuhail, T. (2013). Water management in Arkavathy basin: A situation analysis. Environment and Development
- Joy, K. J., et al. (2012). “Re-politicizing water governance: exploring water re-allocations in terms of justice.” Local Environment.
Ben Crow is professor of sociology at the university of California Santa Cruz. He has published several books, including “Sharing the Ganges: The Politics and Technology of River Development” and “The Atlas of Global Inequalities”. He first trained as a civil engineer before becoming a social scientist and now teaches about international development and social change. He is currently studying how water collection affects social life in urban informal settlements in Kenya. Ben wishes to acknowledge the way that Rutgerd Boelens, Margreet Zwarteveen, KJ Joy, Jaime Hoogesteger and Andres Verzijl pointed me toward work describing successful actions contesting water injustice. Ben also acknowledges the work of the authors and signatories of the 2014 Santa Cruz Declaration and participants in the 2013 Equitable Water Governance Workshop at UCSC.
The views expressed in this article belong to the individual authors and do not represent the views of the Global Water Forum, the UNESCO Chair in Water Economics and Transboundary Water Governance, UNESCO, the Australian National University, or any of the institutions to which the authors are associated. Please see the Global Water Forum terms and conditions here. | <urn:uuid:a576a197-9db1-4dff-a308-26add6aab065> | {
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Abraham Lincoln (18091865). Political Debates Between Lincoln and Douglas 1897.
not for or about States. Certainly the people of a State are and ought to be subject to the Constitution of the United States; but why is mention of this lugged into this merely Territorial law? Why are the people of a Territory and the people of a State therein lumped together, and their relation to the Constitution therein treated as being precisely the same? While the opinion of the court, by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott case, and the separate opinions of all the concurring Judges, expressly declare that the Constitution of the United States neither permits Congress nor a Territorial Legislature to exclude slavery from any United States Territory, they all omit to declare whether or not the same Constitution permits a State, or the people of a State, to exclude it. Possibly, this is a mere omission; but who can be quite sure, if McLean or Curtis had sought to get into the opinion a declaration of unlimited power in the people of a State to exclude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Mace sought to get such declaration, in behalf of the people of a Territory, into the Nebraska bill,I ask, who can be quite sure that it would not have been voted down in the one case as it had been in the other? The nearest approach to the point of declaring the power of a State over slavery, is made by Judge Nelson. He approaches it more than once, using the precise idea, and almost the language, too, of the Nebraska act. On one occasion, his exact language is, Except in cases where the power is restrained by the Constitution of the United States, the law of the State is supreme over the subject of slavery within its jurisdiction. In what cases the power of the States is so restrained by the United States Constitution, is left an open question, precisely as the same question, as to the restraint on the power of the Territories, was left open in the Nebraska act. Put this and that together, and we have another nice little niche, which we may, ere long, see filled with another Supreme Court decision, declaring that the Constitution of the United States does not permit a State to exclude slavery from its limits. And this may especially be expected if the doctrine of care not whether slavery be voted down or voted up shall gain upon the public mind sufficiently | <urn:uuid:9867ae6b-6015-4e52-9782-7e286593cb2c> | {
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