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BOLTON LANDING >> Some of the most sophisticated technology in our universe is helping save one of the most beautiful lakes on the planet.
Crews from Portsmouth, N.H.-based Substructure Inc. have finished mapping the bottom of Lake George and its surrounding watershed, setting the stage for a high-tech monitoring system designed to counteract forces that threaten its water quality such as road salt, stormwater runoff and invasive species.
The multi-million dollar effort, called the Jefferson Project, involves satellites 11,000 miles in space and a computerized modeling instrument so sensitive that it must be registered with the U.S. State Department and Department of Defense.
“Our role in this is converting the science into solutions and sharing information with anybody involved with the fate of Lake George,” said Eric Siy, The Fund for Lake George executive director. “This is an historic lab. This is a prototype for what it’s going to take to protect water quality for future generations. If we can do it here, we can do it anywhere.”
The Fund is partnering with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and IBM, whose global research arm is currently pursuing similar projects with wave energy and hydrological studies in Ireland and Brazil, respectively. The Lake George initiative is called the Jefferson Project in tribute to Thomas Jefferson, who once described it as the most beautiful body of water he’d ever seen.
Today, however, the lake is faced with many challenges, including aging septic systems, five invasive species and 29,000 tons of sand and 9,000 tons of salt typically used on area roads per year. Sand and stormwater runoff from the Northway contribute to tributary delta deposits, which provide habitat for nuisance marine life such as Asian clams.
This year, the Lake George Park Commission approved a mandatory boat inspection system for all vessels putting into the lake. Shutting the door to new invasive species and treating known spots where they already exist will hopefully eliminate or at least dramatically reduce their presence.
In addition to its ecological value, protecting Lake George makes financial sense, too, said Siy. As a major Northeast tourist destination, it supports thousands of jobs and is an economic engine for the entire Adirondack region, he said.
The challenge for Siy and others concerned about water quality is convincing elected officials and policy-makers to adopt measures that will protect Lake George.
The work completed began in November and was resumed in late April after halting for winter when the lake froze over. Researchers using aerial- and boat-based instruments created a colorful high-resolution map and images of the lake bed and watershed that gives viewers a high-definition look at all underwater geologic features, such as a long flat shelf just off Green Island and a carved river bed in a section of lake called The Narrows, northeast of Bolton.
“There’s extremely active current volumes moving across the bottom, mostly wind driven,” said Tom Reis, Substructure Inc. president.
Equipment is so detailed that it shows the scour lines left on the lake bottom from downrigger balls, used by fishermen for deepwater trolling expeditions. Instruments even detected a four-foot long fish, probably a lake trout or pike.
Later this summer, a series of monitors — attached to buoys — will be placed the entire length of Lake George allowing researchers to track data on such aspects as pollutants and nutrients circulating throughout the water.
Reis has worked on various oceanographic projects throughout the world, including surveys of historic shipwrecks such as the Titanic and Lusitania.
As someone who understands the marine environment’s importance, Reis said he joined the Jefferson Project because he believes it offers solutions to problems confronting the planet. He attributes a variety of health problems, from high cancer rates and the rise in autism, to pollution left behind from industrialization.
“We’ve created an extremely toxic environment,” Reis said. “The problems are big. This is the first attempt I’ve seen to understand and come up with predictive efforts to actually solve the problems.” | <urn:uuid:b588115f-0eb8-4025-ae78-5f8d111850ce> | {
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These are not well known, if only because so few people visit the Royal Exchange today, but they are a notable sequence, which belong to the Victorian history of public art that includes the major Westminster sequence and Madox Brown's efforts in Manchester Town Hall.
The London series relates episodes from the City's history (naturally) with some excursions beyond the walls, including the opening panel (top) of Phoenicians trading in Cornwall by Frederic Leighton, and another featuring Magna Carta at Runnymede.
Two by Stanhope Forbes - citizenry taking to the Thames during the Great Fire, and the gutting of the previous Exchange in 1838 - are worth being seen, both for their shared fiery scenes and for their visually effective compositions for tall works to be viewed from the floor.
I'm not sure of the murals' own history except that they must have been projected in the 1890s and continued through to the 1920s, as the later panels feature the Great War. The list of artists is a roll-call of eminent and now mostly forgotten late Victorians.
More on Kemp Welch's work http://spitalfieldslife.com/
The proposals are for a mezzanine floor halfway up the paintings, obscuring their central sections and frankly making nonsense of the images. A mock-up of the predicted effect below.
Here is where to register an objection. Here is the VicSoc's fully itemised objection, which covers more than just the paintings. And here is the full sequence of images, courtesy SpitalfieldsLife | <urn:uuid:44c31b32-060d-408b-8961-475874d1e276> | {
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No one would want to make a mistake. However it is an important element of the test in the life of this world. A person is trained by making mistakes in various matters and, most of time, this is the only way he can decide not to repeat these mistakes.
Since making mistakes is a part of being human, one should think about this point more comprehensively and prepare himself for this: "How should one put a stop to his mistake when he makes one?", "How can a man take refuge in Allah from a mistake he made and ask for forgiveness from Allah?", "What is the extent of feeling remorse after a mistake according to the Qur'an?", "Is there a reason for a man making a mistake to feel guilty?", "Should a man forget his mistake after correcting it, or should he be feeling lowly for it continuously?", "How should a man take precautions in order to avoid the repetition of a mistake?", "How should the amends of a mistake be?"
Allah had provided people the absolute responses to all these questions in the Qur'an. Consequently when one makes a mistake, he should define the way to evaluate that matter for the rest of his life, according to the Qur'an.
‘How should one put a stop to his mistake when he makes one?
A person who fears Allah, would change his manners the minute he is reminded with the correction of a mistake he made, without taking it as a matter of pride. This is one of the most important signs of a Muslim. If he pleads ignorance even though he understands, if he procrastinates the correction of that mistake knowingly, this would make him look like a doubtable person. That is because the fear of Allah would not let a person continue a misdeed knowingly. Such a person would not get into calculations regarding other people by asking "what would people think?", " would I be humiliated?", "would I be acknowledging my mistake if I change my attitude instantly?", "willI this harm my dignity towards other people?", "would it harm my pride if I do that". He only considers his position in the Sight of Allah. He quits his mistake happily knowing that he is behaving in a manner Allah would approve.
That is all that putting a stop to a mistake consists of. There is nothing complex about it. There is no need to extend it to long days, weeks. No matter how big a mistake can be, with that person deciding to quit it, with him starting to act the way Allah would approve -by the leave of Allah- that mistake would disappear.
Those who, when they act indecently or wrong themselves, remember Allah and ask forgiveness for their bad actions (and who can forgive bad actions except Allah?) and do not knowingly persist in what they were doing. (Surat Al'Imran: 135)
"How can a man take refuge in Allah from a mistake he made and ask for forgiveness from Allah?"
Allah reveals in the Qur'an that His sincere servants would attain salvation (Surat al-Hijr: 40) For that reason when one makes a mistake, the only thing that would draw him close to Allah would be sincerity. He would understand the mistake he made and feel the profound remorse to the extent he turns towards Allah with a pure, sincere and honest heart. If that mistake he made was instrumental in him getting a better grasp on his weakness in the Presence of Allah and his neediness towards Allah, that would also be an indication to that person's sincerity. If he is feeling a respectful fear towards Allah because of the mistake he made, if he is afraid of being held responsible from that manner in the Day of Judgment, if he humbly takes refuge in the Grace and Forgiveness of Allah, that means that person's morality is–by the leave of Allah- in compliance with the morality of the Qur'an. Such a person would beg Allah with all his heart and soul to accept his repentance and to forgive him. He would give a very sincere promise to Allah not to repeat the same mistake ever again.
But if anyone makes tawba after his wrongdoing and puts things right, Allah will turn towards him. Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat Al-Ma'ida:39)
Except for those who make tawba and put things right and make things clear. I turn towards them. I am the Ever-Returning, the Most Merciful. (Surat Al-Baqara:160)
But as for those who do evil actions and then subsequently make tawba and have iman, in that case your Lord is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat Al-A'raf: 153)
"What is the extent of feeling remorse after a mistake according to the Qur'an?"
"Is there a reason for a man making a mistake to feel guilty?"
"Should a man forget his mistake after correcting it, or should he be feeling lowly for it continuously?"
The disturbance people who do not believe feel and the disturbance Muslims fearing Allah feel in the face of a mistake made, are very different. When some people who do not believe make a mistake they continue their lives in indifference without even thinking a second on it. They neither have the need to feel regret towards Allah, nor a desire to make amends, nor do they wish to quit that mistake, nor feel the need to take precautions to avoid repetition.
Muslims on the other hand posses a very sensitive conscience. Even the smallest act that does not comply with their conscience would cause them to feel an immense spiritual disturbance about this situation. Because they respectfully fear Allah, they feel severely worried about the possibility of doing something Allah would not approve. However they leave this disturbance and worry behind again by taking shelter in Allah and by acting by the morality of the Qur'an. They do not get into a psychological depression because of their worries like the people of ignorance. They do not get absorbed in sorrow, sadness or despair by evaluating their mistakes with an emotional point of view. Their worries only form a very profound and strong remorse in them. However this is not an "evil", but a "virtuous remorse".
Some people from the society of ignorance think that "remorse" means "a person turning in upon himself, withdrawing from people around him, experiencing an endless feeling of guilt, getting in depression and feeling the pain of this mistake continuously for the rest of his life". That is how "evil remorse" would be. And what is more the mentioned mistake would not be changed following that remorse. Such people only suffer the angst of remorse based on ascribing partners to Allah.
Muslims on the other hand, attain a very superior sincerity- by the leave of Allah- along with that profound remorse they feel and get even closer to Allah, they pray to Allah more profoundly. Their fervor of faith, their determination in living by the morality of Qur'an, their devotion to Allah, their belief in the Hereafter, their fear from Allah increase even more. They make sincere decisions to become much better in every point and thus gain fervor and energy to endeavor much more.
Since the people of ignorance do not think that everything is created by Allah and since they do not have faith in destiny, they cannot free themselves from the feeling of regret and guilt until the end of their lives. Dwelling on assumptions like "Had I not done this, these would not be happening today", "Had that person not done that to me, I would have been in a very different situation right now", which would do no good for their current situation, they continuously feel sad.
Muslims take a lesson from all their mistakes. They as well think that "they would never have thought the way they did, or act the way they did if they had the wisdom they have now," but they never forget the fact that all those incidents have happened because Allah wished for them to happen and because it was determined to be so in their destiny. They are well aware of the fact that even if they had turned back to that date, time and time again, everything would have happened the very same way every time.
Consequently there is no "ascribing partners to Allah" in the way Muslims feel remorse. They never forget that everything have happened the way they did because it was all in destiny while they see and admit their mistakes. For that reason they do not live all their lives "feeling a guilt that they can't free themselves from" like the people of ignorance. The remorse they feel is not based on logics like "How did I do that?", "I wish I hadn't done that" which do not stem from the Qur'an. They are aware that everything have happened they way they did because Allah willed so. Even if they have made the biggest mistakes, even if they have caused the biggest damage, they know that all those have been created by Allah and were all in destiny and that there is good and wisdom in every one of them. For that reason they do not spend their remaining lives feeling guilty and low after that mistake. Knowing that they are sincere about their feelings, they endeavor continuously to do the best that they can do, by fearing Allah and hoping for His Mercy.
Of course they do not forget the mistakes they have made. But this does not stem from their not being able to forget. As the requisite of their faith and fear of Allah, their mistakes are instrumental for Muslims to become much better. That is the reason why Muslims do not forget their mistakes. May be they will make another mistake about the same matter once more but they will avoid acting in a similar manner by keeping that mistake in their minds until the end of their lives and making use of the lesson they have taken from that incident.
Since the people of ignorance cannot feel resigned, since they do not believe in destiny and in Allah creating everything auspiciously, even if they wanted to forget their mistakes they can't. Under the influence of that mistake they always feel that guilt and frustration until the end of their lives.
He who has purified himself will have success (Surat Al-A’la Suresi: 14)
and also towards the three who were left behind, so that when the earth became narrow for them, for all its great breadth, and their own selves became constricted for them and they realised that there was no refuge from Allah except in Him, He turned to them so that they might turn to Him. Allah is the Ever-Returning, the Most Merciful. (Surat At-Tawba: 118)
"How should a man take precautions in order to avoid the repetition of a mistake?"
Allah had given man intellect, conscience, will and judgment power. The doors to such attributes are opened completely to every sincere person. A person who believes sincerely, who respectfully fears Allah, after a mistake he made, sees and perceives his inadequate and flawed attitudes through his wisdom and conscience. He shows an immense meticulousness about this subject with his will and strength stemming from his fear from Allah. He tries to do the best in can in every incident that he lives through and tries to live by the morality most compliant with the Qur'an. He becomes very determined to avoid an attitude that Allah would not approve. He instantly listens to the warnings of his conscience. He takes refuge in Allah and avoid acting in a manner that he knows would not comply with the Qur'an.
Such a person would not only take a lesson from mistakes he has done in the past, but he also uses his intellect and conscience and thinks about the possible mistakes he might make and makes prior evaluations. He reviews his lower self in that respect; determines the points that he falls short of and tries to train himself beforehand about such matters. He draws lessons from the experiences, mistakes, warnings of people around him. He makes good analysis about people's good, bad, nice and flawed sides and checks himself for those mistakes he notices before he falls into that mistakes and corrects them. He learns about the flaws that exist in everyone's lower self as revealed in the verses of the Qur'an. He determines the solutions to such mistakes from the Qur'an and trains himself accordingly.
Especially if he determines a problem in his lower self on a specific matter; for instance if he feels that his lower self is undisciplined about a certain point, then he conducts an "expert study" on it. For instance if the incompetence he determines in his lower self is about pride, he behaves in a manner to deflate his pride until he becomes sincerely convinced that he had trained his lower self sufficiently. If he feels that he has a tendency towards anger, he tries continuously to assume a humble, tolerant, moderate and forgiving attitude. If he thinks he is prone to jealousy, he would always assume an attitude that would give the priority to others, honor others and give them prominence.
If a person is striving to train himself with such a sincere effort, by the leave of Allah, our Lord will give him the reward of this sincerity both in this world and in the Hereafter. Allah would help that person against his lower self and He would, hopefully, forgive the mistakes he had done with sincerity insha'Allah.
Allah does not impose on any self any more than it can stand. For it is what it has earned; against it, what it has merited. Our Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or make a mistake! Our Lord, do not place on us a load like the one You placed on those before us! Our Lord, do not place on us a load we have not the strength to bear! And pardon us; and forgive us; and have mercy on us. You are our Master , so help us against the people of the kafirun. (Surat al Baqara: 286)
"How should the amends of a mistake be?"
The best way to amend a mistake is again through "sincerity towards Allah". A person who is sincere towards Allah, by the leave and help of Allah, will be able to amend his manners towards the people around him in the best possible manner as well. This is because Allah would bestow the best means and opportunities for a person who fears Allah, to amend his mistake. His fear of Allah would be evident with a profound light and sincerity in his face. That sincere expression on the face of a Muslim who fears Allah, is enough for the people around him to feel trust and to create love and respect in their hearts towards that person. Consequently the most effective way to amend a mistake is the one a Muslim would attain through his sincerity towards Allah.
Of course a Muslim should continuously nourish this trust, respect and love through good words and attitudes he would adopt and through assuming opposite manners of the mistake he made. He should show the other Muslims that he feels a genuine remorse and that he fears from Allah through manners in compliance with the morality of the Quran.
Those who do good will have the best and more.. (Surah Yunus:26)
Except for those who make tawba and have iman and act rightly: Allah will transform the wrong actions of such people into good – Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful (Surat Al-Furqan:70)
Those are people whose best deeds will be accepted and whose wrong deeds will be overlooked. They are among the Companions of the Garden, in fulfilment of the true promise made to them. (Surat Al-Ahqaf:16)
... Good actions eradicate bad actions. This is a reminder for people who pay heed. (Surah Hud, 114) | <urn:uuid:2a7a6699-b179-43ff-b87c-cac042833729> | {
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New Recommendations Say All Adults Should Be Screened for Depression
According to new recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), every adult should be screened for depression at least once during his or her lifetime.
The guidelines are more extensive than the group’s 2009 suggestions, which called only for screening “when staff-assisted depression care supports are in place.” The 2016 guidelines also say that pregnant and postpartum women should be screened, a completely new addition.
Nancy Byatt, a professor at UMass Medical School and medical director of maternal mental health organization MCPAP for Moms, says encouraging pregnant women and new mothers to get screened could make a significant impact on public health.
“Ensuring that pregnant and postpartum women are emotionally well is critical for our society and future generations,” she says. “Maternal depression has an incredible economic and societal impact.”
Byatt adds that she hopes the new depression screening guidelines—which mirror the goals of MCPAP, a resource providing psychiatric care for pregnant women and new mothers in Massachusetts—will compel insurers to reimburse perinatal depression testing, and help make programs like MCPAP more commonplace. “Getting help is the best thing an expectant mom can do for themselves and their baby,” she says.
The same holds true for anyone suffering from depression. In the recommendations’ accompanying article in JAMA, the USPSTF wrote that early detection of depression improves treatment and outcomes, and noted that testing comes with little to no added risk. The article calls for screening to be implemented by primary care providers or gynecologists, who would then refer at-risk patients to a specialist for treatment.
The severity of depression—and the fact that it affects about 14.8 million American adults—makes across-the-board screening worthwhile, according to the report.
“[Depression] is the leading cause of disability among adults in high-income countries and is associated with increased mortality due to suicide and impaired ability to manage other health issues,” it reads. “Depression has a major effect on quality of life for the patient and affects family members, especially children.” | <urn:uuid:b4b7f23b-7f9e-47ee-9b0b-66a07fc01cbe> | {
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- This photochrome print of the Catherine II monument in St. Petersburg is part of “Views of Architecture and Other Sites Primarily in Poland, Russia, and the Ukraine” from the catalog of the Detroit Publishing Company (1905). Empress Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great, ruled Russia from 1762 to 1796. She was much admired, particularly by the Russian nobility, who benefited from the reforms she instituted. The monument, erected in 1873, stands in a square just off of St. Petersburg’s main thoroughfare, Nevsky Prospekt. It was designed by Mikhail Osipovich Mikeshin (1835–96) and Alexander Mikhailovich Opekushin (1838–1923). As described in Baedeker’s Russia with Teheran, Port Arthur, and Peking (1914), “a base of reddish granite supports a bell-shaped pedestal bearing a figure of the Empress, 13 ft. in height, clad in an ermine mantle, and holding the imperial scepter in her right hand and wreath in her left. Round the pedestal are nine colossal bronze figures of celebrated contemporaries of the Empress.” These “celebrated contemporaries” include General Alexander Suvorov, the politician Prince Potiomkin, Ekaterina Dashkova, the first woman to chair the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the celebrated poet Gavrila Derzhavin.
Detroit Publishing Company, Detroit, Michigan
Type of Item
- 1 photomechanical print : photochrom, color
- The Detroit Photographic Company was launched as a photographic publishing firm in the late 1890s by Detroit businessman and publisher William A. Livingstone, Jr., and photographer and photo-publisher Edwin H. Husher. They obtained exclusive rights to use the Swiss "Photochrom" process for converting black-and-white photographs into color images and printing them by photolithography. This innovative process was applied to the mass production of color postcards, prints, and albums for sale to the American market. The firm became the Detroit Publishing Company in 1905. | <urn:uuid:41c3f8bd-2a5a-4dfc-a330-c74f10212adc> | {
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Growing a Garden Among the Cartridges
Author: Ryan Collins
We all know how important an inspiring school can be for your kids. As part of the ‘Cartridges 4 Planet Ark’ and Officeworks Schools Competition, we asked ‘Why is it important for your school to recycle printer cartridges?’ We have some inspiring responses.
The most popular reasons for recycling focused on reducing waste going to landfill, educating kids about sustainability and producing new products (like rulers and eWood garden beds) from the recycled cartridges. But the eventual winner of the major prize of eWood garden beds to the value of $1,000, plus a $300 Bunnings gift voucher for soil and plants, was Kareela Public School in NSW.
Their winning entry explained that the school recycles everything it can from its networked printers and photocopiers, including cartridges, because the staff and students know that the chemicals contained within them are potentially hazardous to the environment.
“As a school community, we place a high value on recycling,” said School Principal David O’Connell, on behalf of the students. “We know reducing the amount of electronic waste that currently goes into landfill is important as it is the fastest growing form of generated waste. The ability to recover materials used in cartridges is also a great way to reduce our impact on the environment.”
Planet Ark, Officeworks and Close the Loop recently presented the prize to the School Principal in front of students, teachers and parents. The timing couldn’t have been better with the school embarking on a new vegetable garden project where the students themselves get their hands dirty learning how to look after edible plants (and later getting to eat them too).
Thanks to Officeworks, 200 schools also received 50 rulers as part of the competition.
Inspire your staff by teaching them the benefits of recycling and register your workplace for a (free!) ‘Cartridges 4 Planet Ark’ collection box. | <urn:uuid:01d77fa5-7891-48fd-b68b-57840f8d6349> | {
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The English radical individualist philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) distinguished between “rights properly so-called” (such as the rights to life, liberty and property) and “political rights so-called” (such as the right to vote). In his mind the latter were merely an “appliance” or an “instrument” for achieving the former. By 1879 Spencer was convinced that voting was not a very good way to preserve our rights but rather a means to put ourselves “in bondage” to the state:
… the acquirement of so-called political rights is by no means equivalent to the acquirement of rights properly so-called. The one is but an instrumentality for the obtainment and maintenance of the other; and it may or may not be used to achieve those ends. The essential question is–How are rights, properly so-called, to be preserved–defended against aggressors, foreign and domestic? This or that system of government is but a system of appliances. Government by representation is one of these systems of appliances; and the choosing of representatives by the votes of all citizens is one of various ways in which a representative government may be formed. Hence voting being simply a method of creating an appliance for the preservation of rights, the question is whether universal possession of votes conduces to creation of the best appliance for preservation of rights. We have seen above that it does not effectually secure this end; and we shall hereafter see that under existing conditions it is not likely to secure it.
About this Quotation:
In his major work on political philosophy, The Principles of Ethics (1879), Herbert Spencer makes a clear distinction between our fundamental rights (or rights properly understood) to such things as life, liberty, and property, and other derivative or instrumental “rights” (or “so-called rights”) which were used to create political structures or “appliances” designed to protect and guarantee those fundamental rights. Voting and representative governments were thus in his view such rights protecting “appliances.” Unfortunately, the way in which voting and representative governments had evolved in Britain, France, and the United States by 1880 had shown that they were fast losing their original purpose of protecting rights and were becoming new forms of statism designed to violate the rights of the many for the benefit of a ruling few. Spencer particularly mentioned the U.S. in this regard with its corruption of local government by “wirepullers” and political “bosses,” the enacting of “blue laws”, and the imposition of tariffs. | <urn:uuid:71ded177-cbff-4d2a-95e5-0f8ce891fe9f> | {
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Welcome to Nervous System. I am a neurobiologist, so this is my favorite unit in the HumBio curriculum. The subject of this unit, the nervous system, is of great interest to students. When students are asked what part of the body they would like to learn about, the most common answer is “the brain”. This is not so surprising considering as is pointed out in this unit, that your brain is you, Your brain defines who you are, what you know, how you behave, and what you think. If it were medically possible, you could imagine transplanting any part of your body except your brain and still be you. But, if you received a brain transplant, you would be the person who donated the brain. Isn't that an interesting thought? The human brain is the most complex matter in the known universe, so it is fascinating to scientists as well as to your students. Knowledge about the brain is expanding rapidly. Almost daily there are articles in the popular press reporting new discoveries about the brain and nervous system. After completing this unit, your students will be able to read and understand any of these articles.
Neurobiology can get complex fast, but I don't think you and your students will find this unit difficult. We begin with a structural focus to give students a conceptual road map to build on. We then get students to use that road map by working through simple reflexes. Thus, they can experience directly what they are studying. We then go to the building blocks of the nervous system, neurons, and explain how these cells work to receive and communicate information.
At this point in the unit, you will have a choice. You can teach the entire unit by referring only to nerve signals or nerve impulses. Or, you can take some extra time and explain the physics and membrane biology involved in nerve impulses. This is a good opportunity to team with your physical science colleagues, but you can also do it alone. We have tried to offer very basic explanations of electricity and membrane biology necessary to explain how nerve impulses are generated and conducted down the long processes of neurons. Although you might think this information is too advanced for your class, don't be afraid to try it. Also, don't be afraid of students asking questions you cannot answer. It happens to me all of the time. Perhaps the richest teaching and learning experiences I have had have started “I don't know, but let's find out.” The most important thing students can learn from this curriculum is the habit of asking good questions and how to find the answers.
As with all HumBio units, the activities are extremely valuable components of the learning experience. They are not difficult, and they do not require sophisticated equipment. Most only require common household items. The “Thinking Cap” activity is a wonderful way to teach students to think about the brain as a three-dimensional structure. It requires only grocery store bags, crayons, and scissors, yet students who have done this activity have a better grasp on the layout of the brain than do many beginning medical students.
Please let us know about your experience with this Nervous System.
H. Craig Heller
Chair, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University | <urn:uuid:b3447fc4-1ec5-4e99-924b-52e6c7ab1f7b> | {
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“Laser” is an acronym that stands for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.” Ever since its invention, the laser has found literally thousands of industrial, medical, scientific, and construction uses. Whether it is as a simple laser pointer used in classrooms and business presentations, bar code scanners, a surgical tool, or powerful lasers used as weapons of war or to cut through metal, the laser has become a very versatile tool. One of its most useful applications is in the field of surveying and construction as a range finder and level. Most dramatically, lasers can be used to measure the distance from the Earth to the Moon. But it is as a tool for distance measurement and level guidance on the construction site where lasers have become indispensable in the earthwork engineering.
On the job, laser levels operate by the simple action of a self leveling, spinning floating mirror set in a protective housing that send rapidly rotating beams of laser light extending up to 300 yards. The rapid rotation, in effect, turns the one-dimension beam into a two-dimensional flat plane of laser light set at a given elevation. This plane of light intercepts a sensor mounted on a surveyors rod or piece of equipment which emits an audible beep or flashes a signal light when it is at the exact elevation as the laser beam. In addition to GPS locational systems, laser guidance allows for fine grading with small changes in grade. It allows for raising and lowering of construction equipment as it advances along the roadway. Overall accuracy is approximately 1 millimeter.
Credit for Article: Foremaster Magazine | <urn:uuid:5d95127e-aaef-47c7-a6be-de431e49e9e6> | {
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It began with an osprey named Julie, who in 2015 migrated from the Detroit River in Michigan all the way to Maracaibo, Venezuela, stopping at wetlands and wildlife refuges along the way. Julie wore a GPS tracker. John Nelson took Julie’s data and created a series of maps of her journey that represent a brilliant use of negative space: aerial and satellite imagery is shown only along the paths she took; everything else is blanked out. It’s a linear map of a bird’s entire world. The Story Map goes into more detail; the accompanying text is frankly beautifully written. John explains how he made the maps here.
Puerto Ricans, as U.S. citizens, are able to travel freely between Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland. In the wake of Hurricane Maria, many of them sought refuge in Florida, New York and other parts of the U.S. Using anonymized cell phone location data for some 500,000 smart phones, data analysis firm Teralytics was able to map where Puerto Ricans moved from August 2017 to February 2018. CityLab has the maps and the story: “Between these months, nearly 6 percent of the Puerto Rican population left the island and is still living in the continental U.S. Another 6 percent left between October and September 2017 but returned to the island by February 2018.”
Eurasian reed warblers don’t need no stinkin’ marine chronometers. A new study suggests that the migratory birds make use of magnetic declination to determine longitude, “at least under some circumstances under clear skies. Experienced migrants tested during autumn migration in Rybachy, Russia, were exposed to an 8.5° change in declination while all other cues remained unchanged. This corresponds to a virtual magnetic displacement to Scotland if and only if magnetic declination is a part of their map. The adult migrants responded by changing their heading by 151° from WSW to ESE, consistent with compensation for the virtual magnetic displacement.”
Not, it would seem, accurate enough for the species to earn a chunk of the Longitude Prize, and it’s not like John Harrison should have been messing about with birds instead of clocks, but interesting all the same. [GeoLounge]
Migrations in Motion models the average directions wildlife will need to move in order to survive the effects of climate change. As Canadian Geographic explains, “As climate change disrupts habitats, researchers believe wildlife will instinctively migrate to higher elevations and latitudes, but for many species, that will mean navigating around, over or through human settlements and infrastructure.” The map, the design of which is modeled on the hint.fm wind map, covers both North and South America and does not purport to model the path of individual species; rather it’s an average based on computer modelling. | <urn:uuid:c45d9211-0fab-4c7a-8103-5e5cb8144ba5> | {
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The Germanic peoples are a linguistic and ethnic branch of Indo-European peoples. They came from Northern Europe and are identified by their use of the Germanic languages. Migrating Germanic peoples spread throughout Europe, mixing with existing local populations (such as Celts, but also Slavs/Vends and Romans), forming the future basis of many nations, that are connected by similar languages and common history, and culture.
Latin Germani is first used by Julius Caesar.
But the Germanic tribes did not have a self name that included all Germanic-speaking people. In English, German is first attested in 1520, replacing earlier use of Almain or Dutch. Dutch is now used in the English language to refer to the language and the inhabitants of the Netherlands.
- the rivers Oder and Vistula (Poland) (East Germanic tribes),
- the lower Rhine river (Istvaeones),
- the river Elbe (Irminones),
- Jutland and the Danish islands (Ingvaeones).
The Sons of Mannus Istvaeones, Irminones, and Ingvaeones are collectively called West Germanic tribes. In addition, those Germanic people who remained in Scandinavia are referred to as North Germanic. These groups all developed separate dialects, the basis for the differences among Germanic languages down to the present day.
The division of peoples into West Germanic, East Germanic, and North Germanic is a modern linguistic classification.
The Germanic tribes were each politically independent, under a hereditary king (see Germanic king). The kings appear to have claimed descendancy from mythical founders of the tribes, the name of some of which is preserved:
- Angul — Angles (the Kings of Mercia, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, other Anglo-Saxon dynasties are derived from other descendants of Woden)
- Aurvandil — Vandals (uncertain)
- Burgundus — Burgundians
- Cibidus — Cibidi
- Dan — Danes
- Nór — Norwegians
- Gothus — Goths
- Ingve — Ynglings
- Irmin — Irminones
- Longobardus — Lombards
- Saxneat — Saxons
- Valagothus — Valagoths
- Suiones — Suiones (Svear)
History[change | change source]
Origin[change | change source]
In the absence of large-scale political unification, such as that imposed forcibly by the Romans upon the peoples of Italy, the various tribes remained free, led by their own hereditary or chosen leaders. | <urn:uuid:c6ffd3c5-dfc9-4aa7-8643-310d096328d2> | {
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With everything NYC has to offer— theatre, world-class cuisine and museums, to name a few—why would you spend your time in a Brooklyn graveyard? As it turns out, there are plenty of reasons. You see, among resting places, Green-Wood Cemetery isn’t like the rest—at all.
We take for granted leafy locales like Central Park and Prospect Park, but those commons might have never existed without Green-Wood. The cemetery opened in 1838; by 1860 it was drawing nearly 500,000 visitors a year. Local officials, recognizing its success, began to build public parks. Today, the National Historic Landmark remains a popular place to reflect; regulars love taking quiet strolls sans the picnickers, cyclists, (living) ballplayers and other revelers they’d find in a typical park.
The views, too, are unmatched. The cemetery’s Battle Hill is Brooklyn’s highest point, one that figured heavily in the Revolutionary War’s first major campaign, the Battle of Long Island. Today, the Altar to Liberty commemorates the soldiers who died in the conflict. There, from her high perch, a statue of Minerva salutes the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Visitors share her perspective of Manhattan’s skyline.
The cemetery’s entrance features an unexpected treat: wild parrots. Many believe their feathered forefathers escaped from a container at John F. Kennedy International Airport in the 1960s. They now live in a huge complex of nests by the beautiful 25th Street gate.
Beneath the Surface
History abounds at Green-Wood. With nearly 600,000 graves, the cemetery’s population exceeds that of Cleveland’s (and roughly matches that of Washington, D C’s). Just like living Gothamites, Green-Wood residents don’t fail to impress: they were inventive (Morse Code creator Samuel F. B. Morse and composer Leonard Bernstein), powerful (corrupt New York politician William "Boss" Tweed) and principled (abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher). Green-Wood’s first celebrity boarder, former New York governor DeWitt Clinton, was moved from Albany in 1844 specifically to draw visitors. Many artists are buried in Green-Wood these days—so many, in fact, that its caretakers now collect their work and hope to someday build a permanent gallery.
Green-Wood is also the resting place for more than 3,000 Civil War veterans. In 2008, the cemetery and the federal Department of Veterans Affairs replaced lost or decomposing tombstones with new ones on the graves of more than 1,200 veterans. Battle Hill also features the grand Civil War Soldiers’ Monument, erected in 1869 to honor those who fought in the conflict.
The Civil War connection offers a glimpse into another of the cemetery’s charms: its touching individual stories—like the graves of two brothers who fought on opposite sides of the war and died the same day. On another stone, an ornate engraving depicts Jane Griffith’s last good-bye to her husband as he left for work one day in 1857. When he returned, she was dead.
It’s natural that a place so steeped in American history would have baseball connections, and Green-Wood doesn’t disappoint. Its baseballers include James Creighton Jr. of the Excelsior Club (perhaps the game’s first superstar) and Henry Chadwick, "the Father of Baseball," who perfected the box score. And some residents touched both early baseball and Civil War history: John B. Woodward, for example, was a player for the Excelsior Club and a Union general.
Yes, Green-Wood has everything you’d want in a New York City neighborhood: breathtaking Manhattan views, a peaceful setting and good company. You know the catch. But it’s still a nice place to visit. | <urn:uuid:98637037-1b8c-4620-a630-9583890d2ea0> | {
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The phrase “the man of God” (ho tou theou anthrōpos) occurs only twice in the New Testament, both times in Paul’s correspondence with Timothy (1 Timothy 6:11; 2 Timothy 3:17). Alternatively the phrase ho tou theou anēr is never found in the New Testament (anēr may have the sense of male, husband, and man). The infrequent occurrence of such expressions may come as a surprise since the concept of “the man of God” often is used in Evangelical circles to describe a mature Christian.
In the Greek translation of the Old Testament the phrase “man of God” does describe Moses (Joshua 14:6). It also occurs in Judges 13:6,8 to describe the angel who appeared to Manoah and his wife. A prophet, “a man of God,” delivers a message to Eli in 1 Samuel 2:27. Saul seeks help from “a man of God”, a prophet, in order to locate his father’s lost donkeys (1 Samuel 9:7-10). In 1 Kings 12:22 Shemaiah, Rehoboam’s advisor, is defined as “the man of God.”1 David is given this epithet in 2 Chronicles 8:14 (cf. Nehemiah 12:24,36). The phrase in terms of Old Testament usage describes a person, normally a male, who has received a special mandate from God to represent Him as leader or prophet, able to express in life and deed the way of the Lord. Occasionally it describes an angelic messenger. This is a Jewish expression and not a phrase found in Greco-Roman literature.
In Jewish writers of the Second Temple period, this phrase comes to apply to all Jews. For example, in the Letter to Aristeas (c. 150 B.C.) Eleazar, the Jewish High Priest explains the Jewish law to the ambassadors from Ptolemy’s court. In the course of his response he claims that “the priests who are the guides of the Egyptians, have looked closely into many things and are conversant with affairs” and “ have named us ‘men of God’ (anthrōpous theou), a title applicable to none others but only to him who reveres the true God.”2 Philo, when commenting on the accounts in Genesis of “Giants” states that there are three classes of human beings: earth-born, heaven-born, and God-born.3 And then he indicates that “the men of God (theou de anthrōpoi) are priests and prophets…”4 who reject worldly passions. In another context Philo argues that a peaceful person is “God’s man (anthrōpon theou), who being the Word of the Eternal must needs himself be immortal.”5 We discern the gradual extension of this phrase in Hellenistic Judaism from describing only key leaders and spokespersons for God, to its application to every Jewish person who is living in covenant obedience. As Marshall observes “for Philo the phrase has become a description of those who are truly the people of God.”6
In the context of 1 Timothy Paul is encouraging his protégé, Timothy, to attend to his spiritual life and ministry leadership responsibilities well. Yet in the midst of these personal instructions, there are also many admonitions addressed to diverse groups of Christians – widows, slaves, elders, false teachers, the wealthy, etc. He intersperses this spiritual advice with specific instruction for Timothy. This is the pattern we discover in 1 Timothy 6:6-19. He urges believers to be content and not lust for wealth (6:8-10). This is particularly important for Timothy as a ministry leader, “man of God (anthrōpe theou)” (6:11-16). He then shifts again to addressing wealthy Christians and the attitude they must cultivate towards their wealth so that they truly serve God. When we compare Paul’s instructions to Timothy, “the man of God” in 6:11-16 with his instructions to rich Christians in 6:17-19, we discover that he repeats most of his advice, but emphasizes in the case of Timothy the importance of a good witness and perseverance in the truth – qualities important for a Christian leader. So while the phrase “man of God” may be used by Paul to identify a Christian leader, the piety and ethics of that leader are the same essentially as that expected from all Christians.
Further in this context there may be reference to Timothy’s baptism – “when you made your good confession before many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6:12). Paul advises Timothy to continue to “flee” from sin and “pursue” spirituality. These spiritual experiences and responsibilities are necessary for every sincere believer.
With respect to 2 Timothy 3:10-17 Paul rehearses for Timothy the nature of his piety and what ministry has meant for him (vv.10-11). A general statement follows reminding us that “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…” (v.12). Paul then shifts focus to Timothy, whom he regards as one of these godly people and urges him to hold fast to the faith commitments he has learned from his family, Paul and the Scriptures. “The man of God”, i.e. the one who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, will have constant recourse to the Scriptures because in them he will find everything he needs to serve God well. Again what Paul says specifically about Timothy, he also applies in general terms to all believers. As Marshall writes with reference to 1 Timothy 6:11, “Timothy is being addressed as a typical believer (2 Tim 3.12) rather than as a church leader.”7
Christian leaders must be “men of God” in every sense of the word. However, every believer in the New Testament because the Holy Spirit is resident within, is similarly representing God in this world. The other metaphors that Paul, for instance, used to identify believers, i.e. temple of the Holy Spirit, instrument of righteousness, servant of God, all point to this same reality. This phrase “man of God” used in the Old Testament to describe prophets, priests and kings, is applied to an emerging Christian leader such as Timothy. But in doing so Paul is not creating two classes of Christians. Rather, he emphasizes the standard of holy living that Christian leaders must commit to, if they are to serve God and Christ well. But at the same time, the same spirituality and ethics expected of Christian leaders are also urged for every believer. The Scriptures are beneficial for every believer and their preparation to serve God, not just church leaders. There are not two standards of spirituality in the Kingdom. We confess one faith; we serve One Christ; we possess One Spirit; we pursue one mission. We are all together “the holy ones of God.”
- are you conscious of your role as “man of God” today? What are you doing intentionally to equip yourself for this role?
- if you serve in a specific capacity of ministry leadership, are you modeling the holy living that God desires?
- the second part of this phrase, i.e. “of God”, can mean possession and/or representation. When you think about being God’s representative, God’s servant, how does this shape your identity, your decisions, your priorities?
- 1Many other examples of this usage occur in 1 Kings 13,14,17; 2 Kings 1,4,8,23
- 2Aristeas to Philocrates (Letter of Aristeas), section 140. In the Wisdom of Solomon 18:13 the writer says that the Egyptians, when God destroyed their firstborn, acknowledged “your people to be God’s son (theou huion laon),” a commentary on Exodus 12:31.
- 3Philo, De Gigantibus, 60.
- 4Ibid., 61.
- 5Philo, De Confusione Linguarum, 41-43.
- 6I.Howard Marshall, The Pastoral Epistles (London: T & T Clark, 1999), 656.
- 7I.H.Marshall, The Pastoral Epistles, 657. | <urn:uuid:51d20eca-d078-4680-9127-2ede25f61bd5> | {
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The youth situation and conflict in Yucatan, Mexico
By: Karyn J. Perez G.
July 3rd., 2017
Located in southern Mexico, Yucatan is one of the 31 states of this country. The 3 states that conform the Yucatan Peninsula, Yucatan included, share not only an incredible Mayan heritage but also they share huge problems related to discrimination, racism, poverty and extreme social/wealth inequity. These problems affect the adult people, who are not able to get jobs or improve their way of life by their indigenous background, lack of ability to speak Spanish or lack of education in general. It also affect children that in some cases don’t have access to proper health services. And, finally, the described social problems also affect the very vulnerable group we are aiming to work with: the youth. Starting by their education, if they even get the chance to have one.
Indigenous and poverty in México and Yucatan
According to the Diario de Yucatan (local newspaper), “in Mexico, it is estimated that in 2014 the indigenous population was just over 11.9 million people” (2016). And, according to an article of the Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan (2004), the whole Yucatan Peninsula has more than 1,500,000 indigenous people. Specifically in Yucatan state, the estimation rounds over more than 980,000 natives (almost 60% of the total population in the state).
Coneval’s measurements show that “in 2014, 73.2% of the population in indigenous households were living in poverty and 21.8% were vulnerable due to social deprivation or income, and that only 5% were not poor and vulnerable” (2016).
Youth and education
in rural contexts of Mexico and Yucatan
Of the near to 12 million indigenous in the country, “almost 4 million are children and adolescents between the ages of 3 and 17. Among indigenous children and adolescents, over 1.8 million speak some indigenous language, of which more than 1.4 million live in rural localities” (2016).
According to the National Institute of Educational Evaluation and UNICEF, “nearly four million indigenous children and adolescents face deficiencies in infrastructure and teaching staff, which contributes to their finding a below-basic achievement level compared to public urban schools” (2016). In other words, the entire indigenous youth population have struggles in the education context.
Via Diario de Yucatan
Projects and solutions
So, as we can see, not only are we talking about a lot of people, but we are also talking about a big disadvantage in which they are since they are children. Even though some of them may not seem very stress about it, their economic and development situation is not ideal.
Social programs and/or schools, as we saw in the previous section, usually have poor conditions and infrastructure. And this if they exist. As we also saw and can now conclude, efforts to educate the entire population of indigenous children and youth are not enough. There are 4 million of soon-to-be adults starting the “race” without the right tools.
This is one of the many reasons why we are motivated to work with this vulnerable group: Yucatan’s poor and indigenous youth. Throughout the world, conditions of poverty often harm and limit children and young people who still have a long life ahead. Yucatan, Mexico, is no exception, with an indigenous population whose 73% is poor and almost 22% live in a vulnerable situation.
We want to give an opportunity, we want to empower and give them a tool of expression for their ideas: what is welfare? What problems are there around me? How could you solve them if money were not a limitation? We started in Haiti and now we are here in Yucatan, contributing and teaching them filmmaking so Yucatecan youth can have a voice.
Click here to know more about us and the project,
and don’t forget to donate by clicking here.
Via Through My Eyes Foundation Facebook Page | <urn:uuid:79f61647-b452-4fc3-ac13-0b0517432c25> | {
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Acupuncture is a method of encouraging the body to promote natural healing and improve function. This is done by inserting sterilized, stainless steel needles (that are as fine as a human hair) into specific points located near or on the surface of the skin. This stimulation has the ability to alter various biochemical and physiological conditions in order to treat a wide variety of illnesses.
HOW DOES ACUPUNCTURE WORK?
Acupuncture is based on the traditional Chinese teaching that energy, qi (pronounced ‘chee’), courses through the body along channels called meridians that connect all our major organs. According to Chinese medical theory, illness occurs when the flow is disrupted.
Scientists are now starting to identify some of the physiological mechanisms at work, and there’s evidence that the insertion of needles into designated acupuncture points induces neurological responses, which can affect sensation (i.e., pain), muscle tissue (i.e., spasm, strain) as well as autonomic function (i.e., digestion, sleep). Electrical stimulation of the needles is also used to increase effects on the nervous system. These signals may increase the flow of endorphins and opiates and other pain-relieving chemicals, as well as immune system cells, which aid healing.
DOES ACUPUNCTURE HURT?
Acupuncture needles are 25-30 times thinner than a hypodermic needle. There is little sensitivity to the insertion of acupuncture needles. While some people feel nothing at all; on occasion others may feel a brief moment of discomfort, however this quickly dissipates so that there is no discomfort while the needles are in. It is normal to sometimes feel the sensation of fullness or a tingling sensation. When the electrical stimulation is added you usually feel comfortable ‘tapping like’ sensation or mild muscle twitching. The needles are left in place for 10-20 minutes. Most people find the experience extremely relaxing and uplifting and may even fall asleep during their treatment.
THE BENEFITS OF ACUPUNCTURE:
– decreased muscle tension
– increased ranges of motion and mobility
– improved soft tissue health
– improved muscle and nerve function
– increased immune function
– decreased pain levels
– improved circulation
– improved lymphatic drainage
– improved digestion
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Parents with celiac disease often jump through hoops over breastfeeding and when to give children their first bread or other food containing gluten, but a study published Wednesday suggests it doesn't matter much in terms of whether the child will develop celiac disease.
However, delaying the first taste of wheat, barley or rye in infants who are at risk of celiac disease could delay the age at which they get it, and that could mean they're healthier during those phases, according to one of two studies about gluten and celiac disease published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
FOR THE RECORD
An earlier version of this post said Levy was diagnosed 40 years ago. She was diagnosed 30 years ago.
"These are very important studies, very wonderful studies" involving many children in randomized trials, said Dr. Peter Green, who wrote an editorial about them in the journal. They should provide relief for many parents, said Green, director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University.
"The question comes up from parents who are asking, 'How can I prevent my child from getting celiac disease?' These studies address that," Green said.
The results should be a relief for "people who think they did something wrong, or were not able to breastfeed.... It doesn't make any difference in whether you get celiac or not," Green said. And, he wrote in his editorial, "From now on, it will be hard for anyone to continue to recommend the introduction of gluten specifically at the age of 4 to 6 months."
Amy Levy is a Los Angeles parent of a 7-year-old who was diagnosed with celiac disease just before her sixth birthday. But, Levy said, "My concern about her digestive health began even before she was born."
Levy has not been diagnosed with celiac, but was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis 30 years ago and suspects she has a gluten problem. The study, she says, is "a huge relief to parents."
She breastfed her daughter, believing she was contributing to her health, and was later distressed at the idea that "celiac could pass through the breast milk.... To hear that it didn't make it worse, it's a comfort."
Gluten-free diets are the only treatment at present for people who have celiac disease, estimated to be about 1 in 133 people in the United States but as many as 10% among those with a parent with the disease. Sufferers become very ill if they eat even a tiny bit of gluten – by, for instance, using a toaster that had wheat bread in it.
Other people – estimates range as high as 1 in 3 – try to avoid eating foods with gluten for reasons such as intolerance, which has come to be called "non-celiac gluten sensitivity," and the popularity of gluten-free diets for weight loss.
In one of the studies, scientists in Italy randomly assigned 832 newborns who had a parent or sibling with celiac disease to either first eat gluten at 6 months or at 12 months. They were followed for 10 years. The study was done by a group of researchers from several Italian and U.S. institutions.
The scientists from that study, and the second study – of children from several countries -- also monitored breastfeeding. Both concluded that breastfeeding did not affect development of celiac disease.
A high-risk genotype was an important predictor of the disease; Mutations in the protein human leukocyte antigen may be linked to autoimmune diseases including celiac.
"We had been advising a little bit of gluten at 4 to 6 months," which was considered a window of opportunity, with the idea that a small amount of an allergen would make the child better able to develop protective responses, Green said. But the study concluded that "it didn't make any difference," he said.
That practice had developed from an epidemic of celiac disease in Sweden in the 1980s and '90s.
Although postponing the introduction of gluten to 12 months did not affect development of celiac disease, the researchers said it had two positive consequences. First, it delayed onset of the disease; second it slightly reduced the prevalence of celiac disease autoimmunity among children with a high-risk genotype.
In the second study, some high-risk infants were given gluten and others were given a placebo at 4 to 6 months; the study concluded there was no difference in developing celiac disease.
Parents might feel frustrated that there's not much they can do to keep children from developing the disease, Green acknowledged. | <urn:uuid:cdbe915c-99ca-4890-9ea8-4fb7af08bf20> | {
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Don’t worry: Story about North Koreans finding unicorn lair just a mistranslation
Agency said it reconfirmed the lair of one of the unicorns ridden by the ancient King Tongmyong but the story is not true
It was nonetheless surprising to read last week that archaeologists in the secretive totalitarian state had claimed to have found a unicorn’s lair.
There is only one problem with the story: it isn’t exactly true.
It appears a combination of mistranslation and journalistic wishful thinking may be to blame for the fantastical claim, which was made in an English language report from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The report, published on the KCNA’s website last week, revealed that archaeologists from the History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences had “reconfirmed a lair of the unicorn rode by King Tongmyong, founder of the Koguryo Kingdom (BC 277-AD 668)”.
But as a Korean scholar called Sixiang Wang explained to the i09 website, a glance at the original Korean version of the story made clear that North Korean archaeologists were claiming no such thing.
For starters, there was no talk of unicorns, but of “kirins” or “Qilins” – which James Grayson, emeritus professor of Korean studies at Sheffield university, describes as “a four-legged beast with a dragon’s head”. His Sheffield colleague, Sukyeon Cho, said Kirins have “the body of a deer, the tail of a cow, hooves and a mane”, as well as a horn jutting out from the top of their heads.
The kirin is important in North Korean folklore because it was the preferred mode of transport of King Tongmyong, the founder of Koguryo, an ancient Korean kingdom.
The North Koreans, said Sixiang Wang, were laying claim to a place called “Kiringul” – literally Kirin’s lair or cave or grotto, according to Grayson – 200 metres from the Yongmyong Temple in Moran Hill in Pyongyang City.
There was no suggestion unicorns really lived in the lair. It was just a mythical name, said Grayson. Just as only small children expect to find giants at the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland or fairies at the Fairy Steps in Beetham, Cumbria, North Koreans are highly unlikely to believe that kirins have ever actually lived in Kiringul.
As i09 puts it: “The thrust of the North Korean government’s announcement is that it claims to have discovered Kiringul, and thus to have proven that Pyongyang is the modern site of the ancient capital of Koguryo.”
Sixiang Wang is sceptical about the timing of North Korea’s announcement, reported i09: “The Kirin was supposed to appear to wise rulers. North Korean officials may have been hoping to secure Pyongyang’s connection to the ancient kingdom of Koguryo, while creating an association between their own president, Kim Jong-un, and the larger-than-life rulers of old.” | <urn:uuid:d43aeaa1-9b0c-4845-ba8b-fe40e66f1a9c> | {
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Why do some people, as they age, “keep their smarts”—that is, they maintain their cognitive functions well—and others do not? A number of longitudinal studies indicate that the successful agers share four traits:
- They are more mentally active.
- They are more physically active.
- They maintain a sense of their social engagement. In other words, they see themselves as still having roles to play in life—in their families, communities, or even in continuing employment.
- They pay attention to controlling the risk factors for disease of the heart and brain. They may stop smoking, control their blood pressure, keep cholesterol within normal limits by diet or medications, and/or recognize and treat diabetes.
Moreover, it appears that these factors reinforce one another: the more of them people follow, the better.
As regards physical activity, successful agers are not trying to make the Olympics; they are getting exercise by using stairs, walking significant distances, swimming or participating in exercise groups. The important thing is that they are exercising on a regular basis, as part of their weekly routines.
Being mentally active takes many forms: doing crossword puzzles, playing cards, reading, going to lectures, whatever study participants enjoyed. What they were not doing was sitting around, passively watching TV.
This brings me to the possible roles of brain training programs.
This is not a new topic. Ten years ago Larry Katz and Manning Rubin at Duke introduced the concept of “neurobics”—mental exercises designed to maintain or improve memory functions. They were not alone; there has been a proliferation of books, games and exercises that claim to achieve the same goal.
What has been added in the most recent incarnations of memory training are three things: the use of computers in training; outcome measures besides changes in cognitive performance, such as imaging the blood flow to parts of the brain; and a greater emphasis on claims of a neuroscientific basis for particular approaches.
This is a valid area of brain research; there are many questions to be answered. Can specific mental exercises maintain brain functions? Can they restore lost functions?
At what age should people use these programs? Is it possible to devise a program that fits all subjects, or should there be variations based on age, culture and education?
How will we measure success—only in the specific area of training or in other cognitive domains as well? If there are gains, do they stick around or are remedial sessions needed?
Perhaps the most important question, in evaluating these programs, is: improvement compared to what? Are these newer approaches better than regularly doing crossword puzzles or struggling with Sudoku?
Many, perhaps millions, of people older than 40 or 50 have great interest in this area. Consequently, “there is gold in them thar hills,” as the saying goes, particularly with computer programs selling at $300 to $400 a pop.
Some neuroscientists are skeptical and feel that this rush to commercialization is premature. I am in that camp. My advice remains that maintaining mental activity is important, but there is no standard formula for doing that. Challenge your brain by doing whatever turns you on—just do it!
Also, don’t be too monolithic in your approach to maintaining brain health. As mentioned above, the behaviors of successful agers are reinforcing. Focusing only on mental training to the exclusion of the other measures is not the correct thing to do. Being physically active, involved with others, and keeping your blood pressure under control may be just as important as trying the latest memory game.
Guy McKhann, M.D., is professor of neurology and neuroscience at the Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. He serves as scientific consultant for the Dana Foundation and scientific advisor for Brain in the News. | <urn:uuid:d7e32c5c-64a9-441c-8176-e46afe6504a3> | {
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How would it be to live until you were 120 years old and in the best of health?
Extending the human life span has been something that scientists worldwide have been investigating for a very long time. Recently an article in The New Zealand Herald announced the upcoming series of tests of a anti-aging drug that will be done on humans. These tests are set to begin as early as next year.
The drug that is in the limelight recently is Metformin, a first line anti-diabetic medication, used successfully for the past 60 years in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. The drug works by suppressing the production of glucose in the liver. It also increases the bodies sensitivity to insulin. It is believed that Metformin does this by making oxygen more available in the bodies cells which then lengthens their life. It is used for those who have normal kidney function and those who are overweight. Metformin is also used in gestational diabetes and in treating polycystic ovary syndrome. It has even been found that Metformin may defeat cancer.
Injectable insulin has been used in recent years as a performance-enhancement drug for athletes. It is risky because an incorrect amount can cause coma or even death in extreme cases. This has become, for many athletes, a beginning form of insulin manipulation because this effect does not happen often with Metformin HCL. Another drug, Phenformin, is much harsher but similar to Metformin. With the former drug found to be safer it has been the one of choice for use in performance enhancement.
Experts say that Metformin could be the first drug to extend the lifespan of humans by keeping diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s at bay. It has been proven to delay aging in animals such as some strains of lab mice. Also, a group of Belgium scientists have done tests proving that C.elegans, a species of roundworm, has actually had their lives extended due to the use of Metformin. The drug actually made them age slower and stay healthy longer.
Life expectancy in the United States today is 78.8 years which is a new record. It is currently theorized that there are two possible reasons for prolonged life expectancy. It either has to do with the lifespan timetable recorded in one’s DNA or the lack of toxins in the body that originate in physiological and environmental factors.
Due to the safety of Metformin, shown by its history in controlling type 2 diabetes, it makes it a prime candidate as the first drug to be used in clinical testing. It is exciting to learn that the drug has been approved for testing by the FDA.
Image is courtesy of Flickr Commons | <urn:uuid:0343cb47-be29-431d-9ec5-3ca78770142d> | {
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Bianchi, the world's oldest bicycle manufacturing company still in existence, recently celebrated it 125th anniversary in 2015.
It was in the year 1885 when Edoardo Bianchi, then 21 years old, started his enterprise as a bicycle manufacturer in his little shop in Milan, at via Nirone. The deep innovative zeal distinguished him above all the constructors of his era.
His first idea, conceived ~125 years ago, was to reduce the diameter of the front wheel and balance the gap of the motion with the application of a chain, which had just been invented by the Frenchman Vincent, and then to lower down the height of the pedals. And so "Safety" was born: a safety cycle and the very first modern bicycle.
One of the main advantages of this new means of transport was stability: no acrobatics were need to keep balance. Then Edoardo designed a similar vehicle, whose wheel diameter was further reduced and which had both front and rear wheels almost of the same size. Italy found out the manufacturer that would have marked the Italian production all through the century.
In 1901, Edoardo Bianchi presented the first bicycle ever featuring a cardan joint transmission.
In 1913 he invented the front brake system;
In 1914 Bianchi was a famous and reputed manufacturer: in just one year, production settled on extraordinary figures: 45.000 bicycles, 1.500 motorbikes and 1.000 cars.
Industrial successes, anyway, didn't stop him from research and innovations.
In 1915, Bianchi produced a bike for the Army, equipped with wide-section tyres, folding frame and suspensions on both wheels. This original bicycle was consigned to the Royal Light Infantry Corp, the "Bersaglieri", who used it as an off-road vehicle from the Alps to the African deserts: it was the first mountain bike, the ancestor of all the modern versions.
1916: the three Bianchi logos.
Bianchi's successes in the sport went along with those achieved at industrial level and the 'celeste' bicycles kept winning all around the world.
The first great champion, whose name remains forever bond to Bianchi's history, was Costante Girardengo.
In 1982, Bianchi launched on the European market the "BMX": special bikes designed mainly for youngsters to perform off-road acrobatic feats and thus set a trend.
1984 was the year of the "Mountain bike", the off-road bicycle designed in cooperation with Bianchi USA.
In 1987, Bianchi took over the Austrian trademark "Puch".
The year 1990 brought a further innovative idea leading to a completely new generation of bicycles, the prototype of the modern city bike. Bianchi's new creation was called "Bianchi Spillo", and in a short time it became a reference for the whole bicycle industry; even nowadays, all the manufacturers have a range based on this bicycle model.
Though without losing sight of the on-road competitions, Bianchi focused on mountain bike challenges.
In 1995, Bianchi re-engineered in-depth its city bike models through the "City Project" aimed to equip them, for the first time ever, with avant-garde frames, built according to the most updated ergonomic parameters.
Since May 1997 F.I.V. Edoardo Bianchi is part of Cycleurope A.B. group, the Swedish company of the Grimaldi group, known as the worldwide most important holding in the cycling sector.
The brands of the Bianchi group (Bianchi, Legnano, Puch and Chiorda) have met those of Cycleurope (Monark, Crescent, DBS, Kildemoes, Everton, Micmo, Gitane) to constitute a unique network in the two-wheel market.
Today Cycleurope can implement the most advanced operative synergies involving prestigious European companies, amongst which Bianchi represents the flagship brand.The strategic investments of the group aim at two outstanding targets: the development of a highly-advanced product and the establishment of Bianchi brand on international markets.
PopularBianchi Bicyclesinclude theBianchi Pista, known as a super-light and fast track bike, andBianchi’s Cortina—a sport model known for its comfort when city-riding. Whether your type of bicycling includes road cycling, fixies for the track, off-road cycling, mountain biking, or bike racing in cross-country or cyclocross races, Bianchi has a model that’s just right for you that’s been made with a scrupulous eye for detail and deep Italian pride. When seeking the finery of European bicycles, including limited-edition frames and custom creations, browse here at Bike Attack’s online bike shop, which stocks a robust line of popular and specialty Bianchi bike models. | <urn:uuid:21fe44b7-1210-4371-b5a8-8f7ef903296b> | {
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Today I delivered my testimony on the inclusion of creation science in the classroom to the state education committee in Indianapolis. Here is a transcript of my talk:
Today we are talking about creation science. I hope to show you there is a strict difference between operational science and historical science.
Operational science is the science that puts computers on our desks and men on the moon. It is what we have to thank for the technological wonders we have today. Operational science is based on modern observances and experiments.
Historical science is the study of the past based on modern observances. This type of science attempts to give us answers about the past by using modern day calculations and extrapolating them back through time. This is how we get the theories of evolution and the big bang.
Operational science observes changes in genetic makeup such as mutations and adaptations. These changes, otherwise known as natural selection, are proven. I don’t dispute that.
Historical science then takes those observations within species and attempts to make a case that given enough time these small changes have led to major changes. That is where creationists feel that these theories defy the scientific method and cannot be tested and repeated.
Evolution requires an old age of the earth. The majority consensus of scientists is that radioisotope dating confirms an old age. I want to clarify that radioisotope dating is based on modern decay rates extrapolated back through history to declare a date. The modern decay rates are operational science. We can test those, and repeat those here in the present. The extrapolation is historical science.
All the conditions necessary to stay consistent through all of history for that extrapolation to be reliable can never be verified. Observational science can be verified, historical science cannot.
Let me give you another example. The moon has been recorded as receding away from the earth at a rate of 4cm per year. If we extrapolate that back through time the earth cannot be older than 750 million years old. That may sounds very old, but it is about 1/6 of the length of time most scientists agree on for the age of the earth, and not enough time for evolution to have worked.
Now, which part of that experiment is operational science and which is historical? The 4cm withdraw rate is observed, the extrapolation is applying that observation to all of history. Now, where does the experiment go wrong? We cannot know all of the variables for all of history. Perhaps the rate slowed down in the past, or is sped up today. So, the historical part of the experiment is technically unscientific. I would argue that the same applies to radiometric dating. Their decay rates in the present are accurate. The extrapolation to the past is unverifiable, and therefore unscientific.
A final example: we are taught that fish evolved into mammals, and yet somehow failed to leave behind a trail of gills transforming into lungs. What we observe in the fossil record is gills or lungs, nothing in between. Again, observational verses historical science. Charles Darwin himself said “if my theory be true, numberless intermediate varieties, linking closely together all the species of the same group, must assuredly have existed…” and… crickets.
I fail to see how scrambling existing DNA information creates new biochemical pathways. Seeing that by definition natural selection can only select from existing information, how do you turn a pool of slime into a human being? And how did sex originate? Non-intelligent processes cannot predict the future coordination of male and female organs. And why do we have living fossils? Creatures that have remain unchanged for “millions of years”. Why would some creatures be evolving and not others?
So what are the conclusions we can draw from this? Do we throw out all of historical science? No, not at all. But we need to be fair. We need to acknowledge that no theory of the world’s origins can ever be proven. We need to recognize that assumptions about the past will always remain just that – assumptions. We need to recognize that both sides of the debate have the same evidence (same rocks/same bones), different conclusions. It is not the evidence in question, it is the conclusions.
If I tried to reconstruct today the events of the Civil War, but only studied the rocks and bones left behind, I think all of us would agree that I would get the story wrong. It would appear right based on that evidence alone, but just because the logic works does not make it fact. I think everyone would agree that to teach that to our children without offering the other side of the story would be deceitful. Science itself is just the search for knowledge. What can it hurt to offer more options for that knowledge?
Observational science is the science of what we can see – that needs to be taught. And since historical science cannot be proven, our schools are being irresponsible in not educating its student on the various historical perspectives that exist. Thank you.
The committee approved the bill at an 8-2 vote. It will now proceed to the amendment phase where certain parts will be reworded to work better. From the discussion I can presume that it may be rewritten to better suit history or world religion classes rather than science classes. This is both a small victory and a subtle defeat at the same time. Although school children will have access to the creation story, it may not be in science classrooms where they are taught that evolution is the only accepted theory for our origins. We’ll keep an eye on the legislation, and keep you updated! | <urn:uuid:0f683f63-813d-4641-a76f-b4aac1f2bc8c> | {
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EBC Exercise 15 make
Embedded Linux Class by Mark A. Yoder
As your programs become more complex they will spread over multiple files. make is a utility that tells which files depend on which and how to compile them all together into an executable. This exercise walks you through how to create a Makefile.
This exercise is heavily based on TI's OMAP™/DaVinci™ System Integration using Linux Workshop.
In part A of the lab, you will build your first basic Makefile – basically turning command line execution into make rules. In Part B, you will increase the usability of your makefile by adding built-in variables and user-defined variables. This will provide you with a fundamental understanding of how makefiles work.
Lab Prep – Examine the directory contents and app.c
beagle$ cd exercises beagle$ git pull beagle$ cd make beagle$ ls beagle$ gedit app.c
(See here if this doesn't work.)
Part A – Using the Command Line and Creating a Simple Makefile
In this part, we will simply use the GNU compiler (gcc) from the command line to build the “Hello World” example and run it. Then, we’ll place these commands into a basic makefile and run the makefile. In the next part, we’ll use built-in and user-defined variables.
- Build and run “Hello World” from the command line.
To compile app.c, type the following command:
beagle$ gcc –g –c app.c –o app.o
gcc = GNU C compiler (command) –g = symbolic debug (compiler option) –c = (fill in answer below) app.c = file to compile (kind of “dependency” or “prerequisite”) -o = output filename is next (compiler option) app.o = output file (the “target”)
In the above gcc command, name the target, dependency and command.
- Target = _______________
- Dependency = ________________
- Command = __________________
- On your host computer use the man command to look up gcc.
To find the parameters for any standard C functions or Linux commands, you can use the “man” (short for “manual”) command. Let’s try it on gcc:
host$ man gcc
What does the –c option (from the previous step) tell the compiler to do?
To quit the man page, type q.
- Link the object file and produce the final executable.
Next, link the object file (app.o) to create the executable app.arm:
beagle$ gcc –g app.o –o app.arm
Now run the executable:
You should see “Hello World” displayed in the command window. The extension used for the output file (.arm) indicates we are building for the arm (or Beagle).
Note: For those of you who know Linux well, you can skip this explanation. For the rest …
./ before the name of an executable tells Linux to look for the program
in the current directory.
We use this as it is the proper way to specify the path of the file to be run.
- “Clean” the existing executable (.arm) and intermediate (.o) files.
Type the following to remove the files generated by the gcc commands you executed:
beagle$ rm –rf app.arm beagle$ rm –rf app.o
This removal of files mirrors what a “clean” macro or rule might do. We’ll actually add a rule shortly to accomplish this in our makefile.
- Examine “starter” makefile.
The current makefile simply contains comments and placeholders for the code you will write. Using your favorite editor, open the makefile. For example:
beagle$ gedit makefile
- Create rules for app.arm and app.o in your makefile.
Remember, a rule is made up of a target, dependency(ies) and command(s). For example:
target : dependency CMD
Also note that the commands are tabbed over (at least one tab). Create the rule for app.o in the area of the makefile with the header comments specifying the intermediate (.o) rule (as shown below). We’ll help you with the rule for app.o, but app.arm is up to you. For app.o, type in the following rule. We will use the absolute path of gcc for now and later turn it into a variable:
# --------------------------------------------------- # ------ intermeditate object files rule (.o) ------- # --------------------------------------------------- app.o : app.c /usr/bin/gcc –g –c app.c –o app.o
app.o = target app.c = dependency /usr/bin/gcc -g … = command
- Type in the rule for .x.
Next, type in the rule for app.arm ABOVE the rule for app.o in the area specified for the (.x) rule. Make sure you use the –g compiler option in the .x rule.
- Test your makefile.
Close makefile and type the following:
After running make, list the current directory. Do you see a new app.arm executable? Run it.
Do you see “Hello World”? If so, your rules work. Next, let’s add a few more rules…
- Open makefile in a different Linux process.
Stop. Before you open makefile again, try opening it in a different Linux process by typing in the following:
beagle$ gedit makefile &
The “&” tells Linux to open the makefile in a separate process (window). When you edit a file, you can simply click Save, then click inside the terminal window and run it without having to re-open the makefile. Handy – and could save you some time.
- Create a “clean” rule in your makefile.
Whenever you run make, it will search and note the timestamps of the source files and executables and won’t run if everything is up to date. So, it is common to create a “clean” rule that removes the intermediate and executable files prior to the next build.
In the makefile (underneath the comment header for “clean all”), add the following .PHONY rule for “clean” (these are the same commands you used earlier on the command line):
.PHONY : clean clean : rm –rf ___.arm rm –rf _______
.PHONY tells make to NOT search for a file named “clean” because this is a phony target (i.e. it is not a file that needs to be searched for or created). In a large and complex makefile, this actually saves some compile time (plus, it is just good practice to use .PHONY when the target is not an actual file). The two files are the final executable and the intermediate object file.
- Create an “all” rule in your makefile.
When make runs without any rules specified (i.e. you just type “make” on the command line), it will make (by default) the first rule in the makefile. Therefore, it is common to create an “all” rule that is placed first in the makefile. Our example only has one final target (app.arm), so “all” doesn’t make as much sense now.
In the makefile (under the comment header for “make all”), add the following .PHONY rule for “all”:
.PHONY : all all : app.arm
Close makefile and let’s run it…
- Run make to create the executable app.arm.
On the command line, type in the following:
make will probably tell you that the files are “up to date” and there is nothing to do. So, you must run “clean” before you build again. Type:
beagle$ make clean
make runs the first rule in the makefile which is the “all” rule. This should successfully build the app.arm executable.
Note: make assumes the name of the make file is makefile or Makefile. make also looks for the FIRST makefile it finds. So, to be safe, you might want to capitalize Makefile because capital “M” comes before lower-case “m” alphabetically. You can also use a different name for the makefile – e.g. my_makefile.mak. In this case, you need to use the following command to “force” the use of a different make file name:
beagle$ make –f my_makefile.mak
- Run app.arm.
You should see “Hello World” again. Ok, now that we have the simple makefile done, let’s turn it up a few notches…
- Review the different ways to run make.
As a review, you can run make in several ways:
make (makes the first rule in the make file named makefile or Makefile) make <rule> (makes the rule specified with <rule>, e.g. “make clean”) make –f my_makefile (forces the use of a make file named my_makefile)
Part B – Using Built-in and User-Defined Variables
In this part, we will add some user-defined variables and built-in variables to simplify and help the makefile more readable. You will also have a chance to build a “test’ rule to help debug your makefile. This continues Part A which is here.
- Add CC (user-defined variable) to your makefile.
Right now, our arm makefile is “hard coded”. Over the next few steps, we’ll attempt to make it more generic. Variables make your code more readable and maintainable over time. With a large, complex makefile, you will only want to change variables in one spot vs. changing them everywhere in the code.
Add the following variable in the section of your makefile labeled “user-defined vars”:
CC := $(LINUXarm_GCC)
CC specifies the path and name of the compiler being used. Notice that CC is based on another variable named LINUXarm_GCC. Where does this name come from? It comes from an include file named path.mak. Open path.mak and view its contents. Notice the use of LINUXarm_GCC variable and what it is set to.
Whenever you use a variable (like CC) in a rule, you must place it inside $( ) for make to recognize it – for example, $(CC). After adding this variable, use it in the two rules (.x and .o). For example, the command for the .x rule changes from:
gcc –g app.o –o app.arm
$(CC) -g app.o –o app.arm
- Apply this same concept to the .o rule.
- Add include for path.mak.
In the “include” area of the makefile, add the following statement:
- Test your makefile: clean, make and then run the executable.
- Add CFLAGS and LINKER_FLAGS variables to your makefile.
Add the following variables in the section of your makefile labeled “user-defined vars”:
CFLAGS := -g LINKER_FLAGS := -lstdc++
CFLAGS specifies the compiler options – in this case, -g (symbolic debug). LINKER_FLAGS will tell the linker to include this standard library during build. (The example option –lstd++ specifies the linker should include the standard C++ libraries.)
Use these new variables in the .x and .o rules in your makefile.
- Test your makefile.
- Add built-in variables to your .o rule.
Make contains some built in variables for targets ($@), dependencies ($^ or $<) and wildcards (%). Modify the .o rule to use these built-in variables.
The .o rule changes from:
app.o : app.c $(CC) $(CFLAGS) –c app.c –o app.o
%.o : %.c $(CC) $(CFLAGS) –c _____ -o _____
Because we only have ONE dependency, use the $< to indicate the first dependency only. Later on, if we add more dependencies, we might have to change this built-in symbol. % is a special type of make substitution for targets and dependencies. The %.o rule will not run unless a “filename.o” is a dependency to another rule (and, in our case, app.o is a dependency to the .x rule – so it works).
- Add built-in variables to your .x rule.
The .x rule changes from:
app.arm: app.o $(CC) $(CFLAGS) app.o -o app.arm
app.arm: app.o $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(LINKER_FLAGS) _____ -o _____
- Don’t forget to add the additional LINKER_FLAGS to the .x rule.
- Test makefile.
- Add a comment to your .x rule.
Comments can be printed to standard I/O by using the echo command. In the .x rule, add a second command line as follows:
@echo; echo $@ successfully created; echo
The @echo command tells make to echo “nothing” and don’t echo the word “echo”. So, effectively, this is a line return (just like the echo at the end of the line). Because built-in variables are valid for the entire rule, we can use the $@ to indicate the target name.
Test makefile and observe the echo commands. Did they work? As usual, you might need to run “make clean” before “make” so that make builds the executable.
- Add “test” rule to help debug your makefile.
Near the bottom of makefile, you’ll see a commented area named “basic debug for makefile”. Add the following .PHONY rule beneath the comments:
.PHONY : test test: @echo CC = $(CC)
This will echo the path and name of the compiler used. Try it. Does it work? You can also add other echo statements for CFLAGS and LINUXarm_GCC. This is a handy method to debug your makefile.
Close your makefile when finished.
Embedded Linux Class by Mark A. Yoder | <urn:uuid:d5cfa3a6-4a4f-481f-9404-53224797e22a> | {
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Dommett, Eleanor J.; Devonshire, Ian M.; Plateau, Carolyn R.; Westwell, Martin S. and Greenfield, Susan A.
From scientific theory to classroom practice.
The Neuroscientist, 17(4) pp. 382–388.
The importance of neuroscience in education is becoming widely recognized by both neuroscientists and educators. However, to date, there has been little effective collaboration between the two groups, resulting in the spread of ideas in education poorly based on neuroscience. For their part, educators are often too busy to develop sufficient scientific literacy, and neuroscientists are put off collaborations with risk of overinterpretation of their work. We designed and led a successful 6-month collaborative project between educators and neuroscientists. The project consisted of a series of seminars on topics chosen by both parties such as the neuroscience of attention, learning, and memory and aimed to create a dialog between the two. Here, we report that all teachers found the seminars relevant to their practice and that the majority felt the information was presented in an accessible manner. Such was the success of the project that teachers felt there were direct changes in their classroom practice as a consequence and that the course should be more widely available. We suggest that this format of co-constructed dialog allows for lucrative collaborations between neuroscientists and educators and may be a step to bridging the waters that separate these intrinsically linked disciplines.
Actions (login may be required) | <urn:uuid:98911649-645b-47ff-8611-25d1e8595464> | {
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Serotonin syndrome occurs when you take medications that cause high levels of the chemical serotonin to accumulate in your body. It can occur when you increase the dose of such a drug or add a new drug to the ones you take already. Certain illicit drugs and dietary supplements also can cause serotonin syndrome.
2. What medicines / suppliments can cause Serotonin Syndrome?
A number of over-the-counter and prescription drugs can lead to serotonin syndrome, especially antidepressants. Illicit drugs and dietary supplements also can cause the condition. These drugs and supplements include but aren't limited to:
3. What are the symptoms of Serotonin Syndrome?
Serotonin syndrome symptoms typically occur within several hours of taking a new drug or increasing the dose of a drug you're already taking. Signs and symptoms include:
Severe serotonin syndrome can be life-threatening. Signs and symptoms include:
Refrences and informative links
So many benefitial medicines have the "possibility" to cause an allergic / adverse reaction. We have to be communicate with our doctors and be aware of the potential warning signs. | <urn:uuid:145f090c-2835-4242-ac09-ddd24a4281e3> | {
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New Lebanon incorporated in December 1878, with N.S. Price qualifying as Mayor and Abe Gauvey as Clerk-Treasurer. The first regular election was held in April 1879. Doctor Oscar F. Edwards was elected as Mayor. Edwards served as Mayor until April of 1883 being re-elected to the position by area voters.
quoted from http://www.newlebanonoh.com/history.html
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Jun 7, 2016 ... 2.1 Copper Floatation; 2.2 Lead Flotation; 2.3 Zinc Flotation; 2.4 Nickel ... The Froth Flotation Machine is universally used for all types of flotation problems. ... In most cases recovery and extraction of free gold and silver is by means .... The use of flotation to produce a high- grade concentrate is the big factor,...
This KS3 education resource looks at copper mining, extraction and pyroprocessing of sulfide ores. ... copper mines are in Chile (Escondida mine) and Indonesia (Grasberg mine). ... This diagram shows the international trade flow in copper concentrate. ... This is done by heating the concentrated ore from froth flotation.
Froth flotation is a process for selectively separating hydrophobic materials from hydrophilic. .... Froth flotation cells to concentrate copper and nickel sulfide minerals, Falconbridge, Ontario. ... The flotation process is used for the separation of a large range of sulfides, carbonates and oxides ..... Copper (see copper extraction).
Froth Flotation Separator / Flotation Extract Copper Concentrate Chile · Jiangxi Shicheng Yongsheng Ore Processing Mineral Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
Nov 23, 2016 ... The copper concentrate from a copper lead zinc flotation circuit. ... During the froth flotation process, occurs the separation of several types of...
Copper, Copper Mining, and Copper Processing. Figure 1. ... The process of crushing, grinding, and separation of copper once. 33 ... Process of froth floatation. 36 ..... the use of heat and chemical reactions to extract a particular metal from an ore, appears to .... 2010, Chile produced 5,418,900 metric tonnes of copper, Peru.
Apr 2, 2014 ... grade (6.7%) of a rougher concentrate obtained using humic acids as main collector for the flotation of a copper sulphide ore from Chile, were very similar to those of a copper ... of copper sulphide ore by froth flotation, and produced 3.7 million ...... Surface chemical studies on selective separation of.
Jan 1, 2012 ... The different concentrates obtained through differential flotation in pyrometallurgy are ... Keywords: Copper and Chalcopyrite, Ore processing, .... Valuable minerals are thus extracted from the ore by means of flotation separation, ... each other and from worthless gauge minerals by the froth flotation process.
Dec 2, 2014 ... The highest copper recovery of concentrate was found as 61.35% ... concentration, and pulp density on extraction of copper were ... Keywords: Copper Minerals, Flotation, Agitating Leaching ...... separation, and acid leaching processes. ... by froth flotation whereas oxide copper ores are treated with acid...
About 50% of the world's molybdenite (MoS2) concentrate is evolved from its ... such as China, USA, Chile, Canada, Russia, Armenia, Peru, Iran and ... the molybdenum recovery being lower than copper in the bulk flotation circuit at the ... Molybdenite-bearing copper sulphide ores are typically beneficiated by froth flotation.
Please leave your message here! Our technical sales will contact with you as soon as possible! | <urn:uuid:90127cdd-3912-4992-b84b-c4d3eddc2c2e> | {
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Wouldn’t you love to know, with almost absolute certainty, where a specific wild food grows? I’m not talking about merely being able to recite a particular habitat characteristic of a specific plant or mushroom, but rather really knowing, before even setting out on your foraging adventure, where your organism of interest can be found.
For example, reading in a field guide, you will learn that wild rice can generally be found in bodies of flowing water, such as rivers, streams, and shallow lakes that have an inlet and outlet. Morel mushrooms, you will read, are associated with old apple orchards and stands of tulip poplar, ash, beech, maple, and dead or dying elm trees.
It’s one thing to verbalize this information. It’s another to truly know and understand where these habitats actually exist.
“… shallow lakes with an inlet and outlet? Where the heck are those?”
“… old apple orchards? I don’t even know where to begin.”
In this post, I am going to present an easy and simplified guide to locating, identifying, and harvesting wild edibles, using wild cranberries as an example. Many blogs and field guides will lay out exact habitats for wild organisms, providing extremely detailed text-book descriptions. This is important information, and a great starting point. It is my intention to explain a bit further how I then use this information to go out and find, with certainty, the exact food for which I am looking.
Stalking the wild cranberries
Use a field guide to learn habitat, defining features, physical description, and proper season of harvesting.
As previously stated, a field guide is an excellent starting tool. How can you find anything without knowing exactly what it is you are looking for? While the question may appear to be a metaphysical one, it is certainly relevant to the topic at hand.
The wild cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is a trailing evergreen shrub with leaves oblong-elliptic and entire (click on the image above to view details). Its habitat generally includes slightly acidic bogs, swamps, peaty wetlands and, occasionally, poorly drained meadows. The fruit hardly needs a description, as the cultivated cranberry, found inhabiting supermarkets across the country, appears quite the same. In the wild, the fruit is (no surprise) red, sour, and 10-20 millimeters in size, hanging from pedicels 2-3 centimeters long. The small cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos) presents slight physical differences, though it can be used and eaten in the same manner as the large wild cranberry. Both fruits ripen in the autumn months.
Ask yourself, “Have I been to an area that includes the specified habitat?”
It’s a simple question: Have you ever stumbled upon bogs, swamps, peaty wetlands, or poorly drained meadows? Think for a moment. It is likely that you have invested a good portion of your time exploring the wilderness, whether through foraging adventures, hiking, camping, mountain biking, climbing, or any other outdoor excursions. Can you ever remember a habitat resembling the one characteristic of wild cranberries?
If so, go there when the time is right (supermarkets don’t count). If not, read on.
Remember the old adage: “Ask, and you shall receive.” Truer words were never spoken.
You can approach this step one of two ways: Ask others directly if they know where wild cranberries grow, or ask them if they’re aware of any bogs, swamps, or peaty wetlands in your general area. I find this step rather effective in fostering the success of my hunt, with the latter question yielding more results than the former (secret spots are hard to part with).
Who to ask? Now, I understand that rules and regulations apply regarding the harvesting of wild plants and mushrooms in certain areas, and I’ll provide the usual disclaimer: know the guidelines in your targeted area. Having said that, contacting community and state parks and speaking to park staff officials can yield positive results. Emails, phone calls, and personal interactions (the latter being my go-to method) have all yielded success in my experiences when asking both questions (Do you know where wild cranberries grow? Do you know of any bogs in the area?). Other groups to survey include naturalists, local foragers, and those who frequent online foraging forums.
And of course, naturalist-led walks, workshops, and events are excellent educational opportunities to learn your land firsthand, both through the learning experience itself, as well as through the ability to ask event leaders and participants the aforementioned questions.
Use a search engine
Type “(your state) wild cranberries” into your favorite search engine. Additionally, search the wild cranberry habitat by typing “(your state) bog” into a search engine. Don’t limit your search to the first page of search results. Rather, keep digging deeper, through state park websites, research materials, personal blogs, and online forums. Chances are good that you will discover pertinent information leading to an area replete with wild cranberries.
Use a topographic map
“How little is on an ordinary map! How little, I mean, that concerns the walker and the lover of nature.” – Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau surely wasn’t talking about a topographic map, as this particular tool contains a detailed and graphic representation of natural and cultural features, including water, relief, and vegetation. This resource is especially helpful in the search for wild cranberries. If you recall, cranberries typically inhabit bogs, swamps, and peaty wetlands. Lucky for us, this habitat is featured on a topographic map.
Accessing a topographic map of your area is easy. To view free maps, check out http://www.mytopo.com/maps/
I am not affiliated with the website in any way, though I find it useful when searching for particular habitats, in this case – bogs. Now, let’s imagine you are scanning your area using a topographic map, and you discover something that looks like this:
If located within the general geographic location of wild cranberries (Pennsylvania, for sure; Oklahoma, not likely), this is most certainly an area where your coveted fruits may be found. Examine further the general area, seeing if there are more bogs nearby, if the land is public, and whether or not the land is accessible to humans (hiking in 20 miles for cranberries displays some serious dedication).
Become an observer of habitats
With each adventure into the wilderness, take note of the habitats you encounter. Write down your experiences. Develop a catalog of ecosystems. When hiking a favorite trail, for instance, notice that habitats can morph and evolve every few miles, starting with a hemlock forest lining a river valley, moving upland into an area with hardwood trees, and eventually opening up into a peaty bog. Each habitat can be characterized by distinct species that live and thrive in these areas. As you begin your search for wild cranberries, perhaps you will recall this trail and explore its bog in more depth. Use every experience in nature to absorb the features of the land. When the time comes, any future search for a wild food will be met with less resistance, more ease, and more fun.
The guidelines outlined above can be used not just for wild cranberries, but for any wild food. Looking back to our wild rice example, for instance, we can use a topographic map to locate a lake that contains an inlet and an outlet in our general area. For morel mushrooms, we can join a local mushroom club, attend its walks, and ask the trusted identifiers for help in locating old apple orchards, tulip poplars, and dead or dying elm trees (good luck asking them about their favorite spots though).
Now, I understand that not every wild food will be located with absolute ease 100% of the time. And no single step listed above will work at the exclusion of the others. However, if you do go through this list and apply the information as best you can, I have confidence that you can refine and vastly improve your skills in locating, identifying, and harvesting your wild food of choice.
Thanks for reading, and as always … happy foraging!
Oh yes, one more thing. I’d love for you to check out this recent video I created regarding … you guessed it … wild cranberries!
FREE Guide to Medicinal Mushrooms!
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Tomb find confirms powerful women ruled Peru long ago
- From: AFP
- August 26, 2013
THE discovery in Peru of another tomb belonging to a pre-Hispanic priestess, the eighth in more than two decades, confirms that powerful women ruled this region 1200 years ago, archaeologists said.
The remains of the woman from the Moche - or Mochica - civilisation were discovered in late July in an area called La Libertad in the country's northern Chepan province.
It is one of several finds in this region that have amazed scientists. In 2006, researchers came across the famous 'Lady of Cao' - who died about 1700 years ago and is seen as one of the first female rulers in Peru.
"This find makes it clear that women didn't just run rituals in this area but governed here and were queens of Mochica society," project director Luis Jaime Castillo told AFP.
"It is the eighth priestess to be discovered," he added. "Our excavations have only turned up tombs with women, never men."
The priestess was in an "impressive 1200-year-old burial chamber" the archaeologist said, pointing out that the Mochica were known as master craftsmen.
"The burial chamber of the priestess is 'L'-shaped and made of clay, covered with copper plates in the form of waves and sea birds," Castillo said.
Near the neck is a mask and a knife, he added.
The tomb, decorated with pictures in red and yellow, also has ceramic offerings - mostly small vases - hidden in about 10 niches on the side.
"Accompanying the priestess are bodies of five children, two of them babies, and two adults, all of whom were sacrificed," Castillo said, noting there were two feathers atop the coffin.
Julio Saldana, the archaeologist responsible for work in the burial chamber, said the discovery of the tomb confirms the village of San Jose de Moro is a cemetery of the Mochica elite, with the most impressive tombs belonging to women. | <urn:uuid:62400884-f675-4904-a73f-d6bef6def2a5> | {
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Clement of Rome
Our father among the saints Clement of Rome (also called Clemens Romanus to distinguish him from Clement of Alexandria) was the third in succession after the Apostle Peter as bishop of Rome. Clement is known mainly for the letter he wrote to the Corinthians in about AD 96. He is counted among the apostolic fathers. His feast day is November 23 in the west, but in the east he is remembered on November 25).
Little is known of Clement’s life. What is known is from writers who wrote over a hundred years after his death, often inconsistently, and with great variety. These writers include Tertullian, Jerome, Irenaeus, Epiphanius, and Eusebius. His birth date is not known. He may have met Ss Peter and Paul and may have been ordained by St Peter. There are confusing propositions that associate him with the Clement in Paul’s letters (Phil. 4:3 (KJV)) and to a consul T. Flavius Clemens associations that now are considered not probable.
Clement is believed to have been named bishop of Rome in about 88 and held the position until about 98, when he died. These dates are also uncertain. Early sources noted that he died a natural death, perhaps in Greece. A tradition dated from the ninth century tells of his martyrdom in Crimea in 102 by drowning when thrown overboard from a boat with a ship’s anchor tied to him.
The letter sent in about the year 96 to the Church of Corinth in the name of the Church of Rome has been attributed to Clement. The letter was sent in an attempt to restore peace and unity in the Corinthian church, where apparently a few violent people had revolted against the leadership of the church community.
A second letter to the Corinthians had also been attributed to Clement based upon its inclusion in a Greek manuscript that included Clement’s first letter, with the title of “Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians.” But, when a missing ending to the “letter” was found, it proved to be a homily of unknown authorship.
- O God of our Fathers,
- Take not away Your mercy from us,
- But ever act towards us according to Your kindness,
- And by the prayers of Your saints
- Guide our lives in peace!
Kontakion - (Tone 4)
- O Clement and Peter,
- You are worthy of all praise!
- Holy and unassailable strongholds of the Church;
- Inspired models of true faith and devotion:
- Guard us all through your intercessions!
- Catholic Encyclopedia: Pope Clement I
- Wikipedia: Pope Clement I
- Hieromartyr Clement the Pope of Rome from OCA Web site.
Clement of Rome
St. Anacletus (Cletus)
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SPECIAL EDUCATION & THE INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION PROGRAM (IEP)
Special education programs are in place at JHPS to serve children from LKG to Grade 10 who have a learning difficulty that might interfere with the educational process. Such difficulties include, but are not limited hearing impairment, physical impairment, emotional disturbance, and developmental delay, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The focus of the special education program is to facilitate access to an appropriate education, regardless of the disability, to help the student achieve academic and life success. Our in house special educators are specially trained to work with preschool children, adolescents and their families.
Children with learning disabilities often form negative opinions of school and education. The need for more special education classes offered to these children is a necessary addition to the school system. All children have the possibility of a bright future ahead of them. All children should have an enjoyment of learning not a fear of it. The advantages of enrolling a child with learning difficulties in the IEP have the following advantages:
Facilitate Learning and Academic Progress:
The Individualized Education Program facilitates academic progress by providing the least restrictive environment and tailored instruction and assessment to the individual by our trained in house Special Educators. A written plan, called an Individual Education Program or IEP is drawn up to outline special accommodations and modifications within the educational environment for each special education student. This plan’s focus is structuring the elements that drive the educational process so that the child can benefit from the educational environment. Without the child attending IEP, the student’s learning difficulty/ disability might stymie educational efforts.
Teach Life Skills:
Some special education programs are geared toward teaching life skills, such as dressing, personal hygiene, safety, handling money and day to day decision making. Students in these programs are also educated on classroom expectations and often engage in programs that provide classroom adjustment.
Modify Student Behavior:
Special education programs also teach behavior that is appropriate and acceptable by society. Some students with disabilities may exhibit behaviors that are objectionable, offensive or disruptive to social and classroom situations. Special education allows for some tolerance of these behaviors within the instructional environment, as teachers work to educate the student academically and behaviorally. Students who are overly aggressive or exhibit behaviors that are socially inappropriate benefit from special education programs. | <urn:uuid:2adfcc3d-3511-4719-a4c1-136c39624258> | {
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There are many ways of producing videos. It might be great if students engage in videography and animation for their projects. See this post from FT4T about “Create Stop Motion Animations with KomaKoma“. Potential usage in the classroom:
- Demonstrating mathematics understanding with manipulatives and/or hand writing
- Showing the process carried out of a science experiment step by step
- Using the time lapse feature to study a slow moving process
We are all familiar with BYOD (bring your won device). BYOE stands for bring your own everything. See how 4 higher ed IT leaders discuss this phenomenon, its impact on teaching and learning, and its challenges and opportunities. More.
From Faculty Focus: “You know that trusted colleague who always has a smart way of solving some of the stickiest teaching problems? The one who’s a rich repository of pedagogically effective techniques, new ideas, strategies that work and pragmatic things you can do in the college classroom?
Now you can access all that knowledge in a free app: The Teaching Professor Tips app.
The Teaching Professor Tips app delivers a daily teaching tip to your smartphone or tablet. Brief and to the point, each tip provides a nugget of practical wisdom regarding assignment strategies, student engagement, classroom management, grading and feedback, instructional vitality, or other topics of interest to today’s college faculty.
The app lets users: Continue reading
“OpenStax College, the Rice University-based publisher of free, peer-reviewed textbooks, has partnered with the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Press to produce a new introductory microbiology textbook.” Should become available for free online in Spring 2016. More here.
Great collection of blogs related to IT on campus. A must read and browse in the future! More…
“Educational videos lasting 10 minutes or less may be the optimal length, according to The State of Video in Education survey, which highlights trends in video use in schools. Data also show a majority — 91% — of respondents believe video can boost student satisfaction. More
“According to eCampus News, the concept combines elements of Twitter and massive open online courses to offer a feed of short videos and other educational content to subscribers.” More on latest EdDive. | <urn:uuid:3920ad1e-97a1-42f7-96df-b76ee2cc9d46> | {
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Do pesticides cause CCD? A question that beekeepers have been asking ever since CCD hit the national scene in 2007. In a series of articles Randy Oliver has done an exceptional job of distilling much of the recent research results into a meaningful update for beekeepers relative to this question (Oliver, R. 2010; See also ScientificBeekeeping.com). Researchers too have been asking this question and the CAPS project has specific objectives to investigate the factors responsible for CCD. In a 2008 article we gave our initial results of the first 108 samples analyzed for pesticide levels in pollen, beebread, and wax and indicated that the levels found were reason for concern about pesticide interactions, sub-lethal impacts, and interactions with other stressors (Frazier et al, 2008). Here we report some of our more recent progress on these topics and include results from not only the CAPS project efforts, but also from other researchers in addressing these questions.
What can we say about honey bee exposure to pesticides?
One of the first responses to the CCD eruption in 2007 was the immediate sampling of collapsing colonies across the U.S. by the first cooperating group of researchers from university, state departments of Ag and the USDA. Soon afterwards a migratory beekeeper study was initiated to follow selected migratory beekeepers from Florida through Maine and to sample their colonies after each stop along the way. It was from these studies that over 800 samples of bees, pollen, and wax have been analyzed for the presence of 171 different pesticides. We found that the 350 pollen samples collected contained at least one systemic insecticide 60% of the time and nearly half had the miticides fluvalinate and coumaphos as well as the fungicide chlorothalonil. In bee collected pollen we found chlorothalonil at levels up to 99 ppm and the insecticides aldicarb, carbaryl, chlorpyrifos and imidacloprid; the fungicides boscalid, captan and myclobutanil; and the herbicide pendimethalin at 1 ppm levels along with chlorothalonil. The pollen samples contained an average of six different pesticides each with one sample containing 39 different pesticides. Almost all comb and foundation wax samples (98%) were contaminated with up to 204 and 94 ppm, respectively, of fluvalinate and coumaphos, and lower amounts of amitraz degradates. We concluded that the 98 pesticides and metabolites detected in mixtures up to 214 ppm in bee pollen alone represented a remarkably high level for toxicants in the food of brood and adults. While exposure to many of these neurotoxicants elicits acute and sublethal reductions in honey bee fitness, the effects of these materials in combinations and their direct involvement in CCD remain to be determined.
Two other studies have measured multiple factors associated with CCD and non-CCD colonies across the U.S. to see what risk factors were predictive of CCD (vanEnglesdorp, et al, 2009, 2010). The first study looked at one factor at a time among 61 variables as potential causes of CCD and found that no one factor could account for CCD. The second study borrowed from a proven approach used in epidemiological studies for unknown diseases, incorporating all types of factors that might be associated with the phenomenon and then subjecting them to a statistical approach of classification and regression tree analysis known as CART (Saegerman, et al., 2004). Using 55 different variables and determiing their relationships and interactions to CCD indicated that factors measuring colony stress (e.g., adult bee physiological measures, such as fluctuating asymmetry or mass of head) were important discriminating values, while six of the 19 variables having the greatest discriminatory value were pesticide levels in different hive matrices. These pesticide levels included coumpahos in brood, esfenvalerate in wax, coumaphos in wax, iprodione in wax, docofol in beebread, and chlorothalonil in wax. Coumaphos levels in brood had the highest discriminatory value of 100% and was highest in control (healthy) colonies. This may seem surprising, yet we do not know the timeliness of treatments for Varroa in these colonies, or if the bees have been selected for increased pesticide tolerance, either one of which could account for this outcome. While this study used an unbiased analysis of multiple factors that might be associated with CCD, the results certainly indicate that pesticides are very likely involved and that interactions with other stressors are very likely factors contributing to CCD and the decline of honey bee health.
Although our work represents the largest data set of pesticides in honey bee colonies to date, and was drawn from samples collected across 23 states and a Canadian province, it was not the product of a well designed systematic survey of honey bee colonies in the U.S. It thus does not give us a clear picture of the current state of pesticide residues in honey bee colonies. Such a study is critically needed yet we know of no current plans to accomplish this expensive task. In addition, the number of pesticides registered for use in the U.S. is over 1200 active ingredients distributed among some 18,000 products, which makes the chemical use landscape for U.S. beekeepers very different from those in other countries such as France, where some 500 chemicals are registered or in England where fewer than 300 are registered (Chauzat et al. 2010: Thompson, personal communication). Studies of pesticide contamination in bee colonies in other countries such as France, Germany, the Netherlands, or Belgium, thus may not tell us much about the likelihood of contamination of bee colonies in the U.S. (Chauzat et al, 2010; Genersch et al. 2010; Tennekes, 2010; Nguyen, et al. 2010). Pesticide exposure for migratory colonies is likely very different from that of stationary colonies, and perhaps also very different from that of colonies keep by organic beekeepers, yet this also is not well documented. Pesticide use records are complete only for the state of California, in other states data are currently unavailable, or vary limited in scope (Grube et al, 2011). There are thus many unanswered questions regarding pollinator exposure to pesticides. We do not currently have an accurate picture of what pesticides are used, where and in what amounts, nor do we have accurate measures of just what the maximum exposure is in agricultural or urban settings on blooming plants. Once contaminated pollen is collected, the potential transformations of pesticides in bee bread and royal jelly are also currently unknown. Clearly the potential for pesticide involvement in declining honey bee health is far from being understood, and it is clearly too early to discount them as key factors associated with CCD.
What can we say about the risk assessment of pesticides on bee health?
There is much truth in the adage ‘you are what you eat.’ A parallel in pesticide analysis is ‘you only find what you look for.’ Our approach in documenting pesticides in apiary samples (Mullin et al., 2010) has been to search for a wide sweep of pesticides (> 200) that are used frequently in hives and around bees where they forage. For many published studies that document pesticide residues, this has not been the case, and more emphasis has been placed on the neonicotinoid imidacloprid and other systemic insecticides with high bee toxicity. A focused study on one pesticide or a single class of chemicals allows for use of a more sensitive method of analysis, while an affordable method that detects many pesticides from widely different chemical classes is compromised by not attaining the lowest limit of detection (LOD) for every pesticide analyzed. We desired a more complete assessment of the toxic pesticide burden that bees encounter instead of a biased approach to search for only chemicals renowned for their bee toxicity. A caveat of this approach is that the attainable LOD for a focused method will generally be lower; the more chemically variable and greater number of pesticides in the screen increases costs of analysis while reducing, at least for some pesticides, the sensitivity of their detection (increasing LOD). Nevertheless, we chose an analysis that incorporates hive miticides and their metabolites in addition to a large number of potential pesticides from their foraging arena as a better way to measure potential sources of risk for honey bees.
Assessing the risk of pesticides and their metabolites requires a sensitive method for their analysis. However, is the most sensitive LOD the primary criteria for choosing a method of analysis? It may be if your major goal is to find a particular chemical. The lower the LOD, the more frequently it is detected in the samples analyzed. Thus the percentage of samples with detections for a given pesticide increases with a LOD at parts per trillion (ppt) > parts per billion (ppb) > parts per million (ppm). However, risk assessors are more concerned about choosing methods that allow you to predict hazards and risks of exposure at levels above the no observable effect level (NOEL) or lowest observed effect level (LOEL). For bee foods of known acute toxicity or behavioral effects, and chronic sublethal effects on longevity and reproduction, generally a LOD greater than 1ppb is used which is sufficient even for the most toxic pesticides such as imidacloprid.
Assessing the risk of a pesticide to bees uses the effects after exposure such as the acute LD50 (lethal dose for 50% of treated bees) and long-term chronic or sub-lethal EC50 (effective concentration that reduces by 50% the growth, learning, longevity etc. of treated bees). The risk of exposure is predicted by both frequency and mean residue amounts in pollen, nectar, water and wax, and the persistence (time to remove 50% = half-life) and fate (degradation and metabolism rates) of the pesticide in the hive or an exposed bee. Knowing the physicochemical properties of a pesticide’s active ingredient (octanol (oil)/water partition coefficient, water solubility, vapor pressure) will aid in predicting routes of exposure and the potential for bioconcentration. For example, the systemic imidacloprid in comparison to the miticide fluvalinate is about 10,000,000 times less soluble in oil than in water and greater than 700,000 times more water soluble. Thus fluvalinate would be predicted to persist in the beeswax and fat tissues of bees, while imidacloprid would be ‘washed’ more readily out of the hive or be excreted by the bees.
Are neonicotinods the major
pesticide risk for bees?
Systemic neonicotinoid use has greatly increased recently through transgenic seed treatments and use on many other major crops, ornamentals, turf and in structural pest control. Bee kills in France, Germany and the U.S. have been associated with imidacloprid- and clothianidin-treated seeds (Minister of Ag, 2008). Acute LD50s average 28 and 24 ng/bee respectively, for imidacloprid and clothianidin, although sublethal effects have been reported at much lower levels (Decoutrye et al. 2004). Generally the lowest observed sublethal effects for imidacloprid in the lab are at 1 ng/bee which is equivalent to 10 ppb for an average 100 mg bee. Achieving a 10 ppb dose would require consuming pollen with residues of 250 ppb imidacloprid at a consumption rate of 4 mg pollen/day (4% of bee’s body weight). This high residue level is never found when label-rates of Gaucho are used as a seed treatment (generally 1-5 ppb in pollen). Nectar residues of imidacloprid are usually less than in pollen, although more is consumed over the bee’s life. However, even if a forager ingests 10% of their body weight in nectar per day, it would require 100 ppb of imidacloprid in the nectar to achieve a 10 ppb dose per day, regardless of the high turnover rate of this water-soluble insecticide in the bee. Imidacloprid is known to be rapidly metabolized and is excreted by adult bees with a half-life of about five hours (Suchail et al., 2004). This means that more than double the above dose of imidacloprid in the food is required to maintain a body level that keeps up with its rapid clearance from the bee. It is unlikely that doses of neonicotinoids from routine systemic seed treatments will attain the necessary > 100 ppb levels in pollen or nectar to acutely impair honey bees. Dusts from improperly formulated or applied seed treatments, however, (Minister of Ag, 2008) or guttation water from glandular exudations on treated plants (Girolami et al, 2009) do have the necessary high residues levels to directly kill bees (Wallner, 2009).
Our residue results based on 1120 samples which include Mullin et al. (2010) and subsequently more than 230 additional samples do not support sufficient amounts and frequency of imidacloprid in pollen to broadly impact bees. For all samples, only 41 (3.7%) contained imidacloprid above the 2 ppb LOD with a mean residue of 12.3 ppb (scoring non-detects at 0 ppb). Among the other neonicotinoids, 66 detections (5.9%) were found for acetamiprid, 59 (5.3%) for thiacloprid, 3 (0.3%) for thiamethoxam, 2 (0.2%) for clothianidin and 0 for dinotefuran, and 9.9% of samples contained at least one neonicotinoid, mostly the less toxic acetamiprid and thiacloprid. This is in contrast to pyrethroids which were found in 79.4% of samples at 36-times higher amounts than the neonicotinoids, on average. For the 503 pollen samples that included some mixtures such as pollen with some nectar, wax etc, or whole anthers, which would maximize neonicotinoid levels, only 15.3% contained any neonicotinoid (Figure 1). The mean neonicotinoid residue was 37 ppb (scoring non-detects as 0 ppb), of which only 6.7 ppb was imidacloprid. Pyrethroids, by comparison, were present at a mean residue of 106 ppb and a frequency of 80.3% in pollen samples (Figure 1). These included fenpropathrin (LD50 = 50 ng/bee), cyhalothrin (79 ng/bee), cyfluthrin (22 ng/bee), bifenthrin (15 ng/bee), deltamethrin (50 ng/bee) and prallethrin (28 ng/bee); all of which are similar in acute bee toxicity to imidacloprid (LD50 = 28 ng/bee) and clothianidin (24 ng/bee). Indeed, if a relative hazard to honey bees is calculated as the product of mean residue times frequency detected divided by the LD50, the hazard due to pyrethroid residues is three-times greater than that of neonicotinoids detected in pollen samples (Figure 2).
The LOD has great bearing on the frequency of detections for a particular pesticide, with frequency increasing with decreasing LOD. If the most important factor for risk assessment is the mean residue level, this only slightly increases for an increase in LOD. For example, our 503 pollen samples had only 30 imidacloprid detections (mean of 6.7 ppb overall with non-detects scored 0 ppb). If our non-detects are scored as 0.1 ppb anticipated to be detected with a highly sensitive analysis, the mean ppb for the 503 samples would be < 6.8 ppb. Scoring non-detects at our LOD of 2 ppb would only increase the mean detection to < 8.6 ppb imidacloprid overall. These modest residue increases would not be significant for a consideration of the exposure of bees to imidacloprid.
What about pyrethroids as major bee toxicants?
Pyrethroids bioaccumulate in wax and bees due to their high fat solubility in contrast to neonicotinoids. In wax, 312 of 340 samples contained pyrethroids versus two with imidacloprid and four with thiacloprid, with the average pyrethroid residue content > 64,000 times higher than the total neonicotinoid. While fluvalinate prevailed (307 detections), many other detections of esfenvalerate (50), fenpropathrin (43), bifenthrin (37), cypermethrin (28), cyfluthrin (26), pyrethrins (16), cyhalothrin (13), deltamethrin (8) and permethrin (8) were found. A similar analysis for residues in 241 bee, brood and queen samples showed only four samples with neonicotinoids, two from bee kill incidences correlated with imidacloprid and thiamethoxam/clothianidin, respectively. The two other samples contained low amounts acetamiprid and thiamethoxam. Even with the higher neonicotinoid residues due to bee kills, a dozen pyrethroids distributed within 70% of our bee samples had a mean residue (non-detects = 0 ppb) of 357 ppb, 178 times greater than the 2 ppb for the neonicotinoids. Pyrethroid prevalence and persistence in the hive thus likely has more consequences for colony survival than the water-soluble neonicotinoids. The only other major insecticide detected in our hive samples with high toxicity was the organophosphate chlorpyrifos (LD50 = 122 ng/bee) in 42.6% of samples with an average detection of 36.3 ppb. This OP degrades more rapidly and is less persistent than pyrethroids. However, higher residues of the less toxic neonicotinoids acetamiprid and thiacloprid (Iwasa et al., 2004) or of pyrethroids (Pilling and Jepson, 1993; Johnson et al., 2011) in pollens with even higher amounts of fungicides may have considerable impact on bee health via their synergistic combinations. Pyrethroids disable foraging of bees at levels of 9 ng permethrin per bee (90 ppb) Cox et al. 1984) and 2.5 ng deltamethrin per bee (vanDame et al. 1995), which is of a potency similar to that of imidacloprid.
The in-hive miticide fluvalinate is one of the most fat-soluble or lipophilic of pyrethroids, with a water solubility less than 12 ppb or 12 µg/liter (EPA-OPP 2005), and is functionally insoluble in water or sucrose solutions without added solvents, surfactants or other formulation aids. Many acute toxicity bioassay results have been reported for this pesticide, with LD50s ranging from 65.85 down to 0.2 µg/bee for honey bees (Atkins et al. 1981, EPA-OPP 2005). To our knowledge, this is the most variable LD50 result noted among pesticide bioassays on bees, and most likely indicates that some of these bioassays were conducted, particular those for oral toxicity, without this pyrethroid being truly in solution. This highly non-polar chemical can adsorb to plastic or even glass walls of solution containers or application vessels in lieu of sufficient solubilizer additions, leading to extraneous results.
Sub-Lethal impacts of pesticides; a new arena of research
If we acknowledge that multiple pesticide residues in bee collected pollen are 'typical', and consider the number of possible impacts of ingesting this pollen, first by nurse bees, then by brood and finally by the queen, it is not surprising that we have not yet determined all of the possible outcomes. Almost all studies to date have focused on the action of a single pesticide so that very few combinations have been studied. We feel that this is a major limitation to our current level of understanding of pesticide impacts on bees.
When bees are exposed to a toxic dose of pesticides, dead bees surrounding the hive entrance are an obvious result. What is not so obvious are the consequences of lower doses of one or more pesticides that may be encountered while foraging, or from collected pollen and nectar brought back to the hive. It is these sub-lethal impacts that have become the focus of much of the current research on pesticides. Many studies have documented impacts of low levels of pesticide exposure that when ingested for longer periods of time result in more chronic impacts. Such actions have been reviewed for many beneficial insects as well as for pollinators (Desneux, et al, 2007). The impacts of such consequences have been many and varied and have led to the loss of many kinds of beneficial insects, not just pollinators. One such example is the loss of important insect biocontrol agents in apple orchards, which has allowed the emergence of new pests in the absence of their natural enemies; all unintended outcomes of sub-lethal effects on different insects with different sensitivities (Agnelo et al, 2009). What are the parallel kinds of impacts on honey bees and other native pollinators? The answers are only beginning to emerge, but current research is finding some surprising results. For honey bees low levels of pesticides have been shown to reduce associative learning of individual bees in laboratory studies using the proboscis extension response (Decourtye et al, 2004). Altering maze learning performance in free flying bees (Decourtye, et al. 2010) and the loss of foraging efficiency in radio tagged bees, (Decourtye, et al. 2011). The precocious foraging of nurse bees from IGR insecticides is also documented (Thompson et al. 2007). These changes in learning and behavior can potentially alter normal colony level functions, yet colony-level impacts have remain to be verified.
Honey bee larvae reared in cells contaminated with the miticides fluvalenate or coumaphos show a reduced developmental rate and delayed adult emergence along with reduced adult longevity (Wu et al, 2011). These effects can have multiple consequences for the colony including increased developmental time for Varroa mites, reduced colony population dynamics and build up, as well as potential shifts in worker division of labor. Whether or not the pesticides associated with wax in the CART study (above) have similar impacts on larvae remains to be determined. Fungicides have long been known to synergize with some pesticides in laboratory toxicity bioassays (Iwasi et al, 2004). More recently, we have determined that combinations of formulated pesticides and fungicides fed to either adult worker bees or to larvae can have synergistic effects on mortality.What happens when three or four or five different pesticide mixtures are ingested by honey bee larvae or adults for substantial periods of time? Studies to determine some of these impacts have been completed and will be published later this year.
What can beekeepers do to
decrease the potential pesticide exposure and/or respond to a pesticide incident?
Honey bees are supremely good at finding pollen and nectar sources in their environments. The average foraging range of a single colony is thought to be a 3.75 mile radius most of the time with trips up to 6.75 miles in times of great need (Figure 3). In a typical U.S. setting this range includes 28,000 + acres with a lot of different plants, some of which are in bloom at any given time, and some of which may have been treated with pesticides. If the average colony can find the most nutritious nectar source within a two hour window, then the incoming flow of nectar and pollen is very dynamic indeed (Seeley, 1995). How much of this foraging range do you normally consider as the pollen and nectar sources for your colony? If this includes areas beyond your direct control, then this is an important dynamic for you to consider in your colony’s potential health. Pesticide applications are made by many people for lots of reasons, but with these beyond your control, the typical colony is at the mercy of these events in their foraging environment most of the time.
In Adams county Pennsylvania in April, apples are in need of pollinators. Contiguous acres of apple orchards are all blooming, yet colonies placed in orchards with five acre blocks in full bloom collect anywhere from two – 70% of their total pollen from these apples on any given day. The pesticide history in this orchard is thus not a very good predictor of the potential pollen pesticide residues that are likely to wind up in the colonies placed there for pollination. Thus commercial beekeepers and local beekeepers alike may be surprised by the mixed sources of pollen in their colonies and the ranges from which they have been gathered. This has important implications for the pesticide residues to be found in any given colony at any given time. Having a landscape level appreciation for the foraging range of your colonies will help give you a realistic perspective on potential sources of pesticide contamination. Drive around your area and take a look at the possible places where pesticides may be used and talk to the people involved.
1. Communicate with individuals/facilities that are likely users of pesticides in your foraging area and encourage them not to spray insecticides or fungicides during bloom on any plants.
2. Encourage growers of bee pollinated crops to plant buffers of blooming plants for pollinators and home owners to 'plant for pollinators'
3. Replace combs often to prevent pesticide build-up.
4. If you have a pesticide poisoning incident report it. Verified pesticide levels in your dead bees make this a much stronger incident report.
Pesticides with known toxicity to honey bees have a warning on the label that must be followed by anyone who applies the material.
'This product is highly toxic to bees exposed to direct treatment or residues on blooming crops or weeds. Do not apply this product or allow it to drift to blooming crops if bees are visiting the treatment area.'
While these are explicit warnings, it is far too easy to ignore the presence of honey bees and especially native species of bees when spraying during bloom. The important point is that if pesticides are applied anytime during bloom, bees will be killed; even the shortest duration pesticides like pyrethroids are not disappearing overnight, so spraying late one day does not guarantee that bees will not receive a toxic dose the following day. Not following these restrictions constitutes not following the law, and bee kills resulting from such uses should be reported as a bee kill incident. To do this, each beekeeper must be vigilant about the health of their colonies and if pesticide exposure and resulting bee kills are suspected, then an immediate response is best. Collect bees and keep them in a freezer until they can be sent for analysis. We have been able to support a beekeeper cost share program to help offset the high costs of pesticide analyses, so samples may be submitted to us by contacting Maryann Frazier at [email protected]. Bee incidents should also be reported to your state department of agriculture or regulatory authority overseeing pesticide use in your state, as well as to the manufacturer of the pesticide involved. Along with contacting these agencies, we would also recommend that you make an incident report to the Environmental Protection Agency by visiting the website and completing the form as completely as you can. Without such reporting, the regulatory agencies have no information to indicate that anything is of concern about current pesticides or the manner in which they are being used or misused. The experiences of our migratory beekeepers indicates that pesticide misuse is a widespread occurrence and incident reporting is the best method of countering these actions.
Agnello, A., A. Atanassov, J.C. Bergh, D.J. Biddinger, L.J. Gut, M.J. Haas, J.K. Harper, H.W. Hogmire, L.A. Hull, L.F. Kime, G. Krawczyk, P.S. McGhee, J.P. Nyrop, W.H. Reissig, P.W. Shearer, R. W. Straub, R.T. Villanueva, and J.F. Walgenbach. 2009. Reduced-risk pest management programs for eastern U.S. apple and peach orchards: a 4–year regional project. American Entomologist 55(3): 184-197.
Atkins, E.L., D. Kellum, and K.W. Atkins. 1981. Reducing pesticide hazards to honey bees: Mortality prediction & integrated management strategies. U CA Div. Agr. Sci. Leafl. 2883.
Chauzat, M-P. A-C. Martel, C. Gougoule, P. Porta, J. Lachaize, S. Zeggane, M. Aupert, P. Carpentierand J-P. Faucon. An Assessment of Honey bee Colony Matgricdes, Apis mellifera Hymenoptera:Apidae) to Monitor Pesticide Presence in Continental France. Environmental Toxicology and (Chemistry, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 103-111.
Cox, R.L., and W.T. Wilson. 1984. Effects of permethrin on the behavior of individually tagged honey bees, Apis mellifera L (Hymenoptera, Apidae). Environ. Entomol. 13: 375-378.
Decourtye, A., C. Armengaud, M. Ranou, J. Devillers, S. Cluzeau, M. Gauthier, M. Pham-Delegue. 2004. Imidacloprid impairs memory and brain metalbolism in the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.). Pestic. Biochem. Physiol. 78:83-92.
Decourtye, A., C. Armengaud, M. Ranou, J. Devillers, S. Cluzeau, M. Gauthier, M. Pham-Delegue. 2004. Imidacloprid impairs memory and brain metalbolism in the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.). Pestic. Biochem. Physiol. 78:83-92.
Decourtye A, Lefort S, Devillers J, Gauthier M, Aupinel P, Tisseur M. 2009. Sublethal effects of fipronil on the ability of honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) to orientate in a complex maze, Julius-Kühn-Archiv; 423:75-83.
Decourtye A, Devillers J, Aupinel P, Brun F, Bagnis C, Fourrier J, Gauthier M. 2011. Honeybee tracking with microchips: a new methodology to measure the effects of pe | <urn:uuid:c891fd08-9666-4d96-b705-c0d8e1078fa2> | {
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“Nullius in Verba.
(Take nobody’s word for it.)” -Motto of the Royal Society
You know the drill. New ideas come out all the time. Sometimes they’re new theories, sometimes they’re old theories with a new twist, but regardless, we need to ask the question: How good is your theory?
For whatever it’s worth, I came up with a scale for this.
The best ideas are beyond validated. They are confirmed over and over, predict new phenomena that gets verified, and don’t have any self-inconsistencies.
Well, a couple of weeks ago, a new twist on an old idea was proposed by Roger Penrose.
A little background first. Roger Penrose is a really bright guy, and — among physicists and mathematicians — is incredibly well-respected. His specialty is in the physics and mathematics of spacetime, including tilings and tessellations (below).
Penrose has also been unafraid to put speculative ideas out there. He has been unafraid to speculate about the origins of consciousness, but at least some of his ideas were demonstrably wrong. One of his favorite speculative ideas is that of a cyclic Universe, which he’s been touting (and speaking about) for as long as I can remember.
We have a theory of the Universe, and while it doesn’t explicitly rule out cycles, the evidence strongly points towards a different story. As we’ve discussed a number of times, the first step in the Universe’s history that we can sensibly say anything about is inflation.
Whatever the Universe was doing, at some point 13.7 billion years ago, some region of it was expanding exponentially fast, taking whatever shape it was and stretching it flat, across the Universe. At the same time, the tiny quantum fluctuations that happen all around us — all the time, like it or not — also got stretched across the Universe.
When inflation ended, and this energy turned into matter and radiation, the regions with positive fluctuations came out with slightly higher-than-average densities, and the regions with negative fluctuations came out with slightly lower-than-average densities.
A few hundred thousand years later, the overdense regions have grown a little bit thanks to gravity, the underdense regions have shrank a little bit more, and the leftover radiation from the big bang shows us this “fingerprint” in the form of fluctuations on the sky in the cosmic microwave background.
Now, we can use this “fingerprint” to learn about the Universe. If inflationary theory is correct, these fluctuations should follow a
Did Stephen Hawking write his initials in the microwave sky? It certainly looks like it!
But, as a cosmologist, there’s no need to panic. Instead, we ask ourselves if patterns like this come about naturally from the fluctuations we expect, or whether these patterns are indicative of some physics beyond our current understanding of the Universe.
So we not only do our mathematical analyses, we also run simulations of millions and millions of Universes, the way we think it works. How frequently do we expect features like this to show up in our sky? The answer, surprisingly, is very often.
That’s good! That means our picture of the Universe — inflation + the big bang — is perfectly consistent with what we see. Now, let’s take a look at Penrose’s new idea.
He found — quite surprisingly — that there are regions of space, shaped like concentric rings, where the temperatures are much more uniform than average. In other words, the amplitude of the fluctuations are anomalously low in these concentrically-shaped regions of space.
So, you might think to ask yourself, how common are features like this? Is this in conflict with what we think the Universe is supposed to look like, or is this completely reasonable and consistent with what we expect? But Roger Penrose didn’t ask that question.
Instead, this finding was touted — by Penrose — as evidence that inflation is wrong, we live in a cyclic Universe, and these concentric circles are evidence of the Universe that existed before ours.
The kind that’s demonstrably wrong. Why is that my favorite? Because we learn from it.
That’s one of the ways that science advances: we put out speculative ideas at the limits of our understanding, we test them for validity, and if we find the idea doesn’t hold up to the data, we cast it aside. And we do it, at least, until there’s new evidence that causes us to take it up again. So I hope you not only learned a little bit about a new idea, but that you also learned a lot about what we actually know, and how we know it! | <urn:uuid:7ad8157d-77ba-4ee6-80de-75b23d1d5f32> | {
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An anonymous reader quotes an article on Kottke.org: Mathematicians have calculated pi out to more than 13 trillion decimal places, a calculation that took 208 days. NASA's Marc Rayman explains that in order to send out probes and slingshot them accurately throughout the solar system, NASA needs to use only 15 decimal places. Rayman explains, "The most distant spacecraft from Earth is Voyager 1. It is about 12.5 billion miles away. Let's say we have a circle with a radius of exactly that size (or 25 billion miles in diameter) and we want to calculate the circumference, which is pi times the radius times 2. Using pi rounded to the 15th decimal, as I gave above, that comes out to a little more than 78 billion miles. We don't need to be concerned here with exactly what the value is (you can multiply it out if you like) but rather what the error in the value is by not using more digits of pi. In other words, by cutting pi off at the 15th decimal point, we would calculate a circumference for that circle that is very slightly off. It turns out that our calculated circumference of the 25 billion mile diameter circle would be wrong by 1.5 inches. Think about that. We have a circle more than 78 billion miles around, and our calculation of that distance would be off by perhaps less than the length of your little finger." | <urn:uuid:eb58ca36-e9be-45cf-9704-ce3cf4a08634> | {
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The discovery of a long-forgotten gold mining site in the midst of a Southland forest has delayed harvesting while the area is surveyed and plans drawn up for its preservation.
The Southland Times reports that the discovery was made in the Waikaia Forest block to the north of Gore, just as forest manager IFS Growth was preparing to cut the mature Radiata Pines.
Gold mining took place in the Waikaia area in the 19th century so IFS Growth checked with archaeology consultants, Kopuwai Consulting, to see if there were records of any historic mines as part of its harvesting preparations. None were shown, so IFS Growth continued with its plans, until Kopuwai director, Matthew Sole, followed a hunch and discovered vintage aerial shots that pointed to prolific gold mining activities going back 136 years.
The forested area was found to be on part of Muddy Terraces, which was a prolific gold producing site around 1897, and is believed to contain remnants of water races, iron flumes, dams, reservoirs and miner's huts.
Mr Sole told the Southland Times: "To everyone's surprise, we could see an extensive and largely intact gold mining complex consisting of water races, reservoirs, sluice workings and sludge channels. Accompanying early plans also showed hut sites
"What was unusual about the site was that there wasn't much in the way of local knowledge about its existence, but archival newspapers from 1895 and 1897 gave a bit more history, and the names Scrubby and Muddy Terraces."
The Mataura Ensign of August 3, 1897, described how the – by then 25-year-old – site was acquired by a Mr R Whittingham, with up to £11,000 originally raised through a London stock floatation to build necessary infrastructure, including a 12-mile race with an 80-foot drop.
As much as 42oz of gold was yielded from the "prosperous" workings during one five-week period in early 1897.
IFS chief executive James Treadwell says that despite the discovery delaying harvest at the site, the company is excited to be playing its part in preserving local heritage.
"There's a real buzz around the office, and we're all pleased to have the opportunity to add to our historical record," he says, adding that smaller scale archaeological and environmental discoveries were relatively common in forestry, with IFS careful to "preserve and protect" as much as possible.
While much of Muddy Terraces' archaeology was now under heavy scrub, steps are being taken to catalogue and conserve what remained.
"What's critical now is to accurately mark out and buffer the archaeology we find and allow harvesting to continue as quickly and efficiently as possible around it."
Posted on Thursday 12th April 2018
Gold mine discovery delays forest harvest
Remains of the old Muddy Terraces gold mining site discovered in Waikaia Forest.
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Phone: +64 9 571 3544. | <urn:uuid:63a3949f-0e45-4183-a5ea-6c84316b7f20> | {
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Welcome to EDUO 9529, Community Outreach Projects. This class was created as part of a three course series entitled Project Teaching – Water Conservation. The other two courses in the series are
The purpose of this class is for teachers to encourage the school to become pro active in the quest for the community to conserve the planet’s water resources.
You will notice that you are not given specific activities or even a direction to follow. Our purpose is to give you resources and time and leave the designing of the program entirely up to you and your school or district. The needs of every school and community will be different. We hope that you will look for ways to engage not only your students and staff but their families, friends and neighbors.
Community can be defined as any part of society outside of the school environment
The participant will actively help direct the school it participating in the following:
1. Community awareness programs about the need to start conserving water.
2. Promoting community programs of action whereby water is conserved.
3. Communicating the results of successful community programs that the school helped promote regarding water conservation.Get Syllabus Questions?
Instructor: Toolie Younger | <urn:uuid:0ce03674-8956-4811-b9b0-498c13a02c30> | {
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common name: Pharaoh ant
scientific name: Monomorium pharaonis (Linnaeus) (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Introduction - Distribution - Description - Biology and Nesting Habits - Economic Importance - Survey and Detection - Management - Selected References
The ant, Monomorium pharaonis (Linnaeus), is commonly known as the Pharaoh ant. The name possibly arises from the mistaken tradition that it was one of the plagues of ancient Egypt (Peacock et al. 1950). This ant is distributed worldwide, is one of the more common household ants, and carries the dubious distinction of being the most difficult household ant to control.
Figure 1. Dorsal view of a Pharaoh ant worker, Monomorium pharaonis (Linnaeus), feeding on bait. Photograph by James Castner, University of Florida.
In some of the older literature this species was commonly referred to as the "Pharaoh's ant." This is now incorrect, if it ever was, as the correct common name is "Pharaoh ant," as determined by the Committee on Common Names of Insects of the Entomological Society of America (Bosik 1997). It is only mentioned here as the junior author still sees "Pharaoh's ant" on the Web and in industry publications.
Monomorium pharaonis (Linnaeus) has been carried by commerce to all inhabited regions of the earth (Wheeler 1910). This ant, which is probably a native of Africa, does not nest outdoors except in southern latitudes and has been able to adapt to field conditions in southern Florida (Creighton 1950). In colder climates, it has become established in heated buildings.
The workers of Monomorium pharaonis (L.) while monomorphic (same size), do vary slightly in length and are approximately 1.5 to 2 mm long (Haack and Granovsky 1990). The antennae have 12 segments with each segment of the 3-segmented antennal clubs increasing in size toward the apex of the club (Smith and Whitman 1992). The eye is comparatively small, with approximately six to eight ommatidia across the greatest diameter. The prothorax has subangular shoulders, and the thorax has a well- defined mesoepinotal impression. Erect hairs are sparse on the body, and body pubescence is sparse and closely appresssed. The head, thorax, petiole and postpetiole (the petiole, or the petiole and postpetiole, in ants is also called the pedicel) are densely (but weakly) punctulate, dull, or subopaque. The clypeus, gaster, and mandibles are shiny. The body color ranges from yellowish or light brown to red (Smith 1965), with the abdomen often darker to blackish (Smith and Whitman 1992). A stinger is present but is rarely exserted (Haack and Granovsky 1990).
Figure 2. Worker of a Pharaoh ant worker, Monomorium pharaonis (Linnaeus). Drawing by the Division of Plant Industry.
Figure 3. Lateral view of a Pharaoh ant worker, Monomorium pharaonis (Linnaeus). Photograph by Jim Kalisch, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The Pharaoh ant colony consists of queens, males, workers, and immature stages (eggs, larvae, pre- pupae, and pupae). Nesting occurs in inaccessible warm (80 to 86°F), humid (80%) areas near sources of food and/or water, such as in wall voids. The size of the colony tends to be large but can vary from a few dozen to several thousand or even several hundred thousand individuals. Approximately 38 days are required for development of workers from egg to adult.
Mating takes place in the nest, and no swarms are known to occur. Males and queens usually take 42 days to develop from egg to adult. The males are the same size as the workers (2 mm), are black in color and have straight, not elbowed, antennae. Males are not often found in the colony. The queens are about 4 mm long and are slightly darker than the workers (Smith and Whitman 1992). Queens can produce 400 or more eggs in batches of 10 to 12 (Peacock et al. 1950). Queens can live four to 12 months, while males die within three to five weeks after mating (Smith and Whitman 1992).
Part of the success and persistence of this ant undoubtably relates to the budding or splitting habits of the colonies. Numerous daughter colonies are produced from the mother colony when a queen and a few workers break off and establish a new colony. Even in the absence of a queen, workers can develop a queen from the brood which is transported from the mother country. In large colonies there may be as many as several hundred reproductive females (Smith and Whitman 1992).
The Pharaoh ant is a major indoor pest in the United States. The ant has the ability to survive most conventional household pest control treatments and to establish colonies throughout a building. More than just the food it consumes or spoils, this ant is considered a serious pest simply due to its ability for "getting into things." Pharaoh ants are reported to have even penetrated the security of recombinant DNA laboratories (Haack and Granovsky 1990).
In some areas, this ant has become a major pest of residences, commercial bakeries, factories, office buildings, apartments, and hospitals or other areas where food is handled. Infestations in hospitals have become a chronic problem in Europe (Erodes et al. 1977) and the United States. In Texas, Wilson and Booth (1981) reported an extensive infestation throughout a seven-floor medical center. In ant- infested hospitals, burn victims and newborns are subjected to increased risk because the Pharaoh ant can transmit over a dozen pathogenic pathogens such as Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus spp., and Streptococcus spp. (Beatson 1977, Haack and Granovsky 1990, Smith and Whitman 1992). Pharaoh ants have been observed seeking moisture from the mouths of sleeping infants and from in-use IV bottles (Smith and Whitman 1992).
This ant infests almost all areas of a building where food is available and infests many areas where food is not commonly found. Pharaoh ants have a wide preference in the types of food consumed. In infested areas, if sweet, fatty, or oily foods are left uncovered for only a short period of time, one can likely find a trail of Pharaoh ants to the food. As a consequence, they cause much food to be discarded due to contamination. Owners have been known to consider selling their homes because of the ravages of this pest (Smith 1965).
Figure 4. Pharaoh ants, Monomorium pharaonis (Linnaeus), in an electrical switch mechanism. Photograph by Jim Kalisch, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Workers of the Pharaoh ant can often be observed on their feeding trails, often using wiring or hot water pipes to travel through walls and between floors. Once a worker has located a food source, it lays a chemical trail from the food to the nest (Haack and Granovsky 1990). These ants are attracted to sweet and fatty foods, which may be used to determine their presence. Pharaoh ants will nest in the oddest places, such as between sheets of stationary, layers of bed linen and clothes, in appliances, or even piles of trash (Ebeling 1978).
Pharaoh ants may be confused with thief ants, bigheaded ants, firs ants and several other species of small pale ants. However, thief ants have just 10 segments in their antennae with only a 2-segmented club. Bigheaded and fire ants have a pair of spines on the thorax, while other small pale ants have only a one segment on the pedical (smith and Whitman 1992).
Figure 5. A comparison of the bodies of workers of the Pharaoh ant (top), Monomorium pharaonis (Linnaeus), and the thief ant (bottom), Solenopsis molesta (Say). Photograph by Jim Kalisch, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Figure 6. A comparison of the heads of workers of the Pharaoh ant (left), Monomorium pharaonis (Linnaeus), and the thief ant (right), Solenopsis molesta (Say). Photograph by Jim Kalisch, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Figure 7. A thief ant worker, Solenopsis molesta (Say). Photograph by Jim Kalisch, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Control of Pharaoh ants is difficult, due to their nesting in inaccessible areas. Treatment must be thorough and complete at all nesting sites, as well as the foraging area. Thus, treatment must include walls, ceilings, floor voids, and electrical wall outlets. Baits are now the preferred method of control for Pharaoh ants and several baits (insecticides) are labeled for indoor ant control. A Pharaoh ant infestation of a multifamily building requires treatment of the entire building to control the infestation. Ants nesting on the outside may be controlled by also using a perimeter barrier treatment (Smith and Whitman 1992).
Baits cannot be placed in just any location and be expected to work. Pharaoh ant trails and their resources (both food and water) must be located for proper placement of baits and effective control (Klotz et al. 2000). Non-repellent baits (such as boric acid, hydramethylon or sulfonamide) should be used, as repellent baits can worsen the situation by causing the colony to fracture and bud. As a result, ant activity will briefly diminish as as the new colonies establish themselves, then again become a problem as the foragers resume activity (Smith and Whitman 1992).
In addition, insect growth regulators (IGR) are marketed for indoor control of Pharaoh ants. The IGR is used as a bait, and ants must be allowed to transport the bait back to their nests. The IGR prevents the production of worker ants and sterilizes the queen. Therefore, it is necessary to allow up to several weeks or months (depending on the size of the colonies or number of colonies) for ants to die naturally with the use of IGR.
- Beatson SH. 1972. Pharaoh ants as pathogen vectors in hospitals. Lancet 1: 425-427.
- Bosik JJ. 1997. Common Names of Insects and Related Organisms. Entomological Society of America, Lanham, MD.
- Creighton WS. 1950. The ants of North America. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 104: 1-585.
- Drees BM, Jackman J. (1999). Pharaoh ant. A Field Guide to Common Texas Insects. http://insects.tamu.edu/images/insects/fieldguide/cimg358.html (29 May 2003).
- Ebeling W. (1978). Urban Entomology. Agricultural Sciences Publications, University of California, Berkeley, CA.
- Erdos MD, Koncz A. 1977. Experience in the control of Pharaoh's ants in Hungary. International Pest Control 19: 12-13.
- Fasulo TR. (2002). Cockroaches and Pest Ants. Bug Tutorials. University of Florida/IFAS. CD-ROM. SW 157.
- Haack KD, Granovsky TA. (1990). Ants. In Handbook of Pest Control. Story K, Moreland D (editors). Franzak & Foster Co., Cleveland, OH. pp. 415-479.
- Klotz J, Williams D, Reid B, Vail K, Koehler P. (September 2000). Ant trails: a key to management with baits. EDIS. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/IG123 (29 May 2003).
- Koehler PG, Short DE, Fasulo TR. (2002). Pests In and Around the Home. UF/IFAS. SW-126.
- Lyon WF. (Unknown). Pharaoh ant. Factsheet. http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2136.html (29 May 2003).
- Peacock AD, Hall DW, Smith IC, Goodfellow A. 1950. The biology and control of the ant pest Monomorium pharaonis (L.). Department of Agriculture of Scotland Miscellaneous Publications 17. 51 p.
- Smith EH, Whitman RC. 1992. Field Guide to Structural Pests. National Pest Management Association, Dunn Loring, VA.
- Smith MR. 1965. House-infesting Ants of the Eastern United States: Their Recognition, Biology, andEconomic Importance. USDA-ARS Technical Bulletin 1326. 105 p.
- Wheeler WM. 1910. Ants: Their Structure, Development, and Behavior. Columbia University Press. NY. 633 p.
- Wilson GR, Booth MJ. 1981. Pharaoh Ant Control with IGR in Hospitals. Pest Control 49: 14-19, 74. | <urn:uuid:714dcb97-04e8-493a-9a99-2abf71ee52bb> | {
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Published by H-NILAS@h-net. msu.edu (December, 2007)
J. M. Ledgard. _Giraffe, A Novel_. New York: Penguin, 2006.
304 pp. $14.00 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-1430-3896- 2.
Reviewed for H-NILAS by Karen Assunto, Independent Scholar.
In an article in the _New York Times Literary Magazine_, Charles Siebert writes "We look to dogs now to be not only companions, but also substitute children, emotional and psychological support in the wake of deaths, divorces, and breakups. We are asking them to be, in essence, little people, animate worry beads and stress absorbers ... ".
Although Siebert is discussing the relationship between people and dogs, his point about human relationships with animals is exemplified by J. M. Ledgard's novel _Giraffe_. _Giraffe_ operates on three levels: first, it is based on a true story; second, it is a surrealistic metaphor in which giraffes confined in a Czechoslovakian zoo represent the controlled and mind-numbing existence in a socialist state;
and third, on the most subtle level, it illustrates the consequences that occur when humans turn to animals to gain some control over their own lives. The metaphor is obviously Ledgard's _raison d'etre_ for the book; however, human psychological needs underlie both the facts and the metaphor.
To help understand human behaviors in _Giraffe_, we need to reflect on Mazlow's Hierarchy of Needs. Mazlow places control or dominance in the fourth need level, the need for esteem. This makes sense, because the socialist state supplies basic human needs--food, safety, and even some relationships, although these relationships, as shown in _Giraffe_, are often superficial.
In the socialist Czech republic, however, Ledgard's characters achieved esteem through controlling nature. Self-actualization, the highest level in Mazlow's hierarchy, does not exist. Ledgard describes two levels of dominance: that of the average person who exerts control over animals, and that of the nameless bureaucrats who dominate the people below them. Because the effects of dominance, like water, only run downhill, the animals' adversity is doubled.
Control by Average People
The primary human characters in the book--that is, those who are named--exert control over a large herd of giraffes. Ledgard shows us the humans' ever-increasing domination of these animals, beginning with their capture, through their transport to their new habitat at the zoo, and ultimately to their horrifying and tragic deaths.
While it is hard to imagine a more benign and harmless population over which to exercise dominance (Emil, one of the characters, describes them as "timid and tolerant of one another" [p. 22]), the giraffes' natural lack of assertiveness is a good likeness to the passivity of the Czech people. The characters have various reasons for their actions. These reasons are chillingly trivial, but to people in need of meaning, the reasons are of paramount importance.
For example, Alois Hus believes that he can create a "new subspecies" (p. 9) of native giraffes by placing them in an environment where they must evolve. Even though the Czechoslovakian climate is far from what the African giraffes are used to, Hus believes that, over time, the animals will adapt to it. "They have migrated. They will find a new home in our zoo.
They will be happy here.... Their offspring ... will come to enjoy our winters" (p. 111). This naivete is cruel, since it would take centuries for creatures to evolve (and to what purpose?).
It is, however, a reflection of this man's pathetic need for control in an environment that has taken total charge of his being.
In another case, the primary narrator, Emil, a hemodynamicist, believes that by studying the blood circulation of what he calls "vertical" animals, he will be able to develop new materials that will help the state when it places men in permanent colonies on the moon. How Emil proposes to study giraffe circulation is never defined, yet apparently there has already been some work done on this subject, for, as Emil says:
"The work has application for cosmonauts and high-altitude fliers.... For instance, the skin of a giraffe is thick to protect it from thorns and is so tightly wrapped as to take on the qualities of an anti-gravity space suit, such as we should like to design, which does not allow blood to settle in the lower extremities of the body" (p. 21). Emil's fantasy that he might be able to contribute something is ultimately shattered by the bureaucracy which he wishes to support.
The bureaucrats in the Czech state have some control over people, which they exercise in typical fashion--by not giving reasons for their actions. For example, the bureaucrat who initially organizes the giraffes' capture questions Emil to assure that he can be discreet, since the herd of giraffes is a "cover" (for what, we never find out). And Snehurka, the giraffe, overhears some of the Czechs: "There is socialism in our method.... Capitalists capture one or two giraffes, while we take an entire herd; because our intention is political ... " (p. 9).
Finally, the state scientist tells Emil that the giraffes are infected with a contagion that will infect other hoofed beasts and requires their slaughter. He provides no reason for this statement, yet as can be expected from people who are controlled by others, Emil never questions or asks for rationale. The bureaucrat cautions him never to speak of the slaughter; it is a state secret.
In _Giraffe_, Ledgard provides a chilling morality play about what can happen to animals when human needs are not met. The humans in this book are not evil; however, they tinker with nature, ultimately causing the slaughter of innocent creatures. Unfortunately, control issues are not limited to people in socialist states.
As the recent brouhaha over Knut the polar bear demonstrates, humans want to be involved in every aspect of animal life, whether it be leaving the abandoned bear to die (one wonders if those advocating this also believe in letting abandoned girl babies in China die) or turning it into a media celebrity. At the most elemental level, _Giraffe_ suggests that we ought to respect animals for what they are, not for what our egos would have us make them.
. "New Tricks," April 8, 2007, p. 40.
. From http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Giraffe_% 28novel%29:
"_Giraffe_ is based on a true Czechoslovakian story, which [J.
M.] Ledgard discovered while working as a journalist in the
Czech Republic for _The Economist_ in 2001. In 1975, on the
eve of May Day, Czechoslovakian secret police dressed in
chemical warfare suits sealed off the zoo in the small Czech
town of Dvur Kralove nad Labem and orchestrated the slaying of
the zoo's entire population of forty-nine giraffes, the
largest captive herd in the world. No reason for the action
was ever given, and discussion of the incident was suppressed.
Ledgard recounts the story of the giraffes from their capture
in Africa to their deaths far away in the Eastern Bloc."
. The primary metaphor used by Ledgard is that of
sleepwalking. One of the narrators of the story, Amina, is a
sleepwalker. Another narrator, the giraffe Snehurka, describes
herself and the other giraffes as "sleepwalking beasts" (p.
159). Even Ledgard's prose style lulls the reader into a
somnabulant, zombie-like passivity, reflecting the Czech
environment under the socialist state.
. Readers will find information on Mazlow's Hierarchy of
Needs at http://www.business balls.com.
. The giraffes' deaths are vividly rendered, suggesting
Baba Yar, Auschwitz, and Ekaterinburg.
. From http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Knut_%28polar_ bear%29:
"Knut (born at the Zoologischer Garten Berlin on 5 December
2006) is a captive-born polar bear who was rejected by his
mother at birth and therefore raised by zoo keepers. The first
polar bear cub to survive past infancy at the Berlin Zoo for
over thirty years, he became a popular tourist attraction and
commercial success as well as the subject of international
controversy. After the German tabloid magazine _Bild_ ran a
quote from an animal rights activist that seemingly called for
the death of the young cub, a public outrage was caused
worldwide as fans rallied in support of his being hand raised
by humans. Knut became the genesis of a mass media phenomenon
dubbed 'Knutmania,' which spawned numerous toys, media
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Source: AVI CHAI Foundation Blog
Mark S. Young writes that Jewish experiential learning is not "fun" which takes place outside the classroom as some would have it. Experiential learning as an approach to Jewish education has the ability both to strengthen one’s Jewish literacy (“literacy” broadly defined as knowledge and understanding of Jewish content) and to create strong, positive emotional bonds with Jewish life. Further, this approach can take place anywhere, both inside and outside the classroom.
He adds: "Serious experiential education involves two key elements:
(1) facilitation of experiences that present Jewish content in a meaningful and accessible manner and
(2) the opportunity for learners to reflect on these experiences to reveal and concretize their own learning, both in content knowledge and through emotional connection."
He beautifully describes two examples of experiential learning activities where the students "are having fun. They are also learning, and not just on the surface. They are engaging in serious discussion and gaining serious knowledge of Jewish history and tradition, working on their Hebrew language skills, understanding the origins of Jewish holidays, grappling with text, and learning about one another in the process. This is more than just having fun; this is creating significant opportunity for Jewish learning and literacy… This learning, this experiential education approach that engages and seriously educates, can and does happen anywhere."
Read the entire post at the AVI CHAI Foundation blog. | <urn:uuid:44bb8ef2-0bb6-4942-acc7-d4fc27373763> | {
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Chrissy’s Tutorial Group
Student lead discussion session 2, led by Antonia
Land-atmosphere interactions are a dynamic and exciting area of research – starting from the 1970s with papers such as the one by Idso et al., 1974 discussing the most basic of physical processes, up to now, when we have gained an in-depth knowledge on these same processes and many more.
Because of the above-mentioned reasons, for my tutorial this week (15/11/16), I chose two papers which framed the topic – one from the early days of the field by Charney et al., 1975, and another by the team of modellers of Wang et al., published in 2015.
The first paper proposed a theory that changes in surface albedo due to human intervention were the sole reason for the Sahelian drought in the 1970s. Charney et al., 1975 suggested that the system was locked in a positive feedback loop. An increase in surface albedo, due to a reduced plant cover, decreased net incoming radiation. This led to an increased cooling of the air and consequential rainfall reduction. This whole process is suggested to have been initiated by overgrazing of cattle. In an earlier work, the same author briefly mentions the same theory, giving as a reason for vegetation loss the livestock trampling of vegetation while they are taken to the local water wells. The only parameter which was manipulated in the study, was the surface albedo.
Our tutorial group agreed that the simulations were very simplistic. Although the feedback loop mentioned above does sound straightforward and is an established physical pathway, the simulations did not take neither external influences nor global atmosphere circulation into account. The group agreed that a greater system complexity should be added to account for the overall micrometeorology changes. Another shortcoming of the paper was that the net effect was not considered. In order to do that, both biogeophysical and biogeochemical effects should be taken into account. A model representing the biosphere’s characteristics should also be incorporated within the simulations before any conclusions can be drawn.
Although the paper has many flaws, as seen from the above, it was one of the pioneers in the area, and the first one to tackle the effect albedo has on the microclimate of an area. If examined in that light, it is indeed a valuable paper because it provoked a lot of thought. In fact, it was disproved the very next year (1976) by Ripley et al., who discovered that the draught has less to do with anthropogenic influences prompting a change in albedo and more to do with Atlantic circulation.
This leads us to the second paper by Wang et al. (2015) which demonstrates a far more sophisticated understanding of the matter. It includes several different models assessing the impact of land use land cover changes on the Sahelian microclimate. Some of the group members pointed out that the paper was very technical, and we were in agreement that some of the model descriptions were hard to understand without a solid understanding of modelling, which none of us have (yet!). This paper showed how much our understanding has changed since 1975. The main drivers of the drought were pointed out as the state of the boundary layer conditions, and evapotranspiration (ET). ET is shown to be a key element, which was not previously considered. The group also though that the paper dealt better with external influences such as the African Easterly Jet.
Although the two papers were not part of our expertise, we thought that this particular area of research has come a long way, as showcased above. Future research is heavily dependent on satellite observations, and more sophisticated models, incorporating local, regional and global conditions altogether. At the end of the tutorial, I briefly mentioned the challenge that the role of clouds presents in the area, as there has not yet been developed an approach for their incorporation into models. The 2.6 billion dollar U.S. Global Change Research Program for Fiscal Year 2016 puts “the role of clouds” as their most important and costly area of research within their Climate and Hydrological Systems research.
I personally find climate tracking and model predictions extremely interesting, so if you share that curiosity, take a peek at the following websites:
http://cola.gmu.edu/ – The Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies
http://www.noaa.gov/ – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/storm-tracker/#?tab=map – Met Office storm tracker
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/main/ – NASA Hurricanes and Tropical Storms
Charney, J., Stone, P. H., Quirk, W. J. (1975) Drought in the Sahara: A Biogeophysical Feedback Mechanism. Science 187: 434-435
Idso, S. B., R. D. Jackson, R. J. Reginato, B. A. Kimball, and F. S. Nakayama (1975) The dependence of bare soil albedo on soil water content. Journal of Applied Meteorology 14, 109–113.
Wang, G., Yu, M., Xue, Y. (2015) Modelling the potential contribution of land cover changes to the late twentieth century Sahel drought using a regional climate model: impact of lateral boundary conditions. Climate Dynamics 382: 1-21 | <urn:uuid:4347826f-66a9-4e32-9d3d-aedf17482996> | {
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Essay Topic 1
Select a theme from the book (self discovery, power, control, self-image) and write an essay that explains how that theme relates to the plot. Identify characters and their actions that exemplify the theme, as well as how it connects to the relationship between Caitlin and Rogerson. Provide supporting text from throughout the book that explains how your selected theme relates to the plot and characters.
Essay Topic 2
Write an essay that describes the relationship between Caitlin and Rogerson. Explain how that relationship has changed from the beginning to the end of the story. Explain how said relationship changed Caitlin and Rogerson as individuals. Describe the role that abuse plays in that relationship.
Essay Topic 3
Explain how Rogerson and Caitlin's relationship affects their relationship with other people. Identify several characters in the book who were affected by that relationship. Include a discussion of how each of those...
This section contains 977 words
(approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) | <urn:uuid:f8f16351-51b2-49fc-81ae-d5df1f63f6e5> | {
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Cats in Heat
In cats, the term “in heat” is the more common way of referring to the estrous cycle, or the period of time when your cat is fertile and able to become pregnant. Note that this can only occur in intact females (those that are not spayed). While not necessarily as dramatic as heat cycles in dogs, heat cycles in cats come with their own set of difficulties to owners, and for this reason it is important to understand what is going on, especially if you have an intact female cat.
Cats are considered seasonally polyestrous breeders, which means that they will have multiple estrous cycles (or heat cycles) only during a certain portion of the year. Typically, this will begin in the winter and continue until early autumn, and most females will give birth to kittens the following winter and spring.
A typical heat can last anywhere from 3-16 days, with an average of about 7 days. During this period of time, the female cat will exhibit various behavioural changes, including:
- rubbing up against couches, other pieces of furniture, and people
- increased vocalizing
- lordotic posture: the cat will lower the front half of her body close the floor, and raise her hind end in the air (it almost looks as though the cat is bowing). Often, the cat’s tail will be elevated as well.
Many people will describe their cats during this period of time to be uncomfortable, as the cats will appear agitated and unable to settle.
It is during this period of time that the cat is able to be bred. If this occurs successfully, the cat will become pregnant and give birth approximately 63 days later. If the cat is not bred (and this is important) – she will go through a period called “interestrus”, which is the interval of time between estrous periods. What this means is that if the cat is not bred, she will go into repeated estrous cycles or heats every 12-30 days; it is because of this reason that people often say that cats always seem to be in heat.
It is important to note that unlike dogs, cats do not experience any bloody discharge (that is, cats do not bleed during their heat cycle). For this reason, some people might assume that heat cycles in cats are milder than they are in dogs, because owners don’t have to worry about keeping their houses clean from the bloody discharge that occurs. However, the vocalizing that happens when a cat is in heat can be very loud and constant, and many people will find this just as, if not more aggravating, than bloody discharge.
The easiest way to deal with unwanted estrous behaviour is to spay your cat. A spay (or ovariohysterectomy) is the removal of the uterus and the ovaries, and this procedure will completely eliminate estrous or heat cycles. If you choose not to have your cat spayed, then be prepared to experience the above behavioural signs every two or three weeks during the time of the year when your cat is able to be bred. Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done to soothe your cat while she is in heat; some people say that giving your cat lots of extra attention during this time will help reduce the amount of vocalizing that occurs, but the success level of this “treatment” seems to vary greatly depending on the individual cat. Regardless of how you choose to handle your cat while she is in heat, it is strongly suggested that you keep her indoors so as to prevent the birth of any unwanted kittens.
By Kyla Townsend – Pets.ca writer | <urn:uuid:d5a24851-b07c-4b7c-9440-33c5860c8508> | {
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|On Our Terms|
In the winter of 2008, PEP teamed up with Lake Research Partners to execute a national quantitative research project to explore the attitudes, behaviors, and civic engagement of African American, Latino, and Asian Pacific Islander women between the ages of 16 and 25 in the United States.
|Reproductive Justice Cards|
These info cards are designed to give you answers to some common questions about a range of reproductive justice issues. You can look at them online or download pdf's of the cards to print them out to share with your friends.
In 2004, PEP conducted a series of focus groups with young African-American and Latina women in order to capture their unique and essential perspectives on reproductive rights and health.
PEP's newsletters capture current issues in reproductive and social justice, specifically as related to young women.
Share on Facebook | <urn:uuid:d746c488-98b0-45e1-af4d-eff642bbea6c> | {
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Publisher: Pegasus Books
Synopsis: The extermination center Treblinka was located approximately 50 miles from Warsaw and became operational in June 1942. The sole purpose of the camp was the murder of Jews, a process which began immediately following disembarkation from the railway cars. The Nazis kept a few Jews temporarily alive to assist them in advancing the machinery of death. Rajchman was sent to Treblinka in 1942 at age 28.
Review: This is one of the most haunting and riveting books I have read about the holocaust. Rajchman escaped Treblinka after 11 of the most horrifying months. Starved, beaten and used as a barber to shave the heads of the women before they were gassed, or a "dentist" to extract the gold teeth from the mouths of the dead. His account of the brutality, and sadism of his captors was horrifying. Yes I've read accounts of camps before but none so vivid and detailed. His details are almost detached as he watched men cover the pathways with sand to cover the blood so the next victims wouldn't see what was about to happen. Having to sing to the cries and screams of Jews being gassed to death, removing bodies to be burned or buried. That this man had enough hope to participate in an uprising and escape, to go on living, after what he had seen and been forced to do is amazing. Most would have broken under much less. He survived to reveal what what happened, so that we can remember all those that were lost. | <urn:uuid:552e1fc4-1fb7-4d5a-b1a0-13d6034648b7> | {
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Example of an Oxbow Lake Landform:
Carter Lake, Nebraska and Iowa, USA
The oxbow lake picture is of a diagram of how it is formed.
An oxbow lake is a long, narrow curved lake. It is a former meander of a river that has been isolated.
When a meander in a river flows near another turn in the river, erosion or flooding may cause the river to break through or cross over the land and form a new channel. A portion of the river is bypassed as water flows through the new channel. Often, sediment will form a new riverbank and isolate the old channel, forming a lake that has a “C” or “U” shape.
The width of an oxbow lake is usually similar to the width of the river that formed the lake. The lake is usually 8 to 20 times longer than its width.
An oxbow lake may be found on a floodplain near a slow moving river with many meanders.
• Carter Lake, Nebraska and Iowa, USA
• Cuckmere River, Sussex, England
• Connecticut River, Northampton, Massachusetts, USA
• Lake Chicot, Arkansas, USA
• Kanwar Taal Lake, Begusarai, Bihar
Carter Lake on the border of Nebraska and Iowa was formerly known as the Saratoga Bend of the Missouri River. During a flood in 1877, the river formed a new channel and Saratoga Bend became an oxbow lake.
The meandering Cuckmere River on the floodplain of Sussex, England has formed several oxbow lakes on its way to the English Channel. As a popular tourist destination, the river enters the channel by the Seven Sisters, famous white chalk cliffs overlooking the Channel.
A lake called The Oxbow was formerly part of the Connecticut River in Northampton, Massachusetts. A flood in 1840 cut a new channel and the meander formed an anabranch, which remained connected to the river at both ends. It was then used by a logging company as a holding area for logs floated downstream.
Later, the northern end was filled during construction of the Interstate 91 Expressway, forming an oxbow lake attached to the river at the south end. The largest oxbow lake found in North America is Lake Chicot of Arkansas. It was formed 600 years ago by the Mississippi River and is over 21 miles long and 3/4 mile wide.
Kanwar Taal Lake of Bihar is the largest oxbow lake in Asia with freshwater. This is the location of the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary in Keoladeo National Park, supporting over 230 bird species.
A long, curved lake that is a former meander of a river.
We want pictures and location of the lanforms around the world and we need your help. Click get started button below.
In Asia, China, India, Nepal, and Bhutan are home to one of the eight wonders of the world and one of the most beautiful mountains in the world, the Himalaya Mountains also called the Himalayas. Boasting as the world’s highest and most famous mountain peak, Mt. Everest. Within the verse of the ‘Kumarsambhava’, Sanskrit […]
Nature have provided us with fascinating landforms and features. The most often adored landforms are volcanoes. Like the perfect cone structure of Mayon Volcano in the Philippines or Mount Fiji in Japan, people look at their beauty and wonder with great appreciation to nature. Volcanoes are mountains with a very disastrous nature. Their only […]
Taal Volcano is the second most active volcano found in the province of Batangas. A complex volcano in the middle of Taal Lake and is often called an island within a lake, that is an island within a lake that is on an island as well as one of the lowest volcano in the […]
Mayon Volcano is one of the active volcanoes in the Philippines. Located in the southern part of Luzon about 473 kilometers (294 miles) from Makati Business District of the Philippines, Mount Mayon is the main landmark of the Province of Albay of Bicol Region. According to local folklore, the volcano was named after Daragang […]
The global temperature and weather is to a large extent a direct result of the sun’s effect to our planet. Together with the atmosphere and the rotation of the earth on its axis. The earth on which weather moves on has its own effect on the weather. The different landforms like mountains, volcanoes, plains, and the […] | <urn:uuid:d560e4c8-94da-4dce-a53b-c11ced20f119> | {
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Posted by Nexus on November 30, 2014 (Updated: 30-Nov-2014)
Pteranodon is the name given to a group of large flying reptiles that existed in the late Cretaceous period, around 80-86 million years ago in what is now known as North America. Its fossils were first found by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1870 in western Kansas, USA while the first Pteranodon skull was found on in 1876 in Kansas, USA, by Samuel Wendell Williston. Pteranodon is also incorrectly referred to as Pterodactyl in various media. The creatures appeared in The Lost World, Jurassic Park 3 and are rumoured to appear in Jurassic World.
The largest species of Pteranodon had a wingspan of up to 33ft, were up to 6ft tall and weighed up to 40kg. They were quadrupedal reptiles, using their wings to move around while on the ground. The creatures in Jurassic Park 3 were portrayed as the right size but something they didn’t have was teeth in their beaks like modern birds. Pteranodon also weren’t capable of grasping onto something with their feet like the creatures in The Lost World or Jurassic Park 3. In reality, they would scoop up fish from the ocean with their beaks. Another distinguishing feature of the reptiles were their unique crest on their heads with males having one larger than the females. It was originally theorized that they were used for counterbalance against its long beak but recently, it’s believed the crests were purely for sexual display.
Pteranodons were not included in either of the Jurassic Park novels. Instead, the Cearadactylus featured in the Jurassic Park’s aviary which is similar to Pteranodons but smaller.
Director Steven Spielberg thought the aviary sequence in the first Jurassic Park novel would be too expensive and complex to create so it was scrapped for the movie.
The Lost World
Originally, there was going to be an action scene in The Lost World as the characters were escaping the Velociraptors. They were going to jump off a cliff with hang gliders but were attacked by Pteranodons or Geosternbergia. Concept art was created as well as models but the scene was abandoned. Another scene cut also involved the creatures attacking the rescue helicopter. Pteranodons did, however, have a cameo appearance at the very end of The Lost World. They were seen flying over a group of Stegosaurus and one of them is shown resting on a branch.
Jurassic Park 3
Pteranodons finally have a major action scene in Jurassic Park 3. For the movie, the creatures have been re-designed since The Lost World. They are shown to be much bigger and different-coloured, and they also possess teeth which they don’t have. In the film, when Dr. Grant, Billy and the Kirby’s reach the aviary, they are attacked by Pteranodon. One of them flies away with Eric while Billy parasails down to rescue him. The characters manage to escape the aviary while one of the Pteranodon gets crushed by a falling cage. At the end of the film, we can see that the Pteranodon have escaped the aviary into the world.
It’s rumoured that the Pteranodon will feature in Jurassic World. In the park’s brochure, one of the tourist attractions is the Aviary. | <urn:uuid:3f22ece5-1c35-481b-abfe-459f199650e8> | {
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We periodically highlight new types of work in mass spec technology that our dedicated lab furniture supports. In this post, we put the spotlight on a rapidly growing, yet controversial use for mass spectrometry—cannabis analysis.
Setting the Stage for Types of Testing
The piecemeal legalization of cannabis is a challenge for the states where cannabis consumption has been approved. Each state has its own laws and regulations for the medical and/or recreational use of cannabis that include several challenges. First, crop protection agents are applied to increase yields and to standardize product appearance; testing must determine contaminant levels for consumer safety. Second, various—and sometimes nonexistent—maximum-residue limits exist. Third, sample variation is enormous because cannabis is ingested by various methods—orally, topically, or inhalation.
Four Types of Mass Spectrometry Cannabis Analysis
All of these variables have led to the need for LC-MS/MS technology, which determines chemical residues and compares them to the lowest legal—or possible—limits. High-resolution mass spectrometry has proven most effectively when analyzing compounds for the following four categories.
Pesticide levels are regulated in some states, such as Oregon, which has issued a guide list for acceptable types and levels of pesticides in flowers and concentrates. Other regulatory agencies now follow this standard. Targeted mass spectrometry can test for levels of stipulated residues, and some manufacturers are creating plug-and-play methodologies for efficient mass-spec analysis.
Human-generated pesticides are not the only contaminants affecting cannabis. Mycotoxins (molds and fungi) readily colonize crops and survive harvest and processing. Aflatoxins are of particular concern with cannabis; mass spectrometry can detect dangerous levels of these microbial contaminants.
In addition to testing the presence of contaminants, mass spectrometry is also used to determine the levels of beneficial compounds in cannabis. Using mass spec, accurate and precise data can be collected from almost a dozen different cannabinoids. The development of streamlined sample preparation and analysis protocols can accurately compare samples.
In addition to assessing cannabinoids, mass spec can test levels of various terpenes—essential oils that may enhance the cannabis experience and may promote certain health benefits. While mass spectrometry cannot assess the claims of those health benefits, determining the levels of various terpenes is certainly helpful for the comparison of cannabis crops and for marketing purposes.
Supporting Your Mass Spectrometry with Dedicated Lab Furniture
As with many inventions, it’s likely the early pioneers of mass spectrometry probably had no idea how useful those mass spec machines would become. And while new uses will contribute to the development of tomorrow’s machines, you can rest assured that IonBench will be there, literally, supporting those mass spectrometers both now and in the future. Whether you’re undertaking controversial cannabis analysis or engaged in more commonplace testing, all mass specs deserve the right foundation. To learn more about our IonBench MS, contact Tim Hawkins at [email protected] or 1-888-669-1233. | <urn:uuid:ec095d8d-db08-4c0e-aa39-c82cade0f8db> | {
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A study has been made of the printed images from a projection printer whose light source can be varied to provide illumination of various levels of partial coherence. The coherence interval for five light source configurations was measured with a shearing interferometer at the object plane of the printer. Many test images were made with the printer for each of the five degrees of partial coherence and results showing image quality as a function of coherence interval have been reported. It was found that with an 11µm coherence interval the image forming characteristics were typical of an incoherent instrument and could be adequately explained by a linear transfer function. An increasing departure from linearity was seen as the coherence interval increased to 71µm. This could be best seen as an increase in ringing around edge images and emphasized high frequencies in sine wave images. For coherence intervals greater than 71µm few changes occurred in the image microstructure indicating that the printing characteristics are essentially those of a coherent system. Tri-bar resolving power showed a factor of two drop from the incoherent to the coherent imaging condition. Image microstructure effecting the macro tone reproduction was observed and concluded to be an example of the half tone effect.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Department, Program, or Center
School of Photographic Arts and Sciences (CIAS)
Radl, Bruce, "Image Quality Dependence on Partial Coherence in a Projection Printer" (1979). Thesis. Rochester Institute of Technology. Accessed from
RIT – Main Campus | <urn:uuid:534f8a49-aecd-46c7-b9e1-4bdc66b7ff24> | {
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"The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now."
Tips on planting a tree.
Your Questions Answered About How to Properly Plant a Tree
Trees for Woolwich encourages all residents to plant trees on their property. The environmental benefits of more tree coverage are immense. Wildlife habitat, beautification, cooling, mitigating climate change are just a few examples. Trees for Woolwich want to ensure those trees will have a full and fruitful life so be mindful of some of our tips below.
When is the best time to plant a tree?
If a tree has been grown in a container, any time the ground isn’t frozen, or soaking is a good time. The easiest time on the tree is when it is dormant in early spring, or fall. The most challenging condition for success is very hot, dry weather.
Some species are very unhappy about root disturbance, and larger specimens are best planted dormant, early in spring. Serviceberry, Native Pagoda Dogwood, Beech and Redbud are some examples of species that need extra care.
Whenever you plant, ensure that you will be able to care for your newly planted trees continuously for the whole season. If you are leaving on summer holidays you will need a ‘tree sitter’ to water your tree(s), or you should probably wait until fall.
How deep should I plant my tree?
Under normal soil conditions, you should plant your tree at the same depth that it was planted in its pot. If it is bare root, look for a colour change that shows the change from trunk to root system. If you plant you tree too high, and roots become exposed it will probably die. If you sink it in too low, it can suffocate and fail to thrive and grow, or die.
On heavy clay soil for trees that do not tolerate wet, such as Sugar Maples and fruit trees, it is best to raise the entire planting area up. You do not want to chip a hole into heavy clay where water will pool, and drown the tree
Is it necessary to stake my tree?
You may need to stake, or guy your tree depending on the exposure of your site, and the size and leafiness of the crown. If you have a sheltered back yard in town, and a potted tree, you will probably not need to stake it.
If you are planting in a location exposed to the West wind, it would be a good idea to stake. Try to use a method that keeps the tree from blowing over, but allows for some trunk movement to build strength. Be sure to loosen the ties after the first year, and remove them fully by the 2nd year.
How often should I water my tree?
The most important thing is to water your tree as it starts to dry out. A deep soaking to the bottom of the roots once a week is much better for strong root development than frequent sprinkles. Use a moisture meter if you are not sure when the tree is dry. Both over-watering and under-watering can harm your tree. When it is first planted, and in hot, dry weather, it needs the most water.
How soon should I prune my newly planted tree?
You do not always need to prune your tree. If the tree had roots that were fully contained in a pot, it should not require pruning. If it was “bare root”, or the roots had grown out of the pot, and were then cut off or dried out, you should trim your tree back by 10 to 20% all round at planting time.
Future pruning is best done on dormant trees in March to remove branches that interfere with one another, broken or diseased parts, or to shape the tree as desired. A common reason to prune is to lift up the canopy (remove lower branches) so that you can mow without hitting your head!
How do I prepare my newly planted trees for winter?
Use bonemeal in the planting hole at planting time, to help the tree develop new roots before the ground freezes. Roots can grow even after the leaves fall. Keep your tree watered consistently until the soil freezes hard (don’t stop just because the leaves have fallen).
Is it necessary to fertilize my tree?
Use fertilizer with lots of phosphorus to promote root growth. Either an in-organic phosphate-based product, or bonemeal are recommened. Every fertilizer is labeled with three numbers:
Nitrogen – Phosphorus – Potassium
Typical Bonemeal is: 4 – 10 - 0
Synthetic Transplanter could be: 10 -52 - 10
Use high Nitrogen fertilizer only if you can water abundantly, and want your tree to grow fast. Remember that soft, fast growth makes tasty salad for insects.
Is bonemeal a good fertilizer for all tree and shrub plantings?
See the previous question… Bonemeal is good for providing the Phosphorus that trees and shrubs need to grow strong roots. Bonemeal can break down fairly slowly in some soil conditions, so you may want to use a soluble transplanter fertilizer right at planting time. The bonemeal worked into the soil around the roots will become available slowly, but then lasts well.
How does one go about getting soil tested for pH?
You can pick up a pH test kit at most nurseries, or hardware stores that sell garden supplies. Generally soils around here are not acidic (alkaline). Some very light sandy soils may be more acidic. Most native trees and shrubs are widely tolerant of varied pH values. Drainage and light levels tend to be much more important factors determining the success of your tree planting.
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What is this course?
This course is made with the “CS4” version of which 95% is found in the “CS3” version.
As you go through Lesson 2 , you will know what exactly you can do with the “CS3” version.
What is “Flash”?
For those who would not know, “Flash” is generally used to create “Animation” for a website or CD-Rom and design games and banner ads.
“Flash” has lots more than that.
With “Flash” we can make movies, or web-based applications, such as shopping carts and news design.
“Flash” is built like a cartoon divided into time units, called “Frames”
In every “Frame”, the developer decides what the visitor sees. The major unit is called a head “Frame” or keyframe in English.
This forms the final structure of the application or “Animation”.
In “Flash”, we work with two types of files.
One is , the “FLA” file, we use this to design and edit the “Animation” and the other, the “SWF” file is used in the “Flash Player” to view the “Animation”.
So you need the “Flash Player” to view your “Flash” movies.
Do not panic, the “Flash Player” is installed by default on more than 99% of Internet-connected computers.
If you belong to that 1%, you can still install the free www.adobe.com website.
When we open “Flash” we see the “Welcome screen“.
If you do not see this, click the “Edit” button in the menu bar and select “Preferences” from the drop-down menu.
This opens the dialog “Preferences” dialog where the category “General” is selected.
Click the downward pointing arrow next to the “On Launch” box and select “Welcome screen” in the drop-down menu.
I can imagine that when you have spent many days on working with “Flash”, you would never ever want to see this “Welcome screen“.
Choose “New Document” or “Last opened documents” in the drop-down list if you do not wish o see the “Welcome screen”.
In the middle of the “Welcome screen“, in the “Create New” column choose a file type.
The first option “Flash File (ActionScript 3.0)” is the latest option added, so we click on it.
However if you wish to make a “Flash” movie for your mobile phone, GSM in Flanders, then choose “Flash File (Mobile)”, that is clear.
The new working environment
A second way to create a new file is to open the “File” menu in the menu bar and select “New” from the drop-down menu.
Instead of choosing “New Document” as our file type, in our case we choose “Flash File (ActionScript 3.0)” and click the OK button.
Another way to open a new document is the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl + N” on your keyboard.
Whatever you do, does not matter because both open a new “Flash Document”.
Those of us who are already using the previous version of “Flash” see that a there is a change immediately.
The first thing to note is that the timeline(1) is moved to the bottom and that the tool bar (2) is now on the right side.
However, if you wish to work with the previous format, no problem. Click “Window” in the menu bar, choose “Workspace” in the drop-down menu, and click “Classic”.
Or click the “Essentials” (3), and select “Classic” in the drop-down menu.
If you want to change this back again to the new environment, choose “Essentials” in this drop-down menu.
As you can see also in this drop-down menu we have a number of preset workspaces, “Animator”, “Classic”, “Debug”, “Designer”, “Developer”, though these have their own open panes.
If you need space to design according to your needs, you could possibly create your own “Workspace”.
To do this, firstly you need to close all panels that you hardly need, open all panels that you want in your working environment and choose “New Workspace” in the drop-down menu.
In the window that appears, give your “Workspace” a name, and click the OK button.
The “Workspace” you now created appears in the drop-down menu.
We will learn more about the different panes when we use them.
In the next lesson we first see what is new in Flash “CS4”
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The Venetian government is the first we know of which became a debtor to its own citizens, or conversely, where citizens became creditors on the government. As with most innovations in finance, it was the need to raise funds for war that drove the need to raise revenue quickly.
Other city-states had to compete with Venice, and the system spread, first to Genoa, and then to other republics in Northern Italy like Florence, Milan and Sienna. These city-states were all expanding militarily, and they needed money to do it. Since they were republics, they had advantages that the absolute monarchies of Northern Europe did not have, including accountability to their citizens. The merchant classes essentially borrowed from themselves to fund the wars.
These methods of short and long term debt financing spread to Northern Europe but were done on the municipal, not state level, since states were largely still absolute monarchies who could, and did, repudiate their debts on a regular basis.
In Northern Europe tax collection was highly decentralized during the Middle Ages, and national governments relied on municipal and provincial tax receipts for revenue. Many localities in Western Europe turned to securities (annuities, lotteries, tontines, etc.) for short-term and long-term borrowing which were allowable under the Church’s ban on usury. Both France and Spain eventually incorporated these into the nation’s overall financial structure, however, these were still primarily local, not state liabilities. Both governments used debt instruments for borrowing, but these were intermediated by banks and unlike the Italian republics, borrowing costs were high because they were less reliable. The kings of France and Spain, unrestrained by effective parliaments, were serial defaulters.
The Seven United Provinces (today’s Belgium and the Netherlands), which, like the Italian City-states, were trading empires run by a wealthy merchant oligarchy, used these new methods of financing and banking to fund their rebellion against Spain as well as expand their burgeoning overseas trading empire. These securities eventually became negotiable, and markets emerged for buying, selling, and trading these debts. The United Provinces is likely the first place where these became national liabilities. The center of financial innovation shifted from Northern Italy to Holland.
From there “Dutch finance” spread across the Channel to England during the Glorious Revolution of 1688. To manage his mounting war debt, William of Orange took out a loan from the merchant bankers of England in exchange for certain prerogatives from the crown. England was the first major country to consolidate its debt, nationalize it, and monetize it, therefore setting the stage for the public/private hybrid system of money creation and banking that we use today.
Italy Invents the State Bank
It all started with the Crusades. Seaports like Venice and Genoa were launching points for the armies marching south to conquer the Holy Land. The vast amounts of money flowing into these cities during this time allowed them to remove themselves from the feudal order and become self-governing communes. The shipping expertise gained by ferrying soldiers back and forth to the Middle East allowed the Venetians and Genoese to develop the skills to become Europe’s primary merchants and traders, importing exotic goods from the Islamic world into western Europe, and becoming fabulously wealthy in the process.
It was through the Islamic trade centered around the Silk Road and the Indian ocean—the first modern “global economy”–that the Italians learned all sort of innovations that we saw last time, from paper to base-10 place notation, to algebra, to checks, to bills of exchange. These ideas would be used to usher in the “commercial revolution” of the late Middle Ages. They would also make Northern Italy the crucible for European banking and finance.
To fund their expansion, these thassalocracies needed money. Trading empires, as Paul Colinveax would remind us, require superior military technique. At this time, military empires relied mainly not on conscripts (most people in these republics were merchants and artisans), but on professional soldiers, i.e. mercenaries. As Carroll Quigley put it, “the existence of mercenary armies made money equivalent to soldiers and thus to power.” (p. 373)
For much of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the medieval city-states of Tuscany – Florence, Pisa and Siena – were at war with each other or with other Italian towns. This was war wages as much by money as by men. Rather than require their own citizens to do the dirty work of fighting, each city hired military contractors (condottieri) who raised armies to annex land and loot treasure from its rivals.
The main way states raised money during this period, as we saw last time, were taxes and seignorage. Taxes were levied almost exclusively on commercial activity for most of history (since most other activity took place outside of the commercial/money economy). This was unlikely to be as effective in an entrepot dependent upon shipping and trade. Feudal rents and dues were levied by kings, but were less available to city-states outside of the feudal system. Siegnorage was a major way of raising revenue as we saw previously, but for a merchant-based society, devaluing the currency was less likely to be helpful or popular.
The solution arrived at was to borrow money from the city’s wealthy merchant and banking classes.
During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries major cities such as Florence, Genoa, Milan, and Venice were able to extend their territorial control; those of Venice and Genoa attained the importance of maritime empires.
The formation of a territorial state came at enormous costs. How did urban governments raise the money needed to cover such expenses? Since increasing or raising new taxes required time and, above all, public acceptance, the easiest way was to borrow from the wealthiest citizens.
Despite the ban on usury, no medieval European government – municipal, territorial, or national – was able to function without borrowing, given that its powers to tax and exact rents were limited, while it was often engaged in costly wars. But such loans were usually for short terms, often at punitive rates of interest.
During the twelfth century, the Italian progenitors of the ongoing Commercial Revolution developed what became a system of municipally funded debts, debts that subsequently became permanent. Genoa took the lead, in 1149, when it agreed to give a consortium of the city’s lenders control over a compera, a consolidated fund of tax revenues to be used in paying the city’s creditors.
Venice followed suit in 1164, by securing a loan of 1,150 silver marci against the tax revenues from the Rialto market for twelve years. In 1187, in return for a loan of 16,000 Venetian lire, to finance the doge’s siege of Zara, creditors were given control over the salt tax and certain house rents for thirteen years; thereafter, the Salt Office was made responsible for all such loan payments…by 1207, the Venetians had adopted what had already become the hallmark of public finance in the Italian republics: a system of forced loans, known locally as prestiti, whose interest charges were financed by additional taxes on salt, the Rialto market, and the weigh-house.
Between 1262 and 1264, the Venetian Senate consolidated all of the state’s outstanding debts into one fund later called the Monte Vecchio – mountain of debt – and decreed that debt-holders should receive annual interest at 5 per cent, which the Ufficiale degli Prestiti was required to pay twice yearly from eight specified excise taxes. These prestiti debt claims (with interest payments) were assignable through the offices of the procurator of San Marco and, by 1320 at the latest, a secondary market for them had developed.
A loophole in the medieval prohibition on usury allowed this to take place. Although we regard usury and interest as one in the same, in fact medieval law made a distinction between the two:
Usury is sometimes equated with the charging of interest, but by the thirteenth century it was recognised that the two ideas were different.
Usury derives from the Latin usura, meaning ‘use’, and referred to the charging of a fee for the use of money. Interest comes from the Latin intereo, meaning ‘to be lost’, and originated, in the Roman legal codes as the compensation someone was paid if they suffered a loss as a result of a contract being broken. So a lender could charge interest to compensate for a loss, but they could not make a gain by lending.
It is easier to understand this with a simple example. A farmer lends a cow to their cousin for a year. In the normal course of events, the cow would give birth to a calf and the cousin would gain the benefit of the cow’s milk. At the end of the loan, the farmer could expect the cow and the calf to be returned. The interest rate is 100%, but it is an interest since the farmer, if they had not lent the cow to their cousin, would have expected to end the year with a cow and a calf. Similarly, if the farmer lent out grain, they could expect to get the loan plus a premium on the basis that their cousin planted the grain, he would reap a harvest far greater than the sum lent.
These concepts gave birth to the idea of the medieval census:
A census originated in the feudal societies as an “obligation to pay an annual return from fruitful property”. What this means is that the buyer of the census would pay a landowner, for example, for the future production from the land, such as wheat or wine, over a period of time.
As economic life in western Europe became based on money transactions rather than barter transactions, censii lost the link to specific produce, cartloads of wheat or barrels of wine. The buyer of the census would accept regular cash payment instead of the actual produce, and this was legitimate in the eyes of the canon lawyers as long as the lump-sum paid buy [sic] the buyer ‘equated’ with the value of the ‘fruitful property’ being produced by the seller.
Anyone who could became involved in censii. A labourer might sell a census based on the future revenue from their labour, states sold them based on the future revenue from taxes and monopolies, and the Church invested bequests by buying censii. Censii issued by governments, usually linked to specific tax revenues, became known as rentes. Censii could be ‘temporary’, lasting a few years, or ‘permanent’, until one of the parties died.
In today’s terms, temporary censii resemble modern mortgages, permanent censii resemble the ‘annuities’ pensioners live off today. They could be ‘redeemable’, by one or both parties, meaning that the contract could be cancelled.
The Venetian government required a “forced loan” from their wealthiest citizens in line with their income (i.e. it was progressive) to fund the war effort. Since the loans were forced loans, interest was compensation for the lost money, which was allowable under the Church’s anti-usury doctrine. The government paid an “interest” of 5 percent per year in biannual installments of 2.5 percent to compensate for the lost money. To do this, the government allocated dedicated revenue streams from commercial taxes to pay the interest.
Prestiti were a development from the rentes created by states. Around the twelfth century the Italian city-states of Venice, Genoa and Florence began to forcefully sell temporary rentes to their rich citizens. By the mid-thirteenth century the different issues of rentes were consolidated into a mons (mountain) and everyone who had been made to buy a rente was given a share, proportionate to their contribution, in the mons.
The loans were basically irredeemable—there was no pledge by the government to pay back the principal in a fixed amount of time. These were not bearer bonds; rather, the names of the creditors were recorded in government ledgers at the loan office (Camera degli imprestiti). They were assignable in that the revenue stream could be transferred to a third party with the consent of the owner, but they were not negotiable, however, at least at first. You could not simply sell your bonds on the open market without the knowledge of the original debtor (the government), i.e. they were not easily transferable. Nor were they legal tender which could be used in lieu of cash.
Venice created its mons, the monte vecchio, in 1262 and the shares, known as prestiti, entitled the holder to be paid 5%, a year, of the sum they lent, which was written on the prestiti and known as the ‘face value’. While there was no obligation for the states to pay the coupon, the annual payment, there was an expectation that they would if it could be afforded and the mountain itself was paid back as and when funds allowed.
Eventually, as borrowing costs grew to encompass more and more of state revenue, dedicated agencies were established in order to manage the consolidated debt these states owed to their citizens and others:
During the last quarter of the thirteenth century the demand for loans on Venetian citizens grew: they had to deposit a part of their assessed wealth into state coffers, the sums were registered on public books, and tax revenues were devoted to paying interest. By 1274 Genoa adopted a similar measure, and some loans were consolidated and managed by a single state agency.
The republics of Venice and Genoa were thus the first to transform their floating debt into a consolidated debt; later, some Tuscan communities would follow suit. The main features of such a system were extraordinary financing through irredeemable forced loans; moderate interest rates; credits that were heritable, negotiable and usable payment; an amount consolidated and managed by a specific authority; and specific tax revenues designated for paying interest.
The Genoese set up a dedicated private bank to manage the public debt around 1400 called the Casa di San Giorgio. Today it is recognized by financial historians as the first modern state bank, and in time, it became more powerful than the state itself! Many European monarchs regularly used it for borrowing, and it even funded some of the first expeditions to the New World (Christopher Columbus’ childhood home was nearby):
On March 2 1408, eight men gathered in the great hall of the Casa di San Giorgio, a trading house on what was then the main street in Genoa, a few metres from where the waters of the Ligurian Sea lap the Italian shore. They were merchants, rich and powerful representatives of the city’s most influential families, and they were meeting to discuss a matter of the utmost gravity. The once-glorious republic of Genoa had fallen on hard times. After years of war with Venice and a crushing defeat at the battle of Chioggia in 1381, the state was effectively bankrupt. The task was to rescue it.
A few months earlier, towards the end of 1407, Genoa’s Council of Ancients had authorised the Casa di San Giorgio to carry out this job. It would be accomplished by creating a bank that would facilitate the repayment of Genoa’s debts in return for interest at 7 per cent and the right to collect taxes and customs owed to the city. The purpose of the meeting that spring day was to declare the Banco di San Giorgio open for business.
..The Banco di San Giorgio would, in time, become as powerful as the republic that created it – more powerful, according to Niccolò Machiavelli. It would survive for nearly 400 years. It would become the world’s first modern, public bank, not just a forerunner of the Bank of England but its prototype…in a short space of time, it became so entwined with the republic of Genoa that the bank and the state were indistinguishable.
Machiavelli described the relationship as “a state within a state”. The Banco di San Giorgio grew so influential that it replaced the Fuggers, the German banking dynasty, as the source of financing for Europe’s cash-starved, perpetually warring monarchs. A century and a half after it was created it had restored Genoese power and influence as a maritime and commercial state to such an extent that the period from 1557 to 1627 was termed the Age of Genoa by Fernand Braudel, the great French historian…Christopher Columbus, Genoa’s most illustrious son, would be a customer…
The management of state finances became increasingly concentrated in the hands of a professional bureaucracy which was separate from direct control by the state. The republics made very sure that the money was paid back reliably. This made loaning to them much more reliable than loaning to monarchs, and they were able to raise more revenue for their operations:
One reason that this system worked so well was that they and a few other wealthy families also controlled the city’s government and hence its finances. This oligarchical power structure gave the bond market a firm political foundation. Unlike an unaccountable hereditary monarch, who might arbitrarily renege on his promises to pay his creditors, the people who issued the bonds in Florence were in large measure the same people who bought them. Not surprisingly, they therefore had a strong interest in seeing that their interest was paid.
Because of their dependability, these government-backed IOUs soon became highly desirable places for rich merchants and nobles to store their wealth, much as they are today, secured by the government’s promises to pay. The guaranteed returns provided a reliable income stream for those able to purchase the bonds. The merchant classes and various institutions bought up the bonds and used them as collateral, endowments for charities, even gifts and dowries, and passed them down to their assignments and heirs.
Over time, as issuing bonds became more common, more and more people became dependent on bonds for their income. Much like today, many of the holders of bonds were not just individuals but institutions and endowments who relied on the bonds as a source of income. This parallels today, where holders of bonds are often institutional holders like retirement accounts and insurance companies:
Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it seems that most of the bonds were in the hands of guilds and ecclesiastical and charitable institutions that looked to state debt to assure a sound, even if relatively low, return. The economic importance of the redistribution of money through the government debt can not be neglected…Both in Florence and Genoa, government creditors drew a significant share (about one-fifth) of their income from bonds. Accordingly, a flow of money spread through the city and revived the local economy.
Initially, only citizens of the Republic could buy bonds, but over time, bonds were issued to outside sources. Nonetheless, it appears that the debt in Italian city-states was held mainly by its own citizens, and not by foreign creditors. Buying bonds was seen as a sort of civic duty for the city’s wealthy individuals:
To loan to the commune was regarded as a duty, part of belonging to the urban community. Loans were connected, to a certain extent, with the concept of charity and gifts to the res publica.
Some governments, such as Florence, at first forbade foreigners to held state bonds, while it seems that in Venice since the thirteenth century foreigners were allowed to buy government credits. Some devices, nevertheless, were adopted in order to bypass such prohibitions; the easiest solution was to grant citizenship to those who were willing to buy government bonds…At any rate, the foreign presence among bondholders seems to have been a limited phenomenon: by the early fifteenth century about one tenth of the Florentine debt was held by foreigners; in 1629, 92 percent of the principal of S. Giorgio belonged to Genoese citizens and institutions…Unlike some Italian princely states, such as Milan and the papal state, and German cities, the urban governments of Venice, Florence and Genoa succeeded in raising enormous amounts of money from their citizens and very seldom borrowed from foreigners…
Today, governments sell bonds directly to the public in what is called a primary market. From there, they are traded by investors in secondary markets. At this time, there was no primary market for bonds—only a select few insiders could loan to governments. But soon a thriving secondary market emerged where such debts were bought and sold. The prices of bonds varied, depending on the reliability of the debtor (the state). Because interest was paid on the face value of the bond, if you could buy a bond on the cheap, you would be assured a nice payout. This was effectively an end-run around the Church’s ban on usury:
Quickly a market for Prestiti emerged, where holders who needed ready cash would trade them with people who had a surplus of cash and wanted to save. During times of peace and prosperity they had a high price, but during war and uncertainty, they traded at a low price.
For example, Venetian prestiti traded for their face value around 1340 when the Republic paid off a lot of the mons, but in 1465, during a disastrous war with the Ottoman Turks, they fell to 22% of face. The Florentine prestiti actually had a built in facility where a holder could go to the state and sell them for 28% of their face value, however their market price was never so low as to make this profitable.
The legitimacy of the prestati was debated by the canon lawyers. On the one hand the coupons, the regular cash payments can be seen as compensation for the forced nature of the original loan. The lender had no choice and so does suffer a loss. However, if a prestiti with a face of 100 ducats was sold for 22 ducats, the buyer would be receiving interest at a rate of 5∕22 = 23%; in what way had this buyer of the prestiti been forced to enter into the contract? An interest payment of 23% in these circumstances seemed to be “asking for more than what was given”.
Prestiti are important in that are one of the earliest representations of an actively traded financial instrument. The prestiti does not represent bushels of wheat or barrels of oil, it is a contract where by a state promises to pay a specified amount of money. Whether or not the state does pay out on the contract, is unknown and uncertain, hence the value of the contract is also unknown and uncertain.
In the end, the ability to have people voluntarily lend to the government provided advantages that were simply too great to ignore. Such governments were able to raise large amounts of cash quickly; they were able to raise money from a much wider circle than just the immediate tax base; and they were able to overcome limitations in the amount of specie circulating. This made state borrowing very effective and the places that engaged in it very powerful. In addition, bonds provided reliable places for wealthy citizens to store wealth outside of banks, and the interest payments helped local economies flourish. Money was becoming an important source of military power, too. Luciano Pezzolo summarizes the advantages of bond issuance by Italian city-states:
First, the enormous concentration of capital in some Italian cities allowed governments to transform, through public credit, private wealth into military power, to build a territorial state, and to control a wider economic area…Italian governments collected money from taxpayers at 5 to 7 percent, whereas the major European monarchies of the Renaissance were compelled to borrow at a much higher price.
Second, the debts took on a political function. To be creditors in the government meant sharing the destiny of the regime, and consequently supporting it. In Florence, the Medicean regime tied itself to an oligarchy that profited from the management of government debt. Thus, debt helped create stability.
Third, the social structure was supported by state debt: the considerable bond income drawn by charitable and social institutions and redistributed it the poor maintained a paternalistic policy that was a pillar of the urban political and social system.
Fourth, both government bonds and interest provided an effective surrogate of cash money in the later Middle Ages during a period of bullion shortage. The trade of bonds and interest claims opened up sophisticated forms of speculation and implemented financial techniques that are quite familiar to modern brokers.
Finally, the means devised by governments to finance the deficit offered new forms of social security and investment (dowries, life annuities, lotteries) that are at the roots of [the] later financial system.
In this, we can discern something like David Graeber’s military-coinage-slavery complex emerging around the bond markets:
1.) Governments would raise money for military operations by dedicating future expected revenue streams to loan repayments, effectively becoming debtors to their citizens. That is, they could borrow against future revenues.
2.) The proceeds from the territorial/commercial expansion would be used to pay interest on the loans.
3.) The interest money would then flow back into the domestic economy, causing economic expansion at home, as more people became dependent on the government debt as a store of value and a source of income.
4.) Economic expansion abroad and at home would allow governments to deliver better services to its citizens, ensuring broad popular support.
5.) The dependency on regular payouts by lenders would encourage them to support the political stability of the regime.
6.) City-states which avoided default were able to gain a fundraising advantage over their rivals. Hence, there was a strong incentive to make reliable payments and not to default.
Thus, the concept of the “national debt” was born. This gave rise to a brand new “money interest” whose wealth was held in government debt rather than coin.
Debt Financing Spreads to Northern Europe
Now contrast this with Northern Europe. Most nation-states were still under the feudal system. It would have made no sense for a ruler to borrow from himself, since they theoretically “owned” everything in the kingdom. Instead of borrowing from their citizens, therefore, these kingdoms continued to rely upon other sources of income.
Under the feudal system tax collection was highly decentralized and done mainly at the local level. Wealthy kingdoms, such as France, used tax farming (publican) methods very similar to those of ancient Rome:
Fiscal revenues consisted of a mixture of direct (income or wealth) taxes, indirect (consumption) taxes, and feudal dues arising from the royal demesne. The assessment and collection of these revenues was decentralized. For direct taxes, a global amount was set by the government, and then broken down into assessments for each province, where local authorities would proceed with the next level of assessment, and so on to the local level.
For indirect taxes, collection was carried out by tax farmers on behalf of the government. The procedure was much like the one in place since Medieval times for running the royal mints. The right to collect a given tax was auctioned to the highest bidder. The bidder offered a fixed annual payment to the king for the duration of the lease. Meanwhile, he took upon himself to collect the tax, hiring all the necessary employees. Any shortfall in revenues from the promised sum was made up by the entrepreneur; conversely, any revenue collected above and beyond the price of the lease was retained as profit by the entrepreneur…
Spending is decentralized as well to various treasurers. Each tax had an associated bureaucracy of collectors and treasurers, either government employees or officers (direct taxes) or employees of the tax farmer. The treasurers spent some of the monies they collected, upon presentation of payment orders emanating from the government, and turned over the remainder, if any, to the royal treasury in Paris.
Although it’s anathema under modern economic dogma, government monopolies on various business activities were considered a legitimate way to raise revenue.
Government monopolies, such as salt and recently introduced tobacco, were also farmed out in the same fashion. Indeed, the ability to create monopolies was one of the king’s resources; one of the more outlandish examples being the exclusive right to sell snow and ice in the district of Paris, sold for 10,000L per year in 1701.
Another method was through the sale of political offices. Governments would create offices and sell them at a profit, and the salary paid was essentially interest on the lump sum payment for the original position:
An officer was someone who held a government position not on commission or at the king’s leave, but as of right, and enjoyed various privileges attached to the position (in particular the collection of fees related to his activities). Offices were sold, and the king paid interest on the original sale price, which was called the wages of the office (gages). A wage increase was really a forced loan, requiring the officer to put up the additional capital. Officers could not be removed except for misconduct; however, the office itself could be abolished, as long as the king repaid the original sum. Thus, offices as a form of debt also carried the same repayment option as annuities.
And, as in Italy, the census evolved into annuities which were sold by municipalities as a way of long-term borrowing.
Offices and annuities (which I will generically call bonds, and whose owners I will call bondholders) could be transferred or sold, but with fairly high transaction costs. Both were considered forms of real estate, and could be mortgaged. In the late 17th century the French government, like others in Europe, had begun experimenting with life annuities, tontines, and lottery loans, but on a limited basis, and had not yet issued bearer bonds. Even the short-term debt described above was registered in the sense that the payee’s name was on the instrument, and could be transferred only by endorsement.
A final form of borrowing combined tax creation and lending. The procedure consisted in creating a new tax for some limited time and immediately farming its collection in exchange for a single, lump-sum payment representing the tax’s net present value.
Besides, absolute monarchs could always repudiate their debts, and there was not much recourse for creditors since monarchs had their own armies and made the laws. The kings who did take out loans for military campaigns ended up paying very high interest rates for this reason.
By the early sixteenth century, the Habsburg Emperor, French kings, and princes in the Low Countries had all affirmed their powers to regulate municipal public finances, especially rentes, and the municipal taxes that were used to pay annual rent charges. But this method of financing governments still remained municipal, because only municipalities sold rentes, so that the national institutions required for a funded, permanent public debt had yet to be created…the first national monarchy to establish a permanent, funded national debt based on rentes, by the early sixteenth century, was … the newly unified Habsburg kingdom of Spain.
Both the French and Spanish crowns sought to raise money … but they had to use towns as intermediaries. In the French case, funds were raised on behalf of the monarch by the Paris hôtel de ville-, in the Spanish case, royal juros had to be marketed through Genoa’s Casa di San Giorgio (a private syndicate that purchased the right to collect the city’s taxes) and Antwerp’s heurs, a forerunner of the modern stock market. Yet investors in royal debt had to be wary. Whereas towns, with their oligarchical forms of rule and locally held debts, had incentives not to default, the same was not true of absolute rulers.
Despite this ability to borrow, by the 1500-1600’s France and Spain had become serial defaulters.
…the Spanish crown became a serial defaulter in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, wholly or partially suspending payments to creditors in 1557 , 1560, 1575 , 1596, 1607, 1627 , 1647, 1652 and 1662.
The Netherlands, by contrast, used these financial techniques to fund their war of independence from Spain and in the process became the financial center of northern Europe.
Part of the reason for Spain’s financial difficulties was the extreme costliness of trying and failing to bring to heel the rebellious provinces of the northern Netherlands, whose revolt against Spanish rule was a watershed in financial as well as political history. With their republican institutions, the United Provinces combined the advantages of the city state with the scale of a nation-state. They were able to finance their wars by developing Amsterdam as the market for a whole range of new securities: not only life and perpetual annuities, but also lottery loans (whereby investors bought a small probability of a large return). By 1650 there were more than 6 5,000 Dutch rentiers, men who had invested their capital in one or other of these debt instruments and thereby helped finance the long Dutch struggle to preserve their independence.
The center of European trade moved from the Mediterranean to the North Atlantic starting in the mid-1400’s with the advent of pelagic shipping vessels and the discovery of new routes to Asia by circumnavigating Africa. Portugal and Spain took the lead here. Spain’s “discovery” of the American continent ensured that trade would now be centered on the Atlantic coast, and the Islamic trade in the Mediterranean withered and became less significant, especially after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. Eventually, European maritime trade became centered in Antwerp. When the Spanish conquered the southern Netherlands, what we now call Belgium, in 1585, they took Antwerp, which was the main port for Northern Europe. Many of the more highly skilled merchants fled to Amsterdam, which would then become ground zero for the financial revolution.
The reason for the primacy of the Dutch Republic in trading and finance might simply boil down to geography. Holland and the Netherlands are below sea level, which is why they are called the Low Countries. The land had forcibly been reclaimed from the sea by dykes over the centuries. This made the Dutch dependent upon fishing, shipping and trading far more than just about anywhere else, since the water table was too high for farming and there was not much arable land. Yet at the same time the population density of these areas was quite high. So their entire economy had to be dependent almost exclusively on shipping and trade since there were no other options, unlike in France, Spain, Portugal and England.
The Dutch utilized much of the same methods of borrowing as the rest of Europe, but much more effectively:
The Netherlands successfully liberated itself from Spain between 1568 and 1648. The Dutch established the Dutch east India Company in 1602 and the Dutch West India Company in 1621. The Netherlands didn’t have to pay for an expensive court, fought their wars at home rather than abroad, profited from international trade, and saved money. The Amsterdam Exchange dealt not only in shares of the Dutch East India Company and Dutch West India Company, but in government bonds as well.
Most securities were in the form of Annuities issued by the individual provinces, the United Provinces and the towns. This is the essential way in which Dutch lending differed from Italian lending. The Italian credit system relied upon a system of private international banking. The Medicis and other commercial bankers would lend their funds to states, knowing the risks involved. The Italians also had officially chartered banks that intermediated deposits and loans.
Outside of the Italian city-states, loans to heads of state were basically personal loans that clearly ran the risk of default. Spanish, French and English kings borrowed when they had to, defaulted when they couldn’t pay, but had no system of drawing upon the savings of the public. The Dutch, on the other hand, developed state finance based upon the government’s ability to pledge its revenues against the annuities they had issued. Having no royal court, and relying upon local governments, the Dutch paid off loans on time with little risk of default. As risk declined, interest rates fell to 4%, the lowest they had ever been in history, and a rate consistent with the low level of default risk that governments enjoy today.
The Dutch also set up a bourse where national debts could be traded as negotiable securities. They set up a state bank to manage trade. They also developed the modern corporation, where corporate shares were freely tradable, hence establishing the first stock market (the Amsterdam exchange).
The Dutch Republic became the main place where international debts could be bought and sold in secondary markets. While it was neither the first bank or exchange, what made it unique was the fact that this was consolidated in one specific location, with government backing, as well as the scale of operations. Securities from all over became speculative commodities. This was the beginning of trading debts and money that engendered speculative bubbles like Tulip mania. In fact, you could even gamble with assets that you didn’t actually own, setting up the stage for the modern Casino Capitalism.
The novelty at the beginning of the seventeenth century was the introduction of a stock market in Amsterdam. Government stocks and the prestigious shares in the Dutch East India Company had become the objects of speculation in a totally modern fashion. It is not quite accurate to call this the first stock market, as people often do. State loan stocks had been negotiable at a very early date in Venice, in Florence before 1328, and in Genoa, where there was an active markets in the luoghi and paghe of the Casa di San Giorgio, not to mention the Kuxen shares in the German mines which were quoted as early as the fifteenth century at the Leipzig fairs, the Spanish juros, the French rentes sur l’Hotel de Ville (municipal stocks) (I522) or the stock market in the Hanseatic towns from the fifteenth century. The statutes of Verona in 1318 confirm the existence of the settlement or forward market (mercato a termine). In 1428, the jurist, Bartolomeo de Bosco protested against the sale of forward loca in Genoa. All this evidence points to the Mediterranean as the cradle of the stock market.
But what was new in Amsterdam was the volume, the fluidity of the market and the publicity it received, and the speculative freedom of transactions. Frenetic gambling went on here – gaming for gaming’s sake: we should not forget that in about 1634, the tulip mania sweeping through Holland meant that a bulb ‘of no intrinsic value’ might be exchanged for ‘a new carriage, two grey horses and a complete harness’! Betting on shares however, in expert hands, could bring in a comfortable income… Exchanges and growing rich while the merchants said they Were becoming poorer. In every centre, Marseilles or London, paris or Lisbon, Nantes or Amsterdam, brokers, who were little hampered by the regulations, took many liberties with them.
But is is also true that speculation on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange had reached a degree of sophistication and abstraction which made it for many years a very special trading-centre of Europe, a place where people were not content simply to buy and sell shares, speculating on their possible rise or fall, but where one could by means of various ingenious combinations speculate without having any money or shares at all. This was where the brokers came into their own… All the same, such practices had not yet attained the scale they were to reach during the following century, from the time of the Seven Years War, with the increased speculation in shares in the British East India Company, the Bank of England and the South Sea, above all in English government loans…Share prices were not oficially published until 1747 however, whereas the Amsterdam Exchange had been billing commodity prices since 1585.
Several other changes took place as well. To resolve the multiple currencies circulating, state banks became established by governments, and monetary exchange ever more centered around bank credits rather than government-issued monies. You would deposit your coins in the bank and be given a credit for it, which would hold its value, protected from the arbitrary currency fluctuations decreed by sovereigns. Credit creation led to fractional reserve banking. Joint-stock companies were applied to banking, and even made loans to governments.
The seventeenth century saw the foundation of three distinctly novel institutions that, in their different ways, were intended to serve a public as well as a private financial function.
The Amsterdam Exchange Bank (Wisselbank) was set up in 1609 to resolve the practical problems created for merchants by the circulation of multiple currencies in the United Provinces, where there were no fewer than fourteen different mints and copious quantities of foreign coins. By allowing merchants to set up accounts denominated in a standardized currency, the Exchange Bank pioneered the system of cheques and direct debits or transfers that we take for granted today. This allowed more and more commercial transactions to take place without the need for the sums involved to materialize in actual coins. One merchant could make a payment to another simply by arranging for his account at the bank to be debited and the counterparty’s account to be credited.
The limitation on this system was simply that the Exchange Bank maintained something close to a 100 per cent ratio between its deposits and its reserves of precious metal and coin…A run on the bank was therefore a virtual impossibility, since it had enough cash on hand to satisfy nearly all of its depositors if, for some reason, they all wanted to liquidate their deposits at once. This made the bank secure, no doubt, but it prevented it performing what would now be seen as the defining characteristic of a bank, credit creation.
It was in Stockholm nearly half a century later, with the foundation of the Swedish Riksbank in 1656, that this barrier was broken through. Although it performed the same functions as the Dutch Wisselbank, the Riksbank was also designed to be a Lanebank, meaning that it engaged in lending as well as facilitating commercial payments. By lending amounts in excess of its metallic reserve, it may be said to have pioneered the practice of what would later be known as fractional reserve banking, exploiting the fact that money left on deposit could profitably be lent out to borrowers…
The third great innovation of the seventeenth century occurred in London with the creation of the Bank of England in 1694. Designed primarily to assist the government with war finance (by converting a portion of the government’s debt into shares in the bank), the Bank was endowed with distinctive privileges. From 1709 it was the only bank allowed to operate on a joint-stock basis; and from 1742 it established a partial monopoly on the issue of banknotes, a distinctive form of promissory note that did not bear interest, designed to facilitate payments without the need for both parties in a transaction to have current accounts.
This last innovation – the use of private corporations such as banks to consolidate and manage the government’s debt, is at the heart of the modern financial system. The money we use is the government’s liability, backed by its ability to collect taxes. Yet now private banks would continue to be allowed to create credit by extending loans denominated in the same unit of account that the government required to pay the taxes, the ultimate form of financial settlement.
We’ll take a look at how that happened next time.
Not used.
Niall Ferguson; The Ascent of Money, p. 69
William N. Goetzmann and K. Geert Rouwenhorst, eds.: The Origins of Value: The Financial Innovations that Created Modern Capital Markets, p. 147
John H. Munro: The medieval origins of the ’Financial Revolution’: usury, rentes, and negotiablity. http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/10925/ p. 514
Niall Ferguson; The Ascent of Money, p. 72
William N. Goetzmann and K. Geert Rouwenhorst, eds.: The Origins of Value: The Financial Innovations that Created Modern Capital Markets, p. 147
ibid., p. 158
William N. Goetzmann and K. Geert Rouwenhorst, eds.: The Origins of Value: The Financial Innovations that Created Modern Capital Markets, p. 163
Francois R. Velde; Government Equity and Money: John Law’s System in 1720 France, p. 5-6
Francois R. Velde; Government Equity and Money: John Law’s System in 1720 France, p. 5-6
Francois R. Velde; Government Equity and Money: John Law’s System in 1720 France, p. 8
Niall Ferguson; The Ascent of Money, pp. 73-74
Francois R. Velde; Government Equity and Money: John Law’s System in 1720 France, p. 8
John H. Munro: The medieval origins of the ’Financial Revolution’: usury, rentes, and negotiablity. http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/10925/ p. 73-74
Niall Ferguson; The Ascent of Money, p. 74
Niall Ferguson; The Ascent of Money, pp. 74-75
[24a] Fernand Braudel: Civilization and Capitalism Volume 2: The Wheels of Commerce, pp 100-102
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Welcome to the twenty-fourth instalment of the Giant’s Shoulders, the monthly carnival of science and history-of-science blogging from around the planet. In this issue, there’s a bit of a preponderance of historical vignettes, which I trust you’ll find interesting.
Shall we start with a timeline of scientific discoveries, analyses and inventions? How about this – from years that end in 24 in every century? I’m missing several years, so if you’d like to fill those in, please be my guest.
I can’t think of any particular grouping in this carnival. You know, by subject and all that. It’s pretty motley. Chronological order is somewhat unsatisfying, like arranging books on your shelf in alphabetical order of title. Let us, therefore, be whimsical.
From New at LacusCurtius & Livius, we have Bill Thayer’s introduction and a link to a classic paper about how people developed effective ways to compute the heights of mountains. It’s a wide-ranging work, starting from the Ancient Greeks and working its way through Kepler and The paper is from 1929, so expect nothing on GPS in it!
Continuing with mensuration, Ethan Siegel at ScienceBlogs has a neat little piece about how to determine distances to the stars. In How Far to the Stars, he explains the principle of parallax, notes that Copernicus thought he could use it to tell distances, and then goes on to Christiaan Huygens’s idea of using luminosity to compute how far Sirius is from us.
So we are able to measure distances with excellent accuracy. But what of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle? Surely it’s impossible to measure simultaneously (to arbitrary precision) both the position and the momentum of an object? This is certainly true on the scale of the truly small, but why is it not so evident on the scale of our senses? Why does quantum mechanics explain to remarkable accuracy the weird behaviour of the minute but loses that weirdness at the macroscopic? On homunculus, Philip Ball presents Big Quantum, where he talks about this explanatory lacuna in the transition between the very small and the large. It’s all due to decoherence!
How about some pseudoscience? Alchemy has had a bad rap, and yet it provided the foundations for chemistry. Via Thony C., we have Lawrence Principe and the Rehabilitation of Alchemy – another lecture in Utrecht posted at Heterodoxology.
For another example of the genre, we have Caroline Rance at The Quack Doctor with an interesting little piece about one type of alternative medicine – uroscopy. This is the use of urine’s colour, consistency, taste and smell as a diagnostic tool. By the 19th century, professional medics had discounted this as quackery, but common people continued to frequent piss-doctors. In Cameron the Piss-Prophet, we learn how one such worthy was hoist by his own petard.
From one aspect of quackery, we move on to another. In 1726, a woman named Mary Toft (or Tofts) was a sensation in England for having allegedly given birth to rabbits.
She had supporters and deriders in equal measure; scientists argued both in her favour (e.g. a medical doctor, John Maubray) and against (Sir Richard Manningham, a male midwife). William Hogarth’s Cunicularii at the Wellcome Library Item of the Month (besides analysing some lovely etchings by the great artist) raises a subtle question.
Leaving quackery, we ponder another form of obfuscation. Via Thony C. we have an article titled “Follies of the present day”: Scriptural Geology from 1817 to 1857 by J.M. Lynch at A Simple Prop. Who were scriptural geologists? These were scientists who tried somehow to unify vast geological time with their faith in the Bible’s six days of creation. Note that these people did not believe (pace Ussher) that the Universe was formed in 4004 BC.
Why did these Christian scientists not pay closer attention to James Hutton? In 1785, he had published an article Concerning the System of the Earth, Its Duration, and Stability in which he began the study of deep geological time. Via Thony C., we have John F. Ptak’s Raising Greatness: James Hutton’s Deep View of Time, 1795 posted at Ptak Science Books talking about Hutton’s remarkable intuition, as he saw the entirety of Earth’s history explained in the sloping red sandstone at Siccar Point.
While on the subject of deep time, a fossil of the Archaeopteryx was first discovered in 1861. Since then palaeontologists have argued whether this transitional creature (between dinosaurs and true birds) was capable of flight. Ed Yong presents First Birds Were Poor Fliers at the Discover Magazine Blog. There were some reasons to believe that the beast could fly but also good reasons why not.
Fossils and da Vinci - who would have thunk it? Via Thony C., we have Brian Switek's Leonardo da Vinci - Palaeontology Pioneer at the Smithsonian Magazine's blog.
Dorset Ancestors have a biography of Francis Glisson, a native of that English county, who went on to great success as a doctor in 17th century London. When he heard of a new debilitating disease among children of Dorset, he studied it carefully and concluded that this bone-deformative condition (which we know as ‘rickets’) was caused by malnutrition.
A sesquicentennial after Glisson plied his investigative mind, another Englishman began to consider the various causes of deafness in people. As a diagnostic tool, John Harrison Curtis invented the Cephaloscope, which is described in Jaipreet Virdi’s post The Cephaloscope on From the Hands of Quacks.
John Harrison Curtis also insisted that aurists – students of auditory illnesses – should also be attached to medical hospitals. Jaipreet Virdi’s related post The London Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb tells this story.
From illnesses of the body, we segue to a illness of the mind. The dreaded African disease, sleeping sickness, when in an advanced stage, often resulted in violent mania. Was this true insanity on the part of the natives, or just a manifestation of a fear of isolation in a camp? From Sleeping Sickness and Lunacy at the Colonial Psychiatry Hub, we learn that much documentation of the effects of sleeping sickness on the local population is available from the British staffers of the Colonial Office (Uganda).
Just for variety, here’s something to watch rather than to read. Via Thony C., we have Lens on Leeuwenhoek: Videos about his life, times, and accomplishments posted at Lens on Leeuwenhoek.
This video is an overview of the life, times, and accomplishments of Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), the Dutch scientist who used hand-made single-lens microscopes to become the first human to see protozoa, bacteria, sperm, and red blood cells, among many other things.
And although that video’s only 7 minutes long, it promises more riches to come. Can there be any more to van Leeuwenhoek, then? Indeed there can, and Thony C. presents Lego-nhoek? posted at Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Centraal.
van Leeuwenhoek, of course, was a contemporary, competitor and Royal Society colleague of that polymath Robert Hooke. I found several blogs on this brilliant Englishman, and planned to chuck them in here, but closer scrutiny revealed that at least one of those pieces was a copy of a Wikipedia article. I hope this is not a similar copy: Leland Velazquez discusses the Physics of Bungee Jumping. Hooke’s work on elasticity leading to his eponymous law is the underpinning of this extreme sport.
If Robert Hooke is around, Christopher Wren can’t be far behind. Another brilliantly multifaceted man, Wren involved himself in astronomy, mathematics, architecture, art, and – we learn from Christopher Wren and the Bees by Gene Kritsky at Wonders & Marvels – beekeeping. Why is this scientifically relevant? He also developed the transparent beehive that was suitable for the scientific observation of bee behaviour.
The bees were able to move between the various layers of the hive, and glass panels set into the structure allowed an observer to see the honey cascading down inside it. Although Wren’s construction had not been an immediate success (due to a failure to realise that bees worked downwards), it offered the prospect of an ever-increasing stock of bees and honey within the same hive. [from here]
Speaking of polymaths, there was Florence Fenwick Miller in the 19th century. She was a suffragette, a journalist, an educator, and a qualified medical doctor. From Peacay at the absolutely ravishing BibliOdyssey, we have An Atlas of Anatomy.
From Peacay at BibliOdyssey again, we have Fungis Danicis, a lovely set of illustrations of fungi studied by a Danish lawyer-turned-botanist named Theodor Holmskjold in the 18th century. This worthy actually identified over fifty new species during two years of observation in the countryside near Aarhus.
Now for some controversy! When scientists without training in history try to develop works in the history of science, clearly feathers are ruffled. Via Thony C., we have Renaissance Art or Neuroanatomy? Part 1 and part 2, posted by Darin at PACHSmörgåsbord. It appears that there have been a series of papers over the past 20 years by various scientists trying to find hidden anatomically precise messages in Michelangelo’s art.
R. Donald Fields wrote up a guest blog at Scientific American recently that discusses the oeuvre; as it turns out, none of the scientists involved is a trained historian. As the rebuttal at PACHSmörgåsbord makes clear, this is dangerous practice:
Why does this matter? Because such articles attract the attention of editors and contributors at places like Scientific American. These contributors then post a redaction of the article on the website, where the post becomes one of the most popular. Such redactions misrepresent the history of science, suggest that anybody can write the history of science, and deny that historians of science have a discrete expertise. That’s why it matters.
But just to show that not all scientific speculation on art is ill-founded, check out this interesting bit of detective work by a bunch of astronomers at Texas State University. Via Thony C., we have a post by Roger Sinnott on Sky And Telescope titled Walt Whitman’s Meteor-Procession, we learn about the great poet’s imagery (“the strange huge meteor-procession" that went "shooting over our heads" with "its balls of unearthly light”) and an interesting astronomical phenomenon.
I’m not sure if this next piece fits within the purview of our Carnival (as it may be more aligned to sociology) but I think it relates to a seminal work of behavioural psychology, so perhaps I can present it? Christopher Greene’s Clarks’ Black-White Doll Experiment Replicated at Advances in the History of Psychology blog discusses an even more controversial subject than that in the preceding paragraph, and highlights its most recent replication under the aegis of CNN (full report here in PDF).
On to more jolly subjects. Remember Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation? It is 50 years since the invention of the (optical) laser. Via Thony C., we have Happy Birthday! posted by Matt Springer at Built on Facts.
Another anniversary is that of Vannevar Bush’s visionary piece sixty-five years ago in the Atlantic Review about associative links in information, which one can easily see as an early precursor to hypertext and all that. Via gg, we have Simon Harper’s review ‘As We May Think’ at 65 from his blog Thinking Out Loud.
In the 19th century, by a gradual process of socialisation, the scientific and professional communities in the USA began to differentiate themselves. Will Thomas posts Paul Lucier on ‘Professionals’ and ‘Scientists’ in 19th century America at the Ether Wave Propaganda blog.
We end on a luminous, numinous note. What links a certain 1980s teen film, a song by John Parr, the Chinese sea-goddess Mazu, and – wait for it – ionised air? In St Elmo’s Fire, Captain Skellet of A Schooner of Science explains the whys and the hows of the gorgeous blue glow that appears on the tips of masts on sailing ships.
[And there you have it. Thanks for stopping by. I hope this encourages you to write up your own pieces on science and its history and philosophy. Do consider submitting your blog article to the next edition of the giant's shoulders at The Dispersal of Darwin. You can use the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.] | <urn:uuid:7e745350-7d3f-4201-a0a2-c4954bd65af4> | {
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Our Context of Spiritual Life
Spiritual life is larger than we are. We find it intimidating, even overwhelming, that we cannot see all of spiritual life at once. It is more than what our senses, even our common sense, can grasp.
Spiritual life is beyond our understanding and our control.
We are often more attracted to what we are able to organize and categorize. It is easier for us to trust what our senses tell us, what we experience.
Life has taught many of us to leave spiritual life alone. We may have been raised in ways which made spiritual life unappealing to us. Spiritual life might have become a source of embarrassment, or fear, or shame, or guilt. None of those feelings encourage us to want to experience more.
We may approach spiritual life as an academic exercise. It is as if spiritual life is a challenging puzzle or mathematical equation for us to solve. We work away and the equation seems to develop more complexity as we try to solve it.
For some of us, spiritual life has become a complicated set of rules for us to follow. We stand aside, rolling out eyes, as other people argue about which rules are most important.
Our exposure to spiritual life in the past does not engage our deepest selves. It can be a challenge for us to figure out why anyone cares about spiritual life.
We struggle to find the life in the spiritual life we experience. Spiritual life, as we see it, does not connect with us at a particularly deep level.
The way we experience spiritual life is often limited by our own perspective. The context in which we view spiritual life obscures its depth for us.
Speaking Out of Context
Each of us experiences spiritual life within our own context. Our experiences, opinions, thoughts, and ideas provide a framework for our perspectives.
Spiritual life does not spring up for us brand new without context. Each contact we have had with spiritual life throughout our lives shapes the way we understand it. The challenge for us is to recognize and appreciate our own context.
The way we respond to spiritual life may be at odds with how someone else responds to it. An aspect of spiritual life they find comforting may cause distress for us. Something they find troublesome may be one of our most deeply held and valued beliefs.
It is not spiritual life which is inconsistent when our contexts come into conflict with each other. We understand the same things in our own unique ways.
People often overlook the context through which they view spiritual life.
How do we describe our own context, for spiritual life or anything else? We need to take a look at the framework through which we see.
Because our context is based in our experiences, we begin by telling our stories. When I work with people they generally give me a version of their spiritual autobiography. I listen and ask questions as they describe their experiences.
Our context is the framework we use to explain how things work. Telling our stories describes how we built our own personal context. We may have set out intentionally to design and construct particular aspects of how we see things. Some parts may be based in unplanned experiences we had hoped to avoid.
Putting Spiritual Life Into Context
The powerful flow of spiritual life is all around us and within us. It is easy for us to miss spiritual life because it is larger than our expectations.
We look out the small window of our context for what we think spiritual life is like. When we see something other than what we expect, we assume spiritual life is not there.
We miss the presence of spiritual life because it does not fit within our context.
It is only as we adapt and expand our context that spiritual life fits within it. We question the meanings we have given our experiences and our context grows to recognize spiritual life.
Some of us close our eyes and become skeptical because we do not find spiritual life in context. When spiritual life does not fit into our context we conclude it does not exist.
There have been times when I was convinced I had a handle on spiritual life. My experiences and opinions taught me spiritual life acted in certain ways. When I was not able to predict how spiritual life would work I got frustrated.
We get embarrassed or afraid when we do not understand as much as we thought we did. Our context tells us life should work in certain ways and we depend on our context.
For me, it is almost as if spiritual life is intentionally showing me how unpredictable it is. There are times when I need to ask whether I trust spiritual life or my own context.
Expanding the Shape of Our Context
It is important for our context of spiritual life to support us and not get in our way. Reflecting allows us to restructure and expand the shape of our context of spiritual life.
We can get stuck in how we expect to experience spiritual life. It is one thing to remember how spiritual life has felt for us in the past. Our past experience does not necessarily predict our future possibilities.
Fortunately, we can change the way we experience spiritual life. Our expectations based on previous experience cannot control how spiritual life works in us.
As we reflect on our experience and expectations we learn lessons which change how we live.
We can decide to trust spiritual life more than we trust our context of spiritual life.
What are your expectations of how spiritual life behaves?
How would we describe our context of spiritual life today?
[Image by seier+seier]
Greg Richardson is a spiritual life mentor and leadership coach in Southern California. He is a recovering attorney and university professor, and a lay Oblate with New Camaldoli Hermitage near Big Sur, California. Greg’s website is StrategicMonk.com, and his email address is [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:67c35ce0-f64e-49e5-8976-8ec28031c5dd> | {
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Francis Kendall, born about 1620, in Norfolk, England and his brother Thomas were the first of this Kendall line to sail to the New Colony. They arrived on the shores of Massachusetts about 1640, settling in the town of Woburn (Charlestown). Thomas later removed to the town of Reading, MA.
Francis Kendall married Mary Tidd on December 24, 1644. Together they had some nine children. These children in their adult years spread out across the New England landscape creating families of their own.
According to old town records, Francis Kendall, was by trade a miller. These records indicate that upon his death his dwelling house and half the interest in his corn mill passed to the eldest son John. The remaining interest appears to have already been given to sons Thomas, Samuel and Jacob.
Francis was also civic minded. Records tell us that he held the position of selectman for 18 years [1659-1688] and subscribed the town orders. Francis was fined for being late to one such selectmen's meeting in 1674. He was also on the committee to lay out common lands in 1667.
The Kendall genealogy found in these pages mark the direct descendant line of Francis Kendall to the present day. Efforts have been made to be as accurate as time and history will allow, but as with any large undertaking by imperfect humans, mistakes are bound to happen. This is a true labor of love for generations yet to come so please feel free to contact me with any corrections or additional facts you'd like to add. | <urn:uuid:c398b552-7d86-4290-9de3-db7b65451836> | {
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Colleges, online universities, and other educational forums in your community can be excellent places to learn more about a variety of STEM topics, but there is also a wealth of educational material available on the web for those who prefer to learn at their own pace or take a more individual approach. Even better, these resources, whether classes, lectures, or tutorials, are all free of charge, meaning you can improve your knowledge without emptying your wallet. Check out our list (organized by topic, not ranking) for some great STEM resources that can help you build your knowledge about everything from calculus to fire science.
These universities, many of which are renowned for their STEM programs, offer resources like course materials, videos, and lecture series.
Continue Reading: 50 Best Sources of Free STEM Education Online – OnlineUniversities.com
STEM education is sweeping the nation. From robotics competitions to coding games, school districts are scrambling to provide STEM programs while teachers sift through thousands of Pinterest pins in search of quality activities. As a STEM Director, I am always looking for new curriculum idea | <urn:uuid:79211f5c-5c9c-4fae-811c-dca3fdd6a8bf> | {
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To hallow the solemn occasion, Nehru and his colleagues sat cross-legged around a sacred fire in Delhi while Hindu priests – arrived posthaste from Tanjore for the ritual – chanted hymns and sprinkled holy water over them, and women imprinted their foreheads with vermilion. Three hours later, on the stroke of midnight, 14 August 1947, a date and time stipulated by Hindu astrologers, Nehru – in defiance of any earthly notion of time, announcing that the rest of the world was asleep: London and New York were wide awake – assured his broadcast listeners that their ‘tryst with destiny’ was consummated, and had given birth to the Indian Republic.
After the ceremonies came practical arrangements. Within a fortnight, a Constituent Assembly had appointed a committee to draft a constitution, chaired by the leader of the Untouchables, Ambedkar. After the committee had laboured for more than two years, a charter of 395 articles was adopted, the longest of its kind in the world, which came into force on 26 January 1950. The document drew on British, American and White Dominion precedents for an original synthesis, combining a strong central executive with a symbolic presidency, a bicameral legislature with reserved seats for minorities, a Supreme Court with robust provincial governments, in a semi-federal structure denominated a union. Widely admired at the time and since, and not only at home, the constitution has become a touchstone of what for many are the signature values of India: a multitudinous democracy, a kaleidoscopic unity, an ecumenical secularity.
There is always some gap between the ideals of a nation and the practices that seek or claim to embody them. Its width, of course, varies. In the case of India, the central claim is sound. Since independence, the country has famously been a democracy. Its governments are freely elected by its citizens at regular intervals, in polls that are not twisted by fraud. Although often thought to be, this is not in itself a unique achievement in what was once called the Third World. Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Jamaica and Mauritius can match regular elections as independent states. What sets Indian democracy apart from these is its demographic and social setting. In sheer scale, it is unlike any other democracy in the world. From the beginning, its electorate was more than twice the size of the next largest, in the United States. Today, at some 700 million, it is more than five times larger. At the far top of the range in numbers, India is close to the bottom in literacy and poverty. At independence, only 12 per cent of the population could read or write. Comparable figures for Jamaica were 72 per cent, Sri Lanka 63 per cent, Malaya 40 per cent. As for poverty, per capita income in India today is still only about a sixth of that of Malaysia, a third of that of Jamaica, and not much more than half that of Sri Lanka. It is these magnitudes that make Indian democracy so remarkable a phenomenon, and the pride of its citizens in it legitimate.
To be impressive, however, is not to be miraculous, as Indians and others still regularly describe the political system that crystallised after independence. There was never anything supernatural about it: terrestrial explanations suffice. The stability of Indian democracy came in the first instance from the conditions of the country’s independence. There was no overthrow of the Raj, but a transfer of power by it to Congress as its successor. The colonial bureaucracy and army were left intact, minus the colonisers. In the mid-1930s Nehru, denouncing the Indian civil service as ‘neither Indian nor civil nor a service’, declared it ‘essential that the ICS and similar services disappear completely’. By 1947 pledges like these had faded away as completely as his promises that India would never become a dominion. The steel frame of the ICS remained in place, untouched. In the last years of the Raj, its upper ranks had been Indianised, and there was no other corps of native administrators available. But if this was true of the bureaucracy, it was not of the army. Indigenous officers and soldiers had fought bravely, arms in hand, against the Raj in the ranks of the Indian National Army. What was to be done with them, once the British left? Their record a potential reproach to Congress, they were refused integration in the armed forces of the former colonial power, composed of veterans of domestic repression and overseas aggression fresh from imperial service in Saigon and Surabaya who now became the military apparatus of the new order. Nor was there any purge of the police that had beaten, jailed and shot so many in the struggle for independence: they too were kept intact. For the Congress high command, the priority was stability. These were the sinews of a strong state.
The legacy of the Raj was not confined to its bureaucracy, army and police. Alongside its machinery of administration and coercion, Congress inherited its traditions of representation. The Constituent Assembly that gave India its constitution was a British-created body dating from 1946, for which only one out of seven of the subjects of the Raj had been allowed to vote. Once independence was granted, Congress could have called for new elections, with universal adult suffrage. Fearing the outcome might be less convenient than the conclave to hand, in which since partition it controlled 95 per cent of the seats, it took care not to do so. No election on an expanded franchise was held till 1951. The body that created Indian democracy was thus itself not an expression of it, but of the colonial restrictions that preceded it. The constitution to which it gave birth, moreover, owed the majority of its provisions to Westminster: some 250 out of its 395 articles were taken word for word from the Government of India Act passed by the Baldwin cabinet in 1935. But the most important segment of the umbilical cord attaching the Congress regime of the post-independence years to the arrangements of the Raj was the least conspicuous. A mere six articles out of nearly four hundred dealt with elections, but these laid down that the victors would be those first past the post in any constituency.
Though the Raj had imported this British system to the subcontinent, confronted with intractable local problems it had on occasion contemplated alternatives, the existence of which could not altogether be excluded from the deliberations of the Constituent Assembly. Over the protests of the handful of Muslim members left in it, any idea of proportional representation was given short shrift, and an undiluted Westminster model adopted for the Lok Sabha. The Anglophone provincialism of the Congress elite played its part in this. When the functionary responsible for detailed drafting of the constitution, the legal bureaucrat Benegal Rau, a recent locum for Delhi in Kashmir, was dispatched on a fact-finding tour abroad, he visited just four countries: Britain, Ireland, Canada and the United States, all reassuringly first past the post save Ireland. There, however, De Valera told him that ‘he would do away with proportional representation in any shape or form. He preferred the British system as it made for strong government’. Efforts by Fianna Fail to strengthen its grip on the island would mercifully be frustrated, but their logic was readily understood by Congress. The last thing it wished was to weaken its monopoly of power in India. First past the post had delivered what it wanted in the past. Why forego it in the future?
The consequences were central to the nature of the Indian democracy that emerged once elections were held. For twenty years, across five polls between 1951 and 1971, Congress never once won a majority of votes. In this period, at the peak of its popularity as an organisation, its average share of the electorate was 45 per cent. This yielded it crushing majorities in the Lok Sabha, amounting to just under 70 per cent of the seats in Parliament. In effect, the distortions of the electoral system meant that at national level it faced no political opposition. At state or district level, this did not hold. But there, the centre had powers that could deal swiftly with any local trouble. These too were heirlooms of the Raj, eagerly appropriated by Congress. Preventive detention dated back to a Bengal State Prisoners Regulation of 1818, and had been a standard weapon of colonial rule. At Rau’s instigation, approved by Nehru and Patel, the constitution retained it, eliminating due process. Intervention by the viceroy to over-ride or overturn elected governments in the provinces had been authorised by the hated Section 93 of the Government of India Act of 1935. At the last minute, the same powers now reappeared in Article 356 of the constitution, transferred to the president of the republic, in practice a placeholder for the prime minister. Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel had wasted no time in showing the uses of the first, sweeping communist leaders and militants into jail across the country within a few months of independence. Resort to the second came within months of the adoption of the constitution, when Nehru demanded and obtained the head of the chief minister in Punjab, a Congressman he regarded as insubordinate, over the opposition of the newly installed president himself. In Kerala, where communist governments were intermittently elected, president’s rule was imposed five times, from 1959 onwards. By 1987 there had been no fewer than 75 of these takeovers by the centre, affecting virtually every state in India. The representative institutions of Indian democracy were thus from the start anchored in a system of electoral distortion, and armour-plated with an ample repertoire of legal repression.
Still, limits to liberty such as these have never been peculiar to India. In one degree or another, they are familiar elsewhere. All liberal democracies are significantly less liberal, and considerably less democratic, than they fancy themselves to be. That does not cancel them as a category. There is no reason to judge India by a higher standard than is complacently accepted in older and richer versions. The explanation of democratic stability in a society that is so much poorer and more populous is only to a secondary extent to be found in institutional restrictions common enough in the species. It lies in a far larger enabling condition. To see what this might be, a truly distinguishing feature of Indian democracy – one that sets it apart from any other society in the world – needs be considered. In India alone, the poor form not just the overwhelming majority of the electorate, but vote in larger numbers than the better-off. Everywhere else, without exception, the ratio of electoral participation is the reverse – nowhere more so, of course, than in the Land of the Free. Even in Brazil, the other large tropical democracy, where – unlike in India – voting is technically compulsory, the index of ballots cast falls as income and literacy decline.
Why then has the sheer pressure of the famished masses, who apparently hold an electoral whip-hand, not exploded in demands for social reparation incompatible with the capitalist framework of this – as of every other – liberal democracy? Certainly not because Congress ever made much effort to meet even quite modest requirements of social equality or justice. The record of Nehru’s regime, whose priorities were industrial development and military spending, was barren of any such impulse. No land reform worthy of mention was attempted. No income tax was introduced until 1961. Primary education was grossly neglected. As a party, Congress was controlled by a coalition of rich farmers, traders and urban professionals, in which the weight of the agrarian bosses was greatest, and its policies reflected the interests of these groups, unconcerned with the fate of the poor. But they suffered no electoral retribution for this. Why not?
The answer lies, and has always lain, in what also sets India apart from any other country in the world, the historic peculiarities of its system of social stratification. Structurally, by reason of their smaller numbers and greater resources, virtually all ruling classes enjoy an advantage over the ruled in their capacity for collective action. Their internal lines of communication are more compact; their wealth offers an all-purpose medium of power, convertible into any number of forms of domination; their intelligence systems scan the political landscape from a greater height. More numerous and more dispersed, less equipped materially, less armed culturally, subordinate classes always tend, in the sociologist Michael Mann’s phrase, to be ‘organisationally outflanked’ by those above them. Nowhere has this condition been more extreme than in India. There the country is divided into some thirty major linguistic groups, under the cornice of the colonial language – the only one in which rulings on the constitution are accessible – of which, at most, a tenth of the population has any command. These would be obstacles in themselves daunting enough to any national co-ordination of the poor.
But the truly deep impediments to collective action, even within language communities, let alone across them, lay in the impassable trenches of the caste system. Hereditary, hierarchical, occupational, striated through and through with phobias and taboos, Hindu social organisation fissured the population into some five thousand jatis, few with any uniform status or definition across the country. No other system of inequality, dividing not simply, as in most cases, noble from commoner, rich from poor, trader from farmer, learned from unlettered, but the clean from the unclean, the seeable from the unseeable, the wretched from the abject, the abject from the subhuman, has ever been so extreme, and so hard-wired with religious force into human expectation. The role of caste in the political system would change, from the years after independence to the present. What would not change was its structural significance as the ultimate secret of Indian democracy. Gandhi declared that caste alone had preserved Hinduism from disintegration. His judgment can be given a more contemporary application. Caste is what preserved Hindu democracy from disintegration. Fixing in hierarchical position and dividing from one another every disadvantaged group, legitimating every misery in this life as a penalty for moral transgression in a previous incarnation, as it became the habitual framework of the nation it struck away any possibility of broad collective action to redress earthly injustice that might otherwise have threatened the stability of the parliamentary order over which Congress serenely presided for two decades after independence. Winding up the debate in the Constituent Assembly that approved the constitution, of which he was a leading architect, Ambedkar remarked: ‘We are going to enter a life of contradictions. In politics, we will have equality and in social and economic life, we will have inequality … We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this assembly has so laboriously constructed.’ He underestimated the system of inequality against which he had fought for so long. It was not a contradiction of the democracy to come. It was the condition of it. India would have a caste-iron democracy.
What of the second great claim for which the constitution could legitimately be held to lay the basis, the resilient unity achieved in a country of such immense diversity? Its drafters studiously avoided the word ‘federal’. The Upper House in Delhi would be not even the weak shadow of a senate. The new state would be an Indian Union, with powers conferred on the centre to manipulate or overthrow elected authorities in its constituent units unthinkable in the United States, Canada, Australia or other models consulted for its construction. But though less than federal in intention, in outcome the union became something like a creatively flexible federation, in which state governments came to enjoy a considerable degree of autonomy, so long as they did not offer opportunities for intervention by internal disputes or cross too boldly the political will of the centre. The test of this undeclared federalism came with the emergence of movements for the linguistic redivision of territorial units inherited from the Raj. The Congress high command was instinctively hostile to these, Nehru particularly dismissive. But popular pressures in the Telugu zone of the Madras Presidency eventually forced Delhi to accept the creation of Andhra in 1953. Top-down reorganisation brought Karnataka, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh into being three years later, and after considerable violence the Bombay Presidency had to be split into Maharashtra and Gujarat in 1960.
Thereafter the principle that new states could emerge on a linguistic or other basis, if there was strong regional demand for them, was effectively conceded. At independence there were 14 states in the union; today they number 28, and still counting, with proposals to split Uttar Pradesh into four states now on the agenda. In no case have voters as such ever been consulted in these redivisions: the centre has broken up states, reactively or pre-emptively, according to its own judgment of what exigencies required. Yet the institutional evolution that has permitted this multiplicity of regional governments to take shape must be accounted the most distinctive achievement of the Indian constitution. That so many linguistic divisions could co-exist in a single huge polity without generating insuperable disputes or deadlocks has certainly also been due to the luck of the cultural draw. Had one language group constituted a clear majority of the nation, or none enjoyed any particular preponderance over any other, the potential for conflict or scission would have been much greater. Hindi, whose native-speakers comprise some 40 per cent of the population, had just the right weight to act as a ballast in the political system, without risk of too provocatively lording over it. Still, that the contours of a mobile federalism could develop so constructively is owed to the good sense of those who redrew the map of India, originally against the wishes of Congress.
This real achievement has, in what by now could be termed the Indian Ideology, been surcharged with claims to a largely imaginary status: the notion that the preservation by the Indian state of the unity of the country is a feat so exceptional as to be little short of a miracle, in the standard phrase. There is no basis for this particular vanity. A glance at the map of the post-colonial world is enough to show that, no matter how heterogeneous or artificial the boundaries of any given European colony may have been, they continue to exist today. Of the 52 countries in Africa, the vast majority arbitrary fabrications of rival imperialist powers, just one – Sudan – has failed to persist within the same frontiers as an independent state. In Asia, the same pattern has held, the separation of Singapore from Malaysia after two years of cohabitation not even a break with the colonial past, of Bangladesh from Pakistan enabled by external invasion. Such few sports of history aside, the motto of independence has invariably been: what empire has joined, let no man put asunder. In this general landscape, India represents not an exception, but the rule.
That rule has, in one state after another, been enforced with violence. In Africa, wars in Nigeria, Mali, the Western Sahara, Ethiopia, Congo, Angola; in South-East Asia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Burma, Sri Lanka. Typically, military force deployed to preserve postcolonial unity has meant military government in one guise or another in society at large: state of emergency in the periphery, dictatorship at the centre. India has escaped the latter. But it has exhibited the former, with a vengeance. It is now 65 years since Congress seized the larger part of Kashmir, without title from the colonial power, though with vice-regal connivance, in the name of a forged document of accession from its feudal ruler, the assent of its leading politician and the pledge of a plebiscite to confirm the will of its people. Having secured the region, Nehru – the prime mover – made short work of all three. The maharajah was soon deposed, the promise of a referendum ditched. What of the politician, on whom now rested what claims of legitimacy for Indian possession remained?
Abdullah, the Lion of Kashmir as he enjoyed being styled, was a Muslim leader who, like Badshah Khan in the North-West Frontier Province, had been an ally of Congress in the years of struggle against the Raj, and become the most prominent opponent of the maharajah in the Valley of Kashmir. There his party, the National Conference, had adopted a secular platform in which local communists played some role, seeking independence for Kashmir as the ‘Switzerland of Asia’. But when partition came, Abdullah made no case of this demand. For some years he had bonded emotionally with Nehru, and when fighting broke out in Kashmir in the autumn of 1947, he was flown out from Srinagar to Delhi by military aircraft and lodged in Nehru’s house, where he took part in planning the Indian takeover, to which he was essential. Two days later, the maharajah – now safely repaired to Jammu – announced in a backdated letter to Mountbatten, drafted by his Indian minders, that he would install Abdullah as his prime minister.
For the next five years, Abdullah ruled the Valley of Kashmir and Jammu under the shield of the Indian army, with no authority other than his reluctant appointment by a feudatory he despised and Delhi soon discarded. At the outset, Nehru believed his friend’s popularity capable of carrying all before it. When subsequent intelligence indicated otherwise, talk of a plebiscite to ratify it ceased. Abdullah enjoyed genuine support in his domain, but how wide it was, or how deep, was not something Congress was prepared to bank on. Nor, it soon became clear, was Abdullah himself willing to put it to the test. No doubt acutely aware that Badshah Khan, with a much stronger popular base, had lost just such a referendum in the North-West Frontier Province, he rejected any idea of one. No elections were held until 1951, when voters were finally summoned to the polls for a Constituent Assembly. Less than 5 per cent of the nominal electorate cast a ballot, but otherwise the results could not have been improved in Paraguay or Bulgaria. The National Conference and its clients won all 75 seats – 73 of them without a contest. A year later Abdullah announced the end of the Dogra dynasty and an agreement with Nehru that reserved special rights for Kashmir and Jammu, limiting the powers of the centre, within the Indian Union. But no constitution emerged, and not even the maharajah’s son, regent since 1949, was removed, instead simply becoming head of state.
By now, however, Delhi was becoming uneasy about the regime it had set up in Srinagar. In power, Abdullah’s main achievement had been an agrarian reform putting to shame Congress’s record of inaction on the land. But its political condition of possibility was confessional: the expropriated landlords were Hindu, the peasants who benefited Muslim. The National Conference could proclaim itself secular, but its policies on the land and in government employment catered to the interests of its base, which had always been in Muslim-majority areas, above all the Valley of Kashmir. Jammu, which after ethnic cleansing by Dogra forces in 1947 now had a Hindu majority, was on the receiving end of Abdullah’s system, subjected to an unfamiliar repression. Enraged by this reversal, the newly founded Jana Sangh in India joined forces with the local Hindu party, the Praja Parishad, in a violent campaign against Abdullah, who was charged with heading not only a communal Muslim but a communist regime in Srinagar. In the summer of 1953, the Indian leader of this agitation, S.P. Mookerjee, was arrested crossing the border into Jammu, and promptly expired in a Kashmiri jail.
This was too much for Delhi. Mookerjee had, after all, been Nehru’s confederate in not dissimilar Hindu agitation to lock down the partition of Bengal, and was rewarded with a cabinet post. Although since then he had been an opponent of the Congress regime, he was still a member in reasonably good standing of the Indian political establishment. Abdullah, moreover, was now suspected of recidivist hankering for an independent Kashmir. The Intelligence Bureau had little difficulty convincing Nehru that he had become a liability, and overnight he was dismissed by the stripling heir to the Dogra throne he had so complacently made head of state, and thrown into an Indian jail on charges of sedition. His one-time friend behind bars, Nehru installed the next notable down in the National Conference, Bakshi Gulam Mohammed, in his place. Brutal and corrupt, Bakshi’s regime – widely known as BBC: the Bakshi Brothers Corporation – depended entirely on the Indian security apparatus. After ten years, in which his main achievement was to do away with any pretence that Kashmir was other than ‘an integral part of the Union of India’, Bakshi’s reputation had become a liability to Delhi, and he was summarily ousted in turn, to be replaced after a short interval by another National Conference puppet, this time a renegade communist, G.M. Sadiq, whose no less repressive regime proceeded to wind up the party altogether, dissolving it into Congress.
Abdullah, meanwhile, sat in an Indian prison for 12 years, eventually on charges of treason, with two brief intermissions in 1958 and 1964. During the second of these, he held talks with Nehru in Delhi and Ayub Khan in Rawalpindi, just before Nehru died, but was then rearrested for having had the temerity to meet Zhou Enlai in Algiers. A troubled Nehru had supposedly been willing to contemplate some loosening of the Indian grip on the Valley; much sentimentality has been expended on this lost opportunity for a better settlement in Kashmir, tragically frustrated by Nehru’s death. But the reality is that Nehru, having seized Kashmir by force in 1947, had rapidly discovered that Abdullah and his party were neither as popular nor as secular as he had imagined, and that he could hold his prey only by an indefinite military occupation with a façade of collaborators, each less satisfactory than the last. The ease with which the National Conference was manipulated to Indian ends, as Abdullah was discarded for Bakshi, and Bakshi for Sadiq, made it clear how relatively shallow an organisation it had, despite appearances, always been. By the end of his life, Nehru would have liked a more presentable fig-leaf for Indian rule, but that he had any intention of allowing free expression of the popular will in Kashmir can be excluded: he could never afford to do so. He had shown no compunction in incarcerating on trumped-up charges the ostensible embodiment of the ultimate legitimacy of Indian conquest of the region, and no hesitation in presiding over subcontracted tyrannies of whose nature he was well aware. When an anguished admirer from Jammu pleaded with him not to do so, he replied that the national interest was more important than democracy: ‘We have gambled on the international stage on Kashmir, and we cannot afford to lose. At the moment we are there at the point of a bayonet. Till things improve, democracy and morality can wait.’ Sixty years later the bayonets are still there, democracy nowhere in sight.
On the symmetrical wing of the union to the east, matters were no better. There the British had conquered an area larger than UP, most of it composed of the far end of what James Scott has described as the Appalachia of South-East Asia: densely forested mountainous uplands inhabited by tribal peoples of Tibeto-Mongoloid origin untouched by Hinduism, with no historical connection to any subcontinental polity. In the valleys, three Hindu kingdoms had long existed, the oldest in Manipur, the largest in Assam. The region had lain outside the Maurya and Gupta Empires, and had resisted Mughal annexation. But by the early 19th century Assam had fallen to Burmese expansion, and when the British seized it from Burma they did not reinstate its dynasty, while leaving princely rule in the much smaller states of Manipur and Tripura in place. The spread of tea plantations and logging made Assam a valuable province of the Raj, but the colonial authorities took care to separate the tribal uplands from the valleys, demarcating large zones throughout the region with an ‘Inner Line’ and classifying them as ‘Excluded and Unadministered Areas’, which they made little effort to penetrate. So remote were these from anything to do with India, even as constituted by the Victorian Empire, that when Burma was detached from the Raj in 1935, officials came close to allocating them to Rangoon rather than Delhi.
The arrival of independence would, in its own way, make the links of the North-East to the rest of India even more tenuous. For after partition, only a thin corridor, at its narrowest some 12 miles wide, connected it to the body of the union. Just 2 per cent of its borders were now contiguous with India – 98 per cent with Bangladesh, Burma, China, Nepal and Bhutan. Manipur had no direct road connection to India at all. Confronted with difficulties like these, the Congress leaders did not stand on ceremony. The ruler of Manipur had not been rounded up along with his fellow princes by V.P. Menon in 1947, and by 1949 was resisting full integration. Briefed on the problem, Patel had just one short question: ‘Isn’t there a brigadier in Shillong?’ Within days, the maharajah was kidnapped in Shillong, cut off from the outside world and made at gunpoint to sign his kingdom into oblivion. With it went the elected assembly of the state, which for the next decade was ruled – like Tripura, brigaded into the union at the same time – with no pretence at popular consultation by a commissioner from Delhi.
Dispersed tribes in the uplands did not permit of this kind of coup de main, and there trouble started even before the departure of the British. In Assam, about half the Naga population of 1.5 million – some 15 major tribes, speaking thirty languages – had been converted to Christianity by Baptist missionaries, and acquired an educated leadership in the shape of a Naga National Council, which made clear it did not want to be impressed into any future Indian state. A month before independence, a delegation called on Gandhi in Delhi. ‘You can be independent,’ he told them, characteristically adding: ‘You are safe as far as India is concerned. India has shed her blood for freedom. Is she going to deprive others of their freedom? Personally, I believe you all belong to me, to India. But if you say you don’t, no one can force you.’ Congress was less emollient. Nehru dismissed the emergent Naga leader, Phizo, as a crank, and the idea of Naga independence as absurd.
Undeterred, the Naga leaders declared independence a day before Britain transferred power to India. Congress paid no attention. Phizo continued to tramp villages, increasing support among the tribes. In March 1952, he met Nehru in Delhi. Beside himself at Phizo’s positions, Nehru – ‘hammering the table with clenched fists’ – exclaimed: ‘Whether heavens fall or India goes into pieces and blood runs red in the country, whether I am here or anyone else, Nagas will not be allowed to be independent.’ A year later, accompanied by his daughter, he arrived on an official visit as prime minister at Kohima, in the centre of Naga country, in the company of the Burmese Premier U Nu. Petitioners were brushed aside. Whereupon, when he strode into the local stadium to address a public meeting, the audience got up and walked out, smacking their bottoms at him in a gesture of Naga contempt. This was an indignity worse even than he had suffered among the Pathans. The Naga National Council was de-recognised, police raids multiplied. An underground Naga army assembled in the hills.
By late 1955 a Naga Federal Government had been proclaimed, and a full-scale war for independence had broken out. Under its commander-in-chief, two divisions of the Indian Army and 35 battalions of the paramilitary Assam Rifles, a largely Gurkha force notorious for its cruelties, were dispatched to crush the uprising. As in Malaya and Vietnam, villagers were forcibly relocated to strategic hamlets to cut off support for ‘hostiles’ – Indian officialese banning even use of the term ‘rebels’. In 1958, Nehru’s regime enacted perhaps the most sanguinary single piece of repressive legislation in the annals of liberal democracy, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which authorised the killing out of hand of anyone observed in a group of five persons or more, if such were forbidden, and forbade any legal action at all against ‘any person in respect of anything done or purported to be done in exercise of the powers of this regulation’, unless the central government so consented. With this licence to murder, Indian troops and paramilitaries were guaranteed impunity for atrocities, and made ample use of it. The brutality of Delhi’s occupation of Nagaland far exceeded that in Kashmir. But as in Srinagar, so in Kohima pacification required the suborning of local notables to construct a compliant façade of voluntary integration, work that in Naga territory was entrusted to the Intelligence Bureau. Once assured of this, Nagaland was promoted to statehood within the union in 1963. Half a century later, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act is still required to hold the region down.
In the mid-1930s Nehru had published a book, The Unity of India. As a ruler, his career began and ended with bids to enforce his conception of it. Kashmir, whose seizure was the first major act of his tenure after independence, came to occupy more Indian diplomatic time and energy than any other issue, under a prime minister who prized above all his role on the international stage. His undoing came with another territorial dispute, where he could not exercise his will so easily. ‘Not a yard of India is going to go out of India,’ he declared in Shillong in December 1957. By then, China had already completed a seven hundred mile road from Sinkiang to Tibet, passing through the uninhabited Aksai Chin plateau, claimed as part of India, without anyone in Delhi being aware of it. No part of the borderlands between India and China had ever been demarcated. In the east, India took lands as its own that the Raj had claimed by virtue of a convention never accepted by the fledgling Chinese Republic in 1913, but agreed at Simla in 1914 by the Tibetan authorities, over whom Britain acknowledged China to be suzerain, and with and from whom Britain had undertaken by earlier agreements neither to negotiate directly nor to annex territory.
Even by the standards of the Raj, the degree of chicanery involved in this transaction was unusual. In the words of the American jurist Alfred Rubin: ‘The documents reveal the responsible officials of British India to have acted to the injury of China in conscious violation of their instructions; deliberately misinforming their superiors in London of their actions; altering documents whose publication had been ordered by Parliament; lying at an international conference table; and deliberately breaking a treaty between the United Kingdom and Russia.’ The result, called after its architect, was the McMahon Line. But the line remained so notional, the territory it claimed so little penetrated, that it was not until 1935 that another British functionary in Delhi noticed that the agreement wrested from the Tibetans was not included in the British lexicon of international treaties, and official maps of India still showed the border as traditionally claimed by China; whereupon all copies of the lexicon were recalled for destruction, and a backdated one was produced by the Foreign Office with a forged year of publication. Such was the position on the eastern wing of the Raj: on its north-western salient, juridical visibility was still less. There, in 1897, the director of Military Intelligence in London had urged Britain to take the whole of Aksai Chin as a buffer against Russia. Deprecating this idea, two years later the viceroy proposed its division in a note to China ignored by the Qing court. In 1913, at Simla itself, the British maps marked all of it as belonging to China. By 1927, however, without any other supervening change, British maps showed it as part of India. Down to the end of the Raj, the British made no attempt to occupy the region.
In 1956, Zhou Enlai, pointing out to Nehru that borders between their two countries had never been agreed by any treaty in the past, and needed to be determined, told him that notwithstanding its imperialist origins, China was willing to take a ‘more or less realistic position’ on the McMahon Line. To this Nehru replied that the northern frontiers of the British Empire, as bequeathed to India, were unnegotiable. On discovering two years later that China had built a road through Aksai Chin, he demanded it withdraw. On getting a reply that Aksai Chin was part of China, Delhi initially conceded that the area was ‘a matter in dispute’, then hastily reversed itself. There could be no question of a dispute, and no question of negotiations: the Chinese must get out. The following year, revolt broke out in Tibet, and the Dalai Lama fled to India, where the CIA had for some time been helping Tibetan rebels with Indian connivance. The Dalai Lama’s arrival was of no comfort to India on the border dispute – complaining about Indian recognition of Chinese sovereignty over Tibet, he pointed out that ‘if you deny sovereign status to Tibet, you deny the validity of the Simla Convention and therefore the validity of the McMahon Line’ – but it increased tensions between Beijing and Delhi. Nevertheless, in 1960 Zhou Enlai arrived from Rangoon, fresh from a boundary agreement accepting the McMahon Line where it abutted on Burma, and proposed a similar agreement with India, in exchange for its assent that Aksai Chin belonged to China. Once again, he was told there could be no negotiations over Indian claims in their plenitude.
Legally, these rested simply on the expansionist chicaneries of the Raj in the east, and on still less – mere cartographic fancies – in the west. Politically, however, the reality was that on either side of the mountain chains separating the subcontinent from the plateaux to the north, both Qing and Victorian regimes were systems of imperial conquest over subject peoples. The Qing was an older presence in the region, and by what passed for the diplomatic proprieties of the time, its weak successor had been defrauded of territory by the British. The corpse of one predator had been robbed by another, with otherwise little to choose between them. Half a century later, China was a revolutionary state actuated not by legal injury but strategic utility. Aksai Chin was of use to it, whereas it was of almost no significance to India. Territory south of the McMahon Line was of little use to China, and India could keep it. Had Nehru shown a grain of historical common sense, or political realism, he would have settled on that basis. Indian public opinion, it is often said, debarred this, and certainly he feared, as he told his officials, that ‘If I give them that I shall no longer be prime minister of India – I will not do it.’ But, of course, no one was more responsible for the fantasies of a sempiternal India, stretching back millennia across every yard of land claimed by the Raj, than Nehru himself. This was the dream-world of the ‘unity’ and ‘discovery’ of India in which he had soaked himself since the 1930s, and was now inspiring the surreal claim that the McMahon Line coincided with the borders of India as they had been for nearly three thousand years, in which ‘the striving of the Indian spirit was directed towards these Himalayan fastnesses’, as testified by the Upanishads.
In the grip of delusions such as these, all contact with reality was lost. Troops were ordered to take up forward positions, challenging outposts of the PLA in Aksai Chin, and in the North East. Nehru’s chief of staff declared that ‘a few rounds fired at the Chinese would cause them to run away.’ His home minister – and later successor – Lal Bahadur Shastri announced that if China did not vacate the disputed areas, India would eject it from them as summarily as it had Portugal from Goa. In September 1962 – Nehru himself, attending another meaningless Commonwealth conference in London, was not even in Delhi – the decision was made to do so, without the slightest idea of what might ensue. Burning villages in Nagaland and shooting demonstrators in Srinagar in the name of national unity was one thing: that the Indian army could do. Taking on the PLA in the same cause was another matter. In a first round of fighting, lasting a fortnight in October, Indian troops attempting to advance in the North-East were thrashed, while garrisons fell in the West. The shock in Delhi was great, but did not sober Nehru, who in characteristic style thanked China during the succeeding lull for an action that has ‘suddenly lifted a veil from the face of India’ – in full rhetorical flight, images from the boudoir were rarely far from his mind – affording ‘a glimpse of the serene face of India, strong and yet calm and determined, an ancient face which is ever young and vibrant’.
US, British and Israeli weapons were hastily summoned to bulk up the national arsenal. On Nehru’s birthday, 14 November, his troops launched a counter-attack in the North-East. In less than a week, they were ignominiously routed, disintegrating completely as a military force. Had China wished, the PLA could have marched without opposition to Calcutta. In panic, Nehru pleaded for American bombers to attack it. But the Chinese leadership had already achieved all that it intended, and its control of Aksai Chin now beyond challenge, withdrew back across the McMahon Line in a move of Olympian closure virtually as humiliating to Nehru as his crushing defeat in the field. The Caporetto of Thagla Ridge effectively finished him. Psychologically broken and physically diminished, he lingered in office for another 18 months before his death in the spring of 1964.
In retrospect, Nehru’s stock has risen among Indian intellectuals of liberal or left persuasion as that of the political class that came after him has fallen. That is understandable: he belonged to a generation that had resisted the British in the name of an ideal, with no certainty of success in their lifetime, and paid for it, as those who came to power thereafter by birth or intrigue did not. The image of a ruler-sage was always misplaced. As those who knew and admired him at close range were well aware, his was – in the words of Savarpalli Gopal, the loyal assistant who became his principal biographer – a ‘commonplace mind’ that was ‘not capable of deep or original thought’. The shallowness of his intellectual equipment was connected to the side of his personality that so easily drifted away from realities resistant to his hopes or fancies. It is striking how similar was the way two such opposite contemporaries as Patel and Jinnah could see him – the former speaking on occasion of his ‘childlike innocence’, the latter comparing him to Peter Pan. Gopal’s image is more telling still: early on, Nehru ‘made a cradle of emotional nationalism and rocked himself in it’, as if a child cocooning himself to sleep away from the outside world. He had, of course, many more adult qualities: hard work, ambition, charm, some ruthlessness. With these went others that were developmentally ambiguous: petulance, violent outbursts of temper, vanity. Occupational hazards of high office, no doubt. Yet however self-satisfied, few politicians could write, as Nehru did before his death, that no one had ever been loved so much by millions of his compatriots. Abstemious in many other ways, and little attracted to the supernatural, his opiate – as another admirer, the Australian ambassador to India Walter Crocker, would remark – was the adoration of the people.
The disabling effects of this addiction lacked an antidote among his colleagues. Patel, who could have counterbalanced it, was soon dead. Nehru took care to appoint no deputy premier to succeed him. Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, who had been president, went in Nehru’s view ‘off the rails’, resigning from Congress. Ambedkar, whom Nehru feared, and whose funeral he pointedly failed to attend, had been rapidly edged out. Subhas Chandra Bose, the only leader Congress ever produced who united Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs in a common secular struggle, and would have most threatened him, lay buried in Taiwan: the political landscape of postwar India would not have been the same had he survived. Surrounded by mediocrities, Nehru accumulated more posts than he could handle – permanent foreign minister as well as prime minister, not to speak of defence minister, head of the planning commission, president of Congress, at various times. He was not a good administrator, finding it difficult to delegate, but even had he been, this was a pluralism too far. In Gopal’s view, government became ‘a one-man show’. That was not entirely just, since Nehru could not attend to everything, so a notional cabinet also meant that ministers could often do what they liked in their departments as well.
The most damaging feature of the regime was less this centrifugal aspect than the development of a court of sycophants at extra-ministerial level. Unlike Gandhi, Nehru was a poor judge of character, and his choice of confidants consistently disastrous. Promoting to chief of staff over the heads of senior officers his henchman in overthrowing Abdullah, B.N. Kaul, a poltroon from Kashmir with no battlefield experience who fled the field at the first opportunity, Nehru was directly responsible for the debacle of 1962. For his personal secretary, he installed a repellent familiar from Kerala, M.O. Mathai, who acquired inordinate power, taking Nehru’s daughter to bed and passing his paperwork to the CIA, until his reputation became so noxious that Nehru was reluctantly forced to part with him. For political operations in Kashmir, the North-East or closer to home, he relied on a dim police thug, Bhola Nath Mullik, formerly of British employ, head of the Intelligence Bureau. The only actual colleague he trusted was Krishna Menon, an incompetent windbag who ended in disgrace along with Kaul.
Still, it can be argued that such failings were trifling set beside one commanding achievement. Nehru’s greatness, it is generally felt, was to rule as a democrat in a non-Western world teeming with dictators. Preceptor to his nation, he set an example from which those who came after him could not long depart. Tutored by him, Indian democracy found its feet, and has lasted ever since. That by conviction Nehru was a liberal democrat is clear. Nor was this a merely theoretical attachment to principles of parliamentary government. As prime minister, he took his duties in the Lok Sabha with a conscientious punctilio that put many Western rulers to shame, regularly speaking and debating in the chamber, and never resorted to rigging national elections or suppressing a wide range of opinion. So much is incontestable. But liberalism is a metal that rarely comes unalloyed. Nehru was first and foremost an Indian nationalist, and where the popular will failed to coincide with the nation as he imagined it, he suppressed it without remorse. There, the instruments of government were not ballots but, as he himself blurted, bayonets.
Nor, within the zone where the nation was not contested, could democracy simply be left to its own devices. No figure was more powerful in Nehru’s court than B.N. Mullik, picked for the job by Patel, who ingratiated himself with Nehru by supplying surveillance of all opposition parties from a network of informers inside them. Like other elected rulers – Nixon comes to mind – Nehru was fascinated by such clandestine information, and would rely on Mullik in handling Kashmir, where he became the minder of successive puppet regimes, and in pressing forward on the Sino-Indian border, his counsel disastrous in both areas. But it was closer to home that his services were most critical. As Mullik’s memoirs show, when a communist government was elected in Kerala – ‘always a matter of special interest to the IB’ – and the local Congress establishment connived at religious agitation to overthrow it, the Intelligence Bureau was central to the operation that finally brought it down, when Nehru gave the order to eliminate a democratic obstacle to the will of the centre.
Such episodes have generally been portrayed as inconsistencies on Nehru’s part, of a secondary kind it would not be difficult to find in the career of many well-regarded liberal statesmen. There is reason to that. The larger truth, however, is that Nehru could be the democratic ruler he was because once in office he faced so little opposition. Throughout his years as prime minister, Congress enjoyed enormous majorities in parliament, and controlled virtually every provincial government, in a caste-divided society. All non-Congress governments were handed their cards. Given the ease of that monopoly of power – political scientists would dub it a ‘one-party democracy’ – there was no occasion to resort to the conventional forms of authoritarian rule. Subjectively, any prospect of a dictatorship was alien to Nehru. But objectively, it was also quite unnecessary, so little temptation ever arose. By and large, democracy across most of the union was costless. That he handed it on as well as he did remains, nevertheless, his positive legacy.
What of the other side of the ledger? ‘As Calais was written on Queen Mary’s heart,’ Nehru told a British general in a revealing comparison, ‘so Kashmir is written on mine.’ The consequences, down the decades, would be bloodier even than her reign. The inheritance he left in the North-East was much the same. In 1961, he made it a crime to question the territorial integrity of India in writing or in speech, in sign or image, punishable by three years’ imprisonment. The Nagas, whom he started to bomb in 1963, were unbeaten when he died. Three years later, in March 1966, a full-scale rebellion broke out among the neighbouring Mizo. By the end of the following decade, Manipur, Tripura and Assam were all in flames. The criminality – murder, torture, rape – covered by the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act multiplied. Repression, co-option and exhaustion have yet to bring any real peace to the region, where India still has so much to hide that outsiders need special permission to enter, and can only visit parts of it under strict controls. Tibet is generally easier of access to foreigners.
For the rest of the union, the lasting affliction of Nehru’s rule has been the dynastic system he left it. He claimed to reject any dynastic principle, and his capacity for self-deception was perhaps great enough for him to believe he was doing so. But his refusal to indicate any colleague as a successor, and complaisance in the elevation of his daughter – with no qualifications other than her birth for the post – to the presidency of Congress, where Gandhi had once placed him for his own trampoline to power, speak for themselves. From the outset, she was more authoritarian than her father – within weeks, she called for the ouster of the government of Kerala. Once in command of the state and not just of the party, she would declare an emergency, arresting the leaders of every opposition party and jailing 140,000 citizens without charge. To many, it seemed that India was on the brink of dictatorship.
In fact what had happened was an exercise, on a much larger scale than ever before, of a traditional instrument of British rule, dubbed by one of its officials with the oxymoron ‘civil martial law’: mass arrests, suspension of ordinary legal procedures, followed – when danger of refractory opposition was thought past – by release of prisoners and reversion to ordinary legal and electoral procedures. This was the technique the Raj had applied to civil disobedience in 1932 and again in 1940, and that was used to bring Kerala to heel in 1959. Thereafter, in the shape of impositions of presidential rule, it became the centre’s regular method for disposing of state governments unsatisfactory to it, by 1977 employed no fewer than forty times, with only five states not having been subjected to it. But it could also be deployed less formally on a national scale, as when Delhi interned and deported thousands of Indian citizens of Chinese origin as enemy aliens, and arrested all communist leaders out of hand – including even those who had rallied to the patriotic banner – during the Sino-Indian War. The difference between resort to civil martial law by father and daughter was one of degree rather than kind. After twenty months, Indira Gandhi lifted the Emergency and held elections, as the guidebook of the Raj laid down.
The Emergency was nevertheless a watershed in Indian politics, since popular reaction against it broke for the first time the monopoly of government in Delhi enjoyed by Congress since independence. The heteroclite coalition that replaced it in the elections of 1977 did not last long, and the dynasty – daughter, succeeded by grandson – was soon back at the helm. But out of the magma of post-Emergency opposition eventually emerged a party of comparable electoral strength, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which two decades later was capable of forming governments as stable or unstable as those of Congress. With the arrival in power of the BJP, formally committed to the idea of Hindutva, it was less democracy which looked under threat – at least immediately; if ultimately it too, in the eyes of many – than the third value of the Indian state, its secularity.
In the struggle for independence, the legitimating ideology of Congress had always been a secular nationalism. It was in the name of this ideal that it claimed to speak for the whole subcontinent, regardless of faith. Partition had divided the Raj, the Muslim League creating a state founded on Islam in Pakistan. In the run-up to partition, British officials regularly referred to the larger area where Congress would rule as Hindustan, a term in private not always shunned by Congress leaders themselves. But when an independent state came into being, it was proudly just India, repudiating any official religious identity, proclaiming the unity of a nation that had been artificially divided. The constitution it adopted did not, however, describe India as a secular state, a term that was avoided. Nor did it institute equality before the law, a principle also eschewed. There would be no uniform civil code: Hindus and Muslims would continue to be subject to the respective customs of their faith governing family life. Nor would there be interference with religious hierarchies in daily life: Untouchability was banned, but caste itself left as it was. Protection of cows and prohibition of alcohol were enjoined, and seats reserved in Parliament for two minorities, Scheduled Castes (Untouchables) and Tribes – Dalits and Adivasis in today’s terminology – but not Muslims.
Ambedkar, responsible for much of the constitution, was not satisfied with the upshot, and as minister for law introduced in 1951 a Hindu Code Bill striking down the grosser forms of marital inequality it had sanctioned. Faced with uproar from the benches of Congress (he had the temerity to tell its MPs that the cherished legend of Krishna and Radha was an emblem of Hindu degradation of women), he was unceremoniously abandoned by Nehru and the bill neutered. With his exit went the only outspoken adversary of Hindu ascendancy ever to serve in an Indian cabinet. In 1947, he had been inducted à contrecoeur into it by Patel and Nehru, because they feared the alliance between his party, the Scheduled Castes’ Federation, and Jinnah’s, which had actually elected him from Bengal to the Constituent Assembly – the combination of Untouchables and Muslims that Gandhi had dreaded in the 1930s. In his resignation speech, Ambedkar made it clear he had been isolated from the outset by Nehru, who had refused to give him any post of substance in the cabinet, and that he regarded not only the ditching of the Hindu Code Bill as a betrayal – he called it ‘mental torture’ – but the grabbing of Kashmir and the ensuing allocation of more than half the budget to the army as unacceptable.
Nor did he feel the position of his own people had altered much meanwhile: ‘the same old tyranny, the same old oppression, the same old discrimination which existed before, exists now, and perhaps in a worse form.’ He had reason to say that, since he had been forced to scrap even the minimal safeguards for their political autonomy conceded in the 1930s, consigning the fate of the Untouchables to Uncle Toms like the notoriously venal Jagjivan Ram, union minister and pillar of Congress in UP, who made no secret of the fact that ‘since one had to depend on the non-Scheduled Caste vote, one went along with the fortunes of the party.’ Nor was Ambedkar consoled by sanctimonious plaudits for his role in drafting the constitution. He knew he had been used by Congress, and said two years later: ‘People always keep on saying to me: oh sir, you are the maker of the constitution. My answer is I was a hack. What I was asked to do I did much against my will.’ When his Riddles of Hinduism was published thirty years later, long after his death, not a Congressional whisper was heard in defence of him, amid the bigoted outcry.
Congress had failed to avert partition because it could never bring itself honestly to confront its composition as an overwhelmingly Hindu party, dropping the fiction that it represented the entire nation, and accept the need for generous arrangements with the Muslim party that had emerged opposite it. After independence, it presided over a state which could not but bear the marks of that denial. Compared with the fate of Pakistan after the death of Jinnah, India was fortunate. If the state was not truly secular – within a couple of years it was rebuilding with much pomp the famous Hindu temple in Somnath, ravaged by Muslim invaders, and authorising the installation of Hindu idols in the mosque at Ayodhya – it wasn’t overtly confessional either. Muslims or Christians could practise their religion with greater freedom, and live with greater safety, than Muslims could in Pakistan, if they were not Sunni. Structurally, the secularism of Congress had been a matter not of hypocrisy, but of bad faith, which is not the same: in its way a lesser vice, paying somewhat more tribute to virtue.
Around it, however, there inevitably developed a discourse to narrow the gap between official creed and unofficial practice, which has come to form a department of its own within the Indian ideology. Secularism in India, it is explained, does not mean anything so unsophisticated as the separation of state and religion. Rather – so one version goes – the Indian state is secular because, while it may well finance or sponsor this or that religious institution or activity, in doing so it maintains an ‘equidistance’ from the variegated faiths before it. According to another version, this is too limitative. The state should, and does, keep a ‘principled distance’ from the different religions of India, but the principle is one of ‘group-sensitive’ flexibility, allowing both for direct involvement in religious matters, supporting or restraining, and for non-involvement where that is the better course, without any necessary commitment to symmetry of action towards sensitive groups in either case. The outcome is a richer and more rewarding texture of relations between public authorities and devout communities, more in keeping with the highest ideals of a multicultural age than any laïcité to be found in the West or Far East.
A leading test of these professions is the condition of the community that Congress always claimed also to represent, and the Indian state to acquit of any shadow of confessionalism. How have Muslims fared under such secularism, equidistant or group-sensitive? In 2006, the government-appointed Sachar Commission found that of the 138 million Muslims in India, numbering some 13.4 per cent of the population, fewer than three out of five were literate, and a third were to be found in the most destitute layers of Indian society. A quarter of their children between the ages of six and 14 were not in school. In the top fifty colleges of the land, two out of a hundred postgraduates were Muslim; in the elite institutes of technology, four out of a hundred. In the cities, Muslims had fewer chances of any regular job than Dalits or Adivasis, and higher rates of unemployment. The Indian state itself, presiding over this scene? In central government, the report confessed, ‘Muslims’ share in employment in various departments is abysmally low at all levels’ – not more than 5 per cent at even the humblest rung. In state governments, the situation was still worse, nowhere more so than in communist-run West Bengal, which with a Muslim population of 25 per cent, nearly double the official average for the nation, many confined in ghettos of appalling misery, posted a figure of just 3.25 per cent of Muslims in its service. It is possible, moreover, that the official number of Muslims in India is an underestimate. In a confidential cable to Washington released by WikiLeaks, the US Embassy reported that the real figure was somewhere between 160 and 180 million. Were that so, Sachar’s percentages would need to be reduced.
At partition, most middle-class Muslims in Hindu-majority areas had emigrated to Pakistan, leaving a decapitated community of poorer co-religionaries behind. The great mass of those who remained in India thus started out in a very disadvantaged position. But what is transparent is that the Indian state which now claimed to cast an impartial mantle over them did no such thing. Discrimination began with the constitution itself, which accorded rights of representation to minorities that were denied to Muslims. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were granted special constituencies and seats in the Lok Sabha, subsequently also reservations in public employment, and in due course further Hindu groups – ‘Other Backward Castes’ – acquired the latter privilege too. But Muslims were refused both, on the grounds that conceding them would violate the precepts of secularism by introducing religion into matters of state. They were thereby denied any possibility of acting collectively to better their lot. If a Muslim party had possessed any proportionate share of national representation, its interests could never have been ignored in the coalition politics that have been the norm since Congress lost its monopoly of power. To add insult to injury, even where they were locally concentrated in sufficient numbers to make an electoral difference, these constituencies were not infrequently reserved for castes supposedly worse off than they, but actually better off. In mechanics such as these, Indian secularism is Hindu confessionalism by another name.
If matters are like this in the Indian state’s machinery of representation, it may be imagined how they stand in its now immense apparatus of repression. All told, the ‘security agencies’ of the Indian Union, as the Sachar Report politely calls them, employ close to two million. How many Muslims do they contain? The answer is too sensitive to divulge: as the report notes, no data on their composition are available for three-quarters of these. Put simply, Muslims are not wanted in their ranks. In 1999, a former defence minister let slip that they numbered just 1 per cent of 1,100,000 regulars. In the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) – the CIA and FBI of the Indian state – it is an ‘unwritten code’ that there should be not a single Muslim; so too in the National Security Guards and Special Protection Group, its Secret Service corps. The Indian armed forces are a Hindu preserve, garnished with Sikhs, and bolstered still – a unique arrangement in the postcolonial world – by Gurkhas from Nepal, as under the Raj. Mercenaries they may be, but their battle-cry could not be more impeccably Hindu: yells of ‘O Goddess Kali’ as they unsheath their kukri.
As with other oppressed minorities in societies keen to advertise their pluralism, a sprinkling of celebrities – a batsman or film star here, a scientist or symbolic office-holder there – adorns, but doesn’t materially alter, the position of the overwhelming majority of Muslims in India. Unlike blacks in the US, who comprise a roughly similar proportion of the population, they suffer from no racial stigma, and are overlaid with a thin elite layer of upper-class origin, the small residue of those who did not leave for Pakistan in 1947, bearers in some degree of a historical memory of Muslim rule, without any counterpart in the descendants of slavery in America. But otherwise most Muslims in India are much worse off, because they benefit from no affirmative action, and in a caste society are perforce more endogamous. They are second-class citizens.
Their fate throws into sharp relief unspoken realities of the Indian polity that emerged after partition, which take still more ominous form where it is contested. What the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act effectively does in such zones, the young Indian historian Ananya Vajpeyi has written, is ‘to create an entirely separate space within India, a sort of second and shadow nation, that functions as a military state rather than an electoral democracy, and only remains hidden because it is not, at least so far, officially ruled by a general or a dictator’. This space should ‘not be thought of as a zone of exception, but as a contradiction so extreme that it undoes the totality in which it is embedded’, which breaks down into ‘two distinct and mutually opposed regimes’ that form ‘two nations: India and non-India’. The description is powerful, but it looks away from the connection between them. For what is perfectly obvious, but never seen or spoken, is that the hand of AFSPA has fallen where the reach of Hinduism stops. The three great insurgencies against the Indian state have come in Kashmir, Nagaland-Mizoram and Punjab – regions respectively Muslim, Christian and Sikh. There it met popular feeling with tank and truncheon, pogrom and death squad. Today, the same configuration threatens to be repeated in the area the current prime minister calls ‘the greatest danger to Indian democracy’, the Naxalite corridor that runs from Jharkand to Andhra Pradesh: pre-Aryan tribal populations with their own forest cults, whose homelands are subject to ever more ruthless despoliation. Vajpeyi’s formulation is better reversed. The ‘shadow nation’ is not where democracy is denied, but where it is practised. What is hidden within India is Hindustan. It is that which tacitly shapes the state and determines the frontiers between freedom and repression, what is allowed and what is forbidden.
Official secularity is not meaningless. If India is a confessional state, it is by default, not prescription. There is no need to be a Hindu in any sense other than by birth to be successful in bureaucratic career terms. Descent, not piety, is the criterion. Much of the state apparatus, especially its upper echelons, may be composed of individuals largely or entirely secular in outlook, practising or devout Hindus perhaps only a minority. Compared with the state, society is less secular. To that extent, the ideology of Indian secularism is grounded in a real difference, and makes a difference. An ideology it nevertheless remains. For what the character of the Indian state essentially reproduces is that of Congress as a nationalist party. It is not overtly confessional, on the contrary making much of its secular ideals, but in both composition and practice is based squarely on the Hindu community, and just as Congress made no serious effort to register or come to terms politically with the Muslim League, so the state over which the party has presided has never made any serious effort to improve the social or political position of its Muslim minority. Had the party or state been truly secular, in each case this would have been a priority, but that was the last thing it had in mind. There cannot be a genuinely secular party or state unless it is willing to confront religious superstition and bigotry, rather than truckle to them. Neither party nor state has ever contemplated doing that, because both have rested, sociologically speaking, on Hindu caste society. The continued dominance of upper castes in public institutions – administration, police, courts, universities, media – belongs to the same matrix.
In the history of 20th-century nationalism, there is a distinct sub-group in which religion played a central organising role from the start, providing so to speak the genetic code of the movement. The most significant cases are those which eventually founded stable parliamentary democracies. The three leading states of this type in the world today are Ireland, Israel and India. In all three, the nationalist party that came to power after independence – Fine Gael, Mapai, Congress – distanced itself from the confessional undertow of the struggle without ever being able to tackle its legacy head-on. In each case, as the ruling party gradually lost its lustre, it was outflanked by a more extreme rival that had fewer inhibitions about appealing directly to the theological passions aroused by the original struggle: Fianna Fail, Likud, BJP. The success of these parties was due not just to the faltering of the first wave of office-holders, but to their ability to articulate openly what had always been latent in the national movement, but neither candidly acknowledged nor consistently repudiated. They could claim, with a certain justice, to be legitimate heirs of the original cause. In each case, the setting was a parliamentary system, in which they operated constitutionally, if in each case with certain prewar sympathies for European fascism. Jabotinsky, founder of the line leading to Likud, was an admirer of Mussolini; the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), the organisation underpinning the BJP, looked to National Socialism.
Neither the institutional Catholicism of De Valera’s Ireland nor the constitutional Judaism of the Zionist state set up by Ben-Gurion was repeated in India, where the state has never professed any such explicit religious allegiance. Historically, no Congress leader had been capable of openly and vigorously combating Gandhian pietism, all persuaded that its emotional appeal offered a shortcut to independence with an emotional awakening against the British. After Independence, Gandhi’s doctrines were consigned to the museum, but his saturation of politics with Hindu pathos lived on. For two generations, as in Israel, the compromised origins of the state could be masked by the charisma of a ruler who cared little for superstition of any kind, but a good deal about state-led economic development. After he went – full Hindu funeral rites on the Ganges – there was a rapid degeneration. Arguably, Nehru left a worse legacy in this respect than Ben-Gurion, since he injected a further irrationalist element into the political system, blood rather than faith, with the creation of a hereditary dynasty that has been an additional curse, lingering without end. The daughter, characteristically, made more of a show of secularism, writing a belated commitment to it for the first time into the constitution, while in practice toying instrumentally with confessional appeals. By the time the grandson was in charge, the global turn to neoliberalism was in full swing, and the Indian middle class eager for its pickings. In these conditions, the ground was prepared for the BJP to enter, Likud-style, into its inheritance. In all three countries, the political system would come to rest on a more or less regular alternation between two large kindred forces, each bidding for alliance with an array of opportunist smaller parties to form majorities difficult for them to achieve by themselves – the pattern shared in the Dail, the Knesset and the Lok Sabha. In all three, the marginalisation of the left has been a structural effect of the dominance of the hegemonic religion in the national identity.
The temporalities and outcomes of the process differed. The Irish reversion came within a decade of independence – its carrier was the genuinely more popular and radical wing of the national movement, with the greatest anti-colonial legitimacy – and enjoyed the longest ascendancy, only finally collapsing last year. It took thirty years for the Israeli variant to gain the upper hand, which it still enjoys. The Indian was slower still: half a century passed before the BJP gained office. A mutation of the Hindu Mahasabha, with which Gandhi had been on good terms, it had played a very modest role in the independence struggle, coming to the fore only during partition, when it led the campaign to divide Bengal along religious lines, pulling Congress in along with it. In the RSS, the party had a disciplined mass organisation behind it, but no fighting credentials comparable to the IRA or the Irgun. It took successive stages in the decay of Congress – the Emergency; the manipulation and repression of Sikh insurgency in Punjab; its retribution in the death of Indira Gandhi; the ensuing pogrom in Delhi, applauded by her son; the ballooning corruption around Rajiv Gandhi, and its generalisation with the neoliberal turn under Narasimha Rao – for the BJP finally to achieve take-off as a credible alternative to the ruling party. But by the 1990s, the conditions for its ascent had crystallised. The social promises of Congress had faded, markets and money filled the airwaves, customary expectations and inhibitions were eroded. In such conditions, anomic modernisation unleashed a classic reaction of religious compensation. The time for Hindutva, the vision of Vinayak Savarkar, a revolutionary fighter incarcerated by the Raj on the Andamans before Gandhi ever set political foot in India, had come.
The rise of the BJP was greeted with intense alarm by most of the country’s intellectuals, many of whom saw the party and its mentor the RSS as akin to an Indian version of fascism. This was a category mistake – there was no working-class threat, no economic slump, no revanchist drive, to produce any subcontinental equivalent of the interwar scene in Europe – and overlooked not only the distinct social matrix of Hindutva, but the ideological setting in which it could flourish. Indian secularism of the post-independence period had never sharply separated state and religion, let alone developed any systematic critique of Hinduism. But by the 1980s, it had come under fire from neo-nativist thinkers as an alienated elitism, insufficiently attuned to popular sensibilities and practices of devotion that Gandhi had intuitively understood, and Subaltern Studies would later defend and illustrate. Still, the vocal anti-secularism of Ashis Nandy, T.N. Madan and others remained a minority trend within intellectual opinion, if one that enjoyed high visibility and real influence.
Much more widespread was – and is – another discourse, embellishing Hinduism as pre-eminently a faith of tolerant pluralism and peaceable harmony, its teeming multiplicity of different deities, beliefs and rituals a veritable template for a modern multiculturalism. For Amartya Sen and others, indeed, no other religion has so capaciously included even atheism in its repertoire, along with monotheism, polytheism, pantheism and any other sort of theism. In this version, secularism cannot be at odds with a Hinduism whose values are so close to its own. Of course, just because Hinduism is so ecumenical a religion, intolerant or aggressive strains may also find accommodation within its embrace. But with a sufficiently open mind, these can be transformed into their opposite. Sen tells us that ‘no matter what the “message” of the Bhagavad-Gita is meant to be’, Arjuna’s arguments against killing are ‘not really vanquished’ by Krishna, inviting us to believe it irrelevant that Arjuna ends by agreeing with Krishna and kills as enjoined. Since Sen’s grandfather ‘identified an overarching liberality as part and parcel of the basic Hindu approach’, why trouble ourselves with what can only be less basic to it? ‘It is not particularly worthwhile,’ Sen explains, ‘to enter into a debate over whether the liberal, tolerant and receptive traditions within Hinduism may in any sense be taken to be more authentic than the narrower and more combative interpretations that have been forcefully championed by present-day Hindu politics.’
A secularism as spavined as this presents little obstacle to Hindutva. Long before Sen, its originator Savarkar cast the generous mantle of Hinduism over atheists, and his successors have had no difficulty turning the tropes of Indo-tolerant pluralism into maxims of their own. The BJP does not oppose, but upholds secularism, for ‘India is secular because it is Hindu.’ Its theorists have little reason to fear a debate others decline. ‘About 25 words in an inscription of Asoka,’ Nirad Chaudhuri once observed, ‘have succeeded in almost wholly suppressing the thousands in the rest of the epigraphy and the whole of Sanskrit literature which bear testimony to the incorrigible militarism of the Hindus’ – or, more accurately, their rulers and bards – among whom, between the stele of Ashoka and the conversion of Gandhi, ‘there is not one word of non-violence in the theory and practice of statecraft.’ Generalisation for generalisation, who could doubt which Bengali judgment is the more historical?
Overt encapsulation of the nation by religion has come later in India than it did in Ireland or Israel, but the prior ‘accommodations’ – in the technical Jesuit sense – of Hinduism by a world of lay officials and intellectuals were one of its enabling conditions. ‘Myths have a way of running away with their proponents,’ G. Balachandran, an Indian critic of this outlook, of whom there have not been that many, has remarked: ‘Belief in the essentially secular character of the modern Indian state and society can often be little more than an exercise in self-congratulation which overlooks or rationalises the sectarian religious outlook pervading large areas of contemporary social and political practice.’ The result is a blurring of ideological boundaries to a point where the BJP appropriates ‘the language of secularism’, Congress makes a ‘studied espousal of so-called soft Hindutva’ and the communist parties ‘proffer and publicise versions of a “purer” and “truer” Hinduism closer to popular religion as they understand it’.
In such a process of competitive desecularisation, as another analyst has termed it, the initial advantage could only lie with the BJP. Its breakthrough came in 1992 with a national campaign to demolish the mosque at Ayodhya, desecrating the supposed birthplace of Rama, the only mass political mobilisation – something of which Congress had long ceased to be capable – India has seen for decades. Culminating in the triumphant destruction of the mosque, as the Congress government stood by, the operation gave the BJP the momentum that put it into office in Delhi by the end of the decade. But its arrival at the turn of the century as a ruling party was not a straightforward jump from the springboard of Ayodhya, nor a progress that left it structurally unaltered. Its strongholds had always lain in the Hindi-speaking belt of North India, a narrower regional base than that of Congress, and one incapable of delivering a parliamentary majority on its own. That was one obvious barrier to replacing Congress as India’s dominant party. Another and more important obstacle came from a different direction.
In the time of Nehru and for twenty years after him, Congress had ruled a segmented society, divided vertically and horizontally by caste, which rarely coincided across regions. At the summit of this hierarchy, and at the controls of the state machine, were Brahmins. Beneath them, in that epoch, were the least privileged castes comprising the majority of the population, pinioned in their hereditary stations, the passive foundations of a huge democracy run by an elite without inconveniences from below. The Emergency imposed by Nehru’s daughter not only released into being the BJP, it also cracked the carapace of the Congress system of caste subordination, wealthy farmers breaking away from it to lead the rebellion that brought the first non-Congress coalition to power in 1977. Fifteen years later, synchronised this time with the take-off of the BJP, caste erupted onto the political scene. The mandated reservations in public employment for ‘Scheduled Castes’ and ‘Scheduled Tribes’ had been fixed initially at 12.5 and 5 per cent, later increased to 15 and 7.5 per cent. There matters stood when the Janata coalition that briefly followed the Emergency produced a report from a commission headed by B.P. Mandal, a wealthy Shudra from Bihar, recommending that ‘Other Backward Classes’, amounting (it claimed) to more than half the population, should be accorded 27 per cent of public sector jobs. On returning to power a year later, Congress would have none of this, and it was not until another Janata-style coalition was, again briefly, in office in 1992 that the Mandal quota became law, over furious upper-caste opposition in North India.
The upshot was to galvanise an entire spectrum of hitherto apathetic, resigned or intimidated lower castes into active political life, transforming the landscape of Indian democracy. A coalition of two parties, one mobilising Dalits and the other OBCs (Other Backward Classes), captured UP – much the largest state in the country – a year later, and within another two years, Lucknow had the first Dalit chief minister in history, the redoubtable Kumari Mayawati, who has ruled the roost, alternating with her OBC rivals, for much of the time since. Congress has never recovered in what was once Nehru’s electoral fief, his great-grandson crashing to humiliation there a few months ago. The upheaval in UP was the most spectacular expression of a new political scene, but caste parties and factions sprouted across the land, disrupting traditional arrangements and drawing suppressed forces into play. What this development, unquestionably, has wrought is an impressive social deepening of Indian parliamentarism, whose roots now reach much further down into popular soil. For some, like the French scholar Christophe Jaffrelot, it represents a rise of the lower classes amounting to a ‘silent revolution’, if one yet to be fully realised.
But castes are not classes. Constructed by religion and divided by occupation, they are denizens of a universe of symbolism governed by customary rituals and taboos. State and market have loosened the frontiers between them, but when it came, political activism would all but inevitably acquire a distortingly symbolic twist. Job reservations are material benefits. The jobs, overwhelmingly in the lowest rungs of the bureaucracy, typically go to the highest layers within each caste, all of which are internally stratified. But since public employment accounts for a mere 4 to 5 per cent of the labour force, these jobs amount to little more than a drop in the ocean of destitution and unemployment; if the more precious and bitterly fought over for that. Since regional reservations can be much higher than the national ceiling of 49.5 per cent set by the Supreme Court, elections at state level readily become ‘job auctions’ in which castes, often conglomerates of jatis cobbled together for the occasion, compete ferociously with one another for the spoils of office, in disregard of any logic of wider, let alone national solidarities. ‘Castes have no permanent friends when it comes to politics,’ according to Dipankar Gupta: electoral alliances of Brahmins and Kshatriyas with Untouchables against OBCs can be sealed in one part of the country, while higher-caste armies wage vicious rural war on Dalits in another.
In driving this Hobbesian free-for-all, recognition – the quest for dignity – trumps redistribution, leaders gratifying followers with symbols of esteem rather than the substance of emancipation. Mayawati’s erection of 150,000 statues of Ambedkar, not to speak of two hundred effigies of her party’s elephant symbol and of herself (the largest 24 feet high, and like the rest covered in pink polythene as the state went to the polls in March, on the orders of the Election Commission, so as not to beguile or distract voters), at the cost of more schools and healthcare, offers an extreme case of this identity politics, which does not seek to abolish caste, as Ambedkar had wanted, but to affirm it. Awakening as voters, the poor and not so poor activate hereditary enclosures as political communities, rather than dissolving them. Within these enclosures, internally far more hierarchical than equal, the identities are ascribed and conformity to them enforced. Historically, the political philosopher Javeed Alam has pointed out, caste was a form of collective unfreedom from which it was more difficult for individuals to escape than slavery or serfdom. The traces of that remain.
Economic and educational development, however uneven, have weakened caste barriers. But crossing them is still taboo for the vast majority of the population, three-quarters of whom reject intercaste marriage, as do well over half of those with higher education. Nor has the actual lot of Dalits, exposed to violence and misery across India, changed in pace with either the formal ideology of citizenship or their electoral clout at the polls. Castes continue to be, as they have always been, and Ambedkar saw, one of the purest negations of any notion of liberty and equality, let alone fraternity, imaginable. That the Indian state has never lifted a juridical finger to do away with them, but in seeking only to ameliorate has if anything legally entrenched them, says more about its secularism than the omission of any reference to it in the constitution, or the belated passage of an amendment rectifying the omission to embellish the Emergency. But as they have become increasingly powerful lobbies, with the peculiar dynamism of hybrid voluntary-hereditary associations, castes are more than ever the pediments of Indian democracy. No longer passive but vigilant, in yet more radically segmenting its vast electorate they are what most fundamentally stabilises it.
The BJP, as a party aiming to unify the nation under its true Hindu banners, thus found, just as its momentum was increasing, that caste was blocking its path. At the time, its onslaught at Ayodhya was often read as a counterblow to the arrival of Mandal, mobilising the rage of upper-caste youth against impending loss of privileges. There may have been some truth in this, but if so, a course correction soon followed. Realising that it could not hope to win national power without attracting middle and lower castes, it set about broadening its appeal, and by the time of its first major electoral success in 1998, won 42 per cent of the OBC vote in North India. But regional parties composed of heteroclite caste blocs by now commanded too much of the landscape for it to have any chance of taking the place of Congress of old, itself now reduced to a remnant of its former self. In the last three national elections, the two parties combined have never won so much as half the total vote. Coalition with an array of regional parties has become a requirement of rule at the centre.
With it has come a large measure of convergence between Congress and the BJP in government, each pursuing at home a neoliberal economic agenda, as far as their allies will allow them, and abroad a strategic rapprochement with the United States. Culturally, they now bathe in a common atmosphere in which religious insignia, symbols, idols and anthems are taken for granted in commercial and official spaces alike. Organisationally, they are not so similar, since the BJP possesses real cadres and members, Congress little more than a memory of them. Ideologically, too, their appeals are distinct, as are their social bases. Congress may tack towards confessionalism, but it can still rely on Muslim and Adivasi vote-banks by pointing to the BJP as a greater sectarian danger, and invoke a vague social paternalism to garner votes among the poor. The BJP may tack towards secularism, but it can rely on the fervour of the devout and the attractiveness of a more muscular nationalism to an upwardly mobile middle class. Practically, the differences are fewer. Where communalism suits them, there is little to choose between the two. More died in the pogrom of 1984 in Delhi covered by Congress, than of 2002 in Gujarat covered by the BJP, although the latter’s active political complicity was greater. Neither compares with the massacres in Hyderabad under Nehru and Patel. Well-wishers abroad occasionally express hopes for a grand coalition uniting the two major parties in the service of modernising reforms to bring the country up to scratch, as understood in Washington and Brussels, but the raison d’être of each resists this.
With the morphing under pressure from below of the political system into one resembling the Irish or Israeli, levels of parliamentary personnel and conduct have plummeted. Pervasive corruption dates back to the third generation of Nehru family rule, mired in a massive arms procurement scandal in the 1980s, and the subsequent regime of Narasimha Rao in the 1990s, the first to purchase a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha with millions in cash for defections to the government. Under the current incumbent, Manmohan Singh, it has reached an all-time high, with the defalcation from the public purse of some $40 billion in crooked telecom contracts alone, while the prime minister – everywhere lauded as the image of probity – looked the other way. As the costs of securing a seat in Parliament have risen, so it has increasingly become a club of the super-rich: one out of five MPs is a dollar millionaire, and the total assets of its 543 members can be reckoned at $2 billion, in a society where more than half the population lives on less than $2 dollars a day. Indiscriminate criminality is the concomitant phenomenon. In the present Lok Sabha, some 150 MPs – over a quarter of the house – have a total of more than four hundred criminal charges against them. At state level, the statistics are more extreme. In 2010, Bihar held elections that were widely hailed as a triumph for the clean government of Nitesh Kumar, a well-respected ally of the BJP. Of the newly refreshed Legislative Assembly, nearly half – 110 out of 243 members – had criminal charges against them, including murder, kidnapping and extortion.
With a political class of this calibre, it is no surprise that the Lok Sabha now debates the nation’s affairs for just a third of the time it used to spend on them. Or that nepotism has reached a point where more than a third of all Congress MPs inherit their seats by family connection (twice the figure for the BJP), and every single one of them under the age of 35. In India democracy never extended very far from government to the parties contending for it, which were always run from the top down. Today, however, many have become something other than the oligarchic organisations into which the political scientists Ostrogorsky and Michels thought all parties must sooner or later turn. With the exception of the communists and the BJP, they have become family firms competing for market shares of the electorate and so access to public office. The first of the major regional dynasties, setting the pattern for so many others, dates from the capture of the DMK in Tamil Nadu by the Karunanidhi patriarch at the turn of the 1970s. But the fons et origo of the transmission of power by bloodline came, of course, at national level, with Nehru’s complaisance at the installation of his daughter in pole position to take over after him. This was the authoritative example, set at the apex of the union, that legitimised the feudalism of hereditary succession on the lower rungs; nowhere more pitifully than in Kashmir, where once restored to office and obedience in the 1970s, Abdullah – a leader ultimately as disastrous for his people as any Abbas – passed a franchise for compliant enrichment to his offspring Farooq Abdullah, who handed it on to his offspring Omar Abdullah, now a crony of Nehru’s great-grandson. Of the ensuing scenery, André Béteille, the doyen of sociologists of India, has written that the ‘abject surrender’ of Congress to a single family, corrupting all other parties, has done irreparable harm to Indian democracy, poisoning the wells of public life.
Among so many degenerative symptoms in the executive and legislatures alike, one antibody in the constitution has stood out. The Supreme Court, which had not played a particularly distinguished role under Nehru, disgraced itself by rubber-stamping the Emergency. Thereafter, spurred by the reaction against it and no doubt ashamed of its past servility, the court has moved in the opposite direction, becoming the principal breakwater in India against threats to liberty, abuses of power and theft of public goods. In two landmark changes, the court has made it more difficult for the centre to overturn elected governments in the regions by imposing presidential rule, and has started to accept ‘public interest litigation’, allowing ordinary citizens and associations in civil society to bring suits before it against public authorities.
Today, the court is so proactive that it can not only annul laws passed in the Indian Parliament if it decides they are unconstitutional (the normal prerogative of a supreme court), but also demand that Parliament pass laws it determines are urgently needed – a juridical innovation without precedent in any other country. The current bench has harried Congress and its prime minister on the telecoms scandal, in which licenses were doled out to companies at billions of dollars below their value, and shows no sign of being willing to sponge away its implications. The court, now self-recruiting, is the most powerful judiciary on earth. It has acquired such an abnormal degree of authority because of the decay of the representative institutions around it. Even admirers are aware of the risks. In the graphic phrase of Upendra Baxi, India’s leading legal scholar and one of the first to bring a public interest suit before the court, it is ‘chemotherapy for a carcinogenic body politic’. So long as the malady persists, few Indians would think the country better off without it.
The tidal wave of corruption in Indian public life has, of course, been in part a by-product of the neoliberal turn of the state since the 1990s, and the faster growth it has unleashed. The country now occupies a prominent place in every prospectus of the Bric powers, its economy the second largest in size, though in many ways strange in shape. Manufacturing is not its pile-driver. Services account for over half of GDP, agriculture for less than a fifth in a society where it accounts for more than half the labour force. Over 90 per cent of total employment is in the informal sector, a mere 6 to 8 per cent in the formal sector, of which two-thirds are government jobs of one kind or another. In India cultivable land is 40 per cent more abundant than in China, but on average agricultural yields are 50 per cent lower. The population is younger and growing faster than in China, but the demographic dividend is not being cashed: for ten million new entrants to the labour force each year, just five million jobs are being created. The greatest economic success of the past twenty years has been achieved in IT, where firms of global impact have emerged. But its employment effect is nugatory: less than 2 per of the labour force. Even in high-technology industries, average labour productivity appears to be little more than a third of Chinese levels.
Nonetheless, growth averaged 7.7 per cent in the first decade of this century, with savings rising to 36 per cent of GDP – double the respective rates of Brazil. But if the comparator is China, with now roughly the same size of population and a similar starting-point in the 1950s, India scarcely shines, as Pranab Bardhan has shown in his masterly analytic survey of the two countries, Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay. Per capita income in India is about a quarter of that in China, and inequality is significantly higher even than in the notoriously polarised PRC. India may have fewer billionaires than China, but they are also richer, and their share of national wealth is far greater: just 66 resident billionaires control assets worth more than a fifth of the country’s GDP. Capital at large is three times more concentrated than in the United States. At the other end of the social scale, poverty has declined since the 1990s, though not more rapidly than in the 1970s and 1980s, and if measured by the World Bank line of a miserable $1.25 a day, still stood at more than two-fifths of the population in 2005. Infant mortality is three times as high as in China. Undernourishment is much more prevalent even than in sub-Saharan Africa, afflicting more than half of all Indian children under the age of five. In 11 Indian states, four-fifths of the population are afflicted with anaemia. For the most part, the corrective role of the state is minimal. Two-thirds of all government subsidies – for food, fuel, electricity – go to the relatively well-off, mainly rich farmers. Over 80 per cent of expenditure on healthcare is private. One out of every five children never goes to school. Military expenditure virtually equals spending on all anti-poverty programmes combined.
Yet the Indian state is still, for big business and foreign investors alike, a far from satisfactory steward of the country’s interests. Neoliberal the direction of every government since the 1990s may have been, but the pace has often been halting and the road strewn with obstacles. The dirigiste instincts of an unregenerate bureaucracy and the populist demagogy of too many politicians have, in this view, hampered normal progress to freer markets. Banking remains largely controlled by the state. There has been little privatisation, even of such important industries as coal. Barriers to trade persist, with tariffs still twice as high as in China. Quotas limiting international stake-holders have not been abolished. Why be surprised, then, that foreign direct investment runs so low, that the two-million-strong Indian expatriates – the richest of all immigrant communities in the United States – fail to invest in the homeland as gladly as overseas Chinese have done, or that Mumbai conglomerates put so much money into buying up auto or steel in Britain, where Tata is now the largest private employer in the UK?
What such frustrations express is the intractable brake that Indian democracy has so far placed on the fullest expansion of Indian capital. The poor outvote the rich, the villages the cities, the slums the suburbs. At once activated and segregated by caste, the deprived have never been able to achieve any real redistribution of national income, their drive for recognition typically contenting itself with symbolic representation in the political firmament, with little reaction at its lack of practical consequence. Comparing India and China from another angle, one of the most lucid political minds of the subcontinent, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, has observed that in the People’s Republic, where there is no democracy, communist rule is based on output legitimacy: it is accepted by the masses for the material benefits it takes great care to deliver them, however unequally. Whereas in India, democracy allows just the opposite – an input legitimacy from the holding of free elections, that thereby excuses the political class from distributing more than confetti to the masses who have elected them.
Commentators now complain as regularly of legislative deadlock in Delhi as they do in Washington. But the underlying reasons are quite different. What the Indian impasse reflects is the political contradiction at the core of the system between, as Zoya Hasan has crisply put it, ‘the frustration of the majority of citizens with governments they vote in but do not control, and the smug indifference of elites and middle classes towards governments they do not vote in, but control’. Neoliberal precepts have the favour of the latter. Yet the former still continue, negatively, to inhibit too provocative a dismantling of the arrangements of an earlier, more paternalist system of rule. Worse, from the standpoint of the stock market and the technocrats seeking further liberalisation to empower it, legislation cannot be wholly insulated from the pressure of a vast destitute electorate. In 2005, when Congress still depended on communist votes for a majority in Parliament, a National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) was passed, assuring any household in the countryside a hundred days’ labour a year on public works at the legal minimum wage, with at least a third of these jobs reserved for women. It is work for pay, rather than a direct cash transfer scheme as in Brazil, to minimise the danger of money going to those who are not actually the poor, and so ensure it reaches only those willing to do the work. Denounced by all right-thinking opinion as debilitating charity behind a façade of make-work, it was greeted by the middle class like ‘a wet dog at a glamorous party’, in the words of one of its architects, the Belgian-Indian economist Jean Drèze. Unlike the Bolsa Família in Brazil, the application of NREGA was left to state governments, so its impact has been very uneven and incomplete, with wages often less than the legal minimum, and for many fewer than a hundred days. Works performed are not always productive, and as with all other social programmes in India, funds are liable to local malversation.
But NREGA now represents the largest entitlement programme in the world, reaching some forty million rural households, a quarter of the total in the country. More than half of these are Dalit or Adivasi, and 48 per cent of the scheme’s beneficiaries are women – double their share of casual labour in the private sector. Such is the demand for employment by NREGA in the countryside that it far outruns supply. A National Survey Sample for 2009-10 has revealed that 45 per cent of all rural households wanted the work it offers, of whom only 56 per cent got it. What NREGA has thus started to do, in the formulation Drèze has taken from Ambedkar, is break the dictatorship of the private employer in the countryside, helping by its example to raise the wages even of non-recipients. Since inception, its annual cost has risen from $2.5 billion to more than $8 billion, a token of its popularity. This remains less than 1 per cent of GDP, and the great majority of rural labourers in the private sector are still not paid the minimum wage due them.
Conceived outside the party system, and accepted by Congress only when it had little expectation of winning the elections of 2004, NREGA eventually had such popular support that the Lok Sabha adopted it nem con. Three years later, with typical dishonesty, the Manmohan regime renamed it as ‘Gandhian’ to fool the masses into believing that Congress was responsible for it. The contrast in origin and scope with the Bolsa Família underlines the major difference between the two great tropical democracies. NREGA is being applied in structurally far less favourable conditions. Brazil had a Workers’ Party born from militant labour struggles, and a leader committed to and capable of coherent social reform. In India, the communist tradition has long splintered in three directions, and trade unions muster no more than a tiny 3 per cent of the labour force. Caste, not class, and alas, least of all the working class, is what counts most in popular life, at once sustaining Indian democracy and draining it of reconstructive energy.
If the poor remain divided against themselves, and workers are scattered and ill-organised, what of other sources of opposition within the political system? The new middle class has turned against mega-corruption, but is scarcely foreign to the bribe and the wink, let alone favours to kin, at its own level of advantage. Besotted with a culture of celebrity and consumption, on spectacularly vapid display in much of the media, and to all appearances hardening in collective egoism, it is no leaven in the social order. The intelligentsia is another matter. There, India possesses a range and quality of minds that perhaps no other developing society in the world, and not that many developed ones, can match. Whether working inside or outside the union, it forms an interconnected community of impressive acuity and distinction. In what kind of relationship does it stand to the country? Intellectuals are often held, quite wrongly, to be critical by definition. But in some societies, the mistake has become internalised as a self-conception or expectation, and so it probably is for most Indian intellectuals. How far do they live up to it?
Generalisations here are bound to be fallible. But an approximate assessment is perhaps possible all the same. What is clear is that attitudes differ according to issues, along a gradient that has a logic of its own. So far as Indian society at large is concerned, it is safe to say that an overwhelming consensus is highly critical. It would be difficult to identify the social disorder or iniquity that has not been subjected to unsparing scrutiny. Hunger, misery, illiteracy; inequality of every kind, sexual discrimination, economic exploitation; corruption, commercialisation, fanaticism; spreading slums, looting of the environment – a detailed scholarship of anger or disgust covers virtually all. The passionate indictments of a great deal of this landscape in recent essays by Ramachandra Guha, the eminent critical liberal who is India’s leading contemporary historian (they extend also to his country’s pretensions to great power status), are eloquent of a widely shared sensibility.
Society is one thing; politics, although never disconnected from it, another. What of the claims of the ‘idea of India’, or what can equally well be called the Indian Ideology – the triune values of democracy, secularity and unity? Here the ether alters noticeably. But the response to the three is not the same: with each, the critical quotient is distinct. Indian democracy, although so often ritually loaded like a local idol with garlands as if it were a miracle, is on the whole treated with far less superstition than the rites might suggest. Indeed, it might be thought few countries enjoy such a copious and sophisticated body of political science, bearing on so many aspects of its electoral and constitutional life. The six hundred folio pages of the recent Oxford Companion to Politics in India, edited by Niraja Gopal Jayal and Pratap Bhanu Mehta, are impressive testimony enough to that. Empirical and theoretical approaches combine, in a spirit that is typically both analytical and critical. From Mehta’s own sharp Burden of Democracy to Guha’s judgment at the end of India after Gandhi that the country is at best a ‘50 per cent democracy’, few intellectuals have lost sight of the flaws and limitations in the Indian version of representative government.
Yet compared with social criticism, political critique is typically less comprehensive and less searching. For no political system, however democratic, consists just of its institutions of representation. They are always flanked and buttressed by its apparatuses of repression. Symptomatically, these are a conspicuous absence in the Oxford Companion, as elsewhere, where civil rights scarcely figure. Neither the long-standing barrage of liberticide laws in India – starting with the Preventive Detention Act rammed through by Nehru and Patel as early as February 1950, less than a month after the promulgation of the new constitution, and stretching through the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (1958), Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (1967), Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act (1971), Maintenance of Internal Security Act (1971), National Security Act (1980), Terrorism and Disruptive Activities Act (1985), Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (2002) and the Unlawful Activities Amendment Act (2004) – nor the role and character of the army, the Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force, Central Industrial Security Force, Home Guards, let alone the clandestine powers and activities of the Intelligence Bureau (a vast military, paramilitary and surveillance complex, totalling upwards of two million operatives), receive even passing mention in most of the literature on the world’s largest democracy.
There are honourable exceptions. ‘A staggering number of laws that sanction the use of coercive powers have been enacted in India,’ Arvind Verma writes. Noting that 53,000 people were arrested under the Terrorism and Disruptive Activities Act, of whom just 434 could be convicted seven years later, he underlines some daily realities of Indian democracy: ‘Torture is routinely practised in most police stations and death in police custody is a frequent phenomenon,’ while – nominally outside the jails themselves – ‘the police practice of getting rid of suspects through staged encounters is unfortunately all too common. Suspects against whom the police are unable to bring substantial evidence or those who are perceived to be dangerous are simply murdered.’ Nor, while the police are at work, have the military been idle. In the 1960s, the army was deployed ‘in aid of the civil power’ some 476 times, and in 1979-80 alone, 64 times; often ‘openly stationed so as to provide a perpetual reminder, and on occasion an actual expression, of the fact that the existing social and political order in India is only to be challenged by its critics at their peril’.
These are not matters on which the literature of miraculism cares to dwell. It is not only in breadth of scope, however, that even more level-headed accounts of the political system so often fall short, but depth of penetration too. There is no lack of ledgers registering assorted strengths and weaknesses of representative democracy in India, and arriving at different estimates of the balance between them. But Ambedkar’s inaugural error has yet to be corrected. Virtually all conventional analysis posits, as he did, a contradiction between society and polity, and explains imperfections in the latter that he did not foresee, as effects of distortions in the former of which he was bitterly aware. But the relationship between the two has always been more paradoxical than this. A rigid social hierarchy was the basis of original democratic stability, and its mutation into a compartmentalised identity politics has simultaneously deepened parliamentary democracy and debauched it. Throughout, caste is the cage that has held Indian democracy together, and it has yet to escape.
At secularity, taboos become stronger and the front of criticism narrows. In part, the reason lies in the political, and to some extent intellectual, chequerboard of recent decades, where to question official secularism as a doctrine, for a wide mainstream, risks opening the gates not only to nativist snipers but the troops of Hindutva. Yet the reflex of Belloc’s ‘Children! Always cling to nurse, for fear of finding something worse,’ though real enough, is not the principal reason for a reluctance to tackle the sophisms and evasions of Indian secularism that makes the courage of its few true critics, pre-eminently the independent Marxist scholar Achin Vanaik, stand out all the more starkly. The larger explanation lies in the tense relationship of so many Indian intellectuals to the traditional faith surrounding them. Even for non-believers in the ranks of Congress, once religion had fused with nation in the independence struggle, to demystify one was to damage the other. In the 1920s the great Tamil iconoclast E.V. Ramasamy could declare: ‘He who invented God is a fool. He who propagates God is a scoundrel. He who worships God is a barbarian.’ He is still admired in his homeland. But an enemy of caste and of sexual inequality as fearless as this had no place in the construction of the Indian Union, which he resisted, and once it was consolidated, a stance like his became unthinkable for any politician with national ambitions. Intellectuals were under less constraint, but few cared to be too outspoken. On the whole, only Dalit writers have broken ranks. For how could the stature of Gandhi as father of the nation not suffer if Hinduism was to be handled so brusquely?
To this political inhibition was added a cultural difficulty. Sociologically, Hinduism was not a realm of belief or practice separate from the rest of existence, but permeated it as the ubiquitous texture of popular life. How could even secular progressives affront it, without loss of sympathy with the vast majority of their fellow citizens, and the symbols and ceremonies lending colour and meaning to their lives? Not only that. Like every other major religion, Hinduism also gave rise to a major reservoir of high culture – metaphysics, poetry and mathematics in particular. To dismiss or undervalue such riches of the subcontinental past would be as philistine a self-mutilation as a breezy ignorance of Christian art or thought would be in the West or the classical corpus in China. Outstanding among them, too, were the great epics of Hindu legend, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, which unlike the Odyssey or the Aeneid, are still in such absolute command of popular imagination that their dramatisation on television could not only mesmerise hundreds of millions of viewers, but occasion many a literal act of worship before the small screen. If Gandhi could in all seriousness advise Congress in 1947 that partition was no more definitive than Ravana’s abduction of Sita to Ceylon, where Rama would reclaim her; or the law minister of a communist-supported government in Delhi, assuring the Supreme Court of his faith in the divinity of Rama, defer as potential sacrilege the dredging of the Pamban channel across which Hanuman’s monkey army built a bridge to rescue Sita – who should be impious enough to gainsay them? Accommodation of fervours like these, inspired by so popular a literary masterpiece, might be held common prudence on the part of a state equi or flexi-distant from all religions. Indian secularism can encompass them all. Few are inclined to ask how many clothes it ever possessed, or what has become of them.
At the last of the Trimurti values, dissent comes close to vanishing altogether. Democracy may be imperfect, secularity ambiguous, but unity – of the nation and the land belonging to it – has become virtually untouchable. Here the heritage of the past has had its own weight. Hindu culture, exceptionally rich in epics and metaphysics, was exceptionally poor in history, a branch of knowledge radically devalued by the doctrines of karma, for which any given temporal existence on earth was no more than a fleeting episode in the moral cycle of the soul. No major chronicles appear till the 12th century, over a millennium later than Herodotus or Sima Qian, and no histoire raisonnée as a cumulative body of writing ever emerged. Gandhi’s dictum dismissing the worth of any memory of the past – ‘history is an interruption of nature’ – is a famous modern expression of this outlook. In such a historiographic vacuum, when the nationalist movement arose, legend encountered no barrier. ‘In an overwhelmingly religious society,’ one subcontinental scholar has written, ‘even the most clear-sighted leaders have found it impossible to distinguish romanticism from history and the latter from mythology.’ It follows that ‘if the idea of India is suffused with religious and mythical meanings, so is the territory it covers,’ Nehru explaining to Zhou Enlai that the Mahabharata entitled him to the McMahon Line. Today the cult of Indian unity has typically worked itself free from such mystical origins, territory as such becoming the bond unifying the nation, regardless of any religious – let alone ethnic or cultural – trappings. Meghnad Desai’s The Rediscovery of India is recent example, in many ways an unusually free-spirited work that dismantles not a few nationalist myths, only to end with the purest hypostasisation of another, for which the ‘one element central to the narrative of nationhood’ becomes simply ‘territorial integrity’, under whose idyllic shelter ‘all Indians, as individuals, are willing to co-exist under the same legal and constitutional system,’ ‘all regions have agreed to be part of the union,’ and ‘all take part in the vibrant democratic process.’
The reality is otherwise. In these pages, there should be little need for any reminder of the fate of Kashmir, under the longest military occupation in the world. At its height, in the sixty years since it was taken by India, some 400,000 troops have been deployed to hold down a Valley population of five million – a far higher ratio of repression than in Palestine or Tibet. Demonstrations, strikes, riots, guerrillas, risings urban and rural, have all been beaten down with armed force. In this ‘valley of scorpions’, declared Jagmohan – proconsul for Nehru’s daughter in Kashmir – ‘the bullet is the only solution.’ The death toll, at a low reckoning, would be equivalent to the killing of four million people, were it India – more than double that, if higher estimates are accurate. Held fast by Nehru to prove that India was a secular state, Kashmir has demonstrated the exact opposite: a confessional expansionism. Today, the bureaucracy that rules it under military command contains scarcely a Muslim, and jobs in it can be openly advertised for Hindus only. In what was supposed to be the showcase of India’s tolerant multiculturalism, ethnic cleansing has reduced Muslims, once a majority, to a third of the population of Jammu, and Hindu Pandits to a mere handful in the Valley.
How is this landscape received by the Indian intelligentsia? In late 2010, readers of the Indian press could find a headline ‘Nobel Laureate takes India to task for tolerating tyranny.’ Where would that be? Below, Amartya Sen uttered a plangent cry. ‘As a loyal Indian citizen,’ he exclaimed, ‘it breaks my heart to see the prime minister of my democratic country – and one of the most humane and sympathetic political leaders in the world – engaged in welcoming the butchers of Myanmar and photographed in a state of cordial proximity.’ Moral indignation is too precious an export to be wasted at home. That the democracy of his country and the humanity of his leader preside over an indurated tyranny, replete with torture and murder, within what they claim as their national borders, need not ruffle a loyal Indian citizen. If we turn to Sen’s book The Argumentative Indian, we find, in a footnote: ‘The Kashmir issue certainly demands political attention on its own (I am not taking up that thorny question here).’ Nor, we might infer from that delicate parenthesis, anywhere else either. Nobel prizes are rarely badges of political courage – some of infamy – so there is little reason for surprise at a silence that, in one form or another, is so common among Indian intellectuals.
Brazen celebration of India’s goodwill in Kashmir, its peace troubled only by terrorists infiltrated from Pakistan, is a staple of the media more than the academy. There, discreet allusion to ‘human rights abuses’ that have marred the centre’s performance are quite acceptable, excesses that any decent person must deplore. But any talk of self-determination is another matter, garlic to the vampire. More than ordinary intellectual conformism is at work here. To break ranks on India’s claim to Kashmir is to risk not only popular hysteria but legal repression, as Arundhati Roy – brave enough to speak of freedom for Kashmir – bears witness: to question the territorial integrity of the union is a crime punishable at law. The same degree of pressure does not obtain outside the country, but Indian intellectuals abroad have not made notably better use of their greater freedom of expression. There the leading production comes from Sumantra Bose. Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace does not embellish the record of Indian rule, and covers in some detail the insurgencies which broke out against it in the 1990s, the extent of the assistance they received from Pakistan, and the way they were put down.
Descriptively, there is little it avoids. Prescriptively, however, it simply underwrites the status quo, on the grounds that the confessional and ethnic pattern in the region is now too complicated for self-determination to be applicable, and anyway India is not going to permit any such thing, so why not settle for the existing Line of Control, naturally assorted with appropriate placebos and human rights? Thus, on the one hand, ‘the myth of freely and voluntarily given consent to Indian sovereignty is exploded by the appalling record of New Delhi-instigated subversion of democratic procedures and institutions and abuse of democratic rights in IJK over fifty years.’ But, on the other hand – immediately following, on the same page – ‘that India’s dismissal of the plebiscite [promised to the UN in 1947] is fundamentally opportunistic does not detract from the reality that after more than fifty years of conflict [note the way the description of the fifty years has changed in the space of two sentences], the plebiscite is indeed an obsolete idea.’ Why so? ‘Self-determination is untenable given realpolitik, the entrenched interests of states, and the internal social and political diversity of IJK and of J&K as a whole.’ Even an independent Kashmir, let alone one that opted for Pakistan, ‘would be seen as an intolerable loss of territorial integrity and sovereignty by Indian state elites and the vast majority of the Indian public’. Upshot? ‘Erasing or redrawing the Line of Control in Kashmir is neither feasible nor desirable.‘ We hold what we have: ‘The de facto Indian and Pakistani sovereignties over their respective areas of Kashmir cannot, should not and need not be changed.’
No Indian general could put it better. Bose, who worked as an understrapper for Strobe Talbott (second in command at the US State Department in the era when Clinton was congratulating Russia on the ‘liberation’ of Grozny, and ‘intimately involved in diplomacy on the South Asian subcontinent’), situates his solution for Kashmir in a constructive wider vision, in which ‘India’s maturity and confidence as the world’s largest and most diverse democracy’ and ‘well-founded aspiration to be an economic and political player of global stature’ should be able to find the right partner across the border in a future ‘relatively moderate Pakistan which happens to be strongly influenced by its relationship with the United States’. If only there were a Sadat or Mubarak in Islamabad, Kashmir could enjoy the blessings of another Oslo, and Delhi the good conscience of Tel Aviv.
Looking north-east, attitudes are much the same, if typically rationales for them are adjusted to local conditions. There, the standard justification for military repression is that the various insurgent communities have always been far too small and isolated to be able to form independent states, and can only benefit from inclusion in the much more advanced Indian Union. The argument, like so much else in the national apologetics, is risible. Bhutan, in the same zone, is equally landlocked, and has a smaller population than Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram or even Meghalaya. Yet it is a perfectly viable independent state, with a seat at the United Nations like any other, and short of going the way of Sikkim, annexed by India in 1975, will continue to be so. What is true is that no break away from the union is conceivable in this area, not because of any economic impossibility, but because Delhi can unleash overwhelming military force, as it has done for a half a century, to crush any attempt at secession, and can count on exhaustion eventually wearing out all resistance, as it cannot in Kashmir, where the alternatives of independence or inclusion in Pakistan have not left the Valley, and any free vote would prefer either to the Indian yoke.
The toll of the two occupations forms no part of the triune liturgy. But the cold truth is that the British massacre at Amritsar which ignited the first great mass movement of the independence struggle was a bagatelle compared with the accumulated slaughter by the Indian army and paramilitary forces of their fellow citizens, or those deemed such, since independence. The same could, of course, be said of many states that were once colonies, not least the US itself, where the price in human life of territorial integrity was far higher. Still, at the altar of Trimurti, costs are discounted inversely to gains. Unity, whose moral and political deadweight is heavier, is safer from reproach than democracy or secularity.
An ideology, to be effective, must always in some measure answer to reality. The ‘Idea of India’ is not a mere tissue of myths. The co-existence of so many languages, the durability of parliamentary forms of government, the liveliness of cultural life, vigour of much intellectual exchange and elegance of social manners at their best, are all rightly matters of pride, out of which it has been fashioned. But the realities of the union are more complex, many of them much darker. The ‘Idea’ is a late mutant of Indian nationalism. Once any independent state has emerged from an anti-colonial struggle, what was once a discourse of awakening can easily become one of intoxication. In India that danger is great, because of the size of the nation, and the particular character and outcome of the way it came into being. Across its borders lie the accusing facts of the states that did not become part of India, whose existence cannot be squared with much of the story it continues to tell itself, and still could bring that story to a fatal end. Consoling themselves for domestic shortcomings, Indian intellectuals will often contrast the happier condition of their country with that of Pakistan. But given their respective starting-points, not to speak of the responsibility of the stronger in doing its best to sabotage the weaker from the outset, the comparison risks pharisaism. In any case, it is not always to Indian advantage. Though the military looms larger, today the media are more outspoken in Pakistan; though it is yet poorer, there is less undernourishment and better healthcare in Bangladesh. A more generous, more curious and more self-critical sense of their neighbours would become Indian attitudes better.
Needed above all is detachment from the totems of a romanticised past, and its relics in the present. The dynasty that still rules the country, its name as fake as the knock-off of a prestige brand, is the negation of any self-respecting republic. The party over which it presides has lost any raison d’être beyond clinging to its bloodline – now desperately pinning its hopes, after the flop of Nehru’s weakling great-grandson, on his hardbitten sister, Priyanka Vadra, if only she would hurry up and divorce her too obviously shady tycoon-husband. Congress had its place in the national liberation struggle. Gandhi, who had made it the mass force it became, called at independence for its dissolution. He was right. Since then the party has been a steadily increasing calamity for the country. Its exit from the scene would be the best single gift Indian democracy could give itself. The BJP is, of course, a more dangerous force. But it is a real party, with cadres, a programme and a social base. It cannot be wished out of existence, because it represents a substantial political phenomenon, not the decaying fossil of one, and has to be fought as such. So long as Congress lingers on paralytically, that will not occur. If Congress offers ultimate protection against Hindutva, why do more than just go on voting for it? Why think of any radical reconstruction of the state over which it has so long presided?
The political ills that all well-meaning patriots now deplore are not sudden or recent maladies of a once healthy system. They descend from its original composition, through the ruling family and its affiliates, and the venerations and half-truths surrounding these and the organisation enclosing them. Today, the largest statue in the world is being erected in Gujarat. The government commissioning it is BJP. But the giant it honours is a Congress leader, who wanted the RSS to join his party. Vallabhbhai Patel will tower six hundred feet high, twice the height of the Statue of Liberty. Appropriately, his will be the Statue of Unity. Long preceding it are monumentalisations, no less immane, in words not stone, of his companions. It is time to put away these effigies, and all they represent.
Among the books referred to in the course of this article:
Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India by Pranab Bardhan (Princeton, 192 pp., £17.95, 2010, 978 0 691 12994 5)
Chronicles of Our Time by André Béteille (Penguin, 361 pp., £10.95, 2000, 978 0 14 029699 0)
Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace by Sumantra Bose (Harvard, 304 pp., £15.95, 2005, 978 0 674 01817 4)
Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution edited by Rajeev Bhargava (Oxford, 418 pp., £14.99, 2009, 978 0 19 806355 1)
The Rediscovery of India by Meghnad Desai (Bloomsbury, 512 pp., £25, 2011, 978 1 84966 350 2)
Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography by Sarvepalli Gopal (Oxford 514 pp., £10.99, 2004, 978 0 19 566920 6)
India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guha (Pan, 870 pp., £9.99, 2008, 978 0 330 39611 0)
The Oxford Companion to Politics in India edited by Niraja Gopal Jayal and Pratap Bhanu Mehta (Oxford, 644 pp., £110, 2010, 978 0 19 566976 3)
The Burden of Democracy by Pratap Bhanu Mehta (Penguin, 178 pp., £9.99, 2003, 978 0 14 303022 5)
War and Peace in Modern India by Srinath Raghavan (Palgrave, 384 pp., £60, 2010, 978 0 230 24215 9)
The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity by Amartya Sen (Penguin, 432 pp., £10.99, 2006, 978 0 14 101211 7)
The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia by Tai Yong Tan and Gyanesh Kudaisya. Routledge, 336 pp., £34.99, April 2002, 978 0 415 28908 5
Understanding Contemporary India: Critical Perspectives edited by Achin Vanaik and Rajeev Bhargava. Orient Blackswan, 400 pp., £12.95, September 2010, 978 81 250 3989 1
Durable Disorder: Understanding the Politics of Northeast India by Sanjib Baruah. Oxford, 286 pp., £18.99, February 2005, 978 0 19 566981 7
Beyond Counter-Insurgency: Breaking the Impasse in Northeast India edited by Sanjib Baruah. Oxford, 392 pp., £15.99, 978 0 19 807897 5
The CIA’s Secret War in Tibet by Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison. Kansas, 302 pp., £21.95, May 2011, 978 0 7006 1788 3
Strong Borders, Secure Nation: Co-operation and Conflict in China’s Territorial Disputes by M. Taylor Fravel (Princeton, 408 pp., £24.95, 2008, 978 0 691 13609 7)
Will Secular India Survive? edited by Mushirul Hasan. Imprint One, 399 pp., £39.99, December 2004, 978 81 88861 00 2
Caste in Question: Identity or Hierarchy edited by Dipankar Gupta (Sage, 255 pp., £31.95, 2004, 978 0 7619 3324 3)
India’s Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India by Christophe Jaffrelot. Hurst, 505 pp., £17.50, March 2003, 978 1 85065 670 8
The Battle for Employment Guarantee edited by Reetika Khera. Oxford, 264 pp., £30, August 2011, 978 0 19 807062 7
The Naga Chronicle by Wetshokhrol Lasuh. Regency, 637 pp., £36, 978 81 87498 62 9
In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India by Edward Luce. Abacus, 448 pp., £10.99, July 2011, 978 0 349 12346 2 | <urn:uuid:0693e6c0-2e3b-4ab9-8b80-4d6011babc2c> | {
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There are two major effects of global warming:
Increasing global temperatures are the primary effects of global warming. However they are causing a broad range of additional, secondary effects :
Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns have also global effects on extreme weather events: They increase the frequency, duration, and intensity of floods, droughts, heat waves, and tornadoes. Other effects of global warming include higher or lower agricultural yields, further glacial retreat, reduced summer stream flows, species extinctions. As further effects of global warming, diseases like malaria are returning into areas where they have been extinguished earlier.
Glacier retreat of Muir glacier: Comparison photos of Muir and Riggs Glaciers in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Muir glacier, parts of which were greater than 65 meters thick in 1941, has retreated out of the image in 2004 (towards the upper left) as an effect of global warming. The distance to the visible Riggs glacier in 2004 is ~3 km. During this time, the Muir Glacier retreated more than 20 km (Picture from global warming art http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Muir_Glacier_jpg).
Even if the global warming effects would convince mankind to stop emitting greenhouse gases, the global warming is expected to continue past 2100 because carbon dioxide (CO2) has an estimated atmospheric lifetime of 50 to 200 years. See also the summary of the predictions for the future increase in temperature up to 2100.
The above text about effects of global warming has been originally taken from Wikipedia.org and then adapted accordingly. | <urn:uuid:aeef4a58-f7a2-4022-b46e-f8bc68cef995> | {
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|Learn English Grammar, Vocabulary|
Practical English Usage, Writing
Grammar terms and Speaking
Practical English Usage
English grammar and vocabulary exercises
Verb patterns and structures - II
Subject + verb + object + complements
Some transitive verbs are followed by an object and an object complement.
Note that in the examples given above, the complement of the object is a noun or noun equivalent. The preposition as or for is sometimes used with verbs elect and chose, but not with the others.
Consider the examples given below.
Here the complement of the object is an adjective. Sometimes to be is used before the complement.
Subject + be + complement
The verb be is followed by a subject complement. The subject complement may be a noun, an adjective, an adverb or an adverbial phrase.
Some intransitive verbs are also followed by subject complements.
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|English Grammar |Practical English Usage |Grammatical terms |English Writing |English speaking |vocabulary|
|Copyright © 2006 - 2008 perfectyourenglish.com |
All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:539d20cf-6053-44a3-8631-7b03aac4955e> | {
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|combination: brewing / baking / butchery|
Breasted -- 7. Cairo Museum. Twelfth dynasty. Bread-making: man crushes grain with large pestle on stone base to fit it; standing woman grinds flour on raised grinding stone; the latter should be turned so that it can be operated from the end and not from the side as at present; another woman tends oven. Brewing: on other side of low partition standing man strains mash through sieve; another man stands behind three vessels; one vessel is tilted and seems to have gauze tied over its mouth; tall man carries large wine jar. Usual slaughtering scene.|
From Beni Hasan, tomb of Thaui, otherwise called `anti emhet (No. 186). Length: 61 cm.; height of tallest figure: 20 cm. Garstang, Burial Customs, fig. 75, p. 86.
Garstang: xiii. Combined scene-baking, sacrifice, brewing. Eight figures.
|BH 186 - Thaui|
|Egyptian Museum , Cairo|
|II-4-2 PREPARATION AND PROCESSING OF FOOD - Model Scenes of Baking, Brewing, and Slaughtering. - Type 2 : Scenes of baking, brewing and slaughtering in one room or house.|
|Length 61 cm Height of tallest figure 20 cm|
|BreastedJnr-1948 , II-4-2 7.|
|Garstang-1907a , pp. 85-6, fig. 75|
|Links to Images and Other Refs|
internal ID: 990 | <urn:uuid:fa19e055-48cc-4ee9-bb59-7dec25622071> | {
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MESSENGER spacecraft enters Mercury orbit
Mar 18, 2011 8 comments
The first spacecraft to orbit Mercury began circling the solar system's smallest and least-understood planet early this morning, in what mission scientists hailed as the "historic" conclusion to a six-and-a-half year, 7.9 bn kilometre journey.
At 12.45 a.m. GMT on Friday 18 March the main thrusters on NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft began firing, slowing it down by 0.862 km/s so that it could be "captured" by Mercury, which has an escape velocity of 4.25 km/s.
After the 15-minute "burn" finished and the spacecraft repositioned itself for transmitting signals back to Earth, mission operators at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (APL) spent another anxious 10 minutes analysing the anticipated radiometric signals confirming nominal "burn shutdown" before declaring that MESSENGER had been successfully inserted into orbit around Mercury.
By 1.45 a.m. GMT the craft had rotated back to the Earth and started transmitting data.
"Achieving Mercury orbit was by far the biggest milestone since MESSENGER was launched more than six and a half years ago," says MESSENGER project manager Peter Bedini from APL. "This accomplishment is the fruit of a tremendous amount of labour on the part of the navigation, guidance and control, and mission operations teams, who shepherded the spacecraft through its journey."
The fun starts here
At 6:47 a.m. MESSENGER began its first full orbit around Mercury, tracing out an elliptical path that brings it within 200 km of the planet's scorched and cratered surface before swooping out to 15,193 km, where the reflected heat from the surface is less intense. The craft's instruments are due to be activated on 23 March, with the primary "science phase" of the mission beginning on 4 April. Over the next year, the craft will complete one such revolution every 12 Earth-hours, racking up 730 laps before the mission's scheduled end.
During this time, instruments on the half-tonne, $446m craft will collect unprecedented amounts of data about Mercury's surface features and composition, as well as its magnetic field and tenuous atmosphere, or exosphere. According to MESSENGER principal investigator Sean Solomon from the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, DC, these data will yield new information on some of Mercury's biggest mysteries – including the intriguing possibility that our solar system's innermost planet, where surface temperatures can exceed 700 K, may harbour small amounts of water ice in its polar regions.
MESSENGER is the first spacecraft to visit Mercury since the mid-1970s, when the Mariner 10 probe flew past three times. That mission notched up several intriguing discoveries – including Mercury's magnetic field and exosphere – but it mapped only 45% of the planet's surface and left many questions unanswered.
MESSENGER had already added to this body of knowledge before today's rendezvous, thanks to its complex trajectory. To reach the correct velocity and position for entering Mercury orbit, the spacecraft flew past the planet three times in 2008 and 2009, using the planet's gravity to tweak its path each time. During these fly-bys, MESSENGER's camera imaged most of what Mariner 10 missed, while spectrometers collected data on Mercury's composition and a magnetometer sketched out the geometry of the planetary magnetic field.
Despite these early successes, for many scientists this morning marked the real beginning of MESSENGER's mission. "The three successful fly-bys of MESSENGER past Mercury have already rewritten the textbooks about the Sun's nearest neighbour," said Daniel Baker, a co-investigator on the mission, speaking ahead of the orbit insertion. "But we think there is so much more to learn – we've probably just scratched the surface."
Solving Mercury's mysteries
One of the biggest remaining puzzles is Mercury's magnetic field, which has been a "great mystery" ever since Mariner 10 discovered it, Solomon told physicsworld.com. Mercury's intrinsic field is weak, with a dipole strength almost 1000 times less than Earth's. However, since larger planets like Mars and Venus have no intrinsic dipolar field at all, the existence of even a weak field on Mercury is surprising.
Another related question is Mercury's extraordinarily high density, which at 5.3 g/cm3 is the biggest of any planet in the solar system, after gravitational compression is factored out. To achieve such a high density, Mercury's heavy, metal-rich core must account for 60% of its mass, compared with 30% for the cores of Earth, Mars and Venus. The presence of a magnetic field also suggests that this core is at least partially molten. However, the structure and dynamics of Mercury's core are poorly understood, and there are competing theories for why it is so large relative to the rest of the planet.
MESSENGER's suite of seven scientific instruments – which includes an altimeter as well as the camera, magnetometer and four spectrometers – should begin to answer these questions on 4 April, after the spacecraft has passed a series of checks to determine that it is operating well in Mercury's harsh thermal environment.
Project scientists are used to being patient. When MESSENGER launched in 2004, "this milestone seemed like it was a long, long way away," says mission co-investigator Bill McClintock of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. "But here we are at last, poised to help solve some of the many tantalizing mysteries about Mercury."
About the author
Margaret Harris is reviews and careers editor of Physics World | <urn:uuid:3894c5e8-2747-4b02-8098-4e028ae04f97> | {
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Here's what my previous research uncovered. I've seen each of these issues prevent a real-world application from working in Firefox. Please feel free to edit.
document.createElement should take only a tag name, but IE lets you
pass arbitrary HTML (with attributes, etc)
document.getElementById should only find elements with the given
but IE also returns elements with the given
IE creates implicit global variables for DOM elements, but referencing an element this way in Firefox produces the following warning:
"Element referenced by ID/NAME in the
global scope. Use W3C standard
document.all is a collection of all elements in the document. It is not supported by Firefox.
An Element's text in IE is retrieved using the
innerText property. Firefox calls this property
IE allows items in collections to be referenced using function syntax (i.e. with parentheses) instead of the normal array indexing syntax (i.e. with brackets). For example, the following works in IE:
document.forms(0). Firefox does not support this usage.
cells should refer to
IE allows them to be called as functions; Firefox does not.
index to -1; Firefox errors if the argument is omitted.
Node.text property is IE-only
window.event is an IE-specific way to access event information; it's not
supported by Firefox.
Events are attached to Elements in IE using
attachEvent. Firefox uses
addEventListener. Note, also, that the names of events are subtly different in each browser.
In IE it's possible to get the mouse position from non-mouse events, but it's not in other browsers. In addition, the names of the mouse-coordinate properties are not the same in IE and Firefox.
IE supports a
click method for triggering the
onclick event on HTML elements. No such function exists in Firefox.
Firefox splits text nodes into 4096-char blocks; IE does not. This
means that things like
childNodes will be different in IE and Firefox.
Internet Explorer defines a
parseError.errorCode property on
XMLDocuments for detecting parser errors. Firefox loads an XML document that contains error information in the document with
IE ignores whitespace in XML;
firstChild always returns the first
Node.xml property is IE-only | <urn:uuid:cc3c7f32-b4c4-468b-b614-86bd117bc3d9> | {
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The Cold spray or cold gas dynamic spraying is the new progressive step in the direction of development of high kinetic energy coating processes. The cold spray is a method for coating substrates under atmospheric conditions. In this process micron sized solid particles are accelerated and transported to substrates by means of supersonic free jets. Upon impacting the substrates, particles stick to the surface and form coatings which possess very low porosity. The paper outlines the principles involved in cold spray method and the equipment used for the technique. The cold spray method is related to classical thermal spray methods but it has some interesting additional features, which has been discussed in the paper. A fundamental feature of cold spray method i.e. concept of critical velocity along with the plausible mechanism theory responsible for the deposition of coating has been discussed briefly. Successful applications of cold spray process and its environment friendly aspect has been elaborated. It is reported that well founded cold spray technology will be able to compete for a good market share of VPS/PVD coatings in various fields like power, electronic/electrical, biotechnology, turbines and other industries. The cold spray process is still primarily in the research and development stage and only now becoming commercially available, and has been accepted as a new and novel thermal spray technique mainly in developed countries. The technology has great potential for future research especially with reference to its application to real industrial solution. | <urn:uuid:a2a0628c-2999-4b25-98be-fca7cff00b08> | {
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Think your cheese grater consists solely of pure, unadulterated metal? Don’t be so sure. An investigation by Scripps Howard News Service revealed that thousands of common items, from shovels to elevator buttons, contain radioactive metals, thanks to a system that does not require potentially radioactive recycled metals to be tested or reported.
A few items that might set off your Geiger counter:
• Women’s handbags
• Fencing wire and fence posts
• Shovel blades
• Airline parts
• Reclining chairs
• Steel used in construction
But don’t encase yourself in lead just yet: Experts remain divided over whether continuous exposure to low levels of radioactivity poses a significant health risk. And don’t forget that plenty of other seemingly innocent objects are naturally slightly radioactive. That includes bananas, which contain a low level of a radioactive potassium isotope, and ceramic pots, because the clay they’re made out of is radioactive.
So if you’re planning on investing in a hazmat suit, you probably should’ve been wearing it all along.
Discoblog: What You Need to Know About Drug Water
Discoblog: Want to Get Away With Murder? Use a Special Detergent
Discoblog: Is Pollution in China Causing Cats to Grow “Wings?”
Image: flickr / dvortygirl | <urn:uuid:1b7b843a-1031-4d15-8782-024b5a1f1e29> | {
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No child should die from a disease that we know how to prevent – yet an alarming new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that measles is on the rise globally.
We have a vaccine to prevent measles, so what is behind the increase in measles cases and how do we protect children so they have a shot at healthy lives? Here are three key facts to know from the report.
- Measles cases increased by more than 30% from 2016 to 2017, and an estimated 110,000 people died because of measles last year. Gaps in immunization coverage contributed to this spike in cases, with all regions of the world experiencing outbreaks.
Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, explained the rise, saying: “The increase in measles cases is deeply concerning, but not surprising. Complacency about the disease and the spread of falsehoods about the vaccine in Europe, a collapsing health system in Venezuela, and pockets of fragility and low immunization coverage in Africa are combining to bring about a global resurgence of measles after years of progress.”
- The good news is vaccines work, and since 2000, more than 21 million lives have been saved through measles vaccinations. Two doses of the safe and effective measles vaccine can prevent the disease and protect children. (And it costs less than $2 to vaccinate a child in a low-income country against measles and rubella.)
Collective action by partners including the Measles & Rubella Initiative (founded by UNICEF, WHO, the UN Foundation, the American Red Cross, and the CDC) governments, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has greatly expanded access to the measles vaccine and saved lives.
There is more work to do though, as progress has stalled. Global coverage with the first dose of the measles vaccine has been stuck at 85%, while coverage of the second dose is only at 67%. Measles is one of humanity’s most contagious diseases, so these gaps in coverage leave many people at risk.
- We can stop measles, but we need to step it up. The status quo won’t end measles deaths – we need increased action, attention, and resources.
This must include sustainable investment in immunization systems, strengthening routine immunization services, reaching vulnerable communities – including displaced people, building public support for immunizations, and tackling misinformation and hesitancy around vaccines.
WHO’s Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said, “Without urgent efforts to increase vaccination coverage and identify populations with unacceptable levels of under-, or unimmunized children, we risk losing decades of progress in protecting children and communities against this devastating, but entirely preventable disease.”
The latest report on measles is an urgent reminder that we need to make vaccination against preventable diseases a bigger priority on the global agenda. Visit the Measles & Rubella Initiative to learn how to get involved or join our Shot@Life campaign to help more children around the world have access to vaccines. | <urn:uuid:6954537a-7fdd-4861-b49a-45f1c4b2bfa8> | {
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Using numbers to achieve human rights goals
Graciela Mellibovsky Saidler was a 29-year-old Argentine government economist. In 1976 she produced a statistical study on conditions in the slums of Buenos Aires which was so deeply embarrassing to the military dictatorship that it was publicly singled out by the Junta leader, General Jorge Videla, as an example of the infiltration of subversives into the government. Shortly afterwards, on 25 September, 1976, she “disappeared”. Graciela’s story is cited in “Statistical Methods for Human Rights”, edited by Jana Asher, David Banks and Fritz J. Scheuren, 2008 who write, “It is fitting that this work, devoted to the use of statistics in the investigation of human rights violations, be dedicated to Graciela who gave her life to bring truth through numbers.”
This year for the first time on 20 October, World Statistics Day is being celebrated to help strengthen the awareness and trust of the public in official statistics. In a statement marking the Day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon emphasized that statistics are vital in achieving economic and social development.
“For development to succeed, we need data collection and statistical analysis of poverty levels, access to education and the incidence of disease. Statistics are a central consideration in justifying almost every aspect of budgets and programmes that enable hungry children to be fed or that provide shelter and emergency health care for victims of natural disasters,” the Secretary-General said.
Recognizing that data, its collection and assembly is essential in realizing human rights, and in conformity with the principles establishing the UN Human Rights Council, including universality, objectivity, constructive dialogue and cooperation, the UN Human Rights office has developed a framework which adopts a common approach to the identification of indicators for the monitoring of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights.
Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay has noted that the framework “makes available precise and up-to-date data which helps States in assessing progress in human rights implementation and capacity-building. It is not intended as a tool for ranking the level of implementation by Member States. It is this distinguishing, non-competitive ranking character that has made OHCHR’s indicators highly attractive as an enabling tool“.
“The indicators seek to spell out the essential dimensions of rights enshrined in international human rights instruments, translating each category of rights into specific quantitative measures,” she says.
The framework developed by the UN Human Rights office now offers lists of illustrative indicators for a wide range of rights including, the right to life; the right to liberty and security of person; the right not to be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; the right to adequate food; the right to adequate housing; the right to education; the right to participate in public affairs; the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the right to a fair trial; the right to social security; the right to work; the right to non-discrimination and equality; and violence against women.
At a recent Expert Consultation which focused on the framework, representatives from various organizations, including government agencies, national human rights institutions, non-governmental organizations and the UN, explained how the indicators were being used in a number of countries, including in Mexico, Kenya, Brazil, Nepal and Ecuador to develop and build human rights into new and existing judicial and legislative systems, policies and programs.
More than three decades later, the ultimate fate of the statistician, Graciela, like those of thousands of other Argentine ‘desaparecidos’, remains unknown. Her parents, Santiago and Matilde have never given up their search for her. (From “Statistical Methods for Human Rights”, edited by Jana Asher, David Banks and Fritz J. Scheuren, 2008)
19 October 2010 | <urn:uuid:95624b59-acb9-4c69-815a-96586756684c> | {
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PVC, a Recyclable Material - Ideal for Reprocessing
PVC (polyvinyl chloride), sometimes known as ‘vinyl’, is a thermoplastic material made of 57% chlorine (derived from industrial grade salt) and 43% carbon (derived predominantly from oil / gas via ethylene). PVC is inexpensive to make, requires minimal maintenance when in use, and is extremely durable (it is commonly used to make long-lasting products, often with a life-expectancy exceeding 60 years). Thanks to its unique polymer structure, PVC products are well suited for recycling when they come to the end of their life.
PVC compounds are 100% recyclable physically, chemically or energetically. After mechanical separation, grinding, washing and treatment to eliminate impurities, it is reprocessed using various techniques (granulated or powder) and reused in the production.
There are two principal ways of recycling PVC:
- Mechanical recycling: PVC waste is ground into small pieces that can be easily processed into new PVC compounds ready to be melted and formed into new products.
- Feedstock recycling: PVC waste is broken right back down into its chemical molecules, which can be used again to make PVC or other materials.
Valuable material should never be thrown into landfill
Dumping PVC in a landfill takes up precious land and squanders a valuable resource. Most PVC products are voluminous and light, and may last for hundreds of years without degrading. Its value should always be re-captured in some way either through recycling or at the very least by utilising its calorific value as a component of a clean energy-from-waste system, in industry power generation or district heating schemes.
As landfill is being progressively restricted within the European Union, recycling will gradually become the principal option for many end-of-life PVC products.
VinylPlus & Recovinyl are gradually closing the loop
Waste collection is, of course, the starting point for any recycling process. This is why Recovinyl was established to motivate the collection and recycling processes through financial incentives. This strategy proved to be a highly effective way of taking the modest PVC recycling volumes that existed in the pre-Vinyl 2010 EU to an impressive 250,000+ tonnes a year of post-consumer PVC waste.
But preventing material from being landfilled is not a sustainable end in itself. To close the loop and preserve resources in a more sustainable system, product manufacturers need to be encouraged to keep increasing the volumes of recyclate that they include in their new products.
VinylPlus has increased its target for recycling to 800,000 tonnes by 2020 (now including ex-factory industrial waste as well as post-consumer waste) and has switched its focus to stimulating the re-use of recycled material. The goal is to create a “Pull Market” where the increase in recycled volume of PVC will be paired with an increase in demand for recyclate. To achieve that, Recovinyl will act as a mediator between recyclers and converters by certifying the quality and volume of the recycled PVC that is being produced and purchased. | <urn:uuid:fe642789-b181-4f16-a5ec-efeb54a1891e> | {
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What happened on December 17, 1903, that was of major significance for aviation?
The Wright Flyer flew for 12 seconds, traveled 120 feet and landed safely
What country is credited with inventing kites and gunpowder?
Which one of the following statements about Leonardo da Vinci is accurate?
He conducted the first scientific experiments in the field of aviation.
Who were the first men to fly in the Montgolfier balloon over Paris on November 21, 1783?
Pilatre de Rozier and Marquis d'Arlandes
Who, in 1872, built the first dirigible powered by an internal combustion engine?
Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved success in controlled sustained and powered flight. Which of the following is a true statement about their success?
They developed the idea of twisting the wings and called this their wing-warping technique.
In 1911, ________ _________ became America's first licensed female pilot
In the early 1900s, the Wright brothers signed a contract with the US Army to build an airplane. While Orville was working on the contract, what was Wilbur doing?
Wilbur was in France demonstrating the airplane for European governments.
Who flew the first powered airplane in Europe?
On January 1, 1914, the world's first regularly scheduled airline service using heavier than aircraft was started in the United States. This airline was called the
St. Petersburg - Tampa Airboat Line.
In the early 1900s, who strongly advocated that the airplane could be used as an offensive weapon, that it could be used against an enemy's ground troops and that the US air service should be independent from the US Army?
Within a few months of the end of WWI, which one of the following did not happen?
The "barnstormers" contributed to the decline in aviation after the war.
Who was America's first licensed African-American female pilot?
Which of the following statements about General Billy Mitchell is not true?
After WWI, General Mitchell believed that naval power would decide the winner of any future world wars.
In 1924, the US Army performed the first round-the-world flight using four aircraft. What were the names of the aircraft?
Boston, Chicago, Seattle and New Orleans
Which one of the following trophy races was a transcontinental speed race, flown from the west coast to Cleveland, Ohio?
Bendix Trophy Race
Which of the following was an accomplishment of Charles Lindbergh?
He was the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean solo.
Which of the following best describes Blitzkrieg?
It was the combined arms operations strategy that Germany used in WWII.
Which of the following statements is true concerning the Battle of Britain?
The RAF had the right aircraft for this battle, but the Luftwaffe did not.
Which of the following statements is true concerning women pilots in WWII?
By 1941, Russia was using women pilots in combat missions.
What was the primary purpose for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor?
to cripple the American fleet at Pearl Harbor
What was significant about the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway?
Both battles were fought entirely by aircraft without the surface ships seeing each other
Who were the two major powers in the Cold War?
The United States and The Soviet Union
In 1947, the United States Air Force came into being with the passage of the
National Security Act.
What was the US' first priority in the Korean War?
stop the advance of the North Korean troops.
Who was the first man to penetrate the sound barrier and fly faster than the speed of sound?
Which of the following is a stealth aircraft designed to be invisible to enemy radar?
Which of the following is a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft?
Which one of the following is not part of an airfoil?
The angle between the chord line and the oncoming relative wind best defines
Angle of Attack
As the velocity of a fluid increases, the pressure decreases, best defines which principle or law?
The __________ axis runs from one wingtip, through the fuselage, and exits out the other wingtip.
Aircraft _______ is a motion about the longitudinal axis and is a result of aileron movement?
Which of the following is not one of the four basic types of turbine engines?
Which of the following are protrusions from the leading edge of a wing?
Aircraft instruments, classified by their use, fall into two major groups:
performance and control.
The prime meridian passes from the North Pole to the South Pole through
The most commonly used aeronautical chart is called the __________ aeronautical chart.
What is the term used to describe elevations on maps?
Which of the following is a technique of navigation that involves the systematic consideration of all factors that will and could affect a flight?
What color are the lights at the end of the runway?
The primary function of the control tower is to...
Control the runway
Who is responsible for regulating the safety of the airlines and controlling the flights while flying over the United States?
FAA- Federal Aviation Administration
Which category of major air carrier generally carries over 100 passengers and travels from large city to large city?
Which of these is the giant of the air-freight world?
Which of the following is not classified as sport aviation?
Who is the world's largest manufacturer of general aviation airplanes?
Which of the following is not one of the main areas of concern in aviation today?
The basic mission of fighter aircraft is to-
Destroy Other Aircraft
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The great historian Lewis Mumford once described a patent as "a device that enables one man to claim special financial rewards for being the last link in the complicated social process that produced the invention". He was pointing out that we do not produce inventions ex nihilo, but rather draw on the totality of the inventions and knowledge that came before us.
It is no longer just the fruits of a centuries-long social process that are targets of patent claims. Through genetic engineering, corporations can now create and patent new life forms. Physicist Vandana Shiva, in a video launching the global Seed Freedom Campaign, calls this ownership of entire new species a form of slavery, and calls upon farmers and consumers to fight the privatisation of the genetic commons.
Could it be that she is being naive? Facing the spectre of world hunger amid continued population growth, maybe we will have to let go of our sentimental attachment to traditional farmers saving seeds, and transition to high-tech agriculture so that we can improve yields per hectare. After all, we cannot clear much more cropland at the expense of forests and wetlands. And to finance the enormous long-term investment necessary to engineer high-yielding, drought-resistant, pest-resistant varieties, don't we need to enforce a strong system of patents?
This position seems reasonable, but it is fraught with assumptions that collapse under close scrutiny. First and foremost is the notion that we need chemical pesticides, herbicides and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to feed the hungry. Surely each new innovation brings higher crop yields, right? Surely yields are higher when you kill the bugs than when you don't, higher when you use improved strains than when you don't?
Not really. Holding all other variables constant, certainly a large wheat field will produce more if it is treated with chemical herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers. But organic agriculture, and especially permaculture and traditional peasant agriculture, don't hold variables constant at all. Each farming culture adapts over time to the unique characteristics of the local soil, biome and climate. Farmer and land co-evolve over generations. Numerous studies show that when organic agriculture is practised well, it can bring double or triple the yields of conventional techniques. With intensive intercropping on mixed permaculture farms, yields can be higher still. It is a myth that mechanised, chemical, GMO agriculture maximises yield per hectare.
What it does maximise is productivity per unit of labour, which is a good thing if we uphold American-style economic development as a model for the rest of the world. Taking the essential parameters of large-scale mechanised agriculture as a given, those who argue that we need genetic engineering – and therefore GMO patenting – to feed the world's hungry are right. However, these parameters encode assumptions that we are beginning to recognise as diastrous.
Western-style agriculture faces a mounting crisis that is insurmountable through the usual application of more control-based technology. Aquifer depletion, salinisation, soil erosion and soil compaction reveal our system as unsustainable. Meanwhile, each technological solution generates unanticipated new problems; for example, herbicide and pesticide resistance (superweeds and superbugs) mean that more technology is needed even to keep yields from declining. GMOs seem to generate unpredictable health dangers. And commodifying agricultural inputs like GM seeds and the pesticides and herbicides they are designed to accompany disrupts rural labour reciprocity, promotes indebtedness and creates dependence on volatile international commodity prices.
This crisis calls us toward more ecological farming methods that draw from the world's ancient agricultural traditions. These traditions include not only agronomic knowledge, but also social structures that allow that knowledge to evolve and circulate. Today, instead we have an intellectual property system that encourages innovation, yes, but only a certain kind of innovation – the kind that leads to greater profits.
What is the alternative? The ancient practice of seed saving and seed sharing, which allows plants, land, and culture to co-evolve organically, is being revived by organisations like the Seed Savers Exchange. The Seed Freedom movement seeks to preserve this practice, which comes under assault whenever new regulations are proposed to require registration of all seeds to protect the intellectual property rights of patent holders.
Over the last two decades, innovative permaculture practices have spread like wildfire, and none of them are patented, made artificially scarce and then sold. Instead they are copied, shared and adapted to local conditions – much the same way that genes spread through species and life forms spread around the globe.
In ecology, each species contributes to the wellbeing of all life and benefits from the wellbeing of all life. Now humanity is rejoining that circle. The next great agricultural transformation will not be an intensification of technologies of extraction and control; it will be an ecological agriculture that regenerates soil, aquifers and biodiversity. Traditional agricultural societies where farmers still save and share seeds are much closer to the ideal of ecological agriculture than the western model. Rather than imposing our technology on the rest of the world, perhaps it is us who can learn from them. | <urn:uuid:db5f52a8-e929-44ee-bef2-ffb064cfc0de> | {
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|A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine®|
On this page:
Reviewed February 2011
What is the official name of the PLAGL1 gene?
The official name of this gene is “pleiomorphic adenoma gene-like 1.”
PLAGL1 is the gene's official symbol. The PLAGL1 gene is also known by other names, listed below.
Read more about gene names and symbols on the About page.
What is the normal function of the PLAGL1 gene?
The PLAGL1 gene provides instructions for making a member of a protein family called zinc finger proteins. Zinc finger proteins are involved in many cellular functions. These proteins each contain one or more short regions called zinc finger domains, which include a specific pattern of protein building blocks (amino acids) and one or more charged atoms of zinc (zinc ions).
Zinc finger proteins attach (bind) primarily to DNA. In most cases, they attach to regions near certain genes and turn the genes on and off as needed. Proteins that bind to DNA and regulate the activity of particular genes are known as transcription factors. Some zinc finger proteins can also bind to other molecules, including RNA (a chemical cousin of DNA) and proteins.
The PLAGL1 protein helps regulate the cell's process for replicating itself in an organized, step-by-step fashion (cell cycle), and is involved in the self-destruction of cells (apoptosis). It is also important in fetal growth. The PLAGL1 protein helps control another protein called the pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide receptor (PACAP1). One of the functions of the PACAP1 protein is to stimulate insulin secretion by beta cells in the pancreas. Insulin controls how much glucose (a type of sugar) is passed from the blood into cells for conversion to energy.
PLAGL1 is a paternally expressed imprinted gene, which means that normally only the copy of the gene that comes from the father is active. The copy of the gene that comes from the mother is inactivated (silenced) by a mechanism called methylation.
How are changes in the PLAGL1 gene related to health conditions?
Where is the PLAGL1 gene located?
Cytogenetic Location: 6q24-q25
Molecular Location on chromosome 6: base pairs 143,940,299 to 144,064,598
The PLAGL1 gene is located on the long (q) arm of chromosome 6 between positions 24 and 25.
More precisely, the PLAGL1 gene is located from base pair 143,940,299 to base pair 144,064,598 on chromosome 6.
See How do geneticists indicate the location of a gene? in the Handbook.
Where can I find additional information about PLAGL1?
You and your healthcare professional may find the following resources about PLAGL1 helpful.
You may also be interested in these resources, which are designed for genetics professionals and researchers.
What other names do people use for the PLAGL1 gene or gene products?
See How are genetic conditions and genes named? in the Handbook.
Where can I find general information about genes?
The Handbook provides basic information about genetics in clear language.
These links provide additional genetics resources that may be useful.
What glossary definitions help with understanding PLAGL1?
acids ; adenoma ; apoptosis ; cancer ; cell ; cell cycle ; chromosome ; diabetes ; diabetes mellitus ; DNA ; duplication ; expressed ; gene ; gene silencing ; glucose ; hormone ; immune system ; inherit ; insulin ; ions ; maternal ; methylation ; neonatal ; ovarian ; pancreas ; prenatal ; promoter ; protein ; receptor ; RNA ; secretion ; stress ; transcription ; transformation ; transient ; uniparental disomy
You may find definitions for these and many other terms in the Genetics Home Reference Glossary.
See also Understanding Medical Terminology.
References (12 links)
The resources on this site should not be used as a substitute for professional medical care or advice. Users seeking information about a personal genetic disease, syndrome, or condition should consult with a qualified healthcare professional. See How can I find a genetics professional in my area? in the Handbook. | <urn:uuid:2a9389e3-ec7f-4e5f-abc5-621cfb210136> | {
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To the end of ancient egypt's glorious era as an empire , Alexandria and in arabic El Iskandariya was one of the ancient world's centers of learning . Ordered built by Alexander The Great . By his architect Dinocrates , However the city's foundation had already been laid out , Thousand of years before . It became the trade center of the mediterranean and quickly grew into a metropplis that served as capital of egypt for the Ptolemies ( Greek Mulattos ) . During the reign of Ptolemy 1 , It was already established as the Captital Of Egypt . The Ptolematic period was the greatest trade period during ancient times .
In Alexandria , Hellenistic Culture And Art was prominent . Like present day Alexandria . The city extended along the sea , In The Ptolematic period , The Estern Mediterranean was the center of the ancient world's political economical life . Alexandria contained an excellent harbor and was a land rich in agriculture though it was large . Populous , And wealthy , The most famous thing about Alexandria was the great library located there . This library and its learning complex was called by the latins ; Museum , '' It was one of the scholl that stored The Highest Knowldge For Humans , This Knowledge Was Possessed By The Modern Society Of The Caucasians . Here, The Sciences , Mathematics , Technology , Time Calculations , And Medicine Flourished Untampered Until The Greek , Having already forced their way into egypt , Eventually destroyed this great library . These Greek stole what knowledge and records they wanted to preserve for themselves , ( And Burned The Rest ) . Today . The many Theiries , Mathematical Formulas , Techological Advances , Etc ,
That the caucasian teaches you were developed by him came right from The Libraries At Alexandria , Egypt and Baghdad , Iraq . Reference to any Book or Encycelopedia on Greece , Egypt , or Ancient Civilization will ptove it because people . calling themselves Philosophers and Scholars left Europe and came to Egypt sneaking around puting down on paper , Everything that they saw and heard then . He devoted himself to stealing the knowldge . Alexandria's prosperity lasted for nine centures . , It lost its importance as a seaport after the Turkish Conquest Of Egypt . | <urn:uuid:564bd795-6715-4eba-8e81-d3ae7a9ead49> | {
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has a variety of attractions including beaches, hills, wildlife, forests and temples. The state has a rich cultural heritage and is known for its rich history, architecture and culture. The weather is mostly tropical. June to September are the monsoon months and travel is not advised during this time. November to January are the best time to visit.
Cities of Andhra Pradesh
<!-- Deleted image removed: -->Hyderabad is known for its rich history, culture and architecture representing its unique characteristic of a meeting point for North and South India. Hyderabad is also one of the most developed cities in the country and it is also home to the second largest film industry in India, Cinema of Andhra Pradesh
. It is an emerging information technology (or IT) and biotechnology hub of India. Telugu, Urdu and Hindi are the principal languages spoken in Hyderabad. Hyderabadi cuisine is a blend of heavy Mughal influences, traditional Andhra and Telangana cuisine. A number of restaurants have come up that serve a variety of cuisines. The more popular Hyderabadi restaurants in the Twin Cities are the Madina, Bawarchi, Cafe Bahar and the Golden Persis at Paradise Corner in Secunderabad.
The town owes its existence to the sacred temple situated on the Tirumala Hills. Tirumala is the abode of Lord Venkateshwara
, (one of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu
), located atop Seshachala hills often called as "Yaelu Malai
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and related subjects
Inclinometer to measure rocket height
A recent Imagine Children’s Museum summer activity for kids at a park near my home got me to thinking - here’s a good opportunity to teach kids about the mathematical principles first publicized by the Greeks (Pythagoras, among others).
It seems the kids were decorating empty plastic soda bottles, filling them half full of water and then launching them as rockets powered by air pressure. They pressurized them using a bicycle pump to charge the launcher.
What I want to add to a future Fluke-sponsored i-Engineers activity is another kid using an instrument to estimate the height these rockets reach. The instrument to be used will be made using a soda straw (sighting tube) glued to a protractor, to measure the angle of inclination, with a string and a plumb bob to establish a vertical reference for the angle measurement. Completing the experiment will require the user to be located a known distance, maybe 100 feet from the launch site, and a table of tangents to convert the angle measured to an equivalent height achieved by the rocket. Oh, we’ll also need the height of the observer’s eye from the ground - to be added to the overall measured height.
The new Fluke 42xD series of laser distance meters
Great room construction detail. The poles are peeled logs.
I recently noted that Fluke has introduced a new family of laser distance meters with all kinds of features, including the ability to measure incline angles such as the ones discussed above. Unfortunately, while these tools will be very useful in evaluating distances, angles, areas and volumes in structures, they aren’t really practical for the experiment I’ve just described, for a host of reasons - not the least of which would be trying to get the laser spot centered on a moving object at a distance in daylight.
So, what can these new Fluke meters do? The Fluke marketing staff loaned me a Fluke 424D so I could give you my take on that question. I decided to use an historic pole barn, which has been converted into a home, for my evaluation exercises.
I quickly determined the ceiling height of the main floor great room by setting the meter on end on the floor, pressing the Measure button once to enable the laser, and then pressing the timer button (letting the meter do the rest), counting down the default 5 seconds before taking a stable reading of 7 feet 11 inches.
Next, I used the Area/Volume button to find the length, width, and area of the room in two measurements. My readings were 51 feet 5 inches by 18 feet 2 inches. The meter showed me both readings along with the calculated area of 934 ft².
“But, you could do this with a tape measure and a calculator?” you say. Well, you’re right, but each measurement was made from a single location without an assistant to hold the other end of the tape, and the calculation is done for you. And, you can make such measurements to over 100 feet with even the least expensive model Fluke 414D. One added benefit of the more capable Fluke 419D and Fluke 424D models is that you can save your measurement sets, including calculations, in memory for later transcription to your documents.
Back to my investigation
Loft for big parties? Insert shows Fluke 424D on floor.
Adding the kitchen, laundry, two bedrooms, a bath, and two hallways brought the area of the main floor of the home to just under 2,000 ft². And, I completed the task in minutes.
The really interesting part of my experiment was to evaluate the loft above the main living space. This has been left more or less as an open space, although a bathroom and a wet bar have been added to one end.
In the original barn, this loft would have been used for hay storage, so having a large open area with high ceiling is perfectly appropriate.
As you can see in the picture, there is considerable pole structure to support the roof while leaving uncluttered open space in the middle. The side structures come down to align with the posts and supports in the living space below.
As you can readily see, the big measurement problem here is to measure to the peak of the cathedral-like space. Not a problem for the trusty Fluke 424D. I measured 22 feet 2 inches from the floor to the peak, without the aid of a scaffold or ladder. With measures of 37 feet 6 inches and 25 feet between the walls, I added another 938 ft² to this novel home.
I didn’t have an opportunity to fully test the angle measurement capabilities of the Fluke 424D, but I did calibrate the 8-point compass, including correction for magnetic north pole declination.
You can take your measurements in feet, feet and inches, inches, or meters, with options for display. And you can convert between these systems for measurements stored in memory.
I think I can safely say that Fluke has added yet another laborsaving tool to your toolbox with the introduction of these innovative new meters. | <urn:uuid:baea3147-ddcc-49de-a7d9-9d3a74e387e8> | {
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One of the most vivid memories I have from childhood is of the time my brother ate dirt. He was an adventurous child when it came to eating non-traditional foods, like cork, stickers, receipts, and yes, dirt. I remember sitting on my kitchen floor drawing, only to glance into the other room to see my brother, younger than me by three years, munching down on the potting soil from a rather large plant my mom had placed on the floor. Quickly, my mother noticed, and washed his mouth out, telling him eating dirt was bad for him and that he shouldn’t do it.
This is probably something we’ve all heard as children. Parents and teachers are certainly not to be faulted for telling us to avoid chowing down on our favorite brand of soil, whether it be sandy silty loam or the limestone heavy soil we have in this part of the state. The reason for this fear of eating dirt is because of the many potential parasites found in dirt, such as intestinal worms. Parents, wishing to protect their children from the problems that arise from the contraction of parasitic bodies, feel as though the best way to do that is to keep them from eating dirt. Additionally, it is mostly traditional wisdom that eating dirt is ill-advised.
Science is anti-authoritarian in nature, however, so it would make sense that a recent meta-analysis was published claiming that there may be some benefits to eating dirt, at least under certain conditions. This study was mostly conducted by viewing over many various recorded instances of people eating dirt, many of which were anthropological accounts. By it’s conclusion, some 480 reports of dirt consumption were found, including the earliest ever recorded, by Hippocrates in ancient Greece.
The null hypothesis of this study would be that eating dirt served no benefit to people, and the alternative hypothesis would be that it had at least some positive health benefit. Researches were a little unsure about exactly what benefit it would yield, if any. The first thing they looked for was people who ate dirt to fulfill their nutritional needs, which seemed to be faulty, as the majority of dirt eating accounts came from people who ate clay, which is not very high in many essential nutrients, except calcium.
The next possible reason they looked for in eating clay was for satisfaction, especially in instances where food was scarce. This was also found to be unlikely, as many of the counts of eating dirt came from societies where food was plentiful.
The conclusion that the conductors of this meta analysis eventually came to was for protection from possible pathogens and parasites. Eating the dirt directly is supposed to act as a deterrent, to build up one’s immune system. This was supported by the fact that most accounts of consumption of this bizarre food were in pregnant women and younger children, like my brother when he ate the dirt. People at these stages in their lives have weakened immune systems, as stated in this study. The researchers of the dirt study are quick to point out, however, that most of the soil people eat comes from deeper layers, and parasites usually live near the surface. Additionally, they are also quick to note that it is common practice to boil the dirt prior to consumption, which leads me to wonder how this helps to build up immunities.
This correlation found between the building of immunities and the consumption of dirt could be explained one of four ways:
Direct Causality- The consumption of dirt causes the build up of immunities against pathogens and parasites.
Reverse Causality- The build up of immunities against pathogens and parasites causes people to consume dirt.
Third Variable- The consumption of dirt and the build up of immunities against pathogens and parasites are separate events, each caused by something separate.
It would seem as though the researchers want us to believe that direct causality is responsible for the relationship between the two variables, but seeing as though this is a meta analysis, composed mainly of anecdotal accounts of dirt consumption, I feel as though much more research needs to be conducted involving this correlation. Perhaps an experimental study would provide the clearest picture of whether or not there is a causal link between the consumption of dirt and protection from pathogens and parasites. Although that may not be feasible, as feeding participants dirt could result in an ethical grey-area, as putting people at risk for parasitic infections is probably dangerous.
Still, the data of the meta analysis seems to support its alternative hypothesis, and one must accept the data in order to avoid a false negative. So, at least until further research is conducted, it would appear that eating dirt could help you build up immunities to pathogens and parasites, although it would seem wise to take it from deeper within the ground, and perhaps even to boil it first. | <urn:uuid:f45142d1-ce92-4ded-a0aa-84201e2e3ff4> | {
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4/3/2008 7:42:48 AM
PHILADELPHIA, April 3 (UPI) -- U.S. adults have long been told drinking eight glasses of water daily is healthy, but University of Pennsylvania researchers say the evidence is thin. So the advice goes, drinking all that water is helpful for a range of health benefits from keeping organs healthy to warding off weight gain and improving skin tone. Dr. Dan Negoianu and Dr. Stanley Goldfarb of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia reviewed the published clinical studies on drinking water and found solid evidence that individuals in hot, dry climates, as well as athletes and those with certain diseases have an increased need for water. However, no data exists for average, healthy individuals. Read full article below.
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Strasbourg, 10 February 2005
CCJE (2005) 11
Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE)
Questionnaire on theme “Justice and society”: Reply submitted by the delegation of Croatia
A. The educational role of the courts in a democracy.
Justice users in Croatia are informed about functioning of justice system by different means as follows:
-Various courts have their own web-cites where basic information about court is given, statistical information on performance of the court in general, information about rights of parties in different proceedings before courts etc. These web-cites are created by Courts, so there is wide differences between this kind of informing public.
- Ministry of justice is starting strong campaign in the media to explain all goals and efforts which are taken to improve performance of justice system. Pamphlets and guidelines have been printed and distributed through court to the justice users about
- Supreme Court within the project supported by EU has its own web-cite with Case law of Supreme Court, information on most important recent cases solved in that Court and whole information about justice system in the Country.
-Association of judges printed pamphlets which have been very well received in which role and rights of parties in criminal and civil procedure have been explained, what is a role of a witness, expert witness etc,what are risks of loosing a case, what legal costs can be involved etc.
- All media (newspapers and TV) are informing general public about cases before courts but unfortunately with no intention to educate as well as inform so general public are more confused than informed.
Delivering information about work of court is duty of President of the Court and new proposed amendments to the Law on Courts introduce function of a Court spoke-person. This duty will be carried out by a judge. President of Court has to designate this duty to a judge by Yearly Distribution of Work Order which every president of a court has to deliver at end of a year for incoming year.
Role of Bar Association in informing public about justice system in Croatia is very poor and basically does not exist.
Association of Judges has very limited source of income (only membership symbolic fee)
And its role is limited to press releases and cooperation with other NGOs which have interest in improving rule of law and justice system.
For time being needs for information for policy makers, academics, public interest groups and private citizens is provided through speak persons in courts and prosecutor offices, official reports and statistical data, press conferences, meetings with social groups and worker unions, round tables etc.
Judicial decisions of Supreme Court and other high Courts are available on court web-sights. Press and other media are informing public about decisions but their motive to inform public is not motivated by educational role of important court decisions. Unfortunately press coverage of such important decisions is more confusing than educational.
Case law is published in various ways by courts and private companies but this information does not reach general public.
Educational programmes in law faculties include descriptions of judicial system through visits to the courts, practice in courts for students, involving judges in seminars and workshops at faculties. Courts do not have special officers in charge of liasing with educational agencies.
B. The relations of Courts with those involved in court proceedings.
By all procedural laws and tradition in courts all parties are treated equally. The procedural laws are very strict in that matter and all parties are highly sensible about possibility of lack of impartiality. That can be a ground to dismiss a judge from a case.
Some initial training is provided to young judges and court councillors but writer of this report is not aware of any similar training to the attorneys at law.
Standards for court rooms are set up by Book of Rules for Courts and look of an average court room gives an impression of equality of arms. Only coat of arms is allowed in a court room.
Accused persons must appear free before judge.
In courts generally plain language is used and explanations are given by judge or/and lawyer if necessary.
C. The relations of the courts with public
Has been already described in answers A. and B.
Court hearing is open to public, and all court decisions which are subject to previous public hearing are pronounced publicly. Only in those cases proscribed by law court proceedings are not open to public (investigative proceedings, juvenile cases, family cases) . Every party have access to court file any time and other persons including journalist can have access to court file if they can prove legal interest in specific file.
Information about developments in cases are given to the public and pres by president of court or a judge and in some cases by judge who is in charge of particular case ( only in very complicated cases to avoid any misunderstanding).
There is no law which would prevent dissemination of names of persons involved in a case except if a case is generally closed to the public or if in a case protected witness has to give testimony.
Each person which name has been made public can initiate civil case against those who breached his/hers privacy rights.
Cameras are not allowed in court rooms. Only in special occasions if public interest in a case justifies this President of Supreme court can allow cameras in court rooms.
Each person can initiate criminal and/or civil proceedings to protect his/hers reputation.
In criminal cases for an insult or slander jail sentence can not be imposed only fine or citation can be pronounced as sentence in such criminal procedure. Proceedings are initiated only by private parties and public prosecutor has no role in such cases.
Journalist are in same position as any other person coming before court, but journalist can be freed from charges if they can prove that their intention was not to insult or slander and if journalist had a justified reason to believe that information which was published is truth. That includes qualified source or official information. Journalist is privileged not to disclose source of information.
In civil procedure damage case can be initiated demanding payment from the defender as satisfaction for defamation. Also person which rights have been breached can demand publishing correction (rectification) in the press.
If damage is done by the press liability exists on the side of the publisher by special law-Law on media.
Burden of proof that there are circumstances to free the publisher from damage liability lay on the publisher.
Court generally award sum of 3.000,00 to 15.000,00 Euro depending on the value which has been breached, way how damages act has been committed and what was professional conduct of a journalist and the publisher. Social status of the person in question does not play particular role but any compensation aims to meet individual plaintiff position. (
Court will consider also Journalist Association Code of Ethic.
No authority can seizure publication or order not to distribute any publication. Exception could occur in case of child pornography or similar cases.
Executive is not in position to supervise media.
In the event if a judge or a court is attacked by the press ( what happens almost every day) courts and/or Association of judges are responding trying in principle to defend courts or judges from a "judgment before judgment" by the press but unfortunately without much success.
Judiciary largely seen by the press and executive seen as "punching ball" which everybody can hit without serious consequences.
Judges are not forbidden to react publicly, and how he/or she will react.
Unfortunately legal texts and case law do not exist in English or French and it is beyond my possibility to translate them for this purpose.
D. Accessibility, simplification and clarity of the language used by courts in proceedings and decisions.
So far prevailing theory is that every judgment has to answer to all factual and legal problems that are raised in particular case. This does is not only implemented in first instance judgments but also for judgment of courts of appeal. So sometimes second instant court judgments are longer than first instant judgments, repeating first instant court arguments.
So by the theory each judgment can exist as a sole judgment from which anybody can learn what a dispute was about. | <urn:uuid:63d6461a-06d6-483f-b303-b136a61e67da> | {
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Putting Fukushima In Perspective
There was no background radioactive cesium before above-ground nuclear testing and nuclear accidents started.
Wikipedia provides some details on the distribution of cesium-137 due to human activities:
Small amounts of caesium-134 and caesium-137 were released into the environment during nearly all nuclear weapon tests and some nuclear accidents, most notably the Chernobyl disaster.
Caesium-137 is unique in that it is totally anthropogenic. Unlike most other radioisotopes, caesium-137 is not produced from its non-radioactive isotope, but from uranium. It did not occur in nature before nuclear weapons testing began. By observing the characteristic gamma rays emitted by this isotope, it is possible to determine whether the contents of a given sealed container were made before or after the advent of atomic bomb explosions. This procedure has been used by researchers to check the authenticity of certain rare wines, most notably the purported “Jefferson bottles”.
As the EPA notes:
Cesium-133 is the only naturally occurring isotope and is non-radioactive; all other isotopes, including cesium-137, are produced by human activity.
What people call “background” radiation is really the amount of radiation deposited into the environment within the last 100 years from nuclear tests and nuclear accidents (and naturally-occurring substances, such as radon).
2,053 nuclear tests occurred between 1945 and 1998:
But the amount of radiation pumped out by Fukushima dwarfs the amount released by the nuclear tests.
As nuclear engineer and former nuclear executive Arnie Gundersen notes, the wave of radioactive cesium from Fukushima which is going to hit the West Coast of North America will be 10 times greater than from the nuclear tests (starting at 55:00).
This graphic from Woods Hole in Massachusetts – one of the world’s top ocean science institutions – shows how much more cesium was dumped into the sea off Japan from Fukushima as compared to nuclear testing and Chernobyl:
(And Fukushima radiation has arrived on the West Coast years earlier than predicted.)
The Canadian government has confirmed in October that Fukushima radiation will exceed “levels higher than maximum fallout” from the nuclear tests.
The party line from the Japanese, Canadian and American governments are that these are safe levels of radiation. Given that those countries have tried to ban investigative journalism and have tried to cover up the scope of the Fukushima disaster, people may want to investigate for ourselves.
For example, Gundersen notes that the U.S. government flew helicopters with special radiation testing equipment 90 days after the Fukushima meltdown happened. The government said it was just doing a routine “background radiation” check, but that it was really measuring the amount of “hot particles” in the Seattle area (starting at 27:00). Hot particles are inhaled and become very dangerous “internal emitters”. The government then covered up the results on the basis of “national security”.
As the Washington Department of Health noted at the time:
A helicopter flying over some urban areas of King and Pierce counties will gather radiological readings July 11-28, 2011. [Seattle is in King County.] The U.S. Department of Energy’s Remote Sensing Laboratory Aerial Measurement System will collect baseline levels of radioactive materials.
Some of the data may be withheld for national security purposes.
Similarly, the Department of Homeland Security and National Nuclear Security Administration sent low-flying helicopters over the San Francisco Bay Area in 2012 to test for radiation. But they have not released the results.
Indeed, residents of Seattle breathed in 5 hot particles each day in April of 2011 … a full 50% of what Tokyo residents were breathing at the time:
(the video is from June 2011.)
After all, the reactors at Fukushima literally exploded … and ejected cladding from the reactors and fuel particles. And see this.
Gundersen says that geiger counters don’t measure hot particles. Unless the government or nuclear scientists measure and share their data, we are in the dark as to what’s really going on. | <urn:uuid:4a848f10-3c1a-4186-886e-930f90330bf4> | {
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William Lawes (1602–1645) was an English composer and musician. Lawes was born at Salisbury in Wiltshire and was baptised on 1st May 1602. He was the son of Thomas Lawes, a vicar choral at Salisbury Cathedral, and brother to Henry Lawes, a very successful composer in his own right. His patron, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, apprenticed him to the composer John Coprario, which probably brought Lawes into contact with Charles, Prince of Wales at an early age. Both William and his elder brother Henry received court appointments after Charles succeeded to the British throne as Charles I.
Na Flirtic.rs svako može da nađe partnera. To je obećanje!
To je najbolje mesto za upoznavanje devojaka i momaka sa istim/sličnim interesovanjima. Rešavaj kvizove, upoznaj nove devojke za brak, vezu ili seks. Flertuj, izlazi i zabavljaj se! Internet upoznavanje devojaka i momaka iz Srbije i dijaspore. | <urn:uuid:3e7046e7-d685-4982-9478-cbdcbab9765b> | {
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Q: Commentators on the BBC World Service say people “agree” things. Example: “The delegates finally agreed the rules for seating.” This sounds unusual to an American. Is it a British thing?
A: In British English, according to Garner’s Modern American Usage (3rd ed.), “agree” is coming to be used transitively (“agree the rules”) where in US English it’s used intransitively (“agree on the rules”).
A verb is transitive when it acts on an object (“Gertrude grew dahlias”) and intransitive when it doesn’t (“Her dahlias grew” or “Her dahlias grew by the wall”).
The transitive use of “agree,” notes Fowler’s Modern English Usage (rev. 3d ed.), “has become common but somewhat controversial in Britain” though it “remains rare or non-existent in America.”
Fowler’s lists several examples of the British usage, including this one from a 1963 issue of the Listener, a former BBC magazine: “the difficulty of agreeing a definition of mysticism.”
As you point out, this usage sounds jolting to the American ear. We’d find it difficult to get used to if it caught on in the US.
Interestingly, this relatively new British use of “agree” as a transitive verb is actually a revival of an old usage that dates back to Chaucer’s day.
The earliest published example in the Oxford English Dictionary of a transitive “agree” is from Chaucer’s Middle English poem Troilus and Criseyde (circa 1374):
“If harme agre me, ye, wherto than I pleyne?” (If harm agrees me, why complain then?)
The verb “agree” in this early sense meant to please, much as we would say a good meal or a pleasant day agrees with us.
However, the OED has citations dating back to the 1500s for the transitive use of “agree” in the sense you ask about: to settle differences or come to an understanding.
Here’s a citation from The Fair Example, a 1706 comedy written by the actor Richard Estcourt: “Do but agree the matter between you.”
Check out our books about the English language | <urn:uuid:0db17bd9-7cba-4dbd-a76d-40ed786d9aad> | {
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Choose a location that has warm, well-drained and fertile soil. Work in plenty of organic matter and mulch to conserve moisture, as squash are heavy water consumers. Sow directly in the garden after threat of frost has passed. Sow one inch deep in hills or rows spaced twenty four to thirty inches apart.
When laying out your garden, remember to consider the growing habits of the varieties that you are planting. Some bush-types are compact while some vining types require a tremendous amount of space. Harvest time will also vary by type.
Squash are typically categorized as summer or winter varieties. The immature fruits of summer varieties are eaten fresh, while the winter squash are harvested in late fall after they are mature and the skins have toughened, stored in a cool, dry location, and used into the winter.
Unless otherwise noted on a variety's product page, each packet contains three grams of seeds. (Seed count varies by type) | <urn:uuid:a2752731-f66f-4ffb-baf9-36fa67b0bab0> | {
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Scare tactics may not be necessary when trying to get patients at risk of heart disease to change their diet or behaviour, a new study has found. Instead, doctors and nurses should be aware of the stage of life their patients are at, and offer them very specific and targeted advice.
"The goal is to produce interventions which are sensitive to the lives and social position of those who find themselves at 'high risk' of coronary heart disease (CHD) in later-middle age, and which inspire change rather than inhibit it," say researchers, from Egenis, the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society at the University of Exeter.
High-risk patients will often downgrade their risk in their own minds, yet could still be receptive to the behavioural change which is the purpose of CHD screening, explained Dr Hannah Farrimond, who studied the reaction of patients to being told they were at high risk. Boosting patients' sense of vulnerability does not help, and may even hinder, their efforts to change, the study found.
"Once patients have got over the shock of being at high risk of heart disease, they then tend to underplay their risk," says Dr Farrimond. "They compare themselves favourably with, say, others of the same age. In the past, researchers have thought we need to scare people into feeling at risk to make them change. This study suggests that even those who downplayed their risk still made changes, such as taking statins or exercising more. In other words, we don't need to scare people to get results. Clinical staff need to find other ways of encouraging patients to make the necessary lifestyle changes, such as offering personalised advice."
The findings of Dr Farrimond's paper 'Making sense of being at 'high risk' of coronary heart disease', are published in the current issue of the journal Psychology and Health.
Current NHS policy advocates screening in primary care to identify 'high risk' individuals for coronary heart disease (CHD), particularly targeting those with family histories of the disease, through schemes such as the new, free 'health MOT' campaign. Until now, there has been little research looking at how people respond to such heart disease screening, particularly in relation to their age and stage of life. This study investigated the impact of the screening on the patients involved by interviewing 38 of them immediately after their intervention, looking particularly at how the age and stage of life of the participants affected their reactions.
More information: 'Making sense of being at 'high risk' of heart disease' is published in the journal Psychology and Health. The article is currently available online at: www.informaworld.com/DOI=10.1080/08870440802499382
Source: University of Exeter
Explore further: Innovative prototype presented for post-ICU patients | <urn:uuid:674a1352-c401-4d2b-8ea9-402a4f3b2a1b> | {
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Behavior rating scales are one of the oldest assessment tools used in mental health, education, and research. These scales typically assess problem behaviors, social skills, and emotional functioning; are widely employed in the assessment of personality development, adaptive behavior, and social-emotional functioning; and aid in diagnostic decision making and in planning treatment and education. These well-proven scales are easy to administer, score, and interpret and have become an integral part of the clinical and school assessment of children and adolescents.
A variety of behavior rating scales are available for use in clinical practice and research. The majority of behavior rating scales are intended for use with children, though a handful can be used with adults. The use of behavior rating scales in the evaluation of adult clients is gaining popularity. There are a number of advantages of using behavior rating scales: They quantify and systematically organize client information, administration and scoring is generally quick and easy, most allow for comparison of ratings across respondents and/or settings, and because these are norm-referenced instruments, the client’s symptoms and behaviors can be compared with those of his or her peers.
Behavior rating scales help clinicians obtain information from parents, teachers, and others about a client’s symptoms and functioning in various settings, which is necessary for an appropriate assessment for a number of disorders as well as for treatment monitoring. Such instruments are generally only one component of a comprehensive evaluation, which commonly includes direct observation of the client, objective and projective measures, and interviews. Most behavior rating scales are normed using nationally representative samples, but they also often include clinical norms as well, which allows for a variety of behavior comparisons. Ideally, the rating scale used should be normed to similar client populations, so results indicate if a client’s skill, behavior, or emotional status is typical or significantly different from that of peer groups.
Uses of Behavior Rating Scales
The most common use of behavior rating scales is in the diagnosis of mental and behavioral disorders. The content of behavior rating scales often conforms to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) diagnostic criteria, though it often differs in the way the symptoms are quantified as well as in the way the symptoms are combined. In the educational setting, these scales are also used to help determine eligibility for special education and other programs. In addition, they are used to plan interventions and to monitor symptoms and behavior during and following treatment.
There is ample empirical support for the validity of using behavior rating scales for diagnostic and placement decision making. However, the use of these scales in planning interventions and monitoring client progress has not yet been adequately validated. Because of this, behavior rating scales should never be the sole method used to monitor response to treatment, though behavior rating scales do have a place as one piece of a multimodal method. For example, direct observations and rating scales are considered the best methods to evaluate the effects of medication trials on a child’s behavior. When used in conjunction with direct observations, behavior rating scales may give an indication of differences in behavior across settings or differences in the perception of the client’s behavior by significant others in his or her life. It is always important to ensure that the scale is appropriate for this use. If a behavior rating scale is used to monitor a behavioral intervention, care should be taken to make sure the scale aligns with this goal. Many scales monitor reductions in negative behaviors, but most lack items that measure positive replacement behaviors.
Behavior rating scales typically quantify the severity of the behaviors or symptoms on Likert scales (e.g., 0-not present to 4—severe) or the frequency that the behavior or symptom is observed (e.g., 0-never to 4-almost always). Scores on the scale or subscales are then summed and converted to a standard score such as a T score, which allows for comparison of the frequency of a variety of behaviors to norms for a client’s gender and/or age group. These data are critical for determining the clinical significance of the client’s symptoms and behaviors.
Types of Behavior Rating Scales
Many of the newer behavior rating scales use a comprehensive, multidimensional approach to the assessment of behavior. For example, many scales include observer/informant and self-report forms. In addition, clinicians can choose from global scales that assess multiple domains of functioning or scales that focus on a specific dimension of behavior.
Significant others, such as parents and teachers, can provide valuable information about a client’s behavior that would otherwise be unavailable to the clinician. This information can be extremely helpful as part of case conceptualization, especially with child clients. Informant scales assess the degree or frequency of certain behaviors or skills based on the respondent’s perceptions. The rater must be very familiar with the client to provide useful information, and using multiple raters helps reduce biased perceptions. The psychologist’s report should note who provided the ratings and describe his or her relationship to the client.
Older child clients and adults are often asked to provide ratings of their own behavior, feelings, and skills. These measures are similar, or even identical, to other rating scales and are often used in conjunction with teacher or parent ratings. It can be helpful to compare how clients perceive themselves relative to how others perceive them. However, it is important to note that in psychiatric disorders where either the client’s verbal capacity (e.g., autism, dementia) or insight (e.g., psychotic conditions) is compromised, self-rating scales have very little value.
Single Domain Scales
Scales that assess one specific area allow for focused, in-depth evaluation of a behavior or particular area of functioning. Focusing on a single dimension of behavior may be warranted when the referral question is limited to a specific concern. Most of these scales are intended to assess attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), social skills, or conduct problems. These measures are often used subsequent to the use of multidomain scales that have identified one or more areas of concern.
Multidomain behavior rating scales assess a broad array of social, emotional, and behavioral functioning. The use of these scales has increased dramatically in popularity due to research findings that many individuals, particularly children, tend to have difficulties in multiple areas. For example, research in developmental psychopathology suggests a high degree of comorbidity among the social, emotional, and behavioral domains. Thus, multidomain behavior rating scales allow the clinician to obtain information about a variety of areas of functioning with one tool.
Widely Used Behavior Rating Scales
There are many different behavior rating scales available to clinicians. The most commonly used scales are the Achenbach Scales, the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC-2), the Connors instruments, the Attention Deficit Disorders Evaluation Scale (ADDES), the ADD-H Comprehensive Teacher Rating Scale (ACTeRS), the ADHD Rating Scale-IV, the Behavior Rating Profile (BRP-2), the Burk’s Behavior Rating Scales (BBRS), and the Social-Emotional Dimension Scale (SEDS-2). One other behavior rating scale that is quickly gaining popularity is the Behavior Rating Scale of Executive Function (BRIEF). Although this list does not cover the full range of available behavior rating scales, it is a good representation of scales that are widely or typically used, as determined by surveys of practitioners.
The Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA) offers a comprehensive approach to assessing adaptive and maladaptive functioning. These multidomain instruments allow for multi-informant assessment across the age span (1.5 to 90 years). ASEBA instruments allow for documentation of clients’ functioning in terms of both quantitative scores and individualized descriptions in respondents’ own words. Descriptions include what concerns respondents most about the client, the best things about the client, and details of competencies and problems that are not captured by quantitative scores alone. Evidence of adequate psychometrics of the Achenbach scales is provided in the test manual. In addition, numerous studies have demonstrated significant associations between ASEBA scores and both diagnostic and special education categories.
ASEBA behavior rating scales include the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form (C-TRF), the Teacher Report Form (TRF), the Youth Self-Report (YSR), the Adult Behavior Checklist (ABCL), the Adult Self-Report (ASR), the Older Adult Behavior Checklist (OABCL), and the Older Adult Self-Report (OASR). The ASEBA informant scales generally take 15 to 20 minutes to complete, while the self-report scales take 20 to 30 minutes. Forms can be hand- or computer-scored.
The CBCL/6-18 obtains reports from parents, other close relatives, and/or guardians regarding children’s competencies and behavioral or emotional difficulties. The CBCL/6-18 has 112 items that describe specific behavioral and emotional problems, plus two open-ended items for reporting additional problems. Parents rate their child for how true each item is using a 3-point scale from 0 (not true) to 2 (very true or often true). Parents also provide information for 20 competence items covering their child’s activities, social relations, and school performance.
The CBCL/6-18 scoring profile provides T scores and percentiles for three competence scales (Activities, Social, and School), Total Competence, eight syndromes, six ASSM-oriented scales, and Internalizing, Externalizing, and Total Problems. The syndrome scales include Aggressive Behavior, Anxious/Depressed, Attention Problems, Rule-Breaking Behavior, Social Problems, Somatic Complaints, Thought Problems, and Withdrawn/Depressed. The six ASSM-oriented scales are Affective Problems, Anxiety Problems, Somatic Problems, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Problems, Oppositional Defiant Problems, and Conduct Problems.
The CBCL for preschool-age children (CBCL/P/2-5) is used to obtain parents’ reports of their 1//- to 5-year-old child’s competencies and problems. It obtains ratings of 99 problem items, plus descriptions of problems, disabilities, what concerns parents most about their child, and the best things about the child. Items combine to form the following scales: Emotionally Reactive, Anxious/Depressed, Somatic Complaints, Withdrawn, Attention Problems, Aggressive Behavior, and Sleep Problems. Scores on Internalizing, Externalizing, and Total Problems composite scales are also provided.
Like the CBCL/6-18, the preschool profile features ASSM-oriented scales in addition to the empirically based scales. Scales were constructed for the following five ASM-oriented categories: Affective Problems, Anxiety Problems, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Problems, Oppositional Defiant Problems, and Pervasive Developmental Problems. The CBCL/U/-5 also includes the Language Development Survey (LDS), which uses parents’ reports to assess children’s expressive vocabularies and word combinations as well as risk factors for language delays. The LDS indicates whether a child’s vocabulary and word combinations are delayed relative to norms for children ages 18 to 35 months. The LDS can also be completed for language-delayed older children.
TRF and C-TRF/1-5
The TRF is designed to obtain teachers’ reports of children’s academic performance, adaptive functioning, and behavioral or emotional problems. The scale has 118 problem items, of which 93 have counterparts on the CBCL/6-18. The remaining items concern school behaviors that parents would not observe, such as difficulty following directions and or disturbance of other pupils. Teachers rate the child for how true each item is using the same 3-point response scale used on the CBCL/6-18.
Scores for Academic Performance, Total Adaptive Functioning, the eight cross-informant syndrome scales, and the six ASM-oriented scales can be obtained. Like the CBCL, the TRF also provides Internalizing, Externalizing, and Total Problems composite scores.
For 1/- to 5-year-olds, preschool teachers and day care providers can complete the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form for Ages 1/-5 (C-TRF/1/-5). The C-TRF consists of 99 items, plus descriptions of problems, disabilities, what concerns the respondent most about the child, and the best things about the child.
The YSR is a self-report scale that can be completed by youths who have fifth grade reading skills, or it can be administered orally. Its competence and problem items generally parallel those of the CBCL/6-18; plus it contains items covering physical problems, concerns, and strengths that require open-ended responses. In addition, the YSR has 14 socially desirable items that most youths endorse about themselves. The YSR scoring profile includes two competence scales (Activities and Social), Total Competence, the eight cross-informant syndrome scales, and the six ASM-oriented scales that are also scored on the CBCL and TRF, and Internalizing, Externalizing, and Total Problems scales.
The ASEBA is one of the few assessment systems with a behavior rating scale intended for use with adults. The ABCL is for clients ages 18 to 59. The client’s spouse or partner typically serves as the respondent, but any adult who is close to the client can complete the ABCL. The profiles of the ABCL include scales for Adaptive Functioning, Empirically Based Syndromes, Substance Use, Internalizing, Externalizing, and Total Problems. The ABCL profiles also feature new ASM-oriented scales and a Critical Items scale consisting of items of particular concern to clinicians.
The following cross-informant syndromes were derived for the ABCL: Anxious/Depressed, Withdrawn, Somatic Complaints, Thought Problems, Attention Problems, Aggressive Behavior, Rule-Breaking Behavior, and Intrusive. The ABCL and ASR have parallel Substance Use, Critical Items, Internalizing, Externalizing, and Total Problems scales. The ASM-oriented scales are Depressive Problems, Anxiety Problems, Somatic Problems, Avoidant Personality Problems, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Problems, and Antisocial Personality Problems. For older clients (ages 60-90+), clinicians can use the OABCL.
The Adult Self-Report (ASR) is normed for clients 18 to 59 years. Like the YSR, the ASR profiles include scores for Adaptive Functioning, cross-informant empirically based syndromes, Substance Use, Internalizing, Externalizing, and Total Problems. In addition, the ASR profiles feature the DSM-oriented scales that are scored on the ABCL and a Critical Items scale. Older clients (60-90+ years) can complete the OASR.
The BASC-2 system is a set of tools that assess the behaviors and emotions of preschool- through college-age individuals and is respected for its developmental sensitivity. The scales of the BASC-2 were first defined conceptually and then confirmed via factor analysis. In addition to evaluating personality and behavioral problems and emotional disturbances, the instruments identify positive attributes that can be capitalized on in the treatment process.
The BASC-2 system enables assessment from three vantage points: self, teacher, and parent or caregiver. Thus, information from multiple sources can be compared using instruments with overlapping norms to help achieve reliable and accurate diagnoses. The system provides an extensive view of adaptive and maladaptive behavior and measures areas important for both Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and DSM-IV classifications. Various types of validity checks are incorporated into the BASC-2 to help the clinician detect careless or untruthful responding, misunderstanding, or other threats to validity.
The BASC-2 Parent Rating Scales (PRS) and Teacher Rating Scales (TRS) are normed for individuals ages 2 years to 21 years, 11 months. These scales can typically be completed in 10 to 20 minutes. The Self-Report Scale (SRP) can be completed by individuals 8 years through college-age and takes about 30 minutes to complete.
T scores and percentiles for both general population and clinical norms can be obtained for all measures, and computer scoring and interpretation programs are available. Reliability and validity evidence is supportive of this measure.
The PRS assesses numerous aspects of behavior, including both adaptive (healthy) and clinical (problem) behaviors in the community and home settings. Parents or caregivers can complete forms for one of three age levels—preschool (ages 2 to 5), child (ages 6 to 11), and adolescent (ages 12 to 21)—in 10 to 20 minutes. The PRS contains 134 to 160 items that describe specific behaviors that are rated on a 4-point scale of frequency, ranging from never to almost always. The PRS clinical scales include Hyperactivity, Attention Problems, Aggression, Conduct Problems, Atypicality, Anxiety, Somatization, Withdrawal, and Depression. The adaptive scales are Activities of Daily Living, Adaptability, Social Skills, Functional Communication, and Leadership.
The clinical scales on the PRS combine to form three composite scales: Internalizing Problems, Externalizing Problems, and a Behavioral Symptoms Index. An Adaptive Skills Composite score is formed from scores on the adaptive scales. Validity and response set indexes used to help judge the quality of completed forms are also available. One additional tool is a list of Critical Items that may have clinical importance of their own. Some of these items are included solely for this singular attention and are not part of any scale (e.g., “Has a hearing problem”) while others have special significance such as “Says, ‘I wish I were dead.'”
Like the PRS, the TRS includes forms for three age levels and uses a four-choice response format for the 100+ items. Teachers or other qualified observers provide information about adaptive and problem behaviors in the preschool or school setting. Clinical scales on the TRS parallel those on the PRS but also include a Learning Problems scale for those between 6 and 21 years of age. The TRS adaptive scales are also identical to those on the PRS except for a Study Skills scale that is substituted for the Activities of Daily Living scale. The following composite scores are reported on the TRS profile: Internalizing Problems, Externalizing Problems, School Problems, Behavioral Symptoms Index, and Adaptive Skills.
The SRP helps provide insight into an individual’s thoughts and feelings. It contains 139 to 185 true/false and multiple choice (never to always) items and measures the following clinical areas: Attitude to School, Attitude to Teachers, Sensation Seeking (ages 12 to 21 only), Atypicality, Locus of Control, Social Stress, Anxiety, Depression, Sense of Inadequacy, Somatization, Attention Problems, and Hyperactivity. Positive psychological adjustment is measured via the adaptive scales (Relations with Parents, Interpersonal Relations, Self-Esteem, and Self-Reliance). Four composite scores are provided on the profile: School Problems, Internalizing Problems, Externalizing Problems, and Personal Adjustment.
First published in 1989, the Conners Rating Scales (CRS) is one of the most popular tools for assessing ADHD and other disruptive disorders in children and adolescents. The 1997 revised edition, the CRS-R, is linked to the DSM-IV and allows for multimodal evaluation of problem behaviors. There are long and short versions of each type of scale (parent, teacher, and self-report) that use a 4-point scale: not at all to very much. The short scales take 5 to 10 minutes to administer and the long scales take 15 to 20 minutes. Both the parent and teacher rating scales are used to characterize the behaviors of children and adolescents ages 3 to 17, while the self-report scales can be completed by 12- to 17-year-olds. The Conners manuals provide evidence of adequate psychometric properties of these measures.
The 10 scales scored on the long parent and teacher forms are Oppositional, Cognitive Problems/ Inattention, Hyperactivity, Anxious-Shy, Perfectionism, Social Problems, Psychosomatic, DSM-IV Symptom Subscales, Global Index (formerly the Hyperactivity Index), and AD/HD Index. The short forms offer scores on four scales: Oppositional, Cognitive Problems/ Inattention, Hyperactivity, and AD/HD Index.
The Adolescent Self Report long form has 87 items and 8 scales: Family, Emotional, Conduct, Cognitive, Anger Control Problems, Hyperactivity, AD/HD Index, and DSM-IV Symptoms Subscales, while the short self-report form has four scales: Conduct Problems, Cognitive Problems, Hyperactivity/Impulsive, and AD/HD Index.
The Conners Adult AD/HD Rating Scales (CAARS) is used to assess AD/HD in adults. It can be used with individuals 18 years and older and includes both observer and self-report forms. The CAARS quantitatively measures AD/HD symptoms across clinically significant domains while examining the manifestations of AD/HD in adults based on scientific literature and the authors’ clinical experience.
The self-report (CAARS-S) and observer forms (CAARS-O) address the same behaviors and contain identical scales, subscales, and indexes. T scores are produced for each scale, subscale, and index. Separate norms are available by gender and age-group intervals (18-29, 30-39, 40—19, and 50+ years).
Like the CRS, the CAARS has both long and short versions. The long versions comprise 66 items that assess a broad range of problem behaviors. They include a variety of factor-derived and DSM-derived subscales as well as three DSM-IV symptom measures (Inattentive, Hyperactive-Impulsive, and Total ADHD Symptoms), a 12-item AD/HD Index, and an Inconsistency Index for identifying random or careless responding. The short self-report (CAARS-S: S) and observer (CAARS-O: S) forms contain 26 items that are abbreviated versions of the factor-derived subscales that appear in the long versions. The AD/HD Index and the Inconsistency Index are also incorporated.
BRP-2, BBRS, and SEDS-2
Although the BRP-2, the BBRS, and the SEDS-2 still rank among the most frequently used behavior rating scales, they are being used with much less regularity than in the past. These scales are all multidimensional scales designed to be used with children. The BRP-2 has parent, teacher, and self-report forms; the BBRS has a single form that can be administered to parents and teachers, and the SEDS uses a teacher form only.
Although each of these scales can provide some helpful information, they all have limitations that the Achenbach, BASC-2, and Conners scales do not. For example, the BBRS has fairly weak psychometric properties, and the authors used a rather narrow standardization sample when norming the instrument. The BRP-2’s item content is limited, and the items lack behavioral specificity. Finally, the T scores on the SEDS-2 cannot be compared across scales, limiting the scale’s usefulness.
Measures for Assessment of ADHD
The most widely used measures of symptoms of AD/HD—the ADDES, ACTeRS and ADHD Rating Scale-IV—all use parent and teacher forms. The respondents rate the child client on characteristics typically associated with attention deficit disorders: inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. All of these scales are generally easy to administer and score and provide helpful information that can contribute to the diagnostic process. However, considering the complexity of AD/HD, as well as the literature on comorbidity, it is wise to consider using a multidimensional instrument such as the CBCL or the BASC, either of which is more likely to detect evidence of commonly comorbid conditions such as a learning disability, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or depression.
Unlike other behavior rating scales, the BRIEF is designed specifically to assess impairment of executive function. According to the user manual, executive functions are those processes responsible for purposeful, goal-directed, and problem-solving behavior. The BRIEF uses parent and teacher forms that can be used with children ages 5 to 18. Both forms have 86 items and take 10 to 15 minutes to administer. Scoring by hand takes 15 to 20 minutes, and computer scoring software is available.
The BRIEF comprises two validity scales (Negativity and Inconsistency of Responses) and eight nonoverlapping theoretically and empirically derived clinical scales that measure various aspects of executive functioning. The clinical scales include Inhibit (control impulses, stop behavior), Shift (move freely from one activity or situation to another; problem-solve flexibly), Emotional Control (modulate emotional responses appropriately), Initiate (begin activity, generate ideas), Working Memory (hold information in mind to complete a task), Plan/Organize (anticipate future events, set goals, develop steps), and Monitor (check work, assess own performance). These scales form two broader indexes, Behavioral Regulation and Metacognition, as well as a Global Executive Composite score.
The family of BRIEF rating scales includes a preschool version for ages 3 to 5 years (BRIEF-P), a self-report form for adolescents ages 13 to 18 years (BRIEF-SR), and adult observer and self-report forms for individuals 18 to 90 years of age (BRIEF-A). Each of these scales parallels the original BRIEF in terms of format and conceptual framework. The BRIEF is useful in evaluating individuals with a wide spectrum of developmental and acquired neurological conditions and psychiatric disorders such as learning disabilities, AD/HD, Tourette’s disorder, traumatic brain injury, pervasive developmental disorders or autism, lead exposure, multiple sclerosis, dementias, and schizophrenia.
- Achenbach, T. (2005). Mental health practitioner’s guide to the ASEBA. Burlington, VT: Author.
- Angello, L., Volpe, R., & DiPerna, J. (2003). Assessment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: An evaluation of six published rating scales. School Psychology Review, 32(2), 241-262.
- Buros Institute of Mental Measurements. (2006). The Mental Measurements Yearbook. Retrieved from http://buros.org/
- Conners, C. K. (1997). Conners’Rating Scales: Revised user’s manual. North Tonawanda, NY: Multi-Health Systems.
- Conners, C. K., Erhardt, D., & Epstein, J. (1999). Self-ratings of ADHD symptoms in adults: I. Factor structure and normative data. Journal of Attention Disorders, 3(3), 141-151.
- Hosp, J., Howell, K., & Hosp, M. (2003). Characteristics of behavior rating scales. Journal of Positive Behavioral Interventions, 5(4), 201-208.
- Jarratt, K., Riccio, C., & Siekierski, B. (2005). Assessment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Using the BASC and BRIEF. Applied Neuropsychology, 12(2), 83-93.
- Krol, N., De Bruyn, E., & Coolen, J. (2006). From CBCL to DSM: A comparison of two methods to screen for DSM-IV diagnoses using CBCL data. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 35(1), 127-135.
- Reynolds, C., & Kamphaus, R. (2002). Behavior Assessment System for Children, 2nd edition manual. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Services.
- Shapiro, E., & Heick, P. (2004). School psychologist assessment practices in the evaluation of students referred for social/behavioral/emotional problems. Psychology in the Schools, 41(5), 551-561. | <urn:uuid:833ba8a0-f510-4321-ae2a-2585744d6ba5> | {
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When I got interested in finance in the late 1970s, the economy was in the midst of a real asset bubble. Financial assets—stocks and bonds—were hammered during that decade while real assets—real estate and commodities—soared. From 1976 to early 1980, the price of gold rose from $100 to $850 per ounce. Two years later, gold was under $300.
Jonathan Swift in 1721 was the first writer to use “bubble” to mean a public delusion that inflates the price of something without economic justification. But calling something a “delusion” or “the madness of crowds” is not helpful for prediction or explanation. While bubble investors as a group seem to be irrational, individually they can hope to sell at an even more inflated price than they buy, and in fact many people do make money investing in bubbles. The trick is to take out more money than you put in before the bubble pops.
This notion is the germ of the idea that bubbles might be explained without positing irrational actions. If so, not only would that deepen our understanding of bubbles, but it might point to ways to predict them, or perhaps to prevent them, or best of all, to modify them in ways that preserved their benefits while avoiding their costs.
There was a lot of work on rational bubbles from 1978 to 1987, but the stock market crash on October 19, 1987 pretty much ended it. The crash refocused most academic interest to behavioral explanations. There are several well-documented psychological mechanisms that can support irrational bubbles: Overconfidence, recency bias, confirmation bias, information cascades, reputational herding, and envy, among others.
Of course, all these mechanisms are real, and illuminate some aspects of bubbles. But despite years of efforts, behavioral work failed to generate non-obvious insights about historical bubbles. Individuals have biases, but that doesn’t explain why other individuals don’t figure this out and offset those biases, or why institutions do not develop to control the effect of individual biases.
The same behavioral theories that explain bubbles are also used to explain fashions, but fashion seems to revolve steadily rather than generating booms and busts. Behavioral theorists had no trouble explaining why interest in a financial idea might expand rapidly and then decline even more rapidly, just as clothing or music fads rise and fall. But going from this to a plausible and useful explanation of the economic effects of bubbles proved more difficult. In particular, behavioral models produced nothing but Monday morning quarterbacking regarding the Internet bubble that popped in 2000 and the housing bubble that popped in 2007. Therefore, rational bubble models from the 1980s are coming back into fashion, including one of mine. I like it because it’s mine, of course, but also because I think it’s the simplest one. In my opinion, the basic logical argument is the same for all rational bubble models, and more elaborate mathematical structures don’t add insight. The key to applying these models is the empirical methods used to investigate them, and the quality of data, not the sophistication of the underlying mathematics.
To understand the sense in which a bubble can be rational, consider an asset whose price each quarter either doubles or goes to $2 with equal probability. I’m not telling you why the price does this for now; just assume that it does. If the price of the asset today is P, its expected price in one quarter is (2P + 2)/2 = P + 1. So buying the asset at any price has a positive expected value, and therefore is arguably rational.
On the other hand, the price of this asset must eventually go to $2, so buying it at any price above $2 will lead to certain loss.
If you simulated this price path and graphed it on a computer, you would see bubble-like behavior. The price would go up steadily for a while, sometimes to relatively high values like $64 or more, but always fall back to $2 at some point.
Think about buying this asset at $16 and holding it for 25 years. Since its expected value increases $1 per quarter, the expected value at the end of the period is $116, or an expected compounded annual return of 8.25%. That is all true, and all misleading. For 0.01% of the time, you end up with over $10,000; in those cases, you have an average of $843,776. The other 99.99% of the time when you end up with less than $10,000, your average terminal value is $13. $16 of the $116 expected value comes from the one in nonillion (one followed by 30 zeros) chance of getting over $16 nonillion by having all 100 coin flips come up in your favor. This kind of distribution, with a high expected value driven by microscopic chances of astronomical payouts, even meaningless payouts, was discussed in Whodunit?
This feels like a bubble. Every investor rationally expects a return greater than his or her investment, yet also knows that the price must eventually crash below his or her purchase price. Before resolving this dilemma, we have to discuss why a price might follow this kind of process. I’ll tackle that next week.
No positions in stocks mentioned.
The information on this website solely reflects the analysis of or opinion about the performance of securities and financial markets by the writers whose articles appear on the site. The views expressed by the writers are not necessarily the views of Minyanville Media, Inc. or members of its management. Nothing contained on the website is intended to constitute a recommendation or advice addressed to an individual investor or category of investors to purchase, sell or hold any security, or to take any action with respect to the prospective movement of the securities markets or to solicit the purchase or sale of any security. Any investment decisions must be made by the reader either individually or in consultation with his or her investment professional. Minyanville writers and staff may trade or hold positions in securities that are discussed in articles appearing on the website. Writers of articles are required to disclose whether they have a position in any stock or fund discussed in an article, but are not permitted to disclose the size or direction of the position. Nothing on this website is intended to solicit business of any kind for a writer's business or fund. Minyanville management and staff as well as contributing writers will not respond to emails or other communications requesting investment advice. | <urn:uuid:e9c0f15c-c687-4b20-ae36-bfea55e527f8> | {
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WorldStove founder Nathaniel Mulcahy has just completed two months of work in Haiti, setting up a pilot project that will provide biochar-producing stoves and jobs for the Haitian people. The project was featured in an Earth Day press release from the UN Special Envoy to Haiti (former President Clinton) as an example of "building back better" by incorporating environmental sustainability in the recovery effort.
Before WorldStove, Mulcahy was an award-winning industrial designer creating consumer products for large corporations like Emerson Appliances. Eight years ago, while lying in bed recovering from a life-threatening accident, he realized that he needed to focus his energies on innovative designs to improve the quality of life for people who were less fortunate. The result was his invention of the fuel efficient, low emissions LuciaStove, named after the canine companion who saved his life.
The breakthrough that set the LuciaStove apart from similar gasifer stoves was Mulcahy's patented design which uses venturi holes to create negative pressure while a flame cap based on Fibonacci spiral geometry prevents oxygen from entering the pyrolysis chamber. The combination delivers better air control for cleaner combustion of the gases produced from the biomass it uses as fuel. It also produces biochar.
Mulcahy says that people are often surprised that such a sophisticated design would be used for such a simple product, a cook stove for developing countries. Mulcahy answers, "Why should we provide developing nations with stoves that look like cast off scrap? Style or elegance of design usually only involves added thought, not added cost."
Mulcahy considers it a matter of respect not only to offer a clean, efficient stove to the world's poor, but to make sure that the stove is adapted to people's needs and not the other way around. WorldStove pilot projects in several African countries, Indonesia, and the Philippines have encountered all manner of local conditions that have required changes in the stove setup or manufacturing techniques.
The adaptability of the Lucia stove faced its greatest test in Haiti this winter where Mulcahy carried out a WorldStove Pilot Program in the short space of two months. He not only redesigned the stove to be produced with available tools and materials, but he completed a camp survey. The fact that since the quake more children have been forced to take responsibility for cooking made safety a top priority, so Mulcahy developed a Haitian specific pot stand with heat-shield and windscreen to accommodate the wide variety of pots used in Haiti and protect children from burns.
Left: The blue flame indicates that the Haiti Lucia stove is burning cleanly and efficiently. Right: Children have taken on more cooking responsibilities since the earthquake. Photo Credit: World Stove
Local versions of the Lucia stove must be tuned to work with available fuels. Peanut shells need different conditions than rice hulls, for instance. Mulcahy found that Haiti has many waste products that can be made into fuel pellets or used directly, including sugar cane waste, rice hulls, coffee hulls, bamboo, sawdust, coconut shells, mango pits, palm fronds and waste paper.
One of the best moments of Mulcahy's two months in Haiti was the day he first tuned a locally-built stove to run on the available pellets. That night he was able to cook a plateful of rice, beans and meat sauce for 21 people with only three handfuls of pellets.
Another prize moment occurred when Mulcahy showed up late to a village artisan's shop only to find the artisan already engaging a crowd of people demonstrating the stove and explaining how the biochar would help restore their soils. The metal workers began to add decorations of trees and birds to the stoves, telling Mulcahy that the pictures represent what will happen if people use the stoves to make biochar - the trees and birds will come back to Haiti.
Nathaniel Mulcahy showing designs that metal workers added to the stove wind screens. The metal workers say that trees and birds will return to Haiti when the soil is rebuilt with biochar. Photo Credit: World Stove
Almost a third of Haiti's land has lost so much topsoil that it is not possible to grow food crops. As a result, Haiti can no longer feed itself and people have fled to the cities where they were more vulnerable during the earthquake. Biochar can be a critical factor not only in restoring topsoil to Haiti but in revitalizing the rural economy and repopulating the countryside.
In the next phase of the Haiti project, WorldStove will work with United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Haitian Government to build stove-manufacturing hubs and create thousands of jobs making pellets and distributing biochar in the rural areas. Preliminary agreements are in place with 48 agricultural cooperatives that will provide crop waste for pellet production. The farmers will receive a proportionate amount of biochar in return to build their soils and increase production.
Mulcahy invites anyone who is interested in learning more about next steps in Haiti to visit the WorldStove website, www.worldstove.com. For updates, you can sign up for the World Stove Twitter feed @WorldStove.
Kelpie Wilson is the communications editor for the International Biochar Initiative, working to promote sustainable biochar as a powerfully simple tool to fight global warming and boost food security.
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The "classics" face stiff competition for young students' attention nowand that will only intensify. The implementation of Common Core, new state educational standards, brings with it a greater emphasis on students reading nonfiction. There is a great deal of research backing up the benefits of doing so. Respected scholars like E.D. Hirsch, a chief proponent of content-based curriculum, argue that nonfiction texts provide students with a wider range of vocabulary and general knowledge on which to build a stronger foundation for more sophisticated reading comprehension. Nothing in Common Core excludes the classics, but teachers can only cover so many books in a given class and standards will now emphasize nonfiction. Adding to the literary competition: I have observed an increase in required school reading with social justice and multicultural themes. For example, my daughter's sixth grade advanced literature class has Bless Me Ultima, Breaking Through, and Reaching Out among their required reading this year. Books like those provide greater cross-cultural understanding and focus on empathy at a time when many adolescent readers are entering a stage in life that can be most politely described as self-absorbed. My daughter attends a Catholic school. Compassion and empathy are themes that are right in line with values I want her to embrace.
Emphases on more nonfiction and social/ cultural themes are certainly worthy educational endeavors. What is my concern? Opportunity cost. The classics are deserving of study in their own right. There is incredible value in having a shared cultural reservoir among Americans of different ages, cultures, and socio-economic backgrounds that serves as an understanding of where we come from, as well as where we are. How can I make sure that the classics that I fell in love with are experiences shared with my children when there are so many other demands on their reading time? The answer for our family isn't either / or. The answer is MORE.
Developing a family culture in which reading and discussing literature is a priority for us. My children watch me participate in book clubs and pour myself into engrossing novels. Visiting children's librarian, Michelle Burnham, at the library has been a regular part of their lives since they were little. Now that they are older, my husband and I have begun making sure they are active participants in analyzing books themselves. I stumbled upon The Mother- Daughter Book Club: How Ten Busy Mothers and Daughters Came Together To Talk, Laugh and Learn Through Their Love of Reading by Shireen Dobson. This book gives step-by-step instructions for organizing a club, ideas for structuring dialogue, and discussion guides for great classics. (Mothers of boys should not be turned off by the title; I have two boys and there is nothing stopping mothers [or fathers from starting an all male or co-ed book club.) Parents wanting to augment their kids' school reading can also look to The Great Books Foundation, an educational nonprofit providing reading and discussion programs for Kindergartners through adults. Interested parents (and participants) can use their website to start a book group or find an existing local one (hint: Los Altos has one).
We owe our biggest debt of gratitude in helping to augment our children's literary education to a wonderful husband and wife team, Simon Pennington and Bryony Autumn, who offer summer camps and home schooling education programs in Palo Alto. They developed a classic literature book club aimed at middle schoolers that my daughter is enrolled in. The group, in which there are more far more boys than girls, meets twice a month on Sunday afternoons and carries a commitment that the participants read the assigned pages and do a reasonable amount of additional contextual research before each class. It is an added commitment to our already busy schedulebut one that we feel blessed to make. Professor Pennington has taught these young students how to deconstruct a text and to analyze the historical context in which the author wrote the book. As a group, they have examined and come to understand Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a book of its time. They followed the journey of a young King Arthur ("the Wart") as he grew to understand the relationship between strength and justice, or "might and right," in White's Sword In The Stone. They are currently deep into the familiar classic A Christmas Carol by Dickens, after which I am so happy to note they will explore the themes of judgment, class, reputation and prejudice surrounding the epic love affair between Mr. Darcy and Elisabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice. Best of all, the journey Professor Pennington is taking these children on is outside of school. None of this is graded. That is the beauty of it; this is all purely for the love of literature.
Last December, Anthropologie had beautiful marbleized hard-bound editions of classics like Alice In Wonderland and Robinson Crusoe on sale. It struck me that we could be in danger of books like these becoming just decorative covers simply beautiful to the eye. My hope is that we're igniting a flame inside our three children to be more curious about the beauty that lies within the pages. | <urn:uuid:c37b87fd-4bfa-4aa3-a046-7e1870e51fdc> | {
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The VS Clarity Grades (VS1 & VS2)
While VVS is the abbreviation for “very very small” imperfections it doesn’t take much brain power to realize that VS is simply the abbreviation for “very small” imperfections. J In VVS1 those imperfections are considered “extremely difficult” for a skilled grader to locate under 10x, in VVS2 “very difficult” and as we hit the VS1 grade the imperfections as defined by GIA are now considered to just be “difficult” with them becoming “somewhat easy” in the VS2 grade.
The notable change in definition from “difficult” (VS1) to “somewhat easy” (VS2) also represents what is generally a more notable difference in what we see when comparing the average VS1 clarities to VS2 clarities under the gemological microscope. In the VS1 clarity, the inclusions are no longer the general pin points and minuscule feathers you may find in a VVS clarity but are now getting to crystals, feathers and other characteristics that are no longer the size of a “dot”.
Here are good examples of what you can expect to see under magnification in VS1 clarities.
This first diamond has a crystal, cloud and a needle inclusion under the table facet making it the VS1 grade. Under a standard 10x loupe this would be dificult to find. The darkfield illumination of the microscope "lights up" those "very small" characteristics making it easier for us to locate and also for you to see under the microscope.
To give you an idea of how this looks under a 10x loupe and not a microscope, here''s a picture under a loupe. Note how insignificant it really looks now!
Here is a picture more realistic to size. This is good for you to see because people tend to get spoiled by our photomicrographs thinking this is what they are going to see with their eyes when in fact you''ll never view the diamond in this lighting nor at this magnification in real life.
This VS1 has a white crystal under the table with an even smaller pin point to the left of it.
In this VS1 the primary graders are in the 7:00 position.
Next we hit the realm of VS2 where the introduction of the word “easy” is used in the description with VS2 imperfections being “somewhat easy” for a skilled grader to locate under 10x magnification and it is also at this clarity grade that things become a tad more notable to see under the microscope and even more variety characteristics within its grade. The VS2 grade is generally the lowest grade I recommend to a client who is looking for a particularly "clean" diamond under magnification. We do happen to give our clients 10x loupes with their purchase so if you are looking for "clean under a loupe", this is the last grade we''d recommend to you. Note however I didn't say it's the last grade I'd recommend *period*, just the last grade I''d recommend if you are very particular under a microscope or 10x loupe. Bear in mind the next grades, SI1 and SI2, while easier to see the inclusions than in VS can still be "eye clean" for those of you who are OK withe clarity as long as it isn't "eye visible". Here is an interesting first example to learn from in the VS2 grade.
Note the image looks pretty clean overall. The imperfection that perhaps grabs your eye first is that little white cloud in the center a little towards the right.
Here is the actual GIA plot of this diamond. Looks pretty messy doesn't it? A great example why I dislike plots. It can make a diamond look messy when in fact it really isn't as much as you might think.
Here are the inclusions pointed out for you. Note how faint, white and virtually transparent the majority of them are.
Truth of the matter, VS2 is still a pretty respectable looking diamond under the microscope and the imperfections are still considered "minor". Here are some other examples.
Note the feather at 12:00, the cloud under the table and the needle inclusions at 9:00. This is what the GIA and AGS consider "somewhat easy" for a skilled grader to locate under 10x.
Here is a VS2 under the microscope with a number of tiny embedded crystals.
And lastly an August Vintage European Cut with a very small feather and crystal comprising the VS2 grade.
In closing on the VS grades I''d just point out that if a person wants a diamond that will be particularly clean under a loupe with only very small or really minor imperfections visible under magnification I would recommend nothing lower than VS2.
Click here to learn more about the SI1 and SI2 grades. | <urn:uuid:becf19b2-20bc-4004-a5c4-d4b9efadbb29> | {
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History of Chikankari
Chikankari, primarily refers to an
embroidery variety done originally with pristine white cotton thread on fine
mulls and muslins. The word chikan derives its name from the Persian word,
Chakeen, meaning rendering of delicate patterns on fabric.
The chikankari embroidery
garment is believed to be introduced in seventeenth century by Noorjehan
(wife of Mughal emperor Jehangir) who was inspired by Turkish embroidery.
Some designs and patterns still exist that are believed to be queen's
Sources also attribute that chikankari originated in East Bengal where the
word chikan meant 'fine'. 'Chikan' was first referred to in the records
Megasthenes, a Greek traveller who mentioned the use of flowered muslins by
Indians in the 3rd century B.C.
Indian craftsmen believe that the origin of 'chikankari' goes back to
ancient times when a traveller while passing through a village near Lucknow,
in Uttar Pradesh, asked for some water from a poor peasant who offered him
the desired help. Pleased with his hospitality, the traveller taught him the
art of chikankari that would never allow him to go hungry. As per the
belief, the traveller was the prophet.
Chikan Embroidery has a unique grace and elegance and this constant
presence is maintained throughout the fine cotton or the fabric used. It
carefully highlights uniformity and consistency in stitches with fine
thread-knots. The patterns and motifs are generally floral and geometric
embroidery with exquisite delicacy of detail with even stitches or raised
with designs in a mesh pattern. | <urn:uuid:509b2dd2-c6f6-48d4-8d33-9976e4d13198> | {
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The User-mode Linux Kernel Home Page
User-Mode Linux is a safe, secure way of running Linux
versions and Linux processes. Run buggy software, experiment with new
Linux kernels or distributions, and poke around in the internals of
Linux, all without risking your main Linux setup.
User-Mode Linux gives you a virtual machine that may have more
hardware and software virtual resources than your actual, physical
computer. Disk storage for the virtual machine is entirely contained
inside a single file on your physical machine. You can assign your
virtual machine only the hardware access you want it to have. With
properly limited access, nothing you do on the virtual machine can
change or damage your real computer, or its software.
Here are some of the things that UML is used for:
Hosting of virtual servers
Experimenting with new kernels and distributions
It's written by me, and covers UML pretty comprehensively.
the publisher and
this one for 64-bit systems) and
filesystem (80M, uncompressing to 1.6G) (or this
host% bunzip2 linux-2.6.24-rc7.bz2 FedoraCore5-x86-root_fs.bz2
Run UML as follows:
host% chmod 755 ./linux-2.6.24-rc7
host% ./linux-2.6.24-rc7 ubda=FedoraCore5-x86-root_fs mem=128M
Log in as root, no password needed:
Fedora Core release 5 (Bordeaux)
Kernel 2.6.19-rc7 on an i686
localhost login: root
When you're done, shut it down:
[root@localhost ~]# halt
Broadcast message from root (tty0) (Tue Apr 4 17:18:01 2006):
The system is going down for system halt NOW!
INIT: Switching to runlevel: 0
INIT: Sending processes the TERM signal
"Panic - Failed to open 'root_fs', errno = 2"
"F_SETLK failed, file already locked by pid n"
UML exits after a few lines of output
"Kernel panic - not syncing: Kernel mode signal 7"
"handle_trap - failed to wait at end of syscall"
On x86_64, processes randomly segfault
Hang after 'VFS: Mounted root...'
For a lot more (and a lot less organized) information, see the
old UML site.
This project is hosted at
which provides a number of useful services:
This web site is hosted at SourceForge
Bug reports may be sent to either list.
Searchable list archives exist at MARC
uml-devel) and gmane
IRC (see www.irchelp.org/ for more
information on IRC) - #uml on irc.oftc.net is where I hang out 2-3
days a week. It's good for general UML questions and chit-chat.
#kernelnewbies on oftc.net is a also good place for UML questions
and discussion that relate to kernel development in general.
: A network simualation tool for UML - contains its own
: Virtual Distributed Ethernet - layers a virtual ethernet
: Virtual Network User-Mode-Linux
Robert P. J. Day's
UML on Fedora Wiki
ISTS and Bill Stearns for sponsoring the security work in UML
Stearns for many forms of support since nearly the start of the
HP contributed a
nice IA64 workstation to the UML project.
hiring me in 2004 to work on UML full-time | <urn:uuid:2e910243-6f2a-487a-977f-c4e82481222a> | {
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Chief Kamiakin LbNA # 59338
|Placed Date||Aug 21 2011|
|Location||900 Kamiak Butte Park Road, Palouse, WA|
|Last Update||May 19 2014|
Chief Kamiakin Letterbox
The Story, taken from: stories.washingtonhistory.org/treatytrail/teaching/pdfs/HS-TT-Kamiakin.pdf on 08/13/2011
KAMIAKIN, HEAD CHIEF OF THE YAKAMAS C. 1800-1878
Kamiakin lived in what is present day central Washington as a child, but his family traveled to the Great Plains, where he was distinguished as a warrior and buffalo hunter. He accrued substantial wealth, allowing him to marry five wives. He broke custom and angered his uncles by marrying women from rival families. Nonetheless, his choice created kinship ties with many tribes.
A Natural Leader
Courage, good judgment, and generosity were Kamiakin's best claim to leadership. He demonstrated good business sense early in the 1840s by traveling to Fort Vancouver, trading horses to settlers in exchange for cattle, and driving the cattle back to Yakima. Kamiakin's herd was the first in the Yakima Valley. Kamiakin planted one of the earliest gardens known to the agricultural history of Yakima at his home in Ahtanum. His interest in gardening was uncommon for his time, and he pursued this avocation even to the extent of irrigating his land.
Kamiakin Seeks a Teacher
In 1850 an opportunity arose to secure a teacher for the Yakama people, when Kamiakin met a Catholic priest in Walla Walla. Kamiakin offered the priest a place on his property for a mission, if the priest would teach his tribe. As a result, two Catholic Fathers arrived, and built St. Joseph's Mission on the Ahtanum Creek. In addition to teaching the Catholic faith, the priests trained the Yakamas in digging irrigation ditches and growing crops.
Chiefs in the Region
In 1853, when Washington Territory was established, Kamiakin was the most prominent Yakama chief, although not the head chief. There were several Yakama bands, each headed by it’s own chief.
The Treaty Process Begins
Governor Stevens began the treaty process with the objective of "civilizing" the Indians, pushing them onto reservations out of the way of the hordes of white settlers already headed west.
Word went out to the Indians that the President in Washington, D.C. desired Indian land for the white men, and that a great white chief was on his way west to buy it. If the Indians refused to sell, soldiers would come and drive them off their land. This news understandably angered the tribes, resulting in prejudice against the newly appointed Governor of Washington Territory, Isaac Stevens.
Preparing for Trouble
At this point, Kamiakin began building a. confederation of Indian tribes to oppose non-Native settlement. He quickly enlisted Peo-peo-mox-mox, Head Chief of the Walla Walla, and Looking Glass, War Chief of the Nez Perce to his cause. These three chiefs planned a council for Indians only in the remote Grande Ronde Valley of Eastern Oregon.
At one point Kamiakin rallied tribal forces saying: We wish to be left alone in the lands of our forefathers, whose bones lie in the sand hills and along the trails, but a pale-face stranger has come from a distant land and send word to us that we must give up our country, as he wants it for the white man. Where can we go? There is no place left. Only a single mountain now separates us from the big salt water of the setting sun. Our fathers from the hunting grounds of the other world are looking down on us today. Let us not make them ashamed! My people, the Great Spirit has his eyes upon us. He will be angry if, like cowardly dogs, we give up our lands to the whites. Better to die like brave warriors on the battlefield, than live among our vanquishers, despised. Our young men and women would speedily become debauched (destroyed) by their fire water and we should perish as a race.
At the Grande Ronde council, the tribal leaders prepared for Governor Stevens’ upcoming Treaty councils by developing strategies to try to keep their lands. However, Lawyer, a Nez Perce chief, notified A. J. Bolon, the Indian agent, of the Grande Ronde council. Governor Stevens learned of the meeting and knew what to expect going into the 1855 Walla Walla Treaty Council.
The Chiefs Speak at Walla Walla
Kamiakin reached the council ground, accompanied by Peo-peo-mox-mox, on May 28th, 1855. When they saw the huge number of Nez Perce present, they began to realize that Lawyer had betrayed their trust. Not wishing to accept gifts from false friends, Kamiakin refused Stevens' offer of tobacco for his pipe and provisions for his party.
The speeches of the council went on day after day, with all the chiefs—except for Kamiakin—setting forth their wishes for their tribes. Then Joel Palmer, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Oregon Territory, said: I want to say a few words to these people, but before I do, if Ka-mi-akin wants to speak, I would be glad to hear him. Kamiakin replied, I have nothing to say.
Kamiakin’s contempt for the U.S. continued. Later, an Indian agent attempted to ease Kamiakin's poverty by giving him some blankets due under the provisions of the 1855 treaty. He rejected them and pointed to his ragged clothes, saying: See, I am a poor man, but too rich to receive anything from the United States.
Kamiakin died in 1877, and was buried near the village he founded.
Sources: Josephy, Alvin M. The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997 Nicandri, David L. Northwest Chiefs: Gustav Sohon's View of the 1855 Stevens Treaty Councils. Tacoma: Washington State Historical Society, 1986. Ruby, Robert H. and John A. Brown The Cayuse Indians: Imperial Tribesmen of Old Oregon. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972. Splawn, A. J. KA-MI-AKIN: Last Hero of the Yakimas. Portland: Metropolitan Press, 1944. The map above shows the locations of both Walla Walla (1) and the Grande Ronde Valley (2). Courtesy Washington State Historical Society.
From Pullman: Take State Highway 27 North 11 miles. Turn left on Clear Creek Road for .5 miles. Turn left on Fugate Road (Road # 5100). Travel .5 miles to Kamiak Butte County Park Road (Rd. # 6710) to the park entrance on the left.
From Colfax: Take State Highway 272 (Palouse Highway) East for 5 miles. Turn right onto Clear Creak Road for 7 miles. Take a sharp right onto Fugate Road (Road # 5100). Travel .5 miles to Kamiak Butte County Park Road (Road # 6710) to the park entrance on the left.
To the box:
Go past the first parking area at Kamiak Butte, the one with the bathrooms and picnic tables, and proceed to the next in the upper area, by the camping sites.
The path to Pine Ridge Trail Loop starts at the left by the area map. The hike is moderately uphill but you don’t need to be in great shape and it’s an enjoyable hike.
You will soon come to the end of the path at a T with a sign that reads “Main Picnic Area → / Campgrounds ←.” Take a right.
After about 40 minutes, at a leisurely pace, you will reach a switch back were you may want to take a short break. After a few more feet (~30) you will reach another T. Follow the trail to the right toward the “Summit Spur” (small sign on tree on left side of path).
After a few more minutes you will reach a small flat clearing with a path straight ahead. Just as you enter the clearing, look to your right and climb up a bit to the summit spur. As soon as you reach the top, you will see an outcropping of rocks to your right. If you take out your compass and face North, it will be at about 70 Deg.
There should be a small stack of rocks piled up on the outcropping. The letterbox is hidden under some rocks in an opening at the base behind the outcropping.
Happy Letterboxing! And don’t forget to take a moment to sit on some rocks and enjoy the breathtaking view. | <urn:uuid:760611c4-5a4e-4928-bfe8-14426bda3c50> | {
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How is it possible for a physical thing--a person, an animal, a robot--to extract knowledge of the world from perception and then exploit that knowledge in the guidance of successful action? That is a question with which philosophers have grappled for generations, but it could also be taken to be one of the defining questions of Artificial Intelligence. AI is, in large measure, philosophy. It is often directly concerned with instantly recognizable philosophical questions: What is mind? What is meaning? What is reasoning, and rationality? What are the necessary conditions for the recognition of objects in perception? How are decisions made and justified?
Some philosophers have appreciated this, and a few have even cheerfully switched fields, pursuing their philosophical quarries through thickets of Lisp. In general, however, philosophers have not welcomed this new style of philosophy with much enthusiasm. One might suppose that was because they had seen through it. Some philosophers have indeed concluded, after cursory inspection of the field, that in spite of the breathtaking pretension of some of its publicists, artificial intelligence has nothing new to offer philosophers beyond the spectacle of ancient, well-drubbed errors replayed in a glitzy new medium. And other philosophers are so sure this must be so that they haven't bothered conducting the cursory inspection. They are sure the field is dismissable on "general principles."
Philosophers have been dreaming about AI for centuries. Hobbes and Leibniz, in very different ways, tried to explore the implications of the idea of breaking down the mind into small, ultimately mechanical, operations. Descartes even anticipated the Turing Test (Alan Turing's much-discussed proposal of an audition of sorts for computers, in which the computer's task is to convince the judges that they are conversing with a human being) , and did not hesitate to issue a confident prediction of its inevitable result:
It is indeed conceivable that a machine could be made so that it would utter words, and even words appropriate to the presence of physical acts or objects which cause some change in its organs; as, for example, if it was touched in some spot that it would ask what you wanted to say to it; if in another, that it would cry that it was hurt, and so on for similar things. But it could never modify its phrases to reply to the sense of whatever was said in its presence, as even the most stupid men can do. Endnote 1
Descartes' appreciation of the powers of mechanism was colored by his acquaintance with the marvelous clockwork automata of his day. He could see very clearly and distinctly, no doubt, the limitations of that technology. Even a thousand tiny gears-- even ten thousand!--would never permit an automaton to respond gracefully and rationally! Perhaps Hobbes or Leibniz would have been less confident of this point, but surely none of them would have bothered wondering about the a priori limits on a million tiny gears spinning millions of times a second. That was simply not a thinkable thought for them. It was unthinkable then, not in the familiar philosophical sense of appearing self- contradictory ("repugnant to reason"), or entirely outside their conceptual scheme (like the concept of a neutrino), but in the more workaday but equally limiting sense of being an idea they would have had no way to take seriously. When philosophers set out to scout large conceptual domains, they are as inhibited in the paths they take by their sense of silliness as by their insights into logical necessity. And there is something about AI that many philosophers find off-putting--if not repugnant to reason, then repugnant to their aesthetic sense.
This clash of vision was memorably displayed in a historic debate at Tufts University in March of 1978, staged, appropriately, by the Society for Philosophy and Psychology. Nominally a panel discussion on the foundations and prospects of Artificial Intelligence, it turned into a tag-team rhetorical wrestling match between four heavyweight ideologues: Noam Chomsky and Jerry Fodor attacking AI, and Roger Schank and Terry Winograd defending. Schank was working at the time on programs for natural language comprehension, and the critics focussed on his scheme for representing (in a computer) the higgledy-piggledy collection of trivia we all know and somehow rely on when deciphering ordinary speech acts, allusive and truncated as they are. Chomsky and Fodor heaped scorn on this enterprise, but the grounds of their attack gradually shifted in the course of the match. It began as a straightforward, "first principles" condemnation of conceptual error--Schank was on one fool's errand or another--but it ended with a striking concession from Chomsky: it just might turn out, as Schank thought, that the human capacity to comprehend conversation (and more generally, to think) was to be explained in terms of the interaction of hundreds or thousands of jerry- built gizmos--pseudo-representations, one might call them--but that would be a shame, for then psychology would prove in the end not to be "interesting." There were only two interesting possibilities, in Chomsky's mind: psychology could turn out to be "like physics"--its regularities explainable as the consequences of a few deep, elegant, inexorable laws--or psychology could turn out to be utterly lacking in laws, in which case the only way to study or expound psychology would be the novelist's way (and he much preferred Jane Austen to Roger Schank, if that were the enterprise).
A vigorous debate ensued among the panelists and audience, capped by an observation from Chomsky's MIT colleague, Marvin Minsky, one of the founding fathers of AI, and founder of MIT's AI Lab: "I think only a humanities professor at MIT could be so oblivious to the third interesting possibility: psychology could turn out to be like engineering."
Minsky had put his finger on it. There is something about the prospect of an engineering approach to the mind that is deeply repugnant to a certain sort of humanist, and it has little or nothing to do with a distaste for materialism or science. Witness Chomsky's physics-worship, an attitude he shares with many philosophers. The days of Berkeleyan idealism and Cartesian dualism are over (to judge from the current materialistic consensus among philosophers and scientists), but in their place there is a widespread acceptance of what we might call Chomsky's fork: there are only two appealing ("interesting") alternatives.
On the one hand, there is the dignity and purity of the Crystalline Mind. Recall Aristotle's prejudice against extending earthly physics to the heavens, which ought, he thought, to be bound by a higher and purer order. This was his one pernicious legacy, but now that the heavens have been stormed, we appreciate the beauty of universal physics, and can hope that the Mind will be among its chosen, "natural kinds", not a mere gerrymandering of bits and pieces.
On the other hand, there is the dignity of ultimate mystery, the Inexplicable Mind. If our minds can't be Fundamental, then let them be Anomalous. A very influential view among philosophers in recent years has been Donald Davidson's "anomolous monism", the view that while the mind is the brain, there are no lawlike regularities aligning the mental facts with the physical facts. His Berkeley colleague, John Searle, has made a different sort of mystery of the mind: the brain, thanks to some unspecified feature of its biochemistry, has some terribly important--but unspecified--"bottom-up causal powers" that are entirely distinct from the mere "control powers" studied by AI.
One feature shared by these otherwise drastically different forms of mind-body materialism is a resistance to Minsky's tertium quid: in between the Mind as Crystal and the Mind as Chaos lies the Mind as Gadget, an object which one should not expect to be governed by "deep," mathematical laws, but nevertheless a designed object, analyzable in functional terms: ends and means, costs and benefits, elegant "solutions" on the one hand, and on the other, shortcuts, jury-rigs, and cheap ad hoc fixes.
This vision of the mind is resisted by many philosophers despite being a straightforward implication of the current received view (among scientists and science-minded humanists) of Our Place in Nature: we are biological entities, designed by natural selection, which is a tinker, not an ideal engineer. Computer programmers call an ad hoc fix a "kludge"--to rhyme with Scrooge--and the mixture of disdain and begrudged admiration reserved for kludges parallels the biologists' bemusement with the panda's thumb and other fascinating examples of bricolage, to use Francois Jacob's term. The finest inadvertent spoonerism I ever heard was uttered by the linguist Barbara Partee, in heated criticism of an an acknowledged kludge in an AI natural language parser: "That's so odd hack!" Nature is full of odd hacks, many of them perversely brilliant, but although this is widely appreciated, its implications for the study of the mind are often found repugnant by philsophers since their traditional aprioristic methods of investigating the mind are relatively powerless to explore phenomena that may be contrived of odd hacks. There is really only one way to study such possibilities: with the more empirical mind-set of "reverse engineering."
The resistance is clearly manifested in Hilary Putnam's essay in this issue of Daedalus, which can serve us as a convenient (if not particularly florid) case of the syndrome I wish to discuss. Chomsky's fork, the Mind as Crystal or Chaos, is transformed by Putnam into a pendulum swing he thinks he observes within AI itself. He claims that AI has "wobbled" over the years: looking for the Master Program versus accepting the slogan "Artificial Intelligence is one Damned Thing after Another." I have not myself observed any such wobble in the field over the years, but I think I know what he is getting at. Here, then, is a different perspective on the same issue.
Among the many divisions of opinion within AI there is a faction (sometimes called the Logicists) whose aspirations suggest to me that they are Putnam's Searchers for the Master Progam. They were more aptly caricatured recently by a researcher in AI as Searchers for "Maxwell's Equations of Thought". Several somewhat incompatible enterprises within the field can be lumped together under this rubric. Roughly, what they have in common is the idea not that there must be a Master Program, but that there must be something more like a Master Programming Language, a single, logically sound system of explicit representation for all the knowledge residing in an agent (natural or artificial). Attached to this library of represented facts (which can be treated as axioms, in effect), and operating upon it computationally, will be one sort or another of "inference engine", capable of deducing the relevant implications of the relevant axioms, and eventually spewing up by this inference process the imperatives or decisions that will forthwith be implemented.
For instance, suppose perception yields the urgent new premise (couched in the Language) that the edge of a precipice is fast approaching; this should provoke the inference engine to call up from memory the appropriate stored facts about cliffs, gravity, acceleration, impact, damage, the paramount undesirability of such damage, and the likely effects of putting on the brakes or continuing apace. Forthwith, one hopes, the engine will deduce a theorem to the effect that halting is called for, and straightway it will halt.
The hard part is designing a system of this sort that will actually work well in real time, even allowing for millions of operations per second in the inference engine. Everyone recognizes this problem of real-time adroitness; what sets the Logicists apart is their conviction that the way to solve it is to find a truly perspicuous (perhaps even a Master) vocabulary and logical form for the Language. Modern logic has proven to be a powerful means of exploring and representing the stately universe of mathematics; the not unreasonable hope of the Logicists is that the same systems of logic can be harnessed to capture the hectic universe of agents making their way in the protean macroscopic world. If you get the axioms and the inference system just right, they believe, the rest should be easy. The problems they encounter have to do with keeping the number of axioms down, for generality (which is a must), while not requiring the system to waste time re-deducing crucial intermediate-level facts every time it sees a cliff.
This idea of the Axiomatization of Everyday Reality is surely a philosophical idea. Spinoza would have loved it, and many contemporary philosophers working in philosophical logic and the semantics of natural language share at least the goal of devising a rigorous logical system in which every statement, every thought, every hunch and wonder, can be unequivocally expressed. The idea wasn't reinvented by AI; it was a gift from the philosophers who created modern mathematical logic: George Boole, Gottlob Frege, Whitehead and Russell, Alfred Tarski and Alonzo Church. Douglas Hofstadter calls this theme in AI the Boolean Dream.[ref to Metamagical Themas] It has always had its adherents and critics, with many variations.
Putnam's rendering of this theme as the search for the Master Program is clear enough, but when he describes the opposite pole, he elides our two remaining prospects: the Mind as Gadget and the Mind as Chaos. As he puts it, "if AI is 'One Damned Thing after Another', the number of 'damned things' the Tinker may have thought of could be astronomical. The upshot is pessimistic indeed: if there is no Master Program, then we may never get very far in terms of simulating human intelligence." [check quote against HP's final draft!] Here Putnam elevates a worst-case possibility (the gadget will be totally, "astronomically" ad hoc) into the only likely alternative to the Master Program. Why does he do this? What does he have against exploring the vast space of engineering possibilities in between Crystal and Chaos? Biological wisdom, far from favoring his pessimism, holds out hope that the mix of elegance and Rube Goldberg found elsewhere in Nature (in the biochemistry of reproduction, for instance) will be discernible in Mind as well.
There are, in fact, a variety of very different approaches being pursued in AI by those who hope the mind will turn out to be some sort of gadget or collection of partially integrated gadgets. All of these favor Austerity, Logic and Order in some aspects of their systems, while exploiting the peculiar utility of Profligacy, Inconsistency and Disorder in other aspects. It is not that Putnam's two themes don't exist in AI, but that by describing them as exclusive alternatives, he imposes a procrustean taxonomy on the field that makes it hard to discern the interesting issues that actually drive the field.
Most AI projects are explorations of ways things might be done, and as such are more like thought experiments than empirical experiments. They differ from philosophical thought experiments not primarily in their content, but in their methodology: they replace some--not all--of the "intuitive", "plausible" hand-waving background assumptions of philosophical thought experiments by constraints dictated by the demand that the model be made to run on the computer. These constraints of time, space, and the exigencies of specification can be traded off against each other in practically limitless ways, imposing new "virtual machines" or "virtual architectures" on the underlying serial architecture of the digital computer. Some choices of trade-off are better motivated, more realistic or plausible than others, of course, but in every case the constraints imposed serve to discipline the imagination--and hence the claims--of the thought-experimenter. There is very little chance that a philosopher will be surprised (and more pointedly: disappointed) by the results of his own thought experiment, but this happens all the time in AI.
A philosopher looking closely at these projects will find abundant grounds for skepticism. Many seem to be based on forlorn hopes, or misbegotten enthusiasm for one architectural or information-handling feature or another, and if we extrapolate from the brief history of the field, we can be sure that most of the skepticism will be vindicated sooner or later. What makes AI an improvement on earlier philosophers' efforts at model- sketching, however, is the manner in which skepticism is vindicated: by the demonstrated, concrete failure of the system in question. Like philosophers, researchers in AI greet each new proposal with intuitive judgments about its prospects, backed up by more or less a priori arguments about why a certain feature has to be there, or can't be made to work. But unlike philosophers, they are not content with their arguments and intuitions; they leave themselves some room to be surprised by the results, a surprise that could only be provoked by the demonstrated, unexpected power of the actually contrived system in action.
Putnam surveys a panoply of problems facing AI: the problems of induction, of discerning relevant similarity, of learning, of modeling background knowledge. These are all widely recognized problems in AI, and the points he makes about them have all been made before by people in AI, who have then gone on to try to address the problems with various relatively concrete proposals. The devilish difficulties he sees facing traditional accounts of the process of induction, for example, are even more trenchantly catalogued by Holland, Holyoak, Nisbett and Thagard in their recent book, Induction (MIT Press/ A Bradford Book, 1986) but their diagnosis of these ills is the preamble for sketches of AI models designed to overcome them. Models addressed to the problems of discerning similarity and mechanisms for learning can be found in abundance. Newell and Rosenbloom's SOAR project
(J. E. Laird, A. Newell, and P. S. Rosenbloom, "SOAR: An Architecture for General Intelligence" Artificial Intelligence, Sept. 1987, 33 pp. 1-64.)
is an estimable example. And the theme of the importance--and difficulty--of modeling background knowledge has been ubiquitous in recent years, with many suggestions for solutions under investigation. Now perhaps they are all hopeless, as Putnam is inclined to believe, but one simply cannot tell without actually building the models and testing them.
That is not strictly true, of course. When an a priori refutation of an idea is sound, the doubting empirical model- builder who persists in the face of it will sooner or later have to face a chorus of "We told you so!" That is one of the poignant occupational hazards of AI. The rub is: how to tell the genuine a priori impossibility proofs from the failures of imagination. The philosophers' traditional answer is: more a priori analysis and argument. The AI researchers' answer is: build it and see.
Putnam offers us a striking instance of this in his survey of possibilities for tackling the problem of background knowledge. Like Descartes, he manages to imagine a thought- experimental fiction that is now becoming real, and like Descartes, he is prepared to dismiss it in advance:
One could . . . simply try to program into the machine all of the information a sophisticated human inductive judge has (including the "tacit" information). At the least it would require generations of researchers to formalize this information (probably it could not be done at all, because of the sheer quantity of information involved); and it is not clear that the result would be more than a gigantic "expert system". No one would find this very exciting; and such an "intelligence" would in all likelihood be dreadfully unimaginative . . .[check quote against HP's final draft]
This almost perfectly describes Douglas Lenat's enormous CYC project [D. B. Lenat, Mayank Prakash, May Shepherd, "CYC: using commonsense knowledge to overcome brittleness and knowledge acquisition bottlenecks," AI Magazine 6, # 4, 1986, pp. 65-85.]. One might say that Lenat is attempting to create the proverbial walking encyclopedia: a mind-ful of common sense knowledge in the form of a single data base containing all the facts expressed--or tacitly presupposed--in an encyclopedia! This will involve hand- crafting millions of representations in a single Language (which must eventually be unified--no small task), from which the inference engine is expected to be able to deduce whatever it needs as it encounters novelty in its world: for instance, the fact that people in general prefer not to have their feet cut off, or the fact that sunbathers are rare on Cape Cod in February.
Most of the opinion-setters in AI share Putnam's jaundiced view of it: it is not clear, as he says, that it will do anything that teaches us anything about the mind; in all likelihood, as he says, it will be dreadfully unimaginative. And many would go further, and insist that its prospects are so forlorn, and its cost so great , that it should be abandoned in favor of more promising avenues. (The current estimate is measured in person- centuries of work, a figure that Putnam may not have bothered imagining in detail.) But it is funded, and we shall see.
What we see here is a clash of quite fundamental methodological assumptions. Philosophers are inclined to view AI projects with the patronizing disdain one reserves for those persistent fools who keep trying to square the circle or trisect the angle with compass and straightedge: we have proved that it cannot be done, so drop it! But the proofs are not geometric; they are ringed with assumptions about "plausible" boundary conditions, and replete with idealizations that may prove as irrelevant here as in the notorious aerodynamicists' proofs that bumblebees cannot fly.
But still one may well inquire, echoing Putnam's challenge, whether AI has taught philosophers anything of importance about the mind yet. Putnam thinks it has not, and supports his view with a rhetorically curious indictment: AI has utterly failed, over a quarter century, to solve problems that philosophy has utterly failed to solve over two millennia. He is right, I guess, but I am not impressed. Endnote 2 It is as if a philosopher were to conclude a dismissal of contemporary biology by saying that the biologists have not so much as asked the question: What is Life? Indeed they have not; they have asked better questions that ought to dissolve or redirect the philosopher's curiosity.
Moreover, philosophers (of all people) should appreciate that solutions to problems are not the only good gift; tough new problems are just as good! Matching Putnam's rhetorical curiosity, I offer as AI's best contribution to philosophy a deep, new, unsolved epistemological problem ignored by generations of philosophers: the Frame Problem. Plato almost less saw it. In the Theaetetus, he briefly explored the implications of a wonderful analogy:
SOCRATES: Now consider whether knowledge is a thing you can possess in that way without having it about you, like a man who has caught some wild birds--pigeons or what not--and keeps them in an aviary he has made for them at home. In a sense, of course, we might say he 'has' them all the time inasmuch as he possesses them, mightn't we?
SOCRATES: But in another sense he 'has' none of them, though he has got control of them, now that he has made them captive in an enclosure of his own; he can take and have hold of them whenever he likes by catching any bird he chooses, and let them go again; and it is open to him to do that as often as he pleases. (197C-D; Cornford translation)
Plato saw that merely owning the aviary is not enough; the trick was to get the right bird to fly to the edge at the right time (in real time, as the engineers say), but he underestimated the difficulty of this trick, and the sort of theory one would have to have of the organization of knowledge in order to explain our bird-charming talents. Neither Plato nor any subsequent philosopher, so far as I can see, saw this as in itself a deep problem of epistemology, since the demands of efficiency and robustness paled into invisibility when compared by the philosophical demand for certainty, but so it has emerged in the hands of AI. Endnote 3
Just as important to philosophy as new problems and new solutions, however, is new raw material, and this AI has provided in abundance. It has provided a bounty of objects to think about--individual systems in all their particularity that are much more vivid and quirky than the systems I (for one) could dream up in a thought experiment. This is not a trivial harvest. Compare philosophy of mind, the analytic study of the limits, opportunities and implications of possible theories of the mind, with the literary theory of the novel (the analytic study of the limits, opportunities and implications of possible novels). One could in principle write excellent literary theory in the absence of novels as exemplars. Aristotle, for instance, could in principle have written a treatise on the (anticipated) strengths and weaknesses, powers and problems, of different possible types of novels. Today's literary theorist is not required to examine the existing exemplars, but they are, to say the least, a useful crutch. They extend the imaginative range, and surefootedness, of even the most brilliant theoritician, and provide bracing checks on enthusiastic generalizations and conclusions. The mini-theories, sketches, and models of AI may not be Great Novels, but they are the best we have to date, and just as mediocre novels are often a boon to literary theorists--they wear their deficiencies on their sleeves--so bad theories, failed models, hopelessly confused hunches in AI are a boon to philosophers of mind. But you have to read them to get the benefit.
Perhaps the best example of this currently is the wave of enthusiasm for Connectionist models. For years philosophers of mind have been vaguely and hopefully waving their hands in the direction of these models--utterly unable to conceive them in detail, but sure in their bones that some such thing had to be possible. (My own first book, Content and Consciousness (1969) is a good example of such vague theorizing.) Other philosophers have been just as sure that all such approaches were doomed (Jerry Fodor is a good example). Now, at last, we will be able to examine a host of objects in this anticipated class, and find out whose hunches were correct. In principle, no doubt, it could be worked out without the crutches, but in practice, such disagreements between philosophers tend to degenerate into hardened "positions" defended by increasingly strained arguments, redefinitions of terms, and tendentious morals drawn from other quarters.
Putnam suggests that since AI is, first and foremost, a subbranch of engineering, it cannot be philosophy. He is especially insistent that we should dismiss its claims of being "Epistemology" I find this curious. Surely Hobbes and Leibniz and Descartes were doing philosophy, even Epistemology, when they waved their hands and spoke very abstractly about the limits of mechanism. So was Kant, when he claimed to be investigating the conditions under which experience was possible. Philosophers have traditionally tried to figure out the combinatorial powers and inherent limitations of impressions and ideas, of petites perceptions, intuitions, and schemata. Researchers in AI have asked similar questions about different sorts of data structures, and procedural representations and frames and links and, yes, schemata, now rather more rigorously defined. So far as I can see, these are fundamentally the same investigations, but in AI, they are conducted under additional (and generally well- motivated) constraints, and with the aid of a host of more specific concepts.
Putnam sees engineering and Epistemology as incompatible. I see at most a trade-off: to the extent that a speculative exploration in AI is more abstract, more idealized, less mechanistically constrained, it is "more philosophical"--but that does not mean it is thereby necessarily of more interest or value to a philosopher! On the contrary, it is probably because philosophers have been too philosophical--too abstract, idealized, and unconstrained by empirically plausible mechanistic assumptions--that they have failed for so long to make much sense of the mind. AI has not yet solved any of our ancient riddles about the mind, but it has provided us with new ways of disciplining and extending philosophical imagination, which we have only begun to exploit.
1. Rene' Descartes, Discourse on Method (1637), translated by Lawrence LaFleur (New York: Bobbs Merrill, 1960).
2. In "Artificial Intelligence as Philosophy and as Psychology," (in M. Ringle, ed., Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence, [cehck title and publ] and in my book Brainstorms, The MIT Press/ A Bradford Book, 1978) I argued that AI has solved what I called Hume's Problem: the problem of breaking the threatened infinite regress of homunculi consulting (and understanding) internal representations such as Hume's impressions and ideas. I expect Putnam would claim, with some justice, that it was computer science in general, not AI in particular, that showed philosophy the way to break this regress.
3. I present an introduction to the Frame Problem, explaining why it is an epistemological problem, and why philosophers didn't notice it, in "Cognitive Wheels: the Frame Problem of AI" in C. Hookway, ed., Minds, Machines and Evolution, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1984, reprinted in the new anthology edited by Zenon Pylyshyn, The Robot's Dilemma: The Frame Problem in Artificial Intelligence, Norwood NJ: Ablex, 1987.) | <urn:uuid:bdf40d5d-f151-4a3f-9257-727c1b7b7fa8> | {
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Mexican American Movies About History
Mexican-American movies often stem from the political and cultural disparities scuffles between Mexicans and Americans. Often settled on the battlefield, these fiery disputes would conclude in territorial ownership and the shifting of political regimes.
"Salt of the Earth" (1954) is a Chicano movie documenting the real life strike of miners (both Mexican-Americans and Anglo-Americans teaming up) against the Empire Zinc Company. This film, set on the borders of the Civil Rights Movement, is pertinent to the history of the labor rights unions and the coverage of poor miners who endanger their lives in high-risk environments.
"Texas" (1994) projects on the large screen the events of the Mexicamerican province of Texas in the 1800s, the internal conflicts among Texan settlers and the wars between settlers and the Mexican government. The film shows the climax of war which resulted in Texas' state independence.
"The First Texan" (1956) is another film detailing the bitter conflict between the US and Mexico for Texan territory. Sam Houston, who spearheads American forces on behalf of the US President, lead the American army against General Santa Ana, winning the victory and acquiring conquest of Texas. The successful war results in the US President awarding Sam Houston governance of the new state.
"Man of Conquest" (1939) is a double-entendre film punning on the winning of wars and women. This movie also tells the history of the Texan wars such as the Alamo War and the Battle of San Jacinto, and America's subsequent acquisition of the state. Figures such as Sam Houston, Andrew Jackson and Jim Bowie boosts the film's credibility and historical value.
"The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory" (1987) is a movie focusing on the siege of the Alamo, one of the Texan wars. Spanning thirteen crucial days, from February 23 to March 7 1836, the Alamo siege marked the overthrow and transfer of San Antonio to US hands. The US army withstood the larger Mexican army and defeated General Santa Ana's forces.
"The Alamo" (2004) is the title of the battleground on which American and Mexican armies met and fought for oil-filled territory. The Alamo seige and the Battle of San Jacinto form the core of the Texan revolution and were the deciding factors between the warring factions. Texans, Tejanos, Mexicans and Americans were the subsections in society which had to side and war in the land dispute.
"General Santa Ana" (2004) goes deep into the life of General Santa Ana, noted general who not only represented the Mexican government but served as Mexican President at different times. The movie concentrates on the last three days in the life of Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana as he recounts his glorious and checkered past. | <urn:uuid:0f05b217-5a5e-43c2-8699-27f37f9b645c> | {
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Safety Always Comes
the Range or in the Field
For most hunters and shooters, taking safety precautions is just second
nature. A rule such as keeping the firearm's muzzle pointed in a safe
direction is a habit most enthusiasts learn when their fathers or
grandfathers first took them duck hunting or shooting at the range.
"Although most hunters and shooters know the basic rules of
safety, sometimes people forget to practice them," notes Bill
Stevens, conservation manager for Federal Cartridge Company.
Firearm safety rules are not complicated, but are very important.
The main rules include:
In addition to remembering these rules, all hunters should take a firearms
safety course to brush up on their safety skills. (In fact, most states
require youth to take a gun safety course before they are allowed to
- Keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. Don't aim at anything
unless you intend to shoot. Depending on the situation, a safe
direction could mean pointing the muzzle at the ground or toward the
- Keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot. Don't
trust the gun's safety. The safety might be inoperable, or you might
confuse "off" with "on."
- Keep the action open until you're prepared to shoot. In fact, the
firearm should not be loaded until you are ready to fire at the
target. When you first pick up a firearm, check to see that it is not
loaded. Never assume that the chamber or magazine is empty.
- Always wear eye and ear protection. These basic rules are the most
important, but hunters and shooters should take additional precautions
as well, Stevens says.
- Know what you are shooting at and what is beyond it. Bullets, even
shotgun pellets, travel much farther than the target.
- Make sure the firearm you are using is safe to operate. If in doubt,
take it to a qualified gunsmith for a thorough inspection.
- When cleaning any firearm, make sure it is unloaded and the action
is open. To ensure that it continues to function properly, clean it
- Learn how to properly use a firearm before handling it. If you ever
borrow a friend's rifle or shotgun, or purchase a new one, make sure
you know how it operates before using it. Read the manufacturer's
manual if it is available or contact the manufacturer for a
- Use only the type of ammunition made for that firearm. Read and heed
all warnings in the instruction manual and on the ammunition box.
Using the wrong type of ammunition may damage the firearm and could
- If you pull the trigger and the gun doesn't fire, be careful. Keep
the muzzle pointed in a safe direction and keep your face away from
the breech. After waiting a minute or two, carefully open the action
and remove the cartridge or shell. Do not attempt to fire the gun
until the cause of the malfunction has been determined.
- Make sure the barrel is clear of obstructions before shooting the
gun. A barrel obstruction can damage the barrel and possibly cause
- Never use alcohol or drugs before or while shooting a gun.
- When storing your gun at home, remember to keep the firearm and the
ammunition safely locked in separate locations. Store these items so
that they are not accessible to others who are not familiar with
Safety courses are conducted by your state's Department of Natural
Resources volunteer instructors, the National Rifle Association or local
shooting ranges. The Boy Scouts of America and 4-H clubs also offer
shooting education courses.
"These tips cover the basics," Stevens says. "Adults and
children should learn as much as they possibly can before they ever
consider using a firearm." For additional information, look for gun
safety tips on the National Shooting Sports Foundation's web site at
"www.nssf.org" or on the
National Rifle Association site at "www.nra.org." | <urn:uuid:77fd41eb-322c-404d-bdb0-8294d0ff0149> | {
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Having treatment for your depression is a crucial matter in your life. Make sure you thoroughly research your options, and don’t be afraid to request assistance. Keep in mind that you are not the only one battling this illness. Below, are a few ideas that can help to guide you into the direction towards a treatment that is best for you.
Finding ways to interact and do positive, uplifting activities, such as volunteering, can help you get out of your depression rut. You might be depressed because you are not participating in any activities. Start a new hobby, like painting or pottery making, maybe go take some dance lessons. Whatever pursuit you choose to follow, it will be a good road to outgrow your depression.
Take the initiative to get outside every day and soak up some sunshine. There have been studies that show that lack of sunlight causes a worsening of depression.
Exercising each day is important. Get at least half an hour of light to moderate exercise daily to augment any depression treatment. The truth is that for many, exercise is just as effective as prescription drugs. Park farther from the store or take the stairs instead of an elevator.
Clinical depression is much different than being sad; however, many of the coping techniques are the same. You should do your best to avoid the things that trigger your depression. When you realize certain things that cause you to feel depressed, make sure you avoid them.
Always keep in mind that you are in complete control of your thoughts if you feel down. The word “depressed” should not even exist in your vocabulary. It is a very negative word to explain what you are feeling, and can lead you to have more negative thoughts. Instead, try say something like “I am in a sad mod right now” to describe your feelings, and you will tend to have a much more positive outlook.
If you feel a little blue for a few days due to a specific issue that is affecting you, it is probably not clinical depression. Be sure to talk to a professional to understand exactly what you have.
Music is always cited as a cure for a low mood. But, it only works if it is the right kind of music. Don’t focus on music that makes you feel anxious or down. This style of music may cause you to focus on your negative feelings and indulge your negative thought patterns. This is not helpful for those suffering from depression.
Treating depression can help you feel better, but it can take lots of work. If you know the strategies that are involved and keep at what works for you, odds are that you can beat your depression. Learn as much as you possibly can about treating depression and do not be afraid to ask for help if you need it. Above all else, use the tips from the article to combat your depression and you will feel better in no time.… | <urn:uuid:1a36115e-5cf8-48ee-b183-ebde53c95247> | {
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Use knowledge about organisms at the molecular level to solve problems in human health and medicine, pharmaceuticals, forensics, agriculture, food technology, forestry and wildlife management, the environment, veterinary medicine and the fight against bioterrorism.
Be an expert of cell and tissue structure morphology and function; use microscopes, automated imaging systems and sophisticated laboratory techniques to detect and diagnose diseases. Perform molecular and immunologic tests to personalize patient care, diagnose a mysterious respiratory illness, assist clinicians in collecting and evaluating specimens from any body site or identify precancerous cells at their earliest and most curable stage.
Seventy percent of medical decisions are based on laboratory testing conducted by medical laboratory scientists. Perform analytic tests used to diagnose health conditions like diseases of the heart, liver, lung, kidney and blood. | <urn:uuid:09565c51-dfe2-4e0a-bf1e-58c5a4f7e1da> | {
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Although, owing to the remoteness of the islands, we have as yet but little trustworthy knowledge as to what has really occurred in this new territory, and possibly in any case have not been informed of the things which are most to be condemned, the reports that have reached us of barbarities perpetrated upon a people who never did us any harm or wrong ought certainly to awaken in American bosoms every throb of pity and every sentiment of manliness. We have had accounts of butcheries called “battles” in which have been slaughtered hundreds of almost defenseless creatures for no offense except that of standing up for their independence. It is said that certain districts that would not acknowledge our mastery have been turned into wildernesses, and that in these districts the number of the slain may easily have equaled the victims of massacres in Armenia and Bessarabia, massacres which we have always so strenuously condemned. Thousands of men, women, and children have perished at our hands or in connection with operations for which we were responsible; and in addition to the taking of life there is record of the infliction of serious cruelties. As assignees of Spain, we seem to have succeeded not only to her properties but to her policies in the treatment of subject races. We do not know that in the greatest excesses of the bad colonial government of Spaniards they ever inflicted a torture more exquisite than that of the “water cure.” How many of the perpetrators of these atrocities have been adequately punished, or how many have been punished at all?
It is wonderful with what complacency we have received the accounts of these horrible affairs. Nobody has been disturbed. The newspapers, beyond reporting the facts, have had nothing to say. The Church has been silent—at least that can be said of the Protestant Church. Not one brave or manly word of protest or condemnation has the writer heard, or heard of, from a Protestant American pulpit. Catholics, being victims and sufferers, have complained and protested. The greatest discomfort these things have produced has been occasioned by the apprehension that, through somebody’s lack of patriotism, our flag may be withdrawn from the field of such glorious operations. It used to be our boast that Freedom followed our flag. Now slavery follows it.
In view of the facts stated we can understand, not only the serenity, but the favor with which the people of this country, or the great body of them, so long looked upon the workings of African slavery, and the difficulty which the Abolitionists had in arousing a sentiment of revulsion toward it.
One of the curious things in this connection is the similarity—the practical sameness—of the arguments used to justify the Philippine occupation and those once used to justify American slaveholding. We are now working to civilize and Christianize the Filipinos, and were then civilizing and Christianizing the negroes with the lash and the bludgeon. | <urn:uuid:431e83f4-4119-40be-91b0-680a7a44e5e3> | {
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|Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey|
Surrey was a well known poet in Tudor England, writing many verses including "The Means to Attain a Happy Life," "Love That Doth Reign and Live Within My Heart," and even Sir Thomas Wyatt's Epitaph. Surrey, along with Thomas Wyatt, were the first Englishmen to use the Sonnet form when writing poetry. Shakespeare later adopted the style. Surrey is also credited with the invention of Blank Verse, and giving the sonnet form its rhyming meter.
Along with being a poet, Surrey was rumored to have had his hand in match making. When it was suggested that his sister, Mary, marry Thomas Seymour, Surrey objected (as did Mary). The wedding did not take place. Rather, Surrey suggested to his sister that she should seduce the King in order to "wield as much influence on him as Madame d'Etampes doth about the French King..." Mary, having seen the way two of her cousins had gone, volunteered to go ahead and cut her own throat then wait for the King to do it.
Now it's up to you to decide. Was Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey a victim of the times? Was he an innocent poet who fell victim to trumped up charges? Or did he deserve his fate? Was he, in fact, vying for the throne? Did he attempt to use his sister to get close to the King and eventually take the crown? | <urn:uuid:091987b0-605a-4b25-b83c-7fb5ef9206a5> | {
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Study this material and, as appropriate, discuss it with the sisters you visit. Use the questions to help you strengthen your sisters and to make Relief Society an active part of your own life.
If We Do Not Doubt09610_000_012
In the Book of Mormon we read about exemplary young men who were exceedingly valiant, courageous, and strong. “Yea, they were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him” (Alma 53:21). These faithful young men paid tribute to their mothers—their examples and teachers.
The mothers of Helaman’s warriors lived in times not unlike our own. Their circumstances were difficult and dangerous, and youth were being called upon to defend physical and spiritual liberty. Today we live in a world where we “wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
Challenging times cry out for strong parents and examples who teach the truth that Helaman’s warriors knew: “If they did not doubt, God would deliver them” (Alma 56:47). Teaching and exemplifying this truth today requires vigilance. However, we need not fear. When we know who we are and who God is and we have made covenants with Him, we—like these mothers of warriors—will have great influence for good.
Most likely, each of Helaman’s 2,060 warriors was influenced by a mother. But these mothers did not act alone. Together with other righteous men and women, these mothers must have united their faith and example to teach the power of covenants. The young people of the day understood the covenant their parents had made not to engage in warfare. And even when it seemed impossible, a loving Heavenly Father opened a way for these parents to keep their covenant—and to preserve their liberty (see Alma 56:5–9). We likewise must honor our covenants so that children and youth—our own children and those in our wards, branches, neighborhoods, and communities—will understand and support covenant keeping.
When we honor our covenants, Heavenly Father can prepare the way for us. We are to live our covenants with precision. We can, for example, be precise in praying, in studying the scriptures, in holding a current temple recommend, in dressing modestly, in honoring the Sabbath. As we do so, our children will know and be able to say, “We do not doubt our mothers knew it” (Alma 56:48).
Latter-day Saint women who recognize that their strength comes from the Lord’s Atonement do not give up during difficult and discouraging times. As covenant keepers, we excel at upholding, nurturing, and protecting children and youth so that one day we might say of this rising generation, “Never had I seen so great courage, nay, not amongst all” (Alma 56:45).
Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president.
What Can I Do?
How can I help my sisters recognize and act on the power they have to influence the rising generation?
What inspiration will I find in the Book of Mormon to answer the challenges I face today?
For more information, go to www.reliefsociety.lds.org.
Photo illustration by Robert Casey | <urn:uuid:b0f46acc-5ccf-44f6-ab7f-4f881c3d0ab0> | {
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Calorie restriction leads to some brain benefits but not others in mice
St. Louis, Oct. 24, 2004 -- Severe calorie restriction prevents certain aging-related changes in the brain, including the accumulation of free radicals and impairments in coordination and strength, according to a mouse study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. However, the dietary changes did not seem to prevent mice from developing some cognitive deficits associated with age, such as declines in memory.
The study will be presented at 3 p.m. PT on Sunday, Oct. 24 at Neuroscience 2004, the Society for Neuroscience's 34th Annual Meeting in San Diego.
"Our findings help us understand the processes underlying both normal aging and calorie restriction benefits," says principal investigator Laura L. Dugan, M.D., associate professor of neurology, of medicine and of anatomy and neurobiology. "If some aspects of aging are influenced by free radical damage, we may be able to prevent or reverse these impairments."
Though numerous studies have shown severe calorie restriction helps animals live longer and resist some effects of aging, scientists still do not know why. One theory suggests a restrictive diet decreases the effect of free radical damage.
Free radicals are chemically reactive molecules produced either as byproducts of the body's natural processes or as a result of stress from the environment, like smog or sunlight. It's normal to have some free radicals, but scientists think accumulating too many may cause cell damage and contribute to a variety of diseases ranging from stroke to cancer. Antioxidants like vitamins C and E help prevent free radicals from wreaking too much havoc.
Since there is evidence that both antioxidants and calorie restriction increase lifespan and reduce aging-related diseases, Dugan and her colleagues hypothesized that calorie restriction, like antioxidants, helps protect the brain against free radical damage.
To test their theory, the team compared young and old mice fed normal diets with old mice fed 35 percent fewer calories starting at about one year old. One year for mice is roughly the physiological equivalent of 40 years in humans.
The animals were injected with a fluorescent dye that changes color when it interacts with a free radical called superoxide. The researchers studied brain slices from the three groups to measure levels of superoxide in specific areas of the brain.
Old mice fed normal diets had significantly more superoxide in several regions of the brain than their young counterparts, particularly in one region implicated in Parkinson's disease, called the substantia nigra. But calorie-restricted old mice did not.
"For the last 20 years there have been studies that suggest free radicals, particularly superoxide, are involved in cumulative damage with aging and that the nervous system may be one of the most vulnerable targets," Dugan says. "Most of that evidence has been indirect, though. By using sensitive, state-of-the-art methods, we were actually able to see which cells are producing excess levels of free radicals."
Dugan and her colleagues then evaluated animals that retained low levels of superoxide to see if they maintained their ability to do a range of behavioral tasks. They found that old, calorie-restricted animals were just as good as young animals at tests of grip strength, coordination and flexibility, like quickly climbing down a pole and hanging upside down from a screen. Old animals fed normal diets were significantly worse at these tasks.
But calorie restriction had almost no effect on several drills used to measure pure cognitive performance. In one test of spatial learning and memory called the Morris water maze, mice are placed in a pool of opaque water and have to learn to find a submerged platform in order to climb out of the pool. Old mice, regardless of their diet, performed much worse than young mice on this task when they were required to learn different consecutive platform locations.
Calorie restriction also did not result in improved performance on a fear-conditioning task. When a tone is matched with an electric shock, young mice eventually learn to "freeze" when they hear the tone. Old mice, regardless of diet, were much worse at this. In fact, the researchers noticed a trend that suggests mice on calorie restriction diets were even worse than old mice on normal diets. The researchers are not sure, though, whether this poor performance is a sign of learning deficits or of hearing problems that often develop in older mice.
"It's interesting to me that calorie restriction does not seem to reverse age-related cognitive impairments," says David Wozniak, Ph.D., research associate professor of psychiatry, who supervised the behavioral studies. "We need to do bigger, more extensive studies to fully understand these findings, but the bottom line is that you don't get uniformly positive results from calorie restriction. I don't think anyone has really stressed this point before, particularly with regard to the lack of effects on cognition."
In addition to validating these findings in larger groups of mice, the team also is exploring the possibility that adjusting other dietary factors may enhance and add to the calorie restriction diet's benefits. The researchers also have begun testing the protective effects of potent antioxidants on aging mice fed normal diets to see whether they too can prevent or reverse some of the effects of aging.
"We believe sensitive signaling pathways that are particularly important in the brain are disrupted by high levels of free radicals and that these disruptions may explain why, under normal circumstances, brain function declines over time," Dugan says. "Fortunately, it would be much easier to reverse a misregulation in signaling than it would to reverse cell damage."
Source: Eurekalert & othersLast reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 21 Feb 2009
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:c54bd0c1-2a60-4150-b1e5-db481fe65648> | {
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Our body needs to maintain a core temperature of 98.6 degree Fahrenheit. It is our brain which monitors the body temperature very closely in order to prevent hypothermia and other such consequences due to cold.
Why do we Shiver?
Shivers are reflexes which your body shows to keep you safe and healthy and to signal you to keep yourself warm. Reflexes are controlled by your nervous system which in turn is controlled by your brain. When the brain sends a signal these nerves carry the information to each and every part of the body and the bones start to shiver. Your muscles start to contract and expand in a speedy manner. Your jaw muscles also might shiver which makes your teeth chatter.
What do you do?
You try to make yourself warm by either wrapping a warm blanket or having warm milk or even running or walking fast to get that warmth in your body. | <urn:uuid:b47a2b60-4f13-4115-bb60-79ca4f47010a> | {
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- For the song "Pick Up Sticks" by The Dave Brubeck Quartet, see Time Out
) is a game of physical and mental skill in which sticks have to be removed from a pile without disturbing the remaining ones. One root of the name "pick-up sticks" may be the line of a children's nursery rhyme
, "...five, six, pick-up sticks!"
A few of the many variations/names:
The sticks are made out of ivory, bone, wood (walnut, cherry, oak, beech, ash, pine, bamboo, maple), straw, reed, rush, yarrow, or plastics.
A bundle of sticks is held in one hand with the bottoms of the sticks touching a flat table. A helper stick, usually black, is set aside to use as a tool. The sticks are then released, and fall in a pile. The first player chooses a stick and removes it by hand by lifting it, pressing down on the tapered end of a stick, or flicking it out with the helper stick. A turn ends if any other stick moves. The next player continues to extract sticks. The sticks may be worth differing numbers of points (based on color, shape, or other defining characteristics), each player trying to reach the highest total score possible.
Stick games are ancient and prevalent in all cultures. In India
, the Buddha games list
, which dates back to the time of Gautama Buddha
(c. 563-483 BCE), mentions the game of pick-up sticks. In China
, the sticks were used for divination
, then later on as a gambling
game. The game spread to Korea
, and even to North America
- the Haida Native Americans
of British Columbia
, and certain tribes in California
(e.g., the Lenape
). It's not clear if, how or when these Asian games were introduced to North America, though if they were not simply invented another time in America, it had to be very early, via the land bridge across the Bering Strait
or by ship
across the Pacific Ocean
Herodotus wrote that he had seen in 450 BCE a game played by the Scythians that was also known by the Teutons as a play of oracle named "Zitterwackel" (jitter whobble) [doubtful claim: a modern German word in Herodotus??]. There is also a resemblance to the "casting of lots" mentioned in the Bible.
In China (and Japan), a similar oracle was known, based on the Book of Changes (I Ching, Yijing, eki divination). A handful of sticks is scattered to base the reading of destiny (also in respect to the calendar) called "Chien Tung" in which a stick is called an "emperor stick." This oracle practice was most common around the 12th century during the civil wars, when Zen Buddhist monks were advisors of the warlords.
In the 16th century, the Tsuchimikado house in Japan adapted the astrology and calendar sciences from China and possibly also the Chien Tung oracle. A dated term for the Japanese emperor is Mikado.
In the 17th century, the Jonchets (French) game is mentioned in references.
The Haida (Native Americans) had also a pick-up sticks (Haida) game.
The Mikado pick-up sticks variant was brought from Europe (Hungary) in 1936 to the United States and became quite popular.
- Culin, Stewart; printed by the United States Government (1907). Games of North American Indians (rev. ed. 1975). Dover Publications. 867 pages. ISBN 0-486-23125-9.
- Culin, Stewart; University of Pennsylvania (1895). Korean Games With Notes on the Corresponding Games of China and Japan. (Ed. 1958/1960) Games of The Orient. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company. 177 pages. (orig. Ed. 1991) Korean Games With Notes on the Corresponding Games of China and Japan. Dover Publications. 256 pages. ISBN 0-486-26593-5
- Bell, Robert C.; Oxford University Press (1960 & 1969). 2 volumes. Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations (rev. ed. 1979). Dover Publications. 448 pages. ISBN 0-486-23855-5.
- Glonneger, Erwin. Das Spiele-Buch. Drei Magier Verlag. ISBN 3-9806792-0-9 | <urn:uuid:3367c066-f9c2-41d8-9026-47219d662bc8> | {
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by Lambert Dolphin
To the Jewish people in ancient times ownership of land was a matter of family honor and prestige, elaborately controlled and protected by the Law of Moses. For example, every seventh year the land was to lie fallow, and also on every fiftieth year which was the year of Jubilee, (see Exodus 23:10ff, Leviticus 25:2-7). The land was said to belong to God (ultimately), and was to be returned to its original steward owner in forgiveness of his debts on Jubilee years. Leviticus 25 contains the land laws that permit an Israeli to "redeem" land he has once owned and lost for one reason or another. The connection of the Jewish people to the special land God has given them to live in has always been an important part of the package plan for their ultimate national redemption. Thus, the sin of Ahab in coveting and illegally seizing the vineyard of Naboth at Jezreel is not a light matter, more than murder was involved (I Kings 21).
It is interesting that the Bible specifically records for us five separate plots of land in Judea and Samaria that were purchased at one time or another from the ancient Hamitic Canaanite peoples living there before the establishment of Israel under Joshua (note 1).
Although God promised Abraham that all the land he walked over during his life time would be given to him and to his descendants forever by Yahweh (Genesis 15:18), by the end of his life he owned only one small field at Hebron. This transaction is recorded for us in Genesis 23.
"Sarah lived a hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan; and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. And Abraham rose up from before his dead, and said to the Hittites, 'I am a stranger and a sojourner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.' The Hittites answered Abraham, 'Hear us, my lord; you are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our sepulchers; none of us will withhold from you his sepulcher, or hinder you from burying your dead.' Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land. And he said to them, 'If you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me Ephron the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Macpelah, which he owns; it is at the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me in your presence as a possession for a burying place.' Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all who went in at the gate of his city, 'No, my lord, hear me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it; in the presence of the sons of my people I give it to you; bury your dead.'
"Then Abraham bowed dawn before the people of the land. And he said to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, 'But if you will, hear me; I will give the price of the field; accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there.' Ephron answered Abraham, 'My lord, listen to me; a piece of land worth four hundred shekels (note 2) of silver, what is that between you and me? Bury your dead,' Abraham agreed with Ephron; and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants. So the field of Ephron in Macpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave which was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area, was made over to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who went in at the gate of his city.
"After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Macpelah east of Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as a possession for a burying place by the Hittites." Genesis 23:1-20
While Hebron lies about 30 kilometers south of Jerusalem, the next recorded land purchase was made by Jacob at Shechem, (Nablus) 50 kilometers to the north of Jerusalem in Samaria at the foot of Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal:
"And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram; and he camped before the city. And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money (note 3) the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent. There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel." (Genesis 33:18-20)
Although King David built an extensive city, palace and houses south of the Temple Mount ("The City of David") after conquering Jerusalem from the Jebusites, scripture does not record any land purchases by David except for one. The circumstances are given in I Chronicles 21:
"Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to number Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, 'Go, number Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me a report, that I may know their number.' But Joab said, 'May the Lord add to his people a hundred times as many as they are. Are they not, my lord the king, all of them my lord's servants? Why then should my lord require this? Why should he bring guilt upon Israel?' But the king's word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed and went throughout all Israel, and came back to Jerusalem. And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and in Judah four hundred and seventy thousand who drew the sword. But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, for the king's command was abhorrent to Joab.
"But God was displeased with this thing, and he smote Israel. And David said to God, 'I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now, I pray thee, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.' And the Lord spoke to God, David's seer, saying, 'Go and say to David, 'Thus says the Lord, Three things I offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you."' So Gad came to David and said to him, 'Thus says the Lord, 'Take which you will: either three years of famine; or three months of devastation by your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days of the sword of the Lord, pestilence upon the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.' Then David said to God, 'I am in great distress; let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.'"
"So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there fell seventy thousand men of Israel. And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but when he was about to destroy it, the Lord saw, and he repented of the evil; and he said to the destroying angel, 'It is enough, now stay your hand.' And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan (note 4) the Jebusite. And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem.
"Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. And David said to God, 'Was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be against me and against my father's house; but let not the plague be upon thy people.' "Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and rear an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. So David went up at Gad's word, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord. Now Ornan was threshing wheat; he turned and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went forth from the threshing floor, and did obeisance to David with his face to the ground. And David said to Ornan, 'Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the Lord-give it to me at its full price-that the plague may be averted from the people.' Then Ornan said to David, 'Take it; and let my lord the king do what seems good to him; see, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for a cereal offering. I give it all.' But King David said to Ornan, 'No, but I will buy it for the full price; I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings which cost me nothing.'
"So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the site (note 5). And David built there an altar to the Lord and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord, and he answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering. Then the Lord commanded the angel; and he put his sword back into its sheath. At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he made his sacrifices there (Note 6)
. " For the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time in the high place at Gibeon, but David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord. Then David said, 'Here shall be the house of the Lord God and here the altar of burnt offering for Israel.'" (I Chron. 21:1-22:1)
During the time of Jeremiah, about four hundred years after David, when the kingdom had thoroughly deteriorated and was falling into complete ruin and captivity with terrible loss of life, the Lord told Jeremiah to buy for himself a plot of land to illustrate to the world that God was not then through with the Jews. In fact it was Jeremiah who predicted the exact length of the 70-year captivity in Babylon and the return of the Jews after that exile. If Jeremiah's plot of land can be located today, his descendants may wish to settle there---it still belongs to Jeremiah!
"The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard which was in the palace of the king of Judah. For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, 'Why do you prophesy and say, 'Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it; Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye; and he shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I visit him, says the Lord; though you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed'? Jeremiah said, 'The word of the Lord came to me: Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you and say, 'Buy my field which is at Anathoth (note 7) ,for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.' Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, 'Buy my field which is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.' Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.
"And I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamel my cousin, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy; and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my cousin, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the guard. I charged Baruch in their presence saying, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.'
"After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying: 'Ah Lord God' It is thou who hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and by thy outstretched arm' Nothing is too hard for thee, who showest steadfast love to thousands, but dost requite the guilt of fathers to their children after them, O great and mighty God whose name is the Lord of hosts, great in counsel and mighty in deed; whose eyes are open to all the ways of men, rewarding every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings; who hast shown signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day in Israel and among all mankind, and hast made thee a name, as at this day. Thou didst bring thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and outstretched arm, and with great terror; and thou gavest them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a possession of it. But they did not obey thy voice or walk in thy law; they did nothing of all thou didst command them to do. Therefore thou hast made all this evil come upon them. Behold, the siege mounds have come up to the city to take it, and because of sword and famine and pestilence the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What thou didst speak has come to pass, and behold, thou seest it. Yet thou, O Lord God, has said to me, "Buy the field for money and get witnesses"---though the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans."' (Jeremiah 32:1-25)
The next land transaction occurs in the New Testament but is predicted in the Old by the prophet Zechariah:
"Thus said the Lord my God: 'Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished; and those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the Lord, I have become rich and their own shepherds have no pity on them.' For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, says the Lord. Lo, I will cause men to fall each into the hand of his shepherd, and each into the hand of his king; and they shall crush the earth, and I will deliver none from their hand.' So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slain for those who trafficked in the sheep. And I took two staffs; one I named Grace, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep. In one month I destroyed the three shepherds.
"But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. So I said, 'I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die; what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let those that are left devour the flesh of one another.' And I took my staff Grace, and I broke it, annulling the covenant which I had made with all the peoples. So it was annulled on that day, and the traffickers in the sheep, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. Then I said to them. 'If it seems right to you. give me my wages: but if not. keep them.' And they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver. Then the Lord said to me. "Cast it into the treasury - the lordly price at which I was paid off by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and cast them into the treasury in the house of the Lord." (Zechariah 11:4-14)
Thirty shekels of silver is the sum of money Judas, the betrayer of Jesus, was paid for his foul deed. When the priests in the temple discovered that the money had been used to an unlawful end they applied it to the purchase of a plot of land in the territory of Judah, just south of the Old City of Jerusalem known even today as the "potters field." The accounts of this series of events is recorded in the Gospels and in the book of Acts:
"Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, 'What will you give me if I deliver him to you?' And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him." (Matthew 26:14-16)
From the Gospel of Matthew:
"When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death; and they bound him and led him away and delivered him to Pilate the governor. When Judas, his betrayer, saw that he was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, 'I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.' They said, 'What is that to us? See to it yourself.' And throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, 'It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since they are blood money.' So they took counsel, and brought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah (note 8), saying, 'And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me.'" (Matt. 27:1-9)
From the Acts of the Apostles:
"In those days Peter stood up among the brethren (the company of persons was in all about a hundred and twenty), and said, 'Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David, concerning Judas who was guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us, and was allotted his share in this ministry. (Now this man bought a field with the reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) For it is written in the book of Psalms, 'Let his habitation become desolate, and let there be no one to live in it', and 'His office let another take.' " (Acts 1:15-20)
So much for specific plots of land. The land of Israel, whose final borders and boundaries are carefully mapped out for us in a number of places in the Bible is rightly called "the holy land" because the meaning of the word "holy," related to the term "sanctified," is really "to set aside for the purposes of God." The Lord's sanctification of time is marked by the Sabbath whose deep meaning is discussed in the New Testament book of Hebrews, Chapter Four. God's sanctification of Space is in particular His stamp of ownership on Eretz Israel and most important of all the Temple Mount (Mount Moriah) (see note 9) in Jerusalem where the Third Temple is to be built.
But the matter of land owned by famous Jews is not finished, for the Book of the Revelation, the last book in the Bible written by the aged Apostle John (like all the apostles, a devout Jew) describes the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus) in eternity as holding in hand the title deed to all the earth:
"And I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals; and I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?' And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I wept much that no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. Then one of the elders said to me, 'weep not; lo, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.' And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth; and he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.
"And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints; and they sang a new song, saying, worthy art thou to take the scroll and to open its seals, for thou wast slain and by thy blood didst ransom men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and hast made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth.' Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, 'worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing' And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all therein, saying, 'To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever' And the four living creatures said, 'Amen' and the elders fell down and worshiped." (Revelation 5:1-14)
Thus, because Jesus Himself has redeemed the earth by His blood and rightfully holds its deed of title, not only Israel but all other lands will one day be reclaimed and restored and placed again in the hands of faithful stewards by the Holy One of Israel, and His faithful servant the Messiah.
1. I am indebted to Professor Harold Fisch of Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, for calling my attention to four of these land purchases.
2. A shekel is a unit of weight, approximately 0.4 of an ounce (225 grains). At today's prices the intrinsic value of 400 shekels of silver would be about $2,000.
3. The Hebrew text reads: "a hundred gesitah"
4. Ornan's name in 2 Sam. 24 is given as Araunah. (Actually it is spelled Avarnah, in the M. T. in 24:16, Aranvah in verse 18, and Araunah in the rest of the chapter. There was apparently some uncertainty as to the exact pronunciation of this foreign name, but Araunah, which differs from Ornan by only one or two secondary letters in the Hebrew consonants, probably represents the earlier form, (Harper's Study Bible notes).
5. Compare 2 Sam. 24:24, where it is stated that David paid fifty silver shekels for the threshing floor and the sacrificial oxen. The explanation of the discrepancy seems to be that he paid six hundred shekels of gold for Ornan's entire property, although the goren or "threshing floor" was purchased for only fifty shekels of silver. We know that David purchased more than the threshing floor before he was through with Ornan, because it was on this site (2 Chr 3:1) that not only the Temple itself but also several palace buildings were later erected. This entire Mt. Moriah tract must have included much more than the mere threshing floor, and with the development of the nearby city, its real estate value might easily have risen to six hundred shekels of gold.
6. One aspect of the sin of David is that he failed to collect a head tax of 1/2 shekel per male citizen as required by the law of Moses whenever a census is taken (Ex. 30:11-16).
7. Modern day Anata 2 1/4 miles northeast of Jerusalem in the territory of Benjamin assigned to the Levites, Jeremiah's home town, on the road to Michmash is ancient Anathoth where this field is located.
8. This quotation has largely been taken from Zechariah 11:12-13, and so its attribution to Jeremiah has been regarded as inaccurate. Actually, however, there is no reference to a field in the Zechariah passage; and yet the whole point of the quotation is the field purchased with Judas' money. But Jeremiah 32:6-9 refers to a field which Jeremiah purchased for a certain number of shekels and this field is mentioned as a place for burial. Thus Matthew combines here a reference both to Zechariah and to Jeremiah and assigns the combined quotation to Jeremiah only, both because he was the more prominent prophet of the two, and because the Potter's Field figures so importantly in his prophecy. (Harper Study Bible notes)
9. The Garden Tomb just outside the Damascus Gate of the Old City, thought by many Christians to be the site of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus actually lies on the highest point of the bedrock block of Mount Moriah, the temple site being both lower in elevation and more southerly. | <urn:uuid:699798f1-0440-44b5-aa0d-f12e65dcf39a> | {
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